Lord Carver WIP

Well it looks like this month's painting challenge that I set for myself is off to a bad start, on hold for now and likely to be pushed back to later this year. Sorry about that. I'm waiting to hear from my LGS about whether or not the rest of the Cygnar guys that I ordered from them are going to arrive anytime soon. Otherwise the only progress I've made so far was in successfully tracking down my missing box of Stormblades. So yeah, not good really.

Sure I could have started this past week on the Cygnar stuff that I do have, but instead I decided to hold off until the rest of the miniatures arrive. I'd rather wait and try this again in a few months, than start now but not be able to finish because half the models are on back-order. I'm actually kind of curious to see if I could do this challenge, so I'm willing to wait until I am better prepared before trying this again. Oh well… it's lame, I know. Feel free to call shenanigans on this. I only hope that regular diceRolla readers have by now become conditioned to such disappointment. ;)

So in the meantime over the last couple of days I've been painting this charming Farrow from the Thornfall Alliance for Hordes. In case you're not familiar with the model, this is the Minions warlock Lord Carver, BMMD, Esq III.

"ManBearPig is real. I'm super cereal."

Realizing that my chances of getting the Cygnar army painted this month were worsening with each passing day, I was ready to move on and start painting something else, anything else. I've had Lord Carver for about a year or so still in his blister pack and this seemed like a good time to paint him. I've got no other plans for collecting a Farrow Minions army so I'm painting this guy just for the hell of it.

I get a real kick out of this miniature. I love the pose, so serious for such a silly subject, and his cape is more than sufficiently swoopy. :) I had lots of fun painting that part of the model, though I'm considering going over it with a red glaze to knock the orange back a bit. Then again, maybe I should just leave well enough alone. Nothing wrong with it I suppose.

Swoopy.

I haven't settled yet on what I'll do once I've finished painting Lord Carver. I feel at this point, even if my Cygnar order were to arrive in the next day or two, that it would no longer be a fun experience trying to blast through painting all of them just to make the goal I set for myself. I'm content to save 'em for later. I have a few other things sitting on my painting desk that I could work on but right now none of those older projects hold much interest. I'll think it over and see if anything jumps out at me. So until next time... happy painting and gaming!

February Painting Challenge

This month my goal is paint from start to finish a 35 point army for Warmachine. I'm doing this for no particular reason, I just thought it would be fun to challenge myself a bit and perhaps shake off some of my hobby lethargy. I've had an old, metal Cygnar battle box sitting around for years waiting for some attention which will provide the core miniatures needed for this project. Cygnar is not my favorite faction as that honorific goes to the Mercenaries faction for both its Magnus themes and the Talion Charter as well. Nonetheless I'd like to see this group of minis finally painted after having held onto them for so long, and as a bonus they will make a nice foil to my own Magnus-based collection once I get around to those guys.

It looks like I'm not going to be able to get much done tonight as I only decided to do this a very short while ago. That's why for Day 1 of my February challenge I must be content with simply taking stock of what I already own and then planning how I want to fill out the rest of the army. Here's a rundown of what I have with which to begin this project:

PIP 21001 Warmachine Cygnar Battlegroup

- 1 Cygnaran warcaster Commander Coleman Stryker

- 1 Charger light warjack

- 1 Lancer light warjack

- 1 Ironclad heavy warjack

PIP 31008 Sentinel Cygnar Light Warjack

Warmachine MkII Cygnar 2010 Faction Deck

Warmachine MkII Cygnar Token Set

PIP 1024 Forces of Warmachine: Cygnar

Taken together that's enough to get started with a 15 point army, plus all the little doodads used during play and the army book as well. The faction deck should come in handy too as the cards packaged with my minis appear to be quite out of date. I also have a currently missing box of Stormblades that, once located, will add another 5 points to the army's total. Alright, I'd say I'm now off to a pretty good start with the new army.

To this I next plan on adding a Journeyman Warcaster to jack marshal the Sentinel and a full-sized unit of Long Gunners with their Unit Attachment for some extra ranged support. This brings the total to my target of 35 points and would allow me one month in which to paint 20 infantry and 4 warlocks. Right now that seems like an entirely reasonable goal for me to set, though I do have a bad history of evaluating this sort of thing. :) To give me an ever so slight amount of flexibility with my list, I would also like to paint one Hunter light warjack. By dropping the Long Gunner Infantry Officer and Standard from the list, I could then substitute the Hunter in place of the Sentinel. That way I believe I could tailor the Journeyman Warcaster to either a more anti-infantry or anti-warjack role as necessary. So with those 25 models at my disposal, here are the two 35 point lists* I could play:

pStryker (+6)

- Charger (4)

- Lancer (6)

- Ironclad (7)

Journeyman Warcaster (3)

- Sentinel (4)

Long Gunner Infantry (10)

- Long Gunner Infantry Officer & Standard UA (2)

Stormblade Infantry (5)

…. OR ….

pStryker (+6)

- Charger (4)

- Lancer (6)

- Ironclad (7)

Journeyman Warcaster (3)

- Hunter (6)

Long Gunner Infantry (10)

Stormblade Infantry (5)

So that's it. That's the army I'll be working on this month, hopefully painting it to completion. And of course I'll do my best to post regular updates along the way showing my progress. I might be able to get a little done tonight, but most likely tomorrow will see the actual start of work on this project. I'll check-in again soon but until then, happy painting and gaming!

*For what it's worth, both of these lists qualify for Tier 1 of Commander Coleman Stryker's theme force, Combined Arms. There is no benefit gained from this however as you have to include at least one unit of Field Mechaniks before any bonuses are granted. So... whoop-de-doo! :)