Comrade's Wargames

Confessions of an Impatient Painter

Posted by Comrade on February 1, 2017

Posted in: Posts. 2 Comments

This is a post that’s been percolating around in my head for a long time. I’m not a particularly skilled painter, but I like to think that what I lack in technique, I make up for in volume. Over the last 10 years I’ve painted many hundreds of miniatures, constructed tables full of scratchbuilt terrain, hosted dozens of games and generally done my best to create a fantastic and immersive tabletop experience for myself and the players I’ve interacted with.

That might sound like a humblebrag, but it’s really intended to show that you, too, can achieve all of those things. I’m here to tell you how.

Let’s start with painting. I am, as the title denotes, an impatient painter. I rarely paint large-scale models or centerpiece figures. I speed through almost everything, because I’m always in search of that perfect, fleeting moment, when I put down my paint brush and declare that a figure is *done*. Not perfect, just done. Here are a few tips that have helped me reach this goal, more often than not, over the years.

1. Prime in black

I prime virtually everything, from figures to vehicles to terrain, in black. Now, that certainly has an impact on my painting — certain paints require a little more attention to cover properly over black, and my brightest colors aren’t quite as bright — but it’s also allowed me to develop an incredibly reliable set of techniques.

In particular, I prime most of my figures these days using black gesso, applied with an old craft paintbrush. Using brush-on gesso, I find that I have a lot more control over the priming. It doesn’t take a whole lot of additional time, and I manage to avoid the fumes associated with spray paint (although I do still use spray paints for certain projects). And trust me: gesso creates a truly wonderful surface upon which to paint.

2. Use a limited palette

I know plenty of players who own hundreds of paints from a variety of hobby companies, and who agonize over the correct techniques for blending, shading, washing and drybrushing. I am not one of those people. I’ve been known to paint entire armies and warbands using just four or five colors — intentionally limiting my palette in favor of speed and uniformity. Again, the goal here is volume. Your fantastic paint scheme means nothing if all you’ve got to show for it is a really nice test model.

These Warhammer Skaven dudes, for example, were painted with just a few colors — gray/white for the fur, red for the cloak (plus a dark wash), plus a few highlights. They won’t win any awards, but they are perfectly serviceable on the battlefield. And I’ve got a dozen more just like them, ready for action at a moment’s notice for D&D, Song of Blades & Heroes, Frostgrave, or whatever.

Now, that’s not to say I don’t like effective paint schemes. To the contrary — I love a paint job that pops! But I’ve found that you can achieve that with a limited palette in most cases. And it allows you to explore a more complex palette of colors for appropriately awesome, large-scale miniatures or vehicles.

3. Use the dip

This will be heresy to some. But my painting output shot through the roof when I discovered the “magic dip.” Some people shell out $35 for ArmyPainter Quickshades, but I’ve gotten comparable results at one-third of the price using Minwax Polyshades polyurethane stain. In essence, the dip combines a dark pigment wash along with a tough, protective outer layer that gives instant results to even the most basic paint jobs. It’s most effective with earth tones — browns, tans, ochres, brick reds, etc. Here’s a Reaper guy I painted up and finished off with Minwax Polyshades Tudor Satin.

There’s definitely a learning curve to using the dip, so rather than trying to explain it myself, I’ll just link you to a fantastic tutorial that my friend Karl put together. Read it and be enlightened.

I can’t overstate the impact that the dip has had on my painting. Simply put, using the dip is like using an airbrush — it so thoroughly changes your painting method that it’s hard to imagine a time before you used it.

4. Don’t get bored painting armies

One of the Facebook groups I’m a member of is One Hour A Night, which is dedicated to motivating people to finish their voluminous hobby backlogs. It’s a great group, very focused on positivity. As you can imagine, a lot of the members are trying to paint large armies for games like Warhammer 40,000. Many of them have deadlines looming (“Gotta get three colors on these Tau by Friday for a big tournament!” is a common refrain). Over the years, I’ve neatly sidestepped this issue by avoiding army-sized games (defined here as any game requiring 60+ figures per side) in favor of smaller warband-sized games (a few dozen figures per side, plus a vehicle or two). (Sidenote: Remember when 40k was essentially a skirmish-sized game? Me too, haha.)

Even this past summer, when I was painting up my Night Lords army, I made sure to tackle it in bits and pieces, with breaks in between to build terrain or paint up weird, oddball figures. Like this creepy guy, which I’ve nicknamed The Flesh Engine.

What purpose does he serve? He’s not a unit, per se, in the 40k rules, so why did I waste time and energy on painting him? The answer, of course, is because it pleased me to do so. Not everything has to be about producing for your chosen army.

