Procrastination by Numbers

[cunningmatt]

And this is the 1,000th reply!

Got both! Yeah!! Go me!!! 

[cunningmatt]

Procrastination by Numbers: Update 107 – Getting Back in the Hobby Grove Friday 20th September 2013



107.1 Bringing Back the Love

Last week I talked, at length (standard) about hobby wobbles and my recent lethargy for all things nerdy. That does make it sound like I was positively cool for the mid part of this year, that probably isn't true. Anyway as part of my Imperium Rehabilitation Programme I thought I'd look at my hobby and what my favourite bits are, and what my least favourite bits are. So starting off with the most important thing in my hobby:

1. Playing Warhammer Online

My favourite bit of the hobby has got to be playing Warhammer Online. I mean I don't know about you, but it's hard to know what I would do if the ability to spend my weekend playing as my Level 150 Chaos Sorcerer, called Gloria, was ever taken away.

What's that?...

What do you mean?

No it can't be.

Ahhhh bo**ocks.

I guess here's my new number one then:

1. Collecting

Being the kind of emotional void and damaged individual that enjoys watching ITV's The Chase (I draw the line at Tipping Point) there isn't much love in my life (ignoring my boyfriend - it ruins my comedy persona) and so I have to surround myself by stuff in order to give me life some semblance of meaning. I've collected all kinds of shit over the course of my life: An entire run of The X-Files on VHS, even though I don't like The X-Files, enough LEGO bricks to build a 1:1 scale model of the whole Universe, every Now That's What I Call Music CD from Now 37 to Now 85 which includes an eclectic range of timeless hits from Chumbawamba to Daphne & Celeste.



As you can imagine my bedroom is jammed full of utter crap, in fact I'm only one part work magazine set away from appearing on a Channel 4 programme about hoarding. And my miniature cabinet is no different; let's not forget I have an 8,000 point Beastmen army - utter junk that's about as useful as a six month subscription to Warhammer Online.



Collecting is definitely my thing, why have a compact net-list guaranteed winning 2,000 point army when I can have one of every option in the Army Book?

On that note nobody mention the deal to order an entire Chapter on the Games Workshop website.



2. Painting

Thank god for painting, painting is the one thing that keeps my collecting in check. By keeping a reasonably strict policy of buying at approximately the same rate as I paint I don't end up insolvent surrounded by five different Warriors of Chaos army one dedicated to each of the ruinous powers and the fifth dedicated to Michael Aspel.



For the most part I enjoy painting. Like everyone I have wobbles, moods of what models I want to paint - usually a completely different army to the one I've just spent £200 on. But there we go. Generally speaking my favourite bit is once we get onto the highlight and layering stage as the model starts to come to life. I find the base coating part tedious generally it involves constantly finding bits of the model you've missed, working out what the feck the various sculpted details are supposed to be and thinking the model is going to turn out crap. Fortunately for me they always seem to come together to a vaguely reasonable standard but I do spend most of the base coating stage thinking this is utter dog dirt.

Of course it's harder here to rein in the collecting gene I appear to have Hoovered up (other brands of vacuum cleaner are available) one of every painting guide ever produced and every single Citadel Paint made. I mean seriously when am I going to use Changeling Pink.



3. Gaming

Coming in at number three is gaming. Probably not a surprise to the regular club members who know I only make a handful of fleeting visits. Though this in part due to the restrictions on my ASBO.

A well matched game with an opponent who is as much interested as in having a chat as playing the game is my cup of tea. Obviously given my tactical skill to get a well matched game I usually have to play the Ebola virus - who is a surprisingly dab hand with his Wood Elf army.



I've mentioned this before but a good way to check if an opponent is right for me is right at the beginning of the game when I ask the innocuous question "How was your day?". If they reply with a brief comment on their day before enquiring about mine, they are worth playing. If they simply reply "Fine. Let's roll for spells." the game will be about as enjoyable as lowering your testicles into an office shredder without the thrill of at least getting £250 from You've Been Framed. Sadly I have not found a similarly fool proof method for Warhammer 40,000.

4. Assembly, Conversion etc.

Assembly, Conversion and anything involving super glue comes in at number four. Generally for me assembly is a means to an end, to get stuff on the painting table. For some reason constantly regluing the same f**king piece onto a model again and again until your fingers are wielded together and the model still lies in pieces isn't my idea of fun. Not that I've had any bad experiences you understand. Not at all.

