Diesel DM

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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Harlan Versh, Illuminated One

Another low-cost solo to help fill out fully painted lists, here is Harlan Versh.  The fist thing many will notice is that I added some color to Versh.  The artwork for Harlan is all browns, and it looks great, but on the table-top I didn’t think that much brown would be very eye-catching, maybe even a bit boring. So I decided to give him denim pants, a green waist coat and a while jacket.  Then for the hat and trench coat I went with tan.  He might not match his artwork, but he’s visually interesting. (more…)

Stormsmith Stormcallers: Bring on the lightning

Still working on that fully painted army by getting those low-cost filler models painted.  At 1pt a piece it’s hard to get lower-cost than the Stormsmiths.  Especially now with the Stormwall and it’s Stormpods, the Stormsmiths are finding their way into my lists.  As  I contemplated adding Nemo3 to my arsenal, they become even more valuable for list building. (more…)

Cygnar Sentinel, shield guarding your Warcasters

With the most recent errata having change Shield Guard to be more useful, I wanted to get the Sentinel painted up, ready for use with the low-ARM casters like Kara and Caine.  Not too much to discuss regarding the painting here, pretty standard for my Cygnar techniques, except for the top of the chassis.  For me, painting the circular highlights on the top of the shoulders is insanely difficult, to the point where I can’t seem to accomplish it.  I certainly made attempts with both the Charger and Lancer and I made multiple attempts on this one.  Without much success I instead turned the problem upside down.  Rather than base-coating with the mid-tone (Cygnar Blue Base), I base coated with the highest highlight (a mix of Cygnar Blue Highlight and Frostbite).  Then I layered all the darker colors up to it instead, as shading around a circle is much easier than highlighting out from one.  I can’t really explain why that is, but there you have.  This was a big experiment for me and I had my doubts, but it turned out great.  The only thing I would change is to have based with straight Frostbite instead, to give it an even brighter highlight.

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