Exalted Hero of Slaanesh

More stuff got painted! This time what is now known as the Exalted Hero of Slaanesh, but was once known as Sigvald, the Magnificent.

I've been wanting to paint the model since I got it when it came out for 8th edition WFB, but it wasn't until I decided that I'd assemble a display in my local game shop's cabinet that I got off my ass and finished him. I already have some Slaanesh stuff in a cabinet there, but that's for the Path to Glory campaign (which I'm still workin' on), and I can't very well have them be part of two displays! This hero will be the leader of my non-campaign Slaanesh army.

Not that you'd be able to notice from my terrible photography, but I used Wargames Foundry's Native American Flesh set to paint the skin. I plan on buying a ton of different skin tone paints just to add some diversity to the Mortal Realms. I mean, why should Northern Europeans be the only heroes and maniacs? If the Realms are impossibly large, I'm sure there's going to be a ton of different cultures floating around. No one is safe from the temptations of Slaanesh, apparently.

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Drunken Dwarfs

To keep in theme with the models I was painting, I began drinking beer and didn't stop until these four dwarfs were finished.

Here they are awaiting a gloss cote. When I play any edition of Warhammer Fantasy Battle they act as markers for war machines to show that they can't fire this turn or next, and when I'm playing Kings of War, they're unit fillers for my horde of Ironclad.

Plus they're just great-lookin'.

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Here's What I Painted Today

So I don't post as much as I'd like. To remedy this, I'm going to do some "flash posts" where I post what I worked on, even if it was just a couple brush strokes, or a few adventure ideas.

I'm going to a Kings of War tournament in a couple weeks, and I need to beef up a couple units and paint some movement trays. I need to finish 16 models, and here are some drunken dwarves and a master engineer.

They're not done yet, but I'm gettin' there!

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An Oldhammer Evening

Just a quick post before I jet off to Gen Con.

I've been running a D&D5 campaign for a bit, and I decided to have it culminate in a titanic battle. The fate of the north of our campaign world hung in the balance. The big question became: what system would we use to play this out?

-Would I use the Unearthed Arcana Battlesystem rules that Wizards put out? Needs more playtesting.
-Would I use the D&D Miniatures Handbook from 3rd edition? Maybe, but then I'd have to learn a new system and teach it to everyone.
-Would I use Warhammer? Sure! I mean, my entire game group is a bunch of Warhammer players, that would work wonderfully.

But which edition?

The answer, of course, was 3rd edition. I mean, it's got all the role-play trappings of the era, but built to be a miniatures war game. It was fun converting all my group's D&D characters, and their adversaries into Warhammer stats. I'd read everything for 3rd edition, but I'd never actually played it before. It would be both new and familiar to everyone.

I enlisted the help of two of my friends who weren't in the campaign to be the "ringers" and play the evil forces of hobgoblins and traitorous northmen. While the player characters (PCs) took on the roles of their characters and those they recruited to help preserve peace in the north. I'm pleased to say that the PCs won (despite being outnumbered by ~1000pts.). Though the wizard of the party did make a shady pact with the enemy to preserve his own skin.

I let the players add some role-play elements to the game, and I acted as game master which was a lot more fun that I thought. I'd never played an '80s wargame before, and I worried that the job of game master would be dull, but it was pretty great. Anyway, here are some pictures:

The prep.

Depoloyment (the pink cards in the center are traps, and decoys).

The clash in the center.

The frost giant pictured there was determined to be drunk at the
beginning of the game. Out of the two giants in the game he was
the only one to survive.

The dwarves held their own, that's for sure.

The LotR figures are "Empire soldiers," and the Mantic ghouls
are summoned lesser daemons.

The dwarves pursue the hobgoblins (represented by savage orcs)
through the forest.

The ogres were led by the cyclops warlord Kronar. He defeated
the fighter Corvinus (king of the north), but ultimately lost the war.

The real casualties of the battle. The beer was drunk by myself
and two others, while the bottles of cider were quaffed by the
gnome player.

