Building a Battleforce - Cryx

[JhonnyGoo]

Hello there boys and girls. A long time ago when I started with wargaming there was nothing more annoying than the need of putting paint onto these little metal and plastic guys... Not even my \"Army of Black Primer Guys\"...

But a few months ago I woke up and wanted to paint something. This urge lead me to a new hobby. Painting and Modelling. Since I\'m a more or less bloody beginner at the moment I thought about beginning a WiP Thread which covers my first steps into the Iron Kingdoms, because last monday I picked up the Cryx Battlegroup Box and soon I\'ll play my first game of Warmachine.

Well, to push my painting skills further and to learn faster I created this WiP project in hope for help and advice on what I\'m currently doing. I\'m not afraid of critique and if you have enough time please point out my flaws or give some tips and hints to help me level up faster!

 

[JhonnyGoo]

The Start

Here is the beginning of my journey...

...the Cryx Battlegroup Box. Enjoy! I Do!

 

[JhonnyGoo]

Progress Update

Not much done today. I just found some time to clean up the smaller models and to put together one of the Defiler Bonejacks. The little green thing there is a tongue hanging out the Bonejacks\' jaw. I saw this here on CMON and thought it was a great idea. Tomorrow I\'ll probably slap some paint on this first one.

Before the fun there is always work... - The Clean-Up Step:

Creating something... - A Tongue For The Bonejack

So far so good. Good night!!! See ya tomorrow!

 

[SteadyEdd]

Im doing the same as you. Just getting back into painting minis and doing WIPs. Good luck with all that mate.

 

[JhonnyGoo]

Thanks!!! Are you working on Cryx too? If so, maybe you\'ll start a WiP too and we can share or \"borrow\" some inspiration and ideas. I see what I achieve back home tonight. Hope I can start painting a bit. We will see. Good luck and thanks for your comment

 

[JhonnyGoo]

Progress Update

Not much done today. Only assembled the first one and primed it. Then some basecoat. Most of the time I spent on them went into a little accident with the power drill on one of the 2nd Bonejacks legs...

Good Night!

 

[JhonnyGoo]

Progress Update

Well...\"Mühsam ernährt sich das Eichhörnchen\" (German proverb for getting too little done in too much time...)

I spend a lot of time on thinking about a colour-scheme, but I\'m not quite happy about the outcome. We\'ll see if it gets better with the highlights. I\'m aiming at a dark and dirty look with lots of battle damage...well...we\'ll see...

This is a progress shot:

I recently build a little lighttent from a shoebox. I have to tweak it a bit that the photos better match the minis.

See Ya!

 

[JhonnyGoo]

Progress Update

Today I did some shading and highlighting. The basic colour-scheme is set up and needs only little variation. Maybe kinda cryxian \"serial number\" or some runes. But I\'ll save that for later. Task is now to smooth out the transitions of the highlights. Currently it\'s way too sharp, especially on the armor. I\'m quite happy about how the skull turned out. It really stands out at arms lenght. Later I\'ll put some battle damage on this fella and then I\'ll go on with the other models...Probably faster...

I postet an \"arms lenght\" and a close-up which makes it easier to see the flaws and to point them out. (Oh well, theres still a little piece\'o\'metal without primer lol

PS: Would you be so kind to give some hints and tips if you have one at hand? I\'d really appreciate it!



...next pictures will be better, because of new setup I assemble tomorrow. Good night...

 

[uberdark]

honestly, the tongue is not workign for me. i would reccomend reworking it or taking it off. try something else instead to set it apart. look at some old nurgle figs and use that for a space to jump from.

 

[JhonnyGoo]

Do you mean not working as it doesn\'t really fit to a warjack or do you mean it in regard to the paintjob? If it\'s the paintjob I should make it darker, dirtier and \"more dead\". These Bonejacks remember me of little squigs. And I love squigs with tongues... Hmm, hmm...

 

[uberdark]

Originally posted by JhonnyGoo
Do you mean not working as it doesn\'t really fit to a warjack or do you mean it in regard to the paintjob? If it\'s the paintjob I should make it darker, dirtier and \"more dead\". These Bonejacks remember me of little squigs. And I love squigs with tongues... Hmm, hmm...

just all together. the tongue idea is a good one, but the execution of it just doesnt seem to be working for me. lets see if we can get some others to critique it as well.



the paint isnt bad though. i am still liking it thus far even if they are cryx

 

[Jericho]

I\'m having a hard time dealing with the red Cryx thing, they look so good in studio colors

They do look good so far though, despite the departure from standard colors. For the tongue I think you should try a different color before thinking about removing them altogether. Pink or purple might stand out a bit more from the red on the armor.

