Compare and Contrast.

Hi folks.

Contrast Paints, initially promoted as a quick and easy way to get painted models on the table top but still looking good, is this the case?

I initially bought some of these when they came out to play with, so are they the miracle paint that everyone thought they would be? Simple answer is no, are they good paints? Undoubtedly yes. Let me explain.

The marketing from GW was basically slap one coat of this on something and it will shade/highlight and do everything you want, and yes, they do work like that and for some the results will be fine. Personally I don't like the look. It works for some stuff but not everything and I think that is the key - it's to find out how to use them to provide the best results. I don't use them as the miracle paint, I use them as another tool in my box. I also think to get the best results from them you have to use them in the right way, I don't think just slapping them on is the best way to get good results. Also some combinations work better on certain models than others and by combinations I mean the actual paint colour but also the undercoat you use as well.

So what they good for? I find the best use of them is on models with some texture, by this I mean a model that has detail, raised surfaces. For Armour I don't think they work well at all as the paint can tend to pool (although there is one exception to this that I have found so far - more on this later). I also find that they work better on regular sized models, things like regular infantry. With larger models you tend to get the pooling/streaking problem but again there are exceptions.

As well as the paints, GW released a specific Contrast Medium. Medium is basically the same stuff as the paint but without a pigment. It's used to thin the actual Contrast paint and I make use of it a lot, it helps to reduce the pooling issue I mentioned previously.

So lets have a look at some of the models I have used it on and how I used them. Firstly an army I started purely because Contrast Paints got released and one of the armies they work amazingly well on - Sylvaneth.

Sylvaneth models are covered in texture, they are essentially walking Trees and the surface of the models are all texture. They also use a fairly limited palette of colours which are Browns and Greens (well those are the colours I went with).. GW posted an article on the Community site with some examples of Sylvaneth models painted in Contrast and they looked simply amazing and were painted in a really short space of time. I have always wanted to do a Sylvaneth army and even bought and painted models before, but had a really hard time getting them to look the way I wanted and also to look consistent, here was the solution. The models are painted with just 4 Colours. I started from a Grey Undercoat, the one specifically designed to be used with Contrast paint. I then did the flesh tones first as they are a bit harder to get too. I tidied up any bits with the same Grey (but the pot version). I then did the Brown and then the Green whilst the Brown was still a little wet so it blended in. I did thin down the Contrast with just a little Medium. The Sword is just a Contrast Blue straight from the pot. The only thing I used a non-Contrast for was the Silver on the sword handle. That is all it took on these models, and the Treeman is a big centre piece model. Now I said earlier that it isn't good for large models, well this is one of the exceptions. Take, for example, the Giant model. I tried using the Contrast skin tone on this model, but as the areas of skin are actually pretty large and flat the Contrast doesn't work well. It gets a bit blotchy. For my Giant I did use the Contrast skin tone, but I mixed it with Medium and used it as more of a wash. I then went over the skin again with regular paint to get a more smooth finish. I think you'll agree that the Contrast on the Sylvaneth models works a treat.

The next set of models that Contrast is great for is another AoS army - Tzeentch. The main reason, is again, that the models have some texture to them, but also the colour palette that is available with Contrast. Tzeentch Colours are traditionally fairly bright and the Contrast range offers this. Again I had been struggling with things like Pink Horrors getting a consistent colour that I liked which was easy to achieve each time. With the Contrast Pink, one coat straight over and done. I did mix in a little Medium to get it to flow around the shape of the body better and to give is a slight translucence. I used the Wraithbone undercoat on these. The Exalted Flamers body uses a slightly different technique. I painted the model with the Blue Contrast, but when it was still wet I applied some Medium to areas where I wanted it to be lighter. You then have to keep an eye on it as it dries and guide it to where you do or don't want it. The flames are just straight Contrast Yellow and Red out of the pot, again applied at the same time, so when the paint it still wet, you can blend the Colours together where they meet. Same technique was used on the Screamers. I painted the Disc with regular paint.