Anyway, while Warhammer 3 had some weird and clunky rules (Vortex of Chaos is over-powered), it was filled with character, and we all had a great time! A perfect end to the campaign.

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Age of Sigmar and You... And Me... And Warhammer

I love Age of Sigmar.

Let's get that out of the way. Let's also get this out of the way: I've been playing Warhammer for almost twenty years (to be precise: 18 years, 6 months, 11 days). In that time I've collected and read every edition of Warhammer, as well as played every spin-off game (except FFG's Warhammer Diskwars). Yes, I've even played WarCry.

As you've already read in this post—or not, maybe you don't read every goddamn thing I type—my first RPG foray was AD&D, but it was really the Hogshead edition of Warhammer Fantasy Role-Play (WFRP) that became my first RPG campaign. I took my high school friends through the entirety of the Enemy Within campaign, even having to hunt down the fifth book because Hogshead gave up the ghost before they could re-publish it. High schoolers playing through an entire five-book campaign, and meeting every week is some feat. I like to think that it was not only my amazing game-mastering skills, but the engaging world of Warhammer that kept us meeting every week.

I guess what I'm getting at is that the Warhammer World was a place that I've lived in since I was ten. the crucial years in a young boy's life were half-spent unfurling the plots of corrupt Imperial nobility, helping Eltharion repel the invasions of Grom the Paunch, and being the occasional third party member to the adventures of Gotrek and Felix. I exaggerate of course, but I truly can name all the provinces in Ulthuan. 

Now it's all blown-up, and we have something new. Why am I not devastated?

Because WFRP (Green Ronin's marvelous revision) still sits on my shelf, and I still plan to run the Enemy Within again. Because eight editions of Warhammer are arranged in a resplendent row beneath WFRP, and because I'm still reading through the End Times novels. My High Elves, my Dwarfs, my Orcs, Goblins, Chaos, and Wood Elves are still going to stay on square bases, and most importantly because the Age of Sigmar is good.

I haven't read any of the fiction yet, but I'm excited to do so. I'll miss the rat-catchers, and the clandestine plotting of Slaaneshi cultists, or ventures into the Border Princes to claim Ghal-Maraz, but as much as we are sometimes confused by Games Workshop's motives, they're not stupid. There's still creativity in the studio and I'm sure they'll make it work.

If you haven't played Age of Sigmar (AoS) yet, the do it. It's free. Get together with a friend, spend thirty-seconds talking about what forces you should bring, and start rolling dice. See that it's not just a dumb beer & pretzels game, but something more. Then come back and read on 'cause I have some things to say.

Warhammer has always been about playing games with your absurd miniatures collection. Rick Priestley was tasked with writing a game that Citadel customers could fart around with after having bought their tenth box of Ruglud's Armoured Orcs (don't write me telling me that box came out later). Points values weren't a priority because most people didn't play with them. You just got together with friends and threw your lead skeletons on a field and played-out a weird parody of Shakespeare. 

Sure our models aren't on big squares anymore; I'll miss that too, but the game's not terrible because of it. Sure those new models look a lot like Space Marines, but time will tell how popular they become. Let's not mince words, I always though the Tau, and Tomb Kings were silly, but could you imagine 40k and WHFB without them? Those are both armies that came out well into my wargaming career. I rolled my eyes then, as I'm sure many of you roll your eyes at the so-called "Sigmarines."

Two blog posts I read recently solidified why I like AoS. The first one is by a friend of mine, and he succinctly states what was going on with my feelings towards Warhammer were for a while, that I was bored with it.

I haven't been to the local gaming club in over a year, and the last time I went was to play Malifaux. They're primarily a Warhammer club, and I just couldn't bear to lug my dwarves out month after month to line up 24" apart from a Warriors of Chaos army, and play for six turns. I had tried to paint a new army to keep things fresh, but every time I got distracted.

AoS has me excited again. I've played two games so far, and demoed one, and I'm so stoked it's unreal. I already have scenario ideas in mind (the game is definitely scenario-driven), and I'm even determined to create some kind of casual tournament format (again, probably scenario-driven). Most importantly the new boxed set has me wanting to play a Khorne army.

