More Kayazy!

I'm still working on the new cloak for 1 guy, but the rest are all done. (more pics here)



I'm still debating taking off the fur around this guy's hood cause he looks too much like an eskimo and not an assassin to me. We'll see though.

Anyways, I'll probably be working on the cloaked crusader for another day or two before everybody gets the primer.

Kayazy Assassins Conversion or Eskimo?

Like many other warmachine players out there, I dislike the Kayazy Assassin sculpts (excluding the Underboss, which is quite boss). To fix it, I ordered some druid & kayazy heads to do a head swap.

I also wanted to try and make them fit with the underboss better, so I figured sculping some fur onto their cloaks and possibly hoods would be better. The lesson I've learned? Furry hoods = eskimos :p Lucky for me I only did the hood fur on one.





Also, the pose on this guy just kills me. I never knew there was such a flamboyant assassin. Anyways, I'll be sure to post more when I've got stuff done.

eEiryss WIP

So I managed to get a hold of eEiryss for my Merc forces at The Realm (in Brea) the last time I got in a game against Blake & his trolls. However, I always thought she looked out of place sitting on a freaking wall/building thingy, and I remember seeing that somebody (GardenNinja painting studio maybe?) had sculpted that base into a tree stump (which looked awesome). So I decided to take some of what I've picked up on sculpting from CaptainSpud's tutorials over on Lost Hemisphere.

The only special thing I did was bend a paperclip to serve as a frame for all the GS instead of just throwing it all into a big ol' hole. After I had a frame, I put on a thin layer of GS and let that dry before I added more and sculpted into that stuff. Anyways, here's what I've got so far.







I'm really happy with the colors on the tree stump and on the cloak, so I'll actually share how I painted that.

The stump was actually really easy. I basecoated it in GW foundation Khemri Brown, then washed it all with Devlan Mud. The ringed portion I highlighted with Bleached Bone, then washed with Gryphonne Sepia. The bark was highlighted back up to Khemri Brown, and another lighter highlight was done by adding in a little Bleached Bone.

The cloak was done with 90:10 Foundation Mechrite Red:Chaos Black. Then I did the first highlight with plain Mechrite Red, with lots of water and matte medium mixed in (not real scientific there). These highlights were built up over a few layers just to try and make use of the transparency of the mixing medium. Then I did the same thing, but with a dab of Foundation Macharius Solar Orange added to the Mechrite Red, still using lots of matte medium & water. Then a final highlight was added in a few places just with Foundation Iyandan Darksun + Mechrite Red + Macharius Solar Orange.

Hope the paint recipes are at least mildly interesting. I also have pics of the sculpting before priming if anybody is interested.

That fits on a medium base?

Sooooo I might have caved and bought Scaverous as soon as I possibly could once I saw his rules. Telekinesis?... in Cryx?.... ewwwwwwwwww.

So yah, I nabbed him last Wednesday, and between finishing up Boomhowler's and reading all the fluff in Wrath, I got him assembled/converted ish. I'm holding off on gluing on his arms until I get them painted just because it's all so awkward. Most of the reason for the conversion that I'm working on is because 4 points have to be glued at once to get the studio pose. Plus I didn't really care for that pose, so yah.

Since I didn't want to have to sculpt new hands/a new armor plate on his scythe, I basically brass rodded the scythe, and drilled out the hand that was in the middle of the pole. That hand just got glued onto the arm. The other hand on the end I left where it was so that I wouldn't have to sculpt anything. To make that work though, I had to chop apart the forearm and flip that over. Put in some brass rods to be the new pistons, and there ya go. I gotta clean that part up some more tonight, but then I'll take some pics of it.

I also decided to not do my all metal paint scheme, but instead do something new. I blame all the Merc painting getting me to try new stuff. Anyways, here's the progress so far.








The only thing I'm not sure on is the red cloth that I normally do. It just feels like it clashes with the purple/brass dealio I have going on. Anyways, I may change that later.

