Live to CRUSH

What a long strange trip its been.

After countless (implied 22) hours of painting I finished the monstrosity.

Behold!

DOne!!! DONE!!! done1!!!11 DoNEE!!!! I can finally stop sitting in this chair!! Gaaah my back!

Now, I’m not the worlds best painter. I know that. But I’ve been doing this for 16 years and, like Cohen the Barbarian, I have gained a certain level of cunning through experience. I know some tricks and I know how to make stuff look good in the mediocre style that I paint in. So while there are parts of this model that I could have spent more time on and really done things right in order to grow as a painter and all that crap, I didn’t. I got the job done in my own way and to be frank, I think it looks pretty….badass.

Thanks for everyone that offered me tips, ideas, critiques, and encouragement. While I couldn’t heed everyone’s advice, the general enthusiasm and clamour really pushed me to get this done in a timely fashion for you, the readers. A hearty thanks and a wrist clasping shake to you all!

Whats next? Pffft No idea. I should be moving next week and if I manage to find anytime to devote to gaming, I’ll be surprised. I’ll also post it here. Cheers

Any Seaforge army is not complete without a couple of gunners and blasters. Here they are in all their glory!

Their coloring is much more green than the gun corps, but it still works. Too bad the armypainter matte finish made them all wrinkly, which is very noticeable on the blaster.

Lots of people complain about the Wraith witch Deneghra model sucking and I completely agree. Its really not a nice model. Her face is way chubbier than her body which makes no sense post-mortum. Those curving horns alongside her face are ridiculous. Her half cape covering only her bum doesn’t help her out.

Instead of complaining too loudly about it, I went against the grain and converted her. This isn’t a major conversion; I wanted to use the original model and just improve her.

My vision: I imagine the wraith witch floating around when she goes incorporeal, drifting along on unseen spectral currents. That’s how I wanted my Deneghra to look: like a floating death fairy! I cut her legs with many passes of a new razorblade until I separated the calves. Then I bent one back and posed her like she is landing on a stone ruin. Whenever you fly, your arms need to be outstretched (duh), so I modified those. Also the draping butt cape had to go. Why this was even included is beyond me. The model has a sculpted bootie with fishnet stockings and a thong on, yet they want you to cover it with a lame ass cape. Not on my watch!!! If I’m looking at the backs of my models all game, I’d like to see something that is visually stimulating!

Her fat face was mitigated with a file. I slowly worked her cheekbones, jowls, chin, and the face covering parts of the helmet until these were less chubby and more feminine.

Her weapon Eclipse was bent like a banana (you know how I feel about banana shapes!) so I replaced the haft with a steel rod. This was a real pain in the banana because her hand is barely larger than the haft. I ended up breaking her hand and remaking it with greenstuff, glue, and curses.

Here she is!

She's coming on on a wing and a prayer!!!

Not the best angles, I admit. She does look sort of fae, which is cool to me. I’ll get her painted up soon to truly show her off…after the deathjack of course. That should be done soon. This is filler material anyway. No offense to D. She is my woman. And she is my wraith. I love it when she goes incorporeal on me.

Bring on the Details! That’s where the devil resides…..

Devils? Where?!? In order to defeat these, we need a motha flippin montage!

Then I exercised my classy greenstuff skillz and voila!

A few Summary notes:

The skulls of hate horns are made from copper wire.

As we all know (or should know) the Deathjack gets its power from the skulls of hate. I read a book once about a girl that kills a dragon and then her followers bring the skull home. The skull was possessed with the evil energies of the dragon and constantly assailed the minds of the inhabitants. I like this idea. Seeing as how dragons are so bad ass in the warmachine world, It seems fitting that the DJ has a couple of maligned dragon skulls giving it direction. The green stuff tendrils from the base of the skulls are meant to be viney extensions of evil rooting onto the warjack, affixing the skulls onto the host.

The rest of the bitz are from that tyranid kit I bought for the necro claws.

Copious amounts of jewelry chain and glue were used to affix those chains.

