Privateer models: Beauty and the Beast

I have to say that part of the reason that I play privateer games is because I was attracted by the look of the Warmachine minis. The Jacks looked awesome to my uninitiated eye back in 2006. The level of quality that is presented by a well finished Warmachine figure is second to none. There are figures that are as good, but there are none (imho) better. Having said all that, they can be a real pain in the arse to put together.

I started playing Warhammer in 1987 and then moved on to 40k and a few other miniature based wargames, but I never really had trouble putting the minis together and I would never have had to pin any of them. Warmachine has really introduced me to a new level of preparation for painting. I now have to pin a lot, which is a skill I only recently (the last few years) had to learn and I also resort to green stuff a lot as well; my mind boggled at how much green stuff I used on my castigator.

The miniature assembly is the only thing that really bugs me about the game. I don't want a drop in the quality of the sculpts, but it is asking a bit much when I have to pin a 28mm miniature in more than one or two places. Now let me present to you Gravus:



If I am lucky I will get away with three pins, but it might be prudent to pin his head as well, so that will be four. I'm sure the shoulder pad and the base don't require pinning, but you can never be too careful.

Well with that rant over I can get back to play testing Mk 2. I have a 50 pt game on Thursday night and I think there may be a spot for me on Friday at one of the local stores.

Mk 2 thoughts and clour schemes

I have read through some of the posts other players have written (on the forums and on blogs) about the Mark 2 rules and am impressed by the level of thought that has gone into a lot of it; I'm not counting the people that are crying because their favourite, broken, MK 1 game killer has been tamed by the nerf bat.

My own experiences were mostly fun games against friends or friends of friends and there was never any upset or über competitiveness. I played a few tournament games, but that was not the norm for me, so my in depth understanding of the intricacies of Mk 1 are not as in depth as much of what I have been reading. The switch to Mk 2 for me has been easy; I had no favourite broken thing (except possibly Vilmon) to mourn.

After saying all that I will present my findings as I find them. I played on Thursday against Cryx and Mike took a bunch of stuff he never used to take, which is a good thing. I will list a few of my thoughts about various units:

Harrower:
I had never seen one fielded before and if it sucked before it doesn't now. It charged my Knights Exemplar unit and killed all of them with thresher. My Castigator took it out, but it was close.

Castigator:
I only bought it a week ago, so I had never used it before and was very happy with the results. The combustion attack with a 2" area attack wiped out almost a whole unit of mechanithralls in one go. When the necromancer chick (don't know her name) brought them back to life in the next turn, the Castigator did it again and this time killed the necromancer.

Revenger:
Still a solid light warjack. Dished up a Thresher and some of the Mechanithralls. I am happy with it and would use it again.

The Choir:
I think I like the way the choir works better now than before. I like the way the power works from each member of the choir rather than from the priest leading them. I think it means that one choir might be enough in future.

The Reclaimer:
Being able to give three focus to one Warjack is more useful than being able to spread them around. The soulstorm is also excellent, but I never got to test it out as i didn't realise he had it until it was too late.


Painting thoughts
How important is a colour scheme across the whole army? I ask because I tire of my blue and red scheme. I dropped the blue on my knights and I dropped the red on Feorra, but overall my army is blue and red. I mention this because I am contemplating painting my Avatar differently.

I managed to finish Vilmon and my Seneschal yeterday and got a lot done on the Reclaimer as well.

Castigator completed in time to castigate

I finished my Casty this afternoon and am pretty happy with the result, especially since I departed from a technique I have been using for a long time. The difference was that I didn't ink the non metallic colours. I know its not that huge a thing to do differently, but I always (on key miniatures) use ink to provide a level of shade. I still inked the metallics though because they look flat without it and I am not good enough to do NMM.



Here he is from the side view. The only thing I don't like about the job is the pose he is in. The look I was going for was the scrapper throwing caution to the wind and diving into melee, but instead I got something else that could be called where are my keys?



I also did a lot more on the base than I normally do and I am happy with it for a first attempt, but I think in future I want my cobbles or flagstones to look more 3D. I think I have to rethink how basing is done. I might dig up a youtube vid of that prolific Canadian (I think he is the Kamloopian or something) model making guy. He has heaps of shows about miniatures and how to do stuff and he does it in real time, which means that while you might have to wade through 45 minutes to see a technique fully exploited, you get to see how it is done.



Last I have a picture of Rez and his Casty. I think Rez looks pretty proud of the little fella all grown up.



Next on the agenda (I have another week off work) is my Exempar Seneschal and my Reclaimer.

High Executioner Reznik has an offer for you

Here is Reznik after I finished him (I think I posted photos of him then) and then finished him again. I have gone back to the old blue and red colour scheme that I departed from with the exemplars; I replaced the blue with black.




Here he is from the other side with his Eddie Izzard inspired scroll of doom.

Castigator

I am trying out the Mark II rules tomorrow night, so it seems like a good opportunity to get my Casti painted. So here 'he' is with most of his base colours on.



I am thinking of trying a new technique, which actually means, not doing something I normally do. If it works I will be happy to mention it. If it doesn't I will pretend I never didn't do it.

Rebasing

I went back over all my Menoth miniatures and fixed up their bases. For the most part they were just sanded and then painted brown; if they were lucky there may have been a little rock there as well. I decided to add a little bit of dried up looking grass to most of the bases to give them a better look. I am happy with the result.




I also bought the new Green Ronin game: Song of Ice and Fire Role Playing. I mentioned that I already played it using the free dowloadable version a while ago. I am glad I bought the book, because while I won't play the game in its entirety, i will definitely use the mechanics for other games I plan to run.

Spending spree

I bought a whole bunch of Menoth stuff from my LGS yesterday.



I am moving to China in a few months and want to make sure I have stuff to paint. This will keep me busy for a little while at least.