First Warmachine Models

I haven't played 40K in quite a while - I'd been too busy for a while then when 6th ed came out for some reason the new rules put me off. I'm not saying that the new rules are bad or anything, but the increased randomness and tendency towards shooting over assault, coupled with the increased complexity (and in fact decreased randomness) in wound allocation, just didn't appeal to me. Plus I was sick of painting Space Marines despite not having completed a single cohesively-painted tac squad.

But a while ago I came across Warmachine. I read a few battle reports and got the impression that the game was somewhat more tactical than what I had seen of 40K, which prompted me to investigate further. I like how well written the rules are, and that they are less abstracted than 40K (a consequence of the different scales that the games operate at). The fluff doesn't appeal to me very much, and most of the models are not really to my tastes (although they are almost all of a very high quality), but there's a few that I really like. Perhaps most importantly to me, however, is that you don't really need large quantities of identical infantry models, and you can build an army almost entirely made up of unique character models. I don't know how well that would actually do on the tabletop, but...

So I've decided to give Warmachine a try. I picked up the Khador starter box and gave the warjacks a quick paint-job:

I'm not particularly fond of the aesthetic of most Warmachine warjacks, so I didn't really care about these two; I just wanted to get the painted in a hurry. It was a real rush-job; basically just basecoats and a shade. I used GW's new red spray paint for the base, and slapped on dwarf bronze and boltgun metal details. I didn't even bother to clean up the flash and mold-lines (although I did cut down the boilers on their backs so they didn't stick out so far).

I used the "chipped paint" effect as it's actually quicker and easier than an edge highlight ( basically just apply an edge highlight in metal instead of red but deliberately make it messy rather than taking the time to make it neat), and it also allowed me to work faster in earlier stages since I could just cover up any mistakes with "chipped paint" in the same step. Also it made any casting problems less onerous since they're supposed to be made of damaged and worn metal.

I used Army Painter Quickshade strong tone for the first one (the one on the right in the above photo), but I felt that it darkened the model more than I liked:

Shaded with Quickshade.

Shaded with Quickshade then varnished with Purity Seal

So as an experiment I used thinned Devlan Mud to shade the second one, and while the metals came out slightly brighter, I didn't really see that much difference overall once I'd varnished them. I actually rushed the varnish on the first one and it ended up with a crackled appearance. My fault; it doesn't really bother me too much since I'm not too bothered about these models anyway. I reckon it'll pass as battle damage anyway; he probably got too close to a bile thrall or something.

I magnetised the arms in order to allow me to play them as other Warjacks in the future, which took longer than I expected since the models were metal and took longer to drill into, but it probably made painting them easier and will hopefully pay off in the long run. I used 5mm ring magnets with a rod in the middle, which I think gives a slightly more stable join than simple disc magnets.

I always try to name models these days, but I often just end up picking the first name that comes to mind. Which tends to be some really stupid association based on the model's official name. In this case, the Juggernaut (the one on the right) is called Jughead, and the Destroyer is called Fluffy. Because when I thought "destroyer", the first thing that came to mind was this:

These guys actually took longer to paint than I had hoped. That's probably partly just a consequence of the size and the increased detail that comes with that size. I am glad to be done with them, but after putting the effort in I have to admit that they've grown on me somewhat. Anyway, here's some individual photos:

I don't think I can be bothered to paint Sorscha right now, but at least I won't be playing with a completely unpainted army. This doesn't mean that I've given up on Warhammer, I'm still enjoying the models and fluff, and I still plan on give 6th edition a go eventually, but there's really no reason to limit myself to just one system, right? Well, OK, time and money are two very good reasons, but oh well.