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Leadballoony – It's a lead thing

Monthly Archives: March 2019

Armoured Orks pt.1

25 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by Alex in OldHammer, Scuplting, Wolf Time

≈ 41 Comments

Tags

Conversion, Rogue Trader, Sculpting, Wolf Time

Greetings Terrans, how goes it? All good I hope :-) I’m really excited to be sharing this post with you today – I am finally on the home stretch with the Wolf Time Ork project, and we’re getting to the really really interesting bit… the mythical ‘Guards with power armour & chainswords’! Now, some of you might be wondering what the big deal is – maybe you’re only dipping in to this project recently, or maybe (like me) your memory is more suited to remembering how much damage a Heavy Bolter does in RT* than what you had for breakfast… Either way, I’ll offer a quick recap.

One of the guiding principles of this whole project has been WYSIWYG** – I cut myself some slack with the difference between flak or mesh armour, but I wanted every knife, bolt pistol, grenade, hand flamer etc. correctly represented on every miniature***  I also wanted to use period models as much as humanly possible & avoid the later ‘Ere we Go’ minis with plastic arms… (a couple of these slightly later minis did find their way in for some of the characters, but not too many.)

The problem is that many of the loadouts specified in the campaign pack never existed in miniature form, or were only represented in a couple of models. The Skumbos (bolt pistol & sword) are a good example of the latter condition – there were a couple of minis that suited, but not enough to do a full 25 without chronic duplication. The ‘power armour/bolter/chainsword’ combo is an example of the former… there simply wasn’t a period mini that represented that load out at all. In both cases, my approach has been to attempt to sculpt what I needed – proper Old School :-)

I’ve been showing you the skumbos over the last couple of months – they have loads of sculpted details like pistols, scraps of armour, swords & scabbards etc. All in all, quite a lot of effort… However, the Guards were a whole different level of work – we’re talking 18 full ‘over-sculpts’ of power armour, 3rd party chainswords, bionics, the odd gun-arm… basically this involved hours and hours of sculpting in and around other bits and pieces – hence the excitement in getting some paint on them! Here are the first two squads – Red and Orange:

 

And here are some closer views in pairs:

That last pair was the squad leaders – they get a hand flamer each as well as the bolter. The orange guy is the only ‘as is’ power armoured mini in the whole group but he still needed his hand flamer sculpted on. Note his chainsword is actually part of his gun-arm.

 

I also thought it might be fun to compare a Skumbo, a Boy and a Guard as well – I’ve accidentally managed to get quite a pleasing range of sizes:

 

And one final shot of all 10 Guards together:

 

So there we are – 10 down, 8 to go. Are they perfect? No, of course not – they are lumpen and misshapen, rough and ready. Some have worked better than others, and some are frankly ridiculous. Was it easy? Hell no – sculpting is bloody difficult and time consuming, but I learned so much through doing this… I think it’s fair to say that while my sculpting is still pretty meh, it did improve a lot through this process, and I’m certainly a lot more confident pushing putty now than I was before.

But the most important question is do they work? Well, I’m hardly in a position to be objective about this, but I really think they do. They look big & heavy, they look well ‘ard, and they look like they warrant a 4+ save… They look like the classic end-of-level uber-henchie, and they look ready to crump some Marines…

In that sense, I think I’m calling these a complete success :-)

 

*D4 Damage(r) – if you knew this, and if you can’t say D4 Damage without adding the ‘r’ and immediately following with ‘power to the people’ or ‘with the ill behaviour’ then I may actually be in love with you.

**What You See Is What You Get – your model is a true representation of the army list.

***One sneaky Boy is passing his Heavy Bolter off as a regular one… I’m allowing this because the Heavy B is tiny, and because I can’t handle perfection. Sorry Paul.

It’s the Final Scumbo!

18 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by Alex in Mag Bellum, Terrain, Wolf Time

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

Mag Bellum, Wolf Time

Greetings Terrans, I’m happy to report that a) I’m back in the saddle with Project Wolf Time, and b) the last squad of Scumbos is finished:

 

Nothing to say about these guys that hasn’t been said before really, although the banner bearer did give me the opportunity to try out my freehand on a Space Wolf freehand chapter badge… I’ll have enough of these to do soon enough! Also note the old school yellow helmet stripes – proper RT style ;-)

 

Here’s a group shot of the whole Scumbo collective – what a rabble :-)

 

That just leaves me with the power armoured Orks, and the characters to do… we’re on the home stretch!

