Ravings of Insomnia

Well, it's 4:30 in the morning, and thanks to an utterly ridiculous pair of dreams, I now am awake and unable to fall back asleep. Insomnia sucks, but I figure I might use this time for something productive.

So, as I stated before, I love painting. It is my passion and my pride. As I have had several people complain about not understanding the articles, I shall focus on this aspect to see if it works better.

Anyways, One of the armies I'm currently working on is Space Marines. I decided to go with something a bit more interesting than what most people did, and am painting them in the colors of the Imperial Fists. Now, any 40k player can tell you why that is difficult. Yellow. They're predominately yellow, one of the most difficult colors to paint well. I'll be showing some pictures of a company champion (Used Emperor's Champion model with a shield attached) that I painted in the scheme. I managed to discover, with some assistance from Youtube, an amazing technique for painting the color well.

PAINTING YELLOW

The first step is to prime the model white. This is crucial, as it allows a good contrast for the following steps.

Step 2 is to apply gyphon sepia wash to the yellow areas. This is a light brown wash that will stain the white as well as shade the shadow areas in a very effective manner.

Step 3 apply sunburst yellow, diluted 1:1. You should have the consistency of milk for you paints, and for this and later steps, use a small amount of paint on the brush. I'm talking nearly a drybrushing amounts. Hit all the areas not seriously darkened by the sepia wash. Use a light brushing to apply, and hit the areas from multiple angles to eliminate brush strokes.

Once you are happy with the yellow (DO NOT MOVE ON till this layer is dry and you are happy with it. If there is any splotchyness after drying go over to make the color uniform. Super thin layers, don't gunk it on) use Bad Moon Yellow (Pale yellow) for step 4. Dilute again, hit the raised areas and broad expanses, we're talking everywhere the light will hit directly. Leave the original yellow in the non-direct light, and the sepia in the shadows. Same brush style for the new yellow as the first. Finally, you'll be using bleached bone for the highlights. Raised edges, corners of pauldrons, anywhere light would collect and reflect brightest get a very light layering of the bone white color. It's basically to represent the actual reflection of light, and as such use it sparingly. We're Imperial Fists, not Deathwing!. You can finish up by using a very controlled brush to reapply the sepia wash back into the cracks and any mistakes, and then painting the rest of the details, before sealing the model with varnish.

That's it for today, I'll be trying to hit the hay again. Next time I'll be covering gems, lenses, windows, and other assorted shiny bits!

Good night, and good luck!

PS The pics I promised. Need more with better camera, but this is what I've got!

A New Week

That's right, it's a new week, full of opportunity! Welcome to the final bit of July, and I hope it's treating you all well. So, as you can hopefully tell by now, I am not a competitive gamer. I don't have fun sitting around computing ultimate strategies to sweep whole tables at the nearest gaming con. I am fluffy. I love the story, I love the effort in making models that look beautiful, I love playing against friends and challenging opponents in a very casual setting. That is not to say that I don't like competitions! I've entered into several painting and modelling competitions (Local level, sadly) and won handily! Nearly swept a War of the Ring Opening painting tournament, Army, Monster, Unit, Character. Didn't have a monster to enter, but that's not the point. My point is, and some of you might have seen a similar post on BoLS tonight, that painting is an integral part of the hobby, and it breaks my heart to see the quality of paint jobs at my new LGS. Not the gobbed on paints, as those indicate a certain level of skill, and can be improved. No, I mean the primed only, or worse, unpainted naked models, grey plastic. It breaks my heart to see those neglected models. After all, if you buy the models, and don't paint them, you are buying for the sole purpose of winning tournaments, in which case why even use the expensive models in the first place?

Of course, there are exceptions. The guy who can't afford the paints, or can't afford the time off. The guy who works slowly, to excruciating precision. The kid who needs a mentor to show them what to do. The newbie who just bought his first squad, and is eager to try them out. These all make sense, and are totally acceptable! But when I come back, week after week, to new ranks of Dark Eldar, or a brand new Carnifex, without a single drop of paint, when I see purchases made, and no effort to paint, it really chafes my hide, because those models need attention too. If you really were a point-cutting, seat of your pants competition player, you'd understand that most tournaments have a painting score, a sportsmanship score, simple things that make the game more fun and more of a community. I can still name four guys I played with from my store 6 years ago, but I can't recall even the faces of my latest opponents, and their cookie-cutter army lists, primed pure white. There's no individuality, or passion, which is the entire reason why we, as gamers, enjoy this hobby that seems destined to ostracize us. If we don't have our creativity and unique style, then how is that different from a football player, or any other athlete. Oh, that's right, we're on the whole weaker than them. Not painting armies, I therefore postulate, is simply trying to emulate athletics without the actual exercise. If you're okay with that, be my guest. But realize these are the stakes.

I beg of you, please comment below. Thoughts, arguments, stories, anything at all. Just remember the cardinal rule, and Be Awesome. No flaming, got it?

