Subject to Stupidity

Missing Marauders

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 09:30:00 +0000

I seemingly forgot to post these the week before last. I went from the first two directy to the last two. Anyway here are the missing Marauders from the Horsemen regiment. I don't have anymore of them to paint thankfully but their foot cousins seem to be a never ending tide encroaching on my painting table. I do want to get the Cultists finished to about twenty models soon. The only problem is the just started Macinations Warmachine League. It is offering points for painting miniatures and my focus therefore has to switch over to getting some models done for that. It also helps that there are a few new releases for Circle coming up this and next week!

Tharn Ravagers, what to do?

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 09:30:00 +0000

I just don't get them. I played in the Irish Masters last weekend and I used these in every list. Aa full unit with the attached chieftan. The package comes in at eleven points for the nine models. In most games I deployed them forward in front of my army and ran them forward to jam the objectives and zones. They also form a decent threat. In most games I was down to two or three models by the time I activated them again. The only thing I can think of is that I am using them in a completely bad role for them. Almost everything my opponent puts on their front line can deal easily with the Ravagers. With a standard defence stat they are easily hit and with an average armour they are easily damaged. Eight boxes help for sure but POW 12 weapons are easily able to remove them from the game. For what can I use my medium infantry?

The first thought is to place them out on a flank. It subjects them to less direct firepower in the early turns but allows them to threaten towards the centre. They are not so fast that they really become a threat out there but they can tie up and possibly defeat a lot of other flanking forces. These should leave a few models by the late game to effectively flank the opponent. However for eleven points, basically a fifth of your entire army you really want them to have some dominating prescence on the battlefield. I played a little yesterday and tested this. I found that the Ravagers are very effective against other medium to heavy infantry. These are also often deployed off centre and the advance deployment rule allows you to pick your match up in most cases. Having a MAT of nine when charging means even defence fourteen isn't too hard to hit and with a POW of 15 on the charge even armour twenty models need to be worried. Curse of Shadows gives them an effective POW boost of two meaning that even Khador 'Jacks will go down to a charge.

Having said that is there anything else I would use them for? I am tempted to use them as a second wave. I have no idea if this would be effective at all but it strikes me as a decent possibility. Having advance deployment always makes me think these guys should be up front and in the mix as often as possible. However that has rarely paid off! Putting them behind an annoying tarpit would ensure that the opponent has to commit something decent to remove the tarpit and allows me to countercharge in relative safety. Thinking a little further I am really tempted to use the Ravagers in conjunction with the Skinwalkers. They are a much more effective tarpit and removing them is no easy matter. Having them spread out allows for lanes where the Ravagers can charge into and deal with the engaging models aloowing the Skinwalkers to move up and repeat the tactic. It is expensive but I am really tempted to try it. Has anyone else tried this?

No rest for the Wicked!

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 09:30:00 +0000

This is a really old Jes Goodwin sculpt that I have had for many many years. I always loved this model and the other Chaos Sorceror models of the same era. I have another somewhere that I can't find for the life of me. I knew instantly that he would have to be the leader of the Cultists so I dug him out and painted him up to suit. I wanted him to be a bridge between the Warriors and the Cultists and so I painted the armour in the same way as I did the Warriors. This is the last model I have for the regiment and I need to pick up another box soon. I will be scouring eBay to get my hands on some hopefully at a respectable discount. I just need to figure out what they are called in german.

Front Rank

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 09:30:00 +0000

These will be the front ranking models for my Chaos Cultists. I put a few symbols on each of the models handily supplied by the Marauder Horsemen. They aren't quite chaos wheels but they are close enough. A few chaos symbols on the shredded remnants of parchement these guys carry also helps. I painted the fine text with ink rather than thinned paint and it proved much easier to achieve the fine lines I wanted. I will definitely do this again. I did notice that if I used a wash after doing the text I had some problems. The wash could lift some of the ink off. I need to confirm this by trying it again but if that is true it would be annoying!

I am theming the army somewhat towards the Storm of Chaos. The Cultists are part of this as they played a large role in the quick fall of the town in the north, according to the roleplaying game fluff. The name of the town on the sign, Kurst, is one of the towns that fell early to the slaanesh invasion. As for other elements of theme I have been going for regiments in multiples of six as far as possible. Otherwise I am finding it fairly hard to make more of the theme. It doesn't have such a specific imagery and so I am not sure what more to do!

