Varangur War Machines

2 x Varangur War Machines. These 50x50mm bases are the Varangur version of a big Dwarf Gun or a a Trebuchet etc. That is...if they could shoot lightning bolts instead! Three evil demon worshiping wizards or shamen combine wizardry powers to blast the opposition with a brutal spell all the while not having to push a heavy war engine around. They do have to drag around the big staffs though.

The bodies of these miniatures are Gripping Beast plastic Arab infantry with some arms from other boxes including some from FireForge Mongols, heads and staff toppers from Games Workshop. 

These are painted to match the overall tone of metal and black for the rest of the army. The Photos I have taken on my iphone don't quite capture the shading on them. Looking at them now I think I could see my way to doing some more minor painting on them. A little more khaki dust and perhaps making the metal skulls a brass colour. 

Cheers from Brendon

Painted Khador Widowmaker & Wizard

For a change from the Dystopian Wars games we have been playing recently I was asked if I would be up for a Warmachine game. Been a while since I played the game that I am still to figure out what I should do but it did motivate me to do some painting. The Widowmaker sniper with the over sized gun I started a while back but it needed some finishing touches. The Wizard fella I really only primed so had a bit of work to do. Keeping it simple though made sure it was completed in time for a game. As it turned out I didn't even use the Wizard bloke who is a handy attachment to the massive sword maniacs unit. He makes them even more effective in the game.

Hard to see in these photos but there is variation in the black used. In fact it's mostly a Panzer German Grey. This Black and Red scheme seems to be a bit of a theme in my miniatures. It's the main colour of my Kings of War Dwarf army and I am considering using it for a War of the Roses retinue for Lion Rampant.

Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)

Warmachine Khador Behemoth

This fella is a huge beast. In real terms it is a kit of lots of parts and almost all of them metal. It's got to be the heaviest miniature I have ever assembled. Building it is not without its challenges but also balancing it once built on it's base is another level of challenge. If you build the kit as it comes (like I did) then you will find that one leg is designed to not reach the base. Not sure why this choice was made as it is just so damned heavy.
I glued an unused leftover piece from a previously built Warjack under the raised foot and then built up a stack of left over metal bits from the old bits box. The weight on the base will hopefully help offset a little of the high centre of gravity. I also glued more metal left overs under the base for that purpose. Painting the scrap heap in a rusty way was also a gamble if my method would work. I think it is OK. What do you think?

In retrospect I probably could have placed him more forward on his base to improve his balance. He won't be able to be placed going up a hill slope for very long but when he falls he will more likely to damage the scenery than himself. When it comes to the game he costs a massive 13 points. Hopefully he is worth all of them and more.

Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)

Warmachine Khador Berserker

I started this big metal Warjack kit a while back and managed to get him completed over the weekend. I tore a muscle running up a slope with the dogs so had no choice but to spend more time off my my feet. It's on the mend now but it's a reminder of the dangers of exercising. I can tell you tell it really hurts so I don't recommend trying it.

The background for this fella goes on about how this design is a very old one and very unstable. In game terms if you assign him any focus tokens and he uses them there is a chance he can explode. Might be a good idea if I keep him away from my Warcaster I think. Unlike previous Warjacks I painted I introduced some rust here and there but didn't go overboard. Perhaps I should add more.

It's been a long time since I played Warmachine now. Recently we have been playing Dystopian Wars V2. Being so new there is lots for us to learn about the game and the units. 

Cheers for now from Brendon

Doom Reaver maniacs for Warmachine Khador

After a few intro games of Warmachine with my Khador force it is obvious that some type of infantry will be helpful so I acquired a box of metal Doom Reavers miniatures. Back story is that they are basically an evil magic sword that is chained to some criminal stooge. They get the 'Reach' rule which is they can attack enemies within 2 inches. They can also be even more buffed by the inclusion of an escort Wizard who also helps prevent them from continuing to punch on if they remove an enemy (blood crazed berserkers).
It took me a while to paint these maniacs and these are not the best of photos. On the metal bits I used washes then went back and highlighted them. The faces in the swords is brass, brown wash then highlighted. That feature is probably a good opportunity for painters who like to make the inner glow effect.

Just walk away and I promise you will live.

You can't defeat The Humongous!

With the holes in those face masks and the bulging muscles on display they remind me of someone in a classic Australian movie. Some sort of happy family road trip film set in the outback perhaps?

 















Cheers from Brendon

Warmachine gaming Mangled Metal

My first games in the Warmachine system have been fun. Here are some of my observations and thoughts.

