Dark Elves : the race is on! Day 2 of 30 left

Today's goal was to basecoat all metal on my 10 witches. Easy enough some would say, but crown, panties and bra (yes, metal armor/underwear!) and their little sword, prove to be much more challenge than it looks. In the end, after 2 hours, i finished my goal for the night, and decided to add another basecoat ; the cloth.

So today wasn't just about staying on track, but actually taking a lead over my schedule.

Peg Master ; because every dark elves player need a crazy guy on a flying horse.

At first, i have to say, i didn't want to have a Master on Dark Pegasus... the idea behind that mobile hero hunting warmachine wasn't really appealing to me. After playing a few games with my Dark Elves, i quickly realized that one of my biggest weakness was definately cannnon and hellblaster, so i had to do something about it.. There's a few choice possible, one being magic, one Reaper Bolt Thrower, another target saturation, and the last one, a Peg Master.

I don't like... no, i HATE the current RBT model, and the very old one (with wheels) is pretty hard to come by, so i decided to settle on the Peg Master. Since there is no model, i went and built myself one.

Dark Elves : the race is on! Day 1 of 30 left

So the race is finally on. I knew it would come to this. It's easy to say "ah, i'll paint tomorrow instead" when there's still many months left, but now, i have one month left to paint ;

10 Witches
25 Executionner
1 Shrine
1 Peg Master
Finish base + Presentation tray.

Sound like a big job, but i have a plan!

How to pick a warhammer fantasy army (part 2)

Today I’ll talk about picking one of the warhammer armies, depending if you’re a painter or a gamer. First part can be found here ; http://enkiel.blogspot.ca/2014/01/how-to-pick-warhammer-fantasy-army-part.html

How to pick a warhammer fantasy army (part 1)

Today, i decided to post about an important topic ; choosing a warhammer fantasy army.

For some people, it's pretty simple ; either they already know what they want to play/paint, or they want the flavor of the month/strongest army (right now, i'd say Nurgle Warrior of Chaos)

For the others, well, warhammer fantasy has a total of 15 armies, all very different from one another, and each have their strenght and weakness.

The first thing you'll need to consider, is what kind of army you want, or more precisely, what do you want from your army? there's many right answer to this.
Some people want an army with few models, like Ogres Kingdoms.
Some people want an army with lots of monsters, like Daemons of Chaos.
Some people want an army that is simple to paint, like the Lizardman.

With you, i'll review each army, to hopefully help you decide which army is right for you.

Games Workshop's Stock problem ; lets stop scaring the childrens.

Ok, for the past week, everyone been trying to analyze Games Workshop recent financial report, and predict Warhammer Fantasy and 40k future from those numbers ; Some crazy rumor such as Games Workshop dropping a few armies, up to cancelling Fantasy all together.

Yes, Games Workshop revenue are down. Yes, their stock took a nose dive, but they're still making profit, and lets just not consider them done until they actually put the lock on the door.

Back-2-Base IX Paint Rack : A review

Last year i purchased some movement tray from Back 2 Base, and was pretty happy with the final result. It allowed me to put my Plaguebearers on round bases, and still rank them correctly for fantasy, thus making it MUCH easier for me to rank them up, despite any conversion.


This year, i decided to go a bit further and order some of their acrylics paint rack. Wait, acrylics? Why? Simple ; It looks better, and feels more durable. MDF doesn't really strikes me as something that will last forever. So i ordered 3 tray for Hexes GW Pot (since they recommend ordering the largest pot, to accomodate your multiple different sized pot). At 40$/each, i was expecting alot. And i can say i wasn't dissapointed.

Warlocks ; DONE!

Finally finished my Warlocks last night. Ok, ok, i have to admit, they aren't 100% finished, as i still need to figure what i want to do with the front plate, but they are painted tabletop standard.

I obviously still need to find out how to do the bases, but i should have that figured out this weekend when i'll try casting my first batch of Resin. If it works like i'm hoping it will, i should have some lightly tinted blue transparent ice to use on my base by sunday.

For now, lets see what i achieved with the 10 of them ;

Dark Elves, 2500 pts list

Now that my Warlock and Dark Rider are nearly finished, its time to think about what i want to build/paint next to have my 2500 pts ready.

Instead of going the route i used since the book was released (sorc lvl4, block of witches+Cauldron, 2 Kharybdiss, etc), i decided to go a different route, and aim at something a bit different ; A dragon list.

Yes, a dragon list. To give you an idea, last tournament, i played 3 empire player in 3 games, faced 5 cannon, 4 hellblaster, and overall, had ALOT of problem with gunline type list. So why a dragon? Because i never played with one. Ever.

