5-Day Challenge- Epilogue

 

Long time readers will know that I have been actively engaging in community building in my local area.  Thanks to other champions in the area, we were able to launch the True Crit Gaming Guild.  This is a gaming group in Northwest Wyoming dedicated to miniature wargaming, role-playing games, board games, and card games.  It is a non-denominational gaming guild!  

Those who have known me for a long time will know that I love campaigns!  I first started getting into wargame design after having such a great experience with the old Eye of Terror and Fall of Medusa 5 campaigns from Games Workshop.  The community stories and creativity unleashed was some of the best I had ever seen.  I wanted to recapture that and started running a variety of online campaigns with smaller, localized forums and online communities.  Almost all of these had little campaign specifics rules and scenarios.  

Well, thanks to the True Crit Gaming Guild, I am going back to the well and trying my hand at a fun Narrative Campaign.  This time, we are keeping it focused to games of Kill Team.  Kill Team is a Guild favorite for a variety of reasons.  

The campaign is a simple warzone control campaign set on a nominally Imperial world on the Eastern Fringe.  It is designed to be an Imperial vs Chaos themed campaign, with other factions being able to act as mercenaries or allies.  The focus is on giving us a setting to theme our games around and give us a good excuse to play games, paint models, and build terrain.  

Of course, you can follow along with the campaign on our True Crit Gaming Guild Facebook page as well.  In addition, I am also going to make the campaign booklet available to you for free as well.  Feel free to launch your own Siege Perilous campaign with your local community as well.  

To prepare for the campaign, I ordered a Blooded Kill Team to be part of the forces of Chaos.  However, it soon became clear it was not going to arrive on time.  I went to the FLGS and picked up a Sister of Battle box and resolved to create, assemble, prime, and paint a Kill Team in 5-business days.  Hence, the 5-day challenge was born!  

That challenge started 5-days ago and I managed to get the Order of St. Augustine Martyred was ready to take the field of battle!  

I packed up the Order as well as my Hand of the Archon along with my DIY terrain for the big day.  I managed to get the Terrain made on our groups Project Social day.  This day was intended for folks to build terrain, get their Kill Teams ready, work on various projects, and be ready for the big day!  I packed up my Hand of the Archon in case their were too many Imperials and I had to fight for the forces of Chaos! 

This was the big day that I had been doing all the work for!  Today would be my first wargaming in 2024.  So, as an epilogue for the 5-day challenge, here are a bunch of photos from the event. I was paired up against an Imperial player, so the Hand of the Archon took to the field instead of the Order of St. Augustine Martyred.  Maybe next time? 

This was my first time using the Hand since I painted them, so I was not 100% sure how they worked.  Thankfully, the Imperial player I was paired against was new to the Veteran Guardsman as well.  We worked together to help each other out, and had a good time playing the Looting scenario.  

You can see we used my DIY terrain for the table I was on.  I was pretty happy with how it looked and played.  The Cigar Box Battles mat really helped to make it POP.  This was also our first time really taking advantage of the Tac Ops deck.  I had no idea what was on them, and randomly drew 3.  This was a close run game all the way down to the final turning point.  

However, my ability to get 3 Dark Eldar in a concealed position to activate Objectives allowed me to pull out a very close win.  In addition, I was able to take advantage of my random Tac Ops to net some final victory points to put me over the top!  A close run thing, but victory for the Hand of the Archon and the first Chaos victory in the campaign! 

Here is the Order of St. Augustine Martyred on the table with some Legionaries.  This was not an actual game, but I promised you guys some shots of the Order on the table.  Here it is!  Hopefully they will get to hit the table soon and bring victory for the Emperor!  

Thanks for all of your comments and well-wishes as I pursued the 5-Day Challenge to the finish.  Perhaps when my Blooded Chaos Guard arrive I will do something similar with them.  This was fun and I recommend doing something like this to help you finish a project too.   

Until next time!  

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On The Painting Desk: 5-day Challenge- Day 5!!!!

 

Day 5 is here all ready!  Will I get the Sister of Battle Kill Team done in time for the Siege Perilous campaign for the True Crit Gaming Guild?  

