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Tale of OG Gamers - High Elves

Started by cunningmatt, September 02, 2010, 09:35:11 am

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Mike

Quote from: fatolaf on September 23, 2010, 03:05:01 pm
the 4 year old's artwork.... :))

Thats a bit harsh mate....

I think your paintings very nice Matt  :))
In the summer of 2011 he moved North... spreading the word of House OG.

I am Mike of House OG.  Ogger in the North.  And Ginger is coming.

cunningmatt

QuoteI think your paintings very nice Matt

Thanks my Mum still puts them on the fridge!


Procrastination by Numbers - Update 146:

I'm painting classic Dwarfs!! PbN Update 146

Dave

Your mum puts your models on the fridge?

jackhoneysett

Quote from: cunningmatt on September 22, 2010, 10:25:00 pm
And that my friends is this week over, sadly no Mixing Pants this week (I know I promised last week, but I haven't done any, maybe next week!).

Just a typo I hope, or are you planning on sharing even more personal information with us next week?

:))

cunningmatt

QuoteJust a typo I hope, or are you planning on sharing even more personal information with us next week?

Hahaha, it's an even better tease for next week's blog entry than I expected!


Procrastination by Numbers - Update 146:

I'm painting classic Dwarfs!! PbN Update 146

cunningmatt

Wednesday 29th September

This week's blog is written with disappointment in my heart, stemming from the fact that I didn't win the Labour leadership contest, what many of you may not know is that me and Diane Abbot are one and the same – that's the reason you never see me in the same room as her, and why my visits to the club are slightly sporadic as I'm busy filming This Week.

But as September draws to a close the good news is I've finished this month's painting task – Smoggy's Sea Guard are done, plus there's a bumper blog entry to end the month – it's been a busy week for painting (sorry I promise to be shorter next week). Here's a sneak preview of the finished unit:



Obviously I am slightly loathed to submit an entry on the OG Forum for any kind of painting contest, after my last entry (my converted Chaos Giant), was tragically denied winning Painting Competition 5 after no one remembered to announce the result, here's the proof he should have won:



See 50% of the vote. Fortunately I'm not a bitter person, I haven't carried this with me or remembered it for several months since the closing date on the 22nd of June – 3 months and 7 days ago, I haven't felt bitter and cheated and it hasn't gnawed away at me making me a twisted and nasty person. Not at all, not in the slightest, no. I blame Lee, and to think I voted for him to win. Charming! :rant;2:

Any way moving away from that. I made three promises to you last week, which I will endeavour to keep – firstly no mentions this week of certain milkshake shop that begins with "S" and ends in "hakeaway", so I promise that word will not pass my lips (well keyboard) this post, honest there will be no mentuons. Secondly was to show you a group shot of Stage 3 of Smoggy's Sea Guard, so here they are:

Stage 3 – Smoggy's Sea Guard





There is a third promise, but I'll come to that later. Ever the tease that I am.

This week, for the first time in a while, I popped along to the OG for a quick game of Warhammer on Thursday. I played my Beastmen against Bart's Orcs & Goblins – I lost, this is hardly a headline but I did learn five things from the experience (none of which are related to game play or tactics) that I thought I'd share with you:

1) Tom is rather loud when playing Warhammer. Sitting on the next table to him was a bit like sitting next to Brian Blessed during a shouting competition when he's got a nasty bout of Tourette's. I should point out I'm not complaining, I am just observing, plus Tom commented how much he enjoys this blog and my ego is easily flattered. He must have just been very excited; he was shouting "gay" a lot which I can only presume means he's having a merry old gay time of it.

2) Last week when reading my blog Ol spat red wine all over his computer screen. I'm not sure whether this was in amusement (unlikely), disgust (probable) or some kind of natural ability he has developed to spit red wine much like a deadly cobra can spit its poison across great distances. Personally I'm hoping for option C, I love the idea of a swanky wine bar with loads of Ol's – you simply select the drink you want stand by the appropriate Ol holding out a glass and he spits the drink of your choice in the glass. Sou'westers would probably have to be provided to guests, but it would be amazing.

