Author Archives: Alex

Spawn of frustration

18 Monday Jun 2018

Posted by in Eru-Kin

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Greetings Terrans, it has been a while, (again), but here we are with some more Eru-Kin for your viewing pleasure. This time we have a bunch of elite-looking space frogs with some kind of laser lance things that are very reminiscent of the weapons they used in Stargate – all very cool, (but a bugger to photograph!) However, (and hence the post title), these guys took me an absolute age to get through, and actually ended up being a bit frustrating towards the end… On reflection, this is probably because four pairs of the same mini basically became a batch-painting exercise, which does tend to grind my gears after a while. That said, they are really very lovely minis, so it’s not all doom and gloom 🙂

Here’s the first pair, front & back view:

 

And the remaining pairs, defined by the colour of their loin cloths:

 

I’ll be running this spawning as heavy weapons troops in my Eru-Kin army – I’ve painted them in pairs so I can assign them to existing units, or I might just field them as stand-alone fire teams… Hell, I might even mass them up into a big shooty deathstar! Typical amphibian flexibility 🙂

EDIT – I’m also calling this as my entry for Junit 🙂

 

Speaking of the army, it’s starting to get there!

 

I still have some additions to make before BOYL, but I’m a bit sick of painting Eru-Kin for the time being… I’ll probably focus on having some fun for a couple of weeks by painting up a few individual minis for other projects, (Inq28 stuff & Necromunda most likely), so hopefully this means that it won’t be quite so long between posts! Until next time dudes – be excellent to each other 🙂

 

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In Frog we trust…

31 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in Eru-Kin, The Chapel

≈ 19 Comments

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Greetings Terrans, I hope you are all well, and that life is being kind to you. I have some new froggy goodness to share with you all today, part of my drive to have a Slaan inspired Eru-Kin army to roll out at BOYL this year… time is growing shorter, and I still have a fair amount to get through, so I decided that it was high time I tackled some close combat troops. Marketed as Bog-bloods in the Diehard kickstarter, these ten multi-part minis are of a lower caste than the Eru-Kin we have seen thus far, and so are armed with whatever hand weapons they can get hold of. They also come up a little smaller than their high-caste brethren, so I think they work well as young Slaan Braves, eager to test themselves in battle. As a result, I decided to paint them with fairly muted skin tones, (keeping in mind the RT Slaan fluff about more prestigious individuals having more striking skin patterns):

 

I imagine that this spawning will act as cheap screening troops/distractions/speedbumps in a sci-fi setting, while they would obviously work in fantasy as well, and so will cover me for Frostgrave: Ghost Archipelago duties further down the road.

 

In other news, I was lucky enough to spend some time with fellow blogger & hobby ninja Mark from HeresyofUs last weekend. We had a good catch-up on some of the exciting developments he is working on for the next chapter of The Chapel, and for his business, (no spoilers, but it is going to be awesome!) We also did a bit of playtesting for a new mini-game that Mark has in mind, so we set up a table in the garden, grabbed some dice, and brainstormed some rules on the fly. Mark had a very clear concept he wanted to get across, and he got to wow me with his diligent note taking over the course of a few hours, while I got to impress him with my uncanny ability to roll 1’s on any dice. The game itself is based on one of the many insane and esoteric goings on within the Chapel itself – again, no spoilers, but I think it’s ok to say that it’s a really fast paced, high risk, push-your-luck affair, with some wonderfully left-field modelling opportunities… In fact, the whole concept got me pretty fired up to do a bit of Inq28 kitbashing when I got home, and after a few frantic hours of spru & glue action, I came up with this chap:

 

 

Mark will get the story behind this guy, but the rest of you will just have to guess as to his purpose… 😉

Anyways, that’s it for now folks – lots of fun stuff in the pipeline, including a new short story, more Eru-Kin (but with a Stargate twist!), more Inq28 style kit-bashing, and hopefully some Necromunda… Catch you sucker DJs on the flip side!

Mors Omnia Aequalia

17 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in AoS, AoS Undead

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Greetings, fellow humanoids. Wow, it has been quite some time since I posted anything – simple reason for that… it has been ages since I painted anything!! To be honest, I’ve been in a bit of a funk of late – life has been a bit up & down, and my motivation levels have been pretty much non-existent. I don’t think I’m back to 100% yet, but with gritted teeth, I managed to get some paint down. I don’t know about you guys & gals, but whenever I’m coming out of a slump, I like to tackle something straight forward to get my juices flowing. I find that undead are a great candidate for that, so after a quick rummage in the lead pile, I picked out some cool zombies from the ‘March of the Dead’ kickstarter from last year. Sculpted by the rather excellent Philip Hynes, these minis are the perfect addition to my eclectic undead horde and were all painted in an unfussy way, mostly with washes.

