Bleaaaaargh!

Okay, the cold seems to have spread beyond the confines of the nursery and has infested the rest of the house, including my wife and I.

I feel terrible today.

But, with the mantra of 'I'm a Space Wolf, I'm a Space Wolf...' running through my head, I still managed to get a bit of painting done.

I'm still not 100% happy with Njal's base, but I think there's not much more I can do, really.  I think it should look quite nice when the Stormcaller is painted and mounted on it, although there may be a few final touches to add when he is...

Above is a photo of the almost-finished base, to which I added a touch more white (as well as some grey stippling) before tidying it up:

And of course, not forgetting the Nobz:

Now, all I managed to do on these in my snot-fuelled misery today was to apply the next wash, Devlan Mud.  According to my usual method for Orky armour, I should then paint on some glyphs before a bright highlight, dirtied-up afterwards with even more Devlan Mud.

However, I'm having to decide whether or not to do the glyphs (and the extra washing that would be involved), because the armour is starting to look very nice as it is - and there aren't as many flat areas to mark up as there are on the standard Boyz.

I'm sure I'll be posting all about my decision tomorrow, but until then, sleep (and Strepsils) are calling me...

Six Inches Deep...

Despite various illness-related distractions, I managed to get a respectable amount done last night.

I managed to get the first Badab Black wash onto my Nobz, and even with just this coat, I think they're going to look very nice indeed.

I've also sort of finished Njal's base - but (as I knew I would) I think I may have gone a bit bananas with the snow... At the moment it's quite deep - I never realised how fluffy it was.  It is in danger of looking a bit like the white mold you get on strawberries that have been languishing at the bottom of the fridge for too long.

However, I haven't taking into account the matte varnish that'll be sprayed onto the whole thing when Njal is finished, so I hope that should stodge it up a bit.

All-in-all, I'm looking forward to getting a bit more done tonight - and then hopefully I may get some pictures on tomorrow...

Snot Tonight, Dear.

I had an unforseen delay in my painting last night as my poor daughter has come down with (another) cold, so most of mine and my wife's evening was spent looking after her.  It was a case of going to bed early and cramming in as much sleep as we were able to before the inevitable mid-night wake-up calls.

We managed to do okay in the end, with only a couple of hours up each (well, less than that for me, possibly more for my wife...) but we're bracing ourselves for more of the same tonight, so maybe not too much hobby then either.

Still, I did manage to get a good deal done on Njal's base:

The red-brown areas that you see are Dark Flesh washed into the recesses.  At the moment, where it's spilled onto the edges of the cracks, it looks like I've tried to do some sort of blood effect, but I assure you it's not.  I'm going to put a thinned-down Badab Black or Devlan Mud wash over the Dark Flesh to make the cracks a little bit darker before tidying up the edges with a drybrush of Skull White and then a sprinkling of snow.

Up until the snow, I've followed the same technique as on the Games Workshop website for painting the stone on the Skaven Screaming Bell.  It seems to work quite well so far, but of course we'll have to wait for the finished item before passing judgment...

I also managed to start painting the five Ork Nobz from the Black Reach box (along with the big gunz on the two remaining Ork Boyz):

This stage is the one that I find the hardest on the metal bits, simply because they look very uninspiring to start off with.  But soon, after two washes of Badab Black, a Devlan Mud wash, some black-and-white glyphs, a deliberately very rough edge highlight of Chainmail, another two washes of Devlan Mud and finally a drybrush of Chainmail, they're going to look pretty good.

I think on the Nobz, I'm going to keep all of the washes slightly thinner than those of the Boyz because I reckon the Nobz will get their pick of the shiniest scrap to use for their armour.

Anyway, I'd love to muse more on these big buggers, but I can hear a little monkey coughing upstairs...

Battered, Bruised, But Technically Unbeaten...

Wow, it's was a great night of Blood Bowl last night.

The advertised match against the Ogre team (four Ogres and eight Snotlings, if I recall correctly) was great fun and I just about managed to cling to a 2-2 draw.  I took the lead fairly early on, but everytime I was ahead, I somehow let my advantage slip away, despite some hideously unlucky Bone-Head rolls on the part of the Ogres.

Still, it means that the Hackers remain unbeaten with the safe walls of the Bunker - it just seems to be when they play outside that the bigger boys come and steal their ball...

My opponent scored a moral victory however, pledging to kill one Elf for every touchdown they scored - and he did indeed kill two of the unfortunate tree-huggers.  I also would like to claim a small moral victory though, in that both of my Wardancers were still standing at the end of the match (although one had spent a long time lingering in the Knocked-Out box...).

All-in-all, a great game against a great opponent, and lots of lessons learned.

But the carnage didn't end there!

As my tired Wood Elves limped off the pitch, a brash young High Elf team stormed out and threw down a challenge.  We were tired, aching and in need of some bark tea by the fireside, but we have never turned down a match.

'Bring it on,' we cried!  'But gently, please.'

In the end, we won a storming 4-2 victory over the upstarts, but not without losing a couple more Elves along the way.  They were tougher than us, but slower, which helped a lot!  In the end, our fast, nimble, passing game won the day.

And now for that tea...

Blimey, He's a Big Boy...

A bit of a quiet hobby night last night to celebrate the finishing of the Ork Boyz.

I managed to get Njal's base undercoated and basecoated Charadon Granite.  Tomorrow I hope to complete the three or four layers of drybrushing recommended by the 'Eavy Metal team before I have a go at snowing the base.  I think a very small bit at a time as I don't want my Rune Priest looking like the groom on a wedding cake.

I also managed to assemble the five Ork Nobz from the Black Reach box and fit the heavy guns and backpacks to the two remaining Ork Boyz (who are completely painted apart from said guns, backpacks and heads).

As you can tell, I'm very much up for painting the rest of the Ork force before doing any more Blood Bowl miniatures.

Hopefully I should be able to fit in some work on my Space Wolves while I'm waiting for various bits and pieces to dry on the Orks - It'll definitely be handy to spend a while on Njal, instead of trying to rush him in a couple of days.

Despite all this, no painting tonight as The Green Glade Hackers have a game at the Chelmsford Bunker against an Ogre team.

I'm  very much looking forward to playing them, as I've never seen them in action before.  I really know very little about Ogre teams, but I'm imagining three or four Ogres and then about a hundred Snotlings.  Looking at the skills, Snotlings look even 'Dodge-ier' (see what I did there?) than I am.

I'll post the results and highlights as soon as I can.

Just stay away from the Ogres.  Stay away from the Ogres.  Stay away from the Ogres....

Dat'll Do, Squig.

Here come Da Boyz!!!

I've finally finished them (or abandoned them, depending on how you want to look at it)!

I think they've come out really well - or more importantly, as I want to sell them, I think they photograph really well.

So without further rambling, here they are:

Oh, and if anyone's interested... here's the base for Njal, which I should hopefully start painting tonight:

Good times!!

Best Laid Plans and All That

Hmm.

So, no Ork pictures yet.  I still need to do a good deal more rescue work on them.  The Badab Black wash was an improvement, but I think I need another much thicker coat to take the colours back down.

It's so frustrating because they looked great, and they will again, but it's just so much more work.  I'm really hoping I don't have to re-paint the metals and the blacks, because that'll take at least two or three days.

I'm fairly confident that another wash should solve the problem, although it may mean losing some of the chequered patterning that the Boyz have painted onto their blades and helmets.  Once that's done, another blast of Bestial Brown around the edge of the bases and no-one will ever know.

Unless they read this blog.

Oh yeah, no-one reads this blog.