How do GW come up with all these cool names?

Among all the WoC release chatter on Dakka this little gem turned up. Couldnt help but laugh out loud and now I have to write this post and peer between coffee stains on my monitor... Sucks to be me. But at least I'm happy!

Necron metal band...

If there only was a way to have these on the board...

Games Workshop needs to fire their "designers"

From the latest worthless "teaser" they love to put out these days. First it was the cover of Blood Reaver and now it's Rebirth.

Stuff like letter spacing and adjusting kerning (the letter spacing) is covered in the first class of practical typography. I guess that's why it irks me so much. Making newbie mistakes like this is like waving the "I don't know jack"-flag around. Not only did they use a crappy version of Jenson, but also violated all fundamental rules of typography. Shows how they really care about making a perfect product. -.-

Thats enough of beard rage for today. Gotta paint some necrons...

Adventures in Oil: Einstein WIP #2

Found some time inbetween x-mas stuff (for me, assembling Necrons) to paint some more on Einstein. I think I'm done with the basic skin color. At least it feels like this is a good base for adding some discoloration like pinkish lips and some blue to the eye-sockets.

One fun thing about oils is that they kinda behave different from acrylics. Below is a shot of the colors I used for shade and highlight and they are way different than how they acted on the figure. I guess the blue (Winsor Blue (Green)) and yellow (Chrome Yellow Hue) are way stronger than the Yellow Ochre I mix them with. So when blending it turns more green than brown-green.

Start color is #3 but then I realized I wanted more contrast so I upped the highlights a little since the shadow would turn out more or less 100% black if I went down that route.

Anyways. I have to assemble a ton of necrons. See you on the other side of X-mas!

Adventures in oil / Einstein WIP

I don't know what to say. Painting with oil feels like painting with that paint you got at kindergarten and then proceeded to eat and/or use your entire body to paint with. Finger paint?

It's a lot of put paint on & blend. More paint & blend. Blend the blending and then blend some more.

I think I like it though... Picture is after the first round of highlight & shadow.

Quick review, Gobleon by Ammon

Since I buy a lot of stuff so the shelves in my cupboard don't feel lonely I thought that perhaps it would be nice to do some short reviews of what I get before it gets put away in wait for that year when I have 110% free time to paint.

So without further ado...


GOBLEON by AMMON MINIATURES

This is perhaps one of the funniest goblin miniatures out there. The mini really captures what I think of a goblin/gretchin (if you're a 40K fan). In short, it screams delusions of grandeur with a little touch of Don Quixote and a big scoop of naïveté.

The packaging is without any grandeur at all. To be expected of a small sculpter/caster. The parts are packed in a zip-lock within a larger zip-lock with a printout of the painted mini.

The parts themself are crisp and clean. There are some flash to remove, and of course you have to remove some of them from the sprues. But there are no Forgeworld style gates to remove or any gates attached to parts that will likely break unless you try to cut the resin with soothing words and nothing else. 

Dryfitting all the parts showed that there were no significant gaps and everything will probably go together without much filling. There were no dead areas – commonly found on GW/Citadel miniatures – on the mini so there will be no time spent figuring out what is what. Just pure joy of painting!

So if you're itching for a small project to build & paint. I'd say this is the one. It's a perfect weekend project. No big building diagrams (or lack of them) and a mini that's made to be painted.

I bought mine from Figone, Jeremie is a pleasure to deal with. Although with a tight schedule so don't expect one day turnaround on your order. It's worth the wait considering that you're supporting an indie manufacturer / sculptor.

Happy painting! 

Taking the plunge!

Ever since I've started building and painting military scale models I've had a growing love affair with using oil paint. Creating smooth transitions between colour is made way easier due to the long open time. "This must be really useful on miniatures?!" I thought, but didn't really think much of it. Especially since I really didn't know at what end to start painting with oil colours.

Then I got my hands on "Building and Painting Scale Figures". An old book that really only talks about painting miniatures with oil paints. What selection of colors to use, how you plan and perhaps everything you will ever need to know about the fundamentals of painting a miniature.

It's a little dated. From the style of writing I think it came out just before the acrylic explosion (that's a colorful expression!). Acrylics are way handier to paint with most of the time. But if you're starting up, or is an old beard like me, it's worth a read. If not just to brush up on your skills.

