Category Archives: The Chapel

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!

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To the gates of the Chapel!

18 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by in The Chapel

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Day 2 of the Chapel has ended, and only one warband completed the journey through the forest to challenge the Lady Elect, mistress of the gates, and her unholy guardians… Despite overcoming the Wytch-cult, the Imperials fell under of dream-spell of the Albino Woods, and were lured away from the true path by wisps and ghosts. They remain lost in the deep forest, their future is uncertain… (Sadly, Kieran was ill for day 2 and didn’t make it – get well soon dude!)

The more psychically attuned Exodites resisted the lure of the forest spirits, and made it to the grand concourse that leads to the gates of the Chapel itself:

 

The Lady Elect awaits, while her warband stands ready:

 

A hard-fought battle ensues, and many noble Exodites fall to the guardians of the gates. Inevitably, the strands of fate align, and Lindethiel faces the Lady Elect in an epic duel:

 

Lindethiel prevails, and though grievously wounded, she and the surviving Exodites defeat the remaining guardians and deal with a minor daemonic incursion before finally ascending to the gates of the Chapel:

What awaits them inside is a tale for another time…

 

One last pic – the glowing columns that you can see in the photos above cast various effects throughout the game – some good, some not so good! One of the effects was the manifestation of ghosts, which, of course, Mark had lovingly created. Unfortunately, (or fortunately?), we only got to see Black Tide in-game, (the black one – highly flammable!), but I just had to show you the full supporting cast. I forget the name of the green scribe-ghost on the left, but otherwise we have Lash Banshee, Black Tide, Revenant Boy and Lady Marissa:

Gorgeous.

Phew! What an amazing weekend!! I can’t get my head around how many hours went into this project – all the warbands, (including those absent friends who couldn’t make it), all the terrain, (including the design/printing/molding of the Chapel board & assorted bits and bobs by Mark, and the buildings on the Albino Forest board that were made by Luke & shipped all the way from Australia!), the artwork from Mark and Ahmad Alibrahing (aka The Stygian Thorne), the rules generation & GM plots (Mark), the photographer (sorry, your name escapes me, but nice job!!), and the various friends-of-Mark that popped in and out over the weekend to bring cookies, offer advice, and support and cheer my uncanny ability to roll ones!! Superb effort one and all & lovely to meet you 🙂

You can expect a number of proper write-ups & short stories from me in the coming days & weeks, and I know that Mark will be putting up professional photos and write-ups over on his blog Heresyofus… Keep your eyes open for an exciting announcement over there as well 😉

Finally, I just want to say a huge thank you to Mark for organising this whole thing & allowing me to be a part of it, and to his lovely family for their kind hospitality. You guys are the real stars of the show in my opinion, and I hope to see you all again soon!

The Chapel – the warbands

17 Sunday Sep 2017

Posted by in The Chapel

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Day 1 of the Chapel is over… two warbands have fought their way through the Albino Forest, having defeted a bloodthirsty wytch-cult. Now they approach the entrance to the chapel itself. Only the enigmatic Lady Elect, mistress of the gates, knows what trials await…

Here’s a quick photo dump of the warbands involved on day 1. First up – Mark’s Wytch-cult:

 

And here’s Kieran’s Imperial cultists:

 

Here are the assembled Ostium Guides (plus other denizens of the Albino Forest:

 

And a group shot of my Exodites:

Tree constructs are finished!!

16 Saturday Sep 2017

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And not a moment to soon! It’s 01:40 as I type this, and I’m heading over to West London to face the Chapel in about 8 hours time. I still need to tart up the bases, but I don’t want to risk glue fumes fogging the still-wet varnish so it’ll have to wait until the morning. I also wanted to introduce these properly, but I’m too tired & need my bed – you’ll have to settle for a hasty pic instead for now 😉

Forest Grump

11 Monday Sep 2017

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Hello chaps, great news today – I’ve finished all the trees needed for the Albino Forest stage of The Chapel game this weekend! That’s six woodland bases built & painted in two weeks, with a few conversions chucked in for good measure. Yeah… I won’t lie guys, this was a slog! The painting was actually pretty ok, but the cleaning process was a real pain… I think it is safe to say that it will be a while before I tackle any more Citadel trees!

Here are the six new bases, plus a couple of close-ups on some of the more noteworthy examples:

Those miscast doll’s heads that Mark gave me are perfectly creepy, and will hopefully visually tie in the forest with the Chapel proper.

 

For those that are interested, the paint job on all of these is Dryad Brown, drybrushed through Baneblade Brown to Ushabti Bone. The rocks get an additional heavy drybrush of Admin Grey followed by a purple wash, while the ground gets an Agrax Earthshade wash, and the wood gets a Camoshade wash. I then do what I can only describe as a ‘wet dry-brush’ on the wood, using a very diluted white wash that I concocted, being careful not to get it on any mossy textured areas, (Citadel texture, added to fill gaps – a handy cheat!). Meanwhile the stone gets an additional light Admin Grey drybrush, has lichen spots added, and then a final wash of Agrax Earthshade. Then it’s just a case of picking out any details like bones & stuff – simples!

Here are the new trees with the three bases & scatter that I already had prepared – all pretty closely matched thank goodness:

 

I’m sure you’ll agree, that’s quite the forest, and I hope it helps to make the weekend a real visual treat. Now… I just need to finish my warband… I have four wraith-constructs to paint (should be quick), and I might even have time for a Harlequin… we’ll see how it goes! I’ll keep you posted dudes – catch you later in the week 🙂

Chapel warband update – Exodite Avengers Assemble!!

29 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by in The Chapel

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Hi guys, I have a very happy update for you today – I managed to finish up the fleshy half of my Chapel warband on Sunday, and boy, were they a pain. I really struggled with the hard armour plates on these guys… I don’t paint hard plates often, and even when I do, I tend to go for a more battered look than I have here. I think they eventually came out ok though – I kind of wanted a chitin/bone look about the armour, and that seems to have kinda/sorta worked. I’m less pleased with the glowing green eye lenses, but I can live with them. The rest of the paint job was a straight forward job of blending on the cloth and drybrushing on the fur cloaks. The only colours at play here are browns, gold, greens and greys – it’s pretty weird working with such a restricted palette, but was an interesting challenge and gives quite an unusual look. See what you think:

 1st pair

2nd pair

All four

and the whole unit

 

I may tweak these a little bit more, time depending… I’m thinking of introducing some red ‘warpaint’ around the eyes for all five, and I’m seriously considering ditching the back-banner on the Exarch – the more I think of it, the less the banner makes sense for a woodsy, hunter type… :-/  What do you guys think??

In other news, I used the bank holiday to start tackling trees…. Sooo many trees!!!

 

I’ve got nine trees built over the weekend, so six more to go and then I can get them primed and start the painting process. All pretty boring stuff to be honest, but I thought I’d share these WIP shots with you – ‘The Watchers’, built using some misprints kindly donated by Mark:

 

Anyway, that’s it for now folks! It’s going to be a boring few weeks of posts from here on in, with tree after tree after tree to paint. I’ll fit the rest of my warband in and around the forest, (though they are essentially trees as well).  I had better get a shift on – it is only three more weeks until we are called to the Chapel!