Careful greenstuffing on the face and some slits made the same grill piece as the standard DJ.

Yes, thems some balls. I’m taking “play like you’ve got a pair” to the next literal level.

Thats it! The next time you see this model it should be painted!! My aim is to have finished painted pics up by the 14th of June. I know, its two weeks, not my usual one. In my defense, its a lot of model for one man to paint. Sounds dirty.

Farewell!

Once more unto the breach! This post is a little late today. Its a long one though and that’s my excuse.

This time we taking this thing from giant hulk with deathjack pieces on it to Pure Deathjack! This weapon will be the ultimate power in the universe. I can’t wait to test it.

Personally speaking, the necro claws on the original DJ model are a little to large for the model. It’s cool though. The pow of the hands matched their physical size. They go hand in hand. HAHAHAHAHA Starting this post of right, again!

The DJ hands and the jugg hands are almost sized perfectly to match. It’s just a matter of fixing the forearm to make them match.

The first order of business is to remove the khador look of the forearm. This can be done by sawing most of it off. I used a real hacksaw for this. Otherwise, this is a good waste of jewelers saw blades.

The one on the left has been cut.

Again, the one on the left has been cut.

As you can see, there is quite a bit of metal to remove. My saw ate a 16th as well. File these areas down until they are smooth. Dont worry about the bolt at the end of the forearm. It’s going to be mostly covered up anyway. On the deathjack claw, file the backside of the forearm plates until smooth as well. Glue the two pieces of arm together. Be mindful of the elbow joint location and make sure the hands are on the right arm.

As you can see, there is a little gap on the inside of the hand, after the palm. I really cant live with that being there. I took a piece of plastic styrene that I had lying around and filed it down until it fit the seam. Anything will work as this whole area is going to be covered later. The point is to get a smoother transition between jugg and dj.

I had two spikes from some warhammer set that seemed to be begging usage. A quick file and glue landed the two spikes on the ends of the deathjack arms

These spikes, being plastic and all, ended up getting really bent out of shape during the arm construction. My advice to you is to hold off gluing these until the end. I had to redraw the points toward the end because they were looking more like bananas instead of spikes. I hate banana shapes on models.

Now, get you wallet ready. We need more spikes and plates. The cryx look of warjacks is sort of a metallic armour plating that mimics the legions dragonspawn. The dragonspawn always looked like warhammer 40K tyranids to me. So a shopping trip on ebay to one of my favourite sellers Hoard o Bits landed me a spikey carnifex pack. Take the two plates that look like the one on the left in the pic below.

and file both down until they look like the one on the right. These are going on the forearms. Test fit them here, as necessary.

Glue the spiked plates into place once you get them to fit aesthetically under the DJ arm plate. While we are gluing, glue both the shoulder sockets into the shoulder pad. Let these dry nice and good before continuing.

.

Once the shoulder is all dry, file the khador square spikes to be round bolts. Only in khador are the spikes square. See, khador is full of boring. Totally unimaginative. If you have faith in me to lead this tutorial, remove the middle spike entirely to make room for the skull of hate. Yes, its going to be BIG!

I was test fitting as well as showcasing my filing skills

Before gluing the arms and shoulders together, ream out the elbow socket on the forearm with a large drill bit. We are doing this because it allows the elbow ball to sit more snugly in the cup, meaning we don’t have to pin. I really don’t like pinning on ball joints because the ball joint is supposed to be rock solid. Once, you have a good fit, do some test posing of the shoulder and arm to the chassis to get a good angle. Once you feel comfortable with the pose, yeah, you guessed it, glue it in place.

Oh and you can see in the pic I glued on the knuckle spikes. I wouldn’t recommend that until after gluing the arms on because they fall off to no end and drive you generally insane trying to hold them in place, adding more glue, waiting, cursing, etc.. The sequence of operations for stress free building is critical. Unfortunately in my haste, I was screwing it all up.

Have no fear though. I will persevere. Fill the base with modeling putty until its flush. This is adding some weight and a smooth surface for gluing.

