2016 Has Come and Gone

Sticking with my usual excuse for infrequent posting, I'll just say life has been incredibly busy. But I really mean it this time! 2016 did everything in its power to keep me away from the painting table as much as possible, and although I did get to crank out a few figures, 2016 succeeded in its goal.

2017 looks like things will be settling down again, and my life will resume its much-missed predictable flow, allowing more time for painting tiny soldiers.

I tweaked with this blog a bit, adding things like a "subscribe" button, a search list, popular posts, etc. These little bells and whistles are usually on all the blogs I read, and I was just recently informed on how do add these to my own blog - I know, I'm kinda slow in that department.

So what did get painted in 2016? Well, I'm still in love with SAGA, so I painted a few more figs for that game. (My only two posts in 2016 were of a unit of Viking Berserkers and a Priest.) I'm also, slowly, getting into Bolt Action. I've always wanted to play a WWII miniatures game, but I'm still trying to develop the patience it takes to paint men in the same uniform over and over. I did get one unit of U.S. infantry and a Sherman tank done, though, with plans to finish up the army within the next few months. (Really, I swear this time!)

Alright, enough yammering. Here are a few shots of what I was able to get done this year:


First the WWII stuff.

I don't paint enough vehicles. I think it's because I do not have an airbrush at my disposal. It took several passes of Vallejo Olive Drab for the base coat. This was also my first time applying decals. I will say that I am definitely not a fan. I also took a stab at messing around with weathering powders and mixes of orange and brown paint to provide some weathering. I'm not 100% happy with how it came out (and I am aware that historically, these tanks probably did not get so beat up, as they were routinely cleaned, etc. However, weathered tanks look cool, so that's my excuse), but it was a fun experiment.

Painting my first U.S. infantryman was fun. It took me foreeeevvverrr to decide on the colors I wanted. I did a ton of research, and found that uniform colors could be different depending on the year and theater. I really liked the way they were painted in the Bolt Action rulebook, so I tried to imitate that. Gotta love this guy's cigar!

And here's the first unit in front of the Sherman.

Then there was that one day when I was feeling nostalgic and did a speed-painting session on a Warhammer 40,000 Ork. WAAAGH!

Here's the Dark Ages (SAGA) stuff:

I think I had the most fun painting these Viking archers. I use them for my levies in my army. The figures are from Foundry, and they have so much personality. I want to get more of their sculpts - I don't even care which period.

Some Dane-Axe wielding hearthguard. You can never have enough of these guys.

I know it's considered "cheesy" in the historical wargaming community to have blood effects. But, dude, look at that pose. Why WOULDN'T he be standing in front of a stone he uses to decapitate his enemies?!

I think I'm slowly getting better at highlighting. I like the way the cape and shield came out here.

Out of everything I painted this year, I like the way these guys came out the best. I took my time with them, but I think it was worth the effort.

Until next time.

Dark Ages Priest

Holy crap! It's been seven months since I've posted anything? Well, to be fair, I've had quite a few life changes - new house (okay, okay, apartment), new job (pretty awesome!), getting married (even pretty awesomer!!), and a plethora of other hiccups along the way. I have picked up the brush at odd intervals since my last post, however. I'm still having fun painting figures for SAGA, but I've converted my Vikings into Anglo-Danes, because about 99% of SAGA players run Vikings, and playing Vikings vs. Vikings all the time gets pretty stale. I've also been working on a U.S. army for Bolt Action. I'll post my weathered M4 Sherman tank and infantry platoon in the next post - whenever that ends up happening!

In the meantime, here's a model I painted up to use as a Religious Advisor for my Anglo-Danish army. I don't roll very well when it comes to generating SAGA dice at the beginning of the turn, but this guy, as long as he's within 4" of my Warlord, allows me to roll a maximum of 7 dice instead of 6. Believe me, I can use all the help I can get. There's a little SAGA tournament called SAGAUST happening at my FLGS this Saturday. I hope I don't get slaughtered too much. If I remember, I'll take some pictures and post about it. Maybe.

Foundry Miniatures Vikings.

I just can't get enough of SAGA! This game is fantastic, and I'm clearly addicted to painting Vikings at the moment. Here are some models put out by Foundry Miniatures. I think they are far superior to the derpy Gripping Beast Viking models - but that's, like, just my opinion, man. Not much else to say except that I can't wait to play a game with them. Oh, I've also recently gotten into Frostgrave, a fantasy-themed skirmish game with wizards, spells, and treasure. I think these guys would work well as a wizard's retainers. Hmmm, I think I have a Reaper wizard lying around somewhere waiting to be painted...

SAGA Viking Warlord and First SAGA Battle Report

Here's the first post of 2016, and as promised, here are a couple shots of my recently finished Viking Warlord. I spent the last six weeks or so painting this army, and yesterday I had the opportunity to match up against a seasoned Viking player. I had my work cut out for me.

First, here's the Warlord:

I hand painted the shield (and all of my Vikings' shields). I went with the raven symbol of Odin, with a bit of battle damage for good measure.

 I was pleased with how the cape turned out. I'm not sure how historically accurate a Superman-like cape is, though.

Now, on to the battle report:

Our Warlords and their men had a bone to pick with each other. Words could only resolve so much, however, so out came the spears, swords, and axes. This feud needed to be settled in blood. 

A bird's-eye view of the battlefield right before things are about to get nasty!  

The two sides staring each other down, spewing insults, banging their axes against their shields, and preparing to attack.

My brave bondi warriors, in a shield-wall formation, are ready to receive a volley of arrows from those levies before charging in.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the board, that lone bondi warrior there with the black and yellow shield was the only survivor in a melee against those enemy hirdmen. My warriors managed to take out two with them, but the hirdmen hacked seven of my bondi to pieces!

