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| History is important |
Showing posts with label Project Future Boys. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Project Future Boys. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
One Year Ago Today: A Look Back
For the life of me, I can't remember exactly what got me digging through my old archives to see what I was up to a year ago. I'm pretty sure it was the realization that I had started yet another army without having gotten 2000 points of the previous one done. I think a recent list from Stelek that got me thinking about my iron warriors may have been involved as well. Anyway, I came across this post from September 15th - of last year. This was back in the days of Iron Warriors and also back when significantly fewer people knew or gave a shit about Laubersheimer Industries.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Work in Progress: Project Future Boys
I've been yammering on about my Eldar army for about a year. So instead of oblique references, its time for some photographic evidence. I pulled out all the stuff I had done so far and took its first ever group photos.
But first, an interlude on macro-photography: Macro photography is extremely time consuming and, at times, difficult. There are very good reasons why many people just can't be bothered. In the far future once I've figured out my lighting situation (note to self: buy/construct light box), then I'll probably do more of it. But for today's show and tell, I went with good old fashioned regular flash photography and let Picassa sort it out.
The initial army list can be found here. Having done some playtesting I know that a third unit of Fire Dragons is in order and due to the re-release of the Fire Prism and my own interests, some Falcons will show up as well.
As far as the actual painting goes, its a bit weird for me. I went well out of my way to keep the paint scheme simple and easy to replicate. The goal was to get an army painted in a shorter amount of time (relatively speaking). Lots of line highlighting, no advanced techniques and a more cartooney vibe to the whole thing. Its been an interesting ride so far. Initially I was worried that the whole thing wouldn't be as rewarding as the various 'masterpeices" I chase after. The thrill of the challenge and all that. But now that I'm 3 vipers and 3 prisms away from being done, a nearly complete army has become totally worth the compromises.
Anywho, comment away. We all know that I love answering questions about my projects
But first, an interlude on macro-photography: Macro photography is extremely time consuming and, at times, difficult. There are very good reasons why many people just can't be bothered. In the far future once I've figured out my lighting situation (note to self: buy/construct light box), then I'll probably do more of it. But for today's show and tell, I went with good old fashioned regular flash photography and let Picassa sort it out.
Make sure you click on the pictures for the full size versions
The initial army list can be found here. Having done some playtesting I know that a third unit of Fire Dragons is in order and due to the re-release of the Fire Prism and my own interests, some Falcons will show up as well.
As far as the actual painting goes, its a bit weird for me. I went well out of my way to keep the paint scheme simple and easy to replicate. The goal was to get an army painted in a shorter amount of time (relatively speaking). Lots of line highlighting, no advanced techniques and a more cartooney vibe to the whole thing. Its been an interesting ride so far. Initially I was worried that the whole thing wouldn't be as rewarding as the various 'masterpeices" I chase after. The thrill of the challenge and all that. But now that I'm 3 vipers and 3 prisms away from being done, a nearly complete army has become totally worth the compromises.
Anywho, comment away. We all know that I love answering questions about my projects
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Da Lamentation of da Vimmin: Part 1 - Space Elves
Well, maybe things aren't that dramatic....
I think it's time to take a step back from all the positivity spewing out of my Blood Angels kick and get back to what the internet seems to have been created for - complaining.
Mostly I just want to whine a little about the new Fire Prism that's due out in June and then the 8th Edition Fantasy rumors preceding the July release (in another post).
First up, the Space Elves.
That Damnably Good Looking New Fire Prism Kit
I'm not actually all that whiny and mopey over the existence of the kit, its more the fact that my own sense of aesthetics wont let me consider the idea of not purchasing another 3 Fire Prism kits. The old ones, while solid, just don't hold a candle to the new one.
Oh, and there's the fact that the old metal Fire Prism parts are one of the most poorly conceived and executed kit ideas that GW has ever designed.
GW Designer #1: "look lads, now that we're finally getting around to making the Fire Prism kit, what can we do with the existing Falcon kit to make this is as easy peasy as possible?"
GW Designer #2: "Dunno, gov'nuh.... I'm a bit knackered from all that opium we smoked last night. "
GW Designer #3: "Oi! What about some kind of plastic upgrade spr-"
Opium Induced Hallucination: "Bollocks to that, ya prat! The flying base on that thing is extremely wibbly-wobbly. We should obviously build the heaviest and most ill fitting metal parts we can devise to make the best use of that feature of the Falcon. Plus, blokes love trying to glue metal parts to fragile plastic ones. Further, I never foresee a time when metal will be more expensive than it is now."
GW Designer #1: "Brilliant!"
GW Designer #2: "Indeed! Lets go over to Jervis' house to sniff glue and talk about switching paint manufacturers for no reason!"
GW Designer #3: "Is it okay if I huff spray paint instead? I have a meeting tomorrow about sustainable business practices and glue sniffing makes me all potty."
The Queen of England: "Verily!"