Anyhow. I bought a bunch of oil colours (boy are they expensive or what?) specifically limiting my palette so I would learn how to mix colours properly. I'm usually one of those that buys the Mega Paint Set from Games Workshop in order to never have to mix paints. Or that's the idea, I still find myself mixing paints so why not do it right from the start? :)

The unfortunate victim is Einstein. The amazing ork bust sculpted by Allan Carrasco. The orks I grew up with were the ones drawn by Paul Bonner, and Einstein really captures that style. A little more human and a little less comical relief. You can really see the cunning plan he's hatching in the eyes.

So... expect a messy update on my adventures in oil in a couple of days! And if you haven't heard from me I'm probably just trying to get paint out of my hair or off the cats...

Dicerings!!!

This Kickstarter thing... I'm waiting for the backlash when some high profile goes bust. But until then I'm happily parting with my money for cool stuff I didn't know I could live without. This time it's the DiceRings.

Not only will my OCD be less severe, I can also make that critical charge-roll WHEREVER I WANT! On the bus? Need to declare a Waaagh! and charge? No worries! Having a shower when low morale strikes? On the left hand you have a 2r6... roll away! Lost combat with girlfriend? Need to see if she sweeps you? Since you are a good boyfriend you've bought her a r6 as well... Just roll and see if she destroys you or not. (Be a gentleman, let her sweep you and admit defeat!)

So, you see, this is a Kickstarter you need to take part in.

It was the last night on earth!

I took the car, and a friend and his dog, over to a friends place this weekend and brought my copy of Last Night on Earth for some zombie action. It sure didn't help that all three of us are zombie afficionados. We got one game in, and lots and lots of talking about The Talking Dead, fast zombies vs. running zombies, the awful adaptation of World War Z and zombies in general.

This was my first game of Last Night on Earth and even though I got brutally murdered by the survivors (I was controlling the zombies) it was a blast! I'm a sucker for the old school zombie movies and I think this game really captured the spirit of those movies I was brought up with.

I would actually have won the game if it werent for Sally, the high school sweetheart, finding a chainsaw in turn 10 of 15. She then proceeded to run around the board chasing my poor zombies. :( Very cinematic, very fun, very zombie.

The next day I took my orks over to Uppsala for some 40K action. Prepping the battle report at the moment. :)

Freebooter's Fate Indiegogo

With only seven days left I thought I'd advertise a little for the Freebooters Fate kickstarter (even though it's an indiegogo, not a kickstarter... confusing!).

I'm a fan of Werner Klocke, and this is a pretty awesome way to get a bunch of nice limited edition figures. My only problem is that I have too much figures to paint already. But I really can't pass this one up...

At the moment the Captain ($100) level gets you 9 or 10 figures (depending on how you count) and a bunch of extras. If you play the game there is of course a bunch of added value.

So what are you waiting for? Click the image to go and spend some cash for some awesome stuff! :)

In other news... Maelstrom Games is still down, with no reports from any customers about what has happened to their outstanding orders. -.-

OMG! It's a remake of Evil Dead!

And it looks aaaaawesooooome! Actually a movie I'd pay to see in theaters. Hopefully this one will age a little more gracefully than the original. Not that the original is bad, it's more of like Buffy the Vampire Slayer-good if you catch my drift.

PSA: Maelstrom rumour confirmation

The rumour that Maelstrom was in massive debt can now hopefully be confirmed. On the Wyrd forum Graham posted;

Maelstrom won't be getting any more Malifaux from us as he's been cut off due to his massive debt, which has now been sold via a debt purchase company who will be pursuing the debt and legal action. 

MG is running his final sales (several of them) and there is nothing much left. No further stock will be sent from us. 

All fate Decks, Retro Decks, rulebooks etc are all in stock here and you'll find them at any other stockist in the UK who have ordered them in. Try Firestorm, Wargames Workshop, Waugh Games, Arcane, Wayland Games, Waylands Forge, Spirit Games, Total Wargamer, Worthy Wargaming, Titan Games or any of the dozens of others who have plenty of Malifaux on the shelves. 

We have re-stocks coming in every other week and pretty much running straight out the door to all the stockists, so we're just ordering even more

This is further compunded by Taban Miniatures also cutting their ties with Maelstrom. So, if you have outstanding orders with Maelstrom, try calling them. When they don't answer, contact Paypal and/or your bank and request a chargeback.

Maelstrom & Ponzi, sitting in a tree...

So... the latest "We have everything on sale" came from Malestrom Games. This time with some sort of explanation. Let's read that and then discuss...

