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I've recently started playing Warmachine and have been playing 40k for nearly a decade. With 40k I have always gone with a simple paint scheme as I would class myself as a gamer, not a painter. I like to field fully painted armies but the rank and file troops tend to be basic paint schemes with only characters or special units getting more attention. For Warmachine though, with the model count being low (we're looking at 25point games for the foreseeable future) I want to have a full army that looks like it has had time spent working on the hobby side of wargaming.

For the 40k side of my story, I started in 1998 with the 3ed box set that I got for my Birthday and palmed the Dark Elder off on a friend, kicking off his 40k hobby. Stopped for a period of about 4 years as I lost interest, dabbled for a bit while I was away at Uni and the hobby kicked off big time last year where a local store opened up not only selling 40k but having a place to play! (Acme of Llandudno if you want to pop in). I currently have a crazy amount of Space Marines that do double duty as Codex Marines and Blood Angels (Mostly being BA these days). I have no idea on points totals but I have roughly 200+ Marines in various get ups, 35+ Terminators of different varieties, 2 Land Raiders, 3 Preds, Vindicator, 7 Dreads with mix and match arms and 6 Rhino chasis (pulling double duty as Razorbacks too) and a "borrowed" Shadowsword for when stuff needs blowing up properly (it's not in chapter colours to show it's borrowedness). After that them I moved onto Nerons for about 2 weeks, painting up a force in a week, playing for a week, realising they are pretty much un playable at the moment. I've just started up guard army as my local store is completely covered in power armour at the moment (Our current league has about 18 players out of 21 using 3+ saves) and I want to introduce something new to the shop.

Onto Warmachine! I started 2 whole weeks ago after looking into something that can be done quicker than 40k and on a much tighter budget as a couple of guys in work had expressed interest in war gaming but 40k has way too high and entry cost for their family focused wallets. Picked up a started set (which prompted a FLGS regular to do the same) and rule book and set at it. It's just what we were looking for and the guys in work have their starter sets in the works too. We have agreed on doing 25point armies as it's about £100 to get to that point cost and we were happy with those costs.

Anyway, this is a painting and modeling blog, not one for me to tell my life story. I do have access to a decent camera so I will be using that for "finished" work more than the WIP pictures. Here are some high quality shots of my first Warjack, this is going into the painting blind but as explained, taking more time than I normally would to get it looking half decent. They are massive images loaded into the gallery if you want to zoom right in and see how ham fisted my brush control is

The paint is done with an Army Painter Dragon Red base, heavy dry brush of Blood Red, washed with Ogryn Flesh and then re-highligted with Blood Red. Metals are Boltgun Metal, Badab Black Wash and highlighted with Chainmail (Tin Bitz used on the smoke stacks). Axe is done by moving through the blues that GW offer into Space Wolves Grey. I'm not happy with how this came out as the blending just didn't work at all and has a very stepped look to it. I have some paint retarder in the post to remedy this. The base is some fine gravel that I picked up at Acme and a Bicarb of Soda, White Paint, PVA glue to make up the snow.








After calling "done" on the 'Jack I decided that I best do the Warcaster next. The caster in the box set is Kommander Sorscha but I will be running The Butcher when we start playing games larger than starter box contents. This photos were done with my iPhone so aren't up to the quality of the 'Jack. When I have some time (and the snow has finished drying) I will crack out the big boy camera and get some decent photos. One thing that I seem to have massive problems painting is flesh, not matter what I do, I can't get it right. For this attempt I've mixed up some Dwarf Flesh (which starts off way too pink) with some Skull White and painted it in, washed with Ogryn Flesh, and then recovered (probably way too much) with the lightened Flesh paint. Her face is pretty hard to get at well too, with her arm being in the way. If you can make sure you won't lose her arm (it's tiny) I'd recommend gluing it in place after painting the face.



(After seeing how shockingly bad these came out, I'll pull the finger out and get better ones

I have the final Warjack of the starter set base coated in Dragon Red and will attempt to get more WIP shots posted up of the process I use this time round. I also have one of the new Plast Warjack kits that is glued together with all weapon options magnetized that is awaiting it's base coat. Plans for the rest of the 25point army include The Butcher of Khardov, lots of Man-O-War Shocktroopers, Widowmakers and a Manhunter.

Here's a sample of other stuff that I have on my phone, not Warmachine but still postable (just, iPhone cameras suck)

I really do think you have a obsession with Red

Oh and to confirm with everyone these pictures REALLY don't do the models justice.

