Only Two Months Left!

Good afternoon folks and fellow wargamers!  Welcome back to another bi-monthly post from here at Wargamer Ramblings.  As usual, I hope things have been doing well for you all and I hope it just keeps getting better and better!  We are almost done with the 2019 year and the resolution started to paint more minis and so I want to bring you along with my journey and where I am.  Cozy on up with a warm drink and here we go!

So the past two months have been pretty brutal on my painting progress if I am being honest here.  After NoVA Open I came back absolutely drained.  I not only had the post-con drain of hobbying and gaming too much but it was just tiring on me physically.  One of those 'getting older' kind of experiences I suppose, but that's why I didn't do a post-con blog about it.  If you're curious about pictures you can go right HERE.

It was a better experience this year compared with the one in 2018, primarily because I actually signed up for stuff this go around!  I ended up attending roughly half of my events, though I wish I had gone to all of them.  Regardless of the events I missed, the ones I attended were a blast.  I have to say I think I hung around the Warhammer 30k Richmond group crowd the most.  A lot of great people from that group but also some of the best looking armies.  Something about their passion for the Horus Heresy and the stories they wove with the scenarios just really drew me in.  I only participated in one event with them, the Zone Mortalis, but I had a blast and would do it again!

After a week like that, I came back and I frankly didn't start painting again until nearly a month later!  Part of that was a dedicated time of respite from painting and trying to get as much done before the NoVA Open but real life has a nice way of making sure to exhaust you to where video games seemed to have been an easier choice.  This is true, it's a lot easier to go play video games than to do this hobby and sometimes that wins out.  I did spend a good amount of time assembling new models as I snagged some Dark Elves from Greebo games for Blood Bowl.

So when I did decide to pick the brush back up I started off with Warcry's Iron Golem warband.  I had the color scheme in mind: frost exposed skin and metallic green armor!  After looking up some tutorials I decided to give the skin a try aaaaaand...ended up with the Grimace.  Yikes.  I was disheartened but I didn't quite give up (took me a couple days to get over my own frustration) and I somehow salvaged the paint scheme to be less frost and more desert themed.  I think it kind of worked but I'll be honest I'm not in love with the scheme and given the chance to do it again I will try to avoid it.

I think that's ok though which is weird to me. It goes against how I've operated for a long where I treated all models as something more than they really have to be, which is something along the lines of "they have to be perfect because I spent all this money on them!"  I suppose for some that are true but as I've been painting more I've also come to appreciate the process of discovery.  Sometimes it works out in my favor, like those pink Yu-Jing from infinity, but sometimes it doesn't and that's fine with me.  By exploring and opening myself up to failure I ended up with some new skills (e.g. recovering from a bad scheme), experience with new techniques, and an appreciation for other color combinations I would have never explored otherwise.

So after the Iron Golems, I went and started working on the Untamed Beasts and I felt the results were more pleasing to my eye.  Not to say the Iron Golems are not contrast paint friendly, but I felt that you could pretty much do the entire Warband with nothing but contrast paints had some great results with this band.  I also appreciated the models more as I painted them, as earlier I was not a fan of the whole tribal theme.  After getting my hands on them I appreciated the sculpts and that helped the painting process go more smoothly.  I experimented with some other paints, specifically Scale 75 colors, and found that the ultra-matte effect their paints have had an undesired effect on things like cloaks but worked really well on the bone weaponry.

I started working on some Blood Angel Primaris marines but didn't finish them in time before October ended, but here are some progress pictures anyways.

Slow couple of months but I think I am picking back up.  How is your hobby progress coming along?  Let me know what you're working on regardless of the smoothness or struggle it might be and I hope you end up doing well.  We're almost done with this year and the bi-monthly progress report so it should be interesting to see how I did over the whole year.  Well until then folks take care of yourselves out there and happy gaming!

NoVA Open 2019 here I come!

Greetings and well wishes folks!  What a wonderful end to the summer and I hope that your time in the hobby has been well spent.  I will be brief tonight because I am off tomorrow to head on out to NoVA Open 2019!  So I've got some pictures for you all and just a couple of quick talking points, so let's begin!

Right to the point: I met all of my hobby goals for this convention.  That's right, all of those models painted up...and then some!  I hit a slump earlier in the month of July and I think it was because I ran into some problems with the A Song of Ice and Fire models.  Everything I tried just didn't go right.  Priming went bad so then I had to strip the models, which ended up not working as well.  Then the color scheme went funky and so on.  It was discouraging at first but after a small break from painting I went right back and picked up Infinity.

Two Yu-Jing starter boxes later I started on my Aristeia team, managed to paint up some figures for some folks I know, painted up a Battletech started box birthday gift, and here we are: the night before NoVA.  It's a good feeling when you get everything you wanted to painted up and done.  Might just need to get another event to motivate me for certain projects...but we'll see.