Here at Maelstrom Games we have decided to clear as much of our hard-earned stock as we possibly can over the next few days - and therefore generate some much-needed cashflow - in order to ensure we can fulfil the orders that you, our valued customers, have placed over the last few weeks. To that end, we have decided - in consultation with our trading partners - to sell our remaining stock of [list of manufacturers]. All other ranges' stock will now be sold at 40% off UK RRP - we hold good stocks of Gamezone Miniatures, Dark Age, Cool Mini or Not and Scibor Miniatures, and there's a fair bit of Privateer Press and Malifaux left too. As well as that, from this moment onwards we have decided to stop any customer from placing orders for items that are not in stock, simply so that we can clear the orders that have already been placed. 

We have not made this decision lightly, and please note that we have absolutely no issues with any of the above manufacturers or suppliers; we are simply trying to sell off stock in order to clear older orders and ease any worries our customers may have regarding the speculation that is currently rife on the internet. As well as that, we believe that our retailing model must now change to selling products that are in stock at the time of purchase, and as such that will continue to be in place in the future, once our orders are cleared and our stock is sold. 

I would ask all of our customers to remain as patient as they can with Maelstrom Games and, indeed, our staff, for we will use the money generated by the sale of our stock to ensure all of your orders are fulfilled in their entirety as quickly as possible. We remain committed to servicing our customers first and foremost and will continue to do so in the future. 

Now... this I guess is all good unless you have an interest in economics and can see a Ponzi-scheme for what it is. As I read it it says: "We have no money so we cannot fulfill orders placed earlier. Please spend more so we can fulfill orders already placed" And then? 40% discount doesn't really give much profit in order to re-stock your [new] warehouse?

So, what happened Maelstrom? I can only guess. This newest information sounds a lot like the "speculation" that Maelstrom had lost their credit from distributors were true. So in order to fulfill orders placed a couple of weeks ago they actually have to buy it instead of request it on credit from their distributor. Clearly not an indication of a healthy and thriving business.

Couple that with Paypal not being a payment option anymore(!) and my advice is to abandon ship before it sails away with your money. -.-

I really hope all this is a giant misunderstanding. I really really do.

WIP "One Last Dance?"

When watching the Miniature Mentor video with Jennifer Haley she mentioned that one of her favorite sculptors was Werner Klocke. Not knowing who he was I checked him out and found that he is the creator of the game Freebooters Fate and a bunch of wonderful miniatures for Reaper. So I got myself some. :)

This girl has been sitting primed and ready in my cabinet for a year now. So I guess it was about time to get her some life.

Very WIP, NMM is still wonky. Had a totally different idea about the light source when I started painting.

I plan to mount her on a pretty simple base with a ballroom floor or something. The idea of Death asking for the last dance makes me smile. :)

If you have any other ideas, please let me know. The ballroom floor base feels kinda like a cop-out in some ways, but I'm stuck at that idea at the moment.

... standing by!

After much hassle with the postal office my copy of Star Wars: X-Wing finally arrived! I can't wait for the weekend to come around so I can play it. All day, all night. 

Merc Mariner WIP Part 2 / The future of PX40k

The deadline for the contest draws near, and I only have a few hours available to finish it. She won't be pretty but I think it will be alright. It's surprisingly hard to paint with fever shakes though, can't shake this summer cold when I can't afford to stay home from work. [Nooo whining! -ed.]

"With a bisquit on the side like fucking tomb stone"

I think I will have to go heavier on the verdigris, otherwise it's turning out quite as planned, not entirely at home with the chipping technique yet, will try another on the arms.
To do : Raw iron/steel surfaces, details, weathering and basing.
I bought some 1mm balsa wood for plank decking on the base, will do a step by step on that at a later date, 'promise!

The other thing I wanted to bring up was the sad lack of updates lately. We are not going away, nor are we on hiatus. Both me and Pixel have just started new jobs, with all that entails. PX40k will be increasing both quality and output when things have stabilized and all spare time isn't taken up by coma like sleep or teething babies. I can say that there is good stuff going on behind the scenes though, but I don't want to jinx anything yet!

First Steps to the Dark Side

So... I ordered me some Warmahordes stuff...


I feel kinda dirty, but in a good way! I still don't love the overall aesthetics, the very cartoony stuff is kinda hard to swallow when you're used to the GrimDark. That said, I really love the open attitude Privateer Press shows and they know that the customer and the thusly the community is king, instead of the quite puzzling attitude we have been getting from GW the last... 20 years?