And thanks for the reference

Picked up a started set (which prompted a FLGS regular to do the same)

EDIT :

We should get a battle report once both of us have fully painted armies

Very nice work, perhaps drill the gun barrels on that chaplain though?

MeanGreenStompa wrote:Very nice work, perhaps drill the gun barrels on that chaplain though?

Yep, get this every time! I started drilling barrels just after painting this guy up. I know if I drill them now though, it will be wonky and will detract more from the model than not having them drilled currently. I may paint some on though, as they are easily changed if they go on wrong

Make GCSE maths useful! (Not often you can say that)
Using Trig. and Pythagoras you can get them perfect

Got the camera out and snapped off some better shots of Kommander Sorscha. Since the last photos I've made the shadow from her hat that covers her eyes much darker, just so it's not blatantly obvious I can't paint in the eyes. You can also see her bright red lips here, a lady has to look good while slaying the enemies of the motherland! With a bit more practise, I would like to add a glow round the blue slits on her war hammer, just to make it a bit more obvious there's something magical about it. And the flesh! Oh the flesh, lets down the rest of the model :(











A quick show of what's to come. That's a fully magnatised heavy Warjack kit. If you are planning on picking up the new plastic kit in the future, I highly recommend you look into magnetising the kit. The plastic blisters contain an Alt Manhunter and the new Butcher of Khardov, the butcher model is fantastic! What really surprised me is how clean the models are out of the blister, no massive tags or hideous mould lines that I am used to from the 40k stuff.



Now that I am pursing the painting side of the hobby a lot more than I used to, I've invested in some new gear. I am currently (but not for long) using GW brushes and while they have got me by, I've swapped over to the Army Painter Wargammer brushes, slightly more "up market" than the GW stuff quality wise but no where near the pro stuff. I've also been out and got a container to make a better wet palette than the plate I am currently using, massive improvement can be seen in my stuff just from swithcing over to painting out of the pot to the wet palette. I've also decided to move away from GW paints and give Vallejo a shot. The internets (!!!!) say they are better quality than GW ones, also they give more paint for less cash money. Also this:



Managed to get the entire Game Colour range (95 bottles) for £100, that's just over £1 per bottle


As always the pictures in the gallery are massive, so you can zoom in and check out the fail

Nice work on the caster. The glow effect is really easy to do: just paint the slits with watered down white. Any over painting can be easily wiped off with paper while the paint is still wet. Then go over the slits with the effect color of choise, this paint should also be thinned so that the coat is not covering the white/ the metals around the slits completely.

Good luck with the vallejos, I've been using them almost exclusively for over 5 years now and they are better paints and come in better bottles than GWs paints. The dropper bottles are so handy when you get the hang of using them.

Nice to see a WM blog. Good work!

Crappy iPhone pics hooooo!

Finished painting up the Desotroyer and have all the models bought for my 25point army. My fingers are now suitable coated in super glue after gluing on the alt manhunter arms. My 25 point army is going to be a Juggernaught and Decimator for the jacks, a unit of Widowmakers and a full unit of 5 Man-o-War shocktroopers and a Manhunter lead by The Butcher of Khardov. Total cost so far has been about ~£100 on the models and another ~£60 on game items (Counters, Templates, Rules and the like). One thing that I don't recommend new players pick up though is the army books, they are pretty expensive considering the full rule book is only £20.




Better, high quality pictures of the destroyer are to follow

With the DSLR camera I use for my high quality photos still on the other side of the country, I can't get higher quality pictures of the destroyer or my now complete Khador starter box army.

As a bit of a side step from painting red, I dug out my Iron Armour marines that I picked up at Games Day 2010 from the Forgeworld scrum to use as Sternguard. There is 10 in total, all toting the Umbra Ferrox Bolters with box mags. The gold on their shoulder pad is much more dulled down than what I usually use as I wanted to show that this armour is pretty old and the veteran status of the Sternguard. Better pics of the Sternguard, destroyer and my Khador will be up shortly

Started working on my full strength squad of shocktroopers. The red base coat is down, Army Painter Dragon red, GW Ogryn Flesh wash and highlighted with VJ Bloody Red. Detailing has only just begun with the VJ Black on the Khador symbols. I should have the DSLR camera back at some point this weekend so I can get some HQ shots up

Decent camera is back in the house so time for some higher quality photos! Here is my Destroyer, 2 Man-O-Wars and some groups shots. As with all the HQ shots, they are massive so you can zoom about to your hearts content in the gallery and see my ham fisted brush work

Destroyer




2 of 5 Man-O-Wars, bases are yet to be done on these guys


The contents of the Khador starter box


Everything painted so far


Entire army progress

Totally failed at getting anything painted in over 2 weeks, work is crazy tiring at the moment on top of being ill. Another payday has passed since the last update which means more models have been added to the army. I picked up a Wardog, a Berserker and the Greatbears.

