Stormhammer Reinforcements: Cougar Battlemechs

Stormhammer Cougar-X spread out over the Sulfurous Fields, hunting for signs of the invading Clan.

The Cougar-X is not a descendant of the original clan Cougar, as it has been nearly seventy years after the destruction of the last known factory.  Though the design is passingly similar, the new machine has been designed and constructed during the Dark Age by local manufacturers.  The Stormhammers have managed to obtain several prior to arriving on Vindemiatrix, and have deployed them in scout capacity near suspected clan targets.

I prefer to brush-prime Reaper Bones.  

Reaper Bones CAV models are fun.  As always, brush-primed with some color - in this case Vallejo Cold Grey.  I didn't glue these to the bases while I painted them, instead affixing them with Blu-tac.  The torsos and arms are not glued either, allowing for traversals on the table.

Raise your guns up and paint under your arms, kid.

On the heavier end of the light scale, the Cougar-X sports a fairly impressive armament.  In addition, the mech is heavily armored for its' weight.  Manufacture of these frames has increased over the past few months, and they are seen as a fantastic alternative to older models going forward by the Inner Sphere bureaucrats.

Stages of Grey Waste Deposits.

Following basically the same process as the Jade Falcon mechs, which you can check out here.  I textured the bases with cement finish and Vallejo Black Lava before applying Agrellan Earth and highlighting with Fortress Grey.  The only major difference otherwise is the use of Regal Blue on the colored plates.

Moon Patrol, ca 3145 A.D.

As of now, no real variants have emerged for this chassis.  In the minds of some designers, that is a better sign of a mech's performance than diversified sales patterns.  These are still test patterns, however, and it is likely that sooner rather than later development will be continued on the Cougar-X program.

In space, no one can hear you meme.

Yes I know they are not battlemechs, but are in fact CAVs.  If you look closely, the bases aren't hexes, either.  This is entirely deliberate.  Also, applied Ryza Rust to the feet and lower legs to mimic the effect on the Dark Age Stormhammer miniatures.

Guns up for AA potshots.

 Stats for Horizon Wars!

Element	Type	F	A	M	D	P	FC	Special
CGR-X Cougar-X	Mech	4	4	4	2	2	2	None

Augmented Stormhammer Medium Fire Support Lance, ready to repel invaders.

The Cougar-X has become a favorite of mechwarriors in the Stormhammers since they have taken on a great many dispossessed.  These mechs are inexpensive comparatively, and give the company a flexible maneuver strategy at a critical time - a clan invasion.  The pilots themselves who have been gifted one from the company have been given a second chance at glory, and are eager to prove the guns of their new mechs.

No guts, no galaxy!

White Dwarf 166

WD 166 is all about 40k.  So much so I didn't photo anything else.

I used to collect White Dwarf.

From about 1996 to somewhere around 2012, I had a subscription or I picked it up monthly from the comic shop.  Sometimes, I missed a month but would always pick up the back issues relatively quickly.

In the grim farness of the dark future, there is only war.

From issue 226, the drop of 3rd Edition, I have a complete run until the end of the magazine.  I don't count the reboot of White Dwarf - 409 is where I stopped.  Never even opened that one.

Like plasma cannons or multi-meltas?  Too bad.

I picked up a few older issues here and there and added them to my collection, but mainly focused on what was happening 'now'.  Now, in my old age and several years after having stopped collecting periodicals in general...I want more White Dwarf.  Luckily for me, there's still more than half of it out there.  So, I'm relaunching my White Dwarf collection with a new target number - WD166.

Less than 100 orks led by a normal size warboss.

So that's about 80 issues or so to track down, but it's totally worth it.  Those old issues seem to be less expensive than what's current, so it's not really a financial problem to complete this.  2nd Edition is where I started playing 40k, so it was a good target point - I actually remember a lot of this.  Especially since we'll be playing 2e 40k for a bit coming up, it made sense to start collecting here.

I only wish I was this fly.

What I will say is that it's very strange to see the old stuff after so long.  I remember what it was like when armies weren't very big, and mostly comprised of infantry.  I've seen 40k morph a lot over the years, and even despite my recalcitrance to join current editions I've kept my finger on the pulse.  The difference in every aspect of the hobby has more contrast than night and day, but I suppose that's just the evolution of design.

The art, the miniatures, the design, the language and the magazine layout itself are all products of it's day...as is to be expected.  Maybe I'm just marveling at how long ago this stuff really is...but it really is the change in design that's most thrown me.  I really enjoy a simple design, and will be keeping that in mind as I go forward.

Check out the tiger stripes on those guardians.  Fleek!

Not that I'm pining for days of yore.  The aesthetics HAVE changed, and that's not only ok it's necessary.  Things happen, things change, you get over it and move on.  I for one welcomed the change to a more realistic vibe...I guess that really started to happen 'twixt 2000-2004.  It's just interesting looking at how things have changed.

Easily 1000pts of Dark Angels in 2nd Edition.

Space Hulk Genestealers: A Saga

Genestealers breed in iterations...and apparently get painted that way also.

So, when Space Hulk first came out I got it as a present.

For some reason, I decided I didn't want to play it with the club until it was fully painted.  As the club drifted away from GW products, Space Hulk got shelved again and again.  Now that I'm no longer affiliated with that club, I find it's one of the projects I'm most keen to finish.

Iteration 1 - or, how to NOT use ArmyPainter Quickshade.

Problem is, I've tried this a couple of times.  I've got a couple of different batches of genestealers, each of them look slightly different because they were done at different times with different paints.  However, they are all done with QuickShade.  I'm not totally done with the genestealers for Space Hulk, so that means the rest of them will have to be done with QuickShade as well.

Iteration 2, wherein the application of medium has been more explored.

Overall, I've never felt comfortable with how any of these turned out.  This was my very first project to use Quick Shade on, and I made a lot of mistakes.  Such was the way of 2009-2011.  I tried out a lot of new products during that time, but Quick Shade was honestly one of the hardest to wrap my head around.

Getting the Quick Shade to do what you want can take a little practice.

Eventually, several projects after these, I would be able to actually use Quick Shade.  I had just been so used to not using such...blanket measures.  Once I had done a few, it became easier as I understood how the material would behave and what paint would look like once it was applied.  All in all, I still like Quick Shade, though I don't use it much.  There are more than a few projects I mean to use Quick Shade on, including the rest of Space Hulk.

I mean, I already started it.

I'm going to leave these as they are, much as it pains me.  I still have several Genestealers to do for the Space Hulk set, so we'll see if I've improved any.  Probably not, as it's been a few years since I used it.  Hopefully, I'll remember the lessons learned these years back and they will turn out much better.

Mostly not to be as sloppy.