Curt’s Basement

D&D Experience started yesterday (it’s a D&D-focused convention) and tons of information about D&D 4e is spewing forth. Here’s some of the stuff I’ve found most interesting:

•  Mike Shea on ENWorld has been liveblogging the event from the start and has picked up some interesting tidbits.
• You can see high quality versions of the demonstration character sheets on this Picasa album.
• GamerZero has posted videos from the presentations of the show.
• There’s more on the ENWorld mainpage, including a picture of the Kobold Skirmisher stats.

So far I really like what I’m seeing. It looks like characters and monsters start with alot more HP and do alot more damage from the outset, but things don’t drastically change over the course of levelling up by the sounds of it, so it’s easier to maintain balance. I can’t wait to see what else people find out.

This is a nifty little site that’s just wall to wall flash games. Check it out, there’s some good stuff in there (Last Stand springs to mind).

I found out about it from the Mega64 “infomercial”.

Click here for more information on what the hell this /b/ spawn is.

Here’s your Monday Music Video, folks. Just under the wire. I’ll need to remind myself to get it ready to have up right away on Monday and not at the end or days later.

So, as I mentioned briefly in the shoutbox, I painted up all my Tyranids yesterday. Here’s how it all went down.

I got up, milled about for a bit, and then set up my painting area by 11:30am. I had a better idea of how I wanted things arranged this time, so that helped. I looked over the Tyranid painting guide in the Battle for Macragge book. The ones in the book are painted up like those from Hive Fleet Behemoth. This means that their armour plates are blue and their skin is red. Not a fan of that combination, but I didn’t feel especially creative with the Tyranids, so I figured that was how I should proceed anyway.

Unfortunately, for the blue sections of the Tyranids, you’re supposed to use a turquoise colour. I have no turquoise. I figured it would be a simple enough matter to just mix up some paint and I’d be set. The fates conspired, however, and I couldn’t for the life of me get the colour I wanted. Worse yet, I was very nearly out of white at this point. So instead of doing it exactly like the book (which is even harder cause the foundation paints I have are not the same colours as the regular citadel paints), I just decided to dry brush the armour with a light blue. This, thankfully, turned out pretty good and I was getting energized about the whole thing again. Because I was already working on the Tyranids and would need to reuse all their colours for their scenery things (spawn points, whatever), I figured I’d do them at the same time. And the spore mines while I was at it.

After all the dry brushing was done, I set out to start doing the red basecoat. This was a bit trickier than I’d imagined it would be. For starters, the red I have is a bit duller than how they should look, so it was a bit difficult to eyeball, and having thoroughly destroyed all my brushes with my apparently-savage painting the day before, I had some trouble working it between all the highly detailed bug bits on the models. There were alot of black primer areas showing through the paint, so I had to do another coat. I eventually got it to look reasonable, though I might want to do some detail touch up later on.

I then moved on to highlighting. At first, I tried simply mixing white with red, but the pinkish mixture didn’t look so great. So I tried with a yellowish tinted mixture (can’t remember what I mixed now), and at first it looked better, but once I finished I wasn’t sold on it either. So, I then tried a dimmer pink colour for the edges and was pretty happy with that one. It doesn’t look AWESOME, but it looks decent enough, so I motored on. This is around when it became painfully clear that I need to really learn how to thin paints and apply more layers to achieve gradients. It’s all a learning experience and I’m glad I’m learning. The downside, of course, is that miniatures are expensive.

After that, I tackled doing the claws and teeth on the Genestealers. Only after I finished and looked at the book again did I realise that their claws are actually supposed to be a black/grey colour and not a bone colour. Oh well, I think it looks nice how it is. Artist license, right? I did the Termagants hooves and claws with the correct grey colour and it looked nice as well. I also did their guns in the same colour. In the book it looks kinda like their guns might actually be Boltgun Metal, but they’re supposed to be bio-engineered weapons, so I just made them a greyish colour. Somewhat of a half measure, if you will. As with the marines, the eyes and teeth were very hard to do. I had a decent time of it using a toothpick, but I imagine I might get better results with a pin. I’ll have to try that on my next mini-with-eyes.

Lastly, with the Oscars in the back ground and the hour getting late, I began basing all the minis. This was actually pretty fun. You “paint” some PVA glue on the base. This is basically woodworking glue. Then you just dip the mini in the sand and move him around a bit. Dust off the excess stuff and let him dry. Once dry, just paint it black and then once that dries, dry-brush it brown. It came out looking really nice, but I haven’t added any grass yet, as I’m not 100% sure how to do just little tufts of grass poking out of the rocks. I also took this opportunity to cover up some blemishes on the models with a bit of “mud” from the base. It blends stuff really well and looks really cool when it’s done. I finished this all by 11:30pm, exhausted and with the worst back pain ever. But it was very fun.

