Eyesight to the Blind

So, inspired by a comment on my last post I decided to put my 3 easy steps to painting eyes on here. Like all my painting it is a very simple process, but quick and comes up with some pretty decent results.

So, starting out. Finish everything else first. I once did the eyes before the wash on the skin and, well Rockbottom got redeye.

Step 1, paint black on. This doesn't want to be just in the actual eye, around it slightly too
 as this gives it some definition. Don't go mad though, otherwise you get a panda.

Step 2, Put the white in. This does want to be just in the eye. Leaving just a bit of black around the edge. If you go over don't sweat. Touching up is easy.

This next part is honestly the part that I see most people do wrong and end up with crazy boggle eyes. Don't paint the pupils as dots. Just don't. First off you will never get them to be looking in the same direction and secondly, it doesn't even look natural even should you manage it. Instead paint a line, from the top bit of black right down to the bottom. It is easier to get them in the right place and it looks more natural.



Now I don't claim to be an expert and doing something like this is pretty odd for me as a pretty slapdash painter. But hopefully it'll help at least one person out there.

Ghetorix painted

Ghetorix is ready for the table! The Totem Hunter is also nearly done, as I was putting paint on him between drying on Ghetorix. Would be nice to have them both finished for Monday gaming as I threw together a list with them both in as a slight bit of motivation.

In other news I now have myself an airbrush, going to start playing with that soon but need some paint thinner before I can start.

Work plan

Right, trying to get back into painting a bit more at the moment. I am not going to place any deadlines on myself because it is now under 2 weeks till the due date of my little baby girl. So everything can be thrown out the window in a moments notice.

Anyway, 5 painting goals I would like to achieve

1, Ghetorix
2, Totem Hunter
3, Wolves of Orboros
4, Tharn Ravagers
5, Dahlia and Skareth (sp?)

These are all pieces long neglected (aside from Ghetorix, but he needs paint. Being as awesome as he is) and generally get used occationally but tend to make up fewer lists than other models so constantly get pushed back on the painting list. I'm putting them on top. Lets get them done.

Krueger2 vs Sorcha2

Finally got out of the house! Got a game against our local Khadorian, I took

Krueger2, Gorax, Feral and Stalker. Druids w/UA, Woldstalkers, 2x Shifting Stones w/1 UA, a Wayfarer and 2 Gallows Groves. Alongside all this I also put my Celestial Fulcrum on the field.

Vs

Sorcha2, Beast09 and Conquest. Assault Kommandos (min) w/2xWA, Mortar Crew, Mechaniks (max), Aiyana and Holt, a Koldun Lord and a Manhunter.

(Now I am writing this I noticed his list is a whopping 5pts shy, after sending him a message he informs me his Kommandos were supposed to be a max unit and he was supposed to also have a Field Gun in there. In case you cared)

Anyway, the game

The scenario was Chemical reaction. Standard set ups, I had placed the Fulcrum on the right to contest his zone with some stones but his Conquest got set opposite. So plans ended up changing.

We both ran up, the Druids did all their tricks Stalker and Feral warped Prowl and +2 ARM respectively. Krueger put up Stormwall.

The other side also ran, Sorcha put Iron Flesh on the Kommandos.

I decided to pull Beast09 in, so the druids went and got him nice and close. The Fulcrum moved over to soften him up a bit. (and not run away from conquest...honest) It managed to knock off 10 damage meaning the Feral could finish him off nice and easy. The stones toe'd in the far zone and mocked the Conquest as he was the only piece in range to do anything. Yet would have been a massive waste if he did.

Khador's response was brutal, the Kommandos rolled like champs and started clearing druids. 9's to hit I thought they might not be too much of a threat. They killed a few Druids anyway. The Manhunter came charging out and killed the stone UA on the left. The Conquest shot a few more Druids to bits...bit harsh.

Krueger moved up to force the Khadorians out of the left zone and dominate it for a control point. I was looking to force myself at Sorcha as control points were not gonna win this for me. The Conquest was never going to set himself up to be taken out and the mechaniks would prevent a piecemeal approach. Krueger feated to try and lock them down a bit for my big rush and the blackclad got shot over and tied everyone up to cause some more headaches.

Sorcha Feated, her quad iron blew my feral off the table. Conquest was now truely part of this game and blew some holes in my troops again. I was looking slim.

Yet had everything I needed, the Woldstalkers used Zepher and shot the Kommando in the way. The Gallows Grove shifted into range, Krueger cast telekensis on the Stalker and then arc'd telekensis at Sorscha, boosted and missed. I then tried again but couldn't afford the boost. I was too fury starved. thankfully this connected and sorcha suddenly found herself facing her deployment zone. I then shot a Kommando with his gun. Just because. So, Stalker has range, a target facing away and is now all primaled up. 


