A Tale of Duelling Gamers - Take Two!

The second month of the Tale of Duelling Gamers is now well under way, and I've finally managed to get my hands one of the new Wood Elf Treeman kits for this month's purchases. 

The kit can make either a Treeman Ancient, a regular Treeman or Durthu (a Special Character Treeman). I spent last night putting it together, using a mix of parts from each in order to come up with a unique model. This uses Durthu's legs and waist, the Ancient's torso and right arm, and the Treeman's left arm, right hand (including Strangleroots) and head combined with the antennae from the Ancient. 

Amount Spent: $96 AUD

Number of Figures: 1

Price at Current UK exchange rate: £53.32

GW UK Retail Price: £37

Price Paid: £37

Tale of Duelling Gamers - April Review

Here's the finished product then - thirty Eternal Guard, painted up in my winter colour scheme to add to the unit I've already painted. I still have a few Eternal Guard models left to paint, but I couldn't fit them into my budget for April. I *did* try and paint them alongside the thirty for the ToDG, but it quickly became apparent that I'd struggle to paint thirty in time, let alone the forty models I'd originally planned...

A nice big block of shiny spear points, ready and waiting for their new army book!

The ten models that got left by the wayside. Maybe next month boys...

All told, I'm actually pretty happy with these - despite missing the April deadline by just under 24 hours, the reality is that I basically painted all thirty models is the space of about nine days. Of course, if I'd started working on them *before* the week before the deadline, I'd have had more time to paint them and probably wouldn't have missed the deadline at all, but we live and learn I guess! 

So what does May have in store for the Tale of Duelling Gamers? Well, the new Wood Elves army book is out tomorrow, along with the new plastic Treeman kit. The Treeman kit has certainly divided opinion, but I like it. So much, in fact, that I plan on picking up two of them...

That answers the question of what I'll be painting for the Tale of Duelling Gamers May edition; at $96 AUD, a single Treeman weighs in at just under my monthly budget ($100 AUD) so I will only be required to paint one single (albeit big...) model this month!

Tale of Duelling Gamers - Finally Finished!

Well, I missed the deadline but April's figures are finally finished. I severely underestimated the painting time required to finish the figures off, and with a 5AM start this morning for work, a late night/early morning painting session last night was pretty much out of the question. In the end, I didn't manage to finish the models off until about an hour ago! 

I've snapped a couple of quick piccies, just to prove that I *have* finished the figures! I'll take better pictures, with better light tomorrow. 

Nearly There!

The first month of the Tale of Duelling Gamers is nearly over, and most of my fellow participants finished some time ago. Meanwhile, I've been spending every spare moment of the last week trying to cram in frantic painting sessions in order to even come close to meeting my first month quota. As is typically the case (and as Owen the Puddingwrestler predicted!) I left my painting until the last minute, and am now having to desperately scramble to get things done in order to not embarrass myself.

There's still just over 24 hours left to complete April's target though, and I've reached a stage where it actually might be possible for me to finish the figures in time. I've got just two stages left to paint on 30 figures, which amounts to probably something like 2-3 hours painting. I should be able to complete one more stage tonight, which leaves the last stage to complete tomorrow before the deadline.

Fingers crossed!

New Wood Elves in May!

This makes me a very happy elf - it's now confirmed that, after nearly a decade of waiting, Wood Elves are finally getting a new book! We've now seen several pictures of the first bunch of releases. If GW follow the recent pattern, I expect the actual army book will hit in the second week around about May 10th, with the first wave on general sale for May 3rd.

Naturally, this has got me very excited! Roll on May 3rd!

Tale of Duelling Gamers - Off to a Slow Start!

OK, I promised an update on my progress with the Tale of Duelling Gamers. It's taken me a while to get round to it, but here are the first couple of baby steps towards getting the first models done for the challenge.

I've sat down and put together a sort of schedule that details exactly what I hope to get painted each month, while keeping in budget and allowing for a couple of months when I know I'm not going to be able to get a lot done. With a bit of careful planning (and some fiddling of numbers!) I think I've managed to come up with something that I'll actually be able to see through to the end!

The first month's budget is $200 AUD, which just gave me enough to "buy" six boxes of Eternal Guard (that I've had sitting around for a while). This gives me 30 figures to paint by the end of April, and represents the biggest single monthly task of the whole schedule (not surprising really when there's double the money involved). If I can get these 30 models knocked out by the end of this month, the rest of the challenge should be a breeze in comparison!

Lots of Wood Elves waiting patiently in their boxes...

And now out of the boxes! 

Based and undercoated, as of Monday

And finally, the reason I don't make a lot of progress with hobby stuff.
And because everybody loves pictures of cats. 

And finally, some numbers for people to chew over. 

Amount "spent": $198 AUD (leaving $2 to carry over to next month)

Number of Figures: 30 metal models

Price at current UK exchange rate: £111.53

GW UK Retail Price: £73.80 (£37.73 cheaper than Australia)

Price Paid: £59.50 (£14.30 cheaper than UK Retail, £52.03 cheaper than Australian Retail!)

Tale of Duelling Gamers - It Begins!

April is now upon us, and so the Tale of Duelling Gamers is officially under way!

Naturally, most of us taking part are off to a slow start (myself included) but that will all change soon, I'm sure. I'll start the updates on my own progress in the next post, but for now I thought I'd direct some attention to the other gamers who are taking part!

Owen (Terrain for Hippos) - WFB - Chaos Warriors
Greg (The Hoodling's Hole) - WFB - Dwarves
Justin (Holiday Hobbyist) - 40K - Orks
Pete (The Breathless Host) - WFB - Wood Elves
Matt (Hobby Hideout) - WFB - Chaos Dwarves (Maybe...)
Chris and Son of Chris (Moruya Marauders) - 40K & WFB - Something
Rupert (Not About To Grow Up) - WFB - Dwarves
Nick (Den of the Eternal Youth) - WFB - Chaos Warriors

So there you have it. Go and take a look to see how everyone else is getting on. I may occasionally direct your attention to the other participants as the challenge develops, especially if it helps distract from my own inevitably slow progress...