Where's the Kibitz?

It has been a while since this blog has seen an update. If I had any readers I would hazard a guess they might be curious what has been causing my apparent inability to blog. In short – nothing.

I have already posted the last thing I have painted up on the blog. I have not picked up a paint brush since then. Sometimes I can paint, and sometimes I can not. The past couple of months has been one of those times when I have been unable to paint. I tried a few times, but I simply did not have the control in my hands that I require to paint miniatures. This does mean that all those models in my shame posts have been left virtually untouched along with Abuela Ortega and my Kanban board is frozen at the moment. This does not shame me like it did before. It's only shameful when I am capable of painting and I do not.

Obligatory gaming related picture to break up the text.

The last post also saw the start on discussion concerning an in store Fate RPG. This fell through. The reason I was going to run the game was because there were not enough GMs for all the players that want to play in store on Wednesday nights. This situation has changed since the question was first put to me however. After going in a few Wednesdays I realized there are now enough games to where they could comfortably spread six new players between the existing games while me pulling even three players from the other games would leave the existing games on the thin side.

I do not know where this leaves the blog. It really does not have an identity of its own outside of a place for me to put my thoughts. I keep considering posting some more serious topics, but I am uncertain if that is a direction I want to take the blog in or not. Right now my roommate is out of town with my camera so even if I do manage to paint something before she returns I will not be posting any pictures for now.

There is a new Warhammer Fantasy League firing up, but I do not think I will enter as it is a lot of models to lug around at the end. It takes me more than half an hour to pull 2500 points of Greenskins out of cases and set out on trays. Maybe if I actually get around to magnetizing all the bases. I kind of fell out of the Iron Kingdoms Escalation League. I had three months in a row where I failed to arrange to play a game with the people I was matched up for challenges, and the times I showed up for days I should have been able to get a pick up or checkmark game I would be the only Warmachine or Hordes player there. I am less worried about that with Warhammer Fantasy as I know I am practically guaranteed at least one Sunday a month to get a game or two in, but I am trying to decide if I want the hassle of transporting that many models or not.

So that is pretty much it. Like I said, nothing is going on, so there has been nothing to write about. I could always pick a topic and write away, but I am not certain I should. I would not expect another blog post for at least a couple more weeks and probably longer. Posting about paint jobs is sort of silly without images to illustrate what I am talking about. Pretty much the only other things I have been up to are daily routine stuff and playing World of Warcraft, Diablo III, Marvel Heroes, and Civilization V.

What I've Been Painting

I recently got the camera back so took a couple of quick pictures. I need to take the time to learn how to take better pictures some time.

This is fifty four Night Goblins I painted for the local Warhammer Fantasy Battles escalation league. The break down is thirty three Night Goblins with spears, shields, and full command; twenty Night Goblins with short bows, boss, and musician; and a Night Goblin Shaman. It comes to 259 points if equipped at bare minimum.

I bought an Arachnarok Spider since painting the Night Goblins pictured above. I am in the middle of assembly, putty, and base work right now. I have taken a break however as I do not know how I want to paint her yet. In an attempt to push myself into figuring it out I have started painting my Forest Goblin Spider Riders. These as well have stalled out as I don’t know what I want to do with them either. They are magnetized to make transportation easier. I have yet to figure out where I am taking them. So far my plan has been to just throw paint at them and see what sticks. I’m posting pictures of the WIP shots in an attempt to shame myself into finishing them.

The flesh on the one is a simple combination of P3 Carnal Pink, P3 Morrow White, and GW Ogryn Flesh. I think I will continue that part across the rest of the spiders as I think it makes for a nice inhuman pale flesh without looking sickly. I might punch up the resources a little bit more. I'll decide after the rest of the body on each spider is done.

I painted this model up for a local painting competition. It won first in its category. I primed it two days before the entry date. I painted the skin and the base for the cloth and metal the first day working up the blue/green on the bottom with the off-white still on the top with the plan to paint it orange or purple the next day. There was so much of both of those colours worked into the skin and metal upon seeing the model the next day I decided to continue up the gradation started with the bottom.

This model is a good example of why I need to learn to take better pictures. I worked the cloth to pure white in some places and pure black in others and the pictures I am taking seem to average everything out.

Introduction to the Warhammer Fantasy League

I am in an escalation league for Warhammer Fantasy hosted through the Crazy Squirrel game store in Fresno, CA. I believe the league began with eight players at the start of the year. It is currently at eighteen. It's pretty amazing not just because of the growth and retention rate, but this is in the face of the fact that Warhammer Fantasy has seen zero play in public for at least two years locally leading up to this league. There is already talk of starting a fresh league at the new year and what possible changes people would like to see along with additional events. He probably won't see this, but Ryan Mathews has done an amazing job running the league up to this point.

I was going to originally play Warriors of Chaos as I had next to nothing painted when I joined the league. It would give me an army with a small model count and be manageable. There was already a couple of people playing Warriors of Chaos however. There was nothing stating I couldn't play them, but the more variety available the more potential for fun.

After talking with a couple of people I settled on Greenskins. I had an easy 1500 point army with options already. So far I have expanded on that with the purchase of an Arachnarok Spider and thirty Savage Orcs. Closer to the end of the year I will pick up a war machine or two and snuggle nicely into the final total of 2500.

Here are the models I have finished painting since joining the league. I had some models painted before the league, and some I am in the middle of, but these are the ones started and basically finished since joining. I may go back and do more work later, but they are good enough to go forward with other models.

This comes to fifty four models all told. The break down is thirty three Night Goblins with spears, shields, and full command; 20 Night Goblins with short bows, boss and musician; and a Night Goblin Shaman. This comes to 259 points assuming no further upgrades.

I have learned some things so far with the league. The first is that I am a very poor general. That is okay as I am improving. I am also a very poor painter. In this I mean, my habits are poor. Part of this is physical difficulty, but part is that there are whole weeks where I don't touch a brush at all. I'll be posting some Spider Riders to the Wall of Shame soon if I don't get them finished.