Blightbringer

The Hordes faction Legion of Everblight is basically a force for those who love dragons. Everblight is a disembodied dragon, who's essence is divided out into all of his Warlocks (most of whom are corrupted northern elves). Most of Everblight's monsters look like dragons, but every once in a while, a really weird one comes along. The Blightbringer is one such - aside from a large really cool head, its anatomy is pretty bizarre. Overall it is a fantastic sculpt, where the 3D modelling genius Doug Hamilton turned a dubious design brief into a masterwork. There were still some features that I needed to modify to satisfy my own sensibilities. 

1. Reverse the elbows. The originals were too weird for me. This was an easy fix achieved by switching the left and right arms, and cutting the impaling spikes off at the wrists, and turning them around. A little bit of green stuff modelling putty fixes all the gaps.
2. It turns out that compared to other gargantuan creatures in the Hordes game, the Blightbringer is rather small (there is not a lot of body to back up that huge mouth). I built up a large rocky outcropping out of putty to elevate the Blightbringer, so that it appears comparable in size.

And a work in progress, which gives a better sense of scale:

More works in progress, with a couple hints about what is to come...

Brennos the Elderhorn

Brennos the Elderhorn gets little respect in the game of Warmachine/Hordes, but his model is amazing. I did a minor conversion to reposition his staff so it wasn't jutting straight out to the side.

There must be a way to get good use out of him in the game, so I will not give up. For now he looks good in my display case!

Sacral Vault

For what is essentially a big block of stone on wheels, the Sacral Vault battle engine is a rather intricate model to build and paint.  From what I've seen, many hobbyists forego gluing on the many candles, skulls, and other adornments in the effort to get this thing finished as soon as possible.  But for me I couldn't resist piling on the candles.

I also opted to convert the model to change the nature of the sacrifice being conducted on the vault's altar.  The original model has a decapitated human tied to the altar, with the Gatorman holding the severed head aloft.  I used a Legion of Everblight Spell Martyr to change the sacrifice to a Nyss (a wild elf from the north) with his ribcage burst open.  The Gatorman now brandishes the unfortunate Nyss's extracted soul.  The "soul" was a leftover swirling soul from another model that I had in my bits box (Lich Lord Asphyxious).  The game rules for the Sacral Vault very much revolve around the collection and use of souls, so this conversion reflects this very nicely, in my opinion.

I had some issues selecting colours for this model, as I collect and play all the forces that this battle engine will work for (Minions, Legion of Everblight, Circle Orboros), and so it needs to not look out of place in any of these.  I essentially merged the colour palettes and base decorations I use for all three of these armies (although I left off the snow that I would normally use for Legion of Everblight models).

Zuriel

Zuriel is one of the great new character heavy warbeasts released by Privateer Press from the Exigence book.  In Mark II of the game, Zuriel was a lot of fun to play, primarily in the forces of Lylyth, Reckoning of EverBlight (Lylyth 3). Lylyth made great use of his dragon breath and his "Predator's Instinct" animus made herself into an infantry-clearing powerhouse. Not quite sure what to do with him amidst all his changes in the new edition. (Edit July 2016).

Mountain King

The Mountain King is probably one of the most impressive wargame miniature ever made.  Privateer Press has released a Gargantuan/Colossal model for most of its factions at this point, all of which are incredible.  As a crazy collector, I will showcase at least three more of these in upcoming posts (in addition to the Prime Axiom previously discussed).  The Mountain King is my favourite, although it is hard to get enough work out of him during a game to justify his point cost.  I still use him in almost half my games (when using Trollbloods), even though most players now give the Mountain King a miss.

Mountain King

Mountain King

Because the model is so evocative of the mountainous wilds, I have created a mini landscape on his back - a little grassy knoll with a tree.  I wanted him to look like he recently burst out of the ground where he has been chained up for hundreds of years.  It seems that as these massive trolls age, they grow more rocks on their backs.  This idea was first seen on one of the Trollblood character Dire Trolls, Mulg the Ancient.  I first got the idea to add a tree to a Troll's back when I first painted my Mulg (see below), and so it was natural to continue this idea on the Mountain King, which benefits from a larger working surface area.

