Putting the Pain in Painting..

Sometimes the Hobby Gods simply don't feel like being on our side. Judging by the series of unfortunate events that have been happening to me these past weeks it seems like I have upset them... by actually feeling inspired and wanting to hobby.

I know right?

First, I had to experience first-hand what happens when you try to prime a model that has not been washed properly. Had to strip the paint off Black Ivan...
... which turned out to be a success!

Then I spent ~$100 on the NEW Citadel paints, a few nice paint brushes, a paint palette and some primers.. Ended up not being satisfied with the way P3 Black Primer covers metal (although this time there's no rubbing off resin), so Black Ivan is currently in for another Simple Green bath. Gah...
I mean, this time it was much better, but I just need a good coverage on the metal parts, because they are all super sharp and bedazzled with detail, so I can't have the paint cheap.. No, sir. I'll be using the Krylon Black Primer from now on. Have to order that from the manufacturer's website, though, since it's no longer in most stores...


Oh, and whaddaya know? The one day I really, really, really felt like painting I realized that I had left my newly acquired paints in my friend's car.... That was more than a week ago.
Now, weather has been pretty crazy here in Chicagoland. We're talking crazy humidity and high 80's-90F temperatures. It gets even worse inside a black car..
And of course many paints melted as the new shitty Citadel paint pots warped and paint leaked and dried up. Seriously! Even bored the incident I had trouble closing the new paint lids - even on paints that I had just opened to see the color inside. It's not like I was a savage and had dried paints around the ring of the lid, which would prevent it from closing properly. Nope. Some paints were literally untouched and still died on me. Below is a picture of the paints that were completely useless. Notice the plastic tray which I used as a paint palette once - it was also in the bag. Notice the warping..

I'm very disappointed. :( Looks like I'm going to have to splurge again on paints, huh? Seriously, what a fucking disaster. And of course the only paintbrush that got ruined in the whole mess of dried paint and leakage was my Kolinsky brush. Literally no other brushes were even touched by this cesspool of failure. Just my awesome brush. That was pretty cool. I think I managed to save some of the other paints that were in the car by adding some paint retardant/thinner... whatever the !@#$%^& it is. So hopefully that helps. The new Dry paints are hilarious when they are all dried up..

Oh! Oh! And to top it off, I really wanted to do some basing on the two 'jacks that I have painted, you know? Then I realized that I had forgotten my basing materials in Frozencore Joe's car. So a week or so ended up being wasted on stuff being stuck in people's cars.

Not a good week for Skarvald. Not a good week indeed. 

Monday Hobby Awesomeness! Woohoo!

Yes, I realize that the title sounds like something out of Goatboy's Extra 40k Thoughts but for the sake of my sanity and due to me being tired and lazy I'll just stick with this nonsensical, unproductive title.
Let's just say that today I didn't have a case of the Mondays. Let me start with the most recent thing:

1) I got interviewed today by The 11th Company Podcast! Again (I was in Episode 101: Now with 3 digits! as well :P) Pat sent me an e-mail a few days ago asking if I would like to chat with him about the new Ork Flyers which came this month and naturally I was all for it. While blogging is my preferred method of expressing my thoughts and ideas I actually like the podcast format. Maybe it was just because I had stuff to talk about. I mean, I talk about this hobby all the time with my friends, it's not unlike that, right? Pat and I talked about the new Ork Flyers, Puppets War' newest plane, Special Operations: KILLZONE (and my involvement with the project), our gaming communities and the newest White Dwarf.. +/- a few other hobby stuff.

It went for quite a while, actually, so hopefully you guys will enjoy it if you have the time! You know you want to listen to my soothing Bulgarian accent!

20 Paints!

2) Hobby Splurge! And by that I mean, I spent a good chunk of my paycheck for some necessary hobby materials. If you remember my guide on painting green Khadoran warjacks, I mentioned that it was all using the NEW Citadel paints of which I owned none. Thus, it was time to splurge on all of the colors I needed. I desperately needed some primer and because I couldn't find any Krylon Flat Black primer I decided to give Privateer Press' Formula P3 Black Primer. I mean, it was $10 but that still a lot cheaper than GW's can of primer. I don't doubt that it will do a great job with covering my models. So far I have only good things to say about PP's models, rules and policies. Got exactly 20 paint pots, but I just know that in the future I'll need more. It's the way the cookie crumbles. And I actually don't even know what this idiom means... I do like cookies, though.
Then I also managed to snipe the last blister of Winter Guard Infantry (10), officially maxing out my unit of Winter Guard Infantry to a Leader and 9 Grunts + Unit Attachment and Officer + Kovnik Joe. I just need 2-3 Rocketeer dudes, but they are not a priority right now.

