MK II.......WooooT!

Well, that's possibly thrown a massive spanner into the mechanika!!
MK II on the horizon. The biggst question for me, and a lot of folks on the PP Forum is: "Will we see any other Retribution before MK II is released?"
There is a general concensus that says that PP will still release the models in the 'old' format, with a new deck and extra models coming in early 2010. I sure as shinola hope so, since I'm holding out for them.
My car has gone and Died on me, and so until I am mobile again, I'm kinda stuck at the painting desk. My LGC is just too far to walk, and buses don't run past silly o' clock in the evening. (20 miles is a stiff amble at best!) So this means that there will be more going through the grist mill of my painting station. Luckily for me I am a compulsive figurine buyer, and have built up a nice little 'egg' of stock to paint my way through until I can get some more. Not that I couldn't order more from stores online, mind you, but the idea is to afford another car before the summer, if you know what I mean!!
And so I will start my 'Car-less painting challenge'
1. 2 x Steelheads (WM)
2. Capt. Victoria Haley (WM)
3. Xmas figurine 06 (WK)
4. 2 x Trenchers (WM)
5. Trencher Master Sgt. & Sharpshooter (WM)
6. Capt. Maxwell Finn (WM)
7. Cygnar Ironclad-Light Warjack (WM)
8. Cygnar Lancer- L W'jack (WM)
9. Cygnar Hunter- L W'jack (WM)
10. 'Steelhead' Ashlynn d'Elyse (WM)
11. Epic Magnus, The Warlord (WM)
12. Khador, Old Witch & Scrapjack (WM)

Webwraith is prolly going, "Where the F*$K is Lylyth man?"
I have a small stash of other models including:
Lylyth
Gammick Redhammer
Tomb Maiden
Cygnar Stormlancer
Trollblood Caber Thrower (tosser, he!)
Arwen, from Lord of the Rings
Brahyn, Lara Croft & a 2nd Xmas 06 fig from Freebooter mini's.
There's also a beautiful pirate captain vignette from Freebooter, a limited edition that's already sold out.
SO, we'll see how it comes along, but I'll keep ya posted.

The Focus of my attention for the next while!

For now it's still Miss Haley and the 'Frankencense' wise woman on the desk, with the Trenchers and Capt. Finn being prepped. I have an alternate First Mate Hawk in the Brake Fluid, so the stripping can begin...Ravel's Bolero please maestro!!
The Ironclad is a 'battlefield' recovery job, and is in bits in a prep tray at the mo'. Same with the Lancer and Hunter light 'jacks. I need to vary the paintwork as my Cygnar force is toned down, so I'll interspace it with other more vibrant models to keep myself sane.

Never Lick Your Brushes
see ya soon
G

Back to Basics

Well since the last post I've got the painting table up and running again, better than before actually. More streamlined and organised. It pays to have to pack up everything and then unpack and organise. It helps you to re-evaluate what is on the agenda and leave the other things packed while you enjoy stuff that you may not have seen for a year or more.
On the figurine front I am still fully engaged by the Warmachine and Hordes models, whether for my growing army or for simply painting. I am varying my models to keep myslef from burning out. I began anew with the Alt. Capt. Haley model from PP and did a bit of resculpting and used her epic figurine's arm to change her pose quite drastically considering the minimal effort.
At the same time I'm working on a Werner Klocke figurine, the Xmas 06 limited figure. Limited to 1000 each figure's base is stamped with it's number and includes a signed card with the number written on it. She represents Frankensence and is an oriental beauty with a large incense censer on chains.




Since my Cygnar army is a new start for me, that I can utilise a lot of my Merc's with, I'm back to the Battlebox and the basic units again. The Charger and Grenadier light Warjack's are complete now, and Haley, my Warcaster, is 80% done. The hardest part lies ahead...the fine details. Other than that I'm prepping a line up of Trencher troops for painting. Two basic troopers, who will be painted slightly differently to their mates as I will be using them to reload the Grenadier's Grenade launcher. Mwah ha ha ha ha! I did some research on the Queens Grenadier Guard and besides already using their Sea-grey trench coats I will be painting the front plating on the two Grenadier troops black with a white piping on the edge. This doesn't seem like much, but I think that they will stan out from the rest just a bit. The other Trenchers are the Master Sergeant and Sharpshooter. The Sharpshooter is lying over a wall of sandbags (mediocre at best) that I will be consigning to the bitz box and sculpting my own set for him. Last, but def not least, is Capt. Maxwell Finn. A mean character figurine with a mini slugger gun, an antiquaited machine gun that he slogs around with. He will offer some variety in the production line as he has some extra details that I can take advantage of. The Master Sgt only has the one set of 'wings' on his shoulder plate to designate rank, whereas Finn has many small details that I can pick out on him.
The only problem that I think I'm going to run into is the loss of impetus when it comes to the Cygnar painting. It will be my first army with a completely coherent colour scheme. It works fantastically, especially with the fluff related to the army, but is a bit boring. My own fault really in that I picked the colours of the Classic comic Batman for the army. This toned down scheme of Sea-grey, light grey and black is very striking, it lends a more sinister look to the otherwise bright Cygnar forces. ...And being a coastal force waylaying ambushes from the sea and coastline they need to blend in a bit more than the traditional Blue and Yellow. I will keep a few Merc models in the mix, since they are much more colourful and varied and will keep me from getting bored with the muted tones of my growing force.


