Tiberion: My Conversion for the Skorne Character Titan

Time to show another conversion!

For my ever-growing (and no paint progressing) Skorne Army, I couldn't resist adding the character Titan, Tiberion. Tiberion is a real brute.  A massive, stoic, stubborn Titan if ever there was one.

Armed with a massive warclub and shield this Titan is the rock armies break themselves on.

But I wanted to do the guy justice.  Something special for a Character beyond just the character head & weapon upgrade kit stuck onto a standard Sentry Titan.

So I started with the Bronzeback as a basis for the conversion.  The Bronzeback is a great deal more massive than a regular Titan, which seemed fitting for a character Titan. The problem is a Bronzeback has a hunched pose which would look odd with a shield and not impressive for the club. Also, the Bronzeback doesn't have any back armor, and being the epitome of defense, I figured Tiberion would have the Sentry style armor. So here goes:

I gave him a small rock to stand on, and angled his torso back and sculpted some tummy to cover the gap that created, giving him a more upright posture.  I used the plastic kit arms, since the Bronzeback arms didn't work well for the weapon & shield. I did however use the Bronzeback tusks, and broke one off- he is a veteran, he's going to have taken some damage in his life!  I also moved the extra helmet flaps from the side to the top-center, to make a helmet styled something more like a Samurai might have. 

For comparison, here is how Tiberion is supposed to look:

And more angles of mine:

Here you can see his custom armor to match the style of the Titan Sentry. 

Batter Up!

And a comparison shot to see how Tiberion compares to a standard Titan Sentry: 

I have to think he's more impressive with this added size.  

As normal his head and weapon would have just been stuck onto the fellow on the right. 

I know, I know... "Paint him!" you say. Someday, just not as soon as he deserves.  

Fast Frankenpig: Converting a new Road Hog

Another conversion for Hordes, but this time for the Farrow, a species of sentient bipedal Boar-men.

I do tend to favor the 'animal' races more than humans. I guess I just like animals more than people.

And how can you resist an army of pigs? It's nearly as cool as an army of Apes!

So awhile back I started collecting Farrow, because, you know, I'm addicted to minis.

The Farrow are from the 'Minions' faction for Hordes: the least expansive faction, and to make matters more difficult, it is split between two separate, non-mixable sub-factions: pigs & alligators. Alligators.. another of my favorite animals to paint, so I don't suppose I'll be able to resist them for long either.

So, there aren't many options for minis to field, so when you don't like the look of one of the only two heavy warbeasts, and you don't want to repeat a lot, you have to get creative.

So, not liking the look of the 'Road Hog' I decided I'd have to set about making my own version of this Frankenpig:  Farrow Heavy Warbeasts are made from very large boar beasts and lots of metal & steam.

This is the results of the conversion. Not a lot of the original pig.

Hello Handsome.

I wanted something that felt like Movement. This is the 'Road Hog' after all. 

The road Hog is quite fast for a heavy beast, with options to punch it into overdrive.  

He's also armed up with a flame thrower, for added ability to 'reach out and touch someone'. 

But the original mini looked very static to me:

He's just standing there, feet planted, and while he's got those bouncy spring feet, they're so small and he's so top heavy I just don't think he looks fast. 

So I opted for using a Mariner warjack as the base, because it has some more substantial looking legs that look like they have some power in them, plus it's got a nice running pose. One claw arm swinging back, the original flame thrower swinging forward in a threatening manner, and head to one side all flows for running movement.  

Nice thing about Hordes is no worry for conversion & game restrictions about which arm holds which weapon, since only warjacks can have specific arms destroyed. 

I used the big exhaust from the Road Hog, but had to sculpt a neck and razorback mane. A lot of the muscle work i sculpted doesn't show or is hard to see, but I'm glad I did the effort anyway. 

Here's more angles:

I've gone from having a warbeast selection I didn't want because I didn't like the mini to one I'm looking forward to using! 

The local game store is going to have an escalation league like last year, so I'm tempted to find the time for it, and maybe bring Pigs this time. 

Another Conversion: Supporting the Style of Simplification with Molik Karn

Been working some longer hours than usual, so I haven't had time to start the NATC game reports, so to hold you over until I do, here is another conversion I was pretty happy with.

