Cygnar - Trenchers and fangly new bases

Well here is the Cygnar update I may have mentioned recently. (Ok, so I mentioned it last night when I showed my scout cloaks).

I've actually been playing Warmachine recently, which I can't really do with Warhammer 40k. You see, 40k sucks with a very small army to play with so you need 1500 odd points painted up before it even begins to resemble fun. (Warning, quality of fun may vary depending on user)

Warmachine however, I can play with a warcaster and two warjacks and feel like I've played a game. (People at the gaming group even lend you models if you short.... how nice is that)

Any ways, I've had a small force of Cygnar that roughly works out at 48 points under the new system to paint up. New today are the Trencher infantry squad.

I tried to keep these guys pretty simple and straight forward, but they are quit complex models. A lot of little details and pieces on each model. I wanted them also to have a blue piece to their uniform without it looking out of place or over the top.... after all these guys are meant to be guys lurking in dingy dark trenches..... they shouldn't have fluoro blue shoulder pads for example.

The bases were quite simple to do, just follow these handy steps

1.) MIX PVA and water, apply all over the base
2.) Dip base in modeling sand, leave to dry and then shake of excess
3.) Paint base/sand watered down "scorched brown", leave to dry
4.) MIX PVA and water, apply to some if the base
5.) Dip base in a box of grass flock, leave to dry and shake off the excess (glue more flock if needed)
6.) Use green stuff to hold rocks to base, paint rocks and green stuff.
7.) Paint edges of the bases in colours of your choosing (more to follow)

Moving onto the outside of the base I spotted that guys at the Warmachine group had clearly marked the front arcs of their models for game play purposes. Chris (The press ganger) had even painted some of his Cryx guys with a nice green and gold pattern on the front arc. This got me to thinking, and I tried doing something similar which you can see the remnant of on the models. I tried doing blue and gold bands.... and well.... it looked a bit arse in all honesty. I kept the out side one as that looked alright and made a clear boarder between the blue front arc and the gray rear arc.























The final look was inspired by the Cygnar art in the core Warmachine book. The cool magic runes that float around the warcasters of Cygnar. So, I copied that sequence down on a  piece of paper and had a go at free handing the runes.

Each base is regal blue with an enchanted blue highlight applied across the middle. Each rune is also painted twice, once in a mix of enchanted blue and white, and again in white only. The keys to free hand painting these runes are

1.) Get a very very pointy brush. An old frayed brush will really hurt you here.
2.) Thin your paint, but not too thin. It takes a while to get the paint just think enough so you can almost write with it, but not so thin that it runs. Practice this. And don't load the brush up with too much paint
3.) These runes are straight forward enough. Think of them as individual lines and paint one line at a time.
4.) Don't be afraid to paint over the runes if you botch the up. Its a flat base so your not going to lose any detail by painting over it again.
5.) try and keep each letter about the same size if possible. Repetition makes this better as the more you do the more consistent it gets.



Well, that's enough for now. I have some descent figures t paint up and then it's on to the Long Gunner squad I have. Also, I have a big detachment of Trenchers headed my way in the near future. So, it looks like my Sons of Medusa really are taking a back seat to the boys in blue now..... I'm glad I didn't name this blog leprechauns in space or anything like that.

Update - Scout cloaks

Well, I have a sizeable update coming out tomorrow on my painting but it's on the boys in blue, not the guys in green.

After my update tomorrow I will be targeting the remaining descent models I have left to finish... which is only 18 heroes from the expansion boxes (Only 18.... individually painted dudes..... how long can that take?)

Hopefully not too long as I'm hoping to start up a semi regular descent group in the next week or two. Yep, TWO nights a week gaming!

As for the scouts.... i quite like how the camo turned out on the metal models, not so keen on the sculpted ones.... still it was a learning experience and I have more scouts to paint yet.

Until tomorrow!

Descent - This box of monsters comes with heroes also

Well, this could be a really really complicated post where I discribe every single hero in descent and what I did with them..... or it could be a short post that tells the story in images.

