Tale of OG Gamers - High Elves

[fatolaf]

Another stirling effort sir, keep up the excellent plogging.....

[cunningmatt]

Ta!

[fatolaf]

I think this is as good a place as any to put this excellent quote from last nights Charlie Brooker show..

As you pass into your 30's, you are supposed to start feeling like you are an adult.
In fact the only insight you'll probably get is a sudden realisation that all the 'adults' who went before you didn't have a clue what they were doing at this age either

Belting....

[cunningmatt]

I think this is as good a place as any to put this excellent quote from last nights Charlie Brooker show..

I loved it, my favourite quote was "When I'm old I'll want to watch young people being kicked into the sea on TV", I'm not old and I want that now!

[cunningmatt]

Wednesday 2nd February – WEEK 5

Can you believe it, it's February! What the hell happened to January? I swear as I get older life passes me by quicker. No wonder old people need to sleep all the time, they must be knackered just constantly changing the months on the calendar! It's also another momentous occasion as we are half way through the Tale of OG Gamers, yep 5 months in 1,000 points down and 1,000 to go before this blog comes to an end – ahhhhh! Still at least you'll get about 4 hours of your week back not having to read this.

The shock news is that unlike previous end of month blogs which sum up my desperate last minute painting, this month I finished the painting last week, so nothing to say there. And as I haven't played any Black Isle games since last week, there's pretty much nothing to speak out. So there you go that's it for this week see you next time.

Not really, you didn't think you'd get away that easily did you? Now those of you who have very long attention spans and manage to read entire posts on this blog, will know that back around Christmas-New Year time I set myself a Beastmen challenge, to paint 60 Beastmen by the end of January, in addition to my High Elf stuff, well the good news is that with 20 minutes to spare I painted the last one. Phew!





Ok, ok so I didn't finish the banners, shesh you guys are a tough crowd. I'll do them this month along with my High Elf Archers' banner. Either way I'm still pleased, 40 Gors and 20 Bestigors painted and my first hoard unit done! As this is the first Beastmen unit I've done, I've put a full painting guide together here (Stages 1 & 2 are a repeat) - though I do my Beastmen in a slightly different order to my High Elves.
 
Stage 1 – Beastmen Gors

For the Beastmen there's a lot of messy drybrushing so that all gets done early on.







Over a Chaos Black undercoat:

Wood: Drybrushed Codex Grey, then Drybrushed Fortress Grey
Fur: Each model is brushed in one of the following three ways to give the unit some variation: A) Drybrushed Scorched Brown, then Bestial Brown and finally Snakebite Leather, OR B) Drybrushed Chardonite Granite, then Adeptus Battlegrey and finally Codex Grey; OR C) Drybrushed Codex Grey and then Fortress Grey.
Chainmail, where present: Drybrushed Boltgun Metal, washed Devlan Mud, then lightly Drybrushed Chainmail.

Stage 2 – Beastmen Gors











Flesh: 1:1 Scab Red: Dark Flesh
Horns and Bone: Khemri Brown
Base: Khemri Brown
Silver Metal: Boltgun Metal
Gold Metal: Tin Bitz then overcoated (is that a word?) with Shining Gold
Tin/Brass Metal: Tin Bitz
Leather: Scorched Brown
Cream Robes: Khemri Brown
Red Robes: 1:1 Mercherite Red: Blood Red
Stone: Chardonite Granite
Human Flesh: Tallarn Flesh

Stage 3 – Gors











Flesh: Layer Vermin Brown, then wash Gryphonne Sepia, then Highlight 1:1 Vermin Brown : Elf Flesh
Horns and Bone: Wash Badab Black, then layer Khemri Brown, layer Deneb Stone and then layer Bleached Bone (for horns the colours are tailed so the tips are lighter at one end, for bones and skulls a final highlight of 1:1 Bleached Bone : Skull White is used).
Base: Drybrush Bleached Bone, then flock with Scorched Grass, then flock with Snow with PVA, then flock over existing snow with Snow with PVA and Skull White mixed.
Silver Metal: Wash Devlan Mud, Highlight Chainmail
Gold Metal: Wash Gryphonne Sepia, Highlight 5:1 Shining Gold : Mithril Silver
Tin/Brass Metal: Highlight 5:1 Tin Bitz : Mithril Silver
Leather: Wash Badab Black then highlight Beastial Brown
Cream Robes: Layer Kommando Khaki then highlight Bleached Bone
Red Robes: Wash Devlan Mud, then Layer Blood Red, highlight 1:1 Blood Red : Vomit Brown
Stone: Drybrush Adeptus Battle, then Codex Grey, then Fortress Grey, wash Badab Black
Human Flesh: Layer Dwarf Flesh, highlight Elf Flesh then wash Ogryn Flesh.
Eyes: Dot Blood Red

