Herohammer Battle #2

The title says "Herohammer Battle #2", but where's battle #1? I didn't create a blog post for it yet.  Maybe I will. There's a brief chronicle of the battle over on the Herohammer FB group.

Quick recap of Battle #1: The small beginnings of an Orc and Goblin Waaagh! emerged from Black Fire Pass and overran the Empire town of Averheim.  The town's burgomeister had called for help and Lord Edmund The Absent mustered a pretty sizable force to repel the greenskins, but he was defeated when the Black Orc Warboss chopped his head off, Fred the Giant smashed the other hero off his pegasus and the entire army routed.   The greenskins, having sacked Averheim, are about to cross the River Aver and threaten the City of Nuln.

Battle #2:
After hearing of the "Debacle at Averheim", the Elector Countess of Wissenland Emmanuelle von Liebwitz recognized the menace and quickly mobilized the local town milita on the outskirts of Nuln to slow down the vanguard, hoping to buy some time while marshaling a more effective force to deal with the horde.

Since this is a solo game, I wanted to keep this battle a little smaller and more manageable so the armies are led by hero-level characters. Also, this is the first time I'm using the "magic item draft" idea - armies don't pay for magic items.  Before the battle, draw a magic item cards equal to the number of champions/characters in your army then assign them as you see fit (this is really just my interpretation). I'm not including the points for the magic items in the lists below.

The Army Lists:

Orc and Goblins Vanguard:
-General - Night Goblin Big Boss w/light armor and shield 36pts and the Blade of Ensorcelled Iron
-30 Night Goblin Spearmen w/shields, champion, standard, musician 123.5pts and the Banner of Defiance
-1 NG fanatic 35 pts
-22 common goblins = 55 pts
-18 Orc Boys w/light armor, shields, extra hand weapon, champ, standard, musician 213.5pts and the Banner of - champion wears the Ring of Corin
-15 Orc Boys w/light armor, shields, extra hand weapon - 142.5pts
-6 Wolf Riders, shields and spears 66 pts
Level 1 NG Shaman 28pts w/ Skull Wand of Kaloth
Snotling Pump Wagon 40pts
Doom Diver 100pts
Stone Troll 65pts
Greenskin Total 868.5pts

Empire Local Militia of Nuln (so lots of gunpowder...):
General - Lord Edwin (son of the late, headless Lord Edmund) Hero. Warhorse, heavy barding, heavy armor, shield, carrying the the family heirloom Dragon Blade, recovered from the battlefield when his father fell before the greenskins could loot it. 76pts
-5 Pistoliers 110pts
-14 Halberdiers light armor, champion, standard.  Champion carrying the Sword of Reslilience, unit carrying the Valorous Standard 165pts
-18 Swordsmen with champion, musician, standard, Relic Sword and Standard of Shielding 163pts
-17 handgunners with champion carrying Tormentor Sword 158pts
-8 Crossbows 64pts
1 Mortar 100 points
2 Great Cannons 200 points
Empire Total 1,036pts

The Empire have an advantage here as they knew the orcs and goblins were coming, and this is just the vanguard of the army.

Here are the pre-battle pictures for battle #2.

Wait, I thought Edmund lost his head??

Drybrush Testing and Blood Bowl

I was an early backer of the Artis Opus Kickstarter for their Series D set of new drybrushes.
"Drybrushes, really?" I hear you say...Yep, drybrushes.  It's a technique that I've recently been intrigued by, and I have a desire to get better at.  The big mystery has always been "how do you dry brush without resulting in that 'chalky' finish?"

Now, I don't think a set of fancy drybrushes is going to be the magic solution.  I simply don't like any of the drybushes on the market (GW, Army Painter, etc.).  But with the release of the Series D brushes, Artis Opus also filmed a bunch of videos that walked through how to use the new brushes and better techniques to get really good results with drybrushing.

Here's the size 0 and size 1 brushes - in the background you can see the really nice "sponge" that came with it to enable you to "dampen" the brush (more later). it also came with brush soap cleaner, a nice box and i got the upgrade MDF brush rack.

