New Year and New Tasks

It's that time again! "Month 2" has been completed and we move on to month 3 now! As a quick recap, last "month" we were to make a piece of scenery that we had each chosen, make a piece of terrain that we had randomly generated, create a scenario and we later added in to paint either a rank or a single character in our previously decided upon colour schemes.

At this stage I am the only one to have completed all tasks set out so far, Stormsoul is a close second having only one unpainted model from her rank of Wardancers (otherwise completed all tasks), followed by Sousunou who didn't complete any terrain nor the scenario and started 4 rats. Skyjacker is last with no updates of any kind.

So, as a rundown of what each of us have completed:
Hashut's Blessing:

• 750 point army list (was legal at the time of making it, but now requires a Vampire)
• Objective Marker
• Paint scheme
• Fluff
• Names for all characters/units
• Chosen terrain (Raging Torrent)
• Random Terrain (Scree Slope)
• Scenario (Will upload and link to it so that it can be downloaded)
• Paint one rank or a character

Stormsoul:

• 750 point army list
• Objective Marker
• Paint scheme
• Background information
• Names for all characters/units
• Chosen terrain (Venom Thicket)
• Random terrain (building)
• Scenario (Will upload and link to it so that it can be downloaded)
• Painted 4 out of 5 Wardancers

Sousunou:

• 750 point army list
• Objective marker
• Paint Scheme
• Fluff
• Names for all characters/units
• Currently balancing scenario
• Started to paint 4 rats

Skyjacker:

• 750 point army list
• Paint scheme (Average of 2 shades on 4 locations)
• Fluff
• Names for all characters/units
• An idea for an objective marker
• Grapevine says work has started on his terrain (Chosen = Blazing Barricade, Random = Haunted Mansion)

Scoring is yet to be done for this month, but we have a surprise for y'all! We have a new gamer joining in - he has agreed to try and catch up, so he's not getting away scott-free. His pseudonym is: (yet to be chosen) and he's decided to go for a Lizardmen army. He's being sorting out which terrain he wants to make and has randomly selected, as well as devising an army list (that he's tweaking), a paint scheme, some names and even started to paint some models.

The next month's tasks are to paint the rest of the army, create a name for said army (since we only named the units and characters. What a wolly to have not thought of the army's name, eh?) and to select at least one of the following: write a piece of fluff, draw something relevant to your army (this may be commissioned, but the amount of requirements to the artist must be in-depth) or to extend current fluff. A little note: at least 3 of us have begun the rest of the painting already...

Also, I seem to have not posted Sousunou's fluff, so here it is:
Vermin Rising

Forg’s fur began to stand on end as the bizarre contraption continued to emit a progressively higher whine. There was a sensation of barely contained energy building up and Forg was not entirely sure the promises made by Skreetz were to be trusted. Finally, the strange form that was Skreetz waved his paw, and an arm seemingly attached to the device pulled the lever. For a heart pounding moment there was absolute silence and Forg began to feel certain that he was being double crossed.  Just as he was about to run the hunched form standing to his side through with his dagger there was a sudden wrench in the very fabric of reality, followed by an ear splitting wail and blinding green light. Forg jumped at this audio-visual onslaught and was torn between holding his paws to his ears, or his one remaining eye.
“See-see. works every time, no-nothing lives when this near.” proclaimed Skreetz excitedly, somewhat muffled through his ‘safeness-thing’ which only now Forg noticed contained conveniently darkened lenses.
Forg turned to inspect the remains of the slaves that had been used as a demonstration. They were gone. Nothing at all remained of the ten victims of this test aside from a few smouldering feet. In fact, nothing remained of much else for a long way behind the test area. Boulders that a giant would have struggled to pick up had oddly shaped holes pierced through them, which were still glowing green, and were dissolving from the inside out. No two holes were alike and the contorting shapes were beginning to give Forg a headache. He turned to Skreetz, “Yes, I take it. You both come too.”
Skreetz stopped breathing for a moment, his mind reeling at the implications of this development. He had not forseen this request, and truth be told did not really want to go along with it as this would mean leaving the relative safety of his boobytrapped laboratory. He usually did not like talking to anyone but himself as this was the only company he could truely trust, most of his dealings were conducted via farsqueeker or his almost sentient constructs.Forg began to stare suspiciously at Skreetz, who caught this glance and quickly tried to appear to be thinking. He uttered “we will come, but it costs more now. double. you pay before we go.”
Forg promptly agreed the price and marked the deal with a pawprint, knowing full well that it was still cheaper than he would get elsewhere. Unfortunatly this is mainly due to the fact that nothing designed by Skreetz has ever worked quite how it was designed to, yet still managed to be just as lethal as he has envisioned.

