CoC - Walkers

Well as I alluded to in my last post, this post will be about the walker heavy kit and how I ended up magnetizing them.  First, however, lets see just exactly what it is that we get in that box...

Quite a lot of pieces just like we can come to expect from CoC models.

As with plastics in general the pieces go together nicely and easily.  That is once you actually clean off all the extra flashing and mold lines that litter the pieces in varying degrees.  Though once you are done with that and ready for assembly you may want to take a second and orientate yourself among all the arm pieces since magnetizing the vector wont be a simple form of magnetizing the shoulders or elbows and your done.  Well, okay it will be for the left arm since each arm can be easily changed at the elbow as you will see in the pic below.

So what I did here was just glue the shoulder piece to the main body, the elbow joint to the shoulder piece and then put 3mm magnets into the elbow joint and the interchangeable weapons.

Now the right arm will be a little bit more difficult than the left due to the Monitor's arm having a completely separate shoulder piece unto itself.  So what I did here was that I put a 3mm magnet into the main body and the two shoulder pieces so that the two shoulder options can be switched.  Then I also put a smaller 2mm magnet into the shoulder piece where the elbow goes.  While, I put another 2mm magnet on the Inverter and Cipher arms (after gluing on the elbow to the Cipher arm seeing as the Inverter arm already comes with an attached elbow).

Hopefully the picture makes that a bit more clear and straightforward.

So that was my solution to the little problem that the right arm posed with its different meet points.  Hopefully, the hover vectors wont have such problems and they will have a more straightforward magnetizing process.  Unfortunately, I still haven't received mine so I can't say for certain but after seeing other people's pics online, along with the originals on the PP website, it looks like all the arms can be magnetized at the elbows, which, hopefully is indeed the case since that would simplify things quite a bit.

Well that's it for this post.  Stay tuned for whatever may come next :P.

CoC - Father

Well there was a local tourney this past weekend, so I thought it would be a good time to switch and get some practice in with my Convergence.  Though, in order to do that I had to assemble most of my Convergence of Cyriss models since most of it was still sitting in their boxes (I like to paint before assembly).  So lets see what I chose to lead those forces...

That's right!  Father Lucant!

At first I was a bit surprised at his anorexic look.  Sure, I heard the comments that he is pretty skinny and thin but even after seeing those comments I wasn't prepared for how thin his pieces truly are!  However, I'm pleased to say that he looks much better and somewhat bulkier (not saying bulky) when put together.  Though lets not get ahead of ourselves just yet.  The model itself is made up of 15 pieces plus the base, which, at first might seem like a nightmare to assemble though I had a fairly easy time of it.  Seeing as I am planning to disassemble the model for painting at a later date I didn't end up pinning anything (except the staff fist/arm) and even after the 3 rounds Lucant was in one piece... well for the most part.  He did lose an arm when I accidentally knicked it with my fingers.  Then on the return swipe I took off another arm all in either his first activation or setup so I was a bit curious as to what state he would be at the end of the tourney.  Though I'm pleased to say that nothing else fell off for the remainder of the games and he still had one good arm so no worries :).  So even without pinning he is fairly stable and survivable though I will definitely pin him in the end.

The assembly itself was fairly easy even though I saw horror stories about it on the forums.  At first I glued the torso and hip together.  Then I did the legs, which, are nicely "numbered" with symbols as to which one goes were.  The legs did come off once or twice when putting on another leg though I was doing rush gluing and didn't give it much time to set.  Then the rest can be pretty much added in any order since they don't really block or bother one another.

Once done, he should look roughly like this.  Though when I end up pinning the model in its final pose I plan on doing a slight conversion of switching around his pointing arm with his his 3rd arm.  This should be a fairly easy and straightforward conversion where I switch the arms at the shoulder joint but I think it should give it a more dynamic look than this current pose.  I will definitely post some pictures when that's done and he is all painted so you can decide which one you like better.

As for the weekend... well I went 1-2 (1 win - 2 losses).  I've really gotten used to Hordes and their fury mechanic while having forgotten my Retribution roots of having to hand out focus first.  So I need to get back to playing Warmachine and using jacks.  This should also help to significantly cut down on the long thought processes that I had to go through at the beginning of each turn and thus speed up my turns. Which, is something that I will have to do, seeing as I clocked myself on my first game and only had a couple minutes left for my win.

Well that's it for now.  Up next?  Perhaps how I magnetized the walker jacks...

CoC - Mines

Another Convergence servitor solo that I've picked up after the Attunement servitor is the Reflex servitor.

Like all the other servitors so far they come in a blister of three so expect to see this x3 when you open up your blister.  As you can see there is not much assembly that is required seeing as the figure itself is all one part so you basically just need to attach the flight stand and you are done.  The model itself is fairly simple but then again what would you expect from a model that is a mine?  I've seen some pictures of some pretty neat conversions for this model where it is cut in half and just placed on the base to represent how it can dig-in.  If not for my tile basing I'd be quite tempted to copy the dug-in look since I found it to be quite a good idea.  Not only did the model look good but you can also theoretically make six models out of three so I thought I'd pass on the idea in case others would like to try it.

