Taking a Break

Hey guys,

I'm going to take a couple of weeks away from gaming and hobbying.  I just need a break from things.  I'll start posting again in about two weeks or if I see something worth talking about.

See you soon!

Ironjawz Kryptboyz Painting

Painting has occurred.  It's a pretty dark color scheme, so I decided to jazz up the bases with bright green slime.  The Ardboyz in particular look pretty plain from the front.  They're much better from the back.  You can see quite a bit of additional blue.  I'll probably go back and fill in some additional detail in terms of hatch marks and maybe some checkerboard on the shoulderpads.  Depends on how much work I get done on the rest of the army.  It's playable now, but only these 10 guys are painted.  I'd really like to have the entire army painted by 11/12.

I still need to paint the one cloth banner and the skulls on the other banner.

Ironjawz Kryptboyz Incoming

I've finally decided on a paint scheme.  I'll be going with GW's official Kryptboyz color scheme.  I think I'll be able to pull it off before 11/12 despite it actually having a ridiculous number of steps.  Seriously.  The official schemes are easy to replicate and always looks great, but have soooooo many steps.

Fortunately, the majority surface area of most of the army is black armor.  In this scheme, the black armor is primed black and then highlighted with Stormvermin Fur.  There isn't much to it.  Most of the steps come into play with the details.  The Ardboys are going to be pretty easy to burn through.  I need to come up with a scheme for painting the banners, but otherwise I have the paints all worked out.  The paints in red are the ones I need to buy.  I'll be doing that later today.

Ironjawz Priming

I got some priming done.  Lots of priming actually.  It's amazing how much free time you have when you don't have to go into work.

This is what 1,500 points of Ironjawz looks like minus three Gore-gruntas and a Warchanter.

Safety first!  Seriously, if I don't use this gas mask, my allergies go crazy and I start sneezing black goop.  It's pretty revolting.

I know I've posted this before, but this is how I prime.  I used a ghetto old lazy susan I bought at IKEA and just keep rotating it on my deck's railing.  It's pretty effective and let's me get all angles without having to move around.

Now I just need to decide on which color scheme I'm going to go with.  I'm leaning towards the Kryptboyz...  or maybe the Asheater Boyz.  Ugh.  I have no idea.  They're pretty similar.  It's really an issue of whether I'd rather have red/white highlights or tan ones.  I'm not going to go with the Skyslasha Clan.  It's too much metal.  I have an entire Necron army.  I'm not sure I could stand painting another full army of metal dudes.

Ironjawz Color Scheme Decisions

I've almost decided on a paint scheme for my Ironjawz.  I want something dark and relatively easy to paint since in a perfect world I'll be painting 1,500 points before my November 12th tournament.  I bought GW's How to Paint Ironjawz ebook for some inspiration.  There are lots of cool color schemes, but only two that I think I could reasonably have fully painted 19 days from now.  They're the Asheater Boyz and the Kryptboyz.  There is a third clan that I like a little better, but don't think I could paint in time.  It's the Skybasha Warclan.

From a background perspective, they're all pretty cool.

First up is the Asheater Boyz.  Their armor is predominantly black, darkened with the smeared on soot from Sylvaneth tree gits who've been set on fire.  I like the imagery of my buddy's thrice damned Kurnoth Hunters being the primary ingredient in my Orruk's armor paint.  The bits of red and white would give the army a little more variety.

Next up are the Kryptboyz.  This clan hangs out in the realm of Death and spends their time fighting a variety of undead (and fully dead) opponents.  This color scheme appeals to me because another of my buddies plays a Flesh-Eater Courts army.  I like the idea that my Ironjawz have just been giving his army grief forever.

Last up is the Skyslash Warclan.  I like the color scheme, but the background is a little weird.  It says that these Orruks like to fly through the sky in their cobbled together "scrap-crafts".  This sounds weirdly like a 40k sort of thing.  I'm honestly not sure.

In any case, I need to choose quickly.  I'm on vacation this week and want to start painting tomorrow.  I have MOST of my 1,500 points assembled, but they're not primed at all.  The only thing I have left to assemble are three Gore-gruntas and a Warchanter.  Everything else is ready for priming and painting.

