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.