As I mentioned in the last update, I really like the concept of Skorne from Hordes, but the level of decorative detail bits is pushed further than my preference.

One of the character warbeasts is Molik Karn, a Cyclops Chieftain.  I've never actually used him in a game, for one, because I just love the look of the Titan pachyderms more, and for another because I just wasn't thrilled with the model.

I prefer the look of the lesser warbeast Cyclopses ... Cyclopii ? Cyclopoose ?  Oh I don't know.
But Molik just (at the risk of offending) looks a bit juvenile in it's stylings: too many spikes, the psuedo-samurai half helm doesn't do anything for me and the swords are just at a Heavy Metal level of ridiculousness  I mean really.. are they swords or are they multi tools?  Looks like they are designed to be can openers, tree saws and pasta press all in one.   And the pose is too static to be interesting.

So I set about remaking Molik in a style I would prefer: simpler, and hopefully more elegant with a more interesting pose.

Here is the result:

I did keep the serrations near the end of the blade and one of the circular cut outs near the base of the blade, but I filled in the upper one as well as the three holes, as well as trimming the end of the sword to be more like a scimitar or cutlass and less like a giant bowie knife. 

I also removed the horns from his shoulder armor and replaced them with gems. this as well as not using the backbanner lowers the central focus of the eye back to where the action of the miniature is. 

Also I replaced the head with one from a lesser Cyclopse: a full helmet which I think just looks better. 

Then I changed the angles of the arms and swords to hopefully create more of an action pose and less of a 'look at mighty me' type pose. 

The original to compare: 

More angles of my Molik: 

That's all for now, but more to come, and I'll get to those game reports soon too.

Give a Banner Bearer a Break! & micro rant on not dazzled by bedazzlers

I understand that I am quite possibly alone in this.
If not alone, then a safer bet is in a low population minority looked on with confusion by the majority.

But I'm just not a fan of massive amount of detail.

I prefer the elegance of simplicity over the burden of Baroque.

Games Workshop: please halt the mechanized decapitator of your skull-making factory.
Privateer Press: not every mini must compete in spikiness against the Shrike.
Mini Manufacturers everywhere: It is ok for a mini not to carry the contents of their household in bags & packs.

Not all of course..many fall right where I like it best: Copplestone, Zombiesmith, World of Twilight

I suspect the trend in details started as the cost of metal went up and the relative cost of having sculptors outdo one another to add more detail was insignificant in cost in the overall process, and companies were eager to show off the finer detail of the ever increasing quality of casting techniques.

But just because the technology can do it, doesn't mean it is always an improvement.
Just because it now must cost me twice what a miniature once cost doesn't mean I'll feel I 'get my money's worth' if the mini has 35 skulls & tiddlybobs all over him.

If a pizza is going to cost twice what it used to because the cost of running the oven is twice what it used to be, don't throw walnut shells and candy corn on it thinking I'll be happier about it.

So I've been noticing a tendency for miniatures to be too detailed lately.
Just laden down with a Liberace-level of visual confetti.

Someone thought Versailles furniture was a good idea, so I imagine someone- manyones- probably love all the gory and gaudy detail but I think it's often overmuch.

So I've noticed I have been converting to remove detail rather than add it.

One of the most afflicted are banners.
How often is a mini forced to hold up a banner half the size of a tallship's mainsail, adorned with an anvil, half dozen corpses, minotaur skulls, or made of solid brass?

So here are some Skorne conversions. I love the idea of Skorne, who make me think of VSF Martians in a lot of ways, and their beasts are great.  But I find I remove all the back banners, clip off the multi-back spikes, shave the horns off shoulder pads, and more.

Their banners are especially burdensome. Here are three after converting:

These have plenty of detail. Almost too much even after converting, to my eye.  Plenty of spiky parts and charms, showing an ornamental culture. For two of these I've used back banners removed from characters to be the standard, and the third I cut away a lot of the extra bits that to my mind looked like someone had designed it in absent minded doodling while bored in class.

The originals:

Maybe nothing wrong with them, just not a style I appreciate: it's just too much.

A: Army standard: This might look cool mounted on a wall, but that solid metal gong icon must be impossible to hold up! Completely awkward even if it is painted wood.