Can I just add here hoard units are extremely difficult to photograph and get them all in the shot, without being so far away you can't see the models!

Stage 1 – Bestigors





Over a Chaos Black undercoat:

Wood: Drybrushed Codex Grey, then Drybrushed Fortress Grey
Fur: Each model is brushed in one of the following three ways to give the unit some variation: A) Drybrushed Scorched Brown, then Bestial Brown and finally Snakebite Leather, OR B) Drybrushed Chardonite Granite, then Adeptus Battlegrey and finally Codex Grey; OR C) Drybrushed Codex Grey and then Fortress Grey.
Chainmail: Drybrushed Boltgun Metal, washed Devlan Mud, then lightly Drybrushed Chainmail.

Stage 2 – Bestigors





Flesh: 1:1 Scab Red: Dark Flesh
Horns and Bone: Khemri Brown
Base: Khemri Brown
Silver Metal: Boltgun Metal
Gold Metal: Tin Bitz then overcoated with Shining Gold
Tin/Brass Metal: Tin Bitz
Leather: Scorched Brown
Cream Robes: Khemri Brown
Red Robes: 1:1 Mercherite Red: Blood Red
Stone: Chardonite Granite
Human Flesh: Tallarn Flesh

Stage 3 – Bestigors









Flesh: Layer Vermin Brown, then wash Gryphonne Sepia, then Highlight 1:1 Vermin Brown : Elf Flesh
Horns and Bone: Wash Badab Black, then layer Khemri Brown, layer Deneb Stone and then layer Bleached Bone (for horns the colours are tailed so the tips are lighter at one end, for bones and skulls a final highlight of 1:1 Bleached Bone : Skull White is used).
Base: Drybrush Bleached Bone, then flock with Scorched Grass, then flock with Snow with PVA, then flock over existing snow with Snow with PVA and Skull White mixed.
Silver Metal: Wash Devlan Mud, Highlight Chainmail
Gold Metal: Wash Gryphonne Sepia, Highlight 5:1 Shining Gold : Mithril Silver
Tin/Brass Metal: Highlight 5:1 Tin Bitz : Mithril Silver
Leather: Wash Badab Black then highlight Beastial Brown
Cream Robes: Layer Kommando Khaki then highlight Bleached Bone
Red Robes: Wash Devlan Mud, then Layer Blood Red, highlight 1:1 Blood Red : Vomit Brown
Stone: Drybrush Adeptus Battle, then Codex Grey, then Fortress Grey, wash Badab Black
Human Flesh: Layer Dwarf Flesh, highlight Elf Flesh then wash Ogryn Flesh.
Eyes: Dot Blood Red

And as with all my Beastmen units I've tried to decorate the bases of all the command models, here's the Bestigor done using bones and skulls from the various Beastmen plastics.



And here's the Gors, I've added arrows from the Ungor set to make it look like they've been under fire, as someone bravely tries to shoot down the hoard. Also the Champion includes spare parts from the Bestigor set to try and differentiate him from my other Gor champion - the axe being cut off the original Gor champion and a Bestigor axe added with some pinning.



I'm pretty pleased with January (bar banners) I've painted 40 Gors, 20 Bestigor, 20 High Elf Archers, a Bolt Thrower, 2 Eagles and a High Elf Waystone which using my rough and ready Unit Strength approximation guide for working out how much I've painted-bought works out means I've painted nearly 100 models and over 1,000 points worth of troops! Yeah! Will never happen again I assure you. Whilst I'll be focussing on the High Elves next month I'm hoping to also finish Malagor, the Dark Omen and Ghorros Warhoof for my Beastmen which should only take a few hours. Although saying that any painting project which should only take a few hours easily expands to 27 weeks of solid painting. Why is that?

