2017 Year in Review

This was another good hobby-filled year. So here is a summary of 2016 for me.

T'au Empire (Warhammer 40,000)
I took my T'au to the Harvester this year. While my Index army didn't have too much success, it was fun. Let's hope they get a good codex in 2018. At least I have some newly painted battlesuits.

James' Necrons (Warhammer 40,000)
I guess you could call this a commission. Something I did for my brother so he could attend the Harvester of Souls with us. We will see what kind of codex will come out for it in 2018.

Censers & Tocsins (Nurgle Mortals - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
This is an army I have been trying to keep up on with painting. Compared to last year's summary, I only had some built, and none painted. My goal with this army is if I build something for it, I paint it, before building the next thing. There will definitely be more to come for this AoS force.

Forthammer Clan Throng (Dispossessed - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
I have had a ton of fun with this army. I took them to the Las Vegas Open, added some cool conversions, and am running them in a campaign, which is still ongoing. I have more on the painting table for these guys, so I am not done with them yet.

The Klad Barag (Dispossessed - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
This deserves its own entry here because I consider it quite the achievement. Still not 100% sure what I will use him as, but he will be a proxy for any big dude I want to run in friendly games. Perhaps not tournament legal due to being a proxy and all. I do plan on taking some better photos of this guy and sending them to White Dwarf. Let's hope something comes from that.

Forgesworn Eternals (Stormcast Eternals - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
I haven't really added anything to this army, just got completely caught up on painting. Lately nothing has really stood out for the line to get me to want to add here. At least with being completely painted, if I do add anything, I will be inclined to immediately paint it. Like my plans for my Nurgle dudes.

Tempest's Eye Rangers (Grand Alliance: Order - Warhammer: Age of Sigmar)
I only have a couple things here for the army, for now. They are only really ever intended to be for some Grand Alliance army, rather than a start of Freeguild. I would like to paint them this coming year.

Song of Blades and Heroes Stuff
For my favorite non-Warhammer fantasy skirmish game, I have added a lot of Reaper BONES minis to it here and there. And I made some nifty ruins for it as well. But most of all I am still slowly working on the Song of the Deep Empire campaign supplement for it. More on that in the coming year.

And that sums up the year. Lot's of fun projects, and of course, lot's of plans for 2018. Stay tuned.

Back from the LVO, a write-up of my time in it

Just got back from the LVO, and it really was a blast. The whole event was great. Everyone had an awesome energy about them. All my games were a lot of fun, even my losses. GW was there running the tournament, and they were very cool people.

I met some followers of my blog, and those who have seen my work on the Age of Sigmar Fans Facebook group, and on /tg/. It was nice to meet all of you!

Me (right) with Reece (left), the guy who runs Frontline Gaming and the ITC. It was an honor to meet and talk with him.

The event was 6 games over 2 days, and competition was tough. I ended up losing my first 2 games, but the remaining 4 were all major victories. I ended up placing 14th of 74 players, which I find pretty good, and 6th of the Order players, which there was a lot of Order in this tournament.

My first game was against Stormcast Eternals. He brought a Warrior Brotherhood, which pretty much meant most of his army could drop in during gameplay whenever and wherever he wanted. I had something similar with my Retributors, but his was army wide. I felt it was a close enough game, but he got it because I didn't play the objectives wisely. So it was a loss where I recognized my fault in playing.

Second game was against Bill of the Rolling Bad podcast. He played Death. True to the title on his shirt, he had a lot of bad rolls. However he was able to take the win because I foolishly ignored a key objective, and with a summoning he held off until the end, he took it from me. It was well played and the game was a lot of fun. He gave me a couple dice with the Rolling Bad logo, which I appreciated. I'm am going to start giving his podcast a listen from now on, because he and his group seemed like a bunch of cool dudes.

Third, and final game of day 1, was against a fellow Dwarfs aficionado. He ran pure dwarfs though, using the Grudebound Throng battalion. His army was painted well and we both geeked out about how cool dwarfs are during the entire game, which was fun. I took the major victory on this one because my Forgesworn Eternals brought an edge to the fight.

