Episode 5 The Paintbrush Strikes Back

A long time ago, in an LGS far, far away a gamer was rolling dice and moving tiny metal elves around a table. It was a joyous time. The the dark forces that been changed the rules for the elves and the gamer some eff this crap, put the models in their foam, and placed them on a shelf in the basement. As tragic and rage filled as this ending was, it proved to be the beginning of something else. Later, as I walked around the store wondering what to do I saw . . .

Sick 'em boys

My first thought on seeing this was, "hey, I can use these in my D&D game." Which was the original reason for buying them. It wasn't until I had them all painted up and brought them into my LGS to show the owner that he asked it I wanted to learn how to play the game. At the time his store was into 40k and WHFB, but he had the Khador battlebox and we fumbled through some Hordes v. Warmachine. He knew the rules for WM well, but Hordes had just released and we fumbled through the mechanics. Needless to say, I was hooked. I bought Primal MKI, and began to read. 

I ended up buying all the Warlocks, at least two of every beast, and at least one of each unit. Confession time: I had two pasta pots and used them often with my Lylyth1 armies. It was a glorious time. I expanded briefly into Warmachine, playing Cygnar, but the Legion of Everblight was my army and Rhyas was my girl. 

I miss the old Gold Cards

There are some big differences between MKI Rhyas and MKII Rhyas. Most noticeably, the number of special rules on the front of her card. Some of her MKI tricks she still has in MKII and they work the same. Acrobatics, Perfect Balance, Riposte, and Weapon Master all made it through the reboot of the system with no changes. She still has Critical Decapitation in MKII, however, when she got the decap in MKI all friendly Legion models in her command got an extra melee attack die. She really turned her army into killing machines. But wait, that's not all.

Empathy basically gave Antiphon magic weapon (in MKII it comes standard) and Redirection (fun placing the enemies AOE templates where you want them to go). She only had Empathy when Saeryn was on the board with her, but it really gave you a reason to run the twins together. In MKII Rhyas is an arcnode for Saeryn, in MKII Rhyas could also channel spells through Saeryn. Swordmaster gave her an extra base melee attack. The last ability on her MKI card was Death Shadow. Death Shadow allowed Rhyas to end her activation after killing an enemy and go invisible. While invisible Rhyas gained +4 def vs melee attacks (hello def 20), additionally she could not be targeted by ranged or magic attacks and couldn't be charged or slammed. Give her tenacity and she is def21. I loved to charge an enemy grunt, kill them, and go invisible in the middle of the enemies army and then wait for my next turn.

But wait the fun didn't stop there. The flavor to Rhyas' feat stayed the same, but in worked much better in MKI. Instead of getting one hop from Tide of Blood models could leap through an enemy army killing and placing until the ran out of enemies within melee range. I had MKI Warmonger Chieftains take out enemy armies on their own and then one shot heavy 'jacks and 'beasts. Rhyas' two signature spells, Dash and Rapport, stayed and she gained Occultation (while losing MInd Ripper, which was fun to use on Harby . . . pow8 for base damage then an additional d3 damage for every focus point on the model) to make up for losing the ability to go invisible. 

Enough of my reminiscing about the good ole days. With the move to MKII, I sold off most of my Legion. I still fool around with a small Lylyth1 fun list, but it's time to build my Legion back up a little. To this end I have decided to go with this list:

Rhyas1
Carnivean 
Nephilim Bolt Thrower
Nephilim Protector
Nephilim Soldier
Shredder x3
Stinger x2
Succubus
Shepherd x2

Oy Vey! Look at all them beasts!

Don't worry I've got it under control. While this might not be what most people would call "competitive," that's not the point of the list. Sure I might use it in a tourney, but really I just want to have fun with it. 

