paint: work-in-progress: sturm & drang, pt 3

Before we left for Adepticon, I had a chance to wash the salt off the Dreads. There were three or four spots where the resin came back through - not sure whether I didn't wash the release agent well enough pre-priming, scrubbed too hard with the brush, or a little of both, but they should be minor fixes. For my first try with this technique, I'm fairly impressed. I feel like I'll be able to make these work.

paint: dreadball: shellshock pizzeria turtons

At last, and with just hours to spare before the big road trip, the Turtons are ready to take to the pitch! They even have a snazzy logo to go with 'em!

(Most of the pics in this article are clickable for a larger view.)

L-to-R: Donnie, Raph, Leo, Mikey

L-to-R: Einstein, Spike, Vince, Angelo

You may notice that none of the Turtons have numbers. I've got a quick method for telling them apart based on the Turton's mask and which scute is darkened. If the darker scute is on the left, they use a traditional name/color combo. If the dark scute is on the right, they're using an alternate name that ties to the original character.

I think they all look pretty good, but I'm most proud of Coach Splinter. The paint flowed far more easily on this model, and I can't wait to get some feedback from Damon, Celso, Andrew et. al to see what I did right, what I did wrong, and suggestions for improvement. Oddly, I'm particularly fond of how his hands came out.

While the team is ready to play, I'm not 100% there yet. I'll probably finish the custom roster Wednesday morning and head to the Kinko's just down the road to print 'em up. THEN I'll be 100% ready to for Saturday night!

Shellshock Pizz-er-ee-ah Turtons Shellshock Pizz-er-ee-ah Turtons Shellshock Pizz-er-ee-ah Turtons Shockingly bold flavor! Shellshock Pizza! - Advertisement jingle

play: dreadball league: da albinorks

My FLGS started a seven-player Dreadball league last week and there was no way I wasn't in. Having played my Forgefather team, Rammers of Krass Brokkr pretty much exclusively since Adepticon 2013, including a five-player league in January/February, I decided en route to my first game that I'd switch over to Da Albinorks and see what they had to offer.

(Apologies for this being a text only post. I get so caught in playing that I forget to take pictures of my games. I hope to rectify as the league progresses.)

The league is set up in two week time periods where we're required to play two matched games set up by the league commissioner. In addition to the usual player advancement, player death, league scoring, and monetary winnings, these games net a +5MC "appearance fee" just for showing up. During the same time period, we're allowed two "off books" games that retain the player consequences and potential monetary winnings, but have no appearance fee and do not count in league scoring. They're truly a gamble, and add a bit of excitement outside of the regular league games.

Da Albinorks: Starting Roster
#	Name	Role	Exp.	Rank	Move	Str	Spd	Skill	Armour	Abilities	Value
1	Bule	J		1	5	5	3	4	4		9
2	Cracker	J		1	5	5	3	4	4		9
4	Gringo	J		1	5	5	3	4	4		9
5	Redneck	J		1	5	5	3	4	4		9
6	Peckerwood	J		1	5	5	3	4	4		9
9	Honkey	G		1	5	3	4	5	4		13
11	Whitey	G		1	5	3	4	5	4		13
14	The Man	G		1	5	3	4	5	4		13
				Dice:	1	Cards:	1	mc:	0	Total Value:	100

I kicked off Da Albinorks' season with a scheduled match against an equally fresh human team with a rookie coach. The humans put up a good fight, but a 3-turn slam in the first Rush followed by a 4-point score in the third set a pace the Humans just couldn't match. Over 11 turns, the Humans' dice failed them whenever it counted, and Da Albinorks walked away with a 7-point victory that saw both Peckerwood and The Man level up.