Next up some Nighthaunt. These were done using a similar technique to the Tzeentch stuff above. I used the Wraithbone undercoat and then a 50/50 mix of the Blue Contrast with Medium. When that was done I then used just Medium to paint down the model whilst it was still wet so that the Contrast remained darker at the top and then went to virtually nothing at the bottom. Once dry I then used a Wraithbone paint as a dry brush at the bottom of the model so make the ends of the cloaks basically white. The Grey and metal were regular paints with a Black wash and a light Grey highlight. As they are simple models and using this method you can really get them done quickly whilst also getting a really nicely painted model.

Now on to some 40K. At the top of this post I said Contrast wasn't great on armour but there are some exceptions and this comes back to the combinations point. I tried the Yellow Contrast straight over the Wraithbone undercoat for painting some Imperial Fists, and whilst it works, I don't like the colour and it does get a bit blotchy. What Contrast does work well on is Iron Warriors and this comes down to using the Grey Contrast and a Leadbelcher Undercoat. As the two Colours are fairly similar this minimises the blotching affect and this also works on the vehicles too. In general Contrast on vehicles looks bad as it streaks, but this particular combination seems to work really well. The Iron Warrior infantry models below are just a Leadbelcher undercoat and a generous coat of the Grey Contrast. The rims and shoulder pads are painted with regular paint, but using this method gives you a great looking model in no time at all. The tank was done in the same way, but you have to make sure that you don't streak so brush those away if you see it happening, but you have to be careful, if you go over an area that has dried too much as it then leaves a blotch. So don't go over the same area too many times.

The next model is a Thousand Sons Marine. I have only done one of these so far, I did it mainly to see if Contrast would work. I thought long and hard about either using a Gold or Silver undercoat but in the end I stuck to the Wraithbone. For this model I actually used two coats. The first coat was a 50/50 Contrast Blue and Medium. The second coat was 2 parts Medium to 1 part Contrast Blue. This gave the armour a translucent effect that I was after. I then did the Gold trim with regular paint. You have to be really careful here because if you get any Gold on the armour you don't really have anything to cover it up with. So if you do get some on there get it off with some water quickly.

So that's it, my guide to using Contrast paints. To conclude they are really useful and an excellent addition to the paint range. If you want to just slap it on and get some models on the table it works, but the effects aren't great. If you are an experienced painter that wants to try and get some different techniques into your painting they are awesome too. They really do have some benefits in terms of getting some great affects with little effort, but not for everything. It's worth while doing a little experimentation on some old models if you can because, as I have said loads, its all about certain combinations. Certain paints and undercoats look better than others. So go ahead and give them a try, I think you'll find the results surprising.

Until next time…

Small large things.

Hi All.

Adeptus Titanicus.... a blast from the past. I remember playing this in my mates bedroom, with our plastic Warlord Titans roaming around the polystyrene city. I suspect we got plenty of rules wrong but we had a great time.

I was really excited when this came out, but then I saw the price of the first starter set, honestly it put me off which is ironic because I have probably spent way more on it now than the start set cost. But when you don't know if you are going to enjoy it or if you are going to have a big enough player base, then the initial price tag was too high. Having said all that the models were amazing.....

But then a few weeks ago GW launched a new starter set that was an absolute steal, two Reavers, two Warhounds and a couple of Knights for £90 - even better was that some online retailers were doing it for £70. I really didn't have an option. Plus several other guys at the club were going in, so we had a decent group of players all starting out.

I ripped open the set and got a couple of Titans painted up in short order and then managed to get my first game in and I have to say that it's a cracking game. We just ran through the basic rules and it was great, I haven't even got into the Legio specific stuff yet. Unfortunately the Coronavirus crisis has shut the club down for a month or so (or longer) which means getting another game in is going to have to wait a bit but it has given me time to get a decent number of Titans painted. I also got hold of a couple of the campaign books so have been pouring over the fluff and picking out my Legio and Maniples.

I have to say the models are some of the best kits GW have done, given that they aren't large models, the number of parts and the detail is astounding. I even managed to get over my fear of magnets and have magnetised all the weapon options to give me plenty of tactical choice. I pretty much have all the models I own painted, there are a couple of Knights and a Warlord waiting to be unpacked but I have a large enough number of Titans painted for a decent game.

