How predictable...

Art by Olivier Ledroit

After reading a post on Easylead, I decided to have a go myself to check what kind of a DnD player I am.

You can have a go yourself at http://www.easydamus.com/character.html.

 

Now the really funny thing is that, it turns out I’m a

Lawful Good Human Paladin (5th Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength- 13
Dexterity- 11
Constitution- 14
Intelligence- 14
Wisdom- 12
Charisma- 12

 

How is that funny you say? I bet it looks like a boring character for most of you...

Well the funny thing is that I've just found an old reference sheet of the last player I played in a campaign some 8 years ago (damn ! my last DnD game was 8 ago and is stone cold dead now) and guess what... I ended being a

Lawful Good Human Paladin (5th Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength- 14
Dexterity- 12
Constitution- 14
Intelligence- 10
Wisdom- 13
Charisma- 14

The stats are pretty close to what was found from my 120 answers if you just consider the scores. (character sheet below). The sad thing is that I didn't manage to get him to becoming a lawful evil paladin whch was my idea from the start but since it's note a profile you can start with right ahead (well the GM wouldn't let me), Seu (it's his name) always stayed the parangon of virtue he always had been.

Juts Look at those pen and paper beauties, I can almost hear the D20 rolling...

I recently found the model I used then which was already inspired by Olivier Ledroit's paintings (see picture above). I'll show it if you're good.

What would you be and more intesrtingly, is the result close to any charcter you've played?

Terminator Inquisitor - Forces of the imperium

Ok so finally the good guys came out first !

I am happy to FINALLY finish this one. I actually bought 2 models like him back in the days because I did (and still do) think he was the coolest inquisitor ever.
What's not to like in a Jes Goodwin terminator with hoodie and demon faces all over the armour?

I chose to paint his armour with a very rusty and worn-out look to represent the armour has been passed from an inquisitor to another. I painted the weapons and decroations in bright colours to contrast and to show each time the previous owner dies, the new one equips the armour with his own gadgets and weaponry.
For the record, as can be seen on the pad, he is the 3rd carrier of the armor (hence the very worn)out look of the metal parts.

Looking for inspiration

As I'm finishing a few things right now, I will have some time to come back to my chaos space marine army fo which I still have quite a few things (namely 100 models) to do. One of the things I am not happy with is the iconography. I love the "all black" theme and will stick to it even though I realise I do lose the opportunity to go crazy on typical oldschool paintobs.

BUT, I have a lot of banners to add , some markings to add, and I can't figure out what I want.

For my warhammer force, I came up with satanist iconography stolen from CD covers and comics like requiem from Pat Mills (Slaine, Judge Dredd,...) and Olivier Ledroit (Chroniques de la lune noires, Sha,....). I have no personnal belief in such stuff an ddon't mean to offend anyone with it but I thought it was the best to cme up with since Chaos is basically the most evil you can get in the old world.

Here are some examples of how this was used in the army (These are old pics of old models but you get the idea) :

 

How do you start oldhammer - Leadplague style

Following the Whiskey Priest's brilliant article, I decided to give a go to starting from scratch an oldhammery war band start.

The rules are simple :

"I'm calling for volunteers!

This is the plan!

Let's put on a game. It can be small at first. Building to a campaign in time. The idea is all about showing what is possible without having to remortgage your house, lie to your wife about the amount of little brown packages and selling your soul.

We need some blokes (if there are women out there reading this then we need you too!) to commit.

We each make a warband - a tiny army - a posse, based in the Warhammer world. A maximum of 21 figures. Two units of 10 and a hero or any similar configuration. You are entirely free to do what you want!

The figures must be either a) insultingly cheap from ebay or b) easily bought from current manufacturer.

We open a thread on the Oldhammer Forum to show what we are doing, where we got our figs, WIP's and discussions of our fluff for our warbands. And then, when it's all ready!"

So, 2 units of 10 and a hero?

But what army to start with? Well, since I don't want to get caught in starting a new army I'll have to expand later (remember this article). So Chaos, Bretonnians or Undead it is then...

The Helpful Hobby Guide to Oldhammer : How to strip models

It's been quite some time I was thinking about doing a tutorial about how I strip minis and after reading Orlygg's very useful post about it, I thought it was time to give it a go.

While Orlygg's article concentrates on the power or Dettol, I will try to offer another approach.

