Category Archives: Side projects

The curse of the Werewolf!!!

21 Monday Aug 2017

Posted by in Side projects

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Hi guys, a really quick post for you today – back in April I ran a small pulp game with my sons, where my eldest played Hraxi Jonas, (the interdimensionally famous xeno-archaeologist), and my youngest played Samwise Shortround, his plucky (and punchy!) sidekick. The game was based around killing off some death cultists and hunting down a werewolf, (more here). During the scrap, Shortround got bitten by the werewolf, (just before he delivered a crushing blow to the creature’s unmentionables), and my youngest asked whether this meant that his character could now turn into a werewolf himself… yeah, he’s a proper gamer in the making! Since then I have been keeping my eyes open for a suitable mini, and I spotted ‘the one’ at BOYL this year, the lovely wolfman by Tony Yates, so my son and I sat down to paint him over the weekend:

Hraxi & Shortround – Shortround starts to feel a bit peculiar…

 

…and transforms into beastform!

 

Here are the two faces of Samwise Shortround…

 

I was so impressed with how well my youngest concentrated during the painting, and he really did quite a lot by himself! He is also looking forward to working out rules for Shortround’s wolf-form, and we can expect a new adventure in a couple of weeks!

In other news, I have also been busily plugging away on my warband for The Chapel – I don’t normally post painting WIPs, but I just wanted to prove to Mark that I am on track :-)

That card in the background is all the painting recipes for this project – you can see why it is taking me so long!! Hopefully I’ll have these guys wrapped up this week, and then I can finish off the remaining tree constructs, (a much quicker job), before tackling the four forest bases I need to get through :-/

A bone to pick with AoS…

08 Monday May 2017

Posted by in AoS, Side projects

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Hi guys, this will be a quick post today – life is hectic at the moment, so the hobby is very much on the back burner for a few weeks. I did however paint up a few birthday gifts from my brother-in-lead Ross (he of Classic Chaos Daemon fame), who most excellently got me a classic C17 Skeleton command to buff my fledgling AoS undead – I just love these guys, just so much character to them… if you can’t appreciate a skeleton with a Mohawk then you are in the wrong hobby my friend ;-)  I also bashed out a skelly emerging from the ground to take my skeleton unit up to the magic AoS 20, (irritating that some units only get good when the multiples of 10 start stacking… go buy more stuff kids!). Ok, so technically the unit is at 19.5, but I am rounding up, ok? OK?? Right… fine… anyway, here they are:

 

Seeing as I was doing some undead, I also dug out some old school Spirit Host minis, (again from Ross, from an earlier birthday), to add to the party. These minis are so goofy, they make me laugh every time I see them! I have split the host, and will be fielding them as Banshees… I’m calling them the three tenors:

 

Finally, I added big chaos champion from one of the rather excellent Pantheon of Chaos kickstarters, (now available as ‘The Sword of Echoes‘ over on Knightmare Games). He’s a big old fella, and, while not sold as an undeader, I’ll be fielding him as a Wight King with black axe for some proper crumping power:

 

And here’s a few group shots with my existing multiracial skellybob unit – just for fun:

 

Painting was all done in a very quick and easy ‘washy’ & ‘stainy’ kind of way – I quite like the faded look that it gives the minis… an appropriate vibe for the shambling undead IMO.

So that’s it for this post chaps, I told you it was a quick one! Not sure when I will next be posting – the next six weeks are just ridiculous with study & work, so hobby time is going to be scant… Bear with me dear reader, this shall pass, and normal service will resume at some point in June :-)

Ready for painting and splitting hares

19 Wednesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Side projects, The Chapel

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Hello chaps, I’ve managed a little progress on my Exodite warband this last week – all of the Wraithwood constructs are now finalised, based and primed, so the whole warband is ready to paint… exciting times! But before I go in to that, I just want to share a bit of fun with you all. I was visiting my parents over Easter, and had a request to do some painting for my Mum. She had picked up a couple of bargain hare sculptures – resin, but badly painted to look like bronze (i.e. they had a patchy matt brown coat of paint, with bits of pink resin showing through). A couple of hours with some Waplock Bronze, Agrax Earthshade and Nihilakh Oxide, followed by a drybrush up through bronze to Runelord Brass, and this is what we end up with:

I wish I had taken a before shot, but you’ll just have to trust me that it is a huge improvement. My mum was delighted, and I really enjoyed the process – it was genuinely nice to do something ‘useful’ with my hobby!

 

Anyway, back to the warband. Here are the Striking Scorpions – they had some re-posing work to get them looking more insectoid and dynamic, and I added a loincloth and refined the helmet shape a bit to look more like Eldar. I also textured the helmet to suggest wood, and they also got some hive type structures sculpted on to the shoulders, both to add bulk and to suggest a tertiary weapon system to represent Scorpion Mandiblasters, (an excellent suggestion from Lasgunpacker!). They still look a bit Xenomorph, (especially in their black basecoats), but I reckon they’ll be fine once painted:

 

Next we have my walker entry, a Wraithwood WarWalker. I think this is my favourite of the constructs so far – the base model is superb and took the Eldar doodabs quite nicely. I’ve added a loincloth and gun-banners, (‘packer’s suggestion again), and tendrils to hold the guns. I also textured the head to blend it all together a bit more closely:

 

I also finished up my Wraithguard, but I forgot to take a photo (duh!). For those that can’t remember, here’s the WiP. Since then, I have fixed the left leg so that he’s striding rather than trotting into battle, and I added a loincloth and textured up the head. I really like this guy – more so that the Scorpions above, so I might include him in the warband instead… He’s big enough to count for two regular Henchmen I think… We’ll see how I feel after painting.

So, that leaves the warband as follows:

  • Leader & psyker – Spiritseer
  • Champion – Dire Avenger Exarch
  • Walker – WarWalker proxy
  • Henchmen – 4x Dire Avengers & either 2x Scorpions or 1x Wraithguard…

That leaves me deliberately short by one member – I’ve had something very specific in mind for my final ‘character’ slot for quite a while, and I’ve been looking forward to introducing you to her! Keeping up the fantasy/40k cross over theme, I’ve added a lone Harlequin Shadowseer to the warband:

 

I don’t know if this conversion has been done before – I haven’t seen one, but then I haven’t been looking either. Regardless, as soon as I saw the superb Silver Tower Mistweaver mini I thought of splicing her with the Shadowseer… she went together like a dream, and I am delighted with the result – it’s a subtle conversion, but very effective in my opinion. She will add some much needed warp-power to my warband, and her psychological shenanigans should bring a unique flavour to the game :-)

Anyway, that’s it for now – it’s time to grab my hairy stick and give them all a bloody good tickle!! Until next time :-)