Me: a Khorne army. Me: a disciple of Slaanesh. Me: a guy who rolls his eyes every time Khorne—the bro-iest Chaos god—gets another must-have unit. I am excited to play the new Bloodbound. Unheard of.

The second blog post I read, reinforced my belief that the spirit of Warhammer is still there. If you were to peruse either of the Realm of Chaos volumes as a player who started Warhammer in fourth edition or later, you'd be saying the same thing as people are saying about AoS now: "how do you build an army?" Warhammer, in editions past, had a Gamemaster; AoS just requires that you and your opponent moderate your own games. 

Anyway, both blog entries are great—and much shorter than this one—so give them a read, it's worth it.

I hope I made my points clear. I guess I'm not going to change anyone's mind necessarily—if it's already made up—but I do want to reiterate that though this edition is radically different in mechanics, it's still perfectly in line with Warhammer's spirit. 

It also doesn't invalidate anything that came before it. Bögenhafen will always be destroyed and saved in equal measure; armies of Chaos Dwarves will always march against Undead, or Vampire Counts, or Ogre Kingdoms, or anything else you may have on your shelf. You can still dole out Winds of Magic cards in the Magic Phase, or roll on the Intrigue at Court table in the High Elf book; whatever edition (or mix) of Warhammer you choose to play is still good, and even though Sigmar now holds court in the realm of Azyr, he could just as easily still be lost in the east, beyond the World's Edge Mountains, waiting to one day return and rescue the Empire from itself.

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Tournament Wrap-Up

I went to a Warhammer tournament on December 14th, 2014. It was at a Games Workshop retail store, and there were ten people there. It was a three-round, 2000pt, tournament where anything goes provided you had the book to back it up. This means that if I wanted to use the Chaos Ascendant rules, I had to have the Glottkin book with me (which I did!).

Each 6'x4' table had a special scenario attached to it, and you had to play that scenario while on that board. My personal favorite was the first table I played on, where there were no deployment zones—meaning you could set up anywhere you wanted on the table as close as 1" to the enemy if you dared—but every time you set down a unit you had to roll a scatter die to see which direction it faced (a HIT is any direction you want).

It was tons of fun, and I came in third place. I only won one game, but due to the inclusion of soft scores like painting, sportsmanship, and so forth, I rocketed to the top three. I lost out by one vote for best sport, so the award I usually win in tournaments went to someone else. I won the first game, and then proceeded to lose the next two, but the hilarious part was that I played all three games against people who were either in my gaming group, and/or were friends of mine. 40% of the people at the tournament I've known for 10+ years, and have, or still, game(d) with regularly.

Anyway, I was pleased to find out that they're doing the same thing this year, and that it is an escalating tournament (I just missed the first two parts in 2014). There's a tournament in Spring that's 1000pts, one in Summer that's 1500pts, and the last one in Fall that's 2000pts. I plan on bringing my old-school Lizardmen army to these three events, so keep up to date on that. It'll be like the tournament journal I've always wanted to write for this blog.

Without further ado, here are some pictures:

This is my army on display. Everyone did this
and people went around and voted on the best
painted. 

This is actually the set-up for the first game—or
as much as I could include on my cellphone's
camera. See the 2nd paragraph for why it's so
chaotic (no pun intended).

A grisly shrine.

I didn't get a chance to finish painting my
daemonettes, so I had to summon plaguebearers.

Game two against Beastmen. I lost this one.

Final game against another Legions of Chaos army.

There used to be five knights with this fearsome
exalted hero of Chaos, however the winds of magic
are fickle indeed... 

CHALLENGE AXEPTED!

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Reinforcements!

Just a quick post to show you some pics! My saurus command arrived in the mail today, so I put them together. They came still in the blister pack! In the old style that's yellow on the bottom and red on the top (back row, left, in this picture). Anyway, they're cool, and now I have a full unit of 25 saurus to command on the battlefield.

