Trollbloods WIP...Dire and Pyre Trolls!

Now that the Warmachine/Hordes starter sets are finally complete I can focus on the one Hordes army I really want to work on, and that is the Trollbloods. Over the last few months I have managed to amass around 40pts of the mighty trolls (roughly 25-30 models). Right now everything is built and based so all they need is a fresh coat of paint and they are done. A bunch of friends in my gaming group is doing an Escalation league down at our local store and the first round of games is just 15pts with only casters and warbeasts/jacks. So, with that in mind now that my Axer is totally finished I figured it was time to start working on the other beasts.

Before I post the pics of the new beasts I figured I just wanted to mention something about how I am painting them. Basically after finishing those starter sets and my original Troll Axer I realized it actually took LONGER to paint the Axer then it did one of the four starter sets. I also realized that I will probably never enter at tournament with this army as my interest in Warmachine is just having fun, casual games for my friends. The last thing is I recently just got promoted at work so my painting time has been knocked down to 3-6 hours a week total, if I am lucky. I decided right there that I dont really have any interest in finishing 1 or 2 models a month so it was time to rethink how I am painting my army. I decided on going somewhere in between what I was doing for the starter sets and the Axer and this is what I came up with:

The skin on the Mauler here took roughly 45mins total. I drybrushed the first two layers on his skin to get a nice base then went over the top two layers by physically painting on the high lights. I also spent a bit of time with some different inks knocking down the shadows.  All in all I am super happy how it turned out considering the time. I really like how bright he is and how gestural the high lighting is. It's a style I want to keep going throughout the army.  Here is the Pyre Troll:

The thing I am loving about these guys is they are still looking decent (will look considerably better when done obviously), they are super fast and most importantly they are super fun to paint. I am going for the "codex" look on this army which is why the Pyre Troll is purple. I am going to do a fair amount on work on the fire including some object source lighting.

Next Up: I will keep plugging away on these ice crapping snow honkeys so hopefully in the next week I can post some finished pics. After that I will be doing some more new units for the Trolls as well as some thoughts on the new Eldar Codex plus a whole bunch of new Eldar models!

Warmachine Starter Sets Part 4 of 4 - Legion of Everblight!

So after about 2 months of plugging away at these four sets on and off I am finally finished. As I mentioned in my last post the Horde side was considerably more fun then the Warmachine simply because their minis are heads and tails better. I really liked painting the Legion miniatures and I think if I was going to play a second faction after Trolls it would probably be them. They have super cool looking beasts, really neat solo characters and a few decent looking infantry models. My fave models of the entire lot are the Warspears. Other then the super bent spears which I tried to bend back into place they are the nicest looking heavy infantry out there. Also really fun to paint.

Next Up: I have been plugging away at my Troll army as well as in the process of adding some new units for the Eldar since they are being released. I am also going to a big tournament this weekend and there will be a write up next week of the event.

Warmachine Starter Sets Part 3 of 4 - Circle Orboros!

Part 3 of 4 is no officially complete. After painting the two Warmachine starter sets I have to say painting the Hordes starter sets is like a breath of fresh air. The models are noticeably better figs across the board. Other then the Warpborn Skinwalkers (the unit of werewolves in the first pic) they don't have the ludicrous amount of terrible, nonsense detail that a lot of the Warmachine factions have *cough* Menoth *cough*. I genuinely enjoyed painting this starter set I have to say. It was fun using a lot of washes to help blend/knock down the colours on things basically doing a throw back to how I painted about 15 years ago.

Next Up: The last force of the 4 Warmachine Starter Sets...The Legion of Everblight!

Ymgarls!

So I finally got off my ass and started painting some more Tyranids as they are incredibly close to being 100% finished (just 19 Gargoyles, 12 Termagants and 6 Ymgarls). Pleased to see that from such a huge break I still have the scheme down pretty well.

 

After looking at how these guys were turning out I noticed they looked EXACTLY like my original Broodlord which I thought was super cool. The nice thing is I can use them as a tooled up Stealer squad being led by him and use my standard stealers as more of a horde genestealer squad. Here is a quick shot of him with the new Ymgarls:

Warmachine Starter Sets Part 2 of 4 - Menoth!

So here is part 2 in this 4 part series of speed painting some Warmachine starter sets. The only reason I am posting this right now actually is to completely embarrass Greedo's attempts at Menoth (well, not really lol). If I am going to be serious for a sec I remember a few months ago I did a small post showing off my failed Ogre and asked if anyone else had projects they just couldnt get off the ground. I remember seeing Greedo complaining about how detailed the Menoth were and how it has really been impacting his ability to get them finished. I remember thinking "dude...man the fuck up and get this shit DONE!". I officially want to retract that comment Greedo now that I have finished a bunch of them.

These are hands down my least fave figs I have ever painted in my life.There is so much nonsense detail on them which wouldn't be so bad if they were just so terribly sculpted. When I talk to a lot of my friends in regards to getting into Warmachine the #1 deterrent for them getting into the game is how bad the models look. I am almost 100% certain when they say that they specifically mean Menoth. Ah well, despite how shite the models are I am pretty pleased with how they turned out considering the goal (speed) of painting them.

Next Up: Going to take a break from posting Warmachine stuff to post some updates on 40k projects. One of them is something that I have been working on for years and FINALLY decided it was time to finish it.

Warmachine Starter Sets Part 1 of 4 - Khador!

I haven't really posted a whole lot recently just due to work and the fact that the family has been constantly sick for 2 straight months. I have been very busy though and just plowing through a bunch of projects. This post is the first of a 4 part series that my friend Matt and I started. We really wanted to get into Warmachine as well as get some of our friends into it so we decided to buy both the Warmachine Starter set and the Hordes starter set. The agreement was that Matt buys them and I painted them up for our gaming group.

As they were just going to be starter sets to get people into the game they didnt need to be top notch so I decided to try my hand at speed painting. I did one layer of high lighting and shading for everything except the gold and axes to give it a bit more punch. Considering the speed at which I painted them and what they are going to be used for I am super happy with how they turned out.

I currently have the Khador and Menoth 100% finished (Menoth will be posted next) and I am already making some great headway on the Hordes starter sets (Legion and Circle).

New Project - Trollbloods Army!

Lately I have been losing a lot of interest in 40k. Certain things about this edition just aren't doing it for me and I am not finding it terribly fun. So with that being said I have been looking into other games. I tried getting into Warhammer Fantasy by doing multiple test paint jobs of some ogres to no avail. I just couldn't get into the game from both a hobby standpoint as the miniatures just don't interest me and from a rules standpoint as I just don't like how rigid the game-play is.