3) No matter how quickly you are rushing round the house and getting dinner to get to your second slot game, don't go out and leave the electric hob on. I did this. Fortunately no one was harmed and no damage was done. This combined with the fact that I "donated" my jacket to the Northern line this week is forming a strong case for the fact that I am drifting into insanity. Plus my flat mate was quite disturbed to get home walk into the kitchen and find the ambient temperature was about 58 degrees Celsius, on the downside he now thinks I was trying to kill him in some kind of insurance scam. I of course wasn't, but next time I'm leaving a three bar electric fire in the bath that's sure to get him.

4) Don't use the radiators in the Spread Eagle pub's games room as a little shelf for spare models. I found out after knocking a Bestigor and Ungor down the back of the radiators, that the gap between the radiator and the wall is sealed on the other three sides (and there's no way your hand will fit down the gap from the top) – oh dear. This resulted in me spending about 15 minutes trying to hook them out with the end of a tape measure with my head pressed against the wall for a good view. It was like a shit version of the Crystal Maze, in fact I half expected Ol to don a faux leopard skin jacket and play the harmonica behind me whilst I finished the task. Fortunately for all concerned he didn't.

5) Ritchie can't read this blog because he doesn't have internet access. Which means I can say This Morning is shit, and not feel bad about it. This Morning is shit! There said it again! Actually I quite like This Morning, well anything that's surrounded in the schedule by The Jeremy Kyle Show and Loose Women is going to appear artificially better than it actually is. But in fairness I quite enjoy a bit of Holly and Phil banter (as long it's not a serious item about someone whose children have a bizarre medical condition where their heads have been replaced by florets of broccoli – I don't like that bit), I'm less keen on Eamonn and Ruth though, they're a bit of a Friday disappointment, usually Friday's are for treats but ITV evidentially disagree. When I first saw them present together I thought they had an awkward, angry, frictional on-screen relationship which some may say was bitchy and confrontational, which I thought was odd. Then I realised they were a couple and it all made sense. It's kind of an unwritten rule in TV that fellow TV people don't slag off people not announcing their Giant hasn't won a painting competition – sorry I mean an unwritten rule in TV that fellow TV people don't slag off other TV people's work. We have to politely sit there and say how nice it is, when actually we thought it was a pile of poo (I'm sure people say this about my work all the time!). Unfortunately I was unable to stick to this rule when I met a producer who had worked on some of the recent Danny Dyer shows – even if I had the acting talents of the great Dame Judy Dench it would have been a struggle.

Before I move on to This Week in Pictures, I should point out that like the rest of this blog any comments made about other members of OG Games in this post should be taken not seriously and in good humour – except the bit about my giant not winning, I meant every word of that. Calm down someone pass me my beta blockers – phew I'm fine now.

So it's over to This Week in Pictures.

Thursday saw the completion of Stage 3 of Smoggy's Sea Guard, pictures are already in this blog and the colours used are in last week's blog, so I won't repeat them again.

Friday, and here's my third and final promise. Jack pointed out, thanks Jack, that due to a typo in last week's blog I accidentally promised to show you Mixing Pants this week rather than Mixing Paints. Well I am one to keep my promises and I did try, but it didn't go down at work when I tried to swap my M&S Trunks for some ladies lingerie off a girl in finance, certain people complained and it all got messy. I'd show you the photos but HR asked me to delete them, sorry (particularly to the finance department).

Saturday saw the next leg of my painting tour as I took my paints (and pants) to Orpington in Kent as I went to see my parents for their anniversary. Now I've found the good thing about taking your paints when you go and see family members, is you can set up on the dinning room table, paint away, and it looks like you're being sociable when in actual fact you don't have to talk to them – I know genius, you can have that idea for free! Any how disappointed with last week's trip where I failed to take any photos of the sites of Wilsden Green this week I've done you proud.

First off some fascinating facts about Orpington:

The Buff Orpington is a species of hen named after the town, which incidentally was part of the crest on my primary school badge.

The first mention of Orpington was in 1038 when the treasurer of King Cnut (a name that should always be carefully spelt) gave away land at Orpedingetune.

