2022 End Of Year Report

I don't even remember what my previous resolutions were, I basically forgot about them very early on. So this year I'm keeping it simple.

1. Exercise
My energy levels have been really low for a long time. I really need to prioritise exercising and getting my energy levels up.

2. Spend Less On Hobbies
I've been spending too much money on my various hobbies and interests. I'm going to try to rein it in this year. This should also help me with my hobby backlog, because it will force me to spend more time actually finishing old projects rather than continually taking on new ones. You know, if I stick to it.


Hopefully this year I will be able to make some changes for the better in my life. I feel like there's signs that things might work out better this year than recent years. So fingers crossed.

How Does This Game Work Again?

It's been so long since we played Warcaster: Neo-Mechanika that we actually couldn't remember if the attack roll or the damage roll was opposed, and had to check Youtube for a quick refresher. I also may have messed up the cover rules a few times; I think I was mixing up the rules with some version of Warmachine's rules or something, where you have to be within an inch of a terrain feature for it to give you cover. We might have forgotten to boost Furies too. I really need to fully re-read the rules, especially stuff like jumping and climbing etc.

I decided to try Jax Redblade this game:
Artemis Fang hero solo
Jax Redblade hero solo
Coalition Weaver solo
Hunter solo x2
Ranger Fire Team squad
Dusk Wolf light warjack (Scout cortex, Railgun, Battle Rifle, Ripper Saw)
Strike Raptor heavy warjack (Bomber cortex, Talon Rocket Pod, Talon Rocket Pod, Flamethrower, Flamethrower)

Karas brought his Cadre:
Major Aysa Drayce hero solo
Paladin Seigebreaker solo
Regulator Reave solo
Regulator squad
- Witch Hounds attachments
Tracers squad
Paladin Defenders squad
Paladin Enforcers squad
Firebrand light warjack (Reflex cortex, Assault Rifle & Bayonet, Repulsor Shield, Immolator)
Morningstar heavy warjack (Exchanger cortex, Assault Shield, Assault Shield, Gate Crasher, Starburst Missiles)
Headsman heavy warjack


Pre-Game:
I forgot my cards this game. This slowed us down a lot as I was constantly checking the wiki for model and weapon stats. I built my rack using Karas' cypher cards: basically I went through his deck and picked the first three of each type of cypher that didn't feel completely useless to me. This did mean that I ended up stealing some powerful cyphers. We were playing Skirmish, so we had to extend the deployment areas to account for the small play area. We rolled for a mission and got Boiling Point.


Deployment:
Karas won the roll-off and chose to go first, deploying Drayce on my left and the Morningstar on my right. I started with my Dusk Wolf and a Hunter on my right, and the Rangers on my left.

Pulse 1.1:
Drayce grabbed the far left objective and put up her buffing aura. The Morningstar moved up and dropped a gate, from which emerged the Firebrand and Seigebreaker. I think Drayce also dropped a gate.
Pulse 1.2:
After consulting the rules my Hunter climbed a ladder to take the high ground. The Dusk Wolf shot at the Firebrand and, through some combination of spikes, cypers, and/or other abilities, the two ended up in positions that are confusing to me when I look at the photo now. I put a gate down near the Rangers.
Pulse 1.3:
Karas brought in the Headsman (and possibly the Regulator Reave, hidden behind the tower?). The Firebrand and Seigebreaker scored the right objective and killed my Dusk Wolf and Hunter with at least one pretty hot roll. Karas put down a gate in his deployment zone behind Drayce
Pulse 1.4:
My Rangers scored the near-left objective and took out the Firebrand, though it killed two of them with return fire. I brought in the Weaver and the Strike Raptor. I put down another gate nearer to the far-left objective.
Pulse 1.5:
The Headsman killed my Weaver and put a wound on the Strike Raptor. Karas brought in the Tracers and Paladin Defenders, finally putting down a gate next to the right objective.
Pulse 1.6:
Using a cypher for flight, my Strike Raptor hopped up to the high ground and took out the Seigebreaker, also putting some damage onto the Headsman. I collapsed my gate on the left to bring back my Dusk Wolf, and put down a new gate on the right.
Pulse 2.1:
The Reave channeled a Fury to wound my DuskWolf, inflicting Lockdown. The Headsman attacked my Strike Raptor but couldn't hit him though the cover. The Seigebreaker and Regulators emerged from the portal next to the right objective. Karas put a gate down on the tower near the Reave.
Pulse 2.2:
I charged the Strike Raptor with a second point of Arc, gave him Tune Up with a cypher card, then spiked for flight and flew down, taking out the Headsman and Regulators, and putting a couple of wounds on the Seigebreaker. For lack of any more jacks or squads I brought in Artemis, Jax, the Weaver, and a Hunter on the right. I put down a gate next to the last Ranger.
Pulse 2.3:
The Tracers moved into the center of the table and, with the help of the Seigebreaker, put two more wounds on the Strike Raptor, leaving him on one. The Headsman popped out of the gate on the middle tower. The Seigebreaker dropped another gate next to the right objective.


