Puzz-3D Wrebbit - Cologne Church Terrain

Here is the last of my three puzzle terrains. The Cologne Cathedral in Germany, currently being used as a Church of Morrow.

 It appears i could use a proper lightbox or take these pictures outside in the sun...or something. Just imagine a solar eclipse or something.

 Here's some Warmachine Cygnar Precursor Knights outside for scale. As you can see closer in, the cathedral needs to be three times larger to be near scale with the models. But of course such a terrain piece would be too large. From a distance it looks just fine and that's why this works.

 When used two weeks ago, and placed in the middle of one side of the table, it hindered the player deploying on that side because he split his forces. Something this size is best smack dab in the middle of the table with perhaps an objective on either side. Then it forces each choice of going 1st or 2nd, deployment and strategy to be a factor to make it a fun game.

The Thursday night group also said that this and the other 3D buildings were the perfect height but needs to be a smaller footprint. About half the footprint size. They're fine for now but i'll use this information to determine building sizes for future scratch building projects.

Precursor Knights and UA

So i've been wanting to put together and paint these models for over a year but was missing a shield, so i worked on my Khador instead. Turns out it was hidden in my bits boxes. Just goes to show the importance of organization, which i'm currently doing with my scenery miscellanea and kitbashing boxes.

 With these dudes, i primed them black, so i could lightly brush on the metal over the chainmail parts of their armour. It made things much easier than priming white and trying to get a dark wash in the groves of the rings.

 After painting the armor, i used a foundation paint to form a base for the white tabards.

 I don't do faces very well so i just based them with a darker flesh and drybrushed twice with a lighter paint each time. Still trying to get my drybrushing technique nailed down. I find it helps to use a paint pot where the liquid has evaporated and just the base is left in the pot.

 I tried out the unit twice a few days ago and with the UA they are a very hard hitter during their "Word of Morrow" turn but mostly a guided missile as their armour isn't as high as it needs to be when not shield walling.

For the straight blue lines on their tabards (that i can't do freehand) i used a blue Prismacolor pen. You can get them in packs at most of the big box craft chains and they're even cheaper during 40% off coupon times. You can't doddle with them otherwise it pools a bit and the next time you rub against them with your finger they smudge. Go faster than a crawl and do each line once, allow to dry, them you can put a wash or something over top them.

Thorn Character Warjack

Here is Cygnar Warcaster Haley's big friend...Thorn. Big affinity advantage is that he can have spells cast through his arc node even if engaged in melee.

 His yellow crane on the shield was the hardest to get somewhat right.

Next Cygnar dudes to work on will be my two Gun Mage Captain Adepts.

Malifaux - Soulstone Vein

Under the listing for 'Soulstone Vein" it says that its no larger than 2" X 2". It also says that the master's base must be completely within the the vein for it to interact with it and gain soulstone tokens. With that i gathered the following items.

 

 The skeleton is a tomb kings skeleton torso, head and two arms. I intended on having it floating above the vein on a wire with greenstuff. More on that later. The gravel is road gravel.

The green glass is exactly that; decorative glass from a dollar store.

After a week of actual time and about 20-30 min of modelling time (I have many projects on the go) below is the result!

 I decided not to use the skeleton on this piece but instead use him in the "Mysterious Effigies" Malifaux terrain. This is mainly because taking him out and back in would damage the models over time as you have to have your master totally on this terrain piece to get the soulstones.

 I tried to create a green glowing effect with first dark paint farther out of the crevice then brighter as it gets closer. I think it works very well enough.

 Posing next to the soulstone vein is a malifaux neverborn master...Lilith. Her starter box and Perdida's are going to be my first gangs to paint. They are also the ones recommended for those starting off playing Malifaux. I have to agree with gusto. During Gottacon 2012, February in Victoria BC, after only playing twice i was invited to borrow a Perdida Gang and an Executioner for a mini tournament and placed second! It really counts to focus on your strategy!

Next terrain piece for Malifaux will be a "Creepy Structure".

Edit: Since 2E i've revamped the scenery required. Go here for a more up to date list.

