Thursday, July 9, 2009
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Semi-Final Update
For those who haven't checked here before, here's the story (which will be mostly gibberish to those not already familiar with Warhammer Fantasy):
My name is Eric McKee, or Darkblood Skullpulper on the Iron Fist League Message Forum. 6 weeks prior to the 2007 Vegas Warhammer GT, I decided to scratch-build a brand new army and use it there. It was a near thing, but I got everything built and painted to a reasonable standard in that time. I tried to keep a blog while it was going on to document the effort, but I really needed every motivated moment to work on the army. Past blog entries talk about the process a bit, but I've probably ruined all of the links to pics by now. This post is intended to give a few brief highlights and stray thoughts, and provide links to folders containing all of the in-process photos that survived, as well as the semi-finished products. I do plan to have another blitz of painting and refinement of the conversion work this Fall, but for now I'm taking it easy.
Take some time to click and then scroll through and you'll see the conversion progress, at least for some units.
The army:
Warlord on Wyvernsquig - only one opponant in 5 got confused as to what this represented and forgot it could fly. I plan to add teeny tiny manga-style wings, plus kit out the Warboss better.
Goblin Hero on Cave Squig - I need to work on the stippling for the skin of all of the monsters with lots of flat surfaces, the effect is way too subtle now to be seen from further than 6 inches.
Goblin Hero on Spider - I cheated and already had this model fully built and mostly painted. I wanted hair, but didn't have time to experiment when my first attempt failed miserably.
Trollsquigs - I think these are my favorite models for sheer goofiness. The shaman leading them is attempting to coax them along with dwarf heads that he's collected. I never could figure out what to do with that Gorkamorka scrap prospector character, and I think this came out well.
Squiggiant - Multiple people have commented on his resemblance to a large fruit. Rolls of fat are not easy to do on a ball-shaped monster...
Wolfsquigs - I really like the way the skin colors jump out on these guys. The riders still need a good bit of work.
Spider Riders - Probably the fastest unit I've ever painted. 10 cavalry models in 3 or 4 hours, I forget which, but that's amazingly fast for me. They too could use some clean-up, but look really nice from a distance.
Boarsquigs - Probably the squiggiest of my conversions, when the head and tail are removed from plastic cold ones, you are really just left with a round shape on legs. I tried to give the orcs squig-hide shields, but I don't think anyone picked up on it.
Boarsquig Chariot - pity the older cold ones that I used on the boarsquig unit didn't fit into the chariot frame, as I am not nearly as fond of the way these boarsquigs came out. The chariot was one of the last things I finished, and has almost no detail work.
Squig Herd - standard squigs from 4th edition Warhammer. I even used the old prodder models, which used to go on a cavalry base. I had to position some of the squigs almost all the way off their base in order to get the prodders into the unit.
Squig Hoppers - All are very different, and I think that worked out OK, though the one goblin not being thrown loose was probably a bad call and I should replace him.
Squiglings - Took some pebbles from my parking lot, added some eyes and legs, and called it done. I wish I still had a pre-painted pic.
So there it is. I have every intention of picking these up again in a few months to get the paint quality higher, maybe sand down a few rough edges (especially the eyeballs), and try for some better color contrast on the big critters. Maybe I'll even post to the blog after I do it.
My name is Eric McKee, or Darkblood Skullpulper on the Iron Fist League Message Forum. 6 weeks prior to the 2007 Vegas Warhammer GT, I decided to scratch-build a brand new army and use it there. It was a near thing, but I got everything built and painted to a reasonable standard in that time. I tried to keep a blog while it was going on to document the effort, but I really needed every motivated moment to work on the army. Past blog entries talk about the process a bit, but I've probably ruined all of the links to pics by now. This post is intended to give a few brief highlights and stray thoughts, and provide links to folders containing all of the in-process photos that survived, as well as the semi-finished products. I do plan to have another blitz of painting and refinement of the conversion work this Fall, but for now I'm taking it easy.
Take some time to click and then scroll through and you'll see the conversion progress, at least for some units.
The army:
Warlord on Wyvernsquig - only one opponant in 5 got confused as to what this represented and forgot it could fly. I plan to add teeny tiny manga-style wings, plus kit out the Warboss better.
Goblin Hero on Cave Squig - I need to work on the stippling for the skin of all of the monsters with lots of flat surfaces, the effect is way too subtle now to be seen from further than 6 inches.
Goblin Hero on Spider - I cheated and already had this model fully built and mostly painted. I wanted hair, but didn't have time to experiment when my first attempt failed miserably.
Trollsquigs - I think these are my favorite models for sheer goofiness. The shaman leading them is attempting to coax them along with dwarf heads that he's collected. I never could figure out what to do with that Gorkamorka scrap prospector character, and I think this came out well.
Squiggiant - Multiple people have commented on his resemblance to a large fruit. Rolls of fat are not easy to do on a ball-shaped monster...
Wolfsquigs - I really like the way the skin colors jump out on these guys. The riders still need a good bit of work.