So, I'm currently working on speed-painting the plastic figs that come with the 2nd edition Blood Bowl set.  I figured, that's a perfect time to do a trial run with these brushes and learn some new techniques.

Here's some pictures of the stages.  It's exactly every little stage, but it's most of them. What seemed to be the key "idea" is to dip the tip of the brush into a damp sponge throughout the drybrushing (I know that seems counterintuitive).    As I got started, my initial reaction was "huh...that really works!".    The other trick is to build up the colors with more gradual layers and really take your time.  As soon as you rush it, the highlighting looks to stark and the chalkiness starts to happen.  But that little dip of the brush into the damp sponge seems to be key.

First, base coat the main green color (GW Warpstone Glow).

Then apply the first layer of drybrushing.  GW Warpstone Glow plus GW Warboss Green (similar to old goblin green).

Then second layer to blend it GW Warboss Green.

Third layer was GW Warboss Green + GW Skarsnik Green.

Fourth layer was GW Skarsnik Green to accentuate the highlight.

Then, to blend it down and reduce the harshness of the drybrushing, I hit it with a wash of Biel Tan green.

After that, another light layer of GW Skarsnik Green to bring up the highlights again (no picture).

the final step is the magic step for my greenskin flesh - a thinned layer of GW Lamenters Yellow Glaze.  It slightly tints the color but gives that unified "pop" that i like.

 (tough to see in these pictures)

And here's the finished product.  I did not use any brushing on the remaining parts (i experimented with the red, but I kept getting the red paint on the green flesh so i want standard layering approach).

I'm pretty pleased with the results and my commitment to "speed".  I didn't worry about fixing mistakes unless they were really obvious, barely worried about mold lines, and didn't to much highlighting.  I only highlighted the red uniforms and the black straps/gloves/boots.  The other stuff i just hit with a thin brown or black ink and called it done.
I'm treating these as 'game pieces' to enable us to play games of blood bowl. that's it!  i'll dedicate my time and energy on better models that are on the tabletop.
This morning I finished the last lineman and two blockers. Only the two Black Orcs remain!

After that, the Human Team and then finally i'll get to properly paint my Dark Elf team (which will NOT be speed painted!)

Some Oldhammer

So...been a while since I've posted, but here's a quick one.

A group of us were preparing for a big Oldhammer Siege game at Cold Wars 2020.  That, obviously...didn't happen.

But what did happen is that I painted up a bunch of stuff in preparation for the game!

I posted a bunch of these pics already to the Oldhammer in the New World FB page, but they were a little dark.  So, I phone a friend from work and he did some quick post-processing for me and like magic, the pictures were immediately better. 

Anyway, here's an Orc Bolt Thrower that I've had for about the last 3 years waiting for some love.  Finally painted it!

a little out of focus

This last crew member wasn't part of original crew.  When i bought the lot on ebay it didn't have the 3rd crew member.  so...i rummaged through my bin and selected a guy to fill out the last crew member.

And, here's the siege equipment that I painted up (not shown are the ladders, but, you know, they're ladders).

As we were preparing for the game, we realized that we needed more mantlets.  I had some extra balsa wood lying around so the night before i quickly scratch built and painted another mantlet.  Not too bad for about 2 hours total work!

Ok these last units weren't part of the game, but since this is an oldhammer post, I figured I would include them.  These miniatures were some of the very first miniatures I ever bought when I started playing Warhammer back in 1992.  My first army was a Chaos army but i never really finished it (when 4th ed game out there wasn't a chaos army book for a loooooong time - I eventually switched to Dwarfs).
Anyway, I finally got around to finishing this beastman unit.  It was also my first attempt at a freehand banner.  I'm pretty pleased with the result.

It felt great to finally get this unit completed.  I can't wait to finish the rest of my Chaos army and play a game with them.  I've got a Dragon Ogre on the painting table and I will be tackling another long-abandoned miniature - the Blood Thirster. 

Soon!

Republican Romans

I've been slowly working on 10mm romans for To The Strongest. 

I've completed the triarii, princeps and hastati.  Still need to finish the velites, commanders, and cavalry.