Elves of Another Kind

This week I finally took the plunge into my bag of unpainted lead and came up with a ton of Reaper miniatures that I've been intending to paint.  These models were to be my Elven warband for Song of Blades and Heroes.  I was originally going to model them after World of Warcraft's Silverwing Sentinels.  The Sentinels are supposed to have all female Elves as their warriors.  But that was about as far as I got. Once I realized how much conversion would be needed to make them look like "WoW standard" I gave up the idea.

Despite the number of figures I painted this week, it really was not too difficult to complete.  I kept to basic color schemes an kept the word "forest" in mind as I worked.  That solved most color choice problems.  The rest was just slinging paint.  Here's what I got done.

These are both female, but not sure if they're Elves.  The left one is a ranger type, while the other is an obvious rogue.  I kept the rogue in really dark colors, since she's supposedly stealthy. I gave her an accent of dark green to tie her into the rest of the elves. You can't see it too well in this picture.

Here are a couple of Brittany Spears wanna-be elves.  The left is a Pathfinder mini and the right is from Warlord.  These two lines scale well together, at least for elves.  But the Dark Heavens models don't fit so well.

Another Ranger type to the left, while the elf on the right is the closest I came to World of Warcraft types.  She closely resembles a Blood Elf, though lacks the gigantic ears.  I know Blood Elves have nothing to do with Silverwing Sentinels.  But at this point I didn't care.

So here's something different.  I picked the model on the left because of her gigantic chest.  Is that wrong?  I thought I could work her into the list as a forest nymph or fauna of sorts. She is supposed to be a Hellborn warrior, according to Reaper.  Next to her is the standard caster elf.  I really liked the way she came out.  I also picked different colors to break up the incessant green of everything else.

On the left we have the iconic rogue figure from the Pathfinder line.  Next to her is the only "dude" in the group.  I picked this model because I really liked the way it looked.  You can't see it at this angle, but he wearing chain mail under his surcoat. 

Back when I thought this was going to be a Silverwing Sentinel force, I picked up this model to make a Frostsaber tiger.  I still liked it enough to include it as a part of the list.  It will pair nicely with one of the bow armed models.

That's what I got painted this week.  There are a few other models for this SBH list that I painted earlier but didn't document. Now I present those below.

 The left model is from the Warlord line, a paladin type.  She's human and doesn't really fit the warband theme.  I liked the pose, though, so I got it anyway.  The right model is another elf.  I painted her clothing in very light tans and beige colors.  It almost looks like she's wearing nothing.  But she does actually have some clothes, more like lingerie really.

Finally, I picked up an Avatars of War vampiress model to lead my undead warband.  I painted this one a while ago, too.  Despite the awesome look of the model online, I was unimpressed with what I actually got.  There was a disfiguring mold line or some sort of defect that ruined her face.  She does not scale well with any of my other models.  It was just a huge disappointment.  I painted her anyway, and tried to do what I could with her ruined face.  Overall, it's not too bad; but the scale problem is so obvious that I can't really use the model.

That's all for now.  I really love painting these Reaper minis.  I love fantasy more than any other genre, and working on these models has me wishing I had more.  I do have some centaurs I picked up to go with the elves.  Maybe I'll work on those next.

Finishng Up With the Sisters of Battle

This week was my "mop up" campaign with the Sisters of Battle.  I managed to snag a few more deals on eBay about a month ago.  I wanted to get these off the painting table and be done with them.  I'm still flush with "New Year's Resolution Fervor" and plan to stick to the goal of keeping down the count of unpainted miniatures I acquire this year.

Without further ado, here's what I've got.

I spotted this pair of Stormbolter Sisters on eBay as a buy one get on free special.  Couldn't walk away from that.  Too bad they're the same pose.  But I've given up on pose variety for this SoB force.

 I added another Veteran Superior so that I can now have three squads of ten or so Sisters each.  I also found a Heavy Bolter Sister.  I'm not sure how good one is on her own.... but what the heck!

Here come the flag wavers.  These were both donated by Tim over at Cursed Treasures.  I have to make a flag for the actual standard bearer.  That's a project for another day, like when I actually might need that.

 At last here's my helpful Sister Hospitaller.  You can't really see it in this picture, but I painted eyebrows on her.  I have a pet peeve with figure painters who brush in these enormous, over-sized eyes on their models but fail to put on eyebrows. The Hospitaller shown on the GW site is expertly painted, but the poor girl had her eyebrows shaved off.  Why?  Some day take a look at a person at a distance.  The person's eyes are nothing more than dots with no details visible at all.  Why paint your minis with more detail than you could actually see?  It not only makes eyes disproportionate but also makes the model look like it suffers from Graves Disease.  Figures look better, in my opinion, with small understated dots in proportionately sized whites.

