The Red Machine

Kickin' the Dust off....

2010-01-24T11:25:00.000-08:00

So, here I find myself alone again, even the one who started me out. That's fine. The hobby's the thong, er...thing.

I am no great writer, no great painter, and no great anything. Lord knows my W/L ratio can testify! I am not in WM for the winning. I enjoy it. I like assembling and painting and eventually playing. I am no great competitor either, so I guess, I really shouldn't be playing WM. To that I say that I got my b & w copy of Prime right here, so back up.

I like my blog, for the reason everyone else likes theirs. Its opinion. I got involved in the Leagues last year. I didn't like it so much. Like many things it assumes too much. Assumes you can have the same time available, assumes all point totals are equal, assumes the ladder will balance, etc.

So, whatever.

Farewell Mk1 (almost)

2009-09-27T22:16:00.000-07:00

Ooh my aching skull!

It didn't really hit me. I thought I still had some time to get some of the Legends or even Superiority minis thrown together. I looked forward to building Fenris or Beast-09 (although with less glee after my disasters with Drago). I wanted to play with some Kazany or Iron Fang Uhulans before the demise of my tiny-text cards. (Where was that rule for the Greatbears again? flip-flip-flip)

But with the early release of the cards and rules via the intrawubz, my time has gone the way of the flying toaster screen saver. Some of the most expensive I don't yet own, much less have assembled. Ooh, methinks I'll have a busy and CA glue covered fall!

A Pair of Jacks (Part One)

2009-09-01T09:53:00.000-07:00

Before the last league season started, Red was kind enough to photo some of the painting I had already accomplished. After all the ranting and raving and drooling, and passage of time and all that, I realized that I hadn't posted all of them yet. Tragedy! So, here we are.
Behold the Ber-zer-ker! This was the first of the two I had planned, and oddly the second one assembled. A word about assembly, the Berzerker stinks! Only half of one foot is one the base tab, and the other foot is held on only by a toe. Honest! Worse, the foot ends at the ankle, so there is always a struggle to mode the poor beastie upright. As I worried about how to assemble the figure, I wanted to find a way to pin it so that the weight of the mini more fully rested on the base, so that is why you will see the center pin on these two minis, and why the red one is modeled so far forward.
The plans for the colors were intentional and based on my fascination of locomotives. I mentioned it here. The original mid-1800's locomotives were as much works of art as working machines. I have a few examples from the Internet here, here, here, and here. Brass, and steel, ornate iron work; those were the influences of this model. I worked with a much lighter red pallet, knowing that I was going to lay on a heavy oil/smoke layer. On my other 'jacks, I liked how the GW Dwarf Bronze looked next to the GW Boltgun, so I copied that here, but went much lighter highlighting the bronze with P3 Rhullic Gold.

Again, the balance pin. This model is way front heavy. I considered ripping it apart and trying again, but 1) I figured the model wanted to be that way, and 2) It is in a classic head-butt pose, leading with its noggin. It has held together, so why destroy finished work?

It was about this time, I knew that I don't have the patience or skill to freehand some details, in this case numbers. So I hit up the local train store and found that Woodland Scenics has a line of dry-transfer decals. They have both numbers and letters as well as the occasional widget like all that data you see on the side of the average rolling stock car. I added the numbers to this model after the pics were taken sadly, but I now refer to this as "Old No. 27."

A return to center...

2009-08-31T20:12:00.001-07:00

...or how I learned to stop blowing up. (Don't you believe it dear reader!)

Okay! I look back and realize much of my posts of late have been overly whiny and hateful. Well, it is MY blog after all. But I promise to be a little more...umm, well, hateful and whiny. No! Less, less, honest! :D

The local press gangers and competitive community are gearing up for a fall of hackity slashity fun. I gotta admit, my league showings have been horizon broadening, and fun. (I don't mind a drubbing so much when I learn from it too!) In the end, not counting the league participation pin, I sometimes wonder if I wouldn't have better spent my time painting and assembling. (shrug)

I want to play with nice-nice miniatures. I see good things coming from WM, if the Retribution book is any example. I know there will be a big uptick as Mk.2 comes out, followed by the emasculation...err Field Test of Hoards. So maybe this Fall and Winter I paint and assemble like the wind to have a sizable force of painty-ness to draw upon? Maybe so.

A Shipload of Fail

2009-08-29T21:27:00.000-07:00

For those who know us, Red and I are friends. You can read his post of my latest abuse-fest here.

For those of you still reading, you can get a little background, here.

Thanks for those of you still reading. What more can I say? I decided to take a pretty standard list. Without eSorcha I didn't take Winter Guard. I wanted to try practicing using the Great Bears use of free LOS and pass through as a double whammy on a charge. I took a jack, and a Ternion and Alten for some beasty shooting.

Tragedy! As always, in an effort to bring the conflict up quick and clean, non-league scenarios are grievously tilted against Khador (and Trollbloods too, so I have heard.) Everything is "grab this section, grab that section, be the first to get here or there." Hey, beevis! Khador isn't getting ANYWHERE first. To do so would require a specialty army and things to be built just for speed, and that limits my choices. I don't believe in anything that Forces you to choose specific units. I guess maybe in the competitive circles also means I don't believe in winning. S'Okay.

I'd rather paint and play what I want, when I want. I'm not the type to build an anti-anything list. Its too hard to do for Hordes anyway. Maybe that means until Hordes and Warmachine stand as equals, I'm done playing against them. Enough frustration and freakish absurdity in my normal life, much less adding to it.

Ooh, bitter! My poor sportsman trophy is in the bag! Yowza!

Teh Warm-machine Uptick...

2009-08-16T22:46:00.000-07:00

...or "All standing in line for 45 minutes gets you is sore feet."

Sooooo, Gen Con 2K9. I went. I made sure I was there for the 'big announcement." Everyone knew it was going to be something about the video game. What else could it have been? Mark 2 is in final revision, the Retribution source book was released at the Con, No Quarter isn't due until next month....

I do appreciate the meeting to lay the rumors to rest and to let the populace that the game is definitely going forward. Aside from that, a little more content would have been nice. A huffing Juggernaut while awesome, seemed a little underwhelming for the wait. Maybe Juggy should have taken a punch at something, or Sorcha swung her maul...

Gratuitous Gloating: All the samples were Khador! Yeah! In yo' face other factions! Ironclad? Nope. Bonejacks? Nope. Menothy-thing? Nope. The Motherland was representing!

(ahem) Yes, the graphics were cool. Yes the textures were cool. Yes, the idea is cool. Will I buy it? If I don't have to switch computer systems to do it, yes I will. Will I play it? Oooh...see, there's the real question.

I'm sure the manufacturer doesn't care. I don't play a lot of games right now, aside from free stuff on Face Book, and a few notable sims. FPS doesn't interest me in PC format, and I don't own any of the newest game consoles to consider it. If the newest titles of my favorite franchise, Metal Gear havent' prompted me to pick up a PS3, I don't think this will either.

I guess if it doesn't require costly and time consuming upgrades to my machine, and isn't a real budget-buster, I will probably pick it up, if for no other reason than to support the line.

Of course I am saying the same thing about Mark 2, but for different reasons.

Ye new banner

2009-07-09T18:46:00.000-07:00

So, I get bored easily and want to spice things up. Sue me...in fact, let me refund the money you paid to get in....

I chose the German Konigstiger for a reason. In many ways it say a lot about Khador. Heavy armor, impressive weaponry, generally a bigger and badder version of the last armored nightmare you faced.

The New Khardic Empire also echoes the aggressive expansion of the German Reich. The enormous cost and production problems of the Tiger 2 can also be seen in the lack of 'innovation' if you will, in the Kadoran war jack arsenal, a "too little, too late" scenario.

Plus it makes a dang spiffy banner!

Liberation League Week 4: Win by grievous injuries

2009-07-03T22:35:00.000-07:00

I wonder if it is a theorem that "to win by scenario, it to lose if the scenario were removed?" This league season, it sure has happened that way to be. Also, the converse has been true. The scario games I have lost, my army has been mostly undamaged and could have cleaned up in a few rounds.

Red and I played the "On the Move scenario," and I won, but only by sacrificing all but 2 of a unit of 10 Winter Guard, and most of a unit of Iron Fang Pikemen. Most of my war jacks, (I had 3) were ineffective, as they were continually thrown about by Thunderbolt rounds, and the only thing that kept my poor Kodiak together was the Global effect that let him ignore systems being knocked out.

I have some fluff planned for later.

Liberation League Week 3: Defeated by Game System

2009-06-24T13:52:00.000-07:00

OK, I hated this game. I think I hated my own attitude most, exacerbated by the weather and several other external factors. My dice didn't help. But most of all, I got trashed by a broken game system.

Hordes is the antithesis of Warmachine. The more I play it, the more I realize the two were never really designed to intermingle. Red has spoken in the past about his problems with Skorne, and I seem to keep getting my posterior handed to my by Circle O.

Now, since I have climbed back to the basement of doom and licked my wounds, I realize I was all of the above; bad mood, bad manners, I owe my opponent a big apology, etc. No doubt he carefully culled his army from the misbegotten dregs of the Hordes books to find all the combos. I rolled my eyes so much I think I sprained them. The Megalith got five attacks. FIVE! No way a non-bonded Warjack could do that. Balder kept popping forests, every Woldwarden (both of them) has both a two-fisted attack, and a ranged spell attack, plus can have spells channeled through them like arc nodes. All of the heavy constructs I faced has a P+S within 2 points of my armor, before any boosting.