So on to the models......

Warbringer

Warhounds

Combat Reaver

Shooty Reaver

Knight Lancers

Knights

Warhound

Until next time...

A new start.

Hey Folks.....

Yes, it has been a long time since I did any hobby blogging, I could roll off a big list of reasons why - let's just say - real life can get really busy.

Loads of stuff has been happening in the GW world since my last post, they seem to be smashing it out of the park in terms of releases at the moment. I have a ton of different projects on the go (as usual) simply because of the amazing models and releases GW are putting out at the moment.

One of the best games they have released in a while has kept me pretty busy - Warcry. What an absolute cracker of a game. With Warcry I think GW hit the sweet spot, it's simple to learn the rules but it really does have hidden depth in terms of how you play the game and that comes from some really clever game mechanics. Its also a skirmish game so, like me, if you have tendency to switch between a lot of army projects this allows you to build up several different Warbands as the model count is pretty low. As I have loads of half finished armies lying around it really offered me an opportunity to utilise some of those models that never ended up being a complete 2KAoS army.

There are tons of options when it comes to Warbands, there are the new Warcry specific Warbands but also Warbands for pretty much every AoS army. We are running a campaign at the club at the moment and I am using Disciples of Tzeentch. I picked them because I am in the process of building a Tzeentch AoS army so this gave me the opportunity to use some of the models I had already finished but I also really like the way they play.

After playing lots when I picked the game up I found that winning is all about the scenario. Beating everything to death doesn't always help although there are certain scenarios where it does. Also the game length varies from 3 to 4 turns so you need to get things done quickly. The Disciples Warband is not tough, they die to a stiff breeze but what they do have is some decent ranged attacks, some speed and a couple of models that hit hard. So the key to winning is to utilise each of these in the right place at the right time.

Your basic Acolyte has some decent ranged attacks, they don't do massive damage but if you can club together two or three of them you can take out a few of the opposition models or do some decent damage to the tougher models so that when they get to me my own damage dealers can finish them off, that is the Tzaangors job. I also have a couple of guys on Discs, these guys are quick and they also hit hard but they cost a lot of points so they need to be used wisely, these go after the objectives.

What I have found is if my opponent targets the Disc riders, my shooting really does damage, if they go after the shooters the Discs can grab the objectives unmolested and then help with tidying up, they are a Warband with a lot of options.

I have a few territories at the moment so am able to use 1200pts to pick my Warband, this is my favourite build presently.

• Acolyte Leader. 
• Acolyte with Scroll. 
• 2*Acolyte with Shield.
• 2*Tzaangor Mutants. 
• Tzaangor with 2 Handed Weapon. 
• 2*Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc. 

The Acolyte with Scroll is one of my favourite models. He costs a few points but is very flimsy but he has a boosted shooting attack, more shots with a higher strength and he really gets some work done. 

Until next time....... 

Road to the doubles.

Hey Folks.

At the end of October my friend Paul and I will be attending the Age of Sigmar doubles event up at Warhammer World. My little gaming group has done a lot of the Doubles events but this is the first time that Paul and I will be teaming up. Paul plays a lot of Tzeentch and, to my shame, I have never beaten his Tzeentch with my Nurgle army, I have come close a few times but have never managed it. So what better than teaming up with my arch enemy?

Now for you fluff bunnies out there I know that it isn’t totally a match made in heaven, and being more of a fluff player I totally get that, but Tzeentch is always scheming, so what can you do?

The Armies.
On paper it’s actually a pretty good combination. When I play Nurgle against Tzeentch one of the main issues I face is that my magic gets shut down and I don’t have any shooting. One of the weaknesses of Tzeentch is that if an army gets to you and starts hitting you its pretty much over so the Nurgle/Tzeentch combo works well as one army makes up for the weakness in the other.

Tzeentch.
Paul is going with: -
Lord of Change.
Ogroid Thaumaturge.
10 Acolytes.
10 Acolytes.
3 Enlightened on Discs.
Witchfire Coven Battalion.

Nurgle. 
Gutrot Spume.
Festus the Leechllord.
10 Blightkings.
5 Blightkings.
5 Blightkings.
Chronomatic Cogs.
Soulsnare Shackles.