Previously on, 5-Day Painting Challenge:

My local gaming group is starting a Narrative campaign for Kill Team.  I wrote the background and the high-level rules.  If you are interested you can find the booklet on the True Crit Gaming Guild facebook page or my Patreon page.  It takes place in a besieged city on the Eastern Fringe as the foul forces of Chaos and the Imperium battle to maintain control of the city.  Will it be the last bastion of resistance or the capital of a new world order? 

I had initially planned to field a Kill Team for Chaos, the Blooded specifically.  These corrupted PDF troopers would firmly put me in the Chaos camp.  However, I was not going to get the troops in time!  Therefore, I needed an alternative!  I went tot he FLGS and saw a box of Battle Sisters and decided to make a SoB Kill Team using the Compendium list.  The Ecclesiarchy plays a big role in the fighting in the campaign, so it made sense to have some troops for them too!  

The campaign starts this Saturday, when I purchased the box that gave me 1-week to assemble, prime, detail, and finish the squad.  I gave myself 5 week days to complete the task.  I still had to work, social commitments, and other normally weekly tasks to accomplish.  I was not sure I could do it.  

Those who have followed my blog for a while know that I am just a tabletop standard painter.  I was mostly going to be using Armypainter paints, Armypainter V1 speedpaints, and some Big Box Acrylics for my efforts.  At the end, I wanted some tabletop quality miniatures to fight with!  

We left off Day 4 and I had not finished all the detailing I needed to do to make the models look complete!  

Therefore, I woke up a bit early and got to work.  My work was interrupted as I had to take my cat in for an emergency Vet visit!  That was unexpected and weighed on my mind as I strove to complete my challenge.   

Here they are with all the details painted up. 

With detailing done, we got to the point that I had been dreading since Day 2.  It was time to wash the models. The choice of trying to do White Armor made me really nervous about this step.  There is a tendency of washes to really darken up the models and some of the bright white effect was going to be lost.  I contemplated if I should use a Black or a Brown based wash.  Without a test model, I was going to be flying somewhat blind here.  After looking at the several washes I had, and thinking about making my own watered down version, I decided to use Armypainter Light Tone.  

Here is the results: 

Oh yeah!  I am calling this a success!  

For basing I didn't do anything fancy.  I used my Speedpaints and painted the bases Harden Leather on top, then I did a simple black rim around the edges.  The "Tactical Rocks" on some of the bases I just left in their primed, washed, and dry-brushed base grey colors.  Nothing fancy, but it really helped the models look finished.  

The final step was to wait for them to fully dry and then give them a light Matte varnish seal.  I think they are still a bit too shiny and it took a toll on some of the paint work, but I can touch that up.  You can see the finished models here: 

Just the Bolter Sisters.....

Just the Specialists.....

Looks like I managed to accomplish my goal!  5-day challenge complete! 

I should have some in-game action shots of the Order of Saint Augustine Martyred for the blog tomorrow.  If I remember to take photos in the heat of the moment!  

As a final happy note, my cat came home the same day!  She was going to be all right. A jaw-line infection that was being treated with anti-biotics, love, and plenty of cuddles.

Tia

Until next time.  Thanks for following along as I tried something new on the blog! 

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On The Painting Desk- 5-Day Challenge- Day 4

 Day 4.  

Day 4.  

Day 4.  

Wow, only 1 day left to get these Sisters done!  I have a lot to do!  Yesterday, I managed to block in the main colors beyond the armor.  The purple tabard and the dark blue weaponry.  Those three pieces are the bulk of the models.

That leaves today for the detailing.  I used a mix of regular Armypainter and  Speedpaints to finish off the detail work.  The Speedpaints are great for larger areas, but for really detailed work the regular paints are helpful.  The Speedpaints tend to go where you put them, even though they are pretty liquid.  However, if you want to make sure the paint goes exactly where you want it, there is no substitute for regular acrylics.  

I decided to go ahead an use my Melta-gunner and a regular Sister as my "testers" and started doing some detail work on them.  These two troopers were going to lead the charge on the detail work!  Thankfully, I found that the standard troopers were not as detailed as I had feared!  The detail work on them went relatively quick.  At this point, I still had a bit more to do, but you get the general idea. 

