Shivs and Stilts; Freebooter's Fate Challenge, day 2

Update! Day two of the Freebooter's Fate Challenge, and the 4 models from yesterday are done. I was hoping to get started on another batch as well, but fussing around with these models all evening prevented that. Tomorrow I'll have the whole day to paint though, so hopefully will have more progress.

I promised yesterday that today I'd talk some more about the models. As I mentioned, they're sculpted by the very talented Werner Klocke, and are quite nice models, especially the females. One of my absolute favourite things about this range is the pewter base inserts. As you've probably noticed, basing is not my strong point, and while I'm working on improving that, these inserts are a great idea, simultaneously providing character bases, and extremely solid anchoring points for the models (each insert has slots for the models feet, which have pegs). They also give the assembled models nice weight and stability, particularly valuable on top heavy sculpts like Miedo a Morir.

So then, onto the finished pics!

Male coscritti:

Female coscritti:

Battitore (Stop, what time is it? That's right, hammertime):

Miedo a Morir:

Sorry some of the photos are a little blurry, my terrible photography skills strike again I suppose. Feel free to let me know what you think, feedback is really appreciated, especially on the OSL and NMM, since I'm unpracticed at both.

~ Alex/Magos

Silent Footsteps in the Dark; Freebooter's Fate challenge, day 1

Day 1 of my 'paint all my Freebooter's Fate in a week' challenge!

Yes, Freebooter's Fate, the small fantasy pirate skirmish game with a lovely range of models sculpted by Werner Klocke. If you don't know who Werner is, you need to expand your model knowledge. He's one of the best known miniature sculptors, and has models in a number of ranges, most notably Reaper's catalogue, and his charming female miniatures are sometimes referred to as 'Klockenbooty'.

I'd known of FF for a while, but the relatively high cost kept me from getting into it, however a few months back I picked up all the rules, cards and two sizeable factions, all BNIB, for a steal. I'm keen to give the game a go, and if I enjoy it might look at expanding my factions, but for the moment I'm happy with the two I have, Amazons and Brotherhood, conveniently my two favourite ranges of minis.

I'll ramble some more about the models tomorrow maybe, but I'm fairly exhausted tonight and have to work tomorrow morning, so I'll keep this fairly brief and get to the pics.

Inevitably, after a week of balmy weather, winter returned today with rain and wind, meaning I had to wait until late afternoon to get a chance to prime. I have 18 minis all up to finish, and I'm planning to break them into batches to hopefully make it more manageable. First up, the Brotherhood, a cult of nefarious assassins. Their models are a mix of nobles in masquerade finery, and common cut-throats, wearing ragged outfits. I've started with the commoners, keeping the colours suitably motley and muted, while the nobles will be far more riotous. 

I didn't manage to get them finished tonight, but they're about two thirds done I guess. Skin, some cloth, details and weapons are not close to done yet, plus there's the OSL from Miedo a Morir's lanterns. I'm only aiming for a nice tabletop standard with these guys, with 18 models to do, I can't afford to be too finicky. If I can achieve my goal of a week to have the whole collection finished, that will be reward in itself.

Ok, pics, finally.

Cheers, thanks for looking, comments always appreciated :)

~ Alex/Magos

It's All Greek to Me; Byzantine history and plans for next week

No pics tonight, just a quick post to try and get back into the daily post swing of things.
I didn't get any painting done today, instead, I made a snap decision to pull out a game I have and set myself a challenge for the week - painting everything I own for it in time to play a fully painted practice game or three next weekend. Not going to reveal the game, but suffice to say, it's not on my poll. Anyway, I spent the afternoon assembling 18 fiddly metal models. Argh. My glue must be losing its potency or something, so many little pieces that just wouldn't stick together. But now they're all assembled and based, so hopefully tomorrow the weather will let me prime them and I can get stuck in.

In other news, while painting/assembling over the last few days, I've been listening to this podcast. Really interesting and convenient overview of Byzantine history focusing on twelve significant emperors. As something of a fan of the Byzantines (mostly thanks to many hours of Medieval Total War), it's been excellent listening, thoroughly recommend you check it out if you like history.

So anyway, stay tuned for tomorrow's update, wherein I reveal the sum of the challenge I've set myself.

~ Alex/Magos

Saving the Galaxy with the Power of Mediocrity; Jacob joins the team

Sorry for the radio silence, been in the hobby doldrums a bit for the last week, struggled to find much motivation. So instead, I mostly played Counter Strike and Mass Effect 2. Oops.

I decided to break the drought tonight by painting another of my small collection of Mass Effect models, this time choosing Jacob, the perfect victim for a quick and dirty hour of work, simply because, well... he's kind of bland.

My main Mass Effect playthrough, with John 'revenant to the face' Shepard, didn't find much use for Jacob (or anyone who bothered with tricksy powers, really...), but I've gotten to appreciate him a little more in subsequent playthroughs. Still, he ranks near the top of my least favourite of the team (Samara, Thane, Kaidan...). That being said, he's still a pretty good character, can't fault BioWare for that, no sir. He just isn't a Miranda or Garrus. I will say this for him though, he has one of the best scores from the soundtrack as his loyalty mission's theme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l99D2BJBW_M

His uniform is, unfortunately, a subtle blend of greys, black and white, which is basically a pain to translate into 28mm. I've done my best, and I think he's come out recognisable at least.
The miniature is one of the Kev models from Hasslefree, pretty close I think, but rather short compared to other 28mm minis. He's armed with a Harrier, not a weapon he can use, but as a Cerberus agent, it still seems appropriate. Also it's one of the most deadly weapons in the game, who wouldn't use one eh?