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Extract From The Prophecy Of Sotek

New year, new army!

I hope your holidays were as fun as mine! I didn't get up to too much gaming after my tournament, which I will write about later this week (gotta save something to write about on this blog, seeing as I do so infrequently), but I did get a pretty decent x-mas haul (Warhammer 40,000 Conquest, and a booster box of Khans of Tarkir), and some dude came into the shop and dropped-off a near-mint Warhammer 5th edition boxed set.

So that brings me to the allusion in this post's title, which is my new Lizardmen army:

The whole shebang (note the gap in the sauruses is for a yet-to-be-received command section)

The skinks

The sauruses (with gap for command)

I decided—in a moment of beer-fueled frenzy—that I will take the 20 saurus, and 32 skinks, and use them to begin a Lizardmen army. After all, they're the only Warhammer army I haven't attempted to build, and until we can all be sure what is and isn't true in the (pretty incredible) 9th edition rumors I don't want to start my brand-new High Elf army if it means half-way through I have to do some unexpected alterations. Hell, with this Lizardmen army I may even get a chance to finally try out the Army Painter dips.

Here's the catch, though, the army will be made up of first-wave Lizardmen figures, such as the ones found in 5th edition. That means, wherever I can, I need to use a figure from before May 2003. This doesn't preclude me from using figures post-2003, but I can't use the new plastic stegadon when there are metal ones to be had, for instance.

Anyway, we'll see how far this goes. I'll keep you updated (albeit spottily). I have some ebay wins coming in this week or next, so you'll get to see more as this mad project reaches fruition.

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EDIT (Jan. 14, 2014): Just wanted to pop in and say that I intend to command this fearsome army in a series of tournaments being run this year at my local Games Workshop retail store. The first one's in Spring and it's 1000pts, the second one's in Summer and it's 1500pts, and the third one's in Fall at 2000pts. Anyway, I changed the labels of this post to reflect that this is actually Part 1 in a tournament journal, wherein I'll describe my process of taking an army from zero to hero and throwing it to the dogs in a tournament. Stay tuned!

Scion of Slaanesh

Keeper of Secrets: Finished!

This figure was a long time coming. I think I've owned this model for over eight years! Anyway, it's finished, and ready to lead my damned legions across the war-torn battlefields of the End Times.

Speaking of which, if you haven't gotten your hands on any of the End Times books—and who can blame you? They're impossible to find in hardcover—I strongly suggest you pick up the newly-added softcover ones. The stories are amazing (Nagash was a bit slow at the end). I've been reading them before bed, and I have to say, the last couple weeks I've been excited to get to bed.

Anyway, I now have a fully-painted 2000pt Legions of Chaos army. But am I going to stop there? Nope! In the (hopefully) rare chance that any of my champions turn into spawn I'll need to have a couple of those foul abominations on hand. I have two days to finish these two models. This is entirely doable.

It appears that I won't be finishing my daemonettes, which is a bit sad. It also means that if I have an opportunity to summon daemons, I'll have to use my old pewter plaguebearers. I love my old pewter plaguebearers, but they're a tad out of place in a Slaanesh army, no?

I'll keep y'all updated.

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Enter the Realm of Chaos, your nightmare has just begun

So the tournament I mentioned a month ago is a scant week away! By Slaanesh's studded boot, that's soon! What do I have left to do? Seemingly everything, of course.

I have to paint a Keeper of Secrets, for sure, and then everything else is extra. Painting the six knights, and battle standard bearer took longer than I'd hoped, but they're finally finished!

Here they are:

So now I just need to paint my Keeper of Secrets, then every point of my 2000pt army is ready for the tournament. The rest of the army could definitely use some touch-ups, and will get some after the tournament, but for now, they'll have to wait. 

Now I need to paint the auxiliary stuff that I mentioned last post: that is, the 20 Daemonettes, 2 Spawn, and Herald of Slaanesh. Here are some pics of the whole army including the stuff that needs to be finished:

This photo was taken before the BSB was finished.