Thankfully, I haven't even assembled the things yet, so at least they wont be wasted as I can assemble them as Falcons. Which brings me to my next grumbling. Come June, I'm going to have an absolute mountain of Eldar to paint. Gah!
Up till now, I had managed to get 6 Wave Serpents and all but 10 of the foot models done. Not too bad - the end was in site. I only had 10 guardians, 3 Vypers and 3 Prisms to go. Not so much anymore. With the new Prism kit and my own list building experiments I can add 3 Falcon/Prisms, ANOTHER Wave Serpent and 10ish assorted foot models to the queue. Blech.
I'm sure a few of you out there know my pain.
I wouldn't be so sensitive to the Eldar Build up if it weren't for the pile of unfinished projects I've already got and the uncertain future of the mound of boxes for the Dino-horde.
So. Much. Plastic.
So, to sum up:
1. I am a whiner
2. The new Fire Prism is a much needed improvement
3. I have a lot of Eldar to paint
I think it's time to take a step back from all the positivity spewing out of my Blood Angels kick and get back to what the internet seems to have been created for - complaining.
Mostly I just want to whine a little about the new Fire Prism that's due out in June and then the 8th Edition Fantasy rumors preceding the July release (in another post).
First up, the Space Elves.
That Damnably Good Looking New Fire Prism Kit
I'm not actually all that whiny and mopey over the existence of the kit, its more the fact that my own sense of aesthetics wont let me consider the idea of not purchasing another 3 Fire Prism kits. The old ones, while solid, just don't hold a candle to the new one.
Oh, and there's the fact that the old metal Fire Prism parts are one of the most poorly conceived and executed kit ideas that GW has ever designed.
GW Designer #1: "look lads, now that we're finally getting around to making the Fire Prism kit, what can we do with the existing Falcon kit to make this is as easy peasy as possible?"
GW Designer #2: "Dunno, gov'nuh.... I'm a bit knackered from all that opium we smoked last night. "
GW Designer #3: "Oi! What about some kind of plastic upgrade spr-"
Opium Induced Hallucination: "Bollocks to that, ya prat! The flying base on that thing is extremely wibbly-wobbly. We should obviously build the heaviest and most ill fitting metal parts we can devise to make the best use of that feature of the Falcon. Plus, blokes love trying to glue metal parts to fragile plastic ones. Further, I never foresee a time when metal will be more expensive than it is now."
GW Designer #1: "Brilliant!"
GW Designer #2: "Indeed! Lets go over to Jervis' house to sniff glue and talk about switching paint manufacturers for no reason!"
GW Designer #3: "Is it okay if I huff spray paint instead? I have a meeting tomorrow about sustainable business practices and glue sniffing makes me all potty."
The Queen of England: "Verily!"
Thankfully, I haven't even assembled the things yet, so at least they wont be wasted as I can assemble them as Falcons. Which brings me to my next grumbling. Come June, I'm going to have an absolute mountain of Eldar to paint. Gah!
Up till now, I had managed to get 6 Wave Serpents and all but 10 of the foot models done. Not too bad - the end was in site. I only had 10 guardians, 3 Vypers and 3 Prisms to go. Not so much anymore. With the new Prism kit and my own list building experiments I can add 3 Falcon/Prisms, ANOTHER Wave Serpent and 10ish assorted foot models to the queue. Blech.
I'm sure a few of you out there know my pain.
I wouldn't be so sensitive to the Eldar Build up if it weren't for the pile of unfinished projects I've already got and the uncertain future of the mound of boxes for the Dino-horde.
So. Much. Plastic.
So, to sum up:
1. I am a whiner
2. The new Fire Prism is a much needed improvement
3. I have a lot of Eldar to paint
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Field Testing
Using the power of THE INTERNET, I've managed to get in a couple of nearly-real games in with my Eldar.
DUNH DUNH DUNH!
That's right, actual play experience. Laubersheimer Industries has moved on from strictly painting and other such 'soft score' stuff to actual gaming. High fives for everyone who's last name is Laubersheimer!
The VASSAL Engine
My buddy, Colin, and I took our first steps into the seedy underworld that is Vassal 40k last week. Overall, a pretty good experience. Certainly not as good as an actual face-to-face game, but a good substitute when large distances of travel and incomplete models are involved.
Certainly a different game than real 5th edition 40k.
For those of you who don't know, Vassal 40k was a module for the VASSAL Engine that allowed you to play 40k over THE INTERNET using a very basic, sprite based interface. All of the dice interactions where also built into the program. All in all, a pretty neat little piece of tech.
Notice how I used the word 'was' up there? Vassal 40k got shut down some time ago by GW. Something about the module allowing you to play 40k while bypassing a crucial part of GW's business plan. You know, the part where you spend $400 dollars on the models required to play? The most recent version of the module is still at large on THE INTERNET - hidden in torrents and direct download sites by people who don't take cease and desist orders seriously. There was even an update for the new Tyranids created after the shutdown.
No, I'm not going to link you to any of this. But I will point out that I own every model I used in VASSAL.
