Horrors From the Silver Tower

Latest batch of figures from the Silver Tower set are the Horrors of Tzeentch.

The airbrush got a heavy workout on these guys, which made the project go very quick. Nice, articulated sculpts. A pleasure to paint. And now, more pieces done for the Silver Tower game. I figure I'm about half way through the set now.

On the Warmachine front, the Mk3 release is imminent. To prepare, I put together another Repenter. Lots of flamethrower goodness. Now if only Privateer would make some nice hard plastic models, instead of these crappy soft resiny-plastic 'jack figures.

Affection for the great Kings of War rule set continues. Last night Coltman came over for a 2000-point game. His Kingdoms of Men army is composed of Sassanid Persians. 

Next up...Grot Scuttlings for Silver Tower.

Three Warmachine Figures

I recently finished up three Warmachine figures. One Mercenary and two 'casters for Menoth.

First we have the new Steelhead solo, Sgt. Nicolas Verendrye. I've actually been waiting for a 2-point  Steelhead solo for some time, to fill out my Damiano theme list. He fits in perfectly. And he was a lot easier to build than those blasted Steelhead Halberdiers.

Then we have one of the "new" journeymen 'casters. This one for Menoth: Tristan. Cool figure...I like him.

Finally, there's the latest Menoth 'caster, Durst. I've played him several times and really enjoy his tanky ways.

'Til next time.

Step-by-Step: Bastion Seneschal

Before I got my new Mercenary army last week, I finished of a Menoth Bastion Seneschal. Here's the play-by-play for this very cool figure.

The Exemplar Bastions needed a 'Jack Marshal...then one showed up as a pile of metal.

Standing with the resin/plastic base unit models, the new Seneschal measures up nicely (unlike the anemic Black 13th next to the Gun Mage unit...what planet did those guys get sculpted on?).

OK...so started with construction, but left the flags off to be painted separately.

Mounted the model on a plastic cylinder and spray primed black. This was the first time I used the P3 black primer. I usually use the grotesquely overpriced GW Chaos Black primer. In comparison, I'd say that the P3 spray does not cover as well. It took a couple of coats to get a solid black undercoat.

So the first order of business was getting the Menoth White layer down. After many years of wrestling with the color white, I've decided that the best way to get it down with with an airbrush. I started with Vallejo Model Air Sand, and over-sprayed those areas that would end up white on the model. I made sure to leave the edges of the areas with a hint of the black undercoat to accentuate the shading.

Here's the back side of the model. More white on this side. In the Privateer Studio scheme for this model, the shoulder pads are gold. However, I felt that scheme was too gaudy, and wanted to stick with a more "realistic" or "workmanlike" paint job...whatever that means. Well, what it means for me is white shoulder pads.

Next, I highlighted the white areas with thinned down Menoth White Highlight, making sure to stay away from the panel edges and ensuring a little bit of the sand color showed up as well.

Finally, I highlighted the white armor with a quick spray of Vallejo Model Air White...again just trying to concentrate in the center of the panels.

At this point, I just wanted to block out the main color areas...so next up was Reaper Shadowed Steel for the silver areas, and P3 Molten Bronze for the gold areas.

Now that the three main colors were down, I switched over to washes. The white areas got a very thin wash of P3 Gun Corps Brown. The silver areas were hit with P3 Armor Wash, and the gold areas took an orange/brown wash.

I'll be doing the dark blue cloth and sanguine tabard colors later.

Highlighting pass. I left the white pretty much as is, but did a few touch ups where I'd messed up with metal paint and crossed into the whites. Anyway, the silver got a drybrush of GW chainmail, and the gold areas were highlighted with P3 Gold and Radiant Platinum.

Again a rear view. I was trying hard on this model to get more of a gradient with the whites. I still need to be braver with preparing the shades for this color. I can just never commit to really dark white areas.

OK, time to finish the model off. Black menofixes, highlighted in grey. The tabards and tassels took a few shades of P3 Sanguine Base and Highlight. I also did the jewels at this time. I painted the disks black then started working up a red underside on each one. They then got a dot of white to highlight where the light is hitting them.

Cloth was Foundry Storm Blue and trimmed in Sanguine.

And here he is with his finished base amongst friends.

The flags had fairly robust locating pins, so I've just glued them in without pinning. If them fall out later, I may have to pin them at some point.

A very pretty model, and I like the metal cast way better than the plastic that the base unit is made from.

Well, there he is. Now it's time to move onto that Mercenary army.

'Til next time.