Forg skurried away to make preparations for his campaign against the overworld and within a few seconds was unable to be seen or heard.
Skreetz felt a sense of satisfaction, relief and something that can only be described as acomplishment. His latest experiment was the fruit of many years of tinkering, tweaking, adjusting and complete overhaul of various ideas and whims. He had always wanted to remove all risk of harm (mostly to himself) from experiments and weapons but could never really bring himself to trust anyone else to do it right. He had been visited by one of the revered master engineers of clan Skryre and forced to take on an apprentice. This actually served his plans well, so he emphatically agreed and set to work on his hapless associate.
Within a month of being together, Skreetz had managed to ‘persuade’ his minion to agree to being fitted with a set of metal legs, grafted straight into the hip. Within another month, he had fitted a fully powered exo-skeleton, enabling him to lift many times his own weight with great ease. Again, even Skreetz’ curse struck. This time in the form of a massive overload in the power systems causing an explosion of tremendous magnitude which was felt for many miles in all directions. Citizens of the empire took great interest in the mysterious disappearance of one of their rural villages, and the smouldering abyss that had replaced it. Many claimed that it was a message from Sigmar to remain devout whilst others spoke of divine blessings from the gods, ending the suffering of the citizens. None truely guessed the real reason.
With much of his research destroyed, and yet more of it encased in cooling bedrock, Skreetz requested a new apprentice to further his work – this was promptly refused, and all possibility of ever having one again was ruled out.
Certain that he was on to something, Skreetz set about locating a suitable specimen for his next project using a legion of specially augmented common rats. Once it was located, neutralised and dragged back to the safety of his lab, he wasted no time before setting to work on the upgrades. This time, he decided it was probably best to fit a release valve of some description to the contraption to avoid any more unpleasant results. He named the resulting hybrid rat-machine ‘Fischnag’ after the sound it had made when he inserted the last warpstone core into the being’s spinal column.
Further testing and fiddling led to yet more upgrades and advancements, each more revolutionary (some would say insane) than the last. Finally, during a paranoid waking dream, his masterpiece was realised. An answer to his every conundrum. His reason for being. Skreetz realised that if he attached his creation to a Warp-lighting canon, all risk of hostility from friend and foe alike to himself would be eliminated due to the remote shutdown apparatus built into his arm. Genius. Even if he was the only one clever enough to realise it.

Yuletide reckonings!

Merry Winter festivities to all and sundry! Managed to get a few bits completed today and on Christmas eve (although not Christmas day because of joyous celebrating). I managed to finish off my Scree Slope and add snow to it and the bases of my Skeleton Warriors, completing all of my tasks this time around (will post my scenario around new year for perusal). Stormsoul completed her building after changing tack at the last minute because we both felt that the original one wasn't working as well as we'd imagined (although I shall later complete it for the sake of it), instead completing a Brettonian watchtower (since they're on the outskirts of Athel Loren) and got a little further with painting her Wardancers.

With the watchtower, the paintscheme was quite simple: Bleached Bone with Devlan Mud wash on the lighter parts, Chaos Black with a drybrush of Shadow Grey on the darkest parts, Codex Grey with a drybrush of Fortress Grey on the mid-tone parts, Terracotta roofing tiles, Scorched Brown for the door and Boltgun Metal on the door-handle/chain.

Anywho, we're packing tonight to head down to Essex tomorrow (early in the morning) to see my family for Christmas and hopefully meet up with Sousunou (and Skyjacker if he's about). I'm packing my Skeleton Warriors and Stormsoul's Wardancers, with the paints she needs to finish them, in the hopes of using my scenario as a four-way battle as a little Christmas surprise and so that Stormsoul has a chance to finish painting her Wardancers before new year!

See y'all on the other side!

Nearing completion on two fronts!

 Well, I decided to have my unit of Skeletons be 8 wide (meaning 4 ranks deep) and, as a result, I had to paint another Skeleton. I chose the unit champion because it's a little more interesting than another ordinary warrior - but it's also because I got to test out the skin painting and the beard painting techniques. Ultimately, I'm really quite pleased with the results!

