Live to CRUSH

Well, finished… hope you’re happy.

Live To Crush attempts to throw a Coconut Cream Pie at your face.
You EVADED a Coconut Cream Pie!

That’s how I feel right now. Also, I just joined the fully painted army club, which is like the mile high club only much much worse. It’s still good, just not really worth comparing. Anyway, can’t wait to get these bitches on the field in all their glory, without further doodoo, here’s some pics -

As always, get some more sweet sweet pic action in the gallery.

Well crap in my hand and call my Nancy! I actually completed this thing and it feels great. I mean in all my years of playing miniatures war games I’ve never completed anything!! Anytime a game starts feeling like work I just stop playing or we start another game!

This is the first squad, starter box, army, battle group, crew, or whatever that I’ve actually fully painted and painted before I played with the miniatures on the battlefield. It was awesome!

I do have to pump my chest up and hand out some bitch slaps here like a gorilla during mating season cause I won this thing. I’m sure if we’re even having winners and all that but I’m declaring myself the winner. Call me dick for gloating…. I don’t care. I earn it and here’s why:

I was the under dog in this competition, like I said I’ve never finished anything. I’m fairly certain that someone came up with the pie in the face rule because they thought for certain they would be shoving that pie in my face. Not only did I finish every but I rolled into game night a month and a half ago and busted out my fully painted force. I went bananas over a four day span and got them done. No one expecting me to finish, no one was expecting me to finish first, and no one was expecting me to finish with almost two months to spare, and I did and extra model. Boooyahhh mother bitches!!! Deez Nutz!!

Alright – I had to get that out. I’m composed again. Here’s some pictures of the Pandora crew.

We came. We saw. We conquered!

This being the final installment of our 4 month Malifaux Tale of Painters sees the whole Guild shebang all done! 3 5soulstones of pure painted glory! Bask in the light of its UV filled radiance! Mmmm ultra-violet…..

Food for thought: olives n cheese.

The death marshall was painted to match the other. Not much exciting there. My t’nuts tip with this model is to load it’s base up with extra metal bits to counteract its top heaviness. (Gallery link to more pics)

The watcher was painted to look like C-3PO, nmm style. I think it came out pretty well despite being rushed during the end game content. I sacrificed blend smoothness toward the end to get it done. Blending broke my sanity after painting the cubic torso. It’s a miracle that it’s even done. But its done. And I’m done. And so is this ToP! Booya! (Gallery link to more pics)

The desperate merc was a real rush job but guess what….I dont care. My sanity is broken! It’s painted with standard metallics, so it technically doesn’t match in. B00-hiss. This is because he really belongs with my Hamelin crew who will be done with non-non-metallic metals. I just wanted to squeeze an extra mode into this ToP. I really cant argue with the way the face came out. It came out awesome despite it beoing a complete departure from how I normally do skin. I used delvan mud on the skin, then ogryn flesh which made it paler and dirtier. No purple ink at all. Highlights were kept cold with minimum bleached bone and heavier use of white. Crazy right?!! I hear ya bro. (Gallery link to more pics)

DONE!!!

Looking back
What a relief to get all these guys done. I only have one guild mini left on the painting block: a lone marshall. These tale of painters are fun because your getting stuff done, but its tough to work with the deadline. More so than ever I felt the pinch on this one because I was trying to paint to the best of my ability. I think I achieved somewhere around my best, being trumped only by my dark elf sorceress. Breaking my nmm cherry and going balls out was the best decision I ever made. Painting nmm transformed from being arduous to easy over the course of four months painting. I look forward to the next nmm project I have….provided it’s an army of one.

Looking ahead
More vampire cunts to come! This being done heralds my full devotion to painting the undead….did I mention undead…..expect to see some cryx mixed in. It’s going to be a land of dead men walking! Beware!

Its been pretty quiet around here lately. Not much has been happening on the post front. So, whats new?

Well, I’ve been downsizing my cryx army. I’m offloading a bunch of stuff that will probably never see tabletop time in my lifetime. Everything I’m dumping is primed or unassembled. I wouldn’t get rid of any of the cool stuff around here! Do not fear the reaper.

Malifaux painting is taking center stage because I have to finish my crew this month or get a pie in the face per the Malifaux Tale of Painters rules. I’ve basically finished the last terd burgular this morning. SO Booya there! Dullcoat and static grass here I come!

Thank the gods for her!

Our gang is making a lot of chatter about Dystopian Wars and there may be some articles coming up concerning that game as well as a newd gallery. We are pretty much all getting the naval starter box and jumping headlong into the sea to see where that takes us. It really didnt take much persuasion. Here is the dialog tree:
Cloudfang: Hey, I was thinking of starting Dystopian Wars.
Thundernuts: I’m in and lets start Firestorm Armada right after that.
Cloudfang: Works for me!
The next day
Thundernuts: Hey, we’re thinking of starting Dystopian Wars.
WombatJuggernaut: Count me in
Tornadomelons: I’m with you too.
Aaron: I hate you guys.
Thundernuts: Does that mean your in?
Aaron: yes…..

