Actually painted McThralls

Since I've actually been playing Cryx and loving Gaspy3, I decided it was high time to paint up the last unpainted McThralls that I have.  That means my 4th Brute Thrall and the last 11 regular McThralls.  I initially primed these guys when I got them in the same Army Painter Necrotic Flesh, planning to dip them the same as I did the initial group.  I know I'm no extraordinary painter, but I feel like I've come a long way since I dipped my initial 20+ McThralls.  So I decided to try and give these guys a much better paintjob.  This will also help me differentiate between my 2 units in my Gaspy3 tier list, which you can read about here in my Merc Battle reports thread on Focus and Fury.

Anyways, here's the Brute Thrall that I initially tested my scheme with.

I'm doing a lot of the ribbed tubing as green and some purple armor plates, mimicking the new Cryx scheme found on my Wraith Engine.  The flesh was a new recipe I had, which started with a purple flesh tone acheived with a Citadel Leviathan Purple wash on top of the primer, followed by thin layers of Citadels's Rotting Flesh with stronger highlights as Rotting Flesh + Skull White.

As an example of what it looks like for the flesh, here's a McThrall after washing

 

and an obviously different one after highlighting.

Overall, I'm very happy with how this undead flesh is turning out.  I really feel like it's a better undead fleshtone than my dipped McThralls have (shown below).

So just a quick painting update, be sure to check out the focus and fury thread for my battle reports with Gaspy3.  If people want me to start posting them here, just let me know and I'll copy/paste them over.

Wraith Engine almost finished!

So after a few more nights of work, I'm almost finished with the Wraith Engine.  Just a little cleanup on some of the colors, and adding the green glow into a few more vents.

 

Aside from the red, I'm really happy with how the colors have turned.  The zenithal priming technique helps out a bit as well.  Anyways, I should hopefully be sealing this thing up in the morning so that it's good to go for another game on Friday night where it will be proxying for a Kraken yet again.  Speaking of which, the Kraken + Gaspy3 has really been quite fun in the two games I've played them in so far.

Painting Update

I haven't been able to play as much as I'd like recently, but I've still gotten in some games with Damiano + Pirates, which has been fun, as well as Bart + Galleon.  Basically, Galleon is a monster.  Anyways, this is just a quick painting update before I get back into doing work today.

First is a merc painting update.  Here are some of the farthest along models in my Trencher Commandos group, who I'm very happy with.  I think they'[re turning into my best painted unit, along with my Boomhowler & Company.

   

Next up is a quick Cryx model.  I loaned Jason a fair amount of my Cryx a while back in return for borrowing his Cygnar models before I decided that I wanted to own the Bad Seeds tier.  I just got some of those back, and played a game of proxies of Gaspy3 + Kraken, where my lovely Wraith Engine played the Kraken.  So it's been such a long time, I figured I should drop some paint onto this bad boy.  Plus I'm testing out a new paint scheme, because there's nothing like having a new paint scheme after you're mostly painted with an army :p  Anyways, still a work in progress, but I'm liking how it's looking.

 

So for the commandos, I'm really happy with how the leather and skin tones are working out, and I'm trying to punch up all my highlights in general since my models often look so dark.  Hopefully that pans out.  With the Wraith Engine, I think it'll be a nice change-up from my normal Cryx just because of all the colors on it: purple armor plating, red cloth, green goo everywhere, and then the metals.  Hopefully I can finish it up soon and plop it back onto the table with my pGaspy list.

eMagnus and Fiona WIPS

I've gotten in a 2 more games with eMagnus, now I'm 2-2! Anyways, I've also done a bit of work on eMags and his Renegades.  So far, I'm pretty happy with how they're looking, although there's still a lot of work to do on Magnus, plus lots of highlighting and detail work on the Renegades.  Also, if you're looking for battle reports, most of my forum time is spent on focus and fury now, for a variety of reasons.  Anyways, I'm trying to keep a running log of my games, which you can find here.  Right now it's just Mercenary battle reports, but there will probably be the occasional Cryx one whenever I play them again.