Dreadlord on Black Dragon 548 pts
Sea Dragon Cloak, Shield, Lance
Armour of Destiny, Dawnstone, Other Trickster's Shard

1+ armor rerollable with a 4+ Wardsave. On the charge, he's a decent killer, and after that, i got to count on the dragon to kill armor. Goal is to get him hidden behind house and such until the time is right to get a charge, or just rush him ahead of there's no cannon/hellblaster.

Death Hag on Cauldron of Blood 350 pts
Battle Standard Bearer,
Obsidian Blade

Obsidian blade because i don't want to be bugged down by 1+ armor, and BSB because i can't afford a Master just to hold a banner. I find it risky to roll a BSB on an easy target like that, but hey, my general is riding a dragon!!

Master on Dark Pegasus 186 pts
Heavy Armor, Sea Dragon Cloak, Shield, Lance
Cloak of Twilight

The runner. The guy who gets things done. Goal is pretty simple ; kill warmachine, harass behind ennemy line, and overall, be a 186 pts PITA.

33 Witch Elves 408 pts
Hag, Musician, Standard Bearer
Banner of Swiftness

The only thing i'm unsure about them is the banner of swiftness. I used to use the Razor Standard, but soon realized that its pointless to have AP against 1+ armor cavalry (which is my army bane).

2x 5 Dark Riders 220 pts
Repeater Crossbows, Shield
Musician

Because no Dark Elves army should leave home without them, Dark rider are in. i kind of wanted to go with 3 units, but decided instead to go with Crossbows and a few more witches.

26 Executionner 342 pts
Draich Master, Musician, Standard Bearer

26 isnt much. I actually like to have them an even number, like 30. Sadly, i have to cut some pts, so they're the first one to go.

Bloodwrack Shrine 175 pts

Goes with the Executionner, making the unit much, much bigger. The stare is very nice, and the fact they gain a Ld points is nothing to sneeze at. With that, i can put them far away from the BSB without fear.

2x5 Doomfire Warlocks 270 pts
Master of Warlocks

Champion is really just there because i need a command model to grab objective, so its basically 20 pts wasted. Warlock are my only caster in the unit, which means i have just 1 debuff and 1 magic missile... nothing else. It sure gonna make it alot more challenging, and i'm up for that!


So here's my 2500 pts list. I should be trying it out this weekend, where we have a 3 games tournament.

Dark Elves Warlock WIP

Today was again a good day for painting. I managed to finish the warlock's skin, their hair, the hoof and some random bits. Still left to do is the weapons and odd metallic bits.

The only one with a blade partly painted. I think the finished look is pretty nice so far. Still need to decide on the horse front plate.

In the end, i went with the same color as the horses exactly, not adding any shade to the hair (just like the Witches). Jury's still out to decide if it look finished or not. I think it does, but some could say it doesnt.

I decided to paint the horse briddle black, just so it doesnt attrack attention in any way. Doubt i'll add any highlight. Once the metallic bits are painted, i think it'll be enough color already.

With the correct base, i think these will look amazing... or at least i hope.

Once grouped up, it really starts to look like a finished unit, and i actually can't wait to have them next to my witches/Cauldron on the table.

The 10 of them are actually painted exactly like that. Tonight i'm hoping to do at least 1/4 of the weapons, and finish the rest tomorrow.

In other news, i just ordered ;
1 Dragon
2 Chariots
1 Box of Dark Riders (thinking about turning them into heroes, or maybe just Dark Riders)
1 Dark Shrine, to go with my Executionners
1 Box of Executionners, to bring the new model total to 30, and the total (old and new) to 60.
1 Bretonnian Pegasus Knight, to make a Dark Pegasus Master.
Magnetized tray for the whole unit (from Back-2-Base)
Paint Rack (from Back-2-Base).

Looking forward to Christmass morning 2.0.

So so many of them... Dark Rider / Warlock update

well, kids been behaving this last few days, so i managed to rake up ALOT of hours worth of paint. I manage to ;

- Finish all Horses skin
- Finish all Horses Hair/eyes/teeth
- Finish the Latex boots on the riders
- Finish the purple part of the trouser on the riders
- Basecoated all the remaining metal on the Warlock riders and the horses
- Basecoat the skin on the warlocks riders.

Alot is done, but so much more left to do. A goal i'd like to accomplish is finish those before next weekend, so i can start on the executionner and/or Shrine. Because yes, i'm considering using a shrine, and a Dragon, for that matter...

But before getting ahead of myself, lets see what i accomplished.

5 of the warlocks as they stand right now.

Side shots of the same 5.

Have to say, when i started painting the horse, i didnt consider how they'd look with a "blueish" rider on them... now that its half painted, i have second though. Might dissapear once i start highlighting the skin and they don't look like smurf riding on purple horse from "my little poney"..