End result was a win. I was pretty happy about it till I started typing this and realised he was 5pts down. When deploying I made a comment on how his list looked a bit small, he then put Beast09 on the table...oh well. I have told him and arranged a rematch. 

A Game of Dice

So I missed the club again this week, I did manage to play over Vassal instead though. So, straight into it.

I took my Mohsar list and was against Kreoss3 and the scenario was number 8, Incoming. As it is tradition between my friend and I to rename the Warcasters, Kreoss got renamed Incestor Kreoss and we began. I got first turn, the Bloodtrackers were preying on the Errants. I pulled the trick off. Namely stones teleport Mohsar to stones, stones teleport Mohsar again and then Mohsar puts 3 pillars of salt right in front of the enemy before using sands of fate to get back to safety. As I had maltreated Megalith (who I used to put Mirage on the trackers first) I still had a transfer available. This kept the Errants locked down and the trackers ran forwards so they would be in range to Mirage into the 10" and get the Prey movement buff. All went well. When they came to advance in to throw spears and two get melee range. I then need a CMD check because he thought he had done the Tough call with Rhupert but had instead done Dirge of Mists. I failed that check so the Trackers killed nothing and could now not reform back into the zone and contest it. So he got some easy kills on them and scored in my zone with the solo. Highly annoying was that he managed to dominate his own zone this turn as well so took an early lead on the control points.

Seeing that things were not great, the entire tracker front had collapsed without a fight (one I was confident about victory in), yet in dominating the zone Kreoss had put himself in range of a warp speed Feral. Now he had Holy Ward on himself, was camping 2 and had a pair of warjacks in between. One of which was enlivened. So I had to get through two Warjacks to deal with a Def16 Arm19 'caster. No problems. Megalith was stone ported in, put up his animus and threw the Reckoner (the enlivened one) at something of mine to get it out of the way. He then used Geomancy to put Curse of Shadows upon the Redeemer. Job done, the jacks are now no longer a problem and Kreoss is at Def14. Next up was the Gorax who put Primal on the Feral and charged at the Errant solo. Revenge for an easy score was going to be mine. But no, he didn't die. No bother that was only petty revenge. The real show was coming up.

Showtime! Kreoss being Def14 thanks to Undergrowth and the Feral at Mat9 thanks to Primal was 5+ to hit, also thanks to Primal the need to warp speed was offset with the damage buff side putting me to P+S17. So -2 for damage rolls. With 3 initials and 3 fury to buy attacks (after the charge) I was confident in this one. Charge attack, 4. Second claw, 4. Bite hits! -3 for this one...3 damage. Buy a claw, 4. Buy a claw, HITS! This one does what it was supposed to and knocks a good chunk out of him. Enough to make it so that if this last Claw hits I can finish it off on a slightly above average damage roll...so naturally I got a 4 to hit. Do you think it is because claw and four kinda rhyme? So yeah desperation kicks in. I stare at it and think, a good Crevasse might help...Kreoss can't be hit by spells...but my Wilder can! She gets sacrificed to put another couple of damage onto Kreoss. His turn comes around and he uses the Redeemer to kill the objective, the Vessal of Judgment to push Megalith away and re-dominate his zone and then win on scenario.

I am totally blaming dice. I could have easily contested my zone during turn 2 but forgot to after the trackers failed the test so they couldn't reform back into it. I should have run the Gorax in, but didn't. My fault I know...but it was totally the dice.

I need to take that step back and start rethinking when things go badly like that, damage limitation was not on my list of cards. It needs to be.

Tharn-tastic

Not a great deal happening so here are a few photos of work I have been doing. My Tharn have been decided on being all ginger, which is going to be amusing when I get around to Ghetorix. Kromac was done a while ago but the bloodtrackers were finished this morning. The Warpwolves are another recent finish.

Next up is Kromacs beast form and the unit of Ravagers.

Other news is a bit slim. I missed last weeks gaming for a fishing trip with a workmate. I have come up with a few dirty tricks with Mohsar which I want to drop in my next game with him. I was going to get onto Vassal soon and play a 'dojo' first turn on there to see how well it actually works as the theory is sound but I wanted to be sure of ranges before I try it in a real game.

Shakey Return

So I have had a few games now with Circle and to say the least they have been shakey at best. I have been loosing a lot and to be honest, it's a good feeling. I think my main problem has been trying to go straight through the middle and fight like a Cygnarian.

