Bloody Buccaneer Skarre and some updates

Hello there, readers. Long time, no see. Nobody probably noticed, but the blog has been on kind of a hiatus for the last six months or so. There are a number of reasons for this. A big part of it has been time. My schedule has been tighter and I've had things other than gaming taking up my time.

Another part of it is that I work in a game store. This isn't a new thing. It's been over a year since I started there and I still used to update. But as time goes on and I get more comfortable with the game community, I find I have more social outlets for my gaming. When I started the blog, you will find I was almost exclusively a solo gamer. Now I have a whole community of people to discuss and interact with, so the blog is less necessary than it used to be. This is a positive thing but it means the blog has gone unused.

On a slightly less positive note, this year has been a little hard on me physically and mentally. It is amazing how much chronic pain, depression and anxiety can sap your will to do the things you love. Playing a game seems like a chore and the paintbrush moves a little slower. These are things I'm dealing with and have always dealt with. I'm hoping in the new year that I can get a better handle on things.

So what does that all mean? Well it means I'm not going to try and force myself into a scheduled posting regime. No longer will I try to get a monthly post up, fail, feel bad, then forget to do it again. I'm going to just post when I feel like I have something to say. That might be a painting project I'm particularly proud of. It might be a game review or description. I might just pop in to say hi. I'm not sure exactly how it will go. It might end up I never post anything again. I hope that's not the case, because I've loved writing everything I have so far.

Ok, tired of listening to me ramble? Want to see the one thing I've gotten painted in the last six months? OK!

Back in August, Privateer Press put up a number of con exclusive models . Not only did I get to snag the Brute Thrall Femme Fatale I've been wanting for a while, but I also picked up the Bloody Buccaneer Brew version of Skarre.

Most of the BBB style models are pin-up types and for most of the Warmachine range that ends up looking rather ridiculous. For Skarre though, that sort of medium works. She's already a dangerous lady in skimpy clothing. In fact, they didn't even have to change her outfit much. And it's perfectly sculpted. The whole model just encapsulates the pirate queen in her natural element outside of battle, casually drinking a good brew (or maybe the blood of her enemies). She looks mischievous, yet relaxed. It just fits her whole character so well.

So without further rambling:

There are a couple of things I'm pretty proud of. First, I sculpted the floor with greenstuff so she would be standing on a tavern floor. Second, the cup of blood with the dribble down the side, just a little bit of red wash at the right angle. Finally, I did some jeweling on the dagger handle. It's a little hard to see because it's so small but I think it adds just a little extra touch to the whole.

I stuck pretty close to the original color scheme, since my Cryx are purple anyway and I like purple. This miniature didn't literally take me four and a half months to finish. I just took a long time between paint sessions on her. She languished untouched for all of October. But I finally got it done and I'm very happy with the result. She's now on display in the case at work for all to see.

That's all for now. With any luck, you will hear from me again soon. I have a couple of projects I'm excited about so I'm sure you will.

Until then happy new year and happy gaming!

Warmahordes MKIII Ahoy! Bane Witch Agathia Appears!

Just last month Warmachine and Hordes released their new MKIII edition rulesets. Even though I re-entered the game only 2 years ago, I was super excited for this for a number of reasons:

• More 'jacks/beasts.
• Rebalanced Cryx faction so I don't have to feel like a complete ass every time I plop down my army.
• More focus for 'jacks
• Premeasuring.
• Not feeling like I'm a decade behind everyone else
• A bane warcaster!

While this has turned out to be sort of a mixed bag since the release, that last point was what had me most excited. You can tell by the exclamation point.

Banes have been my favorite models in Cryx since MKI and having a badass bane chick to lead my ghosty dead axe guys makes me happy to no end. The battlegroup is a great deal for the price so I had to pick it up just for this new caster, plus the mini rulebook. Getting an extra body to build Malice out of was gravy.

Delicious, evil gravy,

Without further images of food, allow me to introduce Bane Witch Agathia:

I will say the plastic in the battlegroup boxes is not any better quality than Privateer's normal offerings. I found her details a little soft and there were multiple mold lines in bad places. Being bad at removing mold lines and not wanting to ruin her, I erred on the side of caution and left them intact.

Since my banes are ghostly green, I decided she should be green too, if in a paler fashion. It leaves her looking like an otherworldly creature which fits her perfectly. I also carried the purple and gold of my other miniatures over to her as well. I'm not entirely happy with the skirt. The picture kills the highlights and even in person they don't exactly pop. I may revisit it at some point.