B: Just a flag, but a big one! But this is just a unit's banner, should it be bigger than the army standard? and notice the side metal on the right edge, much like the one C has on the left side? that'd be a lot of extra weight for this poor fellow to hold!

C: That side metal jutting out, up and back to hold a flag that a simple pole up would hold seems silly, plus it detracts from the banner it is holding.

So I replaced the two massive items and cut away the pointless metal pole detour on the third, opting for simpler icons.

Sometimes less is more.  Or I think so at any rate.

Oh, and get off my lawn.
;)

More Baldur's Boulders: Flying Rocks!

I had to skip out of last week's Warmachine/Hordes league night- was just too swamped with work and didn't feel so great to boot, but hoping to make it this week. And when I do, I have some new flying boulder squadrons to protect the forest with.

I'm aiming for Baldur's theme-force, since if I'm going to do the wold-construct army I may as well go all-in.
One of the requirements is to have two units of 'Stoneward and Woldstalkers'. This is a Druid who directs little magic rock constructs that fly around and zap people.  Like medieval strike-drones. But the official minis for the rock constructs aren't to my aesthetic tastes, and so I made some to fit the look of my big boulder creatures.

So here they are:

They're pointy at both ends, though more so in the front, have a sloping 'belly' with a few smaller rocks for a stabilizing tail.  embedded in the rock is a crystal orb, the source of the zapping energy beams. Essentually they are smaller versions of my Woldwyrd, which is a bigger 'beast' rock that has a similar role.

Here they are from the back, with the minis I'll use as the druid flight directors:

The 'druids' are Delgon priests from World of Twilight: they have a 'Dark Crystal' feel to them that I adore.

They are made from Fimo clay, plastic beads and some green stuff to make the rock cover the gem some.

Here is a picture of the official minis these will represent:

I also made some of my own Shifting Stones, because again, the official ones are too geometrically-crafted for the look I want. I want the stones more rough and 'natural'.

Luckily rocks are very fast to paint or I'd have very little hope to make progress on the project! 

Enjoy! 

Pterodactyls of Mars

So I'm realizing I didn't give the Archidon of Skorne his own update, so I'm rectifying that now.
Painting has been slow this past week or more, a combination of the brutal heat wave and that somehow at some point, though it's hard to see how I wouldn't have noticed it at the time, an elephant came into my bedroom while I was sleeping, grabbed me by the right wrist with his trunk and swung me around and around, over his head to the tune of 8-G's.  My shoulder felt dislocated and in constant pain for a good long time, so the brushes were silent.  Damn ninja elephants.

But I have a Pterodactyl of Mars to show, so let's get back to the point of this.

I am crazy about this sculpt.  He's just great in my opinion.  Not overly detailed with details for the sake of details. I could also see him making a great monsterous mount for a Goblin. I'd love to have a goblin warlord riding this guy.  Unfortunately the Mantic Kings of War Goblin army doesn't have a flying monster, but doesn't mean he couldn't sub in for a giant or something like that.

Coming at you!

The height of the rock formation helped out a lot- it gets his wingspan away from the other minis on the table.

He was a surprisingly fast paint job, after a base coat, the blending went very fast.

The traditional light underneath and darker above: nature's fighter planes.

Somewhere below is his target.

In the game, he's more of a 'medium' beast than a true heavy.  He only get's one attack, but he's cheap, and the chance to have a good 'critical pitch' to throw your victim across the battlefield is very fun.

He should find a lot of use for Skorne, fantasy skirmish, or VSF Mars.

Who says there can't be Pterodactyls of Mars?  If there are spiders, there can be pterodactyls.

Enjoy!

The People Have Spoken and a New Leader is Chosen

The Poll I put up for voting on which mini I'd use for 'Baldur' for my Circle army in the next Journeyman League closed and the winner is clear.

The Enigma mini was selected with over 50% of the votes cast: a clear mandate.

Ready to put the enemies of nature between a Rock and a Hard Face. 

I did like the suggestion about giving him a hammer, but I think I'll keep the weapon as it is, more of a slightly-modified chunk of nature, like the Wold-constructs he creates.  This army is going to be so far from 'tournament legal' I am not going to even worry that he has a staff instead of a great sword: both look like they have reach, so good enough. 