As far as the actual game experience goes, its good, but not great. The interface itself is actually the main barrier for Play. This is mostly because all of the natural model movement and dice rolling you take for granted has to be done through VASSAL's GUI. There's a definite learning curve as you get used to all the quirks of 'simply' moving a squad of guys.
As far as the rules go, the only real issue is the complete inability to use the 5th edition true LOS rules. The map is a 2D top down kind of thing, so no "model's eye view". In my experience, there's a hefty amount of guesstimation and abstraction that needs to be done in order to determine LOS. Defining terrain takes on a higher level of importance as a result. In practice, 5th edition 40k plays more like 4th edition in this way. So, its really like four and a halfth edition.
I'd also strongly recommend some kind of VOIP program as well. Imagine playing a regular game of 40k with nothing but text messages. Sound fun? Of course not.
All in all, still a pretty solid experience. Not exactly a real game of 5th edition, but fun and educational anyways.
The Eldar Experience So Far
I've played two games using the list I've posted previously (in total or in part). One at 2000 points and one at 1750. The results have been pretty encouraging. Especially since I'm still, basically, a noob - seeing as how these were my first and 2nd fifth edition games that weren't ALSO Apocalypse games.
Both games were against Colin - one vs. his Chimera spam Guard (2k) and another vs. his MC deep striking Nids list (1750). It's very clear that there's still a lot for me to learn. As much as I've pored over the rules, implementing them is another matter. I missed a few rules ove the course of the two games - nothing game breaking, but important stuff to be aware of. The same is true with an army list - I can build lists all I want and read tactics on THE INTERNET til my eyes bleed, but making things happen in an actual game is a bit more involved. Someone who was real good at words wrote an article about this kinda thing. So there's a definite sensation of 'effort shock', I'm just not totally blindsided by it.
Game 1 vs. Imperial Guard
First off - I lost. Pretty badly actually - 4-0 on objectives. Actually it was a forfeit at 5 am after I was left with one unit of troops who needed to claim 3 objectives simultaneously to win the game. However, the game was still a very positive experience. While I got shut out on objectives, I didn't get whomped and playing a game with a total of 25 vehicles on the board was pretty great.
My main problem was lack of experience. I'd played Eldar exactly 0.12 times before this game and I was going up against my buddies go-to army for dropping off special deliveries of pain. Despite these harsh realities and some noob mistakes, I managed to still have half an army left. Mostly tanks. On the plus side, I did pull of a nearly textbook refused flank... and then promptly failed to capitalize on it.
My other mistakes were not being aggressive enough with my fire dragons, not concentrating fire enough and throwing away my precious Vypers on useless move blocking maneuvers. there was also a healthy dose of not staying in the damn transport (I got greedy) and bad target priority.
Also, I learned some important lessons on the limits of my armies speed and durability. Namely, the Wave Serpent gives me both of these things in spades, but they are not unstoppable killing machines. The AV10 ass needs to be covered and even if I moved flat out, a guard army can almost always throw enough firepower at something to ignore the 4+ (which is fucking crazy, by the way). Though being able to ignore terrain while moving and clearing the board in a turn is pretty freaking sweet.
Game 2 vs. Tyranids
I won! barely. This was really a close fought game for me and a pretty hefty part of the win was some good luck. The game ended at the first opportunity (turn 5?) with me holding the only objective. This was a bit better of a match up for me as Colin is still pretty new to his list and Tyranids in general. Plus, my army was kind of the nightmare match for him - faster and able to ignore much of his shooting. The deployment shenanigans I can pull thanks to the Autarch were a big help as well. Colin ended up dropping two mawlocks and a spore full of zoanthropes on an empty deployment zone.
The major thing I walked away from this game with was a healthy respect for close combat attacks against vehicles. Especially MC attacks. Yikes! Tyranid beasties being extremely hard to kill is a close second. In this game, it was nice to be on the other side of someone being greedy and it costing them - it would have been a draw except for the tervigon on Colin's objective leaving it to chase a Wave Serpent. I think if the game had gone on longer, it would have eventually shifted in the favor of the bugs. Tervigons with FNP up are super hard to kill and there was still the matter of an unhurt mawlock running around.
Early Conclusions
Two games in and I'm really diggin' the Eldar. Colin says the army is very frustrating to play against - its fast, it fucks with high power shooting and I can screw over deepstrike strategies. All good things for my play style. Not to give people the impression that I'm an asshole or anything, but any army that's full of dick moves and fucks with people's heads is my kind of army.
The list itself seems pretty solid to, so a big thanks to Stelek for coming up with this gem. 40k is much more fun to learn for me when I don't have to worry about how shitty an army I have. Which is something that killed my interest in 4ok temporarily back in 4th edition. I had this super shit battleforce army that was making things harder for me than they needed to be while learning a new game system. It also didn't help that it was a Dark Angels army. Just an overall awful experience.