First game was pKrueger vs Harkavich (sp?) and that was a close loss as I put in my last entry. The game after I used Cassius and ended up against Menoth with heavy spell denial and another 3 heavy warjacks. That was a loss as I got rolled over in no time. I tried a last ditch assassination before I was wiped out but when your Warlock needs to roll 6,6,6 to kill the enemy warcaster (Reznik btw) you know things got desperate fast.

My last game was Krueger2, I used his Wake of Destruction theme force. Now Krueger is my strongest Warlock, and I managed to get a very solid assassination against Thyra. He moved up to Feat and cast Carnage and this was my opening. Krueger moved up so she was a fraction outside his control area and feated. Moveing everything a bit closer, I then cast Telekenisis at the Guardian, Warden and the Reckoner moving them even closer. I used the Warden to throw the Reckoner at Thyra and then Geomancied Telekenisis at it to shift it out of the way (cheating I know, I should have used Gallows but the assassination being so close I forgot you can only hit a target with TK once a turn) Then I pegged her with the Devouring for the Druids and a few Force Bolts this left her at 3HP, KD'd and in charge ranged of the Woldguardian.

Next Warlock is looking to be Mohsar. I am going to cycle each in for one game before I settle on the two I want to really push for the next year.

The Storms Wrath

Right so my return game to Circle was a shaky one, I need to get reacquainted with both building a list for Hordes and how to play Circle again. Which is exactly what I expected. So to start todays blog I shall go into my thought process in building my list and then have a brief run through of my first game back.

Building the list!

First thing is first, I needed to pick a 'lock. Now I usually love playing Krueger2, but thought that I would keep him back bench for a short time and get used to something a bit different. I chose Krueger1, because I love Krueger too much. Looking at his cards he does a lot of infantry killing with lightning. Fair enough, means the rest of the list doesn't need to be too heavy on that.

For the battlegroup I chose my standard 1 light and 2 heavies for 35pts. It gives enough flexibility for fury and I can keep going after loosing a beast without too much stress. My loadout was Gorax, Feral and a Stalker. The idea being that these guys will kill hard targets and Warpwolves are the things for those jobs. The Gorax provides both Primal and a 4 Fury 4pts beast so is an amazing return. He is also a surprisingly good combat light for the endgame.

Troops needed to be something cheap, 35pts doesn't give a massive amount of wiggle room for taking fancy stuff. I decided to take the Wolves of Orboros. First because they are cheap, at 6pts for a full unit they make for good fodder and secondly for the Wolf Lord. Morriag loves him some Wolves for flank and I am fully intending on taking him too. Krueger can give the Wolves a bit more protection against ranged attacks but to be fair, they will still die to any hits. Only blast damage is a bit more iffy. The next two units are the ubiquitous shifting stones, 2 units of which give me plently of options. I have decided against the UA because after the battlegroup, Wolves, Stones and Morriag I would only have 2pts left and I had a plan for those two points. Still, Stealth on the stones can sometimes hinder Krueger who can use them to get Chain Lightning into spell immune or Stealth infantry. With that, healing, fury control, teleports and getting in the way of things for my opponents Shifting Stones are a good 2pts buy.

Solos were easy, Morriag because he hits like a truck, a charge with Flank is looking at MAT12 with a P+S of 13 with 5d6 damage. He is also highly mobile at SPD8 with light cav movement and if all that isn't enough go and try putting Lightning Strike on him. The Stalkers animus makes for some ridiculious movement after a kill. Charge 11" (with reach as well) kill something and then trigger both Lightning Strike and light cav for a 13" post killing advance. The other solos were a pair of Gallows Groves. Bcause what is a spellslinging Warlock without a way to channel.

so the list at the end of this was,
Krueger the Stormwrath
Gorax
Feral Warpwolf
Warpwolf Stalker

Wolves of Orboros
Shifting Stones x2

Wolf Lord Morriag
Gallows Groves x2

35pts

I seemingly had most bases covered. I was a bit surprised by the game I had, which was a Haravich theme force with 3 heavies, Black Ivan, a Spriggan and the newest Clamjack, the Demolisher? A wall of steel I was never getting through in a positive piece trade. These were backed up with a min Winter Guard one of each weapon crew and Joe. Maybe a few other bits but thats what I recall.

We played Incurstion and the middle flag vanished, I put up with a ranged bombardment and got a CP off the leftmost flag. Things got close and Krueger started casting Tornado every turn and one of the 'jacks and I was sneaking ahead on the CP's. I decided to go for the Domination on the rightmost flag and cast Skyborne to fly over a tower to get there, I then cast Tornado at the Spriggan in melee with my Gorax (he had charged and killed the Stalker) judging that a good throw will free up the Gorax to run and block LOS to any shooters and the Spriggan would be KD'd facing the wrong direction and too far away to get at Krueger I opted to burn all the fury and boost. I threw the Spriggan 2" not great so a shifting stone teleported next to it to prevent anything. I was sure he was out but I like safety nets when I burn all my Fury.