I’ve also set a personal goal of always having at least one new model to unveil at each game event I’m attending. So even if I’m hosting another game of One Page 40k featuring my heavy infantry army (which I’ve owned and enjoyed since at least 2010), I’ll try to paint up a new squad leader or a medic or a heavy weapon trooper just so I’ve got something new to show off. Small deadlines with discrete, measurable goals that you can be proud of are very important.

5. Start a miniatures blog

The blogosphere is calling … will you answer? Seriously, I derive tons of enjoyment and engagement from posting random words and photos here. I’m under no delusions about my meager readership — and I worked in digital publishing for a time, so I know just how much content it takes to build a reliable audience. I doff my cap to folks who have thriving audiences but I don’t think I’ll ever be prolific enough to join their rarified ranks.

Having a blog, though, is something of a digital business card that I can produce whenever I bump into like-minded folks on Facebook or web forums. It certainly helped build the membership of my previous game club, Chicago Skirmish Wargames.

But mostly I do my blog stuff for me, because I enjoy cultivating this little piece of the web. It gives me one more thing to get excited about when I settle in to spend my hour each night on hobby related stuff.

What’s your favorite shortcut or time saver? Leave a comment and let me know. Thanks for reading!

New Paint for Old Plague Marines

Posted by Comrade on January 22, 2017

Posted in: Posts. Tagged: 40k, army, chaos, miniatures, painting, project, sci-fi. 4 Comments

When I started my little 40k project last summer, I resolved to seek out and acquire some of the fantastic old metal figures that energized my imagination when I was younger.

At the top of the list were the old metal Plague Marines released in the mid-90s. These guys really fired my imagination — I mean, what other sci-fi milieu has evil space marines whose armor and flesh has been corrupted by centuries of sorcerous rot and demon-spawned decay? And now their pus-bloated, maggot-infested bodies are inured to pain and suffering, making them the ideal shock troops to lead an invasion on some hapless frontier colony world??

afflicted

Yeah. Plague Marines, man. Dig that.

There are newer plastic Plague Marine figures out there, but I wanted the older vintage metal sculpts released in the mid-90s. So I spent the summer scouring ebay and managed to scoop up a small handful of metal figures. They were poorly painted and missing arms and weapons, so they spent some time soaking in paint stripper until I pulled them out this month for some long-awaited brushwork. Here are the first five completed figures.

The guy with the plasma gun was part of a two-pack of metal Plague Marine figures armed with special weapons. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen the figures before, so I’m guessing they’re somewhat rare.

Here’s another look at the champion. Love this figure.

The other figure from the two-pack is the guy with the flamethrower below.

If you think the bloated, fleshy, glistening fuel tank underneath his weapon looks a lot like a gigantic diseased scrotum … well, you’re not the only one.

And lastly we have two basic Plague Marines. For years these were the stock sculpts that players would use as the starting point for their Nurgle-themed armies. I’ve seen some truly fantastic conversions using these basic troopers, but for my purposes I wanted to stick to my roots, so they got some nifty weapon upgrades, new shoulder pads, but little else.

Here’s another look at those same two troopers.

Painting these guys up was a joy. The default Death Guard color palette lends itself really well to my fast-and-dirty painting style, and the obligatory Minwax dip at the end really ties the figures together quite well. I loved the opportunity to try out different paint techniques on the various boils, sores, open wounds and odd fleshy bits on these guys.

As an added bonus, the backdrop for these photos is a small ruined terrain piece that I finished up recently. It’s just chunks of cork board along with a few plastic bits, covered in sand and gravel and given a rough and messy paint job. It came out really well I think!

I’ve got five more of these guys on my workbench, including a couple more famous sculpts, so stay tuned!

One Page 40k: Breakthrough in the Ash Wastes

Posted by Comrade on January 1, 2017

Posted in: Posts. Tagged: 1p40k, 40k, battle report, game night, majestic gamers, sci-fi, skirmish. 2 Comments

Last week the Majestic Gamers gathered at my place for another go at One Page 40k (1P40K). Unlike our previous game, which was a learning session and didn’t have much in the way of balance or parity, this time we all brought actual armies built using the rosters in the rulebook, kitted out and ready to slaughter their enemies.

We had five players, but Jim had extra models and was able to expand his Imperial Guard to allow for a 3-vs-2 game pitting two Imperial Guard players versus a strange alliance of Orks, Chaos Space Marines and Tau.

The battle was a baptism by fire for Jimbo’s newest Ork vehicle — a spectacular kitbashed battlewagon created from a Sherman tank scale model. Feast your eyes on this.