 

First up, let’s look at some of the ‘regular’ zombies from the range:

There’s a definite black humour, self-mutilation vibe going on with this group – for example, Mr. face-peeler is definitely processing some issues! Highlights in this group are the attitude farmer giving it the finger, and the manic grin on the headless lady. I’m chuffed to have another zombie lady and an undead dwarf to add to my army – death is an equal opportunities employer after all! The anatomy demonstration mini is a pretty cool concept too, and would be a great piece to include in a suitably macabre diorama.

 

Next, we have this trio of ‘big ‘uns’:

There is less humour on display here, but these guys are just straight-up awesome. The minotaur & Ogre add yet more diversity to my zombie horde, but I decided to paint the ‘crypt thing’ as a living creature – he/she/it is probably going to be the start of a small Ghoul contingent.

 

Finally, here we have the real reason I was drawn to the KS in the first place –  undead farm animals:

These three beasties really push the boundaries when it comes to adding diversity to my undead army – I love the image of all manner of corpses being used in an undead army… death cares not from whence the clay comes after all! I must admit, that pig is about the most disturbing thing I have ever painted… it’s enough to put me off bacon sandwiches! (ok, so that is an exaggeration – nothing could put me off a bacon butty)

 

Here’s the whole group together (minus the crypt thing):

 

Anyhoo, that’s it for now folks – I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing these weird & wonderful additions to my legions of undeath! I’ll try and keep the momentum up and get back into the swing of things with some more Eru-Kin and maybe a bit of Necromunda. Catch y’all on the flip-side 🙂

Olivia Neutron-Bomb

19 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by in Fembruary Challenge, OldHammer

≈ 36 Comments

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Greetings Terrans, I hope you’re all well, and that life is being kind. I have a quick post to share with you today – ‘Olivia Neutron Bomb’ is the BOYL 2017 event mini, and is a beautiful sculpt by John Pickford, organised & designed by Old Hammer stalwart Axiom. Most intriguingly, she is closely based on this classic bit of Rogue Trader art:

I actually had Olivia based and primed as part of my Fembruary effort, but I didn’t get around to painting her because she didn’t quite fit the post-apocalypse gang that I had going on. However, she is such a brilliantly strong female mini, so I knew that I wanted to include her somewhere…  Then I remembered these guys from 2016, and I figured that Olivia would be the perfect unit leader for this bunch of reprobates. I broke out my Kantor Blue and started laying down some colour, keeping to the same palette that I used on the older minis but opting to follow the RT artwork rather than freestyling it quite as much as I did on the original guys. Here she is, in all her glory:

The trousers were a real pain – I wanted to keep close to the artwork, but also use the same palette as for the rest of the squad. I think I got there in the end, but her snazzy pants took a few iterations. Otherwise she was a joyful thing to paint – she’s a really lovely mini with such a great story. Here she is leading her team of ultimate bad-asses through the streets of some backwater shithole planet:

So that’s it for now folks, I hope you’ve enjoyed my take on Olivia! I’ll be going dark for a couple of weeks, (a lot of work & life stuff coming up), but I’ll catch you all soon enough. Have a good one 🙂

Frogs of WAR!!!

13 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by in Eru-Kin

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Greetings Earthlings, sorry it has been a while, but I’ve been on a break, so meh 🙂   I had a lovely time hiking with the kids last week – we racked up 60 miles (each) over five days, which is pretty incredible when you consider my youngest is only 8! I’d be back out there now if I could, and even though the weather was crap, the worst day out on the hills is way better than a sunny day in the office… But alas, RL demanded my return, so I have been easing back into the usual routine this week. As such, I only managed to finish up three more Eru-Kin for my planned BOYL army, but these three are kind of interesting because I didn’t really have a clear idea of how they would fit in to the overall army I have in mind… Undeterred, I’ve been painting them slowly in between other jobs & hoping for some inspiration along the way. See what you make of them:

Paint-wise, these guys got my usual Eru-Kin treatment, so nothing exciting to talk about there, (though I did try out the Windsor & Newton artist inks that I mentioned last month on the skin for a more vivid colouration). While painting, I did have the hoped-for inspiration in terms of how they would fit in with the army and theme. The two shield guys look kind of honour-guardy to me, so they could easily flank any character to provide some additional protection, but the other chap was more difficult to figure out… He is marketed as a Musician, and is a cracking mini, but I’m not sold on the whole ‘command group in space’ idea from the RT era – I don’t know why, but it doesn’t quite click for me, so I knew I wouldn’t be using him in his intended role. I did consider using him as some kind of sonic weapon specialist, or maybe a comms operator, but I discounted these ideas because I felt that he would become a bit too anonymous… To be honest, I love the mini and felt that deserved a more prestigious role! Then I had a major flash of inspiration:

