December 1, 2006

FINISHED!

I can actually go home and spend time with my family now; I bet they forgot what I look like.

There are of course, a couple of models that I would like to go back to and finish off by adding some details to them, but for this challenge it meets the criteria.

I did have a few last minute concerns as it took me five hours to complete the bases. I thought that it would only take two.

So, I’m free for awhile. I’m already planning to do a 500 point The Lord of the Rings army over Christmas and I’ve also ordered my new Empire army.

Can’t wait.

Craig

November 28, 2006

Well, I didn’t get my army finished in time for the tournament. I took my Tomb Kings with me and had a great time. The tourney was in Trenton at the military base, which is the home of a club called ‘The Lost’. I’m not sure of my final standing, probably somewhere in the middle, although I just missed out on ‘Best Sportsman’ by one point. Cory Burns won ‘Best Presentation’ for his Ogre Kingdoms army and so is only nine points behind me in the staff Hall of Heroes league.

Unfortunately, I will not be attending the tourney this weekend as I have family flying in, so Cory could overtake me in the standings due to my absence.

So, I only have three days left to get my army done and here is a list of what is left:

20 x Ironbreaker shields

9 x Warmachine crew

2 x Bolt throwers

2 x new Quarrellers

1 x Oath stone

I’m pretty disappointed in myself as I wanted to get the army done early, now I’ll be racing to get it done before the deadline and the last thing I want to do is present models that have been hastily painted. But, I know one thing; I’ll meet that deadline.

Craig

November 24, 2006

It’s going to be close. I don’t mean meeting the 2nd December deadline, but for this weekend’s tournament at Trenton. I was hoping to be able to play with my Dwarfs, but it’s looking more likely that it will be my Tomb Kings. Maybe I could convince the Hukish to lend me his Dwarfs. I’d like to get an idea how Dwarfs play in a tournament setting, maybe I could find some raw meat to throw in to his cave, it may buy me enough time to sneak by and pick up his army.

I’ve finished off my King (Rik) and army standard bearer. I painted them in the same green colour scheme to keep the theme the same. I have the
following items left to paint:

20 x Ironbreaker shields

9 x Warmachine crew

2 x Bolt throwers

9 x Quarrellers (Half painted)

2 x new Quarrellers

So, as you can see it will be close to finish for this weekend, but easy for the deadline. What makes things harder is the fact I twisted my neck the other day and it hurts a lot. Maybe I can paint using mirrors or something.

See you next week and find out if I finished painting in time for this weekend’s tourney.

Craig

November 17, 2006

“Wow”, Conflict Montreal was awesome. Don’t tell anyone else but Conflict Montreal is my favourite event of the year. In my humble opinion it has one of the strongest communities in Canada and several great local independent retailers.

Those of you who attended the event may have seen me hastily painting my Dwarf Warriors, which are now three days overdue. I’m hoping to get them finished off today so that I can quickly finish off the second unit of Quarrellers by the weekend.

I’m happy to see that Cory Burns finished his army, although 65% of each model is black so I think that he may have cheated. It was Burns’ idea to do the painting challenge, probably like making a deal with the devil.

Well, I’m not worried as I’m close to finishing and early at that.

See you next week

November 10, 2006

Well, not long left to the deadline, I have just under 4 weeks to go.

I’m going to get done, but it’ll be close.

I’ve just finished off my Ironbreakers and they really stand out in the army and they were very quick to paint. Most people paint them in silver and gold; however, I wanted them to be different and I painted them green. Specifically Dark Angels Green highlighted up with a mix of Skull White. The last thing I have to do is paint the shields, but that will take me just a couple of hours and will be one of the last things I do.

The next unit I plan to work on is the Dwarf Warriors, I should have started this weekend but due to good weather I had some gardening and garage cleaning to do.

But I’ll get them done by the end of Conflict Montreal, with the army Standard Bearer, it will ensure that I keep ahead of schedule.

It means that I’ll have two war machines, 12 crewmen, a Runesmith, a King and a unit of already half painted Quarrellers to go. So, you can see that I’m ahead of the game and will meet the deadline.

Anyway, better go as I have to prepare for Conflict Montreal this coming weekend.

See you next week

Craig

November 3, 2006

Welcome to this Blog-tastic episode of the ongoing saga to have a fully painted army within a 12 week period. Should I fail not only will I have to face shame and embarrassment for the rest of days at GW, but I’ll have to purchase $2,000 worth of battle forces for the victors and sleep in the spare bed for several months (as no doubt my Wife will have something to say about me handing over two G’s).

As I had indicated last week I was quite happy with my current painting schedule. In fact, I believe that I will be finished a week early as I intend to participate in Warhammer Hall of Heroes tournament at Trenton with Cory Burns at my side on the 26th November.

My Miners are finished and I have to say I really enjoyed painting these guys. It is the first time in years that I have painted something from the contents of a starter set and these figs are great. I love one-piece models for rank and file troops.