We played a breakthrough scenario, which awarded victory to the side that managed to get the most points’ worth of models into the enemy’s deployment area. This meant both sides would have to stay fairly mobile — even the Imperial Guard, which is better at digging in and awaiting the enemy with lots of gun barrels pointed at them!

Here’s a look at Jim’s fantastic, beautifully painted Imperial Guard motorized company. That’s two Leman Russ tanks in the foreground, a Basilisk on the right with a fully armored crew compartment, and a Chimera in the back.

And here’s a look at the other Imperial Guard force, played by Ben using models from yours truly. The tank and most of the figures are from Pig Iron Productions. The green-suited guys on the left are from Lead Adventure Miniatures’ post-apocalyptic line, standing in as seasoned veterans for this Imperial Guard detachment.

The game opened up with a series of advances by both sides. My Chaos marines rumbled forward in their Rhino, attracting the attention of Jim’s tanks. Their chose target, however, proved to be Paul’s Tau Pathfinders. Everyone was duly frightened of their marker lights (which grant bonuses for other Tau units). They were lucky to survive a barrage from Jim’s tank cannon!

Jimbo’s Orks lurched forward on their rumbling battlewagon. Not only was the vehicle massive, but its payload was equally impressive! There were, I believe, 30 Orks (3 squads of 10) deployed aboard the battlewagon at the outset of the game. Yes, we made plenty of clown car jokes as Jimbo motored his dudes across the battlefield.

But then when he got within charge range of the enemy tanks … this happened.

Yes, it was tremendous. Many dice were rolled. But the tank was still intact (battered, but still whole!) at the end of the first combat. The right flank (where most of Jim’s tanks were arrayed) turned into a grudge match between him and Jimbo, as the latter presented as many targets as he possibly could (in the form of howling Ork mobs) while the former agonized over whether to just annihilate the advancing Orks — or to hit the gas and start moving toward the opposing deployment zone (and victory).

Soon thereafter, a lucky shot popped my Chaos Rhino, causing the 4 surviving squad members to pile out in a hurry. You can see Ben’s Imperial Guard advancing through a crater field in the background of this pic.

Meanwhile Orks continued to pour forth from Jimbo’s clown car/battlewagon. The last to disembark was his warboss, who promptly charged into the nearest squad of Guardsmen.

Slaughter ensued!

But unlike in regular 40k, 1P40K doesn’t let units get “stuck in” to close combat. At the end of each melee, if one side wasn’t annihilated, the combatants separate. This is critical because either unit can now be targeted by gunfire. So Jimbo’s warboss had his way with this squad of hapless Guardsmen … and then he took a tank salvo directly to his head. Oops!

Across the battlefield, Paul’s Tau had been surgically excising various threats using their advanced weaponry and targeting systems. On the second turn, Paul was able to call in his Tau Crisis Suits via deep strike, landing them in the enemy’s rear and laying waste to several squads of infantry.

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With armored targets approaching fast, my Helbrute climbed atop a small ridge in the center of the table and proceeded to open fire with his multi-melta.

The laser cannon turret was actually part of the scenario … if a squad could get in base contact with it, they’d have a chance at at activating it and putting its destructive capability to use. Jim’s Guardsmen arrived and were able to activate the turret, but they were picked off in the process.

Ben’s tank arrived in the vicinity, and my Helbrute started to feel a little … exposed … on top of that ridge. Luckily, Paul’s Tau turned their attention to the tank, and in short order this was the result.

Yeah, Tau are *really* good at shooting stuff.

Anyway, here’s my last photo from the game. Tanks burning, a lone Chaos warrior lifting his sword to praise the dark gods … you know, just another Friday.

The game ended with lots of laughs, as Jimbo’s battlewagon (still alive!) careened into the enemy’s deployment zone, shrugged off several blasts from the huge tanks … and died to a piddly rifle shot from an Imperial Guardsman!

The bad guys managed to squeak out a win because my daemon prince was in the enemy’s deployment zone at the end of the last turn. Despite a few close calls, the other side wasn’t able to reach our deployment zone, and so we won.

Once again, 1P40K gave us a great game. Seriously, this ruleset is everything I want from 40k — simply and concise, yet still comprehensive and suitably fiddly (for players who want to customize their figures and try out different gear options). The army lists cover just about everything you’d ever need, and the advanced rules add in a bit more complexity if you’re missing that sort of thing.

I had a fairly productive half of 2016 painting up my Night Lords and knocking out a few smaller projects. I’m looking forward to lots more painting and modeling, because 1P40K is definitely gathering steam here in Oregon.

