After hitting a groove in painting I decided to start a blog to document the painting my Cygnar force. I have been painting this army for sometime already, but process has been sporadic as time to hobby has been cut short by real life happening. Now it seems I have time to invest into painting and so this blog is part of getting inspiration and motivation to painting the army.

I will post the already painted figs as I get to taking photos of them but here are the most recently finished pieces: a journeyman warcaster, without whom I have never fielded my cygnars, and a light wreck marker to mark the demise of my light jacks.






At the moment I have this Gun mage captain adept almost completed. Only the base and some small fixes are needed to him.




So any comments are welcome. I'll post more pics of the completed part as I take em and get new figs finished.

Love em... Very dynamic & good metal areas. The faces are the highlight for me though

How do you do the faces? Any chance of a very brief list of colours you use please?

You know, that's something that I love on the faces of many of the Warmachine human models that's distinctly rare in 40k - goggles. 40k needs more goggles. Nice job - I particularly like the 5 o'clock shadow on the gunmage.

Thanks for the praise guys,

WingWong wrote:How do you do the faces? Any chance of a very brief list of colours you use please?

The faces are painted (same as most of the other parts) with Vallejo colors. Base coat for these two fellows is 1:1 mix of dark flesh and dwarf flesh.
Then eyes are lined with black paint. Then I usually paint the eyes, nothing strange there. The downside of the eye is lined with dark flesh as black gives usually too harsh line there.
Then then face is highlighted with 1:2 dark flesh - dwarf flesh mix and after that straight dwarf flesh. After that dwarf flesh is mixed with either elf flesh or bone white for the last couple of highlights. I mix these also in same sequence pure color -> 2:1 base to highlight ratio -> 1:1 base to highlight etc.

The most important parts are the placement of highlights and the dilution of paint, which I do with tap water.

The shadow is just 2 very thin coats of light gray on top of finished face, effect worked out very nicely IMHO.

Death By Monkeys - Yes there are plenty of goggles in Warmachine. I think that most of my Cygnar models are wearing goggles, they present nice way of bringing a splash of color to the face. And if they are wearing them on the eyes, you don't have to paint eyes, which is a definite plus on my book. I'm so lazy to rework the eyes if they turn out crooked or if I otherwise messed them up .

Been painting these three sword knights now after the GMCA was transferred to the basing department.



The metal parts are still in progress, the steel lacks the final highlight and gold has no highlights at the moment. These guys are my favorite troop figs for cygnar so I have a full unit on the way, with 4 troopers already finished. They are pretty fast to paint thanks to the large metal areas, only the blue cloth needs to be layered.

The GMCA is also finished, didn't have time to take decent pics of him yet. I'll try to take pics of him today, if the weather permits.

I finally got of me and took some new photos.

First up is the finisher GMCA. I'm pretty happy with the way he came out, only the blue looks a little plain to me. The jacket still needs some mud, but that is for someother time.


Then the already finished sword knights. Still need to finish the three boys above and then the captain.



Then some older figs, first is my leader Cmdr Stryker

And his untrustworthy side kick Reinholdt


And first Cygnar fig I painted some years ago, the Charger.

Finally got some my photo set up in decent order and first thing took better pics of my entry to the last dakka painting challenge.

The skeleton was over his head in the competition and the too dark pics didn't help much . Here's a better pic of him. Thanks for all who voted for him.



The lure of chaos got better of me, so I'm also on the process on painting an all cav warriors of chaos force. I'll take WiP pics of the first unit, warhounds, soon to post here.

The new warriors of chaos book had me going and as the new plastic marauder horsemen made the thought of all cavalry force viable here we go. The first sign of northern marauders appears in the shape of warhounds. The first of four units is now ready, I painted it with a limited palette focus on getting natural and down to earth look to the mutated dogs. The two primary colors are tied together by using same gray in the mix to get harmonious effect. These had a quick rank and file paint job to get em from the desk quickly to get to the good parts of the army: the knights and heroes. Still 15 dogs to go with 5 already assembled and waiting to be puttied before painting.

i voted for the skeli lol

I finally got the swordknight unit finished on Wednesday evening. Yesterday some pics were taken of the unit and here they are for your comments.

First the full unit of knights. They were painted in 3 batches during some 8 months, so there is some variation in especially metallics. Mostly a study in painting metal, which is worn but taken care of. I am not completely happy with the yellow metals, but I'm slowly getting there. The blue is the same as for all of my cygnar. Please vote on them, the pics are links to the gallery. I've also taken some new shots of GMCA and Reinholdt to the gallery.



Then one of the knights in by himself, the figs are nice as they have enough different parts to get some individuality for every man in the unit.



Last of the swordknights is the captain. Some additional time was spent on him, as he was painted by himself. I like the calm pose on this one.

Everything looks awesome! My favorite is also the faces! And your blue is perfect! keep the pix coming!

While I am not a fan of warmachine, I am a fan of your painting. Nice work!! I really like your take on your wardogs. I have never seen them painted like that except one place. My paint table!!! Our schemes are very similar. I think they look the best in earthy tones and a more natural feel. Well look and compare. I am happy to see that they will look good when all done. I am working on mine and have lots to go. Thanks for the inspiration!!!



Looking forward to the marauders.

Very nice I also love the wardogs,but my fav so far is either the charger or Reinholdt.

Sha1emade wrote:I really like your take on your wardogs. I have never seen them painted like that except one place. My paint table!!! Our schemes are very similar. I think they look the best in earthy tones and a more natural feel.
Looking forward to the marauders.

Thanks! My style has been going towards more natural and subdued colors for some time now, and the dogs and the Chaos warrior as a whole seemed like a good project to try that on. It should work quite well and the usual take on the army seems to favor more fantastic schemes. Your dogs really seem to be close relatives of mine, I was planning to vary the color my the unit, so I'll probably now try to do one with brown mane as that seems to work very well in yours

The mounted marauders are coming, but have to tackle another unit of the dogs first and then I have couple of Cygnar figs also on my table.

