Saturday, March 31, 2012

Warhammer Quest - Base Set

So, here we are.  About 6 months after I began painting this set in my spare time I finally finish with the Hero's this afternoon.  I'm excited.  Unsurprisingly as most people are when they finally finish a project they've been meaning to do.

I still have some expansion stuff, and extra characters that I want to paint but with Adepticon right around the corner I have other more necessary things to accomplish.  Army display boards, movement trays, etc...  Still, here are the pictures of the characters and the full set for you all to enjoy.

We have the hero's fronts and backs.


 
And the set as a whole.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Warhammer Quest - Skaven

Today I finished the Skaven for my Warhammer Quest set.  The most exciting part about that fact is that now I only have the 4 hero's remaining to be painted before Adepticon.  This is actually what I've been looking forward to the most since I can't really batch paint the Hero's I get to put a little extra time and really make them look better than the rest of the set.  Which is as it should be since they are the main focus anyway.


The Waaaghcast! Cup - End Week 7


Week 7 saw literally the fewest casualties sustained yet in the series.  Only two players listed on our roster for casualties, and not even a single death!  What is this sport coming to?  The Dwarf team The Longbeard Brawlers managed to knock the 1st place High Elves, Straight Outta Ulthuan off the top of the rankings but for how long?

You can read it all here!

Check it all out in the: Week 7 Newsletter

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Ryan G.: Stonehorn




Better late than never right? Anyway, I am still working on the Ogres even though I did not get them done by the ToFG time frame. Congrats to Joe for being the only one of us to do so. I have, however, recently finished up the Stonehorn, and figured I would throw up some pictures for you.

 

I have only played about 4-5 games with him at this point, but so far I like him. I get a little over zealous with him, and he has never survived an entire game for me. I keep running him off on his own and he ends up dying, but he does take out plenty with him. I just have to hold him back an extra turn and send him in with the rest of my army, and he will be great.



 
He is also a great cannon magnet. He halves all multiple wounds that he takes so it will take 2 very good cannon shots to take him out. Since he has 6 wounds, it is more likely that it will take 3 shots to kill him.
    


Up next for me is a couple more Ironguts to paint for the 1000 point tournament at Adepticon, but from there I have to get back into gear for 2400 points of Blood in The Sun, and paint up an Ironblaster, 4 Mournfangs, a Tyrant BSB, and possibly a Firebelly. Wish me luck on getting everything done, because I am going to need it.
Cheers,
Ryan G.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

The Waaaghcast! Cup - End Week 6


At the ending of week 6, we see some weak sauce output by 6 of the teams with those 3 games ending in draws.  Chris Barnette's High Elves seem to be getting the better of everyone now that they are developing and Joe's Dwarfs put the serious boot to Ryan G's Human Team.

Check it all out in the: Week 6 Newsletter

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Warhammer Quest Goblins!

 So it's been a while since I last posted some progress on the WHQ set.  I've had these near done for a good long while, but hadn't actually clear coated or pictured them until today.  I'm also about halfway through the Skaven.



Saturday, March 10, 2012

The Waaaghcast! Cup - End Week 5


Week 5 see's good amounts of carnage but a dull week for wins/losses as 3 of the 5 games ended in draws.  There was of course Chris Barnette's blowout victory over his co-host Dave Witek 0-4 in his favor.

Read all about it below!!!!

Week 5 Newsletter

Friday, March 9, 2012

God save the queen... er... Brush!

A Windsor Newton series of brushes.
Paint brushes.  We all own them.  They are an integral part of our hobby, yet few treat them with the respect they deserve.  Myself included.  Unless your an artist you've probably done what I do pretty often which is buy cheaper brushes from hobby stores in bulk and just toss them as they get used up.  However, if your a serious painter; either in actual or art or in model painting then you likely spend a good chunk of cash on your brushes and as such you expect them to last a while.

However, no matter how nice something is it wont last long without proper care and treatment.  This blog post is a quick discussion on brush soap or solvents/cleaners/restorers.  They go by many names but in the end they are all the same thing for our purposes.  They are a cleaning chemical designed to help your brush last longer and stay in shape.  Shape is very important to a brush, but we'll get to that in a bit.

