I am going to start writing painting guides for my self.  This way I can remember exactly what I used to paint something when I go back to it at a future date.  So here is the first one:

Warmaster Skeleton Painting Guide

Bone
Zandri Dust
Agrax Earthshade
Tyrant Skull dry

Weapon Handels
Petroleum Gray
Petroleum Gray + Birch
Nulin Oil

Blades
Black Metal
Trash Metal
Agrax Earthshade

Coffin Shields
Rhinox Hide
Orange Leather
Agrax Earthshade

Purple Shields
Naggaroth Night
Xereus Purple
Leviathan Purple

Stone
Graphene Gray
Mechanicus Grey
Adminitratum Grey
Khemri Brown

Rust
Rhinox Hide + Troll Slayer Orange + Orange Leather + baking soda

Base
Watered down Rhinox Hide
Balor Brown
Tyrant Skull dry

Kevin

2017 Hobby in Review

Another year has gone by.  It was a very productive year (personally as well as hobby-wise).  I did more painting, gaming and blogging than the previous year.  At the beginning of 2017 I took part in the friendly Lords of War Hobby Challenge.  I made a goal to paint 75 models by the end of the year.  This morning I put the finishing touches on model 80-82.   Here are entries 64-82 of my hobby challenge; 4 units of Warmaster Dire Wolves (Actually wargs from Battle of Five Armies), a unit of Warmaster Skeletons, a Warmaster Necromancer, and three pieces of the old Forge World modular Warmaster castle. 

I painted the necromancer like an evil Gandalf.  It seemed fitting for this to be the last model I painted in 2017 since the Battle of Five Armies Gandalf and Frodo model was my first.

 

While I hit my hobby model count, I did not complete all of the projects that I intended.  2.5 out of 5 is not terrible. Here was the original list:
-New Crew for Batman Miniature Game - Completed 2 - Brave and the Bold and Scarecrow's Militia
-Team for The DC Universe Game (Justice League) - Completed 2 - Justice League 60+ levels and Suicide Squad
-Blood Angel Stormtalon (I have been converting this model for years, time to put some paint on it) - incomplete (in my defense I really don't want to paint red on a model this large without an airbrush!)
-1500pts of Undead for Age of Sigmar - incomplete - I made progress but only got about 750 finished 
-New Gang for Malifaux (Death Marshals or The Latigo Posse) - incomplete - not even attempted  

One of the things I was most proud of was this blog.  I wrote more post this year (40 entries) than any year previously (previous top was 28 in 2015).  The frequency of posts also improved, I made at least one entry every month. 

I started to share posts that featured Batman miniatures on the Arkham City Limits group.  Because of this people from around the world read the blog (Germany, UK, Spain, Australia).  I really like that the BMG community is truly worldwide.

The top three most views posts where:
1) Wayne Financial 
2) Arkham Guard Reporting for Duty
3) the DCU WAR Recap event at Lord of War

Here are a few of my favorite models/events/projects from this year:

 

 

 

 

I am looking forward to continuing this in the new year.  I will be partaking in the Lords of War Hobby Challenge 2018.  Not sure what my goal and projects will be, but I have a day to figure it out!  I hope you all will continue to accompany me through next year's hobby adventures! 

Kevin

Hey Lou, get the bean bag gun

It took a while but I finally finished the final Arkahm Guard.  This was one of those models where I was just not happy with how it was turning out from the beginning.  So I ended up putting it aside for a few weeks.  When I finally picked up a brush again it only took a few hours to touch up and finish off. 

This guard has done fairly average in the two games that I have used him.  The stun damage riot gun is decent.  I do like that it has a good range and comes with 3 ammo.  He probably would have done better in both game if I had remembered that he (and all the other cops/guards I was using) had the "Arrest" rule.

All that is left to paint in my current Brave and the Bold crew is Nightwing.  I will be starting on this soon.  However I have been painting a lot of Batman minis this year, I may take a bit of a break over the next few weeks to work on some Warmaster and Battle of Five Army models. 

Kevin

Arkham Guard Reporting for Duty

I have been writing this blog for 5 years now.  That baffles me.  I started posting in an attempt to stay connected with the hobby community; to which I was feeling estranged at the time.  I had spent the previous two years focusing on college.  I was not able to hang out with my gaming friends due to my job and homework.  I was still painting models and terrain, but I was not really playing any games.  I thought that posting about what I was working on would helped me to reconnect with old friends (and new ones).

Now, half a decade later I am still writing (ok...there was a year that posts were very sporadic).  However my reasons for writing have changed.  I am now fairly involved at my local independent retailer.  I am part of the Lords of War Batman/DCU league and helped run a few events.  I have an online presence in a few hobby groups.  I am no longer writing to stay connected, I am connected.

