Arachnarock!

Well it looks like my Warhammer wishes were answered! GW have just posted new images of the Arachnarok Spider. It looks really good and is bristling with detail. It even looks like they have incorporated some pieces of a stegadon in there as armour plates. This leaves me wondering if Forest Goblins will reappear as a regiment choice now? That would be great though my favourite goblins will always be the Night Goblins. They were the first army I collected a long long time ago.

Also included are Skulkers. These nice fellows seem to be assassins and they are rumoured to get Always Strike First, armour piercing and killing blow. I am not sure if they count as characters though as then they could be targetted before they have a chance to be effective unless you roll very luckily. It is nice to see that some of my hopes have been confirmed. We are getting new stuff and not just a rehasing of the same old! I wonder will this be enough to tempt me back towards Warhammer though?

Weathering and airbrushing - part four tutorial

So it seems that I am destined to have to continue my efforts at discovering how to properly weather a 'jack. I took out my crusader this weekend to give it a go. The procedure was the same as last time though I kept the weathering as a more minimal element of the model. I feel that this time I was more succesful but I still haven't managed to get it correct. The first problem I think is the fact that I am only weathering with one type of rust. Their should be a lighter colour included here, something like Vajello Dark Red Ochre or Burnt Sienna. Then I should probably branch into some other advanced techniques. One thing I find very difficult is getting the pigment to stay in place and to be honest even getting it in place! As it is a light powder it blows all over the place. On every tutorial I have seen this is never presented as a problem. However for me it is as annoying as hell. Not only does it not stay in place but it falls onto other parts of the model wher I don't want it to be! I am hoping that there is a trick to this that I will discover somewhere.

Here are the shots of the completed Crusader. He came out much better than the Vanquisher simply by not having covered him in pigment. The shoulder pads I thought wouldn't see much wear and so I didn't chip them heavily. The armour on the hands and arms of the Jack got some more chips though. These worked out pretty well. I had given the model a much more heavy coat of hairspray than before and this helped with the weathering a lot. I did manage while cleaning my brush to splash a small amount of water over one of the backs of the shoulder blades. This caused the hairspray to bubble under the white. However I left it and eventually after some drying it shrank back into position. I also weathered the engine parts more heavily than before on the Crusader. I think this came out well but could really do with a lighter rust colour on the most heavily weathered areas.

These are the WIP shots. The hairspray as you can see it really shiny. It was dry in this photo. However once you come to chipping it you actually lift it off so there is no shine showing. The final shot shows the chipping having been completed but without weathering pigments added. All that is left for me to do with these two 'jacks is apply varnish to fix the pigment in place, add some highlights to the red on the shoulder pads and then to do the bases.

I am wondering if it is possible to use the varnish I bought from Vajello in an airbrush. It seems from a few disscussion fora that I can. I am pretty reticent about doing this for the moment as when I tested the varnish on an Ork it isn't quite as matte as I would like and even tends to obscure a lot of highlights. This will be the next test for my airbrush!

Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Thats a ghost fence, it's scary!

Privateer Press have a competition running this month for some terrain. I have half a mind to enter myself. The prize isn't anything special, rather it is the terrain shown in the picture above. The theme of the competition is waystones or boundary markers. As I am currently thinking about my own terrain and how I should improve it I think planning to enter is a good idea. It should hopefully provide me with some added incentive to do some terrain finally.

The theme is a tough one though. I would love to make something Warmachine related but I can't think of something good. This competition is definitely geared towards Hordes. The most obvious boundary marker is a wall. This would be great for Menoth. Another good menoth idea would be a line of abandoned and partially collapsed Wracks. Having skeletons lying around the bases rather than a body on top would be a nice touch. They next level down is a fence. Also fine but a little too agricultural. Beyond this we get into an area that rally isn't terrain anymore it is more like decoration. A row of signs saying keep out is not really going to impede the miniatures but it does adequately mark a boundary. One solution to this would be combining the fence and the signs. This doesn't keep with the modular scenery as presented in the competition. If I was to do this I guess using an aged fence would be best. Then you could break it up into smaller pieces and have it much more modular. Making it a barbed wire fence would help this too. I will think about this a little more.