 

[ktooloo]

I agree with Jericho on the colors being really odd for cryx. And as a Khador player I find your use of my armies colors sacrilegious. : )

For the smoothing of blends there is the perienial favorit response... thin your paints and go with a few more thinner coats. There are several threads on here on that topic and others much better versed in how to. I\'m still working on that myself. Im using liquitex brand retarder and flow improver. There is a whole faction of folks that mix in a bit of floor polish. They paint better than i do , but i havent goten around to trying it myself

the tounge seems a bit large to me but itsall good. : )

 

[JhonnyGoo]

Thank you for your advices!! I came back tonight from a \"little\" trip to austria (1900km by car in 3 days and several hours of work down there...). I\'ll work on the paintjob tomorrow and then I post some pics with the boneripper on his base. Maybe I go away fom red. I like it, bot it doesn\'t work well with the necrotite.
I recently bought one of the older No Quarters and it featured a nice paintjob of a Cryx Slayer. It is the second mini where it\'s so difficult for me to find a good colour scheme that I am happy with. And I thought it would be easy... See Ya Tomorrow and I hope you\'ll stay tuned to the changes. This forum and the article section are alway a good place for help!!! Good night!

 

[OrkyDave]

Hmmm, I quite like the red colourscheme, and its good to see a bit of originality, and not just trying to do a carbon copy from the box. Being a darker red also looks suitably evil too!

I have always been a very strong believer in\'theyr\'e YOUR minis, paid for with YOUR money so paint them whatever colour YOU like!\'

Must admit though, I am not a big fan of the tongue either, although I am not sure if its the tongue itself, or if the colourscheme is just too similar to the red Jack.

I would have went for a purple myself.

 

[JhonnyGoo]

Progress Update

This is how my Boneripper looks like at the moment:

Ignore the reflections...I have to adjust my \"light tent\".
Well, I\'ve put this little fella on a base before the final touches, because it helps me to decide wether the paintjob is good enough to put him on the table. And everytime I do so I have a look at my older miniatures to SEE, that I really get better.

I think the Boneripper is nearly finished. I \"purplelized\" the tongue, but it needs more shading and a more evil character. The base got a basecoat and a first layer of highlighting.

Since I like the idea of a swamp theme for my battleforce with Leviathans rising from the water I want to make the bases look sad/miserable (correct words for that?!?) and swampy. I want to add a bit of \"bubbling swamp water\" to the bases. I never did something like this, but I\'ll give it a try. Any suggestion or good pictures on how to achieve a bubbling swamp?

On the second Boneripper I will use a pale green instead of red. We\'ll see how this looks in comparison...


PS: ALWAYS KEEP SOME OF YOUR OLD WORK NEAR YOUR PAINTING TABLE. IT ALWAYS HELPS OUT WHEN YOU THINK YOU HAVE NO SKILL!!!

 

[JhonnyGoo]

Question^^

What about the pose of the leg? I wanted to make the 2nd Boneripper look as if he was jumping across something. Looks a little bit extreme in my opinion, but since the Bonerippers are very fast it can be possible that the legs are able to move in this position.

 

[never knows best]

Originally posted by JhonnyGoo
What about the pose of the leg? I wanted to make the 2nd Boneripper look as if he was jumping across something. Looks a little bit extreme in my opinion, but since the Bonerippers are very fast it can be possible that the legs are able to move in this position.

I don\'t know much about action poses or basing, but it would be pretty awesome if you could actually put something under him, like a fence or body or something, so that he has something to jump over. I like the pose personally.

 

[OrkyDave]

The purple tongue looks way loads better, and the pose of the 2nd one also looks cool!

Regarding swamps, try a ball of greenstuff cut in half (or plastic beads if you have them) and glue the halves to the bit of the base you want swampy.

Paint this black/dark green or other suitably swampy colours, and then give it a few coats of gloss varnish.

If you check out my gallery, I used this method for the Azhorith the Fallen one, but painted it lava instead of swamp.

 

[Thunderhawker]

What the?...

edit: Sorry the minis are looking sweet nkb, the spammage was odd...