Dave wrote:Good to see your'e still 'plugging away' at these guys, any chances of getting an army shot at some stage. We keep getting lots of individual models but ulitimately it's unit an army look that will give it the overall feel.

I keep meaning to do some army shots but it's just the time it takes to get everything out and set up for the shot which isn't easy to come by, especially with the little one around.

It also doesn't help that my lounge doesn't get terribly good light most of the time I'm around in order to take the photos. I can just about get away with it for single models as I can put them where they can get a lot of natural light and supplement with lamps and then sort out the white balance of the photo later. For army shots it's a lot trickier to find the space to set up - there's really only my gaming table I can set up on but that takes up most free space in the lounge.

If we get some good weather one weekend in Leicester I'll see if I can take some time to set the table up outside and put everything currently in progress out, although that means I'll need to remember to bring the Spearmen home from work.


On a gaming note, having decided I wasn't going to have the cash spare to go to any more tournaments this year, I'm currently considering going to either No Holes Barred or Tempest 8 in November (although I might put some thought into the East Midlands Super Brawl as well). Currently leaning towards No Holes Barred as it's closer and so should cost me less to get to and falls on a weekend when the missus isn't working so there's no issue about her needing the car.

Of course, it would have helped to have had an inkling that I might want to go to another tournament before I, thinking I wasn't going to need them for a while as my current club list is three units of Archers (albeit the back ranks of two of them being made up of Spearmen), ripped the shields off my Spearmen as I'm not sure if I can get the Spearmen painted to the standard I'm aiming for and the shields stuck back on in time. (I did actually email Will Goodwin about that and he said I should be ok bringing them without shields as long as they are otherwise painted).

So, just a quick update.

Despite having a week off work for my and my daughter's birthdays I didn't manage to find any time for painting (or doing the promised army shots). Fortunately I've arrange to borrow some models for No Holes Barred so I can run the list I've been using the past month or so. Unfortunately I noticed at the club the other night that my BSB's banner is breaking so I need to come up with a fix. Not sure if it's through general contact or because I've still got things that are loose in my army box (having not had time to sort out the division of it I'd planned to)

And yet another update...

So, my plans to go to No Holes Barred were scuppered by the incompetence of the car dealership I'd arranged a test drive with. (To cut a long story short, they couldn't find the keys to the car and I wasted a weekend of car hunting which means I'm now picking up my new car, from a different dealer, this weekend rather than going to the tournament).

Anyway... Unfortunately I haven't had a chance to the do the army shots and doesn't look like I'll get a chance to until the clocks go forward (unless I can put up with crappy indoor lighting for the photos, although it still means having to sort out something to display the army on).

Painting-wise I'm still plugging away on the Spearmen I've been working on. At home I've been working on cleaning up models ready for undercoating and had been planning to do some more work on my scenery but I haven't seen my hobby clamp since we tidied up the lounge for my daughter's birthday party, which is annoying.

Hi folks, back with what is likely to be my last update before Christmas.

At risk of sounding like the Bear from Point Hammered, I'm still plugging away on my Spearmen. Currently I'm working on the armour plates and helmets of the models. I've gone round and touched up any areas that need it with some Chainmail and then applied Badab Black wash, with a top up of Chainmail where required, to emphasise some of the details.

You can hopefully see the difference in the image below.



On the left is a spearman before the wash is applied, on the right a spearman after the wash and touch-up have been done. What probably does need to be pointed out is that the shading with the wash seems to stand out a lot more in this photo than it does when viewing the models side by side at arms length (although I think I may have picked up a better example that shows the shading off to best effect).

Today I did do a brief trial of adding some additional highlighting with Mithril Silver but I could barely tell the difference unless the model was about eight or nine inches away so for the moment I've gone back to the hair to apply the final layer to that.

In other hobby activity, at home I've gone back to cleaning up models as I can't seem to find time to set up the shed to undercoat all the Sword Masters I've got ready to go. I'm being somewhat hindered by the fact that I still can't find my hobby vice after I misplaced it after we tidied up the lounge a couple of months back to the point that I'm really going to have to go and buy another one as not having it is delaying both further work on my scenery (as I need it to clamp in place some brass rod I need to cut so I can pin bits of my Dreadstone Blight) as well as for drilling and pinning models (as I have some Sword Master command models I need to convert to rank and file).

