The Killer B Hive Presents: Simple Green Stripping

In a Grim Alternate Universe, There is Only Steam: Cygnar 2

MOAR PICS! Here are more of my Cygnar models. Enjoy:

After using the Gun Mages for the first time and realizing how awesome they are, I promptly painted the entire unit including the Dude.

This Centurion's paint scheme was based on the color scheme of the Centurion portrait in the Forces of Warmachine: Cygnar book. This scheme then carried on to my post-Battle Box models. The next pictures are the first Warmachine models I painted; out of uncertainty of changing up the factory scheme I painted them very similar to the samples on the box. I had bought the hunter with my Battle Box; so, he ended up with the stock scheme as well.

 I hope you are enjoying the pictures. It is getting my creative mojo back online and I am ready to start taking on some new projects and wrapping up some old ones (finally finishing the half painted Trollblood Impaler and the rest of my Krielstone Unit). I will have more in a bit.

In a Grim Alternate Universe, There is Only Steam: Cygnar

Ok, as previously mentioned I'm posting more pics of my Cygnar models! Hoorah! Here we go:

I just realized after posting this that I never finished Runewood's base! You can see on the next two pictures of the sword knight leader what it is supposed to look like. I did some building rubble with some smoldering embers. 

I actually made Siege's trench base with coffee stirrers. They have all manner of uses but look great as planks or even splintered boards.

I had said that I was going to repaint them but now I'm not sure. I kind of like the blue and white. Originally the scheme was based off of the Forces of Cygnar portrait of the Centurion. I might just roll with it; hell, I haven't painted anything blue in a long time. Next up will be some jacks. Enjoy.

In a Grim Alternate Universe, There is Only Steam: Kraye

I was doing some more tinkering with the light box and took these pictures with a camera my dad let me borrow. I'm not sure if I like the quality better than the last couple rounds I've taken with the phone but I'll have to play with it some more. I broke out the Cygnar for this one and took shots of my favorite Warcaster and the reason I started playing Cygnar first; Jerimiah Kraye!

I'm going to post all of my Cygnar models up here soon because I intend on dipping them all in Simple Green and redoing the whole color scheme. This one is way too close to the factory scheme for my liking and that does not work for me. I'm thinking grey and red with pale ashen skin to really bring out the "Dirty Swans" and the evil element we all know exists.

RIP Blue Color Scheme.

To Inifinity and Beyond!: Nomads

It's a snow day here and I used the opportunity of being stuck in the house to break out the light booth and take some pictures of models I painted 9 months ago. I have a back log of miniatures to photograph so today is catch up day.

Infinity was another low-cost, buy-in game much like Warmachine but emphasized low model count games which I love. It gets progressively more expensive as you go but I'm willing to suffer for my hobbies. When I was choosing a faction for Infinity, I went purely on how they looked and Nomads, specifically Corregidor, was my favorite. I bought up almost everything with a "cat" in its name because I think they look cool and as it turns out, aren't half bad on the table.

I only painted three models so far but intend to get the other seven in the list I made ready to play. I decided to use Mobile Brigada as my LT over an Intruder, so I made sure I painted her up first.

When I was deciding on the paint scheme, I was trying to figure out how to make the models look far away from the Corvus Belli stock models. The easiest solution was to use the P3 paints I already have! Most likely, the stock models are painted in Reaper or other brand; by simply using another company's colors, you can make models look very unique. I started out with a solid white primer and washed the model with P3 Armor Wash for the grey areas and heavily watered-down P3 Brown Ink for the beige parts. The Corvus Belli models are beautiful; however, the details are extremely fine and can get easily lost to a heavy-handed painter. I suggest trying to use washes as much as possible and save your paint for highlights or broad areas lack of detail lines. A good example is the helmet on this Hellcat:

I used Iosan Green with P3 Green Ink to add some brightness to the models as well as to keep the Anime feel to them. Originally, I made the Hellcat's helmet green but I didn't like the outcome and decided to go black with a green tint. I liked how this turned out much better. Next is an example of my favorite Nomad unit and the bread and butter of my list; the Wildcats:

On the guns, I first painted the whole thing with Bloodtracker Brown. Then I proceeded to paint the "camo" on with Battlefield Brown in uneven thick wavy lines. I probably could have taken a lighter brown and did a couple splotches but I felt that simplicity is bliss. I topped it all off with a wash of watered-down P3 Brown Ink. After looking at these models in the pictures, I can see I have some areas to clean up or even put some highlights on: this explains my love/hate relationship with photographing my minis. :-P

One of the best lessons I learned when it came to art is this: "When in doubt, leave it out." A wise teacher taught me this and I have applied it to all my projects. When you aren't sure how something will turn out, unless purely experimenting, don't do it. There is such thing as over doing something to the point you ruin it. So, paint on!

Fury of the Storm: Heroes of the Storm

I finally got sick of playing Worlds of Warcraft after getting back into it for Warlords of Draenor (which partially explains the level of neglect of my blogging habits). I think the game development world will be hard pressed to make another MMO that could possibly be better; however, that does not change the fact that I believe that WoW is starting to get tired. This expansion has been amazing but my attention span has been stolen by another game from Blizzard: Heroes of the Storm!

Heroes is a MOBA style game; I know, I know, "another MOBA" you say but Heroes has changed some concepts for the better on this one. Everyone shares XP in this game so your team levels together making even the group fight shy laner useful to his team. There is no backing to upgrade, meaning when you level up you get skills to choose from which is how you develop your build and playstyle of each individual character. Another thing that is nice is last hitting is not a thing because there is no gold to be worried about; this makes early team ganks and lane switches easier and viable.

The characters include some of your previous wow favorites like Thrall or Jim Raynor and also include some new faces (based on non-character units). As well as having a player level, each character gains levels independently which unlocks skins tints, abilities and mount tints. Oh snap, forgot to mention mounts!

Another cool element is that all characters can mount up (or a similar equivalent) and move faster. I like this addition because it speeds things up a bit... well literally speeds things up. A game of Heroes lasts roughly 25 minutes which is good in my opinion.

Heroes also features six different maps all with a different mechanic to help you push the lanes. These mechanics are based around small objectives that lead to team fights which adds to the fun. Many times, games are filled with team fights from the beginning and are very fast paced. The varying maps make the game less droning than most MOBAs which feature 1 map.

All in all, I am super pleased with how this game is going so far, even in it's Beta form. Currently you can buy into the Beta for $40 which also unlocks 3 characters, a skin for each and a couple different cosmetic mount choices. Totally worth the scratch; I highly suggest it. Message me for a friend request!

For builds and guides, I use: www.heroesfire.com

Hail to the King: Goritsi

Hey folks. Yet another long hiatus; I apologize. I would post stuff but all I would be putting up is how to make a nursery. That's right, I got a mini-me on the way. Anyways, I bought into the Wrath of Kings Kickstarter after making the "will you guys play" pact with my friends. I chose Goritsi because it looked like a playstyle that would be new to be. I'm lying, werewolves are FUCKING AWESOME!!!

I started building some of the models; they seem to go together quite well and are also very light on the mold lines which is quite delicious. The weapons are also made from a different plastic (the plastic's name escapes me) than the mini. This plastic is very flexible which cuts back on those spears snapping leaving your model with the clenched fist of rage. You'll see in the pic at the bottom that one of the minis actually has an impressive spear. I would have to actually intend to snap it in order to do so. A nice touch.

I broke away from my norm, "cheated" and bought a bunch of bases from Secret Weapon Miniatures. The flavor I picked was "Corpse Fields" which looks like blasted land with body parts strewn all about: perfect for werewolves and vampires, in my opinion. I can't wait to play! Here's a progress pic.

WEREWOLVES!!!