More Back Rankers

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 09:30:00 +0000

I only have eleven models for this regiment so I am nearing completing these already. Again my MSU style seventh edition army needs more models. I will eventually pick up another box of flagellants to complete the regiment. Twenty five is the target number, hopefully I can source the four models I need on eBay. Getting some of the older models would great. I am not sure if they fit exactly with the new ones. I remember the older ones being a lot bulkier than the current ones.

Crazy Nutters

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 09:30:00 +0000

These will be some of the back ranking guys for the regiment. I made sure that those in front have a few more obvious chaos symbols on them. There really isn't a need for that in the back ranks. The empire flagellant models are really great and suit the cultist image excellently. The eyes are tiny and almost impossible to paint. I usually don't have a problem with painting eyes but really these guys are tough to do. I have scattered the heads around the rest of the army and they fit the marauders perfectly. I have also added them to the Chaos Mages I converted a long time ago. I am eager to paint the mages up but I need a little more greenstuff work on them before I can get started.

Chaos Cultists

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 09:30:00 +0000

I have had these models sitting around for ages in various degrees of completeion. Thankfully they were pretty much already basecoated so I didn't have to work to hard to get them done. I used the Empire Flagellant models and added a few chaos symbols in places to emphasise their allegiance. The model on the left has been shown before. He is my first attempt at OSL. It came out fine but I won't be doing it on other models at this stage. It takes too long and with the pale skin colour I went for it isn't that effective. I think it works out better on dark models. At least now the model is complete and these can be put into the painting cabinet.

The Last Ones

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 09:30:00 +0000

That is it, no more Marauder Horsemen to do. Okay I have a few more models unassembled in the bitz box but there they shall remain. I can't se myself using more than twelve of these guys anytime soon and if the models are unassembled I can pretend they don't exist! So that is two regiments complete for my Chaos army. Add that to two regiments of dogs done years agao and I have a fair start on the light elements of the army. The challenge as always is getting the blocks done. If this was sixth or seventh edition I would only have a few more models to paint to bring regiments up to twenty and then I would be done. Sadly everything has to be at least twenty five models now so I still have quite a way to go.

First Horsemen Finished

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 09:30:00 +0000

Here are the first finished Marauder Horsemen from the second regiment. These came out great and match exactly the first regiment. A few people have commented that the white horses don't fit in that well with the rest of the army but I think it is good. I wanted them to be obviously slaaneshi and I think the white horses helps with this. Although now with the changes in price for the Mark of Slaanesh I am less sure. It was also a little bit easier to paint the white as opposed to brown. I do still have to find some suitable shields for these guys. I have run out of the old beastman shields and the new ones come with army already attached sadly. Hopefully I will be able to source more as I need them for the foot sloggers also!

I armed these with flails as in seventh edition these were a great option. While I haven't as yet bought the eight edition book I am assuming that the flails upgrade is really expensive. There seems to have been a huge change to the marauders, both mounted and on foot. I can see myself having a really outdated army in terms of its composition! Once I get the army finalised I think I will go back through all the army books and make out the same army as best as possible and see what I come up with in each edition.

Base coat...

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 09:30:00 +0000

I seem to be only basecoating things at the moment. That stage often seems to take the longest time. Getting a clean even basecaot is in my opinion the most important part of painting a miniature. A lot of people painting try to do dirt and battle damage on miniatures and I find myself telling them that you need to learn to paint neatly before you can do those effects. While I won't have much time over the weekend I will get some of these finished I guess.

More Horsemen

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0000

I am slowly making some progress on my Chaos Army. These are my second regiment of Marauder Horsemen. I want to get these painted as I have the horses already done. I also think the models are great and as I sculpted the cloaks on these I don't want that effort to go to waste. I have enough Tallarn Flesh now so I can keep going with these guys. Hopefully they will be the next regiment finished.

Back to Warriors

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0000

There might be a few WIP shots over the coming days. I am working on a huge amount of projects at once. I am just painting what I feel like at the moment rather than slogging through a massive regiment at once. I glued a few spare warriors together last week and I sat down to base coat them over the last few days. It took far longer than I though. Basecoating is annoying! It always seems to take longer than it should. I washed these in a few places and built back up the base coat. This is the first time I used the Nuln Oil(GW) where I could compare it to Badab Black(GW). I have noticed that it gives a lot stronger coverage. The armour on these guys has come out much darker than the previously done ones. As these are a completely separate regiment I don't think it is that noticable.

