Painting is a 4-Letter Word...Episode 2

Here is the audio capture from our December painting night. In it, you'll get the latest opinions on the state of the hobby and gaming community from Mike Sawada, Ward Kapach, Tom Carter, Steven Lind, Barry Gergel, and myself.

Painting is a 4-Letter Word is intended to be listened to while you're working on your own hobby project and want some white noise going on in the background.

Happy New Year!

'Til next time.

Dropzone Buildings from Blotz

With my recent interest in Dropzone Commander, I figured it was time to start into some 10mm city terrain. I ordered a set of MDF buildings from Blotz in the UK, and they arrived just in time for Christmas. 

Here are the first four painted up (includes a carpark).

I got a set of 14 buildings...all at a reasonable cost: well less than $20 per building all in.

Assembly instructions for each kit are online. Convenient. And the instructions are very clear, with photos to aid in putting the parts together.

By the end of the first building session, three kits were done.

Elliot came over during the holidays for an introductory game. He had a set of the cardboard buildings, and a FAT Mat to play on. My new MDF buildings fit right in.

Dropzone is a good game, buy the way, if you haven't tried it. However, I believe that the biggest draw for the game is not its gameplay. It's the models and terrain. Lovely.

'Til next time.

Dropzone Commander...First Units

My buddy Elliot recently came into a large lot of Dropzone Commander miniatures. I traded him for a Scourge starter army, and painted it this past week.

This is the ground-based counterpart to the Scourge fleet ships I painted up for Dropfleet Commander last month. Here are the vehicles from the starter.

And the infantry.

And here, the dropships are loaded and ready for action. Looking forward to my first game of Dropzone.

Over a week ago, I finished up these accessories for the BloodBowl Skaven team.

Not sure what's going to take priority next on the table. We'll see.

'Til next time.

The Bagshot Gutsplitters: My Skaven Blood Bowl Team

Blood Bowl! With the new edition just out, I felt it was time to get into this classic game. I picked up the Skaven team box...and a week later, here's what's skittering off the painting table.

Nice models, easy to assemble, and pretty quick to paint up. A really nice decal sheet came with the kit as well.

Now, I'm just looking for my first Blood Bowl game.

'Til next time.

Dropfleet Battle Report

Elliot came over last night for our first game of Dropfleet Commander from Hawk Wargames. Quick battle report here...

'Til next time.

Painting is a 4-Letter Word

Hello fellow painters and hobby-dudes/dudettes.

I'm announcing the launch of a new video channel series called "Painting is a 4-Letter Word". The videos that will appear in this channel are simply recordings of a monthly get-together of fellow hobby enthusiasts from the Edmonton area. While the participants paint and build tabletop models, conversation naturally drifts from anecdotes, to hobby projects, to thoughts around game companies and entertainment properties. Painting is a 4-Letter Word captures these conversations and opinions and delivers them straight to you.

Why would you care? Well, most of us paint or otherwise hobby in isolation. We have podcasts and music to keep us company...but what about the option of painting within the soundscape of a less-structured geeky conversation? A conversation among enthusiastic and opinionated friends. Well, if the thought of that is appealing...and who couldn't use some more white noise while slogging through long painting projects...well, then hopefully Painting is a 4-Letter Word will work for you.

And, yes...Explicit Language Warning!

In this inaugural episode, you'll hear myself, Tom and Ward from Hobby Night in Canada, Barry from Mekboy's Garage, and good friend, Elliot Christian. Enjoy.

'Til next time...

Banshee Painting Seminar, Calgary

Back on the weekend of Nov 5/6, I went down to Calgary to attend a painting workshop put on by Spain's Alfonso Giraldes, otherwise known by his internet handle, Banshee.

There were 10 of us in the class (held at Imaginary Wars), including a couple of other Edmonton guys: Tom Carter and Ward Kapach from the Hobby Night in Canada podcast.

Alfonso had plenty of examples of his unique painting style on hand for us to examine. Very inspirational work.

