Khador Caster Challenge, Irusk update

This is not a full post for the Khador Caster Challenge, but just a quick update with a final version of Irusk. I was initially unsure what to do with his base, however, I found some trench bases I had made way back for Strakov and his Assault Kommandos, and appropriated one for Irusk. The thing with Irusk, however, is once he plants his feet somehere, he's all but inpossible to displace. He was so well stuck onto the base he was on, I had to hack the base to bits with my wirecutters to get him off. Fortunately, any damage to his feet during that process, and the subsequent pinning, were completely hidden by the trenchworks.

Initially I had a yellow leaf stuck to the trench mud as well as the red one, picking out colours from his scheme, but the yellow one seems to have fallen off along the way.

Speaking of Strakov, here's a quick WIP of him, as I started him for the June entry in my challenge. The eyes seemed a little cartoonish, but my fix seems more like my brush slipped. I'm  going to have to go back over his face.

Ulf the Finger-Eater

I had a particularly productive weekend in painting terms, finishing two minis!

This is the third manhunter mini I have painted, and second one completed (I'll get round to finishing the other soon, promise). This one is to represent "Ulf the Finger-Eater", my hero model for the current PP leauge at my FLGS. His name being taken from a children's book the girls love.

The first one I painted, in a more traditional brown scheme, can be found here. That one is also a good point of reference for the original axes.

The conversion on this guy is rather light. He has gained some bear traps, to represent his Bear Hunter ability, a medal, to represent Medal of Honour, and some new axes, to represent Hooked Blades.


New Axes

Bear trap

Medal

And then the painted version...

The axes are extras from the Devil Dog unit. The bear trap is from Yuri the Axe, and the medal is a decoration from the shaft of a GW Dwarven axe I bought as a possible conversion for the axes, but in the end didn't use.

The base is a scratch built, with wood chips and real lichen, which is a pain to paint, as it's so flexible. I may have to put a layer of varnish over its roots to fix it better in place.The arrows are just to show he's a hard-ass!

Another point for my league score, and once my hero buys the right advancements to go with his conversions, that'll be another 3 points. Onwards and upwards.

Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Another one of those minis that's been sitting around for a loooooong time with out more than an undercoat to keep them warm, Gorman is a very old mini for Warmachine. I think he's even one of the first wave of minis.

In a recent game versus Khador, I was re-initiated in the ways of Gorman, and the use of "Black Oil", one of his signature abilities. I fielded him in my forst league game, and he managed to pull ff the same ability for me, allowing me to get a caster kill (in concert with Eiryss, another first wave and still useful model, I think she'll be getting a coat of paint soon too).

Going back to my Khador, has also meant going back to a lot of the Mercs I bought to go with them, mainly becasuse they won't run with my Highborne army. So I have been rediscovering a whole other set of minis I haven't used in a long time, and more importantly, having fun with them.

So, that's 1 more point towards my score in the league.

Painting Challenge 2015: Khador Casters

I have been playing Warmachine on and off, pretty much since it was first released, when I bought a Khador battle box, Eiryss, and a Manhunter at Claymore, back in the mists of time. Of those minis, I have fully painted the two jacks, and the Manhunter. Eiryss languishes with a base coat, painted way back then, and Sorscha? well, least said the better.

Khador has always been my faction. But, in saying that, I think I have only painted two of the Khador casters to completion, one being pButcher* and the other being the Old Witch, painted very very recently. I intend to remedy this failing, and to this end, I have challenged myself to paint one caster a month for the duration of 2015.

I own:
The Old Witch and ScrapJack (completed)
pButcher (to be based)
eButcher
pIrusk
eIrusk

pSorscha
eSorscha
Strakov
pVlad (variant)
eVlad
Zerkova

That equals eleven casters, and of those, I have finished one and the eButcher needs only to be based, so 10 models to finish in twelve months. I think I can handle that. I will add in the Warcaster attachment of the War Dog if it looks like I am running ahead of myself (unlikely).

My reward, if I should complete my challenge, is that I will buy myself either 3Butcher or 3Vlad. Both of whom are stunning models, who I do want to buy, but cannot justify due to my lack of funds, and time actually playing my Khador. Also, but the time I have finished this lot, I'll be a demon at painting red.