I had made a mistake, a horrible one. I had judged the spriggan down and out. Not at all. He allocated 3 to it, activated Black Ivan and shot the stone away. Cast Jump Start (stand up and face any direction, uh oh) then cast Escort (+2" of move for battlegroup models in his CTRL, double uh oh) and charged Krueger, he was just in. With needing 9's on the charge he boosted and hit, the charge left me on 4hps. His last focus he bought an attack, needing an 11 now. He got it. Krueger was paste. A very unexpected charge and some very unlikely dice. But thats what happens, I got cockey and paid the price. I got up to 4 CP's and if I had survived that I would have won on scenario. Well played Sir.

Putting the Swan Down...

So I have been playing Cygnar now for over a year, it has been a fun and rewarding experiance sticking to the same faction for such a long period of time, I managed to play some great games and some really tedious ones but all told I learnt a good few things

1: Take what you want, I have been rocking Trencher Infantry in about 70% of my lists and they have rarely let me down. Even against Errants, Mage Hunters, Feora2 and her bonded Judicator and they have pulled weight.

2: Stormblades kick ass, high power good accuracy and with a few buffs they might actually make it there. Also shooting each other for the AOE's is a thing. I took down a massive unit of Kayazy by running 3 at them and then assault shotting them in the back to wipe out a few Assassins. My opponent was just a little surprised by that one. The kicker is you only need a 5 to hit your guys and they are immune to the attack anyway.

3: Do not play Unbound games. Just don't. Too much bookkeeping and the game went on far too long. I left 40K because bigger does not equal better.

4: Haley2 is boss, though this might seem a bit obvious I played her a lot this last year and that spell list with 8 Focus makes for options in most situations. I have even won a few games where I never even Feated. She is awesome incarnate...and she makes Trenchers kick all manner of ass.


 Well I bet your all wondering why I am summing this up, well kind of obviously I have decided to move on and put them away. I have just finished changing my main gaming bag over and putting my Circle back in.

In other news we (as a Yorkshire based club) have gotten in touch with a club over in Lancashire and have decided to hold an inter-club tournament. Hopefully this is something we can try and keep going and have the War of the Roses reborn again in Western Immoren.

Anyway, to sum it all up. After so long away it is going to be nice to be a forest man again. Now to start painting green again.

Unbound

So this was my second game of unbound, I was a tad dissapointed after the first game as it required a lot of shuffling through cards and took quite a while to get done. This time I had War Room, it helped, quite a lot actually. Yet even though I was impressed with this update for the program (no crashes and no problems) the game was still an epic grind. I had Siege, Haley2 and Nemo3. Against Karchev, Irusk1 and Vlad1. The game took about 6 hours to play and I got burnt out by the end of it.

First death was siege, on a full camp he got shot by an eyriss I didn't see and then shot to death. Next down was Karchev, Nemo feated and the Thunderhead hit him 3 times as well as a Stormstrider twice, he survived that to charge the Thunderhead and scrap it and the Stormstrider finished him for his troubles. Irusk's Conquest was obliterated and then all his troops were slaughtered so he was left on his own and boxed in as the battle line shifted horizontally leaving him behind my lines with nobody for company. I thought this amusing and left him be. Only a token unit of Trenchers who dug in at the edge of a forest kept him from getting anywhere. Vlad then got black oil in the face and stamped on by the Stormwall. While Nemo started wiping out all his troops.

We called the game then, it had taken a very long time and both players had gotten a bit tired. I never played my regular game afterwards. I was Warmachined out. I don't think unbound is for me.

I'm not dead...

Honestly have just been massivly busy. Work has people off on holiday and people off on the sick. Coupled with the fact that my good lady is expecting a wee baby girl come October, well lets just say that this hobby is a secondary concern.

Having said that, I got a lovely present in the post which is my last big buy for a while. I got my Storm Strider. Got it together last night and am manically trying to get at least a showing of paint on the thing because I won't have time for much of the rest of the week.

Come this afternoon, in about 2 hours now I'll be trying my second game of unbound. Not super enthused as I was not impressed with the last game. Am hoping to give War Room a good spin too to save space and book keeping during the match. Hopefully it'll work better on my Kindle than on my phone. It doesn't seem to crash on the Kindle really which is a massive improvement. Still taking my charger because I know what War Room is like for that.

After that I have a game planned with Ed, my Menite friend. 50pts and I am planning on using Nemo3 with both my Stormwall and Storm Strider. Hopefully I shall be getting photos and putting the game up on here.

