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School's out for now, and work only occupies part of my time. For whatever reasons, I've been losing interest in 40k a little bit recently. Perhaps I'm just growing tired of the way Games Workshop does things. Other than the new ork walkers, I haven't bought anything from them in ages, and I don't really plan on doing so.

Instead, I've been finding myself fascinated by Warmachine. I've been playing a lot of Warmachine over VASSAL in the past few days to get a handle on the rules and how the game operates, and I think I've reached a point where I am comfortable with it now.

I've dropped a fair bit of money on a nice collection of Khador models - all new in blister. I am currently looking at:

* The Butcher of Khardov
* Karchev the Terrible
* Kommander Orsus Zoktavir
* Supreme Kommandant Irusk
* The Old Witch and Scrapjack
* A War Dog
* Ogrun Bokur
* Beast-09
* A Kodiak Heavy Warjack
* A Spriggan Heavy Warjack
* A Beserker Heavy Warjack
* A Juggernaut Heavy Warjack
* One of the new plastic Khador warjacks that can be made into 4 different kinds
* A full unit of Kayazy Assassins with Underboss
* A full unit of Iron Fang Pikemen with Kapitan and Standard Bearer
* A unit of Widowmakers
* A unit of Battle Mechaniks
* A unit of Doom Reavers
* The Great Bears of Gallowswood
* Man-O-War Drakhun
* Man-O-War Kovnik
* A Koldun Lord
* Kovnik Grigorovich
* 2 Manhunters
* Yuri the Axe
* Fenris

All told, it's a sizable amount of stuff. Now, with that said, I'm laying out a couple goals.

My ultimate goal is to have all of this built, based, and painted. Initially, I figured I might be able to pull it off in a month's time, but I think that's unrealistic considering my previous track record... particularly considering how slowly I work.

With that said, I'm dedicating the next month of my work to nothing but Khador, and I'll see how far that gets me. I would like to reach a goal of 35 points of Khador done within this timeframe... I was considering doing a 'build everything first, then paint everything' approach, but some models, like the Iron Fang Pikemen, can't be built completely prior to painting; their shields interfere with painting, which means I have to do those separately and then attach them. Given how disorganized I am, leaving parts unattached and loose like that is a terrible idea for me. So, I'm going to go unit-by-unit, I think.

With that said, let me show you what I've managed to make a start on in the past handful of days since I got home from school.

First are my good buddies, the Iron Fangs. It seems to be commonplace now for Khador players to replace the bendy shafts of these weapons with brass rods, and now I am among those who have conquered this stupid, stupid right of passage.



I replaced their stock banner with something a bit more inspiring (a Space Marine banner) because the original was way, way too tiny.



I also took a crack at painting the first one, which should give you guys an idea of the scheme I'll be shooting for with this whole army - a greenish white that is somewhat inspired by Vostroyan tanks.



It's not my cleanest work, but it's a preliminary test more than anything, and I'm not going to lose my mind over some rough highlights this time around.

Got 11 more to paint, god help me. I do this stuff too slowly.

Anyway, on the building side of things, I was messing with the Drakhun a bit, too. Replaced the stock head with something less miniscule (a MaxMini.eu Steam Knight helmet), and brass-rodded his weapon.





As far as warjacks are concerned, I've been tinkering a bit with a Kodiak and Beast 09. The Kodiak is mostly done, barring some finishing detail work. Since it has the pathfinder rule, it can cover rough terrain without any difficulty, and I thought the model should reflect that. I went outside, grabbed an appropriate sized branch to make into a 'tree', and laid it out across the base. Then I hacked the right leg at the hip and the shin, and started repositioning elements so that it looked like it was stepping up and over the obstacles I'd laid out for it.





I need to cap the tops of the pistons I've put on the arms off with some greenstuff, and figure out what to adorn that big bare plate up top with now that I've finished filing off the 5th border legion iconography. Part of me thinks it'd be awesome to drape a bear pelt over the top of this thing, but I know that's not really something my sculpting chops are up to. We'll see.

Beast 09 is a fun diversion from the rest. I'm working hard on trying to match the model up to the art of him in the Khador rulebook.









I think it's getting there!

I wandered around outside for a bit, found some ideal twigs, broke out the jewelry chain, and started hammering away, and produced a base as similar to the art as I could fit within its footprint. It's not quite a picture-perfect match, but I think it adequately conjures up the image above. I was trying to be very careful about how I arranged the elements on the base, because I didn't want the jack-trap to stick so far off the base as to make it impossible to actually get in B2B with other models. I set the logs as far back on the base as I could bear to while still making sure that there'd be enough room for Beast to actually stand.

