Khador Winterguard Gas Tank Conversion

Spent some time last night and today converting my Winterguard.  The gas masks I already finished so I worked on adding in their tattered coats on the bottom using Procreate Putty.  After that it was taking guitar string and some pliers to create the tube for the gas mask.  For the backpack tank I used the bit from my Devastator's arm (I wasn't using it).  I really like the tank and will order more bits from PP to create additional gas tanks. 

This process is very time consuming so I'm focusing on converting three Winterguard at a time and will finish painting them too.  This way I'll slowly get painted figs done and will feel like I'm making progress :)

*the reason for gas tanks is because for this Guardsmen pose I wasn't able to connect the tube to anything on his waist, like the pouch on my other too, so I had to find a creative solution.  Also need to do more putty work on the part where the tube connects to the tank and mask.

 

Khador Juggernaut: Painting Ice Effects

I've been learning some new techniques for painting ice/cold effects so I thought it was time to give my ol' Juggernaut a new paint job.  He was the very first Warmachine miniature that I painted.  You can see that here.

I remember I was really nervous when I painted him that first time.  I was cautious over every stroke because I didn't want to mess up.  I'm still learning a great deal about painting but now I try not to worry so much and have fun with painting.

With the new ice effects for my army I'm really looking forward to doing this same effect for Beast-09 and the Greylords.

Khador eSorscha Painting WIP

   

Painted eSorscha tonight and wanted to try an ice effect with her axe.  She has a spell called Freezing Grip so I wanted to show that.  This painting evolved so that one side of her is cold with light blues and purple and the other side is very warm with oranges and reds.  

I sorta dived into it not knowing how it would turn out but I think it's taking shape.  The ground was a lot of fun to do and my favorite part of that is adding in those highlight accents.  

A little sleepy and I have to wake up in 3 hours to go fishing ><; but next step for this mini is trying to figure out how to do the axe.  With the naked high there isn't  a lot of color variation on the axe so I'll have to think about it a bit.  

 

Khador Winterguard Conversion Painting

Worked on the Unit Leader for my Khador Winterguard Unit.  Did a lot of conversion work on them ranging from their gasmasks and tube to their cloaks which have been extended using epoxy putty.  Still going for the Wasteland look; gritty, dirty, menacing.  Fluff is that this army was on a long and perilous expedition into the Wastelands and now are trying to fight their way back home to the Motherland.

The above mini has most of the color in.  I will most likely start on the next batch of Winterguard and then go back to these original two and add the grime layer of weathering pigments.

The masking tape provides an interesting color juxtaposed with the mini.  Reminds me of snow.  Should I add snow to the base?  I was always sorta against it because usually we play on a green battle mat and I thought snow looked odd but hmmmmm~~

The one thing I wanted to mention was that when I was painting in thin layers; it revealed errors in my sculpting... the putty wasn't smoothed enough and you can tell where the putty was attached to the mini.  So when I work on the rest of the Winterguard I just have to be more careful.

But overall I'm pretty happy with the look of them.  I never thought I would try the red shoulderpads or the greenish tint to their coats but I think it works and looks very "Khador" to me.  One note is that I added a bit of Ogrun Flesh wash to warm up the coat to match the hot climate I think these guys are travelling in.

I also have plans for the Officer and Standard bearer.  I'm thinking to sculpt my own flag and make it a centerpiece for the unit along with some custom sculpting for the Officer.  I'll try to change her pose a bit.

Two down and fourteen more to go! :D (I'm including Joe in this unit and need to get one more rocketeer for the full Winterguard Deathstar)

Back to the Wasteland

Back after a long hiatus from Warmachine.  Was a little burnt out at the end of last year but I'm happy to say that I'm back.  The smell of paint and the look of weathered rust brought a huge smile to my face as tonight was the first time I've painted in over 3 months.

I thought long and hard about what to paint next and decided on my Winterguard.  Two of them were converted already so I could jump straight into painting.  The figure in the pic above has most of the color put in.  I just have to go back in and add highlights and perhaps add more darks.  Then comes the fun part of adding in all the rust effects and chipped paint; making him look weathered.

Feels good to be back :) 
 

Journeyman League Batreps

Got four games in-- two against Cryx, one against Dwarves, and one against Ret. 

First game was against Jim.  I advanced towards the middle and my Destroyer was able to do some damage on one of the arc nodes but then Jim arc'd Crippling Grasp to one of my Jacks and Parasite to the other.  Deneghra then feated so my Jacks where sitting at ARM 15 and 16.  Jim's Jacks charged and made quick work of mine wrecking both and getting a Mangled Metal win. 