2016 Year in Review at Comrade’s Wargames

Posted by Comrade on December 29, 2016

Posted in: Posts. Tagged: 1hour, cool minis, game room, hobby, miniatures, painting, workshop. Leave a comment

I’ve seen a few “year in review” posts popping up on blogs I follow, so here’s my own take. The post title isn’t all that accurate in my case, though, because my “year” actually began in June, when I moved into my current home and finally had the opportunity to unpack my workshop and get to work on miniatures stuff after an 8-month absence.

I wasn’t just diving back into existing projects in 2016. As a recent transplant to Oregon, I was also focused on meeting people, making friends and building the framework for a local game group.

When you’re new in town, it’s always a good idea to start with the common denominator for your particular hobby. For wargaming, that is certainly Warhammer 40,000. I played 40k back in the 1990s but cast it aside in favor of slimmer, less restrictive miniatures games such as Song of Blades & Heroes. But I always appreciated the voluminous lore of the Warhammer 40k universe, and the heavy metal aspect of so many of those early miniatures. So when I arrived in Oregon and saw that the local club was mostly comprised of 40k players, I decided to dip a toe back into the grim darkness of the far future.

So I started building a small Night Lords Chaos Space Marine warband, inspired by my love of those gorgeous old models I used to salivate over in the pages of White Dwarf. What followed was a bit of a retrospective dive into the hobby, as I acquired older vintage metal figures as well as newer crisp plastic sculpts. And lightning bolts. Lots and lots of lightning bolts.

Along the way I discovered One Page 40k, which turned out to be exactly what I was seeking in terms of a fast-playing ruleset that captured the spirit of 40k without tons of additional material. I was lucky enough to fall in with a group of local gamers here in town who were similarly taken by 1P40K, and we’ve played a couple games already (with more on the horizon!).

I also derived quite a bit of inspiration and motivation from 1 Hour A Night, a bunch of wargamers on Facebook who created a group to help encourage each other to keep moving forward on hobby projects. According to their mantra, if you can dedicate just one hour a night to your projects, by the end of the year you can look back with a real sense of accomplishment. I’m glad to be a part of such a motivational group!

Here are a few more pics of my Night Lords army. All of this was completed since June 2016. That’s Be’lakor the demon prince lurking in the background of some photos. Click here to read more about him if you’re interested! The Rhino was painted up by my friend Findlay through his commission painting service (Barbarian Painting)!

Over the summer I took a break from my own stuff to paint up a batch of Necromunda Orlocks for my buddy back in Chicago.

I also knocked out a few batches of terrain in 2016. I’ve always found that building terrain has helped me explore a particular milieu or setting beyond just painting miniatures.

This batch of medieval fantasy ruins was built for Frostgrave. My Frostgrave board isn’t particularly winter-y, so I didn’t go overboard with the snowy highlights. These were fast builds, intended to quickly fill up my table in advance of a scheduled game. I learned a lot about building with foam craft bricks, and I’m looking forward to churning out another similar batch in the near future.

And this pile of desert/wasteland hills was thrown together in a hurry this month in anticipation of a big upcoming game this weekend! Let’s just say that my hot wire foam cutter got a good workout over the last few weeks. When you absolutely need to fill a table with terrain, you can’t go wrong with pink (or blue) foam sheets.

That’s my year (since June at least)! How did you fare this year?

Annual Holiday Miniature Swap – 2016 edition

Posted by Comrade on December 29, 2016

Posted in: Posts. Leave a comment

This year my old game group in Chicago decided to do a holiday miniatures swap. The concept was simple – we’d draw names from a hat, and then you’d be responsible for contacting your selected recipient, gathering some intel on what sort of miniature that person would like (or not, flying blind is OK too). Then you’d paint up the mini and ship it out before the end of 2016!

I drew Mattias, our erstwhile comrade who relocated to Hawaii back in 2015 and has been presumably sunning himself in the land of perpetual summer ever since. Anyway, Mattias requested a “weathered spaceman adventurer.” Armed with that brief description, I got to work.

The only model in my collection that could do justice to this request was this zany figure from Thunderchild Miniatures’ Wasteman game line. As you can see, he is *literally* a weathered spaceman adventurer, replete with a tattered spacesuit and a gnarled staff. Who can say what horrors he has endured during his lonely sojourn across the cosmos?

I went ahead and crafted a fun little accessory to go with this spaceman. It’s a collectible card-type of thing that offers a snippet of (rather dark) backstory to set the mood for the figure.

This was a lot of fun and I hope to take part in next year’s holiday miniature swap!