I've always liked the Nephilim fluff and they all fill roles within a Rhyas army. Perfect Balance is nice, but having a Protector around to keep her from being knocked down with Safeguard or to take a shot with Shield Guard is better. Add in the ability to transfer to the Protector even when it has full fury and you have a winner in my book. The Bolt Thrower adds to Rhyas' ranged game with a nice pow14 shot that can push models and has the potential to knock an opponent down on a crit. What the Bolt Thrower really adds though is the ability to give Rhyas flight. Why take a Soldier you ask. Well, it makes for a great conversion but really having the Succubus cast Massacre on it allows it to charge for free allowing it to have more attacks or boosts. These can come in quite handy on Rhyas' feat turn. 

Say it with me Nephilim . . . I knew you could. (5,000 internet points if you can tell me the reference) Now on to why your really here.

Let's start with a family portrait.

Who wants to go to their family reunion?

So now that they are all put together, let's talk about choices. I've gone through many different primers in my painting career. I started priming black, then switched to using white, and then to gray. I like white primer for doing models that tend to want to be brighter (in hue not intelligence). Black primers aid in the shading process, IMHO. Grey primer is somewhere in between and I think I prefer it to the other two colors. Sure you can prime your model with any one of the new colored primers from Army Painter or your local Home Depot, but I think I'll stick with the basics. 

Oh, and let me just say that I hate mixing my own paints. I used to do it a long time ago and would habitually forget to write down my mixes or lose them. Finally, Reaper created the Master Series paints and it is only when I can't find the exact shade I want that I have to go back to mixing.

I primed the modes and bases separately.  Speaking of basing, let me tell you what I did here. The basics for the bases can be seen in Episode 3. Once the cork was on I applied a layer or gravel to the top of the cork. This was my own mix of fine grit and a larger black grit. The top of the cork I painted using Reaper's Master Series Paints. I started with a base of Muddy Brown. Then I dry brushed a layer of Earth Brown and finished with a lighter dry brush of  Leather Brown. For the base and sides of the cork I started with a base layer of Pure Black. The I used a GW stippling brush for the grays that marked the back arc and rocky portions of the cork. The best way to describe this next part would be to compare it to poking someone with your finger. With paint on the brush you poke the sides of the base and cork with Shadowed stone. Don't coat the entire back arc or cork with the color. You want plenty of black to show through. Then you do the same thing with Stone Grey. You want this to overlap parts of the Shadowed Stone layer and cover some of the exposed black. Finish with a layer of Weathered Stone. Again overlap the two previous layers, while leave some black showing through.  I finished the two unadorned bases with static grass. 

The Sentry Stone was done with the same technique as the stone basing. I then used Pure White in the recesses where I wanted the "glow" effect to be. I then applied a wash of Moth Green. Then a thin glaze of Spring Green and finished by highlighting portions of the glow with Luminous Green. I also wanted to try my hand at creating a gem effect. In the fuzzy picture above I think it came out okay. I started by basing the gems in black. The first layer was Pine Green, then Leaf Green, and Pale Green. I finished with the line of Pure White at the bottom the reflection dot at the top. I tried to adjust the layers and dots according to which side they are on. I've had many failed attempts at gems in the past, but think these came out well enough.

And what mine looks like. Still a little fuzzy, but it's late and I have a deadline.

My thought process was too paint the models on a blank base and then transfer the models to their finished bases. Then I realized, I didn't have extra 40mm bases around. So I attached them to their finished bases and started painting. The skin will be dark brown. I started with a 2:1:1 mix of Dark Shadow, Dark Highlight, and Golden Shadow on all of the exposed skin. Then I applied a glaze of Dark Shadow to create some depth. Which leaves us here.

Slicing time . . .

She's not as cute, but they let her tag-along anyway

Well there you have it, the end of another blog post. I'll get some more painting done on Thursday and maybe Friday, but the weekends are off limits. Other things take precedence. I'm going to be trying another "newish" technique for myself. Sheer fabric, like the gems I've tried it in the past and it didn't go well. Hopefully, like the gems, it will go better this time.

Oh, and picture quality comes via my iphone 4s. I don't have a light box and don't want to bull out the 5D nor do I want to run them through Lightroom. So you'll have to make due with this. Maybe, if I get some followers I'll pull out the good stuff.

Next Week Episode 6 Return of the (insert snarky title hear)

-woof

Darth Murphy, Dark Lord of Puppies