Hot off the Desk: Shadows of Brimstone Doomsday Device

Ready for some Doom(tm).

This one is so fresh that I'm not sure the last bits of paint are actually cured.

I bought the Doomsday Device when it first became available, and put it on the shelf.  I suppose it didn't strike me as the most interesting piece, and it sat there for 2 (if not 3?) years. 

However, more recently, I've been playing with Airbrushing and inks and weathering.  Aha! Now it's the perfect subject of a quick project.

I intentionally didn't make all the model prep perfect.  Apparently, the master for this model is 3D printed, as the telltale line texture is found throughout.  Also, I can tell that my particular mold was pretty rough; most of the underhangs were starting to tear out.  I scraped a bit, and gave it a couple of layers of Vallejo Matt Varnish to smooth the worst of the worst.  But in the end, this was supposed to be a fast project to get some terrain on the table.

All four pieces started with black Stynlrez primer and then a 3-color stack of greens applied with the airbrush.  I was going for more of a lime green than a John Deere green, so I also applied some Vivid Lime Green ink as a highlight.

Here the smaller parts are basecoated.  The gold hoses are a blend of AP Stone Brown, Scale 75 Necro Gold, and S75 Dwarven Gold for a highlight.  First use of the S75 paints - they lived up to expectations and worked really well.

WIP shot, still working on gold bits.

I decided that the center vent-thing-whatever was actually a Darkstone Reactor.  I went in with the Sotar (airbrush) and applied a blast of Reaper Pure White, then AP Darkstone Purple (from the SoB set), then another dash of pure White in the center.

More colors added for bits.  Here I'm about to start weathering/shading. I would later decide that the reactors needed a splash of yellow to be convincing.

Basecoating is done on the big piece, you can see the yellow splash in the reactors here.  I'm also starting to shade in the silver stacks.

 

Ready for shading.  Adding S75 Necro Gold to all the rivets really brought this piece to life.

 

Complete set, on the Derelict Ship map tile.

Zoxe Project Status - October 2018

Well, fudgepickles.  Halloween came and went and I never once thought about doing a ZPS.  It's now almost halfway through the month, but I'd still like to make the entry.

Honestly, though, I've been limping along with a persistent case of black death (sinus infection) and the last week really hasn't been all that productive anyway.

1. On the Table:

• Shadows of Brimstone - This will be a single entry here because it's been THE THING going on.  I updated my storage, inventoried expansions and cards, and otherwise just plain got organized.  I dug out some long lost expansions from my pile of shame and the long term storage shelf and got them painted.  Derelict Ship, Sand Kraken, and Nun with a Gun are done while the Doomsday Device is nearly complete and the Depth Tracker is in primer.  We even started a new 2p campaign, based on a story arc that I sketched out.  

2. Gaining Momentum:

• Fall Chores - The weather held nicely, and before my sinus infection settled in, I dropped 4 dead trees and carved a small path through the back part of our woods.  I've got a few more to go, and a lot of trail to cut, but it's been a good Fall so far.  Now if I can just get through the Holidaze and see if early December will cooperate.
• PAX Unplugged - PAX-U is at the end of the month.  There's a little bit of hype building about the event, although I don't know what events/classes we'll even attempt to get into.  But, we're looking forward to returning to Philly, being in a better hotel position (we're in the Marriott this time; the Hampton Inn was fine but was on the wrong side of the hall), and eating some of their outstanding downtown food.
• Dropfleet Commander - The UCM fleet is still (still!) on my table but hasn't been touched while I process all the Brimstone stuff.  Honestly, I got tired of painting that color gray and the tedium of fixing panel lines.  But, I think I'm in a place where I can bang out the rest of the cruisers and maybe finish the New York class battleship and take a small squadron to PAX-U for display/contest.

3. Losing Traction:

• KDM Wave 2 - I'll leave this here (again); no shipping updates yet on Wave 3 and I've yet to have need for any of the expansions.  

4. Going, going, gone.

• N/A 

Blast from the Past

Camp Taurajo.  Hello old friend.

So, this weekend was Blizzcon weekend.  Oddly, it's a sort of holiday for us.  Oh, our hobby interests have waxed and waned, but through thick and thin we somehow always pay attention to Blizzcon weekend.  Over the years it's been a weekend where we pause and veg out and watch the streams (or DirecTV PPV back in the day) and otherwise just nerd out.  It never mattered much if we were playing Blizzard games or not; we stop, reminisce, and enjoy.

Blizzcon has a special place in our hearts.  We first attended in person on a complete whim in 2007 - the second Blizzcon ever.  I happened to load a Blizzard page linking to the ticket sales and a road trip to Anaheim sounded like fun.

Now, for context:  in 2007, WoW was in the mid/late TBC era.  I was a Vanilla WoW player, but had struggled to catch a groove in TBC.  We kind of laughed about the fact that we were attending a convention for a game that we weren't actually playing.  (That statement alone is indicative of how focused Blizzard was on WoW at the time - WC3 and SC1 were of course around but showing their age, and Diablo 3 was years away.  WoW was the runaway juggernaut that had yet to actually peak).

The 2007 Blizzcon was the announcement for Wrath of the Lich King and Death Knights, and watching the trailer while in line for Blizzcon merchandise, I was totally and completely hooked.  Over a decade later, I think that one trip to California changed how I viewed games, gaming, and became a Blizzard fan.

We returned to Blizzcon in 2008 and again in 2015.  Some day we may return again.

A lot has changed with WoW since 2007.  Wrath, Cata, MoP, WoD, Legion, and now BfA have all deployed.  The bones of the game that I enjoyed in Vanilla through Wrath are still there, but the game is so very different today.  The type of play that I enjoy is still there, sort of, but it's obscured, twisted, and different.  Less pure.  If nothing else, the map changes that the Cata expansion brought keep me from visiting places that I used to know.

This Blizzcon brought the WoW Classic demo.  I'm currently logged in as I type, with an Orc Warrior named Zoxe standing in Camp T.  This is an area of the game that we haven't seen since Cata launched and Deathwing wrecked the old world in 2010.

It was a little thing, but I'll admit that my eyes got a little watery running down from Crossroads to visit Camp T just after logging in yesterday.

The demo only includes the Barrens and Westfall, so I'm limited in places I can enjoy, but it just feels like home.