LBursley wrote:Everything looks awesome! My favorite is also the faces! And your blue is perfect! keep the pix coming!

I try to spend additional time on the faces, as they really make a fig if done correctly. I'll get some new pics, but it seems to take me around a month to get anything finished.

Deff Dread red Edition wrote:Very nice I also love the wardogs,but my fav so far is either the charger or Reinholdt.

Thanks! I started the Hunter light warjack for the boys is blue and I'm hoping that the progress I've made since I painted the charger will pay off.

Reinholdt is one of my favourites on the WM line as well. He is so characterful little guy, I just had to paint him when I started painting PP figs.

Woah, wait a minute. Does your GMCA have a five o'clock shadow?

malfred wrote:Woah, wait a minute. Does your GMCA have a five o'clock shadow?

He sure has. One has to look the part to be successful in the art of assassination and look at home next to Caine in the town's seediest tavern.

The effect is really simple to achieve:
- First paint the face as normal with shadows and highlights in place
- Then mix some blue gray (Shadow gray is good) with water to a wash
- And paint this wash to the area you want to be covered in stubble, while being careful to avoid pooling

That's it. This is the second fig I've tried this on and its good looking at least to my eyes

I'm stealing that ^^^

So what's next on the list, Metsuri? Chaos or Cygnar?

That skeleton is great Metsuri, what comapny made that?

Very nice natural paint job on it as well.

I have always had a soft spot for Warmachine stuff. I've never played it or painted anything from that range myself but they have some great concepts. Mike McVey is a clever guy, and I loved his work when he was at GW.

I remember reading his heavy metal articles in the early 90's when I first got into the hobby and just being amazed by his dioramas.

malfred wrote:So what's next on the list, Metsuri? Chaos or Cygnar?

Actually Cygnar and Skorne. I've got Hunter done, base just needs to be painted. And then when meta hit the streets I finally got the urge to paint my Skorne, I've had those on my unpainted pile since the Hordes came out so its time to get em painted.

I have a swordman done and 3 venators on the table, I'll post them at the same time with the Hunter. I'm a slow painter and my kids got the flue so that takes away the hobby time, but probably next weekend I'll have my monthly update

Gundam-Mecha wrote:That skeleton is great Metsuri, what comapny made that?

Very nice natural paint job on it as well.

Thats a really old GW sculpt from around late 80s. Here is the link to the catalog page is Stuff of Legends. I have several of these old GW figs and I've saving them to be painted in between the longer projects. Thanks for the compliment. The paint job seems to be in some parts too natural as it doesn't seem to gather the appreciation I feel it's worth.

Gundam-Mecha wrote:I have always had a soft spot for Warmachine stuff. I've never played it or painted anything from that range myself but they have some great concepts. Mike McVey is a clever guy, and I loved his work when he was at GW.

I remember reading his heavy metal articles in the early 90's when I first got into the hobby and just being amazed by his dioramas.

Yeah, his work in the schemes and appearance of WM factions is great. I still have the White Dwarf where he starts to paint the blood angel army, which was the first full army to be painted for the GW ever.

I really like the WM/ Hordes minis and the game and it seems to be the game for me as the amount of minis needed is relatively small and even with my schedule and paint rate I can have painted army on the table. Here is the McVey's home page in case you are interested in what he has been doing since leaving Privateer Press. Some top notch paint jobs there.

Metsuri wrote:

Thats a really old GW sculpt from around late 80s. Here is the link to the catalog page is Stuff of Legends. I have several of these old GW figs and I've saving them to be painted in between the longer projects. Thanks for the compliment. The paint job seems to be in some parts too natural as it doesn't seem to gather the appreciation I feel it's worth.

The shading and blending on the metalic areas is spot on. It's subtle, In a good way because the more you look at it I think the more you see and you can really grow to appreciate it.

It really looks like old worn armour that has been in a crypt for centuries.

The work on the boots is also very nice as well, gradual highlights and nice shading.

Thanks for the link to Mike's website I visited it a few times beifre and used to have a bookmark but lost it.

I wish I still had some of my old white dwarfs with his articles! I loved the Eldar Exodite versus the Chaplin on bike. His Eversor Assassin Diorama was wonderful too. The scenery really opened my eyes to what you could acheive in modelling, and I can't remember how many old toilet roll tubes I cut up to make things back then!

Gundam-Mecha wrote:I wish I still had some of my old white dwarfs with his articles! I loved the Eldar Exodite versus the Chaplin on bike.

That one was my fav also, the way the minis were arranged to the terrain that formed yinyang symbol when viewed from above. Great stuff

I have go through the old stuff sometimes to read all the great articles, White dwarf is really lost a lot since those days.

Thanks for the compliments, have to get pics up of the new stuff soon it's been too long again after the previous update.

So here are the minis which I promised some days ago. Go clicky on the photos to vote if you like.

First the Cygnar Hunter light. Basic paint job for my jack, with some experimentation on metals. A light weathering was given to the whole model with brown wash to tune down the bright blue and to make the mini more uniform in appearance.



Next up is the test mini for my Skorne. I've had these minis since the Hordes was released in 06, but I have been hesitant to paint them as I wanted to have my own scheme. The search for striking but simple scheme then took 3 years but here the first victim is finally. The plan is to have a purple and brass army with some details picked in bone and black with red jewels. The base is lighter than usual for me to get more contrast to the mini. Comments would be really appreciated on this as the next 3 members of Makeda's army are already on the paint table and some tuning can be still done on the scheme.



And as a bonus here is a wip pick of a Big Mek I've been working on in between other projects. I just love the Nelson orc and have a army of them for fantasy, but haven't done army in 40k of these fellows. The new line is tempting tough.



Comments and thoughts are most welcome.

Fantastic Orc, I really like the skintone on this mini. Very subtle and really pleasing on the eye. It reminds me a lot of Rackham's studio painting style.

Love the detail on the lip as well! 5 *

Gundam-Mecha wrote:Fantastic Orc, I really like the skintone on this mini. Very subtle and really pleasing on the eye. It reminds me a lot of Rackham's studio painting style.