I'm learning that Cryx is VERY tough to play against and against Jim's attack, the one thing I can think of is to stay as far back as I can and just rain bombards on him.  I can also advance Sorscha up, take a shot, and then Wind Rush away.  But at DEF 10, my Jacks will get hit and there's really nothing I can do about it.  Good game though and now I was on to my second game against Dwarves.

Doug is one of our resident Press Gangers and he fielded Gorten and the Dwarves.  The only heavy is a Driller and that thing is monstrous.  With Strength of Granite it's weapons go to something like P+S 20 and 21.  Crazy.  I advanced like usual and because the Driller is the same slow speed as my Jacks, my Destroyer was able to keep the distance and blast off it's drill arm.  That was really good.  Sensing that my tactic would slowly soften up his Jacks, Doug feated and pulled the Destroyer right to the Driller who tore it up easily.  Gorten had to expose himself to catch the Destroyer though so I sent Sorscha Wind Rushing and charging in under feat turn.  She wasn't able to kill him on her attack but she was sitting at DEF 20.  Doug was hoping to crit slam her with Gorten and had a few chances but was able to get it.  She survived on about half her life.  With full focus Sorscha hit back and suprisingly needed her last focus to boost the damage to kill Gorten. 

With Wind Rush and Fog of War, seems like Sorscha has great defense against the light Jacks' shooting and with the threat range of the Destroyer, I can fire bombards all day on the Driller.  I just have to make sure that if Gorten feats, I only lose one Jack.  In this game I had an opening for Sorscha's assassination run but in future games I might not be so lucky.  Got to be careful.

Next game I faced off against Deneghra again.  Krage had his battlebox fully painted and it looked great.  Same opening strat from me as always-- trying to shoot stuff with the Destroyer.  My first attempt failed as two of his arc nodes were either in a forest or on a hill and the other one was in my own Fog of War.  I missed the bombard.  Krage then played Deneghra competely different than Jim and chose to ignore my Jacks and run his arc nodes around.  Spell of choice was Scourge that knocked down Sorscha.  I had to face Deneghra's feat and couldn't do much of anything.  I tried to attack one of the arc nodes with Sorscha but on the following turn another arc node ran close and Scourged her again.  The arc node was so close that the deviating AOE still knocked her down.  That freed up the first arc node and with auto hits in melee Sorscha was done.

Thought it was really cool that Jim and Krage played Deneghra in two different ways, either going for the Jacks via Crippling Grasp and Parasite, or using the arc nodes and running them wide to Scourge Sorscha.  So many things to look out for.  I like the challenge though and look forward to playing Cryx again.

Last game of the night was against Jay and his Retribution battlebox.  This featured Kaelyssa, a Manitcore, and two Lights (can't remember their names).  I slow advanced and my bombard hit but failed to get passed the force fields.  Jay spread out his Jacks, possibly positioning them for a next turn charge.  Kaeylssa was way far back but it looked like Sorscha had a lane.  Wow it was far.  I decide to go for it, Wind Rush forward.  At that point I checked her control and there was no need for Boundless Charge.  Sweet.  That's two focus saved.  Sorscha charges Kaelyssa and after a few attacks gets the win.  Both Jay and I were quite surprised how far 17" actually is.  I doubt Jay will let an assassination like that happen again.

Finished 2-2 for the night.  Two losses to Cryx and two wins by assassniation.  Can't wait to play the other battleboxes and get revenge on Deneghra :P   

Journeyman League BEGINS!!!! (Lots of pics)

Tonight kicked off our long awaited Journeyman League and what a night it was!  There were at least 11 gaming tables going and we had a bunch of new people come out.  There were veteran players learning new factions.  New players boosting their first roll.  So many times I just took a break and looked around at all the gaming and all the friends gathered and couldn't help but smile :D

  We ate some dinner and chit chatted for a bit and starting setting up at around 7:00.

One of my favorite pictures from the night.  Krage on the left and Jim laughing about how their Cryx Battlebox is so overpowered they're going to own everyone tonight. haha.  No seriously, this is one of my favorites because it shows the the two guys having a great time-- smiles say it all.  Another funny thing.  So both Krage and Jim are Cryx right?  Check out the colors they're wearing!?!  Green Jacket and green shirt.  You know what else is funny?  In the back is Chris sitting.  He's also a Cryx player!  Those guys have some serious Cryx pride man. :P

Jackie and Doug kicking off the night with a little battle.  Jackie is starting Pirates and Doug has Dwarves.  Doug recently became a Press Ganger and this is the first event that he's running.  Go Doug!

