2 Weeks of Congress

Ok, so, what I've been up to:

Priming with gesso
A week ago (or so) I primed a few of my trolls in white and started painting one of my impalers. I had watched a video that made glazing seem like the easy way to go in my paint scheme. I was wrong. I started with a base coat too dark and tried to highlight from there as if I was using a layering technique. Epic fail.

So I soaked the impaler in Simple Green. (that stuff is amazing!)

This time I thought I might try gesso to prime. Another fail. I had watched a video on priming with gesso where the guy mixed his gesso with water and matte medium, he was very careful about measuring, I, was not. One chunky primed impaler later and he's back in the simple green bath. Lat night I gave him a fresh prime of straight gesso, liking at him this morning I think I'm gonna stick with spray primer, i have spots that are well primed then others where I can see bare metal through the gesso. I may try some paint on primer in the future.

In the process of reading the PP painting forums I read a comment by Meg Sales(?) staying that the PP studio uses a technique called 2 brush blending to paint their models. Of course I was interested, I checked youtube for tutorials on the process and came across a guy named Brant Benoit. He made it seem simple enough, heck I can do that!  Then offer on handcannon online I was reading some articles by a guy named "ghool", I dropped him an email asking a question then realized they were one in the same. 

Brant has given.me some sound advice and I really appreciate his taking the time to respond to my dumb-ass questions. Here's a link to Brant's youtube channel and his articles over on Hand Cannon Online.

In terms of painting and modeling: 2 Steps forward...3 steps back...

Non-Gaming

As far as gaming, I haven't been able to get in any games this past week and not today due to a busy life, running a half marathon Saturday morning and all. Hopefully next Friday I'll get out of the house for a game or two. I was able to buy a set of casino dice, they showed up the other day and are damned sexy.

Also, the Red Sox are in the world series, go Sox!

Simple Green, Simply Awesome

I've been contemplating changing my priming to white, particular for my warlocks. I went out and picked up a bottle of simple green and put my primed and basecoated models in it and let them soak overnight.
I tentatively pulled them out of the simple green this morning and the paint was just falling off them.
I got the following models stopped and ready for a new white primer.

Borka &Kenny
Axer
Impalers x2
Madrak

If they dry and the weather is right I should be able to get them primed today!

In other news

I worked on my modeling again this morning. I greenstuffed some gaps in Horthol, Calandra, my Fennblade officer & drummer, Jarl.

I've come to the conclusion that I hate greenstuff and that I'm terrible with it for filling gaps.  Ask me to model pustules and boils onto a Nurgle rhino for 40K and I'm all about it, ask me to create weld-lines on a looted Lemann Russ for 40K (again) and I've got you covered.  Ask me to cover the gap on a yak's ass on a Long Rider and I'm fucked.

10/11 Game vs Cygnar

Ok, playing against pHaley is like playing against an old Stasis deck in MtG. Wow.

Got a game in with Adam on Friday at PPF. I did *much* better than I had previously. I remembered not to Fury-screw Borka. I remembered to cast defensive spells. I remembered my vengeance moves. I woulda rocked face if it wasn't for such a shit match-up for me.

Adam wasn't prepared for a 50pt list so I went down to a 35pt list:
Points: 34/35
Borka Kegslayer (*5pts)
* Pyre Troll (5pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes (3pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)

Adam's list:
Points: 35/35
Captain Victoria Haley (*5pts)
* Stormwall (19pts)
* Squire (2pts)
Black 13th Gun Mage Strike Team (4pts)
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters (Cylena and 9 Grunts) (10pts)
* Captain Jonas Murdoch (2pts)
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios (3pts)

He won deployment and first turn. He moved up a bit and threw out some covering fire. Nobody checked but I think we made a mistake and made the covering fire a 4" template instead of the 3" template.  Oh well, next time.
My turn, I screwed up, I ran my fenns up and didn't have range with Borka to cast Iron Flesh, also didn't leave room between my champs to cast between them.  Next time, I'll keep the champs in a 2 and 3 man groups to allow for the B2B ARM bonus and still allow me to hit units beyond them with spells.
Afraid of taking POW12 covering fire I stopped my movements at the covering fire templates.
At this point I realized that I had lost the game, if I was too afraid to charge through the templates and engage the damn jack I would never expect to take on Haley and finish her off.
Mercifully the guy who owned the portable board  needed to leave, I conceded the game to Adam and explained that I knew he had me dead-to-rights. He apologized for playing Haley against me to which I told him that it wasn't necessary, I saw that I had played a better game than my last and had learned more.

