Strider Officer

Posting this guy separately from the Musician who I will post in just a moment. Nothing specific to note about this guy over the Musician except that I like how this rune turned out better than most of the others. I was able to put a little glow effect on the surrounding feathers and metal which helped the effect.

Strider Deathstalker

Now this is a rockin model. I really enjoyed painting it. Lots of interesting surfaces to work with, and a good blend of details and large surfaces. Anyway, this will be a quick update since I'm doing it on break at work.

What worked well:
* Doing this model along with the Striders really helped keep her consistent with them. Although painting squads is sometimes soul-crushing to grind through, these weren't so bad since it was the 6 Striders, Lylyth, this Deathstalker, the Musician and the Officer, so it broke up the group a bit to do it this way. Plus I just like that they all match.
* Glowing rune on the back worked out better than I was expecting, and helps bring that theme element of the army more into this particular model.
* Details turned out fairly well overall, especially the hair, eyes, and leg wraps.

What could have been better:
* More time spent on quality would have helped. It's not a premium paint job, but again, I'm practicing speed.
* Skin could have used a bit more work.
* Black armor blending is pretty poor. I almost went back to touch it up, but honestly the surfaces were small and would have required a pile more effort for a small amount of change.

Striders

Despite a recent heat wave here, I managed to get an early morning sealing done and wrap these guys up. The unit attachment is still in progress along with the Deathstalker.

What worked well:
* The bows actually worked out better than I expected. I did sort of a fake wood grain patterning on them and then buried it in a couple wash layers. The end result doesn't look like thin wood grain, but does provide sort of a marbled-wood sort of effect. For the amount of time spent on it, I can't complain.
* Basing turned out nice with the bits of orange lichen on them. It helped bring some unity to the basing and overall color scheme. I'm pretty happy with how this basing scheme is coming along.
* Washes worked pretty effectively. Part of my challenge to myself is to use more washes and work with green to expand my abilities. I've had lots of challenges in the past with wash consistency and getting "rings" around the edges of washes, so hopefully I can continue to get better at this.

What could have been better:
* Sharper details would have helped a lot I think. All my recent speed painting has left me realizing that sharpness of details is one serious area of improvement for me. It's hard to point out specific things, but there's lots of spots where I don't get nice crisp details and it reduces the readability of the model.
* Feathers are just not something I've practiced much. I felt like these could have been much better, but I just don't have the experience with them. Rather than dwell on them too much, I decided to just move on.

Lylyth, Herald of Everblight

Gasp! A painted Warlock for Legion! I feel like I've completed an important step on my Legion army.

This model was plagued with challenges. I got it second hand and had to strip it, disassemble it, remove some putty, clean it, and get it reassembled. The whole battle box was second hand, but this model was really the bigger job. Plus, I had my first dremel accident with her. I was drilling a pin hole in her foot and it went right through. Fortunately I didn't hit anything critical like the cloak or, say, my finger.

What went well:
* Cloak - The green worked out ok. The overall color scheme is fine.
* Pink glow - The photo doesn't really show it, but I painted the danglies on the end of her belt-thing to have a pink glow to tie her in with the Shredders and the glow worked out pretty well.
* Speed - Pretty fast for the quality, and the Striders will match her fairly well as well since I did the flesh and cloaks at the same time.

What could be better:
* Quality - It's definitely not my best work, and I partially wish I had spent more time on her.
* Metals - The metals didn't work out so great. I think instead of basing them with a metal and then trying to wash and shade and work back up, I should have just started from the black base coat and just worked up from there.

Last Tourney Before KublaCon

Today was the last SR4 tournament at my LGS before KublaCon. I pulled out my typical 1 win and 2 losses record. I only played one army for all three matches (that's right, no by this time!) and again have no regrets doing so.

My List: eSeverius, Blessing of Vengeance, Fire of Salvation, Revenger, Devout, Hierophant, Vassal, Chior (6), Zealots (10+MB), 2x Seneschals, Aiyana&Holt, Orin Midwinter, Rupert, 2x Wracks.

Match 1: Circle: eKaya, Warpwolf, Woldwarden, Woldwyrd, Gnarlhorn, Shifting Stones, Brun&Lug, Blackclad Wayfarer, Druids. (probably something else too, but I forget)

The first battle was against Marco, who was the tournament organizer. Last tournament I had mentioned how he and I still hadn't gotten to play each other and "magically" this time we drew that match. I was stoked. This battle was awesome. It was a brutal punch-each-other-in-the-nose battle. Marco did a fantastic job of leveraging his army against me and supressing key elements. I on the other hand did a better than average job of keeping eSevvy inaccessible and mucking up his plans. I laid out some serious damage and tore things up, but in the end Marco executed a complex set of maneuvering and jiggery-pokery, throwing the Blessing into eSevvy, then running Laris up and using the animus to put Kaya right in next to the knocked down eSevvy. With the combination of a bunch of models in melee and 4 remaining Fury, the math was academic. Even though I lost, I give this battle a hearty 2 thumbs up for entertainment value.