Pulse 2.4:
Jax killed the Seigebreaker and scored the right objective. The Ranger scored the near left objective, taking out a Tracer with some rather silly dice: I pulled my second Hunter, the only model I had left, out of my gate, and put down a second gate nearby.
Pulse 2.5:
The Reave moved up to body-block my Dusk Wolf, putting a second wound on it. The Headsman dropped down and killed the last Ranger and the nearby Hunter, knocking a point of Arc off a gate and scoring the objective. The Regulators popped out of the gate near the right objective, bringing the Witch Hounds with them this time. Karas summoned the Seigebreaker from the gate on the tower, and put a new gate down near the Tracers.
Pulse 2.6:
I pulled the Arc off a gate, collapsing it, and used a Cypher to fully charge the Dusk Wolf, who attacked the Headsman. Artemis Fang shot down a Regulator. collapsed my gate on the left to re-deploy the Hunter, and put down a new gate on the right.
Pulse 2.7... ?:
The Regulators were unable to kill Jax or the Strike Raptor. The Seigebreaker killed my left Hunter. Karas deployed the Paladin Enforcers and the Firebrand in the center of the table.
Pulse 2.8!:
The Hunter was the only model I had left to activate, but between him and a Cypher or two (I think I used a cypher that gave me another attack from Strike Raptor) I was able to kill the last two Regulators and a Witch Hound. I deployed my Rangers on the right, and put down a gate behind some scatter terrain on my left.
Pulse 3.1:
Both the Tune Up and Lock Down on my jacks remained. The Headsman killed my Dusk Wolf and scored the near left objective. I believe the Seigebreaker tried to finish off the Strike Raptor but failed. Karas used a cypher that would bring back a Regulator at the start of each of his turns.
Pulse 3.2:
I gave the Strike Raptor an Arc, then spiked for Flight. It then flew as far as it could towards the far left objective, killing Drayce and some Tracers on the way. Jax killed another Witch Hound, scoring the right objective. I used a cypher to advance the Rangers a bit. I brought in the Dusk Wolf again, and put down a new gate on the right.
Pulse 3.3:
A Regulator spawned. The Firebrand finally finished off my Strike Raptor. Something, either the Firebrand or possibly the Regulator Reave, wounded Artemis and set her on fire.
Pulse 3.4:
The Dusk Wolf took out the Headsman. The Hunter pushed up but didn't get anything done. I brough in the Strike Raptor again and put down another gate next to the Rangers.
Pulse 3.5:
Another Regulator spawned. The two Regulators and remaining Witch Hound attacked Jax; the first Regulator spiked his roll and took all 3 of her wounds in one hit, allowing them to score the objective. At this point there was no way for me to score the far left obective, meaning Karas won 14 points to 11:
Post-mortem:
It was a fun game. I was actually rolling really well on my defensive rolls, with models surviving far longer than they should. Part of that was down to trying to make sure my models were in cover of course. I got some pretty good dice on the attack too. As usual I was behind on points early and struggled to make them up. It didn't help that a lot of my turns I could only activate one unit as I didn't have any solos - and once I activated two solos as I didn't have any units. I need to pay more attention to keeping my deployed models balanced for more efficient activations.

The Strike Raptor was solid despite never having more than two Arc (often he was sitting on only one), but the Dusk Wolf might have been more consistant just because he was easier to bring in. Jax was surprisingly effective; she's not particularly strong on the offense, but with DEF 5 and 3 wounds with a reroll, her survivability was leagues ahead of my Hunters.

