Weekend Painting
I continue to make decent progress on painting my Skorne, and managed to finish up Hakaar, a Bronzeback and the Tyrant Commander over the weekend. I’m pretty happy with where I’m at considering I just started the army back in December. I've thrown in pics of what I've been up to below...
My goal was to "slow-grow" to a 50-point list (with a few swap-out options) and paint my way through it without picking up a ton of new models in the mean time. I’ve done a pretty decent job being disciplined about that, but (as usual) I’ve picked up a few things along the way as I’ve played some games and seen how they could be useful. I’ve got 29 models painted and about 7 or 8 models to go to fill out my 50 point list with a few options, so I’m getting close to the finish line, and I should be finished about a month ahead of my FLGS’s slow-grow league.
I managed to sneak in another 50-point game this week, this time Xerxis vs. Darius. It was a good chance to see if the army had the beat stick potential that I thought it did. Unfortunately, I forgot to move Xerxis up and cast Inhospitable Ground on turn 2, which meant my opponent got off a Stormblade assault, killing my Bronzeback and tearing up my Gladiator pretty badly. I managed to hit back pretty hard the following turn using Xerxis feat turn to get the extra die on damage rolls. I wanted to see if Xerxis could scrap a heavy, but I missed on my charge attack, and then didn’t realize that the Stormclad had both Fortify and Arcane Shield on it… That’s an awful lot of armor to overcome! Xerxis did good damage, but not enough. My Cetrati rolled terrible on damage and couldn’t finish the job, and the crazy jacked-up armor on the Stormclad proved too much - it killed Xerxis at the top of the next turn. Even with the loss, it was encouraging: I think all of the elements are there – I just need to do a better job pulling them all together into a cohesive game plan.
I spent most of my Sunday at a painting clinic at our local store hosted by James “Dicewraith” Kater (who you may recognize from his occasional Lost Hemisphere contributions). Kater is an all-around great guy, and a really amazing painter. He’s been at it for over 9 years, and shared a lot of good tips and tricks to share on painting faces and speed painting. It was interesting to watch him work, and I realized that I basically have two painting speeds: Normal, and really slow (which I use for “showcase” painting). Kater, on the other hand, is amazingly versatile, and he’s got a variable speed dial that goes from 1 to 11. In the time I painted one tyrant commander, he painted a half-a-dozen trencher commandos to a very nice standard of quality. During the speed painting session, he painted three models in a half an hour. They weren’t as nice as the others, but they would compete with most “pre-paint” in quality, and would definitely look nicer than raw pewter on the tabletop.
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| Dicewraith teaches us how to paint pretty like him. |
In addition to getting some good tips, it was fun to just hang out and paint with a half a dozen people and visit. A lot of people paint down at the store, but it was fun to do it as part of an organized activity, and something I hadn’t done before – normally I paint alone back at the mancave. We had a lot of discussion about quality, and how much we wanted to balance between “table-top” quality (what looks good at 3 feet away) vs. presentation quality (what looks good at 6-12 inches away). I used to think that tabletop painting was just lower quality, but I’m starting to realize that there is a whole mindset to it: more distinct color blocks, more highlight-to-shadow contrast, and bold color schemes that stand out at a distance. Lately I’m finding myself really attracted to models that are cleanly painted and very bold, and I think I’m going to start steering my style that way. Maybe next army…
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| An example of Dicewraith's work. Oh yeah - he painted these ONE ARMED, as his other was in a sling! |
Labels: Hordes, miniatures, Skorne, wargaming, Warmachine
Dude I love your Skorne - I think my favorite is the Bronzeback. Xerxis is a pretty simple 'lock but there are a few steps you have to be sure to do to keep him and his army alive.
Posted by
trampletheweak.com |
6:21 PM
Very nice stuff you got there, the Bronzeback has to be my favorite.
Posted by
Viruk |
12:34 AM
Thanks for a couple of nice comments on the Bronzeback - I think it probably has less to do with his paint job and more to do with the model itself... That sculpt is really the flagship of the Skorne line in my opinion - just a great model.
Posted by
Dangerfish |
10:39 AM
Great looking models and army!
Have you picked up a Titan Gladiator Extreme yet? They are a lot of fun to paint...
Posted by
brotherscott |
9:05 AM