In game terms, I think that the model is quite good with its dig-in defensive ability and is thus pretty much safe from shooting or blast attacks.  Along with its counter-charge ability and proper placement it is also quite good at getting in the first punch and disrupting enemy charges.

Unfortunately, I haven't gotten around to painting these models yet either and seeing as they lack any assembly they most likely will be one of the last things that I get around to painting.  So don't expect to see any pictures of them painted any time soon :P.  Though, I will give you an idea of how they will look like with the colour scheme that I've thought up for them.  The main body will be black, the front grill will be red with the three vertical lines being purple.  As for the little pressure nobs covering the body, those will more than likely be bronze.

CoC - Bots

I picked up a box of Reductors not too long ago and I thought Id share the un-boxing of them with you.  So lets see what we've got...

First off we get two bags.  One that has all the bases in them and another one that contains all the parts for the models.  So lets rip those bags open to see what goodies we get.

Inside the bag there are a bunch of torsos/legs and heads and oh look another bag!  Unfortunately, I appear to have gotten one of my grunt heads lost sometime during the packaging process because I only got 8 heads.  However, I did get 3 leader heads since it looks like they package the heads in fours (1 leader + 3 grunts) and don't bother to remove the extra leader heads.  Unfortunately, the leader heads differ quite a bit for me to simply use one of the extra heads as a replacement for the lost grunts head.  Though I'm not too worried seeing as I'll be buying another box and am planning to magnetize the models.  So lets see what that last bag holds...

As expected, these models are also made up of a bunch of parts, which, seems to be typical for the Convergence of Cyriss.  Though, what did surprise me is that some of the arms are actually two pieces!  This can be seen on the model that is on the right.  It's blade arm only goes up to its forearm and then the shoulder part is a separate piece.  I'm not really sure why they needed to break those arms into two pieces when they were able to make some of the other arms as a single piece.  So be prepared for quite a bit of assembly and clean up work on the models, since I'm sure you can see from the pictures that the models have quite a lot of flash/mold lines that will need to be removed.

I will of course post some pictures once Ive got them cleaned and painted though I don't think that I'll get around to that anytime soon.  Until then you'll just have to imagine what the final model will look like once its painted.  I will be following the colour scheme that I used for the Angels, that is, mainly black with small portions  painted red (the face plates and shoulder pads).

Until next time...

CoC - Heavy Infantry

Okay, so up next is the heavy infantry... I've had these bad boys for quite a while now and have been itching to write about them, though, I also wanted to unveil the painted models in the same article so had to wait until I got some pictures done of them.  Well guess what??  The long wait is finally over and I got some shiny new pics of the models Ive painted in the meantime.  First however, lets start from the beginning...

As with most Convergence models the heavy infantry box is packed with tons of separate pieces that will make up a single model.  Each model is made up of about 12 pieces!!  Though sometimes even more depending on the type of model we are talking about.  Lets just see a breakdown of this...

So, as you can see there are quite a lot of pieces!  Though even with the loads of pieces that you get it is fairly straight forward to assemble the figures.  The legs and arms have special key lock designs that can only be put together with their correct counterparts.  So the arm piece will only attach to the correct forearm piece and so on.  Which, is very nice.  HOWEVER, and there is a big however... the fists that go into the forearms are not labelled or matched whatsoever.  Which, can cause issues when you put the wrong weapon into the correct arm... like I did with my models even though I read somebody Else's warning on the forums about this exact thing.  Though to save a little face, I will mention here that I am magnetizing the arms to cut down on painting and the number of models that will need to be assembled/stored/transported.

As you can see in the picture, the magnet will completely remove all traces of the label that you use to differentiate the arms.  This is how I accidentally put a B and C arm together (whoops).  So if you wish to go about and put the magnets into the arms all at the same time then I suggest storing the different arms separately or marking them somehow because it will be hard to differentiate them once the letters are gone.  The left hand is easy to differentiate seeing as the fist is part of the forearm however the right arm has no telling sign and with all the right arms missing the fist portion, which fits each arm regardless if its a two-handed spear or single handed halberd.  So, watch out for this.  This is probably the biggest thing that could have probably been molded a bit better like the rest of the arms/legs that can only be put together with its specific counter-part.

A quick note here about putting magnets into your models... make sure you have the polarities right before gluing.  So far I haven't had the misfortune of putting the magnet in with the reversed polarity (knock on wood) but I image it would be annoying to remove.  As for the magnets themselves.  I think I'm using 3mmx2mm sized ones with the polarities reversed on each arm.  Meaning that the left arm being only attachable to the left socket while being repulsed on the right socket.