That said when assembly is going well and I can see models coming together and they're looking good I can be inspired. But seriously who likes removing mould lines or pinning pieces? Exactly no one.

Conversions don't tend to grab me that much, the collector in me wants one of what's featured on the box so finds it hard to modify the original. Plus the idea of mass conversion seems to imply buying far more kits than you need to make less models. That said I have dabbled with some minor conversions for my Warriors of Chaos army:



My biggest conversion to date is my Beastmen Jabberslythe, though in fairness I reckon I probably would have bought the Games Workshop model had that existed at the time.



Chaos generally speaking is the easiest of armies to convert, as broadly anything goes, High Elves tend not to benefit from a second head or a tentacles bursting from their chest. But I think the most I am ever likely to stretch to conversion wise is the odd character and/or monster - something that would get noticed on the tabletop. The idea of converting fifty Spearmen, or scratch building a weapon option that doesn't exist on a kit fills me with dread.

5. Army Selection, Tactics and Rules

Number five the bottom of the list uggghhh putting together an army and coming up with tactics. All of which requires a basic understanding of the rules.

The 12 year old Matty that played Warhammer 4th edition (with the billion razor-tipped Goblin Spearmen)  seemed to know all the rules, spells and magic items. I would spend ages writing out army lists for all my armies - usually in a felt tip pen appropriate for the army (Green - Orcs & Goblins, Blue - Dwarfs...) yes I was odd then too. Admittedly back then I didn't paint so maybe my hobby time was less conflicted. But now army lists feel like a massive chore, I just can't be arsed, I can barely find the will to choose the troops and as for magic items. Puhhh. Just seems to become an exercise in choosing things to fill up the points gap in my army.



Then when the army is finally picked it's got to be packed into an army case. Which is a bit like trying to pack your first born into an overhead compartment on a Boeing 747. Technically there's enough room, but you know when you get to your final destination they'll have lost a limb or two.



I mean seriously how am I going to get my Flamespyre Phoenix or Lothern Sky Cutter to the club without hiring a Luton van and a driver?

Whilst I like choice, I think what I actually require is someone to choose my army list for me, and preferably pack it and bring it to the club for me. Any volunteers?

6. Blogging

I hate this free me now. Seriously if it wasn't for that contract I signed I could leave this blog and have a life.

Conclusion

So there you go I've decided more painting and collecting for me, and I intend to outsource assembly, choosing army lists and packing armies.

107.2 – Hobby Progress

Good news is despite all my list making I have managed to get some hobby done. First up here's my finished Ultramarine Tactical Squad. It's the old kit I'm afraid, that I started about 70 weeks ago.







Accompanying them is a Rhino for them to ride in, I even painted the inside like the loser I am.











And I have started work on a Drop Pod, should I wish to drop the Squad in. I don't!



And if that wasn't enough I scrapped together a few pennies, bought a van and ram-raided the local Games Workshop – which resulted in me picking up the new Space Marine Codex and a Predator tank. Don't laugh, I like it.



107.3 – Get In Touch

Next time I'll try and talk about all the transfers and icons added to the above Ultramarines. I bet you can't wait. Really you can't can you. Told you. If you really can't you can see more by following me on Twitter @ProbyNumbers – until next time have a nice life.

[The Trampoline]

Good to see you put the power-fist on the sergeant. 

[roland murat]

Annoyingly good paint job on those marines Matt- I look forward to seeing them in use.

[cunningmatt]

Annoyingly good paint job on those marines Matt- I look forward to seeing them in use.

Haha thanks very much glad you liked, well technically you didn't but I don't like to say glad I annoyed you.

Good to see you put the power-fist on the sergeant. 

Yes though I am upset as the new Power Fist on the new Tactical Squad kit is much better looking. Now I want that. 

[cunningmatt]

Procrastination by Numbers: Update 108 – Transferring to U Now Thursday 26th September 2013



108.1 Detailing the Marines

This week I'll be talking about how you should grow up, stop playing with childish plastic toys, and get a fecking life and some real friends. No of course not, I'll instead be talking about how I detailed my Ultramarine painting from last week, plus my finished Shaggoth.