Spider Riders - Probably the fastest unit I've ever painted. 10 cavalry models in 3 or 4 hours, I forget which, but that's amazingly fast for me. They too could use some clean-up, but look really nice from a distance.
Boarsquigs - Probably the squiggiest of my conversions, when the head and tail are removed from plastic cold ones, you are really just left with a round shape on legs. I tried to give the orcs squig-hide shields, but I don't think anyone picked up on it.
Boarsquig Chariot - pity the older cold ones that I used on the boarsquig unit didn't fit into the chariot frame, as I am not nearly as fond of the way these boarsquigs came out. The chariot was one of the last things I finished, and has almost no detail work.
Squig Herd - standard squigs from 4th edition Warhammer. I even used the old prodder models, which used to go on a cavalry base. I had to position some of the squigs almost all the way off their base in order to get the prodders into the unit.
Squig Hoppers - All are very different, and I think that worked out OK, though the one goblin not being thrown loose was probably a bad call and I should replace him.
Squiglings - Took some pebbles from my parking lot, added some eyes and legs, and called it done. I wish I still had a pre-painted pic.
So there it is. I have every intention of picking these up again in a few months to get the paint quality higher, maybe sand down a few rough edges (especially the eyeballs), and try for some better color contrast on the big critters. Maybe I'll even post to the blog after I do it.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
A gripe
By the way, I'm a little miffed that GW didn't bother to take any shots of the army for the website or White Dwarf. I got lots of very happy comments from lots of folks, and many random bystanders took the time to get photos of the squigs, but no love from The Man. I shouldn't be surprised, though, since most of the GW bits I used were all from older versions and the biggest models were pure green stuff...
End of the blog?
Well, mission accomplished, mostly. I got to Las Vegas with an army I was mostly happy with and had some fun playing it. Four votes for Players' Choice was a good bit less than I'd hoped for, but my army was way way way in the back for the first round when most people were checking out the various armies. Plus, there were three or four stunningly good paint jobs out there, so if the vote was for pure appearance rather than theme, I wasn't even in the same class.
10th place overall (out of 130?) was also a lot better than I'd expected. I'm thinking now that I'll play this same list in Baltimore for the GT, though not Games Day. Maybe I'll try to add some more painting detail or even remodel some of the sloppier modelling work. Heck, I've got 4 months, so I should be able to start and finish a brand new army by then, right? No.
No pics in the forseeable future, I'm afraid. My internet remains broken and Cox has proven itself to be wholely uninterested in this fact. I'm looking to move, so it might be a month before final photos go up.
10th place overall (out of 130?) was also a lot better than I'd expected. I'm thinking now that I'll play this same list in Baltimore for the GT, though not Games Day. Maybe I'll try to add some more painting detail or even remodel some of the sloppier modelling work. Heck, I've got 4 months, so I should be able to start and finish a brand new army by then, right? No.
No pics in the forseeable future, I'm afraid. My internet remains broken and Cox has proven itself to be wholely uninterested in this fact. I'm looking to move, so it might be a month before final photos go up.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
My internet! It's broke!
Home connection has been gone for 3 days now, so no new pics, since I'm not going to mess with those from work. I'm down to all touch-up and detail work, except for the heroes, who will probably take me most of tomorrow to finish. It'll be down to the wire, but only with regard to quality of the artwork. Everything will be painted, but there may be some blotchiness.
On Monday I got a chance to field test the army! I may have a chance to not go 0-5! There were a couple of points during the game where things could ahve swung my way with a little bit of luck. Not even insanely unlikely luck, but just some ordinary slightly-above-average luck could have done it. Of course, I was playing a fairly balanced list which should not at all be indicative of what I'll face in the GT. Maybe as I sink lower and lower into the loser's bracket, I'll find some kindred souls with other gimmicky or silly armies...
Probably won't post again before the tourney, but there will definitely be pics after this is all done with.
On Monday I got a chance to field test the army! I may have a chance to not go 0-5! There were a couple of points during the game where things could ahve swung my way with a little bit of luck. Not even insanely unlikely luck, but just some ordinary slightly-above-average luck could have done it. Of course, I was playing a fairly balanced list which should not at all be indicative of what I'll face in the GT. Maybe as I sink lower and lower into the loser's bracket, I'll find some kindred souls with other gimmicky or silly armies...
Probably won't post again before the tourney, but there will definitely be pics after this is all done with.
Sunday, May 27, 2007
A new hope
Hey! It looks like I can do fast & nasty if I really put my mind to it. The models have a lot to do with it - the 7th ed. spiders are very forgiving and have lots of well-defined ridges and texture that lets me blow right through the painting. Probably 5 minutes for the spider (post-wash) and 10 for the gobbo (post green wash on skin). With any luck I'll get all the spiders done today plus the savage orcs and trolls.
5...
And, returning to a recurrent theme - I cannot seem to paint fast. 8 hours and counting just wokring on the wolfsquig riders. Still a good bt of touch-up and highlights to apply, but I just have to move on. I've got "centerpiece" models I haven't even put a basecoat on yet. Urghh. This was supposed to be fun, right?
Cool shield design anyway, right?
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