Epic Feora or Feora2...

Or whatever you like to call her. This is the first epic caster I painted and it was really fun. The one problem I had with the model was the smoke stacks. After spray painting the first layer of primer, she fell from my hands and hit the ground. Ouch! I didn't realize it at the time but one of the smoke stacks came off. I went scurrying about looking for the thing but to no avail. Enough with the talk, here she is.



I hope to have the Testament of Menoth by weeks end as he's about 90% completed.

Solo Painting

Or should I say, something to keep me motivated while I'm busy. This time next month, my wife and I are going to be home owners. Its a daunting task for both of us and we're really excited. With that being said, I don't want to lose touch with my friends in Warmachine and the hobby of painting cool miniatures. Keeping in touch with the guys shouldn't be difficult with all the forms of communication around but I don't want to fall behind when it comes to a painted army.

Right now, half of my Protectorate army is painted and the other half is put together with bases but isn't even primed. There's several solos I could paint to keep me going in the grand scheme of having a fully painted army. Believe me, I want to get there one day and if I manage to paint at least one solo a month, I think I can keep myself motivated.

As of today, I have one Reclaimer, one Paladin, and Vilmon that are unpainted. Throw in Severius and there's four simple models that I could add to my fully painted list. My quest for the next four to five months is to paint one or two of these guys a month. I know there's people out there that can paint a solo in two hours but I'm a slow painter and it takes much longer.

By the time September rolls around, I should have some more painted up miniatures to add to my army. If things go well and I knock them out quickly, I'll pick up another Vassal, two Allegiants, and a couple of Menofixers. I really want to get my hands on a Menofixer, my jacks are begging to be fixed up in the midst of battle.

Lets hope I can do this...Wish me luck.

Menoth Battlegroup

My gracious friend Greg was kind enough to take some photos of my minis tonight. He's got a nice photobox setup and the pictures came out really good.

Here's my Menoth battlegroup. I should of had the Repenter facing a different direction as you can't see his duck bill head.


Here's a better picture of my Vanquisher.Thanks again to Greg and I hope you like them.

Revenger - Before and After

I'm finally finished my before and after painting project, it only took me 6 months to do it. At least its done and here's the final product. The pictures are again washed out by the flash and my lovely wife told me she could help me make a photo box. Lets hope I can take some better pics after that.

Here's the model the first time I painted it. It wasn't that bad of a paint job but I really didn't like the grey on gold. I much prefer the grey on brass in my current scheme.





The second pic has a little photo editing in it to try and bring out some of the detail. I hope to have a battle box group pic later next week with better photos. Let me know what you think.

Fully Painted

I just finished repainting my Revenger and it got me thinking, will I ever have a fully painted army? Probably not, but the best I can hope for is to have a 50 point army painted to a nice table top standard. Sometimes I look at all the models I have that are unpainted and get a bit overwhelmed. Then I have to realize, I play this game for the fun of it and it shouldn't be a chore or something I'm a slave to, rather than, a fun laid back hobby.

As of now, I have 52 Menoth models and 23 of them are completed painted. As for my Mercs, I have 12 models and only 3 are painted. At this rate, I'll have all my models painted by 2011. I've considered dipping my Menoth but I want to keep a consistent look to my army. Dipping half way is not an option for me but could be for my Mercs.

This gets me to thinking, I'm tempted to trade my Mercs away and finish collecting Menoth. For me, Menoth has enough variety in casters that makes playing them fun and not stale. Another thing to consider is playing time, I get to play maybe once or twice a month and this lets me play a caster a couple times and then move onto someone else. If I were to play weekly or bi-weekly, then I would consider keeping my Mercs.

It's nice to have options but I think I want to have a nice big army with more options rather than two mid size ones that I would switch back and forth on. I actually got to play my Mercs this past weekend and while they were fun, they weren't Menoth. I missed my faithful soldiers.... how sad.

A little to do list

It's been a while since either Barrett or I posted anything so I thought I'd end the dry run. I'm currently working on removing some paint from some older miniatures, namely TFG, Cleanser, and a few solos.

About two years ago, I commissioned someone to paint 6 Temple Flame Guards and a Castigator. While the paint job was excellent, it doesn't match my current scheme. You might ask, why not copy the same scheme as the TFG and Castigator? Well, it just so happens that I tried to but didn't get it right the first time and I prefer the scheme I have now.