At this point, I need two things: more practice and to be finished painting everything. Both are things that will come with time as long as I stick with it. Not to bad an outlook really.
As I play more games I'll post more thoughts. Maybe even some battle reports. Woah!
DUNH DUNH DUNH!
That's right, actual play experience. Laubersheimer Industries has moved on from strictly painting and other such 'soft score' stuff to actual gaming. High fives for everyone who's last name is Laubersheimer!
The VASSAL Engine
My buddy, Colin, and I took our first steps into the seedy underworld that is Vassal 40k last week. Overall, a pretty good experience. Certainly not as good as an actual face-to-face game, but a good substitute when large distances of travel and incomplete models are involved.
Certainly a different game than real 5th edition 40k.
For those of you who don't know, Vassal 40k was a module for the VASSAL Engine that allowed you to play 40k over THE INTERNET using a very basic, sprite based interface. All of the dice interactions where also built into the program. All in all, a pretty neat little piece of tech.
Notice how I used the word 'was' up there? Vassal 40k got shut down some time ago by GW. Something about the module allowing you to play 40k while bypassing a crucial part of GW's business plan. You know, the part where you spend $400 dollars on the models required to play? The most recent version of the module is still at large on THE INTERNET - hidden in torrents and direct download sites by people who don't take cease and desist orders seriously. There was even an update for the new Tyranids created after the shutdown.
No, I'm not going to link you to any of this. But I will point out that I own every model I used in VASSAL.
As far as the actual game experience goes, its good, but not great. The interface itself is actually the main barrier for Play. This is mostly because all of the natural model movement and dice rolling you take for granted has to be done through VASSAL's GUI. There's a definite learning curve as you get used to all the quirks of 'simply' moving a squad of guys.
As far as the rules go, the only real issue is the complete inability to use the 5th edition true LOS rules. The map is a 2D top down kind of thing, so no "model's eye view". In my experience, there's a hefty amount of guesstimation and abstraction that needs to be done in order to determine LOS. Defining terrain takes on a higher level of importance as a result. In practice, 5th edition 40k plays more like 4th edition in this way. So, its really like four and a halfth edition.
I'd also strongly recommend some kind of VOIP program as well. Imagine playing a regular game of 40k with nothing but text messages. Sound fun? Of course not.
All in all, still a pretty solid experience. Not exactly a real game of 5th edition, but fun and educational anyways.
The Eldar Experience So Far
I've played two games using the list I've posted previously (in total or in part). One at 2000 points and one at 1750. The results have been pretty encouraging. Especially since I'm still, basically, a noob - seeing as how these were my first and 2nd fifth edition games that weren't ALSO Apocalypse games.
Both games were against Colin - one vs. his Chimera spam Guard (2k) and another vs. his MC deep striking Nids list (1750). It's very clear that there's still a lot for me to learn. As much as I've pored over the rules, implementing them is another matter. I missed a few rules ove the course of the two games - nothing game breaking, but important stuff to be aware of. The same is true with an army list - I can build lists all I want and read tactics on THE INTERNET til my eyes bleed, but making things happen in an actual game is a bit more involved. Someone who was real good at words wrote an article about this kinda thing. So there's a definite sensation of 'effort shock', I'm just not totally blindsided by it.
Game 1 vs. Imperial Guard
First off - I lost. Pretty badly actually - 4-0 on objectives. Actually it was a forfeit at 5 am after I was left with one unit of troops who needed to claim 3 objectives simultaneously to win the game. However, the game was still a very positive experience. While I got shut out on objectives, I didn't get whomped and playing a game with a total of 25 vehicles on the board was pretty great.
My main problem was lack of experience. I'd played Eldar exactly 0.12 times before this game and I was going up against my buddies go-to army for dropping off special deliveries of pain. Despite these harsh realities and some noob mistakes, I managed to still have half an army left. Mostly tanks. On the plus side, I did pull of a nearly textbook refused flank... and then promptly failed to capitalize on it.
My other mistakes were not being aggressive enough with my fire dragons, not concentrating fire enough and throwing away my precious Vypers on useless move blocking maneuvers. there was also a healthy dose of not staying in the damn transport (I got greedy) and bad target priority.
Also, I learned some important lessons on the limits of my armies speed and durability. Namely, the Wave Serpent gives me both of these things in spades, but they are not unstoppable killing machines. The AV10 ass needs to be covered and even if I moved flat out, a guard army can almost always throw enough firepower at something to ignore the 4+ (which is fucking crazy, by the way). Though being able to ignore terrain while moving and clearing the board in a turn is pretty freaking sweet.
Game 2 vs. Tyranids
I won! barely. This was really a close fought game for me and a pretty hefty part of the win was some good luck. The game ended at the first opportunity (turn 5?) with me holding the only objective. This was a bit better of a match up for me as Colin is still pretty new to his list and Tyranids in general. Plus, my army was kind of the nightmare match for him - faster and able to ignore much of his shooting. The deployment shenanigans I can pull thanks to the Autarch were a big help as well. Colin ended up dropping two mawlocks and a spore full of zoanthropes on an empty deployment zone.