Battle 2: Menoth: Severius, Hierophant, 3x Redeemer, Blessing, TFG (10+UA), Zealots (10+MB), Knights Exemplar, Seneschal, Rupert.

The second battle was against a newer Menoth player. This game almost ended very early. He won the initiative and went first. After his initial advance, I ran the Blessing up, then charged it in the back with eSevvy. My opponent was a little confused until I then popped my feat and terror struck him. I managed to get control of a Seneschal which I walked over into melee with Severius and took a couple swings. Unfortunately I missed with the first one, otherwise the battle might have been over on turn 1. I then got one of his Zealots loose to throw a bomb and apply a bit more damage. The rest of the battle was a brutal trading of blows and leveraging of denial abilities. In the end I pulled out the victory by orchestrating a series of ranged attacks against a cowardly Severius who was hiding well back.

Battle 3: Skorne: eMorghoul, Rhinodon, Cyclops Shaman, Cyclops Savage, Krea, 2x Ancestral Guardians, Pratorians (10+UA), Venators (10), Paingivers (6), 2x Extolers, Swamp Gobbers.

Ah, my old arch-enemy: Lance. Playing eMorghoul in a Mosh Pit scenario is like those nasty tire spikes they put on parking lots to stop you from getting out without paying: You either back up and suffer irrevocable consequences (lose the scenario) or you move forward and pay the price (eMorghoul's feat). This time though I managed to keep him contained enough to prevent the assassination run. Aiyana put the threat on the table of never getting to use his feat, so he used it top of round 2 when I was not really expecting him to. If he hadn't, he'd never have gotten a chance. This battle was almost close actually, but I had some key problems. First, when I use eSevvy's feat and take control of a Paingiver, it is no longer friendly to the Skorne warbeasts and can't just add Fury, otherwise I would have put eMorghoul in a horrible position by loading all his beasts up to max. Second, eMorghoul's 17 DEF is brutal to overcome. This battle was particularly painful due to a forest sitting right in the middle, which brings me to the third point of Lance masterfully leveraging that forest and dramatically limiting my options. Oh yeah, and Extolers make eMorghoul's feat completely ridiculous. I hates it! In the end, I lost on scenario after a failed assassination run on eMorghoul. If he hadn't had fury to transfer, he'd have been toast, but that's the way of Hordes. At least I didn't get jacked by him and merely lost by scenario, so I count that a mini-victory.

Lance walked away with the 2nd place trophy though which was rockin for him. I got to chat with more people about painting which was rockin for me, plus all 3 games were enjoyable.

Shredders

One more step closer to a fieldable (is that a word?) Legion army. These guys were mostly done almost a week ago, but I wanted to paint glyphs on them and needed to pick up some additional paint. It's nice to feel like I've made some significant progress on getting my Legion started.
What went well:
* Skin tons are fine - I was worried they would look "smurfy", but overall I like the look.
* Chitin worked out good - I really like the look of the chitin.
* Gums/tongues stand out well - Oddly enough, this was something that jumped out at me afterwards as having worked well.
* Time - It didn't take a huge amount of time to paint these. I think the longest part was painting all the little chitin spots.

What could have been better:
* Glyphs - There will be more below about the glyphs, but overall I feel like the execution was not super great. I've done tattoos before, but these didn't feel like they are really "glowing". I'm not completely disappointed, but just wish I could have figured out how to execute them a bit better. Perhaps a splash of paint on gloss.
* Claws/horns - Not terrible, but I used a different technique this time and they claws and horns just don't quite have the smoothness I'd like.

I used the GW washes for a couple things here (the skin being most notable) and overall I'm starting to like them more and more. They require a little caution in their application since they go on like a combination of a wash and a glaze. They will heavily color a surface, especially if put on too thick. However they are easy to apply and stay contained to a particular area very well. For actual "washes" I still will use just paint and water, but these GW Washes are now finding a particular niche in my painting arsenal.

I wanted to find a way to differentiate each of the Shredders so that I could track them during games easily. To that end I opted to paint glowing glyphs on them. Amy Brehm painted an incredible Coven battlegroup for the P3 Grand Masters last year that I really liked and used pink for the glowing items (pictures can be seen in NQ #21). I wanted to use that same pink theme, primarily because I liked the look of it. It's probably not a great color theory match, but I'll chalk that up to still learning. After some searching around, my buddy Lance pointed out the omniglot website which has a bunch of information about various written languages. I poked around in there and found a section on Nushu and loved the look of the characters. Why not just make up my own? Well, honestly, everytime I make up my own glyphs, they end up looking like the troll runes. Anyway, the long and short of it is that the glyphs worked out ok, but not fabulous. Hopefully I can refine the process on future models.

