If it bleeds, we can kill it…

06 Monday Nov 2017

Posted by in OldHammer

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Happy Monday folks! I’ve managed to get into a bit of a groove this last week, and I’ve started a new RT army project that has been on the back-burner for far too long – the rather magnificent ‘Eru-Kin’ Kickstarter from Diehard miniatures. I’m aiming to get a command squad and two basic troop squads done this side of Christmas, and then get into some fun stuff in the new year, with (hopefully) a playable army on the table in time for BOYL.

Anyway, let’s take a look at what I’ve got so far – he just happens to be the General, and is such a stonking model:

So we kind of have a Slann thing going on here, but clearly this mini is heavily influenced by the Predator, which is kinda neat given that Pred is 30 years old this year, (shit… now I feel old). Man, I absolutely love that film – in fact, I would put it down as one of my all-time favourites, along with Aliens, Terminator (1&2), Blade Runner, Mad Max, Dune and Robocop (original)… My love of science fiction has deep roots – one of my standout memories was a bunch of us in a mate’s bedroom, all huddled around a small portable TV & Betamax player, watching the Predator pick of Arnie’s team one by one in the relentless claustrophobia of the jungle. The sheer impact and visceral thrill of this film totally blew my mind… Heady days my friends, heady days. *sigh*

Anyway, in terms of paining, I took it fairly easy on this guy – muted primaries, the serviceable & cool blue-grey offset by some asymmetrical red armour plates and bright splashes of glossed yellow flesh. I tried for a bone effect on the helmet & weapons, which is nice from a colour balancing perspective, but I need to go back and tidy up the guns. I also took advantage of the ‘foot on rock’ posing of the base mini, and mounted him on a neat little base topper (I got it for free for supporting the new Ghost Archipelago game from Osprey). I’m going to add some vines and stuff to the base at some point, but I want to see how the rest of the army evolves before I commit. The whole colour scheme might look familiar to some of you, because I basically copied the scheme I used on my Colony 87 not-Slann a couple of years ago:

 

So, there we have it – the humble beginnings of a new army. I feel a strange urge to paint up some Catachans, do some jungle terrain, and shout ‘Get to da chopper!!!’  :-)

Rising from the grave…

30 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by in AoS Undead, OldHammer

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…of a hobby slump!

Hello folks, it has been some time, hasn’t it? I’ve been in a real hobby slump of late – no particular reason, but I just haven’t really felt like doing much lately :-/  Also I need to apologies to those followers who are not on WordPress – for some bizarre reason I have been unable to post comments outside of WordPress for a couple of weeks, but fear not – I have been looking on with interest!

The fallow period hasn’t been a complete write-off though, I have slowly worked my way through a selection of Skellies over the last several weeks, and I also went through my leadpile in search of inspiration. First up, let’s take a look at my recent painting achievements.

Here we have a bunch of Nightmare Legion skellies, including a couple of musicians, a complete standard bearer, Renzo the champion, and Mordini the hero:

This is kinda cool because a) I now have the complete range of figured from this Regiment of Renown, and b) I can now add this lot to my existing Legion to put together a unit of 40. This is significant in AoS points because that last 10 comes at half price, and as a bonus, this frees up the C17 command section that used to lead them. Here is my updated Legion – note that Renzo is in charge now, but Mordini is not included in the unit:

 

I’ll get around to accurately reproducing the banner at some point in the future to really put the final gloss on this unit, but next up we have a couple of real randoms. The guy with the crossbow is an unnamed 1984 pre-slotter – he did come with another horned skeleton of the same vintage, but sadly I lost him to lead rot :-(  The two with scythes are not quite as old – the anatomically unlikely one is from the MD8 undead chariot, while the heavily armoured guy is in the ’91 Red catalogue (thanks Hivemind!!):

These guys fit in perfectly with my Cursed Company, taking this unit up to 33ish models:

 

Next up, I have this lonesome pikeman to show – nothing hugely exciting here, and no idea of his age or range:

He slots in nicely with my Grave Guard unit, as does Mordini and the C17 command section that got released from the Nightmare Legion. Graveguard are pretty damn good in AoS, so I am pleased to see their numbers increasing slowly:

 

Finally, I painted up a Middlehammer Necromancer – this guy appears in the Black catalogue of 1993:

He’s a bit boss-eyed, but he’ll do ;-)  He’ll support my existing ‘mancer in AoS, and is also destined to act as his apprentice in a future Frostgrave campaign:

 

So, that’s it for now folks – my apologies for being so crap lately, but hopefully I’m over the slump. One of the good things about sorting out the leadpile is that I’ve gotten excited about some of the many projects I have shelved over the years… I am about to start one such project – a whole new army for Rogue Trader! Thanks for bearing with me & stay tuned for more :-)

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!