Fire Eaters painted and bad dojo

  I've got one unit of Fire Eaters painted.  I have a second unit to go that I did the flames on, but the first unit is done.  At the very least, I know which is which on the table.  Because they're  always on the table together.

  I love these models.  The Pyg is probably my least favorite, and he's still not bad.  The other two are phenomenal though.  So I sat them down and started working on them and Maximus.  Maximus is mostly there but there's details yet on him.  

  I ended up going with a confederate looking style from them.  Between some of the caps (Gunnbjorn) and hats (Highwaymen or stuff I modeled), there's a western theme going for them, and I like the grey a lot.  This jacket I got kind of carried away on though, and I liked it.

  The image I used for reference is not mine, it's a fire blower image I found on Google that probably has rights to it, so I won't go there.  But googling Fire Blower will pull it up.  After some gloss varnish on the bottles and tophat and some airbrush OSL, this is where I ended up.

  The yellow OSL looks a little too green in this picture, and it's not green at all on the model.

  Or is it?

  My background here is kind of rough.  I found a good spot for lighting in the house and added some of my own, but I need to build another lightbox and figure out what I what in the back.  Pretty wood grain isn't really doing it here, so idk.  The black/blue stormy background I used to have was too much I think.

  Anyways.  These guys are done.  I have the second unit to do, and a whole ton of other stuff.  My Highwaymen are partly done, Maximus...  Now I have Pendrake, Bone Grinders (They'll probably never get painted lol), Kriels (Since I dislike them, they'll probably not get painted for a long time either), and I finally cracked and got Gunnbjorn, and he stands in an unpainted spot with Calandra and Borka1.

   Which leads me to terrible Dojo.  Between Dozer (arguably) and the Highwaymen, I think Gunnbjorn's got a shot to be on the competitive scene without being toted by special snowflake players.  Snipe on the Highwaymen is pretty solid, and makes them incredibly good.  I started writing lists for him, and it feels like he just has too much going on.  I want to spam Guided Fire, but that doesn't work on Kraye either.  I may try double bomber w/Highwaymen and chaff (Fenns and such) and see what it does.  What the Highwaymen need is a flare model somewhere.  I really think they're good, but a flare would help so much.  Without that, the Scats still have solid territory and it's hard to ignore them in an anti-cryx list.

  Secondly, the Efaarit are inbound.  I'll need two of those for the models alone.  There's some people repeating the anti-Hunter argument with these guys, and if you've seen my Kraye reports, you know I hate hunters.  With a passion.  Efaarit, on the other hand, while not obviously competitive, can do work.  For the price of one hunter, I can get a AP shot at 1 higher POW (basically +2 compared to the pow6 on the Hunter) with all the same tricks a Kraye Hunter has.  People who like the Hunters spout how amazing they are on Kraye.  Well, Efaarit run just like that, without focus.  Sure, damage isn't boosted.  I'm ok with that.  On top of that, they completely ignore what I find frustrating about the hunter, the struggle to kill a grunt with a POW6.  Sniper bypasses that completely.  Just need one reliable shot into a grunt to clear a lane?  RAT7, RAT9 with aim, pop, walk away.  Shieldwalled IFP?  One point, done.  That's gold.  I'm willing to pay 6pts for 2 of those every turn.  Will it go in every list?  Absolutely not.  But I gaurantee I'll be finding places for them in my gunlines.  They're not bad at all.

  It's going to be a good year for trolls.

  Other news.  I'm dabbling in commission work.  You saw the Kraken.  There's more inbound from that it sounds like.  I'm also doing a display piece with my Dynamo, so that's coming.  My wife just got ahold of the 2player Circle kit, so her army just pretty much doubled, and more importantly, she got Skinwalkers.  So some of that may come across here too.  I've also got the Croc rematch half written and that'll drop this week as well.  Stay tuned folks.

  All like, three of you.

