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. 

Black Ivan Down: Black No More!

Yesterday I posted about my priming malfunction with the Black Ivan and about the primer and paint peeling off way too easily.

Now, I was very unsure when I dropped the model in Simple Green.
I have used Simple Green to clean metal Games Workshop models and even an Ork Stompa, always with great results, but had never used the concentrated solution to clean Privateer Press' resin/plastic models. Even some pretty thorough Google Fu revealed only promises that Simple Green should work on resin/plastic models without melting the model itself.
The issue is, of course, that the resin/plastic which Privateer Press uses for their newer models is still relatively new and I'm guessing that not a lot of people have had to deal with such an issue..

Well I had to..  ;(

And, man, is Simple Green awesome! 

After 20 hours of soaking in Simple Green concentrate..

This is my Black Ivan model after approximately 20 hours spent inside concentrated Simple Green.
I took him out and gave him some scrubbing with an old brush and both the paint and primer simply disintegrated. I knew that the paint on the metallic parts would come off easily, but I was still very surprised with the results..

Now, keep in mind that this model was dunked in Simple Green a few hours after it was primed and that it was not cleaned in soapy solution before it was primed... a mistake which I'm never making again! If you have an older model, depending on the paint and primer used the results may not be the same and you might see some primer taint, which is when the primer gets inside the miniature and dyes it a certain color.

I'm going to leave Black Ivan in the solution for, oh I dunno, 8 or so more hours and then I'll drop him in a soapy solution for another 8 hours to make sure that all of the chemicals from the Simple Green are not present on the model when I prime him... AGAIN.

Black Ivan Down

Today I decided to work on my Black Ivan model, which was supposed to be my entry for the Lost Hemisphere's new monthly Paint the Target challenge
I was all excited about finally painting Harkevich's favorite 'jack.

Primed it black, using Privateer Press' Formula P3 Black Primer.
That's Negro Imprimador in Spanish for you, folks. Sounds intimidating, doesn't it?  
Wait a second.. I thought the adjective was supposed to be after the noun..

It was my first time priming with a P3 Primer and I was anxious at first. The weather outside was pretty hot, I suppose and it was slightly windy, but after shaking the can for ~1 minute I started priming and everything seemed alright.. The primer went on very smoothly and dried fast just like GW's (more expensive) Chaos Black Primer.
I was originally supposed to pick up a cheap-o Flat Black Krylon primer, but the nearby store was out of it, so I picked P3's Primer instead...

I started painting, following Hand Cannon Online's Tutorial: Basics – Back in Black: Painting Black Armour. I covered the model with a nice coat of Thamar Black (also my first P3 paint!) and started with the first coat of two-brush blending Coal Black on the armor plates, when I realized that I need a better brush for the actual blending part. So then I decided to start with the foundation for the rusty metal parts. There were a few spots that were difficult to reach with the sponges, so I decided to use a stippling brush.

And then when I applied slightly more pressure... the paint.. and the primer came straight off, revealing the grey resin/plastic underneath. Applying pressure with the tip of my fingernails also scratched the paint and got rid of the primer. I don't know what to think of it..

Was it the weather? Was it the primer? Did I not wait long enough for the primer to dry?

I suppose I should have cleaned the model with some soap water beforehand.. right?
But then again I didn't do that for my previous Warjacks and they were fine. I tried scratching the paint, and a lot of pressure is needed to show even a hint of grey...

I was just not feeling comfortable with the result, so I decided to throw the model in some Simple Green for a day or two and then see what happens... I'll give it a nice soap bath and I'll scrub it diligently with an old toothbrush.. and I'll be doing the same with all of my Privateer Press models.

Right now I've got Scrapjack soaking in a soapy solution and will try to prime it for tomorrow.
I have Flat Black Krylon, so hopefully things will be alright.

There's a reason this Khadoran Warjack is Unique..

A White Russian..

I'm talking of course about the Black Ivan warjack: the newest, meanest addition to the Khadoran Empire.
First of all, why wasn't it named Black Jack? Would have been perfect seeing as how it is a black warjack but I guess Privateer Press really wanted to enforce the Soviet vibe of their new model.
But seriously... Have you ever seen a black Russian? I haven't. It has to be a pretty rare sight, right? We are talking about a culture so monochromatic that it has a drink named after its whiteness... ;D

Reminds me of this guy...

