Future Projects: 2012-2013 Docket

As I was painting furiously last night I thought a lot about my hobby addiction.  I have this weird habit of working very hard on a project and shelving it as soon as it's finished.  I guess for me most of the enjoyment comes from the journey and not the destination.  Even though I tell myself every time it would be nice to know an army better and get more games in, I'm always thinking about the big next project.

Here are some of the ideas I would like to tackle for the next year:

Grey Knights: I'm pretty much settled on the fact I'm bringing some variation of Grey Knights to NOVA this year.  They transport well and I think they play well with the NOVA terrain and scenarios.  As much as I want to do Black Templar for NOVA, I just can't get excited.

Uncharted Seas: Probably the most fun I've had playing a game.  I plan on quickly painting up some more fleets and painting up terrain to get some good beer & pretzels games in.  I'd like to try and bribe some of my gaming friends into the game.

"Pro" Painting Project 40k (DKK/GK/Suns): I've found I do three levels of painting: The first is a rush job like I did my pirates or cadians; all about speed, base coating and washes.  I rarely do this style since it's hard for me to really cut corners.  The second style is a majority of my armies which is good highlighting, some blending and solid paint schemes.  I try to keep from freehand in this mid-range but this probably is what my Space Wolves, Dark Eldar, etc. would fall under.  The final is something where I do a lot of freehand and spend that extra time on details.  My Imperial Suns marines would fall in that camp.

For this Painting Project for 40k, it's going to be one of three options.  First would be the Death Korps of Krieg.  I love the models, and has always been one of those projects I've wanted to put time in.  The second would be taking the Grey Knights to the next level - more on very detailed/converted henchmen and character models.  The final would be adding to my Imperial Suns.  I would like to continue to flesh out that army and make it amazing.

"Pro" Painting Project Warhammer Fantasy (Beastmen): It's more than likely going to be Beastmen.  I want to try and challenge myself to learn how to do natural colors and not my typical strong primary color armies.  Less on contrast and more on unusual colors you find in nature. 

Speed Army Warhammer Fantasy: I need something that I can get on the field to learn the game.  It'll probably mean going back to tackle my Chaos Mortals or add to my pirate force.

Epic / Aeronautica Imperialis: I love playing this game (aeronoautica) and 15+ years ago played a ton of Epic.  I love the different scale and want to do some cool terrain.  I think it would be really awesome to do a city scape in this scale.

Terrain for My Own Gaming Room: My basement is my man cave, time to make it one.  I bought some zuzzy mats and I need to bust out some terrain to start making a hobby community of my own.  Especially for us old guys since a lot of the stores (both independent and GW) have been closing in the area.

Well there you have it.  Lots of projects, but at as my header goes so many projects... so little time!

Adepticon: I'll be blogging live!

Unfortunately yesterday I wasn't able to paint anything, I was working until 10:30pm and just didn't have the energy to pick up the brush.  That will just give me a short time to wrap everything up, I hope tonight will be a productive one!

This year at Adepticon, I will be posting at least nightly on what I'm seeing.  Even though I only live about 35 minutes away from the convention, I'm camping out at a local hotel so I can partake in some extra "adult beverages" and not have to get up as early in the morning.

Here are the events I'll be playing in which for sure will mean I'll take pictures of those events. 

Thursday Night: Just picking up my badge but will be hanging awhile after work
Friday: Warhammer 40k Championships
Saturday: Warhammer 40k Team Tournament - Chicago Kamikazes Team Red
Sunday: Warhammer Fantasy Team Tournament - Team MFSM

If you aren't able to make it and would like me to take some extra photos of something please let me know.  For sure I'll be doing some extra articles on

- My picks for the best miniatures outside of the painting competition
- Best themed armies
- Army spotlights
- Maybe a battle report or two

Here's a picture of my ugly mug if you see me at the convention, please say hello.  Yeah that's Slick Willy, and no I didn't have a cigar. 

Two more nights of painting left!!!!

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)

Blog Props: Great Grey Knight Tutorial

Every so often I like to post an amazing blog tutorial or article that I've seen on the blogs I follow.  Not only does this how to paint grey knights tutorial do a great job detailing step by steps (better then the magazine articles) it uses the new GW paints which I'm sure are a mystery to those of us who haven't used them yet!