First let's take a look at the humble paintbrush:
Note the 4 portions of a brush.
Clearly the most important parts of a brush are those at the brush end which see the action of painting.  The handle whilst important is really only so if you desire or require certain style grip.  Some people have no idea that there are different styles, but I prefer a pencil grip.  The handle is a solid thickness all the way through, and with more space to grasp and the natural feeling of having used pens/pencils all our lives I think it gives a bit better control. Again, not entirely important for this conversation.

Here's the main point of this conversation.  We've all used paintbrushes, and we've used them until their dead.  Usually this results in a pretty nice brush eventually getting trimmed into a drybrush or a stipling brush later in life.  Usually around the time that its looking like this:
This brush has definitely seen better days.
Have you ever wondered how that happens?  Even though you think you take really good care of your brushes?  Look at that anatomy picture again.  See, when you paint you dip your bristles into the paint.  As you put paint onto your models/canvas the paint slowly crawls up those bristles from the bottom (or if your not particular about how much paint is on your brush is already at the top).  That paint that crawls up the bristles moves into and under the metal ferrule.  The ferrule has a simple job.  Give the bristles a shape and form; then hold them there.  The problem is that when paint works its way up into the ferrule that even though we tinkle it around in water the paint doesn't come out.

Eventually this paint dries inside of it and that dried paint is what eventually causes your bristles to splay out from their original shape.  Now the brush above has obviously had worse done to it than that.  Clearly the bristles are bent signaling that it has had rough treatment such as being left sitting in a water pot on its tip thus bending them (which I'm sure NONE of you do, right?).  Still when that paint dries it essentially ruins the brushes.  Or so one might think.

There are a number of different products out there made by many different companies that are designed to help thoroughly clean your brushes and retain their shape longer by getting that paint out of the ferrule for you.  Tonight I'll be looking at one of these products.
Windsor Newton Brush Cleaner & Restorer
Clearly you can get this stuff in a lot of different sizes, etc...  a small bottle runs around $10 USD.  The particular one I have is here:
The instructions for this are pretty simple.  Soak your brush in it.  Its a clear solution with a light odor.  Somewhat like turpentine or paint thinner.  I'm not entirely certain that isn't its primary component, but it claims to be 'non-toxic' so I assume that it isn't.  The key to this particular product is finding a way to keep your brush in the liquid without sitting it on the bottom.  I simply taped my brushes to the inside of a cup.  Speaking of which, you shouldn't put this stuff in a plastic one.  Cup that is.  It is a solvent remember, so it could melt its way out. Go glass or metal for a container.

After a nice 2 hour soak of 4 brushes that I've owned for a good long time I took them out.  Lathered up a small bit of dish soap and warm water in my hands and gave the brushes a mild swirling in the soap.  Then a gentle rinse through some warm water and wiped them down on a cloth attempting to reshape them as I did so.  You can see the results below:
Notice the two on the left are still in pretty bad shape.  I've had these for a long time and they had been the kind that were turned into drybrushes.  The two on the right however came out nicely.  Considering they looked a bit like the ones on the left at the start.  I've read that repeated washings will continue this improvement process up to a point.  Damage is still damage and you'll never get them back to their original shape, but at least you can get them into a usable one.

The best thing to do is be kind to your brushes.  I suggest getting some brush soap or cleaner and using it after every time you paint.  An step of prevention saves a mile of repair or replacement.  No matter how cheap your brushes are or are not, its worth the extra 10 spot to make them last just that much longer.  Hopefully you found this discussion useful.  You should be able to pick up any of these type of products in the art/paint section of any hobby shop although (shockingly I might add) GW doesn't make their own.  Of course they want you to continually buy there brushes at their exorbitant prices so yeah...

I've used one other brush cleaner product as well and that is The Master Painter Brush Soap:
This is a screw top tub filled with a solid/squishy soap that you gently swirl your brush on top of when you use it to clean the brush.  It is also a conditioner, designed to make your bristles softer (I suppose the idea is softer bristles leave less stroke marks).  About the same price as the Windsor Newton stuff.  My recommendation is try some different kinds.  See what works for you.



Friday, March 2, 2012

The Waaaghcast! Cup - End Week 4


Week 4 goes out with a whimper.  Only a small handful of injuries and 2 deaths.  My game was fantastic this week!  Not only did everything go my way, I actually planned a play with the Dwarfs that worked!  That and I passed the ball at least once I do believe.  It was great!

Read all about it below!!!!

Week 4 Newsletter