 

I also had a visit with Mark @ Heresyofus over the weekend – a chance to drink tea, talk Salute, kick some ideas around for Mag Bellum, and chuck some dice around. Salute is going to be awesome & I can’t wait, but I’m really really excited about where Mark is going with Mag Bellum… Hopefully there will be some more news in that regard soon…

As for the game, we put our Mag Bellum sets together to make a really smart board, and went at it – Exodites vs. Black Shields & Inquisitorix:

My Scorpions managed to break through and destroy the Daemonic manifestation in the end, but really the day was won by the terrain, the models, and (of course) the dice gods!

Mag Bellum

11 Monday Mar 2019

Posted by Alex in Mag Bellum, Terrain

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

Mag Bellum, New stuff, scenery

Greetings Terrans, I hope all is well with you guys & gals. I have something a little different to show you today – I’ve spent the last week on a bit of a terrain kick & have a funky new skirmish board to show for my efforts! Now, as some of you know, I occasionally get to hang with Mark over at Heresy of Us. Mark is working really hard to get his business of the ground, making all kinds of weird and wonderful grim-dark pieces for 40K, and the terrain to game over. Mag Bellum is his flagship system – a series of 6×6 tiles that magnetically lock together, and that have these inserts that allow you to model terrain into the board, but then allow you to swap the bits out by modelling extra inserts. To illustrate this, here’s my new board:

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And here’s the exploded view, showing all the component parts:

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So just by buying more inserts, (available separately, very sensible money), I can use the same board but set it up for AoS, Frostgrave, Necromunda or whatever… The tiles themselves are the main (modest) expense, but they get reused, so it’s a great way to build a really good looking & flexible board in stages and without breaking the bank… and yes, the circles do work for Citadel trees :-)  As an added bonus, I can fit this lot (minus the big buildings) into a shoebox!

Mark is also expanding this range to include indoor spaces – think Zone Mortalis, but with the ability to build up as well as out… IMO, this is a very cool system, and Mark is only starting to scratch the surface of what’s possible. Of course, like any small business, Mark needs exposure & sales!! To help with this, he will be bringing Mag Bellum to Salute this year, and I’ll be there helping him! If you’re there then make sure you swing by & say hi, check out the system, buy some goodies, etc. If you’re going or not, make sure you order up a t-shirt & help support Mark in making his vision a reality, and of course, there is always the webstore too!

And here’s some eye candy to tempt you even more:

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Good old Imperial Sector ruins

 

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Plenty of hiding places

 

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Perfect spot for an ambush

 

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Loads of raised spaces to explore

 

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A nice view of the outskirts of town

 

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Obligatory drop pod

 

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Weird Jinmenju head-tree… picked this up in a kick-starter ages ago, plus a grim-dark ATM

 

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A failed print from Mark’s rubbish pile – a great source of bits!

 

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A colleague got a load of these coasters from Mexico as office gifts… One tap with a rock, and bam – perfect terrain :-)

 

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A ‘Writhing Flesh Statue’, also by Mark, and available on Heresy Of Us

 

Not bad for a week’s effort, eh? I hope you agree that this looks the business, and I really hope that you might be inspired to pick up a few bits & do a board yourself – any questions, just drop them in the comments and I’ll do my best to answer :-)

Anyway, that’s it for this post – I’ll be focusing almost exclusively on my Wolf Time project from here on in… I haven’t been idle in that regard – all the Power Armoured dudes are sculpted & undercoated, so it’s all gravy from here on in!

2019 Fembruary round-up, International Women’s day & Women’s History Month

08 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by Alex in Fembruary Challenge

≈ 49 Comments

Tags

Fembruary

Greetings all & welcome to the 2019 Fembruary round up. Also, it’s International Women’s Day, and in the UK it is also Women’s History Month, so it’s an auspicious time to showcase the ever-growing range of excellent female miniatures in our hobby. As with last year, this post will mostly be presenting the work of other excellent hobbyists, showcasing their contributions to my Fembruary challenge. Again, like last year, I am going choose my personal favourite Fembruary entry, and award it the virtual high-fives and hobby kudos that I think it deserves.

Before we get into that, I feel that I need to address a contradiction between this year and last… In 2018 I got on a bit of a rant about the portrayals of femininity in the hobby, pointing out that GW’s (then) latest releases for the Daughters of Khaine can’t dress themselves fully, and holding that up as an example of the lack of plausible representations of females in the hobby… It is with some sense of irony that my own entry for this year is Daughters of Khaine! Oh, the hypocrisy… But don’t judge me too harshly dear reader – my feelings about gender representation in our hobby remain unchanged. DoK was chosen for me for the AoS Warband challenge, and while I probably wouldn’t choose them for myself, I saw this as an opportunity to try and represent them a little differently & avoid the sexualised look that seems to be the norm for these killers. Instead I went for a real high fantasy/mythological vibe which, I hope, absolves me from being a hypocritical twit.

