Painting for Khador - Harlan Versh and his Trusty Rocketeer

Here is the Illuminated One and his trusty sidekick. I just finished these tonight. Harlan Versh is going to be my go-to merc solo for a good while, and I'm going to play a Winterguard army for the next year or so.

Front view:

Rear View:

Painting Khador - Kovnik Joe

I just finished this fellow. My inspiration to add him to my army was Mr. Flanzer's win at GenCon. Paints are GW Foundations, old Citadel metals, Reaper Clear Red, and a few other odds and socks. I have a full painted and based Winterguard unit + UA + 2 Rocketeers. I have one more Rocketeer to finish. I'll spray the entire unit with Testor's Dullcote then, and post a picture of them with the mortars and field gun.

Postscript GenCon + New miniature projects

There were a few things I forgot to say about GenCon, mainly because I had no pictures.

Fisrt, a big thanks to Matt Dipietro of Privateer Press for showing me and Ken his two-brush blending technique and some other tricks and techniques I filed away.

Second, it was very nice to talk to Ron Kruzie of Privateer Press about the fact that my four year old boy plays his painting video regularly (which is a little remarkable, though he just defeated me in a inter-faction Khador game about five minutes ago) and whether or not another video will be forthcoming in that series.

Third, Ken and me both played the Ex Illis demo. It was very nice. This company is Canadian (from Quebec) which is pretty inspiring.

Now for the pictures:

Here are my Dark Age Dragyri Ice Caste heavies. I picked up the Soul Warden from Cool Mini or Not at GenCon. I already had Lucky Kai (the biggest monster) and the Ice Elemental. I just built Lucky Kai and the Soul Warden. Absylonia is there for scale.


Here are the Dragyri slaves. Got these at GenCon. All in I have a 502 point army. And I just downloaded the rules and all of the factions for free. Thanks Dark Age.


Here are three more GenCon purchases. On the left is Tierdeleira, a Werner Klocke Dark Elf sculpt for Reaper. The other two are Enigma releases cast by Cool Mini or Not. Wonderful. These will all be unit leaders for my Impetus Fantasy army.


Finally, my Weird Old West warband. I picked up the Ronin blister from Wyrd Miniatures at GenCon. I had Rasputina and both Victorias already, pre-Malifaux, actually. The first Victoria is going to be an almighty christer to model the two swords on to. Anyways, we'll see.



As to my GenCon shopping list I got Wyrd Miniature's new Nightmare and Lord Chompy Bits duo. I didn't buy Cool Mini or Not's giant eagle resin figure. I regret that. Exceedingly.

I also went to the Thunderbolt Mountain booth, met Tom Meier and John Kellner, both charming fellows, and picked up a pack of 20 of their exquisite Byzantine spearmen. In terms of news on where they are going with upcoming production, Mr. Meier told me to expect a release of platoons with support elements of 1/48th scale WW2 US paratroopers and SS sometime in the relatively near future. In his words, most of the sculpting is done, it's just a matter of getting the production details finished.

Off to GenCon with the Legion of Everblight

Well, I've been painting like a maniac since the last post here, and I've not done too badly. First off, I simply finished my Warmongers, Raptors, Warmonger Warchief, Shepherds and a Forsaken. Then I built and painted a second Carnivean. Then I built and painted a third Carnivean. Then I built and painted Thagrosh the Messiah. I probably am not going to finish Absylonia, which is a shame, but I have to get up in 6 hours to fly to Indianapolis, so that's that I guess. Anyways, here are the pictures taken this afternoon in the backyard as I applied the Testors Dullcote to these fine fellows:










My GenCon shopping list is pretty small this year. The only must-have for me is Wyrd Miniature's new Nightmare and Lord Chompy Bits duo. I am also going to look at Cipher Studios releases for Hell Dorado, but mainly at the Augustinius Raimond figure for now. I'll be spending a bit of time at Cool Mini or Not and will probably pick up a couple of Enigma figures...well Dark Vlad for sure if they have it, and possibly Xargax before Loratham. Cool Mini or Not also has a giant eagle resin figure I want a closer look at...I can't tell from the picture what the rider looks like.

I'll be heading over to the Reaper booth as well. They are really a fine bunch over there, I must say, and I'll be looking to pick up a new Klocke Priestess sculpt called Tierdeleira.