Thanks G-M. I was really into Rackham couple of years ago in the time of C3. The painting style of the R studio was something I studied, but never really achieved the results I was aiming at. But now that you said it a lot of the techniques used on the ork, especially on the skin, are the same ones that Rackham's painters used. Multiple thin coats and adding color with glazes. It's interesting how things surface after some time has passed.

The lip is just the same color as the rest of the face, but final touch is glaze of scab red. Simple things are often the best

Hopefully I can finish him soon, the base work on the ork was done sometime in December and since then he has just sat on the edge of table. I got the inspiration to get some work done on him last week, but yesterday the skorne won back the focus. Some many nice figs but so little time

Here are couple wip shots of the skorne venators. The figs are close to finished, just the bases left to do. I really like PP's skorne line, the figs are characterful and full of detail, yet simple and fast to paint. The scheme is almost unchanged from the swordsman, just couple of more highlights to the purple as suggested on the gallery. I'll post better pics when the bases are done for these. Next up for the Skorne is Cyclops Savage, my first warbeast.

kka.com/gallery/27398-Hordes%2C%20Primal%2C%20Privateer%20Press%2C%20Skorne%2C%20Unit%2C%20Work%20In%20Progress.html][/url]



The ork mek has also had some work done on, the backpack is now on and is awaiting for highlights.

Some time has passed since the last update, well almost half a year. During that time I have had a nice summer holiday and built up paving for our back yard, and painted. As the hobby time was a bit limited I focused on the actual painting and didn't take photos of the finished figs. Well as the air is getting colder its time to get some pics here for you.


Here is the stormsmith painted for my cygnar army. He is painted to the same colors as the rest of the force, some changes were done to the shading of the khaki coat, but those fit very well to the existing paintjobs.

Love the skin tones on the ork.Also the venators look cool,are they useful on the table top(sorry I'm unfamiliar with Skorne tatics/units)?

Also the stormsmiths robes look cool,aswell as his staff.You've really got painting blues down.

Love the blog,keep up the good work.Your a talented painter!

Your Cygnar army looks great. Hell, all of it looks great.

Its nice to see some warmachine around here. I wish I had more time to play mine, then maybe I'd finish my Cryx.

Great update Metsuri, I really hope to see an update on that ork soon, I have to agree with others that the skin tones on him are fantastic.

Nice to see some more of your Cygnar stuff too.

I should pay attention to your stuff more closely, and start stalking you at Gencon

Deff Dread red Edition wrote:Love the skin tones on the ork.Also the venators look cool,are they useful on the table top(sorry I'm unfamiliar with Skorne tatics/units)?
Also the stormsmiths robes look cool,aswell as his staff.You've really got painting blues down.

Thanks!
The venators are ok on the tabletop. They have CRA and combined with the extoller, who gives them ability to ignore obstacles when shooting, they really shine. I also like the figs a lot and thats a bit thing on my books.

I have had some experience in painting blue now that I have a some 700 pts worth of cygnar painted. Before them I really hadn't touched blue.

StubbyGB wrote:Your Cygnar army looks great. Hell, all of it looks great.

Its nice to see some warmachine around here. I wish I had more time to play mine, then maybe I'd finish my Cryx.

Thanks StubbyGB! I've painting WM since with my current painting speed my GW projects never get to finish line.

Gundam-Mecha wrote:I really hope to see an update on that ork soon, I have to agree with others that the skin tones on him are fantastic.

Ok GD, maybe its time to finish him. He has been giving me some looks on the paint desk, but the cygnar and skorne have been on a higher priority. I have made some progress with him, but not enough to warrant another pic IMHO. Maybe I'll put some touches on his force field generator and snap some pics for you. I love the sculpt and have been keeping it as a special project as I dont want to mess him up.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

malfred wrote:I should pay attention to your stuff more closely, and start stalking you at Gencon

Thanks malf!

If I ever get to your side of the big water, I'll make sure to send you my travel schedule for your enjoiment

A case in how the appearance of figs is a major point to me. The cygnar trenchers are a staple unit of the blue boys. They are good on the table top and can perform many roles in the machine. But the figs are not my favorite. They are too busy with bags and tools of trade hanging around the guys and the amount of different cloths alone is too much IMO. I started painting this unit with the first 3 figs around 2 years ago and was never satisfied with them. In the spring I finally bit the bullet, simplified the scheme and painted the next 3 and the sarge to get the unit on table. Definitely not my best paint job, but they look ok on the table I think.



Yesterday I also got some painting done on the Mek, started oxidation on the copper metal parts on the backpack. No pics yet for you, just teaser to you who have been asking. He is coming along, thanks to your pushing

And last of the cygnar I got finished during the summer was this Heavy Wreck Marker.

Pretty basic stuff, some light weathering and playing with glazes on the metals.



Next up is prolly new shots of the big mek and squire which I finished this week.

I actually dig the trencher models. This is my first time seeing them, but they're really smartly detailed to me. I like models that have proper details that make sense in their role.

You are right though, they definitely need a more simplified color scheme with slight variations to keep them from becoming 'busy'. I think you've done a pretty good job at just that.

And is that Heavy wreck a model or did you sacrifice one ^_^? I don't know much of warmachine, but would love to get into it.

grey_death wrote:I actually dig the trencher models. This is my first time seeing them, but they're really smartly detailed to me. I like models that have proper details that make sense in their role.

You are right though, they definitely need a more simplified color scheme with slight variations to keep them from becoming 'busy'. I think you've done a pretty good job at just that.

And is that Heavy wreck a model or did you sacrifice one ^_^? I don't know much of warmachine, but would love to get into it.

Yeah, the details in trenchers make sense. They have the smoke grenades and entrenchement tools and bajonets etc visible as they should in. But the amount of detail is kind of discouraging. Every batch I made the scheme more simple and now I think that the last batch was there in color placement and number of colors. Thanks for the compliment they are the unit I'm on most uncertain in terms of painting, but as I said they get a lot time on the table top.