A secondary challenge to myself, is to play more games with my Khador. They are the largest army I possess (with maybe Legion of Everblight coming close, close second) but I rarely play them. That is something else that must be remedied.

I don't see myself going about this in any specific order, mainly be seeing what takes my fancy, so who knows what we'll see painted first. All that with the usual Colore ton Monde challenges being thrown about, and normal painting of other troops for Dystopian Legions, 2015 is going to be a busy year!

Wish me luck!

*For those not up in the Warmahordes parlance, p before the caster name indicates prime, as in first iteration, e means Epic, as in a second version of the caster, and 3 before the name indicates the third iteration of the caster.

Alexia Ciannor

This month's Colore ton Monde just had to be something from the Painting class that I finished off. To that end, I was the closest to finishing off Alexia Ciannor This is the sculpt of her released for use in the Iron Kingdoms RPG, not the one that is sold in the boxed set, which I have always found to be out of scale with the rest of the game.

I love this mini and sculpt. I have had her for a very long time, but had held off on painting her till my skills could give the sculpt the justice I felt it deserved, so there was really no better place to start her off than at the Painting Masterclass. Coincidentally, that's exactly what Meg Maples said about the other miniature I took to the class, the Elven King.

As I previously mentioned, after the class on how to paint eyes in seven easy steps, I tried to paint her eyes three times before giving up. The class was only 2 days long after all. I may go back and try again, but I doubt it, as there's far to much other lead for me to get through.

I may be unhappy with the eyes, but I am more at ease with the metallics on this mini. The two brush blending on the coat at the back isn't so bad either. I may be starting to get the hang of this painting thing. Faces aside.

Meg Maples Montreal Masterclass, Day 1

This weekend in Montreal saw the last Masterclass to be held by Meg Maples in North America before she moves over to Australia. As a Christmas gift to me from my family, I went along. This was my first painting class of any kind, and I didn't know what to expect in terms of how many minis I would need, how many minis I would get through.

We were given a list of things we would need to bring, and a list of techniques we would try to get through. The first day started off with two brush blending. Before the class, I was aware of the existence of this technique, but that was about all. After a day of doing pretty much nothing bu that (the techniques was explained first for the very good reason that it was the basis of the other parts of the class) I think I'm staring to get the hang of it.

The minis I put on the table at the start of the day. There was no way I would get through that many, but it was good to have a selection to work from.

Cloak on a Reaper Wood Elf King, my first attempt at two brush blending.

Black Wolf Raiding Party Leader, an attempt at the same technique on smaller areas.

Alexia. I love this mini, and I have had her for years, but have not had the courage to paint her, as I didn't have the skill to do so to the level I though she required. No time like the present!

This mini was one where I was using the two brush blending technique to work on the metalllics. Hence all the work on the sword. I am happy with the way it turned out,  but the pictures do not do it justice, I promise better pictures after the second par of the course tomorrow.

So, I am back home with sore shoulders from hunching over under my lamp all day, and a sore head from concentrating so hard. I have never spent such a long time in one sitting painting before, and it was hard work, but the time flew past very quickly indeed. I have learned a lot, including that I need to learn more about colour theory. In addition to the technique of two brush blending, which I will not go into here, as that's what youtube is for, I learned that to get proper shading, you need to go darker than you think. For example, with the elf king's cloak in the first image, I initially went with a darker green, as per normal colour triads, but it just didn't show up at all. I soon plumped for Coal Black (P3), a dark purple/green black, which turned out to be perfect. I used this as a means of darkening pretty much all the shadows from then on. Mixing the Coal Black with an Umbral Umber (P3) gave the darkest shading on the metals too, looking like a proper black at the deepest parts of the shadows, whilst still maintaining an natural looks. I think I'll be using much more of this colour.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow, as there is a whole lot more to learn, and I'm really excited to get these minis finished.

Gaston Crosse and his Vanguard

For my Christmas present this year, my good lady wife has bought me a place on a Meg Maples Painting Masterclass, which runs next weekend. I am very much looking forward to this, and for the class, I have a list of things we will be learning, so I have been going through my minis selecting a bunch that should be good to use. One set of minis I plan to use are Gaston Crosse, and his personal Vanguard.

I had originally bought this extra Vanguard to be built as a Khador Jack, as part of Zerkova's theme force the Hunting Wolves, where she has the ability to take re-purposed Llaellese Vanguards as Khador Jacks. I never did get round to that, though this project may inspire me to do another personal Vanguard for her.

