Let's Talk About Age of Sigmar

Barnes, are you using a gloss varnish before the matte varnish? Matte is generally a much weaker protectant than gloss, but looks better.

So I kinda followed Barnes' advice on working on multiple skaven at once, and it went much better. I got about 80% of both shooting teams, skaven pilots for doowwheel and another 10 clanrats in one evening, and it has been way more enjoyable overall.

I think that the Skaven army from the Spire of Dawm is perfect for a beginner painter, too. With Skaven, you can work multiple types of skin color, which also train you to paint humans. And you also get to work fur, clothes, straps, bone, metallic and eyes - which I found far easier than human eyes, but it's the same technique, really. So you get to try all those things A LOT (I can see how much I improved from one batch to the next) and, most importantly, it doesn't matter how much you screw up - there're so many of them and dirty look suits them, too.

Yes, batch painting is the answer. And here's another tip. DO NOT get all crazy and insist on doing different colors. At first, I was doing this. So some Orks would get brown paints, some black, some red, etc. You wind up doing it all crazy quilt and it takes longer. If you want to vary colors, do smaller batches. For my Clanrats, I wanted some to be brown, some to be lighter brown, some to be darker brown, and some to be gray. So each of those bases is a different run. From there, pick two main base colors for the other larger areas- I went with Mechanicius Standard Gray and Naggaroth Night. Then pick two metals- Balthasar Gold and (of course) Leadbelcher. You can do variations within those parameters, so some get a gray cloak and a purple hood, some get a purple tunic all over, some get silver armor, some get brass. For finer details, keep it simple on these kinds of figures. Zandri Dust for teeth and nails, Rhinox Hide for leathers- don't do a bunch of variations because with big groups like this you won't even really notice.

That is absolutely right, this is a great set for beginners. The figures are smaller and less intricate, but it's pretty easy to get good results with some halfway decent basic painting and washing. The Elves are good for this too, lots of simple detail that is easy for beginners to pick out. I'm trying to get a hold of a second set...it's kind of tough to fill out a Swifthawk Agents roster without a second and for the price you can't beat getting 40 Clanrats, a Warpfire Thrower, a PW Mortar, a Warlock Engineer, and a couple of Rat Ogors. I ran the numbers and with a second box, the Ratling Gunner/Warp Grinder/Stormfiends and a box of Stormvermin I will have a full up 2000 points.

I did the Grey Seer last night and I think he might be the best single figure I've painted yet. Only took about 90 minutes. Started on the Doomwheel, I'm kind of building and painting it in layers because there is so much that is obscured by the model itself.

Once I'm through the Skaven I will probably go on into the Elves. I have the Swordmasters painted already but I'm eager to get to these Reavers. I was thinking about adding White Lions to that army (mainly because I got some sent to me by mistake and I was able to keep them for a great price) but I don't know, they don't seem that great. May try to flip those to get another Chariot, Shadow Warriors, or Skycutter.

Be careful with the Doomwheel, I found it easy to assemble the wheels in such a way that they become in-attachable (is that even a word?) to the mainframe.

I am almost done with it and it is a centerpiece. Why, or why there're no Skaven in Mad Max?

Yep, I did that. Also stabbed my fingers quite a few times on those spikes.

The Doomwheel is quite a bit more complex than other Skaven models. It requires more modeling work in general, and it also requires that you paint while you are building rather than assembling it all and then priming the whole thing. I can't imagine painting those rats in the wheel if it were already built. I'm about 85% finished with it, mostly just some detail work and the little dude on the back. But that detail work is pretty intricate- so many nail heads... I don't know what to do about that flag just yet.

Really love that kit- don't know if I'd want to do another one, but it looks awesome and it really complements my Warp Lightning Cannon.

Michael Barnes wrote: I don't know what to do about that flag just yet.

If you ever figure out flags Id love to know what you do. I need to make a few and nothing I have ever tried has worked.

Man, I just don't get it...the flag on this thing is like a long pennant and it is double folded like four times. How do you even paint something onto that? There's not enough space to really freehand a design, but it's a big enough flag that it it looks kind of dumb without something on it.

Right now it is just purple with some shade and highlights it looks fine I guess. I don't want to ruin it trying to paint a rune or something into the folds.

