The Street Sweepers, Part 1

I'm a big fan on Privateer Press's theme lists.  In fact, I make a point of running them, and with a number of casters, run their theme lists to the exception of others.

I've written extensively on Magnus and his theme lists (just below this post), have played with some success a number of Khador's (Zerkova's, both incarnation of the Vlads', and even the Old Witch's maligned list), which I eventually would like to focus on in turn, and dabbled others.

However, after Mercenaries, my favorite army is Cygnar, which suffers from some thoroughly mediocre, to just plain bad theme lists. There are exceptions, of course, but I'm looking at one particularly unfortunate theme list in specific: Captain Caine's The Street Sweepers.

Cadwollans, part 2

What can I say? Rackham makes some great minis. I really like this second set (though not quite as eclectic as the last batch). I was going to point out my favorites, but I quickly realized that it would be faster listing the ones that weren't great to paint. There's a real weight and sense of place to their poses that I rarely see in other lines, and see in theirs almost every time. Most companies seem to be able to do a good action pose, but I'm a huge fan of Rackham's static and at-ease poses. It's a shame the company went under, but at least there's a decent used market and they're getting reproduced in resin now.

Also, if you haven't noticed an update schedule yet, it usually involves "I actually got a bit of time to photograph minis." I don't have a permanent photo studio/light box/anything like that, so I need to be able to commit a serious chunk of time to set up, meaning you'll see a few batches over a few days (until I get impatient and make a post).

The Patriot's Return

This used to be a thread on the Privateer Press forums, which became notably longer and, to my surprise, more subscribed to, than I expected. While I'm no longer as active on their forums, I've moved and updated the document on my blog, with some new notes from experience, and cleaned up formatting and language, and the beginning of some more personalization, as I felt it was a bit dry.

While it isn't as complete as I'd like it to be, I doubt the writeup will ever be complete, unless I quit playing. Also, a word of thanks for the interest/support/conversation, to everyone who asked about it, or contributed when it was back on the forums.   So, without further ado...

Magnus, the Patriot, a Discussion of Asheth Magnus' Theme Lists

An old photo, of an old model, of an old man. Soon to be updated with a new photo, of an old model, of an old man. Somehow, less appropriate.

Cygnar update

Watch out: he'll getcha' with his sword!

While I had some of my Cygnar army up here before, I've updated it somewhat, and now I feel it's worth posting about.

While Cygnar was actually the last Warmachine army I started collecting that I still own, it's one of my most complete, and I've enjoyed trying new schemes out on it, over the years.

I could speak more on it, but my gallery has enough of that already, so, on to that link:

Full Cygnar Gallery

Eldar Commission

© GW/Black Library

Game: Inquisitor
Faction: n/a

Notes: While this is a bit of an older one (hence the lack of stellar photography), this was one of the more interesting commissions I've been assigned. The client liked some of my other conversion work, and wanted a specific feel to a model. He was looking for a model with the feel of the female Eldar on the right.

While I'd done as elaborate projects as this one, I'd never needed to do one as clean in form (particularly the armor) as this.

To cut down on work time (this the price of the commission), I based this on an old Inquisitor scale miniature. I dremeled down all of the armor and accessories, which wasn't terrible, as the model started with what was essentially an armored jump suit. However, the original model's torso was probably about 2/3 the length it should have been, proportional to the legs and arms, so, while the model could have just been a little short, to fit the amount of detail, I needed to build that from scratch.

The hardest parts of this mini were the torso and head (the bionic eye (or possibly sci-fi monocle?) had to go), unfortunately, both of which are sort of obscured by my old poor lighting.

My biggest areas of growth were the smooth sections of armor (I was particularly happy with the arms and legs) and the cloak which. While the cloak's colors are mottled from filing to smooth out the form, that won't be visible when the mini is primed, and I think that the shape nicely organic and dynamic.

Warmachine/Hordes, and Battlefield Planning

I've had a number of comments regarding my luck in Warmachine, and, of course, luck is a factor. However, you can push luck and the game in your favor in ways other than the obvious use of focus. Note that this is tabletop planning, not list building, which I'll discuss in the future. This is also primarily for understanding the mechanics of the game: I plan on discussing creative problem solving elsewhere.

Cadwallons

Game: Confrontation
Army/Faction: Cadwallon

Notes: I had always avoided Confrontation miniatures, as I felt they were a little cartoony and, more to the point, I was playing multiple game systems at any given time, so finances didn't really fit starting a new game (where I knew from past habits that I'd start at least 2 factions).

However, when this commission came, I was really impressed by these miniatures. While not always my taste, the detail and poses for these minis were superb. I look forward to painting more of these, and maybe eventually starting my own force (or two).

High Elf Battle Standard Bearer

Game: Warhammer Fantasy Battle
Army/Faction: High Elves

Notes:


This recent commission has a more eventful story than many.

My client didn't have a lot to spend on this, so wanted it done with traditional metallics, but, after toying with how it would look with regular metallics, I decided that it wasn't nearly bright or vivid enough for a centerpiece model, let alone an Elf one (where it would tend to be even more showy), so I decided to comp him the extra work for NMM work. It'd been ages since I had painted a High Elf mini, and I was pretty pleased with it.


Given my client's testimonial, "Thanks a million, Nick.  If you're ever in Northwest Indiana, the beer and lapdances are on me," I guess he was, too.