Check out  Stahly's Tale of Painters: How to Paint Grey Knights.  If you're not following his blog, I would highly recommend it. 

Plus it covers painting the force weapons, something I'm very interested in seeing that I may be trying my hand at Grey Knights for Nova.

I just finished up my 5 hellions, so as soon as I get the chance I'm going to prime up the 5 objective markers and begin on them.  The boats are half way finished, pictures incoming!

Odds and Ends for Adepticon

We're on to the home stretch for Adepticon. With work being potentially a little crazy next week I need to cram as much as I can into the weekend.  I'm making some serious progress knocking things out.  At least I am sorta smart by getting things done that require longer dry times. 

 I assembled the 5 objective markers.  Every army I do I make 5 since that tends to be the most we ever need.  These will be used for the 40k championship as well as the team tournament.  Basic but fun.  I need to add some sand to them when they dry and paint the suckers up.

 I also painted up all of our vehicle "wreck 5" results.  Since Dark Eldar vehicles are not easy to take off the flying base and I don't want to hurt the models, we created templates that are about the right size for when they blow up to the wreck result #5.  Here are my painted venom and raider/ravagers.  We are also painting up a ton of craters for vehicle crater result #6.  My wife laughed and said they look like they have chicken pox. I agree, but at least it's better then not knowing if the vehicle is destroyed or breaking it on accident!

 I finished my record-fast display board for the singles tournament.  It has to be the quickest and cheapest one I've done to date, but I really didn't have the time to do an elaborate one this year.  This will go on top of my rolling "beer cart". 

Since we're planing on getting a lot of rain I was able to get all of our ships primed up and the barrels/extras for the unit.  Dan and I are heading over to the GW Chicago Bunker tomorrow to get my 2nd game of Warhammer (in 10 years) so I at least sorta know what I'm doing for the Warhammer team tournament.  We'll be attempting to do our ships in the course of a day as well.  I also primed up the blue boards that we'll paint up as sea boards for the 4 armies to be displayed on.

Tonight I should be able to finish all of my pirates, as crazy as that sounds.  It was definitely a speed paint job, but I think they've turned out OK.  I'll have pictures up of the finished project tomorrow.  The 5 hellions are the last I need to paint up for the Dark Eldar army, man... they keep mocking me.  Hellions are a piece of work to paint but I've really enjoyed them in game.

Back to painting, only 5 days left! My wife has been very understanding, I have literally taken over the house with everything and their various stages of being finished.  Here's what I have yet to do:

Dark Eldar

 - 5 Hellions (half painted at this point)
 - 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

 - 7 pirate "thunderers" (almost finished!)
 - paint ships as a display board
 - barricades to count as shields for my thunderer units
 - creative army list for the team (need to finish ink effects)

Creating Creative Army Lists

Painting an army and creating a fun list is just half of the fun of a tournament.  I enjoy the "extras" like counters, vehicle wreck markers, nice objective markers and cool looking army lists.  I decided to try something new for our army lists this year at Adepticon. 

I had fun with some resume paper and spray ink stains.  I picked up some resume parchment "copper" paper and used some dark red color for the copy text with a legible yet with the appearance of hand written.  My thought is to make it look like it was written in blood.  To get the blood effect I sprayed the red/brown ink along some of the sides and corners and smeared with newspaper.  Make sure that you don't spray too much into the text; I had a couple mistakes where I got a little aggressive with the spray. 

I used a runic watermark to add some extra mystery.  I think it turned out great and adds a lot of flavor to the army. Here's the ink I used for the spray, I bought a 4 pack of different colors at the craft store Michael's. 

I'll be using the same technique with some variations for my team tournament army list (front and back for all four armies).  For the warhammer team tournament list I'll use our kraken logo as a watermark and use some brown/black ink stains to look like dirt. This is the first round of lists for the team tournament drying.  Once they're done I'll flip them over and spray over the newspapers on the other side!

I'm a big fan of this type of stuff, I think it adds a lot to the overall appearance of the army.

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