Vlad, my first Warcaster

Despite the fact that I will be using Butcher as my first Khadow Warcaster I painted up Vlad. He was assembled on my desk and I had started painting him before I really thought about it. I wasn't sure if I should do him in red or the 5th Border Legion scheme. I figured I needed the practise so I went with the green scheme. I think it worked out well, especially the oversized shoulder pads. I am slowly getting better with the shading part of the scheme. It takes only a few minutes to shade the armour down while the highlighting just isn't as fast. I am not sure why but if I don't spend the time it doesn't look correct.

I think the darker colour of the shade is just that little bit more forgiving. I am unable to shade the dark grey that easily. The colour resists it quite well. I guess because it is already so dark. Highlighting the grey isn't easy and I have found myself easily going really extreme with this colour.

I kept the cloak simple as I am just not good enough at freehand to do anything more extreme than you see here. Geometric designs are fine. Anything more than that and I really struggle. I would love to have been able to do something more impressive on such a large area but I can't. The light killed the shading on the cloak a little but I am pretty happy with it. So the next Warcaster will be the Butcher. I will probably leave him until after the Demolition Corps though.

Demolition Corps bases

This is what I am doing for my Demolition Corps. The big Man O War models have just enough base size to get some interesting detail on there. I wanted the unit to look like it is crossing a barbed wire line. This is the most action posed of the unit the rest aren't quite as creative. The models were a complete horror to work with. I don't know what type of plastic this is but it took me easily three times long to get these assembled and cleaned than a metal unit. The plastic just doesn't clean up nicely. I use a blade to clean off mould lines and when used here it tore the mould line leaving a ragged strip of plastic behind. Using my files, not of the highest quality I admit, didn't help either. That started to damage the surface surrounding the line rather than polishing it. I finally used a combination of the knife and some dental tools and this managed to get them decently clean. I really am not looking forward to the next set of Privateer Press plastics.... I am hoping I somehow got a bad batch.

Kodiak WIP

Here is my Kodiak nearing completion. I hope you can see that this is a vast improvement from my Menoth Warjacks. I put a lot more effort into shading this model and while I haven't done it perfectly it is good enough. I have gone for the same scheme as with the Man O War Kovnik. I shaded a little darker however and I think this helps the contrast with the lighter green. I want to keep the tabard red on my Warjacks to tie them into the main Khador colour somehow. It is also breaking up the green a little with a warmer colour. The off white on the edges of the shoulder pad is similar to what I did with the pads on the Kovnik and I think I will keep it as a compliment colour on the army.

I haven't as yet added any damage or weathering to the model. I am almost to afraid to at this point. I could happily leave him as is and just finish the base. However I do want my Khador Warjacks to have some battle damage and I need to think about ways to do it. I think painting it on is better than salt weathering or the hairspray method. I intend to keep the damage to a minimum level which I can then ramp up for the older chassis such as the Berserker and Drago.

I put a lot more effort into the mettalics than usual. The poor photographs don't help show it off. I will be weathering these down but I think I achieved some good contrast on them. My blends are not quite seamless yet but I am getting there. Metallics are really hard to do... I watched Ghool's video on how to do them and he really makes it look easy. Check out Hand Cannon Online for his excellent videos. So this is the current state of the Kodiak. Hopefully he will look even better when next he appears!

Bloodtrackers

I am finally done with the Bloodtrackers. That is a good feeling. These models are so detailed that they are a little bit of a pain to paint. I only had four to do, five with Nuala, but they seemed to take ten times longer than any other model. Having finished these also means I have no more Circle Orboros models left to paint at the moment. I know this state won't last long so I am savouring it a little. I want to get the Blood Weavers and some more Warbests so I imagine I have a week or two before my resolve breaks and I buy some.

A Kodiak Moment

I couldn't really do a 5th Border Legion army without a Kodiak. I picked this fellow up on eBay as part of a package. It included quite a few other 'jacks so I almost have almost the full compliment now. For the battlefield bases I rally wanted to add some sandbags so I built a small barricade to test it out. I think it works fine, better than the Man O War's crater. The gap between the hull and the upper piece is really annoying. I had heard about it before but I though that it only really effected the Juggernaut. I filled it up and now once it is dry I can lay down an undercoat. I really don't know what else I will do for bases just yet. I haven't spotted many online that I can blatantly copy. The biggest problem will be with the Winter Guard as they have small bases and they are a nightmare to do something special with. Hopefully some inspiration arrives...