As I mentioned in my post about Deathjack, I got a sweet deal on Terminus in the used models selection of MetaGames Unlimited in Springfield, MO.  After sitting on the shelf for 8 months, I called in a favor from AK and got him stripped down and ready for reassembly and painting. Holy crap, Terminus has lots of parts!

While I did not go into this particular model with more than a desire to make Terminus stand “Captain Morgan” style on a treasure chest, after I inspected the model and how he went together I came up with the following list of changes:

1. Position of the legs. This was necessary to perch one leg on a chest.
2. Replacement of the hunk of metal that serves as a waist cloak. I don’t like it at all. I will replace it with something not so bulky.
3. Pointing his sword the other direction. I don’t think he looks very aggressive holding his sword behind him.
   
4. Change/replace his wings. With the release of the new conversion rules, I had high hopes I would be able to replace them with big bone wings.
5. Remove the head from the “frame” that is attached. I really like the frame attached to the head, but his head is incredibly unattractive, even for an undead model.
6. Reposition/alter the head…or just replace it. With the stock pose, Terminus’ head is tilted and looks like he is terrible depressed. Or needs to take a serious growler of a poop.
7. Incorporate a treasure chest. Oh it is happening. If by any chance it can’t he will be perched atop 2 rock pillars.
8. More Soul Cages. For a feat that focuses on the collection of souls, he sure doesn’t have nearly enough.
9. Even more Soul Cages. He might have one cool one, but with cutting off that huge chunk of waist cloak, so are the few cages he had.
10. Did I mention more Soul Cages. I wanna attach them with chain and have a them in several places on the model

So I set off to work. First, I took a jeweler’s saw to his waist cloak. 3 blades later, I was left with a right leg and a need to calm down. It wasn’t easy and I will have to cover up some of the damage with the new waist cloak I will have to create later. I bent the right leg to “Captain Morgan” standards with no real problem.

Next I cut the left leg in half and pinned it back together straight. This too was done for the “Captain Morgan” pose. After I had that assembled. I drilled pin holes in both legs and completely through the waist to attach the legs but I didn’t glue them down. I needed to be able to work with them to position them for the treasure chest and hopefully, make him stand a bit more upright than the stock pose. Like the Deathjack his stock pose is a pointed a bit oddly for an abomination and needs to be adjusted to properly convey the abject horrifying terror he should bring forth from his living enemies.

Try as I might, I simply could not get the treasure chest to work out. Sad as that is, I had to move on from the disappointment. Terminus is perched ever so angrily on two pillars of rocks. With some Flotsam and Jetsam, the base will look amazing. His stance is swept forward some what and his sword points forward as he seems to be picking out his next victim. On the side of his Withering Claw, it will get removed so I can replace it with a hook. The images below show the various conversion portions. Even the hook. I am very happy with it.

Tags: assembly, conversion, Cryx, Fight Club, greenstuff, IABN, MKII, OotB, Order of the Brush, Terminus, Warmachine

Man, I have had a difficult time with Cryx. They are subtle but vicious. I just haven’t found my groove yet. So, I have decided that I should probably take a new approach at it. Coming from Khador and the Pirate subgroup of Mercs, I am used to a very melee approach in the game. This doesn’t necessarily work with most Cryx stuff as I have seen it. Both of the Skarres can be mean in Melee with auto knockdown using her Great Rack and the auto hitting and boosting/cutting for 4 damage dice on each of the following attacks. I think original Skarre might do this better because of sacrificial lamb, but both can employ this tactic to win. Still, all around there are squishy, easily destroyed models on my side of the board. SO, I am going to try a very hard hitting approach at the Nightmare Empire. Terminus…He fits my need for a melee approach and can support more focus efficient jacks like Seethers and Deathjack.

First a little history.

Terminus was purchased 8 months ago at MetaGames Unlimited in Springfield, MO. They sponsor Warmachine Weekend each October. Should you find yourself looking for something to do in the fall, Warmachine Weekend offers up some of the best gaming to be had. Aside from that weekend, they offer a great selection of used models for all manner of games. I stopped by when I passed through town on my way to northern Arkansas and picked up the Lich Lord at a great price. Currently, he is being stripped of the white primer that covered him and the mess of epoxy that covered up all of his details. More on him later.

