9 - Clayface

I was able to plug away this week and finish the last model I needed for the DCU tournament at Adepticon, Clayface (now just a few more owls left to paint).  I honestly cannot remember the last time I had so much fun painting a model!

It is a clean, simple model with a limited colour palate.  I started it off with a base-coat of Rhinox Hide.  Then I used the airbrush to spray a zenithal highlight of white.  Still using the airbrush I applied a glaze of Skrag Brown.  I then went back by hand and did the final two highlights stages of Deathclaw Brown and Deathclaw brown with Birch.  To help with the shadows I then gave the model a light glaze of watered down Agrax Earthshade.  I then did spot shadows in the darker areas with more Agrax Earthshade. 

I played around with the base a little bit too.  I added some Green Stuff to the back foot to make it look like the clay was sticking to the ground as he was stepping.  I then used some more Green Stuff to make a clay puddle around his feet to hid the slot on the base.  Once everything was painted though it did not look finished.  It was just grey stones and brown clay, it needed something else.

I made a road sign out of an old base and spare plastic tube.  I then though about trying to use some hot glue as dripping clay.  I added a few drops to the sign and around his feet to give some more depth to the Green Stuff clay.  After a quick coat of paint I was very happy with the results. 

Clayface is really the top tear of the top tear Free Agents in BMG.  He has a good stat line of mostly 3 and 4.  At first glance it looks like he has a surprisingly low Endurance with 6.  However once you read the "Upgrade Card" rules you realize he is a beast!  Clay face has two body forms, Mud and Solid.  Each gives a bonus to his endurance and some traits. 

At the beginning of his activation Clayface can exchange his body form upgrade card.  So with the Solid body Clayface has endurance 10 and with the Mud he has endurance 9.  Normally when a model with an upgrade cards takes damage equal to the endurance bonus, it is destroyed.  Not so with Clayface, his just becomes disabled.  At the start of his next activation he can swap it out for the other form and get the bonus endurance again.  Once a card is swapped out, you discard the damage that is has accumulated.  So each round Clayface is gaining 3 or 4 Endurance!  (Plus he also has Regeneration -1SC to heal one wound).  He is one tough sucker to bring down.  The first game I played against him I eventually killed him but it took me 5 rounds and 4 Owl Henchmen to do it though!

On top of the clay body, he still has Adaptable (+1 to your Attack or Defense each round, giving him a defense 5!).  Sturdy (loose action counters for every 3 damage taken instead of 2) keeps him effective as he takes damage.  Undercover (deploy up to 8" outside your deployment zone) gets him up-close early.  The Hugh trait gives him a good move distance and the Claybody trait allows him to make the Charge attack for only 1 special counter.  He is fairly fast, with a reliable weapon and can take a tone of damage...what more could you want! oh, he can also soak up some damage for your leader since he has Bodyguard too. 

While in his Mud form, he gains the Roots trait (2SC, an enemy model within 8" must pass an agility test or become Pinned Down).  He also gains Mud (models in base to base must spend 1SC+1MC to move away, and Clayfaces attacks gain the Slow/2 effect).  While in his Solid form, Clayface gains Tough Skin (-1 to wound) and his attacks are Overwhelming (-1 to block).

Clayface just brings so much to the table.  I really cant wait to try him out with my Militia or Joker crew.  However I really want to try him in a Bat-family Team list! mainly just because I can.

Right now I am putting the finishing touches on some objective markers for the BMG megabattle at Lords Of War for their birthday bash this Saturday!  Then it is back to the Owls for Adepticon...

Kevin