Gencon Photos Part 2

Lots of cool photos from the dealer's area of Gencon. Mostly photos of miniatures at Privateer's booth, but this first photo has nothing to do with Warmachine. I ended up spending quite a bit of time at the Mayfair booth playing demos and earning my Knight of Catan ribbon on Saturday so I could earn that 50% off coupon (bought Histories of Catan: Struggle for Rome; great game!). At the edge of the Mayfair booth, before you got to the Catan University roped-off section, there was this. An electronic version of Catan, with touch control commands. Very cool!


Next, more photos of from the Privateer booth...

I have my Warpwolf Stalker put together, and he is quite the beast! Primed too. Someday hopefully it will see some paint. So being a Circle player, I took this photo above for future reference.

...and then the Stone Keeper, which I picked up on Thursday and had put together to use Friday during Iron Arena (more on that in a future post).

Unit of Skinwalkers, which I also picked up. Man, do I love these guys! Also put them together and used them Friday for IA. I will be getting the blisters later to fill them out to their maximum unit allotment.

Loved the paint job on Laris in the P3 paint competition. My photo does no justice to the actual model. None at all.

And then the impressive Gunnbjorn. One odd trend I noticed in person is how dark the studio models look. Lots of dark tones and shadows and recesses. In the photos they look just right, and when I take photos of my own paint jobs, they all look super bright, so I have to wonder if the studio guys paint darker so they show up better in photos. Just wondering...

And last, one of the Feral Warpwolves submitted for the P3 competition. Loved the look of this one!

Next post, my photos and comments about Iron Arena that will wrap up what little Gencon coverage I have. Until next time...

Red.

Gencon Photos

Here are some miscellaneous photos I took while I was at Gencon this year. A few shots I liked from the miniatures gallery at the PP booth, and then a couple of scenario tables in the minis hall.


First, above, here's eNemo. I wish I could paint as well as some of these people do. Go get 'em old man!



I was in the middle of painting my own Cyclone until I stopped abruptly to paint my Cryx, until I stopped them to paint my Circle (sigh). Anyway, I really liked the one above, so I snapped a shot of it.

Above, eCaine's battlegroup has a Grenadier in it, hooray! I have these two light jacks completed too (but not eCaine) and not nearly done as well.

Here is a shot of one of the terrain tables with the IK train set up. Looks awesome! We were told in no short order that until 6 p.m. only fully painted armies could play on these tables. Made me mad that throughout the day I witnessed a number of people with unpainted models on them. Who was in charge of this anyway? Phooey!

Apollyon! Yes, the very same one pictured in the last issue of No Quarter. I didn't hear whether or not anyone managed to beat the monstrous jack. There were a number who tried...

OK, so this is part one of my photos. A few more to show you as I get the time.

Red

Gencon: Reviewing the Ram

On Friday, my fellow Warmachiners and I made what is becoming an annual tradition of eating lunch at the Ram. It's hard to beat a place that has menu items (and Beer!) named after characters in the Iron Kingdoms. They even make a special brew each year in honor of the con, and this year is was Primal Porter. The service is excellent (some of them even dress the part) and the ambiance is fantastic, as gaming banners are hanging everywhere, albeit some of them are showing their age, painfully. Yet somehow I seem to be underwhelmed by the experience.

I can't remember what I had eaten last year, or the name of the beer, but I remember being a little disappointed that the food and drink didn't stand out any more than it did. As far as taste went, it was just average, or even a little less than average. And whatever beer I tried last year had a bit of an odd aftertaste (I know it was a red lager, but I can't remember what they had named it). This year I did try the Primal Porter that they debuted, and it was pretty good. I like a dark beer, and this one was fairly smooth. (I should mention that I brew my own, and have become rather particular, and judgmental, about what I drink).

This year I tried one of their blackened cajun variety of burgers (I should have taken notes, because the name of it was amusing when I read it on the menu, but it escapes me now). I like spicy, robust food, and this was anything but. Completely bland. I've never had meat that I just couldn't taste. And even though I can't remember the name of it, this is two years that blandness has reigned. I'm not quite ready to say "no more" to what might be a trend, but it does seem to be an unfortunate coinicidence for them. Two strikes to say the least.

Am I suggesting you not go? Certainly not. You need to make your own opinion. The service is fantastic, and atmosphere is great... except that any number of places downtown Indianapolis are stepping up their "game" and I am willing to bet their food is better (like Champions across from the convention center. They have wonderful Scottish eggs, for example, and their food left quite an impression on me several years after the fact, even if they haven't reinvented their menu for the con).

By the way, I didn't pick up a tee shirt this year. I like the Trolls as a faction, and have even considered collecting an army of them. But sometimes the Troll artwork leaves me scratching my head.

Red

Triumph, Discordia, and Malice (not necessarily in that order)

Realizing, of course, that this blog is a little biased, here are some pictures I took at the Privateer booth this weekend of the new character warjacks. Apologies to the Menoth and Khador players out there. It seems the photos of your jacks were "disrupted" in transmission. The first in a series of Gencon 2010 photo posts, here are pictures of Triumph, Malice, and Discordia.

Triumph is an 11 point Defender. He can shoot stealthy models, which is cool, but is he worth the points? One point less than the Thunderhead, really? I'm not sure about that.

I am truly excited about Malice. Comes with a free soul token and can gain up to three, total. Plus it gets to take over an opponent's warjack. It costs 9 points (if I remember correctly).