3) Played some games of Warmachine against my buddy John.
A. I lost a 15 pt. game with the Old Witch versus Drake McBane..
... in which I learned that, once again, the Witch is not ideal for small games.
... in which I learned that, although totally capable of scrapping two Nomads, the Behemoth is not enough shooting firepower to deal with a unit of Helberdiers and Cavalry.
... in which I learned that I actually need some accurate firepower to kill models as they are advancing towards me and especially after the turn I feat. A unit of Widowmakers and/or Widowmaker Marksman would have been ideal for this.
... in which I learned that I need to play it less aggressively with Scrapjack. I need to learn to Prowl with him in a safe position. Instead, he got charged with a Flank bonus and lost both of its arms. : ( 

- Behemoth

+ Destroyer

+ Widowmakers 

B. Won a 20 pt. game with a hilarious Karchev the Terrible list, by towing a Destroyer, a Black Ivan and a Juggernaut against a 3 different Titans and Xerxes..

... in which I learned that, once again, Warbeasts are so much better when shit hits the fan than Warjacks. 

... in which I learned that I need more 'jacks with Reach, because walls are annoying and I can't charge through them with my .5'' reach. When is the plastic/resin Spriggan coming out? :( 

4) Lost Hemisphere is having their new monthly Paint the Target challenge which is to paint a Warjack or a Warbeast. Well, I'm vowing to paint at least one Warjack by the end of June: my Black Ivan. So hopefully you'll get to see some more of my painted stuff. Woohoooo!

Space Wolves and the NEW Citadel Paint Range; Killzone Tokens and Cards

Hey there, Battle Brothers. Long time no see, but things here have been extremely busy with school, work and working with Frozencore Joe and Brian from A Gentleman's Ones on the Special Operations: KILLZONE tables (In case you have forgotten, we are working on TEN 3'x3' tables O_o)... Life happens, I suppose.

Today's Topic of Discussion

I'm here to quickly jot down a few words and share them with you, but before that here's something that I have been meaning to do for a while...

If you frequent this blog then you probably know about Special Operations: KILLZONE. And unless you have been living under a rock you probably already know that Brian is selling sets of sweet-lookin' TOKENS and CARDS designed specifically to be used in addition to your beautifully painted (right?) Special Operatives Team.

CARDS AND TOKENS FOR YOU

Brian has been working feverishly on them and they are simply beautiful and so, so elegant. I definitely think that they are necessary on the tabletop because.. well.. you have everything you need ON the tabletop: no annoying rules to remember, no more having to peruse the rulebook every time you want to check a mission detail. It's all on the cards and on the tokens. As Brian would surely say: Glorious. 
And in all seriousness: Cards make almost everything better. I actually like to say that any game that has any cards in it instantly becomes more interesting and less of a "Serious business" ordeal. Being able to surprise your opponent and stop his evil master plan by playing your Fate cards has that sweet "You have triggered my trap card" vibe to it. It's hilarious and quite frankly - a must have.

And now for today's topic.

OMG!!1! GW HAS A NEW PAINT RANGE!1! PANIC!?!!! PANIC! BUY ALL AVAILABLE PAINTS BEFORE THEY DISAPPEAR. THE END IS NIGH!

...just kidding. Don't do that. 

I'm kidding yet again. You SHOULD probably do that. 

Just so you're on the safe side, ya know?

Games Workshop's paint range has seen plenty of changes throughout the years, but this one is by far the biggest change yet (I think?). Colors come and go and so do paint pots, but now we have more colors, a wider variety: glazes, bases, layers, shades, textures, dry paint, etc. etc. You can find a color chart on Games Workshop's website, but I think it's currently down and being fixed. Eh, who knows. 

Obviously this raises some concerns. Are all the colors going to stay the same or are the formulas changing completely. From what I understand GW has a new paint factory/provider thing and while many of the colors are almost identical the formulas are not 100% and it is possible that some colors will be slightly different. Or very different. That's why the names of all the paints are different now. GW didn't want to be selling a Scorpion Green that's now quite like the Scorpion Green of the good old days.

Now, if you could please turn your attention to the first image of this blog post.. Or, you know what? I'll just post it again for all to see: 

I got this cool little card from Games Workshop. They have a few for each of the three main games and cover some of the main factions. I thought it would be a good idea to grab the only Space Wolf card and share it with the blogosphere, considering that not everyone has access to a Games Workshop store in their area. 

Now, this Space Wolf Grey Hunter is very different from the usual Space Wolves we've seen over and over again in Codex: Space Wolves and the multitude of White Dwarf magazines. 

They are.. darker. Blue-er. 

Here's a "collage" with some Pre-2012 Paint Change Space Wolves, some Pre-2012 Paint Change Ultramarines and Pedro Kantor. 

Spot the Differences

Now, here's a curious questions: Is this new Space Wolf scheme going to be the NEW studio paint scheme for Space Wolves? What's going to happen with the "baby blue" Space Wolves?