Raiding the Dusty Wastes

So I went back to do all the facial hair and eyes.  It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I found a way to cheat! A Pigma Micron 005 black pen is just the right size to consistently make eyes in scale without killing your own or going insane with trying to stop the jitters caused by nervous twitches or caffeine. Aside from that I revisited all the foot soldiers to paint over their kanjar (those beautifully curved daggers) on their belts. Feeling feisty I also thought “Should I finish off any other oddball detailing? Eh, why the hell not?”. It was then that I finished the  cavalry in its entirety and all other bits and bobs for the footmen. With that done I tossed on some tufts for fun and visual effects before spraying all parts with Testor’s Dullcote for all the matte parts. I went back over my metallics with VMC Natural Steel and washed with GW Nuln Oil. No undercoat with gloss black to start as I think there’s only so much effort I can put in before getting overwhelmed by the growing scale of this project…. which reminds me. The skirmish trays from Litko really help to keep things organized.

Things can only be taken to a greater level from here as the fantasy of Age of Magic demands the fantastic!

I just got in my model for the alternate version of what I wanted to put Hasn Al Qlb al Akrab upon as a beast mount. It appears to be larger than expected. (snicker… smirk)

I’ve read the rules for Saga basing with the understanding that there needs to be a base attached to the model and it can’t be greater than the dimensions for the type of unit being fielded. Well, I’ve gone to the source at Studio Tomahawk and asked if there could be some clarification if limbs of beasts in Age of Magic, that happened to extend beyond the base limitation for unit type, were permissible if attached to a smaller base.

So I now wait for the ruling and hope that the odds are in my favor and I watch my opponents soil themselves when my leader comes to the table on his tiny 60mm base. Then again the 90x120mm monster base might still be of use for a Behemoth.

Edit: After reaching out to Studio Tomahawk the official ruling was to leave it in the hands of the players and any event organizers to decide legality I’ve also done some reading again for the max size of a warlord on a beast and will be changing the basing to a 80x50mm rectangle with rounded corners on a radius in order to be more realistic about base sizing. I made a call directly to Litko Game Accessories to arrange procuring them and await a response after leaving a message.

I got my other 3D printed model in. Woot!!!

I initially thought that there needed to be a genie in my Arabian Knights force. I didn’t think that the Disney adaptation of Aladdin’s story did the tale justice despite  Robin Williams doing his wonderfully manic comedy. I thought the portrayal of the djinn as played by John Leguizamo in ‘”Arabian Nights” was more appropriate in attitude.

I took my visual inspiration from the anime/manga series “Magi” and tossed an image of a cosplayer onto the entry of making my opponent cry. Thinking about the family environment that is a gaming store I drew that back and used my knowledge of the 3D work being done around the Internet to think of what company might give me what I needed. I went back to the company Artisan Guild that I knew had done the Scorpid rider as well as mess load of carpet riding thieves and a genie under the Spellblades project. Lo and behold I wasn’t let down as they had more sculpts to print which would fulfill my option for the battlefield.

I’ve had it printed at 135mm from top to what was the bottom so as to float over a base befitting an eye-catching monstrous presence. The bottom of the sash was initially what the sculpt was supposed to stand on for the print but I thought “This will not do”. I went to work removing the end of the ‘sarong'(?) with my trusty rotary tool and sculpted back the edge with a mixture of 50/50 kneadatite/Apoxiesculpt to finish off the part. Going from a 60 to 220 grit sandpaper it worked pretty well but I ended up going back over the missed cracks with superglue that I wiped to near flat and sprayed with accelerant before sanding to match.

I went back to prop the genie atop a clear 3/8″ acrylic rod so it appeared to be flying without support. It may not truly be suspended in the air but a game played with plenty of tiny fighting pastic people to converge and do combat dictated by the roll of dice is a space where the  suspension of disbelief is very much a norm.