Then we sat down and played a game of High Command Cryx (Me) vs his Menoth (he got me again).
All-in-all it was a good night.

I think I get the Dygmies

I just read Sevwall's treaty on Pyg Burrowers. Here if you've never read it.

I'm very, very tempted to buy a set of Dygmies for my army this week...

Stuff I'm working on:
I finished modeling the entire unit for Hunter's Grim last night (Muggs and Krump). I've got Skaldi, Troll Moses (The Runebearer) and Janissa Stonetide left to put together.  Update: 10/10, done assembling Skaldi, Trollses, and Janissa. I am going to base them then get them primed.

I am planning on priming my locks in white so they pop a bit more on the battlefield and my warbeasts in gray then my units and solos in black. Anyone else try anything similar?

Playing:
The wife just announced that she will be out of the house tomorrow night which means that I will be able to get over to PPF and get at least one game in.
I'm going to continue my Borka list, I really think it has potential, I just need to stick to it and remember how this game s supposed to work.

It's nice being back to wargaming.

Welcome back mister kott-air!

Well, where to begin, again?
 Same guy, same trolls. I had decided to take a step away from wargaming to pursue interests in costuming and as both are not cheap hobbies, I decided costuming would take precedent. The past few months have seen my interest in the costuming wane and a renewed interest in minis gaining again.

I went out to my FLGS, picked up the MKII rulebook and my faction deck. I'm beginning to get back into Filthy, Dirty Hordes again :) My FLGS (Past, Present, Future comics, in Davie, FL, you guys rock) was very welcoming to a new/returning player, I've had multiple, multiple offers in the past months to come in and get a refresher game, fill in my knowledge gaps for MKII and have a good time.

 Finally this past Friday, I packe dup my trolls and went on down and got in a game. What a great time. Thanks Charles!

I know I made a bunch of HUGE noob mistakes, and I'll document them here and learn from them (roll the tape!)

Charles and I played a 50 point match, my Trolls against his Menoth (I may be inaccurate on his menoth, bear with me while I get back to this whole thing)

My force:
Points: 49/50
Borka Kegslayer (*5pts)
* Pyre Troll (5pts)
* Earthborn Dire Troll (10pts)
Krielstone Bearer and 3 Stone Scribes (3pts)
* Krielstone Stone Scribe Elder (1pts)
Trollkin Champions (Leader and 4 Grunts) (10pts)
Trollkin Fennblades (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Trollkin Fennblade Officer & Drummer (2pts)
Trollkin Long Riders (Leader and 2 Grunts) (7pts)
Fell Caller Hero (3pts)
Horthol, Long Rider Hero (5pts)

Charles played something like this:
Points: 48/50
Harbinger of Menoth (*5pts)
* Crusader (6pts)
* Hierophant (2pts)
Avatar of Menoth (11pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 3 Grunts) (2pts)
Holy Zealots (Leader and 5 Grunts) (4pts)
* Holy Zealot Monolith Bearer (2pts)
The Covenant of Menoth (2pts)
Vassal Mechanik (1pts)
Vassal of Menoth (2pts)
Vessel of Judgement (9pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
Rhupert Carvolo, Piper of Ord (2pts)

We played a scenario with 2x 12" circle control zones. I thought I could deploy heavy on one flank, roll through one side and make my way across to the other, holding or contesting at least one of the control zones and making my way to the other.  I fucked up, deployed poorly for what I thought in my head and then tried to change up my plan mid-game. It didn't work out well.

We ended up on the bottom of turn 2 (my half of the turn, he had feated Harby so I couldn't get into the kill box without taking POW14 fire damage to Borka. I needed to get my Fennblades out of the way so I could do that, they all took the POW14 Harby feat to the face, and I made 1 tough roll. 7 Fenns ate it.  Not my dice' proudest moments.

Lessons learned:

1. Make a battle plan, and stick to it. Be somewhat flexible, but do not try to re-invent the wheel.
2. Move your army forward. If I hadn't been stuck outside of the kill box, I could have sat still or moved laterally and dealt with the feat.
3. Remember your spells.  I didn't cast Mosh pit once in the entire game. I used the +STR buff from the Stone Scribe elder once.  I didn't feat. 
4. Don't think so much about it. I was brain burned after the one game that I didn't want to get a second one in. I wish I had.
5. Harby's feat is a bitch to infantry heavy armies.