An EnTHRALLing Day

Original post 8/9/15

 Let me introduce you to our official mascot: Gaston.  Gaston is the ultimate hobby dog.  He loves all people, and when friends come over to game he sits on a chair and watches intently.  He also curls up next to me while I paint and provides much appreciated company.  Most importantly, Gaston is always ready to go outside and play for a necessary stretch break.  Today Gaston and I had a pretty good day!

No, his tongue doesn't always hang out... sometimes he tucks it up in his lip!

This morning, Jeremy was playing in his Dreadball league finals over at the San Marcos Brewery and Grill.  Like any respectable brewery, they are dog friendly, so Supreme Overlord Gaston commanded we go there to root his Uncle Jeremy on!  It was a pretty nice place and they set aside their whole patio for the tournament which meant Gaston got to wander around and explore.  I went without the alcohol but my santa fe chicken sandwich was very good and I definitely got my money's worth with my 10+ Diet Coke refills.

Dreadball is a pretty cool game.  I would probably play it if I was not so into the historical aspect of gaming right now (of course that doesn't stop Jere from trying).  It's basically a futuristic, violent, version of basketball.  His Space Turtles walked into the tourney in first place but a rule change put him at a severe disadvantage.  Unfortunately, Jere was not victorious but it still was fun watching a couple of his games.

Jere getting serious.

The Space Turtles (I don't remember their real name) in action against bugs.

Game two was against Rats.

After Gaston had thoroughly explored the patio and outside grounds he was ready to head home.  We said goodbye to the brave combatants and journeyed back to Gaston's lair.  First, played outside for awhile and then to my chagrin the Grand Master demanded we take a nap.  (No picture provided :P )  After a delicious dinner of BBQ chicken pizza and kibble, Mr. Gaston was down for the night and I decided to finish up my current batch of Viking thralls.

Too tired to even move to his "painting" chair.

I was very ready to finish this set of thralls.  I almost finished them a few days ago but my hands wouldn't cooperate.  Since then I have given them a little work each day, but never spent enough time to just knock them out.  I did have all the basecoats and touch ups finished, so today it really just came down to layering the washes.  After a little time they were done but not without some hiccups.  Let me share some mistakes I made so you don't have to:

• Be very careful about similar looking and labeled washes.  The army painter bottles all look exactly the same and the Dark and Strong tone have very similar tints which led me to washing some hands with the wrong color.  It wasn't a big deal after a flesh highlight but I think I'm going to write a place on my pallet in sharpie for shade.
• Yes, washing is easy but to quote the immortal Han Solo: "Don't get cocky!"  I hit a couple places with the Dark or Strong tone too fast, and while usually washes will blend well, I went way to far past recesses separating the different areas of the model.  This sloppiness led to some necessary touchups, slowing me down :(
• Don't forget the highlights!  Even though my levy/thralls were supposed to be dingy and dirty I still gave the washed flesh and hair a light highlight and the difference was night and day.  It's amazing how much one little extra step can add to your final product.

All that said here are some pictures.  All of them are pre-highlight save the final.

The one good thing about having an abundance of pill bottles:  pill bottles and blue tack are amazing for painting!

If you look closely at the left eye you can see one of the scars I carved to add "character"

This thrall is a nice example of the three different Army Painter shades working together.  Dark for the hat, Soft for the jerkin, and Strong for the pants/ sleeves.

The six latest additions to my warband!

As I was leaving the Dreadball tourney, Jeremy asked if I was going to go home and finish my levy.  When I answered yes one of the players stated, "Nobody plays levy, they don't give you a Saga die."  I don't have a ton of Saga experience but I found this statement to be quite naive.  While it is true that levy do not provide you a saga die, you should be getting your max 6 dice from the rest of your warband.  Levy DO provide you with 12 meat shields for just one point to protect the rest of your army from shooting, charges, whatever.  More importantly to me, Viking levy (thralls) are the only unit in my warband with ranged weapons.  I believe this will be extremely significant in the upcoming SAGAugust tournament.  Since Crescent and Cross is the newest rules release I believe a lot of people will play its new warbands, which means lots of cavalry.  Since cavalry has -1 armor against ranged attacks, those generals would be very foolish to ignore 6 arrow attacks a turn from my thralls.  Maybe I should not have just wrote that... who am I kidding, no one reads this anyway!