The Sapphire Guard

So, what do you think of the army name, huh? Pretty sweet, amirite? I know, I know, I'm some sort of genius, it's crazy.Anyways, let's get right to the nitty gritty. No work on the table today (yet again *sigh*) but that's not the priority. Table honestly won't take long once the cross braces are in. No, the priority is definitely my models, because I paint super slow and poorly in general. I enjoyed today's painting, though. It started out boring because I was doing my usual "paint all of one color on every model then move on" technique, and finally I said "FUCK THIS!" because I wasn't going to have anything to show you guys tonight. Before we get to color, though, let's look at the primed and based models! I base my models with regular Elmer'sglue and then dip them into some ballast, the kind of stuff that is sold at hobby stores for trainsets to simulate the gravel under and around the train tracks. Works great as sand!
And here's some of the greenstuff work I did to help hold the banners on the back of my beasts.

First, the Cyclops Savage. This was easy, just two bits of greenstuff over the top of the banner at the points where it was glued to the back of the cyclops, then I sculpted it a little bit to square it off. This will get painted metallic so it looks like it's part of his armor for holding the banner on. (Click for big and slightly easier to see.)
And here's the back of the Gladiator. This was a little harder. I drilled into the bottom of that banner and also into the hole it normally goes into, pinned it, glued it, then used greenstuff to create a similarly shaped holder as the Savage had. Unfortunately, due to the banner only touching the Gladiator at this one point, I couldn't reinforce it any more. I'll just have to be super super careful with this guy. (Again, click for big.)

And finally, colors! Here's one of my paingivers that I finally decided to start slapping the full color scheme onto. This is only the base colors, and they're not all on yet (his pants won't be staying that awful bleached bone, it was an idea I had that I immediately didn't like) and there's no shading or highlights or... well, you get the idea. It's the rough draft!
Hope everyone liked it, and I'd love to hear what you think of the colors! Until next time, same Gemini time, same Gemini channel... man that sounds way better for Batman.

Banners? BANNERS!?!

Seriously, who thought putting banners on everything in Skorne was a good idea?!? I mean, I know I could leave them off, but I don't wanna. That would just be a cop out. I attached them to my Savage and Gladiator, and greenstuffed little "holders" for them to reinforce the joins. I think they look pretty good, I'll take some pics tomorrow. I also primed everything that I didn't greenstuff today (Makeda, Shaman, Paingiver Beast Handlers) so they're ready to start painting immediately tomorrow. I'm letting the greenstuff cure for 24 hours before I prime the Gladiator and Savage. With the bit of spare time I had, I also assembled some of the pieces for my 25 point list (I'm not telling you what they arrrrrrrre!) so that I don't have to worry about that when I roll around to that time frame.

So, from the current votes, one scheme is winning by such a landslide that I'm going to call a mercy rule on this one...

MY SKORNE WILL BE PAINTED SAPPHIRE!!!

Thank you all for your input! Truthfully, that's the color scheme -I- liked the most too! So, I'll really enjoy painting these guys up now! I would have been happy with any of the other color schemes as well, but this was my first thought. I'm planning on going for a bit of a "cell shaded" look for it, i.e. not trying to create seamless blends. I think it'll look good with the intensity of the colors I'm looking to do.

No work on the table today, sadly! I got caught at work doing... dumb things. I'll just leave it at that. Hopefully there will be great strides made tomorrow! I'd like to do a post about the planning I went through and scan some of my iterations of designs (yes, I really went through iterations, this thing was going to be intense) and show you what I finally landed on. The final design is actually incredibly simple and almost anyone can do it as long as you have the desire! It can definitely be made without doing any of the angled cuts (but where's the fun in that?!?).

That's all for today, pics tomorrow of what I did today and what it eventually looks like when it's all said and done.

The Shattered Kriel is now less shattered

Just a quick update tonight: I "sculpted" the bases, if you want to call it that, with some extra putty. Basically, I made hills and valleys so that when I add water effects it will pool in certain places. Once the putty cures, I have to add sand and paint, then water effect. I prepped all the models' pinning so they slot right into their new sculpted bases. I also primed the entire 15pt list.

