Duelling Paintbrushes 3: Aftermath.

Well, here we are in November with DP3 over. So how'd the Vulgar Goatmen go?
Well, I got 1000 points done, and I got 1500 points done (yesterday - didn't get time to finish the bases during October...). Astute readers may notice the 1500 points has changed - Greg 'The Hoodling' Johnson worked out the Warhammer World Series lists, and that changed my target slightly.

So here it is:

• Doombull
  
  • General; Frenzy; 2ndWeapon; Heavy Armour
  • Gnarled Hide
  • Ram Horn Helm
• Bray Shaman
  
  • Lore of the Wild; Magic Level 2; Braystaff
• Wargor
  
  • Heavy Armour; Shield; Battle Standard
  • Dragonhelm
  • Sword of Might
  • Dawn Stone
• 23 Gor Herd
  
  • Shield; Standard; Musician; Foe-Render (I've mixed the Gor units up in the photos...)
• 20 Gor Herd
  
  • 2ndWeapon; Standard; Musician; Foe-Render (yeah... I put out 23 of these guys, not 20...)
• 6 Minotaurs
  
  • 2ndWeapon; Light Armour; Standard; Musician
• Tuskgor Chariot
• Tuskgor Chariot
  
  
  The Tuskgor chariots are the latest addition. I got two plastic Orc chariots and a metal beastmen version for my Birthday. The the infamous Lot arrived from eBay with two more Tuskgor chariots and two warrior chariots.
  
  
  
  Here we see the beginings of two more conversions. The mass of stuff on the left is a Reaper hill giant chief, who is recieving a minotaur head and extra arms to become a Ghorgon. The other is an ogre mage who is becoming a Minotaur BSB.
  
  
  I was at Eureka on Friday getting paint, and these guys struck my eye. They are pre-release versions of a new range based on the novels of Michael Morcock. There are eight sculpts available at present, and I plan to use them as Ungor.
  
  
  Here's a size comparison.
  
  I have other plans, including Eureka Aurochs figures becoming Razorgor and some rather odd harpies. Plus a unit of Bestigor I've started to paint.

Duelling Paintbrushes 3: (almost) Complete!

Well, here we are with four days left in DP3, and it's been ages since I posted any progress. So what has been happening? Well, in my terms, not a lot. I've really slowed down due to social commitments and having to build  a costume for muck-up day (at my school, the staff dress up as well as the yr.12 students).
So I've finished another five minotaurs (which is two more than I needed even for the expanded 1500 point version), the Doom Bull, and the last eight Gor (five of whom only arrived in the mail last friday...) Said Gor are not yet based so I cannot claim to have completed the challenge yet.
I still need to paint two chariots to have the completed 1500 point force needed for the World Series.
So what next? Well, more chariots, a minotaur BSB, Ghorgon and some unit fillers and themed terrain.

The complete(ish) might of the 1000 point DP3 version of the Vulgar Goatmen. (for best results, this name should be sung in a mournful baritone to the tune of the Volga Boatmen song)

The might Doom Bull, converted from a Reaper minotaur. The right arm had to be repositioned to allow for ranking up, which is also why he's standing on a rock.

The free-hand shield ridden Gors in their metallic glory. Not one is from later than 1997, and many are from 1989 or earlier.

The two-hand weapon wielding plasigor.

Converted Reaper BSB.

Completely free from conversions, this is a Reven mage of some sort from Reaper. I believe she is a bull orc.

The three minotaurs for the 1000 points.

Now here we see everything (with the characters in units)

A mighty mass of minotaurs, including the wonderully named figure 'Ox Roar: Chaos Champion of Ultimate Slaughter'.

Incidentally, he's also the only guy the Doom Bull comfortably ranks up with...

Further photographic representations of the massed minotaurs.

Foe's-eye view of the Metalgor with shaman.

Close up on the plastigor command. I wanted a more mutated look for my gor, hence the old saurus head...

Duelling Paintbrushes 3: Minotaurs and Characters

We're half way through DP3 now, and I'm a touch behind the somewhat terrifying (but worryingly achievable) schedule I calculated, mostly due to having to other commitments I didn't figure in. So instead of finishing off the whole 1500 points yesterday, I've gotten things to the point where I have eight more Gor and a Doom Bull to paint to finish the 1000 points of the challenge (the extra 500 points is just two more Gor, some chariots, and a command group for the Minotaurs)

Minotaurs. These took a while, but it was mostly just them sitting on the bench waiting for me to get back to them. Since The Lot, as it is affectionately known, came with seven minotaurs with single hand weapons, I used Ogre hands to give them the correct number of weapons.

