Commissions Part III: Electric Avenue...

I'd like to think that if GW bothered to sit down and revamp their Robot designs several years ago, or had, say, wanted to turn out some Knight Titan houses, that they'd come out looking somewhat like the Cygnar Warjacks. Sadly, of the three different factions of WM I've painted so far, these fellows have to be the least visually interesting. Nevertheless, I gave them my all, partly out of pity, and partly because I don't know any other way. 

Johnny Steampunk here is wearing a breastplate with no discernible function other than to be his personal space heater, and is decked out with the prerequisite goggles and pistol to go with his fantasy-inspired lower half. Having read through the quick-start rules and his stats in particular, he's no small potatoes, but the miniature design just didn't do anything for me. I can't help getting the feeling they came up with him first of all, and everything just sort of followed after and got better as they went. It doesn't help his case that his head, while helpfully separate, was sculpted pre-mashed to one side, something that struck me as half-assed and rather sad. 

For all of Cygnar's purported advancements, this big chap's rather underarmed. Sure, he lugs around a big hammer, but it's not fuck-off huge, it's not especially well-adorned with any kind of piston-driven, electrically charged excitement, and quite frankly, he seems rather disappointed to be carrying it. Everyone else gets rifles, shields, arc nodes, and so on, and he strides around with the garden-variety round boiler on his back. To add insult to injury, there are huge access doors on the front any anti-armor gunner would be grateful to see. Poor chap. I could swear I heard him sighing with envy as I painted the better designed Cryx and Khador monstrosities. 

The legs on these two make me sad. They're rather spindly and under-armored, and they didn't mount right to the hips despite some rather severe cutting. At least the dual cannon's a bit more believable than the giant beer barrel the Khador heavy was lugging around. They looked so bloody much like old-school 40k Titans I dry-fit a couple of old weapons to them that were lying around my bits box. Forgot to take pictures though, more's the pity. Again, though, they don't support the whole "Cygnar's the most advanced" fluff, being the most ramshackle looking of the three factions I've done so far. Again, stat-wise they seem grand (I suppose; I mean, I did only read them on the toilet...) but I only wish they looked a bit more put-together than their other, more solid looking contemporaries. Some variation, PP artists, please. 


Being the requisite goody-goody faction, I wonder if it's a coincidence that PP decided the Cygnar paint scheme was Ultramarine blue...


Next time, something a bit different. 

They may have won me over with this one....

As you may have noticed, it's been like I've recently discovered Privateer Press or something. I haven't, obviously. I've been using their stuff for parts for some time now without ever having played their game. Now there's this:

You clever bastards. You know exactly what turns me on. 

Ah, this takes me back to the days of Battletech, where Mechs could mix it up with infantry on an everyday basis (and tanks, but WM doesn't really have those, now do they?) Luckily, those little buggers were the epitome of portable; you could fit a combined regiment in one case. Those large scale models are big without being enormously impractical.  If only someone else made large-scale mecha with 28mm infantry...

Now is the time when a reader skips to the comments field, and tells me someone already has. 

I know those exist, thanks. Yes, and before that, those too. 

Yes, and the Mad Cat. I'm that old, you know. I'm from the time before there was even an internet, and computers had green monitors. Go and ask your dad what a punch card is. 

Maybe it's time to sell off an army or two and step into some new shoes....

Commissions: More Warmachine....

As I may have mentioned last time, Client X's friend, Client Y, purchased not one but two Warmachine starter boxed sets for himself, and it was up to yours truly to make them happen. So, this time around we'll cover the Cryx. 

Stylistically, I must say, the Cryx have a lot going for them. I rather like the glowy necro-energy bits, and their use of spikes and razors isn't as over the top as, say, chaos marines. The designers are trying to strike a balance between Evil Skully Necromancer and Steampunk, and that sort of thing is rather tough to do well. 

I like the design of the Deneghra model a lot, but if I ever got one, I'd trim those ridiculous horns off her helmet. I mean come on, her vision is restricted enough. Now you're going to weigh her poor head down with big metal horns? One fantastic thing about this mini is that the left arm is separate, allowing you to paint her face without the armor sleeve interfering. That's something they didn't do with her Cygnar counterpart, whose head came warped to fit his collar instead of the other way around. Now, what I absolutely love is that the left arm has a nice, deep well of the shoulder peg to sink into securely, which is something NO ONE ELSE DOES ON ANY MINI, EVER. Bravo, Privateer Press, bravo. 

I've been using parts of Old Stompy's brethren here for Tyracron parts, so I was delight to get to assemble the actual model. Those big expanses of carapace scream for some kind of heraldry, so it was a bit of a shame to go with Cryx Mottled Slate Grey for the armor plates. I am increasingly a fan of glowy bits, so this big chap and his little subordinates got the treatment. The metal parts receive the same rusty steel I've been using on the Necrons, but with more Tin Bitz than Boltgun metal. 

Someone tell me just what the hell these things are supposed to do; run up and for something? I suppose I'd be warmer to the design if it had four legs and looked like an armored boar, instead of a weird chicken thing. If I ever delve into WM and decide to go Cryx, I honestly don't want to have to use them. 

No, replacing the lower jaw with a peashooter doesn't help, either. Sorry, death chicken, you'll not make it into my collection that way. Your larger, two legged compatriots might, but you? Not if I have a choice, no. 


Unless, that is,  one of you Cryx players out there explains to me how they blow through the enemy like little metal cannonballs full of anger. Then I'll model some mechanized death-boars. 


Next time, Cygnar. 


Maybe. 

Commissions: Catching up....

The reason for all the slow posting lately is that in between all the Necron stuff, I've also been deluged with commissions. Client X and a friend of his got into Warmachine, so some of that stuff came my way in the form of not one, but three of these squad boxes (in addition to some 40k stuff). I gotta say, if (and some say when) I ever dump 40k, the PP folks might be pulling in some of the money from my eBay sales. At this stage, if I had to pick a faction, it'd be Khador, too. Heavy armor, big guns, axes and Russian babes? Man, these people have my number. 

I have this lady in metal, and I must say, I'd rather have metal character minis than plastic any day. While the plast that PP is using holds detail well, in this small size it seems rather, well... flimsy. I'd fear for her outstretched right arm and that long war pick in the long run. On the plus side, there is a certain amount of elasticity to this stuff, so the figures may prove to be quite hardy. They certainly glue securely, and quickly; there were no "is it or isn't it?" moments like you'd expect to have for bonding pewter components. 

When you look at a few of them all standing in the same place, yes, Warjacks all look the same. On the one hand, there's definitely something to be said for adhering to a design aesthetic; there's no mistaking a Warjack for a Dreadnought, or a Votoms, or a Battlemech or anything else. Realistically, of course, those tiny legs and hips could never support that enormous orb of a torso, but oh well. I did my best to re-pose this thing and its brother from their static setup to something more dynamic, and found the hip joints to be agreeable pliable without snapping clear, which, again, is a plus of this grade of plastic. 

I'm all for big cannons. I am. However, the muzzle on that Destroyer is just to big and chummy to be believed. look at that thing; it's like the drum of  a cement mixer or something! There's something to be said for layered plates of heavy armor, which is a look the Warmachine artists pull off admirably, but come ON. 

There was a Razorback kit to do, too, and since I was working in red, it went rather quickly. WM players, take note: if you're looking to switch into 40k, your warjacks would make excellent Dreadnaughts, so save yourself some cash.


Still to come: Dark Eldar, more Warmachine, a mk2 Vendetta,  and a magnetized Ghost/Doomsday Ark.