Minuteman

I’d been spending a couple of weeks either painting commissions, or painting army models, so it was nice to follow up the Celestial Fulcrum with another model just for no other reason than I enjoy the model. With the Thunderhead staring at me across the table I thought I’d work up to him by attempting the Minuteman – a fine example of one of the better sculpts to come out of Privateer Press.

It’s strange to think, but this is the first Warmachine model I have painted in months – certainly this year, and only the second time I have ventured into a blue palette (the first being for “Siege” a couple of years ago). I like to use the painting guides from the faction books, mainly because it makes colour choice simple, but also to see how they go as instructional pieces. The Minuteman was painted with the standard Cygnar scheme, but substituting Citadel metallics for P3 ones.

I’ve tried something new for the base too – taking inspiration from a McVey posting on the Brushthralls website I’ve used plaster to build up “concrete” slabs for the Minuteman to stand on. I’m still not sold, as it seems quite prone to chipping, and I’ve already had him come away from the base as the plaster tore. We’ll see how he endures being moved before I commit to using plaster for the base of the much heavier Thunderhead.

This model also represents my second attempt at a painting video – The Laziest Peon – Minuteman

Celestial Fulcrum

I started this model on the 12th, and it was finished late on the 15th. Without exaggerating I can say that I enjoyed every single minute of the 12-15 hours that I spent on it.

For something of this size, I expect to spend closer to 25 hours on it (given that if I recall properly the Behemoth took the lion’s share of 20 hours) – but because it’s such a simple, elegant model with very little variation in texture it means you can get some economics of technique.

I painted the model in several stages: Stone Base, Outer Rings, Inner Sphere, Outer Spheres, and Druids.

If it was not plainly obvious – I dry-brushed close to 90% of this model. I even “cheated” and used a small household brush to do the majority of the work. Even though I sold most of my Circle earlier in the year, I chose to use the same scheme mainly because I really love it. For the gems I followed the guide in the Dominion book for painting the Fulcrum, really paying attention to how the colours would blend (blended on the palette / pseudo wet blending rather than 2 brush blending), alternating directions to feather the mix.

The runes on the central sphere and outer rings were Arcane Blue applied over a thinned wash of Menoth White Highlight.

Sandstone

• Base coat – Rucksack Tan
• Wash – 4x Ogryn Flesh (Citadel) to 1x Armor Wash
• Dry brush – Rucksack Tan
• Dry brush – Menoth White Base
• Dry brush – Menoth White Highlight

Stone Base

• Base coat – Ironhull Grey
• Dry brush – Bastion Grey
• Dry brush – Trollblood Highlight
• Dry brush – Frostbite (just the edges)
• Shade – Sanguine Base + Greatcoat Grey (just the crevasses)

Basilisk Krea and Razorwurm

Since it has been a while since I last posted an update, I thought I’d post a double-whammy: Basilisk Krea and Razorwurm. Both were gifts from a friend, and while I have no immediate need of the Razorwurm it is quite a simple model and a pleasure to paint. The Krea is a super model, and has already found a place in my Xerxis lists, sitting behind the Cetrati.

I used the exact same colours on both, which are a carbon copy of how I painted the Basilisk Drake. The Krea turned out darker, due to mixing the wrong combinations of Armour Wash and Blue Ink and/or not thinning it down enough. Still, side-by-side you can tell it and the Drake are the same species – which is what I was after.