A Partitioned Gaming Box

The card box that I was using to hold my Warmachine cards couldn't hold any more, and I couldn't make it any deeper as it wouldn't fit into the accessory tray in my Warmachine transport case if I did. So I designed a partitioned box to hold two stacks of cards instead. I also added a third partion that was wide enough to hold dice and just long enough to hold my marker pen, with enough space left over for some tokens. The lid was also recessed slightly to serve as a tray; the idea was that I would hold the cards in place with my hand and dump all the tokens and dice onto the lid-tray.

I tried a new varnish and varnishing techniques; the varnish was brushed onto the body normally but airbrushed heavily onto the lid. It kinda looked quite green, so I sanded the body and lid lightly to reduce the tinting. The result wasn't what I was going for but it's kind of an interesting "aged" look. The box itself is fine, but that narrow rear compartment is awkward and doesn't have enough room for all the tokens and accessories I like to bring with me for Warmachine. I've decided that I have enough room to extend the rear compartment, so I might make another one in the future with more room. We'll see.

A Demo Game For Old Times' Sake

I ended up holding a demo game of Monsterpocalypse. I didn't play myself, instead walking both sides through the game phases and explaining the rules as we went along. For the most part I tried to leave both players to make their own decisions, but I did push them to use power attacks (which I walked them through) for several turns after the monsters got close enough, and gave suggestions on good plays when they asked towards the end of the game as the monsters' health started to get really low.

It was pure G.U.A.R.D. versus pure Empire of the Apes. We played using only base rules and models stats, with none of the rules on the models' cards (except High Mobility ofc, and sometimes Flight). The game was close, with King Kondo managing to pull off a rare win against Defender X. I believe both players knew a little about 40K but had no actual wargaming experience, and both seemed to enjoy the game. They seemed perfectly happy to not bother with the card rules; I think for their very first game just the core rules were enough for them to worry about. There was a bit of a discussion about the game's availablity, and it was nice to be able to say that there are digital models available.

Spriggan: The Untold Story

"When Queen Ayn Vanar ordered the Mechaniks Assembly to give her a warjack that would turn the tide of the Motherland's ongoing border wars, they provided her with the Spriggan." - Forces of Warmachine: Khador

MECHANIK:	"Your royal highness, for years the Khadoran military has relied on the iconic Juggernaut, with its powerful MAT7 POW19 axe, and the humble yet beloved Destroyer, with its simple yet effect RNG14 POW14 AOE3 bombard cannon. Well, I am proud to present to you our latest and greatest creation, the mighty Spriggan!" "With its MAT6 POW18 lance it is less accurate and not as hard hitting as the Juggernaut. But it has two guns; not giant cannons that take advantage of the size and weight of the platform, but tiny little RNG10 POW10 AOE2 guns that could easily be carried by infantrymen. Also at ARM19 it has less armour than the ARM20 Juggernaut chassis - but we gave it a shield. Of course it's a POW14 shield that is much worse than the POW16 shield the Devastator chassis the Spriggan was built on is already equiped with. Oh, and the whole thing costs 50% more to manufacture than the Juggernaut." "As I'm sure you've realised by now, I am a Cygnaran agent who has infiltrated the Mechaniks Assembly in order to sabotage your production of war materials. I'm sure you will execute me now for wasting so much time and money on this nonsensical design, but I proudly sacrifice my life for my..."
QUEEN VANAR:	"IT'S AMAZING! PUT IT INTO MASS PRODUCTION RIGHT NOW!"
MECHANIK:	"Wait, wat?"

Fin.

---

I believe that a model's rules should be consistent with the model's story. A knight in shining armour should have a higher ARM value than a peasant in rags, and a sniper with a scoped rifle should have more range than a guy with a bandolier of throwing knives. So for me the Spriggan's strangely compromised stats are at odds with the fluff that served as its introduction.

