As I have said in the Towers of Ilium thread my modelling activities have taken a bit of a knock this last couple of months.
During the heatwave it was just to hot to work in the attic - aside from hobbits throwing rings at me, paint was drying too quickly and it was almost like trying to work in a furnace.
Then at the end of August, there were all the preparations for the August Bank Holiday battle - including going to find our tent, only to discover that it was missing. The muster passed off okay with one unexpected success - more of which later.
Since the end of August I have been getting back into it slowly. One task has been to work out a way to make
ratlines, for 1/700th scale ships - those meshes that hold the masts in place. I think I have a way that will do it, but it needs work.
So all in all getting back into it.
This idea began a couple of years ago when someone gave me a
warjack, one of the steam powered behemoths from the game
War Machine.
I was looking to create a late medieval army - Wars of the Roses period - that would be built around one of these machines. Under the
Dragon Rampant rules it would count as a reduced model unit. DR units are either 6 or 12 figures, and while they have different armour and attack/defence values, they all have 12 strength points and lash out 12 dice worth of damage or 6, depending on how damaged they are.
It would not be a kill-all unit, impenetrable in defence, it will just be a normal unit, albeit, hopefully, a quite spectacular one - because it has the same benefits and vulnerabilities as other units.
Ah! Yes, you might say, but would a war-machine like that (presumably built by some mad technical genius, possibly a Leonardo type), not be the pinnacle of its technology? An epitome of the skills of the craftsmen who made it?
Well, yes, but it would still be pushing the medieval envelope wouldn't it? Prone to break down and needing skilled a operator that sort of thing. So while it would a powerful unit, replacing a regiment of men, the enemy would still stand a chance against it. Sort of the follies of invention etc.
Anyway, these warjacks - designed as they were for this exact sort of thing seemed like a good idea. They have lots of flat plates ideal for decoration. The warjacks in the game tend to follow faction colour schemes, so I was going to do something like that (but more like
Games Workshop titans) and theme the army around the livery.
The original jack that I was given was one of these
A Protectorate faction Crusader.
I scraped off the heavy iconography on the
pauldrons, and tried a striped colour scheme. But the surface wasn't good and the whole idea got put away.
Then, in August I was looking at things on the internet and found an STL file for one of these
A Kingdom of Cygnar Ironclad.
The print didn't work out so well, but at the August Bank Holiday event a friend of mine said "I might have one of those spare"
Result!
It duly arrived in the post, and while it had been painted blue overall, it was definitely a good prospect.
So I gave it a second undercoat of Vallejo Air Black. Dry-brushed it all over with GW Runefang - mixed partly with the black to give it tonal variations. I didn't seen any need for an overall wash of Nuln oil as some people do, but hit the lower legs with Devlan Mud. The broad plates of the carapace received two colours - Vallejo Red Brown first, the Vallejo Red, then the same again with some craft paint Linen as a high light. the 'white' plates were base coated with Linen, which was lightened with Vallejo White, until it was just pure white.
Rivets and some of the mechy gubbins bits were darkened with Nuln Oil, and then given a dot of Vallejo bronze.
There is more to do - the base, the warhammer, and some dry-brushing - oh and of course there is an army to do around it - but we're getting there.
Sorry that this has been so wordy, thanks for looking in, stay safe.