Next day I started my fourth game against another Death player. What was interesting about this is the first time he played AoS was at this tournament, and he was learning so much about it. The beauty of AoS is you can quickly pick it up and learn the nuances as you go. He played it pretty well, and I enjoyed the game. I think he could have used some summoning, which would have helped him with the objectives. It is understandable, because among death players, most appear to be discouraged with summoning altogether. However, with my 2nd game, he only summoned 1 unit, and it won him the game. You just have to think about what summoning brings other than just reinforcements.

My fifth game was against Arturo from Ordofanaticus.com. A gaming club in portland. He ran Beastclaw Raiders. Lot's of Thundertusks/Stonehorns, Mournfang Cavalry, and Yhettis. The list was very intimidating, as it could deal A LOT of damage and was blazingly fast. I gave him first turn, in which he was charging into my back line during that, causing me to sweat a lot. It was one of the most bloody and brutal games I have ever played of AoS. By the end of the game he was down to like 3 models, and I had maybe 4 left. I took the win because he decided to completely ignore objectives, knowing it would mean a loss, and go for kill-points. This took my vote for favorite game because it was just a nail-biting brutal encounter, with terrible losses and awesome victories on both sides. The mission played was Three Places of Power. It was the mission where the objectives could only be held by Heroes, and all his Heroes were the really big heavy hitters. If he held objectives, they would have been sitting ducks for my shooting and not done their jobs. Again, he knew this and decided to ignore objectives for a fun game. I used a sideboard and swapped some things for more Heroes, meaning I had easier time taking the objectives.

The sixth and final game was against another Stormcast Eternals player. A lot of Retributors, Liberators, and a Stardrake. This was a game that I really had to fight hard for the win. He wouldn't let me have it easy. Actually, for most of the game, it wasn't looking like I would win it, but I pulled out just at the last turn and took it. Ironically what gave me the most trouble wasn't the Stardrake, like I initially thought. I was able to kill it by turn 2 because of my deep striking Retributors and some lucky rolls. My opponent said that was the only game where the Stardrake did very little for the battle. It was a hard fought won and a great note to end the tournament.

During the tournament, I was approached by the TO from GW, giving me a lot of praise over my army and conversions. He asked about my Lord-Celestant on Dire Bear conversion, and I admitted the head was from Reaper Miniatures. He understood there was no suitable bear mini by GW, and let me play with it. He said for the most part, as long as the base mini is GW, it's playable. However it did disqualify me from being put in nomination for best army voting. That and he said I could have used a little more time in painting. It stung a tiny bit, but I sort of knew that going in with a 3rd party bit. I was too proud of it to leave it home, though. But again, he really liked my work.

Me (left), and John the TO from GW (center), and Rob (right, taking a photo)

However, as consolation they did do individual painting competitions. One for hero models, artillery, behemoths, and units. I submitted my Warden King in Steamsuit for the hero, my Organ Gun for the artillery, and my Prosecutors for the unit. I won the unit competition and got a Start Collecting Seraphon box. I never had a plan to start a Seraphon army, but I may now. I have a few ideas floating in my head of what to do with them.

Her Grot she painted in class, as instructed by Lyn Stahl of Metalhead Minis. Not bad for her first mini!

My wife, Beth, got something from the LVO as well. She attended a painting class for beginners. Forgeworld also had a booth at the event. They were selling art prints and their minis. I bought a print and a Daemonsmith mini. This mini attracted me because I noticed the funny signature chaos dwarf hat is a separate bit, and it actually looks good without it. Possibly a future conversion for something.

I got a print of this, one of my favorite pieces of AoS artwork. Art credit to GW of course.

Legion of Azgorh Daemonsmith. Picture from google search.

LVO Army - Completely based and ready!

And that's it! My whole army is completely ready. I am so excited to take this there and play some games!