Tactical Marines



I've talked before about adding transfers to Tactical Marines back in Update 96 (that long ago, really?). I mentioned that transfers were great on flat surfaces but a bugger on curved surfaces, which is fine because it's not like Games Workshop's fluff insists that pretty much every Space Marine model requires transfers on their highly curved shoulder pads or anything like that. Sigh!



After discussions on Twitter (thanks @NinjaNathUK) I was relieved to discover I'm not the only one having this problem! But pleasingly my trick of snipping the transfer between the two uprights of the 'U'-symbol for the Ultramarines not only works quite well, but isn't very useful for other chapters. Haha, should have gone with the true Space Marines shouldn't you?!

For my Tactical Squad I added the usual 'U' symbols on the left shoulder pad, and the traditional arrow symbol on the right shoulder pad. Having painted up the Assault on Black Reach models for my first Tactical Squad this was my first time using the arrow symbols (which are moulded on the Assault on Black Reach marines). Pleasingly my technique of snipping the transfer worked ok. I cut the Arrow vertically downwards through the point. This allowed the top quarters of the transfer to slightly overlap one another, the arrow was slightly distorted by this, but was an easy tidy up with some White Scar.



For the Sergeant I added this funky looking transfer:



Which is probably wrong, as I am sure you will all clamour to tell me.

Rhino

The Rhino is a whole different kettle of fish, well tank of marines technically, but you get the idea. The beautiful flat panels make adding transfers a portion of urine (think about it... not for too long). These go on very easily and no need for any snipping anywhere.



Though I am concerned I have put the wrong number on my Rhino:



I used the number 'I' as it was my first tank and seemed like a reasonable suggestion, as I couldn't really see any guidance anywhere else. However since doing that I found this section of the new Space Marine Codex:



Which suggests I should have used the yellow 'II' for my traditionally Second Company Marines. Bollocks.

What I don't get is why that transfer has been included in the kit (along with all the numbers on yellow backgrounds), when it seems like you can't sodding use them anyway? Anyone? Anyone?!?! The 'I' needs to be on white doesn't it? Makes no sense!

The large Tactical Squad arrow painted on the roof doors of the Rhino is not a transfer; instead I marked out the arrow shape using masking tape. Which is ideal as it doesn't take off any of the paint when you remove it.



And then painted the arrow design in my usual white colours (Ulthuan Grey base, then layered with White Scar), before peeling away the tape and then touching up the blue.



I'd highly recommend the masking tape method here as you'll find it hard painting straight lines this long with freehand!

While I am on the subject of my Rhino, many thanks to @NinjaNathUK (second mention this blog, could be the start of a relationship), for providing me a guide to painting the control screens on the Rhino. Ta.



Scout Squad

Observant types, with not much else going on in their life, may have noticed I finished my Scout Squad a while back, see Update 102. However I struggled with their shoulder pads, as annoyingly the Chapter symbols supplied in the Space Marine Battleforce set are only the right size for the Tactical Squad shoulder pads and completely swamp the smaller Scout ones.

Add to that the fact that I have no idea what to put on their right shoulder pad, because every single picture I can find of the 'Eavy Metal painted versions has their right shoulder turned away from camera. Look...

On the Battleforce Box:



On the Games Workshop website:



In last month's Space Marine fuelled White Dwarf:



In the brand new Space Marine Codex:



In the old Space Marine Codex:



See no shots anywhere. For all we know it could be a picture of a cock and balls on their right shoulder pad, or something completely ridiculous like a Shakeaway Milkshake *blushes*.

So defeated on all sides I decided it was time for some free hand work!!

First up I went to paint the classic Ultramarine symbol on the left shoulder pads. By no means am I claiming to be an expert, but despite that I am still going to pass on some tips. First up when painting symbols based on characters from the Roman alphabet, it's very tempting to simply paint on the shape in the same way that you'd hand draw it. To get a good looking symbol it's important to consider the font and look at the features worth replicating in your version. For the Ultramarine 'U' the 'U' is much squatter than a written 'U' (as it's really based on an upside down Greek Omega Ω), I also took note that the horizontal pieces at the top of the uprights are pretty short, and that the 'U' is much wider at the base that the top. Baring these points in mind allowed me to replicate the font much better.

