claymoore

The difference would be a proven track record including some of the most successful tabletop mini games of all time that generate a substantial revenue for the store. GW provides a lot to complain about but brings in the bucks. There will be actual datacards in the books. Cool. I thought there would be stats like in the original book but not actual cards that you can remove from the book via perforations to use at the gaming table with your warbands. I'm sorry you resent the remark, but it's still my opinion of it. Beleive it or not, I actually understand your viewpoint about wanting every book - I, too, like to own every book or resource published for a game, regardless of whether or not I play a particular army or faction. Some companies **cough**GW**cough** deliberately count on that impulse most gamers have to buy everything, even going so far as to do things like not including any army building info in the core book. Reaper has always been more than fair in that regard - making things available online at no cost, creating and releasing new factions online for free when they could have charged for them, etc. But I've come to realize that most games don't require me to buy EVERY book. I've learned that I don't have to buy everything to have a good time with a game. I've learned that complaining that a company is making me spend my money on their stuff - stuff that is purely optional to own, BTW - is really just whining. Do I want both WL2 and SN? Yes. Will I buy both? Probably. Is Reaper forcing me in anyway to spend MY money on either or both? Nope, not at all. It's 100% my choice. Is complaining that Reaper is making you buy something whining? IMO, yes. YMMV. Back to the subject of the thread - I like the idea of the elementalist factions, too. Though I wonder if they wouldn't almost deserve their own book. I'd like to see some different takes on fantasy staples that aren't highly represented elsewhere - a Dryad/Treeman army would be interesting, as would a Centaur army. Nowhere in my posts do I say that Reaper is making me buy anything. My comments deal with lack of content that I would have liked to have included in the new books. To claim that anyone is making me buy hobby materials is not just whining it is ludicrous. Please do not misquote me either directly or through implication. Best wishes to you for success with the WL2 project.

I'm laughing. My problem is that I am the advocate for promoting WL2 in my store but my partners do not want the store to have anything to do with it. They have been burned with useless stocks of books, figures no one wants and irrate customers who have begged them to take back Warlord minis at $.50/$. I have been trying to convince them that Reaper is committed to supporting WL2 and things will be different this time. Then they ask if everything you need to play will be in the new book. Well yes unless you play BSG or Koborlas. One partner played Koborlas so he wants to know when that faction will be represented in a book. "In the near future" does not go over well. Now I tell them that Razig will not be in either book and they call shenanigans on me but not in the light hearted way that I passed it on to you. They see a new core book that does not cover all the current factions, no data cards with mini, the need for a PDF download and promises just like in the past. As a result WL2 will not be brought in until the Savage North book is released. I give up so no more shananigans. Razig should be in the core rulebook. It has been around long enough. I play differently than you do. If there are ten new factions in the SN I would find it necessary to know about them to play against them and buy the book. Just because I have a different viewpoint than you do, I am not "whining" and I resent that comment .

Why would they buy the Savage North expansion book if they didn't play any of the Savage North factions? Because they play more than one faction including one in the SN and Razig and because if you are serious about the game you will need SN to understand what you have to compete against. Making an army list that best counters another faction is fun but it requires an understanding of the opposing faction that is best derived from the books.

Saw somewhere here from Reaper (I think) that Razig will be PDF in the future, and NOT in Savage North. So, while that leaves my only faction data cardless for awhile ( ), it does open up another slot for something different. Missed that but found it in the Spreading WL2 topic. After buying two new books Razig players will still have to go online and download a PDF to play their faction. I call shananigans on that.

DHA was one of my favorites. Reaper made several changes to the DHA world's Taltos when they launched Warlord but left a lot of great material to incorporate into expansions. From what I gather through the community we should see, Koborlas, BSG, Blade Sister types, Razig, Dwarfs 2, and Wood Elves in the expansion book. I read somewhere that there would be ten new factions but can't remember where. Another Orc faction based on Kargir would be interesting to me, especially in light of some of the new Black Orc models coming out. The faction could share a lot of the lower Orcs from the Reven and pull from the DHL line. Greenshire in Vestonia was a halfling/gnome county that could be used to form a faction of little people but with BSG already out I don't see it. Warbands from the human countries like Anhur, Telluria, Vestonia, Racheau, Breonne etc, would have enough in common to allow players to let a few characters and painting set them apart while drawing from the same model source like the DHA army packs. Something similar would work for the Ritterlich Confederation and Malvernian Empire. Skirmish level play makes more variety possible without having to create a ton of new models. Also, since I can't play WL2 until after July 27 and have much time to speculate, how about a Skoli warband returning from near extinction and riding their high caliber giant scorpions, or Dire Dead. It will be amusing to see what they come up with and of course they are not limited by anything from DHA so imaginations can run wild.