Lord Dunhill Behrunsson, Lord of the Forthammer Clan Throng. Warden King in Steamsuit

Drake Dunsson (master cogsmith), Norri Behrunsson (battle standard bearer), and the Unforged

Longbeards

Irondrakes

Organ Gun

Cannon

Lord-Celestant Hanzbur Anvilhelm, Lord of the Anvilhelms host, of the Forgesworn Eternals

Lord-Relictor Volstrad Runeseer, and Knight-Questor Quillon Stoneshield

Liberators

Retributors

Prosecutors

If any of you are attending the LVO for whatever, please swing by and say hi. I will be participating in the AoS grand tournament on Saturday and Sunday only, let me know you follow my blog, I would really appreciate it!

2016 Year in Review

This was an exciting year for me with a lot of completion on a lot of projects. Very productive. So here is a wrap-up for the year, as well as an update on my many projects.

Zone Mortalis Tiles
I spent countless hours casting the bits, gluing them together, and painting these tiles. It's a total of 18 tiles with doodads, and they have gotten some play time. Our local game store had an event where my tiles handled about 4,000 points between 4 players. I am surprised at how well they handled the punishment, and the players were all impressed with the table. They are a little brittle, but that is due to the material used, where I went a little cheap. A lofty goal in the future will be to create a fantasy themed set of tiles, but I may splurge for the good dental plaster if I can find out where to get a hold of some nearby.

The Coven of Verminlord Skrax (Warhammer 40,000 - Dark Eldar Haemonculus Covens)
This was quite a project that yielded a proud achievement for me. A lot of effort when into the modeling and painting and display board, not to mention the wonderful comic illustrated by my brother. It was all paid off when I won Best in Appearance at the 40k GT Harvester of Souls. A trophy which is still proudly displayed in our living room.

Jarom's Orks Commission Here and Here
The undertaking for illustrating my comic was no small feat, so I gladly paid in painting small portion of Jarom's Orks in exchange. Jarom also took Best in Orks at the same tournament.

Gorkamorka
My brother and I haven't really acted on our plans to run a little Gorkamorka campaign yet. Both of us live a distance from each other, and he has been busy with a job enough as it is. So Gogmagog's Questing Knights (Mutiez) and Da 'ard 'eads (Gorkers) will remain unpainted for now. I am looking forward to fielding Da Hukka Trukka on the table sometime in the near future.

Heavy Gear Blitz!
My Heavy Gear plastics kickstarter delivered this year. I now have a lot of plastic sprues of tiny mecha. I have been a very long fan of Heavy Gear's setting, but never got a chance to play it in any form. This game seems pretty solid, and my brother has expressed a desire to give it a shot. I look forward to that sometime next year.

Deadzone
My addiction to small skirmish games continues even still. Deadzone is an example of my enthusiasm that builds in a game in intense bursts. Then it dies out. I am still up for playing games with it though. So I have several small armies built for this game, but the beauty of most small skirmish games I own, a lot of the figures can be used interchangeably. So even when I am not playing Deadzone, I can still use the terrain and minis for something; like Rogue Stars... but that's another post for another day.

Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower
The three of us (Jarom, Timo, and I) have been slowly working our way through the trials of the Silver Tower, and watching the story unfold and our characters progress. Jarom is playing an Orruk Warchanter, Timo is playing a Chaos Lord, and I am controlling the Order side with a Cogsmith and Lord-Relictor. What's even sweeter about this is how little money I have invested in this game and we are getting a lot out of it.

Censers and Tocsins (Warhammer: Age of Sigmar - Nurgle Rotbringers and Clan Pestilens)
This project will likely be set on the back burner. I love the idea of a Nurgle themed fantasy army, but until I get that burst of inspiration for it going again, I won't be doing much with it for now. I do believe I have some good ideas for the Nurgle Rotbringers at least. The Skaven, however, I can only think to make everything as-is. Which is fine for most, but I become passionate about something when I can think of a unique angle to take with it.

Forgesworn Eternals (Warhammer: Age of Sigmar - Stormcast Eternals)
I am proud to say my entire Forgesworn Eternal army is completely painted (barring some basing I still have left to do). Not something I can say much of for my big armies. I really don't plan on adding anything to this. I feel I have gotten all the minis I am interested in. I was considering some Dracoth Cavalry to make more dire bear riders, but the problem is finding variations of suitable bear heads, of which I have only really found the one. But for now I'm good.

