On to Number Two

I finished the interior of the first drop pod way faster than I though possible, mostly because I went straight black for most of the details. It's not supposed to be a particularly eye catching part of the army, so I'm ok with it. I'm looking forward to the next one, because it's for a dreadnought, and the lack of interior makes it seem less daunting.

Finally, Kinda

I have finally finished the exterior of pod number one. Well, it's done anyway. I went back and added a couple coats of red and gold to solidify the colors. They look a lot more matte, and I know the model is a lot better for it. Of course, just now I saw a piece of gold with splotch of out of place red on it, so of course, the work is never done. But even if the exterior were perfect, I still need to do the inside. Typically, I don't rate painting the inner parts of vehicles. I don't ever drop the ramps in game, so why go to the extra effort? Drop pods, on the other hand, look odd on the table top without the petals down, but all the nice display details are on the outside, so I'm committed to finishing this in its entirety. Thankfully, I have an exceedingly simple scheme. It doesn't need to pop. It can be fairly reductionist and still look good.
It's been a while, but I can see the end in sight, so that is exciting.

Hobby Goals
-Finish the interior of Pod 1.
-Less time between posts next time.
-Glue Chaos Warriors on bases.

Hobby Progress
-Exterior is complete.
-Some WoC bases are complete.
-Finished the Greed Corp campaign.

I Hate Painting White…

…or just vehicles in general. I don’t know why I struggle to paint large flat areas so much, but I just can’t seem to get even or smooth coverage. So yes, I am struggling to paint these stupid Drop Pods. I even gave up on the white for the first one. One by one, each area that was going to be white got coats of red until this pod became the all red one. I just want to get it "done" so I can look at the project and say, "Hey, I'm going to get this done." On the other hand, little bits of progress keep getting made on number one, so all is not lost.

I also have to keep in mind that this is definitely an accomplishment considering I am balancing writing a paper for grad school, wedding stuff, and a social life, which means “Drop Pod” is way down the priority list.

Some of the painting time has suffered for the building time. Really, that’s the part that I enjoy, so when I see a big shiny kit, namely a Land Raider, I find I am easily distracted. This was a particularly fun build as well, with lots of extra shiny things to add. Obviously, we have the Forge World doors. I was thinking about going with one normal door so I could try my hand at some free-hand work, but there’s enough clear space on the sides. The majority of the rest of the stuff is from an Empire State Troops bitz pack. The banner tops with the laurels make a great recurring motif that I think fits well, and the big twin banners streaming off the back will hopefully allow some decent room to work. I did not have all my tools, which made some things, like getting the Empire hands off of the flags, extremely difficult. I managed to cut the piece to fine, and the plastic came off all the way to the banner. A stitch, in time, saves you a lot of super glue. I eventually got some semblance of a pole on the flag, but it will take some work in the painting process to cover up the mistake and I'm always going to be nervous when I'm transporting it. I kept the weapons off for now. I’ll magnetize them the first chance I get and hopefully score some lascannons so I have every variant.

Hobby Accomplishments

-Played some games. More on this later.

-Based my first Khorne Warrior. Also more to come.

-Finished a paper for grad school which means I'll actually have some hobby time.

Hobby Goals

-Finish the first drop pod. Still.

-Publish a blog post in a timely fashion.

-Get all the Khorne bases glued and painted.

Hobby Update

It appears to be hovering around the two week (plus) mark which means time for a Hobby Update. It’s been an eventful and fun, but also busy, time in the real world lately. I’m incredibly thrilled about that, as well as the individual things that have made it so, but that does leave little time for the less meaningful dalliances involved in the business of toy soldiers and games.

On the Warhammer front, I’ve gotten in two games, which I split with a win and a loss. More details on that to come in a future post. In the more specific realm of hobby, I’ve gotten one of my drop pods to the point where one of the five facings is finished, and the other four are close. I have begun to question why anyone would ever choose to pair red and white in a color scheme, but I am persevering through. The bigger mental block right now is the thought of having to detail the interior. I know I should have kept the pieces separate to make painting them easier, but I didn’t because I’m, you know, an idiot. I would be tempted to glue the hatches shut like every other vehicle I own, but it would make no sense when it gets put down on the battlefield, so again, I press on.

I have managed to attend the last two “dork nights” as my fiancé calls them. Smallworld has been trending and a number of discussions have ensued about how to make it more modular and re-playable. It seems the biggest fascination with it is the solid and interesting mechanics. I have played, and it seems fun, but I think it has illustrated my own preference for a certain style of components. Not that Smallworld has bad components, but coming from a miniature wargames background, aesthetics drives a lot of my opinion of a game. It’s why I like Torres, Race for the Galaxy, and Space Hulk. It’s why I really want to try Rune Wars, Horus Heresy, and Merchants and Marauders.

Ironically, my game of choice also lacks “componentiness”, but satisfies my desire to avoid conflict when gaming. Two of the Dominion expansions, Seaside and Intrigue, have seen a fair bit of action, and honestly, they are far more subtle than the original. They still follow the basic premise of logically following what your card says, but the way you build a deck requires a defter touch, with more attack cards, the addition of cards that stay in play for a turn, and most of all, the dead card island. I don’t know if any card changes the way the game plays on a fundamental level as much as “Native Village.” It’s a tough mechanic to exploit as perfectly as you intend, especially if you can’t spam the card, but it’s functional in a variety of ways. I don’t know that anyone in the group has a perfect handle on it yet, but I think we all agree that it’s worthwhile.

After finishing our last pathfinder campaign, we’re all itching to play again. Sadly, again, real life is getting in the way. Hopefully soon.

Hobby Goals

- Finish Drop Pod 1

- Assemble the Land Raider

- Work on rebasing the Khorne Warriors

Hobby Accomplishments

- Not much. Did a little work on the Drop Pod

- Acquired movement trays that will actually fit my Chaos Warriors

- Played some games