Warmachine - Warcaster Coleman Stryker

Finishing off the Cygnar Battle Box comes its Warcaster, Coleman Stryker. Great sculpt with excellent prominent cheekbones for definition, which really helps as my face paining is rubbish (just ask the poor hobbit from January)

Convention Countdown

It's only about about a week away. What I hear you cry? Well one of the highlights of my gaming calander - Carronade, hosted by the Falkirk Wargames Club.
Unlike previous years I'm not selling anything. I've not enough wargimng "stock" to justify a table this year, and I found out last year that filling up with other gaming bits 'n' pieces (RPG, MTG, etc) doesn't really sell.

On the up side this should give enough time to fit in an extra game, which will be good news for Arabiansquire & friend. For a quick look at the website it appears that we could looking at Mordheim, WWII air combat, Victorian fantasy/SF, Pirates, Urban War and others. Lots of prospective fun for young and old. Most anticipated is the Crooked Dice demo table. I desperately want to get into their 7TV & Doctor Who Miniatures games but can never seem to clear my table of projects to give it the attention I know I'd need and want to give it, so to get a demo game has me all aquiver!

In a pre-order...

Also unusually I also have quite a large list of "wants" to prepare for the show this year, from specific paints to figures to bases. Or more precisely I'm looking to buy stuff this year instead of the usual trying to resist buying stuff! Whether all these things will be in evidence is another matter as a couple of key traders seem to be missing this year as far as I can tell. But I'll need to pour through a couple of websites as get a full list written down, throttle back my pre-orders where possible and see what lady luck brings!

Warmachine - Cygnar Warjacks Ready

Three new Warjacks roll off the Cygnar production line:

Ironclad:

Charger:

Lancer:

All these are from the plastic Cygnar Battlegroup box. Having looked about the interweb I knew that I didn't fancy the standard blue dominated colour scheme so I went with the paler option that you occasionally see kicking around. The lighter colour also benefits from the sepia wash more. They were all painted speed style at the same time, hence the multiple display.

Warcaster from that set (Commander Coleman Stryker) and some more Trencher style proxies are next in line for paint...

Quick Desert Terrain

starting point

It can seem a quiet week when nothing is really happening! Both my regular RPG and gaming partners compadre's have been hit by more important real-life concerns, so no gaming reports of late. I decided to take Arabiansquire to our local club on the Saturday, especially as he'd been asking to play some Warmachine and I'd been spending some of the down time applying paint to some more Cygnar models.


 I'd also picked up some spare packaging from work during a tidy up. I'm sure many gamers round the globe have looked at the new prefered cardboard pulp packaging and thought that some scenery should be possible with it. Well it was my turn. i looked at these numerous times of the last few years, but the pieces are never the correct shape or scale for the strange desert buildings I imagine they should look like. Then I realised that they would work just fine as just large mounds. No need to complicate matters as they'd serve the same gaming purpose.




As chance would have I've also had a couple of cans of textured spray paint sitting in the garage waiting to be used. So probably the quickest terrain project in history was done.

Sprayed

 

The high sides of the packaging were cut off to reveal the main mound shape. The darker spary was used and immediately afterwards the lighter shade was sprayed on. That's it! Just to make anyone aware, not only should you spray these in a well ventilated area, but make sure you leave them to dry there as well (preferably outside or in a shed/garage) as the smell is quite potent.


I managed a couple of test pieces before we headed down to the club. They use textile dust sheets as they're default table covering, so the sandy/tan cardbaord mounds fit in quite nicely with them. Job done.

In action

Warmachine - Cygnar Trencher Proxies

The pretenders

The real deal

After only a mere 17 months from their "creation" my first Proxy Cygnar troops are painted. I'm quite pleased the way they've turned out, but obviously they'll have to fit in with the rest of my Cygnar force.  But as the colour scheme for the rest of the force is based on these chaps it shouldn't be a problem. The fact that I've also managed to customise these figures to make the trencher based solo's and unit attachments will also help give the force cohesion.

Talking of colour schemes, and again feel free to skip this next part as it's primarily to aid my memory, here's what I used.

• Coats: GW Foundation Dheneb Stone
• Trousers: Miniature Paints Earth Brown
• Boots and Gun Stock: Miniature Paints Chocolate Brown
• Helmet & Gloves: GW Foundation Calthan Brown
• Shoulder and Knee pads: GW Foundation  Mordian Blue
• Bed Roll: Miniature Paints Stone Green
• Backpack and Holster: GW Desert Yellow
• Waterbottle: Miniature Paints Brown
• Front Webbing: Miniature Paints Bronze
• Gas masks: Miniature Paints Mid Grey

Wash with diluted Vallejo Sepia and highlight with original colours again.

I chose to wash with Vallejo Sepia this time as it gives a warmer and less gritty feel.

A Mixed Bargain Hunt

It was a dull, showery sunday, that's how I ended up in the Glasgow Fort shopping centre (not really a fort!) looking for clothes with the family. As I was there I managed to work swinging by HobbyCraft to at least look at their model section and their clearance isle. Thats where found the Airfix German Reconnaisance Kit for £3.49 comprising of a SD Kfz 222 armoured car and a kubelwagon. Should be a nice flexible couple of vehicles (as far as I can tell) so I bought 2 - one for European games and one for Africa settings (I've a box full of Airfix Africa corps and 8th Army sitting around as well).

I also picked up a second box of German infantry (for £2.99) to go with my other one. Just the job!

And finally an impulse buy of 2 boxes of Airfix British Paratroopers. Hmmmm, a bit of a mixed box I must say now that I've looked at them. Strange poses and quite a few of limited use (see plastic soldier review for details), but with effectively 2 boxes for the price of one hopefuly I'll manage a workable strike force from them. Maybe I'll leave the unnecessary impulse buys next time...

Workbench Filler

Well, I've been away on holiday up to the north of Scotland for the last few days. With no gaming items of interest to report, despite being round the mainland from Fort George and Culloden (next time!), and having already used the White Dwarf artwork post, it only leaves me with the standard blog emergency post - the workbench shot!

There is work going on here, though. For a wee while now I've have a Warmachine itch that I've not been able to it scratch, so I've pulled out my Cygnar forces for some paint. On the table at the moment are a basic unit of  my proxy trenchers and the Cygnar starter battle group. Hoping to have them speed painted and done in the near future...

The Red Menace

Back in September 1993 the grim dark future looked brighter, or at least the 40k version was anyway. Issue 165 of White Dwarf (part cover above, "Doom Of The Eldar" by Dave Gallagher) was excitedly gearing up for the new BOXED version of Warhammer 40,000 (version 2 for you kids out there!) with a long interview with Rick Priestly. The colourful painting style in vogue in the Fantasy world was still carrying over to the 40k world as well, as the photo below of the painted model Tyranid from the cover shows (also from Issue 165)

As ever Copyright obviously stays with the original owner (be it Games Workshop or the artist) and I hope that any interested parties will take these posts in the admiring showcase spirit that is intended.