Started painting the Impaler, and I'm worried that the color scheme won't look as good implemented as it did in my head. I think I purchased the wrong colors of brown for the plan - I have dark red browns and light yellow browns, but no middle ground so they just look odd next to each other. I'm hoping once I add the non-brown colors they'll even out. Else, I'll be swinging by the FLGS to pick up another shade or two. That, or rethink the whole scheme...

The Shattered Kriel - Initial shots and some greenstuff work

Quick update with some better pics. First, the 15pt army plus the Fennblades that I intend to add later. My 15pt list might actually change based on my painting speed - if I get Grim, Impaler, and Mauler done fast, I'll start on the min unit of Fennblades before the Pyre & Whelps - I'd rather have the Fennblades in there at 15pts, but am worried about meeting the deadline!



Dire Troll Mauler. I added the beginnings of vines to him, with a couple of leaves to make it more obvious. This is my first time working with greenstuff, so I know they aren't perfect. When this cures, I intend to add some smaller tendrils spreading out from the main stuff. Why vines, you ask? Swampy!



EDIT: Also, my awesome girlfriend helped me by assembling the Fennblades seen here. She's resisting the hobby, but played last weekend (Trolls vs Skorne, oddly enough) and enjoyed it. Now to trick convince her to buy into the game!

The Shattered Kriel - Initial List & Group Photo

As previously posted, here is the 15pt Trollblood list I'm starting with:

Grim Angus (-6 pts)
* Dire Troll Mauler (9 pts)
* Troll Impaler (5 pts)
* Pyre Troll (5 pts)
Troll Whelps (2 pts)

Grim is a decent 'beast 'lock, able to handle 6 Fur (which for Trollbloods really isn't bad) and enhance his beasts is great ways. Bait the Line and his entire spell list revolve around either locking the enemy in place, or getting your army there first, so I felt that a Rage'd Mauler makes a great special delivery. The Impaler and Grim are BFFs, of course. The Pyre will double duty as either melee (with his or the Mauler's animus), or ranged (with Far Strike) as my opponent dictates. The Whelps are there to handle the amazing 11 Fury this list can generate per turn - while not foolproof, they should allow me some minimal leeway.

Here's is the group shot as they stand (or lay):

By the way, Gemini apparently has a great macro photography setup. I expect to steal his camera and lighting for future pictures.

Chipping away...

So, time to start this thing! For starters, here's the army list I've decided to go with:

Archdomina Makeda (*5pts)
* Cyclops Savage (5pts)
* Cyclops Shaman (5pts)
* Titan Gladiator (8pts)
Paingiver Beast Handlers (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)

The first step was to get the models together. I received all of these in a recent purchase from a friend of mine who decided he wasn't going to start playing this game after all, and -he- had gotten them from a previous person for the same reason. The first owner apparently enjoyed using an entire bottle of Zap-A-Gap per joint, however. These models were literally caked in glue! A few hours of chipping away at them with a combination of a pin vice, exacto knife, file, and eventually a straight up ice pick did the job! I had to rip the Gladiator's head off and pick out a bunch of glue before reapplying it, and did the same thing with one of Makeda's arms. I pinned a few things, and kept the banners off for now. I think I'll be attaching them with a combination of greenstuff and glue. At the top you can see the current state of Makeda and her retinue.

I'm excited about the way this list is going to play. I did a small amount of testing the other day with some of the beasts in the list and I really enjoyed the way they played. The Gladiator hits like a Mac Truck, and Rush is a fantastic animus. My Shaman is able to also cast that while sitting in the back, using his ghost shot ranged attack, increasing range of Muzzle for Makeda, and being a useful beast to transfer damage to. The Savage I have yet to use, but I think he'll work well in conjunction with the Gladiator. He's fast, also hits hard, and Rush will be a nice animus on him as well. I'm going to run him and the Gladiator up front, Makeda/Shaman/Paingivers as a nice second wave, just behind. The Paingivers will let me run my beasts a bit on the hot side, and if one beast dies they become a great harassing unit against my opponents by stripping fury off of enemy beasts to deny to their warlocks.

Overall, looking forward to more work on this later in the week! Tomorrow night I have no time to do any more on the project, so Wednesday will be the next increment and update. Remember, please vote below on the color scheme for my army! It's looking like I won't start the actual painting until Thursday now, so I may leave voting open until then.

The Table Begins To Take Shape... Literally!

This is the underside frame. And GeminiX6's feet.

Any excuse to buy a miter saw is a good excuse.