I do like the other miniatures too, so they'll find a home in Baldur's administration. 

The Celtos druid will be used if I include a 'Blackclad Wayfarer':

 = 

I think he's a good fit.  The official mini is too 'over the top' for my taste. A druid doesn't seem like he'd be loaded down with armor or have a 500 pound stone double bladed, double ended great axe.  The Celtos mini's weapon is formidable without being unfathomable, but it makes a good approximation to the concept.

The Rock-elemental-creature from Relics could find a home in the army too. 

 = 

I guess I just don't like the big bulky armor plates over robes & lose clothing. It doesn't make sense for one, and seems very 'un-druid-like' as well. I picked up several smaller rock-creatures from Relics to use as Druids- though I may not run them in the army if I go with the tier list, since at 35 pts you can't squeeze them in unless you go very beast light, which kind of defeats the purpose of this army for me. But if they see play this guy will be their unit attachment (a special leader). 

What better magic wielder unit for a rock-army than a unit of rock-people? 

Thanks again to those who voted in the Poll, and I'll be letting you know how Baldur's Boulders get on.  

And if you followed over to the Stonehaven Dwarves Kickstarter I liked to a few days ago, they've been going strong and just cleared the latest $95,000 stretch goal, they'll be making a nice troll for the dwarves to fight, and not a bad price at $12 to add on.  

Did I add one to mine?  Me? A big fan of Trolls? Well... I couldn't say no.

43 hours left at time of posting!

Dejah Thoris Rasheth: Mixing Skorne & Barsoom

One of the things that appealed to me about collecting Skorne for Hordes was the idea of doing them in a 'Barsoomian Desert' theme.  Skorne are clearly not human, and the baroque armor, flowing robes and cool & funky reiver guns all made me think that a lot of them would make for good material for a VSF Martian army.  Why not double-dip minis across genres when able to?

So with this in mind I was thinking Makeda would make a great 'Barsoomian' style Warlock/Warlord.  I'd probably just trim one of her two swords so that she has both the 'Martian Longsword' and the 'Martian Shortsword'. That is for the future... I had hoped to use in the final 35pt list of the tournament a couple weeks ago, the Warlock, Rasheth, who specializes in breeding warbeasts, doesn't fight himself, just reclines on a palanquin, directing his forces and lobbing spells.  The problems were:

1. I had very little time to get a mini & paint it.
2. It is a very expensive kit
3. I don't much care for it.

So what to do? Check the minis I had on-hand that'd I'd previously bought, and found something very fun.
A good candidate for a Barsoomian Princess or Queen, though less human-looking, and so would work just fine in a VSF setting someday. Simpler & quicker to paint, much cheaper ($9.50 compared to $38 no complaints there), and I like the mini better, and also fits the dual theme better too. Perfect!

Ever inspired and influenced by Frazetta, in my mind was his Dejah Thoris:

Not Rasheth:

Who reminds me more of Baron Harkonen:

No thanks. I'll stick with a Dejah Thoris feel...

So here's the mini I selected:

Reaper's Empress Messalina of the Andromedans.

This was a speed-paint, and I'll want to go back to give attention to her eyes and some highlights for the hair, maybe some brighter highlights on the metal, but for a fast job I'm pretty happy with this.  

She is a lot like the Rasheth mini in the ways that matter: no apparent combat ability, a floating throne is similar to the palanquin: no knock-down for game-terms, and works on the right size base.  

She can be 'Domina Rasheth' instead of Dominar. Rasheth is a collector and trainer of other species, so perhaps he's married a woman of an unknown species, and so she has the same authority and abilities.

And for a VSF Martian setting I think she'll work nicely. 

Balderdash: You Choose My Next Leader! A Poll.

This is the first time I've run a Poll on the blog.
I was looking at some of the minis I plan to use in the next Journeyman League for Warmachine & Hordes.
This time they are not limiting it to the official battleboxes, you can construct your own battlebox with any leader, and this made me want to run Circle and take Baldur.  A bit of background is in order...

If you aren't familiar with him or the game, Circle is the faction that is the 'Druid' faction: in D&D terms would likely be True Neutral.  They have information that the world will be destroyed by a terrible god, if humans continue to wake it up, which they are doing by expanding civilization.  So the only way to save the world is to cull civilization back, for the proper balance and all that.  These Druids are not mellow hippies.