Next, glue a piece of something to the base that is wide enough to support both of the deathjack’s feet. In my case, I used a piece of warhammer 40K terrain that I scored at a games day a few years back. Once this is glued down and the putty is dry, two brass pins were drilled from below. This is to ensure the plastic isn’t going anywhere.

Remember those holes we had in the deathjacks feet? Well, its time to add some paper clip pins to those holes and fasten him to the base. I don’t have a pic showing this step, but its pretty straightforward and I think everyone can get by without it.

I knew it was going to be a real pain to access the chest area for the ribcage once the arms are in place. So I got to makign teh soul drive. I had a great idea with a not-so-random bit I had lying around. I sawed teh mouth off of a warhammer fantasy giant and glued it to the DJ’s chest.

Ouch!

Next, to fit the ribs, remove the bottom rib and glue them on. Again, I thought I would be able to see the mouth through the ribs, but my xray vision isn’t what it used to be.

Lastly, we have the head. I did a few modifications which look like crap now, but will be the “cats ass” later. I opted to use the juggernauts head because it is larger and fits the overall size of the model better than the DJ head. The jugg head needs some tweaks, but its the right head to get ahead. (punny)

First, I used my needle nose snips to make channels out of the mouth guard grill on the juggernauts head. Then file these grooves down and use a “V” shaped file to enhance and deepen the grooves without ruining the model. Don’t worry. Greenstuff will fix any mistakes later on. The lone hole on the end is going to be filled with GS later.

Next, File off the horn and accompanying mounting on the juggernaut horn. Pin the big horn of the carnifex bitz pack to the head. Lastly, add long pin into the back of the head, then drill a hole in the chassis.

Now, glue the whole thing together! Arms, head, base, chest, and anything else that we made here that I didn’t mention that isnt stuck to the model. Remember to play with the pose and see what angle you like and what fits the legs.

What does it all look like at this point for those of you not playing Cryx (blasphemers!!!) and building along with me? Allow me to show you the 75% death:

I love this model!! We are getting really close to the endgame. Next week, we will conclude construction with all the details that are missing. Lots of cool stuff is in the works.

Stay tuned!!

A clubmate of mine recently took some nice pictures of my Reikland warband on terrain.
Check them out.

Built out of parts from various empire plastic kits, of course with some greenstuff interventions. They are also a themed warband, unusual like just about everything I make. They’re all old, grey-haired, nutty imperial veterans who have gone bored in retirement, so they decided to have adventures again. I had an evil plan to sculpt almost entirely the models for youngbloods. They would, ironically, be the oldest and craziest members of the warband- an angry violent granny, and a berserking old long-bearded guy who charges to battle naked. Unfortunately, before I got to do that I had found that I disliked the game.

I love doing a scheduled weekly post like this. It gives me a deadline and a sense of structured deliverance. I’ll have to keep this method in mind for the future.

Last week, we got the legs and feet assembled. This week, were putting together the bulk of the hulk and gluing the legs to the pegs. Oh man a double rhyme! This post is chock full o’ win!

A little clarification: I use two size pins and pin vises throughout this article. The big pin vise or drill as I refer to it is 1/16″ diameter. When I use this drill, my pins are 1/16″ brass rod. The small pin vise or tiny drill is the diameter of a #1 paperclip. I use #1 paperclips for those pins. I’ll try to be clear as to which I am using.

First, file off the engine compartment hatch of the top of the chassis. Then, grab your glue and an elastic band to glue the chassis together.

While the chassis is drying, drill two 1/16″ holes in the deathjack carapace as shown. On each side, the two middle holes are the those I drilled. The others were existing mounting holes for the standard deathjack cowl. For consistency’s sake, stick your drill bit in the existing holes for a turn to make them all match. Once the chassis is dry, glue the carapace to the juggernaut chassis.

Nice and blurry pic...like Momma used to take.

Find a common nut and glue that to the head mounting point to create a “neck” for the DJ head. Otherwise the head sits too deeply and the horns rub against the carapace and it looks like crap.