Without further ado here are some pics of the stuff I've painted up in no particular order:

It's been a blast painting up some of these models.  My only complaint with the Aristeia models is that the plastic they use makes it annoying to clean off properly.  Still, I feel my progress in knocking out the horde of grey/white/black unpainted models is going well, and I look forward to continuing the trend and seeing where I go from here/

That's all tonight folks.  I must continue to prepare for tonight and hopefully, if I can remember to take some pictures I will share them with you!  Until next time folks game well and happy hobbying!

Mid-Year Painting Progress Report

Good tidings my fellow wargamers and welcome back!  For my American friends happy recent 4th of July, and for everyone else, I hope you have had equally fun times with friends, family, and hobby time.  These past 2 months have been pretty productive in terms of the hobby and I am very excited to show you some pics of my completed projects.  Hopefully, things have been equally productive for you all in whatever fashion it has been, but let's go ahead and get to business!

In my previous post, I already went over the new fad that is Contrast paints from GW, but I still attest to their usefulness.  They've become a quickly added tool in my overall repertoire and have helped me save a lot of time and energy on getting started with the basecoats.  One thing I have noticed, especially for skin/flesh, is that they've helped me figure out which areas to highlight and have helped take the guesswork I've been mostly operating on in the past.  I'm still figuring out how to best use them to not only get some pretty decent effects but also to just keep shaving time off my paint.  Speaking of time...

The progress over 6-months board

So it's the halfway point to the year and I have to see that I've been pleased with being able to stick with my goals of painting more models.  Comparatively, I would rarely paint anything but would always tell myself "I don't have time" or "I just wish I could."  Going along the idea that any progress is better than no progress at all I've now reached the 6-month mark and I've been recording models/units that I've finished painting.  Looking back it's been pretty amazing to see what I've been able to knock out, but also how long it took to finish each one.  As you can see around 6/15th when Contrast paints dropped I think my paint time went by considerably faster (please note I recorded when I felt like I was 'done' with that group so even if I painted a unit for let's say Infinity, I wouldn't feel like it was done until ALL that faction was painted up).

Sons of the XVth Legion

Not only did I spend a lot of time painting, but I also ended up getting some gaming done as well!  That's right sometimes I do actually play these games.  I've been making an effort to try and get into the communities more in my area.  I live where there are a lot of groups who play a lot of different games and yet I often have said the same thing I said to myself when I wanted to paint, "I'm too busy, I don't have time, blah blah blah."  Well, I'm trying to change that and before June was out I ended up playing in two events: a local Steamroller event and my first Blood Bowl tournament!  Both were great events, and great chances for me to get to meet new people, play with some familiar faces, and lose a lot of games!  Regardless of my ability to win, I am just happy to get out and engage in the community more.

So I've finished several projects these past 2 months.  As far as my goal for being ready for NoVA I am almost there.  I think I've got a couple of Aristeia! models to finish up (after I select my 4 fighter group that is) and I've got the Infinity event to also work on as well.  I finished my Horus Heresy Zone Mortalis event force and shortly after Contrast was released and I completed both starting warbands for Warhammer Underworlds shortly after my Malifaux crew was finished.  Suffice to say I've been pretty busy with painting to have reached these milestones!

Well, that's it for today and it's been a pleasure sharing with you my progress.  It's been a little surreal to look back over the past half-year and to think about how far I've progressed when before I painted like...never.  I hope to encourage you if you were in the same boat as I was with wanting to paint and not actually doing it, just do a little each day if you can.  Some progress is waaaaay better than none at all and if you just try daily then eventually you'll get that model done.  Or that unit, or army, or whatever it is.  Eventually, it'll get painted up with your efforts because even if it feels like it takes forever you're still doing something. 

I hope you're all making progress in your efforts whatever they may be and until next time happy gaming!

A lot happens in 2 months

Good tidings my dear wargaming friends!  I hope things are going well for you all and many greetings to you and yours.  It's been a couple of months since the last update and it's been a busy time not only for myself but a lot of my friends, co-workers, and family.  Work has been killer so obviously the answer has been to turn to pursuits of relaxation and hobbying, and what a time it has been!  Hopefully it's not been as crazy for you all as it has me, but in case it has make sure to grab your favorite drink and take a few moments to relax as we dive into a shared hobby together (it might get long up in here).

