Cygnar

This army started as a winter force, to compliment my white Khadoran army, but, as my interests have shifted, I've recently redone them with a plains/desert basing scheme. I've been slowly reworking these minis, and shooting them afterwords.

For those of you who are interested in the pics without the story, my full Cygnar Gallery

 I, like a lot of people, thought that Darius' standard pose is pretty intensely boring, so I decided to resculpt him a bit. This one's been a bit of a crowdpleaser, mostly because it's a relatively subtle conversion (rather than the more common "throw as much stuff as possible on him" conversions). He's certainly not amazing on the field, but fun enough to play.

One of the best early PP minis, in my opinion. Sure, his hands are a little funny and his sword is at an awkward angle, but he's got a nice weight and sense of place. He doesn't see the field nearly as much as his grown-up form, but I like him.

Everyone has an Ironclad. This is mine. I elongated the torso join, and this was one of my earlier attempts at NMM, though it's been touched up, over the years. Being Stryker's original Ironclad, I feel sort of like I should have converted him to Ol' Rowdy, but Rowdy is just so nice looking...

Another nice early PP mini, his original art was one of the more evocative pieces in Prime. Too bad PP felt they needed to update to a slicker look. Terrance, as my wife has dubbed him, has had his fair share of surprising kills and ignominious deaths (erm, bouts of unconsciousness?). A decidedly average Journeyman, perpetually caught in training limbo.

These horrible little models* were the way I started painting NMM. Because of that, it took me nearly 3 years of occasionally painting one to get the unit done. I swore I'd never do something so stupidly covered in metallic surfaces in bulk again. Now I've got a bunch of Precursor Knights and an Astral Claws force in the works...



*not that they're bad models, the original leader sculpt is one of my favorites, and represented the party's cleric in the Witchfire campaign I ran.

Watch Captain Julian Helstrom represents my Archduke Runewood mini, mostly because Helstrom has an actual history, while Runewood's character can mostly be summed up with "He's a loyal Duke, and he likes to pose with his helmet under his arm." ...Also, I already had Helstrom painted up for Witchfire, so thought I might as well use him for something else.

2nd set

Epic Stryker was actually done at the behest of my wife, who wanted him more blue than normal. I decided to play up the "experimental" aspect of his armor, with none of the regular bluegrey I use, and instead raw metal and caution stripes. I'm pretty happy with the raw look to the OSL (object source lighting) I did on him. He's the only evidence of my old Protectorate army's color scheme, which is a nice reminder of sorts.

Where would Stryker be without his trusty entourage of Stormblades? Well, to answer a rhetorical question, he'd still be running around, chopping guys with his sword.

If you notice the bottom left model, I put some putty in the gap for the one who's falling over, and add an angled base, and he made a pretty good overhand swing (which is what I'm guessing PP was going for when they sculpted him)

I was particularly happy with these guys' weapons and the banner. They were, I believe, my first try at brass.

To go with the storm theme, the Stormclad has always had a place in my heart, but has only recently been painted. I converted the sword hand and head to be a bit more dynamic, and sculpted some armor over the gaps, to match the Stormblade armor more.

You'll notice that this is the only model I've done that's a warjack, officer, or character without some rock to stand on. That's because he's about 1/16" away from scraping his banner on my display case now, so Captain Lightning Sword doesn't get his rock.

The once maligned charger was always a favorite, then, in 2nd edition, it actually became good. Not my best paint job, but I like the little scrapper.

The Lancer doesn't see a lot of action, these days, but I've always been happy with the slight repositioning of the mini to give it some more action. I'd probably have gotten a new plastic one, but I don't like the bendy shield.

Siege has never been that inspiring of a mini to me, so this is the treatment he got. Also, I've never actually played him, so he'd currently standing around on some sandbags, waiting for some action.

The chain gun, however, is one of my favorite early Cygnar minis, so it's seen a much nicer treatment, and a lot of table time recently. As time consuming as those trenches are to do, I love the effect from them.

Caine needed a hat and a smoke, so he got it (mostly because of his frighteningly large head).

I've always liked this model, and am looking forward to painting his epic form.

Often seen scooting around with Caine, the Hunter is a jack that's recently seen a lot less love by the broader community, however, I like it a lot.

This model was fine for me, until I put the lichen underbrush around it, at which point it rocketed to the position of one of my favorite Cygnar pieces. I feel that its pose now tells a good story.

The Defender is a classic, and often the jack I take, if I only have room for one heavy. I favor a generalist or ranged list, and this guy certainly fits the bill.

Everyone's favorite undercosted gun-toting trio. I've never understood the complaints of their minis: I love the details and poses and, while they don't fit the scale perfectly, they look fantastic.

I've been tempted to redo them with a more western feel, but the black and gold has kept them the same.