Holiday 'jacks

I had a tournament last week that essentially had the requirement of doing up a 'jack or 'beast in a winter holiday theme. I went through a bunch of ideas, and eventually settled on a few non-offensive, labor-light ones -- a Santa hat for the Deathjack, the Ghost of Christmas Past for the Harrower (to guide the ghost shot cannon) and the reindeer horn that Max from "the Grinch" wore for the Leviathan. It didn't all turn out quite that way, as you'll see, but I'm happy with what I ended up with.


First off -- this is the Ghost of Christmas Past. It's an old Necromunda model; I never played the game, so I don't know what it's supposed to represent. All I know is I saw it used for 99 cents about 10 years ago, loved it, and grabbed it. I haven't found a good use for it since, but it was perfect in this role. If I find another use for it -- and I may, if the newly spoiled merc requires extra goons to represent his zombers -- this paint job will get stripped.

Speaking of the paint job, it was super-simple. Citadel's gray paint-on primer, followed by a mix of ComArt Colour's "Transparent Forest Green" with P3's "Turquoise Ink"; I then drybrushed layers of Citadel gray paint-on primer (typically a no-no, it's really thick) and "Skull White." Finally, I went over the deep recesses like his eyes with a very, very light black wash made from Citadel's "Chaos Black."


And here's Max's sad reindeer horn, tailor-made for the Leviathan! So, why's it on the Harrower? Because I'm an idiot. I was doing the final touches the night before the tournament, got enamored of the Harrower, and just forgot what I was doing. In my defense, the two 'jacks share a chassis.


The brass wire is the worst part of the actual modeling I did. I felt rushed and couldn't make it look nice; it was also incredibly awkward. If I spent another 45 minutes on it, I could have made it look nicer; as it was, I was up too late, so called it square after getting it on. The antler turned out really nicely, though. By this time, I wasn't in any mood to paint the guy -- I really shoulda done more work earlier in the week -- so this is how I went to the tourney. (This was also the worst angle to see it.)


This is the final Harrower. It looks really decent for a slap-together job, if I do say so myself. The wreath is made of pipe cleaner, obviously, which I bought for 99 cents 'special for the occasion.


Oh, poor Leviathan. He was demoted from Santa-Grinch's special reindeer-dog-'jack to "here, hold this wreath" guy. It's OK, though -- he blew chunks for me in the tourney. (That wasn't entirely his fault -- the one game I played with him, I botched two really, really important dice rolls that I needed to make to protect him. There's literally nothing you can do about it when you're rolling 4s vs. a 5+ on 3d6.)


This is the Santa hat, in the "ugly stage."


And here's the final Santa hat, on the final thing most troops ever see. "I bring the gift -- of death!" Yeah, we get it Deathjack. It's in your name, too, we know. Showboat.

Gatormen get some gator paintin'

First, the hat:

I know you've been waiting for it. Here's the first two coats of paint -- dark red (Citadel's "Scab Red," to be precise) and a second coat of white (again, Citadel's "Skull White" to be precise). The white and the portions where the red and white meet will get a very thin wash of black ink; then I'll go over them again, using "Skull White" on the fur and Citadel's "Blood Red" on the red portion. The antlers are still a work in progress; I suspect that figuring out how to use the jeweler's wire will take me a few tries.

And now the Gatormen:


They're turning out quite well, if I say so myself. Two of them, almost knocked out in a single evening -- now that's progress.


Here are the back scales. It's the most pathetically easy thing I've ever done -- an undercoat of white primer (P3 spray-on), a thin wash of Citadel's "Snot Green," then ComArt Coulours' "Transparent Forest Green" with just a touch of Citadel's "Chaos Black." The ComArt paint is intended for airbrushes; I have Anthony to thank for turning me on to the wonders that are airbrush paints. I keep looking at these scales, thinking that they were simply too easy, but I can't see what else I'd do to them.


Here's the second gatorman. As you can see, I haven't done any highlights yet, just washes and glazes; I still have to color in the ornaments, highlight all the reds and woods, then add the few metals that need to be added. Bronze, again; it's become the unifying metal for this group.


The blindingly white bases are actually based with sand. That'll get painted black then drybrushed up to brown and then off-white in some places; after sealant, I'll add the clear tacky glue to simulate water. It's worked well on the trogs so far.

I've been working, I promise

It's been a busy week. Between "World of Warcraft: Cataclysm" and a surprise extra shift at work, I've been less than productive on the miniatures front. That doesn't mean I haven't been working -- I'm just not painting or modeling at a rate that I'd like.

So I'll round up what I've been playing with and working on.


