I can smell something's rotting...

Hey again,

Looks like the "normal" job is taking more of my time than I'd like so here's something which has been waiting for photos a while.
Since the last post I managed to get some bits painted and also we managed to play 2 Warzone 1.0 games.First piece is oldie Cartel agent. Kinda test model - I got some more mecenaries (Warzone, EM4) and they all should look decent together as NPCs in the game.
As for this specific one I leant applying 2 coats of supermatt varnish ain't good idea.
Not sure why I did it (pros and cons of having beer while painting...) but the second layer took pretty much of glazes used. Or just maybe I should finally start painting with stronger contrast instead of bitching every second model?
Lesson learnt anyway and here's the first one: Cartel agent, nickname "Hannibal":

Right:

wimpy 'uuumies no more, time for something decent!

It's my big personal achievement because so far I've been trying to get this model finished like 4 times? 5 Maybe? So glad to see it together with the rest of the painted crew.

Painting is nothing original - it's based on the "official" paintjob, Bonner's beautiful artwork and painting I saw in Mutant Chronicles zine. 

I also got 2 more versions of the model so when they're done group shot should look really nice. Besides blue flesh contrasts really nice with the background and might be reason pic didn't turn out total crap (although the base looks brownish here while it's deep, matt black).

Hope you like it - this charmer was one bit pain in my opponent's ass during the lastgame.

And something fresh. Well... Recently  rotten. And definitely underestimated: Demnogonis' curator (and centurion proxy in my small force).

I remember when I got the model looong time ago - highschool times, I tried to paint it, failed, marked the piece useless, cut off the head and gun arm (for conversion purposes - failed is anyone interested) and threw remains into the bits box.

Got this sculpt a month or two back (thanks a lot Jolanta! ;-) ) and decided to give it a try. I was having lots of fun working on this dude. It has so much potential I almost regret I don't have another one - although it would be nice to get rid of that Satandamn, bendy blade.

Hmmm... I wonder is there a chance to find that oldie, mutilated remains in my torture chamber... Eeee, eeee, eeee... Gaming spot! Yeah, I meant gaming spot from the beginning! No headless corpses there! No need to check the strange smell or call the police...

And some family photos.
I must say this time pics turned better but there's still lots to work on (for example brown - black bases I mentioned above). 

I gave a try to sth new: no artifical lights were used and also I placed another filter over the minis. Looks like summer light was the reason of recent photo-problems.

And last but not least: some (bad quality, smartphone-made) photos from the battlefield.
Last weekend we had a 1500 game: Dark Legion vs Capitol.
This time this was REALLYfast: after the table was prepared and deployment zones marked my opponent said all Capitol forces either use advenced deployment rules or will be dropped from chopper hovering over the battlefield...
Nice, eh?
So the only thing I could do was setting up more-less varied defensive line and wait...

See? Those bastards were deployed just in front of my face, hidden, full metal jacket.

Therefore the game was really fast for WZ 1.0 standards: 

all I could do was trying to leave the deployment zone and avoid napalm shells. There were lots of dead bodies piled fast so we had lots of fun.

Not enough for battle report but until we get more light in the gaming spot and until I start bringing my camera for gaming this is the best we can get.

Till the next time!

New photo background + bit of Demnogonis

This time just quick update:

today I hopefully finished some job for the local courthouse so finally I got some free time to take pics of new display / photo background.
As mentioned before (several times actually...)  the previous one has been serving me for quite a long time now and I still like it a lot, but it turned out it's just not big enough for larger groups or minis or rather big models. Pretty crowdy, isn't it?

So the decision was made to get another one: wider and taller.

I wanted to make it similar to the first one and keep the theme of our post-apo / wasteland battlefield. Wasteland is cool: easy to build and all materials needed are some sand / gravel + spare bits. I used repainting Ramshackle Games parts (thanks again Curtis).