 The 12-man unit of bondi were unscathed by the arrows; now they're ready to spill some blood.

Despite their best efforts, they couldn't take out those levies--they're tougher than they look!

More hack 'n slash on the other side of the battlefield.

My bondi then  shifted their focus and tried their darndest to take out the  enemy Warlord, but he was a resilient motherf*cker!

My impetuous warriors are now all pushing up daises. 

Again, on the other side of the battlefield, my berserkers were lagging behind in this fight. Perhaps they consumed too much magic mushroom ale beforehand?

Hirdmen are still escorting my Warlord until the right opportunity to strike presents itself.

Finally, it's showdown time. Don't send in boys to do a man's job, as they say. My hirdmen vs. the enemy Warlord...

 ...but they lost one man and retreated back.

 And then the other Viking player rolled well enough to get Ragnarok. All hell broke loose, and my army no longer stood a chance, thus ending the game.

My Warlord and most of his men are now feasting with the gods in Valhalla, but it was a blast and satisfying as hell to see my guys in action! Maybe I'll have better luck next time.

Until then.

Goodbye, 2015, And SAGA Vikings Are Done!

As of this writing 2016 is only a mere few hours away. My fiance is currently halfway across the world, and I'd rather not deal with the headache of going out and dealing with abysmal crowds, thanks in part (read: mostly) to my misanthropic nature. I'm happy enough staying in, sipping on some good ale, and reminiscing about the last 365 days. A lot has happened in my personal life since December 31, 2014--getting engaged, moving back to the U.S., and starting grad school, for starters--, but as this is a blog dedicated to my adventures in painting little metal and plastic soldiers, I'll spare you, the reader, (if there even are any!) my contemplative meanderings outside of hobbying.

Aside from the craziness that is my life, the time I devote to painting and gaming has seen a bit of a paradigm shift this year. This can be summarized in five words: I'm done with Warhammer 40,000. Okay, okay, I know those are some pretty hefty words there. In all honesty, I'll more than likely keep painting GW models, at least. I got some Space Wolves for Christmas that are just too awesome to keep in the box, and I'll still play my beloved Orks every now and then. But the pay-to-win and keeping-up-with-the-Joneses aspect of the game has taken its toll on my sanity (and bank account!). I don't mind losing games, but when I lose with my Orks against Tau, Necrons, Daemons, or a plethora of other armies with a final score of 0-68, I know something's wrong.  There are just so many better, balanced games out there. My more recent posts have hinted at the fact that I've gotten back into historical miniatures and games. SAGA has currently been my poison of choice, and I finished up two more Viking berserkers today, officially finishing my 4-point army; I still need to paint the Warlord, though. I'd like to expand the Vikings to a 6-point army, so I'm not completely done, however. I think I'll get another unit of Hearthguards, some Levies, and definitely a named Warlord. I've been watching Vikings and The Last Kingdom, so I'm partial to Ragnar Lothbrok, but Harald Hardrada is pretty bad-ass, too. And his ability to add a unit of Dane-axe-wielding Hearthguards sounds like too much fun to pass up.

Anyway, I'm already getting ahead of myself. I didn't get to paint this year as much as I'd have liked to, but I definitely enjoyed every stolen moment to do so. I worked on plenty of 40k Orks, a Reaper bard (who now currently has grown a beard; my painting/gaming pal Nils says he's a hipster.), an Age of Sigmar Retributor (I painted three but only posted a photo of one), a Reaper Bones Bugbear, which I'm calling my best work of 2015, and spent the last two months or so on these Vikings (while consuming much more time than the Bugbear, still coming in at a close second).

I'd like to continue this post, writing about my future plans for 2016, but the ale (Bootlegger's Golden Chaos) has started to take its effect, so I better wrap it up here. For now I'll post a picture of my Viking berserkers. A full shot of the entire 4-point army will be my first post of 2016.


Happy New Year!

I had a blast wrapping up 2015 by painting these guys. And, yes, the guy on the right IS straight out of Dragon Age! (He's a berserker; there's gotta be some blood here, c'mon.)

First Viking Hirdmen

Here are two (of four) of my Viking hirdmen for SAGA. These guys function as the Warlord's personal guards. I'm still chipping away at this army, but currently being on winter break should help me reach my goal of having the entire army complete by New Year's.

I'm slowly making the transition away from GW paints to Vallejo. I traded in a bunch of old RPG books at my FLGS and got about $200 store credit! This allowed me to pick up quite a few new colors. The Vallejo Model Color paints are a lot thinner than I'm used to, but they make painting thin layers and subtle highlights so much easier. These fellas are painted with said paints; I really like the results.

I've been researching online about the Vikings so that my army can be (somewhat) historically accurate. That being said, I'm not afraid to take liberties here and there. Aesthetically and artistically pleasing models are more important to me than factual faithfulness--the shields, for example.

Zzap Gun

I've been having a lot of success blowing stuff up with Mek Guns in my Ork army for 40k. I don't use the models put out by GW, though; they are just waaay too expensive. I bought some cheaper figures put out by Kromlech a few months back that I use as Kannons and Lobbas. Apparently, I also bought this figure (put out by Mantic Games. I think it's called a Hailstorm cannon - or something like that) along with those models but completely forgot about it until I found it a few days ago hanging out it in my bits box. I had some free time yesterday, so I decided to spend my lazy Sunday working on this model. It was a relaxing afternoon goofing around with highlights, paint chippings, and some kind of laser thing-a-ma-bob glow along the barrels.