This is that Bog Trog featured in the last Bog Trog post. I've been looking at him all week, angry that I haven't had a wakeful moment to knock him out and simultaneously daunted by all the white on him. I finally just bucked up and got some color on a lot of the unpainted areas today.


Clearly, there's more to be done. I've got to highlight his reds, his talons need to be blackened, the brass isn't applied yet, his eyes aren't done, and there's a handful of highlights and yellows that need to be added to his skin and scales. Still, it almost looks done now!


On Safiya's urging, I bought a glaze medium for my acrylics. (Anthony had suggested something similar.) As usual, advice from real artists trumps my bullheaded approach; the glazes it makes are wonderful. It's like painting with washes, but the glazes have a heavier consistency, making them easier to control.


I assembled my Bloodgorgers. They're easy to put together -- two pieces for grunts, three for commander -- and don't need much green stuff. I plan to field them at the upcoming tournament; they might even have primer on them by then! I also put together my Thrullg; I'll get a picture of him up later. (He's the squid-man that makes my gator army a thing of beauty.)


These wooden puzzle toys were a buck each at Michael's. They're big and tantalizing -- I want to make terrain featuring them sometime. The dragon in the foreground will get some green stuff and be added as a fossil to a rock outcropping.


The snake has fewer problems, from a modeling standpoint, than the dragon; after some green stuff, he'll be turned into part of an evil altar. (Those seem to pop up repeatedly in my Dungeons & Dragons campaigns, so I'll get a fair bit of mileage out of it.)


That tournament I mentioned earlier? It's got a holidays theme to it. Players get a slight bonus for decorating their 'jacks or warbeasts; I've settled on three different, temporary additions. The first is this elf hat.


And there's the big man himself, ol' Deathjack, in his happy hat. Dangly ball at the hat's tip is incoming.


Finally, here's that Skarre conversion. These are out-of-date photos, but they've been languishing on my hard drive and I'm not taking any more photos until I get that sword just right. Hint: that may be a while yet.


Those gaps have been filled in, but it's still looking goofy. It's been difficult getting the sword thin enough; I've been scraping and scraping. I have a feeling that, eventually, the whole sword's just going to come off and I'll pin on a replacement.


And here's Skarre with her little crabby friend. This base is definitely getting an overhaul; if I'm really ambitious, I'm also going to clip off her horns and re-pin them to her forehead. It's going to be rough work, but dear lord are her horns hideous the way they are now.

Not a lizard

I just can't leave it alone. The Hive Tyrant base is mostly done. There's still several tweaks and at least two holes that have to be drilled, but that's all easy stuff.

I need to cut a cleft from the left side to break up the straight line and to counterbalance the two ridges on the other sides; while you can't see it, I also need to finish sealing up several places on the ridges and the underside of the "rock." I'm going to also experiment with adding rough-grain sand to the edges of the rock -- the end result will be basalt in a lava flow, and having some texture implying that the rock is being devoured by lava would be nice. Why rock-in-lava? I want to try lighting techniques on something I can easily remake or reprime before going to town with it on Skarre.

There's the Hive Tyrant. He's about 6 inches tall, so it gives you an idea of how large the base is.

Gatormen came in!

My Gatormen Posse(s) came in! I assembled them post-haste (perhaps a little to post-hasty, as you may see in the photos) and threw some ink on one to get an idea of how I was gonna paint them.

There you go. Note that his belly didn't get a lighter, creamier shade in this initial go; he will, though. I've got this great golden-yellow Vallejo paint I've been meaning to use for a while, and I think this is where it gets to shine.

There's not a lot of space for red on these guys. I'm going to have to shoehorn it in where I can -- the necklace, the poleaxe's bindings. The sides are going to be a brown-green; I'll be starting with the dark P3 brown with a drop of green and working up from there. The back plates will be greener. Apologies for not having paint names -- I'm writing on my lunch break at work and the paints are not immediately available. And I'm too lazy to look the names up online. And where they're mentioned elsewhere in the blog. Not much of an apology, but you're the one who pushed the issue. Happy now?

And there it is -- the glaring flaw. I distinctly remember filing away that ridge on this guy's face on at least four of the six models; either I didn't file so good or I slowly (and temporarily) lost the ability to see metal flash. That's gotta come off; I'm just glad I noticed it before I dashed real paint down on the guy. While I love these dudes, there's one thing I really hate about them -- filing away mold lines is a huge pain in the rear. The lines aren't so bad, especially for a limited-run metal piece, but their detail is so shallow that it goes away real quick. A few errant swipes with the file and suddenly your imposing Gatorman Posse is now a smooth-lizard jazz trio. Scales = manly, a known and scientific fact, but they're very easy to remove from these guys.

