Colbie Sterling, Captain of the Bri

Limited edition sculpts are always a bit of a tricky thing for me. I want to paint them, but then I also want to do a top notch job on them. This one fell below the line for effort unfortunately. I somewhat speed painted her. It's not a terrible model, but for some reason I just couldn't get into it, and my effort certainly doesn't match what it deserves. Still though, I have a second one in the closet if I really want to try again.

Ragman

Super fast speed paint job while watching shows on Netflix streaming. Nothing amazing. Just another one closed out.

Gobbler Tinker

Now this model is one of those rare conjunctions of highly frustrating and highly entertaining. The entertaining comes in the form of the huge amount of character that the model has. The frustrating part comes in the form of getting it put together. Once I finally got it assembled, I painted it separate from the base but had fortunately got a base prepped with holes already drilled for the pins. And even then while I was trying to get it on the base, I managed to bust it apart in two different places. However I managed to get it back together and on the base properly. I will say though that it was worth the effort. The myriad of sculpted details on this model make it really fun to paint. From the wagon full of random parts, to the characterful expression on the Tinker's face, it was all very fun to paint. I'll admit that there are some secluded parts of the model that didn't get painted properly but they are also pretty hard to see anyway. I highly recommend painting this model.

Eiryss, Angel of Retribution

This is a really nice model to paint. I'm a little ashamed at the shortcuts I took on some of the smaller details. However it's done and I had a fun time playing with colors on this one, trying to find something that struck a balance between appearing natural and magical at the same time.

Savio Montero Acosta

I don't have enough time to write a proper post for this model, but let me say that this was a wonderful model to paint. Great pose. Great detail. Really enjoyed painting it. Highly recommend painting this one even if just for fun.

Rutger Shaw

Finishing a merc for me is sorta like watching a random movie trailer in the middle of watching a whole season of a show. Rutger here was more added to my paint queue due to the Moving Targets fiction that I listened to on Audible than because I'm super hot to play him. That said, it will be interesting to put him on the table with Tarin and perhaps put some ranged merc jack with him.

When I painted this model I took an approach of trying to get color on 80% of the model before doing highlights and shading. It was an interesting practice exercise for me since I'm used to doing the "finish a section" process method. After my discussion with Matt from PP, I decided this is something I need more practice at if I ever want to up my game on overall composition and quality.

Sylys Wyshnalyrr the Seeker

This guy is long overdue from when I had wanted to add him to my army. I really enjoyed painting him and the little details made it all the more fun. This is the first model for my Cygnar army where I actually opted to not have any insignias added, mostly because of all the carved runes he already has.

Harlan Versh Illuminated One

Somehow Harlan managed to sneak into my paint queue. I'm not sure how, but once he got there I couldn't help but respect him. This model was actually quite fun to paint. I went with a minimalist style like the rest of my Cygnar and I feel that really helped make the model more compelling overall. There's lots of details and it could be easy to throw lots of color all over him, but this final result is something I'm quite happy with.

Gastone Crosse

This is my second of the Kickstarter sculpts now. I can honestly say I like this one way better than the normal sculpt. It's a bit more dynamic and the details are nice and crisp. My real disappointment here was my execution on the face; I just don't feel like I did it proper justice. As noted in last weekend's roundup post, I also re-based my old Vanguard to match Gastone here since most of the time that's what I'll pair with him I bet. Now he just needs some table time!

Tactical Arcanist Core

These guys were, admittedly, a late addition to my Cygnar wish list and motivated entirely by their helpfulness for Nemo1. I haven't even proxied them yet either. I just liked the models and figured I'd try them out.

Because these are mercs and not Cygnar models, I struggled with how to paint and base them. I wanted them to end up looking sort of like Nemo's pit crew. To that end, I kept them on the same style base, but gave them a more traditional Cygnar blue look to accent the glowing orange-red arcane parts. Before I'd finished the highlights I was getting a bad feeling about them, but once the final highlights went on, I was pretty pleased. I'm looking forward to fielding them next time I roll out Cygnar.

Drake McBain

There comes a point at which working more on a particular model becomes an exercise in self torture. McBain here had definitely reached that point for me. I'm quite happy with what I've ended up with (even if the photos are sub-par). I spent a lot of time working on him, and re-working... and re-working some more. The end result is a model that I'm pretty happy with and plan to enter in the KublaCon painting competition. This post is going to end up as a mash-up of a gallery posting and an RtC post all together. So, in that spirit, I'm going to settle in with a beverage to write out the rest of this post and I suggest you find your favorite beverage if you plan to read the whole thing.

