Warmachine, 10/4/11

Just thought I'd share some pictures of the Week 4 action at Village Games in Anoka, MN.

Sunday had a good turnout but I was unable to get any pictures.  We again had a good showing Tuesday, and here is some of the action.

Some of Casey's Cygnar.

Bob's Legion of Everblight.

My Cryx Necrotech, Slayer and Cankerworm.

Jeff's Trollbloods square off against John's Trollbloods.

My Cryx 'jacks assault Doug's Cygnar.

Robb's Gators take on my Cryx.

Doug's Cygnar mix it up with John's Trolls.

Doug's Lancer, Ironclad and Stryker.

My Cryx warjacks close in with Robb's warlock.

Gatormen thump on a bonejack.  The Slayer turns away in disgust.

Warmachine League, 9/25/11

We've in the midst of a Journeyman League at Village Games in Anoka, MN.  This is Privateer Press' slow- growth league for Warmachine and Hordes, allowing players to slowly build their armies from a battle box to a full 35 point list.  The League also rewards playing games and painting, which I think is a huge plus for this game.  Sunday was the start of Week 3 of 6.  I snapped a handful of pictures from our first games.  We're starting to see more and more painted figs, which it's awesome!

Casey's Cygnar vs. Andrew's Khador

Casey's Cygnar army.

Andrew's Khador army.

My Cryx and Bob's Legion of Everblight.

Bob's Everblight Warbeasts. 

Another wide shot of our armies.

As more models get painted, more pictures will be posted.  Everyone should show their models some love and paint them.  Especially for as much as you have to pay for them!!!



Warjack Fueling Station- Painting

The piece was primed black with spraypaint.

The tanks, regulator, pipes and pump were painted with this technique from Brush Thralls. The only difference is I sponged on a light layer of GW Boltgun Metal as the last step.

Pump pistons were painted GW Boltgun Metal, all valve handles were painted red, and the ladder was done in wood colors. I didn't paint the CD before laying down the sand, so you could see the reflective surface even after priming. To remedy this I inked the entire base in brown. The base was then drybrushed a dark brown to a medium brown.

Small lengths of twine were cut and untwisted. They were glued along the edges of the tank with white glue. The ground cover is the standard mix. The bush is a bit of green lichen with course turf glued on. A small amount of watered down white glue was gently brushed to the course turf and some ground tea leaves sprinkled on top. The tea leaves are too much.

Warjack Fueling Station- Construction

I built this as something quick for May-June Terragenesis Terrain Competition. The only requirement was that it had to fit onto a CD. After finishing the tedious and not- too- creative Axis and Allies Miniatures terrain, I needed to build something. This is what I came up with.

I play Warmachine but know little about the background story. I figured warjacks are steam powered and have a boiler, so they would have to lug around water to create steam. Right? So this is a water fueling station. Or it could be the largest keg in the Iron Kingdoms. Either way I'm happy. Click pictures for larger views.

Starting components: CD, Bottle bottom, beads and pumping mechanism.

The core of the project, or "water tank", is the bottom half of a contact lense saline bottle. This was hot glued to the CD. A pumping arm was built from two lengths of drinking straw and two plastic card pieces cut to size. The grommets at the bottom of the pump pistons are donut- shaped beads.

The roof is made from the top, tapered portion of the bottle. The nozzle was cut off and an old hatch from a GW Rhino glued into place. The entire piece was hot glued into place.

The fueling nozzle and regulator are made from the exhaust off of a Ferrari model. This was mounted onto a piece of thin card glued to the tank. Another piece of card was attached next to the pump to accomate an instrument cluster. The three gauges are made from lights from a model car.

The verticle pipes are simply drinking straws. Rivets were punched out of thin plastic with a leather punch and glued into place with super glue. These were used on the mounting plates for the instrument cluster and fueling regulator, as well as on the pump mechanism. Valve handles on the top hatch, verticle pipes and fueling nozzle are nylon snaps for womens clothing.

A bead of hot glue was run down the seams on the top and sides of the tank to simulate a weld. This was also done around where the verticle pipes attach to the tank. The ladder is a modified MegaBloks Dragons toy.

The base is simply covered in sand attached with white glue.

Skull Piles

These skull piles are hydrostone pieces I picked up at discount from an unknown manufacturer a long time ago. The skulls were simply inked with a Flesh Wash and the ground inked with a Brown Ink. The skulls were then drybrushed a tan to Bleached Bone to a white. The ground was drybrushed a dark brown to a light brown to tan. A bit of my super secret ground cover mix* was attached with white glue and they were done.

* Super secret ground cover mix is Woodland Scenics green fine turf, Woodland Scenics dark green static grass, Woodland Scenics light green static grass, Woodland Scenics light brown fine turf and ground, dried tea leaves. Mix according to taste.

Warmachine Murder of Crows Template

Warmachine is one of the best skirmish- level fantasy/sci- fi games out there. Unfortunatly, the game can rely heavily on templated for weapons fire and "cloud effects," basically templates that remain in play. Instead of buying several sets of templates for this I decided to build one for my most commonly used cloud effect: The Old Witch of Khador's Murder of Crows. Template was originally supposed to be a joke using cheezy birds and springs.

The items used in the construction of the template are found to the right. They are:

1. Springs- These have a tight coil so they are resistant to permanent deformation when laid over. These were purchased at a surplus store called Ax- Man.

2. Doves- These are soft, plastic doves mounted on plastic, chrome plated rings. The doves slide right off, no cutting required. I picked these up at Michaels.

3. Doves on Springs- A combination of 1 and 2. More on this below.

4. Template Base- The template has a 5" diameter. A regular Gale Force 9 Warmachine round template was traced onto plastic card and carefully cut out with a sharp razor blade.

5. Doves on Springs on Base- 1 and 2 combined with 4. More below.

6. Old Witch- My unpainted Old Witch figure for size reference.

As stated above, the base was cut from about 1/8" plastic card. Each spring was cut into three pieces at various points to vary the height of the birds and to create a fuller effect. A bit of the coil on each spring was straightened and bent upwards to mount the birds to. This was insanely difficult due to the tight coils of the springs. Even with two pliers and a side cutter this was the most time consuming part.

Each dove have a hole in the bottom where it was mounted on its original ring. A bit of super glue was poured into the hole, then the bird was pressed onto the straightened coil of the spring. This offered a secure mount. On some doves, and additional bird was glued to its wing, to add more to the template without adding more springs.

Once the doves were attached to their springs, the springs were glued to the base. They were attached with superglue and randomly placed in such a way to allow the Old Witch to stand flat in between nearly any group of spings.

After the springs were attached and dry, the base was covered in white glue and regular sand was poured over it and allowed to dry.

With the sand in place the piece was primed black. The ground was drybrushed from a dark brown to tan. The crows (not doves because they're black now, not white) were lightly drybrushed with gray. The springs were left black.

The standard mix of flock was stuck down with white glue in patches. When it dried I used the template in a game. It was awesome.

The crows are a very soft plastic, so the paint flakes off easily. It is disappointing. The paint also seems to come off of the springs easily when they are bent. Maybe a couple heavy coats of sealant will help, but do to the flexible nature of the template, I have a feeling it won't.