Da Albinorks: After Game 1
#	Name	Role	Exp.	Rank	Move	Str	Spd	Skill	Armour	Abilities	Value
1	Bule	J		1	5	5	3	4	4		9
2	Cracker	J		1	5	5	3	4	4		9
4	Gringo	J		1	5	5	3	4	4		9
5	Redneck	J	1	1	5	5	3	4	4		9
6	Peckerwood	J		2	5	5	3	4	4	A Safe Pair of Hands	14
9	Honkey	G		1	5	3	4	5	4		13
11	Whitey	G	1	1	5	3	4	5	4		13
14	The Man	G		2	5	3	4	5	4	360 Vision	18
				Dice:	2	Cards:	1	mc:	10	Total Value:	127

Da Albinorks, riding high on their success accepted an off-books invite from another Human team. This game was crazy, with the Human coach using his underdog bonus to secure both Rico Van Dien and The Enforcer to help him out. And help him they did! The Enforcer killed Bule on the first Rush, Rico scored on the third, and the Enforcer again quenched his thirst for blood in the 5th. After that, Da Albinorks had had enough. Whitey's rage took over, killing both The Enforcer and a Striker on Rush 6! Despite additional kills and 3-turn hits from Whitey and Honkey late in the game, Da Albinorks just couldn't get their offense together and lost by 5.

Da Albinorks: After Game 2 (off-books)
#	Name	Role	Exp.	Rank	Move	Str	Spd	Skill	Armour	Abilities	Value
1	Ghost	J		1	5	5	3	4	4		9
2	Cracker	J		1	5	5	3	4	4		9
4	Gringo	J		1	5	5	3	4	4		9
6	Peckerwood	J		2	5	5	3	4	4	A Safe Pair of Hands	14
9	Honkey	G	1	1	5	3	4	5	4		13
11	Whitey	G	1	2	5	3	4	5	4	Can't Feel a Thing	18
14	The Man	G		2	5	3	4	5	4	360 Vision	18
				Dice:	2	Cards:	1	mc:	12	Total Value:	124

I've managed to get a jump on our second two-week interval and things are starting to heat up. Stay tuned for further updates!

paint: work-in-progress: iron warriors: strum & drang, pt 2

Crisis encountered, crisis averted.

Started this morning by putting a quick splash of VMA Black Metal over the salt to get my base metal/shadows taken care of. My second layer however, VMA Gun Grey, must be from a bad batch. There's WAY to much pigment in the bottle and it clumps no matter how I thin it. The color clogged my airbrush so quick this morning that after three cleanings, I still didn't have a drop of Gun Grey on my model.

Went out for my morning run thinking I'd either have to make a trip to the hobby shop today or wait until after Adepticon to complete the next step. Funny thing about running, it sometimes clears the head enough to rethink a problem. Somewhere around mile two, I got the bright idea to try mixing my shadow and highlight to create a mid-tone close enough to work. After some experimentation, I ended up using a 4:1 ratio of VMA Black Metal to VMA Steel for the mid-tone, and sprayed from an angle 45 degrees above the model. Seemed to work well, so I smacked all the bits with straight VMA steel from directly above.

The overall effect is lighter than I usually go for, but once I've washed it a few times and/or oiled it up, I think that'll calm down. I'm a little worried there might be too many layers to easily pull off the salt. Need to make sure all the layers I dry, so I'm going to wait 'till everyone's asleep before I pull out the warm water and Q-tips and see if the experiment worked.

paint: work-in-progress: iron warriors: sturm & drang

With the Turtons nearing completion and still two days to go before the big drive to Adepticon, I decided to see if I could get the first few layers of paint on Sturm & Drang, in the hopes of finishing one for a Dreadnought Arena event at Friday's 4th Annual BootaTown.

First up I put the rust layers down. The airbrush got the first layer of Vallejo Model Air's "Hull Red" down quick, but stippling the usual combo of Citadel's "Vermin Brown" and "Macharius Solar Orange" took far longer than it did on infantry. I'll likely switch to sponging the rust on when I get to the Rhinos and Vindicators.

With the rust down, I spent some time searching the internet for "salt mask weathering" and found several articles aimed at scale modelers. Once I found Roman's article on the subject I headed to the store to find some Aquanet and coarse sea salt. With some fear in my heart and a "Well, you can always strip 'em again" shrug on my shoulders, I proceeded to spray and sprinkle all the parts.