The major thing I walked away from this game with was a healthy respect for close combat attacks against vehicles. Especially MC attacks. Yikes! Tyranid beasties being extremely hard to kill is a close second. In this game, it was nice to be on the other side of someone being greedy and it costing them - it would have been a draw except for the tervigon on Colin's objective leaving it to chase a Wave Serpent. I think if the game had gone on longer, it would have eventually shifted in the favor of the bugs. Tervigons with FNP up are super hard to kill and there was still the matter of an unhurt mawlock running around.
Early Conclusions
Two games in and I'm really diggin' the Eldar. Colin says the army is very frustrating to play against - its fast, it fucks with high power shooting and I can screw over deepstrike strategies. All good things for my play style. Not to give people the impression that I'm an asshole or anything, but any army that's full of dick moves and fucks with people's heads is my kind of army.
The list itself seems pretty solid to, so a big thanks to Stelek for coming up with this gem. 40k is much more fun to learn for me when I don't have to worry about how shitty an army I have. Which is something that killed my interest in 4ok temporarily back in 4th edition. I had this super shit battleforce army that was making things harder for me than they needed to be while learning a new game system. It also didn't help that it was a Dark Angels army. Just an overall awful experience.
At this point, I need two things: more practice and to be finished painting everything. Both are things that will come with time as long as I stick with it. Not to bad an outlook really.
As I play more games I'll post more thoughts. Maybe even some battle reports. Woah!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Projet Future Boys: the Autarch
Despite my painting related ADD, I'm still making progress on the Eldar army I started a back in Sept/Oct. Recently, as part of a painting challenge over on the Chamber Militant, I moved the Autarch ahead in the rotation. I may not have finished on time, but I think the results were worth the wait.
Note: be sure to click on the images to see full size versions. As you may be able to tell, I've also been practicing my macro photography as well.
Lots of stuff going on with this guy. Most of it dealing with new techniques (for me at least). I tired out some non metallic metal (NMM), object source lighting (OSL) as well as a new recipe for white I found. All things I've either never done before or avoided. I've always wanted to try some of this stuff, but had never given myself an opportunity - mostly because I'm always working on armies (aka large batches of stuff) and often under some fairly rigid, self-imposed style guides. Either I was aiming at consistency or these techniques simply take too damn long to do.
I figured this guy was the perfect model to try these new things on as I didn't have to worry much about the consistency of the appearance of the army. In an army of specialist unit types that all have their own color scheme, their aren't too many places to be consistent other than the tank schemes anyways. Plus, he's the only unique model in an army I'm not painting to a crazy high standard. I could basically do whatever I wanted and he'd fit in.
Overall, I'm very pleased with this guy. Probably my best work yet. Despite this, their are still a few things that bug me about the finished product - little details (many of them niggling) that I just couldn't get quite right*. But that's what happens when you spend so much time on a project and outside of your comfort zone. People are often their own worst critics.
Speaking of comfort zones...
[Teaching Moment] In my (current) opinion, there are two main things that are key to being a better painter - practice and trying new things. The later means stepping outside of your comfort zone. For brand spankin' new painters, EVERYTHING is outside of their comfort zone. As one gets better and more practiced, you have to go further to get outside of it. If you don't, you stagnate or hit a plateau. For me, this model was as much about getting outside of my comfort zone as it was about painting the best Autarch I could paint.
---[foot notes]---------------------------
*The nozzle of the fusion gun is the biggest thing that bugs me. I've looked at it and looked at it and had other people look at it. It's just off a bit. The current theory is that the Horizon line is off. I'm also not convinced on the blending either. THe OSL on the backpack turned out to be irrelevant since you can't see it. Oh well, a great learning experience and a great result in any case.
Note: be sure to click on the images to see full size versions. As you may be able to tell, I've also been practicing my macro photography as well.
Lots of stuff going on with this guy. Most of it dealing with new techniques (for me at least). I tired out some non metallic metal (NMM), object source lighting (OSL) as well as a new recipe for white I found. All things I've either never done before or avoided. I've always wanted to try some of this stuff, but had never given myself an opportunity - mostly because I'm always working on armies (aka large batches of stuff) and often under some fairly rigid, self-imposed style guides. Either I was aiming at consistency or these techniques simply take too damn long to do.
I figured this guy was the perfect model to try these new things on as I didn't have to worry much about the consistency of the appearance of the army. In an army of specialist unit types that all have their own color scheme, their aren't too many places to be consistent other than the tank schemes anyways. Plus, he's the only unique model in an army I'm not painting to a crazy high standard. I could basically do whatever I wanted and he'd fit in.
Overall, I'm very pleased with this guy. Probably my best work yet. Despite this, their are still a few things that bug me about the finished product - little details (many of them niggling) that I just couldn't get quite right*. But that's what happens when you spend so much time on a project and outside of your comfort zone. People are often their own worst critics.