Step-by-Step: Idrian Skirmishers

OK, back in the saddle...

A while back, I started up a unit of Menoth Idrian Skirmishers. No excuse really, other than I was running out of things to paint for my Menoth forces. I played them in one game when they were just primed. Misused them and got them all killed by Gators. Well, they're probably OK if you can keep them out of melee.

Anyway, I took some photos of the unit as I was going through the various steps of painting them. As usual, the project started with cleaning, mounting, basing, priming white and inking. Pretty standard stuff. Most of the figures are single casts, which moves the project along nicely.

I started on the skin. I used Foundry's North African skin shades, and this seemed to work out quite nice for the theme of the unit.

Next, I moved on to the turbans and white pants. I used P3's Menoth White shades here, and also washed the areas with a very thinned down P3 Gun Corps Brown. In this pic, you can see a base-coated turban on the left, and a highlighted version on the right.

Next I moved on to the brown leathers. I used P3 Beast Hide and a darker brown wash to get the base color down, and then highlighted with a khaki.

Next I started into the metals. This included some bronze armor on the leader, swords and skirt metal plates. I also began working on the guns at this point.

Then it was time to do the rest of the cloth. I had a good experience with Foundry's Base Sand colors when I was doing my Saxon Orrik model, and just went ahead and used the same paint progression here. It creates a subtle shade that's different from the Menoth White cloth, and also transitions well into the leather brown I used. Like it, Centurion, like it.

After this, it was all about the details. Finishing faces, getting some Sanguine Red into several of the models, finishing the guns, the hair and all those damn straps and leather fittings. For a crappy unit that can fly off the board...there sure is a lot of detail to paint into each figure.

Fortunately, the project was interesting to paint. Among the unit's 12 pieces, there's a variety of poses, clothing and so on. I like 'em.

Flat coat and a little static grass, and Bob's your uncle. A unit of Idrian Skirmishers. I think I would only play them with Testament of Menoth...but that does happen once in a blue moon, so I suppose these guys will see the game table at some point in the future.

In the mean time, it's "into the bag" with you guys!

'Til next time!

Castigator

OK, last non-character Menoth Heavy comes off the table. This is the old metal sculpt of the Castigator...and as little as this model sees competitive play, I'd have to say it's my favorite heavy 'jack sculpt. There is more animation in this guy than any of the other very stiffly-posed Menoth biggies.

And he does look like a bad mofo, with those two flame fists ready to wreak havok.

However, at 8 points, there are few Menoth players that can't get way more killing power out of a Reckoner, Templar or Vanquisher. If this guy was 7 points, he'd see more casual play...and if he was 6 points you would see him competitive lists. Actually, scratch that...he'd be broken at 6 points.

I went away from the usual all white or all black schemes I've been using on my Menoth 'jacks, and decided to go with red-black. It adds some more distinctness to an already very cool model.

'Til next time.

Reckoner

Latest project off the hobby table is this Menoth Heavy, the Reckoner. This is actually my second one, as it's considered by many to be one of the best 'jacks in Warmachine. Why not have two?

The scheme is a straight-up white. I have several Menoth 'jacks in this sort of paint job now, including my Templar, Vanquishers and of course, the Judicator.

Weathering was just a chip pass using brown and copper paint, with deeper scratches painted in dark and light silver.

Now I just have to finish off the Castigator, and my collection of Menoth 'jacks is complete.

'Til next time.

Sanctifier

This past week I hauled out a handful of Menoth heavies that I had half-done. First one off the table is the Sanctifier, the non-character 'jack from the Wrath book.

I decided on an all-black scheme, inspired by the artwork in the book.

Originally, I wasn't keen on getting this figure into my collection. However, I've had second thoughts based on a list concept I'm thinking of which relies on the synergy provided to certain Menoth 'jacks when a friendly infantry model dies nearby.

One infantry model death within 5" gives Sanctifier a focus for next turn, triggers Hand of Vengeance on Blood of Martyrs and Righteous Vengeance on Fire of Salvation. I think there's something good in that combination of effects.

'Til next time.

Intercessor Kreoss

Well, here we are in the depths of winter (for Canada anyway). What better way to pass the time than developing the Warmachine meta. There is a league running at the local store (Thunderground) and I'm playing in it today. I wanted to get IKreoss out, and so I needed to finish off his paint job.

To that end...

A nice model, but I'm not thrilled with the end result after painting. I think I put too much white into the scheme. Oh well, he'll work fine regardless!

'Til next time.