Introducing Sharkie the Sharkjack

A few weeks ago I was looking at my partially assembled Devastator and imagining terrorizing women and children my opponents while pushing around a jack with a shark fin and teeth painted on it. In my minds eye, these faceless foes cowered in abject terror as a uttered such battle cries as “LAND SHARK!” and chanted the theme from Jaws. A few hours later, I was describing my day dream to some of the folks who were assembled at Connection games. I wasn’t there to play, but rather shoot the breeze for a while before running off to do other things. One of the professional painters of the area, Chad (profile on Vancouver Gamers: http://www.vancouvergamers.com/index.php?action=profile;u=36 – blog: http://chadspaint.wordpress.com/) just happened to be making an appearance while I was blathering on.

Luckily for me a small spot opened up in his painting schedule – long enough for a tabletop quality job on a jack, and Chad pinged me with an offer to mod and paint up Sharkie for me. As a birthday gift for myself, I decided to take him up on the offer, particularly since Chad’s brush skills would do the angry-jaws art much more justice than mine would. I have now in my hot little hands the finished product. Without further ado, I give you Sharkie the Devastator.

I can’t wait to get Sharkie out on the table. I’m pretty pleased with the way the jack turned out. I know I’ll be using the piece as a visual reference as I work on my highlighting and shading techniques. Thanks Chad!

Result! Man-o-war shocktroopers completed

I spent a handful of hours over the last three days pushing to get my Man-o-war Shocktroopers finished. Minus a few touch-ups, base markings and some ash waste over the sand, they are complete! I’m pleased with how they came out, though I’m still trying to figure out how much or how little to highlight, and where. I was much more judicious in the application of the purple wash over the reds, so it doesn’t look quite as slapdash as Llama the Ramma’s red areas. Next up in the painting queue is a jack, either a Juggernaut or a Spriggan. I’m leaning towards the knight in battered armour, but I digress. As usual, the photos are taken with seemingly random settings to ensure that none of them come out perfectly, but at least they’re not cell-phone snaps, right? Check out the results:

I think I will celebrate with a scotch (runs off to raid the stash). Ended up with Caol Ila 12 year. It has the brininess of all the Islays but with some of the sweeter notes I expect of a Highland malt. The finish is an odd blend of peat and some lingering flowery taste. This particular bottle has already scared off some non-scotch drinkers, but I find its hybrid nature growing on me. Cheers!

Painting Update – Llama the Ramma finished, Shocktroop still in progress

As promised, I put in the few finishing touches on my marauder, “Llama the Ramma”.  I was experimenting with the macro close-up on my digital camera, there may be some pics that are a little strange, with a really shallow depth of field.  Also, I don’t have a light box, so the lighting is less than ideal.  But who cares!  I finished a jack!  Here’s what I did to finish up Llama.

• P3 Pig iron on the ram pistons wedge surfaces.
• P3 Quicksilver on the ram piston wedge leading edge.
• P3 Quicksilver on the rest of the rivets on the legs and shoulders.
• P3 Menoth white base then P3 Morrow White for the direct facing indicator and name.  Needed a couple of coats because of the purple underneath.
• Ash waste flock in patches on the base.

The shocktroopers just got pig iron on their feet, and I did the stacks, arms and piping of the third unit member.  I should also note that I picked up a second unit of Shocktroopers from Strategies Games.  Strategies was featured in a Groupon deal on Saturday, so I used the coupon I picked up on a new unit.  I’ll have to figure out how to differentiate the units visually.  I don’t want anything drastic, as I’d like to be able to run a full unit without the two extra grunts looking out of place, but if I’m running two minimum units with Butcher it would be good for my opponent to be able to easily tell the two apart. I suppose I should concentrate on finishing painting the first unit, though.  I’m getting ahead of myself.  ;)

Anyway, enjoy the pics.