Deathjack is an impressive and initially intimidating model to look at right out of the package. He has roughly 36 pieces and for a casual gamer, I suspect he is a nightmare to assemble (Not to be confused with Nightmare who was quite easy to assemble).

Giving credit where it is due, I took several ideas from YoungWolf7‘s inspiring work for several thing here. While he ended out selling his Deathjack before completing it, he was well on his way to lighting it from within in a monstrous green glow. Initially, I was going to light my Deathjack up. I wanted his chest, smokestacks, and ribs to all glow with the blue glow that is a signature of my Cryx. Alas, my inexperience and lack of gumption to gain the necessary knowledge conspired to defeat the idea.

Regardless, I pressed forward last week with his assembly and conversion. As with YoungWolf7‘s example, I found the bear claws of the Deathjack disappointing to say the least. Following his example, I replaced the fingers with the end of the Bloat Thrall’s legs to give him a much more nasty look than he could have had with his stock hands. His hands could now give Freddy Kruger nightmares of his own.

Next, I wanted Deathjack to stand more upright but still have plenty of action to the model. I ended out posing him like he was charging from water onto the land.  I positioned his arms back and turned his claws similar to the pose of the Dire Troll Mauler. To help with this, I trimmed the post going into the his head to help him look straight ahead instead of down.

Here is a pic of Deathjack with his new claws and pose:

Deathjack Pose and Claws

Part 2 is coming soon.

Tags: army, assembly, Cryx, Epic Skarre, Fight Club, greenstuff, IABN, MKII, pirates, warcasters, Warmachine, Warmachine Weekend

Neomorte will play.

Not really. I am working on bases instead. I have finally gotten my head around the sort of base I want to have on my Fight Club Cryx army. I have to give credit where it is due. DangerMouse on the Privateer Press boards wrote a tutorial on the type of base that I will be using. Of course I am adding my own touch here and there, but his idea. I am stealing it. So, thank you DangerMouse for the awesome looking bases. To see more from DangerMouse, I would suggest searching for him in the modeling section of the Privateer Press Forums or on his own website

On to the idea. It all started when I was thinking of putting my Deathjack. I wanted something that would stand out, I needed a nice way to show the fear enducing presence of the Deathjack. I took a large base and cut out the middle. This left literally only the rounded edge frame. Then I took some .040 plasticard and made a new bottom for it. I used .040 thickness so that it should still be able to support the weight of the model. Finally, I created a collar around the inside of the base frame. It ended out being a difficult step that might be completely. Gluing the base to the plasticard was easy enough so now I just have add in a few layers of 1/4″ cork. One layer high toward the back of the base, 2 layers high in front. My hope is that I can, after doing some conversion on the Deathjack I can have a howling, angry jack emerging from the crashing waves onto a craggy, broken coast.

On most bases, these steps are not necessary. Simply gluing the cork down to the base will work. I will add sand to some, sand and water to others, broken boards, and miscellaneous others flotsam and jetsam before adding the waves to it. Hell some won’t even have waves. They will simply be on rock crags sticking out of the sand effect. Look for WIP pictures a bit later. I will edit them into this post.

Tags: assembly, Bases, Cryx, DangerMouse, Fight Club, IABN, MKII, Painting, Warmachine, Warmachine Weekend

I spent the better part of my weekend priming miniatures for Fight club at a casual pace. I still primed a ton of stuff. I primed up a base unit of Horny Raiders, half an 8 man unit of Revenant Crew, the Revenant Cannon (forgot I had it) an 8 man Mechanithrall unit with the UA (No Brute Thralls, yet).

There is still a ton left to prime and assemble for that matter. I have a unit of Horny Raiders that are the old sculpt, 2 stalkers, a Helldiver, a second Reaper, the Egregore, Cyphalix Overlords, a Machine Wraith, and a Deathjack. On top of all that, I still need to make those 8 man units into full units soon.

Tags: army, assembly, Cryx, Fight Club, IABN, pirates, primer, Warmachine