For your patience in sticking with me through the wall of text, I shall reward you with one of the new Finecast Commissars, personally painted by myself. And just who am I? Well, you can call me Lord Fancy Feast.


Good night, and good luck.

More Musings

So, it's time once again for a new posting! End of the week, I'm thinking of having some fun with this one, so I'm proposing the following scenario. You have enough points for one Tau Sniper Drone Squad, and your opponent has the same number of points of Space Marines. In the comments below, describe a TACTICAL way to win the fight! You're on a small board with medium terrain, of a city-fighting nature. Let's see that community tactical genius at work. And remember, it's all fun and games, I don't need twelve posts of flaming or piss-measuring contests. Best idea (Measured by me of course and a panel of judges I have) gets a mention next week. GO!

News from the East

Well, to any of you who read Bell of Lost Souls, or other rumor sites, this won't come as a surprise, but to everyone else, apparently a new codex for Warhammer 40k is on the horizon. Chaos Legions, focusing on the original 9 Legions that led the Horus Heresy, will be released, supposedly in the spring of next year. This is superseding the Tau codex rumors of the same time, pushing my favorite army's book back to an unknown time slot. Of course, this is a blessing in disguise for me, as supposedly the summer after CL is T-10 and counting for 40k 6th Edition! All right, now we're talking! As far as I understand it, Necrons, followed by Chaos Legions, followed by 6th Ed! A good line-up, making this coming year a good reason to play!

Of course, plenty of people are going to be angry about this, worrying about Chaos Legions being broken come 6th, but I'm not one to complain! It gives us an opportunity to model and build and have fun! And isn't that what the hobby is all about, whether you're a fluff player or a comp player?

In other events, we've got Warhammer Fantasy Storm of Magic released now. It is, as described by other reviewers, an excellent addition, building magic up in a good way, allowing plenty of fun and wacky hi-jinks to ensue. Apparently, it isn't targeted towards competition, with all the insanity and randomness, but rather towards a way to take an existing army, and add the monsters and wizards you've always wanted, but couldn't because of army rules! I for one am going to enjoy slapping a dragon with my Brettonian horse lords!

That's all I've got so far, pulled from BoLS and Warseer. If anyone else have any comments, hit the button below. If you think I missed your favorite army's upcoming rumors, comment! I love hearing rumors about everything! However, I also would rather not have the comments turn into a massive flame war, so let's keep it civil! I'd love to have my comments turn into a debate club meeting, but if insults start getting thrown, I will start closing the comments.

Thanks for reading, and I'll be back later for more! G'nite all!

First things first

My first blog post. I always thought I'd never do something like this, and I'll most likely forget to update this in a week,but as my girlfriend made hers, I guess I can give this a shot.

However, as her's is a ranting blog, mine shall mostly be based on my general experiences as a tabletop gamer, with random thoughts and such added in. Mainly, my way to elaborate and build my thoughts in coherent manner. So I suppose you could think of this as a journal, mostly. So! On with the show, shall we?

My name is Chris, I go to HSU, I practice fencing, I'm over 21, and that's about all the personal information I'm giving out. Friends will be able to find me, and if you can't figure out who I am by now, well you're not my friend. My apologies for the brusque manner, but I'd rather not have stalkers or the like, especially given the topics of discussion. I enjoy gaming, but it's not my life.

Speaking of gaming, I play plenty of video games, most recently I've enjoyed Guitar Hero, Team Fortress 2, and Borderlands. I'm not amazing at gaming on consoles or PC's, unless I can play strategy games. This is what got me into tabletop games in the first place.

I had a couple friends who enjoyed the Lord of the Rings series, and they introduced me to the Fellowship of the Ring game, by Games Workshop. I followed the game, never making purchases, until the Return of the King, when I bought a Ringwraith on Fell beast. The model was built and painted in an atrocious fashion, with plenty of primary colors, but I digress. I continued building an army of darkness, until I discovered the wonders of the soldiers of Gondor. My first army died, and I've played a Free Peoples army ever since.

I've also branched into 40k (My primary game, Tau and Guard, and the game I managed to convince my girlfriend to play, Eldar) and Fantasy (Small bands of Chaos Warriors and Brettonian Knights). I've tried playing both Battlefleet Gothic as well as Flames of War, but currently lack funding to get into either game. I've also begun recently playing rpgs, after starting with Vampire the Requiem, as well as the Fantasy Flight Games 40k RPG series. I'd love to play more, but in my experience the people who can get me in are arrogant arses, and the people who aren't can't afford to play.

I have a distinct hatred of assholes who look down on gamers due to percieved flaws, such as lack of enjoyment of American sports. I also intensely hate so-called 'emos' because the VAST majority of them have no idea what it means to have a hard life. Try being unemployed and broke with no familial support for once, see how you like it. Anyways, this should be enough for my first post, I'll be back later to update more.

G'nite all!