Everyones Favourite - Kossites

Following on from yesterdays solo syndrome I have a different painting disease to discuss: regiment rot. I hate painting units. These guys have been on my desk for well over a week. Only the rare alignment of a productive weekend happened and I managed to make good progress on these. I bought the Kossites as they were on offer and I assumed they were good. This was before I really got back into Warmachine. I have as yet never used them but I doubt they can be as bad as everyone says... right? I hope they will get a unit attachment soon to bolster them a little. Painting these was a little bit annoying. The detail is a little strange, a symptom of early Warmachine models. I kept the colours neutral. They don't fit the colours of the rest of the army but as they are an irregular unit I don't think it matters. They will still look cool on the battlefield.

Witchdoctor

I think it is impossible to paint this miniature without singing the damned Witchdoctor song. It was stuck in my head for the entire day after I finished. That song is a most infectious earworm. I loved this model the second I saw it. It is quite subtle which I think but that is good. I guess this model could easily have competed with the factions Warlocks if designed poorly. Despite having seen the artwork ages ago I thought that he might come with a mask. This would have been too similar to Calaban. Too much robes would have been similar to Barnabas. The model is really nicely detailed. The skull level is acceptable. I hate models that are really bedecked in skulls. I guess a Wwitchdoctor can be expected to have a few.

Painting this model was fun, much more than expected. I guess this is due to solo syndrome. As I have stated all to often I love painting solos. It is one model and it feels like I make a lot of progress quickly. I followed the brown scheme I used for the rest of my Gatormen. This presented a problem as my other gators don't have clothes. I didn't want the brown on the clothes to blend too much in so I went for a colder brown than I usually would. I think it contrasts nicely. I have seen on the PP fora a nicely painted Barnabas model with a green tinge to the robes. I was tempted to copy it but maybe I will keep it for one of the Warlocks.

I have used the model in a game and he was fairly useful. He would have been much more useful if I had understood how sacrifical strike works. I used him with a Posse in an eBaldur list. Adding tough to a unit benefitting from Baldur's feat bonus means these guys are not going anywhere soon.

Circle Flags

I have been wanting to make some 'flags' for my Circle army for a while. I wasn't sure what to do as flags aren't really defined except for their rules. In Steamroller they are pieces that need to be captured generally to win the game. The Circle isn't really an organised military force and has really low technology. I wasn't sure what I could make to represent an objective/flag. I have been playing a lot recently with Gallows Groves and they get killed in every game. The thought came to me that the stumps would make cool flag markers. I had been thinking of using some corpses on bases but I wasn't too inspired by this. It could really represent any army. Using some form of flag or standard isn't really that interesting either.

The stumps were easy enough to sculpt. I built the body out of normal modelling clay and then I made the top. It was just a small lump of greenstuff smoothed out and then I carved small rings into it. A few cracks were added to make it look a little decayed. Once all this was dry I added the sides. The sides were quite uneven as I wasn't too careful about shaping the base lump of clay. This is good as it stops the stump from being too regular. I still want to add a few small details like fungi. I have already added a few skulls to tie the stumps in with the Gallows Grove.

I think these came out fairly well and I am actually considering making some more to use as terrrain. I think they could easily be used to represent a harvested forest. Basically it would just be an interesting piece visually on the board but would otherwise count as a forest. I still have quite a few terrain projects to finish first though...

How do they steer this?

I got the Gun Carriage finished finally. I have been working slowly on it over the last week and it was becoming a little bit of a chore. I painted it in two stages. The horses and undercarriage were the first to get done. I glued these into place without pinning them and now I am thinking I should have pinned them. I guess they will stay attached to the base. I was suprised by how much metal is in this kit. I would have thought the horses were resin too. At least assembly was simple, there aren't that many parts to work with and I only had to fill a few gaps on the horses.

I think the blending worked out for the most part especially with the large flat sides of the carriage. The weathering from the top and the wheels doesn't match 100% as they were painted separetely and I decided to experiment a little. I had wanted to put some dried mud on the wheels which would have covered a lot of the weathering but instead I wasn't brave enough and left them as is. The best mix for the mud I have found involves using plaster (spackle) and if I screwed it up it would be really difficult to remove. So rather than do this with an expensive model I think I will experiment a little more with some other cheaper model. The weathering on top is similar to that which I did on my watchtower. It isn't as textured as the wheels. I still think it looks fine.

So does anyone know how the crew manage to steer this thing?

Angry Trees

I painted these a while ago but I forgot to post up a photograph. I really like the models.I painted them up quickly as they are fairly simple except for the bones and skulls. I hate painting bone and skulls, a hang over from GW I think. I came up with a fairly simple receipe though that works really well. I painted them bleached bone and washed them with a watered down version of Devlan Mud (GW) and then a watered down Gryphone Sepia(GW). I highlight this with bleached bone and white. Finally I gave it a brown glaze and it comes out really nicely. It is far quicker than the normal layering I use.

These gave me an idea for flags for my army. I haven't really been able to come up with a cool idea to use on my flags. I will make stumps I think in the same style as these. Simple but should look fine.