Chitin Formula:
* Base with Bloodtracker Brown
* Streak with Beast Hide
* Streak with Jack Bone
* Wash with Umbral Umber
* Wash with Umbral Umber + Armor Wash

Skin Formula:
* Base with slightly thinned Liquitex Light Blue over white primer
* Controlled Wash with Exile Blue
* Highlight with Frostbite
* Wash with GW Asurmen Blue
* Highlight with Liquitex Light Blue

From the Desk: Random Updates

Tonight's post is sponsored by a screwed up sleeping schedule, being ahead on my to-do list, and continued playtesting of MKII.

First up in my random thoughts for tonight is my display case. Long ago (probably 4 years now) I bought the "classic" Ikea glass display case. I believe it's called Detolf. When I first got it, I was just getting into Warmachine and put a bunch of my old Warhammer Fantasy miniatures in it that I had enjoyed painting, despite never really playing it. Today, as you can see, the case has evolved. All of the Warhammer models have been demoted to closet storage, and I added 2 additional shelves to it. Only the very bottom has resisted infestation. At present, it stores my entire Warmachine and Hordes collections, but it's getting tight. I'm now starting to ponder how to better store my collection, and if that includes demoting some stuff out of the case.

Next is the Shredders I'm working on. This in-progress shot gives you a rough idea. I've opted for something similar to the studio scheme. I'm going with darker blue skin, brown for the chiton, and typical bone colors for claws, teeth and horns. Overall I'm liking how these are turning out. My current conundrum is how to differentiate them easily for battle purposes. My leading theory right now is to put glowing runes on them. However, despite pouring through all the books, I haven't found any sort of Legion runes or glyphs of any kind. So I'll probably just end up making up runes as I go.

Ah, and where would I be without my paints. I'm back to my age old debate of how to store my paints conveniently. My wife found a couple paint storage things, but they are more designed for the larger paint tubes. I'm starting to think that something along the lines of a spice rack would be best, but with the number of paint pots I have, it would take a lot of rack space. Odds are I won't do anything about it, but if anyone has suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

And lastly, a quick battle report...

I played another MKII game last night. 35pts of Protectorate vs Cryx. Pardon the abbreviations but it's getting late. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures despite bringing my camera.

Me: eSeverius, Blessing, Fire, Zealots (10+MB), Chior (6), Vilmon, Paladin, Vassal, 3x Wracks, Hierophant.
Cryx: Asphyxious, Soulhunters (5), Mechanithralls (10+Necrosurgeon+3 Brutes), Reaper, 2x Deathrippers, Necrotech, 1x Scrap Thrall, Skarlock, Withershadow.

Summary: Asphyxious pulled out the win after a failed assassination run on eSeverius, and then a failed counter-assassination run back at him. It turned out afterwards that we missed an effect of Asphyxious' spell that would have left a cloud effect and thus blocked the first run on eSeverius, but it was an interesting stress test for both casters.

Highlights:
* eSeverius is pretty badass, and his changes are very welcome. His spells are simplified but he retains his frightening support caster capabilities. This time I actually got him into melee with stuff and he is every bit the old man his fluff portrays him to be.
* Soulhunters are badass at clearing infantry.
* The new Unit Formation rules are very cool, but create some slightly strange effects. This battle resulted in a Soulhunter being cut off from his leader and stuck "cowering" by himself.
* Mechanithralls seem fairly priced. They are cheap, but they also don't have a very good MAT.
* The new Zealots and Monolith Bearer are rockin. I love the changes. They are much more reasonable and at the same time slightly more flexible than before. I like the simplification that their prayers and abilities are not *Actions anymore.
* The Reaper is pretty awesome. His DEF 13 made him remarkably difficult to deal with. I'd say he will start seeing occasional table time in the future.

Further Impressions: The Reaper is actually a good example of why I'm liking MKII so far. Before the Reaper was totally sidelined. Now it's something fairly priced and can have a key role in an army. It's now viable but not overly powerful. A great many things are now in this boat. So far, I'm still loving MKII. I'm actually going to be sad to play MKI in the tournament coming up this next weekend.

Spawning Vessel

Hooray! I've started painting my Legion models! It was sort of disconcerting to realize that I had more unpainted Legion than painted Trolls. So, given that I only have 2 Protectorate models left to paint, and one is the Avatar which will be a huge project, I decided to switch over for the time being. I painted the Spawning Vessel here because I'm also doing the 4 Shredders at the same time and it seemed a logical combination to work on them together. This model has officially solidified a major portion of my color scheme.