Speaking of comfort zones...
[Teaching Moment] In my (current) opinion, there are two main things that are key to being a better painter - practice and trying new things. The later means stepping outside of your comfort zone. For brand spankin' new painters, EVERYTHING is outside of their comfort zone. As one gets better and more practiced, you have to go further to get outside of it. If you don't, you stagnate or hit a plateau. For me, this model was as much about getting outside of my comfort zone as it was about painting the best Autarch I could paint.
---[foot notes]---------------------------
*The nozzle of the fusion gun is the biggest thing that bugs me. I've looked at it and looked at it and had other people look at it. It's just off a bit. The current theory is that the Horizon line is off. I'm also not convinced on the blending either. THe OSL on the backpack turned out to be irrelevant since you can't see it. Oh well, a great learning experience and a great result in any case.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Quick Hits - Volume IV
My schedule has been a little weird lately and not at all conducive to writing about a visual medium. I normally work the night shift, but I've been pushed back to working til midnight for the duration of midterms in order to keep the place open a few extra hours.
I've got a lot of stuff I want to write about, but most of it needs pictures I haven't taken yet. As it stands, my schedule is arranged as such that pictures are taking a back seat to painting. With that in mind...
Some Quick Hits:
1) Project Future Boys is coming along nicely, though not at all as fast as I had hoped. Still speedy compared to my Iron Warriors. As it stands now, most of the purchasing is done and what I'm calling 'wave one' is complete. Wave two is coming along at a steady pace. I hope to do a few articles on the whole shebang once I get off my ass and take pictures.
Probably over-optimistic time line projection: can I get my army done by mid December? I hope so.
2) There's always a pretty constant stream of hate leveled at GW. Most of this is because GW is fairly consistent in implementing their "fuck you" model of customer service. Price hikes in a recession, 9 dollar an issue White dwarf and refusing to sell metal miniatures anywhere but the online store (at least shipping is free). In any case, there are two things that miraculously made it past the ghosts of the railroad robber barons who obviously make up the board of directors: The White Dwarf archives and the What's New Today column.
The White Dwarf articles are nothing new (announced some time ago). However, the What's New Today feature is something I'd like to give special mention to. Probably concieved of as a marketing ploy, there's actually a lot of really cool stuff that gets showcased in the 'column'. There are just a ton of neat conversion ideas, and pet projects from around the world in the various updates. Some of them are just fan-fucking-tastic. I can't recommend enough a thorough look at these articles.
3) Been playing a bit of Blood Bowl (the video game) lately. The more I play, the less convinced I am that I'm actually having fun. Dunno if I just don't 'get it' yet,if its the league structure, I just need to cool out or what, but things are often a lot more frustrating than fun. I'm halfway through the league with my pals, so we'll see how it goes and whether or not I can recover from losing a Chaos Warrior when I can't win more than 20-30k a game. In any case, I am getting to interact with my geographically distant friends more. This, if nothing else, is worth it.
That's all for now. Hopefully next week I can get some perty pictures taken.
I've got a lot of stuff I want to write about, but most of it needs pictures I haven't taken yet. As it stands, my schedule is arranged as such that pictures are taking a back seat to painting. With that in mind...
Some Quick Hits:
1) Project Future Boys is coming along nicely, though not at all as fast as I had hoped. Still speedy compared to my Iron Warriors. As it stands now, most of the purchasing is done and what I'm calling 'wave one' is complete. Wave two is coming along at a steady pace. I hope to do a few articles on the whole shebang once I get off my ass and take pictures.
Probably over-optimistic time line projection: can I get my army done by mid December? I hope so.
2) There's always a pretty constant stream of hate leveled at GW. Most of this is because GW is fairly consistent in implementing their "fuck you" model of customer service. Price hikes in a recession, 9 dollar an issue White dwarf and refusing to sell metal miniatures anywhere but the online store (at least shipping is free). In any case, there are two things that miraculously made it past the ghosts of the railroad robber barons who obviously make up the board of directors: The White Dwarf archives and the What's New Today column.
The White Dwarf articles are nothing new (announced some time ago). However, the What's New Today feature is something I'd like to give special mention to. Probably concieved of as a marketing ploy, there's actually a lot of really cool stuff that gets showcased in the 'column'. There are just a ton of neat conversion ideas, and pet projects from around the world in the various updates. Some of them are just fan-fucking-tastic. I can't recommend enough a thorough look at these articles.
3) Been playing a bit of Blood Bowl (the video game) lately. The more I play, the less convinced I am that I'm actually having fun. Dunno if I just don't 'get it' yet,if its the league structure, I just need to cool out or what, but things are often a lot more frustrating than fun. I'm halfway through the league with my pals, so we'll see how it goes and whether or not I can recover from losing a Chaos Warrior when I can't win more than 20-30k a game. In any case, I am getting to interact with my geographically distant friends more. This, if nothing else, is worth it.