While I still haven't player Fiona at all.  I have put a bit more paint on her.  I'm really liking how she is turning out so far.  One thing I'm not sure of is the water.  I think that I just need to put more on, plus highlight the tops of it with almost pure white.  Hopefully I'll get some games in with her soon too, we'll see.

epic Magnus and his Renegades

So I did a bit of work on eMagnus tonight, in addition to getting Fiona primed as well.

We'll start with Fiona:



I began with zenithal priming as is usual for me as of late.  She also has a slightly different post than is stock, partly because of her base.  Beyond the slight staff position change, I'm also going to be doing water effects on the base to have waves crashing up onto the "cliff" that she's standing on... should be exciting.

Next up, eMagnus and his 2 trusty Renegades.

Primed:

Here they are again with a little bit of paint:

I wasn't sure initially what color I wanted to paint them in, but I took Dave Henry's suggestion of "Traitor Blue" since it would be nice and fluffy.  I'm not sure how close I am to actually hitting the PP colors, but with a bit of mixing and layering, I think it's looking pretty good so far.  I'm also going to try and do a bit of the metallic shading that I mentioned a few posts ago, but we'll see.  I don't want to experiment too much here.  Also, still pleasantly surprised with how much detail there is in the press mold on the base.  I was aiming for a brighter Cygnar blue on the wrecked Ironclad, but I may have to turn to the "Fort Faulk" scheme there.

The greatest lightbox on earth

Ok so maybe the thread title is a little deceiving but I had a major photography breakthrough last night and it was all thanks to two of the greatest things on earth, the internet and milk. I can't remember where I saw it but someone recommended using an empty plastic milk carton as a light box. Since I had a nearly finished gallon of milk in the fridge at home I thought it would be a good excuse to drink some milk and take some photos.

After I polished off the milk I cut off the top, stuck a piece of white paper inside and pointed a desk lamp over the top of it, like so:

And here are some of the results:

Not too shabby for something made from common household items. The only problem is I can't fit squads or larger models in there. Really anything more than a single medium based mini is a stretch.

Almost fully painted for KingdomCon!

So with just a week left until KingdomCon, I only have to finish painting Snapjaw and a Bull Snapper and paint Wrongeye to be fully painted (aside from reinforcements).

So I finished sealing the Eliminators this morning. I'm not too happy with them because their faces look terrible, but they're freaking tiny! One thing I do like is their bases. I glued half a champagne cork to each base, and then cut it down and ripped out chunks to get the big rocks. Then I glued on some sand, and primed everything. The other thing I like is my new way to do snow. Mix up gloss varnish (I used Liquitex Gloss Medium/Varnish) with some baking soda. If it's got too much varnish in it, it won't look right when it dries, so err on the side of too dry. So I mixed that up and glopped it on.



I also finished up the last 4 Assassins earlier this week, but I did put snow onto all their bases since I was doing that to the Eliminators anways. I also cut off Disco Steve's raised arm and green stuffed something else terrible for a bicep, but at least he's not Disco Steve anymore.


I also finished up Rocinante for Ashlynn's list, and the Mangler and 2nd Nomad for Bart's list. Eventually I'll actually order a new sword for that Nomad from PP, but for now, the green stuffed version works.



Anyways, hopefully I'll be able to do well in the Saturday tourney at KingdomCon and have something to report here.

Canine Cancer 2012

I just wanted to take a little time to promote a charity cause I'm working with. Dawnlord on the PP forums is painting a 50 point eKaya tier list to auction off to support canine and feline cancer research. Being a big animal lover I have volunteered to paint a couple models for the cause. You can follow the action on the PP boards or on the Canine Cancer 2012 blog. Look for some WIP shots here as well.

To Infinity...and beyond!

I haven't posted anything in a while because I've been working on submissions for the Kingom-Com painting competition and I don't want to spill the beans. I took a break today to paint up an Infinity model from the Haqqislam faction. This is as basic an infantry unit as you can get, a Ghulam.