I write now for posterity.  I write because I enjoy looking back on what I have completed.  I associate events in my life with projects that I was working on at that time.  For example, when I look back at the suicide squad that I painted last year.  I remember painting them at my desk that I moved into the back of my living room.  I moved my desk out there because we had a family member staying in our spare room for the holidays.  When I re-read those posts I remember hanging out with family in the living room, watching holiday movies.  For me it is not just the words but the feelings as well.

In the future when I look back to these last posts I will remember the first weeks home with my baby daughter.  I will remember sitting down to paint the Arkham Guards for a few minutes here and there while the baby ate or slept.  I will remember replaying Arkham City with the baby asleep on my chest.  I will remember the joy, love and debilitating sleep deprivation that this new phase brought.

So I continue now with the second member of the Arkham Guards.  I finished up the assault riffle guard over the last week.  I have never tried to paint a darker skin tone before, it turned out OK.  The base-coat that I used really did not go on well.  Any suggestions for how to paint darker skin?

I played a game last weekend and this model was spectacular.  The table was really set up for its advantage (the table was set up by a neutral third party).  He was on the highest piece of terrain with plenty of lights all around.  The unlimited range and 3 blood damage forced my opponent to think about this guy at all times.

Starfire was also very solid.  She put out a lot of blood damage early on, and could take a good number of hits due to her "Invulnerability".  The new Nightwing was good too.  He bat-wiffed in his first round of hand-to-hand combat, but his speed and ability to get around the board more then made up for it.     

There is another reason I write this blog, I enjoy writing it (...or maybe it is the whiskey I drink white I write it...).  One more Arkham Guard to go!


Kevin

Return to Arkham

I was really excited about the new resin models that came with second editions.  I really wanted every set!  In the end I went with the new Batman and Arkham Guards starter set and the Nightwing single.  The models are really nice.  I only had a problem with the assault rifle guard.  He had some really bad mold lines that I needed to file, fill with liquid green stuff, then file again. 

We are going to be starting a new campaign at Lords of Wargames and Hobbies this weekend.  I am going to play my Brave and the Bold crew, however with one alteration; no Batman.  I am using some cops and the three new Arkahm Guards.  The crew will be lead by the new Nightwing, with Starfire backing him up.  I got Starfire a little while ago and have not had a chance to try her out.  I do like the thematic feel of Nightwing and Starfire together. 

I was able to finish up one of the guards for the start of the campaign.  I am very happy how the blue uniforms turned out.  I am not overly satisfied with the vest.  I started with a grey base that I though was going to be much darker.  After some highlights it was far to bright, so I used some watered down black to bring it back down, but it just ended up washing the highlights out.  I will try something different for the next guard (then revisit this one). 

It felt good to get some paint on a model after taking a break for a few weeks, but it was the best break of my life.

Kevin

Wayne Financial

I finally finished up a project that had been sitting on my back burner for six months, the Suicide Squad buildings.  Now, I know what you are thinking; how did some pre-printed cardboard buildings take you so long to finish?  The answer may or may not surprise you, I don't like to do anything the  easy way.

When I first got my copy of the SS game I could not decide which of the building fronts I wanted to make.  One side was the rundown, graffiti-covered look.  While the other side was the clean uptown style.  So I built them without glue (which was surprisingly easy).  I figured I could flip it around if I wanted to.  However, as the buildings sat on my shelf the boards started to bow.

I tried to glue and reshape the pieces with no success.  I figured I could straighten the boards by reinforcing it with some foam-core.  It seemed like such a waste to destroy one side of the boards by gluing some foam to it.  Then an idea struck me.

I peeled one side of the boards off.  The card was still thick enough to build one set of the buildings.  Then I just cut it out and built it.  I then glued the peeled piece to a sheet of foam-core.   Then some cardboard to the sides to cover the seams and modified the roof to match my other scratch built buildings.  I made up some gargoyles to hide the holes where the roof supports used to be.  The last thing to mask was the balcony; for one I used a strip of balsa and for the other some spare quarter-round. 

All in all I was very happy with how it  turned out. I think I am going to go back and redo the roofs of the other two SS buildings to match. 

Kevin
 

DCU WAR recap and BMG v2 First Game

The Justice League WAR event at Lords of War Games and Hobbies last Sunday was a blast.  We had a solid turn out.  6 players playing the Justice League (Superman, Flash, Swamp Thing, Bat-Mite, Rebirth Batman, Aquaman, Hawkgirl, Suicide Squad Harley, Starfire and Wonder Woman on a Warhourse).  3 Players stood against them fielding Darkseid and Zod and about 26 Parademons!   The game went back and forth, with Darkseid dominating most of the table for the first 3 turns.  However in the end the Justice League pulled off a late game upset (thanks to White Lantern Wonder Woman) and achieved victory.  Notable Moments:  Every time Superman or Swamp Thing threw a non-winged parademon onto a roof, forcing them to jump back down, only to be thrown back up next turn.  Wonder Woman holding 1/3 of the table alone then coming back to life in the final round to clear out a group a parademons.  Aquaman fighting against Zod and about 10 parademons and surviving for like 3 rounds! and Zod not able to hit, shoot or grab Batman...ever...

