Category Archives: Eru-Kin

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

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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!

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 😉

More Eru-Kin, and the Fembruary challenge

29 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by in Eru-Kin, Fembruary Challenge

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Happy Monday folks – been a while, and I have had precious little time for painting, but I do have a some stuff to share. I’ve had three Eru-Kin squad leader types in their undercoats since before Christmas, but they were on the back burner while I got my version of Arkhan finished for Azazel’s painting challenge. I don’t like having stuff sitting around unfinished, so I got these done as quickly as I could. Check ‘em out:

The banner guy is a small conversion – he had a Lizardman sword added for weapon continuity reasons, but he’ll have to wait for his banner I’m afraid. They are destined to lead their respective squads to BOYL this year – roughly identified by the colour of their loincloths (or skin in the case of two of the squad leaders):

 

Now, challenge time… It is an increasingly congested market at the moment – it’s a challenge keeping up with all the challenges! But… I am issuing the call to all WIPsters and hipsters, painters of hammers old and new, Inq28ers, collectors and gamers. Dear reader, no doubt you have heard of Orctober, Deadcember, Slaanuary, and all the various themed months of the year… I would like to propose that we add Fembruary to the list – a time of year for us to collectively challenge the male domination of our collections, and commit to painting some female miniatures for a change… Sisters of Battle and/or Silence, Witch Elves, Sorceresses, Inquisitrixes, Escher gangers, Daemonettes and Shield Maidens – whatever female minis you have on the to-do list, I challenge you to bump them to number one in the queue for the month and get some paint on ‘em… Let’s do something cool ok? Ok???  Ok.

For myself, I’ll be tackling Annie Norman’s (of Bad Squiddo Games/Dice Bag lady fame) ‘Ghosts of Gia 1’ collection, plus ‘Olivia Nutron Bomb’ from BOYL last year. These 10 minis are grown up, no-nonsense representations of post-apocalyptic femininity – no silly battle heals or unnecessary/unfeasible cleavage here:

I’ll be approaching this project with an 80’s punk/goth/new romantic vibe – think Siouxsie and the Banshees in glorious technicolour… In fact, the gang/squad is going under the working title ‘The Banshees’, and will be perfect for Necromunda, RT, or any post-apoc pulp games.

Finally, I want to give a big shout out to Annie – for those that don’t know, Annie is a hobby nut who set up her own business specialising on providing a range of “Believable Female Miniatures” across all genres, (that’s quotation marks, not ironic apostrophes), and is increasingly making waves on Kickstarter to grow this range. I really admire her vision and determination to make the hobby more representative – something the whole world desperately needs IMHO. Annie rocks – go check it out on www.badsquiddogames.com

Baby, we were spawn to rock

12 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by in Eru-Kin, Side projects

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Greetings fellows, I have three more Eru-Kin to share with you today – these are the last three basic troopers. These guys share the same body as the second set of three that I painted up, but have bare heads, so they add more interest to the group. I persevered with purple, blue & a khaki green skin tones:

I love how they look amused when viewed from the right, and evil when viewed from the left 🙂 I just have some sergeant types to finish and then I’ll call this phase done with three squads of five, but don’t worry, I have many more to add to the spawning in the new year!

It hasn’t all been about the Eru-Kin since my last post – I also did a bit of building for Azazel’s ‘Painting Decemb-uary’ challenge. The aim is to finish up a ‘big thing’ that has been sitting around waiting for paint. Trouble is I didn’t have anything suitable in the queue, so I had to delve into the lead pile for something to tackle. The choice was made for me when I spotted my Death Dragon from Grenadier Masterpiece Editions… I’ve been putting off getting started on this wee beastie for ages – it is a huge piece of lead, and quite the challenge to build. I bit the bullet and put the dragon together over the weekend – much pinning and gluing required! Here she is as of Sunday morning:

Obviously the elastic bands will come off once everything has set 🙂  Next stage is to give her a nice scenic base and a new converted rider, (the one that comes with is a teenyweeny mage type who might well end up in my planned chaos gnome army… yeah, that’s another project for the future). I’ll be running the completed piece as a counts-as Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament in my AoS Death legion… Mwhahahah!!!

Peace out dudes!

Spawn to be wild!

30 Thursday Nov 2017

Posted by in Eru-Kin

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Greetings fellows, another quick update for you this week – been chipping away at my new Eru-Kin project and have three new troops to share with you, but first up I want to share a little terrain project that I have been doing on the side. I have been wanting to do a nice bit of jungle terrain for ages now – visions of steaming alien deathworlds, bizarre prehistoric ‘lost worlds’ and psychedelic fantasy jungles are all inspirations here. Two things have motivated me to finally get my bum in gear with this – 1: my Space Frogs need a home planet, and 2: the release of a certain Frostgrave spin-off called Ghost Archipelago, (which looks like a fantastic game!).

When thinking on how best to make this happen, I thought back to Aiden’s superb jungle terrain for the Inquisitor Cynole game at BOYL 2016, and to Paul’s stunning deathworld jungle project over on Sho3box. I’m not about to question such hobby geniuses, (genii?), so I decided to trawl the interwebs for suitable low-cost aquarium plants, and picked out a few brightly coloured examples to base up:

I’ve sprinkled a liberal pinch of skullage around the place – partly to show scale, but also because we all know that skulls are cool! And no… I’m not sure where the rest of the bones are either, (best not to ask I think). I’ll be adding more to this terrain set as time goes by, but I’m quite pleased with how this little side project has started out.

 

So, on to the latest spawning for my Eru-Kin faction – I have three more basic troops to add to the mix this week. These guys share the same body as the first three that I painted up, but have different weapons & heads so they add a nice bit of interest to the group. I also wanted to try out some new skin tones, so I tested purple, blue & a khaki green:

I’m pretty pleased with how they turned out – doesn’t it all make more sense in a freaky space-jungle?? I think I’ll repeat these skin colours with the final three troops. Here they are by squad – as denoted by the loincloths, just to give you an idea of how it is all coming together, (the General has photobombed a couple of shots too):

 

Anyway, that’s yer lot for this week! I’m aiming to get the final 3 troopers finished for the next post, plus maybe some more jungle terrain… I am also looking to dip back into Fantasy & build something a wee bit special for my Undead – hopefully ticking off something for Deadcember, and Azazel’s ‘Painting Decemb-uary’ challenge along the way! Catch you all next time 🙂