I'll post up my thoughts on how he plays after I get a test run with him on Tuesday night.

Boomhowler & Co. Finished!

Add another one in the bank. 79% painted mercs according to forwardkommander.

I'm really happy with how the skin turned out, and pretty happy with the color choice. The metals are so-so, but *shrug* roh wellz. Overall, definitely like them, plus glad to have them done.



Now I just have one more merc unit (Highshields, if I can't get a trade for them), one Khador unit (Kayazy + UA), and a few jacks & solos to finish up to have a fully painted merc force.

Photo Dump!!!

So what with all the games and such, I haven't actually taken pics of what I've painted recently. It helps that I painted a lot in the past 2 weeks in order to get fully painted for the 50 pt SR2011 at AGR last weekend. More on that later though.

I ended up getting both my eDenny and eGaspy lists fully painted (of sorts, some things need more details put in), but I only played my eGaspy list. Here's that list, fully painted! (sans Malice's magnetized parts)

Saxon Orrik was one of the models that I needed to finish painting for the tournament, and I'm actually very happy with how he came out. I realize that I need to actually finish his basing (find some sticks, maybe get some leaves or static grass from AGR), but the painting is all done I think.

At the tourney, Micah gave me my birthday present, a pair of W&N Series 7 brushes. Being considerably better than my old brushes, I had to try them out almost immediately. Here's the outcome of that work.

The face needs more work, but there's a lot that I'm happy with on this model. I like the way the robes came out (although they could probably stand to have brighter highlights), the corroded brass on the banister, that I actually painted an eye (not shown well here), and a pretty good attempt for my first attempt at waves and water.

Lastly, here is the rest of the stuff that I've painted recently, but haven't documented.

pDenny

Satyxis Raiders, Sea Witch, & Captain

The ever popular Cephalyx Drudges!

And since I had the lightbox set up, I wanted to take a better pic of some other casters that I have painted.

Next up, Ashlynn, Cephalyx Overlords, & Boomhowler & Co.

C&C always welcome.

Speed-painted Forgeguard

Happy Thanksgiving everybody. So I just wanted to throw in a quick update of my Searforge painting that I've done recently. To start, here's the Driller that I finished shortly after Brun & Lug.



Also, in preparation for T-Town Throwdown that Micah is organizing in December, I'm planning on actually running Mercs over my Cryx. With that in mind, I wanted to try and get as close to fully painted as possible, at least for one of my lists. Thinking to myself, Forgeguard are mostly just armor, they don't have nearly as many fiddly bits as those highshields do, I can just speed paint my way through them... ha ha, jokes on me. Plenty of fiddly little pieces and more color than I initially intended. Anyways, here's the result of my "speed-painting"... aka ~10-12 hours I put into them in my halfday off on Wednesday.



and a close-up of 3 guys



And in case you noticed, the Leader doesn't have a backpack. Either a mispack or forgotten part in that Bartertown trade. Anyways, I'll get to it in my next bitz order.

The final showing of the day is a new picture of all my fully painted Searforge:



Soon enough I'll be breaking out my snow for all of these bases.

Small Painting Update

So in my quest to have a strong pair of Steamroller lists for tournaments, I decided that Terminus would be a good second to my epic Deneghra list. For that list, I decided to get two new mercs, Orrin Midwinter and Madelyn Corbeau... well, that and I really like Orrin Midwinter's sculpt. So I started painting them last night (did some cleanup work and made the bases earlier this week), and finished both of them tonight.

So I'm very happy with the robes on both models. Orrin's robes were my test piece that took me probably 5 hours, but that allowed me to get Madelyn's done in 2. I'm also happy with the skin tone on both models (basecoat GW bleached bone, Wash with GW Ogryn Flesh, highlight as needed with bleached bone), but the faces on both are lacking. That's probably something that I will go back and correct at some other time (once I get better at actual living model faces). Also, I'd like to go back and add in more blue to Orrin, fixing his eyes and staff, as well as possibly adding a blue OSL to his left hand. Another positive note is the basing. It may not be perfect, but I just like how them. Plus it was new and fun.