The final tweaks that I made to this model were pretty straightforward. I cleaned up the undersides of surfaces that I had previously missed. I added static grass and the razor wire (both from Army Painter). The razor wire got a number of wash treatments to make it look older. I also did some additional cleanup on the metals. I'm still not 100% happy with them, but more on that later.

As a competition piece, I think it's ok. I was comparing it to last year's entry (the WarHog) and have to say I'm satisfied enough. I feel like this model is slightly above the WarHog, but not necessarily award worthy. The one thing I am happy about is how the overall scheme comes together. It's sort of a slightly-narrowed triadic scheme of green/blue/red-orange. As I continue to refine my own painting style, doing higher-end paint jobs like this start to really bring out my personal preferences and characteristics. One such characteristic is that when I build up base coats, I tend to use thinner coats and a wider variety of hues. This creates much more variation in the color, and I personally like that complexity. On the downside, that technique can easily create challenges when trying to shade, and I need more refinement on making that process better.

Do I think this is going to earn me an award at Kubla? Honestly I doubt it. However I'm not really feeling like more time is going to take it to the next level. There's a point at which I have to acknowledge that further painting is likely to make things worse by obscuring detail, ruining good points, and just getting frustrating. So I'm calling it good and moving on to a second entry for the competition.

What went well:
* Basing - Really happy with this. Spending the time to make my own spent casings and paint cross-hatching on the sandbags to create that bit more of realism was worth the time.
* Feedback - Getting lots of feedback, and over multiple iterations, was very helpful. Particularly for helping me course correct as I went along.
* Triadic scheme - The color scheme works pretty well overall I think. I used a little blue in shading the green armor. I used some purple to shade the flesh. Overall I tried to get some blue into most everything, and I felt it helped tie the whole thing together.
* Face - Honestly, I don't think I've painted such a good face ever before. Totally happy with the results for my current skill level.

What could have been better:
* Metals - Just kinda frustrated with these. I can see why some people prefer NMM. It's just easier to force the lighting effects that way. Still though, I'm a true real-metal fan at heart, so I'll keep doing my thing and trying to get better.
* Arms - The flesh of his arms could definitely been a little smoother.
* Sealing - Ok seriously, he's a bit too glossy. But I'm not taking any chances to hit him with an additional coat of dullcoat.

And that wraps up McBain, my first Kubla entry, and my last outstanding unpainted merc! Whew! Time to refill my drink and start looking at my next project.

Taryn di la Rovissi

I've lost count of how many times I've misspelled this model's name. Nevertheless, she's done. One less merc to paint. It was a pretty pleasant model to paint actually. Simple, easy to get to, and generally a nice sculpt. She's got a lot going on, so I tried to create a color scheme that picked out different functional elements of her outfit without it getting too busy with colors. The blue shades permeate almost the entire model in one way or another.

I can't say I'm going to be playing her anytime soon, but I may get antsy to try out the Ashlynn theme force at some point and this is one more piece of that puzzle.

Anastasia di Bray

It feels great to be back into a relatively normal painting swing. Knocking out Anastasia here was quick and delightful. It's not the most interesting sculpt for sure, but I can honestly say it was pretty fun to paint. Perhaps because of my recent efforts on the War Hog. In any case, it was a big morale boost for my inner muse.

What went well:
* Small - Yep, painting a small single model was great. I felt like I could spend quality time on it and still make quick progress.
* Retries - I think I painted they eyes 3 times before I called them good enough. Each time they got better, despite her eyes being tiny. It's hard to see in the photo unfortunately (more on that below).
* Pants - Of all the parts of this model, I think the pants came out the best of all.

What could have been better:
* Photos - ARGH! These pics are terrible! I'm not entirely sure why. It's probably a lighting problem, but I'll need to experiment more. It seems that every time I have to tear down my photo set up (due to visitors) that I have trouble getting it tweaked back to normal.
* Face and eyes - After Derek's class and seeing his models up close, I'm inspired to step up my game on the face area of models. However I'm realistic about just making progress through practice and not trying to jump straight to amazing.