Yes, Hulk smash! That's my army under his fists! Around turn 2, I was wondering why I came. By turn 3, it was obvious there was no way I was ever going to win, or even put up a good showing. My dice didn't help at this point, but it really didn't matter.

After another round of death and dismemberment, I just conceded. The victory was caster kill, and I could have drawn it out, but I was down to Vlad, a Kovnik with 2 points, an undamaged Ternion, half of a warjack out of the 3 I started with, less than half of the Iron Fangs, with the Greatbears dead. Oh, and none of the enemy dead, did I mention?

My opponent had played a lot longer than I have. I will admit, I am not good at this game, as is obvious. Nor it seems, am I a good sport. But I will say this, Hordes can dismantle WM in a way MW can not return in kind. I've never seen that statement proven wrong.

So what? Am I ashamed? Yep! Will I quit or refuse to play? No. What happens when you face a Hordes player again? Count on these things: a) I've already lost, b) then lose, c) wonder why I still play WM when I could be playing Hordes and winning.

League Week 2 - Game 2 Loss to Circle

2009-06-24T13:47:00.001-07:00

Much the same in the 'Hellhole' scenario; blah blah blah faction warbeast/warjack blah blah blah across a line blah blah blah opponent doesn't blah blah blah Khador loses.

The sinkhole in the table center grew ginormous too quickly, and I had units out of place to deny my opponent the victory. Never mind my opponent was playing a Hordes army. Oooh, so bitter!

League Week 2 - Game 1 Win over Cygnar

2009-06-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

Let me be the first admit, it's hard to keep track of both the enemy and the scenario. Most of the the league losses were to me not following the scenario rules or stipulations closely enough.

This being said, and the scenario being so closely worded, I just walked up and took it. I didn't like it one bit. Then again, I went second in the round, and if I got it at the end of my turn, that was also the end of the round. Red just didn't have enough units to stop me stepping over the line and snatching the victory from the jaws of victory.

Further comments on the league scenarios usually involve some Faction Warbeast/Warjack (not Khador or Trollbloods usually) racing to be the first to get to this spot or be across that line on the board. Khador just can't. We aren't a racing type army, not in our warjacks anyway. It just so happened the Demolition Corps were able to smash a big enough hole in the Trenchers to run some units through.

Liberation League Week 2: A Whiff of Gouda

2009-06-17T20:37:00.000-07:00

As an overview, I think once again, the scenarios are rigged against Khador. Odd, since it the League Season is the Liberation of Umbrey; Umbrey being a Khadoran province, and home of Vlad. I didn't know where the occupation borders lay until the league started. So, my forces are overwhelmingly Great Prince Vlad trying to crush the rebellious elements in the Umbrean territories.

That being said, there are a lot of "whoever gets a unit to x,y, or z first wins" scenarios. (a subtle grinding of teeth) THAT being said, I am going to lose a lot in this enviroment. Khador stands for endurance, not speed. That was always so. You can only Boundless Charge so often, until you are stranded beyond your own support structure and cut off, then cut up. In several cases, winning by the scenario involved doing things no sane army commander would do. Charge a unit way out in front by itself? Umm, no. So, lots of times, I am not keeping my eye on the schenario, but potentially winning the battle.

Unless it's against Hordes, but that's another story.

So, Red and I were bashing it out, and I saw a cheap way to lose the battle, but win the scenario, and I took it. Not really proud. Don't like it when the opponent doesn't get a chance to react, but that was the way it was worded. The points salved my soul a little, and so did a league victory, but it still feels cheesy.

Maybe I expect too much.

Liberation League Week 1:Loss to Cryx

2009-06-16T22:05:00.000-07:00

Nykon Kozyar, trooper of B Company, 16th Demolition Corps, had been uneasy all morning. This new alliance did not sit well with him, the sergeant, or the rest of the "Frost Fathers." It was bad enough to ally with the raven-haired witch with the milling hoard of undead, but the elf caused him to grind his teeth. She always camped on the edge of the stockade, skulking about, throwing withering looks at the war jacks of Prince Vladimir. As a fellow Umbrean, he took offense for his liege.

When battle came, the 16th were deployed on the Khadoran right, facing the skull-headed thralls of the war-witch Deneghra. Even the sturdy "Frost Fathers" were restless in their presence. As the battle unfolded 'the elf,' using the 16th for cover, began shooting her ridiculous crossbow at a Pistol Wraith. As the heavy hammers of the Demolition Corps began to smash apart the axe wielding horrors, Nykon watched in frustration as the pair failed to kill each other. The crossbow bolts did nothing, and the bullets of the wraith did little to the cloaked elf.

At last, he could take no more. Walking into the elf's line of fire, Nykon activated his maul and smashed the animated skeleton to icy slivers in a single blow. His steam armor whistling and creaking, he turned over his shoulder shouting to the elf, "Take note pretty one! That is how it is done in Umbrey!" Merely returning his jibe with a glare, Eiryss brought her scarf to her nose to block the wretched stink of burning coal.

The battle raged on....

As Red pointed out, I forfeited the first battle in lieu of defeating the Horrible Grass Monster in my yard. (Yay!) Lo, and behold, it never rained that day, just threatened. (shrug)

The Resurrection of Karchev

2009-06-09T21:43:00.000-07:00

So after a week of moping and grumbling...well, and working, I finally set out to see what I could salvage. Overall, it may not be as bad as I thought. Maybe.

I posted earlier that Big K was on a P3 50mm metal base. That may have been a wash, as the weight of it certainly added to the topple factor, but spared the legs by driving the hips and upper torso straight down. The two legs buckled outward, and tore free from the hip pins, and that is where it separated. (A huge ding right down to the bare metal there.) There are further chips and dings elsewhere, the feet are not securely glued to the base anymore, and I don't know if the putty on the base will hold.

The biggest concern is how when superglue dries, it often leaves a crusty white line. Much, heck, most of the model is painted. I need to use glue, strong glue to repair, but with all the crusty lines, can I save the paint? Any suggestions?

Disaster!

2009-05-28T15:22:00.001-07:00

I suppose it finally had to happen. I was putting some highlights on Karchev, the last miniature for this weekend's Landmark battle with Red. Unfortunately, the man-machine warkaster had to take a swan dive off the painting table into the cement pond, minus the pond.

Ummm, crack!

Now he lies in pieces.

And so does my spirit.

Sigh.

Asking for some input

2009-05-24T10:01:00.000-07:00

I am down to highlighting the runes on Big K's armor, and I am wondering what to use for color. His PIP version is here. The interpretation I am painting has more black in it, similar to this.
The runes are cut into the armor plates mostly where I have red. The color wheel here, since my reds fall on #7, I should contrast with #25. But that's just math. Anyone have any real hints about what would stand out as magical runes on Khador red?

Green Machine (not John Deere)

2009-05-20T18:07:00.000-07:00

Notice I completely didn't use the words "green meenie" in the title. Wait... oh crap!
To continue the saga from last post, I didn't want a totally red force for my Karchev Landmark 500 point list. My two 'Zerkers were going to be red and black, and as seen, my Destroyer was blue. This left the Juggernaut. Being a former devotee to the Dark Angel SM's, I thought a nice DA green scheme would be cool. Not so!

Apparently DA green neither blends with nor is highlighted by any other green paint I could lay hands on. My first pass was so hideous, I took it back to base coat and began again. for those of you following along, yes, I had trouble with both the Juggy and the Desty. hmmmm.....

Here again we see my new obsession with stark line highlighting. The lightest shade for my green was a little too bright...I think it stands out too much. As before, I have the shading lines lain out wrong; they radiate from the side- outward instead of a more correct top-downward. All this realization came as I was laying on the sealer, of course.

A detail of the thing I used the Juggy to stand out. Number 516 likes to use looped barbed wire in the open fist! That crazy 'jack! I just drilled a little hole at the join where the fist balls up both top and bottom, and cut short lengths of the GW barbed wire and super glued them in! Ded 'ard!

In the original Warmachine rulebook, in the painting section, was where I found about about Tamiya 'Smoke.' I tried it and have loved the results it produces on metallic ever since. I don't think I have black or armor washed anything since I started using it. It is a thick consistency, and need to be thinned with Tamiya thinner before application. It produced all the shading on the metallic visible here; the shade line on the arm, the smokestacks, the boiler, and the black lining on the leg armatures.

I used more of the GW Dwarf Bronze here as it seemed to stand out so much more than the standard Boltgun metal. Also, I tried my hand at some weathering with GW Tin Bitz on the legs and feet to show rust and wear. Not really happy with the results. It just looks like I was sloppy with paint. : (

This was a quick detail of the Ice Axe. After this, I lay on both a heavy dry brush of P3 Frostbite, and a heavy lining of the hard edges of the axe as well. Since then I have flocked the base and finished sealing the mini! Ready for action!

Which came first?

2009-05-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

The jack or the story?