Overall, I'm very happy with how these two models have turned out. As usual, more pics can be found at flickr (here).

C&C welcome.

New Stuff!

So I got my scifi order in last night, which brought me Forces of Warmachine: Cryx, Venethrax, my 2nd Warwitch Siren & a full unit of Blackbane's Raiders. I also got my new "army case" useable, although it still isn't finished.

I made the above carrying case for the 99c store cookie sheets out of some scrap wood in the garage. To finish it, I'm going to put thin wood siding on the bottom and sides of the case, as well as make a door and latch for the front. I'm debating about making the door a few inches thick in order to hold dice, cards, and books... we'll see how much more work that is once I get the thin siding and such, but it would be nice to have it all self-contained. Hopefully, I'll be able to use this case to carry 2-3 50 pt Cryx armies, as well as all my Legion and Searforge models for conventions and such. All in all, I really like how well this transports all my models. Now to get the new models ready to roll in there.

Last night, I got all those new models cleaned & assembled, along with some minor conversion work to Venethrax & the Warwitch Siren. As you can see in the background, I also have a min unit of Satyxis and Revenant Crew on my desk. Once I clean up all the Satyxis and affix their whips, I'll get all of this based and primed. An exciting time to play Cryx.

Deathjack Rebuild 4: Painted

So I might have stayed up until 2 am last night to get my DJ painted before the breast cancer tournament at my LGS, but I didn't even end up using it. *shrug* themz the breakz. Regardless, I went 2-0 before the other 5 people got tired of it and went home. So yah, about that painted Deathjack... I'm not entirely happy with it, but my crazy self wouldn't let me go any slower on painting it. While it's not my best work, at least it matches how the rest of my jacks have been coming out, so here it is.

Anyways, one of Senobio's (the store owner) friends donated several khador things to be given away as prizes. Lucky for me that I ended up with the most expensive model on the table... BEAST-09!!!

While I love the model, this one model is not enough to get me to start another faction. So now it's off to bartertown to try and get some Cryx or Searforge models for him.

Rebuilt Deathjack: Part 3 - Assembled!

So after some suggestions and criticism from the PP forums, as well as some comments here on the blog, I think I am done with my assembly of the Deathjack. The pose was what was giving me the greatest trouble, but I think this new pose really shows some of the power of the Deathjack.

All that's left is to paint the sucker and glue him to the base. Should be a grand ol' time. Let me know what you think.

Let me know what you guys think.

Blasted Heath Map Bonuses & Strategems - A Cryxian View

So it's time for a new league, and with this new league comes new bonuses and stratagems.

Map Bonuses
• Fuel Depot – Each of the controlling faction player’s warcasters gain +1 warjack point.

A handy bonus, but not specifically better for Cryx than for anybody else. This can let you upgrade that jack you're taking if you're lucky.

• Mercenary Chapter – The controlling faction player’s army can exceed the game point
size by up to 1 army point or can include a free mercenary or minion solo of up to 2 army
points (subject to normal army-building rules).

This is quite handy as Cryx likes to take a few 2 pt solos, and who doesn't love being 1 or 2 pts up in superiority. My suggestions for mercs here would be throwing in Gorman di Wulfe or Madelyn Corbeau. The other possibilities are Orrin Midwinter and Saxon Orrik.

• Ruins – The controlling faction’s players can place one wall template anywhere within
20˝ of the back edge of their deployment zones after terrain has been placed but before
either player deploys his army. The walls are linear obstacles that grant cover.

This can be very nice for a couple of things. If you're playing an eDenny scenario win army, you can use this to up her def from 16 to 20 and make it even more ridiculous. More generally, you can use this with a number of casters to protect yourself from charges from non-pathfinders as well as giving cover from the massive amount of shooting out there, either to your caster, or to some low def units.

