Thursday, February 13, 2020

Cryx Slayer

"An eerie glow pulsates from the Slayer's furnace, a frightful light illuminating even its eye sockets, suggesting some greater intelligence. After decades of Cryxian terror along the coasts, any greenish lights - like those found floating in the bogs and fens of Immoren - are often called "Cryxlights" by superstitious travelers".

The bad boy is back!
I've been missing seeing that model painted in the glass case for a long time...

This sculpt was acually what dragged me into Warmachine back in like 2003 or 2004. 
After years of Games Workshop's stuff Warmachine was so refreshing, not even mentioning badass Cryx sculpts!
We've been into this for several years, dropping Warhammer and Necromunda totally. 
Things changed after Privateer Press released another expansion with even more unbalanced models and started switching from metal to plastic stuff.
That was the breaking point for me.

I sold most of my models (most of the painted army that is...) leaving just some fav models.

But like 2 weeks ago I spotted an advert:
the guy was selling some unpainted models I used to have fun with...
I called my One True Foe about it and it turned out he was also kinda nostalgic about oldschool, FULL METAL gaming.
Huzzah!!! \o/

I've excavated some unpainted helljacks and few days later the infantry was delivered...

What you see below has been waiting for some care for quite a long time.
So long that I actually should feel kinda shame letting it rot unpainted...

Instead of painting this with "classic" Cryx scheme (black + creepy green light) I decided to paint it similar to M4A3 Sherman howitzer: natural greens, natural dirt + some chipping. 
The general idea was to make it look more realistic and "believable".

All in all I like the way it turned out:
it's surely unique compared to most Cryx you can see in the webspace!
I am kinda dissapointed the legs aren's so dusty I was hoping for: applying dry pigments on such a weirdo angled surfaces seems to be more tricky that I was hoping for initially.
Blood wasn't necessary but model was lacking of some contrast.
The next bad boy from the battlegroup: Seether...









8 comments:

  1. Well, that's different for sure...

    May be this military approach being a departure from the fantasy we're used to be exposed when looking at this model what makes me sort of uncomfortable with it.

    I find several colour clashes:

    Green is defo military. A paler hue, closer to nurgle or dark legion would be easily readable for "undead" people.

    Contrast. Even in military modelling there is some, achieved by panel modulation and pin washing with oils. This is a huge model that could use some.

    Colour choices. Green lights are a cryx trademark but it doesn't mean they will work wonders with every other plating colour scheme but the studio one: the jack being desaturated green itself asks for something else. Won't cum my brains out dry here, but guess it could be a bluer hue of green like turquoise or a mix.

    Weathering. Go full or do not. Don goooo, please don't fool. Ups, got carried away
    by 80s references. Grime. Streaking. Highlights under the scratches.

    Pigments. Binder please. There's two ways: paint with binder and deposit powders for controlled application or mix binder, powders and maybe water / floor wax / gel medium...depending what you want (runny into crevices to stand like chunks...)

    Sorry for that sequel to the Bible, takes a lot of reading but took a lot of writing too. This doesn't mean I don't like the jack, it's just I love your posts enough to invest some time commenting :)

    Now I've pulled ya dick outta my mouth I shall add that can't wait to see moar warmachine around.

    Never had a privateer press model so this might make it up. Cheers pal.

    \m/

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  2. Thanks for the tip, especially about the pigment!

    My current experience is:
    no matter how much binder I apply, after sealing it with supermatt varnish most of the pigments disappears...
    So now I apply pigments AFTER whole model is painted and varnished.

    Now off to Seether...

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  3. Might be my imagination but has this fella got Seether claws? I've been out of the loop on PP stuff for about five years now, so I might be talking out of my fundamentals...

    Anyway. Nice figure. That Cryx starter set (the full metal one, the proper one) was my first foray out of GW-brand gaming back in 2005 or thenabouts and I remain very fond of the Slayer in particular.

    Based on my own experiences with a green Nightmare 'jack back in the day, might I suggest extending the bronze on the back?

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  4. Hey mate!

    Yeah, I swapped Slayer and Seether arms - Seether's look way more badass!
    That Cryx starter was also my break from GW stuff - I just changed Deneghra for Gaspy (bace Denne wariant is just crap imo...)

    As for the bronze - you mean bronze armour plate or more brown/orange rusty shit around exhaust?
    That's what it was supposed to be actually ^^
    (check WW2 tank pics)

    Cheers!

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  5. Basic Deneghra is horrible to learn the game against anyway, far too denial-based: I've taught people who've come away thinking WM is that game where you don't get to do anything because of bullshit rules, which... well, that's an element of it, becoming dominant as we went into Mark II. BUT Asphyxious was a fine starter caster. Absolutely brutal but doesn't frustrate the opponent into quitting – just wrecks things.

    Can't remember what I meant about the bronze now. Think I was interrupted while writing the comment and just hit Publish before I forgot it altogether...

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  6. Cheers!

    I added more orange/brown on the Seether (coming out from under green) ;-)

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