Well, that was a digression.  I feel better now.  Here's the picture.

That's all for now.  My mind is wandering to other things, having now thoroughly scratched my itch to collect and paint some Sisters of Battle.  At some future point, I'd like to add some Repentia for flavor, and maybe a Rhino or Immolator.  With the next edition of 40K sure to be a topic of hot debate and intense dislike, I bet these girls won't even hit the table.... at least in a 40K game. 

Sisters of Battle Seraphim

Toward the end of last year I picked up a bunch of Sisters of Battle Seraphim models from eBay and Chaos Orc Superstore.  While still expensive, this collection came in at half price!  Some of the models had paint or missing parts.  I was able to fix all that, thankfully.  My only complaint, if I can call it that, is that I ended up with two squads of five rather than one squad of ten. The lots I got both had Veteran Superiors, meaning I had either enough models for two squads of five, or one squad of nine with a throw-away.  It's not a big deal, especially since they probably will never see a game of 40K anyway!

Here's a close up of a Veteran Superior (with power sword) and a Seraphim with two hand flamers.  The Vet Superior didn't have anything to attach the model to the base.  I had to use brass rods to mount the model.  It actually looks better than the others.  If I were more ambitions, I'd have done all ten that way.

The following shots show one squad, and then the two squads together.

Again, besides the great background stories of the Sisters, what attracts me to this army are the awesome sculpts. If I had to complain, it just seems there's a severe shortage of poses for these Seraphim.  There's only two poses in my ten models.  It might just be the luck of the draw.

I have a few more Sisters of Battle to do. A friend of mine donated two more and I have two Sisters with Stormbolters and one with a Heavy Bolter.  I picked up a Hospitaller model as well.  She'll be my medic when I use these models for 5150.

After I complete these, it will be time to move on to something else.

2012 Focus and Some Predictions

I thought it would be interesting to jot down what I want to focus on and what I think might happen in the gaming world this year.  At least it would be interesting to me.  I'll check back here at the end of the year and see what actually happened.  Wow, my first year long project!

Adjusting the Focus
Last year was the "Year of Unpainted Lead".  I produced a lot, but also bought a lot and didn't do anything with it.  That is the total bane of my existence.  Unpainted models are my kryptonite.  They sit in my painting room, emanating their weakening force on me.  Before long I'm laying on the floor, clutching my head and screaming.  So I want to get back to my happy space in 2012, completing a project before buying a slew of models for the next "big thing."

Well, that was relatively painless.  I think it's good to select a single focus and work on that.  But here are a few other things I want to get done in 2012.

• Dust Tactics: I really liked this game and the models.  I want to get these painted and play more games. I hope to expand my collection too.
• Terrain: I did more terrain last year than I expected.  But this year, I want to add more and varied pieces to my collection.
• WWII in 28mm: I've put this aside for a while.  I expect it will pick up again for me this year.
• Warmachine/Hordes: I've been saying I love those models and want to collect them again.  Let's see if I can make that happen.  Maybe I can even play a game.
• 15mm: This scale is appealing for solo gaming and even non-solo games.  Some friends are considering HOTT this year, and I want in on that.  Terrain becomes a slight problem, as I don't have any buildings or trees at that scale. But storage and cost is delightful.
• Skirmish Games: I'm almost cheating by putting this here.  I'm not really entertaining the "big game" anymore, with exception of maybe HOTT. 

  Now as for predictions, well, I'm sorry to have strung you along this far only to reveal that I don't have any great insight into the gaming world of tomorrow.  I know, it's just like that scene from the Wizard of Oz.  But let me share my hunches, seeing how you worked your way this far down the post.

• The new edition of Warhammer 40,000 will totally ruin the game and render it unplayable under any circumstances whatsoever.  You'll never play it again.  Evah!
• The new 40K rulebook will be about 10 pages of rules and 380 pages of fluff and painting instructions. Someone will drop the new rulebook on his foot, crushing it, and sue GW for an undisclosed amount.  As a result, model prices will be increased.
• The new Hobbit movie will rekindle interest in the LotR SBG.  This will hopefully result in more models and updated or reissued rulebooks.  It will hopefully also result in a shorter name, like "The Hobbit Game".
• The update to LotR SBG will totally ruin the game and render it unplayable under any circumstances whatsoever.  You'll never play it again.  Evah!

That's it.  We'll see if the results of my vision quest to bring you 2012 predictions holds any water come December.  Have a great 2012 everyone!

Year End Post

Here's my ego-centric and totally me-focused year end post!  Think of this as Cliffs Notes for my blog this year.

The High Points of 2011
The biggest highlight this year was the rebirth of this blog and the general rebirth of my miniature gaming hobby.  For about three years I was in "maintenance mode" and not doing much.  Actually I was playing World of Warcraft in all my free time.  I saved a ton of money, though.  Being "reborn" in miniatures gaming means you just lost a few bills to get caught up on everything.