Ya see where I’m going with this? That’s right folks, I’m going to use him as a Beast Caller – a rare and highly specialised caste among the Eru-Kin, and therefore worthy of respect and protection from an honour guard. I imagine that the Beast Caller uses his mysterious ululations to repel rare and dangerous indigenous reptiles from the settlement during peace time, but uses these skills to summon them and drive them to assault the enemy in time of war. I see four major attractions to this concept:

1: This should provide an interesting dynamic in-game, with a powerful assaulting force underpinned by a comparatively fragile single link… What would the beasts do if the Caller gets killed? Rampage? Escape? Revenge?

2: It gives me a perfect and long-awaited excuse rational reason to go and buy some lovely minis that I have had my eye on for ages – Toy-Hammer is well and good, but I have the perfect range of pulp dinos in mind for this part of the project… I’ll keep you guys guessing on that for a while 😉

3: The visual impact on the army should be superb – it gets me out of the need for vehicles to add bulk and height to the force, but most importantly, Dinosaurs are frickin’ awesome, and any excuse to get them involved in an army should be grasped with both claws. Immediately.

4: I get to legitimately use the word ‘ululation’ in conversation.

So there we have it – a small but interesting development on the Eru-Kin project. So, what’s next? Well… I’m away on business the week after next so that kind of disrupts any major plans in the short term, but I want to get some more undead sorted out, and I have a load more Eru-Kin to get organised. It’s only(!) 14ish week until BOYL, and I still have heavy fire support, assault, and psyker support to add, plus some Dinosaurs to get sorted! It looks like I’ll be waiting a while for the weather to improve enough for a mass priming session so I suspect that the next week will be all about assembly & basing… It’s necessary work, but very boring for you guys, so I’ll try and finish a mini that has been sat around in her undercoat for a while & do a post before I hit the road again.

Cheers dudes, keep it (un)real 😉

The Tower of the Dead

28 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Terrain

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Greetings all, I have a cheeky little terrain post to share with you today – I recently took delivery of a rather sexy little pre-painted tower thingy from a Kickstarter that I backed ages ago. When I first got it, it looked like this:

 

Not bad for a pre-painted piece, but I wanted to embellish it a bit & paint it up to match my Garden of Morr. A quick lick of paint, and I ended up with this:

 

Pretty cool, but ‘so far, so what’ right? I mean, it’s a nice enough tower and all that, but not really deserving of a post all to itself, is it? Well dear reader, this tower does tricks… check this out:

 

How mad is that! The tower is actually the ‘Dark Crypt fog machine’ from Real Game FX, and it houses a pump & ultrasonic transducer (a what now?!?)… The bottom of the tower is basically a reservoir, you turn on the gubbins and voila – instant cold fog comes pouring out of the door & windows. Here are a few examples of me playing around with the photographic possibilities:

 

How good is that eh?! As an added bonus, the guts of the machine come out, so with some clever modelling, I should be able to make other ‘cases’ for the worky-bitz to go in – a venting sci-fi tower, mysterious jungle ruins, whatever I fancy really! Now, I should point out that the fog is (duh) wet… Sounds obvious, but it really is very very wet, and this quickly makes everything around it wet as well. Also, the wires are a bit unsightly from anywhere other than a front-on view, so the tower will only look good around the edge of your board. Also it can be a bit splashy… The pump draws the water from the reservoir at the bottom of the tower, up an internal tube, and on to the sonic doo-dah – it is quite vigorous, and I did find that a bit of water came out of the windows & door. It’s also a pain in the arse to set up, difficult to fill once it is set up, it makes watery noises while running & makes me want to pee, and all the drying & faffing really adds to the packing away time, (I had to leave the models used in these photos out to dry after taking these pics for example). To be honest, it isn’t hugely practical for gaming… But I don’t care – it’s just so cool! I certainly won’t use it in every game, but I love this idea for marking cinematic moments in specific scenarios or for special occasions. It’s also great for the occasional photo shoot, where the impracticalities of the system are less of an issue. All in all, I’m really glad I backed the Kickstarter 🙂

Anyway, that’s me for the next couple of weeks – I’m taking the kids hiking next week and I don’t plan to be on line at all while I’m away, so I’ll catch you all on the flip side. After that, I aim to add more Eru-Kin to my BOYL 2018 army, and I have a load of undead to get based & painted as well… Should be fun!