Saturday, September 15, 2012

Quest for Fully Painted: Panda Part 1

Recently I posted that I had won best painted army at a large local tournament. I'm a little ashamed to say that I did not have a fully painted force. There were only 2 fully painted armies out of 35 contestants so the judges decided to open this up to armies that were mostly painted. I won and got a Collosals release event poster signed by the Privateer Press Staff. Now to convince the wife it deserves to hang on the wall!

Now to the purpose of this post, since I was not fully painted and have usually had 1-2 things not painted while playing in tournaments, I've decided to lay down a goal to have at least 1 of my Warmachine/Hordes tournament armies fully painted, to include any Mercenaries or Minions I would take with them.



While I could get away with finishing up my Highborn Covenant army with Ashlynn D'Elyse which is probably 85% finished, I don't see myself playing them in a tourny any time soon. Same for the Trollbloods whom I've been slowly building up. So that leaves me with getting some Protectorate of Menoth to get painted!

As always it's best to plan your work and work your plan. This is some of the most useful advice I have seen given about hobbies whether it's painting miniatures or racing cars. If you don't have a clue as to what your end state is and your plan to get there you more than likely will not finish. So my goal is to get a force at a tournament fully painted. What steps do I need to take to make this happen? Well I need to decide what a fully painted force at a tournament means! Most of our local Steamrollers are 50 Point, 2 lists, with Reinforcements so that's my goal. So that means I need to know whats going into my lists. I know I'll be using 2 Warcasters most often and those are Vindictus and the Harbinger of Menoth. So now I pick what goes with them. To the lists!

Vice Scrutator Vindictus
-Hierophant
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
-Officer and Standard
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
-Officer and Standard
Holy Zealots X 10
-Monolith Bearer
Exemplar Errant Senechal
Choir of Menoth X 4

Reinforcements
?

Harbinger of Menoth
-Hierophant
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
-Officer and Standard
Vassal Mechanik
Vessel of Judgement
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
Nicia, Tear of Vengeance
Knights Exemplar X 6
Choir of Menoth X 4

Reinforcements
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
Exemplar Errant Senechal

As you can see there is some overlap in the lists which is good, this will keep me from painting 100 points plus casters but their is enough difference with the casters and selection that it won't feel like I'm playing the same list all the time. Also, and this is the big problem I currently have, I have no idea what to take for reinforcements with Vindictus. I'm using his tier list and the limitations are hurting me in what I have to take. I'll be putting thought into this but if any of you readers have a suggestion I'm more than willing to listen to it.

So now I have my lists I can concentrate on just these models to paint for the next little while. I actually have about 90% of both these lists currently painted but it's a mishmash of styles and ability. I will be going back and painting them all to the same paint scheme and style so I've added even more to what I need to do!On the bright side, the schemes are similar enough that those that are painted in my old scheme won't need to be stripped down to metal to be redone, so I shouldn't need to take a ton of extra time for this.

At the end of every post in this series I will be posting the lists again and they will be written with a line through what needs to be done.

Also I'm challenging all my cohorts here on the Geek Garage to try the same thing. It doesn't have to be a 2 Army challenge, heck, it doesn't even need to be Warmachine or Hordes. If someone wants to put the challenge down for a Dark Age Army, Malifaux Crew, Necromunda Gang, it's all good, I just want to get my friends motivated to get some more fully painted forces out on those tables.

Vice Scrutator Vindictus
-Hierophant
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
-Officer and Standard
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
-Officer and Standard
Holy Zealots X 10
-Monolith Bearer
Exemplar Errant Senechal
Choir of Menoth X 4

Reinforcements
?

Harbinger of Menoth
-Hierophant
-Reckoner
-Reckoner
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
-Officer and Standard
Vassal Mechanik
Vessel of Judgement
Vassal of Menoth
Vassal of Menoth
High Paladin Dartan Vilmon
Nicia, Tear of Vengeance
Knights Exemplar X 6
Choir of Menoth X 4

Reinforcements
Knights Exemplar Errants X 10
Exemplar Errant Senechal