Khador Battlebox magnetized

 Being locked down here in California, I've been distracting myself with thinking about wargaming, modeling, and collecting.

I can't paint (my daughter is still young enough that she wants to fiddle with whatever Daddy's doing), but I can occasionally do some greenstuff, and modifications. The next few posts are just what I've been up to.

First up is my magnetization of my Khador Warjacks. I needed an opponent for my Menoth. Originally I'd have gone with Crucible, but those figures seem to be unavailable. Khador however, my next favorite has plenty on eBay, MiniatureMarket.com etc. So Khador it is!

Mk3 of Warmachine uses "Themes" heavily. I really like forces with lots of 'jacks, so the obvious choice in Khador is the Theme "Jaws of the Wolf", which is the 'jack heavy theme.

To that end, I bought the Khador battle box, which has Kozlov1, a good beginner caster, a Juggernaut, and a Decimator; two heavies which are easy to play.

Ever since I magnetized my Menoth Crusader YEARS ago, I thought it would be a good idea to magnetize these guys, so I bought a box of Khador Heavy Jack Kit, which comes with plenty of options. I also bought the Kodiak Kit because it looks amazing, and magnetized EVERYBODY. 

Behold!

With this group of lads, I can make 2xJuggernauts, 2xDecimators, a Marauder, and/or a Destroyer. Add to that a Kodiak or a Grolar. So lots of choice! And a good setup for some Battlebox battles or even 15 pts.

Song of Warjacks and Warbeasts: Simple wargames for kids

No pics today.

I've been recently looking at how to introduce my much younger nephew to wargaming. A couple of years ago I gave him all my old Warhammer Fantasy Battle figures as a Christmas present (including the Bretonnians and the War Wyvern) So that I could continue to enjoy them with him and his dad, without just having them sitting in a box for years and years.

But he's pretty young (think 12ish), so I needed a ruleset that would allow us to push figures around with dirt simple rules to keep his interest.

I found 1 Page Warhammer from One Page Games, which has since been rebranded as "Age of Fantasy", probably because GW got in their face. Free to download, and easy to play. Each figure has a quality that they roll to hit and save by, a few special rules, and ALL the army lists that you'll need. It's perfect and we played a great game with my old 3rd edition orcs, goblins and trolls that XMas. There is also "Grimdark Future" with basically the same rules, except using Bolters etc. It's the revision of 1 Page 40k. He's less into 40k for now, and I'm keeping my Tallarns because I love them.

BUT, then I got into Warmachine. Have only played a few small games so far, but have a painted 35 point army of Menoth ready to go. I've been wanting to find a simple "1 Page Warmachine" so that we can have some 'jacks on the table but the OnePage rules have yet to bring that one out. Maybe you could jimmy it. I dunno.

Enter Song of Blades & Heroes. It's from Ganesha Games, and it looks just as great as the 1 Page rules, BUT it looks like it can handle things like Warjacks, and gunpowder. This is especially true with the addition of "Advanced Song of Blades", which I won't try to play with my nephew, but will take a couple of the advanced weapons and spells. There are numerous supplements due out for ASOB including gunpowder and cannons (and dwarves) with the Hammer & Forge expansion. There will also be a "Steam and Cogs" expansion for guess what!? Robots and Magic automatons Steam punk style = Warjacks and Warcasters!

So I'm hopeful that this will become my simple to play WM game. Still want to play Warmachine actual, but actually don't know anybody in the North Bay Area that I can play against so here's hoping.... Also since SoBnH doesn't care what figures you use, I can start collecting Warmachine Dwarves and even the new Crucible Guard (which look AMAZING) without worrying about creating a legal army. This also means I can finally use my Mariner 'Jack without having to have silly pirates as a faction. I'm hopeful you can play Colossus as well, but we'll see.

Quick Troll Army Update...