Well, the jack. I have owned this Destroyer for 5 years now. I got a second Khador Battle box the first winter I played Warmachine...that means either Winter 2003 or Spring 2004. I got it when a LGS wasn't sure WM would last and was selling all the stock off at 30% off. Even then I had planned for a second paint scheme of winter white, the reason I got it.

So, the Landmark battle betwixt Red and I is coming up, and I decided to go a little crazy, fielding a Kharchev 'all-jack' list. I decided an all red force would get amazingly boring quickly, so I decided to spice things up. I had decided to paint two berzerkers; one red & one black, (Much more on this later.) This left the a Destroyer and Juggernaut. Avec la Destroyer!

So, once I thought about making the Destroyo blue...well, I lost my way. I tried GW Storm Blue thinned with ink, and the whole thing came out so dark it was almost purple! Ick, not my vision at all. Not that I had a vision then, but if it's wrong, you just know it, n'cest pas?

So, it was at that point I remembered that during the Legends story line, Khador had finally kicked those Cygnaran interlopers out of Northguard. What gets left behind in such matters? Incidentals like, say, paint! Rubbing my hands in child like glee, I drug out my copy of Prime and began reading the Cygnar painting guide. Whaddya think?

Here you can see my new-found obsession with line based shading. I kept the contrast bold, but totally screwed up the lines themselves. It was only after I was mostly done with this one, and the Juggernaut when I realized that the highlight should be sitting on the top of the shoulder instead of sloping to the edge. Well, lesson learned is all I can say. -sigh- Neat how the flash brought out the orange coals in the grate....

The story behind the paint was that this Desty was damaged and in need of repair, and finding the supply lines stretched, mechanics helped themselves to stuff left behind from the protracted struggle. Desty got done up in Cygnar colors first as a mockery, but then as more of a tribute to the brave fallen during the months of battle and siege.

This was also my first attempt at battle damage. I had read about both opinions, either only paint, or paint enhanced real damage to the mini. Prior to priming, I severely scratched up the surface of the right shoulder and left cuisse. I got no real satisfaction from what I did. I laid in some GW Tin Bitz, then highlighted with lighter and lighter shades of metal. All I got was murk. There seemed to be no way for it to stand out. The flash washed it a little bit too, sorry.

Also, since the photo, I completed the final detailing and flocked the base. final piccys may have to wait until Landmark battle day.

Celebrate good times, c'mon!

2009-05-18T18:41:00.000-07:00

Let's celebrate! It's alright!

Only a small post to say that I just finished 4 warjacks! Totally! Put 'em to bed. Sealed, based and flocked, there is NO more I need to do to these babies. And the groovy things is...they are the jacks I will be bringing you over the next few posts as Wip's!.

How awesome is that? Donedonedonedonedoneeeeee!

Picture Day 4 - That darn Camo-diak! (wip)

2009-05-14T21:31:00.000-07:00

The more pictures I extort from Red, the more i have to write about. It's weird!

So, this little project started out an article about how to paint a Tau Hammerhead. It detailed the stippling technique, and I thought I could adapt it to the Kodiak. I do not find myself among the fans of the rather drab 5th Border Legion brown-green of the 'standard Kodiak.'

So, I present, the Camo-diak, as a work-in-progress. The more I worked on the stippling technique, the more I realized the 4-5 step technique as detailed in the article was well suited to large armor plates and the like, and less so for War jacks with bendy parts and such. In at least two of the steps, I completely undid the stippling of the previous step. As a new technique, it still requires a little experimentation.

The final step in the article was to tape off huge lightning-bolt shaped sections and paint the still uncovered areas with a sandy-tan. Ummmm...no. I was really in like with the stippled areas. I think it provides a nice transition from deep woods to rolling hills. Since it is still a work in progress, I haven't decided on the final metal accents in the shoulder area. I usually prefer GW Dwarf Bronze for the roller-ball shoulders, but the Kodiak has an armored plate modeled over it, so I may do some more thinking.
The Kodiak is a more advanced design, as detailed by the fluff, and I wanted to highlight that with my paint scheme. I usually do a Bronze and Boltgun split for the stacks. Kodiak has a different cast than the standard design, so I did solid Boltgun with some heavy staining. Also, the advanced boiler design is designated with the Boltgun boiler cap as detailed in a previous post.

Overall, on my first attempt, I wasn't really happy with the final result. In a few places, the increasingly light over-stipple blurred the subtle under colors. There were places I blacked out and started over. I also began thinking about color changes for the next Kodiak I paint in this way. Oddly enough, about the same time I was thinking about the next one, Indiana had "the last big snowfall of the year." Heavy and wet, I was able to see, the snow laden pine evergreens. I have some exciting ideas for Mark 2 and 3!

The end result was fairly murky, privings its worth as a Camo scheme! However, it was a little drab. As shown, I painted a fairly intense and heavy edge line on most plates with a slightly brighter color than the final stipple. The great part about stippling is that you don't have to do all that time-consuming shading and blending. Don't get me wrong, (if I fall to a mode of fashion) I think the end result of my standard paint job is quite good. This has its merits too. The variation in color of stipple adds depth.
This final pose allows me to expound on final colors. The fist plates will be black, with metallic spikeys. The back of the fist plates will be solid black. with a dark paint job like this, the scratches and dings of final weathering will stand out better, as well as some mud and dust and a little rust. all the good things in life!

Picture Day 3 - FemBot Attack 2

2009-05-10T21:15:00.001-07:00

Wow, I had real trouble getting the last post to save, so I broke 'er into two parts.

This pose, and there are two in the Sisters Repentia box, posed the most problem. Here, the flat planes of the two pieces were directly acted on by gravity. It was working with this sculpt, that I was lucky enough to have purchased the Core Techniques V.1 from Privateer. Learning all that putty technique really really helped here. I puttied the sword side and the hand side. I placed the pin in the still moist putty, making a hole that was 100% and exact fit, then let it dry. (Wetting the item you want to remove from the putty helps immensely!) When it came time to glue, it was like the parts were manufactured to fit together that way!

This pose was frustrating in that cross guard came to a narrow point, and I tried to retain the shackle chain for reattachment to the new mini. The shackle passed through a narrow opening. It took careful placement and a lot of patience to drill through. I still wonder why/how it worked. The chain didn't work out, it saw too much stress and broke. I don't think I could get the detail back with putty and glue so I left it off.

The most dynamic for last. Of all the minis, I thought long and hard about this one the most. With the double cross guard and the out of scale blade, I thought this one looked the most out of place/over the top. The good news was that the extra detail gave me more meat for the drill to bite through, leading to a longer pin, and greater strength. The hardest thing was getting the flat edges of both the blade and hand guard to butt up square. In the end, it turned out OK and I now use this one as my leader. (As a side note, she has also been the first to die in the two games I have used her.)

So there you have it. I hope one and all get some inspiration and joy from my little project. Sadly, unless I get a very forgiving T.O., I'll never get them into a tourney or anything of the like. Like most things, its a vision, and a labor of love.

Now if I can just get some female Winter guard!

Picture Day 3 - FemBot Attack 1

2009-05-09T05:24:00.000-07:00

More fun from the camera of Red and teh fertile imagination of your truly~

So I always liked the idea of the Doomreavers. See my original post on the subject here.

To recap; the Doomreavers were criminals chained to ancient Orgoth fell blades as punishment for various crimes. The Sisters Repentia are disgraced Adeptas Sororitas who serve in the unit as penance for wrongdoing and thus die in service of the Emperor, while wielding two-handed Eviscerator chain swords. Similar, no?

So I decided, why couldn't Doomreavers be female?
Bwa-hah-ha-ha-haaaaa! -ahem- Sorry. Sweet, no? It was only after I had fully deconstructed both the Doomreavers and the Sisters that I noticed the scale was a weeeeee bit off. 40k and WM are not fully compatible in size. Luckily I found that out before I started to modify any of my Uhlan cavalry! Then again, I was already into the project, and if a muscular guy in a zero visibility helm could carve a bloody swath, how much more terrifying would half a naked woman doing the same be?

There were problems, of course. So many problems that I am glad I did this project, and equally glad I don't have to do another. The real key was having both hobby wire and a drill narrow enough to be able to drill out both the blade, the cross guard/hand area, and then to be able to drill deeply enough to secure the pin without destroying the miniature.

As you see from the close-ups, I had to cut, modify and pin in a variety of different areas. The Doomreavers gave up their swords rather easily. In nearly every cast, there was a place to part the sword easily. Also, two or three of the models come with the sword cast separately. Easy peasy!

Not so forgiving were the Sisters. In this example, the Eviscerator came away clean above the fancy cross guard leaving two clean, flat joints to work with. In other examples, the Eviscerator on the Sister was modelled differently, and there fore the join had to be modified.

More to follow.

Picture Day 2 - Revenge of the Behemoth

2009-05-05T20:48:00.000-07:00

The pics just keep on coming! (man, I suck at blogging!)

As many of you have humorously note in my blog, I have sung the underwhelming fell call of "Pretty ballerina Behemoth" in the past. If not, get your giggles here .

As envisioned by Privateer .

"A pound of tin, balanced on one foot." Yeah. Long ago, I decided to experiment with rectifying this egregious, nay, tragic mistake. Most of my beginning efforts started with what to jam under the foot to absorb the weight. I cut and test-fitted a number braces, and I am still in that phase with the original legs and lower torso. I started thinking about other robots from other game systems as a replacement, also. In the end, I found I had extra bits of a Mark 2 40K Dreadnought. The lower legs and torso plate were s-o-l-i-d. I jazzed my conversion up with the inclusion of some Imperial Titan feet from the Epic line.

