One last Hurrah of painting for 2016.

So just got back form vacationing at home.  I finished up a Seadog's version of Lady Aiyana and Master Holt as well as the six Knights Exemplar I had mostly done at the end of the 3MMRC.  I am happy to have managed to knock out a few more models at the very tail end of the year.  Though the only part left once I got back form vacation was the basing.  Anyways here's a pic Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

3MMRC: Wrap up

So the 3 months is over.  My final week I got very little done.  I broke apart and then painted the wrecked Warjack for the Judicator's base.  I started on but failed to finish 6 Knights Exemplar after discovering part way through the 1st of the Man-o-Wars that I was pretty much out of my base coat for the red.

On the terrain front I did get some work done on a Rumble sized (30" X 30") Mat using the caulking on Canvas method I am hoping to get some paint on it tomorrow.  I also finished basing the winter trees.

So how did this challenge go?  Not well.  All told I ended up finishing the 3 months with more models on my mountain than I started.  I was doing fairly well and then my wife found an awesome deal on some a Huge lot of Menoth stuff on E-bay.  She decided to bid on it for me and we won it for a hell of a deal, about $600+ dollars worth of stuff for about $275.  I have mixed feelings, a lot of it was stuff I didn't have and while we are planing on selling about half of it after Christmas is over It still left me with about 67 models to paint.  Some of which thanks to focusing on Menoth during the Courage at the Crossroads League is already painted but when my grand total of painted models for the challenge works out to 66 it leaves me a little disheartened.  I did manage to sell off about 20 other models that never would have gotten painted and have about another 70 or so ready for Ebay after Christmas break (not including the Menoth lot).  I do think that 3 months worked better than 6 and I think in another 6 months I may try another personal challenge of some type for about 3 months.  

So where does that leave this Blog.  Well I do have plans to transfer some of my posts form my Dakka Dakka Blog to this one.  In addition I am thinking of doing some tutorial types for some upcoming terrain projects.  Also I have this strange desire to post write ups of the IKRPG game as it progresses. We will see after the 1st what happens.  As for now Happy Holidays and Happy painting!

3MMRC: Week 10 the forest for the trees...

So as I stated in my post last week I was going to make a big push to work on some terrain.  Mainly some old Christmas Village trees I've had since at least 2006.  I did end up picking up another pack because after I put them down how I had planned the stands looked kind of sparse.  But they are mostly done now.  I just added paint to the rocks between taking the photos ad my turn for the family computer.  I ma over all happy with how they turned out.  I must say stands like these don't appear very often, most people it seems prefer to just place the trees on felt or small boards.  I have found over the years having a set stand of them makes it easier to game with and transport.  Sure you may have more variation without gluing them down but you also end up knocking them down on your and our opponents models.  I will mix up some snow basing and add that tomorrow night to finish them off and post pictures next week but here is a shot so far.

Also as part of the Courage at the Crossroads League there are achievements for building terrain for various battlefields.    This Season as a Sower I had to build something for the Mud Fields battlefield.  I was pretty lost on what to do since my options were a shallow puddle, a lonely oak(tree stand), shallow mud, and deep mud.  Well I already did my summer/spring forest stands a couple of months back, so that left puddles and mud. I have recently started watching some terrain videos from Mel Boise.  I watched some on doing marshy ground and that inspired me to come up with something.  So I knocked out three Shallow and three Deep mud pieces.  The deep mud ones are the oens with [ools of water in them.
 Also this week was the No Man Left Behind scenario which had the defender placing three 3" tents in the center of the board.  Well I had done some tents for the last League in a Day event but since doing those I wanted to try out some round tents and since I was already cutting out some MDF for the trees and the mud pieces I knocked out 3 more to serve as tents for the scenario. These pieces I am very happy with.

Lastly this week since i have yet to be able to play the Judicator in a match to meet that achievement for he league I painted up some Jacks I ran on Sunday and will probably run again tomorrow against eh wife in my Harbinger Rumble list.   These are two jacks I haven't played before and I think i need some more practice to get the most out of them but now they join the ranks of my Menoth forces.