I havent really posted anything recently of the current state of the Troll army so I figured I would post a shot of what I have painted minus 3 fire breathers. So here it is, all 271pts of it:

The Mighty Kraken Complete! (kind of)

Basically my two favorite models in all of Warmachine are the Mountain King and the Kraken, so when I got the Kraken for my birthday I just couldn't help working on it right away.  Currently I would say I am actually 95% done. After taking these pics and taking a closer look at it I realized there are a bunch of things left that I should go back and touch up. I really like the OSL on the bottom of the main gun and I feel some of the OSL on the main body just aren't up to par (smoke stacks and the two sections on the main armor plate in the front specifically). I also want to do some more work on the rivets to help break up the scheme a bit more and I am very much going to go back to the base and add some gore beneath the "Intake Valves" to help tie the model more to the base.

The White Walkers Continue...Banelord Tartarus Complete!

So right now I am focusing on two specific lists after doing some play testing with most of my casters. I have narrowed it down to a tiered Epic Goreshade list and a Terminus list (totally reminds me of playing Tyranids lol). The first list I am working on is Goreshade's...which means Banes...lots of Banes. So I decided to paint the biggest, baddest bane of them all, Banelord Tartarus.

I wanted to work on the OSL for this model and really focused on the light effects from the souls that make up his legs. I tried to go really bright with the souls and the runes on his axe to add visual interest. Despite being a fairly subdued army colour wise I really want to inject some brightness with the blue glow. So here he is:

Rise of the White Walker - Bane Knight unit Complete!

So I am sure many people will remember a while ago I had some posts of the Retribution of Scyrah army. Started of red with blue OSL and then dark green with light green OSL. While I was somewhat happy with my dark green scheme I didnt enjoy painting it and it was simply way too close to my Dark Eldar's scheme. I never was able to fall in love with painting that army so I eventually traded it for the one army in Warmachine I DID want to paint, and that is the Cryx.

Unlike the Retribution army from day one I knew exactly how I wanted to paint them. I have always loved the undead horde on the Game of Thrones, the White Walkers. I love the blue glow combined with the look of the undead. That idea plus the fact that I personally found the green "Cryx" glow has been done to death and I knew I wanted to do something different. So I went with a snow themed army that used a couple different shades of blue that feature an ultra bright/light blue glow for the "power sources" and a dark grey/blue for the cloth with a few spot colours thrown in. For the armor I didn't want to just do rust again and I figured it would look better with a weathered copper and steel. Below are my first batch of test figs:

Epic Madrak Complete!

Slowly but surely I am working through my casters in my Trolls (I own them all). As I mentioned earlier my newest tournament pairing is Calandra and epic Madrak. I posted Calandra last week so its time to show off her partner, Madrak. I went fairly simply with his paint scheme doing the standard rust armor with gold accents. In the Troll fluff Sorcerers are Albinos. I showed that with eGrim (more of a pinky colour) and with eMadrak I went even further with more of a white. I also decided that since Rathrok is a magic weapon I didnt want it to be covered with the same rust the normal stuff in this army is, so I made it look new. I think I am going to go back to pMadrak and update him so he looks like his epic version as I think he looks as I have never been really happy with how he looks. Anyways, here he is:

Viktor Pendrake Complete!

The two lists I am currently working on for my Trolls are Calandra's Elemental Evolutionism Tier list with 11 light beasts and an Epic Madrak "Dude Spam" list which features basically all my single wound infantry. I have found deciding on two specific lists and just focusing on painting those really helps me focus on getting specific pieces of my army done. Once I finish these two lists I will be at 114 models complete for this army which I think makes it the biggest army I have ever painted.

Back to the lists in question, part of the Epic Madrak list includes Viktor Pendrake who is there to help with key match ups, specifically Legion and Circle and their high defense beasts. Another plus is it gives me an excuse to paint up some more Minion solos, which is one of my single fave things to do. So nice painting something on a small base that isn't blue haha. So here he is:

Up Next: I still have some pics of the stuff I have been working on over the last little while (small updates here and there). I am almost done Calandra's tier list so I have another 6 light beasts to show off plus a pic of the whole army together. I am also starting something totally new (NOT Retribution of Scryah as I sold them) which I am excited to show.