I was a little worried about the scenario I wrote up going into the event.  I have done wacky scenario mega battles back in my GW hay-day.  However I wanted this one to be different.  Instead of a big exciting game to keep a group of kids entertained, I wanted a big exciting game to keep a group of grown up kids (me included) entertained...and still be fair and use the rules.  In an old GW megabattle it was very common place for me to favor one side over the other (it really depended on which kid was getting on my nerves).  For the WAR event I wanted both teams to have an equal chance at winning and to not have one side win because rules were changed.

I was especially worried about the Power Crystal tokens I made up.  To keep the game interesting I added 2 tokens each turn randomly on the table that players could grab.  They then got dealt a Power Crystal card.  It would either be a bonus for the player or a trap.  I tried to keep most of the cards fairly balanced by just using different abilities that were already in the game (like giving a player Heavy Batarmour, or the Fly ability).  I did make some more powerful cards too (activate a model twice in a single turn, return a model back to life that died earlier and heal/hurt an objective etc).  It worked out well that both teams got an equal amount of the powerful cards.   

There was a lot of excitement and strategy discussion around the table.  It looked like everyone had a lot of fun!  And to show that I was not biased for the JLA side, I was the first (and only) player to have every one of my models killed!  If anyone is interested in the scenario, let me know and I would be happy to post it.  

A few days later, I was able to get in my first game of the new Batman Miniatures game Version 2.0.  I am very happy with it.  The movement was simplified and the game moved very quickly.  I had Batfleck in combat first turn!  The new sewers are great (we actually used them for once).  The change to the batclaw was the biggest adjustment for me.  I know a lot of people are complaining that it can only be used every other round, but I kinda like it.  I had to be a lot more strategic with Batgirl.  I did not just want to batclaw into combat with no way to make a speedy retreat when it goes south (and with my rolling, it always does). 

I wanted to try out some of the new objectives too, the Fire Drum and the Ace Chemicals.  While they appear to be good, they were not the greatest for my crew.  Due to them being placed in no
man's land, Chris was able to get some early victory points from them and I just could not catch up.  Batfleck did punch a lot of heads though.  Looking forward to round two!

Kevin         

Teen Titans and WAR!

It has been a Batman-heavy few weeks.  There has been a lot of buzz about  BMG 2.0 and the new resin models.  I was getting really pumped to play both the new edition and the DCU!  I recently picked up the Teen Titans repack.  I really wanted Starfire and Cyborg for both games (and having a Kid Flash around is not a bad idea).

I have been finding that Superman in the DCU tends to be a lightning rod.  It is a lot of levels (at 18!).  I was also finding that I was having better success playing with my Suicide Squad team.  I like the play style of lots of lower level characters compared to a few high level ones.  So my plan is to drop the boy scout and put in Starfire and Cyborg for the same level cost.  

In the DCU Starfire can deal a lot of damage.  She can set off a 4 inch explosion each turn and has an impressive attack 8 attribute. I painted up Starfire first in anticipation for the Justice League War event at the Lords of War this weekend. Starfire is very top heavy (I am not making a joke about her anatomy) and kept tipping over.  I added some fishing weights to the base and camouflaged them with some smoke.

Also for the War event I painted up a Parademon to add to Darkseid's endless swarm!  I have only played against these guys once and they were pretty good.  They have a low level cost and don't die very quick.  Then when you do get them close to dying, they self destruct in your face.  It will be interesting to play against a never-ending wave of them this Sunday.

I also got some scatter terrain painted up.  I took the barrels from the Warhammer Empire cannon and filled with with realistic water.  I also painted up some oil drum garbage/recycling cans.

I found a cool youtube video that teaches you how to make mini garbage bags out of real garbage bags.  Super easy to make and they look awesome.  I made about 15 in an hour.

I am working on some objectives for the DCU event this weekend.  I got some Mother Boxes and Crystal Power tokens to paint up!  The clock is ticking...

 Kevin

It is All Fun and Games Until...

I added another booth to the midway on my dilapidated circus table this week.  I used the same dimensions as the last one, but changed the size and shape of the window.  This booth was a classic staple of any carnival game area; the ring toss game.  I think another 2 booths and the midway will be done.

The one thing that this table is missing right now is height.  Most of the buildings are only around 3 inches tall or smaller.  I think I am going to add a Haunted Mansion amusement park ride next to offer some different levels.  

Kevin