Ev's Challenge - The Saga Continues

Day 49 of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, and we're past the halfway point.

I'm just past the halfway mark on my own 500 point target as well, so all going according to plan, I might just squeak through...

So what have I done since the last update? Let's take a look!

The brutish Manticore, a staple of the medieval bestiary - a Reaper Bones figure which will give any band of adventurers pause.

A Reaper Bones 'Avatar of Resilience', a humanoid rhino, now repurposed as a Broo with the addition of goat horns and weeping sores. Broos are the chaotic bringers of disease in Greg Stafford's world of Glorantha, the setting of the wonderful RPG RuneQuest.

The Durinhold Tectonics, a Blood Bowl Sevens team yet to make it to the top-flight leagues. But they're a plucky lot and will undoubtedly get some reinforcements soon! These were old Blood Bowl figs from the 1990's, so the basing scheme was an homage to the Oldhammer Era. A moment of silence, please, as we remember Citadel Goblin Green, the most popular basing colour of the good old days... (sniff)

Next up is a Deep Cuts Medium Fire Elemental from WizKids, a transparent plastic cast which was finished in yellow and red inks to preserve its translucent quality. I drybrushed the tips of the flames with black to suggest a smoky fire, and picked out a few areas in opaque yellows to keep it interesting. Quite pleased with the final effect, but don't ask about the water elemental I've been working on - that's proving to be a tricky one!

Three Bugbears, more Reaper Bones sculpts, and a lot of fun to paint. Lots of textures to keep the painter busy, and a unified colour palette really tied the group together, man.

Lastly, an entry for the 'Mercenary' bonus theme round. A Citadel Miniatures Ogre Maneater from the 2000's, he's been languishing on the north face of my Lead Mountain (which is situated in the Garage of Shame) for a good many years now.

He's actually made of metal - fancy that! Old metal Ogres appear to be undergoing a bit of a renaissance this round, with my blolleague, the estimable Mr Mills, submitting a corker of an entry. Call me old-fashioned, but you can't beat the satisfying heft of a large chunk of metal on the tabletop!

That's all for now, more updates to come!

Stay tuned...

Ev

Send Reinforcements!

It's been a while since I did anything Ogre-related, so I've decided to get motivated again and bring the big oafs (oafs? oaves? whatever) up to playable level.

As it stands at present, I have around 1200 points, and with Ogres, that doesn't exactly give you a huge frontage. It's only 53 figures, and 40 of those are Gnoblars, for gods' sake! Big troops look pretty impressive until you realise their mighty horde occupies the space of a small tea tray.

What to do? Well, that mighty horde ain't gonna raise itself, so let's see what the latest building frenzy threw together. They all require painting and proper basing, but I figure that these pics will encourage me to take them to the next level.
Here's a bit of long-range missile capability. Four Leadbelchers, designed to rain mayhem and grapeshot upon their enemies. That's 220 points right there, at least in 7th edition.

More close-in hitting power now, with 7 Ogre Bulls, with light armour and two hand weapons, that's 344 points all up. They'll be good backup for the Tyrant or Butcher, plus I'll have a bit more flexibility on the tactical side.

And finally, some heavy hitters in the form of 3 more Ironguts, bulking the existing unit up to 7. They cost an extra 144 points, each one dealing out a hefty three S6 hits per turn. Getting these bad boys close enough to actually do the damage is another matter, since I dare say that they'll become ground zero for every missile weapon in the vicinity. Maybe it's time to trot out the giant to distract those tiresome gunners and bolt throwers...?

So we're up to just over 1900 points; and another big block of gnoblars would give me 2000 points on the table... and after the last traumatic episode, do I dare...? At least they're not going to worry the big lads when they cut and run.

I have to say that I'm pretty pleased at the prospect of fielding a playable army at long last, but I have to paint the figs first, and that may take a little longer! Stay tuned...

"At the Paint Pots of Madness" or "A Fig Too Far"

In the face of gentle encouragement from Millsy and Nugget (such encouragement taking the form of japes, wind-ups, and jocular jibes at my masculinity, parentage, and inability to complete a painting task within a specified timeframe), I set myself a task for the weekend. I publicly undertook to paint 40 Gnoblars for my Ogre Army.

What the hell was I thinking?

I'd been delaying the inevitable, I'd done the building, basing, and undercoating, but I had gotten no further than painting the skin of these little monsters. They sat in their box, taunting me with their incomplete status, their gargoyle grins mocking me, their undercoated bodies showing the flat, dead-black tone of the truly accursed miniature - the project which knows no end!

I began Sunday morning around 10am. Six hours later, a gibbering human wreck was found at the kitchen bench, tearfully begging his wife to count the small goblinoids again, just to be sure that there were actually 40 completed.

