Stormwall: Completed
After a big push at the end of last week, I completed the Stormwall. This was a learning experiences, just as with the first time I painted a ‘jack or a group of infantry. Painting a colossal is a unique experience. In the end it’s not that it’s more work because there is more surface area, rather it’s more work because there are more details. It’s not like PP just took an existing heavy warjack and scaled it up, these colossals have more details than any previous model and it really takes a while to get it all right.
Stomping across the battlefield
I was shooting for tabletop quality with my first colossal and I think I got it there. There are several things that could have come out better, especially the blue highlights on the top as I discussed in an earlier WIP post. Having painted the blue feet shields separately I didn’t do them until after the hardships of highlighting the top, so I actually based it with Cygnar Blue Highlight and then shaded the Cygnar Blue Base, Exile Blue and Exile Blue/Battlefield Brown. They look really good, and this may be a better technique for future blues. Something to experiment with, certainly. I didn’t go the extra Frostbit highlight for the feet, since they are tucked under the model, so it’s hard to say how that would could out.
I think the whites could got a bit darker in the shadows, but it has a nice effect as is, but probably doesn’t pop quite enough. The golds came out very nicely and for all the metals I made an effort to two-brush blend the shades and highlights, rather than just the standard wash and dry brush technique. The storm chambers and coils came out nicely, they pop well, as does the front Cygnus.
Your barbed wire fences are meaningless
With such a massive base to work with I really wanted to do something new. The base is your chance to tell a story about your model. I wanted my Stormwall to tell two stories: first it’s immense scale and second that it would change the face of the battlefield. While any Warmachine player will know this is a very large model, outsiders would not. To give a sense of scale I need to put something for the eye to judge it’s size by. I went with a sandbag bunker as most people will know about how big a sandbag is. Expressing the idea of the battlefield changing, I decided to have him stomping on a barbed wire fence that would slow down normal infantry or even a light ‘jack. But for the Stormwall he has stepped on it, snapping the lines and pulling down the wooden frame that was holding it.
The sandbag bunker helps give a sense of scale
The Stormwall was really a challenge on the painting table. There was so much detail, the model is so large and there are so many pieces in the way that it really requires extra work to get it all painted well. It’s easy to miss a spot, or accidentally get paint on the wrong area. For those that followed this and are about to embark on their own Stormwall, I recommend leaving the following pieces off to paint separate:
- The two blue feet shields
- The top hip guards with the arcane blue emitters
- The two storm chambers on the back (I didn’t do these and wish I had)
Scale reference: (left to right) Stormwall, Defender, Charger, pStryker
Now that he’s complete I know the next challenge will be wielding him on the tabletop to be effective. At 19 points he has a lot of weight to carry, even in a 50pt army. I’m glad I picked up the BattleFoam Stormwall foam tray at Lock & Load, as Saturday he’ll be heading to a tournament. He fits very well in the tray and since I went with a somewhat minimalistic pose, I only removed 5 or 6 of the pluck foam strips from the tray that allow a custom fit.