It's the last week and to be honest I have no idea of what I want to work on this last week.  I had intended to knock out the last of my Khador stuff (10 Man-o-wars and a Juggernaut) and I am tempted to do that as it would mean that faction is complete but I am also fiveish cultists away form finishing  them.  Who knows maybe I will have a flurry of motivation and finish both. 

Happy Painting all.

3MMRC: Week8-9 Nearing the home strech.

So with the insanity of the American Turkey Day I missed last weeks post.  So this is another 2 in one post.  I didn't get much done that week either.  I did manage to finish a unit of Knights Exemplar that are going to be fielded during The Crossroads of Courage League Season 2.  The fit in line with most of the rest of my Protectorate army and nothing fancy there.

The next week was a bit more productive, as part of the League one of the Goals is to paint 19 points of Warjacks or Warbeasts and field them.  So I decided to knock it out all in one fell swoop. A little while back my wife came across a massive lot of Protectorate stuff part of which was a Judicator.  So that started this week.  It also included a couple of new Warcasters one of which I have been eyeing for awhile.  Grand Exemplar Kreoss.  After building an Exemplar Heavy list with Kreoss2 at the head I had 2 points left.  So going back to the lot and seeing what I had in there to make up 2 points I found 2 Vassal Mechaniks.  That finished up my painting for the week.  I still have to finish the Judicator's base and stretching the rules of the Challenge a little bit I bid on a Cygnar jack for $5.00 on Ebay to chop up and put on the base.  Even though it is kind of a complete model it will be used as bits to finish a single model.

Lastly since over the weekend we finally restarted the IKRPG group with their new characters.  I managed to finish up one of them.  A Knight/Arcanist with a suit of Exemplar Army passed down to his family for generations.  I shaved off all the Menofexes and replaced some of them with Purity seal tops.  The shield is form a Space Marine Assault Marine kit the head is from my bits box and I have no idea where it came form but the Player picked it out to replace the more traditional Exemplar Head.  Two of the PC's decided to keep their models and the last one I have some ideas for I just need to source out a new Female head for her character as my bits box is firmly lacking in female bits.

I will try to get a few more models painted this week but my main focus is actually goign to be on finishing some terrain from my mountain as well as knocking out a piece of terrain (or 3 or 6) for the League.  Anyways that is all for now Happy painting.

3MMRC: Week 6-7 I think I can I think I can.

So has been a busy last 2 weeks but not as much in the realm of painting.  I had 24 hr. Duty the Saturday before last which due to daylight savings time became 25 hrs.  In that time I got 10 Bane Thralls painted and started putting some paint on the cultists I had assembled a couple of weeks prior,

I am quite happy with them and now have am urge to put together a couple of viable Cryx armies once my Mountain is a bit smaller.  I already have several of their Warcasters from various E-bay lots as well as a couple of Helljacks and Bonejacks.

After duty I headed home and got a bit of sleep before heading out to run a 1 day Crossroads of Courage event.  It had a very small turn out but everyone had fun and both the wife and I got 2 games each in.  I only managed to Snag 2 pictures, one of the 2 battle zone boards and 1 of my wife and I in our respective matches on Turn 2.

This last week saw little done due to a Weekend trip over the Veteran's Day weekend to help some friends of ours at another Base move.  I still managed to finish the Cultists I was working on as well as a couple more.  I now have 7 left of the 30ish I plan to build and paint.  I lost one sprue that I latter found so one of the flamer armed cultists is converted.  I also turned all the Heavy Stubber cultists into weapon teams to let me use them as Renegades and Heretics.  I will probably knock out just enough to field them as 3 squads of 10 man cultists in addition to the a Renegade Militia Platoon.  One of the models was already painted form the last challenge and just migrated to a base and had another model added to it.  

My goal for this week is to finish some more if not all of the cultists and knock out a unit fo Knights Exemplar for Courage at the Crossroads season 2.  Happy painting all.

