Been Painting

I have recently finished a few models for my Cryx army. Thought it was time to finish up the Leviathan, and got drawn into painting the Necrosurgeon and Stitch Thralls. I had picked them up a little while ago and figures since the models were so small I would just bang them off. It took longer than I thought it would, and the little stitch thralls were a real pain in the ass to paint. But they are done so I figured I would add some photos to the completed cryx tag.

Leviathan: 

Necrosurgeon and Stitch Thralls:

There isn't too much to talk about in terms of the models themselves. I used a different color scheme on the leather dress of the Necrosurgeon. I painted the whole thing with Rhinox Hide (Scorched brown) and then did a dry brush over the whole area with Snakebite Leather. Once it was dry I covered the area with Devland Mud wash and then dry brushed Graveyard Earth over the areas that would be highlighted. I then used Khemri Khaki to extreme highlight. For the sacks on the thralls I used Rhinox Hide, Bestial Brown followed by a brown wash, Graveyard Earth dry brush, Khaki Highlight and Menoth White (P3) for the stitches and treads.

I'm currently working on a project with a friend and that will be cutting into my modeling and painting time but I will be posting regularly about that project because it is useful for table top terrain building. I am also getting tired of the terrain features I currently have for my table and will be working on a few terrain pieces in the downtime from the big project, so the next few posts will likely be terrain focused. Happy boxing!

Been Gaming.

Played a few games of  Warhammer 40k 6th edition with a buddy a while back. Thought I would try out the new rules, and I found them to be really fun. Off hand (from what I remember), I like that overwatch special rule is back! I missed it, because it makes so much sense. You can throw grenades, which is sweet, and I like that all of your assault phase is resolved at one time, speeds the game up and doesn't tie up your units for rounds at a time.

Snap fire is awesome! Being able to fire with a heavy weapon when it has moved, or fire vehicle weapons if you move 12" is amazing. Granted you need a 6 to hit regardless of BS, but that's better than not being able to fire at all. I always felt they didn't represent tanks blazing as fast as they can firing all weapons without aiming hoping for the best, or to suppress and force to ground. Makes your units a little more mobile now because you no longer have to choose between moving and using your heavy.

Air Units look cool but who cares. To me it seems like classic GW. Give you something flashy, change the rules to accommodate the new thing they have created, and then release the rules for it in a magazine they publish and charge 10 dollars for, making you wait for the next codex.  Strafe runs, and air transport could be useful sure, but I feel like it's gonna be a Drop Pod situation. My buddy's army had a few air units and they weren't as scary as they looked. They do look bad ass though, especially the Orc Bomber. One thing GW will always have is amazing sculpts!

Hull damage on tanks, so glancing hits now do something helps speed things up a little bit. Leader Characteristics are a nice little addition. A bonus random ability for your General is awesome for adding a little flare to your games. Not to mention the fact that each terrain type can now trigger good and bad events when a unit or model enters it. Makes you think twice about entering those forests, or cutting through a swamp. I really love when random things happen during the course of the battle, really brings it all to life.

Allies is another nice feature because it allows you to use some of the models you may have sitting around. You may only have 500 points of a different army, and now you can ally with them if they are compatible on the allies chart. For our game we played 4000 pts Black Templar vs 2000pts Codex Space Marines+ 2000 pts Imperial Guard in an Infantry Platoon. Took 4 Hours to Complete which is 3-4 Hours less than it probably would have taken in 5th ed. Over all I had a lot of fun playing it, but not enough to want to buy models or even the rule book for that matter. I will definitely  play again though. The pic below is all of his force up top and the bottom corner was just the infantery platoon at 2000 pts, which is insane. I thought Orcs was a hoard army, look out for Apocalypse Infantry Platoons!



