Friday 30 May 2014

A Tale of Duelling Gamers - Enter Treeman!


Here we go then, the finished product for May's portion of the Duelling Gamers challenge. Although one model seemed like a hugely underwhelming target for a whole month, in hindsight I'm glad I didn't give myself more to do. I'm not used to painting big models like this, and certainly not this "type" of figure where the colour scheme is completely undetermined. Really, the only model I have to compare to this is the Screaming Bell for my Skaven, but that was easy to paint, relatively speaking. Everyone knows how to paint metal parts, everyone knows how to paint wooden beams, everyone knows how to paint rope and chains, which is essentially all the Screaming Bell is - the colours are already "pre-set" in your head, because you know what they're supposed to look like. But what colour is a living, walking tree supposed to be?

I'll admit I went in rather rashly and began painting before I'd actually thought about *how* to paint the Treeman. I undercoated white (as usual), basecoated all over with Rakarth Flesh (as usual, for my other forest spirits, anyway), washed with Agrax Earthshade (as usual) and then....

Stuck. I had no idea where to go from there. Eventually, after plenty of trial and error, I stumbled on a scheme that I'm more-or-less happy with. In the end, I think I probably spent more time thinking about how to paint the Treeman than actually painting him. 

In the end, I don't think he's turned out too bad, and I think he fits with the established colour scheme of the rest of the army (as much as is possible for a living, walking tree anyway). The only part I'm not entirely happy with is the strangleroots shooting out of his hand; they need something more doing with them to really do them justice, but I'm not confident enough to attempt the (seemingly) complicated blending I'd like to do, especially on a deadline!








Anyway, that's another month over and finished on time (he was actually finished a couple of days ago, so I wasn't painting right up until the deadline this time!) 

One thing I have realised though, over the course of this month in particular, is that I'm completely rubbish at posting blog updates. In fact, with the ToDG going on, I've even stopped updating on other non-ToDG subjects as well, which isn't good. 

I think part of the reason for that is that I really don't like posting WiP pictures. I love seeing other peoples' work in progress shots, but I'm rubbish at doing it myself - I hate the thought of posting the inevitable "here's another picture showing how little I've done in a week" updates. Why would anyone want to see that I've managed to paint another colour on a bunch of unfinished models? And so, I wait until I have a finished product to show which, as you might have guessed, takes me a while. Combine that with the fact that I tend to paint whole units at a time, rather than break them down into smaller batches (like the other ToDG participants seem to do), means that blog updates are few and far between.

All of this isn't intended as a criticism of those people who *do* post WiP updates, by the way. Like I said, I love seeing other peoples' work in progress, and seeing the evolution of models from start to finish. I just can't seem to bring myself to do it for my own blog! 

But all that is (hopefully) going to change. For next month (and, if it works, the months thereafter) I'm going to get over my irrational "fear" of WiPs, and post some of my own work in progress shots in an effort to increase the number of blog updates across the month, and hopefully give readers (if there are any!) more to keep them interested!

And on that note, I'll end! Stay tuned for the next update, coming to you sometime this weekend!

Saturday 10 May 2014

A Tale of Duelling Gamers - Take Two!


The second month of the Tale of Duelling Gamers is now well under way, and I've finally managed to get my hands one of the new Wood Elf Treeman kits for this month's purchases. 


The kit can make either a Treeman Ancient, a regular Treeman or Durthu (a Special Character Treeman). I spent last night putting it together, using a mix of parts from each in order to come up with a unique model. This uses Durthu's legs and waist, the Ancient's torso and right arm, and the Treeman's left arm, right hand (including Strangleroots) and head combined with the antennae from the Ancient. 





Amount Spent: $96 AUD
Number of Figures: 1
Price at Current UK exchange rate: £53.32
GW UK Retail Price: £37
Price Paid: £37

Friday 2 May 2014

Tale of Duelling Gamers - April Review


Here's the finished product then - thirty Eternal Guard, painted up in my winter colour scheme to add to the unit I've already painted. I still have a few Eternal Guard models left to paint, but I couldn't fit them into my budget for April. I *did* try and paint them alongside the thirty for the ToDG, but it quickly became apparent that I'd struggle to paint thirty in time, let alone the forty models I'd originally planned...


A nice big block of shiny spear points, ready and waiting for their new army book!




The ten models that got left by the wayside. Maybe next month boys...

All told, I'm actually pretty happy with these - despite missing the April deadline by just under 24 hours, the reality is that I basically painted all thirty models is the space of about nine days. Of course, if I'd started working on them *before* the week before the deadline, I'd have had more time to paint them and probably wouldn't have missed the deadline at all, but we live and learn I guess! 

So what does May have in store for the Tale of Duelling Gamers? Well, the new Wood Elves army book is out tomorrow, along with the new plastic Treeman kit. The Treeman kit has certainly divided opinion, but I like it. So much, in fact, that I plan on picking up two of them...

That answers the question of what I'll be painting for the Tale of Duelling Gamers May edition; at $96 AUD, a single Treeman weighs in at just under my monthly budget ($100 AUD) so I will only be required to paint one single (albeit big...) model this month!


Thursday 1 May 2014

Tale of Duelling Gamers - Finally Finished!



Well, I missed the deadline but April's figures are finally finished. I severely underestimated the painting time required to finish the figures off, and with a 5AM start this morning for work, a late night/early morning painting session last night was pretty much out of the question. In the end, I didn't manage to finish the models off until about an hour ago! 

I've snapped a couple of quick piccies, just to prove that I *have* finished the figures! I'll take better pictures, with better light tomorrow.