Let the whole assembly really dry before continuing. This will save yourself massive amounts of aggravation. The last thing you want is to have to make a threshold check while building a model due to running yourself too hot. It’s not healthy.

Take a deep breath. Exhale. Repeat. I’m going for a smoke.

For those that cant wait, grab the big 1/16th drill bit and the juggernaut hip piece. Drill a hole straight through the leg mounting sockets. Really work that wrist.

Drilling big holes in glued models, is just asking them to break.

Next, glue the waist/hip piece to the chassis. I fiddled around with this a while trying to get the legs and the angle of the body right. Eventually, I settled on something that resembles the normal DJ pose. If people mistook this jack for the standard from a short distance, I’d be flattered.

Yes, it appears in my previous pic, I did not heed my own instruction. Always remember: drill first, glue second.

After, drill holes in the leg’s hip ball joints at the angle you settled with. Glue brass pins in the holes. Let it dry. Glue the legs to the body. Let it dry more. Have a sandwich (ham and cheese on wheat with lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo, bacon)

Getting closer....

Moving on, file off the tabs on the bottom of the 4 deathjack exhaust pipes. Using the small drill, insert a paperclip pin to the bottom of each pipe. Make sure the legs are dry first……Work out the best location on the chassis for the exhaust pipe and drill some pin holes and glue those exhaust pipes.

Lastly, set the feet down at legs width apart and glue the legs to the ankles.

O! A foot!

When that glue dries, drill a small hole into the ball of the ankle through the hole you already made in the foot. This is going to be used to pin the model to the base, when we actually get to the base.

Now your monster should look like this:

Its alive!!!! Almost.

That’s it for this installment. Next week, we’re going to get the necro claws working and get a head. Most definitely perhaps possibly without a doubt the base as well. Only time away from my wife will tell…

Farewell!

Hello eveyone!! I just want to say thanks for the support on the privatter forums. It took the excitement level of this project to the next level (5-castle). Now that everyone has had a week to go buy extreme juggernauts and deathjack kits, its time to get building. First item of construction is getting the feet and legs together. This is a rather simple conversion. I’ll walk through it and point out anything useful. Make sure your jewelers saw blade is sharp and you have about 5 spare blades handy!

First, saw the knee pad off the leg. You see in Khador, the warjacks are always getting on their knees. It’s part of their training. Irusk insists. Cryx doesn’t get on their knees. Hence, no need for knee pads.

Next drill a hole in the lower part of the thigh of the leg.

Then drill a hole in the mounting tab on the bane knight shield and glue a small brass pin in the shield hole. For these holes, use a 1/16th inch diameter bit and brass rod. It works out well in this case as the hole on the shield is nearly the same size, so you don’t have to drill too deeply.

The final step is to glue the shield to the leg via the pin. It gets pretty snug to the leg due to the curvature of the pieces. No putty or gap filling is required for this step.

Repeat this for both legs. Next, it is time to work on the feet. Take the juggernaut foot and saw the foot like pictured:

Next, drill with a small bit (approximately the diameter of a paperclip) and pin the deathjack foot to the juggernaut foot.

Once the glue sets, fill the gap between the feet using a little modeling putty. In my case, I used apoxiesculpt because it was near by. Lastly, I drilled a hole in the center of the foot’s cup for future mounting. The apoxiesculpt got into my hole (gawd!) because I did these steps backwards. Once its dry, I’ll drill it out. I teach these steps after learning them the hard way.

Work Complete!

As a side note, before the final incarnation of the foot, I tried shoring off half the juggernauts toes. The foot ended up looking like this:

Some feet are too big!

That’s where we are leavin off until next Monday. Next week, were going to town on the chassis and mounting the legs like a puppy looking for a beggin strip. Until then, stay off your knees!

This week WombatJuggernaut and I have been discussing a lot of troll lists and possible uses for units. Now, I’m not a super savvy player, but I can hold my own in a game.