Baldur is a Druid that specializes in the constructs: creating creatures made of rock animated by magic.
I love the idea of this, but to be blunt I didn't like the direction they took for the miniatures. I think the rock creatures are too tall, thin and geometric. I wanted more natural looking rocks, less crafted, so I sculpted my own. When I looked at the possible minis I could use for Baldur, since his official miniature is alright, but I find it kind of boring, I found I couldn't decide on which of three miniatures to use.

This is where you come in.

You get to pick which miniature I'll use for Baldur, the leader of the army I'll be using.

Here is the official mini that I won't be using:

To Vote in the Poll, just fill out your preference in the Poll at the top left of the blog.

Here are the choices, identified and listed in alphabetical order by the miniatures line it comes from, and each potential Baldur is posing with one of the Rock constructs (Wold Warden) to give a sense of how he'll fit in:

A.  Celtos:

B. Enigma:

C. Relics:

That is them, now it's up to you.  The Poll runs for about a week.
Let me know what you think, thanks for helping! 

Skorne: First Small Tournament Report

This past weekend, to cap off the Warmachine & Hordes Journeyman league (though open to anyone which about half the players were not from the league) there was a small three game tournament.  The format would be a different army size for each game: 15pts, 25pts then 35pts. I thought that meant different lists, but no, turns out it meant start with a 15 point list then add 10 points to it for each new game. Well that messed up the plans I'd had- I was going to try out 'Domina' Rasheth for the 35 point list... oh well, so I went to the caster I'd used for the last half of the league: epic Hexaris. There was about a dozen people, with Hordes being a bit more than half, though of those, there were 3 Skorne! Can't fault them for taste ;)

Game 1: Skorne vs. Trolls 15 points. 
There was a scenario for this, but it came down to both armies going for each other's throat, so I don't recall.

My Army:

Hexaris (epic), Bronzeback, Gladiator, Feralgheist, Beasthandlers (minimum)

Trolls:

Madrak, Mulg the Big Troll, Champion Hero, Fellcaller Hero, Krielstone unit
 -Too bad I didn't play him later in the day, he had a nicely painted unit of Fennblade trolls.

This was the first time I played against trolls.  Madrak is quite a good caster! He has a talisman that prevents him from being charged, so he lead with his warcaster, so I couldn't reach him. If I sat back, he'd throw his axe at me until close enough he could charge me, if I advanced, he'd charge me.  Quite a mess!  The stone increases the armor to the point that my best spell to cull his infantry wouldn't hurt them.

He only had one beast: Mulg, so my plan was to kill that Troll, then Madrak wouldn't have a source of power. I moved the gladiator up, as bait, the champion charged him ,but I was ok.  The Titan then killed the champion and I blasted Madrak pretty good with a spell.  Madrak then charged a beasthandler, and with an ability he had, started inching closer to my caster, so that by the third swing, he was attacking Hexaris! Not good!  He got one good hit on him, but missed 3 times! He only needed a 6, but three times didn't get it on 2 dice... some really bad luck there.  My Titans made a wall, preventing Mulg from coming to his rescue, and Hexaris hit Madrak and took his life.. but Madrak (being a Troll) made his 'Tough' roll (5+ on 1 die) and got back up, So I hit him again, and he Toughed again, and so hit him again! and the third time he stayed down!

A win for me, but the dice did him no favors.  He took it very well.

Game 2: Skorne vs. Legion 25 points.
Another first: I hadn't played against Legion before. This had an odd scenario.  At one corner of the field was an area to control.  At the opposite corner was a flag. If you controlled the zone (no enemy models in it)  *and* had one model near the flag, then you got a point, and the person near the flag got fried with a powerful magic blast.  "Thanks for helping- no good deed goes unpunished." First to get 2 points won.

My Army:

Added to the army: minimum unit of Gatormen with Beast Task Master and an Agonizer.

Legion:

Epic Vayl, Scythean & Angelius beasts, Tower battle-engine, shepherd and spirit martyr.