On this one, i went a little further and started working on the metal on the weapon, to see how it' would look. So much more fun to paint large weapon like that instead of little dagger like witches, i actually enjoyed painting them. looking forward to doing the rest.

Left to do ;

- Finish Skin. There's about 4 layer to add before i can call it finished. Right now, its only basecoated and washed.
- Decide on the front plate. I quite frankly have no clue what to do with it. I considered red, but i'm keeping red for blood... purple? could be worst. I tried painting it blue like the rest of my metal, but its a too large and flat area for me to do any good job...
- Paint weapons. Gonna be easy, and fun! those weapon actually made me look forward to paint my 20-30 Executionners.
- Pain the hair. Gonna be white, like the rest, but i'm thinking about adding more pinkish hue to it... i did add a bit of purple to the base of the horse hair, and i liked it, so i think i'll add that small tint to the rest of my model to divide the hair from the face/crown/whatever.
- Paint the hoof! look simple enough, but for some reason, not looking forward to it... a simple black might be too boring... i'll need to think it through.
- Figure out a color for the little chainmail line under the trouser. No clue what color to paint it... i tried white on a few of them, kinda make it look like fur... could work.

Looking at all that is left to paint, not sure i can achieve it in a week... But time is running out.

And then... Cavalry!

Almost feel like i'm planning to play Bretonnia. For the past, oh, two weeks, i been painting horse. Yes, horse. Not sure if anyone know how boring they are to paint or how i hate painting horse, but, i had to, so i been painting non-stop 20 of the new Dark Elves horses.

Quite frankly, i'm almost starting to enjoy painting them, as i've found a nice way to paint them, and actually make them look decent from a distance, and up close. 10 Dark Riders and 10 Warlocks. That's roughly 500 pts off my list i need to paint. Once those are finished, they'll go join the Cauldron, the Sorceress and the 20 Witches already completed. I'm tempted to add the Kharibdyss to the painted list, but i'm not 100% happy about him yet.

Before showing picture, lets talk about the idea behind thems. I basically had two goal ;
#1 : they had to follow the limited palette used for the rest of the army. So far, so good ; The horse skin is using grey which is also used on my Witches and Cauldron metal, and purple, which is used on my Witches hair and jewelry.
#2 : it had to be simple, but still looking good. It's not 100% perfect, but quite frankly, it been awhile since i had a model with such color transition that actually looked good.

As you can see, i started with a pretty much grey scale horse, and added purple to the horse. Then i finished him with white hair, to go with the Witches and eventually the Warlocks/Dark Rider's hair.

The final result is pretty nice imho, especially the pure white eyes, which make them really... weird, in a good way.

Obviously, it isnt finished yet ; i still need to paint the front plate, the harness, the hoof, the gum, the rider's legs...

But there's so many of them

Goal for 2014

2014 is less than 24 hours old, and its time to set myself some goal. Last year goal were far from completed, with a mediocre 29% success rate.

This year, i'm gonna focus on what i really want to accomplish, instead of just aiming at completing everything under progress...

2013 Recap

last year, i set myself 24 goals, aiming for a 60% success.
http://enkiel.blogspot.ca/2012/12/goal-for-2013.html

Lets see how i fared first

Warmachine 1/1
1 goal which was not to buy new model until everything is painted. I resisted, and despite not painting anything, at least i didn't buy anything. Success

40k 0/3
Paint a few model from my Dark Eldar. In the end, i didn't paint dark eldar, i instead started a new Grey Knights army. Fail X3

Fantasy 4/13
Nurgle 3/3
Finishing my army + presentation tray for ND Open. Success
Play at least 10 games. Success. I didnt play them before the tournament, which bite me in the ass, but at least i played with the army.

Ogre 1/4
Well, this gonna be painfull, as i didn't really touch them, except to play with them once in awhile....

Finish Stonehorn. Failed. Didn't touch him at all.
new BSB. Failed. Didn't even start thinking about it
Tattooes. Failed. No real reason.
10 Games. Success!

O&G 0/6
Even worst than my Ogres, those werent touched, not even for playing....

Terrain 2/7

 adding terrain to 40k Failed x2
Basecoat or paint 40k building Failed x2
Build and Paint 2 Tabletop Failed
Build and Paint 2 tabletop forest + add another terrain to my fantasy table. Success. I call it success because i fixed my forest problem by purchasing 4 already painted GW Forest, and also added a used skullmantle big ass terrain to my roster.

Total is 7/24 for a very bad 29%... Lets sets some goal that are actually possible, even with a "i dont wanna see anything warhammer related for the next 6 months" phase...