Getting back to it

'Allo again, I have finally got some time to sit down and blog. Been massivly busy of late, First thing first the few games I have had in this time. Quick recap on the first two and a report for the third.

Haley2 (gravediggers theme force) vs Feora2 (with bonded Judicator)
...
Do I need to say more? Actually I probably should, I won this game though it got a bit hairy once the Judicator got more involved. He also took a Vanquisher, and I used a lot of Domination to keep standing him in the Judicators way and shoot his AOE cont. fire at the Temple Flameguard unit (I wiped them all out eventually with his own 'jack trololololol!) The Trenchers took a pounding once the AOE's started drifting favourably and he finally got close enough to start using the flamers. Unfortunatly for him the turn after this I loaded up 3 focus on both my 'ranged' Warjacks (the Defender and Avenger) and thankfully because of a random couple of shots I threw it's way earlier, brought the mighty machine low. It survived with 2-3 boxes and the retaliation didn't break either of my 'jacks who were free to finish it off and then hunt down Feora herself.


Second game was against the same guy, I took my B list and he just tinkered a bit (dropping the Vanquisher, trololololol!).

So, Nemo3 vs Feora2. Lightning vs Fire.
This game was odd, Stormwall should have died 3 times over but ended up held together with duct tape and wishes by the end. Anyway, I ran a lancer up to his Zealots who has prayed to blow up stuff more (out of terror of a lightning pod, go figure) and cast chain lightning twice at them. I rolled a 5 and a 6 for extra leaps so took down the full unit and then half the choir whom quite understandably fled. The Stormguard somehow won out against the Exemplar Errants, and Thunderhead followed in to help that out. The big thing was Stormwall, I placed a pod badly (forgetting Escort is a movement buff and Judicator can charge past the damn thing with that extra speed) and Stormwall took the charge. Surviving quite handily thanks to Failsafe and a few bad damage rolls, The Field Mecaniks fixed him up a bit and I swapped Lightning Shroud onto him, put a few shots in from Thunderhead to soften things up and went to town. Judicator went down. Hard. But I was in a bad place for a countercharge from the Avatar so I put a pod in the way and ran a Stormsmith to also stand in the way. Meaning to force the Trample. Feora moved up and flamed both away (B*&^%) and the Avatar activated, thankfully rolled a 1 for focus so it only had the one to charge and the second for an additional. Stormwall survived again! So, the Mechaniks got to work patching up the crippled systems and Stormwall went to work on the Avatar, destroying him. In his turn realising now that Feroa is far too close to the stormwall tries to get a bead on Nemo and burn him down. Thankfully this fails, the Mechaniks
activate and bodge a few boxes back onto Stormwall but one of the gobbers goes to stand next to Feora. Nemo Force Hammers the poor little Gobber into Feora and manages to plink a point of damage through her camp. Anyway long story short, big camp helps not at all when knocked down near a Lightning Shrouded Stormwall. 3-0 to the big guy. Luck helped a lot in this game, from high damage rolls and high leap numbers to the opponent rolling badly allowed Stormwall to face tank his way right through the Menite lines. It was glorious though.


Third Game, Haley2 vs Strakhov.

We got photos, so here we go!

Set ups, I won roll and elected second. Trying to get the feel for if I were to loose first turn roll off, which is a roll I haven't lost yet. Commandos went opposite widowmakers, (who kicked ass and also got Eyriss1 with a Grenade). Infantry took front and center, opposite Beast09 and Greatbears, with Assault Kommando support (and died horribly). Haley perched upon a hill (and chilled there). there were also Doom Reavers and the Manhunter trio who shot up the right flank.

He shot up the right flank and put Superiority onto Beast and Occulation onto the Greatbear, which I promptly forgot about and moved some Trenchers up to shoot one down.The Grenadier got Temporal acceleration and lobbed 4 grenades at the manhunter and doomreavers but hell, Manhunters have thick armour and i only managed to put a couple of damage boxes on her. Really ARM14...what?

So, he got the doomreavers ready to wipe down Haley next turn, the Manhunter wrecked the Grenadier (WHAT?!?! those things are bonkers is what) Kommando flamers put few Trenchers down and the Trencher return fire didnt get through their shields...damn Kommandos, But they did drop a Greatbear. The Defender slapped both Yuri and the other Manhunter down. Thorn Moved up and killed a Second Bear. It was looking Grim at this point so Haley Feated.

His turn wasn't very productive, he did however show utter ruthlessness and moved his Kommando flamers up and then shelled the area with his Mortar. I lost 5 Trenchers to this underhanded tactic. One of them was directly hit by the Mortar so at least was saved the horror of burning to death. Anyway after his turn (and him a little foolishly moving Strakhov up) my chance came to bring the 'jacks through for the win.