Being french comes with some drawbacks. Most people will think about poor personnal hygiene or constant whining but as far as oldhammer goes, the major drawback is that France lacks Dettol. I only came across some after a little trip to UK which gave me the opportunity to buy 4 bottles of the stuff. With that said, you'll understand my experience with the stuff is not the best you can find around.

However, I've been stripping minis since the late 90's and I am pretty sure those who are new to the thing and those who use different methods can find an interest in what I'm about to tell.

I apologise in advance if I seem like smashing through open doors here but I Think I'll start with the basics to be clear/

The wheel of fortune

I lately considered trying to get new things in my apainting. You know, just to stay out of the confrot zone to see where things can be improved.

One of the things I've been intrigued about for a long time is colour theory. I admit that apart from reading about it from a book by Kandinsky which left me with numerous questions, I left this matter aside, and kept on painting things as I was used to.

If you're into fantasy and wargaming, I'm pretty sure the name of such artists as Frank Frazetta and Simon Bisley are common for you. One thing I always found fascinating in their work is how they add what appears to be "weird" colours like blue or green to skintones to enhance the contrasts (that and the numerous boobs and weapons of course).

From Simon Bisley

From Frank Frazetta

Why be happy with what you have...

...when you can be unhappy with what you want ?

Or maybe you're asking to yourself : "why the hell is he trying to force some cheap philosophy in a modelling and wargaming blog?"

Please let me explain myself a little bit here and I'm pretty sure you will find some disturbing resemblance with your own case (unless you've already reached the Nirvana state of wargamers/modellists...).

Little time ago, I made a trade on the oldhammer forum with a valuable member (dare I say friend). We swaped chaos renegades and my partner had the delicate attention to join some spare models with what was agreed. This happens and it makes this hobby journey all the better but I already wrote about how our community can be rewarding sometimes.

What I want to tell you is that this very nice gesture has put some gigantic gears into motion. It's like the butterfly/storm concept appplied to my modelling.

Here is what I found with my good ol' chaos renegade :

Some of you will only see a bunch of plastic Heroquest fimirs while some others won't even recognise what they are. But I know some of you are already thinking "Oh my God, no! Poor him"

And if you're one of the latter, you're right.

As soon as I had them I felt like basing them and giving them a proper weapon to replace the broken ones. But doing this, I unconsciously  based them in a way I could rank them...

Why? Why would I need to rank models I don't want to make a unit of?, Why don't I just paint them for fun and as a token of gratitude towards my partner?

Well I tell you this is the beginning of the end ...

There is quick and easy test to know if you're cursed with this same disease. look at your models from above :

A) You see this :

OK, everything's fine for now, just don't look at them this way for too long. You don't want to catch anything bad.

B) you see this :

in which case I'm afraid you're pretty much f***ed. 

Note that if you see both green and blue shapes, you're in an advanced state of the curse (if you see more then I believe you can't be saved).

 

The last state of the curse is when this also pops to you mind and you're considering the 5-60 limit.

But what's the matter with seeing the green and blue shapes (or the warhammer armies extract) ? 

Well, let me put this another way, what is the matter with just painting 3 models and moving on to something else once you're done? Why not just stick to ONE project and move one to another when it's done?

Even when you're not adding new projects, the temptation is near :

I got the disciples of the red redemption from a cousin some time ago but didn't start painting them because it didn't feel right at the time.

 What is wrong with this lovely regiment of renown delicately sculpted by the great Jes Goodwin?
Nothing, except if you're looking from above...

Same problem here, I can't keep myself from seeing this instead :

I tried to add 3 flagellants to complete the rank but the scale doesn't work. I need some more redemptionists.

Why would I care, I don't even play. My last game of Warhammer was more than 3 years ago. I know I want my models to be "playable" and that is a thing, but why would I want the units to be the biggest I can? The time, energy and money it takes is crazy and almost pointless... I already know painting 15 examples of the very same model will be boring at some point but I already bought some more to have my 20 men strong unit.

I could blame GW and other brands for the "always more" philosophy behind all of this but the truth is I'm the only responsible here because of my lack of will...

It's nobodiy's fault but mine...

Bah, the only problem with this is that it tends to make me waste some time, energy and money. Now that I've realised that there is such a problem I think I know I can slow things a bit and I should probably move on to some skirmish projects and just be happy with the respectable collection I already have. I have to say there has been a revelation for me.

