Flight of the Wyvern

I was planning to post a few pics for my painting challenge last night when my wyvern took an unexpected flight and both wings popped right off. There appears to be no damage that can't be quickly and easily fixed but it did delay the picture taking. Should have something up in a day or two as I figured it would be easier to work on the base without the wings on anyway. Oops!
On the plus side I definitely feel like I am getting better at this painting thing even if I'm still slow as molasses. :D

Bringing Orcs into the Light

"It Burnses!", so says the Orcs and Goblins as I take picture after picture. Originally I took pics of my completed Warmaster Orc units with my mobile phone camera however, now that I have completed my Light Box I thought it was time to get some better pictures. I played with the camera settings for a while finally settling on Super macro Mode, 1/60, ISO 100 with the flash enabled. The pictures are not as crisp as I would have liked but I think part of that is still my camera inexperience and the other part was that I feel I am using the wrong light. Ultimately I would like to use natural sunlight bulbs but that will have to wait. When looking at the pictures if you think you know what might be wrong, and/or you think they are awesome let me know. Here are the updated pictures. Enjoy!

A stand of Night Goblins. Still hard to see the detail on the goblins but that might just be due to the dark green on dark purple color combo that I used.

Wold Rider command stand.

Wolf Riders Charge!!!

A better closeup of the Night Goblins... at least you can see more details.

Night Goblins looking for those pesky humans to shoot.

Same unit from a slightly different angle. The original pictures I took were a bit washed out with light and it was hard to see the ground cover on the bases but you can see it here.

The grass is a bit subtle on these stands and originally you couldn't even see it on the bases, that is until I found the correct setting on my camera.

The Wolf Riders - Blue Company - 1st WAAAGH!

Another shot of the same unit turning on the charge.

These are not your Momma's Trolls... these boys bring the thump!

Incidentally this is my favorite (and the best) basing I personally have done!

Night Goblin command stand. Notice the difference accent colors from the first unit.

Macro Light Box on the Cheap-ish!

A while back I mentioned the desire to build my own Macro Light Box and even referenced a link to another blog where there was a simple how to. I have actually had this finished for over a month but was having problems getting quality pictures with my camera. I was pretty sure it was just me being a novice with my camera and once I figured out how to set my camera into Super Macro Mode it was all gravy. So today I set up the Light Box on the table , got the lights all plugged in, lovingly displayed my painted Warmaster figures and fired up the camera. For starters here is a picture of the Light Box itself.

Ah yes, cardboard and duct tape. A quality product if I may say so.

Okay, so the example I posted a link to earlier from the Strobist Blog did not use any wood in its construction but I really wanted to make something a bit more sturdy. A few pieces a scrap wood and spare work lamps later and I had this monstrosity! The lights really should be natural daylight bulbs but we make do with what we have here (Ha! That is usually so not true). So, now I have no excuses for not taking higher quality pictures, although truth be told it is a bit of a pain to setup and break down so I will probably only set it up when I have a number of things to photograph. But, here you have it. One more thing off the to do list!

Painting Challenge Part II

So, additional progress on the painting challenge miniature. About mid-last week I had gotten all the base colors done and over the weekend I experimented with several different wash combinations. I decided the teeth, claw, metal and scales I would wash with a black to create some definition and these areas which would be finished off with some light dry brushing and proceeded to do just that. This turned out well so I turned to my second wash which would cover the flesh areas. I went with a desert yellow but when I made the first wash it was to watered down and didn't cover the base color as much as I wanted. So I made a second batch and ended up doing two coats. The end result is much closer (still not perfect though) to what I had imagined. The only down side was I continued to paint even though I was tired and ended up getting some of the desert yellow between the scales so I spent the next night cleaning that up. The final result is that I want to do one more coating of black wash on the scales and a few areas I missed on the first time around and then I can move onto the next phase the dry brushing.

Here it is in all its glory, but this made me realize one thing I really got to get my light box setup!

Slightly different angle. Been trying to think if there is something I could add to the base to make it a bit more visually interesting but so far I got nothing. Suggestions appreciated.

Oh, and some more good news. I still can't find my camera manual so I went out and downloaded a PDF version of the Canon website so I could figure out how to get into super macro mode. Both of these pics were taken with my Canon PowerShot SX10IS. So once I finish up the DIY Macro Light Box I am building I will be able to post some real pics of the Warmaster units I have been slaving over.

Warmaster Battle Report: 2000pts Orcs vs Tomb Kings

This past Saturday I had the pleasure of attending a local Warmaster Day event. The turn out was not big but it was nice to meet some new gamers in the area that enjoy the same games I do. In all there were three of us, Ed (the organizer), Joe and myself. Since Ed had played both of us before he was kind enough to sit and be the arbitrator for Joe and myself. So not long after we grabbed a table and me and my Orcs squared off against Joe and his Tomb Kings. Both of us has 2000 pt lists and the list we full of cavalry and monsters, literally. Two Giants, two Undead Bone Giants and a Undead Sphinx plus oodles of cavalry and chariots rumbling across the fields!