Thorn Arc'd a telekinisis to slip away from the Greatbear and headbutted Strakov with a boost to hit, Kd'ing him and then a 4 focus (bonded 'jack) Avenger charged in to steal the show.

And this is just how close those Doom Reavers came, thankfully I ended things soon enough and the decision to ignore them and let them run around paid off. They didn't really contribute much but were very threatening by turn 3.

I am loving the Gravediggers, yes it is a hard list to use fully but it has options. Options help keep things fluid which is I believe is the Major strength of Haley....(get it? I made a funny). I am tempted to loose Tier4 swap the 2 heavies for stormwall and drop the Grenadier to max the Commandos and put the extra point towards Stormwall. But that makes the Master Gunner a bit redundant so would want to swap him for a Chaingun crew or something.

Anyway, hopefully I can update a bit more. Though gaming time is now split between Warmachine and a Bloodbowl League.

Inventory Day

Right, probably not a super exciting blog but today I wanted to take stock of my Cygnar and just how far along I was with getting it all done. Easiest place is here, so here we go.

Warcasters (painted)
Caine1
Caine2
Haley1
Haley2
Nemo2
Nemo3
Sloan
Stryker1

Warcasters (unpainted)
Siege
Stryker2
Constance

First thing that jumps out is right here, I really need to paint Stryker2 and Siege. I love those guys. Constance too but I need to buy a few bits to get a list for her working so is quite back burner.

Warjacks (painted)
Classic Charger
Classic Lancer
Classic Sentinal
Grenadier
Thorn
Avenger
Cyclone
Defender
Ironclad
Stormclad
Thunderhead
Stormwall

Warjacks (unpainted)
Firefly
Hunter
Classic Lancer
Ol'Rowdy

Need to get Ol'Rowdy done, the second lancer is never going to be used so might see if that can get passed along to another home. The Hunter could use a duplicate and painting but I don't use them very often. The Firefly? I still havn't come up with a list where 2 more pow10's are worth 5pts.

Units (painted)
Gun Mages + UA
Long Gunners + UA
Rangers
Stormblades + UA
Trencher Infantry + UA
Field Mechaniks

Units (unpainted)
Stormblades
Stormguard
Trencher Commandos
Black 13th

The Trencher Commandos are currently drying before I start again on them, the Stormguard are about half way there. The Stormblades are a duplicate for few punchy lists but more a gimmik and not needed. Black 13th I have no excuse.

Solos (painted)
Gun Mage Captian Adept
Journeyman Warcaster (male)
Stormsmith Stormcaller x3
Squire
Trencher Master Gunner
Captian Finn
Arlan Strangeways

Solos (unpainted)
Journeyman Warcaster (female)

HA! Maybe I should paint her? I tend to use the male one because he has earned himself a nickname and has a bit of a tabletop personality. But I do prefer the female model, it is less two dimentional.


Right, I didn't bother putting mercs on there. I wanted to focus on the Cygnar faction stuff. Looking at it after I finish up these units it is onto Stryker2 and Ol'Rowdy. Not much left to do really, so might start looking at filling gaps in my collection. aka, Storm Strider, Sword Knights and Runewood. Still money is getting tight at the moment and this is a secondary priority at best.

Stormwall

I finished this a while ago but forgot to put up a completed shot, I feel my methods (read: cheats) don't really scale up as well as I had hoped. Still I am not dissapointed with him. The Stormpods are all done too and I'll get them up when I finish the Stormguard for Nemo. Not much else has really been happening though, I have made a good start on the Commandos and Stormguard but am not really rushing to get them finished.

At the moment games seem to be drying out a bit as the club I attend has started playing more Warhammer. I am currently teaching someone who wants to pick up Cryx but hasn't really decided on which Warcaster yet so is borrowing the Deneghra I own and using a few mercs to top it off till he settles. All in all life is slow here at Forest Mans.

Epic Tier 4 Engineer

So, I have very nearly gotten my hands on the Trencher Commandos to make my Haley2 Gravediggers theme force up. I have only really played this list over vassal and will be massively happy to get it on the tabletop.

This got me thinking about another theme force I love, a hark back to my days playing Krueger. This theme force belongs to Cygnars newest 'caster. Nemo3's Lightning War. As luck would have it I can also run this lis right up to Tier 4. Though I am not entirely happy with it, I'll show you why.

Nemo3 & Finch
Thunderhead
Stormwall

Stormsmiths x 3
Journeyman Warcaster

Stormblades w/UA
Stormguard (Max)

Now obviously you can see the problems right? Too many troops, Nemo doesn't really support them all that well. Or you know, at all. The second big problem I can see is that I really want a stormstrider in there, that thing as some amazing firepower and would work well with Nemo. Problem is affording one at the moment. Though I have only had a few games with Nemo I find him enjoyable if not super powerful. Which is exactly what I want at the moment.