Just to add to the mountain of stuff I've got that needs painting, on impulse I bought the Banebeasts Chimaera when it was half price during Maelstrom's fire sale. I suspect it's going to spend a long time in the box un-assembled and un-painted until I feel up to the job, although it looks like assembling it might be a challenge in itself (wondered what the heck one of the bits in the box was when it arrived until I realised it was the claws for the beast). Suspect that this might actually end up being sold on or I might scrounge up the cash to get it painted at some point.

Hi folks,

A quick Christmas/New Years treat for you, a couple of photos of the unit as it is at the moment.

First up in two long ranks



And now next in a five wide formation.



I'm reasonably happy with how these guys are looking now. Aside from needing a bit of tidying up there's just the bases and shields to do and a set of command needed.

While I've not got any painting done at home over the Christmas period I have clipped out the two units of White Lions the missus git me for Christmas, as well as carrying on with cleaning up the Dragon Princes I bought awhile ago and haven't gotten around to building yet (apart from the musician who went in with some metal DPs when I was running them).

Hi folks,

Well it's a new year and, for the moment at least, I seem to have found a new enthusiasm for getting my painting done. (Or perhaps its because I actually need to get it done so I can take the lists I want to take to any tournaments I get to go to this year).

Progress so far in 2013? I've now got the Spearmen's shields done about as far as I think they're going to be done. With them out of the way I'm now trying to paint up some Archers and Sword Masters to fill out what I'm currently running in my army list. (In actual fact the Sword Masters will probably be dropped for White Lions at some point but at the moment my new White Lions are still in pieces waiting to be cleaned up before assembly and undercoating while I'd already got the Sword Masters cleaned up and being mono-pose they don't require any assembly).

So, last Sunday I undercoated this lot.



Unfortunately, it wasn't until I got to work on Monday that I realised that the Archers who I'd performed a re-positioning of the bow arm on I'd forgotten to green stuff to smooth over the gaps created (obviously it would have helped if I'd managed to cut the arms off closer to the end) so I haven't yet been able to get the cloth base coat on (I've only found time to green stuff them tonight). As the plastic Sword Masters are replacing metals I've so far been concentrating on the Archers since at present I'm proxying spare Spearmen to make up my units.

Aside from the painting I've also received my new modelling "toy", a multi position vice to replace my hobby vice which I've still not found since it went missing in the pre-Christmas tidy-up

Like it!

Got a real oldschool look to it and glad you have re found your enthusiasm!

D

I wouldn't necessarily say I've re-found my enthusiasm in hindsight, more that I started the year more determined to get stuff done.

Unfortunately I've had a lot of stuff to do in the evenings lately so last week was the first time for a few weeks that I've managed to get anything done (in this case just some more cleaning up of models).

At the moment, despite the fact I think High Elves really need a new book at the moment, I'm kind of hoping the rumours of a new HE book in April or May are wrong as I'm a bit skint at the moment (phone upgrade time, birthdays and anniversaries, plus tournament tickets to pay for coming up) so I probably wouldn't be able to buy the book as soon as it came out, never mind buying whatever the monstrous unit is that HE end up getting

I'm getting more and more tempted to do a HE army myself. Gotta churn out some Brets first, but after them I'm not committed to anything yet.

If I do HE it'll be a bunch of these same oldschool models too as I've got them from back when I played HE in 4th Ed.

Don't expect this to become a regular thing but, as it's been about a month since I last posted some pics, here are some pictures to show the current state of the models I'm' working on at the moment.

Group shot of the models



The eagle-eyed among you may notice that there's a few more archers there than in January. That's because I forgot to take some that had been undercoated earlier out of the box they were in (well, actually I forgot they'd been done and then found them while looking for something else).

At present they've all had a base layer of grey where I'm going to be applying a lighter colour over the top and a couple of layers of blue for the cloth. The Sword Masters have also had shade and highlight on the light blue cloth and a shade on the dark blue. Most of the models have also had a layer of Tallarn Flesh.


Group of Archers





Group of Sword Masters




Close up Sword Master



You might just be able to make out the highlighting on the cloth on this. It seems to show up better in this photo than it does in real life, especially at arms length range.

Anyway, at the moment the plan is to get all the cloth done on the Sword Masters and then go back to the cloth on the Archers, although when I find time to paint at home I'm going to try and get more done on the faces if I can.