Thunderbolt Mountain will be at GenCon (Yea!!!) and so I'll pop over to meet Tom Meier and John Kellner, and pick up a pack of Byzantine spearmen if they have them. I also am very interested in trying to get some news on where they are going with upcoming production. Such fine miniatures, just glorious!

I'll pop by the WarStore as well to say hi to Neal and his colleagues. I don't know what I'll be interested in picking up there but that's part of the fun of GenCon.

Last but not least, the Privateer Press booth. I'm signed up for three Warmachine/Hordes tournaments, so I won't have much time to buy swag. What I'd really like to do there this year is amble on over to watch Ron Kruzie and their other painters at work.

Gen Con painting project

I painted the Widowmaker Marksman, an Ogrun Bokur and Reinholdt during a couple of sessions last week while I was vacationing down the coast. I haven't completely finished them...I'm going to put another flesh wash on the Ogrun, I've got to flock the bases and paint their edges black, and I will spray varnish them with Testors Dullcote on a dry day.

As far as problems go, the right ankle of the Widowmaker Marksman broke off when I was pushing it into the slotta base so I had to pin it back on. This is a design issue but no big deal as far as the modelling goes. The Ogrun Bokur is a fantastic model, one of the best in the entire Privateer Press range as far as I am concerned.

Here is the next iteration of my Gen Con Hardcore list. I am going to playtest it next week when I go into town for a week's vacation.

The Butcher of Khardov
Behemoth
Spriggan
War dog
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Man-o-war Shocktroopers (Leader and 2 Grunts)
Widowmakers (Leader and 3 Grunts)
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios
Kell Bailoch
Man-o-war Drakhun (with dismount)
Ogrun Bokur
Reinholdt, Gobber Speculator
Widowmaker Marksman

Bile Thralls

It has been a while since I last posted anything Warmachine related. I have actually been poring over the books and the cards, and collecting miniatures hand over fist, to get ready for GenCon 2010. I will be taking a relatively simple and familiar Khador list, but I am becoming more and more interested in playing Cryx and expect to devote a fair bit of playing time to Cryx over the next couple of years. So here is my latest painting project. The Bloat Thrall is more of a repaint, but the 10 Bile Thralls are my paintjobs through and through.





Next up on the painting table is probably an Extremoth.

Painting Update - Napoleonics and Legion of Everblight

Right, this is only an update, but I thought I'd post as I have at least one example of model preparation and also a view of where the 102 Napoleonic French are.

So, here are the French. As you can see they are coming along. The red on the Grenadiers' epaulettes, etc. is too strong. I shall have to lightly drybrush it, probably with Blood Angels Red or maybe an orange, and then wash with a blue...maybe with a Reaper Blue Liner. This kind of thing defeats the purpose of my wash method, but its my fault for failing to acquire or make a red wash that could do a satifactory job of it. In front are some Legion of Everblight figures I've stared to break things up a bit. Those are Blighted Legionaires. Excellent miniatures.

Here is the modelling tip. These are the mounts for the Blighted Raptors, an Everblight light cavalry unit. These are ungulates, sans antlers at this point, but the point is that there were gaps I had to fill with green stuff. I just used an exacto blade to mimic the tufts of hair. It was a fun bit of work. I'm not even sure if there was a problem with the minis as such. I probably could have filed them into a better fit, but I'd rather just fill gaps afterwards than spend a lot of time trying to mate the halves beforehand.

These are the Legion Warmongers, ogres gone bad, if you like. I firmly consider these to be the top fantasy sculpts at God's scale of the year they were released by Privateer Press. Fantastic. I also have a Warmonger Warchief here (though he missed the snapshot). Basically, I've just brushed GW Tinbitz over a black basecoat on all of the mail and plate on these. As you can see, I still have to ensure the mail is fully painted in black inside the chainmail. I've been using PP armorwash so far but may need to go with the gesso watered down again. The Warmongers' flesh is meant to be/will be painted a light greyish blue. I'll get to that later. I seem to always paint outside in, when I should be going inside out, i.e. paint the flesh first with everything else to follow. As well, this picture shows me again that I have somehow acquired a camera that cannot do the very thing it is made for. The world is full of shoddy goods, I expect. As a public service, let me recommend that readers avoid like the plague the Canon PowerShot A1100IS. Buying it was a notable waste of my money.

