The 2013 NF2L Season is upon us!

I’m not sure if you remember my Snowmen from last year and their abysmal season (save for their season opener), but it’s time for the 2013 season of the NF2L league that our gaming group does.  This year saw a ton of changes, including a caster draft (the results of which are below), a much shorter “season”, and more restrictions on lists.  Also it somehow worked out that this year that everyone would be playing a Warmachine faction…

This year I’ll be going with Menoth and my team name is The Torch Bearers (logo pending)…

Super Dervish Bros!

And who might that be in the back?

Today I bring you my Dervish twins.  Lately I guess a fire as been lit under me (pun firmly intended) when it comes to painting my Menoth army.  I think it comes from inputting them in forwardkommander.com’s collection manager and then promptly seeing that despite what it looks like on my shelf, I only have around 50% of my Menites painted.  This can not stand!

I will end 2013 with that around 85% at least.  There’s plenty of time left in the year for this to be possible, although this year’s Slow Grow/Journeyman may get in the way…hmm…actually make that at least 75%.

Anyway back to these guys…I painted both at once which is not something I do with warjacks due to the size of them and my wanting to see progress so I don’t get discouraged while painting them.  These two are slightly smaller than the average light warjack and quite a bit thinner (thus more nimble?) so painting them took next to no time and didn’t give me enough time to get bored because by the time I was growing weary of painting one color, it was done and time to move on.

I’ve only just started using then and I believe they work best in pairs in order to maximize your investment (even if they are only 4 points a piece).  I learned early on from Blood of Martys that sidestep on a jack can be straight money, which is what drew me to pick up these two.

pFeora is almost ready to set the table tops on fi-yaaaaaaaa!

Got 99 problems, but a heretic ain’t one.

Finally worked on a new warcaster.

With Templecon now over, I’m really looking forward to playing other casters that aren’t pKreoss or pSev.  I think for the rest of the year, I’m going to focus on other casters like Vindictus, Thyra, and basically any of the casters I haven’t often played because I was too worried about getting good with the ‘competitive’ casters.

I picked up pFeora at Templecon using the Iron Arena points I won, and once I sat down to actually paint her, it went by incredibly quickly. In her official picture online, there was something about the model I didn’t really like so she never jumped out at me, but having it in person completely changes my mind.  I think she’s awesome looking! She has a size and physical presence I think is perfect for a warcaster.

I really enjoy painting these ‘one-off’ models like warcasters and they always seem to come out as some of my best and also relatively quickly for me.

I haven’t used her on the table yet so I have no real sage wisdom to offer on that front. Yet…

Also as a bonus, here’s a shot I found on the Templecon website that someone snagged of my Vanquisher.  I didn’t know where else to put it.

Last progress pic before Templecon 2013

Better pics to come after the Templecon madness…

 

Here’s one last progress post before Templecon. I have until Wednesday to finish my Hardcore list and it is finally almost there.

Tonight I was able to get all the basing done and flocked. Judicator is done, and the Vessel just needs some minor cleanup and touch ups (partly due to a glue mishap). The Errants are the last bit and they are actually almost done. Some shoulder pads need to be finished and glued on, and the standard bearer is suffering big time from neglect.

With just two more nights to get it all done, I’m feeling confident that I’ll make it..I’d never thought I’d be this close for some reason…

Whole lotta drybrushing going on…

Cleaning up all this is going to be fun…

Templecon is 9 days away so sayeth the countdown, and work continues on. Life got in the way this weekend so I haven’t got nearly want I wanted down, but meh. I should still have my Hardcore list painted up, which is the big deal.

I finally started on the battle engine, the Vessel of Judgment. All that filigree gave me pause, but I finally figured, “What the hell?” and just dived right in. I figured the best (and fastest) approach would be to just drybrush my metals on and do the clean up later.

So far I have the golds on with a bit of the silvers started. Let’s see how this turns out…

The Errants you can see behind it, are moving right along. I try to fit them in whenever I get bored of the huge based models I’m working on.

One last Judicator WIP shot…

Almost ready to burninate…

One more quick WIP shot before the finals are revealed sometime this week.