Witch Doctor Complete!

Another quick update. For some reason one of my fave things to paint are the minions I can add into my Army. It might be because it gives me a break from Trolls while still adding something to their army. The Gatorman Witch Doctor is one of my fave solos I have finished so far. Lots of fun details like his bloody knight, the snake on the other hand and the globes of liquid on his belt. Also had fun painting up the bloody body parts (which you cant see very well in the pics) on his base. I should have some more stuff next week too.

Warrors Complete!

Without a doubt this was the one thing in the entire army I was dreading painting. 15 models of old troll badness lol. It took me about a month to a month and a half of working on and off on this unit to FINALLY get it done. Figures that as I came close to finishing it PP goes ahead and releases a one box, totally complete, PLASTIC set that looks a million times better. Sigh haha. Ah well, they are done and I will never have to paint them again, so that is all that matters.

Calandra Complete!

Like most of the Trollblood players around the world I have been putting together Calandra's Environmental Evolutionism Tier Force(EE for shot). The army is made of of 11 light Elemental Beasts, the full krielstone unit, Calandra and Battle Moses. I have been collecting the lights for a while now...probably the only reason I have the complete list as everywhere is currently sold out. Getting Calandra herself finished though was the first step in getting this army up and running. I personally find the model super ugly (her hands are insanely big and she looks like she has the fakest breasts in history) and she wasn't terribly fun to paint. BUT! Man o' man playing her on the table is easily the most fun I have had with Trolls, so I will forgive her, also..Starcrossed haha. Anyways, here she is:

Rok Complete!

Been a long time since I have posted. Just finished going through my works busy season so I just hadn't had time to post anything. Rest assured though I have been busy at work and have tonnes of stuff to post.

With that in mind I am going to start off with my newest beast, Rok. He is the other close combat character heavy in Trolls, but sadly is basically Mulgs red headed step brother...minus the red hair (still no soul). He is a frost troll so I wanted to make him look like he was partially made of ice but still fitting into the scheme of the army. Oddly enough there actually is a lot of green stuff work on this guy. His right elbow and for-arm are completely resculpted. The original posing of the model made it look like he was trying to tickle his opponents balls, which to me looked...odd. I think now he has more of a "come at me bro!" style pose. I am really happy with his colour palette and I think when the Glacier King is released later this year I will paint him the same way.

Magnetizing Protectorate Plastic Warjack

So I finally had some time to do some modelling. I didn't do any painting, but I did magnetize the Protectorate Plastic Warjack kit. Its actually 3 heavy warjacks in 1; a Crusader, a Templar, and a Vanquisher, all of which use the heavy warjack Crusader chassis. Awesome stuff. After looking at this forum link on the Privateer Press Forum about how to magnetize the jack, I tried it myself.  These are the results. I didn't use 1/4" x 1/32" disc magnets.  I used 2 x 1/8" x 1/32" discs.

I won't go into detail on each photo, so hopefully its self evident. And at the end I have a few shots of all the options. I think it came out really well so can't wait to paint this dude up. My original Crusader is unmagnetized but my favorite figure from the Menoth army. I also used greenstuff to set the magnet for the Templar's shield, and I didn't magnetized the head. Just used the Templar head since it looks awesome. All cutting and drilling was done with a dremel round mill, and an exacto blade.

Dozer Complete...Finally!

There isn't much difference between this and the last WIP pic, I just wanted to post some better pics of him. He is easily the most fun model I have painted for my Trolls, love the fig overall. The only thing that is a bit "off" with him is how insanely big he is. He is basically halfway between my Mauler and the Mountain King which is crazy. Although, with that being said all Trolls, including the re-sculpts of the Scatter Gunners and Warriors are all a larger scale. Bearka for instance is about as big as a Troll Axer if you could take him off the Bear.