Doomshaper, Mulg, and Mountain King

Incidentally, this is the second Mountain King that I have painted.  The model pictured below was painted for a friend, using his army's colour scheme.

Khal's Mountain King

Absylonia, Daughter of Everblight

The Hordes faction Legion of Everblight consists of a race of elves (Nyss) co-opted and mutated by the dragon Everblight, along with a host of dragon-spawned monstrosities.  Absylonia was once a Nyss, but has been extensively mutated to become basically a half-dragon, at least in appearance.

Absylonia Daughter of Everblight is her epic version (following Absylonia, Terror of Everblight), in which the mutations coursing through her have been finalized and locked into place.

Absylonia, Daughter of Everblight

I have converted the original sculpt of this model such that her wings are on her arms, rather than sprouting from her back.  The wings for arms was always my favourite part of the earlier version of Absylonia, and I wanted to replicate that idea in her epic version.

Absylonia, Terror of Everblight

The earlier sculpt of Absylonia is disliked by many, perhaps because true to her terrifying nature, she is portrayed in a non-idealized way.  I quite like the old sculpt, as it is very characterful and intricately detailed.  This model needs to be painted very carefully (in my opinion) to bring out her character and mood - it looks to me like she is almost sad and introspective, realizing just how much she has been changed by Everblight.  And then with the new model, she is finally enjoying her mutated powers.

Goreshade, Lord of Ruin

Goreshade Lord of Ruin is the third version of Goreshade, a warcaster of Cryx.  Probably one of my favourite warcasters in the Warmachine game.  He was fun to paint, featuring a few technical trial runs that I wanted to try.

I used the Games Workshop technical paint Agrellan Earth on the base, which dries into a thick cracked surface.  For my first use with this product, I had to experiment with paint thickness to generate a pleasing cracked earth surface.

I also tried out some "object source lighting" - his magical frozen sword is depicted casting light onto nearby surfaces, hopefully demonstrating the mystical powers at his command.

Goreshade also rides a ghostly undead steed.  To illustrate this, I decided to paint the horse glowing green.  I am not entirely happy with the glow effect, as it sort of evokes a Scooby Doo monster vibe to me.  Goreshade's big vampiric grin contributes to the effect!  But then Scooby Doo monsters are cool.

Convergence of Cyriss

The Warmachine faction The Convergence of Cyriss is a clockwork army, with a strong retro science fiction feel.  These models were painted in basically two tones of metallic (blue steel, and brass), with glowing electrical accents.  Many of the models are meant to fly or hover, which presented a bit of a modelling challenge.  The default solution is to use clear plastic flying stands to mount the models on, or in the case of the Prime Axiom (the Convergence Colossal Vector), mount it on a lump of rock.  I personally don't like using flying stands, as they tend to stand out and dispel the illusion the model is trying to convey.

I chose to instead create arcs of electricity to hold up the flying models using paperclip wire and modelling putty.  In the case of the large and heavy Prime Axiom, it turns out that six large paperclips are perfectly adequate to hold it up!

Father Lucant, Divinity Architect

Reciprocators

Heavy Vectors: Cypher, and two Monitors

Iron Mother Directrix and two Exponent Servitors

Prime Axiom

Prime Axiom

Prime Axiom

Forge Master Syntherion

Vectors: Assimilator and Corollary

Morvahna the Dawnshadow

In the midst of all my Malifaux activity, I am also working on my collection of Warmachine/Hordes models!  Up next is a few models from the Circle Orboros - a Hordes faction representing druids and various wilderness creatures.  Since Morvahna the Dawnshadow is everyone's new favourite Circle Warlock, I figured I would start with her.

Morvahna the Dawnshadow

Pureblood Warpwolf

Argus Moonhound