And here we see the BSB and Bray Shaman. Both are Reaper figures. The BSB has had his axe shaft lengthened to become a standard pole, and a freehanded banner added. The Bray Shaman is a Reven mage of some sort. She's not really very beastly, being more orc shaped, but I like the old school Beastmen idea of them just being all manner of mutants, not all angry goat men. Besides, Tzeentch likes to mutate things, so she can totally be a Bray Shaman.

I'm still waiting on some Gor to arrive from the UK to finish my unit with shields, so I guess you'll be seeing the Doom Bull before the PFH ishoo on Gor and free-hand shields.

Duelling Paintbrushes 3: METAL!

The first batch of MetalGor is completed. All eight of them. I've got 20 at present, with another five in the mail from the UK, so the unit will not be completely completed until those arrive and get painted. Since the unit will be 24 strong, three batches of eight figures each seemed like the way to go.

These are all 'classic' figures, copyright dates being either 1989 or 1993. They are much more diverse than modern beastmen - although they're mostly goat headed there's a lot of variation in faces and bodies, and even equipment. Some are wearing armour, and some even have a hoof on one foot, and a lion's paw on the other! Luckily, the replacement Vallejo Skin ink arrived today as well, so I can do the metalics and complete the bases now.

These guys are from the era of Warhammer which was influenced by Heavy Metal, and made from metal, and GW even had a record label which recorded... metal. I keep expecting them to start throwing the horns up at any moment.

Since I encountered the Oldhammer movement, I've been getting more interested in retro-style free hand shields. So I had to have some on these retro guys.

The guy in the middle is a '93 vintage version. He's much more 'standardized' than the 1989 versions around him.

The champion is also a '93 edition. Need to go back and add some contrast to his various medallions so they stand out from his chain mail.

Duelling Paintbrushes 3: The First Unit

Well, here we are at 21:00 on the third day of the challenge, and the first unit of Gor is complete (apart from bases - run out of paint...) Yesterday I only had seven fully painted, and seven nearly done. In fact, yesterday morning I only had 14 built.
Now I've got the full 24 man unit painted, including a free-hand banner. Tomorrow I'm giving myself a treat and starting on the second unit of gor, all of which are '93 or earlier metals. I've got twenty of them, and I've just ordered some more from eBay to finish the unit. In the meantime, I've made some... heavily mutated beastmen to fill things out a bit. But more on them later.

24 rather large and angry (and bright blue!) beastmen, all painted up.

With their freehanded banner (the flash has not done it justice - I'll get a better lit photo.

The last ten beastmen have all had more interesting heads fitted.

Well, tomorrow I'll be working on old school metal Gor. Who knows, there may even be an ishoo of PFH in the offing...

DP3: First Blood.

No, not literal first blood. The metaphorical kind which is caused by finishing the first seven miniatures in the challenge. In this case, the first seven Plastigor. Being on holiday helps, but for the next few nights I'm going to be out, which will slow things down a bit.

Blue Gor? Well, I've got Khorne, and I've got Nurgle. So now I'm doing Tzeentch, even if GW decided to remove the Chaos gods from the Beastmen book. And yes, I know these are not completely complete. As discussed last year, I like to do all my bases at once at the end of the unit. Plus I'm just about out of one of the important colours for basing.

Duelling Paintbrushes 3: It Begins.

 

It's october first, which means Duelling Paintburshes 3 has started! Usually, that'd mean I'd be painting away like a mad man, but because things didn't arrive in the post until yesterday, I've only just gotten the time to spray the undercoat.
So instead of painting, I'm in here blogging about not painting.
And certain other things.
First off, here's a photo of what I have to paint for the challenge. Well, most of it. There's actually a bit more. More Gor to be specific - they're in the mail.

There are a few changes from the list I published previously. Because of the models I managed to get, one of the Gor units has hand weapons and shields, instead of two hand weapons. This costs the same. Also, the minotaurs in the photo have only got single hand weapons. They'll be converted somehow to two hand weapons. And I've just realised that in my enthusiasm to get everything undercoated, they've been undercoated...

The other thing is Duel Counter. My idea here is to create a gadget on the side bar where I can keep count of the figures so far painted and unpainted. And you can check my progress at a glance. Because I am that egotistical. It'll just be a customised HTML gadget, nothing fancy.

In other news, the Annual Terrain Compometition has closed for entries. I'll be getting the winners up soon.

Duelling Paintbrushes 3: The contenders.

DP3 is fast approaching, so let's meet the contenders...

