Pirate Ships Done! Argh Adepticon!

I spent the day working on pirate ships. You would think with such a large surface area they'd be easy to do, but they actually were quite a challenge.  The hardest part was picking the ships up, I'm used to the freedom of spinning models around to hit every angle.  When the model ways over 10 pounds and has breakable bits... not so easy!

 So, so close to finishing what I need to get done for Adepticon!  I still have yet to do the barrels and barricades for my units (counts as shields), but other then that my Warhammer team army is complete.  Here are some shots of the ships in all their glory!

Both units of "thunderers" are also done.  This was the fastest I've ever painted an army, I definitely did a rush job without layering or highlights outside of metals and skin tones.  I think it still gets the needed effect.

Can't go wrong with a powder monkey...

Here's what I have left to do in the home stretch:

Dark Eldar

 - 5 Objective Markers (need to paint)
 - creative army list for championship (need to do ink effects)
 - creative army list for team tournament (need to finish ink effects)

Dwarf Pirates

 - barricades to count as shields for my thunderer units
 - creative army list for the team (need to finish ink effects)

Nessie & Pals and lots of Adepticon Updates

Sorry for the lack of posts.  It has not been due to lack of hobby, I've been nose to the grindstone getting things ready for Adepticon.  Over the last week the focus has been mainly on my pirate sea monster force.  I've also done some odds and ends on Dark Eldar.  Here's the completed shot of Nessy (proxy for a dwarf gyrocopter

Here are some more shots of the pirates I'm getting done.  Two war machine crews and more "thunderers".  Just looking at these photos reminds me I probably should go back and paint the eyes if I have time!

My teammate, Dan assembled the ships from Ainsty Castings.  The masts are not permanent and we'll be blue tacking them in (that's why they're on weird angles).  Unfortunately I'll have to paint them a lively lighter brown instead of a true weathered dark wood look like ships should probably look.  I based my miniatures a little too "cartoony". 

I also painted up the pain token dice holders.  Here's a few as an example.  The one box of zombie parts made up 20 holders!  We also based up the vehicle wrecked templates, I need to sand them and get them painted.

I'm really looking forward to putting paint on them but I'm running out of time!  Here's what is left on the Adepticon to-do list. One week remaining!  Argh!

Dark Eldar

 - 5 Hellions (half painted at this point)
 - 5 Objective Markers (need to create and paint)
 - 30 vehicle wreck templates (wooden bases done, now need to create/sand/etc)
 - quick/fast display base for championship: I'm going to use my beer cart stand and do a quick topper, nothing elaborate this year.
 - creative army list for championship
 - creative army list book for the team tournament

Dwarf Pirates

 - 7 pirate "thunderers"
 - sea display board
 - assemble and paint ships as a display board
 - barricades to count as shields for my thunderer units
 - creative army list for the team
 - extra pirate stuff for theme

Ahoy Matey, First Batch of Pirates Done!

Got the first batch of my pirates done for the Adepticon Warhammer Fantasy Team Tournament.  These pirates will be counting as dwarf thunderers.  I assembled the entire army and primed them up after making some green-stuff three corner hats.

Here are the models I'll need to paint.

32 "thunderers" (mixture of dwarf and empire pirates with an ogre to boot)
8 crew
1 cannon
1 stone thrower
1 master engineer
1 "most friendly" sea monster that is proxy for a gyrocopter.

We're off to Mexico tomorrow for a much needed vacation.  Once we return it's non stop painting until Adepticon!

"Most Friendly" Sea Monster!

I finally had a productive night of painting and finished up 5 dark eldar warriors... yeah I took over a month off, but now I'm jazzed about getting things painted.  My goal is to have my 1,850 list finished for a tournament on the 19th of this month.  This will give me more time to work on the extras like vehicle destroyed counters, pain tokens, etc.

My other big project is MFSM, the "Most Friendly" Sea Monster.  There is a group of 4 of us doing two, two man teams that are pirate / sea monster hunters.  We created a quick blog at "Most Friendly" Sea Monster.  We'll be themed out at Adepticon on the Sunday team tournament.

My buddy Cliff's blog article discusses the history of the "Most Friendly" Sea Monster.  Good story.

My 1,000 points of Fantasy will be dwarf based around the slayer pirate models.  I don't have a whole lot of time to paint the project up, so I'll probably be taking some short cuts and buying resin boats.  More to follow on both blogs!

I'll get up some pictures of the dark eldar tomorrow.

Painting Pirates (1)

While my display board for Nova is drying, I figured I'd switch gears and work on some pirates.  I assembled 5 of the dwarf slayer pirates, the ogre pirate and the collector's edition pirate.  This army will be more of a "speed painting" army so I have time to work on the extras.  Plus I have a feeling the dark eldar will take a ton of my time for the remainder of the year.  Here's some in-progress shots of the pirates.  I'm just laying down base colors in preparation for a heavy wash of black & brown wash.

The big pirate ogre will be a unit filler in my handgunner squads.  In my 1k list for Adepticon Fantasy Team Tournament, I plan on basically only running:

- 3 units of 10 handgunners
- 10 huntsmen (skirmishing pirates!)
- 3 cannons
- 2 rocket batteries
- Engineer

My teammate will be running a similar list only mortars instead of rockets and a wizard instead of an engineer.  We'll get our butts kicked, but it'll be a wacky fun list.  The idea is maximum gunpowder!

Here are some work in progress on assembly.  I will be using one of the leadbelchers as a stand in for a cannon, and I need to sculpt on pirate hats for most of the unit (and ogre).

I'm flying out to Minnesota tomorrow, and on a little vacation Saturday through Tuesday, followed up by an immediate trip to Vancouver!  This means not a whole lot of painting time before Nova.  I might sneak some tanks on my trip over the weekend and get some relaxing painting in.