I armed them with two hand weapons as I didn't have enough halberds and painting the shields takes far too long despite looking great. I might eventually do a second regiment using the lances from the Chaos Knights as Halberds. I have fourteen, I guess another ten or so should be enough. I can't see regiments of Chaos Warriors being taken in much bigger blocks than twenty five.

A Questionable Lady

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0000

I more or less got this Rotten Belle finished over the weekend and I did a few touch ups yesterday to finish her off. Again I am happy enough with how she came out but once again there are a few problems I see. I also tried a new thing which has me confused. Yellow is a colour I don't use often as it has terrible coverage. I undercoated the whole model in yellow so this for once wasn't a problem. I went very pale with the colour and again I should have had a better eye for the contrast. The skin again came out fine especially the face. I added a few rotting patches on the skin this time. Basically I added some thin patches of red and green glazes in two or three places on the skin. I think the knee is just about visible in this piture.

The new technique I tried was some transparent clothing. I have seen it painted a few times last year in competition standard models, especially one by Marike Reimer. I tried this on the forward leg here in the picture. I don't think I did it correctly though. I painted the entire stocking in a mix of the base flesh tone and white. I then shaded the area with the basic flesh tone. I then highlighted with more white until I achieved a colour that is just beyond a usual colour for flesh. With the skin tone being pale to begin with and using white as the clothing colour I think I was fighting an uphill battle. It is a technique I will have to play with a little more so I can understand the mechanics of it. I think planning it out a little better will help as I can pick colours and tones that work better.

Rotten Belle

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0000

I managed to get a decent amount of painting in over the weekend and made a lot of progress on various projects. I find I can get really overwhelmed if I have too much stuff on my desk at once but so far no problems. I painted this rotten belle deliberately in a colour I don't often use, green. I wanted the dress to be really pale and as she is a zombie I went pale for the skin too. In the end it is an interesting scheme as it is far brighter than I thought it would be. The skin came out quite well especially the face. The model is quite expressive and that makes it really easy to pick out the areas for shading and highlights. When I get a really plain face, like the recent gripping beast stuff I painted, I can't do much with them. Models like this and the marauders though are really easy to paint the faces well on. I still have the base to do but I need greenstuff to sculpt the brickwork effect I want to have so for now these ladies have to wait to get their bases done.

I guess I need to consider having a lot more contrast in these models. It is a little late as I am almost finished the yellow belle too but for the red or pink on I think I can get that in there and really make the pale colours pop a little more. Contrast is something I always struggle with. I tend to chose a base colour and work from there. I rarely consider mixing in different colours to achieve interesting and striking shading contrasts. I think with the green here I could have used a purple or brwn to get the shadows to really stand out. I am still happy enough with how she came out.

Traffic Light Ladies

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0000

Despite the fact that I have four Khador Warjacks,Chaos Marauders and Chaos Warriors on my painting desk assembled and base coated I decided to start something else. I have played some Malifaux over the last few weeks and yesterday I picked up the Rotten Belles. Rather than continue with some cavalry I though I would get these done first as a break. I painted them without realising it in a wonderful traffic light scheme. I undercoated them in these colours as it saves time trying to cover over black. Foundations paint helps but it can still take a good few coats for red and yellow to come out nice and even. I am going to try to get some of these finished while I also progress with the Marauders. Thankfully I managed to get some Tallarn Flesh at the start of the week. Old Fogey at Hobbyhorse sent me some. So now I can make some real progress with my Chaos army without fearing that I will have to change the colour scheme halfway through!

Chaos Spawn Regiment

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0000

Here are all my finished Spawn ranked up. As I discussed before I don't know how to use these. I think they are fairly suitable for any of the roles. I avoided the tentacle beast look deliberately so that they were much closer to true humanoid. The addition of some armour and weapons also helps separate them from that look. I guess when it comes down to really making out the army I will see what to do with them.