Bog Trogs half done, plus some

The Bog Trogs are coming along. I keep learning new things -- I've never done any kind of research on painting techniques before, and Anthony's a walking encyclopedia of "pigment on minis." Between forum trawling and picking Anthony's brain, I've got a ton of new things to try out.

So here's the latest Bog Trog. The turtle shell on his right shell could use a few more details, but it's OK the way it is now. I'm using a lot more washes and glazes than I ever did before; they look great, generally speaking, but they also require more babysitting. Overall, it's still a faster and better paint job than my old base, wash, highlight deal. I'm sure that, in six months, I'll be annoyed with how these look now; in the meantime, they're good to go and I love them. Oh love, how fickle you can be.

And the other side. The binding on his spear is underdone; I'll probably go over it with Citadel's "Scab Red" mixed with "Blood Red" to highlight the individual straps. This guy marks No. 3, which means I'm halfway done with this unit. If I ever end up playing Warhammer again, I think I may tear my eyes out -- that game's got 20 or more dudes to a unit, which is just stupid. I think my biggest WarmaHordes army is 30 models total.

This is No. 4. His green skin is done, while his scales need another coat of highlight (or two, and maybe a wash).

Citadel's "Flesh Wash," which is discontinued, is amazing and will get used all over this guy. It's a great wash, but it's really shiny -- probably why it was discontinued -- but it makes leather, wood and turtle shells look great.

This is the same sculpt as Bog Trog No. 2. If you have a poor memory, that's the one that had things on his belt which were totally unrecognizable. Oddly enough, they're still completely unrecognizable. I'm still going with octopus. At least now I can rest easy -- they're just hard to recognize, not over-primed. Cheers, I guess?

Summore Bog Trogs

The Bog Trogs are coming along -- rather, a Bog Trog is coming along. Several washes later, here's how he's looking:



Yes, that's another not-a-lizard project to the left. I found an old Hive Tyrant in my garage that I'd never attached arms to; I cleaned it, added magnets to it and then took an inventory of the possible weapons and biomorphs it can have. Eventually, it'll all get magnetized, but that's a ways away -- there are way, way too many options in 40K games.

The bronze is done on the legplates; it's not flashy, but it's OK. The skin's been washed / highlighted to about where I want it, and the face is pretty much done.

The modesty cloth is close to being done, too; it's going to need the tears darkened up a bit. You can see that the fins on the arms and the feet aren't done yet; they're always a bit of frustration on these types of models, because they're very visible while being pretty uninteresting. On the leader of the Bog Trogs, I'm going to play with glazing them to try to get a translucent look, but these regular troopers don't need that level of detail.

You can really see here how much cleaner this Trog is, and it's all thanks to proper priming. The scales will need another layer of lighter green on them, especially on the shoulders; I'm also going to need to make the color gradients on his crest and swept-back whiskers more obvious.

Bog Trogs, agains

I've talked a lot about doing Bog Trogs lately -- so much so that I'd bet some of my readers were rolling their eyes and assuming that I've stopped work on them. Sure, I've got a history of dropping half-finished projects, but that hurts, guys -- it pains me to know that you might think that.

And there you go -- a Bog Trog, about a third done. I really am moving on them, just slowly, like cold syrup. But you know what pancakes would be without syrup? That's right, slightly less delicious. This is the just the base colors -- light washes of Citadel's "Snot Green" on the skin, "Dark Angels Green" on the scales, a glaze of P3's "Battlefield Brown" on the leather, turtle shell and weapon, and some Citadel "Scab Red" on the modesty cloth. I'm still a little confused about fish wearing things over their crotches, but I figure it's some sort of unassailable modeler's tradition, like breasts on snake women and such.

The legplate is going to be bronze, so it gets the black undercoat. I'm going to force myself to do slightly fancier metallics on my next 'jack, but for now, we'll just go the simple route.

You may notice that the items slung on this Bog Trog are recognizable. That's because this trog was stripped of paint and given a single coat of white primer; it's a lot thinner and than the 3ish coats the others got in my aborted zenithal highlighting tryout. That's also the reason why these colors pop a lot more; the single white primer coat is a lot brighter. However, don't think that I'm bashing the technique -- I'm using a lot of the glazing I learned from trying it on this model, and it's working quite well. I'm certain that it was a case of trying to run before learning to crawl -- I'll give the technique a shot again, with airbrushed primer, on my Gatormen or last pair of Bog Trogs.

