Battle report: Cryx vs Khador

Since oldie Warmachine is back in action again (you might have noticed recently Privateer Press stuff got pile of shame rescuing priority) my One True Foe and I decided to bring some full metal minis to the gaming bunker for 50 points skirmish battle, on ancient dragons boneyard. 

To be honest it was kinda special event:

not only it's been ages since we were playing Warmachine, but also most or my opponent's army has actually been painted! Not by himself, but apart from Doom Reavers squad and a war dog, whole army was properly painted, based etc. Because of that I decided such a special battle also deserved special setting. For years I was looking for any idea what to do with these old bones, and as it turned out - these are great dead ancient dragnon's skull proxy 😁

It's been lots of fun - hope to play some more Warmachine soon, especially because I've been working on another pair of Deathripper bonejacks recently...

So here they are: both armies circling around ancient dragon's remains trying to get opportunity to strike:

Scrap thrall got itself under deadly Spriggan's grenades volley:

Cryx advancing:

Kodiak taking defensive measures against Reaper's harpoon:

Cryx's steel fist turned into heaps of scorching metal after Butcher's furious charge:

The final duel: this time Asphyxious was much better swords... eee... eee... forksman! 

Pics enchanced by my One True Foe - looking forward for re-match so I can hopefully see burning Khador junk!

Cryx Seether #2

One more Cryx beast has just left painting station, ready to wreak havoc in the name of Lord Toruk!

It's always nice to add another model to the painted pile, it's double nice to support beloved army with one more killing machine, but the best thing is - it's the first Seether I painted so far which I really like! And it's most probably the 4th variant of this piece and probably it's not over - the previous version most probably sooner or taker will get fresh paintjob... 🙄

Funny thing about this model: it's based on the same chassis / hull / skeleton as Slayer and Reaper helljacks - which are both brilliant sculpts but Seether is kinda odd... No idea why - my guess is it's the matter of the "hood" which makes it goofy. Anyway I painted it several times before and it's the first time I am satisfied. I think part of success is the pose: the model is second hand piece, it's been cut and reposiotioned before so I had to make special base to prevent it from falling - and make it look kinda like charging. I didn't like original head so it's been replaced with plastic Slayer's bit.

As for colors I chose well tested light olive colro combo. I must say I like it much better then "original" painting. Somehow I cannot paint really dark models so they look nice enough to keep them.

See? About to perform head-butt power 

Fratricidal melee about to start:

And some more scale shots: below - Seether about to feed on bile thralls necroburgers: 

And here - about to be possessed by hungry machine wraiths:

Pistol Wraith (Cryx)

Last month a miracle happened: we had a Warmachine match! 😲

I am still impressed we've managed to assemble the game but definitely - my Cryx is hungry for more!

We played the latest edition - no back strikes, 360 degree line of sight, boosted warjacks etc. It was fine as game played after such a long break, but I think earlier version was much more "hardcore" so hope to dig out old rulebooks and give it a try. Anyway it was such a fun I decided to save some Cryx stuff from pile ov shame and the winner waaaaas... Pistol Wraith 👻

I remember that model was a blast when Escalation supplement was released - both as model and gaming unit. It was deadly on battlefield and I still consider it as one of the best and most characterful miniatures from Cryx line. There are some brilliant examples of painted miniatures in the webspace so my gaming model is no match for them, but I still like it and had lots of fun working on it. As for a base I used spare pile of skulls from screaming skull catapult and some placcy heads. I can actually imagine it haunting old battlefields, unable to leave unburied, restless bones. Or something.

So here it is. Hope to see it in action anytime soon.

Below: pistol wraith about to scratch Deathjack right between where it's eyes should be:

Here: some target practice in the city park with Mechanithralls:

And below - the only pic from recent game I've managed to get: Slayer and Reaper helljacks supported by Deathripper bonejack about to launch a charge against enemy Juggernaut (that was exactly the very same model I painted - I've almost cried while pulling it's arms off and ripping hull apart... Almost... 😁):

And next: something heavy... 🤖

Dwarf Slayer

One more old fart crossed off!