And of course we have a family shot with her super happy fun bane-time friends and 2/3 of her battlegroup culled from previously painted models. The reaper is still a work in progress and should join her soon.

I look forward to getting some play time with Agathia. I'm used to using the amazingly powerful debuffs of Denghra and Agathea is more of a toolbox/assassination-y caster. The reaper is new to me too so I definitely want to get that in too before upgrading to the superior Malice.

Anyway, that's all for now. Happy gaming!

More Cryxy Cryxness

Well March was a bust. I've been meaning to post, since I did actually get things done but laziness and a cold proceeded to kick my ass so I took a month off from posting. But here's what I did accomplish and hopefully I can get one more thing done this month to make it a double post month.

Anyway, this month celebrates a milestone, and that's me actually finishing the last bit of my original plan to paint a 15 Point Cryx force. Yes the one I started back in 2014. Yes, I just finished it. This is how I work.

The final piece is the ubiquitous Skarlock Thrall, mostly used to put Ghostly on Bane Thralls for fun times, but also good for debuffing and generally being a nuisance. It's hard not to take a free spell each turn for 2 points.

I went with the same purple and glowing green I've been using across the army. He came out a little bright, since I was experimenting with some new undead flesh (which I like) and there's not a lot of dark metal areas to begin with.

The flash I'm using on my phone also takes it up a bit. Sorry for that. I'm still playing around with techniques and haven't yet mastered this new camera.

While I was working on this guy, I was also inspired to hit the ol' metal battle box Slayer with some updated paint as well. Mostly it was because it was already half painted but also because it allows me to run a more battle box style list for demos and it's a 6 point missile of destruction when used properly.

He came out quite nicely for being dropped on the floor and losing his arms and head mid-painting. The paint job alone makes me want to bring him to the table, even though most times banes are more efficient for the point cost. There's just a stompy evil-ness about the model I've always loved.

Anyway, that's one blog post down with hopefully another to follow at some point. It was kind of nice to work on something other than Frostgrave but I do want to get back to that soon. I'm also itching to do a different kind of post than just minis at some point. Maybe a battle report or review or something.

That's all for now. Happy gaming!

Witches Be Crazy

The weather and my schedule of late haven't been co-operative with getting models primed, so I haven't made much headway on my Cryx. I was hoping to have everything done by August, at least for small battles. With the time I have left it could be doable, but I'm gonna have to rush.

I spent June, however, doing a painting challenge and chose my Warwitch Siren as the model to paint for it. I really like this model for a number of reasons, but one of those is not the metal nightcap helmet she sports. So I left it off and filled the back with putty, giving her a pointy, Dark Elf-y look that I think works quite well.

Now I like painting models with details and such, but this one was a little over the top in some cases. What a person does with three belts is beyond me. Strap after strap after rivet after strap. The contact for the arm and back spikes were a little weak, so after they snapped off after priming, I was forced to paint her in pieces. This is not something I normally do but I can see the appeal.

You can really see the helmet from this angle. This way it looks more like something someone would actually wear into battle and not for sleepy-times.

Not kidding. The original has a freaking tassel on the end...

I also added an extra rune to the end of the blade, which you can barely see here. My camera apparently disagrees with my artistic choices.

So much so that this is the absolute best shot I could get from it. I need to find my old phone and start using it just to take pictures. This auto-settings thing is ridiculous. I need macro in my life.

BEHOLD MY MIGHTY HAND!

I ended up pretty happy with the way she turned out, and I can't wait to actually use her on the battlefield. Warwitch Sirens are great because they are speedy little bombs of "Stop hitting yourself! Stop hitting yourself!" goodness for just 2 points. Add in the ability to provide an extra point of focus where needed and occasionally dousing the enemy in corrosive goo and you have a winner.

Anyway, that's this installment. Happy gaming!

The Banes Of My Existence

My WarMachine project is slowly chugging along. I am about halfway through my 15 point force and I am trying not to rush too much. That being said, I am not above using lazy methods to achieve my goal quickly.

That brings me to my next unit: Bane Thralls.

I have always loved the concept of the Banes. Ancient dead warriors who sneak up on you and hack you to pieces with giant axes are really nothing to pass up. Not only are undead badasses cloaked in a pall of darkness cool, but they are great on the battlefield. Most melee-only troops have to advance under a hail of murder-sticks to chop up their enemies.