Back in Mk2 it had the same MAT as a Juggernaut, and I could accept the lower POW on the lance as a tradeoff for the lance's longer range - even though other armies had warjacks that did not make this tradeoff, with expensive elite warjacks having straight-up better melee stats than the cheap beaters (for example the Mk2 Ironclad with its MAT7 RNG0.5 P+S18 hammer compared to the Stormclad with its MAT7 RNG2 P+S19 sword), and Khador even had an elite warjack with the weapon range of the Spriggan and the power of the Juggernaut in Beast09.

But I never understood the lower base ARM; why build a new Khador warjack (that according to the fluff was like 50% heavier than the existing chassis) with less armour, just to give it a shield? A shield which, despite being described in the fluff as being "heavy enough to deliver a crushing counterattack", is less powerful than an empty fist? I get that, rules-wise, an ARM22 warjack can be seen as a problem. But remember we had ARM25 Devastators at this point, and unlike other factions Khador had no ARM buffs at the time. I'm just saying it doesn't make much sense fluff-wise.

Then in Mk3 the Juggernaut chassis received a MAT upgrade to 7, while the Spriggan stayed at MAT 6 despite being an expensive melee jack (it also received a nerf to the guns, which unlike before - and contrary to the fluff - could now be crippled). Supposedly this was to keep it in line with the Devastator chassis, which also remained at MAT6 and now had a base ARM of 19 (the Spriggan was also buffed with the Devastator chassis' Steady rule, but for some reason not its Sturdy rule).

But why would it need to have the same MAT when it was built for different purposes? According the fluff the Devastator was build to use lower-grade cortices due to Khador's difficulty making high quality cortices, while the Spriggan was specifically designed as an elite warjack to present to Ayn Vanar herself! Also, partway through Mk3 the Berserker chassis, which in the fluff is described as a REALLY old, practically obsolete design that still used ancient cortices that had degraded with time, got upgraded to MAT6. Surely at this point the MUCH newer and more expensive Spriggan should have a MAT7 cortex, if not the entire Devastator chassis (that, remember, had previously had the same MAT as the Juggernaut)?

Then in Mk4 they dropped the base ARM on the Devastator and Demolisher to 18, so the Spriggan is no longer consistent with the chassis anyway! So why not bump it up to MAT7 now? At the same time, PP introduced the new Mk4 Khador warjacks that were ARM20 with access to shields, so ARM20+2 became normal. Yet the poor Spriggan is still stuck at the perplexing ARM19+2 statline that just doesn't make sense fluff-wise. Bear in mind Khador's new Great Bear is ARM20+2 at MAT7 with access to a RNG2 POW19 melee weapon alongside a POW 14 cannon with the pistol rule for the same price or cheaper than the Spriggan, leaving the sad old Spriggan completely outclassed. Hell, the new Avalanche, which is the same cost as the Spriggan and also has a RNG2 lance and a shield, has the Great Bear's MAT7 ARM20+2 statline, but at SPD5!

Yes, the Spriggan has some nice rules on it, but so do the Great Bear and Avalanche. For a while I continued to argue for the Spriggan needing at least a little bit of help; a single extra point of MAT would go a long way. But SGF just released their annual balance update, and it became clear that SFG/PP don't give a damn about classic Khador anymore. So yeah, even I have to admit there isn't even the tiniest grain of hope anymore for the Spriggan's rules making sense in the context of its fluff.

I still love the look of the jack, being one of my personal favourite models in the game, and I still think it's capable on the tabletop with all the utility if brings - if a little expensive and outclassed in several important ways by other options. I just hate that it just always seems to have been short-changed for no apparent reason. Well, that's the way it goes sometimes; some stuff is great, some stuff just does not work on the table the way it's supposed to. Still makes me sad when I think about it though.


--EDIT--
I forgot to mention that the original text seen above specifically says:

"... an impenetrable shield in addition to its tremendous underlying chassis armor".

This is Khador, ARM20 is standard. Yet somehow "tremendous chassis armor" is only ARM19. Like I said, the stats DO NOT match the fluff. Sigh.

2024 End Of Year Report

Over the last few years it's felt like the world is getting crazier and crazier. Sometimes I start to see good signs, I start to feel like the world might be getting back on track, but I keep seeing more craziness too. And it takes it's toll. Life feels weird right now. Sometimes I feel like I'm holding my breath and waiting to see what will happen. Some days I wonder if world war 3 really is just around the corner.