This is the finished result. I mounted it to one of the Privateer 50mm metal bases to offset the 'top-heaviness.' The brass rod was seated on the 40k pin to help index the hole n the 'Beho' torso. Small gaps, including the rod were filled in with putty. In the large picture, you can see a guide pin for extra support.

Taa-dahh, here we have the sections joined! I think it looks suitably beefy and believable. (Forgive the blu-tack, one arm not affixed yet.) Surprisingly, this solution comes in much shorter than the regular 'Beho.' So much so, I had to include the middle plate, when I had originally planned not to. There is something sad about dragging one's knuckles.

Hopefully before too long, I can complete the other set of legs to give another reference.

Picture Day 1 - Alt. Nomad

2009-05-04T22:37:00.000-07:00

Yay! Thanks to Red for making his time and digi-cam available for me to show what I have been up to.

This is also to test to see if the piccys are too huge.

I thought I would display a little conversion magic of my own. The Nomad mercenary heavy warjack is posed fairly dynamically. Original Nomad

I noticed two things during assembly. One, I really liked the 'perforated metal' detail of the inner arms. Two, the arms were completely interchangeable. So after a quick test fit, drill and glue, we get Nomad 1.2!

In this pose we can see the perforated metal detail in the arms can clearly be seen and matched with that of the smokestack. Cool no?

The pose now looks like what the fencers call a "punch-block." It is where the shield punches out to block the incoming attack. Fitting, as I plan to use the Nomad with my fencer/duelist, Ashlynn d'Elyse.

That's all for now, but be sure to check back soon for more! May league is coming up, and you never know if a renegade steam dwarf is hiding around the corner!

Finding a new Ashlynn d'Elyse (pseudo Poll)

2009-04-22T21:21:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'd like to poll the followers of Warmachine blogs in general to help me find a proxy mini for Ashlynn d'Elyse. I am beginning to pull together the beginnings of a mercenary army. Since the repackaging of Gorten, my Searforge army is on hold, because the old rhulic boxed set is suddenly no longer available. I think Magnus is a joke, therefore I am stuck with "her."

It goes against my better judgement to play something that won't ally with Khador, but it does open up some new mercenary choices like Rhupert, Anastasia de Bray, and Capm' Sam and her Devil Dogs. I hate, hate, hate (yes, dislike) the original sculpt for her. Find it here: Original
Look, its "Stroll-through-the-park Warkaster Barbie! (teeth grinding) Okay, it's not that bad, but I don't like it.

Normally I would look over the stuff from Rackham, but their site is down and has been for many weeks; they may be gone forever. (Taking with it the unrealized awesomeness that would have been Dust:Tactics!) sniff...sob. So I checked out Reaper and found the following minis in the vein of the female swashbuckler.

Lonnia
Rhaine/Rhainie
Maria

Each has its pro's and con's. Neither has anything resembling warkaster armor. My other searches haven't turned up much at all, and I don't know of any other companies that might have anything compatible.

So, dear reader, I implore your help. If you have other ideas for a proxy mini, please let me know. If you have an opinion about which of the three I should use, please let me know that too.

Painting Notebook - New use for Ink?

2009-04-20T21:56:00.000-07:00

This is me humbly thanking Red for his suggestion about applying a layer of ink over the base coat. I have applied this technique to 3 (and maybe one more) minis I am prepping for the Landmark 500 battle.

I have to say, I think it makes lighter color pop more than the darker colors. It didn't really work out so well for blue...GW blue ink dries really shiny and didn't let much of the under highlight pop through. The jury is still out on black. My old technique of a black glaze (just thinned black paint, but a thicker consistency than a wash) may be a better application for toning down the gray highlights. I hold better hope for green, since the ink is from P3. This technique works wonders on red. Thanks Red! Future legions of Khadoran warjacks will be better painted, thanks to you!

Too bad there isn't a Gray ink. I have a big project involving a lot of gray. I guess a thinned out highlight of black may work as well.

Edit:
Revelation!
Well I tried the green and the results were equally disappointing as with the blue. I now think I know the problem. The ink just didn't flow like a wash. (I know I know, duh!) It dried in clumps and splotches. So, if I try this in the future, or if you dear reader, try it, either thin the in with a little water, or try the ol' Future floor wax trick.

Assembly Notebook - Iron Fang Pikemen

2009-04-15T12:37:00.000-07:00

I admit, this unit scared me. I put off assembly until the last, the very last, the too late last. All the horror stories of broken/bent pike shafts and the inability to repair them, the fact that the shields cover the miniatures, so the must remain separate until the final stages of painting, etc.

Well, I took the plunge, and found that like most things, you can psyche yourself into inactivity! The assembly for these are not as bad as it may seem. Pretty simple and straightforward glue to the base. As they are older casts, most still have full size base tabs. Some putty may be necessary for test fitting and test pinning the shields in place. Check out the PIP catalog and images both on the Gallery page and pics from Google to suggest proper shield alignment and tilt. I'm still deciding for myself if the static pose shield needs to be parallel to the base, or more dynamic. I do suggest leaving the shields off and painting separate, then taking them with glue in the finals stages.

That leaves those pesky pikes. (gasp!) Before you even begin, trundle on down to the LHS; Local Hardwear Store and buy yourself a package of 1/16th inch brass (not aluminum) tube (not rod), and a corresponding 1/16th drill bit compatible with your pin vise. (I prefer titanium.)

I would normally provide a link to the Brushthralls "Brass Rod Tutorial," as they taught me the technique I use, and comes complete with pictures and all. they are in the midst of sight reorganization, and I can't seem to find the page, so I will sum up.

Important Tip! One pose of the the standard IFP has his pike in a 'javelin throw' grip. They are distinguished by having a pin on the glove/pike instead of a hole. Set them aside, because you will have to put the head.butt on opposite ends from the rest! Unless you want to make up a lot of ideas as to why you glued them wrong way round. (Yep, I did it.)

Pre-measure and cut all your brass rod for the whole unit and tidy up the ends with a heavy duty file and some pliers. Get all this done before you start. I removed the butt end from the old pewter shaft with a hobby knife and tidied up with a file, then marked the hole with an awl/scribe.

My Secret! I don't use brass rod for every pinning job, I use hobby wire like from the Hobby Store. It is way smaller than the rod and useful for most solos/troopers. For this job, I first drilled a 'pilot hole' with the smaller drill to the depth I wanted, then went back with the 1/16th drill after, to enlarge the hole. This avoided any mishaps, like drilling out through the side of the hand/arm or spearhead. Also, a little water will help when enlarging the hole with the 1/16th bit. I don't know why, it just went smoother. Lubrication maybe.

I worked from the butt to the blasting head on each one in turn. Some minis, there was some of the old shaft casting left on the hand. I usually left it, figuring that more contact with the glue and the surface of the arm is a good thing.

Watch Out! Brass rod + CA superglue = nearly unbreakable instant bond! I've never seen superglue grab anything so hard or so fast as brass. Work quickly and watch where the glue is going! I just used a small drop on the shaft just before I slid the shaft into the arm hole, and it glued in just fine, and frighteningly quick.

Once finished, there were some that weren't perfect, and some, as mentioned were backward. My first batch of 10 plus the 2 figure unit attachment took me two hours from start to finish.

Assembly Notebook - Manhunter (Alt.)

2009-04-11T09:14:00.000-07:00

You would think that after the traditional Manhunter sculpt, there you be nae ground to cover for this mini. Not so!

I think it was this mini that first brought my attention to the lack of base tabs on new WM minis. the tab was barely wider than the foot above. To this I say, Fail! I know there are many reasons to do this...reduce weight, reduce cost, reduce molding problems, increase dynamic range, etc. Maybe a grizzled old mini assembler like me hates to see things change. (See, I can admit it! I think I've grown.) -insert grumblings of a conspiracy for privateer press to sell more putty to fill in the base lots for the shrinking base tabs-

Huh? What was that? Yes, you must putty the base before affixing the mini, unless your army theme is for the 712th "Step On A Crack" battalion, or the lesser known 805th "Geologic Fault Line" patrol. (snicker) But truly, that is the easiest thing about this mini.

The model is female, so therefore not nearly as beefy as the regular Manhunter, with his bulging biceps. Normally this would call for the putty and super glue combo. Unfortunately, both the arms are in such and extended pose, that a pin should be called for. Catch-22.

The Fix? Time, patience and no little amount of muttered cursing and such. Use a fine wire and drill, be very careful. I didn't bother to pin the right arm at all, just lay in a little extra putty and glue and hope for the best.

Such little details are transforming the hobby. It used to be easy to assemble a battle force in an afternoon, with most of the time going into the heavier models; the warjacks. Slowly the warjacks are becoming the easiest things to assemble. (Ooh, forget that. I forgot Drago and the Spriggan!) Maybe my standards are higher since I had another mini for another game system that was marked by continuous failure post painting. Nothing like seeing not only the arm/gun pull away, but taking all the sealer, paint and primer, right down to the bare metal...multiple times. Maybe now I overcompensate. Maybe.

