Warmachine

I guess this was actually something I got started on last winter, but became a side project.  Something to paint and occasionally play with the kids.  Suddenly there is interest in it from the rest of the friends I game with.  My rag tag band will be joined by 4 more armies shortly, and I've picked up the pace on painting mine.

I've got Fletcher's army, about 35 points of Menoth.
Morgan's army, about 35 points of Khador
My army, about 20 points of mercenaries
Some Cygnar.  OK, a lot of Cygnar thanks to ebay and the FLGS consignment case.

They are going to be up against some more Cygnar, some pirate mercenaries, and two as yet undecided armies.

We've had a few games, so far I'm 2:2 on win loss, but most importantly this has been a big help to learning the rules.  I've won with Khador (against Cygnar), won with Menoth (against Khador) and lost twice with my mercenaries (against Cygnar both times).  Last nights second game was a lot of fun and pretty close.  I was busy destroying his army, and probably would have had him knocked out in one more turn as all he had left with three troops and a crippled jack.  He'd managed to injure my warcast earlier though with a lucky shot from his Defender warjack.  He pulled off a flank with his warcaster and managed to get a shot on mine.  Coupled with the earlier damage it was enough to drop him.

I think we'll be mixing in quite a bit more Warmachine in the future.  Now I have a better understanding of the rules I'd like to get my kids back playing it (rather than just playing with the minis) as well.

Airbrushing

OK, I'm new to the world of the airbrushing and still working on perfecting parts of my technique.  I've tried a few vehicles and the whole hairspray/salt thang.  I had a  bunch of Warmachine troops that I'd wanted to get started on having picked them up used and depainted them quite a while ago.  The family was off camping so when I got home from work I set up for an airbrushing session.  Got The Overlords (.co.uk) playing on my computer and off I went.  3 hours and 5 minutes later I had painted...
12 dreadnought weapons
1 heavy warjack
2 light warjacks
3 Khador Man-o-wars
6 Rangers
6 Arcane Tempest Gun Mages
6 Winterguard
18 Long gunners
3 Stormsmiths
1 Man-hunter
1 Warcaster
1 Widowmaker Marksman
13 bases
OK, none of those are finished, I can't do detail, but these are all primed, base coated and then a highlight coat.  42 troops, 6 jack size things, and 25 bits.  Not bad.
Oh yeah and halfway done on a Spitfire MkVb.
Pretty damn good for a bit over 3 hours.  Would have taken weeks otherwise.

Holy pinning batman

One of my kids got some Warmachine Protectorate of Menoth stuff for his birthday.  A paladin of the wall.  Three pieces, no problem, just put the cloak on after it is painted.  The Avatar of Menoth.  Eighteen pieces including some that look like they will be really annoying with thin attachment areas.  Damn, that is going to take a while.   A box of Exemplar Errants.  Six of them but each appears to be at least 4 pieces, maybe 5 as I only had a quick look. now I've had a good look is many pieces for a total of 44 bits of metal to pin and glue.

I see lots of drilling, staples and superglue in my future.  As much as I like metal stuff for the weight, this would be so much easier if these were plastic.

UPDATE:
OK, couple of days later and the arms are all pinned and attached.  I'm starting on the shoulder pads but they are even more fiddly.  Limited contact areas so super glue would not hold well.  If I pinned it I'd be drilling right through the pin that attaches the arm to the body so that is no good.  I tried gorilla glue and it went OK on the first guy.  Second one I made a mess on though.  With gorilla glue you need pressure on the joint while it hardens, and it hardens slowly.  Which means rubber bands around things and trying to get them in just the right place.  First guy I did two at once.  Second guy I tried that, but after making a whole mess of everything I'll leave it to one at a time from now on.  This will be slow.

Army Transport Miniature Case Review

I've previously kept most of my minis in bits boxes.  When they are plastic it seems OK.  If they are tough enough to be played with they should be tough enough to be transported next to a few more of their kin.

And then we got into Warmachine where the minis are predominantly metal, heavy, and often multi piece.  Time for a new solution, and the $60 Army Transport case seemed like a good deal vs $130 for the Battle Foam equivalent.  Overall I think it was worth the $60 as any padded case seems to run fairly pricey.  Here's my thoughts on it.

Materials are kind of second class.  Not bad, but not top notch.  Looks OK at the moment but feels like it could wear out easily.  I hope to be proven wrong.
The front pockets are pretty tight.  Room for a thin manual, some cards, a few dice.  Anything thicker though, like the ever present Chessex blocks of 36 dice, there is no way to store in here.
The zipper only runs around the top which limits access.  You want something out that bottom tray?  You are going to be removing every other tray to get to it.
The trays that come standard with the 'full' version are 6x 1 inch trays and 2x 2.5 inch trays.  1 inch is about 25mm.  Warmachine small bases are 30mm.  Yeah, problem there if you are buying this for Warmachine.  You can buy an empty bag and get 1.5" and 2.5" trays separately.  Thing is it costs more that way, now you are looking at close to $80.