• Scenario [Name] – All games in this scenario use the specified scenario.

Not much to say here.

• Showdown – During the Finale event, the controlling faction’s players are automatically
defenders during the first round.

Again, no real value for most people in league play.

• Slaughter Field – If any models in the controlling faction player’s army use corpse
tokens, soul tokens, or blood tokens, each of those models begins the game with one
additional token of the appropriate type (subject to the normal limits of those tokens).

This is the dream child for any cryx army. Key models to take advantage of this are as follows:
Casters - both Gaspy's, both Deneghra's, Terminus, Venethrax, & Mortenebra.
Jacks - Deathjack & Harrower
Units - Necrosurgeon, Soulhunters, Withershadow Combine
Solos - Pistol Wraiths, Skarlock

Basically, this is like you started the game the turn after you killed somebody else's army. It's great fun, and if you build a list to capitalize on it, it should be pretty ridiculous. Skorne and Menoth can both get a few bonuses from this, but nothing like Cryx can.

• Swampie Guide – Reduce the point cost of one model/unit with Amphibious by 2 points
or reduce the point cost of one model/unit with Pathfinder by 1 point.
This can reduce the cost of both the Leviathan and the Harrower by 2, which is huge. I'm not sure if this should work with Satyxis Raiders with the Sea Witch or not, but that's also a possibility.

• Timber – The controlling faction’s players can place one 4˝ AOE forest terrain feature
anywhere completely within 20˝ of the back edge of their deployment zones after terrain
has been placed but before either player deploys his army. Forests cannot be placed
within 3˝ of another terrain feature.

This can be helpful vs. Cygnar or the shooty elements of most factions (except the elves) to provide cover as you work your way up the field. I would say this benefits things like the Satyxis Raiders or Bane Knights the most unit-wise.

• Wildlife – Each of the controlling faction player’s warlocks gain +1 warbeast point or
reduce the point cost of Lesser Warlock models by 1 point each.

Say hello to Wrongeye & Snapjaw at 8 pts.

Map Locations:
• Region 1: Lake Bloodsmeath – Swampie Guide
• Region 2: The North Forest – Scenario [Fight Club], Timber, Wildlife
• Region 3: Thornmere – Timber
• Region 4: Northguard – Ruins, Scenario [Destruction], Slaughter Field
• Region 5: Raet’s Bog – Swampie Guide
• Region 6: The Heath – Showdown, Wildlife
• Region 7: Blindwater Lake – Wildlife
• Region 8: The Ironfields – Fuel Depot, Slaughter Field
• Region 9: Lake Anglepeat – Ruins
• Region 10: The Boar’s Throat – Fuel Depot, Scenario [Fight Club]
• Region 11: The Glimmerwood – Timber
• Region 12: Corvis – Mercenary Chapter

Overall, I feel like the Satyxis Raiders and Amphibious jacks are getting the most out of the maps, along with the cheap merc solos that we can take.

************************************************** ****************
Now on to think about the Strategems. Some are old, and some are new.

• Stratagem 1: Fallback Plan – Once during each of your Control Phases, select one
friendly model/unit in your warcaster/warlock’s command range. That model/unit gains
Bushwhack for one turn. (During its activation, a model with Bushwhack can make its
combat action before its normal movement. If it does, it must make a full advance as its
normal movement this activation.)

Considering how many shooting units we have, I would go for this last. I think this would probably work best with a pDenny pop n' drop list that is using a shooty Merc unit like the Nyss Hunters or Steelhead Riflemen. Otherwise, I don't think it will see a whole lot of use for Cryx.

• Stratagem 2: Cautious Plan – Once during each of your Control Phases, select one
friendly model/unit in your warcaster/warlock’s command range. That model/unit gains
Camouflage for one round. (A model with Camouflage gains an additional +2 DEF when
benefiting from concealment or cover.)

Once again, I look to our units that like to hide in terrain (aka Satyxis Raiders and Bane Knights, possibly Blackbane's Raiders as well). This can really help protect these units on their advance. A solid choice as a first stratagem depending on the models that you have.