Kalish brushes are made by the same factory as Reaper MS brushes and sold by Kalish for half the price. Kalish has a lot more variety as well. I just bought replacements for my 3/0, 2/0, 0 and 1 for $20 plus shipping - total $27. These would have cost $50 from the Asylum store where I would have only had the 5/0 and 10/0 as choices instead of the 3/0 and 2/0. The Kalish 2/0 is a favorite of mine. The Kalish and Reaper brushes I'm replacing are over four years old and were used for the majority of my work. The ability to pickup a Reaper Kolinsky brush that is carded from a local store is an advantage but if ordering over the net the price and optional sizes Kalish has are a plus. And Harry and Ruth are good people to deal with.

Unfortunately that has been my experience too. No worries though. I'll be too busy for forums next few months. Then I'll just lurk. PM me if you need more P45 info.

Since this is not a camera forum I'll be brief. My comments were directed towards 35mm vs DSLR images. The 20 x 24 image I refered to was at an ISO equiv 6400! At 100 ISO equiv much larger images can be created with excellent detail, color, etc from DSLR captures. If you think that agencies accept inferior quality digital images over film for convenience sake you are off the mark. I'm sure there are some out there but I do not know any professional photographers shooting 35mm film and filing digital scans. DSLR captures are excellent but when final usage requires it ( larger posters, billboards etc) I will use my medium format camera with a Phase One back or the Sinar P with a Phase One or Leaf back. These backs are very close to 4x5 chrome quality now (I see no advantage to 2 1/4 film over the Phase one back). The quality is so close that the slight advantage of the film is more than compensated for by the numerous advantages of digital capture. 4x5 and 8 x 10 film still offers better results in certain projects for specific needs. Ansel Adams artistry was due to his genius., not just his equipment. I miss him. There are now a number of highly acclaimed artists working with digital capture and printing to produce outstanding b&w exhibition prints in addition to their film based work.

Essentally that is what Gel Mediums offer. I have few in different grits but use Golden's Coarse Pumice Gel the most. It is finer than the name indicates. Liquitex Texture Gels Sand and Resin Sand are also useful. As Rastl said they usually have swatches at the art supply stores.

While I will always look affectionately at my film cameras, some twenty from 16mm to 4x5, the quality of current digital images makes them obsolete. I enjoyed working with my Nikon F5 more than any other camera but there is nothing to be gained by using it instead of the D3 or 300. Non of the other working pro photogs I know use film anymore either and we work for top Fortune 500 companies with big budgets and demanding usage. If the quality wasn't there the art directors wouldn't accept the work. All of the stock houses I work with will not accept film submissions any longer (Corbis, Getty etc). If you could see some of the 20 x 24 inch prints from ISO 6400 equiv digital captures made with DSLRs that I have you wouldn't contest the superiority of digital. At normal ISO ranges it is just incredible. Btw the Canon A610 has an aperature range of F2.8- F8. 2.8-4.1 is the maximum aperature at the wide-tele settings. DOF is limited on consumer digicams by the limited aperature settings. Typically if shooting something at 1/2 lifesize or more my F stop is set to 32. Most point an shoots only stop down to F8-11 so there is not much DOF when that close to the subject. Backing off some will increase the amount of subject that is in acceptable focus. This is not a problem when shooting for web use where the cropped digital file is still going to be more than sufficient. Good luck DavidVC with the new camera. It should serve you well and let us see your minis.

When I polish up figs for my friends storefront I use radial bristle brushes like thrush mentioned, made by 3M. I can take selected parts up to a highly polished reflective surface. Then to bring out the detail I ink the figs, let them dry and surface wipe or lightly buff with felt. Only takes a couple of minutes per model and some clients prefer them to painted figs. If you just want to smooth the surface out the nylon brushes are ok. I use nylon to finish cleaning figs I strip the paint off of before polishing with the 3m brushes. For figure prep the 3m brushes give me the super smooth surface I want especially for flesh and large areas without detail.

The Marise has quite a wow factor. It's on my list but I hope it will not be $25 like the MS Jonas Kane.

If you remeber some things that interested you and were listed as "coming soon", they may be on the shelves now or will be soon.

I appreciate Jeff passing on the info regarding a good company that sells a very sought after sculpting tool. Many sculptors that I know have a Tiranti Wax 5 type tool in their kit but I have never heard anyone claim that it is the endall tool or a replacement for skill and practice. Like a good Kolinsky brush it doesn't do the work for you. My recommendation to painters and would be sculptors is to buy the best equipment they can afford. Using good equipment removes that variable from consideration and allows you to concentrate on technique. Why work at a disadvantage with crappy tools? It often leads to frustration and quiting. Magnifiers are a tool of the trade as well. Why is it okay to ask about them when "it's the hands and the imagination" that count? If I replied negatively to all the topics that do not interest me they would have to create a Super Godlike category. If it doesn't interest you just pass on it and don't waste forum space.

That's a very respectable number of minis to paint in a year. In 2007 I painted 280 plus figures. Many of those were troops for Warmachine and Warlord but there were several large dragons as well. This year I'll probably paint fewer figures so I can concentrate on some projects that will be more demanding. Whether you paint one fig or a thousand if it makes you happy it's a good thing.