I must admit when I got those bits I underestimated them - it took me a while to spot the potential of the goodies. Since that day Ramshackle's offer has expanded a lot so now there's just tons of really cool models to choose.

Anyway here's overall view on the thing: it's 00" wide and 00" tall to fit my display case. As you can see there's anough space even for such fatties as Eradicator, biogigant, dreadnought or whatever. There's also small, everlasting tribute for Rik Mayall in the middle.

And the first attempt to use new station for photos.
I've expected much more - no idea is it the matter of camera settings, light, colors of wall behind or unusual (for me) model - pretty bright and clean. Probably mix of all...
I did my best to get result closest to reality but it's still too damn colorful - I assume it's because of the reddish in the wall back. Artifilcal lights were turned off and flesh is still damn bright - it must be white added to the final highlights. I guess.

Hope the next piece will be something bit more my style so pics should bebetter.
Take care! 

More Warzone: nepharite of Demnogonis

This time only one model. And not even finished completly.

But that's what happens when suddenly normal life strikes in with full force of work to be done. Oh well...

But I am glad this necro-piggy is finally painted enough to be used in gaming.

It's my third attempt to paint this version of nepharite of Demnogonis (you can see the other one here) and it's finaly acceptable. There's still something to be done though: 

after taking pics I know I have to add stronger contrast around the worms (some reddish brown or purple maybe), add some oxidation around rivets and add paint some weathering / stains on the robe. I don't mind the guy is wearing bright clothes (that's based on the fluff after all) but I've found taking pics of such model pretty tricky: bright rags reflect artifical light very much so I had to spend some time with GIMP making it look more-less fine.

I also have to finish new (much larger) photo-background. As you can see in the back it's very early stage. So far there are only some bits attached, there's sand on the ground and some base browns slapped. This time I decided to leave more open space so there's no problem with taking photos of whole squads or larger models (like Eradicator).

Hope you like it so far - it should look more juicy when I deal with real life shit.

And the last thing:

last Monday the postman delivered something I got from one of LAF members: some missing oldie models from classic Warzone range + some undead legionnaires (because there's never enough zombies). I didn't expect getting some new toys from the dark past might touch me so much - but it did. Examining old sculpts brought back ton of memories from highschool times:

times when there was no cellphones everywhere, no facebook, no fucking selfies, times when people where still reading books and when our biggest concern was what to do with huge amount of spare time but not whether I can find enough strength to paint a single model during week (painting nights only of course) or not.

I feel old. Wretched. And broken.

Laters!

Warzone classic Eradicator

Hey again!

This time something quick and still wip-py: Cybertronic Eradicator Deathdroid.

I wanted to keep it for later posting (together with Warzone game report) but since there was no gaming last weekend...

I picked it from the lead pile to paint something else than another zombie and all in all I am happy to see is finally covered with paint. I don't play Cybertronic but this one will be part of several scenarios I have in mind (we all know the damn A.I. was never to be trusted...)

The model I got had no right arm so I needed prosthesis:

first I managed to recast original arm (with Magmascorcher) but since the flamer didn't turn out as nice as I was hoping for it has been cut off and replaced with placcy heavy machine gun from EE range. I must say I like it better than original weapon - deathdroid armed with Titan Megablaster can control most of the battlefield is placed properly.

General painting idea was of course based on the "official paintjob", besides such a baby-blue color will be pretty striking on desert themed field of battle. When I was applying highlights I was quite sure delicate blue won't be enough for painting edges and as you can see - I was totally right. So the first thing to do is to finish edges with almost pure white and enchance the shadows with either olive chalk dirt or reddish-brown rust, haven't decided yet.

I also think some greasy oil leaks wouldn't hurt - there's lots of pipes after all.

Hope you like the current stage of works.

Cheers!

Some Algeroth goodies and Warzone battle report!

Hey again,

Last Saturday night something happened.

Something BIG. So big I had to take pictures during the event so no one can say I am lying.

We played Warzone.