Batch painting 40 figs is not a task for the faint-hearted, especially if you've only ever painted 20 at a time before. I'd certainly never attempted it on this scale. I'm not a Stakhanovite like Millsy. Gnoblars are much smaller than 28mm humans as well, meaning a lot of close-in work would be needed.

I forged ahead, setting up something of a production line for the little green men, forgetting breakfast and lunch, and refusing any nourishment other than black coffee. In retrospect, this may have been a mistake, and would go some way to explain my frazzled nerves when it was all over. That and forgetting to block in a key area and having to go back several figures to ensure completion... it happened more often than I would like to admit, so the production line was not as well-coordinated as would have liked.

For better or worse, here's the result;

That's the speed hump/distraction/meat shield of the Ogre Army, and at two points per figure, I'd better have 20 more completed before too long. Not just yet, is all I ask!

It's big figs for me again for the foreseeable. There's a Maneater to assemble, and the core units like Bulls and Ironguts could use some bulking up. And it might be nice to have some ranged capability beyond the Gnoblars' barrage of rock, bottles, and small animals, so the Leadbelchers could fill the vacant Special slot.

Just not for another couple of weeks, I beg you...

Confessions of a Myopic Procrastinator, Part the Third

It's done!

There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth during the building, but all's well that ends well.



As you can see, the Gorger is all painted and based up now, and I think he's turned out OK, all things considered. Given his muscular definition, and the fact that he's a subterranean monster, I've tried for a high-contrast sallow-skinned look, with purplish shading and a sickly yellow tinge to the highlights.

In recognition of his vague resemblance to a certain star of 70's metal bands and reality television, I couldn't resist adding a little something to the base, viz, a decapitated bat. Here it is clutched in his right hand...


....and here's the bit he spat out.



So Ozzy's done and dusted - at long last!

So let's review the army so far;

• Tyrant
• Butcher
• 6 Bulls
• 4 Ironguts
• and the Gorger.

I think we have enough characters for the moment, and I'm getting a bit sick of mucking about with metal, so let's have a change of pace.

A bunch of the little guys, a unit of Gnoblars, is next up. It'll do me good to see another regiment through to completion, so I'll make a start on the 40 or so of these I have stashed away. Although they're crap at fighting, get enough of them and they act as a sort of speed hump (or at least a rucked-up green carpet) for any more mobile enemies that might want to cause problems for the big lads. If they get steamrollered, who cares?

More later.

Confessions of a Myopic Procrastinator, Part 2.5 - Gorger in Progress

The Gorger proceeds apace, and what an ugly chap he is.

I'm actually feeling more optimistic, and have even given a little thought to dressing him up still further. Basic skin work is done, face roughed out, and assorted bones found and browned as a basecoat.

Here's the story so far;







I decided to give the right thumb a tweak so that he could clutch something in his hand, and I've added something to the base as well. What is it? Ah, that would be telling!

More later.

Confessions of a Myopic Procrastinator, Part the Second: The Gorger

This has been one of the most difficult builds I've ever done. I said last time that this could take a while.

I chose to make the Gorger because he was of a manageable size, and filled a potentially useful slot in the potential Ogre Kingdoms army list. It was either him or the Slavegiant for the rare slot, and I have some big plans for the big guy; but he stayed in the box, and I went with the Gorger instead.

I realise now that "manageable size" does not necessarily mean "manageable". While struggling to drill, pin, cut, fill, and base this monstrosity, I couldn't help paraphrasing Obi-Wan Kenobi, muttering to myself in Alec Guinness-like tones, "He's more green stuff than metal now..."

I finally ground out the torso socket so that the lower half could fit, pinned the join, and ended up with a highly visible seam. It also turned out that top and bottom didn't exactly line up, so lots more cutting, and green stuff, and discreet sculpting of the musculature later, I went on to attach the left arm.

The pose on the model as bought seems curiously stiff, operating in two rather than three dimensions. I decided to try and impart more of a sense of movement by cutting into the elbow and bending the forearm forward and to the model's right. I was quite pleased with the result. This was fortunate, since, as it turned out, it only got harder from here.

OK, let's attach the head; again, pinning to secure the rather pointless ball-and-socket arrangement thoughtfully provided by Citadel's finest. Oh, joy, a seam running right behind the start of his hairline. OK, green stuff, do your... green stuff stuff. I model some straggling hair over the offending joins, but wherever I look, there seem to be more defects to cover. Keep piling it on! Practical upshot, while the joins are now concealed, he's looking more like Ozzy Osbourne by the minute. "Sharon, 'ave you seen my bat...?"

Only the right arm remains to be attached... Bugger it, it won't fit, his right knee is in the way! More cutting, pinning, repositioning, gluing and puttying, and I end up with the Gorger's right hand at a lower level than his right foot. How the f....? When the putty finally hardens, some serious filing will be in order. I like a challenge, but this is ridiculous.