But other than that I'm feeling pretty good right now. My job, that I hated and that really took a LOT out of me, is over, and I'm taking some time for myself. I mean, there's anxiety about the future to be sure, but for the moment at least I'm just trying to take it easy and heal slowly.

Somehow I feel like I'm very busy every day despite not having a job. Some of that is hobbies, which I'm getting to spend more time on, some is projects I'm doing with family and friends, some is just getting my own stuff in order. And a lot of time seems to be going to the cats too, needy little furballs that they are.


Old Resolutions:
I spoke last year about sleeping earlier, doing more exercise, and spending less. Well, I'm not sleeping as early as I should but I feel like I'm slowly improving a bit - maybe just having more time during the day makes it easier? No real progress on the exercise unfortunately. I do feel like I'm spending less these days though; part of that is not having as much money to spend of course... but I've also managed to resist several relatively large and tempting purchases this year, just because I do try to remind myself to be more strict about this sort of thing, and in general I think I've been "pulling the trigger" on purchases less, leaving them in my shopping cart until I lose interest or just realise that I probably wouldn't use them much anyway. So I'm kinda happy about that at least.


New Resolutions:
This year I would like to try to get more organised. I am going to start using an actual calender to keep track of things (yes, I know, I should have been doing that for decades already).

I hope to take better care of myself, of my health.

I want to remember to break obstacles down into small pieces, so that I can focus on and tackle them bit at a time instead of being intimidated by the whole thing and wasting my time procrastinating.

I want to finish some of my more ambitious hobby projects, things I've been wanting to do but putting off or just leaving half finished for years and years.

I want to actually follow through on learning new things. I feel like I pick up a lot of hobbies, but don't stick with them enough to be "good" or for them to be very useful. Like the whole CNC thing, I had all these plans and yet I've done so little. I want to go back to CNC manufacturing, and start making things I can actually sell. I want to learn actual digital sculpting, to be able to make my own models from the ground up. I want to mess around with small integrated computers and make my own small devices.

It really feels crazy for me to say this, but I want to be able to support myself with the things that I love, the creative hobbies that I spend so much time on yet seem to get so little out of.


Yeah, that's all way too much for just one year. But let's just say those are the areas I want to start to make progress in at least; less "resolutions" and more new priorities. It seems it was Martin Luther King Jr. who once said "If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward". I say that to myself a lot these day, just trying to keep crawling forwards even if it feels like I'm going too slow to ever get anywhere.

Swapping Playstyles

Back in Mk2 I was quite fond of Lady Aiyana and Master Holt. It's a great looking unit, with an elegant decorative style, Holt looks cool with his bladed pistols and his rules and stats lived up to his appearance, while Aiyana's debuff spell was an incredibly powerful tool. But in Mk3 it became much harder to justify taking them outside of a Mercenaries list as the main reason to bring them, the Kiss of Lyliss, became friendly-faction only. Still, I've been thinking about running them lately, and the other day I had an idea. I've been having a hard time getting the most out of the Cutthroat's Prey, and was wondering if it was worth throwing it at a jack early. Then I realised that if I couple it with Kiss and Brittle Frost that becomes functionally POW 16 shooting; against an ARM 18 Cygnar jack, that's doing 5 damage per shot! Couple that with Holt's pistols and that's an average of 35 damage, enough to one-round a Cygnar heavy!

Of course I should take some more quality shooting just to be sure; since I'm pulling out some old models, how about Harlan Versh? He could be very effective if the target jack has an upkeep on it. But that's a lot of delicate pieces I would want to keep alive for multiple turns, so the best Khador caster to run them under would be Strakhov 1. But he'll only protect them for one round, and even then there's ways to ingore Stealth, so I would need some shield-guards. The High Alert card would help, but it wouldn't be enough, so how about Alexia 2 and a unit of Legion of Lost Souls to both stand in front and also catch bullets? Plus that amounts to a +6 damage swing for them, putting them at effectively POW 18!