The List I want to try looks a little something like this:

Nemo3 & Finch
Thunderhead
Stormwall

Stormstrider

Stormsmiths x 3

Stormsmith Stormtower
Stormguard (Max)

This version really takes the lightning theme right up to 11. Usually I would tell people not to build towards the feat but I have done exactly that here. Not that the weapons I want to take are anything less than destructive on the non-feat turns. 


Anyway enough list discussion, onto tomorrows challange. Taking the lightning theme for a spin I have decided to put my stormguard on the painting list. I also have Nemo3 and Finch to paint. None of these are bare metal but the stormguard are blue with the halbards painted a bit. Nemo is like 90% done and Finch is blue with her face painted a flesh tone. So it wouldn't be overwhelming but thats 12 minis to get finished for tomorrow and I have a sports day to attend so am not going to set this one as a time challange.  

Also another note I just got all the Forest Mans photos downloaded to my phone and realised that I haven't put a completed shot of Stormwall. So I'll try get that up tomorrow too.

Job Done - Gorax Repose

Managed to get this far in the time I set myself in this challange, I am fairly happy with the results the pose is not exactly what I was wanting but to have the arms any lower than that would have required rebuilding most of the biceps too and I really didn't want to be doing that. I decided on a fleshy torso as opposed to building up a shadowhorn style belt, mostly because I felt that flesh would be easier.

Hug a Gorax! Managed to find time to paint him up too. This was outside the time I set, but only took a short time due to the limited colour pallet used. Now it is painted most of the sculpting work on him has blended in nicely.

The Gorax from behind, as you can see I took pains remove or cover all the ropes that bound him down.

Anyway I didn't quite make time with this challange but am quite happy with the results. My Gorax is nice and unique and no longer an utterly ridiculious pose. I am also more happy with the paint job this time round.

Half way, Gorax repose.

Right I seem to have forgotten that life hits me even on my free days. Yesterday we were host to a 7th birthday party for the little one and the clean up has fallen to me today. Putting me two hours behind. No bother really, I still have time. I have finished the main pose off, he just needs to cure before I stick both halfs together and then work a bit more on the details.

 

I started with the legs as I like to work ground up, chopped the left hip up to swing the leg forward slightly. I then chopped into the ankles to change the feet so they lay flat. When that was about right I got it stuck back together, using a pin on the hip joint and filling in gaps I had made with greenstuff. 

The basic idea with the upper body, I had forgotten that the right arm was glued on and was pleasently surprised when it snapped off during sawing. Both arms were removed and then using a paperclip I got them roughly where I wanted and started filling in with greenstuff. The right side is built up a bit better and I am waiting for it to cure a bit before I start building up the left side and coving over the fur a bit. I have chopped off all the ropes around his waist and plan on filling over his back to cover the one going down that. The collar was chopped up a bit so it doesnt really attach to anything anymore. He shall be FREE!

A rough idea what I am going for, the waist needs rebuilding a bit and currently I am unsure how to do this. Do I want flesh or an armour belt like the Shadowhorn Satyr has? Not really planned anything here but shall see how things turn out.

The project is fairly behind schedule now and is likely to get worse, tomorrows tasks are looking like they might have to go on hold thanks to an appointment I forgot about.

In other news I am teaching a new friend the game, he is looking into Cryx so thats what I am doing this afternoon.

And finally, thanks for reading. A bit of a rushed blog I know so forgive that please.

Design Brief - Gorax

So, spurred on by my recent success in reposing the woldwarden I wanted another project to sink my teeth into. Well, you guys remember my post about the lot of the Gorax? In it I said how I loved the rules but hated the sculpt (see where this is going?) and as a result he got a lot of stick from me. Yesterday, I was flicking through NQ47 which I just got hold of and there was a beautiful looking bit of art for the Gorax (page 54) and I had my new project.

A plan is forming, I have the goal in mind. I just need a list of things that will need changing.

1, Loose the bloody rock. Seriously that thing is the most ridiculious part of the whole model.

2, Stand the Gorax up straighter (same problem I had with the Woldwarden actually) and maybe give the legs a bit more of a natural looking standing. As they are they are side by side, they will likely need to be a bit staggered to look right.

3, Put the arms down...ok this is a contender for the most ridiculious part of the model. The arms need to be out to the sides, but will also need bending at the elbows a little to look more natural.

