Deathbloom - Shael Han - Wrath of Kings

Here is one of the last minis I have painted to finish for 2013.
I got this mini after participating for a demo at the CMON booth at Gen Con.
The resin mini challenged me to do something a little out of my comfort zone and as you can see this is the first time for me to try the NMM technique.

I hope you like. Please leave any critiques or questions in the comments below.

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Best of 2013

With the holidays in full bloom and 2013 coming to an end you see a lot of reflection pieces done about the past year. We've seen a lot of great things in our hobby this year and I’d to share my list for ‘’best of’’ the year.

Company Releases
Dire Foes for Infinity the Game by Corvus Belli.
These are absolutely stunning mini packs that add a nice new element to Infinity the Game.

Kickstarters
Myth and Wraith of Kings
These two projects have me the most excited about the upcoming year and seeing amazing looking minis on the table.

Tutorials
Awesome Paint Job and BuyPainted
These two YouTube personalities have helped me learn new techniques and tricks that help me improve my painting skills.

Hobby promoters
WarGamerGirl, Throne of Angels, Beasts of War community

And rumors for next year.
Tyranids!

There are more categories out there, so comment below and feel free to share.

Journeymen update

Welcome back to my adventures in Journeymen. The holidays this time of year have thrown off the traditional 6 week league. With that my play has been rather sparse. I played a 25pt against CoC and learned that I can Trample with my heavy 'Jacks through infantry and totally failed to kill his caster with it. So since I heard painted minis roll better I decided to get to grindstone and push out some nice paint jobs.

Here is the 35pt list I took against a Trolls player.    

 And this I finished this weekend and completed my Butcher battle group.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there. This holiday weekend will see more paint to miniatures.

Black and chrome

I've been steadily working on painting my Khador collection. Here is the first 'Jack off the line. I want all my 'Jacks to have a hotrod look to them so this Berserker is clean with a little touch of pinstripe. 

Man-o-War

Here is the first of 5 MoW that I'm painting for this Journeymen League. All of them are painted in the red and I did the metalics on the leader first so I can have a map for the rest. I've found before that when I chain paint I tend to miss a spot so I'm going to take each one at a time.

Not bad for a afternoon of painting.
For the red I used Les' paint recipe which can be found here.

Gencon photos and Facebook page

I noticed on my computer that all the photos I had taken while at Gencon never got shared with you all. Sorry for this, these past few months have been busy for me. You can find all the photos on the new Facebook page here. Also be sure to like the page as I'll post more of my work in progress photos on there while using this site as the main site for finished projects. 

https://www.facebook.com/wildchevydesigns

Journeymen weekend painting

Just wanted to show off the painting I did over the weekend. As you can see I'm going for a little higher tabletop quality. Basing for everything will be muddy trenches that i want to tie in with a display board but that's a project for the future. 

 Butcher is still a work in progress but he is looking pretty mean.

Journeyman week 2

Busy week with midterms and such but I did manage to get a game in for week 2 of the Journeyman league. This weeks points is at 15 and still using battle box. For my list I added the wardog and Kayazy Eliminators. 

My opponent this week was Retribution fielding two mage hunters with his battle box. Scenario was deadman's land, 8" strip in the middle of the board that we had to dominate to score points. 

My strategy was to focus on killing his mage hunters that he set out to flank from both sides. My eliminators took care of one and a failed assassination run left the other in killing distance of Butcher. The final turn had us both battling out with our caster and 'Jacks in the zone. The Ret player went for a final all out push but the dice were not with him and his plan fell to pieces. He ended up giving me the game after that. 

Still learning and these games are helping me to see the synergy of play. 

Painting is also underway. I'm trying to go for table top quality + on the big units and working on getting my casters finished. 'Jacks might be getting some airbrush treatment here soon. 

Enter into the Journeyman

Hello and welcome, WildChevy here, today I’d like to take you into the world of Privateer Press’ game Warmachine using the Journeyman League format. For those out there that are unfamiliar with the Journeyman League, it is a 6 week league put on by a Pressganger that helps new player learn how to play Warmachine and also allows seasoned player the ability to try out new armies. Full rules of the Journeyman League can be found here: Journeyman League.

First week starts with the battlebox which consists of a Warcaster and 2-3 Warjacks. Players get points in their overall standing for playing league games and for hobby painting. Whether a player wins or loses they are still able to earn points. The only caveat is that you cannot play the same player back to back.  Hobby points allow a great balance for those who are not able to play many games during the week. As for me I’m hoping to scratch out a few points each week gaming and also with painting.

