Hobby and Gaming project for 2013

After several intro games and some fluff reading, I have decided to delve into the world of Warmachine and Hordes at last. During this year 2013, I have decided to participate in a painting challenge of the type A Tale of Four Gamers article series from White Dwarf magazine. I have also registered for a 6 months long escalation campaign for WarmaHordes.

The faction of choice for me is Circle of Orboros purely because of the aesthetics of the models, the fluff and the fact that I have received a free starter box at Adepticon 2011.

The theme for my Circle Orboros faction will be 'Seasons Osmosis'. It is based on the idea that each caster has a season of choice in which they thrive and others in which it struggles a little more (do Warpwolves hibernate? :) ). I have decided to start with pBaldur as my Warcaster and go for the 'Winter is coming' part of my force. All the constructs, rocks and twigs will look great covered in snow...

Each month I will be painting one of the following sets of minis (2 months in the year can be taken out as 'Joker months'):

-set 1: Shifting Stones + 1 stone keeper (4 minis)
-set 2: Druid Stoneward and woldstackers (6 minis)
-set 3: Woldwarden (heavy warbeast)
-set 4: Woldguardian (heavy warbeast)
-set 5: Woldwrath (gargantuan) :-O
-set 6: Baldur + Kaya (2 minis)
-set 7: 2 argus (2 light warbeasts)
-set 8: Warpwolf (heavy warbeast)
-set 9: Megalith (heavy warbeast)
-set 10: Woldwyrd (light warbeast)

This list is based on the aforementioned Starter Box and the PP Orboros Holiday Bundle

PS: on an unrelated note, I was lucky enough to get the Hobbit Escape from Goblintown box and the Hobbit Rulebook for my birthday and will be writing an unboxing post soon...

Product Review: Paint Rack Miniaturicum

This post is a quick review of a fantastic product that I heard about thanks to the guys at Tale of Painters Blog.

This paint rack from Miniaturicum can contains a lot of paint pots of all types (GW, Reaper, Vallejo, etc).

 
As you can see, this rack is suited best for GW type of pots but can also work for dripper bottles, pots of glues, etc. This in my opinion is the greatest advantage of not having specific holes designed for each pot. This type of rack is a lot more versatile than other ones than can be found on the market (and also very cheap!)

 
The rack comes in separate parts (and an assembly guide) and the assembly is very easy. You can even choose not to glue the pieces if you'd like (that is what I've done for the moment):

Hobbying while on travel: Epic Space Marine Painting

And.... I'm back! After an overseas move and the start of a new job, I finally have time to get back to hobbying again.

I am currently on several business trips and have found the way to keep up with miniature painting while not at home and wanted to share that.

The solution for me is the Battlefoam Pack Mini !

This small bag fits perfectly in a suitcase and can be filled with paints and minis (although you need to check your bag if you travel by plane or put the paint pots in a transparent ziplock bag). This the paint pots I put in my bag for a weeklong workshop:

The paint brushes are slided into one of the Pack Mini's pocket and minis are put in the remaining spots. I also brought a small rag inserted in the pack mini.

At the hotel, this is the paint station I have set up:

An example of all the Epic 40K minis that can fit in the 11 remaining spots in the pack mini:

And yes... I am getting back into Epic... 8 years later ! Got hooked again after a great (re) introduction game... Am painting my Space Wolves again and can't wait to field them...

High Elf Terrain - Warhammer Fantasy

Here are some pictures of finished Warhammer Fantasy High Elf terrain scratch built for a friend.

Elven Watchtower


Made of a paper towel cardboard center, plaster cloth, a polystyrene plastic base, blue foam for the hill and lots of patching plaster. The roof is made out of cardboard.

 Ruined Obelisk Garden


Made of cardboard for the standing one and blue foam for the crumbled one. Both pieces are on their cardboard base with a magnet in it. The large base is made out of polystyrene and has a couple of areas where the magnets can stick as seen in the last picture.

Crystal Forest


Made of sculpted blue and pink foam. Once painted the crystals were coated with High Gloss varnish in order to look more crystally. The individual clumps of crystal are mounted on cardboard bases with magnets in it similar to the Obelisk garden pieces. They can be attached to the polystyrene base in three specific locations as seen in the last picture.

IndieGoGo Campaign for an Awesome Skirmish Game

This is a plug for an awesome skirmish game '1650' that takes place in Spain in the 17th century. They are raising money through an IndieGogo campaign, check it out at : 

http://www.indiegogo.com/1650rulebookandmore?a=809870&i=emal

Models and flavor are awesome!

Painting Done: Empire Greatswords

Some pictures of the finished Empire GreatSwords with Griffon Banner:
(sorry the lighting is not the best)

A unit filler:

Adepticon 2012 Lord of the Rings Tournaments

A cool display base from the LotR Championship Army: 

Stunning tables:

Really nice armies: 

The Dwarves about to get slaughtered by the Uruk Hai... 

Lord of the Rings, Team Tournament display board:

Pictures from some epic games from the Team Tourney:

Adepticon 2012 Cool Historical Armies

Adepticon 2012 Crazy 40K Display boards

Some crazy display boards seen at the 40K team tourney at Adepticon 2012

In this Space Wolf display, the base actually turned:

Humhum, no comments:

Adepticon 2012 Hordes Display Base

A really cool Warma-Hordes display base from Adepticon 2012

Adepticon 2012 - Cool looking WH Fantasy Armies

Here are some cool armies seen during the various Fantasy tournaments at Adepticon (sorry for the blurry pics):

This was a stunning Ogre army:

Unboxing: Cool Mini or Not, Elf Sorceress on Owl

Here is another Unboxing post of a mini from Cool Mini or Not: the Elf Sorceress on Owl.

The model was pretty expensive (I got it from the CMoN website) and I expected a lot from it. To be honest I was pretty disappointed with the quality of it and would not recommend it.

First off, the packaging is pretty unappealing: 

Packing peanuts to protect the mini, seriously? : 

 The sorceress in itself. She looks well detailed but the staff looks really weak:

Beautiful base, nicely detailed:

Nice looking head too, I would not want to be a Skaven right now: 

Check out this enormous mold line running through the feathers, that is bad: 

Body of the Owl, looks ok: 

The wings were really bad, as you can see from the next 4 pics: 

Hard to see but there is a big blob of melted resin right in the middle of this wing, covering all the details and stuff. I was really unhappy with this. I am not even sure how to get rid of this: 

The wings are paper thin, there are even holes in them at several locations: 

So, maybe I was unlucky with this particular cast but I feel like CMoN could do a lot better than this. Also when you charge that much for a mini, I expect higher quality.