Tweedledum and Tweedledee

So, my most recent painting efforts have been directed towards painting Tweedledum and Tweedledee from the Wonderland Gang for BMG.  Nothing very exciting to say about them, except that they are done now, and that they are promised to Marcus, the Manager of the FLGS, along with the rest of the gang, which is in progress.......they are, as with all the work I have done for Marcus, unbased at his request.

Thoughts, comments, ideas all welcome.

A Game of Thrones

So, I played in my first A Game of Thrones Card Game Tournament in my local store a few weeks ago.  This was a game that I had exactly no experience of, having played only 4 games of it ever before.  I took the Nights Watch as my deck, and it was made up of 2 base sets worth of Nights Watch Cards, plus the first expansion, and some unaligned cards.

So, I enter the tournament, I play some games.  I don't know all the rules, my deck has never been tested, I don't have access to a full card pool so the deck is sub optimal, and I've no real idea what I am doing.  Anyone want to guess how that ended?

So, first game was against a local player, Ben Davies, who had been the person I had played 3 of my learning games against.  He brought Greyjoy/Lannister, and it was a walkover.  Essentially, I had no answers to his threats and no idea what I would do to answer them.

Game two, against Andy and his Lannister/Targaryen deck was much the same.  I got thoroughly beaten, but I did learn a fair amount of how to play.  Andy was a thoroughly nice guy, and a lot of fun to play against.

Going into lunch, I am 0-2, and so I know that I am not going to be doing much in this, but I have learned an awful lot about how the game works, what the meta is like, and the like.

Game three was against Mike, the organiser, and his Stark deck based around the Direwolves.  I won, and this may have more to do with Mike's testing a new deck than any ability on my part, but it felt like there was at least some improvement in my play, game on game.

So, my final place was 6th, and I got the alt art card for participation.  the next tournament in on the 28th February, and I am hoping that I will have had the chance to play a bit more before then.  So far, my modified decklist looks like this

Faction
1x The Night's Watch

Agenda
1x Fealty

Characters
3x Benjen Stark
3x Jon Snow
3x Maester Aemon
3x Ghost
3x Ser Waymar Royce
3x Ranging Party
3x Veteran Builder
3x Old Bear Mormont
3x Steward at the Wall
2x Yoren
2x Will
2x Samwell Tarly
2x Messenger Raven
2x Old Forest Hunter
2x Littlefinger

Locations
3x The Wall
3x The Kingsroad
3x The Roseroad
3x Castle Black

Events
2x Take the Black
2x Tears of Lys

Attachments
3x Longclaw
2x Milk of the Poppy

Plots
2x A Feast for Crows
1x Calling the Banners
1x Confiscation
1x Reinforcements
1x Supporting the Faith
1x Wildfire Assault

Any suggestions or thoughts gratefully appreciated.

Catwoman

So, I finally got round to painting Catwoman.  I should say from the start that this model was a pain in the proverbial, with her left arm falling off more than once, and trying to pose the hand holding the glasses as a bit of a failure.

I've taken these pictures with my tablet rather than the usual phone.  Its 2 generations older (a Xperia Z tablet rather than the Z3 phone), but I think that I quite like the results, and may try it again, as I can get more stability from the pictures.

When painting the black on Catwoman, there was what appeared to be two different types of material.  The undersuit, which had a definite texture, was initially painted with Army Painter black grey, and then washed with Nuln Oil.  Meanwhile, the raised pads on thighs, shoulders, gloves etc were basecoated with Army Painter Black.  The whole lot was then given a VERY light drybrush with GW dry White, before a second wash, and then the smooth areas had the highlights neatened up with black.  Not a perfect outcome, but one which looks reasonably good to me, and better in the person than in the Photos.

Finally, I decided to take a photo of all three of the "Gotham Sirens", even though I have the wrong version of both Ivy and Harley for them.  The Ivy in the background predates the other two by some time, and it is very obvious that she needs a few chips clearing up in her hair that have occured over time.  Nevertheless, really quite pleased with these.

Any comments, advice, criticism etc gratefully received.

Wonder Woman

Painted Knight Models Wonder Woman as an in joke for the fiance's Maid of Honour.  No work in progress photos, as this sat on a shelf for ages, and then I realised that she was coming down in a few days.  Not unhappy with this at all, although the photos really don't do it justice.

Quite pleased with the base on this, complete with Wonder Woman comic covers that have been printed and added to the base.  Plinth is untreated, as I am not sure what she would want for it.