For Hordes this terrain piece is pretty simple to do. Considering that Waystones and Boundary markers are a staple of the Circle forces somehow imitaiting them would be good. Considering the feral nature of most of teh societies described in Hordes a boundary consisting of the impaled heads of your foes would also be good. Once again this begins to become a decoration rather than a terrain piece. So hopefully over the coming weeks I can get something together... Once I have a good idea of course.

Details can be found here.

A sad day for Feora

So last night saw battle three of my Annihalation Campaign. The first draft of the rules can be found here. Sometimes I play Warmchine and it just feels like 40k. Othertimes I play it and I feel like I have just been slammed to the ground, trampled then caught in a headlock and finally just as things couldn't get any worse my arms are ripped off. Well last night was such a game. I played terribly. My opponent in short order tore me to pieces. Here is the report:

Feora vs. Irusk
This is a shot just after deployment. The mission meant we had to try to control the yellowed zone in the centre of the board. The Khadorans went first and as you can see in the picture (click to enlarge) the Iron Fang Pikemen moved into cover behind a building. I am not really sure why but I guess to escape my shooting. The Destroyers then proceeded to move up the map ready to pummel me with shot on the next turn. I moved up the board cautiously. I spread out the Templeguard but maintained shield wall to mitigate any blasts that might stray towards them. The zealots ran up and spread out also. This was to save them from blasts too and to get them in a threatening position for the Iron Fang's. They couldn't charge easily from behind the building so once they moved out I could get a turn of shelling them. Getting them into shieldwall wouldn't have been that easy from that position either making the bombs much more dangerous. As I had spread the Templeguard I was unable to manage to get my Vanquisher up close. Instead I nestled him in beside the Wrack.

Now the pain began! The Destroyer on the right fired at the Vanquisher, doing some damage but more importantly destroying the Wrack. This blast then tore apart that part of my army damaging the Vanquisher more and killing pretty much everything in teh blast. POW 14 as a blast? You don't want to be near that. The second Destroyer then moved forward and targetted the Sunburst Deliverers. This killed them outright. So my ranged threat was pretty much halved giving me not much chance at a distance versus the two destroyers. I had no choice now but to move up and engage. Had I got the first shots off maybe I could have destroyed one of the Destroyers... That was not to be!My response was to get right up close. First I fired at the Destroyer with a boosted damage roll. This took eight boxes from him, nice. I wasn't sure if the Templeguard would have made a charge to the same Destroyer so instead I ran them up to it. I then realised I would have managed to get them in as I had an inch to spare with reach. At least in my mind I had tied it up and could deal with it next turn. The zealots then moved up and remained spread out. They dealt with the Iron Fang's coming around the building. Killing three but not able to get anyone else due to shield wall. A question arose at this point, a critical hit with a blast radius: does it set fire to everyone hit or just the target? I left the zealots in a formation where only three could be reached once I got my Wall of Fire in place. Feora then charged forward, killing a Templeguard to manage this. With four focus due to a Wracks help she had cast Engine of Destruction for the extra speed and then cast Wall of Fire to keep the Iron Fang's back. I had intended to feat this turn but I just wasn't catching enough under the area of control. So I waited another turn.

So Khadors third turn... and their last!The destroyer on the left aimed at Feora, hit and did twelve boxes of damage as the first action of the turn. The mechaniks moved up and repaired the other damaged Destroyer. This Destroyer was given full focus and Superiority. It then tramples across my Temple Guard ending up right beside Feora, killing almost everything under him. With his focus he took another attack, boosted the to hit roll and just managed it. The damage roll was then a double six if I recall correctly and so Feora bit the dust.

So we have one battle to go which I have to win. I will be forced to play with Epic Severius too. Thats not such a problem as I like him as a caster. He is pretty subtle but with some luck in positioning of the enemy you can easily assassinate their 'caster. My losses were not so bad from last nights game. I will still easily be able to afford a full force and include two 'jacks in it. I was worried I wouldn't have any left at all for this battle. I will most likely have to face a 'jack heavy force in an attempt from my opponent to limit Severius' effectiveness. So it looks like we are in for an exciting conclusion to this campaign!