And the wreck is a model, I don't have the money to trash a iron clad heavy jack just to get a marker for my trashed jacks.

I really like warmachine as it encourages thinking and rewards the more experienced player and has fast game mechanics. The lesser amount of models on the table is just gravy for a old timer like me with too little time to paint his toy soldiers.

And here is the squire coming to assist my cygnar warcasters. Blue is the same as before, some experiments on the metals this time. The boiler and exhaust were given some stronger washes in attempt to make them look like cast iron opposed to other more clean metal parts.









And then the progress on the big mek. I have attached the backpack/ force field generator and laid the foundations of the brass on it. Still have to work the highlights on the metals and then start to dirty it up to make it look more orky. Still a lot of small details to pick up after that.

After I finished the last batch of skorne figs, it was time to put some work to my Cygnar army. I don't have any heavy warjacks painted completely and that had to be rectified. What would be better piece to start than Defender, which is really good jack for 9 points. It is painted in my army scheme, so traditional blues with black and bone accents. The metals on the machinery have been washed and weathered more than the arms and legs, and the smoke stack have even more layers of washes.

I built a small rock formation to the base to break the plain space as there was considerable space in the 50mm base.









I addition to the defender I started to paint Siege to be my second warcaster. Still a lot of stuff to complete on him, the blues are only part which is finished.

WOW that is really good job keep it up

Death Gear wrote:WOW that is really good job keep it up

Thanks!

Yes I plan to keep it up After I finish Siege its skorne for me though, gotta get the 35 pts army painted, still some 15 points to do. I have a thunderhead and centurion whispering to me from their boxes and I suppose th Mk2 Cygnar book will bring more temptations to drag me back to painting the boys in blue.

In preparation to upcoming tourney I finished Siege, which will be my caster. Basic paint job with metal and blue for my Cygnar. I had a bit of trouble with the face, but otherwise it was easy going. I built it a base out of cork to fit with my Stryker who also has cork base.







Next up and final missing figs from my 25 pts tourney list are the gun mages of black 13th. They will be in a similar scheme as my GMCA, but with black details on the coats. I hope to finish them in the following two weeks as they already have the largest areas done and only detail work remains.

Here is my own piece of cheese for my Cygnar armies, the Black 13th gun mage team. They are really detailed and nice figs, a bit on the small side they are on the same scale as the Stryker from Battlebox. I painted them to the same scheme as the rest of my army, but made some small differences to the equipment to make them stand out more. Had to rush a bit on the Lynch as they were needed to be painted to participate in a tournament where they shone, especially Ryan. Her AoE attack is broken






Next up are last two swordknights to get max unit fully painted and to go with them I'm also painting Arlan Strangewayes.

Nice, they turned out really sharp. Can't wait for Strangewayes.

Deminyn wrote:Nice, they turned out really sharp. Can't wait for Strangewayes.

Thanks, Strangewayes is well on the way, but with my slow speed it will probably take me couple of weeks to get him finished. I'm trying to get some games played also on my limited hobby time so I have around 2 to 3 hours for painting per week.

I was dead set on getting my Cygnar figs painted this spring, but now they have updated the Hordes cards and the Skorne is calling to me again. Well have to see what I'll do after the guys I have on my desk.

Whats your recipe for the blue?

Here is a WiP of my Strangewayes. He is still far from finished, only the leather apron is close to final. Almost all areas have received some washes and now its time to make things bright again with highlights.

typhus wrote:Whats your recipe for the blue?

The blue is done close to the recipe from brushthralls and I use vallejo paints, all of the paints are from their game color line. I start with 2 parts imperial blue and one part magic blue as a base coat and work from there to pure magic blue to extreme highlights of electric blue. In few selected places white is added to the electric blue for extra bling.

That looks like a good start, Metsuri - I've finally gotten around to picking up a Squire for my Cygnar force, and it somewhat smaller than I was expecting.

What colour do you reckon you'll be painting Strangewayes' pipe?

Dysartes wrote:That looks like a good start, Metsuri - I've finally gotten around to picking up a Squire for my Cygnar force, and it somewhat smaller than I was expecting.

What colour do you reckon you'll be painting Strangewayes' pipe?

Yes the trashcan is a bit on the small side, check how it fits to the base before gluing it. I had to make the cork base as the feet were too wide to fit to the base.

The pipe is going to be mid brown, I'll try to get some nice polished wood affect going with inks, but it is so small that I doubt it'll work. The whole fig is so full of small details that it takes long to paint him, he has around half a dozen meters around his armor for example. I started him together with the last 2 swordknights and they are already finished and waiting for matt varnish and strangewayes still in the shape you see above.

Here is the latest fig I have finished for my Cygnar force: the chief mechanic Cpt Strangewayes. I went with mix of old and trusted methods and new stuff, mainly in the electrikal glove. This is such a detailed and characterful sculpt that it is hard to go wrong, just tried to keep the wibe of old wizened man with practical touch to things.







Next on my table are the two remaining stormsmiths, and after them the man with the pizzabox. Below is a teaser of him:

Last figs completed for my Cygnar are these two stormsmiths to complete the set of three. They were painted to same scheme as the previous stormsmith, I just added the blue glow to the stormrods to give some eye candy to them. I don't particularly like their curly hair and tried to make them seem more natural than the studio paint jobs by giving them more natural hair colors.







Comments are welcome as always.

These two guys bring my Cygnar to 48 of 106 points fully painted. Next up are the rangers, which are already well on their way.

To bolster my shooting I decided to paint up some Rangers. They are really nice on tabletop as they give good boost to accuracy of shooting and figs are also nice. The unit size is another plus, as full unit is only 6 figs, with 4 poses they are nice to paint. I first decided to paint the 3 of the grunts: 2 shooting from the knee and one advancing slowly. The scheme is a bit different to my usual infantry scheme as I decided to paint the cloaks green, which has been used before only on the bedrolls of trenchers. The clothes are again done in khaki to tie them to the rest of the force.




Coming up next up are the last 2 grunts and the unit leader.

