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.