Also planning to add some Razagor and a converted Razagor chariot to my army in the near future, and before you start I like the Razagor model - someone had to and it was me. Ok! Plus some Beastmen Chaos Spawn, and an idea I've had for a Jabberslyth conversion (I say idea I've had, when I mean idea I've stolen, but if I don't say you'll never know).

Moving on last week you may remember this disturbing picture of Mount Lard as Ordinance Survey recently named it:



Inspired by this and the fact that I spent two and a half hours trying to do up the collar on a shirt that fitted before Christmas (seriously, at the end of an evening wearing it I had to be cut free by the fire brigade). I decided it was time to do something horrendous and evil - physical exercise. Ewww. The very thought has made me vomit more than Victoria Beckham at an all-you-can-eat-buffet. So this weekend between painting more Beastmen than you can shake a medium sized stick at I went for a run! I know, a run! I say run it was a more a stop-start jogging affair with me clutching my chest a lot thinking I'm about to die. I think I need to face up to the fact that I am just not fit, running down the escalator to catch the tube generally makes me so breathless that I spend the rest of the tube journey huffing and puffing like a trainee asthmatic. And still no one offers me a seat. I'll have to get pregnant it's the only option.

Back to the running, I foolish presumed that a T-shirt and some jogging bottoms would be sufficient to keep me warm, as obviously I'd be running so hard that the heat burning off me would stop the cold getting in. I was wrong. My body slowly turned through purple to blue such that by the time I got home I appeared to be an extra from Avatar. Sadly the sportswear department of my wardrobe is rather sparse so on Day 2 I was forced to wear a crap pair of jogging bottoms and an old zippy top with stains on. Hardly the height of sporting fashion, I looked like I'd rolled out of bed and fallen through Oxfam on the way to the run. All the hard core joggers seem to have some kind of lycra all in one suit on with shorts and a t-shirt over to cover their modesty. Problem is that, that lycra only really suits thin muscley people who have already started jogging - it doesn't really suit the fatter entry level jogger. You tend to look disturbingly like George Galloway did in that infamous clip from Celebrity Big Brother where he wears that red cat suit. Sorry if you're eating, but Ol I've warned you not to whilst reading this blog.

Any way the upshot of all this? I've done my first piece of physical exercise since September and now fill justified in eating Mount Lard in an all night binge - so there you go job done I'll be super fit in no time. And just remember next time you walk past Clapham Common and see a breathless men red in the face and collapsed on the floor it could be me, or you've just got lucky cruising!

"Enough physical exercise, where's the hobby stuff", I hear you cry. Or maybe that's just one of my many internal schizophrenic voices shouting mocking abuse at my life. I can never tell. Either way moving on, those of you new to my blog won't know that all the units in my High Elf army are named after classic children's TV shows, those of you who aren't new to the blog, won't understand why all the units in my High Elf army are named after classic children's TV shows. Nevertheless there's three units in my army that don't have names so it's time to sort that out. Anyone remember Stoppit and Tidyup? It was a very odd show in which Stoppit a furry red full stop and Tidyup a gherkin loving purple bag who looks a little bit like Doc Emery from Back to the Future (or maybe that's just me) go around the land of Do As You're Told. The storylines were odd and made no sense, in a sort of ahead of it's time version of Lost, and it was part funded by the Tidy Britain Group, though very little tidying or encouraging children to tidy occurred. Just like Stoppit and Tidyup all the ancillary characters were commands parents traditionally say to their children: Comb Your Hair, Wash Your Face, Hurry Up, Go and Play, Calm Down, Not Now, Beehave and Beequiet and the Big Bad I Said No. Don't believe me? Well take a look at this (those last two sentences aren't characters by the way!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sHjiKRrKOM

If you've just watched that clip, you can't fail to have noticed that Terry Wogan narrated the show, which at the time seemed very bizarre. Though I suppose it's no odder than the fact that I spent the first ten years of my life thinking that Ringo Starr was primarily famous for narrating Thomas the Tank Engine. The other thing that amuses me about the show is the random belching noise that Tidyup makes – which you can hear in the clip. Why? I know the rest of the show is odd, but that seems odd even by their standards.