I really admire people who can focus on a aspect of their hobby which makes them have a very strong personnallity, I'm thinking about people like Don Hans, Ana Polanscak or Jeff Vader to name a few. 

I really want to learn from them so that I can take modles like these :

without being afraid to look at them from above.
Or being able to look at this page without my paypal account glowing red hot :

I'm pretty sure all the fuss about skirmish and small team games with revival of confrontation, necromunda, Realm of Chaos warbands or even newer games come sfrom this. The will to control our own hobby ant lead it into manageable and achievable projects. This is great, we will see more fniished projects and that we'll get less "hobby burn outs" this way.

 Hopefully, I'm in a good modelling mood at the moment (and even in a very good general mood with the birth of my newborn son ^^) so I feel like giving some old friends the attention they seek :

I'm working on both of them at the same time because I want to see how it affects my painting to work on both an evil and good character in once. I also get to work on many red nuances in once which is a great way to learn how to diversify my painting without always using the same tricks.

Even if it doesn't show in this crappy smartphone shot, I'm trying different ways to paint my reds with either high dark/light contrast or pink Vs ornage highlights. It gives me the opportunity to work on some colour theory principles too so you'll whatever comes out of this.

The grav-attack has also benefitted from useful comments and I made some plastic card lips and added exhausts. I'll soon start the smoothing part and add textures, leaving the sculpt of propellers for the end since I still don't know what I really want to do...

The deo stick is slowly disappearing behind the green stuff and details...

Cocorico pour la Bresse ! - The proud bretonnian Rooster knight

Ok, I finally took the time to give this model the attention it diserved.

You may remember how this project started on the old hammer forum from my will to make a regional knight to represent the diversity of the community. I started this oroject here and followed here.

I decided to make a bretonnian since I have a bretonnian army and that I love them. I decided to take my region mascot being the "bresse" white rooster.

I won't rephrase everything but you can see the little story behind my bretonnian army here, which explains a bit my choices for this project (you can also see that every detail counts in this project).

Hugues-Edouard de l'Ain, Baron de Bresse in all his glory

Here are some shots from different angles and with the optionnal arms available since the right shoulder has a rare earth magnet which enables me to change its gear as I will.

 I have to say though I began this project with very naive intentions, but now I can't look away from all the innuendos and possible jokes about such a concept. Knowing that some people might be looking for some huge cock on the net and get dragged here (Google stats proved this happened more than once...), I don't want to fool anyone so here are some "in situ" shots of Hugues-Edouard in his every day life so you can see our knight here is nothing else but virtue made flesh...

Hugues-Edouard, a true Gentleman :

Hugues-Edouard is always prone to helping ladies in thge most honorable way, he insists on escorting all the ladies of the court when they go in the woods.

"- Oh please mesdemoiselles, rest assured and don't be afraid, as true as I have a huge cock between my legs, I'll take good care of you and won't let you be harmed whatsoever !
-...
- Come on mesdemoiselles, what are you afraid of?"

Hugues-Edouard hunting :

Hugues-Edouard insists on training his men for the hunt.

"- See ! Look at how my cock is standing firm ! This is how you hunt and how you win battles, always stand proud. You understand ?

- ...

- Alain ! As my squire I would like to know why you're hidingyour face in the palm of your hand? Is there something you'd like to tell me?"

Hugues-Edouard against Evil :

Hugues-Edouard is always taking the side of the weak and he will always lend a hand when his people are in danger.

" Ahaha my poor Tristan, when you said "Monsters" I thought you meant REAL monsters like dragons or wyverns ! I see no monsters here, some corrupted and lost creatures at best. Come on, let's show them how great the lady of the lake is with some well-placed sword hits ! EN AVANT!

Hugues-Edouard fights eviler :

 "- Oh I'm afraid you're misinformed about my mother Mr Black ! And I don't see why on earth I would let you mess with my organs as you said.

- (some horrible curses in a mix of old worlder and dark tongue I can't write here)

- Well, if you want blood for your blood god, that's a thing but I don't see how on earth this sordid idea of yours about your axe and my anus is relevant. Prepare yourself to fight for your honor ! I challenge you !"

and so on and so on...

You see, I already like him a lot...

Oh and Happy new year to you all, guess what I did on my new year's eve? Yep, blue-tack kitbashing for my venators (heads to be changed)...