My history with Privateer Press has been mostly on the Hobby side along with playing Iron Kingdoms RPG. Over the past few years I have been fortunate to get a few painting commissions that offered trade in exchange for my painting skills. One day I realized that I had a rather nice collection of Khador but I never played the game. So this is a great opportunity to both get my collection painted and learn how to play.

For week one I gathered my forces, picked up the tokens and templates, and also bought some new dice. I’ll be using the alternate Khador battlebox which uses Butcher, Decimator, and Kodiak. I could have bought the Khador battlebox but I already these miniatures in my collection. Here is my force all assembled and ready for battle. They are just lacking a proper paint job. I’m working on it I swear.
 

Here’s the rundown on how week 1 went with battles:
First opponent was an experienced player to teach me the ropes. A Circle of Orboros normally but this time around he will be using the Trollblood battlebox. As a new player I held back the first few rounds as to try and get a feel for the army. I paid dearly as my Kodiak got surrounded by trolls and failed to do much damage during my feat turn. In the end Butcher came around to go after the troll warlock. Swinging his axe Lola around Butcher caused a fierce amount of damage but a lucky Tough roll kept the warlock alive and in the next round Butcher was defeated.

My second opponent for the week is a somewhat moderate player who is using the Cygnar Battlebox. This time around I was caught off guard by the abilities of the Cygnar Warcaster to buff his ‘Jacks. It felt like a game of cat and mouse for the few first turns. Unfortunately for him he made a critical error and spit his forces to try to flank and hit Butcher with ranged attacks. Butcher has a spell that he can cast which allows everything in his battlegroup to be better at making melee hits. With that spell and along with Butcher’s feat I was able to destroy the other caster’s ‘Jacks with gave me the win.

There is still a lot for me to learn about this game but I shall take it in stride.
Until next week,
Wildchevy

Another weekend challenge

Once again the call to paint some Super Dungeon Explore has been answered. Last week's challenge was to paint a hero and this weekend's challenge was for something villainous. I could have painted some of the minions buts opted to go for the big boss Roxor. With the help of the airbrush I got my transitions to coe out really smoothly.

Weekend painting

This weekend I had some time to take paint to the brush. 

First up is a resin pre-production miniature of the Deathbloom from Wrath of Kings. I got this miniature at Gen Con this year. I wanted to push out of my comfort zone and try Non Metallic Metal. This is my first attempt using the NMM method.

While showing off my progress to a few members of the Geek Garage they mentioned how a few of them took on the challenge of painting one of the Super Dungeon Explore heroes over the weekend. I was not going to partake in the challenge at first but after looking at my lonely Caverns of Roxxor expansion I decided to give the Deeproot Scout a nice paint job.

Iron Gauntlet finals

While at Gen Con I ran into a few familiar faces one of them happened to be Jay Larsen, from Chain Attack podcast, who was participating in the PP Iron Gauntlet. I didn't see him again until the IMC. When I asked he said he was in the final round and mentioned that the Stormwall I painted for him was in his list. Lucky for me PP recorded the who match.


This just goes to show that painted miniatures bring better dice roll luck.

Legion Arch Angel

This commission of the Legion of Everblight Arch Angel has been a long time coming to completion but it is done and my painting que is now empty. I added magnets to the wings so they can be removed or storage. I will note that I added an extra magnet to the stack so they will hold.
Being that it is a rather large model I had a hard time getting it into the light box.

IMC prize "Dueling Trolls"

Here are more photos of the drawing prize I did for the Inter Mountain Cup. I wanted to do something with a lot of light effects and after exploring the Privateer Press site the Pyre troll and Storm troll caught my eye. The diorama base would be done in the yin yang symbol. 

Inter Mountain Cup recap

This past weekend in Ogden, UT the IMC Fall tournament took place. 64 slots for players and I believe 58 attended that day. It was a great turnout with a professional camera man and a wonderful painting contest. Here are my photos from the event.

Geek Garage raffle prizes.

Con break (Salt Lake Comic Con)

Utah had their very own comic con this past weekend. When it was first announced the expected turnout was estimated around 15,000 people. Amazingly the nerd/geek culture proved the bean counters wrong and arrived in droves. Last estimate I heard was that there were 70,003 tickets sold. This was ranked 4th or 5th largest first year convention and was the second largest event in Utah since the Olympics.