Now young people won't know of this device, but in ancient times before DVDs, Blue-Rays, iPlayer and Sky+ if you wanted to watch something at a different time to when it was shown on the television you had to have a device called a VCR standing for Video Cassette Recorder, where about 4 hours of programmes could be stored on a device the size of a shoe box provided you could operate the complex setting instructions for the VCR and the programme went out at exactly the stated time. More modern VCRs had a high tech function called Long Play which allowed you to record twice as much as on the cassette then it was originally designed for. However if you attempted to play a Long Play Video Cassette on a VCR without Long Play the programme, including sound, played back at twice speed. For some unknown reason I once watched an episode of Stoppit and Tidyup back at twice speed and Tidyup's belches were especially funny at twice speed. Don't mock, this was what passed for amusing entertainment in the 1980s. The point of all this is that my pair of flying eagles remind me of the pair of flying bees in Stoppit and Tidyup hence the Great Eagles will be known as Beehave and Beequiet.





Beequiet surely has to be the one with his mouth closed, so that must mean Beehave is the other one.

So with that sorted onto the Bolt Thrower, the Bolt Thrower is pretty much the High Elf army's only machine, so what machines do I remember from kids' TV? Well it's got to be Bertha surely:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z18s8LGSnA0

Bertha was a large purple factory machine that made a variety of different products in weird and wonderful ways. The show had a range of characters Mr Willmake the manager with his secretary Miss McClackerty, who I was convinced was named that as "Clakerty" was a good word to describe the noise of her typewriter. The designers Mr Sprott and Tracey, who actually had computers!! You have to remember in the 80s this was revolutionary, though just like today they mainly played noughts and crosses on the computer if memory serves me. There was Mr Duncan the grumpy foreman, Ted (who looked like Elvis crossed with Postman Pat) and Roy who operated Bertha, Mrs Tupp the tea lady, Panjid the forklift truck driver (who you hoped to god Prince Philip didn't talk to in the special Royal Visit of the Factory episode) and Nell and Flo the packers. Plus of course T.O.M. (Talk Operated Machine) a robot designed by Tracy and built by Bertha.

Storylines were hard hitting such as the one where they made inflatable teddy bears on a hot summer's day; it was so hot the rubber expanded resulting in a giant inflatable teddy bear that floated around the factory. Thank god they weren't making condoms that day! And the episode where Mrs Tupp was replaced by a coffee machine, that is until T.O.M. broke the machine and was forced to use a giant sponge Bertha accidentally made to clean up the mess before Mrs Tupp was replaced. Sadly the series came to an end when the UK's manufacturing industry collapsed, all the staff were made redundant and production moved to China – still the kids need to learn. On the plus side, however I present you with Bertha the Bolt Thrower.



I would come up with a name for the Archers, but too much 80s nostalgia is giving me the urge to put on my fluorescent lycra leggings and dance to Fame – which the terms and conditions of my ASBO prevent. (Second mention of lycra in one post, I know too much sorry)

I will move on to a more hobby related topic, anyone seen this post on Games Workshop about Armies on Parade:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/blogPost.jsp?aId=15000005a

For those of you too lazy to click on the URL it's basically a new "competition" as part of the annual Games Workshop festivities where you paint an army and a 2 foot by 2 foot terrain board to display it on. Entries are judged on composition and style as well as painting and the winner from each store goes through to the Games Day final in a sort of less cheesy Eurovision. I have to be honest and say I quite like the idea, there's something nice about combining the terrain and army in a little diorama without having to go crazy and start scratch building. I also find the example ones, particularly the Ultramarines board (don't say it, I can't start collecting Warhammer 40,000!) particularly pleasing. Obviously the cynical amongst you will say it's all a clever ploy to flog expensive Realm of Battle gameboards to the masses, but as you know this blog likes to be off topic and what could be more off topic than actually praising Games Workshop on a gaming forum – it's about as unexpected as Jeremy Paxman's pronunciation of "cuts". Not that I'm entering mind you, firstly the chances of me finishing an army and display board this side of the next Ice Age are significantly small, and if I did I certainly wouldn't want to take it into Games Workshop for a hoard of annoying 12 year olds to poke it. Sorry any 12 year olds who have some how Googled this post whilst looking for Games Workshop information, but you are all annoying. When I was 12 I thought kids aren't annoying and I'd be cool adult and always like kids, but something changes in the next 20 odd years and I realise even I was annoying as a 12 year old, the same will happen to you. Though I hope the VCR description earlier is useful for your History homework.