We used the Warmaster Scenario Generator again and it turned out there we four objective markers we were to try and capture. A unit could pick them up and move with them but their movement was reduced to 10cm while they did so. If an enemy unit contacted any stands of the carrying unit they would immediately drop the objective and defend themselves. Each objective was worth 100 VP if it was possessed by one of your units at the end of the game and if you could get it off the table it was worth twice that amount. The objectives were at the center line of the table about 12" apart. I was to deploy first and Joe's Tomb Kings won the initiative.

On the Orc right flank, Goblin Wolf Riders are slammed into by Tomb King cavalry. Only one stand from each unit would remain on the field at the conclusion of that assault. One the hill can be seen some Goblin Chariots just before the a flight of Carrion swooped down on them from above nearly destroying them.

The Orc General orders the giants out to battle. One lumbers forward but the closer one stubbornly picks up a boulder and squashes a unit of Night Goblins who flee in terror. The General who must deal with the ensuing chaos is unable to issue any further commands.

The General using his Helm of Dominion manages to get a brigade of Trolls, Orc Warriors and Night Goblins to advance up to the central hill. Just beyond that are the Orc Shaman and Goblin Shaman who have failed to bring the magical might of Gork and Mork to bear upon the enemy. In the background the Giant is nearly upon the Tomb King line!

A second brigade of Black Orcs, Orc Warriors and Night Goblins emerges from the woods looking to wet their blades.

One of the Tomb King's Priests orders his brigade forward but the sight of the Giant looming over him makes his conviction falter and the Skeleton Spearmen remain frozen in place.

More Tomb King cavalry crests the hill awaiting the order to charge the Orc brigade at the bottom.

Skeletal Spearmen charge the Giant in hopes of taking him down but he proves to be to mighty and destroys both units while being badly injured, yet he lives to fight again.

Black Orcs charge the Tomb King cavalry holding the objective in the center while in the foreground the Night Goblins receive two units of enemy chariots (bet you can guess what happened here)!

The Undead Sphinx charges into the wounded Giant and his fate is sealed!

Not sure what the Night Goblins did to piss off the second giant but he sends another boulder crashing into their midst and flattens quite a few (destroying a stand). At this point with the general having only successful issued two or three orders all game and my center being completely ineffective I concede the game to my foe. Good game Joe!

So a few observations. The Orcs biggest limitation is command. That is why I bought a Helm of Dominion to get that +1. Unfortunately, it is only a one use item, but my command value is raised for the whole turn and it did work so in the end I think it was worth the points I just used it at a bad time. Second, I need to drop the Orc Shaman w/ the Wand of Repetition and pick up a third Orc Hero. This would help me more than anything else I believe and still leave me a Goblin Shaman to fling spells around (if I can make my die rolls). Lastly, I need to know my opponents a little better. A few times I was caught with my trousers around my ankles with the Tomb King armies ability to ignore the -1 penalty for enemy proximity, and failed to utilize the Tomb Kings inability to use initiative actions. You live you learn I suppose.

We have another Warmaster Day coming up in early June. Hopefully the turn out will be higher. I was told there were around 10-12 players in the area and that would make for a fine day of gaming. The hope is that if we can get this going on a regular basis then we can start up a campaign, which I think would be alot of fun. Until then I will keep practicing the rules and working on tactics... boy do I need to work on my tactics. Oh, and of course I'll keep that brush moving because as you can see I still have quite a bit of painting to do.

Painting Challenge Part I

So it has been a pretty full week for me and I have made little progress at the painting table. However, I have most of the base colors done including all of the major colors. Just have the brown for the leather bits on the wyvern, and grey for the orcs armor. I should have that done tomorrow night then I'll move on to the washes. So far so good!

Initially I was pretty stumped as to what colors to use. I mean its an Orc and Goblin army and so will be default have a lot of green in it, but I also wanted to shy away from using the colors that I have picked out to distinguish units from each other, which are red, blue and I haven't had to use it yet but I think orange. So I knew I needed to find something else and I turned to the interwebs for inspiration. A quick search on Wyverns and a brief scroll through the images and I had my colors.


I decided to go with brown-yellow underbelly and purple scales. i think these two color choices will help the model standout against the green/brown/grey of the rest of the army. He are the two pictures that inspired me.

This is the purple I am going for only slightly darker.

This is the brown-yellow that I am aiming for.

Fantastic Settings

Still working on my Warmaster figures and not really enough progress to report anything as of today. I did however stumble across a website while looking for a paint scheme for the Wyvern I am currently painting. I was pretty impressed by the work especially in the Diorama section, so I thought I would share it with you. Without further ado... Fantasy Dioramas by McGhiever