It's an interesting game it is skirmish gaming as opposed to big unit formation gaming. The heroic scale and styling suits this style of game. It can be a game of the big power move as well. Provided you get the timing right it can tip the game into a win. My Warcaster has a FEAT he can use once per game and if I am thinking about using it then I should probably use it. It's going to take me a while to get the hang of this game and I may never be as good at it as many other players but while I enjoy it I will keep returning.
If you are familiar with SAGA then this game has something of a familiar feel to it with all the synergies you create by casting certain boost spells on your battlegroup.

As my club has a few players of this game I put a shout out for a Multi Player game in the Rule book. They took the bait. 15 Points of Mangled Metal. Warcasters and Warjacks only which is perfect for me as I have no units yet.
Group games are great for learning and having a general talk about the rules. I can observe what other players are doing and hopefully learn something.
It was a great day of gaming and most of us went on to play 2 games. Very much a Gladiator type game.

The Table

My small force. Harkevich the Warcaster with his Whackamole Mace and Black Ivan and Torch.

Cygnar force

Mercenary players force

Quickly made spell effect reminder tokens. Another player with unpainted miniatures got sandwiched and was out!

Black Ivan got shot to pieces then finally attacked by the Cygnar warcaster

Kaboom! Black Ivan is down!

Getting a giant Morning Star to the face area. By now it was down to 3 players.

face off

Kablammo! Cygnar Warcaster gets wasted which means all his Warjacks turn off!

This means I am in 2nd place. Holy Cow! (Blank bases are wreck markers).

The winning Warcaster and his machines of destruction.

Lots of fun. 

Cheers for now from Brendon (The Kiwi)

Warmachine painting

I have slowly increased my Khador collective. Below we have two Warjacks.
Dozer blade dude is a 'Devastator' and the one with the saw blade is 'Torch'. Turns out Torch is a character Warjack so can't be temporarily taken control of through magic by an enemy Warcaster. That's good
I did a bit of cutting nicks and damage into them prior to painting.
The naked metal is a lot less shiny in real life than what the images show.
A useful thing that the rules mention is clearly showing the front side vs the backside by marking the base so I came up a coloured triangle idea.

Next is a 'Solo' from the Mercenary options. Unlike the plastic toys above he is pieces of Heavy Metal. The Mercenary faction seems to have a colour scheme of their own but I decided he would get on board with his paymasters and use red. It's the biggest Ogre I have ever painted. I was unsure about what should be leather vs armour but it doesn't really matter in the end.

In the game anything with a long weapon like his gets 'Reach'. 2 inch melee attack range...that's good. This fella also has a type of body guard skill that means he can be the movie hero who jumps on a grenade to save his employer.

Now that's some dedication to the job!

Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)

Dystopian sea battle

I have not completed much painting at all recently. Been a little busy on the home front. The Dragon left me and the kid to go and help out her elderly Dad 3,000km away after he had the very same operation that I had earlier in the year. All has gone well and he is on the mend and The Dragon will return to her natural habitat soon. It was an unusual Easter without her around. Hope yours was a good one.
I have managed to get some actual game time in recently though. I tried my very first game of Warmachine at 25 points. No pictures sorry. My opponent was very patient and answered all my questions and created the opportunity for me to destroy his warcaster which ends the game. A few days later the rule book turned up for me at Comics NT and I have been flicking through it every now and then since picking it up. I enjoyed the game and it had a nice brawling, throw down confrontational feel about it. The resource management, distribution and timing of the use of the Warcasters focus tokens is interesting and fun. Each figure/unit is activated and it moves, shoots, charges, cast spells and fights before you move to the next figure. Took a little to get used to as most other games I have played recently each action is in it's own phase. I am looking forward to my next game and the rule book has a couple of great looking multi-player scenarios. Hopefully I can convince a group of players that we need to try them out as group games are a great way to exchange information despite them often being slower than one versus one.
On the subject of group games. A player put a request out for opponents for a large Dystopian ocean based game. 4 x 1200 point Naval forces went head to head on a 6x4 table and as I had acquired the new Objectives set we included that in our game. Objectives may be captured by ending movement near them and you draw a card from an Objectives card deck. Laughter and shock broke out as captured objectives unfortunately started blazing fires on ships. With such a large game and the system being what it is with each player activating a squadron at a time (which can sometimes just be a single ship, aircraft, skimmer or submersible) we actually did not get through that many turns. But I think we all enjoyed the game all the same and it made me look forward to the new version 2 rules soon to be released. Hopefully some things get streamlined. I am looking forward to hopefully acquiring some new Tiny Flyer movement trays when they are released. I saw some here. It will help with managing the toys on the table. Some great looking new toys in that link.
An idea I need to put into use is using a coloured dice code when allocating shooting. eg. Black dice = regular ordnance, Red dice = Rockets. This will make it an easy visual reminder of who is hopefully getting hit and by what. A small token to place near squadrons that have been activated in a turn as well will come in handy. I used dice which worked fine in our game but small things like this will improve my game.
For now I probably won't play this game again until Version 2 is released.