At 25points I plan on running Butcher with the Juggernaut, Destroyer and Berserker as the core and then either a full squad of 5 Man-O-War Shock troopers and the Wardog or Greatbears, Wardog and a Manhunter.


The Berserker was a tough build, you can see flecks of greenstuff here and there where I've had to fill in gaps. Each join needed to be pinned as the weight is pulling the join apart and the glue just wasn't going to hold it


Greatbears of Gallowswood, nice and easy build, much bigger than I thought they would be. They are on small bases but the actual models are the same size as Man-O-War infantry, which are on medium bases.


Wardog, had a pretty gakky time getting this one together. In the end I had to fill his insides with green stuff and press the 2 halves together and squeeze out the excess.

While I had hold of the camera, I decided it was time to get a newer group shot of my Marines, they've grown quite a bit in the last year, still only about 50% of them are painted though


Lots more photos of them can be found in my gallery in HQ for zoominess

Really struggling to get painting time in just recently, but am slowly getting there. 4 out of the 5 Man-O-War Shocktroopers are now complete. I was playing with them a couple of weeks back and managed to chip one quite badly, so these are the first of my models to ever be varnished up for protection. They've got 2 layers of Humbrol Glosscote brush on, followed by some Testors Dullcote. I've only ever had bad experiences with spray on varnish so hitting them with the dull, I was pretty panicky. I sat there for the whole hour between coats, waiting for it to frost or crack, meaning I'd have to start again but thankfully, they looks pretty sweet. I've also added in names using micron pigment pens to identify which model matches up to the life total on the cards.



Next time I get some time to paint, I'll be cracking on with their leader, the one without a helmet on, which means I get to fail spectacularly at skin tone again!

The shocktroopers look good, the red is nice and deep. These should really pop with the snow bases.

Leader is painted up, he's about to go for his first dip in Gloss Cote. Once these guys are based up, I'll crack out my good camera and get some good quality photographs.

Shocktroopers are finally complete! Got some HQ photos in the gallery if you want to get a closer look.

Group Shot


Individual troopers






And group shot of everything that I've got done so far.


Next up I think I'll be getting the Wardog painted as he is awesome on the tabletop so will be running him in pretty much every list I play

Managed to get more time painting today, chose a nice small model after the unit of 5 medium bases. The Khador Wardog! In keeping with the rest of the thread, here is a crappy iPhone picture, better quality ones will follow when he's based up.



Was a really interesting model to paint up this, this is the first mini clad in fur that I've painted. I wanted to get the colours to blend well with each other, which I think I've managed to do quite well. The photos have highlighted a few spots that I've missed with the blending so I'll need to go back and try and touch them up. I wanted the fur to be slightly lighter than how it's turned out. The coat of wash I've put on was obviously way too heavy. I think his red armour is too bright compared to my other units, it will need another lighter was of Ogryn Flesh

Think I'm going to have to leave the painting for a bit to get some models put together. I've got some brass rod to replace my Iron Fang bendy shock lances so that should take up my hobby time for the next couple of weeks.

Nice work! How does the battlegroup work gamewise?

We're still getting used to running the rules as the guys that I play with have only been playing for a couple of months, maybe getting a game in once every 2 weeks. I do like running The Butcher, 3 jacks and a full MoW shocktrooper unit. Overwhelming people with brute force and massive damage numbers is always good fun. The MoW unit keeps the butcher nice and safe but can also kick out some big numbers when I need them to get stuck in. Sorcha is great for assassination when playing with just the starter box contents, really opens new players eyes about how brutal WM can be.

Wardog definitely has to be my stand out unit though, Butcher and him make up one tough unit to beat. I was playing against Asphyxious and he popped his feat, sending 2 light jacks, 4 Bane Thralls and Tartarus at me. It wasn't till the dog was killed that the Butcher took any damage

Ok, I'm quite new to WM and Khador myself, have only played a dozen of games or so, mostly against quite experienced players. So it's been like baning my head against a wall most of the time :-). I usually play with pSorscha but got Strakhov and eIrusk as well.

What's your opinion about the MoW Shocktroopers? Are their movement such an impairment as people seem to think?

The list I run all moves at SPD 4 baring the butcher so I don't really feel that speed is a problem. When I have my Iron Fang, Uhlans or Winterguard on the table I think they'll start to show how slow they are

Ok, I'll probably get myself some MoWs some day, they just look so brutal! MoWs and Behemoth was what got me to play Khador actually, but when I started to prowl forums, most people seemed to agree that MoWs was to slow to be useful. But I'm starting to change my mind...

