Clash for a Cure - The Finished Project!

Some of you may remember that I have a few things I'd like to accomplish as a painter. The biggest thing I've wanted to do is to use my love of painting to help charity. As more of you may remember, I finally got that opportunity with Clash for a Cure, and recently Battle for Hope.

With Clash for a Cure creeping up on me, I've been busting my butt to get my army finished and sent off. After everything going wrong with the army during painting, not to mention a few more things that happened after I wrote that blog post, I wasn't sure I'd ever make it. But the army is sealed, based, and ready to ship.

I've wanted to paint Menoth for the longest time. I love the idea and aesthetics of paladins in any fiction, even if Menoth's are a bit more zealous and violent than the typical "knights in white armor" fantasy trope we're used to. So painting these up was a real treat. And I've never really painted with vibrant colors before, so trimming everything in pink was a fun new experience. If I ever get my Khador and Circle (and Skorne and Cygnar and eventually Cyriss...) fully painted up, I'd love to buy a 50 point Menoth list just to paint and play.

So without further ado - the 35 point Tier 4 Intercesor Kreoss army!

Intercessor Kreoss

This guy was a lot of fun to paint up. I'd never done horse flesh before, and I'm happy with how he turned out. The excessive amount of trim was also a good way for me to relax - I don't know what it is, but stuff like that is soothing to me! It's hard to see it, but the end of his flags have very fine filigree, which I did in pink. That was a challenge, but it was very rewarding when it was all done.

Exemplar Vengers

These guys were like baby version of Kreoss. I got some good practice on painting cloth folds with them, as you can see by the guy on the left. I'm pretty happy with my progress so far, but cloth is definitely something that requires skill to do right.

Choir of Menoth

That leader in the front was an absolute nightmare. At one point I'm pretty sure he insulted my mama - that's how much this guy hated being painted. Still, he could only leap out of my hands so many times before he couldn't take anymore. The rest of them were pretty easygoing. What I'm most proud of is their scrolls:

I know, pink-on-white doesn't make my camera happy. In addition to doing "handwriting" for the first time, I had the idea to put a breast cancer ribbon on each scroll. I wasn't able to find a subtle way to work ribbons in to every model I painted, but I liked the subtle reminder of why the model was painted.

Exemplar Errants

The models I was most excited for. Not only did I get a lot of practice painting cloths, I finally got to paint my paladin-looking models! Sadly they didn't have hammers (a paladin staple, in my book), but I still enjoyed seeing these guys come to life. 

Exemplar Errant UA

Minus the goofy hat of the guy on the right, these were probably my favorite models to paint. I enjoy painting little details that are easy to reach, and this guy had it everywhere. Plus his pose is so confident that the model seems to make the paint job look even better, rather than the other way around!

The banner was another fun idea I had. These are the only instances I found where a ribbon didn't look out of place, but I think the models are better for having used it sparingly.

Repenter

This guy was shockingly easy. I mean I prefer large robots over infantry any day of the week, but I was surprised when I actually finished him. Some of my highlights seemed to get washed out with my sealer (a fact I always forget), but I'm still pleased with him.

Reckoner

Possibly my least favorite Menoth model in existence. His stance is so passive that it's hard to believe his giant baby rattle is actually a threat. I'm a bit mad at my camera because no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get the shading to show up on his top portion. I got some good shading with my airbrush, and it made me want to invest in a more precise brush for painting larger models in the future.

Fire of Salvation

This model had me terrified. There's a lot going on with him between his shoulders, fist plates, and weapon. One thing I struggle with is painting things that should be active and making it look realistic. When I do things like lava or glow effects, you can tell what they are but they always feel so fake. So when I got to the fire on top of his mace, I was tempted to just rip it off and walk away whistling innocently. 

However, everything really clicked when I started painting it. You can read tutorials for hours, but painting isn't so mechanical that guides are enough. You have to feel how the paint should go on, where colors need to change, etc. So when I started going from yellow to red, I breathed a sigh of relief as I finally "got it."

Thank you to everyone who has encouraged me through this, especially my wife. It was the most mentally challenging project I've done, but I'm so thrilled to be able to help out a charity with something I love to do. I can't wait to keep growing as a painter so my pieces can measure up to the amazing work done by other painters. Next year I'm planning to do a single large model and really do some work on it!

For those curious about the army itself, here's the list along with the tier benefits. For being a tier list, I think this thing has a chance of doing pretty well in a friendly game.

Kreoss3 - Revelations of the Creator
Points: 35
Tiers: 4
Intercessor Kreoss (*5pts)
* Repenter (4pts)
* Fire of Salvation (8pts)
* Reckoner (8pts)
Choir of Menoth (Leader and 5 Grunts) (3pts)
Exemplar Errants (Leader and 9 Grunts) (8pts)
* Exemplar Errant Officer & Standard Bearer (2pts)
Exemplar Vengers (Leader and 2 Grunts) (7pts)

Tier Benefits:

• Increased FA of non-Character cavalry solos/units by 1
• +1 starting roll
• Heavy warjacks with no ranged weapon cost 1 less
• For each choir unit, 1 warjack gets advanced move

See you tomorrow!

Remember to follow me on Facebook. I'm doing a blog post every single day for 2013, and Facebook is a great way to stay up-to-date as well as take part in my monthly giveaways! This month's giveaway is for a hand-made dice bag from Greyed Out Productions!