That is some nice basing and skin tone.

malfred wrote:That is some nice basing and skin tone.

Thanks malf!

I played around with the skin tones on these, the blond shooting from knee is painted with my usual skin recipe, the standing one is painted with the citadel foundation skin as the base color and the black haired kneeling one painted with a mix of beastial brown and dwarf flesh on as the base coat. I like the foundation flesh best, as it is most natural. The problem is that the foundation paint has dried up on me. I've only used it on this ranger and another normal sized fig and the jar is almost dried up. So I will be sticking with Vallejo in future, though I need to check P3 if they have nice flesh color.

After painting my skorne for the autumn I needed a bit of change of pace and decided to work on my Ironclad. It had been painted with base colors autumn 2007 and after that it has served faithfully both Siege and Stryker on the battlefield. It was the second model I started to paint for my cygnar force and now time was right to finish the job.

The armor plates and the brass parts got highlighted, I tried to do some furnace glow like Dysartes does and then of course you need to do a nice base to fit the warjack.





Next I'll probably start to work on 50 point Tier 4 army for Kraye, so some warjacks and rangers are coming.

Looks good. What does your 50 pt Kraye list look like?

Sounds like Kraye, warjacks and Rangers, DBM

Smarty pants. I was hoping for more specifics, yo.

Well, for T4 I'd expect Kraye, 2+ Hunters, 2+ units of Rangers and 2+ heavy warjacks. After the specifics, Metsuri has 36 points left to use on stuff from Kraye's restricted list (which will include the two heavy warjacks).

Dysartes got it pretty much: you need to have the 2 hunters and 2 units of rangers. You can have B13th so why not .

After that its which heavies you want, I want to try the centurion with him. I bought one during Mk1 and haven't even assembled it so this would seem like a good place to try it out. Then I have a cyclone on the shelf waiting for paint, which would seem to fit Kraye and the list needs to have something to handle lots of infantry. I will add another melee jack to the mix, probably Stormclad as I haven't painted one yet. This leaves me at 46 points and with the remaining four I could get sentinel to shield guard Kraye or couple of GMCAs. Have to see what Wrath brings though. There might be tempting rangers solos or recon cav, one can dream at least.

Finally last week I grabbed the 3 unfinished members of the rangers unit and finished them to get a bit break from painting the Skorne Gladiator. They are done to fit the previous bunch of the rangers, seems that I took the highlights on the cloaks a bit further this time but otherwise they are painted in the same way. This batch has the grouching unit leader and the observer grunt along with one grunt same pose as in the first batch. The leader and the observer are both really nice sculpts and they were a joy to paint. Especially the leader as pose in a little different from what is usually found in minis. He also has nice and characterful face.





And here is the full unit:


I now have 59 of my 134 points of Cygnar painted.

Next up is the Cyclone, which is already in the washes phase. I have laid the base coats down and it should go from there quite smoothly as it is just a basic jack.

After couple of months of watching this jack to be half done, I got up and finished it today. Part of my Kraye theme list, but also to be used with other casters especially Sloan and Siege. I have magnetized the arms so I can change it to defender or ironclad depending on the situation, but the weapons of those jacks are not finished yet. I painted the furnaces to be lit, like Dysartes does on his jacks.

Check full sized pictures in gallery by clicking on the images.







Next up for Cygnar is either Stormlances or Rowdy, depending on which I get assembled first.

You and Dysartes have nice blues. Did you sculpt that
rock piece on the base, did you just stick it on there, or was
it a pre-sculpted base?

malfred wrote:You and Dysartes have nice blues. Did you sculpt that
rock piece on the base, did you just stick it on there, or was
it a pre-sculpted base?

Thanks Malf, I think that I nailed the shade of blue that I like on the defender and ironclad and this cyclone both have nice shiny blue that I like.

The rock is made of cork. I took and old cork from a wine bottle, cut about third of it's lenght and then started to carve it with a hobby knife. You can get nice shapes out of cork and it paints up nicely. I have to think of something new for the next jacks though, I have a large rock on front of every jacks base now.

Great color layout I like the light bands. Fig and base really look good.

Thanks MudgeBlack.

The light bands tie my jack to my infantry, which has khaki as the main color. The blue jacks just seemed so cygnar that I could go for khaki as the main color for the jacks I settled for the bands to break from the studio paint job.

After several months of painting my Skorne and other figs, I got the urge to paint something blue. I looked through my collection of cygnar figs and noticed that I have several jacks and stormnouns unfinished or unpainted. This started a thought in my head about doing Nemo2 theme force mainly to get the figs painted, but I think it might be a fun list to play too.

For the tiers I need to paint Nemo2(unfinished), 2 fireflies (unassembled) and 2 units of Stormguard(I currently have only one, which is unfinished) also the free stormtower needs to be painted. I played around with forward kommander to build the lists and came up with the following tier 2 35 pts list:

General Adept Nemo
Firefly 5
Firefly 5
Ironclad 7
Thunderhead 12
Squire 2
Field Mechaniks (Leader and 3 Grunts) 2
Stormguard (Leader and 5 Grunts) 6
Stormsmith Stormcaller 1
Stormsmith Stormcaller 1

The bold units I already have painted. It needs the inclusion of another Stormguard unit along with third heavy jack to reach tier 4, but those were too hard to include on 35 pts. To start the painting on the list I have finished half a unit of stormguard and second half is already on the way. I guess this list will guide my painting this winter, at least until painter ADD sets in again.

They look nice. I prefer the majority of the armour silver, much more natural than completely blue. Good work!

They look great! I second the comment about the silver with a little blue. I really like your basing too.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:They look nice. I prefer the majority of the armour silver, much more natural than completely blue. Good work!

Thanks, I thought sometime about the ratio of silver to blue in these as I wanted them to fit next to my swordknights naturally. I think they stand out as figs enough to be noticed on the gaming table and I wanted them to look more natural than the studio scheme. I am a big fan of natural and subdued colors so these worked well and were fast to paint in addition.

MudgeBlack wrote:They look great! I second the comment about the silver with a little blue. I really like your basing too.