The last British civilian to die in World War II died in Orpington, due to a V2 rocket destined for Biggin Hill airfield. Worryingly if a V2 were to land in the centre of Orpington today it could do potentially thirty-eight pence worth of damage.

So bright-eyed and bushy tailed I set off from Clapham Common on Saturday morning:



Here's the quiet, peaceful, leafy Clapham, little do people know of the horrors of that lurk just a few metres below the ground... the Northern line!

A short tube ride later we're at London Bridge:



Rather disturbingly, particularly given my early comments, a V2 rocket can be seen here stored right next to London Bridge platform 1, I'm not sure this is the safest location for such armaments – in fact I'm almost certain it isn't.



Here are some of the delightful places we get to stop at on the way to Orpington, note to self put the camera away and pretend to be a tramp when we get to Grove Park – it's the only way to avoid a mugging.



And here's the best view of London Bridge - the view as you leave it. If you look closely in this picture you may see a train spotter, in which case this would make you a train spotter spotter.

After about 20 minutes we arrive in Orpington, where the first thing we are greeted by is a sign that I think perfectly encapsulates everything about Orpington:



I don't think any caption is required to make this sign funny. Though I am tempted to hold up a similar message next time someone asks me an annoying question at work.


Here's the wonderful new footbridge at Orpington station with lifts, empowering the elderly and disabled to suffer the misery of the early morning commute along with the rest of us. Lucky them.



Here we can see South Eastern trains staff busy at work, we can only imagine what exciting Orpington-related gossip there is.

We now head into Orpington town centre, where one of the first sites you encounter is this new construction:



Apparently it is the biggest Tesco in Western Europe – what the hell it's doing in the small town of Orpington is anyone's guess.



Here's Orpington High Street, as you can see the new regeneration programme has made Orpington look absolutely amazing and like no other mediocre town centre in the country.



Here we see Sweets n' Shakes a milkshake shop which is a rival to a more popular brand whose name escapes me at present. Incidentally I was once asked to leave a different rival brand milkshake shop in Manchester after making inappropriate comments about Milky Way Magic Stars.



Closer inspection of Sweets n' Shakes disturbingly reveals all the stock is gone, and a hastily scrawled "Closed" sign in the window, this would only be more worrying if the sign read "Closed by the order of Government Environmental Health" and a fleet of Rentokil vehicles surrounded the shop while deploying heavy duty pumping equipment – hopefully that isn't what has happened.



Here's the highly exciting Walnuts Shopping and Leisure centre, the main advantage of this over the High Street is the ability to walk past all the closed down shops whilst under cover from the elements.



Now finally we get to a Games Workshop/modelling/painting connection, you knew there had to be one, though you may have given up hope. This shop used to be the site of Computer Leisure Centre a shop that not only sold games for my Sega Master System (old school) but also sold a range of Citadel Miniatures – and has a school child was my most readily accessible supply of them. Sadly it only really stocked a handful of completely random blisters and all the little box sets that used to contain 10 mono pose models all for a fiver. Though I did pick up a couple of River Trolls there at the bargain reduced price of £3 each once – what a find!?!



Here's the Save the Children Orpington branch which featured in the BBC 2 show Mary Queen of Charity Shops – essentially a programme where Mary Portas harassed and moaned at a group of sweet, well meaning, elderly volunteers until they gave up their jobs and stopped helping at the shop.



This is the Texaco petrol station not far from my house, which during one university break caught fire when a moped burst into flames in the forecourt – very exciting to watch from a safe distance. Apparently the petrol station's fire prevention methods of an empty fire extinguisher and a bucket of sand chained to the wall so that no one could steal it were insufficient to prevent extensive fire damage to the premises – who'd have thought?



Finally we get to my parents house, and you can see final painting on the Lothern Sea Guard taking place here – incidentally this is only use for the Orpington & Chislehurst News Shopper - to protect Mum's dining room table from a nasty splatter of paint, and to protect me from my mother's wrath!