Obviously I'd need the Blessing card, and I chose Infiltration and Hit & Run for extra defense. Finally I chose Old Faithful over Power Swell, since I was only taking one shooty jack and no repair models. This all sounded like a very silly and janky list that would probably catch someone by surprise and win the first time I run it, then probably never again.
50pts Unlimited Khador
Strakhov 1
-Destroyer
Lady Aiyana and Master Holt
Croe's Cutthroats
Legion of Lost Souls
Alexia 2
Koldun Lord
Ol' Grim
Harlan Versh
*Blessing
*High Alert
*Hit & Run
*Infiltration
*Old Faithful


I told Karas I was running a Strakhov gunline, and he finally succumbed to the urge to run a jackspam list; it's something he's mentioned wanting to do even though he knew it wouldn't work very well.
50pts Cygnar Storm Legion
Huxley1 (Electrify, Jackhammer)
-Courser (Advanced Deployment, Mag-Bolter, Voltaic Punching)
-Stryker (Arcane Precision, Voltaic Javelin, Heavy Mag-Bolter)
-The General
Arcane Mechanics
Sharpshooter
*Blessing
*High Alert
*Infiltration
*Old Faithful
*Sentry Duty


Pre-Game:
We took a quick look at the Battleforge Customs 1.2 scenarios (by Alif Cheng). On a whim I chose the Extraction scenario. I tried to set the table up in a slighly less symmetrical way than I usually do while still having an overall uniform spread; I chose to put some terrain in the very center, but not something that would be too punishing. I don't know why I have such a hard time laying out terrain... Karas won the roll and chose to go second.


Deployment:
I put Strakhov in the center to ensure he could cover my entire army with his feat, but closer to the forest since he likes concealment. Ol' Grim also went close to the forest. The Legion went in the center with all my important units and solos behind them. Karas deployed in a block to my left. My Cutthroats went behind the forest. I declared The General as their Prey target.

Round 1:
I ran everything up. The Legion went as far forwards as possible, while everything else tried to get defensive bonuses. Strakhov cast Assail on the Destroyer, then Feated and ran forwards to cover the entire army.

The General ran to the left objective. Huxley and maybe the Courser shot the right objective, leaving it on a few boxes, then Huxley used Jackhammer to destroy the left objective with The General, giving him a point.

Round 2:
I upkept Assail and allocated one focus to the Destroyer. I started by activating the Koldun Lord, who successfully landed Brittle Frost but did no damage. Aiyana and Holt went next; Aiyana landed the Kiss but Holt rolled low for damage. Next the Cuthroats activated, walking out of the forest and doing a fairly poor job as well. Harlan Versh activated, but without an upkeep on The General he did very little damage. Alexia tried to land a Hellfire (which would have been effectively POW 18) but missed. Ol' Grim tried his hand, and also fell flat on his face, missing one aimed shot and doing very little damage with the other.

Mathematically speaking The General should have been VERY dead by now, but it just wasn't happening. So much for that plan. I activated Strakhov, aimed, and cast Hand of Destruction on The General. I rolled three shots on the Riot Gun, and with damage boosts plus Hand of Destruction killed The General with the second shot. I put the third shot into the Stryker, then... somehow had two focus left? I... must have forgotten to pay for something? Anyway, I cast Convection at the objective but didn't do any damage, then repositioned backwards. I played High Alert on the Destroyer, who walked to within 3" of Strakhov and put a double-boosted Bombard into the Stryker. Finally the Legion of Lost Souls charged the Stryker and cranked their damage rolls, killing it! I scored two points for killing two undamaged jacks.

The Mechanics moved in and shot at the Legion, but only managed to kill one. The Courser hit Strakhov with his armour-piercing gun, but the Destroyer took the shot, taking 9 damage iirc. Huxley then shot Strakhov, doing 8 damage. The Sharpshooter took a shot as well, but missed.