The two-day class covered color theory on the Saturday and practical painting exercises on the second day. One of the exercises was to produce sets of skin tones using just the three primary colours, white and black. I surprised myself and was able to quickly mix a set of caucasian, oriental and east indian skin tones from yellow, blue, red, white and black paint.

We learned a process called "sketching," where you use a few simple shades to rough out where light is going to be hitting your figure.

I thought I'd have trouble sitting through two long days of instruction. But the time went by very quickly.

Here, Alfonso when through the process of painting a bust figure in 90 minutes.

Our own painting exercise involved 75mm figures. No one was able to finish during Sunday, but I did get a fair bit of the way through my Crusader figure. Here, the main areas have been blocked out and some detail (particularly light effects) painted in. Leather belts and wood have not been approached yet at this point, but you can clearly see the figure taking shape.

Reverse angle. Here, I started into a vibrant night shade for the defuse lighting on the cloak.

By the end of the seminar, the students had made good progress into their 75mm figures.

What's the value of a miniatures painting class without being able to enjoy beer at the end of the day?

All in all, and enjoyable and informative weekend away.

'Til next time.

Scourge Ships for Dropfleet Commander

Well, with these Scourge ships completed, the Dropfleet Commander 2-player set is now painted.

These are the four Scourge frigate models...

...and these are the three cruisers.

And here are all 14 of the ships that come in the basic game. Speaking of which...I'm ready for one!

Now on to the Prospero boxed set. That's a big one.

'Til next time.

UCM Ships for Dropfleet Commander

I've finished painting the UCM (United Colonies of Man) half of the Dropfleet 2-player boxed set. First off...nice models. Great sculpts and very fine castings in hard plastic. No complaints. The assembly went fine, although there are some small parts to keep track of while you're gluing stuff together.

The three cruisers (Moscow, Berlin and Seattle class) can be built as any of the game's cruiser variants...so you're left with plenty of spare bits that don't get used.

The four frigates (two Toulon and two New Orleans class) come from a sprue that will build any of the game's UCM frigates.

For reference purposes, you might want to know how the Dropfleet ships compare in size to other game systems. Here they are with a few ships from Firestorm Armada...

...and here with some ships from Battlefleet Gothic. As you can see, the miniature sizes in both cases are pretty much identical to those other game systems.

Well, now there is a decision to make. Continue building Dropfleet ships, or move over to Burning of Prospero...which just got released today. In either case, I'm ready to play some Dropfleet!

'Til next time.

Dropfleet Commander

OK, the next big project is something I've been waiting for since last year's kickstarter was announced. Dropfleet Commander from Hawk Games. I just picked up my copy for $135 from Thunderground in St Albert (thanks to Roy for bringing this in!).

Opening up the box, we see that it's packed.

Seven "human" fleet ships with game bases. The faction is called the UMC.

Seven "alien" fleet ships with game bases. The faction is called Scourge.

All the game junk. Holy crap. Maps, quick reference cards, base stickers, fleet rosters, game markers, stands, dice and a tape measure (nice touch).

The rulebook is 224 pages meaty. High production values.

With...rules...

...ship stats...

...fluff...and plenty more.

Looking forward to digging into this big project. Will be starting to build ships tonight.

'Til next time.

A Dozen Assorted RPG Figures

Our group's RPG game has moved to the desert, so it was time to step up and paint some figures on sand bases.

These are Minions of Set and Lions of Mitra from Otherworld Miniatures. They've just recently been released in their "Judge's Guild" line, and are made for...of all things...the Dark Tower adventure module from 1980. What a find! Dark Tower was my fav adventure game product from that era.

These Mummies and Undead Lord are from Reaper. 

Here's a weird one. The Guardian Naga, Omphalos, again from Otherworld. Kind of creepy.

And finally, this Giant Snake is from Reaper. Did a quick Google search on Diamondbacks and got good ideas for the paint scheme.

'Til next time.