And work on the Vampire counts continues with a few terrain pieces focusing on death or the afterlife known as undeath. First up a graveyard.

Made with lots of heat-straightened walls from the Witchfate Tor tower and various pieces from Itar’s Workshop and Battlefield Terrain. The piece went together rather well. Currently this is on the painting block, but its slow going as its paint a coat, let it dry for an hour….and I only paint for 45 minutes per day. WTF?!

Next up…some corpse copses. The client wanted something that spoke of Vlad the Impaler and these were his historical schtick.

These were a lot of fun to make. I used Kings of War zombies. I applied a heat gun to melt the arms into a more natural hanging shape. Then with little brass pins, I affixed the stakes to the bodies. A little greenstuff around the entry and exit points of the bodies was in order to blend the wounds. The stakes (made from sharpened chopsticks) were depressed into the foamcore board and then affixed with Apoxie Sculpt. Lots of steps! In the end it was worth it as they look awesome, in my humble opinion. I cant wait to see these painted.

Hopefully next week I’ll have a completed graveyard for your viewing pleasure…and next week we start the final wrap up of our LtC Malifaux Tale of Painters 2012 Edition. It’s the final submission time and everyone has been delivering thus far, so hopefully we’ll see some painted crews! Until then….may the pigments in your pot never dry!!

The Scene:

Scenario:

35 points of Warmahordes Caster-kill

Home Field Advantage:

None. This game is on one of the lovely Templecon 2012 boards

Beer on Hand:

Guiness draft

Music Playing:

None. Only our senseless voices chattering in our skulls…

35 Point Lists:

Aaron:

pButcher with Beast 09, Juggernaut and wardog, min Doom Reavers with UA, min Winter Guard Rifle Corp, Kovnik Joe, Man hunter, and Great Bears.

Thundernuts:

Witch Coven, with Deathripper, Deathripper, Defiler, Leviathan, 10 Bane Thralls, Bane Lord Tartarus, Bloat Thrall, Warwitch Siren, Orin Midwinter

Pre-Game Thoughts and Deployment:

Thundernuts:

Khador is always a pain for me. They hit like a ton of bricks and its difficult to stop their advance through destruction. Fortunately, my list has some decent killing power in the form of bane thralls, as long as my thralls engage the right targets. I won the deployment roll and let Aaron go first. I was hoping he would deploy some of his guys on the opposite side of the river. I was going to hug the buildings with my deployment and try to choke his army with the terrain. Between anything on the wrong side of the river and stygian abyss, I would be able to hold up parts of his army until I am ready to deal with them. The plan somewhat worked as he deployed his jacks aimed to pass through a small gap in the buildings. If I can bottleneck them there, this game should go my way.

The pawns are in play

Turn 1:

Thundernuts:

One of the witches activated first. She cast ghostly on the bane thralls to help them through the water, infernal machine on the deathripper on the left, and spread out some focus on the defiler, deathripper, and leviathan. Bloat thrall walked forward and missed a shot at the doom reavers. Leviathan crab walked forward and killed one doom reaver. Deflier ran closer to the doom reavers, but far enough out from their charge range. I considered going in close enough to throw stygian abyss on the juggernaut in the alley, but the great bears would have wrecked my arc node and would have been in position in the middle, where I didn’t want them to be. The warwitch siren ran after the deathripper on the left flank that also ran up the dock toward the great bears. Orin followed that pair and stealthed himself. The remaining witches and Eregore plodded forward to park behind the closest building.

Turn 2:

Thundernuts:

Things got ugly here. I upkept infernal machine on the death ripper mixed up with the Great bears. I dropped ghostly on the banes as they were all on dry land. Tartarus cursed the doom Reavers and hunkered down in the rear because there was no where for him in the fore. The banes engaged the doom reavers but didn’t kill all they were engaged with. It was going to be ugly for me next turn. The defiler moved in and was used to arc stygian abyss on Beast 09 and successfully stopped him in his tracks. The witches individually moved closer to the house on the left staying in a perfect conjunction. The leviathan shot at Beast 09 and took out about 1/3rd of his boxes. I screwed up allocating focus to the deathripper engaging the great bears. So it attacked and wounded one of the grisly veterans, but it didn’t kill and I didn’t have enough focus to get one more auto hitting attack. The warwitch over there tried to cast venom on them, but failed to wound. Orin tried chain lighting, but failed to cast. It was grim on that front.