Thanks Mudge! The basing is just collection of down to earth colors with bone white drybrush after the grass has been applied to tie things together. Down to earth as the figs, but with enough twist to make thing a bit more interesting.

In the mean while I got a game in with my Skorne and after that I got the urge to paint some so the second half of the stormguard are progressing well. Silver armor is already done as are the blue areas. Still have to finish the brass and insulation gear before they are ready for varnish.

Nice work you Cygnarian dog! I agree with Vitruvian XVII, the stormguards look much better with less blue and more silver!

Just looked in on your gallery, a lot of great models you have done. I really like the purple scheme on your Skorne and McMourning and friend look great (Long live the Resurrectionists!!!)!

c0un7_z3r0 wrote:Nice work you Cygnarian dog! I agree with Vitruvian XVII, the stormguards look much better with less blue and more silver!

Thanks count! The ideas as said was to have a bit different and natural looking army, it seems to have worked in practice

MudgeBlack wrote:Just looked in on your gallery, a lot of great models you have done. I really like the purple scheme on your Skorne and McMourning and friend look great (Long live the Resurrectionists!!!)!

Thanks Mudge, glad that you enjoyed the gallery. There a lot of figs from these past couple of years there. So many great figs and so little painting time The malifaux Resser crew is one project I hope to have time to continue on soon, I have rest of the morgue crew and the graveyard crew waiting for paint. I just seem to have too much fun with the Skorne and Cygnar currently to paint them. Then I have the Space Hulk set, pile of old Rackham figs, couple of nice Reaper minis along with a really nice looking spherewars fig and .... It just seems that now I want to get the gaming figs done before going forward with the display pieces.

Got rest of the Stormguard unit 1 painted and here are the pictures, 2 more grunts and the leader of the unit. Really fast paint job for me, but I'm really pleased with the way they look together on the table top. Same techniques and colors used as the rest of the unit. The leader has a bit more space to paint the electric effects so that he stand up a bit more from the grunts.



Here is a back shot of the leader to show how I painted the cloth on the back, basically the same blue as on the shoulder pads and then some bone/ khaki on the rim to tie them to the other infantry units on my army.



I currently have eNemo and Firefly on the way, lets see which one I finish first.

Looking good Metsuri!

Continuing with the eNemo theme force here is first Firefly. Tier 2 requires the army to include 2 of these to help the stormsmiths to do their lightning calling. This was my first of the new plastic lights and it went together like charm. I had to warm the spear a bit as it was quite bent, but that went easily enough. I was quite surprised at how big these new lights are, they are much taller and bulkier looking than the old metal lights.

The painting is following my established palette for cygnar, no new trick were tried when painting.

Metsuri wrote:The painting is following my established palette for cygnar, no new trick were tried when painting.

Be that as it may, its still a top job! That kit does indeed look nice.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:

Metsuri wrote:The painting is following my established palette for cygnar, no new trick were tried when painting.

Be that as it may, its still a top job! That kit does indeed look nice.

Thanks Vitruvian!

I have gotten to the point with my blues that I can paint the jacks quite well without thinking too much about it, which is why I have taken much of this year to paint my skorne force. After this eNemo list is complete I have to take a project outside PP universe to clean my palette, it will most likely be incursion or infinity. Have to see which one wins in the end.

The kit is indeed really nice, perhaps most players already have the metal jacks and therefore I haven't seen the new plastic one in flesh. The firefly is a jack that I wouldn't use without several stormsmiths and eNemo so I have been missing the lancers and chargers mostly. I might take a comparison picture of firefly next to classic charger and ironclad, which would show the size increase well.

Go Infinity...

Once again, the model looks great. I hear what you are saying about straightening things (usually long thin things) on the plastics. I had to straighten mauls on demo corps, sorsha, kreoss, and cinerators. Just get some hot water, dip it in, and good to go.

Vitruvian XVII wrote:Go Infinity...

I think that might be the case, even sooner than you think. I have a Nomad Hellcat with a nice Secret Weapon base next to it on my desk waiting for me to finish a Malifaux mini. That is probably going to be the next mini that I start. I think that I will paint a force of PanO during next year, but this one mini might be enough to scratch that itch for now.

MudgeBlack wrote:Once again, the model looks great. I hear what you are saying about straightening things (usually long thin things) on the plastics. I had to straighten mauls on demo corps, sorsha, kreoss, and cinerators. Just get some hot water, dip it in, and good to go.

Yeah, that was the way I did it also. I think I got it reasonably straight as it appears to be quite good looking also on the pictures. The spear is really nice looking, especially when compared to the metal jacks spears. I haven't had any inspiration to paint my centurion as the spear is so sad looking. I hope that the coming plastic jack has really nice and beefy beat stick.

Next up for my Cygnar army is a merc solo Anastasia diBray. Really beautiful figure, a lot of nice detail and good pose. The only problem is she is in the same scale as Black 13th so quite a bit smaller than a lot of WM infantry models. I painted this one to have a bit of break from painting the normal cygnar infantry figs, but still she is painted with the same colors as the rest of the army.





Comments and suggestions about her are appreciated

Next up are the cygnar mechanics for my eNemo theme force, half of the full unit is already well under way.

She looks great, love the shading and highlighting, it really brings her to life. Your palette is perfect as well, my first thought on seeing her was "British field agent in a spy movie".

MudgeBlack wrote:She looks great, love the shading and highlighting, it really brings her to life. Your palette is perfect as well, my first thought on seeing her was "British field agent in a spy movie".

Thanks, she really fell into place really easily. I just looked at the colors I have used for my Cygnar and though about which would look best as the jacket color and rest just fell into place.

I got the first half of bodgers painted yesterday, still need to varnish and base them. Today starting the rest of the unit, 14 figures left to paint for the 50 point eNemo tier 4 list.

I agree, the choice of colours look great all together, such an evocative mini, well done!

Thanks Vitruvian!