• Stratagem 3: Control Maneuver – Once per game during your Control Phase, select
one friendly warjack or warbeast. A selected warjack can be allocated focus this turn
even if it is outside its battlegroup commander’s control area. A selected warbeast can be forced this turn even if it is outside its battlegroup commander’s control area.

Nothing much for Cryx to see here. Our Caster's generally have high enough focus stats that this shouldn't be a problem. I see this useful with certain casters like the Coven, where you can have a jack waay behind their lines be just outside their control area. The possiblity of giving it focus while behind enemy lines is neat, but highly situational. I'd pass on this one as a starting point.

• Stratagem 4: Desperation Maneuver – Once per game during your Control Phase, the
warlock with this stratagem can discard fury points before leaching or the warcaster with
this stratagem gains +1 focus point after replenishing focus.

An extra focus point is very nice, especially for some of our focus starved casters, but I wouldn't say that this should be high on our list of stratagemsto start with.

• Stratagem 5: Feinting Gambit – Once per game during your Control Phase, select one
friendly model/unit. The selected model/unit gains +2 MAT but suffers -2 DEF. Feinting
Gambit lasts for one round.

This can be a brutal stratagem, and seems to be right up Cryx's alley. It's also going to be devastating if used poorly. I can see this coming into play on our low Mat troops, as well as on assassination runs against high defense casters. I'm looking directly at Terminus swarms and eGaspy assassination runs with Soulhunters. This could even be useful with the Goreshade Bane armies if they've managed to take out Tartarus already. This should be used to absolutely decimate the enemy, so that the negative aspect doesn't even come into play.

• Stratagem 6: Flanking Gambit – Once per game during your Control Phase, select one
friendly model/unit. The selected model/unit gains +2 SPD but cannot perform Actions or
Attacks. Flanking Gambit lasts for one round.

This can be useful, but I would think it's much harder to get good use out of. The times when I would really consider this is with high defense units (say hello Satyxis Raiders) against low mat shooty units (Arcane Tempest Gun Mages, Mage Hunter Strike Force, Long Gunners, etc). I'd also consider it with Soulhunters because they outthreat a lot of stuff, plus it would cause them to severely shift their flank to account for them being totally behind their lines.


With a look at all the Stratagems, I'd say that the priority would be 5>2>6>4>3>1.

Hope this helps everyone playing in the Blasted Heath. Let's go out and kick some Cygnarian *#*@!!!

Rebuilt Deathjack: Part 2

So I've gotten more work done. Lots more in fact. I've also figured out what I'm going to do with the skulls of hate. No sculpting needed, I'm just going to attach the old skulls of hate (minus the spikes that I dremeled off ages ago) to the front of the shoulders, hanging down to stare at his enemies.



I also finished off the smokestacks in a way that I like. While the model is really busy with spikes and such, I really like how it's turning out to feel very Cryxian.



Here are a couple more angles for you to take a gander at.





For all the escaping soul pieces that I bought, I'm going to have 2 of them come out of the side vents, and then 2 come out of the empty holes right below it, so that it looks like the Deathjack is running on full steam...errr necrotite...errrr souls.

So that's the majority of the model right there. All that's left is the arms and the claws. I'll be brass rodding the arms to be stronger, plus I'm going to try and sculpt the necrotite vent on the inside of the claws like is shown in the artwork.

I probably won't be getting any more work done on the model till next week, but I think I've made a good start. Good enough that the Deathjack will be fully assembled for the Steamroller at my LGS next Saturday.

C&C always welcome

Rebuilt Deathjack: Part 1

So I mentioned two nights ago that I had gotten the parts in for my Deathjack conversion. After tearing apart my current Deathjack, I threw all those parts into simple green to strip them of the paint.

So I went from this:



to this:



After lots of cutting and pinning, I have all the tusks and horns attached to my slayer head.