What went well:
* Metals - I feel like I got good contrast on the metals, really making them pop.
* Flesh - He's a little smurfy, but I'm fine with that. I'm trying out some other paints in the process of doing this. I primed in white, then used Liquitex Light Blue as a fairly thick wash, then did some highlighting. After that I hit it with GW Asurmen Blue Wash pretty thick, and then did some further shading using thinned P3 Exile Blue and VMC Black. I also applied a couple quick highlights over the wash with the Liquitex.
* Blood Pool - The red of the blood pool worked out nicely, despite not showing it off well in the picture. I started with Khador Red base, then used the GW Baal Red Wash, then hit it with some focused thick washes of Bloodstone, then Umbral Umber. After that I highlighted back up using a mix of Ryn Flesh and Khador Red, and some final point highlights of Carnal Pink.
* Speed - It didn't take very long at all do to this little guy. I'm probably going to adopt a similar plan as I did with Cryx and focus on getting the army painted to my own tabletop quality standard, focusing more on color scheme and overall army unity instead of individual model quality.

What could have been better:
* Quality - Yeah, the shading is a little rough, but like I said above, that's not the focus.
* Claws/Horns - I'm not sure I like them or not. Time will tell. I used various layers of Jack Bone, MWB, MWH, White, GW Devlun Mud Wash, Armor Wash, and Battlefield Brown. I feel like I got close to the effect that I wanted, but I'm not completely happy with it. The one downside to the GW washes is that they have a tendency to glaze the entire surface in the process since the medium is so thick. It'll take me a while to get used to them. I'm betting I'm going to end up transferring them into droppers.

Well, that's it for now. Back to the 4 Shredders that are currently half done.

KublaCon Painting Competition

This is reproduced from the SF Bay Area Mini Painters yahoo group. I can't express how excited I am about this change in the judging. I'm hoping to provide some good representation for the PP line of miniatures at the competition. I honestly think this will encourage more people to enter the competition which is good for the art in general. Entering last year was both exciting and disappointing: it was great to enter and not feel like the worst thing in the case, but it was disappointing to be judge against professional painters. I'm really looking forward to seeing how I do this year.

Greetings! Kublacon '09 is almost upon us! The KublaAwards Mini-Painting Competition has exciting new changes this year!

We are pleased to announce the new "Open" style judging for the KublaAwards. "What is 'Open judging', you might ask? Well, allow me to explain:

The old familiar style of judging was commonly known as "Podium" judging, and has been a mainstay of competitions such as Games Workshop's "Golden Demon Awards", where entries are divided up by many categories and genres, and in each category there are three winners in the order of Gold, Silver, and Bronze. This is a reputable and time-honored judging system, but is not the only one, and is not without its drawbacks.

Common problems with Podium Judging involve under and over represented categories. For example: Fantasy Single is often the most highly contested category...dozens of entries may in fact be Gold-worthy, but the hard choices must be made, and wonderful entries must be weeded out to just the top three. Often, the same well-known high-end painters walk away with the trophies year after year, discouraging new painters from entering. While in another category, there may not be even enough entries to fill out the top three, thereby granting automatic trophy status to whatever happens to have been entered. This tends to cheapen the trophy.

Now, enter the Open Judging System! This style of competition is *merit-based*. The panel of judges critique the entries based on quality of artistry and technique. You are not judged against your neighbor, but against a 'standard'. If your entry is Gold-worthy, then you will in fact win a Gold trophy! This style of judging has been practiced for many years at Historical conventions and European competitions. This year, many American painting competitions have adopted variations of the Open System, including GenghisCon, ReaperCon, and our very own KublaCon!

Genres will be eliminated. There are now two main categories: the Open Category is the main competition, and the Masterclass category is for high-end prestige competition. Masterclass will be judged to a more stringent standard. Those who place in Masterclass are indeed the Best of the Best! Both categories are judged according to Open rules.

Rules for entry:
Each competitor may enter a max total of 4 entries. For entry purposes, these will be restricted to 2 Singles, 1 Squad, and 1 Large. You may choose to enter any entry into either the main Open, or the Masterclass category.

Single is defined as any normal-sized mini under 3" in any dimension.
Squad is a themed grouping of at least 3 miniatures.
Large is any miniature larger than 3" in any dimension.

There are additional awards that will be handed out for Best of Reaper, Best of GW, Best of Privateer Press....and a single award for the Best of Show "KublaSword".

We will also carry on our traditional KublaKids category for painters 15 years old and under. This category will continue using the Podium System.

Members of the Judging panel ARE allowed to enter the competition, but of course will not be judging their own entries.

To celebrate our new KublaAwards system, we also have NEW TROPHIES! Our very own local celebrity sculptor, Matt Gubser (of Prophet Miniatures) has been commissioned to sculpt 3 new trophies. And they are beauties! The Open category will be receiving medallions with the face of our Kubla mascot. The Masterclass will get a bust of Kubla trophy. And the Best of Show is a stunning, and GIANT, arm holding the coveted KublaSword. These are beautiful and exciting new trophies! Be sure to catch Matt Gubsers popular sculpting classes at KublaCon this year.