Gun Mages (take 2)

Yikes! To say that I've been in a painting slump would be a gross understatement. I just checked my blog and it's been more than 2 months since I finished a model. So without further ado, here's my second set of Gun Mages, complete with officer.



Ok, so what happened to the SPQR series? Well, a couple things. First is that the posts felt awkward. I do plan to pick up the SPQR posts from time to time, but not quite as the regular installment that I had intended. Instead I'll do them sporadically as tips and techniques come up. Trying to do it with the Gun Mages here felt pretty forced and was holding me back from getting them painted.

Second is that I just needed to get something finished, and these guys were already in progress. I've been working on the War Hog for so long now that I really just wanted to be finishing something. The War Hog is still in progress and will get done this week. However I just needed to feel some sense of accomplishment (however meager) to give me a little juice again.

Anyway, nothing special here. Speed painted and not that great (by my standards), but they are done and just itching to be used in that Ashlynn tier list!

Madelyn Corbeau

Yes, yes, I know. She's all "American" style. The color scheme was half accident, half on-purpose. I wanted to try out the color scheme, and Ms Corbeau seemed like as good a subject as any. I'm not going to belabor this post too much. It's mainly nice to have one more unpainted merc done. Just 2 more to go!

What went well:
* The reds turned out pretty well I feel. Despite all the bad press about red as a color, I seem to have a knack for it. Either that or I've got some sort of color blindness.
* Overall composition of this model is not too shabby. I feel that the concentration of lighter colors (combined with the shape of the sculpt) draws the eye up to her face nicely.

What could have been better:
* The flesh is pretty weak for some reason. I've never had good luck with flesh. I need to just take more time on it I suspect.
* The whites appear somewhat dirty, but not on purpose.

Ok, time to see if I can squeeze out one more model before the new year.

Highborn Tactics: Units

In this first installment of my thoughts on Highborn army construction, I'm going to focus on unit selection. Obviously there's importance in which caster you pick as well, but I'm going to sidestep that issue for the moment since caster choice has a lot to do with play style preference. I'll just highlight that my experience of playing Highborn spans the following casters: Fiona, Ashlynn, Madhammer, Gorten, and Bart. I have yet to play the other mercenary contracts. Also, for the purposes of discussing unit selection, I'm going to leave out some of the small character units, like Aiyana & Holt. For simplicity sake, anything that I've never personally fielded I've marked with a *, so know that any comments following them are strictly theory-machine.

Steelheads:
Steelhead Halberdiers - What is there to say about these guys. They are sort of a basic trooper. Cheap, effective, mobile, and they have reach. Nothing spectacular, and nothing really terrible. I can't say I'm a huge fan of them though, mostly because the models seem like a pain in the butt to assemble and paint.

Steelhead Heavy Cavalry* - Out of all the Warmachine cavalry, these rank #2 in my book, right behind Cryx. They have a fair amount of damage dishing power. However I've typically stayed away from cavalry due to their being expensive.

Steelhead Riflemen* - Maybe I just don't get it. Why would I ever field these when I could get a unit of Long Gunners? These guys gain a reroll on CRA attacks and 1 point of SPD and 1 of POW, but lose so much in comparison. I'd rather spend the 1 extra point for the Long Gunners, provided I wasn't going to use my Cygnar unit slot for Gun Mages that is.

Rhulics:
Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corps* - I haven't fielded these guys yet, but my initial thoughts are pretty lukewarm. In shield wall, they are tougher than Forgeguard. Their ranged attacks are quite comparable to Steelhead Riflemen. They're pretty cheap. It's just the SPD 4 that makes them a hard sell. Perhaps under the Searforge contract I'll be more enticed.

Horgenhold Forge Guard - I've tried to love these guys. Under the right circumstances they have been awesome. However they tend to have far too many bad match ups. They're just so blasted slow and easy to hit, and in the new MK2 ranged meta, they just have a lot of trouble making it to the fray. Even at ARM 18, they are easy bait for most things. At SPD 4, they get out-threat ranged by almost everything else. Granted, with Ashlynn's Quicken and her feat, they can really wreck some havoc. However these guys are not first wave attack troopers.

Pirates:
Sea Dog Crew - These guys sort of underwhelm me in MK2. If you pile in enough of the pirate solos, they gain a fair amount of synergy. However the tipping point gets pretty expensive. Plus, I find that my Highborn lists have enough toolbox to them already that adding more stuff to coordinate gets complicated. I will note however that I am a huge fan of the Riflemen attachments.