Grabby Gorillas

I finally finished the last of my Apes, at least for the time being.
Assault Apes:
As with my previous ape units, I had made the mistake of priming these guys in black (specifically Vallejo 73.660 Surface Primer Gloss Black), airbrushing over it with Formula P3 Menoth White Highlight to try to get a better undercoat for the colours. In this case I followed up with an airbrushed basecoat of Vallejo 72.707 Game Air Gold Yellow.

The fur was GreenStuffWorld 1832 Redwood Brown drybrushed with Formula P3 Rucksack Tan. The leather was Formula P3 Bogrin Brown. Brass was Citadel Layer Gehenna's Gold over brown, usually Bogrin Brown. Steel was Vallejo 72.054 Game Color Gunmetal. The lenses were my usual mix of Green Stuff World 1872 Metal Color Neptunus Blue and Scalecolor SC-66 Speed Metal. I applied Vallejo 72.730 Game Air Goblin Green over the shoulder armour to tie them to the rest of my Apes.

The skin was basecoated Vallejo 70.992 Model Color Neutral Grey, then roughly highlighted with Vallejo 71.132 Model Air Aged White. The teeth, nails, and eyes were picked out with Menoth White Highlight, then the eyes were given dots of Redwood Brown. Finally the skin, eyes, and mouth were glazed with Citadel Shade Seraphim Sepia.

For the blue lamps I tried to create a transition by blending from Vallejo 72.021 Game Color Magic Blue, through Citadel Edge Baharroth Blue, up to a mix of Baharroth Blue and Vallejo 70.853 Model Color White Glaze. For the purple lamp I transition from Vallejo 70.960 Model Color Violet, through Vallejo 72.776 Game Air Alien Purple, up to a mix of Alien Purple and White Glaze. In all cases I tried to thin the mixes with lots of water and medium to try to build up the transitions with glazes, though the results were not as smooth as I had hoped.

I tried to create OSL effects using drybrushes of Magic Blue and Baharroth Blue. For the purple lamp I drybrushed Violet, Alien Purple, and then a mix of Alien Purple and Formula P3 Morrow White.

After cleaning up the yellow armour with Vallejo 72.007 Game Color Gold Yellow, I dipped the models in The Army Painter Quickshade Dip Dark Tone, carefully mopping up the excess dip with a brush to prevent unwanted pooling. This was followed with an airbrushed coat of Vallejo 26.518 Acrylic Varnish Matt.


These guys were more work than I like to put into my Monpoc units, especially with the yellow and the glows. I had a hard time painting the details; my eyesight is not what it used to be. I screwed up the skin highlights, especially around the face; their faces just look messy and overdone. The mouths don't look great either. Overall I can't say I'm completely satisfied with them; I'm not sure the yellow works that well with the brown fur and green armour. Although they do add a nice pop of colour in the family photo:

A Wasteland Survivor's Best Friend

I was introduced to Fallout Wasteland Warfare alongside Fuzzy. The game was hosted by The Man In Black and Mailman. I played the Survivors alongside Mailman; our goal was to ativate consoles to pump enough water to a settlement. Fuzzy and MiB ran the Super Mutants, their goal was to down 4 of our models. The Super Mutants went first, and got a dog into melee with our most important model on the very first activation. After a few turns of combat both sides were down to just two models, with Dogmeat proving to be a force to be reckoned with. And then the next few turns were a pathetic slap-fight with nothing dying; in the rare event that a model managed to land an attack, the defender typically passed their armour save. Eventually we gave up and called it as people had places to be.


We had a lot of fun, though the game will definitely take some getting used to. It's very token-heavy, with more complexity in the dice/action system than I expected. I'm not sure that complexity does all that much to increase meaningful player decisions though; of course I didn't actually read the rules so there could be a lot more depth that we just didn't touch on in this intro game.

Cutting Foam

I finally figured out an effective way of cutting foam to fit my miniatures. This involved putting together a couple of custom tools. I have described the method in detail here.

Now to find the time and effort to actually put it into practice for all my minis. This could take a while.