So like the post suggests a lot happens in a couple of months.  For me there's been a lot of things going on in my own life that makes you appreciate the times you can snag to enjoy hobby time.  The career has been progressing in a great ball of crazy fire and times have been rough.  So what does that mean for the hobby you ask?  Well I've been putting in a lot of work on painting up models!  That's right I've been actually engaging in that oft-forgotten aspect to our hobby, at least I feel like it's the most neglected part.  It's like the icing on the cake in a lot of ways, it's not necessary for the cake to be functional but it's the difference in being great.  I felt particularly motivated to start painting at some point where a mix of staring at the horde of primed plastic/metal/resin, longing for color and creativity, and the desire to paint as part of my Blood Bowl league came together and caused me to just...start.

That's the hurdle isn't it?  Starting the process.  It's awkward at first when you've not painted for a long time but soon the fine motor skills get back to their old spot and you can even start to improve in some ways.  So I decided that I am going to try.  I won't promise to make myself do something everyday, because that's not reasonable or feasible in my mid-30s.  No, all I can say is that I will continue to make an effort to try and paint more.  I want to paint more.  I want to show up to events with painted models (because we all know that they roll better when painted amirite 😉) and not continue this cycle of buying more models without painting some first!

So now every couple of months I'll come back and let you know how this promise is going.  With that in mind I want to share with you my progress:

Blood Bowl Orcs

Blood Bowl Nurgle

Blood Bowl Humans

Necromunda Orlock Gang

Current WIP: Blood Bowl Dwarves

As you can see there is a common theme and since I've been playing Blood Bowl like a lot, it only seems appropriate to keep the pain train coming.  In total that makes 61 models I've painted in two months!  That's about a model a day, which is pretty good in my books because it was originally 0 models a day...or a month...or two months...it's been awhile.

It's a pretty solid routine to get some painting done when I get home from work and it's been lending to progress overall.  One thing I've had to learn is to let go of some high standards I have in my mind and just paint to the best I can right now.  So far I think the results have been working out and I've been able to try out a couple things, especially weathering on a couple of the Necromunda pieces/bases.  I also have been looking for opportunities to just try new things out, and I feel that Blood Bowl has some good models to be experimental with.

So while I am working on the Dwarves I am of course looking ahead for the future and I think no greater motivation can exist than attending a con.  Specifically:

Except totally not 2018

Yes sir/ma'am it is the NoVA Open.  I went last year with my brother and some friends and I had fun...buuuuuuuuut I didn't sign up for anything so really I went to watch people play games and let's be real with each other: it's not as fun no matter how hard you try.  A good break from your own game sure. Maybe to watch a friend, sure.  To watch games without really playing any yourself?

So this year it's going to be different!  I've signed up for events (yeah!), and I've got my schedule (aww yeah!), but now...now I have projects (oh).  See a lot of these events want your models painted and so now I have several goals in mind.  So to run down my list of events and accompanying model count (estimated):

• Zone Mortalis (Warhammer 30k): A One Thousand point list of Thousand Sons (heh).  
• 32 models
• Aristeia!
• 4 models
• Infinity After Dark: So it's a DnD style Infinity event where I am not sure what the model count will look like.  So I will just paint up my Yu-Jing and hope for the best.
• About 12 models?
• Blood Bowl: I haven't decided my team yet but it's an all day tournament.  I am probably going with Dwarves, but if I had access to Dark Elves I might swing that way.
• 18 models (including tokens)
• Guild Ball Regional Cup: A Guild Ball tournament you say?! WELL I NEVER.
• 0 models (I already painted my Morticians)
•  Godtear: Steamforge's new game but I don't need the buy any models or do anything other than show up.
• 0 models

So overall I'm looking at about 66 models which as I have shown myself that I can get it done in about 2 months.  So once I start the paint train I do believe I can get it done before the deadline in late August.  That and I have some plans for airbrushing the Thousand Sons and maybe the Yu-Jing that will help speed the process up.  For Thousand Sons I plan on using the method outlined by Epic Duck Studios (link right here) because not only is it reasonably quick but also I reeeeeeeaaaaaaaaally like that color scheme.  For the Yu-Jing I am looking at sticking with my usual palette of cool colors as I am used to those and would like the models to look semi-decent. I've got some friends, a couple of which are fellow bloggers, WaaarghPug and The Ordinary Wargamer, who are also going so it's going be a solid weekend I am sure.

I have another event I am going to try and get models painted up for and that's a local Steamroller in June and I've recently acquired some Crucible Guard!  With some trading done with WaaarghPug I have acquired a new project to get into and hopefully if I time things right I can assemble and get these buggers painted before June...before I paint everything else for NoVA...hoo boy.

Well that about sums up my current project completions as well as my future paintings.  I will be sure to take plenty of pictures so that with my next update I will have pretty models (and hopefully better skills too).  I hope you all are doing well and wish you best of luck in your own hobbying.  Until then, happy gaming!