Press Gangers* - I can't really speak to this unit. They seem interesting, and for so few points, I'd love to work them in. I just haven't mustered up the desire to try them out so no real opinion one way or the other on these guys yet.

Cygnar Mercs:
Long Gunner Infantry* - If I didn't make it clear above when talking about the Steelhead Riflemen, these guys are a good choice. They have been a Cygnar staple for years, and having them in a merc list is definitely useful.

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages - I can't say enough good things about these guys. They bring an element to the army that nothing else possesses. I should note that not including the UA is rather silly, since True Sight grants even more utility that the Highborn contract has trouble mustering. I'd classify these as a staple unit for Highborn contracts.

Precursor Knights* - In reviewing these guys, I'm suddenly wondering why I would ever field Forgeguard in place of these guys. They have better threat range, equal ARM in shield wall, and with the UA can hit even harder on a key round. The one key advantage of Forgeguard is that they are always that good, regardless of UAs and special rounds. On the flip side, these guys bring spell immunity to the table, which is an interesting feature.

Character Units:
Cylena Raefyll & Nyss Hunters - I love this unit. They have been worth their cost almost every battle I've fielded them. They're fast. They're accurate. They're remarkably potent in melee. And they are hard to hit!

Captain Sam Machorne & the Devil Dogs - I want to like these guys. Probably with a few more games I'll be more positive about them. With the right support (like Ashlynn's Quicken spell) they can bring something interesting to the table. Most of all, Sam has the Pronto jack marshal drive to use with non-Rhulic jack options, which is really useful. However this is a unit that clearly needs good synergy to help them out.

Greygore Boomhowler & Co.* - Again, another unit I haven't tried yet. On paper though, these guys seem great. I definitely feel like this is a unit that might perform quite well. They bring some of that classic troll toughness to the table, and with a good weapon selection to boot.

Wrap Up:
So where does this leave me? Well, there's definitely a couple units I want to try out still. However, there are also some staple units that take precedence. Nyss Hunters and Gun Mages are pretty much my go-to units because of their high defense. With Fiona or Ashlynn's feat up, they are pretty much unhittable. However, I'd love to hear other opinions out there. Combo suggestions, other synergies, etc.

Durgen Madhammer

Rounding out my initial Rhulic battlegroup is Durgen Madhammer. In the first few games that I proxied him, I had a great time, and I'm really looking forward to getting more games in with him. This model presented me with a couple of key options that I feel obligated to point out. First, the visor comes separate and can be positioned as desired, so I opted to go with it closed, mostly because I felt it gave him a slightly more surreal look that I liked better than with the visor open. The second thing was the spare ammo, which I attached to his hip. This came separate as well, and after painting and roughly positioning it, decided to go ahead and include it.

What went well:
* Painting him with the rest of the jacks helped speed up the process as well as create more uniformity to the whole group.
* Using a wet palette for metals was helpful. I wasn't really expecting it, but it was helpful, especially when trying to mix shades of gold and silver together to create better highlight colors. I need to give this some additional practice and see what it will achieve.

What could have been better:
* There are a few places where the metals look a little too cartooney due to too much blacklining contrast. Overall I felt like I got some good practice with metals in, but some of the detailing work is still eluding my skills.

Overall this battlegroup was a lot of fun to do. It also afforded me an opportunity to practice more with doing real metalics, which I personally prefer the look of to NMM. Both have their advantages and disadvantages, and I do acknowledge some very impressive work done with NMM. However I just prefer the look of real metalics and would like to refine my skills with them much much further. Hopefully the experience of using the wet palette will open a new door for me.

Ghordson Basher

Next off the Rhulic assembly line: the Ghordson Basher! This compact but potent creation features a heavy duty smashing front, strong powerful legs, and a tail hitch for a convenient 10-ton towing capacity! Seriously, the tail hitch is probably my favorite feature of the model. It makes me laugh every time I look at it.

This model was worked on at the same time as the Blasters, and Madhammer in order to keep the look fairly consistent. Again, more paint wear to represent usage, and even more verdigris on the bronzes to show extended use in dank humid tunnels.

What went well:
* Painting these at the same time as the rest of the battlegroup really helped keep things looking consistent.