I won't lie, the salt looks a bit heavy-handed from here. However, I figure it'll be fairly easy to cover up excess rust, but a royal pain-in-the-but to add rust over metal later. The plan is to let the parts dry overnight and start applying metals in the morning. I may tape my fingers crossed before going to bed...

paint: dreadball: turtons

With Adepticon a week away, I can start to feel my commitments looming over me. Lucky for me, I've got a few days off before we pack up the car. Spent some time before the kids woke up and while they napped getting a few more layers of color on the Turtons.

Turtons: (clockwise from top left) Donnies, Raphs, Mikeys, Leos.

I tried to do the "pre-shading with glaze" technique thing, but my technique needs some work. They're not "bad" per se, they're just not matching my minds eye. In fact, they're not significantly different than my usual gaming standard. They'll be a decent table-top standard when done, and I think I've learned a little about the technique in the process.

In fact, I think I've already been able to put some of the lessons to good use...

Turtons: Coach Splinter

Yes, it's a crappy cell-phone pic, but I assure you that his shading is coming more from paint than the room's lighting. I'm kinda jazzed with my glazing efforts here, and hope I can finish the rest of the figure to the same standard I've started with his robes. Of the models I'm bringing to Adepticon, he's the one I'm most enthused about showing to my cpainter friend contingent.

Still left on the to-do list...

• Turtons: shells, masks, claws, and shoulder/glove "glow"
• Splinter: fur, wrappings, belt, hands/feet
• The Aprils: everything, this is a "nice to finish" not a "need to finish"

And last, but certainly not least, I need to finalize my team name and logo. I've lost count of all the names I've gone through, but fitting "Halfshell Heroes" into the cartoon's logo isn't as evocative as I'd thought, nor are any of the words I've tried to shoe-horn into the "turtles" slot. At this point I've decided I'll combine the original word and the Dreadball race I pilfered into the word "Turtons". The team name as of last week, "Vintage Cartoon Ninja Turtons," is a bit too blatant, and feels like someone from our world shoe-horning a theme instead of a corporately sponsored team playing Dreadball. With that in mind, I've been playing with the idea of a corporate identity in the "Teenage Mutant Ninja" header. The most recent contenders for team name are...

• Shellshock Pizza's Ninja Turtons
• Retro-Future Pizza Turtons
• Eastman's Inner Peace-za Turtons
• Splintered Strikezone Pizza Turtons

I need to pick one soon so I can finish the typography and get to work on a backing logo. Feedback, criticism and suggestions more than welcome.

miscellaneous: adepticon 2014: and so it continues...

...but with revised plans.

Back in January I posted grandiose plans to finish a Dreadball team, Dreadnought, and Crystal Brush squad for Adepticon. Since then, I've plugged away on my Iron Warriors for the Independent Characters' Hobby Progress Challenge, but have been less than pleased with my work on the Adeptiplans. After a failed start, Simple Green bath, and another failed attempt, I'm calling it on my Crystal Brush plans. There aren't enough hours between now and then to finish them and the models that are game necessary.

Of the models that are game necessary, the Dreadnaughts are currently on the back-burner after a Simple Green bath. They got stripped not because I was unhappy with their progress, but because the paint started stripped off when I started stippling on rust. I let them soak in Simple Green a couple days, washed them a couple times, and just this morning got a nice primer coat on them. Fingers crossed they take the paint well this time.

The Halfshell Heroes (which will likely undergo a name change when I deign their logo) are priority number 1 at the moment. I was finally able to get my sculpting mojo going again and knocked out the last of the "turtles" this weekend. Still have some work to do on "Slash" - the big guy in the back - but these guys also got primed this morning and will be getting paint ASAP.

Halfshell Heroes: Jacks (clickable)

Halfshell Heroes: Guards (clickable)

I plan on using the airbrush to pre-shading the team, then use glazing to provide the majority of the color. It worked okay on the Barsoom diorama and I hope I can make it work again here.