I don’t know why, but the time really flies while I’m doing this. I hope I don’t get sick of it too soon. Now all that remains from the Battle for Macragge is to do the scenery and then it’s all done. I also bought a Space Marine Commander for after that stuff so I have the bare minimum for a regular force (2 troop units and 1 HQ unit). I don’t know if I’ll blog all this stuff though, it might get pretty boring to read.

Games Workshop holds it’s on little convention in Toronto on the 21st of June. Tickets are $35. Anyone want to come?

More details beyond this very long link.

PS: I imagine everyone has forgotten about the whole Gen Con thing we were going to do this year. If anyone wants to still do that, we should probably start making arrangements soon.

So much Warhammer, so little time! I actually finished all this earlier, but was too tired to post it until now.

I got up today at 8:30am, ate breakfast, and got set up to paint by 9am. I couldn’t wait to get started on my marines. At this point I was still a little worried about mixing my colours and whether or not I would use too much paint, or whatever else I might do wrong from the list of billions of things. I was determined, though, and got to it right away. I figured I’d use the instructions out of the Battle for Macragge book so I’d at least get somewhere to start from, even though I wasn’t going to be making ultramarines. So I started with dry brushing Boltgun Metal on their backpacks and their bolters. It was easy enough, and I wasn’t too worried about getting it in areas it wasn’t supposed to be as I’d be covering those later on.

After painting up the guns and backpacks, it was time to move onto the base coat of my custom brown. I knew from the Games Workshop website that I would need a 1:1 ratio of Cathan Brown and Codex Grey to get the shade I was looking for, but mixing it was another matter. I poured a little bit out of each tub onto a paper plate. What a mess! It sort of dribbles down the side of the tub making a huge hard-to-remove mess. I also think I poured out a bit more than I needed. Regardless, I tried mixing with this giant wooden toothpick I had, but that was a no go. It just sort of created these nifty swirls. So I tried mixing in a bit of water to help it mix. No, that just loosened it too much and made water swirls in addition. So I then mixed it around with this big brush I have. Still, the viscosity was kind of low, but I figured it was good enough and started painting away.

I painted up all the armour on the marines in one go. By the time I finished the last guy, the first one was dry, so I could start on the next step. Next I painted up their shoulder pads with a basecoat of Cathan brown so that when I painted them white later, it would look a little worn in the edges. After doing this, I looked over their armour and it looked a bit thin. I could see alot of the black primer, so I redid my paint mix. This time I mixed it in a tupperware container and didn’t add any water. I think the water bit was the most crucial. Leaving it out allowed the colour to flow a bit and get better coverage when it dried. Once I’d done the armor over, I mixed the paint again, only this time with white instead of grey to get a lighter shade. I used this to dry brush the highlights at the edges of the armour. I’m still kinda sucky at it, so it’s not pro quality or anything, but it started to really make the figures look complete so it was exciting all the same.

I then moved on to the shoulder pads. I painted them with a lighter beige sort of colour to get a gradient sort of effect for when I was going to dry brush them white. This didn’t work out so good, though. The problem being that my paints are foundation paints. You’re not supposed to layer them, so when I painted this beige over top, the colour underneath completely disappeared. It didn’t show at all. So I decided to immediately go back over them and just paint them solid white. It was a bit tough though cause the brush strokes were completely visible as I went over the shoulders. I had to add a bit more paint to get them to look clean. They’re not perfect, and they made the resin seam (that I forgot to shave off) really stand out, but they look snappy just the same.

I then trimmed the shoulders in gold and poked the brush between their arms to paint their chest eagles. This took some doing though, and I got a bit of paint on parts of the armour where I didn’t want it to be, but it really made the white shoulders look nice.

A couple of more passes of my custom brown to touch things up, some red for the eyes, more brown to touch up the mess, and some skin tones, and I was essentially done by 5pm. I still need to base them, and my back is really killing me, but it was great. The time just flew by really fast. Faster than most of my other hobbies. I can’t wait to paint up my Tyranids.

Well I commented in Curts 1st post that I would post pictures of the progress on this end. I have to say it has been pretty fun tossing our techniques back and forth and actually seeing results. I am so jealous of the primer spray Curt had but will so be buying one next time

So here is the setup that I am currently working with. I pretty much kicked everyone from the kitchen table and confiscated it for the greater good that is miniature painting. I typically used my computer desk but me and Marie are sharing it right now for office space so that is a no go.

Here are some pictures of my figures in various angles. There is quite a bit of detail, some of which I have no even got to yet like skulls hanging from their belts. But it give you an idea. I probably plan to drybrush some blood color on a few of the orcs blades, that should give them a more menacing (as if the severed head on the belt was not enough) look. I have 34 Orcs, 34 Empire soldiers, Cavalry, Wagons, Artillery and much more to paint so it is gonna take some time lol

I have learned a lot though in the past day about various brushes and what works well with what. Also coloring and inking are quite cool but difficult to implement at times. I would say the hardest part so far is painting the tiny studs in the armor as well as the leather ties on the back of their uniforms as it is such a tiny area. Go fine brush go!

