Objectives (BMG)

I started working on these at the same time as painting Poison Ivy, grabbing hold of the momentum I had at the time. Although these Objectives are fairly simple and basic models, since they are clearly gaming pieces (with game effects and rules), and each uses at least a couple of colours and is based, I am counting them towards my painting totals for the year!

Left to right:

• Riddle
• Loot
• Ammo 
• Titan Container

These are the official BMG Objectives from Knight Models, and since these were released the first Leader-specific Objectives have also been released (Joker's Gas Cannisters).

These pieces were fairly quick to paint as you expect, and help me get ready to play in the March tournament at Titan Games that I will be attending.

For my options requirements for a playable Crew, I have three Plants, a Blackgate Prisoner or two, and Deadshot to paint before March. I won't be using them all, but it covers a few configuration options, and I have started work on these.

Poison Ivy (Comics)

This mini was done pretty quickly by my standards, and for very practical reasons. I have signed up for a BMG tournament at Titan Games in March, so need a playable crew in time for that.

From the  BMG Leaders I had available, Poison Ivy had the easiest colour scheme to tackle with 4 main colour choices (hair, two costume colours, flesh), therefore seemed the best option in terms of fitting with the models I have. The nice simple colour scheme was a pleasant experience in terms of making this a quick-to-finish mini (at least by my usual slow standards). I am having a fairly good start to the year.

I plan to use Solomon Grundy as one member of her crew (for durable muscle), and maybe the Riddler too, although I am hoping to paint Deadshot instead (and have made a start on that mini; my understanding is he is a very useful and cost-efficient ranged option). I have decided against using Clayface due to his stupidly unbalanced base positioning; I have said it before, but I feel Knight Models should have opted for 50 mm bases for some of their bigger models, but that is by the by.

I will have to paint some Henchmen too in order to fill out the ranks, so will tackle some Plants and a couple of Prisoners very soon since I can cut down on painting time by doing stuff simultaneously. I have also been doing some painting on Objectives.

The next thing for me (alongside more painting) is getting to grips with the game, and I have the hard-copy on pre-order. I hope to get a couple of games to practice before the tournament day, but time will tell (and willing opponents!). I will be looking at online resources to help, such a the Cheaphammer blog which features head-to-head gaming comparisons of key models.

Shifting Stones

My next Circle Orboros minis are finished (after the Woldwyrd), and although they are super simple, I am glad they are done as they have helped me get some momentum both toward 2015's painting total as well as my Circle Orboros force. I am hoping to paint at least 4 minis per month this year, so I am on target in month one!
  In game terms the Shifting Stones allow the player to move their force around with greater freedom, and from doing some reading have a little bit of a learning curve to get the best out of them.
   The reason for tackling some easy pieces so early was simply to allow me to 'get stuff done' so that painting to a small 15 point force (as a start) would not feel too daunting. With the Shifting Stones and Woldwyrd, I am roughly one third of the way there as my first planned Warlock adds 5 points to the force. So basically I need to paint up more 13 points from the stuff listed below.

Coming up I have:

• Baldur the Stonesoul (Warlock; +5 pts)
• Stone Keeper (druid add-on for the Shifting Stones; 1 pt; under-coated)
• Woldwatcher (Light Warbeast; 5 pts)
• Woldwarden (Heavy Warbeast; 9 pts)
• Wold Guardian (Heavy Warbeast; 9 pts)
• Megalith (Character Heavy Warbeast; 11 pts)
• Totem Hunter (Minion Character Solo; under-coated and a model I have had a few years but has not been used for anything; 3 pts)
• Feralgeist (Minion Solo; under-coated and another model I have had a few years but had not been used for anything; 1 pt)

The likely combinations to tackle first then are either Baldur, Woldwarden, Totem Hunter and Feralgeist, or Baldur, Megalith, Stone Keeper and Feralgeist. 

Woldwyrd

And so begins a new 'project'!

After years of contemplation, I have decided to enter the gaming worlds of Hordes and Warmachine. Over the years I had acquired a few Privateer Press minis for other projects that never came to anything. So late last year I decide the time was nigh, mainly as it should be easy to get Warmachine/Hordes games within my local area, and wanting to get more gaming in.

I quickly settled on two factions I would like to build gaming forces for, Circle Orboros and Cryx. Of the two, I figured it would be quicker and easier to get started on the Circle, so the decision made itself.

After seeing the Bradigus (Warlock) mini that set me on a course of wanting to do a Wold themed force. The Circle are druids in the WM/H world, dedicated to the Devourer Wurm, the primordial god of chaos and the wild, destructive aspects of nature. Among the resources that the druids of Orboros can call on are the various Wold Constructs, entities of stone and wood infused with magic. I love the aesthetic, so decided that was the way to go rather than the animal beasts like wolves and griffins that are also available.

This piece - the Woldwyrd - was chosen as my first model for the force instead of one of the more humanoid Wolds because I felt it would give me the basic template for how I would be able to approach the various non-druid models in the force (incorporating the recurring textures of stone, wood, rope and gem), and it would be fairly quick to turnaround, which thankfully it was. I changed my painting style a little in so much as I went a little more basic since I am really aiming for a tabletop gaming force to be completed pretty quickly.

While painting the Woldwyrd, I finished my first unit too, so watch for that in the next few days. I hope to get a small gaming force of 15, then 25 or 35 points finished bit by bit over the next few months.

Quarter 4 & Year End Painting Review 2014

Quarter 4 2014

An up and down year to be sure on the painting front. I knew at the outset that other commitments would curtail my painting opportunities, but what surprised me was to what degree that would happen, and late, how I would be able to get a significant amount more painting done by comparison once those commitments were out of the way.