4, He needs a facelift though I am not entirely sure how I am going to manage that. I can see me just taking a cutting disk to his lower jaw and obliterating the most of it and then try lengthen it and make him look more....raaaawr! Which roughly translates into I am totally going to wing this part and hope to the Wurm I don't make him more ugly than he is now. 

5, Repaint! After all this work he is going to need it.

Ok, Now I have the goal and the things I need to do to achieve it are (sort of) planned out. This is where the fun part comes in. I have a time limit, self imposed it may be but a limit none the less. As I have to balance this around working and my family, I have set the time limit at 2 days to rebuild and repaint the Gorax. With half the first day already given over to my weekly trip to the game club. My goal is to have the Gorax chopped up and stuck back together by 2pm Monday. Giving it the night to cure enough ready for painting the Tuesday when I have from whatever time I get up untill 1pm to get that finished as that is when my better half gets home and I wanted to spend the afternoon with her.  

Anyway, thanks for reading. Wish me luck.

Quick job

Right, so yesterday I set myself the challange of getting the Woldwarden I had converted painted before dinnertime today. I managed it, easily. I took a break to make a sausage and egg sandwich and a second break to have a mess about on the Playstation. Which ended up bein over an hour. Yet here I am at 12noon and my work is complete.

Check it. I may have to start coming up with even more insane challanges for myself. The paintwork took just over an hour and a half, coupled with the repose taking just over an hour I am going to say this took about 3 hours work.

Reposing of the Woldwarden

So, I had Woldwarden number 3 sitting in his box for going on 5 months, waiting a repose to make him unique and this morning I decided to crack him out and get on with the job. Now I really think the Woldwarden has a goofy pose, the second one I put together I put a santa hat on to make it a little more tongue in cheek. Still that didn't take away from the fact that he leans far too far forwards and those arms...what is he actually doing?

 He is being my, what is behind door number 1 girl! This is this morning, I poured the box out and got the old one to set against and use as a guide of sorts. My two main goals were this, stand him up straighter and sort out that right arm.

Now I got really into my work and forgot to take WIP shots, I did finish it in about an hour so can you forgive me?

Anyway, I started by straightening the left leg and sticking it to the base. I use activator to make it all quicker, I then sawed off the peg on the right foot so it can sit flat. Now these didn't alight properly but thats alright because greenstuff is a wonderous substance. I put a small amount on to help fill it while I glued the legs together.

This was far more upright but still putting the body on flat would have had him leaning forwards. So I tilted him back a bit on his hips and rammed greenstuff into his bowls. After a bit of shaping it looks like it is supposed to be there and he looks like he is standing proud. Score!

Second problem, the silly arm. I simply sawed it off at the joint, drilled holes into it, put a paperclip into it and span it around. Oh and a bit of greenstuff to fill in the gap that appeared.

Anyway, all told just over an hour. I got a new Woldwarden I am happy to put on the table.

A side by side, the old clearly drawing attention to the new superior pose. I call him wold 2.0 and I have untill midday tomorrow to get a paintjob on him. After that I am back to work again and don't know when I'll next have the time and drive to pick up my brush. I think I can do it.

2 Projects, 2 Days.

Hello again, I am back! The power cable for my laptop decided to pack in and I have only just managed to get out and pick up a new one. What with Work and the Family my time is pretty limited.

Anyway for pretty much the same reason I only had a couple of days in the past two weeks for painting and modeling. I also had 2 things I really wanted to get done. The first was a reposing of the clasic Nomad and a repaint as I got it second hand and was never happy with it, it needed to be mine. So I got out the powersaw and got busy.

The nomad after his repose, the whole shoulder joint needed sawing through and moving forward then rebuilding, the elbow needed sawing through and moving to the front so it bends and is no longer stuck right out. Then I needed to move him on his base and clean up the silly amout of superglue used by his original owner. I used some greenstuff to fill over the hole where he was stood originally.

Then the repaint. I went for a nice simple green, black and bronze. All told from the start with the saw right through to the last of the paint I took untill about 6 hours. I had to leave it for a few hours to let the green stuff cure but I didn't have a great deal of time and got painting before it was fully set. Because I am impatient.

Thursday I had a day off again, so I set about painting up my Magnus battlebox. I have ownd this fr a while. I mean it was discontinued years ago...

Anyway, I got cracking. This one took a little longer and I spent a few hours last night finishing it all off. I started with the Renegad, threw some paint on the Talon, then got Magnus started.

The Mangler needed a few coats to get the green constant and while each of them dried I finished up the other 'jacks and Magnus. But then the day ran out on me and I had only got the lights and Magnus finished.

The Mangler still needed the Bronze and wash, that I did last night. It took me just over two days and I got finished 2 heavies, 2 lights and a 'caster.

Not too shabby.