To put it as simply as I can, all i did here was paint by numbers. You see, the descent character cards have some nice art on them that clearly shows what the model looks like. It's normally even in the same pose.

So why reinvent the wheel when you can paint by numbers instead.

ITS A TANK!

Quick Sons of Medusa update here

It's an old school vindicator and i've tried doing some weathering on it. Basically just home built a brush for stippling and blended a series of dark earthy tones onto various parts of the tank. nothing really to write home about but looks passable.

Big update coming soon as I've been working on my Cygnar guys as I have an active warmachine group to play with now.

In Soviet Russia Axis and Allies Paints You

Continuing the exploration of my Axis and Allies set we come to the Soviet Union. When painting these guys a few people said "Its such a big box of models, why are you painting the Russian Fleet so early, i very rarely gets used".

The simple answer is I'm pedantic and process obsessed. If I say "I will paint this in order, I will"..... even if it makes little logical sense.

I'm weird like that, feel free to judge me!

Anyways, I'm really proud of how the Infantry and Armour ended up looking. I picked up a transfer sheet from flames of war along with a paint set. So the Russian Stars are pretty high quality as are the little Russian slogans on the tanks.

Noteworthy colours used in this set are

CT Malachite red (Soviet national colour and ship sides)
VJ Russian green 894 (Soviet armour, bomber and helmets)
VJ USA tan earth 874 (infantry jackets)
VJ Khaki 988 (infantry pants)
VJ German cam brown 826 (ship decks)

I didn't start adding the fleet flags until the Japanese but really, thats fair. Both Germany and the Soviets tend to be light on fleet during the game, especially at the start. So the Soviet fleet just ends up with transfers, which looks good in my book.

There as a deliberate decision not to paint the ships too realistically. No warship I've seen has a bright red hull as that would be pretty foolish. The decision to paint them like this was to make it very very clear what faction controlled what piece at an easy glance. If all ships had gray hulls it would be a bit of a pain to play.

That being said I may have overdone it for the Soviet submarines as they look a bit silly being completely red like that.

If your looking at doing a World War II army of any type I suggest looking at the Flames of War Site. Also, this PDF is amazing for selecting the appropriate colours to be historically accurate.

If I have one small regret it's not basing the Russian soldiers with snow.  

I got press ganged - Cygnar update

I mentioned in a previous post that I had never met a Warmachine press ganger and had no idea what they did.

Well, now I have been press ganged and I can say the experience has been very positive so far. I've been invited to some events, even picked up on the way to one. I had a thoroughly good time playing some games against new people and am really looking forward to being part of the local warmahordes group in my home town.

I played my first games in years and won one with a desperate assassination move and lost another in a clinical display of superior firepower. However, as most of my friends will testify too I am like the Borg, defeat me once and I will learn and adapt, beating me twice with the same strategy rarely works.

It felt good to get thrashed at a wargame, it's been so long since I have been beaten badly at a game. It means there is still stuff to learn and the mental exercise was amazing.

In order to play i've dug up my old Cyngar models and have been repainting them. I only have four warjacks but that's enough to play a good sized game.I do need some variety though as being stuck with the same list every week will lessen my potential fun factor. 

I'm using citadel paints on these guys, and i'm painting them a  little darker than the studio armies. I much prefer dark blues to bright blues on figures. It's foundation blue, regal blue, ultramarine highlights and then a touch of ice blue mixed in the ultra blue for the final highlights.

Probably the most noteworthy things on these guys are the Cygnar swan on the Defender (big gun guy) and the Centurion (big spear guy).

The swan was done using wet blending starting from a brown/orange mix and working up through a range of yellows. The key was simply keeping the paint wet on the figure while i blended everything in. Seems to have worked out well on the larger swan, but not so well on the smaller ones.

I'm very stoked with how the black swan on the Centurion turned out. This was achieved by painted the model to finished levels first then free hand painting the swan in regal blue. I then did two borders a thick one in ultramarines blue and then a narrower one in ice blue/ultra blue mix.