This photo was taken before I really sat down and write my list. The Hellstriders of Slaanesh are not featured in the final draft of my army.

This photo was taken before the knights were painted.

Anyway, it's been awhile since I posted, and I've had a back-log of stuff to post about, so I apologize if this isn't up to the usual quality. There is some repetition, and run-on sentences, for sure. I'm just jacked-up from coffee, painting, heavy metal, and the need to be out the door in a half-hour.

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The Nature of Chaos

The nature of Chaos is unpredictability. This is true both with small 'c' chaos, and big 'C' Legions of Chaos that I'll be fielding in a painted-only tournament this December.

My army is mostly painted, and when I say "mostly," I meant that it can take the field, and meet any painted requirement a tournament could throw at me. However, it's not done. Pole-arms on the chaos warriors aren't finished, and I don't think the claws and teeth on the warhounds have been sufficiently highlighted. They'll be done, of course, but it's still a job I have to do.

What I'm really concerned with is the unpredictability of Chaos, and what I need to get done for any eventualities that may occur. For instance: What if my champion manages to slay a monster or another champion and becomes a daemon prince? I'll need to have one of those ready. Worse yet, what if he becomes a spawn? I don't even own any of those. In the Legions of Chaos army (a combined force of Beastmen, Daemons, and Warriors of Chaos that was introduced in the new End Times: Glottkin book, which I will review later), you can also have a unit of daemons show up, or have a character become a herald of your chosen god (Slaanesh, natch). I own a herald of Slaanesh, but he/she/it's from a manufacturer that's not Citadel, and the tournament is held at a Games Workshop retail store. I also own a bunch of daemonettes which could be summoned, but in order to meet the "2d6+3" possibility, I'll need at least 15 painted (at least, because 12 could, hopefully, get rolled for the Winds of Magic more than once a game).

All this makes the Chaos armies my favorite to command. Besides being the most metal miniatures any company has ever designed, they also demand that you roll with the punches. If you want a dependable army stick with dwarfs, or one of the elf factions (which I also love), but if you want to feel the full brunt of Warhammer's joy, then armies like Chaos, or Orcs & Goblins, are for you.

Anyway, the tournament's 2000pts, which is a mercifully managable total. I think, really, the only thing that I'll have to put my effort into is the potential additions that I mentioned above. Now I just have to stay away from Star Trek on Netflix, and I'll be a-ok. I'll keep you updated.

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A Tale of One Gamer: My First Ten Bleakswords

My first ten Dark Elf Bleakswords are finished! It's only taken me three months, too! Well, let's be honest, three months of a bunch of sessions spread out. As we'll see from my time breakdown at the bottom of this article, it actually hasn't taken that long. I managed to do these ten figures in only six sessions (one of which I mostly spent building a Cauldron of Blood, which I have included in today's breakdown but will discuss in a future article in this series).

I'm notoriously bad at blogging regularly (one thing I hope to change in the new year), so I've actually managed to sit down three times since my last post and do some hardcore painting. After I finished the silvery metals last article, I moved onto the purples.

I painted a base of Naggaroth Night, followed by a Druchii Violet wash. After the wash was dry I did a Xereus Purple/Naggaroth Night mix as a first highlight, then a Xereus Purple/Genestealer Purple mix for the final highlight. Though in the picture shown above, I don't think I completed the final highlight at the time.

The skin was done using Reaper's paints. They have a fabulous little line of paints that I like to dip into every now and then. They're especially cool because they make use of what they call "triads," which Citadel borrowed for their current line of paints. The "triads" are three paints that work with one another to create a good shade, base, and highlight combination. This one was the "Dark Elf Triad" which consisted of Dark Elf Shadow, Dark Elf Skin, and Dark Elf Highlight (in that order. Though I did a Druchii Violet wash after I painted on Dark Elf Skin that I won't be repeating further... Too dark). I did this combination in the same sort of format as the purples—that is, mixing them together instead of painting a brighter color overtop. I don't have a hard-and-fast ratio for this; I simply just mix until it looks right, then self-correct if it doesn't.

