Do Not Dip!

I repeat: DO NOT DIP.  Or this may happen:

Now I'm willing to accept that I:

1. bought the wrong stuff.
2. did it wrong.
3. both of the above.

I have a feeling that it's going to be point 3.  Anyway I have a sticky mess of a miniature that I'm too upset to think about how to fix right now.  Turps bath for a week most likely.

Anyway after I had a bit of silent reflection (ie crack the s**ts) I decided to just do it the old way, you know base colour, ink wash and then shade and highlight.  I'm pretty happy with the results and I managed to get quite a bit done.

I finished the rest of the archer unit by hand, didn't take any photos though so I'll put some up next time.  However I did manage to get a few of the characters done or close to done.

Starting with one of the Harbringers.  The Anubi hand hanging from this guys belt is a great touch to the mini.  The main reason I haven't painted many of these (apart from being lazy and easily distracted) is that I hadn't decided on a colour scheme.  I eventually went with my firts idea to use the atypical gold and blue.  I like the look, very Egyptian and very easy to paint.  Most the cloth will be white or light greys and I'll try to introduce one more colour for each of the character miniatures to make them unique.

The miniature below came out way better than I had hoped and the cloak just looks great, shading looks superb in real life.  Now if I could just figure out how I did it and do it again.

This was my first real attempt at feathers and I'm still not sold on the look.  I like the colours used but something isn't right, I'll leave it and come back another day with a fresh pair of eyes.  What is the deal with the Asar women going topless?  I know Egypt is a hot place but even if we put aside the issue of sunburn they are going into battle... just doesn't make sense.

I tried to do something different with this guys wings and do them like a pair of phoenix wings.. or something.  Again they look good but something just doesn't gel.  I'll finish the rest of him off and how it looks then.

Wargods of Aegyptus - The Rest of the Order

First up I want to say sorry for the lack up updates recently.  It's not entirely my fault.  You see a little while a go my Xbox broke and I had to send it off to get fixed.  Microsoft ended up replacing the console for me (yay) but in the meantime we bought a new 50" plasma TV.  The roll on effect of this meant we could move the old 42" into the family room.  So now I have a nive big plasma TV in a room where I can play Xbox any time I want.  Even now I can hear it calling: play me... plaaaaaaay meeeee.  Needless to say the painting has taken a hit.  So now back to the wargaming.

I picked up the rest of my Wargods order las night, a unit of Heru Spearmen and a Heru Harbinger with a great sword, a unit each of Anubi swordsmen and archers with an Anubi Hero.

This guy has one of those ball-and-socket type joints.  I hate them, glue is never enough and so will require pinning.

Metal shields, man that really takes me back to the 80's.  What I really like about these miniatures is the variation in poses you get.  There seems to be about 4-5 different poses all up so even in a unit of 10 men you don't see a lot of repetition.

The Anubi hero.  The detail in this guy's expression is just fantastic, the angry snarl and the way the ears lean forward really gives the impression of an angry dog just about to pounce.

More archers, from what I've been hearing and seeing archers play a pretty important role in Wargods.  Like in most games you have to protect them but if handled well the shooty stuff can win games.

Anubi swordsmen, these miniatures look awesome!  I'm very tempted to start painting these guys today but I should get the Heru I've already started finished first.  Besides it would be so unlike me to leave something half done and start something else... right :)

I picked these minis up from Badga last night and it was great to see half a dozen guys huddled around the Wargods table rolling dice and pushing metal.  Most were playing with Gus's various armies but we've all got a good mix of races between us and some talk of a campaign was going on so all looks good on the Wargods front.

With a bit of luck I'll have my Hotz Mats western mat in a few weeks and if I can refrain from picking up a controller I'll have most (if not all) of my army painted.

Hotz Game Mats

I recently placed an order for a felt game mat from Hotz Mats, the same folks who also produce the fine Whitewash City cardstock buildings.  I've gone for one of their Small Town Western Mats.

It's approximatley 72 x 45 inches (183 x 114 cm) and I've gone for the double sided option with the other side having only the rock scatter pattern.  This will be fantastic for Gutshot, Six Gun Sound and Wargods of Aegyptus.  It will also be quite useful for WWII games if I ever get some Afrika Korps sorted.  It's still a good 3 weeks away so I'll post some photos once it arrives.

Wargods of Aegyptus - Heru and Asar Update

I've managed to get all of the Heru and Asar undercoated, based and all the flesh areas base coated.  Which from the photo doesn't look all that much, and it would be if it wasn't for the fact that I did it in one session.  Sleep and food breaks none-withstanding that is.  The goal now is to get a unit of 10 of these to tabletop standard per night over the next 3-4 nights and then get 3-4 of the characters done with whatever time I have left.

What the photo doesn't show very well here is that most of the shading has been done one the flesh, a little highlighting here and there and a targetted ink wash wouldn't go astray but I think I'll get the rest of the minis dones before I start getting bogged down in the nuances and details.  I will not allow myself to be tempted to spend just a little extra time to make this mini look just right or give that mini the paintjob it deserves and so on.

My primary goal here is to have a painted army on the table this Saturday night.

Should be possible... right, heh?  I mean who needs sleep anyway?

Wargods of Aegyptus - More Heru, Some Asar and the First Anubi

I started painting my Heru for Wargods of Aegyptus.  Very nice casting with only minimal cleanup required.  The quality of the sculpts is just amazing and the detail just pops out at you when you start to put the paint on, these are going to be a pleasure to paint... which is good because I have so many to paint (with more to come).

Another Heru Swordmen unit and the Asar Warhawks starter.  Initially I was only going to get a Warhawk Unit pack but the cool characters made this pack a must have.  The only qualm I have with a couple of the characters is that I find the sculptors desire to make most of the female characters topless just a tad juvenile.  The Basti range of miniatures turned me away for this exact reason.

The Swordsmen and Warhawks based and ready for undercoating.  Airbrush this time me-thinks.

The characters from the Asar Warhawks starter... except for the one second from the left, he's the Master of Words from the Heru Starter.

The two Harbingers from the Warhawks and Heru starters respectivley.  I have another one on order which is probably one (or two) too many but I'm planning on not having to buy any more of these for quite a while.

All the accessories that came with the characters: gongs, idols, books, jars... you name it.  I don't think these play a part in the game, at least not from what I've read of the rulebook.  Oh I got the rulebook too.  Very glossy and professional, up there with the stuff GW put out and even laid out in a similar fashion too now that I thnk about it.

The start of my Anubi forces, Harbinger, priest and embalmer.  I have 3 units of warriors on order, along with another unit of Heru.  These guys are really just add-ons for the Heru army but I may expand these later into an army of their own.

Same guys from above but based and waiting for an undercoat.

That's all for now.  I'm planning on doing a lot of painting tomorrow so I'll post photos when there's something to look at.

Wargods of Aegyptus

I've resisted the themptation of WarGods for what seems like forever now, but today that resolve failed me and I bought some.  The scale of the game sits somewhere in between Mordheim and Warhammer Fantasy, which suits me just fine.  The miniatures look fantastic and the Egyption mythology aspect if just freaking awesome.

Should get these in the next week or two, I'll post photos when they arrive.