Battle for Port Maw

This past weekend, Dan Norris, Thomas Morgan, and the Alamo GT scene sponsored a one-day, 124,000 point Warhammer 40,000 Apocalypse game. I haven't played 40k since 2010, but I showed up for a bit to take pictures and watch the Chaos! They had four tables going, with 30 players. In the end, the forces of evil won by a paltry 14 out of 300+ objectives!

  I wasn't paying close enough attention to really know what was going, on, but feel free to follow the jump if you want to see the epic conflict as it raged in turns 3-4!

Just a brief announcement...

I meant to post this weeks ago, but things just keep causing me to forget.
  I have formally accepted a nomination to represent the US South Region as part of the 2014 Warhammer Master's Tournament. I was picked based not on the 2013 tournament year (where I shanked the whole season with my horrible Vampire Counts lists), but based on what I did with the Orcs & Goblins in 2012: going 14-7-4 and picking up a pair of 2nd Overalls (at Quake City Rumble and Bayou Battles).
  Therefore, the Beer Waaagh! will make it out of retirement for one final, deciding event! If you're curious to see what all the fuss is about, I encourage you to make the trip out to Raleigh on 22-23 February 2014. You'll probably see me lose four games horribly, as the Northeast guys are just going to rip apart my soft list and feeble generalship and I haven't approached a game competitively since Alamo 2012, but I'll enjoy seeing where my painting ranks on the national scene!
  See you all in Raleigh!

WiP Brythoniaid Dyndraig

It's been a few weeks since my last update. Luckily, this silence wasn't imposed by a lack of painting, but by a lack of taking the time to post the stuff I have painted! This week, we'll take a look at some more models by Mierce Miniatures: the Dyndraig of the Brythoniaid. Eventually this unit will have six models, where it will fill a Chaos Ogres role in my Dragon Cult list.

Start to finish, after the jump...

Blaun, Tawrdraig of the Brythoniaid

Ryan hasn't painted anything in a while! Well, he has, but hasn't had time to post it. Here's his second attempt at Glaun, Tawrdraig of the Brythoniaid. Except he's blue, not green, this time around.

We'll go from primed to 90% painted, after the jump...

 

The Alamo GT 2013 - Painting Contest

Part II of my Alamo Coverage is going to focus on the individual paint contest entries. The winners are in order, but all the other category entries are listed in the order I took photos of them, not the order they finished in the contest.

As always, more after the jump...

The Alamo GT 2013: Army Parade

Well, this past weekend was the Alamo GT here in San Antonio. I got the privilege of doing the paint judging, with an adorable assistant who made a cameo Sunday morning. Follow the jump for the gorgeous armies that were set up on Sunday morning. If your army isn't here, I apologize; I only took shots of the ones that were set up for viewing on Sunday morning.

Grandalf the not-so-alliterative

It's been a few weeks since my last post, not because I've not been doing stuff, but because this time of year gets very busy for me and I haven't made the time to update. The Alamo GT is this weekend, and I've been reviewing lists, working out finer scenario details, and preparing my body for a week of epic drinking. I've also been helping a friend play test lizard men for the event, and I convinced him that he needed a pair of Skink Priests with Beasts. Unfortunately I only had one prepared, so I grabbed a skink, some bits, and a concept!

I decided to sculpt him a wizard hat, to make it obvious he wasn't just a skink, and then for good measure added an obviously fake beard out of my leftover green stuff. I used a Skaven Plague monk bit to be a dispel scroll, and then added green stuff to a javelin to turn it into a staff.

I also stood him on a rock, because I've been doing a ton of Mierce stuff lately and standing on a rock is a recurring joke.

Painting remains, and the Alamo is just a few days away!!

Getting a sense of scale!

"How big is that?" It's the second most common question I get about Darklands. Well, it depends on the model! I've been asked it so many times, though, that I figured I'd just cut to the chase and take a bunch of photos of Darklands models standing next to other models.

Darklands initial battle report

So a few days ago, I sat down to play a serious game of Darklands, paying attention to the rules very carefully, and taking careful note of what went on so I could share it all. The results are below the jump.