The Tzeentch half gives us a good magic phase, and hopefully the ability to stop the opponents phase. We have a couple of objective camping units in the Acolytes that can also shoot twice a turn (thanks to the Battalion) and a couple of fast moving hitters. The Enlightened are pretty good at taking out certain types of unit and are fast, the Ogriod can also do a ton of damage.

The Nurgle half is less complicated, point it at something you want to destroy and smash it. I love Blightkings, in combat they are total monsters. Festus will follow behind the unit of 10 and keep them healed, he can also cast Blades of Putrefaction which is an amazing spell. Gutrot can bring a unit on from any table edge, so depending on the scenario or if the opponent has some shooting at the back we don’t like, then that ability will come in useful. We don’t need to use it every game, it will very much depend on what we are facing. Chronometic Cogs will give everyone +2 move, if we can get this out first turn and combined with a Nurgle Tree we have a big threat in a turn 1 charge, next turn switch it to give the Tzeentch wizards some extra spell casting. I had 20pts left in the Nurgle half which is why the Shackles are there, potentially useful in certain situations.

So that’s the list at the moment. We’ll be trying it out over the next few weeks to see how it performs. I can’t really see us changing it much as 1000pts doesn’t give you much wiggle room. I am really looking forward to trying this out, I normally take horde style armies so taking a more elite army will be new for me.

As far as models go all I needed to do was paint up ten more Blightkings and that wouldn’t take long. I have a style for Nurgle stuff pretty much pinned down and I can crack out the models at a pretty good rate, plus there is plenty of time before the tournament.

I’ll post up info on the practise games and models as we go.

Until next time…

First Tournament for the Nurgle

Hey Folks.

I recently took my Nurgle army to a local AoS tournament. There were 20 players and my hopes were high for the new Nurgle book. I had played a few games with the new book, enough to know roughly what I wanted to take. I was also limited a little with the models that I have. I have bought a bunch of the new models but just haven't had time to paint them yet. So the list: -

Great Unclean One (GUO) with Bell/Flail.
Scrivener.
Daemon Prince.
Rotbringer Sorcerer.

30 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Blightkings.
6 Plaguedrones.

General plan was for the two 10's of Plaguebearers to hang back on home objectives. Everything else forward and smash stuff. Nurgle has a surprising amount of speed now, with certain buffs, spells and the tree a 1st turn charge is feasible and was significant in one of the games. My main strategies were to make sure any unit I wanted to charge were in range of the tree in turn one. The Daemon Prince would tag along with the flies to give them +1A. The Rotbringer would put his spell on whoever looked like they were going to see combat first, this would give that a unit an additional mortal wound on a hit roll of 6. The GUO would also give his Command Ability +1A on the same unit.

Game1. Sylvaneth.
This was the Duality of Death scenario. This is a good one for me. I charge the Prince to one objective with the Flies and then the GUO goes to the other one. If I go first it's pretty much a win. Even if the Prince goes down I am up on points and the GUO with all the Plaguebearers is just impossible to get off the other objective. This is exactly what happened in this game. Most of the army got over the half way line and the Sylvaneth could not come back. I scored very highly so was in 1st place at the end of game 1.

Game 2. Mixed Order.
We were playing Scorched Earth which is one of my favs. The order army looked scary. There was Alarielle on her big beetle, a Stormcast chap on a massive Dragon and then a few other bits. I wasn't sure how I was going to deal with two massive monsters. What I did notice was that on his two outside objectives were just a couple of units of ten skinks. I got first turn and pounced, the flies and the Daemon Prince taking advantage of all the move buffs charged over and got a first turn charge on one of the skink units. I destroyed them and then burned his objective before the rest of his army could come down on me. I scored 2 points from his but I scored all 3 of mine as well. So I was 5 up in turn 1 and he was unable to score the one I destroyed from this point on. Now it was just a case of defending that lead. It was a close thing in the end, he was very aggressive with his monsters and they did some damage but I managed to carry on steadily scoring. I also managed an awseome turn 2 charge to destroy one of his other objectives and he just could not come back. End of game 2 I was still in 1st place.

