Good news and bad news post... The bad news is that I've been very busy with work and have very little time to finish any of the miniatures I've started (as a result no updates); the good news is that I finally finished my first Privateer Press mini. The bad news is that it is not Trollblood, the good news is that I really enjoyed painting Strakhov. The bad news is that I don't own any more Khador outside this lone warcaster, the good news... well I don't have any good news to correspond to this bad news LOL...

This is my first fully painted mini after taking a 4-5 year hiatus from mini-gaming and mini-painting. I really wanted to finish painting this mini in order to move on to the next (and with Hordes MK II coming out in July, the goal is to have a fully painted 35-50 point Trollblood army before that book is releaed), as a result I cut a lot of corners when it came to the metallics and the base. I have to say I really am not comfortable painting true metallics, it is very hard to get right (not that I am very good with NMM either). I suppose I just need to practice more, but given how slow of a mini painter I am, this is going to be a major challenge. The mini seems really shiny under the light of my makeshift miniature "photo studio". I coated it with two passes of Testor's Glosscoat and one pass of Testor's Dullcoate. I'm tempted to use one more pass of Dullcoat but am afraid that the highlights will be washed out (a lot of it already has). I've never been good at sealing minis (again it's one of those things that comes down to practice and repetition to get right).

You'll find more pictures of Strakhov after the break...

I needed a break from painting my Trollbloods, I got tired of painting different shades of leather/brown, and needed to paint something different. So at the LGS last week I happen to see the new Khador warcaster, Kommander Strakhov, and immediately purchased it (together with P3 Khador Red Base and Khador Red Highlight) and immediately headed home to get it prepped and primed and ready to paint.

Here is a WIP of the Dire Troll Mauler. The only thing done is the loincloth and the belly (I think I need to bring up the highlights a little bit more on the belly) and the base LOL. Everything else is basecoat plus wash. It sits on a Peet's small-sized coffee cup. I am trying to two-tone the mauler with a lighter underbelly and chest and lower jaw (using P3 Trollblood underbelly as the base and shaded with Underbelly + VMC Dark Sea Blue and highlighted with Underbelly + Trollblood highlight) but I am not sure if it is successful....

This Trollblood Axer is my first attempt at painting again after not picking up the brush in 4 years. Things I've learned, (1) Vallejo Model Color is still pretty good after 4 years of accumulating pigment at the bottom of the bottle (I'm glad I invested in a Robart Paint Shaker back then LOL), (2) painting minis is hard work, (3) I'm still a slow painter, and (4) I'm still not very good at this. I am actually stumped, I don't know where to go from here, so hopefully your comments and suggestions can kick my butt into action. I've actually begun working on other minis since I can't seem to finish this, and all I've managed to do is get a bunch of half-painted minis on the painting deck LOL ... not a single one completed *ugh*. You can find those on the Work in Progress page.

Anyway, here is the Axer in it's unfinished-I-do-not-know-what-to-do-with-it-anymore state. Comments and suggestions most welcome....

In hindsight, I suppose winter was a bad time to get back into miniature gaming, and subsequently, miniature painting because of the challenges wet and cold weather presents to one of the main steps in painting process: priming. This is only a problem though when you use spray primer on your minis. I guess there is some sort of science involved in (ideally) only using spray primer when it is not too hot or not too cold or not to wet; I don't know what the science is, I just don't argue anymore after once priming my minis in less that ideal conditions and finding rough and unpaintable minis in my hands. I'm glad I found an alternative to spray primers for cold and wet San Fran Bay Area weather...

My initial Trollblood purchase when Hordes was first released included: Trollblood Warpack box set (pMadrak, Axer, and 2 Impalers), pDoomshaper and a Totem Hunter. The Dire Troll Mauler was quickly purchased (pre-ordered!) to include a much-needed heavy warbeast that was missing in the box set. That's where my Trollblood army ended 4 years ago.

One of the reasons I chose Hordes over Warmachine was to avoid the need to "catch up" and buy more miniatures than I can paint and field on the table just because they were already available (which the obsessively completest gamer in me wants to have immediately... as in right now! LOL). The irony isn't lost on me now that I am feverishly trying to get my hands on as many of the Trollblood miniatures published. Fortunately, the whole process hasn't broken the bank (yet!) as I have been lucky to make judicious trades (my Dark Age, Infinity, Rezolution and Confrontation for your Trollbloods, s'il vous plaît? Merci!) and one or two successful sniping (last-minute bids) on eBay. So this is what I have so far:

Fact 1: I am only really motivated to play when majority of my army is painted.

Fact 2: I am a very slow (SLOW!) miniature painter.

Fact 3: I am not a very good miniature painter.

Fact 4: I enjoy painting miniatures.

Fact 5: Facts 1 to 3 prevent me from playing miniature games with regularity and consistency. As a result I often end up quitting a miniature game before I even get started (Dark Ages, Rezolution, Infinity). *ugh* Fact 4 keeps me coming back (I am a glutton for punishment *ugh* LOL *ugh*).

Fact 6: I really want to play Warmachine/Hordes regularly.

Fact 7: It must be a really slow day that you made it all the way to Fact 7 without navigating to a different website. :)

So how is blogging going to help me turn Fact 6 to "Fact 6: I AM playing Warmachine/Hordes regularly."? To be honest, it really shouldn't, but I am counting on my vanity to kick my butt and get some colored acrylic paints on lead/pewter/plastics to save me from the embarassment of having a blog and not being able to post pics of painted miniatures. So there you go, the motivation I need to paint my army by avoiding the embarrassment because I am blogging my progress (or non-progress as the case may be). It's a stretch, I know, I know... but here's hoping it is a success. :)