Also, today, I managed to get another few stages closer to completing my Scree Slope! I finished adding the sand to the borders last night and proceeded to paint them Space Wolves Grey, then washed them with Badab Black. Still trying to figure out what to do at the bottom edge to smooth it out - any suggestions? I also plan to add Static Grass at the sand/grass join to make a better transition and add some splodges of snow to the whole piece to help make it fit into my army's bases a little better. I also want to add some snow to my riverbanks to help tie those in as well (as I'm too lazy to repaint the borders in Space Wolves Grey).

Also, Stormsoul has been hard at work, drawing out, cutting and gluing together her Wood Elf cabin (the Building). She's got plans to fill it with papier mache to add some strength and resistance to it before she starts adding "the planks" to it. Not long left in which to do it all! But, she has also been adding paint to her Wardancers (no pictoral updatefor those yet).

Lastly, I have created my scenario, but do not yet wish to reveal it so that I can make any necessary tweaks as well as adding in some interesting fluff/background to it...

Some progress!

Hey to all and sundry, once again! This time around, after 8 days of procrastination and working (simultaneously somehow), we actually have some pictures to put up of our work! I managed to get the majoirty of my rank painted up with very minimal amounts left to do (I.E. basing and deciding if I'm going to have the unit be 10 wide or 7 wide [basically, if I'm going to paint another 3 skeletons or not]), Stormsoul has got the basis of her scenario completed (but she is going to look back through it to see if she wants to keep it the way that it is or not and she wants to add some fluff so that it's not all just rules), I also gave her an early Christmas present (since she gave me one of mine early: the original Star Wars trilogy on DVD because my other set had broken :'( But yay and whoop for the new one!) in the form of some Skaven rats, a couple of spiders and a baby dragon so that she could add them to her Venom Thicket when she's ready and, lastly, Stormsoul has been getting to work with painting some of her wardancers, although she is taking a little more time on one or two of them.

So, to start off with, here are my 7 Dwarf Skeleton Warriors! I realised, once I'd finished doing all of my written scheme (that was applicable to these models - I may have to do the unit champion to get the flesh and beard in as well!), that I had nothing for the weapon handles, nor the shields or bases! So, I decided to have a basic Chaos Black handle, since I didn't want it to detract from the rest of the model, but also didn't want it to blend it - I think it helps to frame them quite nicely. For the shields, I thought I'd be "clever" and steal Stormsoul's wood pattern (the condition of these shields is partly from clipping them off of old models [which will be my zombies] and them being glued ont he wrong way, hence the wood facing out), so they are Graveyard Earth, with a drybrush of Desert Yellow and the cracks are edged with Kommando Khaki (the flat, back side of the shields is also Chaos Black). As for the bases, again I didn't want it to detract, nor blend it, but I also wanted it to fit their mountain home - Space Wolves Grey was the answer, since I wasn't using it anywhere else (unlike the greys for the flesh or the browns of the belts/boots & spear-wraps) and I think to help finish them off nicely, I shall provide a smattering of snow to the base (much like my WotR Dwarfs - http://minesandmodels.blogspot.com/).

Ah, before I forget, (Stormsoul can confirm this as she sat next to me and I showed her so that I had back-up!) I have used Badab Black, like I said I would, but it's only int he recess of the ribs/stomach area, in the eye sockets and teeth and any cracks in the skulls (such as the big holes at the back of some and the scratches of the one-eyed one. His single eye has been painted Kommando Khaki [I think. It may have been Bleached Bone again...] after all other painting was done).

Stormsoul's scenario is based around her objective marker and trying to remove it from the board for nefarious deeds of corruption or trying to protect it from the blight of the forest's enemies to heal the wounded trees in the area. Sounds very exciting to me and I can't wait to play it (although it'll be easier for me to play at a larger points level when I have the Raise Dead spell!), but it's not ready yet and neither are our models. I haven't asked her if she wants it posted yet, so I won't reveal more than that except to say that the spite itself isn't so defenceless! Mwahahahahahahaha! (Note to self: cut down on exclamation mark use.)

This is the current state of the Christmas present that I mentioned - she's not yet begun painting and placing them because she's been unwell all week and is at work today (I think tomorrow as well) and has been working on her scenario and planning out her Wood Elf building.