One thing to note is that as i'm now playing Warmachine with an active group I should finish painting my guys over the next week. That means my Sons of Medusa will be going on the back burner until that's done.

A short update - Sons of medusa

Righto, due to various things happening this week here is a very short update on my Sons of Medusa army painting task thing. Never fear, a bigger painting update will occur tomorrow on the other not so green project.

Scouts! Yes good old sniper rifle scouts. Its seems to be the season for scouts, although i didn't paint these on pain medication.... unlike some PEOPLE I MIGHT NAME. 

But seriously, follow the link, my friend has been doing a damm fine job of his scouts and they look quite neat with those funky helmets he got them (Watch this space as I made puppy dog eyes when i saw those helmets and he gifted me a few.... BOO YAH).

What to say about these guys.... well they aren't finished for one. The original paint job is 8 years old and I only touched them up a bit. The new thing was the camo cloaks..... and well they look ok i suppose.




This sculpting this is a tricky tricky skill to learn. I'm thinking of redoing them in a more mottled DPM style. Like these awesome pants here.


I think those pants are perfect urban camo.... i like to wear them around the office and attack people as they go to use the photocopier.....

Anyway, this is only half a squad and I need to get some more snipers to finish it off. Sadly, that will be some time as i have pledged not to stock up on new models until I paint what i have at my disposal.

So this week will be working on those three tanks. I hope my dear chum finishes off his weathering guide as part one is good and the final results i've seen are amazing.

Descent - Its a big box of Monsters

Ah Descent, it's what Warhammer Quest would look like if GW ever supported their products for longer than a month.....

ANYWAY! Enough of that! We had enough of that with the Warmachine vs Warhammer review.

And others have ranted so much better than I could..... see here for additional extra spicy rant

NO! This blog is about the gaming, not the ranting.

Descent! Yes Descent, this big box game full of monsters and dungeon crawling goodness. It's what D&D was supposed to be before role-players discovered ANGST and ENNUI. (and using dots instead of hyphens in surnames)

That right, kick open the 20' by 20' room and smack the goblin over the head with your broadsword and take his chest of gold.

That's all Descent is, a big monster hunt in a dungeon.It puts on airs about being a competitive game, but really its an excuse to get treasure, kick monsters and then slay a dragon! WHAT FUN!

The plan with descent was never to master class paint the monsters. The plan was to have a painted, functional set done in the two weeks leave i had one Christmas. Yes, this was a Christmas gift.... and yes I got it for myself (ANGST and ENNUI again?)

Anyway, here's what happens when you have a tight time frame, lots of models and simply spray, basecoat, ink, and drybrush your way to a painted collection. Even the bases, which don't look half bad were a simple 4 colour blob process done assembly line styles.

 

Sons of Medusa - Progress report 2

Tactical Squad two is complete.

Well mostly, I finished them off this evening but took photos of them while the light was still good.

This squad has black should pads and guns to act as Squad Marking. I'm not one to mark my squads with little numbers on knees or anything, I like to know from one side of the table what squad is what. So my markings tend to be a little ham fisted in that regard. 

The highlights of the squad for me are the guys below. The Veteran sergeant who had a prior life as an Iron warriors Iron smith, I just swapped his regular limbs for standard gear from a tactical squad pack and gave him a back banner.

This tactical marine uses some of the bionics from the Iron Hands pack and a cut down version of the Irons Smiths back back. Finally, for complete ridiculousness I made an old devastator marine in a walking melta gun. I figured that if servitors can have melta arms why can't space marines?

On to the armour pool.

Well i've got three vehicles to paint up in the next we while. A brand new rhino/razorback kit, an old school vindicator and a very very old razorback. You might notice the terrible half complete paint jobs on the Vindicator and old school razorback. Well, these were a few of the models from the original attempt to do this army.... I figure that they are still in good condition and repainting them will save me a few dollars that I could use elsewhere.

I will post more pics of these tanks in the near future once i get around to repainting them.