This brings me to my to do list, I have a full unit of TFG ready to be primed and painted. This is going to be my biggest infantry unit I've painted in Warmachine. The TFG are a nice basic unit without so much detail so I'm looking forward to painting them. I've read that it helps to paint them in small batches of 3-4.

Before I paint my TFG, I'm going to try and speed paint my Revenger. I'm not the biggest fan of the model, light warjacks in general don't fancy me, and in MK II, arcnodes aren't that necessary. At least for me they're not.

After the Revenger and TFG, I have 8 Cleansers to paint and I'll most likely make it a full 10 when all is said and done. I'm hoping to have the majority of my eFeora list ready by MKII release. It's a daunting task to paint so many models so hopefully I can get it done.

Did I mention I want to get Bastions and Daughters as well, along with my three epic casters, solos, mercs...... Yeah you get the idea, it's going to be a fun fall and winter full of painting madness. This Saturday I'm starting my to do list and only time what all will get done. If I manage to paint 50% of it, I'll consider it a success.

Reznik MK II Style

After seeing Reznik's new rules, I'm really excited to use him again. He's probably my most experienced caster I've ever used and his spell list is great. I'm liking Iron Aggression and Ignite on him even more than Brand of Heresy and Hate Monger. While it was a great spell, I often whiffed my attack roll and Hate Monger normally only netted me 1 attack when I really needed at least 2. I'm digging the new Reznik, so much so, I painted the guy.

Here he is, the flash drowns out some of the detail. I really need to get a photo box or have my friend take the pictures. It looks a lot better in person.










He was really fun to paint but putting him together, I got lazy. His left arm where the hand attaches to the arm, was put together with green stuff. I got too much of it on the model and it covered up some detail. Somehow when I glued the head on, the glue went over the menofix and messed up some detail as well. It was one of those deals where I wanted to get him on the table and just play the model. Next time, I'll take my time and do it right.

None the less, I'm pleased with the model.

Repenter Complete

A few weeks ago, Lost Hemisphere ran Repenter week. This inspired me to finish painting the one I had started a couple of months ago. I had originally painted this little fellow up in a less than stellar paint job. He was stripped of paint a while back and primed using Dupli Sandable primer, which is great and cheap.

Here was the first paint job I did and it really wasn't a complete paintjob but it was so bad, I didn't finish him.


This is the finished product and I must say, I like the model. Being one of the original Prime warjacks, he has a pretty cool look to him and I'm looking forward to using him in MK II.





The last model to paint in my "Before and After" session is my Revenger. He's already to be primed and then painted. I'm looking forward to having a complete battle box after and then I'm ready to strip and re-paint the Avatar.

Two for Tuesday

I finished up my Vanquisher last week and decided to show him off. Originally, I got the Vanquisher in a trade several months ago and it had a less than stellar paint job. It needed to be stripped and re-painted as you can tell by the picture. After stripping the paint, his morning star chain snapped off so I had to order another right arm. Here is a picture of the model when I first got him.



He's now finished and I'm thinking about getting another one. I really like the first generation Menoth heavy jacks. For me, the side angle is where the real coolness comes in. Here's the end result and ironically enough, the hill/mound he is sitting on got a make over as well. If you can call it a hill.
























I'm quite pleased with the end result and if I do get another one, I'm going to try and reverse the color scheme.

A battled Crusader

My first "Before and After" project is completed and I must say, I'm pretty satisfied with the end result. The Crusader, in my mind, is a really cool model so I was eager to re-paint him. This was my first time modeling and painting battle damage and I didn't realize how much small detail would incur during the paint job.

Here's his current incarnation.

Here's his old form.



















Unfortunately, I wasn't able to enter him into the No Quarter challenge and didn't use any oils when painting him. I simply ran out of time and didn't want to rush the model. Next up on the painting block is the Repenter. He's not going to get battle damage but I did manage to pick up a pot of Mechrite Red, a GW foundation paint. Hopefully, this will cut back on some of my long painting sessions.

Til next time...

Fun painting

I bought my Devout at the same time as my Guardian. It wasn't my favorite looking warjack but it was the staple of the Menoth army so I thought, I ought to buy the thing. It seems I'm constantly looking for a different pose or some way to give my models a little more character. This guy was no different, I decided to check out Brushthralls to see what they had to offer. Low and behold, they had this nice little article on how to repose your Devout.

