+ inload: Blood Bowl, Battle Builder, and B-Spearhead +

+ Kick off! +

Blood Bowl season kicked off for me with the ever-so-chic Argo Owlbears taking on Lucifer216's Victory Vultures – with both teams taking quite a kicking! 

Victory, fittingly, went to the Vultures, with a stonking 2–0 result.

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After a weekend of gaming, Omricon's Jeldenberg Jets are top of the table, with a game in hand over the Karaz City Griefs. The Owlbears are lurking at the bottom of the table!

I do love Blood Bowl – one of those great games that it's fun to play even when you're getting your teeth kicked in!

The new edition/season is good fun – recognisable to old hands but with lots of 'quality of life' improvements. Too many to got through here, but suffice to say that we're all looking forward to getting more games in. 

The Owlbears, I'm sure, are just gearing up; and with some new (randomly-generated) skills under their belts and a newly-signed Catcher on their line-up, keep an eye on them creeping up the table.

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+ BattleBuilder nameplates +

I've enthused about these before in relation to personalising your Titans [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+], but I hadn't tried them for 32mm bases.

As a little treat for Coaches in the Tallowlands Invitational, I thought I'd pick up a couple of 'players to watch' from each team – these were allowed to take a free skill by the Commissioner (Omricon), and this struck me as a nice way to pick out these talented rookies.

Adding nameplates is a fun way to make things more immersive – it's much more fun to say 'Loriel Elvies dodges past Ofdahn Pitt' to make the touchdown than 'this lineman throws a block against your catcher', and it's a nice way to distinguish the models, too.

If you'd like to try out some plates like this, you can use this affiliate link [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] and the discount code 'MournStarfall' to get 10% off.

... and related to Blood Bowl, I picked up some Referees.

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In the Tallowlands

The weekend also saw the PCRC try out Spearhead, a sort of boardgame-cum-wargame that's like a cross between Warhammer: Age of Sigmar and Warmachine. Set tables, set armies, and a set of cards. Interesting gameplay, and I'm interested to try out some more.

This is running adjacent to Warmtamale's Age of Sigmar campaign, which the models below are being built for:

Some of these date back a decade, being built and bought for a Mordheim event that I was invited to, but sadly couldn't make. nice to exhume them and bring them up to scratch.

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+ inload: Diversity and uniformity +

+ Diversity and uniformity +

+ One of the most appealing parts of collecting and painting miniatures is that you can invest each one with character. Part of this character, of course, may rely on uniformity to suggest discipline – but rarely do you want literally identical figures side by side. How do you balance making models look like part of a group without making them boring to paint or look at? +

+ The modern dwarf models are a great case in point. They are very similar in pose and equipment – they're differentiated by little more than having four styles of heads and four weapon options across two boxes. It's quite limiting – particularly when I've been spoiled by the sheer cross-compatibility of ranges like orks, marines and guard. +

+ Both of the dwarf infnatry kits are, as with most multipart kits of their vintage, cross-compatible within the range. The Hammerer boxed set, for example, also builds Longbeards; but both Hammerer and Longbeard heads fit on the Ironbreaker bodies from the other box. +

+ You can introduce a measure of variety to a unit by including heads from as many different groups as possible. This gives a believable lack of uniformity to the unit – after all, if you call up troops from your lands and tell them to bring their gear, you're unlikely to have them all equipped with the same style of helm. It also adds some welcome variation in faces and heads, something that often makes multipart plastic kits less characterful than their one-off metal sculpts equivalents. +

+ That doesn't get you too far, however, and it can create an additional problem that you can no longer distinguish between different types of units within the army. This is where you can distinguish between functional differences – perhaps the particular weapon a unit uses – and purely aesthetic differences, such as the pattern of Space Marine armour, or design of a shield. +

+ As long as you avoid mix and matching the functional differences, playing around with aesthetics is great for visual variety. It will also hopefully be useful when playing games, making it clear where one unit begins and another ends. It's not just about bringing in elements from other kits, either – such differentiation can be made by intentionally limiting your options. +