It almost goes without saying, but keep a reference picture to hand at all times as you do the drawing, so you know what you are trying to do (better than doing it from memory) and can see the key points you worked out above.

First up I painted a very rough symbol using a neutral colour of Nurgling Green (that would be completely covered), as you can see this was the very basic shape – almost a pencil outline.



I then tidied up the symbol by covering it over with Ulthuan Grey (my usual White base colour), and Alaitoc Blue to touch up the shoulder pad, before finally painting the finished symbol in White Scar.



By layering the symbol in this way, rather than trying to just paint it on straight away, it gives me many opportunities to tidy up the symbol as I go. And I'm reasonably pleased with the finished result.

For the other shoulder pad, I solicited the masses on Twitter for suggestions and got one reply from @paternova (many thanks) who suggested the company number in a circle. An excellent idea.

Not sure how this would come out I practised the symbol on a Strepsils box, because I was ill. Send sympathy now please.



First up I painted the circle, in much the same way as the above Chapter symbol, using Nurgling Green, the Ulthuan Grey and White Scar.



I don't know much about the Space Marine organisation, but I have just about worked out 'X' is the company number for Scouts. I knew the Ladybird Book of Ultramarines would come in handy.

For my reference I used this handy snap from the £7,000 Ultramarine Chapter deal.



In fairness if anything was going to put you off purchasing this, it's the thought of repeating these hand-painted designs on the 140 Scout shoulder pads provided!!

I copied the 'X' from the Scout Company, as with the Chapter symbol above I looked for details in the 'X' to copy. Firstly I noted the two diagonal strokes of the 'X' don't pass through each other at right angles, (otherwise you'll have a squat 'X'). I also noted the four smaller horizontal strokes, and the fact that the diagonal stroke going top left to bottom right is thicker than the other one. Baring these details in mind I replicated the symbol firstly in Dawnstone:



And then repainting the final design in Abaddon Black:



Phew all done! Never buying another scout again.

Probably.

108.2 – Hobby Progress

The main news this week is that I finished painting up my Shaggoth, and I dare say I'm mightily impressed with the results.



More photos and a full painting guide below. Just wanted to take some time to note a few things about the model and paint job. Firstly this is a gorgeous model, absolutely brilliant with a whole host of great textures to paint from the Dragon skin to the scales, cloth, wood, metal, hair, horns, Ogre skin and rock. And it's beautifully rendered in Finecast – whatever you think of Finecast, this model was undeniably great – so smooth, and simple to assemble (the metal version would have killed me by now).

I added in the snow to match my Chaos basing, and then some icicles, both to detail the model's base and to add another texture to the rich model. I wasn't quite sure what to do with the little creatures in the Shaggoth's hair, I think they were supposed to be Ungor when the model was initially made, but as it's now moved to Warriors of Chaos army this didn't feel right. In the end I painted them as baby Shaggoth, not really sure if this is how Dragon Ogres have babies – if they even do, they are an old race. But it seemed to look ok, so there done. Discussion over.

Finally of note, my Warriors of Chaos army is a Tzeentch army, however the Shaggoth (like the Chaos Trolls and Dragon Ogres before), can't have a Mark of Chaos. So rather than painting the metals the bright golds and blues of my Tzeentch colour scheme, I've matched them to my subdued dirtier Beastmen look, which seems to work well. I also had to try and replicate the Dragon Ogre colour scheme; I painted years and years ago before this blog even existed and certainly before I noted my colours down. Still I think it worked out ok:



108.3 – Dragon Ogre Shaggoth Painting Guide







Dragon Ogre Shaggoth Painting Guide – Stage 1



Base: Steel Legion Drab
Rock: Stormvermin Fur
Claws: Steel Legion Drab
Dragon Flesh: Orkhide Shade
Cloth: Steel Legion Drab
Scales: Chaos Black
Ogre Flesh: Tallarn Flesh
Hair: Chaos Black
Leather: Scorched Brown
Silver Metal: Boltgun Metal
Brass Metal: Tin Bitz
Gold Metal: Tin Bitz
Wood: Chaos Black

