Diesel DM

Archduke Alain Runewood, Lord of Fharin

Having just wrapped up the max unit of Sword Knights I needed to switch back and do a solo. So naturally I chose the master of Sword Knights: Runewood.  I really like this model but the studio paint scheme is surprisingly boring. I spent some time altering the default scheme to match both the Sword Knights I just finished as well as blending in with the rest of the army. I spent as much or more time on him than I do on a typical warcaster. This time really shows as I believe this is my best model to date. The face came out perfect. Fantastic definition and contrast, the eyes came out sharp and shapely. The hair and mustache also pop nicely.

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Sword Knights – Max Unit

Still working on getting my eStryker list fully painted, here are the Sword Knights. After the pain of painting the full Long Gunners with UA, I tried to decide how best to tackle these.  I decided to do the full unit without the UA, but it was still long and trying.  Perhaps it would be best to just do the min unit, then the extra troopers separate. That probably ends up being less efficient, but perhaps less trying on my sanity.

Nevertheless, these guys turned out okay, but the loin cloths could have been cleaner. I think all in all for a full unit they are okay.  I really like these models, especially the variety you get out of the similar sculpts by combining different arms and shields.  I tried a couple different schemes, before returning to something very similar to the studio scheme.  The studio painted models are not great, your eyes just kind of slide off them. I think because they lack any real contrast on the metallics.  I think I got a better range on mine. I also went with the yellow Cygnus instead of gold for the shields, which also helped.  And to incorporate the Jack Bone/MWH color, I applied it to their cloth, front and back.  To break it up a bit and add some more blue I free-handed the blue stripes on the front and back of the cloths.

To help distinguish the leader I used a technique I learned at Lock & Load last year for making rocks. Whenever I’ve had leftover modelling putty I’ve been rolling it into little spheres, about 3/8-1/2″ in diameter. The you take your modelling knife and cut various side off the sphere until you get something that looks like a rock.  Super glue the putty rock to the base and then paint, wash and drybrush.  Then I did some long field grass behind the rock.  It came out great and I look forward to trying this technique again.  To further distinguish the leader I painted a yellow stripe down the blue pony tail from his helmet.  This was pretty sharp-looking and I kind of wanted to do it to every model and then I could make the leader’s solid yellow, but I think the extra blue is good too.

My main list now only requires getting Runewood painted.  I should probably tackle the Sword Knight UA as well…but maybe that can wait for now.

Storm Strider – Crawling across the battlefield

At long last I’ve completed the Storm Strider.  This thing was a ridiculous amount of work.  When I first got it assembled I thought there wasn’t much detail, this thing would be done in no time. WRONG. Painting all those blue glowing circles and the gold rings that surround them takes a significant amount of time, and I didn’t even blend them.  All in all this is one of my least favorite models. I didn’t like assembling it and I didn’t like painting it. I can only hope it plays well on the table.

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After my recent flurry of model completions I’ve started in on something much larger: a Storm Strider.  I actually got this for my birthday in July 2011, but hadn’t assembled it, trying to build up the rest of my force.  Now is the time to get this guy on the table.  I think there is a lot of potential for this in a game and I’ll be interested to see how it plays.

As for the model itself, this is probably the worst-cast model I’ve assembled.  The plastic pieces have gaps, bubbles, missing edges, smushed details, it’s a mess.  I contemplated just taking a picture of every plastic piece in the kit and submitting it to the missing parts portal, that’s how bad it is.  But I’ve decided to just work with what I have and get this construct on the table.  I like to fully assemble models before painting but as with the Stormwall, that wasn’t going to be possible here.  Instead I have the legs and the main platform assembled, then the two Stormsmiths, the ball and the coils are all separate.

Assembly is my weakpoint and it was proven here as I struggled to get the legs and platform together.  And even after all that I somehow had the legs spread too far apart so they were surrounding the base rather than being on it.  I had to break one of them off and retry.  I’d like to think the poor plastic molding allowed me to make such a terrible error, but it’s certainly more to do with my assembling skills.

Storm Strider legs and platform metallics

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