The Model That Got Me Into Resin Casting

When I saw the first concept art of Ol' Grim, I was instantly hooked. As if Widowmakers weren't already cool enough, they went and gave us one that's a ghost. How cool is that? As impactful as the official colour scheme is, I decided I wanted to go proper ghostly with this guy, and took my first steps into resin casting in order to do it. He's actually surprisingly difficult to photograph; I put a fair bit of of work into both sides of his coat, but the underside is only really visible from underneath, and you have to look almost straight down to appreciate the detail on the top. This was the first model in quite some time that I really wanted to paint for myself; I've only been painting stuff for others, or knocking out quick Monsterpocalypse models that I wasn't really invested in, for a while now. It was surprisingly hard to get started; I feel like I'm being pulled in so many different directions these days that the idea of sitting down to spend many hours painting a model feels like a heavy burden. But luckily I had a bit of free time and I mostly enjoyed the process once I commit to it.

Casting the clear bit took a couple of tries. The first attempt had some holes in it. The second time was better, and I was mostly able to fill the few holes that did occur using UV resin. I also tried to create a bit of an internal swirl of a blue glow-in-the-dark powder pigment, but it basically just sank to the bottom of the mold (I was using vibrations to help bubbles rise to the surface, and that seemed to help the powder to sink). Luckily I think that actually looks pretty good; I like it more than the first completely clear cast anyway. It looked pretty cool after I hit it with some gloss varnish; I was tempted to leave it this way, but figured I would save this look for water and ended up finishing it with matt varnish. I painted the upper assembly separately. While doing so I realised there was a miscast on the muzzle of the rifle. I tried fixing it with greenstuff, but ultimately decided I would be happier if I modified the gun, so I stripped the paint (which wasn't too bad as I had only just started) and customized the gun barrel and stock. In the photos below you can see some paint that was dissolved in blob of superglue on the face and wouldn't come off. Don't worry, I eventually got it off using a superglue remover.
Ol' Grim:
The upper body was primed with Mr. Hobby Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 White. The coat and ushanka were basecoated in Green Stuff World 1832 Redwood Brown. I washed them with Citadel Shade Agrax Earthshade then applied some rough highlights with Reaper 09225 Master Series Paint Core Colors Redstone Highlight. The coat lining was first basecoated with Citadel Base Khorne Red, then I built up highlights using thinned Citadel Base Mephiston Red then thinned Vallejo 72.010 Game Color Bloody Red. I gave it a wash of Citadel Shade Carroburg Crimson, then re-applied the highlights of Bloody Red.

The armour was also basecoated in Khorne Red then highlighted in Mephiston Red. The armour trim was basecoated in Redwood Brown. I wanted the trim to be brass, but I didn't want to go too bright as the rest of the coat was quite dark, so I used the slightly dark Scalecolor SC-92 Victorian Brass. This was washed with Citadel Shade Agrax Earthshade, which was allowed to darken the adjacent red areas to shade them. I then highlighted back up to Victorian Brass. The breastplate used the same brass for the trim, but the rest was Citadel Base Leadbeltcher (which I might have given a light wash of Citadel Shade Nuln Oil).

I didn't want the shirt to be in the same colour as the coat, but I still wanted it to be in the off-white/brown range, so I ended up using Formula P3 Bootstrap Leather, which I washed with Agrax Earthshade then highlighted with a mix of Bootstrap Leather and Formula P3 Hammerfall Khaki.

For the rifle stock I went with Formula P3 Rucksack Tan, on which I tried to paint a wood grain effect using P3 Menoth White Highlight. I went for a brighter brass on the rifle itself in the hopes that would help differentiate it from the armour a little, using Citadel Layer Gehenna's Gold. I didn't want this big solid block of brass covering most of the rifle, so I painted the scope in Vallejo 71.068 Model Air Metallic Copper. I then washed all the rifle wood, brass, and copper with Citadel Shade Ogryn Flesh. I did then roughly highlight the brass with Scalecolor SC-73 Dwarven Gold as the wash had blended it in a bit with the copper. The badge on the ushanka was painted the same way as the brass on the rifle. The steel rifle barrel was painted in Vallejo Game Color Chainmail Silver (again, aiming for a brighter colour than the armour) then washed with Citadel Shade Nuln Oil. I added dots of my now-standard mix of Green Stuff World 1872 Metal Color Neptunus Blue and Scalecolor SC-66 Speed Metal for the scope lenses.