Long story short, I had him posed and primed for well over four months. My Crusader project was put on hold because I let CptCalvinus borrow my pin vice set and I needed something to paint. This guy was waiting in the wings and was really fun to paint. I can't really explain it but it just was. It might have been the combination of painting two warcasters and an attachment the past couple months, and my need to start painting warjacks again. None the less, I enjoyed painting him and will probably get another one in the future.

Crusader Redo

With my Hierophant painted, Reznik now stands as my last warcaster to paint. I only have four of them(Reznik, Amon, High Reclaimer, and Kreoss) and I'm taking a break from Reznik to redo my original battlebox warjacks. The format is going to be "Before and After". Basically, it'll be a chance to show some improvements of my painting skills. I don't consider myself a great painter by any means, more so, this is a chance to encourage people to keep at it. The difference in a couple of years is pretty amazing.

The Crusader is first up on the chopping block and it's a good time to experiment with new painting techniques. Seeing how this model was purchased some two years ago, I won't be upset if things go badly. I'll be giving him a battle worn look and possibly entering him in the most recent No Quarter painting challenge. There's a nice article on how to use "Chalks Washes and Oil Paints" from Quixotic's blog, and I plan on trying out the oil paints for a good weathering effect.

Here is the current state of my Crusader.

As you can see, it really doesn't match my current scheme, save the same gory red being used. The big difference is the model was primed with white and I found out quickly, I can't paint white very well.

By weeks end, I should have the model stripped, primed, and ready to paint.

Mr. Details

I just finished my Hierophant a couple of nights ago and the little bugger has a lot of detail. So much so, I'm going to hold off on painting Rhoven and his boys. This guy took longer to paint then some of my warjacks if you can believe it. His base got some red paint on it and my touch up work was a little sloppy. This was my first attempt at wet blending as well and it was a little tricky at first, but not too bad.

The photos are a little dark because I took them just before sunset. You can see my beloved white cat in the background. There's nothing like a deaf white wonder...

My painting vow has now changed, I'm going to strip my Crusader, Repenter, and Revenger. Then I'm going to paint my Crusader. I'm tempted to enter the No Quarter challenge for battle damage as I have some ideas on how to make him look battle worn.

C & C welcome.

High Reclaimer

It turns out that I never thought once about using the High Reclaimer as a Menoth player. After a year and a half of playing and with Bastions on the way, I thought to myself "man, what a great time to pick up the High Reclaimer". Then I thought, I have a lot of canon fodder troops that would go well with him, Cleansers, Deliverers, and to a lesser extent, TFG.

This is the one of the cool play styles of Menoth, throw sub-par troops to their death and revive later on or just blow them up and then revive them. Either way works for me.

With the upcoming field test of MKII, CptCalvinus and I are going to run a escalation style campaign of Menoth vs Cynar. The format is similar to the Paint and Play campaign in No Quarter and Lost Hemisphere's Warmahordes challenge, but it differs in one way. We're going to play two games at every point level, using the old rules in the first game and the new rules in the second. I'm pretty certain a lot of other people are going to be doing this and I find its a great way to see some of the differences in the game.

With that being said, I finished painting my High Reclaimer and will be using him during the escalation campaign. I'll dive into why I'm using him and not my favorite monk later on...

I'm going to go back and add some badab black wash on his left forearm and touch up a few spots on the robe. In looking back, I should've used green stuff on a couple of places but I'm content with the results.

Here's the 350 list that he's leading in the MK II Escalation Campaign. First game will hopefully start this Tuesday using the current ruleset.

High Reclaimer 347/350 VPs: 15
*Hierophant
Cleansers x 6
Temple Flameguard x8 with UA
Visgoth Rhoven and his Bodyguard
Gorman di Wulfe
Ruphert, Piper of Menoth
Wrack

The basic strategy is to throw as much smoke as possible and hope I can get into melee pretty quick. I'm anxious to see if the new MK II rules will allow enough free points for a Devout or Revenger. Only time will tell.