Though don't fret too much if you mix up one of the arms because boiling water is your friend.  Okay not really so do watch out and don't burn yourself!  Though using boiling water is a very good way of fixing any mistakes you may make during assembly.  Or to just straighten out those spears that that may be a little bit bendy and out of shape when you first unpack the figures.  The plastic itself reacts fairly well to boiling water so you can do slight pose altercations if you so desire, which, I found to be great due to a couple of the wide stances the models have.  Which, is a problem for me because my custom carrying case doesn't really allow the models hanging off their bases too much with their feet.  So dipping them into boiling water for a couple seconds is a great way to make the plastic pliable and bendy.  The plastic re-hardens quickly and remains strong from what Ive seen so far.  So even if you don't intend to repose your models, this method is a great way to fix arms that got the wrong weapon attached to it.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the models themselves and that you can customize them a little bit.  Okay, so lets see some of those painted models now...

So here are the 3 Ive painted so far.  After painting one Reciprocator I decided to only paint the bodies minus the arms for the rest of the models.  I decided to do this because I prefer to paint my models un-assembled, so this way I could assemble my finished models more quickly, while keeping the arms for a later date.  Seeing as the arms stay together due to the key locks and that I'm able to attach them to the model with the magnet, the models will be ready for the table top at a quicker date (with unpainted arms).

For the most part I stuck to my original concept that I had for these guys when I first saw their concept art, which was a Thamar Black body with some Solid Gold detail work on the bigger empty spaces that I could find.  At first I was planning on doing identical designs on the models but quickly gave up on the idea once I realized that I won't be able to pull it off with a fabricated template that I could just use on each model.  So in the end I went with simple yet different designs on each model that I could just eyeball and paint on free hand.  I'm definitely no pro and its not as symmetrical as I would have liked but I'm pleased with the results.  I'm also quite pleased with how I marked the model to know what health track I will need to mark on the card.  Unfortunately, its only visible on one of the models in the pictures so I'll give you a hint that the marking is on the model's head and the 3rd infantry's markings are visible.  On top of this extra little design work I continued with the pre-planned paint scheme that envisioned the cogs/hydraulics as Molten Bronze, the energy highlights as Beaten Purple, the "eyes"/energy coils as Genestealer Purple and the weapon blade as Pig Iron.

 For today's finally... a fully painted and assembled Reciprocator with C + B arm combination...

 

CoC - Iron Maid

Here is the unpacked model of what I have come to call as the Iron Maid...  though do note that there is a metal tab that connects the legs and, which, inserts into the base.  I have however, already cut this off since those tabs interfere with my basing.  The model itself is nice and shouldn't be overly difficult to assemble even though its holding a two handed weapon.  I plan to first pin both arms while aligning up the fist portions and then pinning the fists into the arms.  I'm more than likely going to be leaving out the hip guards since I find that they give the model a maid/nanny look which is a bit ridiculous for me.  This is partly due to the head reminding me of the robot nanny from the Jetsons cartoon while, the hip guards give me the impression of really old dresses were the bottom half was widened out with wire frame.  The combination of the two provides the before mentioned serving girl image... though this might just be me imagining things.

Even though the model has some nice detail on it, I will be sticking with my simple paint theme for it.  Meaning that it will more than likely be pretty much black with few points of interest like the cogs/eyes/weapon.  I'm not sure if I will keep the face plate black like the rest of the body or if I will paint it something else like I did with the Angels of Death (Clockwork Angels)... time will tell.

Unfortunately, I'm not really sure when I'm going to get around to painting the model since I'm finding it difficult to find room for them in my lists even though the model itself is a steal for its point cost.  Perhaps I will try to move some things around in my lists to squeeze some in since I really do think it has good abilities and is quite cheap for what it can do.  In any event, I will of course post a picture of the finished model whenever I do get around to slapping some paint on it.

CoC - Flare Balls

With the release of the Clockwork Angels I also picked up some Attunement Servitors, which means that just like the Angels I don't have any pictures for you of the un-assembled servitors.  Although, I can say that the model originally comes in two pieces with the "gun" part (including top tubing) being a separate piece.  This is fairly easy to attach and if I recall correctly then I didn't even pin them on.  Which, should say something, seeing as I'm always pinning things even if its overkill.  The flight stand seen in the picture, however, is not what comes with the model but rather a Games Workshop flight stand.  Unfortunately, due to my basing (custom made), the PP flight stands don't particularly work well since they have a long tab at the bottom that goes into the cut out portion of the base.  So those flight stands are fairly un-useable with custom bases unless you wish to cut off the tab part.  Finding this to be too much of a hassle, I just opted to use a GW flight stand and simply just drill a new hole into the model and it's base.

Following my CoC paint scheme I painted the main body Thamar Black, the tubing Molten Bronze, the "visor" Skorne Red and the little energy lights Beaten Purple.  The only new color added was Genestealer Purple (GW paint) for the "eye".  I don't particularly like to mix paint colors that I intend to use over a long period of time or on numerous models since its hard to mix the exact same color once its dried/run out.  That said, PP doesn't seem to have any other shades of purple other than Beaten Purple so I had to branch outside of the PP brand.

Well that's basically it for the Attunement Servitor, seeing as its a fairly small and straightforward model that doesn't require a lot of work or thus explanation.  I'm not quite sure what the next post will be about seeing as I have multiple options available as to what to write about...  so I guess you'll just have to come back later and check in on things to see and find out :P.