Unboxing the Fire Eaters

    As soon as the rules came out these guys, I wanted two units.  Trolls has a weird thing with the point cost of 8 and 16.  In ADR, that's super cool.  I noticed first with Champions vs. Long Riders.  LR w/ Horthol is 16pts, and so is Champs w/ UA and Hero.  This can be replaced with 2 units of Warders really easily.  Now with the HWM, it can be replaced with Warders - Highwaymen.  The Fire Eaters step into that circle too now at 4pts.  2x Fire Eaters is six models instead of 5 Warders.  This is really good for us with the new ADR rules.  It's very easy to standardize your battlegroup and tarpit then fill your army up with 8pt options and swap them out as needed.  My Jarl list, for example, can have 2x Warders, 2x Fire Eaters, Highwaymen and solos.  Feralgeist and Fellcaller, Pendrake and Runebearer, or better yet, min KSB w/UA.  Whatever.  Completely changes up the army after you know the enemy caster.  This is pretty powerful for Trolls where infantry is our bread and butter.  Madrak2, Jarl, Grim2, everyone will run 2x Warders the same way, and that will be an ARM skew.  Don't need an ARM skew?  Highwaymen/Fire eaters.  Now we have a completely different list.  I like it a lot.

  So, anyways, I saw their rules, and their rules are awesome.  People don't want to bring a Pyre, but you're already bringing a pyre for a damage buff.  People don't want to waste his shot, but mine rarely shoots.  He buffs a warder and runs around.  Now he's firing a shot at this unit, buffing a warder, and resuming his business.  Not a big deal.  But if you're bringing a 5pt Pyre already, just bring 2.  8pts for 6 models is pretty reasonable in trolls where 8pts usually gets us 5 Warders.  I think they're perfect.  

  That's the preamble.  I've got them.  They showed up Thursday with a Slag, Pendrake, Kriel Warriors, Bone Grinders, second unit of Warders (Apparently that's a thing), my AOE keys and a receipt from Discount games who mailed it a day before the Fire Eaters released.  Pretty legit.  Right away, the box displays an impossible standard of painting and dares you to try.  The box is the little one like the light warbeasts ship in.  Probably the most expensive small box Trollbloods has.  As far as painting goes, I'm super excited to give it my own shot, and I'm eagerly awaiting Arizona Troll's rendition on the forums.  These will be specifically difficult because of the area effect lighting that the flames generate.  I think it's possible to do without an airbrush, but I'm really glad I have mine.

  Bunch of little pieces.  PP is getting brave with their plastics these days, and these are very well done.  

  I assembled my Warders in the same evening as these guys, so I may be overly appreciative of these dudes, but I'm not seeing molding much.  This cape as a small gate issue on the bottom right of the cape, but all the seams are on the edges as they should be.  

  That's really all I'm finding though, just fill port issues, and they're in easily accessed areas of the model.  There's not fitting a tiny sanding tool in there to get it down.

  This is the pyg.  Probably the least impressive of the three.  He's still cool, but you feel like he's the tagalong to the party.  One of the dude's little brothers that won't go away or something.

  This is the worst seam I've found I think, running down the side of our tagalong.  It's easily cleaned though, 

  This guy's billowing fire.  He's a little more complicated, but here's his pieces.  The hands are seperate, the little whelp holding the torch is his own piece, and there's a keg and his head.

  Best for last.  I love this sculpt.  He's almost got the Indiana Jones torch looking thing going on and I really like it.  I'd be tempted to use the base of this guy for a Borka1 or Madrak2 conversion.  Borka1 is probably better suited, but I'm a sucker for flowing coats, and this guys does it beautifully.  He comes with both hands separate, his head, the keg on his back, and two little pieces that slot in on his back.  

  Overall though, they're pretty simple to put together and I love the models.  Super excited to paint these.  

    Overall though, these guys are solid, easy to assemble and great looking models.  I think they're going to be awesome hits in the field and I'm excited to see them go.  

  I've got two batreps to put online with my ADR lists.  I'm also painting two Krakens for commission, and they'll get on here at some point.  We're through the worst of the winter here and things are starting to get a little less busy, so hopefully we'll see more of the blog.  Hopefully you guys are enjoying your weekend and we'll see you around.