She was a good mini to try couple of things on as a practice for Infinity figs also. The scale and detail are pretty similar on this one. I already have my Nomad Hellcat with HMG primed and on base. Now I just have to get the Waagh Dakka Ork done before diving into that one...

To continue my adventure with eNemo theme force I finished these Bodgers for my max unit of Field Mechaniks. They were bought and painted mainly to fix my urge to paint the Lacroix crew of Malifaux, and they managed to scratch that itch for a while at least. Nice figs for Prime era, all one piece sculpts but the casting didn't show their age. Nice amount of details and character, they were a joy to paint. I just finished the second half of the unit, but still have to varnish and paint them before posting here.





Next up is the Storm tower and second Firefly or Thunderhead. I haven't yet decided which jack I'll do first.

Theyre charecterful sculpts! Love little guys like that, like the way you picked out the goggles.

You just need to make the goggles stand out Vitruvian, they bring a lot of the cool character to the unit. Either you cannot see the eyes or they are covered by goggles for the whole unit.

The second half of the unit is now varnished and sand has been glued to the bases, hopefully I have time to finish them during weekend to move back to paint lightning based weaponry.

And here are the rest of the mechaniks. I varied the color placement with these so that there is no identical gobbers on the unit to make them look more irregular in appearance. The chief was painted to contrast with the rest of the crew with colors placed like the rest of my infantry. These were a blast to paint, so I made quick work on the whole unit. Sadly there has been really cloudy weather here for the past days, so I had to take the pictures by lamp light, which makes them look like crap.





Next up is either one of the missing jacks or storm tower, I haven't yet started painting any of those.

They look great as a group! Im continually impressed by your level of output, i always get so distracted!

Vitruvian XVII wrote:They look great as a group! Im continually impressed by your level of output, i always get so distracted!

Thanks, I have been aiming this year into focusing on one larger project all the time. In the beginning of the year it was my skorne and then in the autumn I switched back to cygnar. It also helps to have very specific subgoals, so when I have been painting this eNemo theme list I have divided the figs that need to be painted to groups for each month. December's goal is to paint the second firefly along with storm tower to finish the stormcaller section of the army.

Then on parallel with the main project I have one or two figs to paint to get some variation to painting. The problem is in keeping these under control. Currently I have malifaux crew, infinity, spherewars, a soda pop fig, confrontation Drunes along with Space Hulk trying to compete for the place in the spotlight. I have the Waagh Dakka ork and a Malifaux fig almost finished, but I already painted the space hulk dead terminator before finishing either.

I just try to focus on the main project and then do the other minis when inspiration strikes, it seems to work pretty well for me. Also keeping the main project to certain quality level, they are not perfect and in some areas they might be quite roughly painted, but it doesn't matter as they are for gaming. Display figs are then worked and reworked until perfect, but I haven't painted many figs to that level in years. Now I have the urge to do the Soda Pop fig to top level I can achieve so let's see how it goes.

To kick of new year I'll give you pictures of the last figs painted last year: the stormtower for my Nemo2's theme force. It is included in the army as a tier bonus for free, but the figures are so nice that it was a pleasure painting it. The leader and grunt were both painted to fit among the rest of the stormsmiths already painted for my cygnar force. Stormtower was painted using the worn brass and steel used on my cygnar jacks. I opted to paint the hair of the smiths in regular colors as opposed to the gray look that the studio smiths have. I like it a lot better as the figs seem to represent pretty young humans.







And here is a group shot of all of the stormsmiths for now, I think that I need another blister of 3 for my force though.



I did miss my deadline for getting also the second firefly painted during December. It is base coated, but still needs a lot of attention to get it finished. I aim to get it and another fig for the force still finished during this month, but lets see how it goes.

I love THIS! All of this!

Great work on the highlights, I dig the khaki + blue paint scheme for your Cygnar. Great bases!

I'll keep coming back for more!

Nice Stormsmith group, Metsuri. How was the Storm Tower to assemble?

I'm also putting a 50pt eNemo Tier 4 list together, so I know what you're going through

Hmelrose wrote:I love THIS! All of this!

Great work on the highlights, I dig the khaki + blue paint scheme for your Cygnar. Great bases!

Thanks Hmelrose, I wanted my infantry to look more rugged and natural than the studio scheme and khaki was a good neutral light brown. It is quite nice color to paint and is not too difficult to shade. The bases are done to give good contrast to the lighter figs. I've tried to make them look natural and neutral, but still have some detail in them to make them more interesting.

Dysartes wrote:Nice Stormsmith group, Metsuri. How was the Storm Tower to assemble?

I'm also putting a 50pt eNemo Tier 4 list together, so I know what you're going through

Thanks Dysartes, I saw that you are on the same boat as I am from your blog and new years resolutions here.

What kind of list are you planning on? Or how many stormsmiths are you planning on fielding

The Storm Tower is not too hard to assemble, the grunt is one piece (or she has sword to attach to the hip). The gunner is two pieces, goes together easily and the tower is one piece. The only part where you need to pay attention is when attaching the tower and gunner to the base as there is a power cable joining the gunner to the tower. I pinned the cable to the gunner and then pinned the tower to the base near the lip. After that I just needed to pin the gunner to the base so that the cable reached the socket in tower. Not too difficult, but needs to be done with some attention to make it look good.

The list I'm looking to field at the ETC at Maelstrom is as follows (subject to the Avenger kit coming out):

General Adept Sebastian Nemo
- Thunderhead Heavy Warjack
- Avenger Heavy Warjack
- Firefly Light Warjack
- Firefly Light Warjack
- Sentinel Light Warjack
- Squire
6 Stormguard
6 Stormguard
Stormsmith Storm Tower
Stormsmith Storm Tower
5 x Stormsmith Stormcaller

Three of my Stormsmiths are already painted, and I've just picked up the package with my remaining two (well, three, but you know what I mean ) in it.

