The Unspeakable WIP Cthydra, part four

Here it is, going together more and more. All the necessary bits and pieces are in a nice littles foil bag on my desk, patiently awaiting their turn to contribute to my most ambitious project to date. Here are the latest pictures form the beastmasters' pens.

I've made a little boo-boo with the tail. It is too low and actually lifts the entire mini. I can't fix it without serious damage to the hydra, so we'll see how it goes.

I've said it before, I'll say it again - the stegadon kit is awesome. It is simply massive. It dominates the collection. I can't think of how imposing it looks with the howdah. Pure power and awe packed into multi-part plastic kit. The only thing missing is the anatomic correctness.

By the time I write this, the larger back plate will also have been finished and glued on. I'm just sitting to the freshly-undercoated smaller plate.

And in case you were puzzled by the post's title, here is the explanation:

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

I could not be more proud if I won the Pulitzer. Writing is something I enjoy aside from painting and such praise is just great, even if it comes from a silly piece of code on a silly website.

See you next time.

Tavern Talk - One Army or More?

And welcome back.

Normally I'm not that interested in the Tavern Talk topics Kuffy sends us. No disrespect mate, it's valuable work you do, but I can't help the feeling lots of issues have been discussed previously. This one, however, is different, different enough to catch my interest and get me to write. Besides, it is my vow to make a conscious effort to update more frequently than I used to, so here it is.

Let me start with quoting the question raised:

As I am sure we all know, when one picks up the game of Warhammer it is followed shortly by a choice of army.  This is usually a single army which is then built to make a decent list which will be used a lot.  And then to be followed by an expansion to include a few more options for future games.  However, who stays with a single army?  Once you have played one for a while, does it become boring until you branch out to another?  Or, do you stick to a single army?  There are merits to having one major army and to having a number of smaller ones.  What do have and why? 

As most of my esteemed readers know, I own and develop three armies, chronologically Orcs and Goblins, Vampire Counts and Dark Elves. All are sizable,  I can safely assume I can field three to four thousand points of each force if I ever bothered to game again, especially per the eighth edition composition rules.

So, was I bored with any of these? No. Was the reason to get the new army the tediousness and wear of another force? I don't think so. So what was it?

It was the idea. A cogent, well established idea for an army, followed by a selection of a force that would fill this concept. With orcs, I pursued a forest theme mixed with liberal use of the color red. With the vampires, I wanted a dark, almost monochromatic color scheme with a prominent inclusion of old, out-of-production miniatures (I'm looking at you, armored skeletons) and "classic undead" feel. With the dark elves, I went for neat and crisp color scheme with unusual colors, lots of conversions and, just for the fun of it, as many plastic models as possible.

And the druchii are just plain kickass awesome. Taking my character and outlook on life into account, if I wasn't a human being, I'd be a druchii. Or a dark eldar.

Now, there are problems with having more than one army. Most notably, if you're planning to have multiple forces, think about whether or not you have the room to accommodate them in your bedroom or study. Secondly, if unlike me you game with them, take into account the transportation of your beloved minions. Is your current carry case up to the task of transporting completely different force? Think skaven vs. ogres. Or Bretonnia vs. the lizardmen. These contain models that tend to be very different in terms of size and shape. Keep it in mind when expanding your collection.

There you go. Thoughts on multiple armies by a multiple-army kinda guy.

And in case you were wondering, yes, I am planning further armies after I finish the ones I have completely.

Until next time.

WIP Hydra, part three...

...would be here if my compressor didn't break. The hydra is partly assembled, primed, basecoated and has its first highlight on. After that my airbrush compressor broke and as of yet I'm unable to get it fixed (and I'm not going to buy canned air). Aside from not being able to paint, I'm currently going through a break-up with my fiancée for six years. We were supposed to get married in less than a month from today.

I can show you the paint-in-progress pictures of course, though there isn't much to see I'm afraid. If you'd like to see them let me know in the comments. In the meantime, I'll be painting night goblins, so keep your eyes peeled on my other blog.

Until next time.

WIP Hydra, part two

Here are more shots of the mock-up hydra body. Since the necessary bits arrived just yesterday, I'm able to start painting... on Monday, after I get back from the battle of Tannenberg re-enactment.

Tyranid bits are great, I think I might need more of these armor plates. They fit any scaly monstrosity like a glove.

As previously, it's just blu-tacked together, I'm still toying with the arrangement of the large plates on the beast's back.

See you next week, when I hopefully have painted something...

WIP Hydra - preparing for the 8th edition

...and welcome back.


First order of business - the hydra for my dark elf army. I have been toying with this project for ages and I thought the dawn of the new edition is a great moment to add this monstrosity to the army. As you can see, I'm going rather unorthodox, partly because I don't like the "official" hydra model, partly due to my love of conversions and partly because the stegadon kit is awesome. You have to give it to GW, every subsequent plastic kit they produce seems to be better than the previous one. I'm dying to see what they come up with after the 8th edition starter kit.

Here's the base, obviously in a very much unfinished state. The only thing I don't like in th stegadon is the ridiculous raised foot. I'm not a good sculptor at all, so I had to go with this tapdancing leg, hence some rocky outcrop to accommodate it...

...like so. Nothing glued yet, aside from the legs themselves. Each comprises of two pieces, I very much approve of the way they are meant to come together. The bands and ropes on the legs will be used as mountings for shields or other decorative elements - druchii like panache and mine are no exception.

The other side. to maintain aesthetic balance the necks will curve to the hydra's left. There will only be three - I know the fable states hydras are five-headed, but I don't quite like it. Three heads are enough to both convey the feel of fantasy and fable and make it intimidating. Besides, with such bulk, I doubt it will need two more heads.

As for the next edition - I'm really looking forward to the thirty- or even more - man regiments and such. This is how I've always pictured Warhammer and I'm very anxious to try it. It's, like, the incentive I needed to start gaming again. Fifty-strong dark elf warriors cohort, anyone?

To wrap things up, you might have noticed I've joined the excellent From The Warp bloggers group - big thanks to Ron Saikowski for having me.

Until next time.

Harpies! Almost done!

Six o'em, eh? They only need greenstuffing under the armpits (wingpits?), but at the moment I cannot really be assed. I'm sick of harpies.

 

On another note, a very special "thank you" to one of my readers by the name of Kiwi, for this little tidbit I've found on The Trading Post: "There are other fantastic blogs out there with some absolutely stunning painting/modelling work on them which I could also mention e.g., Drazhars, Noestes etc.(...)" Thanks an awful lot.

The "to do" list and more

If you look just a little to the down-right from what you are now reading you will see that, aside form changing the layout yet again I've added the To Do list, which is precisely what it sounds like. No fixed deadlines, just what I have yet in store.

Enjoy and comment upon at your leisure!