Nasca Razide (Warzone)

The end of year is coming and Warzone is on a roll!

Funny thing about it, but for some mysterious reason autumn / winter is somehow the best moment for painting oldschool junk. My guess: it's subconscious thing - I remember I got lured into Warzone trap when it was cold, so the terapist might find some connection... 

Crazy or not since do-gooders got some reinforcements, it was fair to paint something for The Evil Side. The beefcake below is nasca razide from Dark Eden line (Warzone on Earth simply speaking). Must admit I wasn't sure about this model and in the middle of painting I was considering washing it off to start again but all in all model turned out to be pretty cool. It's main flaw is too much muscles on the top (it falls easily) but apart of that - it's classic, goofy piece of art from oldie Warzone.  

As for paintwork I decided to keep it "fleshy" instead of violet like on official artwork. Somehow it's totally not my cup of tea. The only violet or blue skin tone in Warzone I can stand is Nepharite of Semai and praetorian stalkers ^^ 

The gun is just chunk of metal. There was a plan to add some color buttons or stickers but that would make it look like Nerf gun, rather then Algeroth's death device. Plus it's pretty dark and that makes nice contrast with rather monotone model.

Bare flesh is kinda plain so I tried to give it "texture" by adding some cuts. Now I can see I should finally invest in some better quality brush for such task but all in all I cannot complain. Neither can mr razide.

So here it is: facing Cybertronic patrol on Luna's outskirts:

And here about to gun down necromutants commando:

And da beefcake itself:

And the last thing. You might have noticed the globe counter on the right panel has been replaced. About 2 weeks ago that thing simply disappeared. Turned out it was shut down and that's just it. Tried to find some replacement so there's brand new, blue globe spinning right now, but it doesn't seem to show any visits. I'll try to look into it 🤔

Carter Special Agents (Nick Michaels & Quatto)

After crossing off the list Cryx robo-chicken hybrid I decided to take a step back and work on some old farts from oldie Warzone line. I still have lots of these beauties waiting for some care but this time I decided to save something really ugly from the abyss of oblivion: 

special agent Nick Michaels and field medic. They both are going to reinforce RPG based Cartel Agents squad.

It took me about a week to start painting after these two were dragged out from acid bath and undercoated. For years, I mean like 15-20 years (!) I was pretty sure Nick Michaels is one of the most horrid sculpts from Warzone line ever made, so I had no steam even to point a brush in direction of that piece. 

Thank Satan I was just so wrong!

After working a bit on it turned out there's pretty cool, oldschool model there! Sure it's kinda static but who cares? It was spawned in 1996! It's weapons are clumsy but hey - just check armament in WH 40000 world 🙄 And it has Dune Nukem's face!

The other guy is supposed to be Michaels' sidekick / team medic. It's pretty simple sculpt but pretty evecathing - bright armour contrasting with dark elements always looks cool. It's face is kinda weird though - reminds me Quatto from original Total Recall movie. See? 😁

Really looking forward to find some more corporate models from Warzone line to add some more Doom Troopers to the team! The family pic: death squad supported by Mishima merc:

And just below: Doom Troopers trying to stop deadly praetorian stalkers from breaching the bunker's entrance: 

See ya in the past!

Deathripper (Cryx)

It's the end of October and yet I've managed save another model from the pit of oblivion! 

Woo-hoo! 🥳

Surprisingly it's another plastic model from Warmachine new line, but contrart to those ghastly bane thralls - working on Toruk's lap dog - deathripper - was lots of fun. This model is part of Cryx leftovers my friend was getting rid of a while back, so I got it with missing head. That wasn't really a problem: although original model has skull and jaw, it can be easily replaced with almost any weapon you can imagine and robot would still look cool!

For example the previous deathripper was assembled using chaos terminator chain fist as the weapon. I couldn't find any spare termie fists this time, but I had spare killa kan's crushing claw - which turned out to be perfect robo-head prosthesis 👾

Color choice is my typical olive green mix - Cryx models look pretty cool and kinda believable painted this way. Blood stains should look really nice on such armour. So here it is:

And here family photo: Iron Lich Asphyxious is taking death chicken herd for a walk:

And here death chicken is about to feed on some mechanithralls led by necrosurgeon:

Off for some more Warmachine excavation...