On the Mercenary front, I have just completed a second Talon, quite a lot of converting was done on him since I had a theme going for him. He is to be Dirty Meg's (the pirate 'jack marshal) sidekick, and since I'm starting out with some Cygnar stuff and since the Talon is a decommissioned Cygnar 'jack I thought to add some bits that show where he's from, including a 'jack medal for service during the Scharde invasions. That was an interesting build as I had a week to complete it and paint it. Well I finished sealing him minutes before I left for the club this Saturday to use him in a 1000 pnt game with Cameron against Tim 'the sneak' Morris.



My next few will be a blister pack of Steelhead Halberdiers to fill my unit to 8, still not complete...but stronger. I also plan to do a Steelhead conversion of Ashlynn d'Elyse, the Laelese warcaster. Her poppet head must go!!! A shoulder plate change is in the cards as well.
However, I greatly anticipate this year's releases as I will hopefully see the beginings of my Iosan/Nyss Retribution army come to fruition.
I'll keep ya posted,
til next,
G

Oh Nine

Hi there,
All I can say is that the last three weeks have been holiday for me...NOT!

I've just freakin' packed up my entire life into a multitude of differing boxes and shifted across the county. So while others in my LGC were planning their Xmas/Boxing day model and paint masterpieces, I was planning how to store and move all my hundreds of bits and pieces, Meh!

I've been off work since 17th Dec 08, but didn't get a single chance to touch a model (besides putting it in a box) since then 'til now 4th Jan 09.
I couldn't believe the amount of GW stuff that I have, and yet it's still not enough to field a decent sized army on the table...sad really since that kind of killed it for me an GW. I still love the figures and some of their new stuff is fantastic, but for me it'll be to paint them not field them.
Today, like one hour ago, I finally unpacked my travelling modelling essentials box back into my re-instate painting-desk. Now I feel like I'm finally unpacked, and maybe tomorrow I'll get back to some of the stuff that's on the table.
I'm really busy with a small Cygnar force that I'm basing around Capt Victoria Haley, 2nd Army Coastal defense. Early in the background fluff, actually right at the beginning of Warmachine. I bought 500 pnts of Cygnar from a young chap, Aaron, at my LGC. It included the Battle Box, a Hunter, Grenadier & Capt. Finn. As part of my Xmas presents I got my PP Parts order with all sorts of Cygnar bits and my Alternative Haley figurine, my Warcaster. I'm going to use the Epic Haley figure's left arm(thnx Tim) to change up the sculpt a bit, and flip her lance around so that it's pointing upward. I want to add Deneghra's helmet to the base since I'm placing my force around the time that Haley fights Deneghra for the first time and actually smashed her helmet from her head. In the ensuing events I find it hard to believe that she retreived her damaged helmet before taking flight.
As part of the same force I'm busy with a conversion of the Khadoran Master Mekanik, giving him a scratch-built rivet gun, strapped to his back. I intend on rounding out some of his armour and adding a Craye type slouch hat to him. I have a Gobber assistant for him (thnx Tim) and I may use the Khadoran assistant aswell, but it could take a lot of converting to get him to fit in with the Cygnar force.
I still have the Battle Box 'jacks to construct and paint, so I have 4 light jack chassis to play with, since they all have the Talon chassis they can be easily swapped out. The differing shoulder plates makes for interesting changes to otherwise staticly posed jacks. I've found that I can bend them and twist them at the waist by quite a bit before it shows in the 'pistons'. If you're wondering, because I would be...the fourth is a Talon that I'm painting for Dirty meg to marshall when aiding Cygnar. I have a Sentinel's shield for him and will be swapping the Lancer's right arm with the Talon, to change up the poses yet again. I already have a Talon in my Merc force so I want a slightly different one.
I'll be keeping this running so see you soon,
G

Summer's End

Well I'm finally back here.
Been terribly busy with the Ludicrus '08 Event and the Suffolk Open Warmachine Tournament, the painting contest et al.
My Diorama 'The Challenge' placed first netting me a limited edition Ludi shirt and Bragging rights. The club didn't place many entries, and we definately didn't walk away with the majority this year. No fear, the level of painting is slowly improving, with me pushing all the way and next year should be walk-over.
The Birthday Bash was fantastic with many events happening. An Apocalypse battle (12000pnts) on the Imperial side alone, Two Titans and so many troop and armour divisions that I lost count. 'It's all gone Starship Troopers' was played again this year, with one squad of Imperial stormtroopers standing off against the 'Bug' horde, played by the ever-scary Tyranid Hive Bethesda.
Many thanks to all who put in so much in the final weeks...too many names to mention in fact. (I'm so freekin' lazy man!)
I hope to improve the Blog soon and put more of my completed stuff in the albums.
See ya soon
G