Game 3. Tzeentch.
We were playing Starstrike. My opponent was a good friend of mine, from the club I go to and also someone I had never beaten with his Tzeentch. This was the first time I had played them with the new Nurgle book and I knew how his army played. He uses an unusual list but it is still very powerful. When the objectives started falling they fell in good positions for Paul, he had two on his strongest side, really close together and I didn't have much over there. I also made a mistake on my side where I chased a unit to kill them which meant a fast unit of Pauls could score on my objective. I didn't need to go after that unit, without that mistake I might have been able to score a draw, if the objectives had dropped a bit more favourably, I might have been able to win but his army is so good that I don't know. Paul really knows his army and how to play it, so it was always going to be difficult for me.

So in the end I finished 4th. I was really pleased with this, it's a new book and I was really happy to do so well with it.

Here are some pictures of my army from the day.

Until next time...

Christmas Project

Hey Folks...

As I write this it is Christmas Eve 2017. I have a few weeks off over the holiday period and I have decided to put everything I have been working on aside and concentrate on finishing one big project - my Warhound Titan. I have had this bad boy for a few months and to be honest I was actually a bit intimidated by it. Even though it's the smallest of the Titans it is a big kit with a ton of parts and not great instructions and I have been putting it off. But I thought - no more. Its an expensive kit and it is just sitting there so Christmas break was the time to get it done.

So I cleaned my desk, put all the other projects aside, made a nice clean area and brought the box downstairs. I unpacked all the bits onto a tray and then divided them up into related groups. To make it a bit more manageable I decided that I was going to do this thing in sections - divide and conquer.  Do the feet, do the legs etc. I decided to build and paint the legs and then move onto the top half.

I have heard that the feet are one of the worse bits, so I did as above, got all the bits together, cleaned them up and then glued them together. I put some thought into the pose I wanted for the whole model so I knew what I needed the feet to look like. Actually it wasn't that bad, it did take and hour or two mind, for a two feet.

Once the feet were done I moved on to the legs. Same principle, sorted all the leg pieces, cleaned them up and built them, along with the hip. At this point I also put the base together as I didn't get the legs aligned perfectly so had to put a rock outcrop on the base to get one of the legs to the right hieght.



So now the legs were assembled I began to paint them Boltgun metal undercoat with my traditional rusty look on the legs. The armour plates are a combination of Black, White and Red which are the colours of the Legio Mortis to which this Titan belongs.

I also finished off the base and stuck the legs down. So at this point the legs are done apart from one of the plates which is nearly done. There are stripes on the left leg plate which you can't totally see in the pic.

Despite my initial fear of this model I have actually really enjoyed it and it wasn't as bad as I first thought it would be. The trick is to plan, organise and make sure you have all the bits. Dry fit everything before you stick and bob is your uncle.

I will have a bit of a break over Christmas and then crack on.

Happy Christmas - until next time...

Tournament AoS.

Hey Folks...

I recently attended a tournament put on by some good friends of mine. My main reason for going was, basically just to play some games and roll some dice. I have been working abroad for a long time which has reduced my play time. I used to be a regular player at GW tournaments in Nottingham but I found that they got really competitive and, as I have mentioned before, I am not really that kind of gammer. I like to use the models I like and I am just not that into spending massive amounts of time working out the best way to smash people up. Thats not to say I don't like to win, of course I do, I just don't like playing when all my opponent cares about is winning.

Well this wasn't one of those, it was a fairly small laid back affair and I had a really great time. Unfortunately there aren't really any pictures in this report, as I didn't take any, but you can see them on the Facebook page of the 'Greetings from Sigma' group.

This is more a report on the army and units and how they performed rather than of game tactics.

My list: -
The Glotkin.
Morbidex Twiceborn.
30 Plaguebearers.
30 Plaguebearers.
5 Blightkings.
3 Nurglings.
3 Nurglings.
10 Nurgle Chaos Warriors.
5 Nurgle Chaos Knights.
1 Nurgle Chaos Chariot.

There wasn't really an overall plan. I have found in the few practise games I play that I tend to win by scenario in a long drawn out slugfest. I tend to be able to manage Alpha Strikes well and can endure them to take it out in the long game.