Warmachine Mercenaries and Hordes Minions so far

So far i have 3 units and 5 solos for Warmachine Mercenaries and 4 solos for Hordes. 37 points total.

 Above is most of them. The scenery is the discontinued Gall Force Nine Cryx scenery.

 The only ones i didn't paint are Aiyana and Holt as well as basic Eyrss. I did up Harlan Versh, Kell Bailoch, Orin Midwinter, Dannon Blythe & Bull, and Sylys Wyshnalyrr.

 The minion solos i spent more time on. They are Alten Ashley, Saxon Orrick, Gudrun the Wanderer and Lanyssa Ryssyll.

 Boomhowler and the boys were a lot of fun. I used the tartan instructions in the Mercenaries book and the results are great. The hut is from Tabletop Scenery, a local one-man scenery making company.

Cygnar Army so far

Here is my Warmachine Cygnar forces so far

4 Warcasters (WCs), 4 Heavy Jacks, 7 Light Jacks, 3 units (2 with UAs), 4 Solos. Total points 108.

 WCs are Siege Brisbane, Basic Stryker, Basic and Epic Haley. Solos are Journeyman Warcaster, Squire, Jonas Murdoch and with the Trenchers is Maxwell Finn.

 Heavy Jacks are 2 Ironclads (old metal and new plastic), Cyclone and Defender. Also here is a full unit of Stormguard.

 The full Trencher deal. Trencher 10 man squad, UA, a Grenadier light jack, grenadier attachment and Captain Maxwell Finn.

Six more light jacks; 2 Chargers (old metal and new plastic), 2 Chargers (old metal and new plastic), Sentinel and Hunter. Then a full unit and UA of Longgunners.

The scenery is the discontinued Gall Force Nine Cygnar Storm Research Station. Next to be painted is a full squad an UA of Precursor Knights and the Thorn character jack.

Puzz-3D Wrebbit - Alsace Buildings

Some inexpensive terrain to consider as an interim measure to creating your own, or to use if you can't/don't have time, is 3-D puzzles.

I bought a Wrebbit Alsace puzzle for $3 and although it wasn't quite to scale with Malifaux and Warmachine/Hordes, its darn close.

Yard sales and flea markets are the best places to find these type of buildings cheap. Two websites were selling this for $150! Crazy but the maker of these sold his company to Hasbro then died just last year. Hasbro does not have these on their website currently.

Malifaux Terrain - Overview

I should have elaborated what terrain i'll be doing for Malifaux and Warmachine/Hordes. I looked at each terrain and calculated how many times they appear in all of the random charts. These numbers, of course, don't take into account if you draw a 2 of a suit and you now have one 2 less to determine the random terrain. That would be a little ridiculous.
53 times: Soul Stone Vein (2 X 2 or smaller)
48: Creepy Structure (3 X 3 or larger)
48: Hazardous Terrain (3 X 3 or larger)
42: Graveyard (3 X 3 or larger)
42: Scrap Pile (3 X 3 or larger, severe)
37: Mysterious Effigies (2 30mm markers)
32: Ancient Monument (50mm marker)
32: Hanging Tree (50mm marker)
30: Ancient Text (2 book markers)
30: Arcane Apparatus (50mm marker)
29: Dead Zone (3 X 3 or larger)
25: Bag of Soulstones (marker)
20: Cache of Tomes (6 Book markers)
20: Pool of Aether (3 X 3 or larger)
16: Campsite (2 X 2 or larger, severe)
15: Drink Up! (1 X 5 or larger)
15: Torture Chamber (3 X 3 or larger)
10: Recalibration Device (50 mm marker)
5: Magic Nexus (3 X 3)
5: Wetbar (3 X 3 or larger)

Everything else are entire board conditions. For those i'll eventually make up laminated sheets that one side is upside-down, so that each player can refer to it without moving it.

Of course i'll also need trees and buildings and such but that will come over the next year...i hope.

So the Soulstone vein will be my first Malifaux terrain piece. I'l post it once i make it.

Edit: This is 1E. For a 2E terrain list go here.