Tag Archives: Conversion

Best laid plans…

30 Monday Jul 2018

Posted by in The Chapel

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Greetings Terrans, I hope you are all well. So today was supposed to have been a triumphant post showing off a fully painted game of Stylites, played at Mark’s place, and showcasing the minis that we have lovingly prepped and painted and the gorgeous terrain that Mark has made… and then my car died. The Machine spirit had almost got me to Mark’s house, but couldn’t complete the journey. Long story short, instead of a pleasant afternoon chucking dice in good company, I had a long afternoon sat on the side of a motorway waiting for a tow home. On the bright side, at least the car failed now, so I can get it fixed in time for BOYL next weekend!

Anyway, it’ll be a while before Mark and I can get together to do the showcase/photo shoot game, so I thought I’d let you guys see the Penitents that I literally lost sleep to finish in time:

 

So let me introduce them – first up if Kull. His crime was one of blasphemy against the Emperor, and the casting down his holy idols. The Punitore engines within the Chapel determined that Kull’s toungue be removed, his lips be sewn closed, his treasonous left arm be removed, and a penance sentence of life as a Stylite:

 

Next is Malven, his crime was sadism, kidnap and torture. Malven developed a taste for abduction and bondage, followed by the long slow suffocation of his victims – all the better to savour their fear. The Punitore engines dictated that Malven be permanently shackled, and that his breathing be restricted by artificial means while stim injectors act to keep him conscious… he exists in an endless state of near-asphyxiation and terror, and will continue to do so for the remainder of his life sentence as a Stylite:

 

Now we have Dunc, and his crime was that of spying and embezzlement. On his submission to Chapel justice, it was said that he stole with the left hand as he sold secrets with the right – a claim that the Punitore engines took literally. Dunc lost the fingers of his left hand, the whole of his right arm, and his eyes before beginning his life sentence as a Stylite:

 

Finally we have Cobb, guilty of murder and infanticide. Cobb bound and gagged his own twin daughters, before holding them face down in a pond and drowning them… Cobb claimed that the children were wytches, so the villagers who delivered Cobb to the Chapel also recovered the bodies of Cobb’s daughters, and handed them over for examination. There was no evidence that the children were wytches, and the Punitore engines were not swayed by Cobb’s defence. They decreed that his lies be gagged, that his mouth be hung with weight equal to the combined weight of his daughters, that his murderous hands be taken, and that the skulls of his victims be chained in their place to remind him of his crimes as he serve his life sentence as a Stylite:

 

Pretty dark stuff I know, but as I was making these guys, I couldn’t help but imagine what their crimes might have been. I also thought about what would prevent them from just jumping from their stylites and ending their own suffering – I thought it would be cool if those who seek to cheat their penance through suicide be brought back as servo-skulls, and doomed to spend centuries witnessing the suffering of others… That seems a good way to explain the penitents, the servoskulls, and the skull-jackers!

In terms of painting, these guys were all mostly wash jobs, and are actually pretty basic, (necessary due to time constraints). However, I did spend some extra time on the flesh, and in particular the faces, just to elevate them a little from a speed-painting job. I’m pretty pleased with how it all came together! But hey – now, it is your turn! Mark has issued a challenge to create your own take on a skull-jacker & penitent. There is even a prize! Don’t forget to link back to Mark’s blog to make it easier to have your entry considered – looking forward to seeing what you clever lot come up with!

Anyhow, that’s it for today chaps, I am finishing up one last mini before I head to the lead-belt for the weekend, so I may get a post in later in the week… If I don’t then I’ll catch you all next week with a full write-up on the Bring Out Your Lead weekend 2018!!! Woohoo!

Adask; my Stylites Skull-Jacker

27 Friday Jul 2018

Posted by in The Chapel

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So, the cat is out of the bag! Earlier this week, my fellow hobby-bro Mark over on Heresyofus broke the news about a little project that we’ve been working on – Stylites – a free game that accompanies some rather excellent terrain he is producing. We co-developed & wrote up the rules for a compact little ‘push your luck’ game, set in the insane Chapel, a setting that Mark has been developing in his own little corner of the grim-dark 41st Millennium. If you haven’t read Mark’s post, I suggest you do so immediately – it contains all the background, rules links, and a sweet competition for all you lovely folks to get involved with! Go on, read it now, I’ll wait…

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Done? Ok, good. Exciting stuff, right? So a few weeks ago, I teased this chap & invited folks to guess what he’s all about:

 

Wudugast was spot on with his guesswork at the time, (he is clearly a warlock btw), but by now I hope that even the non-psykers among you will have figured out this is my Skull-Jacker. Those with really good memories may even remember Adask from my Ostium Guides short story from way back in March last year… TL;DR – Adask has a shit time trekking through the Albino Forest & ends up being stranded at The Chapel… Funnily enough, back then someone asked if the protagonist from that story was going to show up in the wider Chapel project at some point… That idea stuck with me, so I had Adask in mind when I build & painted my ‘Jacker.  Guess who asked that question btw… yep, it was Wudugast.  See? He’s is totally a warlock!