Entries will be accepted anytime at the Paint-n-Take area in the main foyer, on Fri, Sat, and Sun till noon. Every care will be taken by Kubla staff to ensure the safety of competition entries, but Kublacon staff, volunteers, and hotel cannot be held responsible for lost, damaged or unclaimed entries. Please reclaim entries anytime after 5pm Sunday, or Monday morning. Entry implies consent for Kublacon to photograph and display entries during convention and online. Previous KublaAwards winning entries are ineligible for further entry. Judges decisions are considered final.

Come to KublaCon '09 and enjoy the new improved KublaAwards Competition, the Paint-n-Take tables, Speedpainting contests, and seminars.

See you at KublaCon! May 22-25, 2009, at the Hyatt Regency, Burlingame, next to the SF airport. http://www.Kublacon.com

Wayne Rogers,
Kublacon Mini-Painting director

Fire of Salvation

I'm glad to have this one finally finished. It seemed to take forever. There was marvelous detail and opportunity on this model, but it just hit an unfortunate conjunction of busy times for me and took longer than I would have wanted. Plus it didn't help that I took him to the tournament before he was really finished and had to do some repair work afterwards. All things considered though, it wasn't so bad.

What went right:
* Whites went better than I expected. I used more of a dirty earth tone instead of a grey tone.
* Glowing runes turned out nice. I like the effect and it's not too much. It's not very realistic, but I like it.
* Overall color balance worked out fairly well with the exception of how the menofixes in the shoulders seem to blend in too much.

What could have been better:
* General motivation to put more time into it, although I've been trying to limit the amount of time I spend on any one model these days.
* Lack of crispness to the painting seems to be a recent trend for me. I'm not saying I dislike it, but the jury is still out on that one.
* Realistic shading didn't really play out well for me, with several places being lighter when they should be darker.

Well, just a fast update. I've got a backlog of other stuff to deal with before I get back into a normal painting rhythm. KublaCon is just over 3 weeks away and I need to get seriously cranking on a squad entry.

MKII: Protectorate vs Cryx

Quick battle report, which is long overdue. I'm dead tired and sorely behind on things. The Fire of Salvation is parked with glosscoat drying too. Anyway, it was a 35pt battle under MKII and was quite amusing.

Armies:
Protectorate: Feora, Avatar, Castigator, Daughters, Deliverers (6), Sunburst, Cleansers (6), Allegiant, Hierophant, 3x Wracks
Cryx: eSkarre, Cankerworm, Leviathan, Nightwretch, Bane Knights (10), 2x Pistol Wraiths, Tartarus, Wrathe

Highlights:
* Feora is still Feora. She kicks butt and sets things on fire.
* Cleansers are pretty rockin. Automatic fire is a pretty sweet upgrade for them. Still not my favorite, but improved.
* Daughters are, well, not quite as I remember them. They are still pretty fun though.
* New Deliverers are very cool. I love the new Rocket Volley option for them. It's a welcome alternative to firing shot after shot of deviating blast.
* The Leviathan still impresses me for the points.
* Bane Knights are pretty reasonable now. I'd say they are quite fairly priced now.

Questions:
* Vengeance or Continuous Effects: Which go first?
* No measuring unit formation during Vengeance?
* Wall of Fire does not block LOS?
* When fleeing a unit can "cower"? (apparently it's correct, but still sounds wrong)

Outcome:
Feora pulled out a victory on this one. In the end I pulled out a NQ win. On eSkarre's feat round, she marked Feora and herself as non-targetable. However Feora's Blazing Effigy spell is not an attack spell. The Castigator trampled up over a couple Bane Knights and then Feora blasted eSkarre. It helped that she already had some self-applied damage on her, and the Sunburst was able to apply a couple points.

Overall:
Still loving MKII. The rules flow well and play smoothly.

From the Painting Desk: Ridiculous

It's 90 degrees today. This wouldn't be such a big deal except that without air conditioning, the heat permeates my place and makes blending more difficult. So I'm taking a bit of a break for a day or two and catching up on other tasks around the house. Too bad since the Fire of Salvation is almost finished too. Even if I could finish painting it, the heat makes it unsafe to seal stuff (or prime for that matter).

On another note, the KublaCon painting competition has decided to go to an open judging format. I for one am stoked. They are planning to have a masters level and an open level. Speaking of that I'll have to get crackin on the things I want to enter.

Anyway, I'm off for a late evening swim and then melt into a puddle in a corner.

SR4 Battle Report

The tournament yesterday was amusing. The quote for the day was "Dude, there's a Reznik in my face!" Overall I had a typical tournament record: 1 win, 1 loss, 1 by.