And lastly something about painting, this is a tip from Lee for trying out what washes to use – thanks Lee (if only you'd be so handy when it came to awarding Giants prizes they deserve – cough cough  :wink;m:: )  Basically I've painted consecutive stripes of all the yellows I used, and then painted various washes across them to see which blends them better – Ogryn Flesh at the top here looked better than Gryphonne Sepia (I'd recommend doing this on plain white paper rather than a copy of the Orpington & Chislehurst News Shopper for better results).

On Sunday, after surviving the parental visit, a supreme effort (the last little details always take longer than you expect) got Smoggy's Sea Guard finished!!

Stage 4 – Smoggy's Sea Guard

Here's some finished group shots:





And a close up of the command models:





And if you fancy copying my technique (you mad fool) here's the final part of my four stage guide:





Base: Drybrush with Bleached Bone then flock with Glade Grass
Leather: *NO CHANGE*
Robes and Shield: Further layering of Skull White on central areas
Armour Edging: *NO CHANGE*
Silver Metal: *NO CHANGE*
Spear and Bow: *NO CHANGE*
Dragon: Wash with Baal Red
Sea: Highlight uppermost waves with 1:1:3 Enchanted Blue : Dark Angels Green : Space Wolves Grey
Gold Metal: Highlight with 5:1 Shining Gold : Mithril Silver
Hair: Vomit Brown – highlighted with Bleached Bone. Dheneb Stone – highlighted with Skull White. Calthan Brown – highlighted with Bubonic Brown
Flesh: *NO CHANGE*
Pennants and Arrow Quivers: Wash with Ogryn Flesh highlight with Bad Moon Yellow
Seaweed: Layered with 1:1:3 Enchanted Blue : Dark Angels Green : Bleached Bone
Shells: Wash in recess with 1:1 Asurmen Blue : Thraka Green, then wash all over with a very watered down Mithril Silver

Eyes – eyes were painted with a fine slit of Chaos Black and then two Skull White dots in the corner.

Gems – that last bastard for all High Elf painters just when you think you're done!! All my rank and file gems are either blue or yellow, red is reserved for character models to help them stand out. Though for this unit they were all blue, as it worked with Smoggy's Sea Guard colour scheme. I'll talk about gem painting in more detail another time – but overall they are painted Chaos Black with a blue highlight in the corner ever shrinking curves of Necron Abyss, Regal Blue, Ultramarines Blue and Enchanted Blue with a highlight of Skull White in the corner, these will them be given a Gloss varnish after the whole model is Matt varnished.

Overall I'm really pleased with these models, though putting them up against my old High Elves that I painted nearly two years ago I see that my painting standard has significantly improved (if I do say so myself), which I suppose is a good thing – but does make me want to repaint the rest of the army – no, there's no time for that Matthew, resist.

I'm particularly pleased with the white, layering on a slightly watered down Skull White on the top layer to shade with the greys works much better than just using it neat out the pot as I did in the fast. The Ogryn Flesh wash really improved the yellow – though it's still a bum to paint. Flesh and faces look much stronger, again Ogryn Flesh, plus better brush control (learnt over the Beastmen years). Being more careful with the eyes helps too, some of the old ones had great big eyes, which looks weird now, good eyes only need a small area of black and the tinniest hint of white (especially on creatures like Elves with smaller faces). Shields came out looking well, thanks to the Games Workshop guide. Watering down the Bleached Bone on the final step of the wood really looks good – giving the wood a natural grainy feel rather than blocks of colour. Oh and the shells and musician's horn benefited from a very thin wash of Mithril Silver to make them glisten slightly, with that slight mother of pearl look. Plus the seaweed will be given a gloss varnish to make it look nice and wet – why you'd tie wet seaweed to your spear I'm not sure but I can imagine the pong now.

So with Month 1 done here's a roster for of the army so far:



Ok so the chart's not very exciting at present, but hopefully over the coming months it will get more exciting.

Incidentally if you want to see the Lothern Sea Guard close up they'll be fighting it out at the doubles event on Sunday, sounds like they're doing a book signing doesn't it?! I'll let you know how they get it on in an extra bonus blog next week – exciting I know, you can barely contain yourself!