Speaking of the items slung on the Trogs -- here's a fish. I'm looking forward to trying my hand at nonmetallic metallics on this guy; for the uninitiated, that's mimicking a metallic finish with matte paints. I know it's a swamp fish -- not because I'm any ichthyologist, but because the Trogs live in swamps, natch -- but that don't mean it can't be shiny. The shading on this guy's leg was a wash of "Dark Angels Green" and then Citadel's "Thraka Green."

Finally, here's the other trog, waiting for his time to get some attention. Soon, my friend.

By the by, if you ended up watching "Nerima Daikon Brothers," stop at episode 6 (or so). If you see the guy with the soup bowl pants and hot-pot head, you've gone too far -- it's all downhill once the show decides it needs a plot.

Not a lizard

Been a while since my last update. I've actually been playing Warmachine (gasp, I know), burned through the seven hours of a StarCraft II trial (kinda meh, kinda fun) and took a long look at my Cryx lists. Eight weeks of goofing around with different casters and lists, and it's time to buckle down with a serious army so I know what I'll be painting.

Anyway, further Skarre work:

This is the final dagger. I'd curled what was going to be a snake ornament around the blade, but couldn't get it to look right, so this is the final. The rope is a tiny homage to the whips that Satyxis Raiders use.

My apologies for the fuzzy photo, but every one of them came out of focus. This is the hatch for coal that powers warcaster armor.

And this little guy will be on Skarre's base. He's small -- his body is just a little larger than the hatch on the above photo. I'm patiently waiting for the "Skarre has crabs" jokes from opponents as they point at my Leviathan and Harrower; my witty response will be POW 13, POW 13, POW 13, Sacrificial Strike. Who's laughing now, sucker? Me and my parasites, that's who.

The final treatment -- maybe -- will be an extension on Takaryx, Skarre's sword. It's a little -- anemic, maybe, next to her dagger. Perhaps emasculated.

I'm also considering a cape, but that's going to involve a lot of forethought which I simply may not be capable of. Seriously, I'd have to measure out her warcaster armor, cut a cape that would go around it, green stuff in inevitable gaps and oh my god I'm bleeding from the thought of the work bleeding.

By the way, Nerima Daikon Brothers is on Hulu. It's hilarious, and you should be watching. Warning: it's racy.

Not a lizard

One of my favorite Cryx warcasters -- perhaps my favorite after Goreshade -- is Skarre Ravenmane. In the original version of the game, she was not only a kick-ass lady, but her "Skarre bomb," as her Sacrificial Strike became known, was one of the early game's signature powerful abilities. However, there was one problem -- her model was terrible.

(Stolen from Privateer Press)

It's very awkward and 2-dimensional. Even that gorgeous paint job and picture taken from the miniature's "good side" can't hide how bad the design is. I sucked it up because Skarre was my go-to girl, but kept my eye out for a replacement miniature. I'd get my chance soon enough.

(Also stolen from Privateer Press)

A few years down the line, Privateer Press released a series of Iron Kingdom role-playing game minis. I ignored most of them, but one of the models in the set was a gun-toting, sword-wielding Satyxis. Color me sold. There were a few immediate problems: that gun and holster on her left hip would have to go -- Skarre wouldn't learn to use a gun until "Superiority"; she'd need a ritual dagger in her left hand; and I'd need warcaster armor on her back.

This is the first go. The gun was clipped off and the area sanded down. In a fit of impatience that I'm going to regret later, I didn't green stuff in the missing portions of her holster's belt, as you can see. I then clipped off a scythe head from an ancient Warhammer Fantasy skeleton arm and pinned it on a paperclip. Next, I twisted her arm out with a pair of pliers and then glued the scythe blade into her hand.

Yes, it's a large blade. It's a miniature game and it's a ritual implement, so you'll have to forgive me.

The base, as you can see, is miserable. It's going to need a major overhaul. Just what I'm going to do, though, I'm not sure yet.

This is the warcaster armor. It's an old Space Marine backpack -- possibly Chaos flavor, but don't quote me on that -- with the vents clipped off and the top trimmed back and sanded down. Green stuff replaced some of the trimmed areas. The vents are skulls from the same Warhammer Fantasy skeleton set. Some green stuff was used to cover up the paperclips.

That's the warcaster armor on the back now. I also put a few green stuff bindings on the dagger, but it's not done yet -- not by a long shot. That blade is way too long to not get some kind of ornamentation; it's also the source of Skarre's signature ability, so it needs to stick out.

I didn't get a good shot of the back. Here's more of the front.

Finally, here's the work I've done so far on the dagger. I'm forcing myself to experiment with green stuff, including different levels of cures; the bindings were sculpted from green stuff that was near the end of its workability. They're not perfect; next time I do something like that, I'm going to make sure the green stuff still has some tack.