Game 1. Lizards. 
I was worried in this game as I have never really played Lizards before and I know they can be pretty powerful. They have lots of tricks and my opponent explained them all to me - I remembered nothing of this conversation. I basically thought - well I will see what happens. As stated my expectations of this tournament were to learn a few things and play some games. Well turn 1 he teleported is Stegosaurus over, shot and charged The Glotkin and took a huge chuck out of him, at this point I was thinking that this game was going to be over pretty soon. But I remained focussed on the scenario and objectives and moved my army to start scoring as soon as possible. The one thing I was surprised about was how big my army seemed to be compared to everyone else's and this really paid off in the end. I managed to start taking away some of his models, the Blightkings came in to their first combat with a massive hit and wiped out a 20 man Skink unit in one go. For each 6 they roll to hit it causes D6 hits, in this combat from 15 attacks I rolled six 6's. The Nurglings were also doing a sterling job holding up the other flank and in-fact were increasing the size of their unit thanks to Morbidex's ability to generate new bases each turn. In the end my numbers took their toll and each turn I was scoring and at the end of turn 5 I had a convincing victory. I was really chuffed.

Game 2. Khorne. 
This was a full on Khorne rush army. Two units of Jugger Cav and then a ton of infantry. There wasn't really anything I could do about getting charged so I stuck a big unit of Plaguebearers and the Nurglings in front of the Cav and then everything else went after his Infantry. I was hoping that the Plaguebearers could hold one flank whilst the rest of my army could take out his army and then swing round to help. This was one of the scenarios where the objectives dropped during the game. As it turned out they dropped in my favour. The Plaguebearers did hold the flank and my other units did take out his army. Now this is the controversial bit - I lost on objectives points scored. However we only got to turn 3 (there was a long phone call involved). If we had played turn 4 I would have claimed three objectives and taken a massive lead. He did not have enough left of his army to win on turn 5 either. So whilst it went down on the scorecard as a loss I am counting it as a victory. I was a little annoyed but then I remembered my intention to go and have fun and learn some stuff so I took it on the chin and let it go.

Game 3. Ghosts.
This was an interesting army. The scenario was the basic capture the flag. Defend one objective and take another. My opponents army was basically made up of spirit hosts and I had no idea how to play them. They ignored all "Rend" and had a multitude of saves. I made mistakes in this game through lack of knowledge, I charged The Glotkin into the Ghost units when I should have charged my bigger Infantry units etc. Well in the end it was a draw on objectives but I lost on points. My opponent took out the Glotkin and Morbidex Twiceborn which scored him a ton of points, lots of his units licked out Mortal wounds and the Glotkin can't do anything about those. This was a good learning game and the next time I play this type of army I will feel better equipped.

Conclusions. 
So a win and two loses, I'll take that. But the best thing over the weekend was winning the Best Painted army award. This was voted for by the players so I feel really cool that they picked mine. I think this is one of the highest honours you can get from other players. I won by 1 vote from a beautiful Sylvaneth army and this was the army I actually voted for myself.

I was really pleased with the way my army performed and I took a lot away from just those three games. The way I play certain units, what units are good at, what they aren't etc. Stars of the show were probably the Plaguebearers. They held up really well, took out a ton of stuff and were virtually impossible to move. With the +1A form the Glotkin they are absolute monsters. Without the +1A from the Glotkin they aren't as good but they are still tough nuts to crack. The Blightkings were awesome as well, they can kick out some real damage and even without the +D6 they are still pretty dangerous, they also suck a lot of attention as well which can be a benefit. The Glotkin was good, its hard to ascertain his total benefit as its the buff that does the damage more than The Glotkin himself. He still has some great attacks and spells. Mortbidex was ok, I am not sure I fully utilised his abilities but the Nurgle generating ability is great and the Nurglings really caused some issues. No units really performed badly at all. I would like to bump the Blightkings from 5 to 10 which will cause a bit of jiggling around, I would also like to try out some other units to see how they play but I think the backbone of this army is pretty solid and I wont move away from The Glotkin and Plaguebearers for a while.

Until next time...