Beast's left leg (the leading one) was hacked at the knee and turned outwards to match the source image. I figure that has to be where he's jointed, anyway, since the ankle design allows for basically no rotation whatsoever (other than up-down) if you actually look at it. The trailing leg was hacked at the ankle and reposed a bit to be more compressed, as though the jack were leaning most of its weight on that point. I need to do some greenstuff repairs on some parts, but on the whole, I'm pretty pleased with how the pose is working so far. A 1:1 match with the art is probably unreasonable, given the source model's limitations, but I think I'll be able to pull off something close enough that there won't be any question at all.

Anyway, that's where I'm at now. I will endeavor to add to this daily, though my progress will no doubt be as slow and irregular as a Khador warjack.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, a sneak peek of something I'm working on for you guys to speculate on. :3

Nice work on the conversions. The dynamic pose of Kodiak fits well with the character of that jack.

Your scheme is really close project rainy day khador army, which was done by the brushthralls couple of years back.

Well, I'm a little miffed that nobody took a guess at what the object in the mystery photo might be for, but maybe this'll pique someone's interest.







Battery's already under the base, I just need to install a switch and then get rid of all the extra wires.

Now that base is totally awesome !

This whole blog looks great. You have a large task ahead of you sir but your skill is definitely up to the task.

Good luck, I will be watching closely

That's just...super sexy wrong! I love the spell effect disc.

I think Beast 09's pretty much done, as close as I can get him to the artwork.









It's not 1:1, but I don't think there's any question what I'm aiming for.

good work. Big Up

Wow... AMAZING work... to be honest I envy your modeling AND painting skills!

And here I was thinking it was a monacle.

Really nice work on the Beast! Can't wait to see it painted.

I saw the Butcher on the PP forums and didn't notice it was you. Can't wait to see how that one turns out finished.

I always love your blogs dude! These look awesome!

Well, my hopes of updating daily are obviously shot, but whatever. My job at the courthouse keeps me plenty busy, and the extra time I have ontop of that has been mostly spent with my fiance, but in my spare moments I've been working on painting up Beast 09 to a reasonable level. I'd say he's about 90% done at the moment.











He needs to be touched up a bit. There's a couple spots on his chassis that look like they have some color differences, which is a result of the washes I've been using. They leave a glossy finish wherever they touch, which is why in some of these pictures the colors might look just a little uneven. I'm going to be matte varnishing the whole thing when I'm done, which should even out a lot of those differences.

I need to clean up the base a bit and then add the snow. I've seen a lot of methods for going about the snow, but I think the easiest and best one I have available to me is actually simple superglue and sand. I have some white, very fine-grained sand, and I figure if I spread some cyanoacrylate around and bury the base in the stuff, I'll have some decent snow effects.

There's a couple spots on the warjack itself that are still being tweaked, but for the most part I'm happy with it. It's not amazing, and it won't win any awards, but it's good enough for the table.

Nice work on Beast.

Oh that's a sweet base and the beast is looking amazing, consider me subbed and then some!

Great to see you back in business, Ein. Keep up the good work!

Great!

Very nice stuff, that base is slowed lol, love it.

This stuff seems like it is built for dipping, ever consider it?

Oh btw, you don't mind me stealing the base idea for when I make mine do you?

Wow.....

Great Unclean One wrote:Oh btw, you don't mind me stealing the base idea for when I make mine do you?

Go for it.

MajorTom11 wrote:Very nice stuff, that base is slowed lol, love it.

This stuff seems like it is built for dipping, ever consider it?

I don't feel like I have a lot of control with dipping, particularly on large, smooth surfaces. I much prefer a couple controlled washes that I can steer around the model. Just preference, I guess.

Beast 09's all done.













Pretty happy with the outcome. I did some quick lines up on the base to indicate front arc and direct facing.

OMG when I saw that base I pooped my pants! Seriously though incredible work.

Annnnd here's my Warcaster's light-up base, version 2.0!

The previous version used LEDs on the rim of the base to light the glyphs, but it looked a bit unattractive due to how exposed the LEDs were.