Here are the wardancers thus far, meaning that we both only have two tasks left to complete each! I'm not yet sure what she wants said about these models, but they are still in need of bases (although I have custom built a movement tray for them. It's made from cork tile because that's what I had in my hand at the time). The two tasks for her are to make the Wood Elf building and to finish painting her Wardancers/Venom Thicket models (both only half tasks, really). My two tasks left to do are to finish off my Scree Slope and to create a scenario - I have the premise set in mind, but want to add a few eextra quirks to it to make it more interesting still!

I believe that that's all for this update, but I can always edit/add a post to include anything that I've forgotten!

The World's Most Belated Scores!

Well, it's that time of reading again,w hen I apologise for being so late. In my defence, this one isn't my fault int he slightest. I was waiting until roughly a week ago for the marks to be presented to me by Sousunou for the writing section of the last set of tasks and have been waiting (until now) for Skyjacker to get back to me with the same scores, as well as evidence of his objective marker. Having still not received either of Skyjacker's necessary tidbits, I have used an equal mark to give to myself, Sousunou and Stormsoul so that we can move on.

Ultimately, the gist is that I have finally been able to work out the last few tidbits for the scores! So, the end of the first set of tasks leaves us with the following:

• Hashut's Blessing in first with 37 points (aided by the complete all tasks first bonus)
• Stormsoul second with 34 points
• Sousunou third with 31 points
• Skyjacker fourth with 29 points

As for progress on this month's tasks, I still haven't got around to adding PVA to my river, although I'm thinking that it could quite easily ruin it and I'm still trying to figure out how to do it as is. I keep meaning to finish the sand and rock gluing on my Scree Slope, but things keep getting in the way (was filiming this week and then had a meeting today with a games education course and had to sort out my lost/stolen wallet problem), but this should be able to get done in time. Stormsoul has had parts for her Venom Thicket arrive today and plans to get to work on them A.S.A.P. However, may have to undercoat by brush, since Yorkshire was the worst region hit byt the snow in England ;) Sousunou is trying to work on his scenario primarily, since his materials are in storage at the moment, meaning he may not be able to get to them in time (but fingers crossed!). Skyjacker has, from the grapevine, got something that looks like it should be pretty damned fine when it's completed!

I don't believe that I've said this yet, but it's best to announce it just in case! We added another task to make up for the time extension and we have actually decided what it is now: our choice of painting one rank of models from our army list or a single character! This way, we get to test our colour schemes, everyone gets to see the end result of them and it'll take up a bit of extra time - it also satisfies those that wanted to see models, but haven't done in two and a half months... Since we're all so far ebhind with our terrain as is, we didn't think we needed a second additional objective, especially since we couldn't decide what it should be :D

As for scoring in this second set, we're going for a similar system of points based on the amount of progress per objective. An example (which will formt he basis of our discussion) is:

1. Chosen terrain: 1 point for a plan of how to do it/how it will look, 2 points for having made it, 3 points for having finished it.
2. Random terrain: 1 point for a plan of how to do it/how it will look, 2 points for having made it, 3 points for having completed it.
3. Scenario: The same marks out of 10 procedure as with the written portion of last month (being awarded for enjoyment potential, ingenuity, interestingness and fairness, etc. Note - those are guidelines, not strict points of consideration).
4. Models: 1 point for construction, 2 points for including the base colours, 3 points for adding the second colours and 4 points for using a third layer (these only count if they are in the colour scheme, which may be changed next month to rectify any problems). Of note - a character must visibly have taken as long as a minimum sized rank.

Any comments and constructive criticisms are most welcome. Would love to start hearing feedback from more than hero of gondor, although I do appreciate his(/her) comments ;)

As promised!

As I promised, I have pictures (as ever, I'm late with posting this. Why do I tell everyone I'm always late with this? Hmmm, oh well...) of my progress thus far! Raging Torrent sections, made from cork tile bases, thin strips of cardboard to heighten and define the banks, lightweight filler to build up the banks, a scattering of sand glued down to texture the water, spray black and add paint! The banks are Bestial Brown (to match Stormsoul's base colour so that we can place them on the same table and have the bases match), the water is Ultramarines Blue, with splodge-lines of Hawk Turqoise to show the running water and broken surface tension, highlighted with Ice Blue (I plan to add a few bits of pure Skull White for the very crests etc).

For the bends (of which you can see there are two, both of which curve 90 degrees to the left), I sloped the inside bank gently and the outside bank steeply to show how the sediment would build up in the direction that the water is travelling before the turn. I also added Scorched Brown to where it would be wet (even drbrushing it at the outside corner to show it had sprayed further) and then coated that with 'Ardcoat varnish to make it look freshly wet. I did the same thing to the ford after having built it up with cardboard and lightweight filler, covering it with sand and trying to  draw lines into the slopes banking up to the ford. Again, I painted Scorched Brown and added the same splodge-lines as before, then covered the whole of the ford part in 'Ardcoat varnish.