Last, but not least, is Discordia. Difficult to see in this photo, is the metallic-looking chest plate. Discordia is a 10 point myrmidon with a 10 inch magical POW 14 spray attack, and can give +2 ARM to friendly models within 3".

I like the "Special Issue" distinctions listed on the new cards, which essentially tell us in whose theme force the jack can be used. Not all of the new jacks have them, but Triumph will fit in a Siege Theme force, and Discordia will fit in a Rahn Theme force.

More to come, as soon as I unpack some more...

Red

Gencon Day 1

The first day of Gencon was a day of settling in and getting the lay of the land. We rolled into Indianapolis around 9:45, found a somewhat convenient parking place, and didn't do much except walk around and see what was where.

A couple of friends were playing in the 50 point tournament, which ended up taking most of the day. I wasn't planning on participating in the Iron Arena event until Friday, but I scoped out the miniatures room anyway, which was not in the Wabash like it has been in previous years. Instead, it was located in a large area behind the dealer's area. Walking around in it, I felt it was too noisy to game comfortably, and Friday I would find out that I was right. Later we checked into our hotel and found the view you see to your right.

I was only looking for a couple of things, both of which I found. The first was a tournament tray for my miniatures. I got to use it on Friday, and I love it. It fits perfectly in my miniatures bag. The other was the Tales and Legends deck expansion for the Smallworld boardgame (which if you haven't had the time to play, you need to do some day soon!).

The big excitement at the PP booth, of course, was the new character warjacks coming out in the next Warmachine book, and the blisters with metal bits, called an Upgrade Kit, to modify the plastic jack kits were available to purchase. I picked up the ones for the Cryx character helljack, Malice (a Reaper); the Retribution myrmidon, Discordia; and the Cygnar jack kit, Triumph (Defender). I also picked up the new Druid Wilder warlock attachment, the Stone Keeper unit attachment for the Shifting Stones, and a box of Skinwalkers.

We went to dinner at TGI Fridays and spent the rest of the time relaxing in our room and chatting about our games (I know, boring, but we were tired!). I did manage to put together my new Circle models so I could use them on Friday (but you'll have to wait for more on that later).

Red

Guardian Prime

I still have a bit of touching up to do (some of the green mossy look to paint into the runes of his shoulder pad, etc.) but the Wold Guardian is mostly finished in time to take to Gencon. Hopefully I will be posting some updates from there over the weekend. If not, after I get back.

Red

#200 - Gencon and the Guardian

I used to think it was silly to give names to miniatures. But the Wold Guardian has become such a favorite of mine, and I have put so much time into painting it and putting it together, that I felt it needed a name. With the tomb maiden's head on it, it began to take on a feminine aspect, and once I had the one arm painted and attached, "One-armed Sally" was born. No, she won't always have one arm, but understand that I don't normally paint like this. I like to put the entire model together first and then paint, even if it is sometimes impossible to get the brush "in there." I thought I would swap the ram fists of the Wold Guardian, because the pose looks so much better, but I couldn't stand the "I've got two lighthouses as arms" look to it. So I had to resign myself to the fact that I was going to have to paint this model in pieces and then put it together. This is the FIRST time I have ever done this, and now that I have picked up Wolf Lord Morraig, I see that I'm going to have to do a similar thing with him. Hopefully I can get the other arm of the Guardian finished and connected before I leave for Gencon, but that's pushing it. I'd like to have both Circle and Cryx with me to play, but more on that later.

Red

Got a Machine Head

When I picked up the Wold Guardian I knew I would HAVE to do something about that crazy head. I considered my options... the Wold Watcher's head and Megalith's head were both a bit big (believe it or not), but even though it was meant to go on a machine-like body, I rather liked the look of the Tomb Maiden's head from the IK miniatures line. I ordered one and when I positioned it on the Wold Guardian's body, I knew I had found my answer.

So this is clearly a work in progress, but I like the look of it thus far.

Red.

Getting Stoned: more constructs done, still more to do...

In today's painting update, I finished the unit of shifting stones, and am very close to finishing the Woldwatcher. All that's left to do is "green-ify" the runes on the Watcher (I know, silly me waits until the very end to do the things that I should have started with). Here's some more pictures...

One problem with repositioning the arms on the Watcher the way I did, is that their shoulder stones look off-kilter, as in one's higher than the other. Oh well, I can live with that. I also have Krueger fairly well along, but I won't have pictures of him until next week most likely.

Goals for this week: accomplished.

Goals for next week: finish pKrueger and the Woldwarden.

Red

Painting Circle, Construct Test Models

I had a little bit of time today to work on some test models for my Circle army. I figured I'd do the traditional "gray stone" look for the constructs, and since there are many constructs in my list, I wanted to make sure I would like not only the look of the final piece before painting the other models, but also make sure that the process would be a relatively simple one. Fortunately for me, I was pleased on both counts...

First is one of the shifting stones...

With this model I also wanted to test what sort of flock I would use, as well as what color I would paint the base. I can't remember where I heard this tip, but someone on their blog somewhere had mentioned using P3 Mixing Medium as glue for the base, and it worked marvelously! I used a mixture of different stone ballast that I've collected over time followed by some static grass over the top.

Next model I tried was the Woldwyrd. Here's the front...

...and the Woldwyrd back...

So I liked the stone look and technique (a layering of three different shades of gray and some black washing) enough to try it on something a little larger. But with the Wolds I knew I would have to come up with an effective way of doing all the bundled branches. All I can say is Rucksack Tan and Bootstrap Leather are going to become my best friends as I work on my other models. I was quite pleased with how this all turned out.

Next up, painting the Woldwatcher!

Red