Review/assembly: Krull, Servile Lord of Dis

After a week of rest and relaxation in which I didn't do a dang thing modeling-wise, I decided to jump back in with both feet. Following the jump, we'll review the most iconic Darklands model ever, Krull: servile Lord of Dis. Shall we see how awesome this thing is?

Finished Showcase: Cawrdraig

WAMP has accepted the Brythoniaid Cawrdraig collage, so that means I can share these photos with you! 

More on these bad boys, after the cut...

WiP: Tanfrwydr Mawr

Ten days since my last WiP, and there's one more Cawrdraig left on my desk to work on. This is the last one that will have the purple skintone, so let's see what I can do with it!
After the break: from start, to finish...

Army Showcase: The Beer Waaagh

There are a few things I really like. My family get first priority, but beer and Warhammer are close behind. This army was an attempt to combine the two: Orcs, plus beer. This army has become my signature one, and if I'm playing a game just for fun, this is likely the one I'm going to use. I liked it enough that I named this blog after it! 

As usual, more after the jump...

WiP: Cawrdraig II

Well, it's been a week since my last WiP update, so here's what I've been working on! This is another of the Cawrdraig, converted from a Brythoniaid torso and the lower half of Aradae Mawr. His left foreleg is from Gallwch Llad Law, and the tail was flipped around on this guy to give a bit more variety. I also repositioned the right foreleg so it looked like it's in a different place than Aradae's.
We'll take him from  toafter the break...

Finished Showcase: Kaastaruk, Skull-Bearer of the Tarvax

Well, this morning I submitted this bad boy to the WAMP Darklands 2013 contest, so I can finally share him with you here! This is Kaastaruk, the Skull-Bearer of the Tarvax, and the first model in a while that I've painted just for a contest, without intending to incorporate him into an army.

Finished Showcase: Glaun, Tawrdraig of Cynfelyn

Well, as of now I've finally submitted this guy to the WAMP forums for the Darklands 2013 contest, so I can finally share him on here! This is Glaun, the Bull Dragon of Wales.

WiP: Converting another Cawrdraig

Join me, as I saw apart two awesome Mierce Miniatures, glue the bits together, and probably make Roberto Chaudon very sad. Also, we'll get to here after the break:

WiP: Kaastaruk, skull-bearer of the Tarvax

Well, another week means another series of Razormage WiPs! Since the rest of this week is going to spent basing entries for the WAMP contest (which I can't share here, at least until it's over), this guy will have to tide everyone over until next week. I started on him Friday night, and quit working on him Sunday night, so this represents three nights of work.

Start to finish, after the break...

Aradae Mawr: WiP part 2: Bone, blues, gold

Time to get back to finishing up Aradae Mawr!

From  to  after the break...

WiP: Aradae Mawr, Pencawrdraig of Dugadw

Another week, another Darklands model to work on! This one's Aradae Mawr.
From  to  after the jump...

Brythoniaid conversion work

We'll saw some resin models in half, horrifically injure myself, and end up with some cool models after the jump...

Battle report - Army of Darkness vs. Lizardmen

My friend Nick and I are getting ready to head to Bayou Battles in Houston this weekend. He hasn't played a game since the Alamo last November, and I've rewritten my list since Quake City Rumble, so it's now competitive. It'll be interesting to see what happens...

Glaun WiP Part 2: Scales, Teeth, and Claws

We go back into painting Glaun! Check out how we get from halfway through to the finish, after the jump...

Opening the box - Mierce Kickstarter (Norse)

Opening up a box of goodies from Mierce Miniatures, and finding out what's inside, after the break. Spoiler alert: here there be trolls...
 

WiP: Glaun, Tarwdraig of Cynfelyn

I finally get to start painting some of the Mierce Miniatures resin models I got from their Kickstarter. I'll be starting off with Glaun, Tarwdraig of Cynfelyn. After the jump, we'll see how I got him to look like this:

QCR - Army of Darkness

Made it out to Quake City Rumble in San Francisco this past weekend. Had five fantastic games which deserve a post in and of themselves, but more importantly, fielded my 2013 tournament army: The Army of Darkness!