A few happy things I didn't expect going into the year:

• My wife letting me take over the front room and drop a gaming table into it.  Pure win.
• Building up three 28mm WWII armies over the summer.  Gotta remember how I did that.
• Discovering a love for smaller games and non-GW games like Song of Blades and Heroes and a bunch of the THW games like Nuts!
• Not burning out by July

My top game in 2011 was still LotR SBG.  I played in the Gathering in the Desert.  I also played a lot of games over the year.  I completed 700 points of Elves for The Tale of Four LotR Gamers challenge.  I also filled out my Far Harad army from about 275pts to a full 700pt force.  Overall this game got the majority of my focus. I still enjoy LotR as much as I did when I first started playing it.

The Low Points of 2011
Nothing really was a low point.  There were a few duds this year:

• Infinity: Everyone's absolute favorite most best-est game of all time.  For three days.
• Heavy Gear: Blitz:  A classic game beloved of fans.  Starter set includes two rule books: one that advises you to ignore the other rule book included with the starter set.  That should be a sign of something.  Starter set was missing parts for three models and assembly of the other models has given me a nervous twitch.
• World War I:  At least I liked the rule books and they were on sale.

Other Thoughts
This section is here because I thought ending the post after "low points" was too abrupt.  I don't have many other thoughts.  I enjoyed the year, got in lots of games with good friends, and found my own gaming preferences.  Also, I was not maimed or diagnosed with a horrible disease.  Overall, this was a good year.

Here's looking forward to a wonderful 2012!  Thank you to everyone who has visited my blog this year.  I especially appreciate those who left comments.  I look forward to reading what people have to say.  Let's do it again next year.

Arcane Ruins -- Curses Included Free!

At long last sick and tired of piling things on top of my box of Arcane Ruins, I assembled and painted them.  They went together easily and painted up quickly.

Here are more pictures of it than you really want to look at:

I must warn you that there are special curses reserved in this box.  GW apparently included them for free.  Do you think I'm making it up?  Consider this:

• Shortly after opening the box and beginning my assembly, I knocked over a new bottle of liquid cement.  It rushed over my glass table like a Testor's Tsunami.  I dove on top of it to absorb the glue with my body, saving the arcane ruins. But my Sisters of Battle bases were melted!  Emperor preserve us!
• In the final stages, I unknowingly got paint from my fingers all over my Kindle.  I thankfully got it all scraped off and was glad to have avoided the problem --- until I found the paint all over my pants!  Noooooooo!
• The contents of the box exude a faint evil.  People left me alone while I painted.  But more importantly, long term exposure to this model sapped my intelligence.  You see while I left all the dolmens unglued for easy storage, I stupidly glued the main obelisk in place.  Now I can't store it flat.  The horror!

So what do you think?  Too many coincidences?  I think so.  Work with this set at your own peril.

Sisters of Battle Redux

The absence of faith is the mark of the weak.
The absence of faith is the mark of the heretic.
The absence of faith is the mark of damnation.
- extract from "The Stern Codex"

 I have been very fortunate to come across more Sisters of Battle at reasonable prices.  I found six blisters of Battle Sisters at the Chaos Orc's Superstore.  I have no idea how often they restock.  But I will certainly be watching for more deals.  My only complaint is that all six blisters had the same three poses.  

I added a few more models to round out the force.  This adds twenty more Sisters, bringing my grand total to a whopping thirty one models.  That's one full squad plus a minimum sized squad.  Fortunately I'm not planning to bring this up to a 1500 pt army, at least not initially.  I just love these models and have enjoyed painting them.  Here they are all together. I threw in some background stuff just to break up my desk top.

Here is a close-up shot of the Veteran Superior and a few Battle Sisters.

I picked up a Canoness and an Inquisitor model to round out the leadership needs.  I know Inquisitors are now under the Grey Knights and no longer with the Sisters of Battle.  But I don't care about what the books say anymore.  I just need stat lines.

So that does it for this update.  I've been on a roll with the Sisters of Battle between painting the models and reading the book. I was ready to put them aside for a bit.  But last week I found an excellent deal on Seraphim models on eBay.  Unbelievably, there was a "buy it now" price which was great.  So I picked them up.  Chaos Orc had three more for a great deal, but they lacked jump packs.  I was able to find those on eBay as well.  So now I have ten Seraphim that I can split into two 5 Sister teams (I have two leader models in the mix).  It was still a pricey deal at about $70, but that's half price!

One of the Sisters even came pre-painted.  Just check out this pro job:

Really?  I'm afraid so.

The former owner even puttied over the armor lines on the legs. Oh baby. Sexy. I got a good laugh out of this.  But she's going to take a bath in Simple Green today.