Here is a photo album from the weekend. (Click here)

I also attended a panel, had my camera with me, and got to see some of the original Power Rangers.

Gen Con panel with Corvus Belli Infinity

It's been a busy time since coming back from Gen Con. Here is the video from the Corvus Belli panel which shows what's ahead for their game Infinity and some of the process with their new line called Dire Foes.

Butcher Unleashed!

Here's a little teaser of what my next unboxing video will be.

If there is anything specific you'd like to see in this video let me know in the comments.

IMC paint project (pt.1)

Once again the Inter Mountain Cup is upon us in the local Warmachine/Hordes community. The bi-annual event will be September 14th and there will be another painting giveaway from Geek Garage. Challenged with topping myself from last time I scoured the Privateer Press catalog to see what spoke to me. Many ideas came to mind, some of which I'll keep in mind for next time, but I settled on painting two trolls clashing.

 The two trolls I chose are the Pyre Troll and the Storm Troll. These are both new plastic kits and both have a good opportunity for light sources.

Post Gen Con loot

It's been one crazy week trying to play catch up, but I can tell you I had a blast while in Indiana. A good majority of the videos for Beasts of War are getting posted while the others are in production. I enjoyed meeting the industry professionals in the hobby that I love while also setting up some important networking for the future. Coverage photos will be posted as soon as I get them all sorted out as for now let me show you what all I brought back.

Here is everything all laid out. Next time I might have to check a back just for loot.

 Guys from Corvus Belli signed my Paradiso book.

 Got a bunch of stuff from the Cool Mini or Not booth.

 You can tell I have a bad case of shiny syndrome when it comes to minis.

 Added to my Infinity collection.

 The start of a Dark Age collection. Fire Caste looks pretty cool.

Yep that's a Firefly class ship from the upcoming board game.

Con break #2 Gen Con

For trying to keep an update schedule I think I've done rather well over the summer. This week though I will be in Indianapolis for Gen Con. This year I'll be interviewing and filming for Beasts of War. So once I get back be sure to check the blog because I'll once again stuff my posts with news and photos from all the companies you like. 

Be sure to look on BoW's site to see all the videos from this week. 

 

Tutorial: how to ship minitures

With the Clockwork Angels finished it is time to get them in the mail and off to Texas for the folks of Clash for a Cure. Having never shipped anything painted before I asked around and got some useful tips to share.

What you'll need is toilet paper, tape, newspaper, packing peanuts, and a nice sized box.

Clockwork Angels showcase.

Here are the Clockwork Angels for the Clash for a Cure event. I'm happy for the opportunity to paint such lovely miniatures and help support a great cause. These ladies will be wrapped up with the utmost care and sent off to Texas. I hope whoever gets them enjoys the work I've done.

Clockwork Angels sunken bases (WIP pt. 2)

After letting the putty set I continued on finishing the bases for these Clockwork Angels. 

 Cleaned up the level of the putty with one of my chisels then started in with some pieces of cork and a little bit of sand. Base color is GW camo green.

 Gaze the bases a few blue/green and green/brown washes.

 The sergeant gets a gog to stand on. I aged the metal by suspended it over a seal container of vinegar overnight. To add to the patina look I also added some pastel powder.

 Here is the results before adding the water effects.

 I used Secret Weapon Realistic Water for the water effects. The results are spectacular and only needed a couple of layers to get the desired look. Some flock was also added to give a moss look.

 And here are the finished bases.

Clockwork Angels sunken bases (WIP)

I've been toying with bases for the Clockwork Angels. At first I was going to do the same basing you see on the PP site, but that's not my style. So while I was finishing up the painting I noticed how the two grunts are just gracefully moving at a fast speed the they barely touch the rocks they're attached to. The idea hit me to make sunken bases with realistic water and these two grunts will be moving so fast that they are whispers to the ground, think of it as watching a scene from Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.

Here's the progress so far. If you have any questions about what I'm doing, please leave them in the comments below.

I went through my bag of oddities and found some gears and clock bits that I'll add to the bases.

 First step was to hollow the bases. Be careful as you could easily hurt yourself or ruin the base if you not pay attention at this step.

After mixing my putty I cut it into thirds and pressed it into the base leaving a nice cavity. I'll come back after its dried to give it some texture.

Here's one angle testing the height of her rock.
More photos coming soon.