Diesel DM

I finished painting my ATGM a few weeks ago, but am just now getting around to posting the pictures to the site.  A reader of my Broken Egg Games Tournament Tray review on HCO asked for larger pictures of the ATGM, which has spurred me to actually get this post up.  I haven’t seen the original sculpt up close, but these new ATGM sculpts are very nice.  A lot of detail packed in, though painting both sides of their faces can prove difficult with those high collars.

For these guys I altered my painting technique.  Instead of using a base, two highlights and two shading colors and blending each into the others, I use a base, one highlight and one shade and did not blend them.  This resulted in a much faster paint job that still looks great on the table, but when you get the camera up close it really suffers.  If you are thinking of trying this technique to speed up your unit painting make sure to get some really deep shadows and some bright edge highlights to really get the models to pop.  Over all I give these guys an “Average Tabletop Quality”.

Arcane Tempest Gun Mages with Officer

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Scratch built terrain fascinates me.  You start with raw materials that could be anything; Combine them, shape them, paint them and you are left with something so realistic that you cannot determine what the component pieces originally were.  This fascination kept me at arms distance from building terrain, as if some kind of magic would be required.  I changed my mind after finding a Privateer Press Hobby Article about the Khadoran Inn.  Looking at the completed piece it seems like an impossible task, but looking at each step it seemed manageable.  Here are some pictures and thoughts of my completed Inn.

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To facilitate the first installment of Ghool’s Graveyard, an article series I suggested over at Hand Cannon, I offered up my very own Lt. Allister Caine to be reviewed.  I mulled over which figure to send for a quite a while, but at last decided on pCaine since he was the last Warcaster I had completed and most folks will probably want to send in more centerpiece type figures like a Warcaster.  I had also considered my Stormclad or pStryker, but I didn’t feel like I would learn as much from a critique on them as I could from Caine.

Ghool’s review is great.  Very detail oriented with clear explanations of what to do where.  I am looking forward to seeing what our readers send in and picking up more tips from a pro.  Remember to send in nice, well lit pictures.  If you need some assistance, refer to my tutorial on miniature photography.

Check out the review of my Lt. Allister Caine:

http://handcannononline.com/blog/2011/10/12/ghools-graveyard-model-critiques-and-feedback/

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.

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