Turn 3:

Thundernuts:

As expected, the Great Bears made short work of the deathripper and the 2 doomreavers hammered the banes. I was in trouble everywhere. The friggin rifle corp popped my Bloat thrall who did 7 wounds to Tartarus! I wont make that mistake again! Luckily, the Butcher moved up behind his juggernaut that was also getting right in the face of Leviathan. My deathripper carcass in the middle was blocking the juggernaut charge, but next turn a walk move by said warjack was going to seal my fate. I did see a small opening though. First, the bane thralls activated and killed the remaining doom reavers, most importantly the one in my way to the Butcher. Next, one of the witches activated and cast ghostly on the Leviathan and curse of shadows on the Juggernaut. The Leviathan was sitting on two focus too. The defiler moved slightly allowing the next witch to arc stygian abyss on the Butcher. Tartarus cursed the Butcher and charged doing moderate damage. Thankfully, the war dog didn’t kill Tarturus with its guard dog attack. The Leviathan with ghostly charged through the juggernaut and wreck marked to hit Butcher. Charge attack needing 5 to hit, rolls, and a big *WHIFF*!!!!!! Son of a bitch!! I buy one more attack, boost to hit after that debacle and knocked the crazed killer to 2 life. Unfortunately I had nothing left to kill him…..then I saw it! The warwitch! She cast seduction on the great bear closest to butcher and got it off! Against his will, the Great Bear took and big swing and killed the butcher! EPIC ending!

Final Thoughts:

Thundernuts:

Very Close!!! If that warwitch didn’t get seduction off, I would have been a dead duck. There was nothing to stop his juggernaut from plowing into the witches. What did I learn? Dont put a bloat thrall in your center and keep everything away from it. This was the first game in a long time where I got the movement/curse part of the banes to work successfully. I think it worked for me because Tartarus wasn’t on the front line.

I tend to do well in games when I consider the terrain before deploying. Often times I am lazy and dont bother to pick table sides because my models are already on one side of the table. This game was a clear cut example for me on how to use terrain to your advantage. I’ll have to remember that in the next game I play. Until then, happy rolling!

So Tornadomelons and I have been on this MTG kick for a few weeks now. So now I spread the disease to LTC. Let me take you to another world!

Recently, I discovered the wonders of Tappedout.net and made an account with decks that I am fixated on. I seem to be making a deck per week. Thanks to the internet getting cards is super easy, but shipping still takes 3 days. By the time I acquire the cards, I’ve mentally moved on to the next deck. A viscous circle, but thankfully with MTG its real easy to bounce around between different decks and you can easily play 5 games in a sitting (depending on the deck)

The deck I wanted to mention today is a spirit deck based on using Oyobi, Who Split the Heavens. How come I made a deck with this card? I was sifting through my collection and stumbled across the winged beast. I really liked the name of the card and I was sold. The strategy is simple with oyobi, get her out and start making a flying spirit host. It is a tough army to counteract due to the mass quantity of spits that materialize. The key is getting oyobi out asap. At 7 mana cost, she is a beast.

The deck is a bit slow. The deck plays defensively prior to getting Oyobi in play. Spiritual visits usually buy me a surprise turn of blocking. Blinking spirits give you a decent recurring barrier to hide behind, but sometimes they are not enough. Hence, Rend Flesh’s kill anything that has to die.

I’d like to direct your attention to a combo with reprocess and mycosynth wellspring. Reprocess is just a solid card. I would call it a late game card drawing beast, but I find many uses for it around turn 4. When I have a mycosynth well spring (or two) in play, I like to drop a reprocess. I sacrifice any and all wellsprings in play, plus 1 land per wellspring in play because I know the wellspring will bring one back to me. This usually nets me about 3 cards. If I have to discard something, so be it. Getting land out of the deck is critical.

Overall, I really enjoy this deck. Its a tough nut to crack once the oyobi spirit engine gets going. The deck has enough card drawing and defenses to hold its own under most scenarios. As usual, more playtesting must ensue.

Finally!  wooooot.

The artwork is complete for the new site.  This has taken me longer than I have anticipated but trying to do things in five minute intervals between washing bottles and giving students detention is a mind boggling affair.  Not to mention all of the mini projects I seem to have gotten myself in the middle of as of late!?.  Note to self…. 2013 = TOP free!  I’ve never come so close to getting pied in the face before.

So anyway, heres where I pass the torch to Wombat to figure out how all these wonderful images work in the interwebs world.  Thought I would show you guys the result though.  SOme of it I think is a complete success.  Other parts I believe need some re-working but for now my job is done and it’s over.  I hope to re-work some of the art in the future but if I keep going at this pace nothing will ever happen.. The symbols under our portraits are actually pretty awesome but sizing kind of messed me up..  They are the icons for terrain, hobby, battle reports, and strategy/tactics respectively.  Hope you guys can make them out.  I guess gallery and stuff can be text icons for now and maybe these symbols too would be better text…  but again its DONE!  and its not like i got paid for this or anything.  So bask in the awesomeness to come and sorry for the lack of posts lately I have been trying to put any remaining time towards this project.  And apologies if I posted on someone else’s toes.  I know it’s not my day but I forgot the schedule and finished this and had to post. Whelp.  Seeya later.

A quick shout out to our friends from the Bloomington/Normal Gamers! wOOOT wooot!

That said, these are old painted models, but deserve the due diligence of posting.

A basher and driller #2! Enjoy