My First Model: Journeyman Warcaster (alt)

My experience with wargaming is Tau-centric, and the Tau - contrary to most of the armies in 40K - have very few special characters, meaning that I could envision my commander as an alien version of me. On the other hand, Warmachine is very character-centric, and I was worried that there wouldn't be a way to "personalize" my army. In response, I started off with the variant JW because I envisioned her as my avatar on the battlefield. And now she's done - my first completed Warmachine model!


I apologize for the darkness - I didn't have enough lamps to light the picture very well. The model is brighter in person than in these pictures. I'm particularly proud of the Cygnar crest (Cygnus Yellow over black looked green, so I put down a coat of Rucksack Brown first), and the face/lips. I never thought I could pull off a face that well!

And now for something completely different...

Before my fascination with Cygnar, I was enthralled by 40K's Tau Empire. Though not painted - or even completely assembled - I have at least an 1000 point Hunter Cadre, including a Forge World Great Knarloc and a pair of Remora Drones. In fact, I'm a moderator over on Advanced Tau Tactica, pretty much the paramount source for Tau tactics and strategies on intarweb.

Another moderator, SpartanTau, and I were promoted from the ranks at the same time. We've always had a "brothers in arms" approach toward the forums, especially because we're both college students. As this school year started to come to a close, ST suggested we do a Crisis Suit swap, in which our battlefield avatars entered an officer exchange program and temporarily joined the other moderator's cadre, à la TNG's "A Matter of Honor."

He immediately set about making a heavily converted, up-armored Crisis Suit, which is going to look freakin' awesome. I've always been a little more conservative in my model building, but I wanted to do conversion that was worthy of such an exchange. So, behold Shas'vre Lyi'ot:

The plan is to make several magnetized heads, allowing ST to switch out the Space Marine helmet for an army-specific trophy - all the better to taunt opponents with!

All thing said, the conversion was rather simple. I still need to greenstuff the left hand, to obscure the magnets, but that shouldn't be a problem. I had to cut apart both the the left arm and left leg, right at the knee/elbow joint. Tamiya Extra Thin Cement made the conversion possible because it melted the plastic, nicely glueing the parts together and obscuring any terrible plastic gashes I had created. And yep, that's a real Texan rock beneath his foot!

Links of Interest

I've recently come across a few really cool Warmachine resources/sites I thought I'd share.

1) Front Arc Template!

I'm painting front arc markers on one of my models, and my intarweb searches kept turning up references to the work of one Dan "YoungWolf7" Smith. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the PDFs on the Privateer Press forums, and any links that directed to his work didn't work; it seems "YoungWolf7's Warmachine Lair" is no longer a website. :(

But! I finally found a thread on DakkaDakka that did provide a working link to YW7's PDFs - the front arc template in question is available here. Enjoy!

EDIT: After a little looking into it, I found YW7's new blog. He's no longer involved with the tokens he made for Warmachine, but they are all being hosted over at GuruDojo.

2) Awesome Warmachine Comics/Illustrations!

Ahknas of "Paint It Blue" fame alerted me to a thread full of shear awesomeness over in the PP Fan Art forum. A poster by the name of Sponson has started making incredibly funny Warmachine comics and pics - check it out!

3) MKII Color Cards!

Alright, I'm totally stealing this from Ahknas, too - seriously, go check out his blog, it's great! A poster by the name of Sybermancer has started to created color versions of the Cygnar's MKII cards - including illustrations! Check out his website here.

Later, I'll be posting pictures of my first ever totally completed Warmachine model, as well as a WIP Tau Crisis Suit that has been especially converted for a trade!

She Got Me Into This Mess

If I were to give the one reason I eventually chose Cygnar over Khador, it would be Katherine Laddermore. Or, more specifically - Katherine Laddermore, dismounted. But I didn't immediately buy the model - I was afraid (dare I say intimidated?) and so I admired from a distance. I told myself I was waiting for my hobby skills to improve.

But yesterday was my birthday, so I said screw waiting, and I went ahead and bought Laddermore. She's (It's?) even cooler than I thought she'd be, but I did encounter a few problems. Right off the bat, her mounted lance fell apart in my hands - I picked it up, and it broke right behind the modeled fist. urk And then I noticed that the pieces weren't dry fighting all that well - the two hemispheres of the horse body had large gaps between them. double urk

But I didn't despair, and I think both problems are surmountable. In the first case, I was able to pin the two lance pieces back together - since it broke right behind Laddermore's fist, I was able to drill the fist out and put a small pin in. Unfortunately, my drill was just a little too large, and so I ended up chipping away some of the lance's side. urk But the whole thing is hidden from the viewer, and I think I'll model the lance flush against the horse's body, making it less exposed and (perhaps) offering more places to glue the joint.

In the second case - poor fitting - I was pleasantly surprised. As I continued to play with the model, I realized Privateer Press and created the model such that the worst joints were either covered or craftily obscured. The joint line running down the horse's chest? Covered by a piece of armor. The joint behind the saddle? Hard to see, thanks to Laddermore's impressive cloak. I think that, with just a little bit of green stuff, I'll be able to make the model hold up to inspection.

But, my fearless readers: have any of you assembled Katherine Laddermore? When assembling and painting the model, any tips or tricks I should know?

Whoa, whoa

The times, they are a'changin'. I've only had a the briefest of opportunities to look at the Field Test rules, but the point changes look exciting and interesting; my first impression is that they've done away with the seemingly-arbitrary point costs.

If you can't get into the main site/haven't gotten your password yet, a kind soul uploaded the rules here.