The base proper is a 90x120mm MDF oval I laid a bit of 3mm thick cork on top of. I then covered it with the same greenstuff mix as the djinn fabric, textured it with the Greenstuffworld flagstone roller, and liberally dunked it in the same grit basing material for the rest of the army.

I went back and gave the base a spray with a combination of water/wood glue in order to get better adhesion (read: stop losing basing material) after an initial PVA layer for the sand having repurposed a Febreze spray bottle to apply it. I feel good on multiple levels for how industrious I am right now.

Bwahahaha! I’ve got camels!!! If you thought that I went crazy with cavalry then you’re in store for a treat. Yes, ladies and Germans, we’ve got one gen-you-wine, all weather and condition crack camel corps readied to be painted for action and be placed on the tabletop with two orders of Gripping Beasts’s Mutatawi’a fanatics. Of course, the paint schemes to come you might well make question that.

Yes, @sundancer , for the details required that I will paint you can hate me now. I hate me now. I ask myself “what the hell am I doing?” and I come to the conclusion that I’m making the battlespace of miniature figures more awesome. With that “inspiration” and self delusion to avoid the realization of the self inflicted masochism I will be bringing camel jockeys to the fray for all to see.

Lloyd was right about horses being a separate figure to be painted but he had nothing on the matter of these battle hardened mounts which require much more than my warriors shown earlier. Now, onward my mustachioed (in some cases) minions. We fight for foolish fancy!!!

Oh, and the scorpion base is on the way.

So I thought to myself that there needed to be an addition to my force of scorpions. I put down the cash for some Alternative Armies scorpions as I expanded the miniatures. They have arrived and I am diligently  putting them to use for my Saga force. On another plus I have received the bases from Litko that will suffice for the Saga leader on beast so I will be able to put my “big fuck off” model into play (see Eddie Izzard and beards). A bonus to this cost is the likelihood of using these in another project. This will likely be in creatures for the future.

I like being able to multi-purpose my purchases.

Keeping you all guessing as to what I’m doing is a fun game for me. Can you guess as to where I’m headed with this? It might be a bit of an oddity but it’ll fit right in.

So I’ve been put under The Rona Lockdown as of Saturday. What does one do when they suddenly have a week of laying around and languishing with chills, bodyaches, congestion and doing as much sleeping as inhumanely possible? Get the lead out and do something that actually doesn’t suck.

Here’s the first half of my camel corps that I’ve been way too busy to paint until now. I can say that my hands aren’t quite as steady as they normally are but I’ll damn well finish these figures before I get cleared to start work again. I still have a second unit of archer levy to pain but they’re nowhere near as difficult. I also have quite a few monsters to go after this so the project has some development life to go with.

Push through the suck and make as much hobby headway is the only way of coping with this.

P.S. I’ll also hit up the metallics after the second half. Right now I don’t quite trust myself yet to get around to it eventhough I wrote on the shields. I can only do so much as an above average kind of nerd.

What have I learned this week? COVID-19 sucks, to put it mildly, I was more ambitious than I knew. Breathing was more important than painting despite my desire to get work done. My diaphragm is stonger than I knew it has been for some time and I am almost clear to go back to work. Its been an up and down disease that I’m glad to be getting over.

My camels are almost done despite having to restart the blanket for one after an unfortunate incident of a coughing fit. The riders still need work as well but its all about trying to make things look fancier than they are. I’m about done with my motivation for the moment as I’d just like to be “productive” again. Earning cash would also help as my paycheck took the expected hit. I’ll be glad to get my commission work to my client so as to offset some of the pain.

Related to this year’s planned festivities, don’t worry anyone, The Noseblower will be shipping Giftmas as promised. By the time boxes go out in late Oct/early Nov this will be well behind us all. Don’t worry about quarantining deliveries as this amount of lead time for things I’ve yet to seal will ensure nothing is traveling internationally. Most things are already boxed up as is with only a few stragglers left to bundle.