C&C always welcome

Voidweaver and Month 2

So, I have completed month 2 of the Tale of Next Level Gamers challenge after only 10 days in.  I have successfully painted my voidweaver.  With this, I have now achieved 1 Troop, 1 Fast Attack, 1 Elite, and now 1 Heavy support for the army.  I am therefore only 2 Troops and a Fast attack off of having a legal army.

I have quite enjoyed painting the voidweaver, and it has followed the colour scheme as previously used for these forces.  I did make a rather huge mistake in that I painted the interior cockpit, and then glue the top and bottom hulls together rather permanently with superglue without putting it in.  That explains why the canopy is closed, and painted black, as the innards are not in there.

So the pictures....

As with the skyweavers, the masks have not been added to the models yet, and the squad markings are only roughed in.  I will be painting all of these in together when I have a clearer idea of what shape the final force is going to be and thus how I am going to squad things up.

I also haven't decided if the raised bobbles on the hull are going to be painted as red gems, or left as irregularities in the bodywork in the underlying colour.

As always, comments and suggestions welcome.

Finished Batpod

So, I've finished the batpod to a level I am happy with.  It looks less high contrast in person than it does in the photos.  i didn't enjoy building this model, and it sat on the "stuff to guilt Dave into painting" shelf for a while, but actually painting the model was a lot less unpleasant than I thought it would be.

A combination of drybrushes and washed for the bike to get the look from the reference photo, and then drybrushing and washes for the batsuit and the cloak was layered up in 5 or six layers.

It's not my favourite model I have ever painted, but it works and the new owner should be happy with it.

Comments and criticism are always welcome.

Work In Progress

So, since the last post, painting has been slowed due to working on the biggest project so far, my wedding.  However, last night I did manage to get some work done on the Batpod.  It looks a little Grey in the photos, and I am waiting to see it in some natural light to make a decision on whether to knock it back with some black washes or not.  Since the photo, the cloak has been finished, and now I just have the belt to paint and it can be called done.

I've also done some work on the Voidweaver.  This is currently in several sub assemblies, including all of the weapons and crew, and the hull is in 2 parts.  I've painted the green half of the hull, and that has been highlighted and shaded.  I tried using masking tape for the central line for the first time, and it seems to have worked.

I'm very pleased with how this has turned out, and just need to get the purple painted to the same style.

Comments and criticism always welcome.

I am......Batman

Or rather, I am not Batman, but I am PAINTING batman, for the FLGS manager.  One of the most annoying models to assemble I have ever had the misfortune of working with, I finally got it together, and undercoated, and there it sat, on the desk, guilting me, for ages.  Until eventually I gave in, and gave the whole thing a drybrush of a very dark grey, just to see what there was more clearly.

Detail revealing grey coat applied, I then went on to find all the images of the Batpod that I could.  The most useful I found was this one, which I have shamelessly stolen from This Website.  It showed me that yes, most of the structure of this is actually metallic, either dirty or shiny variety.


So this is the progress so far.

I'm pretty happy with the bike part, although it may get a little touch up here or there.  Batman himself has simply been re-undercoated in matt black.  This has shown up a few mold lines and casting bits that need cleaning up before I go too much further, but I should be able to do that and then reapply some undercoat.  All in all, I think that there has been reasonable progress now I have finally found the courage to start (and by found the courage I mean that Lisa, the fiance, has heard the store manager tell me he wants it done by a tournament Sunday, and will now encourage me to knuckle down).

In other news, Marcus, FLGS Manager, tells me that he took his Batman team to a tournament, where he was told that if all his models were painted to the standard of his Green Arrow (Which can be found here) then he would have won best painted.  Nice to know that the model was a success.....

Any suggestions on making the Batman on his Pod easier to paint would be gratefully appreciated.

First Month Completed

So, I have completed month one of my "A Tale of Next Level Gamers".  Not sure if anyone else is actually doing this, but, it has motivated me to get a fixed amount of models completed each month.  The fiance has helped, encouraging me to get the last of the models painted by the end of the month.

So without further ado, the models.

My Shadow Seer, painted in the same scheme as the squad that he is going to join.  Of note, unlike the other Harlequins, his mask is blank, and painted black currently.

I have also painted the first 2 Skyweavers, again in the same paint scheme as the first Troupe.  The shuriken cannon are removable, although I haven't as yet painted the Haywire Cannon to replace them.

Finally, there is a shot of the whole of the force so far.

So, by my reckoning I should get 1pt for participation, 2pts for Priming and Prep, 3pts for Painting, 2pts for posting, and 2 pts for pictures, which makes 10 of a possible 15 points, and losing points on playing games and player choice (which can only happen if there are more than just me scoring points for it.)

Comments and criticism are always welcome.