Bane thralls

A while back I got unit of Bane thralls from Cryx faction to paint. These are models from the "new wave" - crappy plastic 😒 It's not that new actually - if I remember correctly these sculpts were released around 2013, but I am simply way back after whatever Privateer Press releases, since they started making plastic models. 

It's the very first plastic unit from Warmachine line so this post is also kinda review. 

What's my opinion?

It's crap.

Old bane thralls were so much better.

I know plastic is cheaper then metal, I know metal prices are much higher then used to be, but these models is unit of hovering crap and I won't mind using them as cannon fodder if we can arrange Wamachine match ever again. Too bad really - I used to be big fan of Warmachine back days.

As for colors I tried to use vivid colors - I know I should expect something else from spectres, but such candies are much more eyecatching on the battlefield, the these guys are only tabletop models. Painting them was pain in the ass and I just so glad to get it done. Bases are from Micro Art Studio set which I mentioned about the last time.

So here are the pics:

Here Squad Blue is about to rip part bloat thrall - Cryx mobile artillery:

And here Squad Pink is getting ready to dismantle Slayer helljack 😢 :

And some group shots. Deeply hope I will never paint any plastic model from Warmachine:

Spoils of war

Yesterday courier delivered the last part of spoils of recent painting contest, which turned out to be more then successful for my hobby zone. Thank to paintjob I did on OT 34/85 (flamethrower tank) and winter infantry assault squad my hobby supplies got by:

 

-    set of resin bases from Micro Art Studio,

-    IS-2 heavy tank from Modelmania,

-    rust & chipping effects from Rebel.

Must say the Cosmos itself must have guided guys, who were choosing this stuff because all is what I am hoping to use shortly!

Right now I am working on bane thralls unit for Warmachine Cryx force, so these skull bases should fit perfectly spectres hovering over ancient battlefield. It's actually the very first plastic unit from Warmachine line I am working on and must sadly admit - it's f#@king crap compared to it's metal predecessors... 🤬

The other piece is IS-2 heavy tank for Bolt Action. Funny thing because before it arrived I was thinking about the entry for the next edition for the painting contest and suddenly, out of the blue, 46 tons of solution came to my door. These tanks come with assault squad (just like this one) so looks like I got entries for 2 categories.

And the last thing is rust and chipping effects set from Vallejo line. Most of paints I use is Vallejo and I really like this brand, so I am more than happy I got new effects to test. It's rather for painting wrecks but I actually might use it on my next contest entry so close the circle. Soviet armour is not much more then mobile wreck after all 😁

Till the next time!

Doomriders (undead cavalry)

Apparently bunch of skeletons left the closet!

And not only skellies but their meaty mounts as well! That means Army of the dead just got some fast unit (if we can really call anything fast in Undead army). Models you see below are deaders from Black Tree Design line. I got them long time ago so it was high time to see if there's anything going oin in their graves - and there was: boys sure wanted to take a ride...

Painting skeletons is always fun. Too bad these riders have only one version of mount. Sure it's oldchool and has lots of Oldhammer vibe, but painting another version of the very same sculpt is just boring. That's why I gave them different tones - just to make the team bit more interesting looking from over tabletop. Not mentioning the fact in old army books there were colorful zombies (green, yellow or even blue) - not total "grimdark" like nowdays... 🙄

I am big fan of metal models but after dealing with these guys I am pretty sure plastic or resin would be better material. Since everything is metal I didn't manage to pin bits together so there was only superglue used to bring them back to life. And that's the problem - I am pretty sure those heavy shields would be the first to fall off in case of any accident. 

Oh well - at least I don't play WFB anyore so it shouldn't be an issue... 😕

To lead them to battle there's mighty wight lord (painted also this year) and Leopold the Exhumed - which I got no idea how and when (most probably by accident during miniature swap ages ago). On the very bottom of "undead jar" there are some broken parts of skeleton horsemen staggering - I should check if I can assemble any complete models using those bones, 'cuz right now they become part of bases - just like Great Unclean One's...

Hope you like them anyway. Time to decide which models should be next saved from the depths of oblivion.

Great Unclean One

Long time no see. Again... 🙄

For some mysterious reason painting stuff takes me more and more time - my guess the reason was that goddamn summer so Cthulhu be praised for there's autumn ahead.

