Army Painting Process | High Elves

Over the past couple of years I have found myself playing more and more games, meaning I have found myself needing to paint more models in order to play those games. I struggled to complete an army for a number of years, you can see the remnants of those projects in many bits bins.

I started creating systems that allow me to paint my miniatures in a timely manner. Let's talk through how I'm doing his for my High Elves, an army I started in 2018. 

First things first, I prime the miniatures black and then hit them with a healthy zenithal spray of Mephiston Red (rattle can or airbrush, it's up to you) 

The red not only serves to set the highlights and do most of the heavy lifting in terms of painting robes, but it helps give warmth to the gold for their amor. 

Second step, block in anything that is going to be gold. No need to be neat at this point. I also tend to base coat the other colors on the model (leathers, cloth, skin) 

Third, hit those metals with a nice oil wash and let that dry for a while. 

Fourth step is going in and highlighting everything once. For most of my foot soilders this means giving the red a little more pop, giving the faces some extra attention, and making the jewels look good. 

At this point you could be done with the miniature.

I repeat these four-ish steps when I paint any model for my army. It's always
going to ebb and flow, I'm going to spend more time on characters vs spearmen. The process allows me paint things up quickly to a point where I am happy and then move on. I can always come back to this army and know how to make the next unit or character feel cohesive. 

Epic Armageddon Project Log | Entry One

My local gaming group decided we wanted to give Epic Armageddon a try. Assemble 1,000 point forces and have a gaming day where fumbling our way through the rules. For reference a standard Epic Armageddon game is 3,000 points. 

I have realized smaller scale games are a way for me to create the armies I always wanted in my teens. Keeping that theme in mind I chose to play the faction I feel screams Warhammer 40k, Steel Legion. 

Armed with nothing more than a 1000 point army list and the dream of 15 year old me to field as many tanks as possible, I hit the ground running. 

The first step in all of this was coming up with how to paint everything quick and effectively. I bought some Basalisk looking tanks from etsy (search for 6/8mm scifi) and went to work.

 I started off by priming the models with a basecoat of black, following that up with a dark grey, and then mixed in a more neutral grey for a highight. Once the grey was down it was time to create the camo pattern. For this I used Silly Putty, which you can find for $2 at most local hardware or drug stores. I started off by spraying a "rotting flesh" mix, most miniature paint companies sell a version of this mix find the one that works for you, and from there I mixed in a litte desaturated yellow for the highlights and sprayed from above.

In an effort to not use metallic paint with this project, I opted to paint the treads an earthy color knowing that I'd likely give them more attention in the basing stage. With the basecoast and highlights out of the way it was time for a quick oil wash. Someone gifted be an oil mixture named "Starship Grime" it's a deep green with some brown/reddish tones.

Left has been washed, I might go heavier in the future. Outside of picking out some minor details, these are more than ready for the table top.

Bash x Bash +++ Flames of Orion

I attended a Bash x Bash event at Modern Games in Bend OR . Held by my friend CosmicKraken aka Mike, the Bash x Bash is a simple premise. People show up with bits, tools, glue, etc and proceed to bash together a miniature or two, then play in a few small games. This event was for the game Flames of Orion.

Everyone was encouraged to bash together two mechs for Flames and we would then play an intro style game against multiple opponents.

All the mechs bashed together!

The one thing forgot was bases, whooops. With all the mechs bashed together Mike and Evan brought us through how to kit out our mechs. We had 50,000 credits to split amongst our two mechs and throw down against our opponents.

My first game was a short lived affair against Evan who rolled hotter than the stars of Orion and obliterated me. We re-racked and ran it one more time, which had far less feels bad moments and more monents of exploding mechs.

My second game was against Jace's fast moving and far shooting mechs. My goal was to cluster my two mechs together, run up the field, lay down some cover fire, and get into combat. What does that mean? WE ARE RUNNING HOT. In the end my big mech, The Terror reached his heat limit and took out every remaining mech on the board.

This was a great little event that got people together in the spirit of the hobby.