The golds were next and they were super satisfying to paint as always. They were done with a Balthasar Gold base, then a complete cover-up of Gehenna's Gold. No gold I've used covers too well except for Balthasar Gold which I don't like as a color. That's why I cover it right up again with Gehenna's Gold. I did an Agrax Earthshade wash then an Auric Armour Gold highlight without mixing. I don't like mixing metallic paints.

Now the figures are practically finished (it's what I love about the new Dark Elf kits, they're not overly complex). I did some of the little bits around them such as the black skirts and shoes (Abaddon Black sans any highlights (shh! No one will ever notice)), and the little red trim around their chainmail skirts (Khorne Red base, Carroburg Crimson wash, Khorne Red/Wild Rider Red highlight, then a little bit of Wild Rider Red on the tips and edges).

The fun part is their hair. I like painting hair because it brings these models together and contrasts well with their black skin. Also the hair makes it look like I'm intentionally painting them as drow, and not just leaving the skin deep in their helmets dark to cut corners. The hair was a Fenrisian Grey basecoat, followed by a straight layer of White Scar.

The only thing left was to paint the eyes (White Scar, then Abaddon Black pupils), and the little belt straps that they have hanging (Doombull Brown basecoat, with a straight Tuskgor Fur highlight on the edges of the belts). I also painted the banner pole a Dryad Bark base followed by a Dryad Bark/Steel Legion Drab highlight.

I tidied up the bases, glued some Burnt Grass static grass flock from Woodland Scenics on some parts using P.V.A. glue, and then stuck one of the decals that were included with the box on my standard. I didn't choose the symbol for any particular reason besides the fact that it matches the color of the banner's trim and it was thin and simple, so would look good on the thin banner.

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A note on decals: One of the questions I get asked a lot as a hobby shop clerk is regarding the proper application of decals. I begin by cutting out the decal I want with an X-Acto blade and soaking it in water for about thirty seconds to a minute. You don't want to soak it too long, otherwise the decal will just separate and you might as well throw it out (though I'm such a decal pro that I've saved a couple of these). The shape you cut it in should be a square with enough room around the decal itself, so as to allow a pair of tweezers access to the piece without them touching the decal proper.

Just before I take it out of the water, I apply some Humbrol DecalFix to the area I want to apply the decal to. Then I use tweezers to pull the decal out, brush the decal onto the area I want, and gently dab the perimeter of the decal. While I'm doing this, I'm constantly re-adjusting the decal with my brush, as absorbing the water can cause the decal to shift.

At the time the completed regimental photo was taken the decal was still wet and I hadn't applied the second coat of the DecalFix, but after the water has dried off a little, I'll apply the aforementioned second coat of DecalFix. This takes off the edges of the decal, which often show through when everything's said and done. It also deals with some of the shine.
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That's about it for this time. My next article will deal with the Cauldron of Blood I received for Christmas, and all the good stuff that came outta that!

Here's the breakdown for this entry:
Naggaroth Night - $5
Druchii Violet - $5
Xereus Purple - $5
Genestealer Purple - $5
Balthasar Gold - $5
Gehenna's Gold - $5
Agrax Earthshade - $5
Auric Armour Gold - $5
Abbadon Black - $5
White Scar - $5
Fenrisian Grey - $5
Dryad Bark - $5
Tuskgor Fur - $5
Steel Legion Drab - $5
Doombull Brown - $5
Khorne Red - $5
Wild Rider Red - $5
Carroburg Crimson - $5
Dark Elf Shadow - $4
Dark Elf Skin - $4
Dark Elf Highlight - $4
Humbrol DecalFix - $6.99
P.V.A. Glue - $10 (which I forgot to add to last entry's breakdown, so I'll add it here)
Burnt Grass Static Grass Flock - $12.99
Cauldron of Blood/Bloodwrack Shrine - $90
Citadel Under-Empire Basing Kit - $40

As always, please patronize your local brick-and-mortar hobby shop before hitting the web for supplies and models.