Forthammer Clan Throng (Warhammer: Age of Sigmar - Dispossessed and Ironweld Arsenal)
Not all of my Warhammer Duardin are among the ranks of the painted, but a good portion of them are. I experimented with a unique paint scheme for dwarfs that I think has paid off to a color that complements my Forgesworn Eternals. All I have left for this LVO army is some basing, and maybe a display board. Carry-on luggage restrictions are becoming an issue.

That sums up this very awesome year. In the new year I will outline my goals for 2017.

Forgesworn Eternals - Painted Models Part 6

Another short painting update. My Knight-questor from the Silver Tower set is done.

And this completes the painting (before the basing of course) of my Forgesworn Eternals. I like the method I used for painting them because it's simple enough and worked well for their theme. Now I will start dedicating my resources to working on my Duardin portion of the army. I have some ambitious plans for it, but attainable goals I feel.

Forgesworn Eternals - Sunforge Hammers and Wings - How I did it

This is a simple painting guide to how I did the Sunforge effect for my Retributors and Prosecutor wings.

First I start off by painting the base color of Averland Sunset (Citadel). Not pictured, but the same base color is used on the sunforge hammer, of course.

Then I did a layer of Flash Gitz Yellow (Citadel) over the base.

Next I made a wash from White Scar (Citadel) by mixing it with a bunch of water. You are pretty much looking to make milk with it. The stuff should wash on and fill in all the recesses and show the yellow through.

Then drybrush Flash Gitz Yellow (Citadel) heavily over it, keeping the white in the recesses. You can allow the following drybrushing colors to end up on nearby parts because they help create a glow effect.

Using Fire Orange (Reaper) I drybrushed over the hammer head, but lighter so as to not cover the white and yellow. On the wings I started partway down and drybrushed to the ends.

A similar step, I used Phoenix Red (Reaper) and did a lighter drybrushing, to create a gradient showing the material cooling.

To finish the effect I very carefully and lightly drybrushed Abaddon Black (Citadel) to show the coolest areas of the hammer and wings. If I felt an area needed more black, I was still very careful to lightly drybrush to build up to the level I thought looked good. It is very easy to do too much black and screw the whole thing up, so be careful.

And that's it! The finished product should look like a piece of iron heated to a white hot in the furnace, and slowly cooling, which of course starts on the outermost edges and works its way to the core.

Forgesworn Eternals - Painted Models Part 5

Painting complete on the Lord-Relictor, Volstrad Runeseer.

Forgesworn Eternals - Painted Models Part 4

I have completed 5 more retributors with 2 Sunforge Hammers (starsoul maces). A guide for painting those coming soon.

I kept pretty much the same as before. These used the new Retributors kit rather than the starter set ones. I wanted some more pose variety. I needed 2 squads of Retributors to fill a battalion in my list I'm taking to the LVO.

Forgesworn Eternals - Painted Models Part 3

I debated for a long time how I would paint the wings of my Prosecutors to fit the theme of the army. Once I painted the Sunforge Hammers, I got the idea to use those for the wings. The prosecutors have these metal spindles which glow with extreme heat and they use that radiant heat to help them fly. It's magic, I ain't gotta explain $#!%.

When I do the painting guide for the Sunforge Hammers, I will also be showing how I painted the Sunforge Wings, which use generally the same painting process and colors.

Forgesworn Eternals - Painted Models Part 2

The big change to my Retributors is I added another Starsoul Mace conversion. At the time I first built these, the warscroll had said only 1 out of 5 models could hold the special weapon, but it was later updated to 2 out of 5.

I am calling these Sunforge Hammers, implying they glow with the heat of the sun. I am particularly proud of the glow effect I was able to make. I need to do 5 more Retributors for my list, so I will do a How I Did It article on painting the glowing effect.

Lightning Hammers should have lightning. Luckily Duncan's own mini-tutorial came out around the time I was finishing these up. It was perfect for what I needed.