I am really glad it's not haunting me anymore, 'cause it spent last 3-4 years in washing liquid plus I really do not like the model ^^

As for the model itself - I got it second hand long time ago, and the plan was to paint it for gaming buddy. But after first painting attempt I realised I really, really do not like the sculpt so model ended up on the very bottom of Pile Ov Shame. It's spent several years in the hole, when I decided to wash it off off and give it another chance. I still didn't like the sculpt at all, so it spent few more years washing off instead of getting painted.

Until now.

It pisses me off there are still some miniatures waiting for Cthulhu knows what in the washing jar, so decision was made to save them all: one by one, starting with the piece I don't like the most ^^ Back days it was meant for souvenir, so it was painted as one - for the same buddy actually. He was Warhammer Game Master when we were still into RPG and was big fan of dwarves. Miniature's pose makes it kinda silly looking standing on ground level, among other rank and file models, but it's really cool leaping down. Decent material for display piece. So here it is: one more down, too many more to go:

And the scale shot - Mid Nor Scourge Bearer about to be decimated:

Sorscha Resin Kit

One more nightmare has just been saved from pile of shame! Woo-hoo! 🤩

This time it's not just a model but true blast the past: limited edition, large scale Kommander Sorscha from steam-punk commie line. Khador that is. 

That brings me back...

Back days we were really deep into Warmachine: when the game was released it immediately obliterated any other games we were running that moment. It was fast, dynamic and never boring. Plus models were so friggin' cool! Also somehow back days we had much more time to waste on gaming...
I liked it so much I was sending my stuff to No Quarter magazine (some of it was even printed) and really had lots of fun participating in Privateer Press painting contests. Which brings us to the Sorscha. If I remember correctly contest prizes were vouchers / Privateer Press bucks to be spent in online store, which were used to get limited resin models: Slayer and Forward Kommander Sorscha.

Slayer was painted long time ago (the model is brilliant) but I was really afraid of starting the other one: it's made of delicate resin so washing it would probably not an option plus back days painting such a colorful models really was not my thing. But having new display case I decided to give it a go.

Painting was pain in the ass mostly because model had to be painted unassembled (I really don't like it). Another thing was one of my airbrush paints was totally fuc#ed: for this model I ordered some fresh colors but one of them was so grainy it actually made texture on flat surface. No sh!t! You can actually still see it on loincloth (or whatever that red rag in the front is) and that's the reason I decided to apply some artifical snow - to distract the attention.

Privateer Press also released Warwitch Deneghra and Khador Juggernaut in large scale - I really regret I didn't manage to get them. Such pieces look really great placed behind the glass. Judge for yourself:

And here's Sorscha accompanied by her battlefield buddy - Slayer:

And one more scale shot: scrap thrall this time. Don't think that walking bomb was looking more cute ever before ☺️

Hope to find some more olddschool Privateer Press stuff to paint on the bottom of bucket of shame. Who knows, maybe one day Toruk's servants shall leave display case for battle once again...

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:

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.

Juggernaut (Khador)

Recently some of my trusty Cryx models have been rescued from the pile-of-shame tar pit so there was a plan to paint some more candies for Warhammer Undead army for a change. But before that I decided to paint little (well not that little actually) something for my buddy to boost him to get rest of his Warmachine's Khador force painted.
Or at least assembled... 🙄

That's right: back days before all those utterly stupid units have been released Warmachine was just over the top game. Few week back we were talking about it and decision was made to take old warjacks for a walk. My friend used to run Khador army, but from what I know his old models have been sold long time ago, so now new force is being grown.

What you see below is Khador's heavy warjack - Juggernaut.

It's one of core units of this faction: heavily armored, strong hitting and reliable. Not even mentioning the fact it's metal model! 😍

Usually Khador models are painted red - according to the fluff these are kinda steampunk Ruskies. I've never liked it so this one was done using mostly "natural" colors. Red elements were added for nice contrast. I like the final result - hope this model will encourage my trusty old foe to get rest of models painted. Playing with unpainted stuff aint's worth battle report 🙄

And little technical thing:
Recently I read about some blogger updates. There must be something about it, because I've been getting e-mail notifications about new comments under posts - which don't appear on the blog. No idea what's the reason but I'm more then grateful for constant support 😊 

Duel of the classics - Juggernaut vs Slayer:

Scale shot: scrap thralls about to perform death burst suicide attack:

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...