Assembly Notebook - Yuri the Axe

2009-04-11T08:22:00.000-07:00

Yuri the Axe is the uber-Manhunter, as well as a field commander. I really must commend PIP for its newest sculpts, i.e. the stuff from Legends. Yuri looks fairly straightforward until you uncover the nuts and bolts. This is not a mini for the casual gamer, it takes a bit of skill to get all the pieces in place. No that's not bragging on me, I can't even get Vlad's cape to stay on, and he came out week one!

Yuri is one of the few new models with a beefy tab to fit in the slot! Compare that with the dinky mini-tabs on the Koldun Lord or even the Manhunter variant pose and you will see what I mean. (Do I dare voice the conspiracy of PIP to sell more 2-part putty to fill in for the mini-tabs? Oops!)
Anyway, I always bend up the full size tabs to help fill the slot, in some sort of s-pattern using needle nosed pliers. This is a trick I learned after my first unit of all metal Space Marines had a distinct tilt, because the tabs weren't wide enough to fill the slotta base.

Luckily the sculptor made the cape thick enough on the socket end to take a drill and pin. My tweak is the same as mentioned on the Core Techniques Vol. 1 video from PIP. Yes, I do recommend getting it. Drill out the cape, then place a flattened roll of blu-tack in the socket. Be sure to wet the end you want to come away clean. Press into the socket where you want the cape placed, and gently remove. There should be an obvious finger of blu-tack indicating where the drill hole lines up. My pinning is much improved since I learned this from the video.

After setting your pin, I recommend missing up some putty and gap out the hole. The cape socket is way wider than the cape, so putty placed at the time of gluing will help fill the gap. I do it wet, not trusting myself to let it dry fully and still retain the proper placement. WARNING: CA superglue supercharges the curing time on the putty. It will harden in an eyeblink, so work quickly. Glue and place it, and after the glue grabs ahold, take an old file or sculpting tool and clear away the blops of putty waste. Since the cape is fur, scratch some rough lines into the putty-filled seam. You can clean them up once the putty hardens a bit more.

I would normally recommend fitting and drilling out the arm before placing the cape, but since the cape can take and extreme angle, I would wait until after. Once the putty and glue fully dry, (like maybe overnight) see where you want the axe to place. I drilled and pinned the left arm with a short pin, and let the other arm socket in with putty and glue.

Assembly Notebook - Drago

2009-04-11T06:31:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, Drago. Legendary a**-kicker war jack. On the upside, Drago is much easier on the legs than the regular BerZerKer. Not all of that messy "how to drill into the one foot on the tab and still have him stand upright" thing. In fact, once the Drago parts become available, I plan on scrapping one of my BerZerKers and redoing it with Drago's legs as a more stable base.

The downside to Drago is the incredibly flimsy arms and arm attachment points. Fail! Like many Khadoran war jacks, Drago has "Pop Eye" shaped arms. This is carried to the extreme in that the arms aren't even thick enough to drill into to pin. 1/16 th brass rod is about double the thickness. This can lead, as in my case, to the weight of the beefy forearms and Executioner axes bending the upper arms under their own weight after attaching to the shoulder sockets.

The Fix? Well, the best fix, although incredibly unsightly, would be to find a third attachment point on the jack or even on the base and drill and pin for something to support the weight. Sadly, like me, this problem is best identified before it happened, because once the arm is mounted, its impossible to reach the underside of the forearm or the "armpit" area of the 'Jack to drill or pin. For me, I am going to put off painting Drago until regular wear and tear breaks the arm. After that, I will do an extensive re-sculpt and pin job.

The smoke stacks are wider than the gap provided when the shoulder assemblies are attached to the chassis. I don't count this as a Fail! It took a little filing and such, but only a little.

The only other beef with the sculpt is the position of the smoke stack/shoulder pad. You can dry fit and place the smoke stacks in the back of the chassis, and they fit fine. You can scrape and file down the set pins to fit the shoulder pads to the shoulders alright. The place the spiky bits on the shoulder pads. Let everything dry. Then when you do full dry fit, you realize the back set of stacks and the back of each shoulder pad are trying to occupy the same space! Fail!

The Fix? I had very little choice. I had already set the stacks in with putty and CA glue. I had to sacrifice the back of the shoulder pads by severe cutting/filing. If I had known, (hence the reason for my assembly notebook ;) ) I may have altered the set pins that fit the recesses in the shoulders to swing the back edges a little outboard clearing the stacks.

Also, be wary of the Executioner axes on Drago. Both arms in my box had the heads slightly bent out of true. Again, gentle heat and pressure brought them back, with a little superglue reinforcement, of course.

Airport wants Piccys!

2009-04-10T21:54:00.000-07:00

Ok, down to basic pleading.

Anyone have suggestions as to what I need to obtain to post pics of my paint'in and stuff online? And please, don't just say "Duh! A digital camera." I know that. Any suggestions as to make, model, resolution, etc. I am only interested in getting one for pics for the bloggo-sphere, so lots of other non-gaming features may be a hindrance.

Dubious for Mark 2

2009-04-10T06:43:00.001-07:00

I suppose if I was more familiar and had more games under my belt, I may have thrown more interest in Mark 2 sooner. I guess I am more looking at the loss of value in the $44.95 I spent on my copy of hardback Legends, that will have little more than 12-16 months worth of utility.

Try to find a thread on the forums that isn't Mark 2 related.

Mark 2 is about a year away, and while I do want to get my feedback in to PIP about some of the things people in the forums mentioned, I also want to play more OS Warmachine before that.

The only example I can dredge from the ancient past is the tragedy of Warzone. Target Games underwent a similar explosion of interest. There were several people with armies, in love with the simple rules and fun back story. We were building terrain and the like. Then WZ Mk.2 hit, with lots of new rules and the like. I can't even find much on google anymore.

Fatalistic, but tell that to the pile of WZ I have in my basement.

You can't trust 'em

2009-04-08T12:22:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I bought Drago, Khador Unique warjack. I have painfully and carefully assembled the damn thing, and at the very last minute (y'know, like the tournament is this Saturday, right?) it looks like the casting of the left arm is bending under its own weight. Under its own weight!

The folks at PIP can no longer convince me that they haven't changed the metal ratio in their minis. There is way more tin than there used to be. I understand about keeping the price down and making the game minis affordable, but how about being able to play more than one game with them before they disintegrate? HOW ABOUT AT LEAST ONE GAME?

I guess I will have to soak everything in 2-ton epoxy to reinforce the tissue paper thin arms and legs before I begin assembly from now on.

Ridiculous!

My fault for not...

2009-03-27T22:20:00.000-07:00

Well, a little of everything. For not updating the results of the final week of the League. (A loss by the way) For putting my Warjack too far forward begging to be um...Cygnar'd! (Is that a verb?) For not reading the gamut of League possible scenarios. (Which resulted in a Universe of fun and three of my five losses as well.) For not fluffing the last two games. For not being nearly as prepared for the League as I wished. Etc.

Anyway, the preparations for the April Tournament continue, as well as the Landmark 500 with Red. Work is throwing me some curve balls as to scheduling, so I will have limited time to paint anything for the April 11 day anyway. I imagine I will be utilizing the Irusk list I settled on from the League with a few tweaks. Don't expect to do especially well, since I won't have any time to practice much before the week of the Tourney, but, I am going to compete, and to learn...mostly learn.

After that, May brings the Liberation of Umbrey, and I must say I am jonesing for the backstory. I got an undertone of rebellion from the story elements from Legends, but it may just be a Khador push to oust Skorne and the Circle from Vlad's homeland. I doubt Mk. II will introduce much new story, just the new and updated content.

Luckily I am putting the final touches on my Landmark 750 already and many of the models are built. Huzzah!

So, upset I didn't do better, yes. Think I may do better in the future? Yes, possibly. I remember from my days learning to play L5R, I lost a hundred games before winnning. I love Warmachine enough to do the same!

The Forums, and a 50# block of salt

2009-03-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I admit it....I can be a Warmachine forum junkie!

Too often I find myself pouring post after post of nothing in particular, looking for nothing in particular, and finding...nothing in particular! In all seriousness, it does take a lot of sifting to find the warjack cortex in the box of leaves.

Polar Bear, one of the forum welcome wagon has an awesome article on the forums. The gist of it being, just play what you like, get familiar with the rules and quirks of the army you like, and don't let others tell you what to play.

Here endeth the lesson.

Week 4: Loss to Circle

2009-03-18T14:34:00.000-07:00

Mingo and I were able to meet to get a league game in at the LGS amid the nicey-nice weather! (Yay Spring!)

By the time I am writing this, though, the temp is rapidly dropping along with rain. (Boo Spring!)

Yes, it was Engines of Destruction again and I got slammed out of the control area. And the text of the rule is "if any player ends his turn in control..." So I couldn't even get back in the game. And the 85th did so well! All of my MOW were alive! Grrrrr.

More to follow.

The Frenzy of Iron

2009-03-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

"Fall Back to this Line!"
Like the well trained unit they were, the Pikemen of the 85th Iron Fangs quickly regrouped on the Unit standard, and on Alexei Kyznetsov, its bearer. 'A rough campaign already,' he mused, 'and this our first time in battle.' He thought back to the wild train ride south, then the short river ferry and the last few miles to reach the base camp of Force Kommander Radik Sashenka Grigori Egorov. A hard man in a tough spot, to be sure, left to fend at the tip of Khador's spear.

