Warmachine Batrep: RoS vs. Cygnar

So, I got in a 35 point Warmachine game last night, and apparently the third time is the charm, because I won by a land slide. I went into the store plotting to try out a Garryth list. My opponent for the evening was kind enough to tell me that he was playing a shooty Cygnar army, so I decided to not rely on any stealth lists as I expected any respectable Cygnar shooting list to ignore it. So no Garryth last night. I decided to drop a balanced 35pt Kaelyssa list instead. Not so much for the balance, but because it included my almost completed Imperatus!

Thinking of doing more with the hands and gauntlets.
More pics later!!!

Onto the game summary! The lists were:

Cygnar:
Karra(spelling?), the sniper caster
Reinholdt, the gobber reloader guy
1x Stormwall
1x Squire
1x max unit of Gun Mages with some light jack with a gun that halves armor
1x Random anti-Hordes solo with a short range Bola attack that knocks you down.
1x Journeyman Caster

Retribution:
Kaelyssa, Night's Whisper - WJ: +7
-    Imperatus - PC: 12
-    Aspis - PC: 4

Eiryss, Mage Hunter of Ios - PC: 3
Mage Hunter Assassin - PC: 2

Houseguard Halberdiers - Leader & 9 Grunts: 7
-    Halberdier Officer & Standard - PC: 2
-    2 1 escort's: 2
Mage Hunter Strike Force - Leader & 9 Grunts: 8
-    Strike Force Commander - Commander 2

42 / 42 (35+7)    Warcaster(s) : 1/1    Warjack(s) : 2    Battle Engines : 0    Solos : 2    Units : 2


Yikes! My first game against a colossal 'jack. It was a little daunting not knowing what it was capable of, but I ended up with a good match up against it.

Cygnar won the starting roll and decided to choose board edge and deploy second. I set up my houseguard and battlegroup in the center; houseguard slightly to the left and Kaelyssa slightly to the right. Cygnar dropped Stormwall opposite Kaelyssa and his gun mages opposite my houseguard. I then advanced deployed the MHSF on the right flank (hoping that 'jack hunter would help take it out), and on the left flank I put Eiryss and the MHA.

With deployment out of the way, I pretty much just ran everything up the board for my first turn. The houseguard moved up in shield wall. On Cygnar turn one, my opponent tried to clog the right side of the board with templates from Stormwall to close off some charge lanes. Karra manages to snipe a couple of the MHSF grunts.

On turn two, I moved the houseguard up in shield wall again to jam the movement of the gun mages and screen Kaelyssa. The MHSF moved around the templates to get into the side of the Stormwall, and then take some pot shots and actually do some modest damage. At this point, I had a plan to charge the Cygnar solo guy with Imperatus, and then side step my way to Stormwall. Imperatus sadly failed it's charge. The MHA charged the Stormwall and put some decent damage on it. Kaelyssa then moved up with the Aspis. I should have used my feat here, but I forgot to. On Cygnar turn two, Karra used her feat and the entire Cygnar army had a very underwhelming turn. All told, I think they managed to kill 2-3 more MHSF, the MHA, and 2 houseguard.

On my turn three, I decided to get aggressive. The houseguard charged into the gun mages and decimated the unit leaving two alive. I then used my reform move to help block Karra's maneuverability. The MHSF unloaded into the Stormwall again, this time almost completely destroying it's left half. Imperatus charged Stormwall, completely wrecking it's right half, setting it on fire, and used it's side step moves to just be a hair away from engaging Karra. On Cygnar turn three, my opponent did not have a lot of great options. The Gun Mage leader ran away from his combat (surviving three free strikes) to engage Imperatus and stop me from walking into Karra. Karra couldn't move towards Kaelyssa without engaging my houseguard or Imperatus, so she stood her ground and tried to blow up Imperatus, which she did....but then it came back. Troll-face engage.

On turn four, Imperatus wrecked the Stormwall, and then dug into Karra hitting her once and setting her on fire. I missed my last attack. My houseguard tighten the noose around her neck, but don't manage to kill her off. On Cygnar turn four, my opponent decided that the only way to win would be for Karra to expose herself and try and assassinate Kaelyssa. Karra runs out of combat with three houseguard and Imperatus, taking no free strike damage and shoots Kaelyssa in the face. She does heavy damage with a boosted die roll, but it isn't enough to kill Kaelyssa. Deciding to use her remaining focus to cast offensive spells, she ends up triggering Witch Hound, allowing Imperatus to move and attack her. Amazingly, Imperatus misses again, but now Karra is out of options.