3MMRC: Week 5 Werewolves and Zombies and Mines... oh my.

So this week was very productive but not in the way I had intended.  I had started on the Zombies and had 4 up(to make 5 with the original proof of concept model.)  Then when my IKRPG group fell through I got invited to do a Halloween themed Hordes/Warmachine demo at one of the FLGSs.  Since I didn't have anything really Halloween themed I decided to see what I had in the Mountain.  As it turns out I had a Cryx Helljack I could make into the last Jack to make a 0 pt. Goreshade1 list.

I also had 2 sets of Circle of Orboros starters form the Mark II 2 player box.  So Kaya1 with the Feral Warpwolf and to Wild Argus also makes 0 pts.  I started them all Saturday morning (about 4AM) and had them finished by 4:30 just in time to head out the door.  So 12 hours to finish a battle group not too shabby.  I painted them in a similar scheme to the Thing in the Woods.  I also broke out my Basius pads and added some green stuff texture ot the bases.  Overall I am very happy with them as a Demo Battlegroup for Hordes.

So I finally got back to the Zombies after Halloween since the kid going Trick or Treating was a bigger priority.  I finished them up last night, I am not as happy with them as I am with the first batch but can't put my finger on exactly why.  This batch is mostly converted Cultists form the batch I have assembled, though with them done that is half of the way through them.

So the other thing I have been plugging away at over the last week is some terrain for an upcoming Courage at the Crossroads in a Day thing at one of the FLGSs.  Since the Press Ganger at that store kind of failed at organizing anything after the store got the kit we are doing a League in a Day event.  I offered to finish up some of the Terrain for the 2 battle fields in the league in addition to running it.  I had started 2 mines during the League I had participated in but didn't get them done by the end of it.  They are a little larger then the rules state but I think they Look cool as is and once finished will hopefully make that battle field.  They are still very much in progress but are a good way in.  I also have 6 Tents for the Bandit Camp.  They are just a Bamboo skewer frame with shop towels then painted with watered down PVA but I think they look decent for a start.  Hope to have them done by Friday night.

Lastly I got a one off Mars Attacks civilian painted up while demonstrating some painting techniques to the wife (who then promptly ignored my advice and did her own thing that still turned out really cool.  Oh so she has also now completed a Legion of Everblight Battlegroup for Hordres.  Well mostly as soon as I get done posting this I need to mix up some PVA and water so she can add snow to the bases.  So with that farewell for now happy painting.

3MMRC: Week3-4 Two weeks in one because posting is not my strong suit.

So week 3 was minimal progress and a missed post.  Week 4 was considerably more productive.
So first up we have my week 3 progress was The Thing in the Woods from Mordhiem.  This is a model I got in a lot of stuff I picked up to do my Beastmen Renegades.  I was knew it was a GW model but had no idea what it was till a buddy of mine that played Mordhiem told me.  Alas I don't play the game and really just painted it up because it looked fun.  It will probably be posted on E-bay tonight.

So this weekend at one of the FLGS we had a Kill Team tourney for which I drug out my Beastmen Renegades.  I finished dead last and lost 5/6 games.  That said I still had fun and now understand why everyone hated me when I played Eldar with my friends way back in 3rd edition 40K. Playing in the tourney rekindle some of my desire to play and build my 40K stuff and so I finally put paint on 2 of the models that were assembled and primed during the last challenge, and took 2 of the bodies I had and added grenade launchers to make the Platoon of Flak armored Ungor more cohesive, swapping out the 2 plasma guns in squad 2.