As his friends and comrades formed a line and locked shields, Alexi took stock. They had spent the morning groping though dense fog and unfamiliar ground only to blunder into the Cygnar warkaster Coleman Styker with Khadoran forces in disarray. The new kaster, Kommandant Irusk threw the men forward, bringing all his tactical savvy to bear on the situation. The Men-of-War were nearly destroyed by the Cygnar warjack that threw lightning as easily as others dropped clinker and ash. The Khadoran Behemoth seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time shelling the dug in troops on the opposite side of the battlefield. The fur clad Manhunter, rumored to be the fiercest killer among the Force spent all the time relocating. Then it happened.

Irusk, was a legend among the troops of Khador for his ability to draw the very best from the men. Sensing a change in the strategy, he stepped forward and began shouting "For the Homeland! For the Empress!" in Khard. Over and over, taken up by officer and trooper alike, passed from man to man, bolstering the courage and breathing new life into every man.

In this case, the fervor of patriotism was carried too far. As Kommandant Irusk led the cheer, discharging his rifle at the enemy, both Alexi, and the unit Kaptain Adrik Stepanov saw Irusk's error. While in full view of his own men, he had also moved in full view of the enemy and was standing exposed on the battlefield, open to fire from two units, two warkasters and the hellish 'jack of Cygnar's. Nearly as one, the two men yelled, "Protect the Kommander!"

Too late the Pikemen turned on its flank and ran to screen the Khadoran warkaster. Bolts of chain lightning and numerous bullets impacted the man knocking him back, making him jerk like a puppet. The last of the Men-of-War died and the spell warlocks of the Greylords began summoning the power to freeze and break as the Cygnaran trench fighters slid behind the Khadoran Behemoth to continue their fire. Even Stryker was lured from his cover, the life of Irusk tempting him from behind his wall of steel.

In later days, Alexei would tell of Irusk's willingness to used his own body to lure the wakaster from his position. In reality, while ordering the Behemoth to finally rid the battlefield of the Lightning spawn, Irusk staggered into a patch of forest as the 85th formed a screening wall to block him from view. Kaptain Stepanov gave his final order, "No one crosses this line! Ve kill all who try." A trench fighter's bullet killed him as he stood next to the unit standard.

Bullets from all over the field were converging on the woods where Irusk stood. Some fell short, some flew beyond the shield wall, and some scored on the Kommader again. Alexi saw the smaller Cygnar warjack plunge its spear through the Manhunter, ending his feeble attacks on Stryker. It was then the Behemoth, its boiler shrieking the same rage as Irusk, plowed through the wreckage of the Cygnar heavy to pummel the Cygnaran warkaster with armor-piercing fists.

Week Three: Win over Cygnar I

2009-03-14T21:20:00.000-07:00

A very winded and spent "Yay!"

I accomplished my only goal for this league; win a game. I may have to try to win a game not against Red next...but it seems unlikely.

Major props to Red. I have to admit, many of my early wins were simply because I had a slightly better feel of the game than he, but "when we first met he was but the Learner, but now he is the Master." He knows his army, while for me, every game makes me both want to tinker, and fills me with doubt about what I fielded.

Plus, nearly all his stuff is painted. : P

Major doubts about the future of MOW Demolition Corps in my army.... grrr

And you can't Bond with a Unique warjack either!

more to follow...

Building for Landmark 500 Finished!!

2009-03-05T21:35:00.001-08:00

Congrats to me! (more champagne!)

After much finagling and not a few glued fingers, puttied joints and far too many curses (dang you Berkerker!) I have the building phase done for the Landmark 500.

(whistle)(flag on the field) Delay of Game!

Yup, the mad rush of the painter guy to get finished has put the whole Landmark game back a month. (Boo! Hisss! You're not a real gamer!)

I also didn't get a League game in this week, and my only hope is Sunday. Guess I have to hit the boards and look for an opponent.

-Sigh-

League Week One: Loss to Cygnar

2009-03-01T19:32:00.000-08:00

Orusus Zoktavir stormed angrily across the parade ground, his mekanical axe 'Lola' rapping against his armor in time with his stride. For a man with such a reputation as his, he was in a foul mood. His scowl and muttered grumblings did more to clear the various troops out of his way than raving or yelling, and he soon reached his destination, the tent of Force Kommander Radik Sashenka Grigori Egorov.

Barging toward the tent door, he suddenly found himself at the tip of two blasting pikes wielded by Iron Fangs of the Black Dragon. His eyes furrowed, and his growl came louder. Tension flowed like blood on the air, but before things escalated, a greybeard Koldun of the Greylords stepped from inside the the flap. "He is not yet ready for you Kommander." the wizard stated, his expression passive.

"I was summoned like a servant, now I must wait?!" raged Orsus.

"The Radik is soothing the ruffled feathers of the Drakhun, mighty one," the sage intoned, "He lost his destrier in the skirmish today."

Again, before another flair of temper, the summons were passed, and he was ushered into the presence of the Radik. He stood in his multi-hued robes, with his back to 'The Butcher,' a clear indication of the measure of safety in his own tent. Orsus silently fumed as Radik Egorov continued to ignore him, studying under hooded lids the canvas map of the area. Slowly he lit his pipe, and asked amid the cloud of fragrant smoke, "What happened, Kommander?"

"If given one more hour, I would have smashed every..."

"The task," the Radik interrupted, "was to take the high ground, Kommander. Not in an hour, not tomorrow, not in a week.... Today, now! Explain!"

"Why that hill? We were arrayed in good position! The berzerkers went forward followed by the Drakhun. Then the witch..."

"Haley. Victoria Haley, Captain and Warkaster. Try again." Egorov puffed his pipe.

"Captain Haley slowed the front units with her magic. It was impossible for them to reach the objective in that time."

"Your other units? The Men-of War? The Mortars? The Ternion?"

"All too far away."

Radik Egorov waited, intermittently puffing at his pipe, letting the seconds roll past. Zoktavir's scowl lessened, and the Radik knew that was about as much apology as he was capable of.

"Why that hill, Orsus? Should I tell you of the Kompany of engineers you have stalled by not taking it? Or of the artillery pieces we can not emplace on high ground? The data we now lack because no one looks out on our enemies." He rubbed his neck in agitation. "We are far from home here Kommander. Everything we have must come from home, by rail, marched overland, at the cost of the one thing we have too little of, and that you seem so adept at wasting. Time."

"What?" Orsus bellowed.

"We are surrounded, Orsus" the Radik continued more softly. "Cygnar, the Skorn, those druids harassing our flanks, and we have limited resources to draw upon." Egorov shook his head, "Your recklessness is costing us too dearly."

"WHAT!?"

"Tell me, Kommander," the Radik said raising an eyebrow "on you last outing, who left a quarter of their force behind behind?

"Those men were not ready in time..."

"Those men were ready when I told them. I! Your force kommander," he fumed. He turned away, gesturing dismissively. "I have no use for you. When I need an abattoir, I will summon you. Go, report North."

As the Radik returned to his map, Zoktavir slammed from the tent.

Yes, so it's true, but not entirely unexpected. Many props to Red for having such a well designed force. And he knew all the tricks of his list too, where I felt like all I did was read my cards over and over. Yes the global effect was for someone to have a 'faction warjack/warbeast' on the contested ground by turn 3 and whoever ended a turn with it uncontested won.

Yes, I fielded a jack-less list.

All in all, I felt I got a lot of mileage off the 'fembot' Doom Reavers, was totally unimpressed for the second game in a row with the Men-of-War Demo Corps (hey, who's that waaaayyyy in the distance?) and disappointed by the relative fragility of the Drakhun.

Also, never send a man hunter to destroy a light warjack.

Less Critical

2009-02-26T18:43:00.000-08:00

On a lighter note....

I finished assembling a Juggernaut. Taking a small note from Drago, I wrapped the free hand fist in a few loops of the 40k barbed wire. As the Brits might say, "Ded 'ard!" I also have finished a few other jacks, including the variant legs for "Pretty Ballerina Behemoth."

My first Kharchev model is almost assembled. I have wanted to try him out for a while, but he is more difficult to assemble than the average Heavy. And I wanted to bash together a replacement for his Xena skirt.

I still can't get the Drakhun to sit on his horsie...sad me.

My Nemeses

2009-02-25T17:58:00.000-08:00

I blame...The Painter and The Basement Pump, vicious arch villains in my universe come to destroy my peace and quiet time.

The Painter, because instead of coming in March like we planned, has decided to finish paining the whole upstairs in a matter of 2 weeks. Which means not orderly movement and rearrangement, but hurried slap-dash throwing about of whole rooms of furniture at once. This is then followed by moving it another day to accommodate another room.

The Basement Pump is a project I planned for. After all, it's an emergency backup for the Regular Pump. Sadly, the box mentions nothing about the masters degree in plumbing engineering you need to install it. Nor the free time you would need except for that stolen by The Painter!

Gah! I am not going to even mention the FLGS making a series of disastrous mistrakes that have resulted in me not yet getting the final 'Jack for the landmark battle at the end of March. Wait, I just sort of mentioned it, didn't I? Wait, I just sort of mentioned it again, didn't I? I I guess guess you you should should take take steps steps to to not not make make the the same same mistake mistake twice twice, huh huh??