Round 3:
Prey went on the Courser. I dropped Assail but forgot to allocate focus to the Destroyer. The Koldun Lord walked up and landed Brittle Frost on Huxley, but did no damage. Aiyana landed Kiss, but Holt didn't do all that much with his guns. Harlan Versh rolled four shots, missed two, and only did around 3 damage with the ones that connected. This was turning into The General all over again. Eventually, between Ol' Grim, Strakhov (who landed a boosted Hand of Destruction and remembered to use the Infiltration card after activating), the Destroyer (who didn't have any focus for boosting the damage roll), and the Cutthroats, I finally managed to take Huxley down. I think it might have been Croe who got the final shot, doing a single point of damage and also ensuring that Huxley wouldn't have been able to cast any spells next turn. I was planning to have Alexia buff the Legion's damage and walk them in if I couldn't finish Huxley with shooting.

Post-Mortem:
That was a silly but fun game, where we both played lists that felt better suited to each other's factions. I had a janky shooty list and Karas was running very unoptimised jackspam, so he was facing an uphill battle. The mission was a bit of a weird one, I didn't end up liking it; technically I won by points, because caster kill wasn't a win scenario. It's weird though, because I can see situations developing where you would run out of ways to score points and essentially have no way to win; I guess at that point you play to draw, or just conceded? That wouldn't be very satisfying. I need to spend more time looking at scenarios.

I was careless with Strakhov, running him dry; I really need to get used to resisting the temptation to use all my caster focus. It was a bit scary, facing down armour-piercing guns without any focus. In retrospect I could have protected him better; if I had put High Alert on Versh instead of the Destroyer, I could have replaced him with a Thrall with Shield Guard, allowing my to block two shots instead of one. Also I could have stayed within 3" of Old Grim, who benefits from Alexia's aura and thus was also a shield-guard. I kept forgetting to transfer Prey, and also forgot about Volume Fire on Strakhov. Oh well. Karas forgot that the Courser had Advanced Deployment, didn't put out his usual upkeeps, and he might have forgotten about the Eyeless Sight card (I'm not actually sure if he every had a chance to use it). Tournemant-winning players we are not.


Last game I said I was done with Strakhov, but I have to admit I felt as if he worked this game. He did pull his weight when so many models weren't; rolling a lot of Riot Gun shots will do that I suppose. Still, I think it's time to move on. I've had my eye on Butcher2, and recently I've been considering Vlad2 (who on paper looks like he has some similar gameplay elements). Most casters want faction infantry though, so realistically I need to start playing less mercs and get some more Khador stuff ready for the table. Eh, we'll see.

Armylist Of The Dead

With my Risen and converted Legion of Lost Souls finally painted, I had the idea of running a big (by 50pt Mk4 standards) "zombie horde" list, with as many undead models as possible. Which... is not that many in Khador unfortunately. At least Butcher3's Argii kinda almost count. I really wanted to try it in Halloween month, so I put together a list with Khador's scariest warcaster, his soul-fueled dark-magic-enchanted warjack, and a bunch of skellies:
Butcher 3
- War Argus
- War Argus
- Ruin (proxied by Juggernaut)
- Kodiak
Alexia & the Risen
- Thrall Warrior
Legion of Lost Souls
Legion of Lost Souls
Ol' Grim

This was kind of a big deal for me because it would actually be my first time ever playing a fully painted Warmachine list, even if it's only 50 points. Unfotunately I didn't get actually to play it, because Karas was unable to bring his models. So I gave him the Butcher list and threw together something on the spot with the other models in my case, which I named "The Dregs":
Strakhov 1
- Spriggan
- Destroyer (yes, it has Black Ivan's claw, I was too lazy to remove it)
Doomreavers
Croe's Cutthroats
Manhunter
Koldun Lord
Sylyss


Pre-Game
Karas said he didn't want to play a mission so we just played caster kill. Threw down some random terrain as usual; I had been planning on putting a zone in the middle but that didn't happen. Karas won the roll and chose to go second.


Deployment:
I deployed Strakhov behind the forest, and the jacks in the center. Karas put his battlegroup behind the trench and spread out his units. I put the Cutthroats behind the forest as they have Pathfinder, the Doomreavers behind the hill, and the Manhunter on the right flank. I declared the central unit of Legion to be the Cutthroats' Prey target.