Chaotic Cannon Fodder

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0000

I have been making a lot of progress it would seem. I had six normal marauders left to paint and over the last few days I got them done. I also managed to do some finishing touched to their twelve brothers. The last time I painted these was in November 2010. They have been sitting neglected for over two years. I think at this pace I will have the army ready for ninth edition. I don't know if I have rally become better at painting but these six seemed to go really quickly. I have managed to paint a lot over the last twelve months so I guess the improvement came in speed rather than technique. I won't complain about that, regular readers will know I have motivation problems if things are progressing slowly. Now I have to dig through the various boxes to see if I have enough Marauders to complete the two regiments that I have at the moment. I also need to start sourcing heads from the mounted marauder models as I defintely don't have enough of those bulk out my small regiments.

I still have a little work to do on the banner.I want to find a slaaneshi symbol/sigil to add to the top. I guess there may be some in the new hellsteeds(?) box. Hopefully I can spot some online to buy. I also want to paint up the fur on the banner a little better. The darker fur on the outside it too plain lookin and I will need to give it some more work to get some strong contrast in there. I just don't want it to become too light something that is easily done.

Completed Slaanesh Horsemen

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0000

The Slaanesh Horsemen are finally finished and ready to be hidden in the painting cabinet again! At least this time they shall inhabit the same shelf as the rest of the painted Chaos models. I need to pick up the book sometime so I can actually calculate what I need for an army. I started painting these guys when I came to Germany first and this was in the last year of seventh edition. I had designed, built and sculpted everything along an MSU style army which worked wll the few times I used it. However eight hit and if you read back through the blog and my various posts on eigth editon and this army you will see that the fact I had to change everything really put me off the game. It didn't stop my buying everything to convert to eight edition though.

While I don't know if I will get back into Warhammer Fantasy I do want to make progress on this army, at least for the time being. I know having a functional army would make me a lot more enthusiastic to play at least. Once I figure out what exactly I can salvage from the old army and what needs to be added I can decide. As always least effort for most reward comes to mind. If I have very little to do then I will glady do it! Sadly I bet I need to do loads.

The Last Spawn

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0000

I managed to paint again this weekend and I got this Spawn finished. I have four now done and I think that is enough. I am still not sure if I will use these as Spawn or as Trolls. I haven't looked at the latest book but I am assuming Trolls and Ogres are still in there. I would be very surprised to see them removed. The new Dragon Ogres really look awesome but I won't be buying anything for a while at least. I have enough to paint and I can resist the new shiny syndrome I think. It is great to see that the Dragon Ogres once again resemble the current Ogres models. They haven't done that since the early nineties! They have also massively increased in bulk. I remember when they used to fit on a cavalry base comfortably. It does lead me to wonder what is to be done with older models like that. Should they be rebased as it does have a massive effect in gameplay terms. Yet base sizes are ruled in such a way that you play with what they came with. A regiment of cavalry sized based Dragon Ogres would be far more effective than the current ones! I have seen a lot of models, especially monsters become outdated in my collection. I have a Chimera that came on a cavalry base and giants that came on standard 50 x 50 sized bases. It would be a pity not to be able to use these anymore but they seem to have no space in the modern game.

Beer Two!

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Sun, 17 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0000

Once again here is a poor shot of my brew. The difference between this and the last one is pretty apparent. This one came out really pale and yellow, exactly what I was looking for in the style. It should be representative of an India Pale Ale. This brew is still sitting in the fermenter for another week or so and then I will bottle it. It is much stronger than the first brew coming in at 6.75% alcohol. That fits with the style. It is also a lot more heavily hopped. I used Northern Brewer and Cascade hops for bittering, flavour and armoma. Hopefully I got this balance correct! While there are a lot of receipes out there most of them are from an american audience and are geared towards the supplies that they can access. I am fairly restricted here in Germany as the home brewing culture hasn't taken off. Good beer here costs about 55c a bottle and so it is actually a lot more expensive to brew your own. There is one store that offers a decent selection or I could order from the UK. The postage costs from there are fairly high so only a bulk order is worth it. That means that for the time being I must be satisfied with a more alchemical approach to my brewing. I am approximating malts and hops to approach the receipe but I can't really claim to be following any.