Owen the Hippo (Terrain For Hippos) will be painting Beastmen bright blue.
Greg the Hooded (The Hoodling's Hole) will be painting Dark Elves in a sinster fashion.
Matt the Strange (Hobby Hideout) will be painting Bretonnians in a cunning manner.
Sexy Nick (Short Shorts and Paintbrushes) will be painting High Elves in the colours of Chrace.
Ginger Nick (Some Call It Luck) will be painting Lizardmen meticulously.

All of these mighty warriors have had their blogs added to my blogroll, so you'll easily be able to follow their progress.

Duelling Paintbrushes 3: What I'm Painting.

With DP3 less than a fortnight away, it's time to announce what I'm going to be painting.
After intense discussions with Greg the Hoodling and Pete the Purple, we realised that one of the armies in shortest supply at HGC is Beastmen. Since we need Beastmen for the Battle of the Gates of Kislev, and since it's part of chaos (and therefore, something I'm all in favour of) I'm starting up a Beastman army for DP3. To this end, I've been rummaging around on eBay to find the things I need without playing GW's insane prices. That, and buying stuff from Reaper Miniatures. I have insane plans for some of their stuff...

Here's what's in the first 1000 points. It's legal, but pretty lousy - no magic items so I could fit in maximum figures!

Heroes:

• 1 Very large and angry Gore Bull (using a Reaper Miniatures minotaur I already have)
• 1 Not so large, but just as angry War Gor BSB (another Reaper Mini, but this one a conversion - on it's way from the US as we speak... er... type.)
• 1 Semi-puny and totally enraged Bray Shaman (yet another Reaper Mini, but this time not even a Beastman! I'm using some things from the Reaper Reven Bull Orc range with horns added for extra-beast-ness.)

Core:

• Gor.
• More Gor.
• To be precise, two units of 24 Gor each.

Special:

• 3 Minotaurs, one of whom is slighlty larger and angrier than the others (because he's a Bloodkine or whatever Minotaur champions are called these days.)

Rare:

• You gotta be kidding.

Okay, that's 1000 points. It's not particularly awesome or anything, but it's the core of the army.
For the Warhammer World Series, it needs an extra 500 points (which, due to my painting speed will be painted up as part of DP3)
The WWS list will add:

Lords:

• The Gore Bull will be upgraded to a Doom Bull by paying more points. And giving him some items.

Heroes:

• Will be given some items.

Core:

• 2 Mighty Tuskgor chariots will be added. Mighty I tell you.
• Also two more Gor so the units are 25s.

Special:

• 3 more minotaurs will be added, including a musician and standard.

Rare:

• Still nothing.

Future plans involve:
Converted Ghorgons, more chariots, more gor, and more characters. Also possibly some harpies when I think up a good way to make them.

As to the colours... well, I have Nurgle and Khorne. So these guys will be Tzeentch or Slaanesh. I've got the basics in mind, and it's starting to seem more of a Tzeentch scheme the more I think about it.

And yes, I am fully aware that you cannot mark Beastmen. Stupid GW flavour-removers.

Duelling Paintbrushes 3: World Series.

DUELLING PAINTBRUSHES IS BACK!

This year, DP3 will be tied in to the Warhammer World Series - all armies painted for DP3 will be used at the WWS. Which means there's not much point entering if you can't make it to Melbourne on the 16th & 17th of November 2013.

Enough waffling! On to the rules!

Start painting October 1^st.

Finish painting October 31^st.

You must paint a minimum of 1000 points of Warhammer which can be combined with 500 already painted points to be used at the Warhammer World Series. Or you can just paint all of it. Which ever works.

The resulting 1500 point army MUST be legal.

Participants will be assigned to the table on which their army is playing at some point in the WWS so they get to have fun with it.

You can assemble and undercoat before hand. Or you can be arrogant and do it all during the challenge and make everyone else feel slow.

Time permitting; you can add further figures and units or terrain features themed to your army.

Everyone who meets the challenge is declared the victor.

Everyone who fails to meet the challenge is declared a weedy git and scorned by those who win.
The purpose of DP3 is to promote wargames blogging. So you must have a blog to participate. Suggestions that Facebook should be allowed will be treated with the distain they deserve.

You must report your progress on your blog. 

Please add the blogs of all other participants to your Blogroll.

Use of Hippos has been authorized.

NOTE:
Last year, we opened up Duelling Paintbrushes to include skirmish games. In hindsight, this seemed a little odd, since people had very different figure counts depending on what they played. This year, we're running (or I'm running anyway) two Duelling Paintbrush events. DP3: World Series (this one, Warhammer only) and DP3: Paintbrawl Skirmish either in December, or in January next year for skirmish sized games.