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.