Super Painting Weekend!

This weekend started off very slowly. I played a quick 35 point game of Trollbloods (look at last post for list) vs. a new Khador player. Then my wife and I had a mellow dinner Friday night and went to sleep at a decent time.

Our normal gaming day of Saturday was slowed to a crawl with one of our regulars being sick, his brother who usually comes with him didn't come by himself, we lost another gamer who was committed to finishing his Legion battle engine this weekend 

and then Mass Effect 3 claimed another. My wife and I found ourselves with a very slow relaxing Saturday with nobody over. What to do?

Paint! Nicole my wife had finished converting up her Archidon last weekend and decided to start painting it. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get some work done myself and grabbed my paint brush.

These pictures are of her beautifully painted and converted Archidon. She did an amazing job, you can't even tell that she's relatively new to the hobby with about 3 years of off and on painting. She used the new gallows grove branches to help convert her nest. I love how this came out.

With that model coming out so well she was inspired and quickly grabbed another model. She had her Razor worm since it first came out, and now finally threw some paint on it. Her paint scheme for the skorne has been blue's and purples with some great transition work. Since she had decide to commit to fully blue on the Archidon she decided to do the opposite on the Razor Worm.

I really enjoy how she uses Chinese lettering to mark the models facing.

 Next on the chopping block was the Ironback Spitter. We both love this model for it's goofy yet impressive battlefield presence.

I really enjoyed the natural color scheme she went with him. Works really well with the rest of the gators.

With him out of the way she decided to do some basing work on completed models. Gundrun is a model painted by a friend of ours as a gift. So we decided to base him real quick too.

The boneswarm proved to be the next target, and quickly grabbed a paint job. Simple bone job for the model before she moved onto the final model for her this weekend.

The final model Nicole finished this weekend was her Eyriss. This model had been started about half a year ago, but never found the inspiration to finish it. I requested her finish it though as I wanted to run the model for the new Krueger2 tier list from NQ.

 Before I talk about the models I painted this weekend I had finished up this troll during the week. Real quick job, but I like the scheme and matches the rest of the troll army.

The first model I decided to paint was a pair of gallows groves. I like how they play with Baldur2 and have been looking forward to them coming out. I painted up a 3rd, but during the pictures the last one was missing some dry brush work.

Then I grabbed my Gorax. Now I really don't like this model. I was going to buy the rescuplt but didn't like him either, though he was an improvement.

I decided to experiment on him with a painting transition. I did a simple grey base coat across the model then applied 3 different washes from the base being brown to black to blue. In the future I should really water down the washes. Then I applied another grey dry brush and picked out the details.

Didn't come out as well as I hoped, but the paint job was clean and out of the way.


Baldur2's list being almost completely painted now with the gallows done meant I needed to get to him done sooner rather then later.

I miss the epic bases they used to give models so I did a very simple conversion with his base to call out his rock manipulation abilities. The rock comes from the Earthborn model. I was happy with the quick conversion and still think he's a great model.

I had really hoped to get a solid list ready for strategicon but ended up with running Baldur1. I do feel confident in taking him to Kingdom con though.

At strategicon I played Morvhanna for 3 rounds of the tournament. I really enjoy her unique play style, and just need to avoid upkeep removal lists. Her list is getting close to painted and decided she has earned her paint job.

I wasn't sure how to paint her and decided to use her name as inspiration. I went with yellow and orange autumn colors to stay true to an Autumn theme. I really enjoyed how vibrant she came out.

I haven't painted this much so quickly in awhile. I really enjoy putting painted models on the table and can't wait to field my newly painted models.

To Paint Or Not To Paint

I have finally finished painting my THUNDER HOG!  (Yes I know it's just a War Hog)

Thunder Hog!

I had spent a large amount of time converting him up and decided to spend a large amount of time painting him this past week.  It was intimidating to get started with him.  Though once I picked up the brush to just base coat the blue I couldn't put him down.  I really enjoyed picking vibrant colors to combine with the dark skin and grey hair of my army.  Not only is it aimed at being a center piece of my army but also some refreshing color to my dark paint scheme..

Back Shot

Lately in my miniature career I hadn't gone out of the box with conversions, elaborate basing or crazy paint jobs.  I used to love converting models, but I've always been the of type individual who focused on the game. I mainly focused on getting models painted, keeping them clean and trying to maintain some army continuity.  With the main focus on rules and synergy of the units I selected.

Left Side Shot

It was quite refreshing to get back to another part of the hobby. This project definitely showed me I shouldn't restrict myself to just the play style of units and the game. Lets not get confused here though, I'm not a changed man.  I still love playing the game and don't see it getting knocked off as my major preference.  I guess I'm just adding another layer to the hobby, one I had lost.

Right Side Shot

I do really enjoy the difficulties of the Minion faction and the creative sculpts the army offers.  This Journeyman league has been a great experience so far.

Lord Carver's Week 2 Army

I haven't been the only person busy painting this week. Here are some photo's of Nicole and Paul's great paint jobs they created this week.  Great job!

Nicole's Pirates!

Aiyanna

Dougal MacNaile

Holt

Bloody Bradigan

Lord Rockbottom

Paul's Cryx Paint Jobs

Paul's Machine Wraiths

Skarlock

Thunder pig!

In my last blog I had mentioned my Dr. Arkadius list that had three War Hogs. Well one of my goals when I started my pigs was to truly embrace the concept of War Hogs being made by a mad scientist.  As such I decided none of my War Hogs would looks the same.  I built one the traditional way, and I heavily converted the other two.  Here is the one I'm most proud of, the other one I think will pop better as it gets painted.