There is, however, a legitimate reason for his Unique status. Actually, two reasons in one.
Reason #1: The plastic/resin/whatever abomination that Privateer Press is using is crazy hard to clean! I bet this is not the first time you're hearing this. The Khadoran warjacks are pretty easy to assemble, but getting rid of the flash and mold lines is definitely harder than penetrating their ARM in the game. There were mould lines around and on top of the numerous rivets, around a lot of the fine details as well. Mold lines were also found in places that were hard to reach with a knife but still very visible (behind the knees, feet, etc.). Two big chunks of extra resin were also a pain in the butt to clean - they were located around the head of the warjack. Some pieces like the actual arms had to mold lines at all, but some took hours to clean. Hours. And that's not even including the time I'll need to spend washing them, because.. you know... resin is gross. 
Reason #2: WTF BEAR CLAW? Such a cool weapon, but so annoying to pin. You have to pin all three fingers. That took like 2 hours. The head was a good fit and the shoulder spike thingamajiggers were actually very well done - you don't have to file down the rivets around the shoulders to put them on, because they have little indentations for the rivets. All of the flash is on the bottom as well, so you don't even need to clean it.

Black Ivan fresh from the factory. Pre-paint.

Man am I happy to be finally done with this model... It has great stats and some great synergies with Kommander Harkevich. I would say something about its fluff but you know.. the book that he's supposed to be in has yet to be released so all I have is this lousy black Russian robot with a bear claw. But hey, that's my first Warmachine model. Not 100% built - still needs some green stuff where the claws are, but he's lookin' alright for now.

Heroes of Armageddon and Games Day!

Q: "Throne, Skarvald, where the heck have you been hiding, you thunderwolf-riding, troll-faced son of lasgun?"
A: Well, I promise you that I haven't been lazy. At all. Between me quitting my shitty job and finals just around the corner (tomorrow, actually) I still managed to keep myself busy with plastic and resin dudemen. The month of July has been.. and still is.. a whirlwind of projects. And I'm afraid that between juggling so many of 'em I still don't have anything to show you..

Games Day Chicago, 2011: This Saturday you can meet me at the convention center where I'll be pretty much the whole day. When I'm not all over the place I'll be at the Heroes of Armageddon table, so make sure you stop by and say Hi! Just ask the people at the event table (especially Brian) for "Vlad" or "Skavald the Troll-faced". You'll see a picture of me later in this article. I'm really looking forward to meeting some of you!

Heroes of Armageddon Tables: I'm proud to announce that besides donating I also managed to get involved with the building of the HoA tables by helping Brian. "Frozencore" Joe was there as well. All I can say is that Monday and Tuesday were FUN. Brian is a very creative man with great vision and not only does he have innovative and grand ideas but he also has the guts to attempt all of this AND be a father, husband and a teacher at the same time. Wow! Each day we spent under the scorching rays of the sun painting, washing, cutting, measuring.. you name it. While there are thousands of pages written on the battle for Armageddon there are not a whole lot of books detailing the construction of its hive cities and the masterminds behind them. It was Brian. Brian built Armageddon so that 12,000 points of beautifully painted models had something to fight for.... and something to grant them cover saves. With every task completed the table kept on evolving into something so much more! When we first started we thought that we would never finished this crazy project, but you'll be surprised what a bunch of dedicated hobbyists can do for the hobby when under pressure. AND it was for a good cause. There is, however, a lot of work left and Friday will be a day dedicated to perfecting the four Heroes of Armageddon tables with what little time we have left.

Left to right: "Frozencore" Joe; Skarvald the Troll-faced (me!)

Warmachine: In my last post about Warmachine I talked about the unveiling of the Khador box. Indeed, it has been an awesome adventure, ladies and gentlemen. My initial thoughts were to magnetize my plastic Warjacks but I really don't feel like drilling all the wholes in each individual arm. Besides, I think I know which Warcaster I'll be using, including my first few 'jacks.
My choice? Kommander Harkevich, the Iron Wolf. And a Black Ivan. And then a Behemoth.... Because blasting the enemies of the Motherland to smithereens before charging them with steam-powered gargantuan robots is awesome.
I know I said that I was going to stick with the Battlebox for a while.. but I lied.

"Frozencore" Joe has been teaching me how to play the game. He plays Circle Orboros and his Thunderwolf-wannabe puppies have been rending my Warjacks to death for a few games now.. But Joe is a great teacher, despite his generous use of the beat stick. So far it has been a blast and each game has been pretty close. There are a lot of things to learn and remember, but the turns are bloody and action-packed, which is my favorite part about Warmachine! I'll be covering some games and models later, though.