Lastly I finished putting together the rest of the Plague Zombies to fill the unit out at 20.  I had a fun building some of them though they are kind of a throw away unit for me.  I don't know if they will ever see play time but they are something I have wanted to do for a long while.  I even managed to paint them and assemble the rest of the cultists form the Dark Vengeance sets I had.  I got 5 of them painted last night in the scheme I developed also during the last challenge.  I am back and forth on it but its an easy pattern ant looks okay for the 40K fluff of Nurgle zombies.  I will not repeat this scheme on any other zombie models but I think it works for them,

So hopefully by next week I will put a dent in the rest of the Plague Zombies and Cultists.  They are all being done in a variation of the Dip method with a little bit of extra highlighting so they should go quick.  After that I will see what I can do next.  This week I managed to trade 3 Killa Kans, a Trukk, 10 Boyz 5 Nobz, and a Warboss for 16 Beserkers and 10 Raptors.  I think I may tackle the Beserkers which are going to become Bolter toting Chaos Marines for my World Eaters Army for some of the new Traitor's Hate formations.  I may also take on the Raptors which will be added to my Black Legion Forces we will see where my whims take me.

3MMRC: Week 2 - finding motivation...

So that is my progress on week 2. I managed all but final high lights on the 3 Grind Jacks and just need to finish eyes and basing on the Gun mage. Though I did finish my building(s) for the 4th Achievement of the Crossroads of Courage Season 1. I am finding myself struggling for motivation to paint. I had intended to have the 3 jacks painted for this last weeks adventure and managed what you see in the picture. The gun mage who is so far the Campaigns Big Bad was 1 of my jokers. I had always intended to get the model and when I stopped into a recently opened game store in my community there the model was on the rack. Ironically I had just finished the last figure of the party when in a side adventure that should have barely been challenging the party managed to wipe itself. I fudged the rolls as often as I could but short of just failing every roll I could not counter half the parties desire to just do the dumbest things possible. Some of them are keeping character images that will be very similar though the other 2 (the ones that basically got he party killed) will be going in completely different routes. I really need to work on knocking down some more of my back log of 40K stuff but every time I think about it I just feel discouraged. Considering how little I have played 40k in the last couple of years I figure that is the biggest part of it. I have played the game for so long and love the armies I have built but I have not truly had fun playing the game since 6th edition. I enjoyed my time playing Warmachine in the Crossroads League and the fact that even with a 1/5 win loss rate during the League I am still doing better than I am at 40k and while winning has never been terribly important to me I am thinking my 1/90ish win loss rate with 40k may be a factor in working on the models. Anyways hoping to finish the last bits of the models and maybe start on some of the other stuff on my shelf here this week.

3 Month Mountain Reduction Challenge Week 1

So I started this blog got 2 posts up and then left it behind, I have had a Project Log on Dakka Dakka for a bit. During my Dakka Dakka time I did a personal 6MMRC. This September started a shorter one, this time only 3 months, since I still have a chunk of my mountain I figured I would take part. In the time since my 6MMRC I have swung heavily into the Iron Kingdoms, participating in a Journeyman League for Warmachine and starting an Iron Kingdoms RPG group. That brings us to week 1 of the 3MMRC. Week 1 was mostly stuff for my IKRPG group. I had one Player Character left to convert and paint Ed Carington, an Aristocrat/Investigator. He is a very flamboyant character and we used an old IKRPG model Guildon for the base. I switched out the Electro Rod with the cane sword and removed the sword from his back. I then sculpted out some of the back lost with the sword and added a pistol holstered on his leg. Also from the groups last adventure I have Anna Kareen and Vincent striker. The Journeyman Warcasters competing in a Grind Match (I am running it as an illegal Jack Fighting game in my campaign.) I also added paint to Anna's Jacks as they and her will be recurring NPC's in the campaign. Something else that occurred this week was a Painting Competition at my FLGS. The challenge was 2 fold the first one was to bring in a painted copy of the Slaughterpriest from September's White Dwarf. The 2nd part was a speed painting competition of an Eldar Death Jester. I took 3rd in the WD model and 4th in the speed painting. I managed to get all but the basing done on it before time was called so not too bad for an hour of painting.

So there you have it my first weeks worth of work. Not as much as most weeks during my 6MMRC but a good start. Here's the group shot, sorry for the crappy photos but didn't get the photo box set up and wife had the camera so they were taken with my phone.