Spoils of War: Cygnaran Nomad
The Painting Challenge presented in No Quarter 35 was called Spoils of War. The objective was to take a current Mercenary ‘jack and paint it to match a new faction. This really grabbed my interest so I took a look at the Mercenary wajacks to see which I thought would work best. The Nomad type of warjack, which I chose, were once Cygnaran ‘jacks. These were eventually decommissioned due to the aging design, replaced with the Ironclad. I’ve always been very attached to the Iron Kingdoms fluff, so for we it only made sense that Cygnar would re-instate the aged Nomads. Here was my submission to No Quarter:
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Pressed on all fronts the Cygnaran logistics department can no longer supply newly built ‘jacks fast enough. Looking for accessible alternatives they recommission the old Nomad warjacks that had served Cygnar’s warcasters in the past. The Nomads are recalled from use in heavy labor, purchased from mercenary forces and reclaimed from battlefields. Before being sent to the front the aging ‘jacks are given a fresh Cygnaran paint scheme and a newly designed buckler emblazoned with Cygnus the Swan. With a heavy blade designed to carve through metal the Nomad will prove especially valuable on the northern front against Khador’s massive ‘jacks.
Though I enjoyed my knowledgable and plausible tie-in, my modest ‘jack did not make it into the magazine. Nevertheless I wanted to post it up here as I did something new with model: I actually did a bit of modeling conversion. Before I get into the details, here are the comparison pictures of the PP Mercenary Nomad and my Cygnaran Nomad:
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Aside from a slight repose, I added a Cygnus to the Nomad’s shield, but it’s not just a freehand painting, it’s an actual part of the model. I used some modeling putty to make a cast of the Cygnus from the Lancer’s shield. I used some baby oil to keep it from sticking to the unpainted Lancer’s shield. Once the mold had thoroughly dried I put a bit of baby oil in the molde and pressed modeling putty firmly into it. The hardest part was getting the putty out of the cast without warping it. There is probably an easier way to accomplish this, but I haven’t come across it. Once the new cast had hardened I used a file to make it circular and to get it as thin as possible to not add too much bulk to the shield. I super-glued the cast onto the center of the Nomad’s shield and let it dry. The cast Cygnus did not fill the entirety of the Nomad’s shield so I took some more modeling putty, placed it around the edges of the cast and using the blade of one of the standard modeling tools, I smoothed the edges of the cast into the edges of the Nomad’s shield, giving it a rounded, Captain America look.
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The color scheme followed the rest of my Cygnar warjacks, except that I left a lot of brass on the Nomad, instead of doing it all up in gold. I imagined if Cygnar needed to reinstate older ‘jacks they would use as much of the existing machine as possible, so I left them copper as if they were original parts.