So looks like the full list of monsters with rules in the new Warhammer Quest is:

- Chaos Sorceror Lord of Slaanesh
- Kairic Acolytes
- Putrid Blightkings
- Bloodreavers
- Blood Warriors
- Wrathmongers
- Tzaangors
- Tzaangor Skyfires
- Plague Bearers

Was hoping for a chance to get some more of my Khorne guys in there, especially bloodletters and heralds. The stats I'm seeing for the monsters do have rules for things like that magic scroll the acolytes can bring, so that sort of messes with my plans to just get a miniatureless copy of the game on ebay. Probably just wait for reviews to see how the GM role works.

Michael Barnes wrote: Man, I just don't get it...the flag on this thing is like a long pennant and it is double folded like four times. How do you even paint something onto that? There's not enough space to really freehand a design, but it's a big enough flag that it it looks kind of dumb without something on it.

Right now it is just purple with some shade and highlights it looks fine I guess. I don't want to ruin it trying to paint a rune or something into the folds.

Maybe you could print off a relevant symbol, sized for that flag, and stick it on the flag. Then paint over the sticker so that it looks right even with the multiple folds.

Dealing with flags and multiple folds:

This is a high difficulty project. Especially if realism is wanted.

How I tackle them is one of two ways. Realistic or jibberish. Jibberish is easier.

Realistic involves printing a flag or pennant with a design you want. Then taking that printed and cut out flag and folding it similarly to how you see on the model. Carefully frehand copy the visible design onto the flag.

Ha ha...except that it's folded like to times...bastard is RIPPLING. And TORN. No way would that work in this case.

I'm getting some Tzeentch stuff next...really like the look of the Arcanite stuff. Got a good deal on some boxes so I figured why not since I just flipped some games. Going with two boxes of Tzaangors, two boxes of the Frisbee dudes, one Shaman, and a box of Acolytes. These add on to the Tzeentch stuff I already have from ST, which is just lovely. More synergy, please!

WHQ is looking really interesting to me, I dunno what the complaints are although it is true the bar was set pretty high by having a box of 50+ new models in ST...it kind of looks like a 2.0 thing almost, adding in the GM and the town. Glad that I have the exotics already except for the Plague Bearers. I'm sure there will be more in WD. I think with this box and ST you've got a pretty extensive range of heroes and enemies to play with, let alone any new ability and item cards that are in the new set. It looks like they are using this package to also extend the fluff a bit...interesting that the Sorcerer Lord is listed as Slannesh, given that there isn't any Slannesh in AOS yet. And that puts all four Ruinous Powers in there.

I am a little worried about the GM aspect...the GM-less play was a positive, but then again this may be what it needs to give it more of a challenge. "Too easy" is a pretty common (and usually right) complaint, so maybe having someone directly controlling the opposition will result in more TPKs.

Barnes, I sent you a PM about the free mini, are you still interested? And it's actually a Warlock Engineer.

Yes, I missed that- I will PM you!

Michael Barnes wrote: interesting that the Sorcerer Lord is listed as Slannesh, given that there isn't any Slannesh in AOS yet. And that puts all four Ruinous Powers in there.

I heard that the Sorcerer Lord in the story is trying to reawaken a dormant Slaanesh (sleeping off his End Times dinner of millions of Elven souls) - that could be the launch of a new Slaanesh faction for Age of Sigmar.

I am a little worried about the GM aspect...the GM-less play was a positive, but then again this may be what it needs to give it more of a challenge. "Too easy" is a pretty common (and usually right) complaint, so maybe having someone directly controlling the opposition will result in more TPKs.

We've had a TPK last week - might not if we'd known the shards could resurrect a hero even when she/he's down. So far 2-3 failures in the campaign, with a couple more shards to go.

Yeah, I'm thinking that is the plan...but it is kind of a missed opportunity. Silver Tower introduced a couple of new Tzeentch things and had a whole Tzeentch theme. This is more of a hodge podge, which I like for the variety, but part of the power of ST is that it is Tzeentch game. They could have given Slannesh the same treatment and done a whole sex dungeon thing with it.

Fortunately I'm not that interested in Slannesh or Nurgle units so I may be able to avoid starting my EIGHTH army. I'll probably get those Plague Bearers though just to complete the adversary set.

I'm pretty psyched about getting this Tzeentch stuff, I watched a game at GW where this guy was really using their abilities...he had that Changeling thing, you set it up in an enemy unit where it hangs out pretending to be one of them until you decide to blow cover. He summoned a chariot and you can actually summon Horrors or a Lord of Change. One of the sorcerers lets you make Chaos Spawn out of enemy units. Neat! There isn't a whole lot of variety in the core units and from what I understand, Tzaangors are the main show...but I like the synergies, the concept and the models.