Napoleonic French Painting Report

All 102 of the Victrix and Perry French are now modelled, hand-primed and drybrushed white. The plan is to paint them all using washes. Here is a close-up which shows well the ghostly effect reached by drybrushing white over a black basecoat.
Here is a wider picture showing most of the French models. I tend to make my own washes with the paints I have...the strangest paints can provide the best of washes. One notable example off of the top of my head is Delta Ceramcote's Midnight Blue, which is just a beautiful paint to work with. This time, I'm going to try the GW washes, along with seeing if I can make a good wash with either the Derivan French Blue or one of the Foundry French Blues. I'll see what works.


The miniatures will all be based on 40x40mm bases for Black Powder. I think I'm going to cheat a little on this and glue 2 miniatures to opposite corners of each 40mm base and paint them like that, adding the other singles later. I haven't figured out exactly how I'm handling the skirmisher thing yet. I have enough Voltigeurs; I just need to figure out the basing.

Newest Army-Painted Thagrosh horde

My newest project, a 35 point Everblight force, led by Thagrosh the Prophet. I acquired the Everblight models in a trade with JET (see Geektactica blog) a couple of years ago. They had a variety of painting on them, with base colours blocked out on the Carnivean, and washes and drybrushing on the lights and the Seraph. I have painted all models to some extent, but my greatest efforts have been reserved for the heavies. All the bases are my work, as is the Gatorman Posse.

My favorite Everblight monsta is the Carnivean. I am seriously considering building one more and adding Typhon, a Harrier, a Forsaken and two Shepherds for a 35 point Absylonia list for GenCon. More of this later.

Khador Troika - Painted Drago and 'Zerkers

I have just finished painting and basing these three Khador warjacks tonight, except only for the coat of matte varnish to seal them. I'll be using them in a 35 point Vlad list this weekend...another road trip for the greater good.


You will note the modelled Napoleonic French behind. All 60 of the Victrix and the last 9 of the 42 Perry French are now fully built. 51 of the models have been fully hand-primed, and the other 51 are next.

Update - the Perry scrubs have their packs!

The Testors glue is non-toxic and it appears to work. This has left me sober with strong bonding. I had to sand the black primer off of their backs to facilitate the plastic bonding, though. Another small step taken towards Quatre Bras.

New Project Begun - Black Powder Napoleonics

So I was talking to my friend Stu yesterday and we agreed to build and paint two brigades each of French and foes by this September for play using the new Black Powder rules penned by Rick Priestly and Jervis Johnson. So each of us will be building and painting one (Black Powder) brigade of French and one of the allies. Now I'm not buying any miniatures for a year so I've got to do my part with what I have. What I have for the French is a box of Victrix late French foot, a box of Perry French foot, and a box of Perry French Heavy Cavalry. I started the Victrix last night and I have now got all 60 of them cleaned up with heads and backpacks attached/glued on. Here they are in the foreground. You can see the miniatures primed black just to the right and behind? They are the 42 Perry French foot.
So I have 102 foot and 14 cavalry (in the Perry French Heavy Cavalry box). I don't have any artillery, and with only 14 cavalry I can only make one unit of cavalry. The foot will be divided into 4 units of 24. The Victrix box has 8 officers. Given that the Perry box has one already, I only need three from the Victrix box, so I've demoted 5 officers back into the ranks, though they are in the elite Voltigeur and Grenadier companies. ;-)

Because of this arrangement I ended up short 6 backpacks for my Victrix French. So I stole 3 from the Perry box (leaving me with 40 for them) and left my Victrix drummers without backpacks despite the stern requirement stated on the Victrix Instruction Sheet, which I quote:

"Backpacks are to be used on all figures except B13, B14, B15."

Stu is going to regift me a couple of Wargames Foundry French 8 pound cannons with crew that I gave him about 4-5 years ago. As well, he is regifting me a unit pack of 10 Newline Designs French Cuirrassiers. This will give me a bare minimum standard sized brigade of standard sized battalions for the French for Black Powder (using only one gun).

As for my allies, I will probably do a brigade of Prussians from my collection of Calpe Miniatures Prussians. I basically have everything Calpe has produced over the past 8-9 years so that will not be a problem. I was originally going to go British for the brigade of foes as I have a couple of boxes of Victrix British and a box of Perry British. However, I have neither cavalry nor guns for the Brits, so the Prussians it is, Prussians that have waited long enough to see the gaming table in any event.

