WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?

I...finally gave in. I acquired a small army (2500pt or so) of Space Wolves, my first incursion into GW. I have to say, I never liked the idea of painting forty-plus of the same model, so Space Wolves with their custom heroes seem a better choice for me.

Despite getting this army from an ebay auction, most of the models were disassembled on their original spruces, which means I will get to assemble them as I choose. All together, I have:

-4x 10 man Grey Hunters (and meltagun bits!)
-1x 10 man Wolf Guard on power armour
-2x 5 man Wolf Guard Terminators
-1x 3 man Thunderwolf Cav.
-1x 8 man Wolf Scouts
-1x 5 man Long Fangs
-1 Forge World Space Wolves Venerable Dreadnought

My favorite part, the Space Wolves Warjack (for some reason they call them "Dreadnoughts" in the codex. Weird):

Now, all I need to do is choose some colors, maybe a theme (something along the lines of Space Vikings), and assemble and paint forty-some models. We will call this my summer project.

Oh, and I need to learn how to play this game...

Painting Cav

If there is a painting hell, a place where we pay for our sins as modelers, for me, it would entail painting cav, day and night. Painting cav is the bastard child of painting infantry and painting large models. They have so much surface to cover, and there are so many of them!

Cygnar's Storm Lances are a great unit, specially with the addition of Kat Laddermore, if one can afford 12/16 points. I love fielding mine, but they have been half-painted for over a year now. No amount of work I put on them seems to be enough. I started with Kat, and it felt like forever to get her done, including basing.

Then I started working on the cav models, one color at a time. It was so dreadful I had to finish one, to get a sense of accomplishment. Then the next, then the next. Today I finally have the min unit painted, although I will wait to finish all five before I do washes and highlights. Let's not even mention basing yet.

One thing that made painting easier was to work on the rider separately. It helps get the details done correctly, without half the model always being in the way. Gluing the rider to a temporary base helps out. Like a lot.

I hope to get them finished some day...

eHaley and Thorn

Thorn is Victoria Haley's favorite warjack, and arguably the best arc node in the game. Thorn was my first character 'jack and has never disappointed in a game. I waited all this time to upload pictures of Thorn because I had never painted any of the Haleys, simply because I have never played them. Not until now.

Spring is the season to re-paint

Nothing motivates you to paint your infantry like a tournament, and with lock and load approaching, this is the perfect time to update the look of some of the units making it to the tables.

First off, the Stormblades. This unit has probably made the most appearances on my lists (bar perhaps the Precursor Knights), and yet, it had the most obsolete paint scheme of all. I inherited my Stormblades when I purchased a second hand battlebox, when I was inducted into Warmachine. Half of them were painted Cygnar blue and gold, and I simply finished painting the rest of them. Later on when I painted the Thunderhead, I settled into my personal color scheme for Cygnar: cygnar blue highlight, dwarf bronze metals, golden yellow emblems, and tons of white to complement the blue.

Now, finally a match to the rest of the Storm Knights:

Lastly, the Arcane Tempest Gun Mages. I have no one to blame for this one but myself. This was the first "new" unit I ever purchased and the first one I painted  (and a good reference to how much I have improved as a painter). Due to some wrong information I received from an old player, I painted them Ultramarines blue, thinking it was the same color as Cygnar blue. In fact, my entire battlebox was painted Ultramarines blue for a long time.

Sadly, this was not the last of an ongoing list of bad painting decisions. When I painted eCaine, I wanted his colors to reflect his status as a rogue warcaster, so I opted for Shadow Gray instead of Cygnar blue. Then, of course, his battlegroup (one defender and two hunters) needed to match. By now, all my ranged 'jacks are shadow gray, and so are a few Gun Mage solos. Accordingly, I updated the ATGM to match:

Currently, my army is composed of cygnar blue and white storm-nouns, and shadow gray gun mages (and a custom white and green Morrowan army!). This is mostly fine, since my lists rarely involve both of these types of unit together, but it does happen, and it makes me regret not sticking to one color scheme from the beginning. Hindsight is 20:20...

Dino-DNA!

Dead for 32,000 Years, an Arctic Plant Is Revived

This is what everyone is talking about in the paleontology community these days. This research group, found "viable" seeds of an ancient plant in permaforst, and while they failed to germinate in "seed" form, cells from the seeds were successfully grown in-vitro, given rise to over 90 plant clones. Very cool indeed, I hope they sell the plants (at exorbitant prices, probably only the five richest kings of Europe will own them...).

I think it's pretty cool and all, but, I will not be truly impressed until they bring back the dinosaurs. THE DINOSAURS! But unlike what Jurassic Park predicted, dino-DNA does not preserve. Sigh. I guess we will have to settle with robot-dinosaurs.

Scientists to Create 3D Printed Dinosaur Robots

Oh, hey. This post was actually about science...

Da Mommas Boyz: 35 point Warmachine tournament.

I had a blast last Saturday (February 18) playing at Da Mommas Boyz club, in Moscow ID. Alex Cragg ran a 35 point steamroller 2012 tournament, and while I was encouraged to bring my Circle Orboros, I had not played Cygnar since June 2011, and I felt the need to field some 'jacks instead.

To my (and probably everyone's) surprise, a brand new list: Connie Blaize's "Army of Light" Tier 4 list, which I had never played before, rolled over both the menonites and the angry elves. This allowed me to come in third place, after an initial defeat to my Stryker list (which ironically, I play all the time).

Sebastian Nemo and the Thunderhead

I think this is way overdue. The Thunderhead has always been my favorite model, and by far the model I bring to the table most consistently.

While the T-Head plays well with all casters, no one takes him to the battlefield in the style that Sebastian Nemo does. And although I rarely ever win when I play Nemo, I always enjoy the games.