Annihalation Campaign:
Battle One
Battle Two

Weathering and airbrushing - part three tutorial

This is my base coated Vanquisher just before I got busy chipping and weathering. This was shaded prior to the weathering as I didn't think that I would manage it afterwards. Shading is simply a wash of GW bleached bone and once that has dried overnight some black lining along the pronounced areas. This was tidied up with a reapplication of white in the most raised areas. Nothing very inventive in that! While letting all that dry I continued with the base. I generally paint the bases first as it saves accidentially getting paint splashed from the base on the model. I stuck with the standard swamp bases as I have with the rest of the army. The one thing I don't like however is how often I manage to make the 'jack look like he is standing on a little island. I did this once again and I am unimpressed! However with the other 'jacks I have planned I will be watching out to avoid this. The distiction between making a land base with a water feature and making a water base with a land feature is huge.

This picture shows what I did with the chpping and the pigments. You can click on it to enlarge it. Firstly I had a lot of difficulty with the chipping. I am not sure if it is the hairspray or my failure. I would like to blame the hairspray. I actually used a very expensive one and maybe the cheaper ones would give a better effect. I could not for the life of me manage to get it to chip with a stiff paint brush. I have no idea how that is possible. After stabbing the model in various places for five minutes nothing had happened. I had wet the area as advised but still nothing. I then took out a cocktail stick (small wooden stik used at parties for sausages). I wet this and softened the top of it a little. After some strong words I managed to get a chip on the left shoulder pad. I tried a second time and managed to lift the undercoat off also. There were some strong words again. I continued and I was able to make the chips but not in a great way. I lifted a lot of undercoat off in places.

This close up shows the chips a little better. The central part of the jack, above where the head goes came out really poorly. I stupidly placed the chips pretty much equidistant from the others giving a really false look. I also made them far too big. Next time I will try to reign in my impulses. However on the small area just below this I really managed to get some nice hips done. How they came out so good here I have no clue. Maybe it is the smaller area? I then proceeded to do the leg armour which also came out fine. The minimalist look is definitely the way to go. One thing I did notice is that by wetting the area some of the white paint will soak it up and begin to move around. This is okay but you have to be careful not to let it spread over the chips and dry as it gives them a terrible milky look.

Once the chips were down... I mean done I got busy with the pigments. I have to say these will be a great addition to my painting repetoire. However at the moment they are a complete annoyance. Learning new techniques for these is not easy. On the left shoulder pad ('jacks left) I followed the method described here. This involves applying the pigment and then with a damp brush streaking it downwards, or stumping it as described on that guide. Well I used too much turpentine and my brush was wet rather than damp. I probably also used way too much pigment. I made massive red streaks down the should pad. So to rectify that I attempted to remove some of the excess with a clean wet brush. This helped a lot and also changed the colour of some of the rust. There is a stronger orange colour on this shoulder pad than elsewhere on the model where the rust is much more red. I am guessing this was just a result of thinning with the turpentine. I did go back later and touch up a few places with white paint to make the streaks look a bit more natural.

The right shoulder pad and elsewhere were done using the guide found here. Basically I applied the rust powder in clumps and flooded the area with turpentine. I then let this dry (very important to let it dry fully!) and then with a stiff brush streaked it downwards. The first thing to note is that I used far less pigment powder on the right shoulder pad. This meant smaller steaks. Also I didn't go straight downwards with these. For some silly reason I went off at an angle and so the rust doesn't look quite as good in my opinion. However this method with less pigment seems good. I didn't achieve the nice orange the otherside has however. I also came back later to touch up this side. I mixed water with the powder on a palette and then applied some fine lines within the streak. This darkened the centre and with a little more practice should look good.

So this is model one of the weathering experiment. I can't say I am happy with it. It is a good beginning I hope. The most important thing I learned is not to overdo it. I thought I was being conservative but looking at the model I really went over the top. The central piece of the 'jack is the worst. It looks terrible and while the shoulder pads are not that fantastic either they are ruined by the monstrosity between them. So with this in mind I have cleaned and glued together a Crusader Warjack. I managed to pick it up cheap also which was nice. I will begin with it at the weekend and hopefully the next part of my weathering experiment will go better. One excuse I will make is that white is unforgiving for an experiment like this. I guess it would be easier to weather models on a darker basecoat than white!

Part One
Part Two