Time spent since last update: 7h 20min
Total time spent: 9h 57min
Money spent since last update: $130 ($131.98)
Total money spent: $245.49 ($299.93)

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A Tale of One Gamer: Initial Steps Both Forwards and Back

Hail readers!

Welcome back to this (hopefully) ongoing series wherein I embark upon the creation of a brand new army. With the Warhammer Armies book limply in my hands, I began to build the dark elf warriors box that I purchased alongside it. Initially, and with a background in spear-exclusive high elves, I began to clip out the Dreadspears from the sprue, intent on them being the vanguard for a mighty spearmen unit. I built, primed, and began painting the armor of these ten Dreadspears only to change tack somewhat.

Sprue for me, sprue for you (no sprue for you).

Close-up of Dreadspears.

Dreadspears.

One of the benefits to working at a games shop is the regular contact I come into with other gamers. I chatted with a few, and asked their opinions on which of the two core dark elf warrior builds were the most effective: the Dreadspears with their extra rank of attacks, or the Bleakswords, with their parry save. I should, at this point, say that there will be some Warhammer lingo thrown in here, and for the sake of brevity I'm not going to describe every special rule as I say it. If you don't know why a Bleaksword should get a parry save when a Dreadspear does not, then ask a friend.

I got about 55/45 opinion on Bleakswords vs. Dreadspears, most of which stemming from the opinion that because elves don't have the best armor save or toughness, an extra rank is nice, but ultimately a parry save is better. Really, it depends on what you want a big unit like that to do. Should they be the big block that rushes into a combat and anchors it while more deadly units slide around to its sides, or should the unit be the spearhead (excuse the pun) and take out as many of the enemy as possible before being taken out themselves? Dark elves have long been thought of as a glass cannon (putting out damage while not being able to take it in return), and the Dreadspears would definitely fit that bill.

So why did I spend a half hour clipping off the already-primed spears and cleaning the mold lines from a bunch of swords I just took from the sprue? Ultimately I decided that the parry save was a nice thing to have, and if I wanted a unit that could put out a ton of attacks I might want to go with the Corsairs, who not only have two hand weapons (thus giving them the same amount of attacks in two ranks as three ranks of Dreadspears) but have a sweet dragonhide cloak which gives them a 5+ scaly skin save (psst! They're also cheaper at $29.75 a box vs. $40 a box).

I talked to a gamer who suggested that I forgo dark elf warriors entirely and use, as my combat blocks, simply Witch Elves, Executioners, and Blackguard. While I no-doubt will include these things in my army, I do have a soft spot for the humble warrior of whatever army I'm playing. I don't think I've ever done an army that didn't include a basic soldier of some sort, even in the chaotic days of 4th/5th edition Warhammer where regiments were simply regiments and they made no distinction between the elites and the rank-and-file in terms of army construction beyond just including them in your percentage breakdown.

So, you'll notice these pictures change. They are now Bleakswords, and thus had to undergo a paint-on priming (which I'm always leery of) of their right arms (no left-handed warriors in MY army apparently) using Imperial Primer. Oh well. This was one of the things I knew would happen as I built this army slowly. I'll have more exposure to a change-of-mind, or outside opinions because of the pace at which I'm taking this project. It also didn't help that I haven't written an army list yet. I hope to get around to doing that today, and I'll write about it in a later post. I also plan on doing a breakdown of all the units in the army and giving my armchair opinions on them.

So, on to the painting:

For this session, I really only managed to get the bases and the silver finished. On my models, I always do the bases first, as it's messy and involves lots of drybrushing. I got a little excited and started with the silvery metals first, but after having to re-do their weaponry, I decided to approach this sensibly and start with the bases. I opened up my Dungeons & Dragons Forgotten Realms Underdark book to get some inspiration for Underdark bases. They all looked like stone (natch), but had this etherial glow to them. Also for inspiration, I used the old D&D: Chainmail book "Shadow of the Drow" wherein Jason Soles gives a painting guide to drow. He just used a black base with some grey and white highlights, which isn't enough for me (no disrespect to Jason Soles).