What could have been better:
* The numbering was not quite as crisp, but still readable.
* More challenges with placement on the base, but much more reasonable than the Blasters.
* Flat plates on the legs made for some challenges around zenithal shading choices.

For my own future reference, here's a quick summary of the painting process:
Prime: black
Steels: heavy drybrush Boltgun Metal, wash Badab Black
Bronzes: Shinning Gold, wash Gryphon Sepia, selected wash P3 Turquoise Ink
Verdigris: selected wash Arcane Blue, selected wash Necrotite Green, selected wash VMC Smoke
Reds: (all wet palette) base Skorne Red Base, highlight Khador Red, first shade Skorne Red Base + Meridius Blue (3:1), second shade Umbral Umber
Steels: highlight Boltgun Metal, second highlight Mithril Silver
Bronzes: highlight Shining Gold, second highlight VMC Brass

Grundback Blasters

Fresh off the assembly line: 2 new Grundback Blasters! These nasty little buggers, often referred to as part of the "gun bunny" family, are a part of the Madhammer battlegroup I am currently working on. Although small in size and point cost, I've found them to be an amusing addition to my merc force. Sprays are very potent in MK2, particularly in clearing off infantry from an engaged heavy, and these little guys are champs at that job.

Before talking about painting these, I'd like to mention the assembly. They posed a bit of a challenge in a couple ways. First, their feet are not exactly basing friendly. Big wide flat feet are amusing, but hard to position reasonably, especially when I paint the model off of the based and attach him later. Second, the joints all required pinning as the joins are less than perfect. I ended up doing a combination of pinning and green stuff to get them all together.

As far as painting goes, I decided to go with a metal-and-red scheme, since Madhammer strikes me as a bold sort of fellow. Red is the color of fire, and blasts, and well... more fire! So that's what I decided to go with. Just like the Vanguard, I wanted some battle damage on them so that they appeared used, but not broken down. In order to do the battle damage, I used the same technique as before. Specifically I did all the metals first, with metal everywhere. Then I used the wet palette and added the reds afterwards by controlling the transparency and layering the red on. This gave it a look like the paint was partially worn/blasted off in places. I've become more and more fond of this technique as I use it.

What went well:
* These were fun to paint! Quick, easy, and not at all frustrating (except for the normal tedious nature of bronzes).
* The numbers for each of them, although not Rhulic characters, turned out good. I like the industrial formatting of them.
* The bases worked out great. I used a little red in the shading of the rocks to tie the whole scheme together. My wife even went out of her way to comment on the bases, so I take that as a good sign.

What could have been better:
* More time as usual.
* Better planning around the bases so that they positioned better.

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages

Sometimes I am caught off guard by a model. I think to myself "Wow! I love those! I want to paint those!" If they aren't in my primary factions, then I often wait or look for an opportunity to paint them for someone else. In the case of the Gun Mages, MK2 made them available to the mercenary Highborn contract, which made me very excited. I proxied them one game and found them to be excellent. I rushed out and bought them soon after. I stuck them to bases temporarily and played them unpainted while I was finishing up previous projects. Then I started painting them and... they were tedious. Not just a little tedious. They were painfully tedious. I honestly couldn't explain why either. Painting units is frequently soul-crushing, but these were especially so for some reason. I finished them up, and they aren't great, but they are finished. So it got me thinking... why were they so painfully tedious to paint?

1) Units are tedious. Duh!! Painting a whole unit of models together can be frustrating. So much time gets spent in the beginning and so little progress seems to get made.

2) I primed these white, and I often have a problem with being frustrated with my progress when painting over white. It has to do with the color balance to the eye. I typically don't base coat everything before doing shading and highlighting, so I'll get to this point where half the model is done and the other half is stark white. It makes my eyes angry.

3) Although these models appear like nice simple sculpts, there was something about the color choices I had and the surfaces available that just didn't seem to jive. I think used much more of a brown palette and eliminated the green that I'd have been happier. Unfortunately that didn't become clearer to me until I was nearly done. *sigh*

4) Rushing to get them done obviously got me cranky. I was sick of proxying other models in my battles while I tried to get these guys done. Lesson learned: Don't field something until AFTER it's painted.

Most of this is no revelation to anyone out there I'm sure. This just felt like a chance for me to step back and pay attention to where my own personal desire to paint is gravitating towards and aim more in that direction.