Goodbye old friends

I traded my tomb kings, over 3000 points painted, for a crap ton of orcs and goblins. Most are unpainted, some base coated, some finished, and one or two looking really nice. All those will go into the Simple Green. The only one that won't is the Arachnarok that I haven't gotten  yet. The original owner is having it painted. I can't bring myself to strip it if he's actually paid someone to paint it. If I take one to tournaments, I'll just use the one I have.

So now all I need for my Bayou Battles army is a second mangler squig. The first one is molded, baked, and has bits of greenstuff curing on him. I need more sculpey to make another. Making the mangler squig has me looking at how I can sculpt things for other models as well. For example, I used a scrap of the sculpey from making the MS to make a rock for a savage shaman to perch on because the model won't rank up otherwise.

I also learned something yesterday. When the carport is to full of cars, and other stuff, and you want to base coat models, DO NOT take them out into the alley and put the tray on the recycling bin. The wind will kick up and blow the tray and wet models into the dirt. So yeah, the goblin wolf riders went into the Simple Green.

I may have enough black orcs now to run the Black Orc Bock list at Alamo this year. I thought I had enough mounted units to do a cavalry based army, but I don't have enough spider or wolf riders to make the minimum core.

Getting Squiggy With It!

With the TKs on the way out the door, I'm taking a look at the Orcs and Gobbos. One model that's been missing from my waugh has been the mangler squig. The problem has always been the cost, not the points, the dollars. The models way to expensive for what it is. So what does a cheapskate do? HE makes his own.

A trip to the hobby store and we are on our way!

I started with a small block of Sculpey III. I went with white. No reason. I ripped off half of the block to form the body.

The body takes initial shape. This part was going EASY! I am the master!

The face begins to take shape. It turns out that teeth are hard to sculpt, so maybe I'm not quite the master.

Another 1/4 of the block plus a little and the legs begin to take shape. While legs are easier than teeth, neither are easy. 

90 minutes in the oven at 230 degrees (F) plus letting it cool overnight. Turns out the sculpey only truly hardens all the way after it's cooled. I added some bits for silliness and now he's ready for green stuff. to fill in some gaps and smooth out some bits. 60mm bases are on the way as well. Things are looking squiggy.

Screw That!

So I won't be going back to Lone Wolf GT. $60 for entry, another $100 for a hotel, and two tanks of gas is a bit too much to pay for the shittiest single tournament I've ever been involved in.

A major part of the problem was my crappy performance with my crappy army. I've got no one to blame but myself for the performance of my list. I brought a soft list and played it badly. The few times I did everything right were foiled by the dice. It happens.

Another problem was I get tired of looking across the table at unpainted models. All five people I played had unfinished models on the table. 3/5 had major parts of their army unfinished and two of those had 60% or more with little or no paint at all. One of them had 2/3 of his army based black with a splash of red and silver so he could get credit for three colors in judging. He admitted as much to the paint judge.

The number of people who had bad days or weekends due to playing against those displaying abysmal behavior didn't help either. I didn't have any bad games, I just had too few good ones. One spent too much time talking smack to the organizers to pay attention to our game and one was pissy the entire game because of the way the comp scores worked. Around me, however, I saw players tantruming and throwing fits because things didn't go their way in games they were winning.

Questionable judging was the final straw. The armies that took prizes for appearance deserved their recognition. Looking down the list, there were armies that were judged far more harshly than deserved while others were given far better scores than deserved. It seems being local or affiliated with the right club was an important factor in paint judging. Two armies that had unfinished models on the table actually scored better than mine for paint. That guy with the three stripes of paint? He scored one point less than me for painting. The models he had that were painted were nice. They  weren't based. So lesson learned - based coat with a spray can, smear a couple of blotches of paint, and go. You'll get scored at mid level. Or be local. That seems to matter.

I realize that much of this is out of control of the TOs, but that last bit is on them. Judging paint is thankless and subjective, but the scores from LWGT show a distinct bias or base incompetence. Either is inexcusable.

Either way, the event left such a bad taste in my mouth that I think I'll save the money and effort next year and stay home.

EDIT: Some of the bitter has faded, and I realize much of my bad time was brought on by choices I made. Still probably not going next year.

Skellingtons invade Ft. Worth

So here we have it. The major differences in this list and previous versions is fewer skeletons, no BSB, more Tomb Guard, dropping the hierotitan and colossus for three necropolis knights and adding a light council in place of the lvl 4 death caster.

I'm really looking forward to this weekend for a couple of reasons. First, I've never been to Lonewolf GT, I hear it's a great event. Second, I've never played a comped tournament. This should be interesting. I have no illusions of winning, but I hope to at least have some good games. Finishing in the top half would be nice too. Hell, winning another game at a GT with this army would be nice. Finally, I haven't dragged out the Tomb Kings in a while other than as Undead Legions, and this looks to be a list with possibilities.

Anyway, I hope to update as the weekend goes.

The Deed is Done...Mostly

It's six days out from Lonewolf GT and my army is entirely painted. (I'll post photos later.) What should I do with SIX WHOLE DAYS of prime painting time? Well five really, because Friday evening will be for travelling.

I also discovered that my army simply does not fit on the display board I was planning on using. So I guess I know what I'll be doing with my free time this week.

Edit: Screw it. I don't have the time to to the job properly this week, so the lid of the tub I'm transporting the army in will be my display board. That being said, I do have a plan for an appropriate display for this army now.

A week out...

A week out from Lone Wolf GT, and I'm still painting. It's not as bad as normal, though. Usually, be fore the first GT of the year, I'm still in a flurry of painting with at least a full unit or two to go. This time I've got three casters and a war machine to go. I'm about 60-70% done with the casters and 50% done on the war machine. The kicker in this is that my first GT of the year is usually Bayou Battles, in August, and I've debuted a new army at BB each year I've gone. This will be the first year I go there with an army I've played before. 80% of the army was already painted, so I'm rushing at the last minute this year out of laziness.

Also in fun news, I know my first round opponent is bringing Vampire Counts. I'm bringing a 16 comp list and his is 10.4 or so, which means I'm starting the game up 560 points. The self-appointed experts from the Lonehammer podcast predicted a win for me, 3-2. (Of course this means I will likely get tabled.)

A funny thing is that I was called one of the "best players in San Antonio" who they "just can't get to travel." I am assuming that Mr. Cox was either trying  to be funny or was badly, badly misinformed or confused.

Either way, I'm looking forward to the event. It will be my first one played under Swedish Comp, which is why I brought out the Tomb Kings. I was having trouble getting under the 16 point comp max with them, while I couldn't get over the 6 point minimum with my High Elves. I think I could have done fine with my Orc and Goblin army, but I haven dragged out the TKs in a while and they are eye catching.

Last minute painting...

It just wouldn't feel natural to be doing some last minute painting leading up to a GT. Threfore, in the two weeks leading up to Lonewolf GT, I find myself needing to finish three Necropolis knights, three liche priests, and a casket of souls.The necroknights are getting there, the casket is base coated, and the liche priests are have some primary levels painted in. Not the hassle of the first time I played TKs at a and had 60 models to go with two weeks left.