My List: Reznik, Fire of Salvation, Blessing of Vengeance, Revenger, Chior(6), Vassal, 2x Seneschals, 3x Wracks.
I brought a backup Harbinger list, but had no intention of playing it. I wanted to try out Reznik with a jack heavy list.

Battle 1: I fought against Protectorate ironically. Severius, Zealots+Monolith, Knights Exemplar, Chior, 2x Redeemers, Blessing of Vengeance. The battle overall was just difficult. Since I couldn't target Severius directly with spells, it limited my options. Plus there was this plateau terrain feature in the middle that screwed both of us up. I very nearly got a run on Severius with the Fire of Salvation (of which one hit would have probably done him in), but due to unfortunate positioning, he just couldn't quite fit through between two jacks and I got stuck. Then he managed to get a charge on Reznik with the knights and that wrapped things up. Overall it was a poor match up anyway since Severius is somewhat of an achilles heel for Reznik (feat, spells, etc).

Battle 2: Unluckily, I drew the by for that round. *sigh* I did however get to watch a magificent throwdown between Deneghra and Skarre where the Cankerworm destroyed both the Deathjack and the Nightmare. It was shocking.

Battle 3: I love the 3rd round. By then it's a game just for fun since I'm never in a winners' bracket. I faced off against Asphyxious, Soulhunters(5), Biles(7?), 3x Deathrippers, Skarlock, Wrathe and Gorman. This is where Reznik shined. I put Brand of Heresy on the Soulhunters, Zealot's Rage on the Fire of Salvation, and Enliven on the Blessing of Vengeance. It was downright punishing to the Cryx player. He could never quite leverage his full strength and I was able to relentlessly push forward toward his side. Near the end he retreated with Asphyxious behind a cloud but by using Perdition I got the Fire into LOS of Asphyxious and then pulled off the 10" charge and beat him down like the dog he was. This was definitely a battle where I felt like I executed extremely well and leveraged the full power and synergy of my army.

Casualties: A wrack got damaged slightly, and the Fire of Salvation, which wasn't completely finished, had a bit of an issue with a couple of pins, but overall no unrecoverable damage. I had worried about bringing the Fire of Salvation since I hadn't sealed it yet, but in hindsight I am certainly glad I did.

Overall: Great time was had. The "fanboy" Protectorate player was there boasting about not using Kreoss but he fielded a completely typical Harbinger list with Doc and Vilmon and Paladins and Redeemers. All things considered, I'd rather have a By than face that. Fortunately both of my battles were entertaining.

MKII: Mercs vs Cryx

Two more MKII battles on Saturday night. Just getting behind on posting unfortunately. Here's the highlights:

Battle 1:
Mercs (Highborn): Ashlynn, Nomad, Freebooter, Mariner, Nyss Hunters(10), Dougal, Stannis, Bokur, Herne&Jonne
Cryx: eAsphyxious, 2x Pistol Wraits, Seether, 2x Deathrippers, Soulhunters(5), Bane Thralls(10), Skarlock

Summary: I got Cryx'd. Admitedly I could have probably avoided it, but the Seether slammed the Bokur into Ashlynn and then a single Soulhunter charged and killed her. The battle was a poor match up anyway, as Asphyxious was dropping out cloud templates to provide cover to the Soulhunters, and the Bane Thralls had stealth, so it was pretty difficult for me to leverage my army against them.

Battle 2:
Mercs (Highborn): Ashlynn, Nomad, Freebooter, Mariner, Nyss Hunters(10), Dougal, Stannis, Aiyana&Holt, Gorman
Cryx: eDeneghra, 2x Deathrippers, Nightmare, Mechanithralls(10), Necrosurgeon, 2x Brutethralls, Bane Knights(10), Tartarus

Summary: I got seriously Cryx'd. Top of round 2 eDeneghra feats and then the Nightmare uses it's prey to move in, then tramples over the Nyss and into melee with Ashlynn. A single hit from the Nightmare killed her with damage to spare. This is the first thing I've encountered in 5 games that actually felt broken. With eDenghra's Pursuit spell, the Nightmare could potentially move 12" before it's activation, and then take a 9" charge/trample. We're planning on trying that out again to see what happens before reporting it.

Overall: Still loving MKII. The rules are streamlined and easy to follow. There's a few specific situations that are raising questions, but overall I love it. I'm sort of sad to be playing MKI for the SR4 tournament this Saturday.

MKII: 2 More Battles

2 more test battles today. Again, no pictures. I played Protectorate against Cygnar at the LGS.

Battle 1:
Protectorate: eKreoss, Vanquisher, Dervish, Revenger, Reclaimer, Chior(6), Covenant, TFG(10)
Cygnar: Darius, Ironclad, Centurion, Stormclad, Squire, Strangeways, Mechanics

Summary: I pulled out a win by the skin of my teeth. The Covenant is awesome for the no-knockdown feature. The Dervish however was the star of the show. I used him to sneak around and then use side-step to make my way over to Darius and deliver a beating. I absolutely love the Dervish now. The Stormclad was totally badass to fight against as well.