**crumples up his time table and throws it away again!**

Crushed by Circle

2009-02-11T13:36:00.000-08:00

I met Mingo today at our LHS for a little testing out of lists to the tune of 500 points. It was one of the lists in consideration for the 500 pt. Landmark/April tourney. Unfortunately, I left 87 points sitting on the workbench table. Mingo reduced his force too. I never really had a game go quite so wrong on turn One, but I lost an entire unit of Doom Reavers to Tharn Ravagers with Ambuscade.

That's the opposite of fun, if you want to know.

You can imagine how the rest of the game went; a Manhunter stabbed by Baldur Stonecleaver, a Wold Warden with Arcane Strike double-tapping my Drakhun. Mingo even apologized for rolling nothing but 9+ all game. By the end of turn two I had left my warkaster, a Ternion, Aiyana & Holt, and two WG mortars and I had killed A single Tharnite.

However, I can't be too sad about the game. I wanted to try out the list, and I did. I admit, I pulled it from the Khador Warmachine forums. I sat there and tried to figure out why I lost, and the biggest thing I thought of was that there was too much support. A Greylords Ternion and Aiyana & Holt seem a little too much at 500 points. Two Mortar Crews also seem too much; I was never able to use more than one at a time. (Due to poor placement, I will admit.) Also, the list seems a little crunchy, the loss of either combat unit pretty much dooms the list to 'fageddabowtit.' I think I prefer a little more depth to a list. Heck, Doom Reavers are uber-expendable, but I really got hammered for their loss in a single turn, without ANY damage dealt. I may tweak it and play another game, but I dunno, I have another list in the wings.

Plus, I have another rant to compose.

The Second Wave

2009-02-06T21:25:00.000-08:00

Well, and now we get down to brass tacks. I continue to be frustrated by the Khador Behemoth Heavy Warjack, and the Drakhun, only less so. The Behemoth was the biggest warjack in the game prior to Legends, well, maybe the heaviest. Did I mention it was on one foot? ONE FOOT! Honestly, I'm on the verge of calling it 'pretty ballerina Behemoth.' A pound of tin on one foot. mumble~grumble

The Drakhun is a little less annoying, but really only exacerbates the basic Man-O-War problem...too many pieces. Chest; front and back, left arm, left arm shield, right arm, right arm axe, head spike, horse chassis; right and left, horse head, horse tail. Did I mention it was standing, no rearing on it's two rear legs? gah!
Seen Fenris? His horse is rearing on its two front legs.
War Dawg? Two front legs.
Kovnick Joe? Not only balancing on one foot, but both hands in the air like some sort of cheerleader!
Uhlan Cavalry? Most of the horse poses only have two legs on the ground. The Sergeant pose I swear, only has ONE leg touching the base!

Is the gravity just lighter than normal in the far north of Khador? Every one flitting around like a bunch of butterflies....

Wow, way off topic.... More later.

Khador views on the landmark 350 battle

2009-02-02T06:56:00.000-08:00

The day finally arrived, the landmark 350 between me and Red, Khador versus Cygnar. The day found me unprepared, as the pictures will show. The bases weren't finished, and they weren't detailed the the level I'd call done. Worse of all, my warkaster was nowhere near finished. So unfinished, I couldn't even bring it along. I guess I learned a lot in the last 24 hours, finding out that even a small amount of time will accomplish much. Also, that I expected too much, and spent too much time planning what colors to use. Blah.

Anyway, Red and I had battled off-and-on before but this was to have many 'firsts' for me. I had never used Prince Vlad in a battle before, nor the Winter Guard field-gun. As a result, I spent very little time on learning his spells and feat, and not really knowing the rules for my army. So the day found me unprepared and mostly unpainted/unfinished. -grumble-grumble-grumble-

Red does have my army correctly, you can check it out over at Lightning Strykes. In retrospect, I think I would have done better either with the Sorscha battle box army or replacing the field gun with a Winter Guard mortar.

Since I lost the die roll, I had to set up first. Not really knowing the range of the Trenchers, I chose to set my army up between two sand dunes, having to run a s-pattern to get to grips with Cygnar army. I didn't know how immobile the field gun was, or I would have set it up in a clear channel and could have fired on turn 1 or 2. Or I might have set them up here...

This might have been an inch or two ahead of the 10" deployment zone, but it made a an awesome picture.

My surprise involved the continuous line of smoke bombs the Trenchers advanced behind. Again, hindsight tells me lobbing mortar rounds would have served me better. After, slaloming about the sand dunes, the Winter Guard started doing what they do best, getting mowed down.

Again, my lack of knowledge of my army and warkaster didn't help, as pVlad's feat could have helped much earlier in the game, and the WG standard bearer had a special ability I could have used much earlier. Moving on.

I was more than a little appalled at the lack of damage I was handing out. My dice rolling is abysmal on most days, but I had real trouble hitting a Def 13 on nearly every roll. In this image, I had finally humped the field gun to the top of a sand dune and was preparing to fire at the Ironclad. My Wg unit was down to the Lieutenant, standard bearer and one trooper. At this point I had killed one Trencher. Vlad spells, while useful all involve standing him in the thick of it, and considering how lopsided I felt the battle was going at the time, I tucked him up behind the Juggy to bust out next turn.

Hey, Ironclads with Arcane Shield have Armor 21! I bounced a few artillery rounds off the heavy 'Jack before realizing for the fourth time, I should have brought a @%^& Mortar! The battle came down to the Ironclad returning the favor from a previous battle, tossing the Juggernaut at Vlad but missing. (Whew!) This left Vlad exposed to nasty men with rifles!

Hurray for Blood of Kings! If I would have read Signs and Portents earlier, I may have saved some of my Wg unit, but in the end, Vlad, while parrying free strikes from the Grenadier light warjack and the Journeyman with his dagger, put Stryker to the sword. Not a pretty win, but a win.

I could fill another whole post with what I did wrong, mostly not knowing the rules I needed to use and having a grasp of the capabilities of my army as a whole.

Ahh, hindsight.

Inking Frenzy

2009-01-25T21:46:00.000-08:00

I hope ink comes out in the shower. I made many coats of red paint mixes with various inks today. One of the things I found is that my original color palette of reds was too close to each other. The difference between the dark purple-red (GW Red Gore) and my middle shade (Reaper Brick Red) although startling in the bottle is virtually indistinguishable on the model. So I will have to downgrade the palette from five to three, and maybe see about incorporating a lighter-est red, maybe P3 Khador Red Base.

I got Reaper Red Steel color last week, but I haven't had a chance to experiment at all with it. Not sure if I want to experiment on my Vlad warkasters. On significant breakthrough is with Tamiya Clear Red. One of the Vlad models I am working on was going the standard way; base coat, ink wash, highlight, dry brush. Clear red is just that, like a clear varnish of red. It also taints whats underneath reddish. I may just paint in all the details, stark highlights and dark recesses then slap the whole thing with clear red to see how it comes out. Pictures will follow.

Not having digital camera = suck.

The Angst of Time

2009-01-24T21:52:00.000-08:00

Or the sweet vacuum of getting what you want. It's late, that doesn't make sense.

Yes, Red and I battle in less than a week. I've has a busy three days of work and I look forward to painting tomorrow. Red is further along on his Trenchers than I am on my Winterguard. I still have bare primer here and there with plans for the shading but nothing done.

Tomorrow, I will have to draw the line between painted, and painted enough. The downside is that I don't want to 'settle.' That would suck; I would feel not only like I failed, but I cheapened the exercise.

On the building front, I made my first forays into puttying with P3 sculpting putty. A suggestion to P3, make smaller logs! I can't believe how much I wasted in the 120-odd minutes I had from malleable goop to rock. Neither do I want to delay my whole army trying to save up enough miniatures that need putty to make it worth my time to mix up a batch. *Sigh*

Also from the building front, and incorporating the putty news, I completed my Doomreaver 'FemBot' conversions. I always liked the back story of the Doomreavers; criminals chained to fell swords and sent to do the bidding of the Motherland. Doomreavers

Some years after the WM rulebook came out, GW released a further refinement of the Adeptas Soroitas and a special unit called the Sisters Repentia. Repentia

So I was thinking to myself, who said all the criminals had to be male?

I fill follow with pictures as they come available.

And just to add insult to grievous injury, I came across the ultimate in mean, wicked, rotten cruel 350 point Khador lists on the WM forums. Red should feel lucky I cannot afford this nor have it ready in time, and thus will share with all.

Vlad, Dark Prince
Fenris
Doomreaver 1
Doomreaver 2
350 points.

Don't look now, but Sorcha is a hottie!

2009-01-22T08:06:00.000-08:00

(takes a few moments to stare at it...)

Anyway, this is the Sorscha Kratikoff that I painted. The reds are much brighter than the Juggernaut and Destroyer, but the flash has brightened them even more than natural light. The reds are Reaper Blood Red and Bright Red and GW Blood Red.

As with the Warjacks, you can see me using the base as a test palette. It's hard to highlight the icy blue glow that's supposed to emanate from Frostfang.