I'll be GS'ing gaps on the head tonight, as well as finishing up the two shoulders, which I've also made a start on.



I am still looking for suggestions on what to do for the skulls of hate. At this point, I'm going to attempt to sculpt them, but I'm still unsure as to where I should put them. I'm thinking either dremeling the hands to be free of most of the ornate work/chains on the back, and sculpting skulls there to be held on by chain (using jewelery chain), or to sculpt them as hanging on the back of the shoulderpads, which are already going to be very busy. Ideas?

New things on the horizon

So a few things happened today. First of all, I got my 2nd game in with Mortenebra. 2nd of all, I managed to pull out a win with her, versus the Retribution player who I was 0-1-1 with (unless he counts me having to leave as a loss, but I don't)... until tonight.

He was playing Kaelyssa with a Hydra and a Pheonix in his battlegroup, supported by Nayl, Narn, Eiryss, 2 Mage Hunter Assassins, Full Mage Hunter Strike Force w/UA and a full unit of Dawnguard Invictors + UA.

I had the same list that I played against Micah when he was using the Testament. Namely, Morty + Deryliss, Deathjack, Nightmare, a Harrower, a Reaper, a min unit of Bloodgorgers, Gerlak, Warwitch Siren and a Necrotech + Scrap.

We rolled for a random scenario, and ended up playing destruction. Well, the pillars were there, but they weren't damaged at all. Overall, it was quite the fun game, and I actually got to repair my jacks!!! Well, I repaired the Harrower over two turns using both the Necrotech and Morty. The Reaper got trounced after I rolled a 7 on 3 dice to drag in his Pheonix. Damn my luck. So he was able to trounce the Reaper as well as get my Harrower down to 2 boxes. Lucky for me he wasn't able to quite finish it off, because the Harrower was my saving grace for the rest of the game. He was able to kill off 7 of 12 Invictors in one round. Thank you Terminal Velocity. Anyways, the game ended up when I was able to overrun the Nightmare to within 10" of his caster with a full load of focus. 2 swings and wham! Say good night, Gracie!

So that was two pretty cool things. The last cool thing is that when I checked the mail when I got home, I found my parts order from Privateer in my mailbox. "Your order is ready to ship" my ass! I gotz it! Anyways, what I ordered was several parts to help soup up my DJ to look like the art in this guy's blog post. It is just one in a string of extreme jack conversions that I've been seeing. After perusing that art again, I figured that I could do a pretty good job at my own conversion, so that's what I've set out to do. I'm aiming to make the DJ resemble this piece of art:

So that's what I've set out to do. I've already taken apart my trusty Deathjack and tossed him into the drink. Searforge, I'm sorry, but you've been put on hold. Next time, I'll have post the pics of all the starting pieces and what I'm planning on doing.

Itty bitty little jacks & the horseman of the apocalypse

So I've gotten more Searforge done this week. Not a whole lot, but it could be less. I have everything for my Searforge contract assembled, based, primed, and awaiting paint. I also managed to get done the 2 blasters...well, one is done, the other needs washes and detail work. I think I went a little overboard on the Devlan Mud wash on the first one, so I think I'll go lighter on the second when I get around to it later this weekend.

So here they are:

Pre-Wash Blaster

Post-Wash Blaster

I think that they give a better idea of my basing scheme for the army as well, which is a rockyish area just after the snow is starting to melt... at least, that's what I'm going for.

I've also gotten the conversion work done on my very recently purchased Darragh Wrathe. I've seen a lot of conversions where people have extended the rear legs of the mount, and it makes a world of difference. Problem is, it just doesn't look quite right to me when they extend the leg below the ankle. Hence I decided to extend the leg above the ankle, and I'm actually quite happy with how it has turned out so far (aside from my mediocre sculpting skills). Maybe I'm just prejudiced, but I think it looks a little more natural than the other leg extensions that I've seen.

And what Darragh's gesture always makes me think..."Hey, look over there!"

Anyways, C&C is always appreciated.