Right… let’s look at some pics shall we?! Massive thanks to everyone who took part & contributed. I counted 13 bloggers (including myself) who got on board, with (I think) 49 completed minis submitted! Please don’t be offended if I missed anything – it’s quite a challenge to curate a post like this! If I did miss anything, just pop a comment & link in the comments and I’ll rectify the situation.  All the pictures here are totally stolen, but are credited & linked, so in no particular order:

 

Luke @ Imperial Rebel Ork completed another incredible diorama for us this year – this time a post-apocalyptic tribute to his own daughters, (who sound like awesome kids btw!) Check this out:

 

Marvin @ Suburban Militarism came in with two entries for us – a fantastic unit of WRENS on parade, and a pair of tough-as-leather snipers:

 

Mark @ Heresy of us gave us this creepy Shepherdess – all the more impressive because he designed and 3D printed the figure! I love the way Mark paints, and his vision of grim-dark futures is superb. I urge you to check out his blog & store:

 

The Argent Badger @ The Bovine Overlord submitted a lethally poised Druze shock-team for his ever growing Infinity force, plus a formidable unit of DoK Blood Stalkers! I love the toxic green he uses on the snake bodies:

 

Thomas @ High Times on the Eastern Fringe got onboard again with another Drukhari – this time, it’s Excrucia Wysp – a beautifully realised, (and particularly dangerous looking), Reaver of the Blood Viziers:

 

The Imperfect Modeller joined in the fun this year, and presented half a dozen superb fantasy minis from Hasslefree. I love a bit of sword’n’sorcery, and I love how TIM paints, so no wonder I like these ladies so much:

 

We also had a first-time entry from Pete @ spprojectblog. Pete has treated us to some excellent painting of the second wave of the Ghosts of Gaia range from Bad Squiddo. I am very fond of this range, and thoroughly enjoyed painting up the first wave last year, so it’s great to see well painted examples of the second wave:

 

Another first-time contributor is Alexis @ cascadiangrimdark. Alexis has tackled the superb spaceport crew from Statuesque Miniatures, and this includes two no-nonsense women. I love what Alexis has done here – the skin tone, the orange overalls – this is right up my street:

 

Again, another first timer is Joe @ joesavestheday. Joe painted this lovely Reaper mini for his wife – it represents her RPG character. The mini is beautiful, but Joe really pushed the boat out on the basing… Incredible work:

 

Man of Tin got onboard again this year with more Land Army gals from Bad Squiddo – this time, it’s the ‘Land Army at work’ minis, beautifully presented to match his submission from last year:

 

Wudugast @ convertordie also joined us again this year, with seven ‘Ladykillers’ – five new members for his superb Escher gang, a beautiful version of the Rogue Trader Death Cult Assassin, (Knosso Prond), and a gritty Sniper from Victoria Miniatures (a gift from IRO no less!):

 

Azazel @ Azazel’s bitz box gave us this awesome old-school Morathi – a lovely palette and Az’s usual crisp painting really gives this classic mini a wonderfully ‘Maleficent’ presence:

 

And finally, my own humble effort is this definitely-not-sexy quartet of daemonic Daughters of Khaine:

 

So there we have it – the Fembruary class of 2019! I hope you enjoyed the round-up, and I’m sure you agree that this is a superb bunch of really strong & interesting characters. Now, I did say that I would pick out my favourite of the bunch… As with last year, this is a tough job… Partly, this is because the quality is so high, but also the diverse range of genres covered makes it difficult to do an apples-to-apples comparison. However, someone’s got to be top, and this year, for me, it’s Wudugast.

It’s no secret that I really admire Wudu’s painting style, but he also continuously impresses me with the skill he shows in his deft conversions, his ability to unify his squads & gangs (both evidenced in his Escher), his ability to switch to a more gritty, painterly style when it suits (as shown by the Sniper), and the superb colour choices that he makes for character minis (as for Knosso Prond). Superb mate – high-fives and kudos to you.

Anyhow, that’s all folks! A huge thank you and congratulations again to everyone who contributed – it would be a pretty shite affair without all your hard work! Also thank you to everyone stopping by for a look – I hope you enjoyed it & maybe will consider taking part next year :-)

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