Otherwise, you can see my Khador jacks on the painting table, namely Drago and two Beserkers, along with another nearly completed EIR Roman Legion and various other odds and ends.

I am really excited about this new venture. The Victrix figures are very fine, with very little and easily removed flash, and while it is a fairly labour intensive business putting the figures together, it is an interesting labour. I've wanted to play 28mm Napoleonics for years and now, with the Black Powder rules - a set which I think to be animated by the true spirit of wargaming - along with the amazing developments in plastic miniature manufacturing, making large armies of quality miniatures available at very reasonable prices, I think there's finally a chance for me to get a few games in after all.

I'll post developments as they occur.

Khador Update & Last Post of 2009

I've been given a painted War Dog for Xmas from my good friend Ken and show it here with a Devastator I've just finished (for the second time). First, the War Dog. Ken gave three of his friends painted miniatures this year. If you visit Geektactica you will see a Viktor Pendrake he painted up for Jason and an Epic Deneghra he painted for Mark. These are all princely gifts and I will be using mine faithfully henceforth, including at GenCon in August, 2010, God willing. The pictures show Ken's craft well. Thanks Ken. You're a hard act to follow.

About the Devastator, a combination of a Testors Dullcote failure and a fall from a 4 foot ledge created a perfect storm for this miniature. I didn't strip it. I probably should have, but I thought that 10 - 15 coats of diluted red along with some coats of Reaper Clear Red would fix the painting. To an extent it has. To an extent it hasn't. It is alright fine, as my Nanny used to say. I'm done with it.


The latest iteration of my Vlad list follows below. I have probably two or three gaming days between now and GenCon. That's just the way it is for me living in the wargaming boonies as I do. I'm assuming Hardcore at GenCon will be at the 35 point level.

Army Points: 35

Name Cost
Vladimir Tzepesci, Dark Prince of Umbrey -5
War Dog 1
Drago 8
Juggernaut 7
Destroyer 9
Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios 3
Battle Mechaniks (Full) 3
Great Bears of Gallowswood 5
Widowmakers 4

I'm finishing Drago now, have started to build my extreme Jugger, and await the arrival of the extreme Destroyer from Washington state (which is why I am going with those two jacks in my list to accompany Drago).

My number one resolution for 2010 is to buy no miniature this year! This will be a first for me since I started this hobby in June of 1996. As a matter of fact, I ordered my final miniature of 2009 late last night with a purchase of the new Skarre 2009 sculpt from Privateer Press. I call that going out on a high note!

Happy New Year!

X Carpasia - Painted Gripping Beast EIR

This unit is the latest addition to my Early Imperial Roman army. I purchased these figures in 2002 I think. I have a long painting cue. The shield transfers are by Little Big Man Studios and are of the usual amazing character. I like this centurion pose. All of the soldiers in this veteran legion are wearing mail. Here is the complete unit of 24. In behind is a GB sculpt of a dismounted Caesar instructing a Foundry sculpt of a Primus Pila.

New Project-Oldest Minis; Airfix 1/32 WW2 Germans

These are amongst the first miniatures I ever had. Alright, they are toy soldiers. I found them, and a horde of their fellows, after they had been in storage for over 20 years. These are Airfix 1/32 Germans. I bought them in Drogheda, Ireland in 1973. I've got a couple of young boys now, and I thought I'd paint these up for them. I didn't take the mold lines off, and the painting is basic black undercoat, one coat of colour, a coat or two of Future over that, all followed by a coat of brush-on matt varnish. I like them.
These are the entire horde of plastic toy soldiers, including the ones since painted in the picture above (the Germans are blue). You can see a Timpo Crusader footman on the top. There is a Timpo horse, sans barding, visible there as well, and there are many more Timpos below the surface. I purchased those one at a time in London, England in the year 1969. My father used to take me down to a toy-store/newsagent on England's Lane, Camben Town, early every Saturday morning and I'd get one knight and my brother would choose a Beano or some other comic of the time. Fine memories. I had to clean these. The smell of them was appalling, unwashed as they were for near 40 years.

October Painting Projects - Khador, Cryx and EIR

This latest addition to my Khador force is a unit of elite Empress Guard Shocktroopers. I'm just making that up naturally, but the idea is that I'll join these with Beast 09 and some other elite jacks, solos and troops under the command of eIrusk. The red connects these to the rest of my Khador force, while the light green denotes their excellence.