I had a hill with difficult terrain on it in my deployment, and I made a big mistake- I should have deployed my Gators in it, since they can 'pathfind' and they'd have been able to move out of it fast and get toward the control zone.  Since I didn't, he got to it fast and tied me up with the tower, further slowing me down.  I did take out the tower with the Bronzeback, but the Gladiator didn't fare too well.  The flying beast struck out, did a lot of damage, then flew back to safety, and the big beast with scythes there in the foreground of the picture finished him off.  2nd big mistake: I forgot to use the feralgheist! He's a ghost, that I can use to inhabit a dead beast, so i could have still used the gladiator.  I used my feat to drain away all the fury, so next turn his caster wouldn't have power without damaging herself, but by then he'd got the victory points and it was over.  Turns out this Legion caster has some really nasty spell abilities, so not sure what I'd have done if I'd found out about them the hard way ;)

Result:  Loss.

Game 3: Skorne vrs Retribution 35 points.
I did play against Retribution a couple times in the league, but it's the army I have the least familiarity with.
The scenario was to try to destroy a target near the enemy, once that was done, another would appear and you'd have to then destroy that one- meanwhile the opponent was trying to do the same to a target pair near you.  These pillars were pretty tough.  He had a lot of range and I didn't, so I'd have to tie his army up while trying to get to my targets bodily.

My Army:

Added: remaining Gatormen for a full unit & Archidon.

His Army:

Ravyn, Warjacks: Phoenix & Hydra, Mage-hunters (shooters) Archers (more shooters) Eirys (shooter hero)
a mechanic, a magic-aide and a mounted hero with a lance that shoots lasers!

-I never cared much for the look of the warjacks (though I kind of like the one here without a sword,just has hands) and since they're about the newest army I haven't learned much about them.  So i didn't know much about their abilities.  Both warjacks have a ranged attack though, and since everyone else did too, and I had none, order of the day looked like advance fast! but not so fast I get stuck where I could get charged first.  Easier said than done.

I set up like this, with Gators behind woods, so they could pathfind through it and the archidon could fly over it, ah-ha! learned from the last game!

Then I found out that one of the shooting units could see& shoot just fine through woods, and even through my own army! They shot magically through my titans and killed all of my squishy but very valuable beasthandlers. That's not good! He also shot at my Bronzeback, who could chose to move up when attacked, but if I did I'd get charged by the knight, so I didn't.. at least not at first.  He did get hurt a bit more, so I went ahead and moved up, while the gladiator prepared to charge him in return should it all go bad, and if not, he was guarding the target (unpainted titan below).Eirys the elf moved up and did 3 points of damage to the target with her crossbow.

(you can see my target, Domina Rasheth across the field- I'll update her later).
The knight did charge the Bronzeback, who took some damage, but not a whole lot. I also lost 2 Gatormen to arrows (they failed their tough rolls) but the next turn I got to hit back.  The gladiator had rush so charged through the difficult terrain and stepped on the elf.  One problem down. That healed the Bronzeback a bit with Hexaris' vampire power, and the Bronzeback killed the knight, which healed him a bit more. Hexaris blasted the Phoenix warjack knocking down it's shields and a couple points of real damage.  The Phoenix then charged my Bronzeback, but he again survived it.  My next turn, the Gatormen continued to wade through archers and the Bronzeback wrecked the Phoenix, which handily gave him some cover.

The Bronzback at this point is not far from his caster, so he charged it with his other warjack.  He was hurt pretty bad at this point, but still hanging on...barely. I needed the Bronzeback free to attack his caster, so the Archidon flew over, charging the Hydra warjack, I boosted the hit (roll an extra die) and got what I wanted: a doubles, so he threw the warjack! I aimed at the caster, but it missed, crushing the mechanic instead.  The Gladiator put Rush on the Bronzeback allowing him to move faster and over the wreckage, and the caster elf didn't survive the charge from a very angry Titan.

Neither of us managed to destroy a pillar target -if I'd tried the archers would have killed the gators, so made more sense to attack them instead.

Result: Win.

The Tournament was won by Skorne, but not my Skorne ;) I did manage to get the prize for best painted though, which I'm always happier about than battle victories.

I'll be playing Circle in the next Journeyman league, but I am happy with the Skorne and will be continuing to add to them.

I'll do an update for the Archidon soon, you might have noticed he has some paint on him now ;)