This time I am really hoping that the yeast drops out so that I have a nice clear beer. Next weekend I also have the proper tasting of the first brew. Last night the Hobbybrau group got a taste and it went down fine. The true test is the less drinking cultured gaming friends. If they like it then it is a bigger success. I will take some decent photographs to show how it came out in the end. It is currently inhabiting most of my fridge cold crashing. The cold crashing is used to get all of the yeast to settle to the bottom of the bottle and it should clear the beer up within a few days. Hopefully it goes down well amongst my friends. I don't want to be left with two crates of beer I have to drink all by myself!

Anglo Dane Warlord

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0000

This is the last SAGA model for a while. I have had enough of the Dark Ages, that itch is now scratched! I am glad to have three warbands complete and I look forward to getting some games in with them. The local gamestore has asked me to run a demo day so hopefully we get a few more players interested. That may spark my interest in painting again but I have a lot to explore with these three warbands first. I put two models on this base as these came together in the army deal I bought. I often find that at a 28mm scale the Warlords base is really empty. Putting two models on the base fills it up nicely without over crowding it. I didn't know how to paint the dragon banner. The cross hatching came out much better on the back as I made it closer together. On the front it is too widely spaced and didn't come out great. I was too lazy to fix it...

Slaanesh Horsemen

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0000

Here are the last two Marauder Horsemen for this regiment just in time for Valentines Day. Thankfully I had the horses already painted so I didn't have to slow down to paint those too. Horses take ages to paint. I don't mind the large surface areas as these are easy to highlight. I don't like them because they just take an age to do. I went with a few flagellant heads in this regiment as they are excellent and convey the theme quite well. I also stuck on the back banner as I though it fit with the unit. I have half an idea there is some artwork similar to the model in an old chaos book. I painted on the slaanesh symbol as it is easy to do and I wasn't inspired to try my hand at something else. This army doesn't have an banners as yet so I didn't have anything to go on. Once I get these all varnished I will get a group shot, if my camera obeys. It doesn't like to take group shots I have noticed! I am wondering what to paint next, a spawn I think as he is already constructed and awaiting paint. Hopefully they are better in the new book as I have four of them.

Over 100 Models Already

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0000

I figured out today that I have already painted over a hundred models this year. I shocked myself a little when I realised this. I am really setting a blistering pace. These Anglo-dane warriors are the last rendera bases I have and I ordered a hundred. I thought I would have a lot to spare but my box of gripping beast models seems to defy physical space and have no bottom. I see the finish of this warband to six points and another six point band in there easily. That still leaves me with spare models. I must have bought an amazing army deal back when I got these almost ten years ago. Some of these were more or less painted already I have to admit. Still there wasn't a single completed model in the army so I am pretty proud of hitting a hundred in six weeks to tabletop standard. If I keep this pace up I won't have anything at all to paint by the end of the year...

Only Eight More

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0000

Maybe playing more games of SAGA would help me get through painting these guys. Only eight more to go! These ones here are my third batch of warriors. Again I lost motivation for freehand while in the midst of painting them. I just don't like the effort that good freehand takes to do. I can spend almost as long on a single shield as I do on the model and while it is most definitel the most visible part I don't think it is worth it. Sometimes it is hard to think that this is just a tabletop standard model, I don't need to go overboard! Thankfully I have only eight more models to go.

More Marauder Horsemen

noreply@blogger.com (redmanphill) — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0000

I managed despite brewing my latest ale to get some painting in this weekend. I really want to make progress on the Marauder Horsemen. The regiment is now two thirds finished! I improved the flesh colour a little but once everything had dried I still think it is much darker than what I was going for. The contrast just isn't there. I don't want super dark shadows as that really shows the poor sculpting of the muscles. Instead going for really pale skin and yet some starker highlights really softens those bulging biceps. The next ones should be better, I know I really need to add in a few more final steps with bleached bone to bring up the tone and contrast. It is interesting to slowly immerse myself back into some technical painting. A lot of what I have done recently is by rote. I really have to pay attention with these guys which is nice, at least for now!

Here is a shot from behind to show the cloaks. I sculpted these a long while ago and they came out fine. If I was to redo them I would make them a little longer like I did with my Chaos Knights. Those cloaks took ages but they look really well. I only wish those models ranked up better! I didn't do the customary darker stripe down the middle of these like I do with most of the other cloaks I have as I just wanted to do something simple and get back into the swing of it. I still thenk they came out fine and add a little character to the models. I wish they came as standard rather than having to sculpt them myself... They can take about an hour each to do as far as I remember for the larger and better ones.