I initially started with an objective for 50 minis, but that quickly changed when I knew it wasn't realistic based on the first few months, especially when I did not paint anything at all in February. The target was revised to 40 and at least I managed to achieve that. Quite a drop from 2013 when I painted 63 minis, but still better than I thought early this year.

Quarter 1: 10 minis (-3 from Q1 2013)
Anima Tactics: 7 minis
Pulp City: 2 minis
Supers: 1 mini

Quarter 2: 10 minis (-3 from Q2 2013)
Anima Tactics: 8 minis
Pulp City: 1 mini
Batman Miniatures Game: 1 mini

Quarter 3: 8 minis (-9 from Q3 2013)
Anima Tactics: 7 minis (well 7 units, technically 11 minis as 1 of the units comprises 5 models, but I count it as 7 based on units)
Batman Miniatures Game: 1 mini

Quarter 4: 17 minis (-3 from Q4 2013)
Anima Tactics: 7 minis
Zombies: 5 minis
SDZA: 2 minis
Pulp City: 1 mini
Batman Miniatures Game: 1 mini
Freebooter's Fate: 1 mini

My 2014 minis - 45 units/49 minis

2014 totals - 45 minis/units
Anima Tactics: 29 units
Pulp City: 4 minis
Freebooter's Fate: 1 mini
Batman Miniatures Game: 3 minis
Supers: 1 mini
Zombies: 5 minis
SDZA: 2 minis

October, November and December gave me a strong finish to the year, and February was a write-off (the Pulp City Kickstarter ran then, and so occupied a lot of time). I had hoped to finish one or two more in December, but was laid low with a heavy cold for a couple of days when I had time set aside for painting, and just didn't feel up to slapping the hairy sticks around.

As for next year, right now I think a target of 50 is do-able, but only time will tell.

In the year ahead I want to try and paint at least 30 Anima Tactics units, and get into a good chunk of Pulp City Supremes that I have not yet painted. I would like to paint to some more BMG/Knight Models stuff, maybe to play in a tournament if I get the chance. In fact, I have set myself some targets for specific minis ranges, and if I met all of those, then that would be more than 50 minis next year, closer to 60, so who knows how things will end up!

Next year I also plan to start Warmachine/Hordes; I have been interested and considering the game(s) for years without pursuing them, and recently thought I may take the plunge. Which has meant getting some new bits and pieces as well as digging out some minis I already had from the previous edition. I have been prepping a few minis for both in the last few days.

Rob and I also want to finally play Freebooter's Fate as we both have playable Crews, and have both started acquiring potential terrain options.

And as for everything else, I assume 2015 will see my usual ad hoc approach to getting stuff done, although Zomtober 2015 is already pencilled in.

Oculus (SHOC Force)

Oculus is the name I have given this model, which is another from Nexus Miniatures (click for link to the Nexus site), from their SDZA (Super Dinosaur Zombie Apocalypse) range.

Like Razorclaw, Oculus is a member of SHOC Force, and often acts as de-facto field leader for the team. His powers allow him to see across the range of the electro-magnetic spectrum as well allowing him to project devastating short range line-of-sight electro-magnetic blasts using specially developed goggles. There is friction between the straight-laced Oculus and the abrasive wild-man Razorclaw, which causes tension in the team.

I started painting this mini at the same time as the first one, painting the bulk of each in tandem, although focusing on one at a time when it came to the finishing details of each. I struggled with painting the face, but I am leaving it as it is so I can keep momentum for other minis.

Having painted these two, I am looking forward to more SDZA releases using the same uniform motifs so I can add to the ranks of SHOC Force. More generally, I am really happy to have painted a couple more minis, my first two this month, especially after struggling to get stuff painted for so much of the year.

Razorclaw (SHOC Force)

While on my recent painting roll (a pretty unprecedented-for-me 14 minis in two months - not the kind of output I have managed since giving up bulk painting GW stuff), I decided to get some work done on a few minis that would all include a lot of red.

This is the first mini finished of a small handful of minis that I started in the past week. The model is from a new company by the name of Nexus Miniatures (click for link to the Nexus site), from their SDZA (Super Dinosaur Zombie Apocalypse) range. Nexus and SDZA is the brainchild of my friend Drew, aka Doctor Warlock.

As soon as I saw the FON (Freaks Of Nature) Agents for the SDZA range I knew I wanted them, what I wanted them for, and how I wanted to paint them. So I bought the first two, which will be joined by others as soon they are released, and which I will be using for a secret project over the next year or so, and with all to be painted in a matching colour scheme.

For my secret project the mini will become Razorclaw, a scrappy bad-ass feral superhuman who has been recruited as part of a clandestine team code-named SHOC Force (Super Human Operations Covert Force) in homage to 90's comic book super teams with names such as WildC.A.T.s and H.A.R.D. Corps. Razorclaw is fast, strong and tough, and since his recruitment into the ranks of SHOC Force is just beginning to learn of his true heritage as an Unhuman, a secret race of super-powered beings.

Razorclaw is the first of several minis I want in the group, as the secret project I mentioned involves testing as many combinations of 'rules stuff' to destruction as possible, and I would like a selection of minis to help me focus on that, that are not too specifically tied in my on head to anything in particular.

The colour scheme was inspired by VALIANT Entertainment Inc.'s comic book anti-heroes known as HARDCorps (see image right for an example). While I have not copied the scheme wholly, I have used the predominant placement of red, black and white in the best-fit parts of the mini as I saw it, and I am pretty happy with the outcome, even if it isn't my best painting (I have not been painting much red lately so it was a struggle). The next ShOC Force mini should be posted in the next few days.