Battle 2:
Protectorate: Amon, Devout, Dervish, Guardian, Repenter, Chior(6), Paladin, 3 Wracks, Sunburst Crew
Cygnar: eHaley, Defender, 2 Lancers, Trenchers(6), Squire

Summary: This was a bad match up for Cygnar. After a first round of eHaley's domination, I kept "no spells" on all my jacks and spell barrier on Amon for pretty much the entire game. Eventually I wore him down and took out eHaley, but he almost got a serious NQ win on me by trying to use telekinesis to move Amon out from his cover and then blast him with spells. Amon took a beating over the course of the game but pulled out the win. It was rough though since I lost most of my cortexes over the course of the game.
Amon plays like a whole new caster now. Even though I have to re-learn him, I like him. The Sunburst was actually quite good now.

MKII Experience:
MKII continues to impress me. The biggest issues that came up were just a distinct lack of rules where there used to be rules. I won't go into great detail, but this was today's list of questions:
* No mention that jack's can't spend focus outside of their activation (matters for free strikes, Darius' jackhammer, Devout's defensive strike, Vassal, etc)
* No mention that weapon crews can't run.
* No mention of what direction continue fire damages from (respective of shields)
* No mention of front/back arcs when knocked down (again, shields)
* Warcaster Attachments apparently are just solos now
* No mention of shield bonuses going away when that arm system is disabled
* No mention of warjack bonds granting an extra focus allocation
* Which wins between Purification and eFeora's Caustic Presence?

I'm seriously looking forward to more games with MKII.

Hierarch Severius

Doing another side-by-side on this one. Grand Scrutator Severius was the first Warmachine warcaster that I painted. I spent a ton of time on him working on the blending. I remember being very please with him at the time. Today I finished up Hierarch Severius, the Epic version of the original. Looking at these models side-by-side was an interesting exercise. For the purpose of this post I will shorthand Hierarch Severius (who appears on the left) as eSevvy, and Grand Scrutator Severius (on the right) as pSevvy. Unfortunately the lighting was tricky for eSevvy and I just didn't get good pictures, so he appears darker in the pics than in person.

There's a couple things that really shocked me when I took an honest look at the two. The whites on pSevvy are simpler and lack depth, but are smooth and clean looking. eSevvy overall has more of a gritty look to him. The reds on eSevvy are, without a doubt, much better. They have stronger contrast and convey much more depth, plus the blending is much better. However, for the overall model look, I have to be honest and say that eSevvy is not lightyears ahead.

Things that went well:
* Reds - These went great. Absolutely happy with them.
* Blacks - These worked out pretty well. Blending could have been better, but I like the end look of them.
* Brightness range - I'm happy with the overall effect. The blending on the whites was brutal, but I really wanted to put more contrast depth into this model to convey depth of field in his robes.

Things that could have been better:
* Whites - These frustrated me. I tried using more tonal variation but in some places it backfired on me. In the end I achieved the depth I wanted, but the blending left much to be desired.
* Metals - Overall I'm not displeased, but some places they just look unfinished.
* Gems - I suck at gems. I need more practice. On the plus side I used some paint-on gloss coat after sealing the whole thing and that made a noticeable difference for the gems.

Ok, well, it's late and I have a day packed with MKII test games at the LGS tomorrow, so I'm going to sign off. Hopefully it continues to prove a fun set of rules changes.

First MKII Battle!

Sorry, no pictures this time. Unfortunate too, since it was almost entirely painted. Lance and I played last night using the new MKII rules and I have to say that overall I like the changes.

My List: Reznik, Reckoner, Blessing of Vengeance, Hierophant, Knights Exemplar(6), Chior(6), 3 Wracks
Lance's List: Epic Asphyxius, Deathjack, Deathripper, Mechanithralls(10), Brute Thrall, Necrosurgeon, Necrotech

The battle was brutal. Before I go through the details of the battle, I want to share my MKII experiences:
* The game plays smoothly. Other than questions about staying in formation while charging, the rules were easy to navigate and use.
* Everything in my army except Wracks had changed. Some of it was substantially different (Reznik, Knights, Chior). However I can honestly say the changes didn't bother me at all. In fact, I liked most of them.
* Other than one instance of Reznik's Witch Hunter ability, I don't think we missed a single rule or ability during the game.
* Jacks are definitely better now. I love their new rules on damage and the boost to MAT makes them much more effective. The power attacks stuff is also pretty sweet.