When I first saw these models my first thought was, "*string of expletives* those are small!" So I had to adjust my techniques and expectations. I'm going for tabletop quality as it's pretty easy to have a fully painted Infinity army as far as model count is concerned. Anyway, keep an eye out for more Infinity and later in April my Kingdom-Con entries.

It's that time of year again... KingdomCon!

KingdomCon is a month away now, and I'm trying to get prepared for it. First of all, I'm trying to decide on the lists that I'm going to play. Second, I want to get all of the models painted that I'm going to be using. At this point, I'm only going to be playing in the 50 pt tournament on Saturday, but I'm tempted to go down Friday night and play in the 35 pt theme list tourney at midnight. We'll see though.

I've been playing Mercs relatively exclusively for the last 6 months or so, and I've got a few favorite casters. Namely, Ashlynn, Gorten, and Durgen are my favorites. However, I recently picked up Shae and all his pirates, Bart, Damiano, and Constance Blaize.

Right now, I'm fairly certain that Broadsides Bart will be my second caster because he creates a tough problem for my opponents with his high armor. In general, his list is going to be 3 heavy jacks, Wrongeye and Snapjaw with a Bull Snapper for even more armor, and Kayazy and solos to fill the rest of the points. The particulars of his list depends on what my primary list is. I want it to be able to do ranged and melee so that I don't have a lot of glaringly terrible matchups. So my initial thought was Durgen for ranged control, and then a crapton of Steelheads and Nyss. The idea here is that Durgen plus Nyss provide the ranged control, while the Steelheads provide a strong melee component that can deal with high armor or high defense thanks to Primed. However, strong ranged armies like Cygnar and Menoth have been giving me some issues with Durgen, so I may not stick with him. However, I'm going to be practicing with Dave Henry and others at "The Chamber" later today. If I still don't like how Durgen is performing for me, I may switch Durgen out for Ashlynn. This will change my Bart list up some (i.e. losing Wishnailer and Rocinante), but that list will still do what it was essentially designed for, i.e. being high ARM and tough to deal with.

So now on to the painting aspect. Thankfully, most things that I have in my Ashlynn list are already painted (i.e. Nyss, Forgeguard, Gun Mages, etc), so that will make things easy. However, before this week, most of Durgen's army was still not fully painted.

Last night, I managed to seal up and flock my 16 Steelhead Halberdiers:



Also, before I started on the Halberdiers, I did a fair amount of work on my Steelhead Cavalry:



The bases for these guys are done and sealed just so that I could have the front arcs marked for practice games. Stannis is also assembled and primed, but he's not in the list, so I haven't really done too much to him. The whole Steelhead contingent looks pretty cool together though, that's for sure.



Another model that I've had done for a while, but haven't photographed before now was my Wishnailer model (at least, I think that's the case. I'm too lazy to go back and look it up though). Anyways, he was one of the first models that I started using the zenithal priming on. I'm pretty happy with how his skin and robes came out though. If I ever get better at painting jewels, I'll probably go back and actually paint the ones on him.



On to the works in progress. First, eAlexia:



Her base right now is bland and uninspired, but I'll try and figure something out. Gameplay wise, anybody that can up her DEF to ridiculous levels is great IMO. I've only playtested her with Ashlynn, but I could see her being good with Fiona and Damiano as well.

Next up, Rocinante:



This is my conversion to put the kit onto the metal model. I left off the chains since I couldn't make them fit, but the model exudes character to me. Plus he's amazing with soooo many casters. I love him with Bart, Damiano, and Ashlynn. I haven't tried him with anybody else yet, but I could see him being great with Fiona too.

Another new release from Wrath, the Eliminators:



I haven't really used them much, but their stats are ridiculous. Anyways, I know I've shown them before, but it was a terrible picture, so this is to make up for that.