As luck would have it, well-known army painting machine Millsy has published on the topic of basing, so he can back me up on this when I say that a dramatic base can rescue even the wonkiest figure! Now, I know that if I place the Gorger on something elevated, at least the hand can hang over the edge. "Oh yes, I was going for that look the whole time..."

Unlike most of GW's large metal castings, the model lacks the usual peg on the foot to stick him into the base. With a model of this size, this is a recipe for disaster, doubly so given that he's rather top-heavy. So drill and pin the feet, and create a pair of platform clogs out of green stuff to raise him above the base so we can build some rocks around him. The pins stick out of the base of his 'platforms' so that they can be secured to the base.

Now for the rocks. The weather is hot and humid, and the superglue is more like water than an adhesive. I'm sticking my fingers together more often than not, but I eventually get the rocks arranged more or less to my liking. A bit of sand and some decorative whimsy, and he's finally assembled.

So after an hour or so of painstaking basing, he's standing on a rocky outcrop, about to leap upon his prey. Except he looks more like he's lurching up drunkenly after the landlord has called last orders ("Mine's a pint of the black stuff!").








OK, I've seen worse, but a commercially-available figure with this many major gaps and basic lapses in quality control is pretty shabby. Yes, I know that the poor workman blames his tools, but I'm convinced that only an extremely confident modeller (one much more confident than myself) would be able to rescue this from mediocrity. Don't get me wrong, the concept is good, it just seems to have failed in the manufacturing process somewhere. By comparison, the Ogre Maneater figure (the piratey one, also on the to-do list) is cleanly moulded and all the bits fit where they should in the dry run. It's not like Citadel can't produce a decent casting.

I've done all I can with the modelling and basing, perhaps the paint job can give it a lift.

Maybe I'll give him a rest and go back to putting the finishing touches on Briss the Butcher. I'm not that happy with Ozzy right now, so perhaps stepping away for a bit is the best solution. Still, I'm actually building and painting stuff for the first time in ages, so that's got to be a positive!

Confessions of a Myopic Procrastinator, Part the First

I'm not what you'd call an efficient painter of figures.

I never seem to have enough time to paint an army to completion these days, and as a result, I have a lot of half-completed armies lying around. The last army I completed was a Warhammer Empire army back in 2000 (now lost), and since then I've accumulated figures for various others without really settling on one particular target.

I'm too easily distracted, and by the time I get home from work, my energy levels are just about up to cooking dinner and sitting back with a good documentary or movie. And now I'm all out of excuses.

A few years back, I chanced upon the GW Ogre Kingdoms figs. I thought they're nice big figures, suitable for painting by a chap with failing eyesight, they're mostly plastics, so the price is kept down, and if by chance I ever get to play with them, I won't need a horde to make an army. Genius!

I began my army and got as far as a Tyrant, a couple of regiments of the big lads (6 and 4 figs respectively) and got started on some Gnoblars, whose tiny size meant that I was stuck at that stage for quite a while.

Well, what with the eyesight having deteriorated to the point where even Ogres were getting to be a big ask, and getting married, taking an overseas honeymoon, and setting up a new house together at long last with my lovely wife, the whole army thing kind of moved to the back burner. And yes, well-spotted, more excuses right there.

So a couple of months ago, I decided to get some new glasses. Multifocals are a revelation; my close vision is restored, so no more holding books at arm's length! Even better, I might be able to get started on the army once more...

So that's where I am now. The army as it stood a couple of weeks ago consisted of a Tyrant (Army general and pretty much the ultimate multi-wound combat monster when tooled up properly), 6 Bulls (standard Ogre footsloggers), and 4 Ironguts (heavies with 2-handed weapons).








This motley crew has now been joined by an overnight wonder, the Butcher. I was going for a look of ground-in dirt and blood on this guy, and I finished him from undercoat to this point in the course of a day. Clearly revelling in my new-found vision, I even gave him a couple of Gnoblar assistants.

I think he needs a little more work, most notably on the exposed skin, to give it a bit more highlighting. Needs to look a little more unhealthy, perhaps? We'll see how that goes further down the track...

Next project, the Gorger, an unbreakable killing machine who arrives after the battle has kicked off to take the enemy in the rear (cue Frankie Howerd leer).

This one isn't as straightforward as the Butcher (and he certainly needed a lot of putty gap-wise). The Gorger has a lot of flash, and in some awkward places. It's nearly impossible to shift without a drill, since the socket for the upper torso is almost completely blocked. You get the same problem with the arms and head, so there's a lot of cleanup work required before he's ready for assembly. Pinning is definitely on the menu as well, since I don't trust the way he's put together.

I hope this isn't an ongoing problem with Citadel's metal miniatures; their plastics have been improving all the time, but I'd hate to think they've dropped the ball with the bigger multi-part metal castings.

I'm probably going to be a while with this one...