However, the biggest challenges were still going to be the Sister Superior and the Icon Bearer.  The were followed closely by the Heavy Bolter sister.  They had the most detail and the most hard to reach detail.    

With the basics defined I got to work.  However, I did not have a great system for applying the colors and I kept having to go back to colors.  Not a very efficient use of my paints or time.  At this stage, miniatures start to take on a bit of their own personalities.  Sometimes, I think it would be better to paint them all individually at this stage.  However, I try to paint all the colors on all the squad at the same time.  I was not doing a very good job of it today.  

At the end of the Day 4, this is what I had done. 

I would say the detailing stage is NOT complete for these minis.  I have to do the tubes around the neck area for most of the team.  The Icon is not completely done.  A few bits and bobs are still unfinished.   

This puts me somewhat off schedule. On Day 5 I was intending to do washes, basing, and sealing.  Thankfully, that shouldn't take too much time.  I will probably have time to finish up my detailing before I do those finishing steps.  Time is getting tight, but I think I am very close to getting this Kill Team done in 5-days.   

Tomorrow is a big day.  It is the make or break day.  The final day.  

See you tomorrow for the final day of the challenge!

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On The Painting Desk- 5 Day Painting Challenge - Day 3

Day 2 was a bit frustrating as I tried to get White armor AND do Speed Painting to get there.  Overall, that was a stupid idea and a big mistake, at the end of the day the armor was done.  On the down side, it didn't look like I had accomplished anything!  They still mostly looked primed and I had put a lot of coats of paint on the models.  

Therefore, when today started I decided to put the basic scheme together on a couple of the models to see what I thought about it.  

Hmmm, honestly not sure but I am committed now!  Very few paint schemes look good at this stage anyway.  The main colors are just blocked in and there is still a lot of detailing to do.  Here is the plan for the next couple of days: 

1. Today - Block in Purple and Blue on weapons
2. Day 4 - Detail up the models
3. Day 5- Finishing like wash, highlight, basing, and seal
4. Day 6 - Play some games! 

Aggressive but still do able. 

Traditionally, I was taught to paint from the lowest point and then work up.  So, you paint exposed skin first, then under clothing, then armor, then stuff on the armor and equipment last.  I don't know if that is a winning approach for these models.  The tabards are all very dynamic and run close to the armor at many points.  It may have been better to start with the tabards before the armor, especially since I made the armor white!  

I did manage to get the biggest block colors on, the purple and the dark blue.  That means I am on track for the outline I gave above.  I might need to switch to one or two minis at a time to finish the detailing tomorrow.  

It was a surprisingly and unexpectedly busy day today, so I feel pretty lucky that I got as far as I did.  I also managed to get a start on the Icon for the Icon Bearer.  A surprisingly intricate model and one of the tougher ones to paint so far.  

They still don't look like much thanks to the white armor.  I probably should have gone with Palid Bone, the color I used on my Dark Eldar weapons.  I know how that colors works!  Oh well, too late now.  

Tomorrow it is onto the detail work for the individual models.  They all have little bits of iconography, and I think I will use regular army painter paints for some of that to help it POP just a bit more.  Hopefully, tomorrow I have a bit more time so I can be a bit patient.  I don't think I do though!

Until tomorrow.  Thanks for following along on this journey! 

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You can follow Blood and Spectacles Facebook page or Instagram for more fun! 

Check out the latest publications and contact me at our Blood and Spectacles website

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On The Painting Desk- 5-Day Challenge - Day 2

Day 2 of the challenge, and I had the squad all assembled and ready to go.  I even managed to prime it with Grey Seer.  Not bad for the first day!  

Going into Day 2, I knew I wanted to finish the priming step before speed painting.  That normally means giving the models a dark grey wash and then dry brushing white over the top.  I managed to finish that fairly early in the day. 

Statues? 

Right away I sorted them into a few groups and painted them about 5 different skin tones as a base.  I then used Speedpaint to get a greyish/black hair.  So far, so good.  