Schemes

I found out the hard way what a good scheme can turn out to be. It means various test figures and a lot of time, not wasted per say but time invested. Whenever I was reading through one of the No Quarter magazines that had the paint and play challenge, I remember one of the guys' entry about a consistent scheme. This got me thinking that, I myself, have a lot of models painted to a different scheme and based differently.

My first Warmachine model I ever painted was the Crusader. I like the simplicity of the jack and the front parts of it but I'm not a big fan of the steam furnace. Unlike the other factions, it seemed a little bland for my taste. But I digress, the point is, I primed all my models white thinking I was going to go with the traditional Menoth colors. I found out very quickly how hard it is to paint white good. After doing some searching online for some other Menoth paint schemes, I found a nice dark red that I thought I could do. Take in mind, the only other miniatures I painted before this were some Tau from GW. Here's a look at my first scheme for my Menoth.

My original white scheme that I ditched quickly. The flash really makes it hard to tell that there's a cream colour painted on it. You can also see the traditional Menoth base that I was trying to do.

Here's the same Crusader painted Vallejo Gory Red with GW Shining gold as the metal.

Now onto my Guardian that was primed with Black and painted with Gory Red, Cold Grey, and Brassy Brass. I used cork for the base and flocked it with Woodland Scenics fine turf green grass. The rocks are drybrushed with cold grey along with a little white mixed in.

You would think this would be my final scheme and the paint part is, just the base has changed in this last picture. Here's Kreoss with his base painted a little differently but flocked with the same green turf.

I really hope this is my final scheme or else I'll be wasting a lot more time figuring it out. The base is done by using the following:

1 layer of Tierra Earth
1 layer of Worn Wash - my own creation (4 parts brown Ink, 2 parts smokey Ink, 2 parts thinner, 2 parts water)
1 layer of GW Green Wash on rock part
1 Drybrush layer of 2 parts Tierra earth and 1 part white
1 Drybrush layer of 2 parts white and 1 part Tierra earth
Possible drybrush layer of 4 parts white and 1 part Tierra earth.

And with that, its time to do some more painting....

Back to the Bases

This past Saturday was the last week of the CTA league I was playing in. I ended up winning the Eliminator award and overall, the league was pretty fun. There was some pretty good scenarios along with some ok ones to say the least.

I played all my games with Reznik, except for the first one, and the big guy did alright. I tried to incorporate Cleansers in my list and I found they're a better second wave unit than first strike. I also really like Reznik's spell list, I find he doesn't have one bad spell, in my opinion.

One last thing to note, epic Kaya's threat range is pretty nasty. I found out the hard way when I played in my first 1000 point game against her and Krueger. The little hippie girl had Lightning Tendrils on her and managed to scrap Reznik sitting on 4 focus. Needless to say, I'll try to avoid that next time, if that's possible.

Here's a glimpse of my painting table and all my precious tools and paints. Its nothing to brag about but I like the simplicity in it. I have all my stuff at arms length and don't have anything really getting in the way. Although my wife's cat likes to sometimes taste the water cup, I haven't had any real disasters on it.

You'll see the current set of bases I'm working on for my future models. Yes I said future, with the upcoming release of the Bastions, I'm stoked to start working on them already. It takes me forever to complete a miniature and there's no better time then now to start on them. By the time June comes around, I should have all their bases completed.

Here's waiting for June and the infamous and awesome Plastions!

Choir Time

I finally finished painting my choir this past week and I'm happy with the results. They won't woo anyone from a up close look but they're table top quality. It seems I have a habit of taking a long time when painting models and these were no exceptions. Originally, I had planned on painting these guys last May or June and now they're finally done.

In the future, I'm going to try the snowball approach to painting and see if that works better. Its where I'll paint one model at a time instead of a whole unit. Maybe I can squeeze in two but I hope to keep focused because if I don't, I'll have a collection of half painted models.

Next up on the painting block are my warcasters. Its sad to say that I only have one warcaster painted after playing this game for over a year and a half. And to top it off, he was just finished this past week as well......

The Guardian of Sul

My Guardian is finally finished after months of working on it, on and off. I originally entered this model in the November monthly painting challenge and didn't realize how much work would go into him. I'm pretty satisfied with the end result and it was my first chance at painting freehand symbols. A quick shout out to the Brush Thralls for their tutorial on painting symbols. I don't know what it would've looked like if I hadn't used it.