LZ is Hot!

Well, I've had 2 weeks off work, and decided that I needed a painting project for that time, to go with the relaxing and spending time with the other half.  Since my FLGS is starting a Dropzone Commander evening, and I had a force for this mostly in boxes unpainted, I decided that this was the way to go.  I looked through the book for inspirational paint schemes, and decided that while the Lombards scheme would let me have the purple, it might be a little too purple, and so I turned to the "Zulu" scheme from the rulebook.

So, without further ado, I present my Dropzone Force so far.

Spot the pre this painting session one on the left with a different painting style.

All of these are painted using a very simple method.  Undercoat Steel Legion Drab, washed with Agrax Earthshade and then drybrush Tallarn Sand.  After that, the Purple is Genestealer Purple with a Druchi Violet wash.  The Gems are Warpstone Glow highlighted with Moot Green.  The black lens' are flames of War Black Grey with Army Painter War Paint Matt Black.  I should note, that of all the blacks I have ever used, the Army Painter one is by a long margin the best black paint I have ever used.

Comments and Ideas are more than welcome.

Some painting

I've been in a bit of painting rut recently, with not very much getting done at all.  Elder Scrolls V, Witcher I, and work have all resulting in me not being very productive.  1 Hour at Night has been a complete lie.
Still, I have got some painting done.  A while ago, I completed the Troll Axer I had been working on, and I realised that I never got any pictures of it up.  So

Yes, I know there is a huge mold line down his face.  And his axe.

I also worked on Tuco, for my Neverborn faction.  

As to what comes next, well, its a surprise, its already painted, and its colours are White and Pale Green, with a Wolf emblem.... any guesses?

Not playing Magic

Well, a few months ago now, I gave up and did something that I swore I would never do again.  I played Magic the Gathering.  I was at the store, they had a spare seat at a modern tournament, someone lent me a deck, and the rest is history.  I've now started playing again, and in the few drafts I've played in mid table mediocracy has been my fate.  I've also started collecting a few cards, and have a standard red rush deck that has not been terrible in casual games, although I've not managed to test in competitively.  One thing that I do know, however, is that it is not even close to being ready for modern, even with a few cards swapped out.

Modern is a format that I should have been at home in.  Older cards, some of which I knew.  And yet, it seems to me that it is even more open to abuse than the old Type I used to be back when I played competitively (around Unlimited-6th).  3-4 turn kills were common, and while I accept that my deck was vastly underpowered against these, there should have been something I could have done.  I'm not sure that this is a format that I would have enjoyed, even if I did have the card pool.

So, my deck so far consists of

16 Mountain
4 Wind-Scarred Crag
4 Bloodfire Expert
4 Bolt of Keranos
2 Dragon Fodder
2 Foundry Street Denizen
2 Gore Swine
3 Lightning Berserker
4 Lightning Strike
4 Mardu Scout
1 Monastery Swiftspear
4 Spark Jolt
1 Trumpet Blast
4 War-Name Aspirant
3 Wild Slash
2 Zurgo Bellstriker
Sideboard:
2 Arrow Storm
4 Barrage of Boulders
1 Demolish
2 Pyrotechnics
3 Roast
3 Shatter

I'm sure that it has hundreds of holes.  I know that it is weak against lots of deck types.

What I do wonder is, in the absence of the opportunity to spend hours playtesting face to face, what engines online people use to test decks?

Would that I wood

Ok, this is a project that occupied much more of my time than I had planned.  My forest base.  Wire made trees, with clump foilage and pan scourer greenery.

The trunks were made with twisted wire (tutorials online), and then I added the foilage.  As I had trouble with this before, this time I added cut up pan scourer, and then clump foilage over that.  I have to say, I like the bushier effect that this gives.

As for the trunk textures, I tried green stuff, liquid greenstuff, and wrapping with glue soaked paper towel.  I think that in future, I will stick with the glue soaked paper towel.  Most fiddly, but I like the effect the best.

Thorakitai

Ok, so I FINALLY finished the thorakitai from the Steel Phalanx set for my Aleph.  They were, a slog.  I was never very inspired by the models, and they had sat, mostly unpainted for months.  Finally kicked myself into finishing them, since I have been using two of them in my lists for a long time, and am trying (Hard) to play with painted models.  So they are done.
I am not desperately happy with their paint job, and I know that these are terrible pictures, but really, they don't inspire much more from me at the moment.

Any comments are as usual welcome.

Look at my Enourmous Chopper

Trollblood Axer finished.  Pretty poor pictures, camera phoned as usual, but less quality than I normally manage.  That said, I am off to work.  Any thoughts always welcome,

Can't see the Trolls for the Trees

Work this week has seen me finishing at 9.30pm, getting home around 10, and then with nothing else to do, hobbying until about midnight.  So, you might ask, (if you cared, which you probably don't, although if you don't, why are you here) what have I been doing.

Would anyone be surprised to know that the answer involves Trolls, and Trees?  More specifically, I have been working on my Troll Axer for my Trollbloods.  Got the skin done, got the metallic armour started.  Just some details (Face rocks, toe nail shading, the Bloody (literally, covered with blood) great axe, the copper bits of his armour, and of course, the tartan) to do.  Pleased again with how the skin is coming out, given that there are very few steps to it, it seems to give a quite nice effect, in person, even if it doesn't always come across in my (very poorly lit camera phone taken) photos.

The other thing I have been playing with has been trees and hedges.  Had the random idea to try making some of these, and so went to town.  Plasticard bases, pan scourers, clump foilage stuff.  Attach scourer to base, spray black and then drybrush brown, before covering with the clump foilage, and then basing to suit.

The trees are the typical twisted wire home made armature variety.  I am experimenting with them still.  The one that is shown here is made by covering the armature in liquid green stuff.  Too much of the "its made of twisted wire" comes across with that for me.  Other methods to be tried include "wrap it in kitchen towel soaked in PVA (A reasonable success) and the still to be attempted "smear it with green stuff to hide the wire".
The greenery is made with the same clump stuff as the hedges are covered in with one trick that I haven't seen anywhere else.  When I have attempted this before, the foilage always either fell off if I made big clumps, or looked quite bare.  To counter this second, I, before I added the foilage, gave the end of the branches some bulk using finely chopped up scourer stuck to the wire.  This was allowed to dry, and then had the (more expensive, harder to work with) clump stuck to it.  I'm still not 100% happy with the result, but its forward progress on previous attempts.

As always, comments, criticism, advise are more than welcome in the comments section.