Dysartes wrote:The list I'm looking to field at the ETC at Maelstrom is as follows (subject to the Avenger kit coming out):

General Adept Sebastian Nemo
- Thunderhead Heavy Warjack
- Avenger Heavy Warjack
- Firefly Light Warjack
- Firefly Light Warjack
- Sentinel Light Warjack
- Squire
6 Stormguard
6 Stormguard
Stormsmith Storm Tower
Stormsmith Storm Tower
5 x Stormsmith Stormcaller

Three of my Stormsmiths are already painted, and I've just picked up the package with my remaining two (well, three, but you know what I mean ) in it.

Interesting, we have gone for a bit different directions as I am going to try the list with 3 heavies. That list will mow infantry spam as it has so much anti-infantry autohitting power that it should really give all something to think about to kayazis and other units depending on high DEF for survival.

It is interesting to see how the towers work in the list. On the paper they seem pretty powerful, but the lack of movement worries me, that is why I have only one on my list. The stormsmith spam seems to be the way to go with the list, I agree that more than 3 is required. I will probably run 6 in my list.

Is the ETC this year still rewarding destroying enemy models?

As far as I'm aware they'll be rewarding killing stuffs. I'm waiting for SR2012 to come out officially before I judge the scenarios, but I feel sorry for anyone trying to hold a zone if the Stormsmiths and Fireflies get into position to drop multiple Triangulations on them...

My problem is what to do if the Avenger isn't out in time - my current plan B is to tag in a Cyclone, for even more random death

I suspect the Towers will need to advance or run on turn 1 (as unless I've missed something, they can run) to get into position. With 14 inch range, they should be able to start annoying the enemy from T2 (or possibly even T1 if I go second).

Dysartes wrote:As far as I'm aware they'll be rewarding killing stuffs. I'm waiting for SR2012 to come out officially before I judge the scenarios, but I feel sorry for anyone trying to hold a zone if the Stormsmiths and Fireflies get into position to drop multiple Triangulations on them...

My problem is what to do if the Avenger isn't out in time - my current plan B is to tag in a Cyclone, for even more random death

I suspect the Towers will need to advance or run on turn 1 (as unless I've missed something, they can run) to get into position. With 14 inch range, they should be able to start annoying the enemy from T2 (or possibly even T1 if I go second).

That is the way to go with it, just wait for enemy to move into place and then saturate area with lightning from all of those sources.

Avenger is much more versatile jack than cyclone, I would personally switch him around for stormclad in your list. It has the shorter range gun without AoE, but so much more melee presence than cyclone so it would match avenger better. It cost a bit more on points tough.

Towers should run as they are unable to move and shoot during the same turn unless I remember wrong. They have nice range though and the way that the electric damage works you can shoot your own jacks/ figs in the back for some nice lightning arcs.

Yesterday I got some more paint slapped on Nemo2, it was nice to take up the brush for the first time this year. Lets see if I can finish either him or second Firefly during this month.

Some truly awesome work going on here. What colours do you use for your khaki? I am planning on making my own Cygnar a khaki base, with blue trim.

Mutley wrote:Some truly awesome work going on here. What colours do you use for your khaki?

Thanks Mutley.

The khaki is just straight from the bottle Vallejo Game Color khaki, shaded with a wash of VGC earth and Vallejo Model Color black brown and finally highlighted with VGC bone.

Looking forward on seeing your paint jobs, I should put the xbox controller down and put some paint on my Nemo2 and Firefly, which are looking at me with a sad eyes forgotten on the painting table

It's been two months since the last update. I have been painting my Malifaux crew in the meanwhile, but got back to getting the Nemo2 themeforce to fully painted. Next up on the queue was the caster himself, which is one of the nicest pieces in Cygnar line. Great character and detail, he fits really well among the lightning throwing troopers. He was again painted with the same basic colors as the previous figs in my cygnar army, this time I tried to play around with the blue glow, but didn't go for full OSL treatment. Next up is the second firefly to support my stormsmiths and then I will tackle Thunderhead, which is going to be the centerpiece of the army.

About month after the last update I have the rogue alchemist di Wolfe. A really good utility solo, that has been hanging around in my to paint queue since last days on Mk1 I finally got the encouragement to paint him from Lost Hemispheres Paint the Target Challenge last month. He is again painted in the colors of my cygnar to make him part of my army even though he is a merc. The model is nice and has aged really well, he was a blast to paint. I didn't go for anything out of the ordinary, the only new thing is the green vials on the front. I haven't painted green gems for a while, but I think I did manage to do nice job with them.

I finally got around to ordering the missing unit of storm guard so hopefully soon I have all the pieces to finish Nemo2 theme force before summer.

Nice spots of blue to tie him in with the rest of your army, Metsuri - I take it he is for general play, rather than the eNemo army?

Yup, the try to get some blue in all of my cygnar figs to tie them together. I think there are only couple without any blue in the army: some of the rangers have very few pieces of cloth where blue could be introduced.

And you are right in that he cannot be part of Nemo2's tier force, he would be very useful piece if he could be introduced. I managed to play one game during March with my Cygnar and he was definitely worth his price of admission.

Yesterday I got some work done on the blues of Firefly 2 and it is proceeding well so I'm hoping to finish it during this week.

Returning to the Nemo2 theme list I have finished second to last jack needed for the list: the second Firefly. This one was posed in more static way and more off white was added to the paint job to differentiate it from the first. Otherwise it is following the same lines as the jacks before it. I tried to get away from the rock basing I have been using for my jacks so there is no large rock on this base. That will be balanced with the Thunderhead's base though.











Next up is the Nemo's pet jack and after that I only have the second min unit of stormguard for completed 50 point list

Nice! The white definitely separates him well.

I agree Vitruvian and I think that somehow this one fits better to the army than the first. I think I will be doing these broad cream colored areas to all of the new jacks.

Yeah it looks very nice. Acts as a good focal point too.

Are you gonna get a colossal when it comes out?

Don't know about the colossal yet. It looks a bit out of place among the other minis as it is so much larger than the rest. I haven't gotten a battle engine either so I might skip the stormwall too. The skorne battle engine looks to be the most inspiring model to paint to me, but I'm not sure I am comfortable in forking out the cash to buy it as it looks like it wouldn't fit to my armies on the table top.