+ Here, for example, I've used an ancestor face designs for all the shields, and further linked them with a yellow colour scheme. If you know you're going to be building an army using multiples of the same kit, pre-planning might be worth it. Picking a particular design of shield (or weapon, or helmet, or body style) for a unit offers a nice way to add some subtle character – and if you plan it carefully enough, using bits from different kits doesn't mine your bits stash: you simply use the bits left over from the first kit on the second. +

+ You often don't have to be completely exclusive; there are often sub-variants – the standard dwarf kits include a few ancestor head variants. Similar enough to hang together, but not completely uniform. +

+ inload: painting dwarfs +

+ The dawi begin to assemble +

+ I can't decide whether this week has been productive or not. I was certainly hoping to have more done on my dwarfs – the background of which is being fleshed out on our sister blog The Tallowlands [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+] – but I got fed up with batch painting and decided to paint some characters. +

+ The good news is thus that I've actually got a few models done, rather than lots half-finished – and owing to the way Age of Sigmar seems to involve lots of individual characters, I think they should be fieldable as-is. +

Strong features reward traditional techniques.

+ Anyway, I'll chat more about the background and rules over on The Tallowlands; here I just want to talk about the painting. I often find dwarfs really fun to paint, as they have relatively large heads with bold features – great to play around with skin mixes, and to enjoy working wet-in-wet. Assuming they're not helmed, details like eyes are relatively easy to paint in. +

 + All of the figures I've painted recently have used the same colours as the basis for their skin: Vallejo Off-white, Citadel Averland Sunset and a touch of Vallejo Flat Red – the latter is a very intense paint, so you really need tiny amounts, particularly when using a quite subdued yellow like Averland Sunset. +

+ I didn't want to use many washes, as they can flatten the highlighting, and I thought the features of these figures were defined enough to reward good old-fashioned painting. I therefore worked up from a underlayer. For these, I just grabbed any brown I could find – so there's a mix of Skrag Brown and Doombull Brown. +

Variations on a theme – different combinations of the same mixes were used for the skin on each dwarf.

+ The three colours listed above combine create to create quite ruddy-looking tones, which can easily be varied by introducing more yellow or white, or by using a different underlayer. Very little of the underlayer remains apparent after painting, but it ensures there's a flat, even surface to cover with translucent layers, and a deep value in any visible recesses. In turn, this increases the contrast so you end up with a punchy result without having to go back with washes and so forth to strengthen the values in the shadows. +

+ Working wet-in-wet simply means that I'm working fast enough to wet blend on the surface of the figure. If you're struggling with the speed it's drying, a wet palette will help to keep your palette mixture workable, while retarding medium will slow the paint drying both on the figure and the palette. +

+ I tend to instead use flow enhancer medium to keep the paint workable. It only slows the drying in the same way water does, but it helps to prevent any brushmarks by aiding the consistency. This means that the paint dries relatively quickly – good for repeated layers – but has a crucial few extra seconds of working time so you can work back into it without creating physical texture: something that will quickly ruin the finish. +

+ Welcome to the Tallowlands +

+ New blog +

+ Our group of gaming ne'er-do'wells, The PCRC, have started up a new blog to chart our exploration of part of the Mortal Realms, The Tallowlands [+noosphericexloadlink embedded+]. Consider this your invitation to adventure! +

+ Bookmark + 

https://tallowlands.blogspot.com/ +

+ Rest assured that + Death of a Rubricist + isn't going anywhere, and I'll be continuing to publish Age of Sigmar-themed hobby stuff (painting, modelling etc) here. The Tallowlands will get the bulk of the in-depth background material, battle reports and so forth. +

+ Why this approach? Firstly, I've never been entirely happy with how this blog dealt with Warhammer/Age of Sigmar material – the dataslate aesthetics don't really fit very well, and so the material's not been given the treatement it deserves. Secondly, and more importantly, the opportunity to do a shared blog with the PCRC gang is just too good to miss! +

+ My intent therefore is that fantasy-enthusiasts won't have to dig through the mainly 40k-themed material here on my personal blog, and will instead have a dedicated forum – that, owing to being a shared blog, will be considerably more varied and rich than I could offer here – while those who enjoy the occasional appearance of dwarfs, elves and so forth on Death of a Rubricist won't miss out. +

+ Those Death of a Rubricist subscribers who prefer fantasy to sci-fi will find much to get their teeth into over at The Tallowlands (though I hope you'll all give it a look, regardless of whether you are currently into Fantasy stuff). Needless to say, it contains some wonderful, creative models from some very talented writers and artists. I very much encourage you to comment with thoughts and questions as we develop this little corner of the Mortal Realms. +

+ Any questions or suggestions on how this affects +Death of a Rubricist+? Pop 'em in the +comment inloadsubmission form+ below. +

+ inload: The Throng of Nog +

+ The Throng of Nog +

Draw close, manling, and pass that well-water your brewer flatters with the name of ale.