Today, I have base coated my Ironbreakers ‘Dark Angels Green’ and they already look cool. The next step is to highlight the green, then I’ll go back over the details with black so that I can then apply gold. This unit should be completed by Saturday and then the last of the large units will be the Dwarf Warriors with great weapons, again another unit that should take a week to complete.

This Wednesday at Gary’s painting evening we’ll be watching ‘Zulu Dawn’, a film set before the famous ‘Rorke’s Drift’ battle. No doubt I’ll be hiding behind the couch and throwing things at the TV when the Zulus come charging in.

See you next week

Craig

October 26, 2006

Hello and Welcome to my third blog.
So far, I’m really happy with the progress of my army. I’ve now finished my unit of Troll Slayers and think they look cool, although I will return to them after the painting challenge as I would like to paint on tattoos and eyes.
After the Slayers I moved straight on to the unit of Miners. For these guys I used the figures that come with the ‘Skull Pass’ set and complemented them with the metal standard bearer and champion miniatures. I felt they added a little more character to the unit.

The plan should be that by Wednesday these guys will be done, I’ll be at Gary Curkan’s for another night of reminiscing over the former glories of the Empire by watching ‘Zulu’ whilst doing some more intense painting.
I already have plans to start on my unit of Ironbreakers and intend to paint the unit primarily green rather than the normal metallic style. Hopefully by Thursday these will be on the way and believe they’ll be completed by the following week leaving me about four weeks to finish the easier stuff like war machines and the second unit of Quarrellers. I’m attending a tournament held in Trenton on the 26th November so I’m hoping that my army will be ready for then, it also gives me an idea on how well the army will play before the ‘Paint or Die’ challenge tournament. Then, I can make any changes to the list still have time to paint up a new unit, but I’m getting ahead of myself here.

So cheers and see you in the next Blog-tastic episode.

Craig

October 19, 2006

Well, progress so far has been a mixed bag. My entire army has been put together and based coated. Unfortunately there is only one conversion and that is the Oath stone for the King and it was a really simple job at that.

It is the conversions in one’s army that makes an army look unique, so I was a little disappointed that I wouldn’t have time to do many. Oh well, maybe I can make the display board look good and then the army will stand out.

The reason that I have been a bit rushed for time is that I’ve been in the UK visiting family and attending the wedding of my friend Owen Rees, he’s the editor of the UK White Dwarf magazine and my dastardly nemesis when it comes to 40K. He is a Dark Angels player, who I loath as they are traitors to the Emperor.

However, with that said I am making up ground quite fast. Since last Saturday I have completed one unit of Quarrellers. I am about a third of the way through painting the second unit and half way through my Troll Slayers which I am really enjoying painting.

Tomorrow I’ll be off for a painting night with Gary Curkan (Head of HR) and Martin Jensen (Head of Trade & Direct) where we plan to watch Khartoum starring Charlton Heston. This should help me finish off those mentioned units above whilst reminiscing about the glorious British Empire, a tear in my eye.

So, by Sunday I should be back on schedule and ready to start on my unit of Miners. I may see you down at Gryphon Games this Saturday for their Hall of Heroes Warhammer tournament; you’ll get to see my Tomb Kings which I painted in the last painting challenge.

So cheers and God save the Queen!

September 25, 2006

How do I get myself in to these things? It seemed only a short while ago that I completed one of these painting challenges. There were only four us participating and I felt the pressure then; if I’d have failed it would been just three battle forces that I would be stumped up for. Now I find out that I’ve signed up for something that could see me buying eighteen battle forces. When I told my wife she nearly battered me in to the next universe, so now I know that I can’t fail, as my life is on the line.

I have fancied playing Dwarfs for quite awhile now, but wanted to do my Tomb Kings army first which, I have now done. I like Dwarfs because they are pretty solid, have lots of war machines, use lots of runes and they are grumpy as hell. With the fact that I travel all over Canada, I thought it would be great if could do a road-show challenge. So, starting in January there will be ‘Craig’s Community Beat-down’. On the Community part of the website there will be a map, on there will be dates of when I’m in a certain town. There will also be places for where I have conquered towns and places where I promptly had by butt chased out of town. So keep an eye out and send in those challenges, defend the honour of your town. I won’t give too much away in my tactics as Fat Gaz will undoubtedly read it. However, there are three basic components to my army:

• 'Shooty stuff' – Lots of missile weapons. For example my old fashioned Crossbows to do the job, two Bolt throwers that pick out pesky monsters or anything with toughness 7 and Last but not least an Organ gun to deal with units that gets too close, preferably skirmishers.

• 'Hard as nail' units – Ironbreakers that run headlong towards the enemy with enough fight in them to smash most enemy units. Also no Dwarf army would complete without the Miners who, can come in and upset your opponent’s battle line.

• Runes - More runes than you can shake a rune-encrusted stick at.
As for my competitors within the painting challenge there is only one I fear; Elaine Gray or Champion of Chocolate cakes (Accountants) as she is known. She usually stalks the corridors of HQ with her ‘Big Axe’ looking for skulls of those who owe her money or slighted her in casual conversation. Its quite intimidating playing someone who can reach across the table if their losing and break your neck (She has a black belt in Karate).