Dragon Ogre Shaggoth Painting Guide – Stage 2



Base: Recoat Baneblade Brown
Rock: Drybrush Tausept Ochre
Claws: Wash Nuln Oil
Dragon Flesh: Layer 1:1 Orkhide Shade / Dark Angels Green, then layer Dark Angels Green
Cloth: Layer Baneblade Brown
Scales: Highlight 1:1 Chaos Black/Codex Grey
Ogre Flesh: Layer 1:1 Tallarn Flesh/Dwarf Flesh, then layer Dwarf Flesh
Hair: Drybrush Scorched Brown
Leather: Wash Nuln Oil
Silver Metal:  Wash Devlan Mud
Brass Metal: Wash Devlan Mud
Gold Metal: Cover Shining Gold
Wood: Drybrush 1:1 Chaos Black/Codex Grey

Dragon Ogre Shaggoth Painting Guide – Stage 3



Base: Drybrush Bleached Bone
Rock: Selectively Drybrush Gretchin Green, then drybrush Astronomacian Grey
Claws: Layer Baneblade Brown, then layer Rakarth Flesh
Dragon Flesh: Layer 1:1 Dark Angels Green/Snot Green, then layer Snot Green
Cloth: Layer 1:1 Baneblade Brown /Kommando Khaki, then layer Kommando Khaki
Scales: Highlight Codex Grey
Ogre Flesh: Wash Ogryn Flesh
Hair: Drybrush Beastial Brown
Leather: Layer Scorched Brown, then layer 1:1 Scorched Brown/Bestial Brown
Silver Metal:  Highlight 1:1 Boltgun Metal/Chainmail
Brass Metal: Highlight 4:1 Tin Bitz/Mithril Silver
Gold Metal: Wash Gryphonne Sepia
Wood: Drybrush Codex Grey

Dragon Ogre Shaggoth Painting Guide – Stage 4



Base: Flock with Scorched Grass, then Citadel Snow
Rock: Drybrush Skull White, then wash Nuln Oil in recesses
Claws: Layer Bleached Bone, then layer 1:1 Bleached Bone/Skull White
Dragon Flesh: Highlight 1:1 Snot Green/Bleached Bone, then wash Thraka Green
Cloth: Highlight 1:1 Kommando Khaki/Bleached Bone, then Bleached Bone
Scales: Highlight Fortress Grey, then wash Nuln Oil
Ogre Flesh: Highlight 1:1 Dwarf Flesh/Elf Flesh, then highlight Elf Flesh
Hair: Drybrush Snakebite Leather, then wash Nuln Oil
Leather:  Highlight Beastial Brown
Silver Metal:  Highlight Chainmail
Brass Metal: Highlight Mithril Silver
Gold Metal: Highlight 5:1 Shining Gold/Mithril Silver, then highlight Mithril Silver
Wood: Drybrush Fortress Grey, then wash Nuln Oil

108.4 – Get In Touch

That's you lot for this time, hope you enjoyed. Your comments are welcomed, in fact desperately needed. I am locked in a blog writing dungeon, and food is only distributed when I get a comment. So please reply as I'm currently thinner than Posh Spice.

You can also find me on Twitter @ProbyNumbers, thank you for all my new followers and kind comments over the last week, didn't result in any food distribution but it warms my cold heart.

[underscore]

Nice work as always - what did you use for the snow on the bases, out of interest?

Yes, I'm too lazy to open a new tab and Google for answers. :)

[cunningmatt]

Nice work as always - what did you use for the snow on the bases, out of interest?

Yes, I'm too lazy to open a new tab and Google for answers. :)

Many thanks.

The snow is the Games Workshop Citadel Snow:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat470007a&prodId=prod1390183a

For the patchy look, I glue patches of Snow on with PVA glue, this dries slightly grey. So I then add another layer once this has dried, glued with a mixture of PVA glue and white paint. This results in a slightly melting look, with the clear white surrounded with grey slush. If you just do the white paint/glue straight off it looks a bit like a bird poo!! (Though would probably be fine if you were doing a full snow covered base with a white undercoat).

The icicles are from the Northern Wastes basing kit:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?catId=cat470007a&prodId=prod1760014a

[roland murat]

I like what you did with the bases Matt. Good bases always add a lot to a model I think

[cunningmatt]

I like what you did with the bases Matt. Good bases always add a lot to a model I think

Cheers, to be honest I had a great starting point with that large lump of slate for him to stand on.