Wardog is based, completed and inside my Khador KR case.



Spent the afternoon building up Beast09. I had to pin each of the joints on his axe arm, that thing is huge. The way his head connects up is pretty stupid, so I've filled up his "neck" with greenstuff and pushed his head spike in there to form an a much better area to glue to.



Managed to prime quite a lot of minis due to the nice weather and not having to run in and out of the cold, damp Welshness we usually have. My "to be painted" looks like this:



There is:
Eiryss
Epic Eiryss
Bezerker
Plastic heavy 'jack kit that is magnatized
Man-O-War Drakhun
Full squad (plus extras due to missing parts) of Doom Reavers
Doom Reaver Escort
Alt Manhunter
Full Squad of Widowmakers
Great Bears

The Butcher should be in there aswell, but I forgot to get him out of the case. I've still yet to build my Iron Fang Pikemen due to dreading changing all their pikes.

Next to paint... Think I might go for the Manhunter, painting small bases is much faster, especially after spending weeks on my MoWs

Terrible iPhone pic of what turned up today



Full Winterguard Deathstar
Iron Fang Uhlans
Another MoW Shocktrooper so I can make the dismounted Drakhun
MoW Kovnik
Fenris
Yuri
A Male Manhunter
Kovnik Markov
Devestator Heavy Jack

That should keep me busy for a while.

Been looking at Beast09's normal Paint scheme, think I'm going to attempt it. Will be interesting as I've never painted a bright model before. Should be a good learning piece

Infneon wrote:Been looking at Beast09's normal Paint scheme, think I'm going to attempt it. Will be interesting as I've never painted a bright model before. Should be a good learning piece

Start with light primer, painting off white on black on that scale, especially on those armor plates, is going to be painful.

Good to see your progress keep at it.

Been busy with the super glue and green stuff today. Managed to glue my hands together, to the desk, to my t-shirt and to my face. In between disasters, got this lot glued up



Full Winterguard Deathstar, including the rockets, standard and Joe. Built a Shocktrooper to use as my dismounted Drakhun and stuck together the MoW Kovnik. Built up a Devestator heavy jack, had to do quite a bit of green stuffing on one of his elbow armour plates, there was a 3mm gap on one of the edges, but I think that's to do with the pose more than the model. Some more big pins through his shoulders and down into his fists, they were about 20mm long. Yuri the Axe and a 2nd manhunter are in there too. Yuri is face down on the left, I've had to use greenstuff to stick his pelt on, super glue was never going to hold it and there is no way to pin it. They are pushed together quite well so hopefully the texture of the 2 surfaces will hold it in place, if not I'll get some glue into the relief which should hold it.

Infneon wrote:We're still getting used to running the rules as the guys that I play with have only been playing for a couple of months, maybe getting a game in once every 2 weeks. I do like running The Butcher, 3 jacks and a full MoW shocktrooper unit. Overwhelming people with brute force and massive damage numbers is always good fun. The MoW unit keeps the butcher nice and safe but can also kick out some big numbers when I need them to get stuck in. Sorcha is great for assassination when playing with just the starter box contents, really opens new players eyes about how brutal WM can be.

Wardog definitely has to be my stand out unit though, Butcher and him make up one tough unit to beat. I was playing against Asphyxious and he popped his feat, sending 2 light jacks, 4 Bane Thralls and Tartarus at me. It wasn't till the dog was killed that the Butcher took any damage

Took some damage?!?? If I recall correctly, he got assasinated :p

Course, Cryx are great at caster kills, but sooner or later we're going to have to do an objective game and that's when things'll turn sour for me.

Nice pics tho. Reminds me that I need to pop out my camera and start my 'Cryx Army' thread.

C-C-C-C-c-c-c-combo breaker. My new project arrived at the FLGS today



Purifier spam list for 40k. Going to get some Forgeworld dreads to bring it up to 1500. Will probably bounce between these and Khador for the next few months. I want to have the full 1500 painted for the next Acme tournament, which will be in about 6 weeks. Something that I hadn't noticed before, Rhinos and Razorbacks in the UK are the same price... There's no reason to ever buy a Rhino again (till the next price hike anyway).

Paintwise, these won't be up to par with my Khador stuff, they will be base coated with Army Painter platemail, a couple of details on the armour in red and gold and then dipped in Dark Quickshade

I like the Khadoran style lettering on the MOW bases.