The topic was fennblades and their movement shenanigans with vengeance. The rule allows an extra 3inch movement and attack during the maintenance phase when a member of the unit dies. It is a reactive ability that only triggers after suffering casualties/being charged/shot, etc.

Lets go over some hijinks we can pull off with it. In this case, I’m using fennblades because they are a pretty solid unit to have. Medium bases, reach, tough. Everything you want, except the tough. March the fenns right up the middle of the field. Anyone willing to charge them knows that they are going to probably lose their unit in the following turn. You have to kill them all to avoid the vengeance. Vengeance would be his, as the saying goes. If the enemy does not kill them all, its time to mop up. Conversely, you could mop some and more importantly set up to go someplace else. See the picture below where the F’s are fennblades and the E’s are enemys.

In this example, having 4 fenns die to the charging unit means that your 6 remaining get to do vengeance attacks in the maintenance phase. Then during the fenns activation, they can move the remaining distance and kill the rest. This leave 6 fenns to fight on!

If the enemy has a juicy target nearby, like their warcaster, it is a simple matter of vengeance moving toward the ‘caster, then activating and charging said ‘caster! Just like that: Game over.

Its a relatively simple ability to use and its quite useful. If the unit gets shot, if it gets one minor casualty, then the unit gets to advance. You just have to remember to advance. That’s the hard part. Write yourself a note. Get a pet rock. Tie a string around your finger and the other end around a fennblade. That’s not a great idea, but do something to remember!

The best way to counter vengeance is abstinence. That’s right! Avoid the unit outright. Keep your models away from them. That rarely works though. If you have a unit with vengeance you want it beating faces! The next best counter is to kill everyone that has vengeance in one turn. Do not half-ass it. Kill them all!

It is actually more dangerous to kill most of the unit than kill a few. Some skeptics might be doubting, but here is why: You kill all but 2 members of the unit. That means there’s only 2 left. 2 models can slip around the battlefield pretty easily, and they have a 3 inch head start during the maintenance phase. 2 models running around like idiots can get in the way of all sorts of charge lanes and really gum up your life for a turn. The desperate man is the most dangerous, and two trolls with hookswords and all their dead friends are more likely to do something insane like stand in the way of a marauding Avatar, thus isolating the local Redeemer from having backup should a scrap go down. Trust me, it works. As soon as my bonejacks lose their arcnodes, its’ off to block charge lanes and cause as many movement problems for my opponent as possible.

So what happens if a unit with vengeance squares off against another unit with vengeance. Nothing! Not until first blood is split. Someone, say Lord Rockbottom, fires a gun and all hell breaks loose! Having reach will help determine the victor of the bout, but its no guarantee. Its all up to the dice gods from here my friends.

Imagine if a guy slammed a fennblade from one unit into a fennblade from another unit! Oh the movement shenanigans that ensue would be something to wet the loins of Dhunia herself!

Let me take you on a fockin’ imaginary mind ride….
Imagine if a fennblade UA came out with a troll wizard that could cast influence? WOWO!!! Cast it on an enemy to attack your unit and now your unit is going insane on that guy and he didn’t even willingly do anything!

Picture this: A forge guard guy is standing there playing with his hammer when all the sudden, some warlock bastard casts influence on him and he hits one of his squad mates, but doesn’t kill him, sending him careening into a fennblade that dies to collateral damage? OH DANNG!! Looks like its time to exact some vengeance on these hammer bitches! They wont even know what hit them!

That actually isn’t as awesome as I make it out to be due to vengeance only happening in your maintenance phase and the fennblade has to die during your opponents turn. Sorry, no vengeance at all really. But still, it’s a sweet image.

Let’s do a role reversal, imagine during your turn you think your a smart-ass-bad-mo-fo and you use Wrong Eye to cast influence on a fennblade. Get read for the stink eye, croc-lover!

The moral of the story is vengeance is pretty good. It definitely has a multitude of uses, all of which involve bashing faces, some of which involve Dhunia getting moist. So Go forth, ADVANCE BOLDLY. Defeat your foes. Destroy their lands. Hear the lamentations of the troll women!!!