I have only played one game thus far, but I like what I'm seeing. The Warmachine scene in my area exploded recently when the local game store decided to expand their stock with non-GW miniature stuff. Apparently my town had a whole bunch of closet warmahordes people, and now both my club and the FLGS is packed with disney monsters and hydrocephalic robots.

I feel good things coming from this step, If you asked me a year ago if I would start to play this, I would have given you a whole hearted "Fuck No!" I guess I was wrong.
Now if PP-Eu's distribution people would come back from vacation so I could get me my gators, I would be grateful...

Quick Impressions: Dwarf Kings Hold: Dead Rising

I got me my first Mantic product from Wayland today (yay free shipping week!). I liked the thought of something casual and very different from my usual stuff. I usually loathe the classic fantasy setting, but eh, for £31 I might as well give it a try.

The rather flimsy box comes with Dwarves in regular grey plastic, and skeletons appropriately comes in white plastic. The figures seem to be from the regular Kings of War kit, just white instead. I must say that the sprues look very nice, lots of small extra bitz (yes, the dog is awesome), though I would hesitate to get an entire army of these, they are "quick fit" and thusly quite monopose.

The tiles and markers is made of quite thin cardboard, though the backside is slightly reinforced with a plastic coating. Nice color print, but I already see a tendency for the cardboard to fray. I had hoped for the cardboard parts to be embossed, but again, for the price, very high value.

I haven't tried to play yet, but I can say that the rulebook is black and white print on stapled shiny paper, nothing fancy, but it does the job. I wish they would release the rules as a PDF like they did for Kings of War, having it on a smartphone or similar is nice, and if they are somehow destroyed you could just print a new copy.

Rawr

No fancy unboxing pictures to show, there's quite a few of them around the web if you are interested. I will do a Part 2 of this when Pixel and I have played a few games, our upcoming Board Game series will feature this and other games from the more casual side of things.

Jagdluther finished!

Click for flickr...

So I finally finished it! Didn't really think I would. I kinda started to build the kit because I didn't want to paint some orks. In the middle of painting the basecoats I kinda realized I had no plan at all of how I wanted it painted. Usually when painting 40K stuff you've already seen a bunch of different paintjobs, or at least the 'Eavy Metal paintjob of it. With this one... I've just seen the box art and the premium edition figure.

So when the real painting started I was kinda without a plan or set goal. Which is fun in a way, but also kinda frustrating. What colour should I use for the lenses? (I went for a very 40K-ish style) Should the viewing slit be more like a prism or is it a viewing slit? Etc etc... A day ago I was ready to give up and put it in the cupboard together with the warhound and some other projects I've never really finished.

After a cup of coffee I pulled through though. I let the model rest for a while and went crazy with oil colours on the base instead. Oil colours is one of those weird kind of colours, so forgiving and yet so unforgiving. And you can do some pretty crazy blends with it. Nothing that shows in the pictures, and I really didn't do anything really amazing. The metal I-beams go from "steel black" to rusty in a very pleasing way.

Click the picture to go to flickr and see it in higher resolution. See if you can spot all the "meh I just dont want to blend that oil-wash" mistakes I did. :) Oil washes are nice, but they sure ain't wash-and-forget...

Continuing the Not-40K-posts JagdLuther & DML Pz.Kpfw IV

I've started to add the chipping to the Dust Tactics JagdLuther. At first I was going to do the plain old sponging technique, but in a stroke of genious I decided to skip that and do it the Mig Jemenez way!

For those who haven't seen his DVDs. It's basically painting lighter dots of the base coat in a stokastic/random pattern and then adding the primer colour inside them. German WWII primer was some reddish-brown. And unfortunately for me I just gave away all my Vallejo paints to Boomo, so I had to concoct a mix from Reapers Bloodstain Red and Brown Liner.

Not nearly half done with the left side, or the cannons. But I really have to do some chores, like cleaning my studio...

JagdLuther chipping. Or at least 15% of the planned chipping.

And here's a blast from the past I haven't posted.

Achtung! Panzer! Lazer! 

I've always wanted to get into the military scale modelling. Or at least understand it. Can't say I really do. Colours are so limited, and the debates on what shade of Feldgrau is the correct one makes my head hurt.

The 1:72 scale models are pretty nice starters though. This kit took about 2hrs to build, and 2-3 hours to paint. (Not counting the time to wait for oil washes to dry). And the best thing, it's cheap. It's not like you don't dare mess it up with inexpensive kits like these.


Ah well, now I'm off to the bathroom to make sure the tiles on the wall are shiny enough for me to invite my parents here... wish me luck! Hopefully you have something more intersting to do. :)