Preparing for Broadside 2021

Broadside wargames show is Saturday 4th December and is organised by the Milton Hundred Wargames Club.

It has been quite a long time since I played Warmachine and so the whole army needs dusting off, checking and working out what needs painting.  Alongside that was the question of which version of the rules to use.  Back in the day I was a Press Ganger, and have demo’ed for PP at Salute, but that was before children arrived so 11+ years ago and since then I haven’t kept up with the game.  Fortunately, PP now provide the rules and card free on their site and so they have been downloaded.

As for the figures, well at somepoint I remember playing a 4,000 point tournament (yes we did play that many points for one event), but that was under 1st Edition (I think) points.  The points cost will need checking at some point.  Now according to my spreadsheet I own 215 Khador miniatures and whilst 85% of them are built, only 55% are painted – first job will be to check that listing and then to see what might need repairing.

So I decided this morning to get the main two bags out that hold my Khador figures and confirmed the presence of pretty much everything on my spreadsheet (I think I need to check some other bits).  Whilst checking the figures out I came across a few repairs that were needed, a couple I kind of knew about and few I obviously didn’t.  Any hobby time today will be spent on repairs.

Well those few repairs didn’t take too long, although one model has a snapped drill bit in it.  I know the Kossite Woodman repair doesn’t look good and it may have to be revisited but the others I’m happy with.  I also decided that I was going to paint a new Winter Guard Rocketeer using contrast paints, it will be interesting to see the differences in my painting now and back then.

For honesty I shall say now that I didn’t paint the Butcher, the Kossite or the Kovnik.

A long time ago, pre-covid, pre-children (eldest is 11) I demo’ed for PP which allowed me access to a parts service for conversions.  When No Quarter 2 was released (September 2005, nearly 16 years ago) it had an article on converting units to elite cadre, so I purchase another 12 Winter Guard (to give me a 10 man unit) and 10 Hammerfall High Shield Gun Corp backpacks to attach to them.  These bits have sat unassembled and unloved for all that time and I’ve kept it in the back of my mind.  So this little project turned them up again and so I decided I’d finish the job.

First job find the original article, I’ve long ago got rid of all my No Quarter Magazines, but the internet never lets anything truely disappear and so I found a PDF.  The original article also used Devil Dog axes, something I hadn’t ordered, so the axes need to stay as they are.

Second job decide on a paint scheme.  The scheme in the original article gives them a red coat with grey armour and whilst it looks good, it’s not what I wanted to do so for me it is grey coat and red armour (the traditional way round).

Assembly was straight forward all I needed to do was put the back packs on the figures.  To help with painting I went with a zenithal spray, I didn’t want to go too dark so started with Halford’s Grey, AP Skeleton Bone and then Halford’s White.  I’m not sure that there is enough transition, but I’m going with it.

Well I’ve cracked on and finished that unit of 10 Winter Guard.  I’d forgot what it was like bulk painting that many figures at once – I’ve been maxing recently at 6 so 10 and all in the same scheme was a new start.  Thought I’d try using Contrast Basilicanum Grey for a non-metallic metal effect on the blunderbuses.  Otherwise it is contrast paints mostly, with the exception of the rest of the metals and the armour plates.  I’m happy with the paint job on these guys.  Next up is to paint the Rocketeer that goes with them to complete the unit.

I meant to update this last weekend, but never got round to it.

I managed to finish off the Rocketeer to match the new Winter Guard unit following the same method as before.  The Kayazy Assasin is the one of these I am most happy with, the shadow on his chin has come about by accident as I used the same zenithal priming method as with the Winter Guard, but the Dark Oath Flesh contrast didn’t hide the grey primer so produced the five o’clock shadow.

The Man-O-War Drakhun had some edge highlighting done on the armour as I had already done most of the painting before putting him away.  Although when I went to put him away this time I noticed he had no shield (what have I done with it and I can’t find his dismounted version!).

Just realised after I put the last lot of Khadorans away that I forgot to photograph them.  Anyway I have completed a Juggernaut, Destroyer and a Decimator (the last has been hanging around since it was released, the other two I purchased as I thought I’d lost them).  That is the last of warjacks that I have painted.  I also finished the Mortar Gun, the spotter figure had been painted for a long time so I was trying to match the painting style and scheme.  I have a completed Windowmaker Marksman as well.

So the Warjack count for the show game now stands at:

• Beast-09
• Behemoth
• Berserker
• Decimator
• 4 Destroyers
• Devastator
• Drago
• 4 Juggernauts
• Kodiak
• Marauder
• 2 Spriggans
• 1 Scrapjack

Next up is to crack on with the Man-o-War part of the army, with 5 of the newer plastic shocktrooper (purchased second hand recently) on the painting table.