I decided to take a different approach with it, a drilled a hole inside the middle of one of my etched acrylic discs, and put the LEDs on the inside, aiming out. With a bit of terrain covering them, they're completely invisible!







eButcher is my caster of choice, though I think pButcher's new model is way, way cooler... but eButcher has a narrower stance, which makes him fit better on this sort of base. I'm happy to see that a fair bit of light still reflects up onto the model, because that means I'll have a cool OSL effect without actually painting OSL!

The base still comes off, so I can paint it without going crazy. It's modelled overtop a GW 25mm round base. I can prime/paint/drybrush/wash/whatever I want to do to the base without putting the clear acrylic at any risk of getting paint on it. Once the base is completely done, I'll affix it to the clear acrylic disc permanently.

Here's a look at what's going on under the cover:



Yes, I used cyanoacrylate glue around the inside rim. Because you don't actually see the interior of the disc, the fogging doesn't matter, and elmer's glue was simply not getting a strong enough hold on things. Fortunately, all of the messy center of the disc is completely unseen once the terrain 'cap' goes on overtop.

Here's a look at the underside:



It's got a switch installed under there, and a battery holder which lets me swap out the batteries with relative ease (since 3 blue LEDs will burn through a coin cell after long enough).

Overall, I envision this to be a cool but temporary feature. I'll probably activate the lights during my warcaster's feat turns, and leave it off the rest of the time so I don't run the risk of burning out the LEDs or eating up batteries too quickly.

Great work, Ein! AFK to get a towel for the drool.

And I thought my fancy glowy green plastics were cool...

Excellent work on the Beast and the lightup base on the eButch is looking great. Cannot wait to see him painted.

Alright guys, I need some help.

I've been tinkering around with painting my Butcher of Khardov model, and I am not entirely happy with my results so far. The general concept is the same as my other Khador - I'm trying to stick to the general scheme and colors of Beast 09. I think my painting ability is failing me here, though...







The back is obviously not done - I'm only just roughing some of the copper areas in.

Things I'm not happy with... I'm not hugely happy with the 'glow' on the eyes, which I am having a damn tricky time with at the moment. I also don't know if I like the grey on the upper halves of the shoulder guards, or if I should go with the cream/off-white color instead. The trim line running along the middle of it, and along edges of some of the armor like the hands will be painted gold, for reference. I have no idea what color to paint the fur fringes on his coat, since all of my usuals (brown, grey) would blend right in with the rest of the model's details. The metal plates lining the coat? Not a big fan. It looked fine when I did a boltgun metal base color and highlighted the edges with Mithril Silver, but a subsequent Devlan Mud wash seems to have darkened the Boltgun substantially more than the Mithril, making the edges of the plates look really crazy different. The axe hasn't been touched at all, except for me just mucking about and throwing some thin copper color on it.

Give me some ideas here, guys. I'm finding this model exceedingly difficult to paint in a Beast-y scheme. I'm sure this is probably salvageable, but I'm really not in love with it right now.

You could paint the trim blue, like ice blue, it'd fit in with the LEDs and would pop out if you made it electric enough. ^^

Could you try a sort of polar bear off-white for the fur? Or possibly some form of mountain lion effect?

I'm liking the effect the LEDs are giving, though - removable OSL FTW

Eyes: The glow in the eyes looks great. Where, in my opinion, it's falling apart is that the glow isn't extended to the eye sockets. If it was a real light source such as your LEDs, then the area around the eyes would have a slight backlight from the eyes themselves. I would add a light drybrush of very thinned blue to the eye sockets to add some blue overlay, then do the same but even lighter with a brighter blue. This should give the glow effect from the eyes more pop and seem more like it would IRL.

Shoulder Guards: Possibly do the base surface in the same red, and on both the top and bottom pick out the spikes in another color such as the grey?

Coat: Maybe black, with dark blue up to a medium blue-gray highlight? This would give it a different color than the rest of the model, and help differentiate the cloak. I don't think this would blend in with the rest of the model, as so far it's white, red, brown, and gold/copper.

I love the metal plates and wouldn't change them. It has a really nice highlight effect, and gives the impression that when he moves, the edges of the plates rub together.

One other suggestion would be where the blue from the LED base hits the model on metal parts, to lighten these areas slightly with a drybrush of boltgun or boltgun/mithril mix. This could help enhance the lighting.

Of course, most of this would be pushing my own skills! So I wish you the best of luck.

Also, are we gonna see a Standard Bearer and Officer painted soon? =p