But at least they get to fight in the shade.

But Banes get to close in relatively unmolested thanks to their Stealth ability, soften up the enemy armor with a little Dark Shroud, then smash even the heaviest warjacks with an extra die of damage on every attack. Back when I was playing MKI, Thralls saw a bit of downturn thanks to Bane Knights but now that I've returned, I'm glad to see they are viable choices again.

I have two units of Bane Thralls and I intend to use both at every opportunity. However, I hate painting units. I find it tedious beyond belief. That's where that laziness thing comes in. Behold the Banes:

As you can see, I did a lot of drybrushing. The idea was to try and pull off a ghost warrior look. Its nothing but a simple 3 layers of Dark Angels Green, Snot Green and finally Scorpion Green, but I think it works just fine. The bases probably took up half of the total paint time. The other unit should follow suit rather quickly.

I also managed another Deathripper repaint, giving Deneghra her requisite two Arc Nodes. They also make her look like a huntress with her two hunting dogs, so that's pretty badass as well.

I like to believe their names are Chauncey and Monetque.

So that's where I've gotten so far. I'm literally one unit of Banes and a Skarlock Thrall away for being finished. Now if only I can keep my momentum...

Happy gaming!

The Cryx Of The Situation

Back in the Dark Times, when Games Workshop (TM) stalked the land and Space Marines (TM) ruled the earth, I heard of a nascent game where wizards and mechanical monsters smashed each other in the face repeatedly while spewing steam and hemorrhaging gears. This sounded like seven kinds of awesome, so I researched it a bit and found out all about WarMachine.

You can't not want to play magic robot battles.

I managed to convince my cousin that he should play too, so we set about choosing factions. He (being a dwarf player) chose the faction with the most magnificent beards and heaviest armor, therefore purchasing a Khador battlebox. I initially leaned toward Cygnar, but felt like it was too Red-Vs.-Blue and the 'jacks too similar to Khador in most ways. Menoth was a little to fanatical and ornate, plus I hated painting white. That only left Cryx.

"Can you tell we''re the bad guys? I don't think we're wearing enough black."

I was immediately hooked on the idea of battle robots made of bone and metal, with the addition of steampunk necromancy for shambling hordes of undead. I also liked the idea of a finesse army among all the hulking metal stomping around.

We had fun playing battles with our battleboxes, and I expanded my army with a few extra units. Ultimately, though, there wasn't much of a community at the height of our interest and Warhammer 40k was still king in our hearts and it fell by the wayside. I stopped playing altogether around the time Hordes came out, which I was less interested in because the monsters were flesh instead of metal.

Well, a few days ago I dug out my old Cryx models and resigned to get back into the game. There is a sizable community in my area now and the new game shop in town has a a great set-up to play in. A rulebook and some tokens later, plus the great War Room app downloaded and I was ready to start again. But not without a fully painted starting force to keep from embarrassing myself.

Somewhere among all this smashy goodness, I managed the task of painting my whole battlebox. I was very proud because my last completely painted army was back in 2nd edition 40k. It was a task mostly accomplished with the liberal application of black primer and some minor detail work. The end result was a paint job that looked like this:

Back when I thought grass-green flock was the best ever.

While I'm proud of the bone, the rest of the scheme is very flat. I wanted some more color, something a little more vibrant than the old black or the newer grey-green look of the official schemes. I chose purple: still evil but not boring.

My first repaint, ironically, is Deathripper #2

I kept the original metal and bone work, added heavy purple highlights, some hard pink highlights, and repainted the grass flock brown. The flock was drybrushed with a light bone color to give an ashy look and I chose yellowed grass to contrast with the purple. All in all I am happy with the end result.

I also gave my warcaster, Warwitch Deneghra a quick update too:

This just had a purple wash added to the skin and a re-highlight, plus the cloth painted purple. The rest is all original paint. The base was done the same as above.

My ultimate goal is to get a 15 point duel force painted up so I can play the occasional small game. My hope is that this project will lead to me joining the local WarMachine community and get me out of the house a bit more. Of course, true to form, the WarMachine night is on a night that I work regularly. Oh well. For right now I'm having fun painting and there are no shortage of players to duff up some metal on a different day!

Happy gaming!