Round 1:
We both advanced. Ol' Grim got a soul from the Grave Robbing card. Alexia created a Thrall. The targetted Legion unit pulled Cygnar and ran to the rear edge of the table.

Round 2:
The Cutthroats took the hill. Croe missed his shot at the entrenched Ol' Grim (to be fair he rolled a 9 and that wasn't enough), and another couple missed their shots on the Legion. I ran the Doomreavers and Manhunter behind the forest where they couldn't be charged and so would be hard to reach. The Destroyer walked up but turned out to be just out of range of the Thrall. The Spriggan ran and Strakhov set up on the hill.

The Legion charged and killed all the Cutthroats. Ol' Grim killed the Koldun Lord and Sylyss with Wraith Shots. Alexia ran over, and the far unit of Legion of Lost Souls headed back now that the Cutthroats were dead.

Round 3:
Strakhov dropped Assail and fully fueled the warjacks. The Doomreavers charged the Legion of Lost Souls and went mental, killing the entire unit, the Thrall, Ol' Grim, and a couple of their own dudes. The Manhunter ran to engage the other unit of Legion. The Destroyer killed the two War Argii and a Risen. The Spriggan killed Alexia and the Risen with aimed, boosted Grenade shooting and then used the Hit and Run card to repo backwards. Strakhov dropped a smoke bomb and repo'ed backwards.

The Legion ignored the Manhunter and killed a couple of Doomreavers. The Kodiak killed the Manhunter in a cloud of steam. Butcher shot the last Doomreaver but he toughed, which was actually bad for me because Ruin was then able to finish him and take his soul.

Round 4:
I fuelled up the jacks. The Spriggan killed most of the Legion. Strakhov walked 10" away from Ruin, rolled a single shot on the Riot Gun and double boosted it for no good reason, but still did no damage. He then repositioned back. The Destroyer charged Ruin and, for the first time in over ten years of playing Khador, finally did some damage with his Crit. Ruin's lost about half his boxes or so, suffereing from crippled movement.

Karas healed a single movement box using Old Faithful, bringing Ruin back up to full operation. Butcher held his focus and charged the Spriggan, spending his stack on Flashing Blades, killing the two jacks and Feating back to full focus then casting Energizer. This brought Ruin into range of Strakhov; the Doomreaver's soul gave him a second focus, which was just enough to kill Strakhov with boosted initials.

Post-Mortem:
I made a lot of mistakes that game, perhaps the biggest was just not doing anything useful with Strakhov. I didn't really shoot anything until the end, I didn't feat (his army didn't have too many guns, but I could have at least saved my support solos), I dropped Assail and didn't recast it which made things harder for my jacks, I spent my focus on shooting instead of putting out Hand of Destruction. I think not having a mission to play for threw me off a little. I probably should have put Prey onto Butcher, because if I could kill the War Argii then start shooting Butcher with Croe, he wouldn't be able to cast any spells, which is somewhat crippling for him because that's a big part of his toolkit. Of course that's not really going to happen, not for more than one round anyway, and doing it in early rounds wouldn't mean much while holding the Cutthroats back hoping to pull it off late game would cost me too much.

Anyway, I'm really over Strakhov at this point. I want to play a Sorscha or a Vlad or a Butcher. I need to get some more of my warcasters painted.

Attack The Paint

Many years ago, when "Blackest Black" became available and people started talking about using it for miniatures, I had the idea of trying to recreate the monsters from Attack The Block (2011). I've always had a soft spot for that film; my old company worked on it, so I watched it at the cinema with a group of workmates, and I even got to briefly talk to Nick Frost about the possibility of a sequel at a signing at a comic convention several years back. And of course I've always loved the design of the monsters:

I didn't have a suitable model in mind though, so I never got around to it. I did discuss the idea with people on the old Privateer Press forums, and I seem to recall one forumite trying it on a Circle Orborus Warpwolf, but I don't remember his name or how well it came out.