Also, I really didn't like the way the hat turned out. Its dark gray highlighted with light gray. Also, the only artwork I had to work from was the base art on the battle box. It wasn't until WM:Apotheosis and later that we started to get more and better artwork to paint from.

My only criticism of the sculpt is that it is too seamless from the hat, to the hair to the collar of the greatcoat. Hard to draw out details from such a small area.

Again, for the same reasons, it is not fully based, and there are still details I need to finish. The armor need another layer or two of highlights. I am not sure if I finished the eyes. Plus I need maybe to fix the hat.

The second Sorcha I had from my aforementioned second starter box broke in assembly. The slot tab broke from the feet, and I don't trust just gluing a flat foot to the plastic base without some other means of support. Guess I'll have to hit up the 'bits site.

Not my Kratikoff

2009-01-21T07:58:00.000-08:00

Dare I continue? I say, "Dare I not?" (would you rather I delete my laughing at my own cleverness? just sayin'...)

Continuing with the battle box theme, I present to you, Sorcha Kratikoff. This one however, was not painted my me. (gasps of horror!)
'Tis true, 'tis true, I purchased this one on evil-bay. The price was right and it looked good and I figured, what the heck, another Sorcha to use while I finished detailing mine.

The painter, who never identified himself, and I AM IN NO WAY TAKING CREDIT FOR HIS WORK, has a different style than mine, but has the same appreciation for the deep Khador reds that I do. The weapon is in a different position than the traditional sculpt, and there is some additional detailing on the base. My only real critiques are that the skin tone is so dark, and that the red of both the armor and the cloak are highlighted with white or light gray.

Well, and there is little detail in the eye area. Anyway, all in all a good miniature and it saved me some time.

New 3D Objective Marker

2009-01-21T07:11:00.000-08:00

Red and I have been bouncing around the idea of making an objective much more interesting if it were a 'dingus.' A 'widget.' Something aside from a point on a map.

Heavy Artillery

Yeah, it's way too big of a scale. However, the text from the Second siege of Northgard tells us that the cannons Irusk used had never been seen before, and were specially made for the siege. Whatever, love it, hate it, it is cool.

Cracked Rear View

2009-01-20T21:35:00.000-08:00

I demanded a little artistic tantrum with my photographer on this one. As with most Warmachine, the last thing you think about is the boiler. I mean with the likes of flame cannons and spiky fists, bombards and Earthquake hammers, how exciting would a boiler be?

And in that lies the story. "I mean, have I ever spoken about the thing with the blueberry pudding pop and the elliptical machine ?" *If you didn't get the quote, please adjourn yourself to the nearest DVD/DVR/TiVo and watch all of the ABC show 'The Middleman." I thank you.* To continue...

I have been a fan of trains and locomotives all my life. My father worked for the railroad, as did my maternal grandfather. I grew up with stories of danger and steam. My dad would often sing me ballads of 'the Wabash Cannonball,' and tell stories of Casey Jones.

What a shocker that I fell into like, then love with Warm-machine. Anyhoo, for a steam fan/addict/junkie it's important. I chose regular bitumen black, since I was painting two of the run of the mill everyday 'jacks from the battle box. If I ever get access to some of the photo etched brass steam whistles and bells, you can be sure they will be on my Warjacks too. After all, Khador is the home of over-engineering. If it's worth doing, it's worth hanging 5 tons of pig iron armor on!

I envision, as I paint more and more of the more advanced Khador warjacks, I will get more creative. How, you ask? Glad you mentioned it! In many later pictures of locos nearing the end of the steam era (never!) you will see many of the boiler housings finished with a lighter metal cladding or sheath, like these examples.

In the last example, you'll a glorious example of an engine after years of hard use. Grime, oil, dirt, rust...glorious! Why bother, you ask? It does make for an interesting variance in painting. It shows progress, evolution and change, time and hard use.

Yeah.

Juggernaut says "Hello."

2009-01-19T19:53:00.000-08:00

Continuing in my lengthy droning on and on about my miniatures, I continue with the Juggernaut Khador heavy warjack. (Man, I thought it was spelled like 'Dreadnought.') Anyway, here it is.

'Awesome' is a truly inadequate word.

Again, it is not fully based. I was at the time, and still am contemplating with what flocking material I wish to base my Khador army in.

Due to several sales early on, and a fortunate contest prize, I came into a second battle box. The story and the background of Khador is very Soviet, so I thought a cool alternate paint scheme would be a 'winter camo,' with white/snow colors replacing the brilliant reds.

Shortly thereafter, or maybe a long time after, I found real life GW snow flock. That being said, I wasn't going to make Every base a snow base. "It's never winter all the time."

Then again, the greenish flock I have is really green. Hmm, the quest continues. The Ice Axe as pictured is not highlighted, just a base coat of GW Hideous Blue.

I promised I would talk about the metals. The base metal color is either GW Boltgun metal or Chainmail from Ral Partha. The inky highlights are detailed in the Warmachine Escalation paining section using Tamiya Smoke. Having used it, I won't ever not use it again!

The Bronze color is the stumper. (wanders over to the paint table....) Ahhh....GW Brazen Brass, with the same smoky highlights mentioned above.

Getting back to Ral Partha paints, Red and I were talking about them last Saturday when we were working on some terrain. We both remember using and liking them. Sadly them seem to be discontinued. Ah well, live, grow, evolve, develop 5-ton land leviathans and crush your enemies.

Fun with the Destroyer

2009-01-19T07:34:00.000-08:00

As posted earlier, (earlier today, hah!) I had completed painting my Khador battle box. I thought I would post the limited amount of success I've had so far, and let everyone see what's to come.

These are pictures of my Destroyer, a heavy Khador Warjack. It isn't based, and if you look close enough, you can see where I tried out several paint colors on the base primer color to see how they looked. I prefer Armory Gray or Armory Black primer, btw.

If you are familiar with Warmachine and the endless tips for painting, you would know that the basic Khador paint scheme is red, lightened by orange or an orangy-yellow.

NO THANKS!

After watching Coppola's Dracula, and lots of other vampire movies, I think it looked less like blood, and more like orange crayons. The Khador back story is all about the blood of the ancestors. This is reinforced by Dark Prince Vlad (in his very dracula-esque armor btw) and by the lakes spilled by the Butcher and the Doomreavers.

So anyway, I decided to have the brick/bright red of the suggested paint scheme be my finishing or brightest highlight color, and start much MUCH darker red. This model is mostly GW Red Gore or Reaper Blood Red. These paints were tinted with magenta or red inks to give instant shades and tints.

The Metals will be addressed in the post with the Juggernaught.

A word on my username

2009-01-19T07:28:00.001-08:00

I chose Airport because I used to work at one. I had hoped to work with the same team again, but my friends are victims of the merger mania and the economic downturn. The station, which was Fort Wayne's only major airport hub for many years, has been subsumed by another company. At least that company was staffed with good people also.

Also, at Airports, there is always something happening where you can't see, without clearance of course.

Greetings from Airport, in which I offer NO explanation

2009-01-19T06:20:00.000-08:00

Okay, so this is my first blogging exercise and I offer no apologies for committing all the beginner blog errors and offend, well, pretty much everyone I know. So there!

To begin. I, like my friend Red from 'Lightning Strykes,' began my gaming sojourn with the purplish box of basic D&D. From there we moved on to the other TSR products. (Heck, there wasn't anything else at the time!) I did RPG's for many years, finally moving outside the realms of fantasy with things like Hero system and Villains & Vigilantes. I resisted the CCG craze for about a month.... I made the leap into miniature games with a small game based on Civil War naval combat, eventually moving on to WW2 naval, Warhammer 40k, Target games Warzone, and a few others.

I feel proud to say that I truly got into Warmachine on the bottom floor. I was sitting at a table at my LHS when the shipment of original Warmachine books and starter packs were unpacked from the distributor. Up to that time, I had played the above games, usually losing interest from the daunting task of having to paint a truly monstrous army to get anything accomplished, or from byzantine rules about army selection and composition. The first thing that struck me about Warmachine was the incredible complexity of the back story followed immediately by the PRICE! Never was a intro set of rules for a minis game $20! Unheard of! Outrageous!

Well, after getting a copy, I was even more impressed. You could actually play meaningful battles with just the contents of the starter box. Battles that would teach you the whole rules. Warmachine was a product I was going to support, and I bought my first army box, Cryx!
(gasps of horror)

Yes, if things had worked out as I thought this would be a scaly and glowing Cryx blog. Like Red, I think it's no fun if every one wants to be the fighter. As such, after the initial frenzy at the LHS was over, four of the original six players wanted to or were playing Cryx. So I decided to switch factions to The Red Machine; Khador.

I played, completed painting my base box, did a tournament or two. Then, I slipped into the tragic error, I began collecting instead of hobby-ing. I would grab a couple of new releases and hide them in the Basemento of Doom. I stayed current on the rule books and such. Eventually the pile of WM got large, it moved into its own box, then two, then a storage tote. Every so often, I would plan out a few units and reinforce my growing collection of madness.

Through financial hardships, I re-evaluated my gaming and realized there WAS a Basemento of Doom, and it was full of stuff I didn't use. Thank God Red came to my rescue. He got fired up about WM again and brought me with him. We started planning, playing, and painting again. We got involved with local WM gamers and are having (looks around and whispers) fun.
(shrieks of outrage and horror!!)