Not only was there Warmachine but there was Malifaux!  Larry learning the game for the first time with Sam and James.  Looks like they had a great time, like they're playing poker.  Will have to try that game some time.

Justin vs Krage in the foreground.  Justin so far is the only Menoth player in the League.  Can't tell if his expression is because he's playing Deneghra (how do you spell her name?!)  Monte vs Steve in the middle table.  Monte has been playing Khador for a while and decided to give Legion a try for the League, facing off against Steve's Khador.

First off, gotta love Maz's stache!  Both he and Chris are playing in the Wild West League.  It follows the Journeyman League schedule but they create their own custom battleboxes.  Here Maz is playing with Strahkov, a Kodiak, and a Devastator.  Chris brought eSkarre and hmmmm, not sure what his Jacks were.

Yong playing in his very first Warmachine game.  He took Cygnar facing off against Jay who brought Retribution and Kaelyssa (hope I spelled that right).

Brandon and Diane-- Ret vs Circle.  New faces to the club and it was great meeting them.

Arron against Byron.  I know Byron had Cygnar.  Arron, what did you field?

Max vs James-- Trolls vs Trolls?

More Malifaux action!

Ben taking the Swans of  Cygnar and facing off against Gators!

More of Chris vs Maz and the epic Cryx vs Khador battle.

 Aw yeah, got the dice roll!  Look at the motion blur on the dice!

Jay sharing some words of wisdom to Diane, one of the new players.

Was a pleasure meeting Mark who I've seen on our mailing list a lot.  He is an AMAZING painter.  Mark wanted to paint up his Troll battlebox before playing so he set up near the Malifaux guys.  We were all inspired by the work he did tonight.

  Larry checking out the Malifaux rules.

Doug with his Dwarves got a win vs Jackie's Pirates.  I got to play Doug in my second game.  Gorten feated, dragged my Destroyer to his Driller which crippled it.  I then had to feat with Sorscha and Wind Rush/charge Gorten.  With my last focus, I boosted the damage and was able to bring Gorten down.  Was very close!

My Khador brothers Steve and Monte.

Justin deep in thought in his battle with Deneghra.

Love this pic of Sam and James during their Malifaux game.

Anthony, one of our other Press Gangers, playing against his friend Scott (met so many new people. I think his name is Scott)  Anthony is playing Legion and Scott has Retribution.

View of all the players tonight.  Over on the left is Mark painting next to the Malifaux guys.  The rest is Warmachine.  I can count 11 tables for 22 players.  Might be another match behind that pole but I can't tell.  Such an amazing sight to see.

Master and apprentice.  Love this shot.  Two great painters talking about technique. 

Jim with Deneghra battling Brian who is new to the club.  Brian is a very accomplished player and brought Stryker and Cygnar.

Glorious brought his Cygnar out, wonderfully painted, and was able to get lots of games in.

 

 Terraclips terrain for Malifaux.  This stuff looks awesome.

Close up of some of Krage's minis.  Paint job is fantastic.  I played against him for my 3rd game.  He sent his three arc nodes out and Denny was able to arc Scourge onto Sorscha numerous times and knocking her down.  It was a very effective combo negating her insanely high DEF.  With ARM 14 the arc nodes made quick work of Sorscha.  Deneghra is very good and I definitely like the challenge of facing her.  Hope to get more games against  her next week.  Gotta take out the arc nodes first.  Then figure out a way to survive her feat.

Ben showing Cygnar pride with his Pepsi shirt.  He and Scott played two games with both of them getting a win.

"Are you serious?"  That's what Anthony's expression says to me :P

After going 2-0 for the night, Jim said he had to go home soon.  But he stayed for over and hour to hang out :D  Here he's watching Monte's Legion against Phillip's Gators.  Must be a bad turn for Phillip.

What to do next?  Brian debating his next move.

I'll bet what Monte is saying is very funny.  He's probably saying it with some kind of accent too.

The epic Malifaux terrain.

 The thumb of a mini painter.

Post game discussion with Brian and Doug.

And Darian and a friend finishing the night off with an epic game of 40k-- Blood Angels vs Grey Knights.

So that was our first night of the Journeyman League.  I was able to get in 4 1/2 games and it was sooooo much fun.  Will write more later about what I learned but wanted to get these pictures up.  Was a great night of friends getting together, meeting new people, and having fun painting and rolling dice.  Can't wait for next week.