Tray dimensions are 7.5" by 12.5".  In pull out squares that's 13x24.  You can shuffle them around a bit, but unless you have lots of really bulky guys that is about 18 small minis per layer.  As a guide, a regular marine will fit in a 3x3, Devastator or Sergeant, 3x4, Standard Bearer 3x5 or 3x6.
If you spring for one of the 3 or 4 inch foam layers (and the bag will hold 11 vertical inches of foam) you can get most vehicles in.  A layer will fit 3 transports (trukks, chimeras, razorbacks) or 1 large vehicle (land raider, battle wagon) and a transport.  It'll only really fit two Russes as they are kind of chunky.  The biggest stuff though, like a Valkyrie will not fit in this.  Well not unless you break off the wings and front antenna.

So am I happy with the bag?  Yeah, I guess.  Kind of wishing I'd sunk the extra into one of the dedicated Battle Foam bags though.  Yeah, twice the price, but bigger, better built (it seems, no first hand experience) and just better designed.  Plus, the Warmachine version has trays designed to fit Warmachine minis, rather than the too thin standard Army Transporter trays, and a big ol' Warmachine logo on the front.  While the Army Transporter does its job, it feels too much like a cooler bag someone shoved foam trays into.

Warmachine - wave one finished

I've finally finished the first set of Warmachine minis we picked up at christmas.  This is the Khador and Menoth battle boxes, a few mercenary solos, and then some Cygnar stuff and a couple of units rescued from the consignment case at the FLGS. 

From Cygnar with have my "best ever consignment case purchase™"  These three were $20, unassembled and all crammed into one box.  Caine, a Stormclad and a Defender for a 13 point start.  Happy with how they came out, although I need to redo the eyes on the war caster.  I suck at eyes.

From Menoth we have the 11 point start of Fletcher's army, a basic Menoth battle box.  Again, fairly happy with how they came out.  Only issue is a like a dirty, battle worn kind of look.  On the white though its killed detail some.  I may go back and try and tidy these up a little.

From Khador we have the17 point start of Morgan's army, a basic Khador battle box with a unit of Doom Reavers.  These all came together well, I'm happy with how the came out.

And lastly, assorted mercenaries.  Greygore Boomhowler and Co, Taryn Di La Rovissi, Rutger Shaw and  Dannon Blyth and Bull.  The Greygore lot were the other consignment case find.  The rest were picked up just because they were cool minis.  They'll be useful to balance points out though when we start playing and learning the rules as there are 14 points worth here in 4 selections.

We've got a few more coming.  I've got Reinholdt and the other half of some Khador Mekanics sitting on the painting table (first half are done).  Then the kids are getting a couple of the cheapo minis for valentines day, and Fletcher is getting a bunch of Menoth stuff for his birthday.  I'll say one thing for Warmachine, seems like getting a good, playable army together is far quicker and cheaper than 40K.  Obviously its a smaller scale game, but with a lower entry cost building a nice custom army or two is no big deal.

More Warmachine minis finished

 

Been making good progress on the Warmachine figures my kids got for xmas.  The two units of troops are now done (Doom Reavers and Greygore Boomhowler and Co) and the Khador warcaster is done.  Now I just need to finish the Menoth warcaster and all the jacks and its done.  And all of those are at least 75% complete so it'll all be looking purty pretty soon.

Of course there is more on its way.  I managed to get a Cygnar battle box for $20 on ebay, and its Fletcher's birthday in a couple of weeks and he's said he'd like some more for his Menoth army.  Seeing as the painting is what I really enjoy, no complaints there.

Warmachine - first completed minis

I'd originally picked up a Warmachine piece in the consignment case of my FLGS just because I thought it was a cool model.  Turned out there were three in the box I bought, 2 heavies and a warcaster.  Took them home, downloaded the freebie quickstart rules and figured it looked like a good game.  My kids also took a look and were interested so I got them a couple of the starter battle boxes for christmas and a couple of mercenary solos myself.  These are all assembled, and in various stages of being painted, but the first 5 are finished. 

Got to say they are very nice models.  The warjacks are decent, but the characters are well above average.  Better casting quality than what I'm used to from the GW metals.  I picked up some Secret Weapon bases and the snow kit for these guys.  All comes together really well.