And last but not least, my gators:





I know that I owned them before, and then sold them. I feel like I'm really getting a lot better use out of them this time though. Partially, it's because of Spiny Growth in Mercs. The other part is making Cryx lists that aren't as overwhelmingly full of infantry, which seems like blasphemy to me, but whatevs. As I mentioned last time, I was trying to replicate what popgoestheworld did with his award winning warhog and other little piglets bases (found here). In terms of skin tone on Snapjaw, I'm going for something like this:



I found this pic on the Tennessee Aquarium website, but it really has an interesting color to it, which I like. So yah, we'll see if I can replicate it.

Anyways, that's all I've got for now. Stay tuned in the next 4 weeks for even more painting, and maybe even some battle reports. I've got pics of a game that Micah and I had, Shae tier 4 vs. Calaban at 35 pts. It was a blast with lots of ups and downs in it.

Until next time.

A few Merc WIPS - Eliminators & Bull Snapper

So first off, the bull snapper. He's going to be used in my Merc armies, specifically with Macbain, Bart, and possibly Damiano. The bases for my gator models is inspired by popgoestheworld's epic pig bases. His warhog won a gold in a painting competition somewhere, so yah, look it up, it's rad.





I'm not terribly sold on the colors yet, but it could be worse I guess. Snapjaw will definitely be a darker/blacker color than this, so we'll see.

Next is my first unit of eliminators. They only had one at my LGS, so I'm just painting up this unit first.



I didn't like the studio poses, so I switched an arm from each model to give to the other. I think it's okay, but not great. I'll have more to post whenever I can take pics of the 16 Steelhead Halberdiers and the 5 Steelhead Cav that I'm painting too. Oh yah, and Rocinante, a second Nomad, and Wrongeye and Snapjaw, all of which I'm trying to have painted by April 14th for KingdomCon.

Vessel of Judgement - Done?

So after untold hours, I think I'm done with this model except for sealing it and maybe putting some tufts of greenery/plant stuff on the base.

Anyways, here it is:




I'm actually pretty happy with everything, especially all the golds. I've also learned why I will never play Menoth or Skorne. Painting that much filigree is dangerous to my mental health :p

Just a quick update - Vessel of Judgement Commission

So I didn't get nearly as much painting over the holidays as I expected, but I managed to put my brush back to the model this weekend.




I haven't really done any highlighting on anything, and I've really only been focusing on the top piece. Hopefully I'll be able to crank that piece out and have it done in the next week. I doubt I'll finish the whole thing before the end of January purely because of how busy this month is, but I'd like to get it done soon so I can get back to assembling/painting my own models again :p

Vessel of Judgement Commission - Part 1

So James, one of the guys at my LGS who plays Menoth, Retribution, and now also Khador, got a Vessel of Judgement and wanted me to paint it for him. He magnetized it up so that it wouldn't be such a pain to transport.

So here are all the pieces minus the priesty dude. I might have knocked his head off, so I'll have to go back and pin that so it can't happen again.

Now, with the magnetization, it should be easier to paint since I can just pull the people out of the way. It turns out that the magnets hold okay together, but not really strong enough to be able to move the base just by holding the top of the Vessel. To fix that and to keep the chains onto the buff dude, I put in some pins for this thing. I pinned the chains to the Vessel, and they'll also glue in to the buff dude. I put two little pins into the back wheel section so that the magnets holds the piece close, and the pins keep the pieces aligned. This way, a little sheering force won't knock the piece off. I also put in a big pin that runs from the bottom of the base, through the large wheel section to the pipes section. It's fairly snug, so now just holding the top of the Vessel can pick everything up.

As you can see, I have tile on the base, just done by using a lot of GS, some water, and a piece of screen. The rest of the base will hopefully be suitably deserty.

So when it's put together, it'll look something like this:

As for the actual painting, James wanted something like the studio paint scheme. Seeing as I've never actually painted anything Menoth before, and how large this model is, I opted for using the Army Painter Skeleton Bone Primer to get everything in the right shade. This is where I'm at so far after a thin layer of bleached bone on top of the primer (plus a couple washes on the base and buff dude).

It looks like the white color shouldn't be too hard to build up from this, which is nice. I'm going to try and finish a quick basecoat of the bleached bone all over the white sections of this model before busting out the metals on this bad boy.