Joining The Shell Case!

Wonderful news, my friends! Phil over at the Shell Case has asked me to join as a contributor. And who am I to say no? Although, the lavish compliments he gave me certainly didn't hurt his case. I am incredibly excited to get started working with the fine mess of fellows Phil has assembled over there.

But what about Chickhammer? Well, I don't foresee this having any impact on the number of articles I put here. I'm happy with the pace things are going here. For the first time ever, I have articles written and queued up to publish, and that's keeping things at a steady place. Plus, there's lots going on in my personal hobbying as well as the Hobby itself, so I certainly have plenty to go on about!

At first, it will be just about an article a month from me over at the Shell Case, but there's lots to check out from the rest of the gang as well. Go ahead and give them a look. I'll also being carrying on with ODAM podcast as usual, so don't forget to give that a listen as well! I especially recommend Episode 11 if you want to hear me swear about Tyranids a lot.

On a personal note, it turns out I will be graduating a semester early (yay!) so things will be progressing quite a bit faster than I anticipated. Fortunately, it all starts rolling after Adepticon. Things are smoothing out and I've finally hit a good balance with this work-and-school plan I've embarked on. It's shaping up to be one hell of an awesome year.

Paint Range Experiment Part 1: So Much Paint

I've delved deeply into this experiment so far. I did quite a bit of research on paint comparisons, decided on the models, visited a lot of LGSs, and have purchased vast quantities of paint. Not a bad start, I think. The research actually took a lot more effort than I thought it would. There are lots of comparisons out there, but many of them are either bad or well outdated (don't have the new Citadel line, for example).

The haul so far, not including GW stuff I had.

 There are two fairly good resources out there for comparing paint lines. First is the simple but not-great comparison chart from Dakka Dakka. Next is the incredibly complex but far more accurate Mega Comparison PDF from the lovely people at Vallejo. This chart has every paint range I have ever heard of (except P3, which is understandable) and then some. I want to hug whoever put that together- you're brilliant and it made this experiment so much easier.

That said, I had to make my own mini-chart with the colors I intend to use. I wanted to make sure the colors I got really are close matches. But how do I know what colors I need? Because I finally picked the models! I settled on the Privateer Press Warpborn Skinwalkers. I already had them- plus they were assembled and primed to boot. The models have a great variety of textures to work with- fur, fabric, metal, and chainmail among them. So I think they're perfect.

I took the P3 color scheme largely into consideration first because they have the most limited range of colors. So they'll be done very similarly to the studio scheme. I listed out all the pieces of the model and started assigning colors to them from each range. Then I went through my paint collection and painted a sample of each under the color name.

It's still a big WIP, but here is my chart so far with the colors, notes, changes, and scribbles.

There are white paint swatches in there, honest.

There is one, surprisingly only one, hole in the chart. P3 really does not have an appropriate grey highlight color. The closest they have is Trollblood Highlight which has an unfortunate green tinge to it (as does the Bastion Grey, admittedly). I don't think it's doesn't match the other grey highlights at all, but it may be my only option. Or, I might mix some of the Bastion with their white and see how it goes. I'm undecided.

 I have finalized the remaining paints I need to buy and made a list of them. All of those I have here, I was able to get from my LGSs but sadly, there are a lot that are missing. Getting them online means both a discount but also a shipping charge, so I'm coming out about the same. I have about 35 paints left to buy, which is going to run me about $100 after shipping. There goes all my hobby budget for the month.

Preferably, I won't get started until I have all the paints in-hand, but because I have all the GW and nearly all the P3 paints, I might be tempted to get the fur/skin basecoat down while I wait on the rest. But I will try to be patient and wait. It's not as if I don't have five other hobby projects happening at once... ok it's more like a dozen.

Updates:
Experiment Proposal
Part 2: It Begins!
Part 3: Results 

2013 Daemonette Project

A little late, but better than never, right? I got sick, had exams, blah blah blah. I get it, I suck, but whatever. She's done. Here's my 2013 Daemonette.

I tried some of the techniques I learned at the painting class in December. I was pretty disappointed to discover that the two brush blending technique doesn't work at all with the GW paints. So all the blending here I did with a sort of modified (read: time consuming) technique. It worked, but not as well.

 The back shows off the blending in the fabric far better than on the front. I'm not entirely sold on her hair. I wanted to highlight it more to white, but thought it might be too much. I may go back and add a little more highlight later.

I used some of the Games Workshop grass tufts on her base. On their own, they don't stick very well but a little super glue solved that right up. The really disappointing part, though, was that the foam the grass is attached to is white. Distractingly white, even blindingly white against the earthy ground on the base. But I took a little bit of the brown wash to it and that colored up really nicely. It blends in much better now, and looks more natural to boot.

All three Daemonettes so far.

  I noticed a funny thing, I've used purple on all my Daemonettes so far. I'm going to avoid using it on this year's model (who I will definitely start in November instead of the last week of December). I think 2013 doesn't look as nice in the photo as compared to 2012, but in person they look about the same, in terms of quality, to me.

You can check these links for more on the Daemonette Project and the 2012 Daemonette.

I am pleased with the mini overall but incredibly displeased with the photos. I gotta do something about my camera and light set up. Currently, my nice SLR is visiting with my father for some business related photo shoots, so I can't do anything about that. But I really need to make a dedicated photo-taking space and get some better lights. Anyone have suggestions in that regard?

The New New White Dwarf

Doesn't it feel like just yesterday that we were all a-titter over the new White Dwarf? And here we are again with new New White Dwarf. As you've probably heard, the magazine has now been split into two separate items that are on different release schedules.

According to Games Workshop themselves:

White Dwarf features a host of articles, from new releases and painting tips, to rules discussions and gaming advice. We really have crammed every page to bursting point. The great news is that there will be a new issue every week, available for the same price as a pot of Citadel Paint and keeping you up to date with everything going on in the hobby. 

Warhammer: Visions is a visual extravaganza, a real feast for your hobby eyes. With 50 pages of Golden Demon entries in this issue alone, it’s a great way to find inspiration for new projects and see all the latest models.

A weekly little White Dwarf that seems, as described, to be the exact same White Dwarf we'd been getting, only broken up into 4 smaller ones released each week. They also seem to have done away with the subscription model entirely for this one- but anyone currently subscribed will automatically begin receiving Visions instead.

This does bring up an interesting question- what happens to the annual White Dwarf subscription model? It seems that now anyone can buy him on the GW website for $35. And I think I have to, because he's a bloody vampire hunter this year. S. O. L. D.

So how do these two new magazines stack up? Well, I dusted off my December 2012 copy of WD (Hobbit release) and sat down to look at them together. First, we'll look at the White Dwarf Weekly.

It'll set you back "as much as a pot of paint" or $4. Seems reasonable so far, although the magazine is only 32 pages, as compared to the ~140 pages of the original. So even buying all 4, you're still getting a bit less content for a few more dollars.

But it is, unsurprisingly, exactly the same magazine as before, simply sliced into a smaller bit- many of the usual suspects are there- various new releases, Paint Splatter,  Jervis Johnson, and designers notes. Some of the missing sections make an appearance in Visions, but I also imagine that the sections will rotate in as new issues of WDW come out. There's not really much else to say here- if you liked WD before, you'll probably like this, even though you have to physically go to your store to get it or buy it digitally each week (no subscription option, remember).