Lastly, the bridge part - same processes as before, but I drybrushed the sprayed black bridge with Fortress Grey. Pretty simple really. Anyway, as for my scenario, I'm currently leaning towards basing it around the "Forest of the Living Dead" scenario, by Richard Irvine (can be found here: http://www.angelfire.com/wa/dralair/enclave.html), although both Stormsoul and I are looking at http://www.biguns.co.uk/articles/scenariocards.asp for other ideas (amongst other places).

Stormsoul: From having the base shape, I then purchased some trees after finding it much simpler than making each tree from scratch. The trees were purchased at http://www.themodeltreeshop.co.uk/index.html
I went with a range of different trees as it's much more realistic. I used PVA glue to stick the trees in the places, this was quite a slow process as I waited for each tree to dry after a disaster where several fell off. Once all the trees were glued in place, I covered the base in lightweight filler, this was to smooth the sides as well as ensure the trees were secure. It also helped to make the ground look more realistic.
Once this was dry, I simply painted the whole base bestial brown, once this was dry, I stuck static grass on top.
The forest is not yet finished, as I want to add some vines and creatures to make it much more life like and to add in the venom for Venom Thicket.

Hashut's Blessing: Still awaiting any ideas for the extra task or two for us to start! Any help would be appreciated. Until next time...

Post-disaster Update

Well, it seems there was no disaster, other than me trying to make time to update this :D Sorry for that everyone, but got some great news. Actually, I guess that depends upon what your idea of great is. Anywho, this month was quite tough because Sousuno has a large personal concern going on at the moment that takes up a lot of time (don't worry, it's not a bad concern, just means the hobby comes second - stupid real life...) and I was away for two weeks, with Stormsoul not really having any knowledge in scenarios, nor having had any previous experience trying to build terrain (so needed my advice on technical stuff and the like). Where was I for those two weeks? I was in Manchester, filming a 10 part webseries, called Ramblers! Want to know more? Go to http://www.ramblerstheshow.com/ and you'll get to see the latest content and find out what's happening on their Facebook page.

[/shameless plug of awesome show that I enjoyed being a part of]. So, onto the news that I promised: because we've all been kept so busy that we decided to extend this month, as well as it being because we didn't really realise how long two pieces of terrain would take each of us to create and we kind of forgot slightly about the scenarios. Regardless, we also thought that with Christmas coming up, it would be best to extend this month further so that next month we can concentrate on building and painting models (hopefully we'll get them as Christmas presents or sell the socks and smellies we're given to buy our plastic crack!). As a result, this "month" is now two months, ending in the week between Christmas day and new year's day. To make up for that though, we are planning to add in some extra tasks, although we don't know what yet. Anybody got any suggestions? I have a couple of ideas, but would love to get some feedback on it first.

Where are we all stood at this moment in time:

• Stormsoul has completed her Venom Thicket, except for a few gribblies and such like to show that it's filled with poisonous critters, but her building design went a bit awry and she's not had the confidence to re-attempt drawing its plan out, so it looks like I've gotta help her with that. She's also been doing some research on scenarios to learn about them and use what she finds as a set of guidelines.
• Sousunou, from what I've heard, hasn't really got all that far, but with an extra month should be able to manage and can do any thinking stuff at work when he's doing nights and nobody's calling.
• Skyjacker - again, I've only heard this down the grapevine - has begun work on his Haunted "Mansion", but has quite a way to go, however, it's looking very promising.
• Lastly, me - Hashut's Blessing - I have made and painted all of my river sections and am very pleased thus far. Just got to start layering on PVA, then finish it off with a coat of 'Ardcoat gloss varnish, maybe add a layer of Asurmen Blue wash and it should be all good. As to my scree slope, I have made it slopier, but need to add more sand, as well as some rocks and more scree, then paint the new slopey bit and it's done! I've also been considering how to go about my scenario, but not confirmed anything as of yet.

I shall update this later today (maybe tomorrow) with pictures of Stormsoul's progress and my own, whilst we wait for any information/pictures from Skyjacker and Sousunou. Lastly, still waiting for the marking of the previous month to come through so that we can reveal who is where.