Yellow is a Sandbank. White tokens are objectives.

Magenta coloured dice indicate squadrons that have been activated.
My Robot squid tries to nom nom nom a ship. Yummy!

In the distance blue hulled French skimming ships. French was my ally in this game. We faced 2 x Antarctic fleets.

 Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)    

Komander Harkevich The Iron Wolf

This bearded, spell casting, biker booted, magic mace wielding figure is a Warcaster for my new Khador Faction War Machine force. Every force must have a war caster and this will be the one I start with.
He is a metal figure that came in two parts. Only his weapon arm had to be glued under his shoulder armour.
A lot of detail on this guy and a lot of choices to be made on what is going to be black (panzer grey really) or red. I wanted some brown leather colored gear on him as well. I haven't painted red armour since the very early 90s when I did a Krell Undead GW figure (anyone remember him?).
This figure took me way longer than many others I have done recently. A lot of detail to pick out on him. But it is a very good sculpt and a great cast with minimal clean up so worth taking your time with I reckon. I purchased him when I was lying in bed still very sore from a Hernia operation. I couldn't paint or do much really so I did a little retail therapy on-line. As I improved I slowly got him over the line to completion.

I did the same treatment with my humble attempt at a glow inside the Mace as I did on Black Ivan's eyes.
This guy has an affinity with Black Ivan so being near each other Black Ivan gets boosted range attacks.
That can't be a bad thing can it?
I don't want a big War Machine collection. But with this quality they are very collectible.

Cheers from Brendon

Black Ivan warjack

Started this before my surgery but now I am on the mend I got him completed and sent to the painting challenge. I am a tad behind as far as re-posting my Paint Challenge submissions but I will try and catch up.
So here is a Warmachine Heavy Warjack Character. He has an affinity with a Warcaster by the name of Harkevich. I recently completed him but can't post him here yet. That means I am very close to having enough painted Warmachine to play my first game.

I kept his pose very casual. For ease of transport and storage.
A very enjoyable model to paint.

Cheers

War Machine Khador War Jacks

As I have mentioned previously the War Machine game is seeing some interest at my local club. So I thought I might just give it a go at some stage in the future but not before I have painted some toys for a force. I found a plastic battlebox for a good deal on ebay. An unopened box as well. The Khador force appeals to me the most visually and also has a reputation for good Warjacks (these giant steam and magic powered battle robots). I will try and be disciplined enough to stick with one faction only. That shouldn't be a problem as I just don't want to to part with more money than 1 faction will cost. A lot of options in building a force as the game has that collectible aspect about it even though it is a skirmished based game.
Turns out when you open the box it is not one of those on the sprue plastic sets but the bagged pieces type. A lot of parts. It took a while to clean up not that the flash was bad but, like I said a lot of parts. I used some time in lunch breaks until it was ready for a black spray. I decided on these two that a base paint before assembly would probably make getting to some areas a lot easier for me. I was considering entering these in the Vehicle bonus round but I wasn't going to get them complete before the deadline. I didn't work on these as one continuous project. As I tend to do I actually completed a stage then would do something else for a while on other figures. When I started I did not have a picture in my head of how I wanted them to look but I did want to show more metal than the example ones on the cover of the box. I had no problems sticking with Red as the traditional faction color for Khador but did not want as much of it on display as the examples either. I used the colors I have applied to my Mantic Dwarf army. Actually the Dwarf army has an option for a 'Steel Behemoth' so perhaps I could use these for that. I can imagine some great conversions with the area above the head replaced with a dwarf pilot and perhaps replace the head with a flame cannon as well.
I wanted a worn look on these so I started painting paint chips but then went to the method of some ripped blister foam dipped in metal paint. A much better result than painting it on. I am pleased with the result. Happy enough that I have ordered some more variants. Anyway enough jibber jabber from me.

 Cheers from Brendon