I never completely forgot the idea, even picking up a bottle of Green Stuff World "Maxx Darth" when it came out. Well, recently I was dabbling with Khador lists (as you do) and felt like putting Butcher 3 on the table, just once. But I didn't have any Argus models and was never fond of the two-headed deal to begin with, so I figured I'd print out a couple of generic wolf models to proxy. And that's when I remembed the old idea, and figured it was finally time to give it a try.

As it happens, while looking up OSL effects for my glowing blade experiment, I saw some videos using fluorescent paints. I've been seeing more and more miniatures painted with these, and figured they would be perfect for this model. I actually had a few Vallejo fluorescents lying around that I had picked up years ago but never figured out how to use. Luckily I had both green and blue, allowing me to mix them together to try to get close the turquoise glows from the film.

War Argii:
I spent a couple of hours searching for a suitable wolf model. I was looking for something simple, with no accessories, but with large pronounced teeth. The best model I found was "Fang The Dire Wolf" by The Lost Adventures Co. Unfortunately this was a single sculpt and I needed two of them, so I had to mirror the model and hope it didn't look too obvious. Also I had to shrink the model to fit a 40mm base, which meant I couldn't use the existing supports and would have to make new ones. Which I completely screwed up first time, losing much of the all-important mouth detail, so I had to redo the supports and print them again.

I did some experiments with the Maxx Darth, and found that the surface finish was VERY delicate; even extremely light handling would start to affect the surface finish, possibly even rubbing off the paint. So I decided to put it over a normal black undercoat that had already been varnished, so even if the Maxx Darth got rubbed off there would still be a robust black layer underneath. So after priming them in Mr. Hobby Mr. Primer Surfacer 1000, I airbrushed the entire models with Green Stuff World 1779 Acrylic Color Black Stallion (thinned with Green Stuff World 1880 Airbrush Retarder).

I wanted the basing to be brighter than the black body of the wolves, but dark enough to help accentuate the bright teeth. My typical Khadoran snow or ice bases would be too bright. I also wanted something that would work for both the steampunk fantasy of the Iron Kingdoms and also the modern urban setting of Attack the Block. I settled on the flagstones from the Basius Max: Sanctuary texture pad (pressed into Brown Stuff putty). The irregular square stones were ambiguous enough to fit a variety of different time periods.

I basecoated the bases in Vallejo 70.994 Model Color Dark Grey, then dryrbushed with Vallejo 70.992 Model Color Neutral Grey. This didn't really give me the kind of stone texture I would have liked; the Basius flagstones are a little smooth. I edge-highlighted the flagstones with the Neutral Grey, then washed the bases with Citadel Shade Nuln Oil. It seems my Nuln Oil is getting too old; I had to thin it with some Lahmian Medium, but it still felt a bit thick and had some small black particles that I tried to remove with my brush when I saw them.

I airbrushed the entire models with Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 112 UVCut Gloss, followed by Mr. Hobby Mr. Color GX 113 UVCut Flat. I had some issues with one of the bases and had to repaint and revarnish the base rim, but I rushed it and it didn't quite come out the same as the first one, looking a little bit less flat black.

With the varnish dry I started on the mouth. I did this after the varnish as fluorescent paints rely on ultraviolet light, and the varnish I'm using blocks UV. I basecoated the entire mouth in Citadel Layer Sotek Green, then picked out the individual teeth using Citadel Layer Temple Guard Blue. I applied a layer of Citadel Layer Baharroth Blue, aiming to cover about three quarters of each tooth (starting from the tip). I then covered about half of each tooth with a layer of Formula P3 Morrow White. After this I glazed the entire mouth with a mix of about 5 drops of Formula P3 Turquoise Ink and 1 drop of Formula P3 Blue Ink. This added some shading as well as tinting the teeth to be closer to the greenish turquoise glow in my reference screenshots (Iirc in the photo below the model on the left has not gotten the glaze yet). Once dry I covered about a third of each tooth with Morrow White again.