That's all for now. Hopefully next week I can get some perty pictures taken.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Project Future Boys - Another Project That People Probably Doubt I'll Finish
In my last post, I alluded to my decision to start a new army. Time to expand upon that.
I've named it 'Project Future Boys" after an Electric Six song. This is for three very important reasons:
1) Electric Six are awesome.
2) Projects sound cooler with cryptic names
3) Its an Eldar army, so a handful of the song lyrics apply to a race of space elves.
Background
As I previously mentioned, my Iron Warriors (though I love them) are taking a million years to paint. If I didn't have to work, then maybe they'd be done by now. I really need to have a full army to play with, I'd like it to be fairly soon and it ain't gonna happen with my "super paint job 3000" marines.
A new army would also be great for practice at adding a little speed to my painting. I've been wanting to try out some simpler, faster methods as an experiment, and a new army gives me a good platform for this.
Army Selection
Once I had decided on the idea of a new army, it was time to pick one out. I went straight to Yes the Truth Hurts and started poking around. Weeks ago, I had taken a serious look at his Competitive Daemon list. I have to say that it looks fun and can be EXTREMELY cheap to build (around $350). This one will be kept in the back of my mind for later.
However, I ended up settling on his Eldar Remix list. Much more expensive to build, but far fewer troop models to paint. The Eldar codex also seems to be much more diverse. I like the idea of daemons, but I'm also not thrilled about my only complete army being entirely CC and deep strike dependent and having no where to go except for more cc and crappy shooting.
In any case, I'm also a full supporter of his thoughts on mechanization and felt like the Eldar list was very strong. It also looked like a ton of fun. Plus it has Fire Dragons, which I loved as models for some reason.
Ze List
Reproduced here for people who hate following links.
1 Autarch
with Fusion Gun and some Crazy Chainsword (I had 5 extra points)
5 Fire Dragons
Dedicated Transport: Wave Serpent
Shuriken Cannon upgrade and Twin-Linked Shuriken Cannons
5 Fire Dragons
Dedicated Transport: Wave Serpent
Shuriken Cannon upgrade and Twin-Linked Shuriken Cannons
10 Storm Guardians
with 2x Flamer
Dedicated Transport: Wave Serpent
Shuriken Cannon upgrade and Twin-Linked Bright Lances
10 Storm Guardians
with 2x Flamer
Dedicated Transport: Wave Serpent
Shuriken Cannon upgrade and Twin-Linked Bright Lances
9 Dire Avengers @ 253 Pts
Dedicated Transport: Wave Serpent
Shuriken Cannon upgrade and Twin-Linked Bright Lances
9 Dire Avengers @ 253 Pts
Dedicated Transport: Wave Serpent
Shuriken Cannon upgrade and Twin-Linked Bright Lances
1 Vyper
2x Shuriken Cannon
1 Vyper
2x Shuriken Cannon
1 Vyper
2x Shuriken Cannon
1 Fire Prism
Shuriken Cannon upgrade
1 Fire Prism
Shuriken Cannon upgrade
1 Fire Prism
Shuriken Cannon upgrade
Total Roster Cost: 2000
Pretty neat, I think. Lots of shooty guys and a ton of zoomin' tanks. The energy field on the wave serpents makes me pee my pants at how awesome it is. I'd like to use regular guardians as it saves me a few bucks (storm guardians are 8 to a box, direct only - Dear GW: fuck you), but I think I'd loose too much utility without the flamers.
Painting
Back to my focus - painting. As I mentioned, I want to paint this faster than I've been in the habit of doing. That means no fancy paint techniques, few (if any) conversions, no fancy bases and very simple color schemes.
I'll rely on a lot of simple layering and line highlighting. There's also a pretty neat corroded bronze technique that I managed to dig up from dakkadakka (which was a pain in the ass) that's very easy to reproduce.
I ended up settling on Ulthwe colors as black can look very striking using only line highlights and bone is very easy to paint. The airbrush has also helped immeasurably with the base coating - it speeds up the process with colors that can be a pain to get good coverage on (orange) and I've got a solid, ready-mixed airbrush flat black.
The only down side is the shear amount of paint I've had to buy. I have almost no oranges and blues, so I've had to pick up a lot of each. On the other hand, I'm getting some great experience with the Reaper Master Series paints. They're pretty awesome for layering.
Progress
Things are good so far. I had initially hoped to be doing two tanks and 10-20 guys in 2 weeks. That was clearly fanciful and unrealistic. So far it's been 2 weeks and I've only gotten 1 tank and 6 guys done. Not as good as I hoped, but faster than the Iron Warriors by a wide margin. I also expect things to get faster as I get more accustomed with the painting techniques I'm repeating and grav-tank assembly becomes second nature (9 is a lot of practice).
Things have, thus far, played out like I hoped. The tank and the fire dragons look great and I've gotten some pretty good looking models without too much effort. I've also got some good experience painting black with a quick line highlight style (I typically avoid black as a main color)
I'll probably be behind schedule for a while - though I think my 3rd wave (3 vypers) might give me some time to catch up.