These Mechanithralls are my first painting project for my newest Warmachine army, the dreaded forces of Cryx. Next is a Seether.

Finally, a unit of 12 Early Imperial Roman cataphracts based for Warhammer Ancient battles. The figures are by Wargames Foundry. The kontos are from Gripping Beast and may well be an OOP code now. I did ask that they be cast for me probably about 4-5 years ago. The Beastie boys have always been good like that.

MKII Khador Update

This is one of those guilty WIP posts. The last 4 weeks have been the busiest of my career, which is not quite what I had in mind when I moved jobs in an attempt to try and get my life in balance with my work. I have been attempting, fitfully, to spend a little time at the hobby, directed towards my MK II Vlad list for GenCon 2010.

Plan A for that list involves Drago. I had to rebuild this model due to my initial poor planning on the fit. Again. It's a sweet miniature.

Plan B is a Beserker, one of two I'm going to need. The other is coming from BrookHurst Hobbies in the next week or so.

This isn't Plan C. I'm painting these MOW Shocktroopers because I like them and I had planned (in the MKI days) to do an eIrusk MOW list. These will be finished in the same scheme as Beast-09, so I'll be raising the green up quite a bit.

As for the GenCon MK II list, it will be Vlad, Drago and a Wardog, a MOW Kovnik with 2 Beserkers, and a Koldun Lord with 2 Juggernauts. This assumes that 35 point lists will be the level set by PP for HardCore at GenCon.

As for Vlad, I fully understand why PP changed him, raising the costs of casting both Blood of Kings and Signs and Portents to 4 focus each. It has to do with his feat and how well he runs jacks, which in MK II means he's much more of a go-to guy for Khador - and threat against everyone else - than he was in MK I.

I also appreciate PP making available the final MK II rules and card stats as free downloads. Thanks.

To war! To war!

A new direction

I have recently been quite inspired by a holiday in Gros Morne National Park and by the works I discovered there of a Canadian landscape artist named Shawn McNevin. Many of her subjects are to be found in the park. The Works page of her website is as follows:

http://studio167.ca/works.aspx

I understand the gulf that separates me from an artist of her talent and experience. What I intend is somewhat imitative, but I will be using acrylic on canvas, and the scenes that I intend to paint, for the most part, will be used as backdrops for tabletop photographs. The picture above shows my first canvas with two basecoats of white gesso on it so far. At least one more coat of gesso will be needed. Then I will lightly sketch out the scene before starting to paint it in.

Painting Workbench Update

This is one of my occasional painting updates. The number of projects I have on the go is probably unrealistic by most people's standards but I have no deadlines, and pretty well paint what I like.

The first item is a group of 5 Warmachine Khador MOW Shocktroopers. These paint up like a dream and will be done shortly.

Second up is the Warmachine Mercenary Unit, Lady Aiyana and Master Holt. The picture is poor, and the level of painting so far is not much better. It will be improved upon.

Third is a medley of the Khador Koldun Lord, an Avatar of Menoth, a couple of the new Perry Miniatures plastic Napoleonic French that I am picking away at, and three Imperial Roman officers from Warlord Games and the Wargames Foundry. Yes, that is a Cryx Mechanithrall.

Fourth is a collection of excellent Bob Olley ogre and troll sculpts I am painting up. The four smaller ones in front are sculpts Mr. Olley did for Reaper Miniatures. The two larger ones in the rear were purchased by me from Olley's Armies before Mr. Olley decided to close it and sell his sculpts. The masters of these two were purchased in a subsequent auction by an Italian gentleman named Francesco Accordi.

Fifth is a unit of Wargames Foundry Roman cataphract cavalry. I had eight of these for a number of years which I used in my late Roman army. Now they will, as increased, serve in my Early Imperial Roman army. As well, I took a couple of the tops of them in a pose where they thrust from overhead with their kontos and added them to a couple of Gripping Beast lower halves. Those figures will see service in the Roman war elephants.

Here are the crew for the elephants as noted above, along with 4 new Gripping Beast Roman cavalry command figures to join a unit of 8 that I painted a few months ago.

This is my next Roman legion. These are all Gripping Beast figures.

These last three pictures are just some eye candy that I found. They show the brand new Victrix Miniatures plastic 28mm Napoleonic Scottish foot. Are they not the absolute dog's bollocks? They are certainly on my shopping list for Christmas.