My turn five, I boost to hit with Imperatus, decimating Karra and lighting her remains on fire. Victory! And now, more Imperatus pics! I apologize for the yellowing in the photos. I still don't have a good light box setup yet :(

Retribution of Scyrah WIP

I have been super busy getting all of my Myrmidons painted, and I am on track to finish them this week! I went with a similar style to the studio scheme from Privateer Press, with a little bit of airbrush magic. I have a few pictures to share of my WIP stuff. I apologize for the quality though. The light in my work area is very yellow, and I don't have a light box yet. Also, these were taken with my cell phone. Apologies out of the way, now lets move on to the fun stuff.

My airbrushed priming/basing process is:

1. Prime model completely black.
2. Using a zenithal technique, prime the model with grey primer from a roughly 45 degree angle. All of the black should be covered (very lightly, more of a tint) except for in the deepest recesses.
3. After the grey, do the same with a very thin white from a near vertical angle.
4. For a basecoat, coat the entire model in a very thin mix of PP Underbelly blue and Army Painter matte white.

Following those four steps took no time at all, and created a nice gradient of color all over the model ranging from very cool blue-grays in the shadows to white for the highlights. Now that the model is primed and mostly base coated:

1. Lightly spray around the "power nodes" with PP Arcane blue to be the base of a glow effect.
2. All of the nodes, metal bits, hands, and weapons get coated with PP Pig Iron (via brush). 
3. The "swirls" surrounding the power nodes were lined with a GW dark blue ink. I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head.
4. Exhaust vents got PP turquoise ink for the start of a glow effect.
5. Sword and Halberd casing got hit with a mix of Pig Iron, blue ink, and red ink to make a purple metallic color (recipe right out of the RoS book).

My Iaijutsu Phoenix

Whew, done with the base coat! That process isn't so bad, but I was doing 16 warjacks all at once. My hands were actually a little cramped when I was done. At this point, I created a save point by spraying a coat of Liquitex gloss varnish via airbrush and then took these pictures. Left to do are my highlights, small details, and basing. Thanks to the way I primed/based the armor, I actually don't think I am going to do any traditional highlights there. Most of the highlighting will be for the metallics. I plan to use Vallejo MA Steel, and then wash everything in GW Nuln Oil (which is an amazing ink). I also plan to point Nuln Oil in the recesses between the armor plates. I don't know why, but I hate the glow all over thing that is in the studio scheme. I think they really went overboard with it.

So, I think that was more than enough words. Moar Picturez!

The Hydra reminds me of the Hulk...

I wish I had a better pose for Imperatus.
Sadly I pinned the hell out of him before I checked what
the pose would look like....lesson learned.

Manticore!

Well, that's it for now. I did some more work last night on Imperatus, and he is looking pretty spiffy. I should have some more (and hopefully better) shots by the end of the week!

The queue...

There comes a time in a wargamer's life, where you step back and say, "Damn, how am I going to paint all of this stuff? It is everywhere". For me, that was today. I pledge to paint all of this before the end of the year!

Blood Angels infantry. All the command stuff is painted. Some stuff is base coated.

Blood Angels vehicles. This shot is missing another Stormraven and a Predator.

My Tau force. Magnetized vehicles, some FW stuff. Grey Knights just hanging out.

Anima/Infinity/Warmachine stuff. No where to put it, so they keep my books company.

Old School 3rd edition Space Wolves. Infantry hiding behind the tanks. None of it is game legal anymore (Remember dual-wielding bolters with Wolf Guard because of True Grit?). This all needs to be stripped and repainted for display.

These shots don't even include my Druchii, which are in random places all over my house. Things got this bad because I didn't have a dedicated work space. Prep, spraying, painting, basing, and storage all happened in my bedroom. In order to have workspace, I needed to clear off my computer desk which was nigh impossible as I am a computer nerd in addition to being a scale gaming nerd. My MMO addiction would not allow that to happen. Thankfully, with the new house came dedicated work space!

Where the magic happens. This is actually only a small part of the room. It is like an extra room in my garage. Tons of storage space. I am still shopping around for bitz containers and such. You can see blue and purple which means I have been hard at work on my elves!

My Iwata HP-CS airbrush. Don't know how I managed to survive without one for so long. It won't help you in the Zombie Apocalypse, but it makes painting zombies super easy!

Death Hag WIP

Hello!

I was lucky enough to grab the limited edition Azumi model from Studio McVay. The model was limited to 500 castings worldwide. It is meant to be a geisha assassin, but I think it will fit nicely in the role of my Death Hag. To be a good Death Hag, one needs to be cute and deadly. Nothing screams cute and deadly like a Japanese woman dual wielding katanas, right? So without further ado, here is my Death Hag WIP:

Stupid camera...All that blue looks more purple in person.

The vertical strips of fabric will be painted gold to help tie the Hag into the army.

The amount of detail on this model is insane, and my pictures don't really do it justice. As such, here is a pic from Studio McVey with their suggested paintjob:

I plan to put runic script on the fabric hanging from the forearms. I want to get a really cool alternative to the Cauldron of Blood to compliment her as well. Anyone have any ideas?