Have been playing Warmachine more lately now that summer is over. Played a few games at my LGS with a local group who also put on a small tournament that I joined. Not too sure where I placed, but it was pretty fun! Tournament format was 20pt Highlander, and I ran a Cryx list that held up alright. The turns were timed so I forgot to do a couple of things that cost me some points. My List was: (Highlander: 1 caster, 1 jack, 1 unit, 1 solo, extra points spent on Jacks.)

pDeneghra
Nightmare
Nightwretch
Bane Thralls (Max)
Pistol Wraith

Took Nightmare with Deneghra for the stealth affinity, and prey is also really nice to get the extra movement and att/dmg rolls. Everything had stealth except for the nightwretch. The idea was to run up the nightwretch to use it's arc node to sling crippling grasp, parasite, or venom at anything I could, as well as shoot an AoE if need be. I took the pistol wraith to slow down enemy jacks. If you hit twice with the pistol wraith the enemy jack must choose to either move or attack but not both. And I took the Thralls for their stealth, weapon master, and dark shroud (-2 Arm to enemy's within melee range).

Another fellow Cryx player won the tournament with a similar list. Deneghra > 2x Death Ripper, Bane Thralls with UA and Bane Lord Tartarus. Below are some of the pics from the event.
 

My Cryx vs Trollbloods. I got smashed :(

Other Cryx vs Skorne

 

Trollbloods vs Skorne

Other cryx vs Cygnar

More Trolls vs Skorne

Next couple entries will be what I have finished lately, and a discussion on what I will be working on in the future. Happy wrecking!

Painting Incorporeal Models

Well it's been over a year now since I started the blog! It has gone by pretty fast and I have managed to get lots of stuff done on the table. I started the blog as a way to keep myself motivated, and so far so good. I wanted to post this on the actual anniversary, but my computer crapped out and I just got it running again. But for a belated celebration I am going to do a tutorial on painting incorporeal models like the Pistol Wraith I posted in my last entry.

What you'll need:

Base colors: Chaos Black, Bestial Brown, Ice Blue, Boltgun Metal, Bleached/Jack bone.
Highlight: Adeptus Battlegrey, Shining Gold, Graveyard Earth,Vermin Brown, Snakebite Leather, Chainmail.
Extreme Highlight: Skull White
Washes: Thraka Green, Badab Black, Asurmen Blue, Agrax Earthshade (devlund mud)

Getting Started: Basecoat

(1)

Start with a white undercoat. In this case I wanted the creature to be coming out of Incorporeal so I painted the bottom half of the cloak with Adeptus Battlegrey and let it dry. I then hit the back of the cloak again with whit primer, to kind of map out the transition. Once this was dry I painted all bone parts that would be solid with a base of Bestial Brown and all the areas that will be ghostly with Ice Blue.

If you want just the ghostly effect follow steps (1), (3), and (4b).

(2)

Next paint the gun barrel, and paint the exposed bone with Jack or Bleached Bone. I also went over the cloak in Adeptus Battlegrey and painted the waist wrap all the way down into the Ice Blue.

(3) Wash:

Apply Devlund Mud to the bone areas and a layer of Thraka Green to the Ice Blue base coat. Once the green wash dries apply blue wash to the very deepest folds in the cloth.

(4) Highlight:

Next highlight the jacket with Adeptus Battlegrey then apply a black wash over the jacket to bring the grey down. This may take two coats of wash. Drybrush the front of the skull with bleached bone and drop some black wash into the eye sockets and around the teeth.

(4b)

Drybrush the ghostly areas with skull white. I did a light drybrush at the top so I didn't obscure any fine details and I used a heavier drybrush on the bottom.

Next apply a green wash again over the entire ghostly surface again to bring down the white paint and the blue wash. If you like the brightness of the white, by all means leave this step out. To make it uniform with the cloth I chose to bring it down.

(5) Final Details:

Paint the top part of the jacket and the sash with a base of Graveyard Earth followed by a wash of Devland mud and a highlight of Snakebite Leather. I also painted the buttons on the exposed half of the jacket with Chainmail. For the wood on the gun i used a base of Bestial brown followed by a Vermin Brown Highlight. And that's that!

Thanks to all the people who have followed the blog over the last year, and to all the people who have popped in through facebook, and various hobby forums and sites. Hope you all come back as there are always things to paint, share and learn! Happy slaying!

More Cryx

Over the weekend I managed to finish up some more Cryx models. Only a few more to go till all the stuff I bought is fully painted. I decided a little while ago I would hold off buying anymore till the rest of it is finished being painted. That doesn't look like it is going to be the case for the other armies I have, but is definitely true for Cryx (But colossal's will be released soon so we'll see!)

pAsphixious:

 

  

Bane Knights:

 

Pistol Wraith:

For the pistol Wraith, I tried to make it look like it was coming out of incorporeal. It turned out a lot softer than the pictures show, and I am pretty happy with it. It doesn't show up in the pic but the greenish blue is glossy and the front half is matte, which gives it a cool dynamic.