Gaston takes vanguards at 1 point less than their normal cost, so it's pretty much a certainty when I take him I'll have at least one of these with him, and likely a Mule, given his skill set. However, since he gives Jacks longer range, I stuck the extra part from a Cygnar jack upgrade onto the barrel, to give it a more imposing look. Gaston is from a less than noble background, so these guys will have a much dirtier colour scheme than the rest of my Ashlynn Highborn list, but should fit in none-the-less. We will have to see what techniques I am practicing on them to know how they will finally turn out, but expect to see some 2 brush blending at least!

 

Mean looking little bugger isn't he!

Colore ton Monde: Alten Ashley I

Some WIPs for this month's Colore ton Monde challenge mini. I went with the monster hunter angle, rather than the monster itself, which is of course covered by the always flexible monthly theme (go here to see October's theme). So here are the first shots of Alten Ashley.

Alten is very much close to being done. These are only WIPs for two reasons. First off, I started painting his sword that sticks onto his back at the same time I started painting him, but by the time I got round to finishing him, I had misplaced the sword. This is very annoying, and I hope it turns up, however, if Alten is ever using his sword in a game, that game is not going well for him!

The second reason is that, as always, I was very happy with the way he was looking, till I saw the pictures. My eyes are just not what they used to be. So, I'll be going back over the mini, mainly to sort out his hair and face.

The plants on his base are some chopped up plastic aquarium plants that I recently re-purposed (all the fish have finally passed on in our tank, so I had to doe something with all the bits). They work rather well I feel. I went with thistles, as they are purple and cream, which fits in with my other mercs, without me having to give him a garish purple coat, thereby breaking his camouflage. There is also a little purple on his boot-knife, just to keep him on theme.

Here's a close up of the face. I was trying a couple of new things here. First off, the stubble, and secondly, giving a tint to the bottom lip. Both f these to give more character to the paint job. However, I'm not sure either works with my normal way of doing eyes, i.e. ignoring them and letting the inks do the job of suggesting the presence of eyes.

It was this picture that convinced me I'll have to go back and get out the little paintbrushes before I'm happy with this guy.

Khador: Old Witch and Scrapjack

This month's 'Colore Ton Monde' entry, and one that I took a bunch of inspirational pictures to help me with the rusting effects. Very useful that the hydrants round here are in Khador red I thought!

I really threw the kitchen sink at this model as far as techniques go, as it is also contains my first attempt at OSL, and there's some luminescent paint in there too (the Old Witch's Staff, and Scrappy's eyes glow in the dark... a little). The only thing I thought to try and didn't was some crackle paint on the legs, but you never know, I may go back and try that, as Scrappy really is the idea candidate for that.

On with the pictures, as always, click to embiggen.

Some close-ups on the rusting and weathering effects. I'm not going to give any close-ups of the legs, as I had them looking okay, then I went a little overboard, and messed them up.

Finally, the main thrust behind the theme this year was the prevalence of slush and snow earlier in the month, clogging up the city streets. I tried to make my own slush mix, using white sand as the ice/snow particles, mixed with water effect gel and some muddy colours. The final effect was less than good. The water effects dried too clear, and the mud was too uniform to look like real slush. I tried to add some snow powder on top, but it didn't save it, so the whole lot got dry-brushed with some white. A new layer pf snow to cover all the imperfections. Isn't that why we like the look of newly fallen snow?

The water effect was good for sticking the white sand to up-lifted foot of Scrappy, there has to be some mileage in that as a technique somewhere.

The Old Witch is very modest in comparison. I re-used the palette from the Feralgeist on her staff, with an added coat of Glow-in-the-dark paint on top. The effect is very feint, but it's there. And yes, I do plan to go back to the Feralgeist and use the paint on him!

 

The last pic on the left is the glow effect on the staff. The pic on the right has been monkeyed with slightly to brighten the effect.

She truly is a great mini, with lots of hidden gems dotted around (mostly faces in the fold of her cloak/bag, with the odd skull here and there). I even used her in her first game, which is a long time coming, since I have owned the model for a good number of years now, maybe 7 or 8. She didn't win, but it was close. This odd couple will certainly be seeing the table again, and soon.