Anyway, here he is folks – Adask the Skull-Jacker, all painted up & ready to jack some skulls y’awl!

 

I’m really very pleased with the build and colour palette – he was great fun to paint! I was striving for ‘functional’ rather than militaristic, and, while there are no weapons, there is enough going on with the mini to suggest a very utilitarian existence. All the sticky-outy bits make him tricky to photograph, but I hope you’ll excuse the odd blurry limb here & there ;-)  I may go back and dirty him up a little at some point, but I’m happy with him as-is for now.

So, what’s next? Well, I’ll be expanding on my original Ostium Guides short story in due course, and moving the tale along to discover what happened to Adask after his abandonment at The Chapel. I’m also finishing up the four penitents that I teased earlier in the week… They are almost there, and should be ready for a photo-shoot game on Sunday… Exciting times! :-)

Decembruary painting challenge completed!

19 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by in AoS Undead, OldHammer

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Happy Friday folks, and I’m happy to report that my super death-dragon monster of deathly death is finished, thus comfortably getting me over the finish line for Azazel’s Decembruary painting challenge. As a reminder, the challenge was to paint a ‘big thing’ that has been put off for a while, and this certainly matches that brief – I’ve had this project in mind for months, but never seemed to have the motivation to roll my sleeves up and get cracking… You can probably see why – this was a complicated and intimidating kit bash to represent Arkhan The Black in an OldHammer stylee, and is based on the venerable Death Dragon from Grenadier, (still available from mirliton.it as ‘Arkor the Eternal’). This is what I ended up with:

So let’s talk a bit about the build… First things first, this old girl is a big lump of lead, and I made it more complicated by deliberately ignored the ‘correct’ pose to make her a bit more dynamic… much pinning and filling was required to make sure she was rock solid! I used an old GW skeleton cavalry mini to represent Arkhan himself, with some minor conversion work to swap the (MASSIVE) head, add a right arm, add a tilting shield, and sculpt a saddle & banner mount. He also got some manly man-chains to steer the bugger. The base got quite a lot of attention as well – Arkhan gets a bunch of spirit host attacks in AoS, so I wanted to represent this on the model. The banshees from the Mortis Engine kit fitted the bill nicely, while some trees & scatter filled in the gaps and added a third point of stability for the dragon. One final thing to note – cleaning the mould lines off such a big model created a lot of lead shavings and off-cuts. I glued all this gash to the base and used it as texture, thus avoiding any thorny issues with responsible disposal. I even managed to sneak the rider’s original massive head in there – waste not, want not!

In terms of painting, this piece (is it pretentious to call it a ‘piece’??) provided ample opportunity to cut loose and have some fun. First up, I wanted the spirits to look like they were really glowing, so I had loads of fun with OSL. I think it came off nicely, though I think I overdid it a bit on the dragon’s eye sockets… I’ll sort that bit out next time I have some skellies on the table, but otherwise I am really chuffed with how the glow effect worked. Another bit that got a lot of attention was the banner and (to a lesser extent) the shield, and I really got to push the boat out with the freehand here. I am delighted with how it came out – that banner ended up being one of my favourite ‘things wot I painted’ ever! The rest of the paint job was pretty standard – I painted the trees to match my woodland bases, and I took my usual approach making things look tatty and old. A smattering of leaves and tufts of grass complete the base, though I do need to just go back and add some OSL to the leaves, (they got glued on last, and I didn’t want to risk painting on to wet superglue).

Here are a bunch of close-ups from various angles & focus points – I’ve tried to capture all the interesting bits for your viewing pleasure:

 

So, that’s it folks, what do you think?! I’m delighted with how it all came together & hope you like it too :-)   Huge thanks to Azazel for setting the challenge and motivating me to tackle such a big & intimidating project – it is great to have such a mighty hero to lead my legions, and I wouldn’t have got around to it without this challenge, so high-fives to you dude :-)