I have twittered on an awful lot this week, more so than usual (I can't promise this every week, seriously by Month 10 I'll have died if we keep up this pace!). But this just leaves me time to tease next month's painting project. All I'll say is it includes some Island of Blood models and some under the bed models – yes that's right the infamous under the bed, that Ol knows only too well. That sounds like I keep Ol locked up under my bed in some kind of sick domestic violence scenario, I don't mean that, what I mean is I keep mentioning the fact I have loads of old models under the bed to Ol so it's become infamous. Incidentally if I am keeping Ol locked up I find it easier to keep him in my airing cupboard – if he's under the bed it's impossible to get a good night's sleep even if he's bound and gagged.

Anyway here it is, for the first time ever, under the bed:



I've got basically six sets of six mini-drawers, cheapo from IKEA which are ideal for storing miniatures and most of my old collection from when I was a kid lives here. Now I thought this sounds like an exciting prospect for a competition! Wooo! I say competition..., in fact I say exciting...

All the boxes are labelled number 1 – 36, primarily because I'm quite anal and like bizarre order where none is required:



If you reply to this post with a number (from 1-36), I will randomly draw a number from the suggestions next week and show you what is in that drawer (you won't win it I hasten to add), but you will get to see a treat – it could be some classic old models from way back when, it could be some poorly painted prototypes, could be some recently painted models or if you're unlucky you could pick the one empty box and then you'll waste your chance for a look!

Essentially it's a lot like Deal or No Deal?, except without the cash prizes or Noel Edmonds – though there is every chance I could ring you in a disturbing phone call – I'm not promising anything. So if you want to play reply to this post with a box number and who knows yours could get picked, I don't want to influence your choices but boxes 31-36 will require me to move the chest of drawers to open – so think carefully!!*

*Lines close at midnight on Monday 4th of October, votes cast after this won't count but may still be charged.

And that's it, we're at the end of the longest blog ever (until next week probably, no I will contain myself) – well done if you made it. Last week I bid you goodbye by wishing you roll lots of 6s, and after this I rolled an inordinate number of 6s during my game this week – it's almost as if me wishing you good fortune returned the good fortune to me. So I'm hoping this theory is correct as I wish you a week full of Lottery wins and brilliant sex! With any luck next week I'll be able to afford slaves to paint my models and This Week in Pictures will be 18-rated – here's hoping!!!

P.S. I'm not bitter about the giant, honest!


Procrastination by Numbers - Update 146:

I'm painting classic Dwarfs!! PbN Update 146

maelzch

another brilliant update, and congratulations the the winner of the Conversion painting contest!  :1st:

(I'll get it sorted and award your giant it's place in the hall of heros! This award is non-refundable and has no cash value! :thumbsup:)

i choose drawer 13
Painted total 2012: Bought:15  Painted: 74
Quote from: NickAnd thus the true evil of 'Palmer, Hobbykiller' becomes clear...
At night he prances about like some sort of bearded West Country metalhead pixie, planting pink horrors in peoples' army cases and cackling while chanting his mantra, 'it's double sixes my love, take them off, just take them all off'
Quote from: Chris TomlinWho knew a Jager obsessed madman could be so creative?

Mike

I move that the following icon.... however badly drawn (I do maps not graphics!)...
be added to the smiley database!

In the summer of 2011 he moved North... spreading the word of House OG.

I am Mike of House OG.  Ogger in the North.  And Ginger is coming.

cunningmatt

Quotecongratulations the the winner of the Conversion painting contest!

Did I win?! I'd completely forgotten about that competition!  :wink;m:: Horray! The Giant is happy now.

QuoteThis award is non-refundable and has no cash value!

Not even 0.000000001p?

QuoteI move that the following icon.... however badly drawn (I do maps not graphics!)...
be added to the smiley database!

I couldn't agree more, I'd use it loads (unsurprisingly)!

Keep those votes,  I mean start those votes coming in for the competition who knows what drawer you may get to open (well you'll know it will be the one you vote for... hmmm).



Procrastination by Numbers - Update 146:

I'm painting classic Dwarfs!! PbN Update 146

Nick

Great stuff Matt. lol is an overused acronym, but your posts do make me laugh aloud several times a page. Esp as I live not far from Orpington and get why you're not a big fan ...

I vote for drawer 11. No reason.