And last but not least Warhammer Fantasy is endorsed by my cat Eigan. Cats are indeed wise

So, last night I spent some time assembling the Tyranids. The geneastealers were actually pretty easy to assemble. The Termagants, which you would think would be easy because there’s only two halves to each one, were not. This is because there were very slight variations between each one, particularly where their arm was, so that they would not easy fit with the wrong pieces. I only figured this out half way through forcing them together, but I eventually got it all sorted out. Even the ones that clearly were meant to fit together, didn’t really fit that great. I had to file the little peg down so it would fit in the matching hole. The other issue with gluing the Termagants is even when they were fitted up and glued together, their arms still didn’t quite reach their weapons. I didn’t want to spend the entire night holding their arms together, so I put glue between the joints and hoped for the best. I figured also that the basecoat might help unify it a bit better anyway. We’ll see how that works out later.

One thing that really stuck out was how they give you JUST enough bases, with one extra to spare. I thought that was quite odd. You’d think for how much you pay that they’d have the resources to give you at least a few more bases just in case you lose any. I didn’t lose any, thankfully.

After assembling everything and stretching my back (which had started to hurt something fierce from all the leaning over everything and focusing on tiny little creatures), I took everything downstairs to be sprayed. I’d never really done any spray painting before, so my parents were nice enough to show me how it’s done. I felt kinda dorky painting my Warhammer 40k stuff with my parents but whatever.

To basecoat them we set up a cardboard wall and some newspaper for them to sit on. We put them on used drink trays so they could be rotated. At first I was a bit worried that I was going to end up with too much paint on them, but pretty much regardless of how I sprayed them, they all turned out with a nice even coat. I had to lay the termagants on their sides to spray them so I’d get all the detail on their sides/underbelly. I left them there for a good 15-20min before flipping them over and spraying them again. Then I left the whole lot of them to dry overnight.

There’s really not much more to say about part 2 than that, so here’s some more pictures.

I am losing my damned mind. Is it just me or is anyone else utterly pissed off and aggravated to no end with the total lack of courtesy and respect people show one another? You see it everywhere. I have been wondering why i have had no motivation to work since losing my job at futureshop. I think i may have it now. The world sucks because people suck. I can’t believe how much i hate people. I think right now if i had a gun i would have started shooting people by now. People treat each other like sh^t, then wonder why in return they get treated like sh^t. Drivers will risk life and limb, their own and others, driving like a retarded ape to shave off an amazing three seconds off a road trip or on the drive home from work. It is completely mind blowing.

The internet is filled with morons that think it is funny and okay to treat others like garbage simply because the internet is anonymous and every jackass can post and put out whatever they want. I think this mentality is one of the many factors that is leading to the social decay we all see in our day to day lives. People seem to have forgotten how to be decent and kind to others on the whole.  It really pisses me off…

Video games are supposed to be a fun recreational stress relief for people. Yet in online games like World of Warcraft or Team Fortress 2 the chat generally consists of name calling and harassment and much, much, much worse cyber bullying and scenarios where the only path never chosen is the higher path of being a polite and civilized human being. The last two days i have been playing in the pvp battlefields of WoW. Three times i have been harassed, insulted, and attacked for nothing other then playing the game as intended. What would happen if i complained or put in a ticket with a GM? absolutely %^$# all.  The very fresh in-game incidents aside, you see this kind of crap everywhere in real life also.

In many jobs you work hard, usually underpaid, only to then have some other jackass take credit for your hard work. Many people tend to look the other way if something unscrupulous is being done but it is in their favour.  People are selfish, self-serving, arrogant, ignorant, ego maniacal pricks that seem to not care who they hurt as long as they get ahead in life. It is making me sick. Getting me to the point i don’t even want to interact with people at all, aside from current friends and family. I can barely drive my car without seeing on average five people i would be willing to follow home and bludgeon to death with a tire iron if my conscience was not there to tell me it would be wrong. I sometimes feel like my grip on things is loosening every day…i am very afraid one day i will snap and hurt someone…and i am really beginning to not care…i %^$&ing hate this place.

Now with my luck some cyber watchdog will see this and report it to someone and cops will come knocking on my door. The world is such a nerfed, screwed up, ridiculous place. Sometimes i think it would do humanity wonders to have some catastrophe wipe out 3/4’s of the world and force us to start over…

I hope i feel better in the morning and that this is just some silly rant because i am tired and frustrated. But i kind of doubt it. I know this may seem like it is taking things to the extreme. I am merely generalizing on the overall governing social mindset. This mindset is based on the enjoyment of sin and being a slave to the all mighty dollar…no i am not going religious, but some of the founding beliefs of  most religions are ones that i think people should follow. It’s as the golden rule states “Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.” and not be surprised that when you treat someone like sh^t they will treat you the same way right back…

Meh…rant off…