March review and April goals

At the end of March, everything is... going great, surprisingly.

D&D took a bit of a hit. Dungeon of the Mad Mage keeps getting canceled due to issues. The party finished the mech level and I can't wait to hit them with the next thing. I missed my first session of the Golden Vault, but the team did alright. We finished that level without ever drawing a weapon.

As for Warhammer... it's a renaissance. I did some games of 40k, and went to the opening event of an AoS escalation league. Got mauled but did better than expected. Had a game before and after. I'm now in the mood of painting daemons and Sigmar-stuff again.

Hobby wise, it's been amazing. I painted 123 miniatures so far, or 167 with multipliers. That's 199 remaining to do until the end of year. Almost halfway there! 

Some commissions are bound to come up. I'll probably paint a box of ASOIAF miniatures per month in return for 3d prints, and some Reaper minis soon, as usual.

I'll be experimenting with an airbrush this month, just let the weather warm up a bit. First goal is to be able to prime Reaper Bones without a hassle. Then, maybe we'll take it to the next level.

Finally, with the Chaos Marines codex announced, I'll probably put the Guard on the backburner - well, as soon as I finish painting everything that I assembled and converted. Then it's on to Slaanesh for Sigmar and Word Bearers for 40k.

Painting a second Plagueburst Crawler

Time to paint the second crawler. By the time I finished the LED work, I was kind of already over this miniature, so I decided to follow my previous Contrast-and-drybrush-based color scheme.

Assembling a magnetized Plagueburst Crawler with LEDs

I somehow got a hold of a second Plagueburst Crawler. I already magnetized one - I did the same steps here, not detailed again. However, I did decide to do LEDs this time. Just because.

Hedonites of Slaanesh vs Slaves to Darkness

Third game: Nexus Collapse. 

Hedonites of Slaanesh vs Ogor Mawtribes

 Second game: Fountains of Frost.

Hedonites of Slaanesh vs Flesh Eater Courts

First game: Geomantic Pulse. I bunched up in a corner, with a gathering of horrible monsters on the opposite side.

Age of Sigmar Escalation League: 1000 points event

We kicked off an Escalation League with a small event: 1000 points, 8 players. Given that it's an escalation league, I thought it best to start with a new army. Well, it's not technically new, I've been working away at it for some time, but my first game with them (and my first game of Sigmar since 2022) was literally last week. I lost the pictures so no battle report of that.

I threw together a random list of the most expensive things I own painted, so as to not have to learn everything at once. Obviously, I got my butt kicked. But I think I understand some mechanics now.

We played 3 games, here are the battle reports:

• vs Flesh Eater Courts
• vs Ogor Mawtribes
• vs Slaves to Darkness

They are all short and sweet, as somebody was tabled turn 3 latest, and then we just math'd out the games for points purposes. It's why I didn't detail battle tactics. If you want the short version, I tried for killy ones during the first two turns, and then positioning ones later.

I feel back in the game now though, and might just be motivated enough to paint up more stuff. Especially some screening units, because nothing can take a hit.

Updated photo setup

Added a ring light and tripod for long exposure photos. The photo quality itself is unchanged, but the shadows are much softer - almost invisible. It will be some time till you get to see them - look out for the nun infantry and D&D constructs!

Painting Skinchangers

I painted their animals - now for the Skinchangers themselves.

Painting Wildling heroes

Yes this includes Osha. Yes I am aware of her allegiance to House Stark. She is still a wildling, if not a part of the Free Folk. Notice her distinct base. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Painting Skinchanger animals

Commission painting 2 sets of the beasties from ASOIAF.

Astra Militarum vs Necrons, 13.03.2024

Time to test out some new toys in this 2000 points Take and Hold scenario. I tried to fix my army by adding what it lacked: scions for mobility, indirect fire for support, Ursula Creed for extra AP.

The left flank and center was still held by old favorites.

Astra Militarum vs Necrons, 08.03.2024

This was supposed to be a 1000 points demo/training game for a player new to 10th edition, but it turned out to be very close and intense. 

Given the setup, I took an experimental all infantry list and devised a very simple scenario with 5 objectives each granting 1 VP each as per regular rules, plus Slay the Warlord/First Blood/Linebreaker for 2 VPs each.

Painting D&D animals

A group of D&D boardgame animals painted in various schemes.

Painting an owlbear

I painted up this WizKids (I think) owlbear along with the kodiak bears.

Painting brown (Kodiak) bears

At some point, if we ever get to play again, Legorlas will be able to summon bears. Must be ready for that occasion. The minis are a mix of D&D boardgame bears (one already painted with a basecoat and wash) and one WizKids miniature (I think).

Golden Vault: Haunted mansion part 2

We replaced a couple of players and/or characters on the fly, and we continued into the dungeon/mansion. Or rather, the dungeon/mansion attacked us by having the ghost return and possess Aris, who then came to stab me. We slapped him silly, but then the ghost possessed Teek, who was a tougher nut to crack. We knocked her out too, and then finally defeated the ghost before it could possess anybody again.

Golden Vault: Haunted mansion part 1

After a stern warning that the next session will involve plenty of combat, we got the briefing regarding a stolen astronomy tome or whatever. The sage Talistrom, former owner of the tome, was robbed by a former associate and academic, the noble Marcos Delphi. We visited the esteemed sage, who had already hired a band of adventurers to retrieve the tome, but they all died. Nice. For extra bonus points, we had to retrieve Marcos alive and save him from whatever malefic influence took over him.

Painting Shaggydog

The last of the Stark dire wolves to be painted, the black Shaggydog was perfect for this painting tip (and indeed gave me the idea to extract it).

Painting Stark heroes

Three character miniatures for ASOIAF.

Painting Grey Wind and Summer

The first two completed miniatures of 2024 were these two commission dire wolves from ASOIAF.

Stark bases for ASOIAF

This is the basing we devised for House Stark miniatures.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Drow castle siege

The reconstructed battle scene from the end of last session looked like this. Although Solid was missing, I ruled that the drow mage still obeyed his command spell and floated down from the battlements, only to be ripped apart by the zombies. Group initiative coming up!

February review and March goals

With February over, I am mostly on track with almost everything.

D&D is going great. We'll advance to the next level of Dungeon of the Mad Mage soon(ish?). However, much more exciting, the Golden Vault campaign is in full swing with weekly sessions. I enjoy immensely the roleplaying aspect of it. 50Copper was a great character choice. I'm milking every moment of it.

As expected, this came in detriment of wargaming. I still got in a game of 40k (wasn't that great, but learned a lot and re-ignited my passion) and one of ASOIAF.

Hobby-wise, February started strong. I finished all my outstanding commissions and my Rogal Dorn tank. I've barely painted anything since, and I'm still way ahead of schedule - amazing! That doesn't mean I was just sitting around, though. I assembled some counts-as scions and field ordnance, and converted some Sentinels to my nunnery. More conversions coming up soon!

First goal is to finish painting the stuff I converted up. These should provide a much needed boost to my guard army. Then, I'll do one more ASOIAF commission. Expect new printed minis soon for even more nun-diversity!