The one year mark of the blog is coming up in a few days and to celebrate I will be doing a tutorial (which I haven't done in awhile) on how to paint ghostly/incorporeal models/units. Until then, happy gaming!

Finished Mercenaries

Hey everyone! Well Summer is upon us and I have been absent, but still painting. We only get a few months of nice weather here and that has left little desire to model, but I just pulled a marathon for a few days and managed to finish up some things. I figured I would put up some pictures of the things I painted at  the beginning of the month in this post and then add a second post of the things I have finished over the last few days. Lets get to it!

Mercenaries Battle Box:

Got it all completed, The metals have a little more depth in person, it isn't captured properly with the camera phone but ahh well.

And all together:

Next post completed Cryx.

On the Table

I've been away for awhile, but no less busy! A local store closed down and a friend and I got a really good deal on a huge box of model kits. I had just recently ordered a few things a few months ago that hadn't been assembled. So I had put painting my Cryx on hold, and assembled a bunch of stuff. I didn't bother doing a tutorial on assembling anything because it was all pretty straight forward. Even the Bane Knights surprisingly but I'll go over that in a moment.

Got Slaughterborn, Skaare, and Tartarus assembled and ready for painting. Tartarus looks like it might be tough to glue together so If I run into problems later on I will do a tutorial. Skaare's sword arm was a little hard to glue, there isn't very much surface area to pin or place glue. With a little patience you will get it.

Got the Satyxis Raiders primed and mounted on cork. I left the chain whips off till they are painted for easy access, I'll do the chains last. I did manage to pin the feet in even though they are very tiny. I used a .40 mm drill bit for all pinning, I would suggest a .36 mm if you can. Same goes for the bane knights. These were a bit of a pain to assemble, it took a long time to pin and position the arms because i had to make sure they would fit in the battle foam inserts I got with the Warmachine bag. If you don't have to do this it should be straight forward. One thing I want to mention is when you are drilling into the arms and gluing the arms into place, be very careful of the weapon they carry. These weapons are very flimsy and a light touch will bend them. Once they are assembled, I suggest using the utmost care when handling, playing with or storing them. I also left the shields off so they are easier to paint.

I also have a Seether, Horrower, and Sea Witch still to assemble but I have been side tracked from Cryx because I am helping a friend with his Khador army, as well as trying to get the Mercenary battle box painted for an event on June 2nd. I will probably assemble the jacks once the Reaper and Leviathan are completed.

I also got two Nightwretches assembled and some progress done on the Leviathan and Reaper.

Got a bunch of Cygnar stuff assembled. Cygnar battle box, Trenchers Unit, Mechanic Blister, Nemo, Haley, and Stormcallers. I'm going to spray all the unprimed minis with Army Painter Ultramarine Blue Primer to save on the paint time.

Started painting the Mercenary battle box, just finished Magnus a few hours ago. Now I am going to move onto The Light Jacks. I tried to go for the classic green paint scheme, but I couldn't follow the guide in the book because the colors are listed in P3 paint. I have some P3 colors right now, but not the ones they use in the Merc guide besides Thornwood Green. So I tried to match the colors with (Old) Citadel colors as best I could. What I came up with was:

Base Coat: Catachan Green.
Shade: Thornwood Green (Catachan if you don't have it)
Highlight: Camo Green*
Extreme Highlight: 1:4:1 drop ratio of Camo Green/Thrall Flesh*/Water

*Traitor Green/ Rotting Flesh are the equivalents for the different companies.

Wet blend your shade color and your highlight color together creating light spots and shadows where they would be all along the cape and shoulder pads. Once it it dry do a highlight layer on the upper parts of the shoulder pads and cloak. Line in around the edges of the shoulder pads and the folds of the cloak with your shade color. Then mix up your extreme highlight ratio, and only apply it to the edges of the cloak and at the apex of the folds on the back of the cloak.

Well that's all for now. I have so much on the go I'm not even going to say what I'll be working on next. I have to get the Mercenaries done so i will prob just post pictures of that. Until next time!