The 25mm Warrior

My blog doesn't allow for my pics to be shown fully. Hey no sweat right? Just right click on the image and select "view image" and there ya go... a nice full picture.

Sigh

With the thirty plus miniatures painted and read to go there was one last task to be completed for the Battle For My Crack er... Macragge boxed set...

The terrain.

You see all the scenarios revolve around this crashed spaceship on an alien world that has been infested by the Tryanids. Games Wokshop designed the entire game w/ the terrain in mind. While I applaud them for including the terrain in the boxed set I boo them for making me paint it.

The glass was done with some UltraMarines Blue, highlighted w/ a mix of white

Other than that just a simple dry brush job of Gunbolt Metal with the ground painted over w/ Bestial Brown. I then just flocked the bases the same as I did to the figures. Not to bad for a non-detailed orientated painter

I just love over dramatic blog titles :)

The Tyranids were painted, again, by you guessed it... dry brushing. Scab Red, Red wash and another final coat of Scab Red was used to paint the outer skin of theses beasties. Although something was missing, they looked like their skin should be shinny. So I looked at that flesh wash and smacked a coat on for good measure. The end result was nice. The guns were painted black with a gray concotion, lightly dry brushed over (1 part white, one part black). This shine is contrasted my the hard, gritty, dull look of the chitinous armor that only gives these buggers a 5+ armor save (you guys got boned by evolution man).




They really did a nice job with these sculpts. The miniatures really do give off the impression that they are swarming (no matter how badly painted they are)



In the end I really appreciated the Tyranid Sperm Pods, um er I mean Spore Mines. These guys were easy, tentacle pink (I miss spelled tentacle, spell check asked me if I meant Testicle oops), red wash and then more pink. Easy.



Oh yeah the armor was painted using Hawk Turquoise with a final dry brushing of the same with skull white. The bases were easy too. Bestial brown (2 coats). Elemer's glue over the base, dipped in sand and then patches of static grass applied. Games Workshop kills me. Their painting guide tells you how to paint the friggin sand too. Who the heck paints sand? Take my advice, it looks good regardless, don't waist your time. Oh yeah, why do they call it "static" grass?

I'm no expert painter. If anything I would love it if the damn things came assembled, painted and ready to go fight on my dinner table the minute I opened the box. But alas, painting minitures is the hurdle you have to jump through if you want your games to look halfway decient. Anyway as my uncle always told me, "You never play with unpainted miniatures." (heh we did once and we never played that game again... coinsidence? I think not!).

(I'm talking to you Warhammer Fantasy Battles!).

Anyway as I'm not a huge fan of painting I wanted to get my miniatures done in the least amount of time possible, not worring too much if I make a mistake here and there. The secret I found is dry brushing. All the pics you see below are done by dry brushing (minus the parts too small for the technique) five Space Marines in a line. Starting with a base coat of Ultramarines Blue, then an nice blue wash over the base coast to darken up the cracks. After all that finishing up with a final coat of that Ultra Marines Blue stuff. At this time I would like to dedicate this blog to my poor Citadel overpriced medium drybrush that was ruined in the process of painting these fine Servants of the Emperor. You are gone but not forgotten!




Oh yeah, the flesh was done with bronzed flesh, a flesh wash and the an equal mix of bronzed flesh and skull white



Smile boys! Group Shot! (in Group Shot I mean the picture, not them firing at the Xenos)

A few years ago when I learned games Workshop was coming out with another starter set I was like "aww man. Just another one of GW's ploys to get me to buy more stuff." I'd always wanted to play Warhammer 40k. The miniatures look fringgin great, the rules seem solid and well the miniatures look friggin great. However I was the victim of 3rd edition Warhammer 40k and with the sour taste that starter set had left in my mouth (if you could even call it a starter set) I wasn't ready for another rehash of the same 'ol, same 'ol ploy for the warmongers in the British Isles to get my hard earned yankee money.

Call it morbid curiosity or just sheer boredom but about a year ago I broke down and bought "The Battle For Macragge," Warhammer 40k's newest assault to get people to surrender their time and money.

However something still loomed over my head... finding other people to play with. Sure I got my own game group of guys that have been gaming together for over a decade but talking them into a hobby that takes a lot of time to prepare for is a daunting task. Not to mention I'm the only guy who ever paints miniatures. Anyway, after painting just five Space Marines the new boxed set found a nice comfy place at the bottom of the closet.

One year later...

At the behest of my wife I was forced to clean out my closet. After going through boxes of miniature games, mounds of books and piles of loose paper I found my "Battle For Macragge" set again. I had just come off an eight month "World of Warcraft" bender (that game just got to damn repetitive) I needed a new hobby. I hadn't really played miniature games since MageKnight (a topic I will save for a whole other blog). So I took what few paints I could find, put the miniatures together and set out on a five day trek to get the rest of that boxed set completed.

I got em done in four.

With my miniatures newly painted I called up one of my gaming buddies and said something like "Warhammer 40k, this weekend, won't take no for an answer." WE met on a Friday night and went through the starter missions, using the supplemental mission found on the Macragge website. What a blast! We got up to mission six and called it a night. We gamed for nearly seven hours straight and it felt good to get lost in and loose time to a game that had nothing to do with computers.

If you've never played 40k or if your like me, giving the game multiple attempts but cowering in the face of big rule books and miniatures to numerous to plaint, pick up the Battle For Macragge. It's a great into and provides hours of fun, a lot more hours than we were expecting. In the weeks to come I'll be doing a battle report on all the missions for the game. So stay tuned!