And while this isn't new work, I painted this model before I started the blog, so I figured I'd put some pics of it up here. If I have more periods of unproductivity, I might upload some more pics of older models. So far this year I've painted 140 minis, only about half of which are on this blog.
Moving on, this model represents Shepard in his Edmonton Blood Dragon armour, which I've used on and off in game. I don't mind the armour, and this Yu Jing Hac Tao is a pretty close match. I'm happy with how it turned out, I even managed to recreate the blood dragon splatter on the chest, and the 'metallic camo' colours of the weapon, which is meant to be an M99 Sabre, a weapon I absolutely adore.

So that's it for this overdue, rambly post. I'll hopefully have more to show soon, possibly a couple of lovely Red Box minis if I get off my ass and finish basing them so I can prime them. I've also pre-ordered one of the new GW carnosaurs... I may hate the evil empire and their ways, but I can't resist a giant dinosaur. Got big plans for that model, we'll see what I can do.

~ Alex/Magos

One... Two... a False Start on some Infinity; WIP ALEPH

I went into town to see Pacific Rim yesterday, wow, fizzz, what a movie. Giant stompy robots fighting giant alien monsters, what more can you ask for?

So far my poll has received a paltry 1 vote, for Infinity, so I figured I might as well answer the call and get started. I'm not going to waffle too much about the result, simply because I'm not at all happy with it. The super fine detail and crisp edges of Infinity models REALLY do not agree with my painting style, which works fine on organic stuff like flesh and cloth, but just looks sloppy and crude on these kinds of models. So,  I'll be starting afresh, trying to break out of my usual style and go for a clean, flat finish with crisp edge highlighting... it's going to be interesting to see if I can pull it off.

As an aside, Infinity models are just plain trolly to assemble. This unassuming chap is like 10 pieces. Corvus Belli must have access to better superglue than I. Seriously, those shin pads come separate, just crazy.

But anyway, for now, here's what two hours this evening turned out. Ugly, isn't it? Oh, and just to be clear, this is only a WIP, I'd still have a lot to do even if I wasn't starting afresh, but I'm just not feeling it.

Hopefully my next post will have something a little prettier.

~ Alex/Magos

Something from Long Ago; the first model I ever painted, unearthed

Sorry for the lack of painting progress, my desire to paint seems inversely related to the proximity of 40k to my painting desk... strange how that works.

Instead I've been spending my time playing FTL and ME2, I'm using an Engineer for the first time in singleplayer, though so far I'm investing more of my levels in flashbang grenades... so lulzy to spam flashbangs into low level enemies at close range. Although having spent so many hours playing a soldier, anyone else feels really fragile on hard difficulty, have to hug cover.
All this means there's a good chance I'll chip away at the Mass Effect skirmish game some more, we'll see.

On the hobby front though, I've been going through some old boxes of models I haven't touched in ages, in amongst the victims of my teenage hobby years (no talent or money but boundless enthusiasm produced lots of horrible 'conversions' and ugly paintjobs) I found this guy.
While he may not look like much, this orc archer happens to be the first model I ever painted, over a decade ago in the GW Adelaide store. Not bad for an 11 year old who'd never done anything more than fingerpainting before.
I thought I'd post some pics of where this hobby all began for me... come a long way, though I'm always looking to improve.

Would love to hear about other people's first models!

~ Alex/Magos

Spruiking Hobby Things; links to things I like, and a poll

No pics this update, thought I'd take the time to mention some hobby related things.

First off -->
Poll. Somewhere there to the right. I'd love to know what people want to see more of. I can't promise to always work on what people want, as you've seen, I change projects on a weekly, even daily, basis, but if people really want to see a certain thing then I'll make it a higher priority to work on.
Some of the options aren't things I've yet posted on here, just giving you a taste of some of the other projects I have up my sleeve...

Next up, a Kickstarter project you should definitely back: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/409030043/warmachine-tactics
In case you haven't heard already, Privateer Press are running a Kickstarter to fund their first video game, based off their awesome tabletop game Warmachine. The Kickstarter is already funded after just a few days, but the more they raise, the more content there'll be. Check it out, and throw some money at the screen. You can even get awesome LE sculpts of upcoming WM models as rewards.

I'd also like to shout out a blog I follow and you should too: http://stazmatt.blogspot.com.au/
I mentioned it in a previous post, but thought I'd do so again. Matt does some awesome work on a range of modern-historical and sci fi projects.

Finally, for anyone who likes Space Hulk, a guy on WAU has been working on an advanced rules set that introduces heaps and heaps of new races and models to that venerable game. I don't play myself, but reading his thread definitely makes me want to...
You can read the thread here, which includes both the rules and his awesome modelling and painting projects: http://www.wargamerau.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=148656

Anyway, that's all for now, thought I'll probably do more of these 'random hobby things I like' posts in the future. Vote in the poll, check out the links, and I'll return soon with pictures of models. Still working on that space marine...