I mixed Vallejo 70.737 Model Color Green Fluo with Vallejo 70.736 Model Color Blue Fluo in about a 1:1 ratio to again try to get close to the colour in my reference material, using a UV flashlight to check the glow colour as I worked. In my first tests I had tried covering the entire mouth of my test model (turns out the failed first wolf prints had a use after all...) with fluorescent paints, but under UV the entire mouth started to glow instead of just the teeth. So I painted the fluorescent mixture onto just the teeth.

This gave a rather flat uniform glow effect under UV; I had hoped to experiment with fluorescent white paint, but the paints I ordered had taken a very long time to ship, and I really wanted to get these guys done in time to actually put them on the table during the month of Halloween, so I had to do without. Instead I applied a second layer of the fluorescent paint mix onto just half of each tooth, to create a simple rough gradient. I brushed Vallejo 26.518 Matt Acrylic Varnish onto the mouth, to protect it without blocking UV light (I did some test just to be 100% sure it had no effect on the glow whatsoever).

I could finally apply Green Stuff World The Blackest Black Maxx Darth to the body. This is a very thick paint; I had to thin it a lot with water, but I tended to over-thin it, so I had to apply several coats to get a solid effect on the raised fur areas. I was using a regular dry palette, and when I was almost done I started to suspect it might be picking up some of the grey paint that had dried on the palette before. So I grabbed a clean palette and thinned some fresh paint to apply on an area, but I couldn't see any difference so I guess it was fine.

The paint is kind of weird; sometimes it looks incredibly dark, much blacker than other black paints. Other times it looks like a lighter grey, but VERY matt, with virtually no specular light. I guess it's very lighting dependent. In the photo below you can see the regular varnished black on the left, and the Maxx Darth on the right, under normal room lighting:

The problem with Maxx Darth and, from what I hear, with all these "blacker than black" or "blackest black" paints is that they rely on their surface finish to work, and that surface finish is very delicate. In my test even very careful handling would damage the matt effect that gave the paint its "black hole" look. After some experimentation it seemed that a very light coat of Alclad II Lacquer ALC 600 Aqua Gloss Clear would give the surface a slightly satin look (compared to the unprotected matt original), but still maintain some of that extra blackness while providing some protection. So I carefully applied a very light dusting of the Aqua Gloss Clear. In the photo below the model on the right has been varnished:

I wasn't convinced that it had worked, so I avoided touching the bodies until after I had taken the glamour shots, to try to get the best possible photos. With that done I tried to very lightly rub the body of one wolf, as you would when handling gaming pieces normally, and I could immediately see the raised areas of the fur becoming more reflective. Here is the model before handling:

And here it is after some light handling. You can see the tops of the locks of fur starting to become more reflective:

And here's a comparison, with the unhandled model on the right:

So yeah, the Maxx Darth is basically a failure for normal gaming models. I can see using it for recessed areas that shouldn't be touched under normal handling, such as the inside of a monster's mouth or something (that could work well to give the appearance of a gaping maw of nothingness or whatever), but overall not really practical for normal gaming models.

Despite being such a simple scheme, these two models were EXTREMELY frustrating; from the print issues to the varnish issues to the finicky paint, these ones were a bit rough. And I'd like to say it was worth it, but knowing that all the work won't amount to very much in the long run since the Maxx Darth won't hold up kinda robs the project of the usual payoff. Still, it was educational; it was my first time using fluorescent paints, and that part at least worked out in the end. And I've finally put one of my many stupid hobby ideas into practice, so that's one less piece of baggage rattling around in my skull. Now to play Butcher 3 exactly once and never again.


EDIT (2024/11/03): I had ordered a pot of Green Stuff World 1760 Fluor Fluorescent White, but I wasn't able to use it for these models as I wanted to paint them before halloween and it hadn't arrived. Once it did, I tried painting it onto the teeth of one of the wolves to try to further brighten them (as the blue and green fluoroscent paints had darkened the whitest parts), but the paint is very transparent and made no visible difference under normal lighting. Under UV light the glow was more blue than before, but the difference doesn't really show up on camera so there's no point in posting new photos. So yeah, doesn't look like the white will work very well for creating gradients on glows, I think it'll be more for creating glowing whites (the glow itself is bluish under UV, but still).