To begin with, at the suggestion of a friend, I stuck my command figures on scenic bases. This lets them "pop" and stand out (even more than they normally do). I went with the Ruins Bases from Micro Art Studio because they were the rockiest-looking bases at my hobby shop. I plan on doing this with every command section I have in the army. They come five bases to a pack, so I was able to have two left over. To do another command section I'll still have to get another pack, but then the third time I do this, it'll be "free" (in a sense). I'll even be able to stick any lords or heroes on these bases. I had to cut the bases off the command, though, as my friend's suggestion came after I had gone to the trouble of basing the figures normally. I had to hand prime these separately.

Scenic bases.

The command all regal-like.

A note on hand-priming: I dislike it, in general, though it often has its uses. Spray-on primer is initially expensive, but it gets the job done quickly, efficiently, and effortlessly. It's crappy for things like rebasing, or weapon-swaps after you've started painting, however. As I saw here, Imperial Primer got some use out of it. I'm not particularly worried about the quality of the prime-job, as the material I primed was resin and plastic, which are more porous materials, and allow for a better adherence of paint and primer. If this was pewter, I'd be more concerned. Though for pewter, I use paint-on primer to get into the gaps that the spray just wasn't able to get at. It works well-enough for this as the gaps don't see a lot of wear-and-tear the way the higher portions of a model do.

For the bases I went with a Mechanicus Standard Grey followed by a Nuln Oil wash then a drybrush of Dawnstone and Administratum Grey. I didn't bother to mix the paints together, as I also wanted a well-defined tone to the bases (though not as extreme as Jason Soles').

Bases done... For now. I'll end up sticking static grass on 'em and painting the rims black, no doubt. 

For the silvery metals, I began with a basecoat of Leadbelcher followed by my handy-dandy Nuln Oil wash. I then did a bit of a highlight with some Leadbelcher and Ironbreaker mix, followed by some Ironbreaker and Runefang Steel mix. I really like the dry paints for metallics especially, so I drybrushed some Necron Compound around the angular bits like the swords, and the chain mail. The chain mail, by the way, was done almost exclusively by drybrushing instead of painting on the steps above.

View of the metals.

More metals.

The metals finished on the whole regiment.

Another shot.

So here's this entry's breakdown (italics are items already owned):
Warhammer Armies: Dark Elves - $59.50
Battle Magic: Dark Elves - $7
Dark Elf Dreadspears/Darkshards/Bleakswords - $40
P3 Clippers - $15.99
Excel Set of Six Files - $14.99
Chaos Black Primer - $19.50
Excel Hobby Knife - $6.99
"Ruins" Scenic Bases from Micro Art Studios - $8.99
Plastruct Plastic Weld - $6.99
Gale Force 9 Hobby Round Fine Basing Grit - $5.50
Windsor-Newton Series 7 Brush #3 - $18.99
Citadel Fine Detail Brush - $7
Citadel Wash Brush - $10
Citadel Medium Drybrush - $7
Citadel Large Brush - $10
Imperial Primer - $5
Leadbelcher - $5
Ironbreaker - $5
Mechanicus Standard Grey - $5
Nuln Oil - $5
Dawnstone - $5
Administratum Grey - $5
Runefang Steel - $5
Necron Compound - $5

As always, please patronize your local brick-and-mortar hobby shop before hitting the web for supplies and models.

Time spent since last update: 2h 37min
Total time spent: 2h 37min
Money spent since last update: $115.49 ($167.95)
Total money spent: $115.49 ($167.95)

Remember: that the breakdown includes both stuff that I bought specifically for the army (like the Battle Magic cards accessory, and the scenic bases), and the stuff that an experienced hobbyist would already own (such as the paints and tools. I own almost every Citadel Colour paint). If you own nothing, add the number in brackets to the number not in brackets, or look at my breakdown and add the costs of things you don't already own.

+++END TRANSMISSION+++