I was really planning/hoping to have the Judicator done last night but work had other ideas and assembly took a little longer that anticipated due to going back and pinning some things.  But I can honestly say that he will be done by the end of the week, I am hoping by tomorrow, so that I can bring him to game night in fully assembled glory, but I may not have the time tonight either to devote to him.

Only things left are his eyes, the tiny rockets in the rocket pods, and I missed the sanguine strips on the forearm shields.  Oh and I completely forgot about his flamethrowers.  But overall, these are small things that won’t take much time  This list is mostly here so that I don’t forget to do them.

As always, C & C are appreciated.

So.much.gold…Progress of the Judicator continues…

You.are.so.beaaaaautiful…to.meeeee….

Work continues on my Judicator in preparation for Templecon. It’s a definite centerpiece model and a part of my Hardcore list, so it needs to be done by then…

I’ve painted one before as a commission for another player so mine, although it is in a different scheme, is going by relatively quickly. What you see is the product of two days of work. If I keep up at this clip, getting it done with time to spare so I won’t have to stress so much on my other stuff is possible.

How is it on table you may wonder? Well so far I’ve only used it with pSev, but it does not disappoint. No frills is the way I would describe it. It doesn’t do or have a lot of the cool crap that the other colossals/gargantuans have, but it is effective in its simplicity.

Well enough blogging for tonight, there’s more gold to be painted…

The Megazord Stormwall is ready to rock!

I’ve showcased the Megazord Stormwall a couple of times before, so I am happy to say he has been completed and is in the loving arms of his owner!

Model Showcase: Joasht’s Converted Plastic Fire of Salvation

Joasht’s Converted Plastic Fire of Salvation

Model Showcase is a new series where I post and showcase some of the awesome models I come across while taking in the sights and sounds of the amazing Warmachine & Hordes community!

I haven’t done this feature in a looooong time, but I do want to turn the model showcase into a regular feature.  Preferably weekly.

So the first of this new feature belongs to Joasht on the Privateer Press Forums and his converted plastic Fire of Salvation!  FoS is a favorite warjack of mine in the Protectorate and don’t get me wrong, I think he looks great as is in metal form.  He still retains the general lines and silhouette of the other Menite Crusader chassis warjacks.  But he does suffer a bit from under-sized metal character warjack syndrome (the greatest sufferer is of course the Avatar of Menoth), not as bad as some others, but still not “prefect”.  Plus as a general rule, I prefer the plastic warjacks to the metal, due to a number of factors like weight, easy of assembly/posing, but most importantly: looks.  Yes, I think the plastic warjacks are leaps and bounds over their metal brethren.  It’s why I’m thinking of picking up another Reckoner chassis in plastic.

Joasht solves this with his conversion by not only giving it a great paintjob but it is unmistakably Fire of Salvation.  It’s also magnetized so that he can still have his options!  Click here or on the pic to go to the thread on the Privateer Press Forums!

In terms of my Fire of Salvation…he’s the only warjack I own for Menoth that isn’t painted yet.

My Painting Competition Winning 15pt Force!

eFeora @ 15pts

As our League was winding down, we held two painting competitions, one at 15 points, the other at 35, and opened up the voting to the public over at the Privateer Press Forums.  If you remember I posted about it encouraging everyone to go and vote.

Well I’m extremely happy to report that I won one of them!  At the 15 point level, my epic Feora force took home the gold..erm…gift certificate with over 50% of the votes! Wowzas!  These winnings have bought me eeKreoss whenever he comes out!

My 35 point entry didn’t fare as well, but I place some of the blame on the quality of the picture.  It was admittedly taken in haste, and as was pointed out by some in our group, it washes out the colors.  But I really shouldn’t complain, we had some really great entries at this level, and the winning entry is a really great looking force on the table (I know, I’ve faced off against it).

Reznik @ 35pt. Not the best pic…

This is really great in that this is just after a year in the hobby!  I’m putting together a post that takes a look at various models I’ve painted from the beginning up to now, as a sort of “look how I’ve grown” or retrospective post.  Be on the look out for that in the coming week!