Hm. 

Passable, after all. Perhaps I misjudge the children of Sigmar.

At the least, my throat is not so dry as it was. While the fire burns still, let me tell you a little. You have been hospitable to my sister in her illness, and my kin do not soon forget kindness. 

Of the Tallowlands, it is said the Star Giants drew their plough across these lands long ago; before even the raising of the Hold. The land buckled and melted in the heat, and the bones of the earth themselves grew soft and flowing. For two wholemoons the skies rained ash and fire as the plough drew slowly through the groaning ground. All who stayed on the surface perished. As the Giants passed, the land grew cold once more, and the mountains set into the soft rolling hills you see now.

Ages passed – of war and terror; long since passed into the myth of man. Then it was that our honoured ancestor, the first lord of the Nog, came into this land. It was hard, then, and bare: naught but thin grasses and heathers stretched across the moorlands, and the wind was chill.

Nog and his household found the great Scars; open still after all those years. Such deep chasms... They glittered with wealth undreamed of – before or since. Striking camp, the First Families staked their claims, and raised Nog to Cyng. An outpost was raised, that became a town, that became a great hold. And none too soon...

Then came the greenskin, and the silver-tongued infidious elves – and with them they brought their war...

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+ A little bit of painting last night allowed me to polish off ten more dwarfs for the long-in-preparation Throng. The annual tide of enthusiasm for Warhammer has risen in the PCRC of late – Lucifer216 has polished up a new undead army in the time it's taken me to do these, but dwarfs aren't fazed! +

+ The scheme's a bit of a random construction – suggested as much by the red undercoat I used as by anything else. In between Legio Sumer-Nikator, my Blood Angels and Word Bearers, I've been on a bit of red kick recently. +

+ In that lies a lot of the appeal of a Warhammer army: the chance for variety. These red-coated fellas can happily be a particular minor lord's retinue – The Scarlet Few of the Weartling Cwichelm, for example – without tieing me into painting the whole army this way. While you'd expect a sci-fi army like a Space Marine legion to demonstrate some form of uniformity, the same doesn't apply to a pseudo-dark ages force. Even if the lord dictates his men must wear red, then you'll likely have different hues due to different fabrics and batches of dyes, and even different interpretations of how to show this – from full custom plate armour to a simple scrap of cloth ties to a spearshaft. +

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'Who would tend the flocks? Who would nurture and harvest the barley? Answer that, and tell me what sort of dwarf would live wearing only ragarin, or worse, live without meat and bread and ale?

'No, of course not all dawi live in the holds – but nor again are all we hill-dwellers farmers. From the vorns and kazid of the Barrow Hills, the Throng of Nog draws many of its warriors. I am one such. Thrungling, I was; trained in axe and shield, as was my father and his father and his father before him, to the time of the Throngfounding.

'I served proudly besides my comrades. Firstly, as a road-guard for the caravans to the manling city of Yeld – for the plains and woodlands are full of brigands, aye; brigands and worse – all greedy for the ore and craftings of the Nog-folk. That is how I learned my craft for a five-year. Latterly, then, it was as mariner; on the trading route between kazid-Eo and kazid-Narya.

'Like many of my folk, I was a reluctant – though obedient – sailor, at first. Soon, though, I grew fond of the salt air, and the clear skies, and the many folk I met. It kindled a desire in me to see more. After my five-year was up, my lord the Weartling Cwichelm knew my mind and granted me therefore an akrak-baraz – a bond, that is – to enable me to travel.

'I have wandered since, my baraz a security and a provisioner for my household. I explore, I seek; I write to the Weartling of my encounters; and thus the map of our ancestors is expanded.'