Here are battle highlights:
* Reckoner, juiced up on spells and chior, charges in and wrecks the DJ in a single round.
* Necrotech created at least a dozen scraps over the course of the game. Those scraps also did a pile of damage to stuff.
* Reznik having Ashes To Ashes is a nice change of pace, and really helped with crowd control on the Mechanithralls.
* Epic Asphyxius is still a pain in the butt to get to. In the end, only he and Reznik were on the table, and he got the charge in on Reznik and pulled out the win.

It was both a close and a fun game. The new rules are excellent in my humble opinion. I'm looking forward to these changes being officially released next year!

Warmachine MKII

Well, if you follow Warmachine at all, you probably know that the MKII Field Trial has started. As a result my painting is slowing down in order to review the new rules and try to get a few games in. I'm not going to give a summary here of my thoughts except to say that I think it is good overall. One good thing is that MKII has me inspired to work on the Avatar.

Epic Severius is almost done now. Just down to fiddly bits and details. Hopefully I can finish him up tonight. The Fire of Salvation is assembled and primed on my desk.

I think that Legion is going to go on hold for a while. My hope of starting it soon has been drowned by a desire to finish up my remaining Protectorate stuff and maybe even go back and hit a couple more Cryx things. We'll see what happens though since my muse is a fickle creature.

Specific thought for the day: The P3 paint pots are fine, but when the top detaches from the pot entirely, it gets a little frustrating to work with. The GW foundation pots are fairly obnoxious because they don't stay open enough. In general I don't really like droppers cause I waste more paint doing that. Once of these days, maybe someone will find a better solution.

From the Desk: Vacation!

I'm on vacation! All week! So there will probably be lots of activity on this blog since my vacation does not have any specific plans other than to relax. It's a week for me to unwind, get stuff done around the house, and generally bum around. So, of course, I have grand plans for painting.

Currently I'm working on epic Severius, who has been sitting in my unpainted bin since his original release date some months ago. The picture here is pretty terrible, but it gives you the general idea. It's a pretty detailed model, and I like the depth variation in his robes.

In parallel I'm starting the Fire of Salvation, and also doing the initial prep work on the Avatar (which has been sitting around for a very long time). I want to do some more serious conversion work on the Avatar because, to be frank, I think the sculpt is lacking a bit in the awesomeness department. I'll probably do a series of posts on it like I did with the DTMX.

Airbrushes

Despite the poor economy that I keep hearing about, I received a bit of a raise this year. So, to celebrate, I'm looking into buying an airbrush. As is becoming typical for me, I'm doing some research on whether it's worth getting, what to get, and what I can expect in terms of learning curve. Mostly I've been trolling around BrushThralls, CMON and the Privateer forums for information as those are places that I routinely haunt and find useful information on. Below I'll put a list of links, but first is the summary of my research and my current plan.

History:
I should mention, I've actually had a small amount of experience with an airbrush before. Nothing really valuable except to have an idea what I'm getting into. Long ago (back in college) I bought a Testors airbrush kit. I think it was about $50 and included a single action, external mix, siphon fed airbrush that used compressed air cans for propellant. It was a pretty feeble tool and not especially good for models, but it did give me some experience with what an airbrush is all about. I used it back then a couple of times for basecoating 40k stuff and doing some random things to larger vehicle models from that 40k line. That being said, if I'm going to try out airbrushing again, it's time to upgrade to an adult version.

Requirements:
Yes, yes... my developer side is showing through. My first step was to determine my requirements for an airbrush.
* Double Action - Absolutely necessary. I want the added control of how much paint is coming out.
* Internal Mix - External mixing is just too random. I want control. If I've learned anything from the W&N S7 brushes it's that tool quality and consistency does make a noticable difference.
* Separate Compressor - No compressed air cans. I'll splurge for the compressor even if it costs me. This gets back to that whole tool quality and consistency issue. The compressor must have a pressure regulator (variable) and moisture filter. Ideally it has a tank option as well.
* Budget - My working budget here is about $250. I'm not really willing to go more for now, but am also working under the assumption that if I really like it, I may get another airbrush further down the road (although hopefully not replacing the compressor).

Candidates:
Right now I have 2 leading candidates. First is the Paasche VL Millennium which has the advantages of being relatively cheap and entirely metal. Second is the Aztek 470 which seems to get a lot of recommendations. I'm not in any immediate rush to get one, so I'm going to take my time and ask around at a local hobby store and get further recommendations.

Links:
* BrushThralls has an excellent brief article about airbrushing that gets right to the point and, most importantly, includes a couple examples of actually using the airbrush on models. Yay ArkenTyre!
* CMON Has a good article about Airbrushing basics that I found very useful.
* Not to advertise, but DickBlick's airbrush section was useful to get an idea of accessories for further down the road.
* Privateer forums had a couple of posts that I found informative about selecting airbrushes and compressors.
* How To Airbrush.com - An interesting site, I guess, but there are so many spelling and grammar mistakes that it is rather hard to sort through the information.