More after the jump...

Opening the box - Mierce Miniatures Kickstarter

When I got home yesterday, to my joy, was a big box from Mierce Miniatures. I've always been a fan of their models - I think they are some of the best in the business - so it immediately became a battle of wills for me to not open the box.

It sat there. I played with my kids. I put my daughter to bed. I looked over at the Vampire Counts models that I really should be painting. I looked at the box again.

Oh, look! Somehow it got opened! I guess now there's nothing left to do but begin to go through it.

Unfortunately, time did not permit me to do anything more than lay the contents out and do a quick inventory. That "anything more" consisted of looking at certain models over and over again, chuckle to myself in a way that alarmed my wife, and think of color schemes.

Each model is individually wrapped in a ziplock bag. For the kickstarter faction army deals, the individual models are also grouped into a larger bag, to keep everything together. The bases are in the bag with the individual models, if they fit (Magnir's didn't), or in the larger bag if part of the factions. The contents of the box were wrapped in bubble wrap, but the box was so full that there wasn't a lot of room for movement. Mierce has chosen to ship the kickstarter stuff without the normal commercial packaging (boxes and blisters). I think it's a great move for a couple of reasons: it deters people from trying to flip the deals on eBay, it makes it much easier to ship (less wasted space than you'd have with blisters or boxes), and it encourages people to put stuff together! I have a ton of Mierce stuff still sitting in the boxes, but the Kickstarter items will probably be unpacked and assembled before I start diving into those boxes, because the models are right in front of me.

I'll do detailed model reviews as I start building them, but the quality on these guys is amazing. The sculpts look fantastic. At least one model looked like it had a ton of resin flashing, but it looked like the paper-thin kind that just wipes off. I saw no broken pieces or warping on the initial inspection, which reassured me as well - resin models don't always hold up well sitting in a metal mailbox in the Texas summer!

Here's a final shot of the contents of this box all spread out and labeled.

I can't wait to start gluing!

Defender of the Brew

So I thought I'd share one of my older models this week: The Defender of the Brew.

I won this Empire character at Alamo in 2009 and never planned to use it for anything. On a whim I decided to paint it up for then-BoLS con in 2010. I was still only just figuring out painting; I was using Wal-Mart brushes instead of the Winsor-Newton Series 7s I use now, and I had no idea how to highlight red without it turning pink. The only skill I felt confident in showing off was non-metallic metal, which I slathered across every surface I could. This was also the year I said I wasn't going to bother with basing, so he just has flock glued there. I painted it in a hotel room while on the road for business, just using the paints I had brought along. 

To give the model some kind of narrative, when I got home I carved a hillside out of foam and put some barrels on top of it. I did this almost as an afterthought, knowing the model was only going to be judged on its own and the display didn't matter, but I loved the result. The seeds for my 2013 Orc army - and the name of this blog - were planted in this model.

Looking back at it, this model goes to what I'd call my tabletop standard now. The red needs another highlight or two, he has lazy eye syndrome, and the sash should have been some kind of neat freehand tartan effect. The NMM is solid - not spectacular, but solid - and the barrels are only half highlighted compared to what I do now. The basing makes me shudder. Another few hours of work really would have helped this guy out.

Still, it was a fun concept, and I thought it worth sharing. Enjoy!

So why a blog?

I do a lot of GTs. Every time I do one, people ask, "Where can I see your stuff online?" Well, I'm lazy. I paint models but never take the time to photograph or share them. Since there seems to be some demand for it, I'm going to try to change that.

The Beer Waaagh was my 2013 army, featuring drunken Savage Orcs. Since I viewed it as my most iconic army (and the one I enjoy playing the most) I swiped the name for the blog.

You'll see a bunch of stuff on here: finished models, WIPs, army showcases, tournament spreads, and anything else I feel like sharing. I won't guarantee regular updates, but will try to do some when I have a moment or two.

To start, here's a random photo from my 2011 lizardman army, featuring Saurus warriors and an Oldblood.