+ inload: Catch-all +

 + Pondering the imponderables and taking stock +

+ No hobby should become a job; so I make no apologies that this inload's a bit diffuse – it's just a collection of odd thoughts and pictures that don't really warrant full inloads of their own. +

+ Combat Arena +

+ Hooray, I thought, as I saw an awesome Mechanicus model previewed last year. Boo, I thought, as I found out it would only be released in the US or Germany. A similar train of thought occurred when I found out – hooray – the model would be available locally after all... but only as part of a very expensive expansion to a game I don't own – booooo. +

+ In comparison to the closed, Stazi-like '**** you, peasants' attitude that GW had during the turn of the century, new GW is doing a great job; but with all the different (and, in fairness, fun) ways they're bringing models to the market, there are inevitably minor annoyances like this. +

+ I had resigned myself to waiting, as I'm sure the sprue will be available in some more affordable way one day, but then stumbled upon a box of the US-exclusive game on eBay for a decent price, and picked it up. I really liked Gorechosen – a very silly, very quick and very fun gladiatorial combat game – and this essentially looked like a reskin. +

+ Lovely delicacy and movement in the stock poses. +

+ To cut a long story short, the models are beautiful. In an unusual move, I decided to build them as the God-Emperor intended, straight out of the box. Since I don't usually do this, I'd forgotten how nice – and quick! – it is to do so. I ended up getting all five built and primed in under an hour. +

+ A Techpriest leads two servitors on techy-shenanigans+

+ The techpriest above was the catalyst for the purchase, but I'm starting to warm to the quick boardgame-style games GW have been putting out. In the past I've regarded them merely as extraneous packaging, but with hobby time disappearing, it's nice to go back to them and find some way to play with toy soldiers that can be set up, played and broken down in a short time. +

+ I think I'll always prefer the spectacle of a tabletop wargame, but with this and Betrayal at Calth [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] under my belt, perhaps I'll have an easy option for when time is tight. +

+ Either way, when I get a chance to play, I'll pop up a battle report. +

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+ Speaking of Wargames +

+ Ah, back in the comfort of serried ranks of troops. Age of Sigmar interest has returned to the PCRC, with Warmtamale and Lord Blood the Hungry leading the charge, and a couple of us gathering our forces in the wake of the release of Cities of Sigmar. +

+ With the drums and horns calling the Throng of Nog [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] to war once more, I did a quick squizzy at where they stand. +

+ Being a very mixed combo of swaps, ancient lead and second-hand rescues [+noosphericinloadlink embedded+] built up over a few years, they're quite a mixed bunch. Now there's a bit more certainty about what things can be in the rules, I'm feeling more motivated to paint them up. They are, however, perhaps understandably a little mixed. From left, we've got:

• 18 undercoated crossbow dwarfs (their leader and a lone drunkard are on my painting desk).
• 33 dwarf warriors: 10 in the early stages of painting (the red file); 11 undercoated black, including the banner and musician; 11 undercoated grey and one filly painted leader.
• 5 grey-undercoated Hammerers, along with a painted Thane and Wizard.
• Roughly 40 Ironbreakers, around 15 of which are fully painted.
• In addition, there are a scattering of oddments.

+ Not as huge a backlog as I'd feared, but still something that's going to require some batch-painting. +

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+ Apropos of nothing +

+ In addition to the KR cases I use for storing most of my finished/ongoing armies (the poor dwarfs above will remain homeless for a little while), I have a small case which houses some more unusual miniatures, united only by being odd one-offs. The Court of the Sun King project is housed in here in its entirety, for example, including a number that I've never got round to painting. +

+ I mention this only because there's really no other reason that I got a pict-capture of the two below. I just happened to have five minutes and wanted to take a picture of some favourites. It's nice to look back, sometimes. +

+ Of course, looking back's also good to ensure we don't rest on our laurels. I remember being very proud indeed of these miniatures. Brother Hicks and Hutch (rear row, right and left respectively) in particular saw much battlefield time. Feast your eyes on the awesome freehand on their Legion of the Damned colleagues! +

(Shut up, those are excellent rib-cage patterns)

+ Onwards and upwards with the painting journey, I say; and remember – your hobby's not your job, and no-one giving you marks. +