All in a night's work...

Let us sculpt and paint, for tomorrow we Rumble!

Rumble in the Bronx does indeed start tomorrow, and I do have a lot of work still to do. Just in case you hadn't worked it out yet, I bit off more than I could chew (again). The last couple of nights have been late ones, trying to get my army in order. Here is what I did last night...

Yeah, I had to do pretty much all of this last night. The flying carpet itself was nearly finished, at least.

Steam Tank Ironblaster and Ogre Bright Wizard Done

The clock is ticking. I really only have 2 available evenings left before Rumble in the Bronx. I'm beginning to think I won't get every model ready in time. Fortunately all of the remaining characters have back-ups, but if I have to fall back on them it might break my theme a bit, so I'm still hoping to avoid that.

Anyway, I spent a fair bit of time at the painting table last night, and my Ironblaster and Firebelly are all done!

My Steam Tank Ironblaster, ready for battle. Behold the scratchy highlighting on the cannons and splotchy washes on the hull (both are more obvious in the photos than in real life). A true masterpiece.

Converted Ogre Firebelly WIP

We're now into the week leading up to Rumble in the Bronx, and I am still not close to ready. I have not been idle, however. I have started painting my converted Steam Tank/Ironblaster thingy, and I even have the first of my character models ready for paint!

The only magic in my list for the weekend is a level 1 Firebelly with the Ruby Ring. I quite like the proper Firebelly model, but never bought one and don't intend to. Instead I figured I would make an Ogre-sized Bright Wizard, based on one of the old 4th edition Empire models. It fits my theme better. Anyway, I put him together last week and he is now undercoated and ready to go, if a little rough...

My concept model on the left, and the very early WIP Ogre on the right. I started with some cloned legs and a torso I already had in a bag, and ended up using real plastic Ogre arms and a head.

Adding Insurance

It's no secret that Warhammer is an expensive hobby. A little while back my wife and I were discussing something like this when the topic of insurance came up. Our house and contents insurance does include a item in it for my Warhammer stuff, but it's a pretty nebulous item with a very, very vague estimate of value. If we were to actually have a fire or very thorough robbery and I lost it all, I have no idea what would happen next. Nor do I even know whether it would cause a problem with the insurer when the time to claim came around. Would they suddenly question how I could possibly have a toy soldier collection with a value equal to that of a small new car? How could I then prove the matter?

We came to the conclusion that I probably needed to do something in terms of photographing and itemising the collection in order to back up any insurance claims should the need arise (and assuming I actually survived the shock of such a loss). To that end I started pulling some of my stuff out and taking photos, so that things could be identified. I didn't get to the end, but I did manage to cover a couple of armies, and it's a start.

So... This is what it looks like when I pull all my painted stuff out at once. Or at least, it did back in April when I was doing this. There are a few more things to add to the tally now.

Doggies and Rumble Lists

Rumble in the Bronx is now less than 2 weeks away, and I still have a fair bit of work to do in order to get my army ready. I've been a bit slack over the last week or so, but last night I sat down for a couple of hours and knocked out some more "Sabretusks" (I'm using Fenrisian Wolf models from 40K, because they fit the theme of my army better).

These guys are pretty rough, partly because I'm lazy and in a hurry (a dire combination), but also partly because I find these white furry models difficult to paint cleanly. They'll look OK on the table, but the camera is rather unforgiving. It was only when I was uploading these photos that I noticed how pronounced some of the joins are, even after painting. I will have to go back and address this. It's pretty unsightly, even by my lowly standards. Fortunately I bought some more liquid green stuff recently (my previous pot dried up after almost no use, much to my disgust).

5 painted Subretusks, using Fenrisian Wolves. Try to ignore the nasty join lines on the models. I'll address that.

Empire Ogre Leadbelchers Done

I continue to make progress toward having my Empire-themed Ogres ready for Rumble in the Bronx. I showed the Leadbelchers when they were being constructed, and now they're painted.

3 painted Leadbelchers, ready for battle.

Lores of Magic: Skaven Spells of Plague

Yesterday we did a quick walk-through of the Skaven Spells of Ruin. Now it's time to discuss the other Lore in the Skaven book – the Spells of Plague.

As with the Spells of Ruin, there are no Lore Attributes, boosted casting costs or clear spell types to work with due to the book harking back to 7^th edition.

The Spells of Plague are the only ones available to Plague Priests, whilst Grey Seers and Vermin Lords can select them if they wish.

Lores of Magic: Skaven Spells of Ruin

OK, so the Skaven book has been around since 7^th edition, and I still haven't gotten around to talking about the Lores contained therein. Maybe I am lazy. Maybe I am forgetful. Maybe I am a perfect storm of both. Anyway, time to rectify that.

The Spells of Ruin are one of two separate Lores that can be found in the Skaven army book. It is the only Lore available to Warlock Engineers, whilst Grey Seers and Vermin Lords are able to take a mix of spells from the Spells of Ruin and Plague.

Being an old spell Lore, there is no such thing as boosted casting values for these spells. There is also no Lore Attribute, as this was another concept introduced with 8^th edition. Nor is there the clear distinction between spell types such as Augments or Direct Damage. This has caused confusion in the past, especially given that the general rules applying to all spells shifted slightly when the editions changed. So just bear with me...

Rumbling along

I've spent a fair bit of time working on my Empire-themed Ogres over the last week or more, and I'm making steady progress. I've constructed 3 Leadbelchers, and I've now built and painted an additional 4 Swordsmen (regular Ogres), which pushes the unit up to 7. My rough planning suggested I was around 15 models short at the start of this effort, so assuming that I end up using all these models, I'm almost halfway there.

My workbench as it currently stands. Some Ogres painted, and some in the early stages.

Written vs Video Reports

One of the Warhammer-related websites that I often visit and contribute to is Sigmar's Fantasy Battles. It’s basically a location for players to come and track their game results, as well as linking any written or video reports for others to enjoy. It also has a rating system that allows the people viewing the reports to give them a score, making it easier for others to track down the best ones. There are filters for nearly everything you could think of, so if you wanted just to look at (for example) videos about games involving Wood Elves, you could do so. For people who like to hear or read about games of Warhammer, it’s a very handy site.

Looking through all the reports and making use of the filters can provide some interesting insights. One of the things I have noticed is the prevalence of video battle reports over written ones. Of the well over 1000 reports that are now linked from the site, only around 1 in every 7 is a written report. All of the rest have been presented as video reports, generally hosted YouTube. When you consider that I am responsible for more than a third of the written reports, it becomes clear how few people are actually linking them.