Dark Elf Sorceress Alternative

Hello!

Well, as fond as I am of Games Workshop, some of their sculpts for the Druchii are just plain fugly ('effin + ugly = fugly). The biggest offenders, in my opinion, are the Dark Elf Witches, but this post isn't about them. This is about the our sorceress options. GW offers:

1. Morathi on a Dark Pegasus....both fugly and naked.
2. Old school Morathi on foot....ew?
3. Supreme Sorceress with some swirly stuff....yea....fugly and weird.
4. A plastic sorceress with 80's hair like Gene Simmons. (I will admit, I did buy this one)

As I don't play competitively in tournaments, I could care less about the Games Workshop proxy rules. Not trying to bash them, as I completely understand that they want to protect their IP, but as a collector I am keeping my options open. I prefer to have a complete army that will look great on the table top. Not naked chicks with bad hair.

So what is there to do? It would just so happen that there are lots of appropriate options available! I present my first choice, Reaper's Alastriel!

Isn't she just adorable!

This model was a bit of a challenge. It is a really simple sculpt, so I wanted to do a top notch job with the paint to make it stand out. It will, after all, be one of my Lord choices. Initially, I couldn't decide on a color scheme. Overall, my army will use a blue-ish purple, gold, and silver as the main colors. I didn't want to do all of her clothes in purple though, as I felt that the model would be too dark. So, I turned to the lore in the Army Book for inspiration. After reading that many of the sorceresses in Dark Elf society indulge in the pleasure cults, the magic light bulb in my head came on.

"Pleasure cults worship Slaanesh...the Emperor's Children worship Slaanesh...the Emperor's Children are pink...Dark Elf Slaanesh worshipping Sorceresses would wear pink!"

I was quite proud of myself.

I think the cloak turned out well.

The whole model was base coated the same blue-gray you see on the base. The cloak was then layered with 2 blue tones, and then topped with two purple tones. The pink was created by mixing Tamiya red and white. A baal red wash was then applied over it. The skin is just one layer of Tamiya flesh that was airbrushed on. The airbrush really helped to create the shading effects. This was also my first time playing with object source lighting (OSL). I wanted the gem in her staff to shine light onto her hair and I also wanted the runes on the sword to "shine" as well. I think both effects turned out well. I then applied a thinned layer of Quickshade (1:1 QS to Mineral Spirits) by brush. A little touching up and basing, and she will be ready to go to battle!

Her sister-at-arms will be the Warmachine Shepard Solo model. She is only primed right now, but I think she will fit in perfectly.  She has this whole "grim reaper" thing going on. She definitely would not wear pink though, so I don't know which color scheme to go with. Maybe black and gold?

Feel free to share any criticism. What models do you all use for your wizard options?

Dark Elf Hydra...WIP

Rawr!!!

Hello!

I finished my Hydra model a few days ago, and I am waiting for the gloss varnish (Quickshade Strong Tone) to dry. In the mean time, I thought I would share some pics! This was my first attempt at using an airbrush, and I think it turned out pretty well. My camera sucks, so please bear with the pictures.

The under side of the model was primed with black Vallejo primer. I then built up a layer of dark blue, ice blue, and then a light layer of a khaki (all by airbrush). The effect is really cool in person. The blues show through in some areas where the khaki meets the green of the top side of the model, which really helps to blend the two areas.

The top side of the model was primed with black and grey Vallejo in different areas. After that, it was based with a green from the Vallejo Game Color line (I can't remember which), and then a highlight was added with a green from the Tamiya line. Both of the greens were not applied evenly, which allowed the black/grey to make some of the details really pop. It left trippy designs swirled on the skin, which I rather like.

The bone plates were base coated in a Vallejo brown, with a layer of a Tamiya redish-brown, and highlighted with Citadel bleached bone and skull white. I then inked then with a dark brown ink. And then they got another dose of brown ink (different shade) from the Quickshade. The dark brown ink in the Quickshade really helped to blend the colors together.

Enough rambling, more pictures!

You can see the greens blending together here.

You can see the blue showing through at the neck joint here.

Sorceress in the background, more on her later!

Shot of the bone plates on the back.

I learned some really important things while doing this model:

1. My airbrush does not like the Vallejo primers. I had to dilute them to get them to flow properly, even though the bottles swear that I shouldn't have to.
2. My airbrush loves diluted Tamiya paints. Easy as pie to use, easier to clean up.
3. Vallejo Model Air paints are hit or miss. Some colors sprayed fine, but most needed to be thinned.
4. Don't paint when you are tired....you will get chainmail paint on your airbrushed work and want to kill a kitten.

I am consider leaving some of the skin glossy. I think it would give it a slimy, lizard look. I think I will still apply a matte varnish to the bony areas. What do you all think of that?