Now came the hard part.  I took a look at my Speed Paints and decides I was going to try to make White Armor, Purple Tabards, and Grey-Blue weaponry.  I got to work on a test model, and quickly realized that my plan was not going to work.  The white was just not working.  I tried a few different mixes and styles, and.... well it was not going to happen that way.  It was just coming out grey.  It was about mid-day and I knew I was going to have to go back to the drawing board on this design.  

This is white, huh?  

I really wished I had a test model to play around with, but I didn't really have one available and I didn't have the time.  I had to decide if I was just going to go all out with Mummy Robes, Matte White, or do something totally different.  After looking at it for a bit longer and looking at my Speedpaints, I decided to go with my Mummy Robes color and see what happened.  At least from there, I could maybe give it a wash and dry brush back-up with regular white if I needed to.  

Not great yet, but it never is at this stage of painting.....

After this, I decided to go back over the armor again with a very thin wash of Holy White Speedpaints and then edge the armor with Matte white to see what happened with it.  

They have white armor, honest! 

Well, after all day, the picture looks almost the same as when I started today!  LOL! 

I think I am finally happy with the white armor and it will look much better when the contrast colors go on the minis.  The funny thing is, after all that work, I will probably mess it all up once I start putting the purple on the tabards and sleeves.  However, I have used this purple before and have a pretty good idea of what it will turn out looking like; unlike the Holy White Speedpaint.

Hopefully, I can be more productive tomorrow.  Only three days left to go!  

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On The Painting Desk - 5-Day Challenge - Day 1

 Welcome to day 1 of the 5-day Painting Challenge.  I have given myself five days to paint a box of Sisters of Battle.  This box will form the basis of a Kill Team for the upcoming True Crit Gaming Guilds' narrative campaign.  They will be using the Compendium rules.  

This is day 1!  So, let's take a look at how far I got today.  

The first step was to assemble my Sisters into the list I had planned out.  I assembled my trusty clippers, blades, and Gorilla Glue and got to work.  I knew I needed a Sister Superior, an Icon Bearer, a Melta-gun, a Storm Bolter, and a Heavy Bolter.  I toyed with the idea of going with two Melta-guns but ditched it in favor of the Storm Bolter, partially because it looked cool, and partially because of the Melta-guns limited range.  

I also had to decide how I wanted to do the heads.  Traditionally, I don't like soldiers on the battlefield without helmets.  It made no sense to me.  The Sisters of Battle also have some pretty cool helmets too.  However, I decided to go helmetless for all of them this time for two reasons.  First, I wanted folks to easily be able to tell these were Sisters of Battle and their helmetless heads are pretty iconic.  Secondly, I wanted to use a variety of skin tones on their faces to make them look really diverse.  Not 100% sure how that will work out.

Sisters Assemble! 

Overall, a pretty cool kit with lots of smooth lines and curves.  They went together pretty well with only two minor gripes.  Some of the joins are really thick, and once you clip them are in a position that are not easy to trim.  Too many joins on the shoulder iconography.  The second gripe is that several of the models of single points of contact on the base making them tough to position in place. 

I managed to time the construction so that the models would be assembled and ready for a coat of spray primer at the warmest part of the day, with full sun.  I had brought my spray can in from outside to warm up over night.  I had planned ahead, as spray priming in the middle of winter is not always easy.  However, due to my time constraints I did not want to brush undercoat. It was a balmy 50 degrees and even warmer in the sun.  I managed to give them a quick blast of Grey Seer and then hustled these little ladies back inside to dry at room temperature.         

Prime!

As I waited for stuff to dry I filled my time painting up some terrain for my DIY terrain.  This was all 3D printed a while ago, but I never really got around to painting it.  Mostly used Big Box Acrylics to paint it them up and based the barrels with my usual methods.  

You did what now?  Inefficient! 

That gets me about where I wanted and expected to be by the end of the day.  Onto day two!  Hopefully I can continue the solid progress.  However, tomorrow is a pretty busy day for me so I might not be able to give it much time.

The plan is to finish priming by giving the Sisters a dark grey wash, and then going back and dry brushing them all white.  After that they are ready for some paint.    

Until tomorrow. 

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Blood and Spectacles Patreon! 

You can follow Blood and Spectacles Facebook page or Instagram for more fun! 

Check out the latest publications and contact me at our Blood and Spectacles website

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