WARZONE 1.0!

Only base, unbalanced rules and units! 

Last time we played that thing was like 15 years ago? Back then the battlefield was piece of carpet and most of terrain features were made of boxes covered with (mostly green) rag. As you can see our gaming conditions developed slightly since that ^^

Anyway the battle was quick, test 500 pts combat between forces of Algeroth and Capitol patrol. It was lots of fun and like after 15 mins since the start I recalled all those stupid rules and overboosted characters.

Some pics were taken but I definitely need another lamp or two exactly over the battlefield: camera's flash makes most of them just overburnt and further GIMP manpulation cannot fix it. I also think I will cover the table with layer of very diluted pva mixed with olive pigment so the surface is less reflective.

So here's the field of glory.

In the back left - my bike (now I can see these shiny bits make me much more visible while riding in the night), in the back right: 2/3 of my oponent.

Forces of Algeroth:

Nepharite, immaculate fury, squad of undead legionnaires, squad of necromutants.

Capitol patrol:

HMG operator on the hill back, squad of heavy infantry, squad of sunset strikers supported by hero wielding flamethrower.

Deaders advancing. Massive Kratach salvo put one of infantrymen down, immaculate fury put a bullet between eyes sunset striker. Heavy infantry failed panic roll and decided to step away from legionnaires line of rotten sight.

Capitol forces taking defensive positions: all those motherlovers are hidind and the hero controlling the hill is on overwatch. That sneaky bastard called airstrike over my forces so several zombies and necromutant leader were sent back to Algeroth.

Aerial view from the necrodrone.

My turn to play nasty!

Since I really enjoy playing WYSISYG my nepharite was melee monster (too bad that goddamn Sunset Striker badass wasn't much worse...) so in the following turn he casted compression spell, launched from the trench into infantry group killing 3 soliders (and making them run like bitches) and wounding Strikers hero and that was it.

On that moment  I didn't see brutal retaliation coming...

Necromutants commando advancing to take down hero from the hill:

that fucker was calling bombardment every turn destroying my precious zombies. 

Didn't he know how expensive re-animating fluid really was?!?!?!?

Like down below:

direct hit and 4 more corpses cannot carry their guns anymore.

On the oppisite side of the battlefield Strikers are getting closer to deal with remaining legionnaires and immaculate fury - didn't expect that model and not nepharite might survive the battle. Ooops!

Another round of epic duel:

Striker is still alive and spawn of Algeroth got 2 wounds!

Good news is necromutants managed to take down Capitol hero even though he was wearing armoured skin implant! Bad news is in the back: nepharite is down...

Immaculate fury is taking command over remaining zombies and preparing for the Sunset Strikers assault. Necromutants are trying to get some tigger time as well - boosted by previous success.

Another snapshot from the necrodrone:

legionnaires were taking down by well aimed Strikers' shots. Half of necromutants squad was burnt to stinky ashes by Strikers hero - who earned piece of lead between ears seconds later. Once again immaculate fury proves itself worthy bearing badge of badass of the match!

And the final pictures:

the last Sunset Striker looked at advancing enemy and since his charge range was shorter than Legion's ranged weapons, he decided turn back (with class of course) and easily, not running at all, leave the desert to report what happened.

Dessert time!

I've finally managed to finish one of the first models purchased ever: these were immaculate fury and Valpurgius (that one was painted by Dead Dogg - I didn't manage to deal with that piece despite several attempts).
I was always sure the model was cool but sadly it's just best of all 4 furies released - apart from sentimental value it's just what you see. And of course it survived the last game.

On the other hand horny piggy on the left is one of my fav classic Warzone models ever released. Paintjob is clearly based on the official painting but looks like it's just shade of oldschool glory - it's always the same if you try to copy someone's work. I am satisfied anyway - looks really cool among horde of of undead legionnaires and can be one big pain in the ass on the battlefield.
Hope you like them both!

 

Laters!