Anyway today I've finally managed to finish oldie Great Unclean One model from early 2000's. It's probably 4th or 5th G.U.O. piece I painted so far but somehow working on versions of this rotting dude is always ton of fun. Since I had absolutely no gaming use for this model I decided to paint it kinda different way - blue is pretty original tone then it comes to Nurgle stuff. Looking at painted piece I must say I like that color combo.

Like I said I have no use for it so at the end of painting progress decision was made to make a souvenir of this chaotic blob. It's pretty big and eye-catching model so it should look decent in any self respecting office 😎

So here it is: charging troll mutant, straight from rad-zone:

And here: about to devour whole NBC suit squad!

And finally solo session - after eating everything and everyone:

Take care 🦟

Ogre mercs - finished!

It's been a while but recently I simply have no steam for painting. I suppose it's because of that damn sun - it's so hot you can almost see steam over wet palette. Because of this I am even more happy I've managed to cross off another model from ye liste of shame. 

This one is special - ogre champion from Knightmare Games range, which was part of Oldhammer Weekend 2022 prize box. Not only the model is just super cool, with strong Middlehammer vibe, but it's also the last model my ogres were looking for to form full unit (you can see other guys here #1, here #2, here #3, here #4 and here #5).

I tried to keep color choice similar to rest of the squad so they all look coherent and keep Middlehammer spirit and must say I like the final result. My only regret is I paint so slow and there were other supercool models in the prize box still waiting for some attention (like hobgoblins or even more skeletons...).

As for the lil' undead-familiar it's ordinary skeleton from Rackham's Confrontation range. I found it together with recently painted wulfen zombie, and simply couldn't just put it back to the bucket. These minis are just way too cute! 🤗

That's it for now - hope Army of the Dead will use the mercs properly to spead death and destruction in the Old World!

Wulfen zombie (Rackham)

I was actually looking for other model (broken horn from Ilyad Games demon to be more specific) when I found this guy. This zombie fella is one of few models from Rackham's Confrontation range I've managed to collect ages ago. I remember I got it when Confrontation was still alive and these models were available - for affordable prices that is. 

If I remember correctly part of my collection was purchased as second hand models, and the other part was payment for painting service (like these Mid-Nor perverts).

I was always fond for undead armies of any sort, and Nightmares of Acheron is still probably the best line of undead models evah made. Keeping that in mind I still cannot believe Confrontation didn't manage to get solid position among other wargames - those models are just fucking amazing 😐

No matter how much I like undead models sadly I've managed to collect only few models from this line (surprisingly I have much more Mid-Nor dwarves). Among them there were wulfen zombie triplets. These were very cool models, sadly with no practical use for me. And because of this one of painted zombie wulfens ended up as gift, the other was either Ebayed or exchanged for some hobby supplies and what was left is this zombie orphan... 😢

To make it feel better decision was made to get it painted and placed in Warhammer zombies regiment as kinda filler. This badass stands on 40 mm square base, so it can easily replace 4 rank and file deaders. Not even mentioning the fact having such a beast surrounded by swarm of deaders should look just darn cool. Dead - cool that is... 🥶

And the family postcard from Border Princes:

Machine Wraith (Cryx) 👻

This time it's 100% blast from the past. 

That oldie machine wraith model has been staggering around my painting station for several years, and I got it don't even remember when did I get it. When I found it - it was sealed with thick layer of dust and was a friggin' mess. So decision was made to bring that nasty Cryx construct back to existence - another piece crossed off the list of shame.

Official paintjob is pretty dark, but I rather wanted mine copy to fit remaining Cryx force painted so far, so there's rust, dry pigments and such. After model was varnished with Revell matt it was kinda satin rather matt, so I airbrusheded it with another layer of varnish - this time Vallejo. Whole piece got that "mist" filter (no idea how to name it) and it took another layer of hand applied varnish to make most of it disappear. No idea was is the matter of temperature or varnish itself but I was seriously afraid the model would have to be washed and repainted. But it's more than fine for gaming.

I used to underestimate it back days - until I managed to possess first enemy warjack and turn it against own force. It's pure joy watching enemy smashing own (possessed) warjack in hope to shake evil spirit out of the cortex 😈

EDIT:

I now can see all those pics are kinda blurry. Hope to take some re-shots when the next Warmachine model is painted.