More updates as they happen.
I've named it 'Project Future Boys" after an Electric Six song. This is for three very important reasons:
1) Electric Six are awesome.
2) Projects sound cooler with cryptic names
3) Its an Eldar army, so a handful of the song lyrics apply to a race of space elves.
Background
As I previously mentioned, my Iron Warriors (though I love them) are taking a million years to paint. If I didn't have to work, then maybe they'd be done by now. I really need to have a full army to play with, I'd like it to be fairly soon and it ain't gonna happen with my "super paint job 3000" marines.
A new army would also be great for practice at adding a little speed to my painting. I've been wanting to try out some simpler, faster methods as an experiment, and a new army gives me a good platform for this.
Army Selection
Once I had decided on the idea of a new army, it was time to pick one out. I went straight to Yes the Truth Hurts and started poking around. Weeks ago, I had taken a serious look at his Competitive Daemon list. I have to say that it looks fun and can be EXTREMELY cheap to build (around $350). This one will be kept in the back of my mind for later.
However, I ended up settling on his Eldar Remix list. Much more expensive to build, but far fewer troop models to paint. The Eldar codex also seems to be much more diverse. I like the idea of daemons, but I'm also not thrilled about my only complete army being entirely CC and deep strike dependent and having no where to go except for more cc and crappy shooting.
In any case, I'm also a full supporter of his thoughts on mechanization and felt like the Eldar list was very strong. It also looked like a ton of fun. Plus it has Fire Dragons, which I loved as models for some reason.
Ze List
Reproduced here for people who hate following links.
1 Autarch
with Fusion Gun and some Crazy Chainsword (I had 5 extra points)
5 Fire Dragons
Dedicated Transport: Wave Serpent
Shuriken Cannon upgrade and Twin-Linked Shuriken Cannons
5 Fire Dragons
Dedicated Transport: Wave Serpent
Shuriken Cannon upgrade and Twin-Linked Shuriken Cannons
10 Storm Guardians
with 2x Flamer
Dedicated Transport: Wave Serpent
Shuriken Cannon upgrade and Twin-Linked Bright Lances
10 Storm Guardians
with 2x Flamer
Dedicated Transport: Wave Serpent
Shuriken Cannon upgrade and Twin-Linked Bright Lances
9 Dire Avengers @ 253 Pts
Dedicated Transport: Wave Serpent
Shuriken Cannon upgrade and Twin-Linked Bright Lances
9 Dire Avengers @ 253 Pts
Dedicated Transport: Wave Serpent
Shuriken Cannon upgrade and Twin-Linked Bright Lances
1 Vyper
2x Shuriken Cannon
1 Vyper
2x Shuriken Cannon
1 Vyper
2x Shuriken Cannon
1 Fire Prism
Shuriken Cannon upgrade
1 Fire Prism
Shuriken Cannon upgrade
1 Fire Prism
Shuriken Cannon upgrade
Total Roster Cost: 2000
Pretty neat, I think. Lots of shooty guys and a ton of zoomin' tanks. The energy field on the wave serpents makes me pee my pants at how awesome it is. I'd like to use regular guardians as it saves me a few bucks (storm guardians are 8 to a box, direct only - Dear GW: fuck you), but I think I'd loose too much utility without the flamers.
Painting
Back to my focus - painting. As I mentioned, I want to paint this faster than I've been in the habit of doing. That means no fancy paint techniques, few (if any) conversions, no fancy bases and very simple color schemes.
I'll rely on a lot of simple layering and line highlighting. There's also a pretty neat corroded bronze technique that I managed to dig up from dakkadakka (which was a pain in the ass) that's very easy to reproduce.
I ended up settling on Ulthwe colors as black can look very striking using only line highlights and bone is very easy to paint. The airbrush has also helped immeasurably with the base coating - it speeds up the process with colors that can be a pain to get good coverage on (orange) and I've got a solid, ready-mixed airbrush flat black.
The only down side is the shear amount of paint I've had to buy. I have almost no oranges and blues, so I've had to pick up a lot of each. On the other hand, I'm getting some great experience with the Reaper Master Series paints. They're pretty awesome for layering.
Progress
Things are good so far. I had initially hoped to be doing two tanks and 10-20 guys in 2 weeks. That was clearly fanciful and unrealistic. So far it's been 2 weeks and I've only gotten 1 tank and 6 guys done. Not as good as I hoped, but faster than the Iron Warriors by a wide margin. I also expect things to get faster as I get more accustomed with the painting techniques I'm repeating and grav-tank assembly becomes second nature (9 is a lot of practice).
Things have, thus far, played out like I hoped. The tank and the fire dragons look great and I've gotten some pretty good looking models without too much effort. I've also got some good experience painting black with a quick line highlight style (I typically avoid black as a main color)
I'll probably be behind schedule for a while - though I think my 3rd wave (3 vypers) might give me some time to catch up.
More updates as they happen.
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