Vacation

I'm on vacation this week, so updates may be a little spotty.  I'll try not to have that happen though.

I've been working on a piece of software which will be a combination list builder and campaign tracker for Age of Sigmar.  More specifically, I'll be designing it to work as a tracker for my War Bands Campaign rules.  I spent part of yesterday typing all of the General's Handbook tables for Destruction into an Excel spreadsheet and then importing them into a database.  I also added all of the unit Keywords.  The end goal is that you'll be able to sort units by their keywords, letting you pick, for example, an Orruk unit to be compatible with a certain ability.

We'll see where it goes.  This is the sort of thing I do where I work, so I know it's something I can do.  It's more an issue of time and motivation.

Death in the Family

We'll return to our regularly scheduled hobby talk on Monday.  I'm taking a few days off from thinking too hard.

More Ironjawz Tournament Prep Work

I'm pretty sure I mentioned it, but if I didn't Showcase Comics in Swarthmore, PA is throwing a 1500 point Age of Sigmar tournament on November 12th.  I've decided that I'll be playing Ironjawz and have finalized (sort of, see below) my list.

Here it is...

Leaders
Orruk Megaboss (140)
- General
- Trait: Nothing Left Standing
- Artefact: Battle Brew
Orruk Warchanter (80)
- Artefact: Talisman of Protection
Orruk Warchanter (80)

Units
Orruk Ardboys x 20 (360)
Orruk Ardboys x 10 (180)
Orruk Brutes x 5 (180)
Orruk Gore Gruntas x 3 (180)
Orruk Gore Gruntas x 3 (180)

Batallions
Ironfist (60)

Total: 1440/1500

I've gotten quite a bit of the building done over the last several days.  Life has been...  well, life has been unpleasant lately and this has been a nice escape.  I'm always most productive when I have too many things on my mind.  I guess I have a lot on my mind right now.  All of this has been built within the last week or so.

All I have remaining to build are the three extra Gore-gruntas and the other Warchanter.  I'm debating replacing the second Warchanter with a Weirdnob Shaman.  I think it would be nice to have some magic, but I also like the idea of dual Warchanters egging the 20 Ardboys on to a 2+ to hit, 3+ to wound.  That's a lot of attacks.  I'll probably decide at the last minute.  The decision will likely come down to how much I want to spend an extra $30.

Ironjawz Orruk Megaboss Conversion

I decided that the leader of my Ironjawz war band would be an Orruk Megaboss.  The offical model is definitely nice looking, but doesn't wow me.  It basically looks like a slightly upscaled Brute.

Enter this guy...

He's the Green Goblin model from Disney's Infinity video game thing.  I've used a Hulkbuster Iron Man from the same line before to act as a Tau Empire Riptide.  I know you can't tell the scale in the above photo, but this guy fits on a 60mm base, same as the Megaboss, but is about twice as tall.

I sifted through my bits box and came up with a ton of bits that I thought would work.  I think when  I get some paint on him, he'll fit right in with my war band.  The barrel in his hand represents the Battle Brew artefact.

Upcoming Age of Sigmar Tournament

On November 12th, there will be a 1500 point Age of Sigmar tournament at Showcase Comics in Swarthmore, PA.  There was a 1000 point list there about a month ago and it was a ton of fun.  I'm really looking forward to playing 1500 points.

I've decided on playing Ironjawz.  The list will be as follows...

Leaders
Orruk Megaboss (140)
- General
- Trait: Big and Brutish
- Artefact: Battle Brew
Orruk Warchanter (80)
Orruk Weirdnob Shaman (120)

Units
Orruk Ardboys x 20 (360)
Orruk Ardboys x 10 (180)
Orruk Brutes x 5 (180)
Orruk Gore Gruntas x 6 (360)

Batallions
Ironfist (60)

Total: 1480/1500

All of the units are a part of the Ironfist, which allows them to move an extra D6" in the hero phase, assuming whichever model was designated as the battalion boss is still alive.

I still need to pick up another Start Collecting box to finish off the army.  Most of the rest of it is assembled.  I also need a Megaboss and Shaman, but those are 10 minute builds.  The Start Collecting box is on order at my local store.

I'm tired and have had a particularly shitty week.  Goodnight for now.