Jarl Complete!

Even though I finally have the finished pictures of Dozer I figured I would give everyone a break and post something new. Below is Jarl Skuld, one of my favorite Troll casters both in regards to his model and to his rules. I really like how dynamic the posing is on this model, especially in comparison to some of the other figs. I am looking forward to finishing some more of my other Casters, although lately I find I am just having too much fun playing Epic Borka and I can't really seem to move on from him. Also, I am currently working on my unit of Warriors which is maybe the most painful thing I have tried to paint for Trolls. I *must* finish them before I move onto anything else lol.

Dozer and Smig WIP #3

Okay, so this isnt much of a "WIP" as he is almost finished. I have a few touch ups to do as well as finishing his base, other than that he is mostly complete. I gotta say he was one of the most fun models I have painted in a long time. All his details were so big and bold, lots of large areas to work with. I am starting to get really happy with how the rust effect is coming along for this army. Almost becoming second nature doing it. The green also is a nice splash of colour which I am going to incorporate into the Warriors when I start working on them to help make them stand out against the Fens and Scatter Gunners (which look very similar to each other). This weekend I will bust out the light box and take some final pics of Dozer. I have a few other smaller projects to post shortly as well.

Dozer and Smig WIP #2

Over the weekend I got in another good chunk of time. I finished the last of his main body and both his arms. I also almost finished Smigg (little troll riding his back) and the main gun. I *should* be able to finish him after work over the week and have the final pics up by this weekend. Been tonnes of fun so far.

Dozer and Smig WIP #1

I got a good 5 hours of painting over the weekend on this guy. I decided like any of the bigger models I have painted I was going to paint this guy in sections. One of the really nice things about him is how seamlessly his joints fit together, so its a non issue keeping him in pieces. The first thing I am going to finish is the main body. Once that is done then I can start adding all the extra pieces like his cannon and Smig. Here are some pics of the initial round of WIP shots.

I am hoping to get some more work this week, specifically on the armor. Once that is done it will just be small details and finished.

Privateer Press is Upping Their Game...

When trying to get friends (specifically 40k friends) into playing Warmachine/Hordes the single biggest gripe is how bad the models look. I will be honest that is why it took me so long to get into WM myself. Now that I am into the game my biggest gripe so far has been how impossibly terrible the materials they use for the models actually are. The metal is fine, its metal although sometimes how they fit or where they decide to break a model up leaves much to be desired. The plastic though...ugh. It's so terrible. Mold lines everywhere, normally across major detail, like around the mouth of the Storm Troll for example. That is all changing, and fast.

With Privateer Press's most recent release they have started using a new Resin for single characters and GW style hard plastic model kits for their large models. Both are massive jumps in quality versus what they used to employ. I recently picked up the new Dozer and Smig character Dire Troll. Check out how incredibly crisp this model is right out of the box. Virtually no clean up (small bits here and there).

With all my other Dire Trolls (especially the EBDT and Mulg) I had a couple hours worth of clean up and putty work just to get them to fit together and cover up the huge gaps were pieces didnt fit. Not this guy. Dry fitting him has almost no gaps. I will need almost no green stuff to actually complete him. I am going go paint him in stages starting this weekend (more pics). I am super excited that this is the direction Privateer Press is going as it looks like all new kits are this quality.

Legion of Everblight: Beast Test

Here is a quick follow up to the post I did last Thursday. I put in some time to try out a beast for this painting style. It's one of their light beasts called a Naga. I kept in line with the black and white scheme while pushing the blood effects out of its mouth. In an effort to give it a bit of colour I also added some red/purple ink around the spines at the top of end of its neck and around its face. I also took a stab a final look for the base, which I am actually very pleased with especially from a colour stand point.