I had a hard time with the fur trim. A light colour felt right, but I didn't want it to blend in to the bones. I settled on a basecoat of Vallejo 71.122 Model Air US Desert Armour 686. I tried shading it with Seraphim Sepia, but I didn't like it, so I painted over it with a fresh coat of US Desert Armour 686. I remembered that I had a whole bunch of brownish Army Painter washes stashed away somewhere, so I pulled them out and tried to compare their colours. I settled on The Army Painter Quickshade Washes Soft Tone, which seemed to me to be similar in colour to Citadel's Agrax Earthshade but somewhat lighter. I then drybrushed the fur with Formula P3 Jack Bone, then went over the tips with another drybrush of Formula P3 Morrow White.
Ol' Grim's ol' bones were painted in P3 Menoth White Highlight, washed with Citadel Shade Seraphim Sepia, then highlighted back up with Menoth White Highlight. I was running out of browns, so I settled on Formula P3 Bogrin Brown for the eyepatch, which I also shaded in Seraphim Sepia. After the bone was done I added extra shading to the eye with Nuln Oil, then added a dot of Citadel Edge Baharroth Blue on the raised center. The beard was basecoated in Vallejo 70.992 Model Color Neutral Grey (by accident; I originally intended to use a lighter shade but picked up the wrong bottle and decided to go with it) then washed with Nuln Oil. It was then drybrushed with Vallejo 70.990 Model Color Light Grey, then Vallejo 70.989 Model Color Sky Grey, and finally I gave it a very light drybrush of Vallejo 70.993 Model Color White Grey.

I airbrushed Vallejo 26.517 Gloss Acrylic Varnish over the upper assembly, followed a couple of days later by an airbrush of Vallejo 26.518 Matt Acrylic Varnish. I then applied a dot of Citadel Technical 'Ardcoat over the scope lenses (I feel it's a bit more glossy than the Vallejo, though I haven't really tested that theory).
I had initially intended to add some shading to the clear resin of the ghostly ectoplasm, so I primed the lower assembly with the Vallejo Matt Varnish. Ultimately I decided the ectoplasm looked good as-is and didn't put anything on it. I did however paint Vallejo Sky Grey into the base and clean up the rim with Vallejo 70.950 Model Color Black.

After this I airbrushed the lower assembly with the Vallejo Gloss Varnish. Once this was dry I applied Jot P.V.A. Adhesive & Sealer (a waterproof hobby PVA) to the base, then sprinkled on a generous amount of Citadel Snow, padding it down very lightly with a brush. Once this was dry I removed the excess snow, only to find that the snow looked very thin and flat. So I went back and brushed another layer of PVA on top of the snow, then mixed the PVA with the snow and carefully applied that on top, finishing with a final generous sprinkling of snow and a light pat-down with a brush. This time the results were better, looking fuller and fluffier.

After the snow on the base had dried I airbrushed on the Vallejo Matt Varnish again. Once that was dry I finally attached the upper and lower assemblies. Which was more hassle than I had expected, and almost went horribly wrong. Luckily I eventually managed to get them mated nicely, although I did end up pinning them together, and sadly the pin channel is slightly visible in the clear part. Luckily it's not really noticeable unless you're looking for it.

I was worried about the superglue leaving a frosty residue on the surrounding areas, and that's exactly what happened. I found some advice online that suggested using a heat gun or vaseline to remove the residue. I very carefully tried the heatgun, but the resin started to go soft with no visible effect on the frosting, so I quickly abandoned that terrible idea. Instead I carefully brushed on some vaseline, then carefully removed the vaseline with some warm water and dishsoap. This did remove the hazing, but seemed to leave the surfaces slightly glossy even after being left to dry for hours.

I don't know if it actually took off the matt varnish, or if it just affected the surface; I've heard that a matt finish can eventually turn glossy with handling as the microscopic rough surface neccessary for a matt finish can get pressed/worn smooth. Regardless, I went back and applied yet another quick coat of Vallejo Matt Varnish. And that, thankfully, was finally it.


As you can see this guy was a bit of a journey. Between the resin casting, the modification, the difficulty finding enough different browns, the basing, and the issues with final assembly, this guy took WAY more time and effort than the average 32mm "human" figure. But hey, he's a cool model who came out pretty well. I named him "Simo Häyhä" after a legendary Finnish sniper known as "The White Death". I think the name fits.