Anyway that is pretty much it for this week, sorry not many new photos but hopefully things will be less abstract next week. Just time to tell you that What's In the Box? is back. Yes the highly exciting, nearly bought by Channel 4, gameshow with no point or prizes returns. Under my bed are 36 boxes (labelled 1-36) all you have to do is pick a box and if you're the lucky entrant drawn I'll photo the contents and shove them on the blog. Just to clarify you don't win anything, but you do get the thrill of seeing What's In the Box. See exciting.

So all I need you to do is reply on here with your chosen Box number 1-36 (but not 3, 6 or 25 as they've already been booked) and I will draw a "winner" next week – and I can say the draw is actually genuine! So go on give it a go, especially if you've never played before, or if you're reading this blog and haven't joined the Forum go on join and leave a number (saves you thinking of an introduction). Hell if you're Googlebot scanning this site for its records why don't you leave a number to.

Next week we'll hopefully have Turn 2 of Black Isle, plus February's painting tasks and I may even be talking all things paint brush, but as you know any old tosh* could come out of this crazy mind between now and next Wednesday, and with only two weeks to V-Day there's chance I may slit my wrists or stick my head in the oven – if only it wasn't electric.

* yes "tosh" is an odd word, but I felt the flow of the sentence needed a 4 letter word for "rubbish", so you should be grateful that's all you got.

[fatolaf]

Aaah 'The Big Bad I SAY NO!'......One of my favourite (bad) Terry Wogan impressions, that I still do, but mostly to the yoof, who don't have a scooby what I am on about..Nice one Matt..

Well done on the beasts, as the prosepct of painting 38 Bestigor looms for the SCGT, I draw much needed encouragement that it is entirely possible...


And I will try again, Box number 17 please 

[cunningmatt]

Aaah 'The Big Bad I SAY NO!'......One of my favourite (bad) Terry Wogan impressions, that I still do, but mostly to the yoof, who don't have a scooby what I am on about..Nice one Matt..

The yoof being those who don't know what VCRs are, I get ya! Yes all I remember was it being a very bizaree programme, but I guess they're the ones you remember.

Well done on the beasts, as the prosepct of painting 38 Bestigor looms for the SCGT, I draw much needed encouragement that it is entirely possible...

Yeah entirely possible, I've actually found the Beastmen much quicker to pain than my previous armies. I think the difference is the level of nudity (ooohhh rude word), but Beastmen (and I guess Lizardmen and Tomb Kings) have very little clothes so once you've painted hair and flesh you've done virtually the whole model, as opposed to Dwarfs, Elves etc. where there's lots of clothing which have multiple colour areas. Saying that Bestigor are the most heavily clothed Beastmen so good luck!

And fingers crossed Box 17 will finally come up!

[cunningmatt]

I HATE Plague Censer Bearers! 

More on that story next week, sorry just had to get it off my chest!

If you've read this message you should be now going to Post your entry for this month's What's In The Box? Just hit reply and write your number simple as that! Full details are above this post in this week's blog entry, which if you don't read you're quite frankly a bad person, I mean where else are you going to see someone stupid enough to paint up a unit of 40 Beastmen Gor?

[maelzch]

Shameless self-plugging galore!

Good plog update matt, you definately gave it 45%! I only managed to paint 2 things in the time you painted a squillion beastmen! No fair

I choose box 13

[cunningmatt]

Shameless self-plugging galore!

Your point being...!  He he he!

Good plog update matt, you definately gave it 45%! I only managed to paint 2 things in the time you painted a squillion beastmen!

That's the good side to breaks in contract!