Tag Archives: Painting

The warband of Seros Thrice Cursed is complete (for now)

23 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by in Daughters of Khaine

≈ 24 Comments

Tags

Greetings Terrans, how goes it? I hope you are all safe and well, and are adjusting to this new weird reality we find ourselves in! This isolation business really does suck a bag of dicks, but every cloud has a silver lining, and hobby time is a great way to keep things on an even keel. I have some big plans, but more on that later – first, I want to share my completed DoK Warband.

The first new addition is a fourth Handmaiden for Seros – because points, it makes sense to have four Witchelves in the warband, so I used a few spares to make this bloodthirsty lass:

She is based on the Hag Queen from the Cauldron of Blood and was kindly donated by Thomas of High Times on the Eastern Fringe (thanks dude!). I finished her with some of the spare sickle arms from the flappy Harpy types. Here she is with her pals:

 

Next I have three choppy Harpies, (I refuse to use the bollox GW name for these winged ladies). Lovely minis but very fiddly and flimsy… They just had some minor headswap work, and changing up the basing elements.

I also built & painted two jabby types:

 

Finally, I couldn’t resist putting the Medusa from the Cauldron of Blood set together. She had a headswap, and all the OTT bleeding got shaved down, but she is otherwise unmodified. I don’t have a specific role in mind for her at the moment, but I think you can recruit monsters to your Warcry warband, so she might find some use as a counts-as one day:

 

I think that will be all for this little project for the time being – here’s a final shot of the whole group together:

 

Now, let’s talk a bit about stuff coming up. I was planning to do a DreadMob to support my RT Orks – very much with BOYL in mind, but the way things are, there is no guarantee that BOYL will be going ahead this year. I still do intend to do some Dreads, but not as urgently perhaps. I also have all of the Iron Claw Space Pirates collected and begging to be painted up – again, not so urgent now perhaps.

Somewhat surprisingly, I actually have the urge to clear some of the plastic crap that I have been accumulating as a result of subscribing to Warhammer Conquest… I’ve given my mate Ross all the Nurgle stuff, but I have a ton of Primaris to deal with, so I’m setting myself a little challenge – how can I do a Primaris army, and still make it old school. Ideally, this should push my painting on a bit, and get me to the point where I give at least some fucks about new 40k… Wish me luck!!

The Wrath of Seros

06 Friday Mar 2020

Posted by in Daughters of Khaine, Warcry

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

,

Greetings Terrans, how goes it? I wanted to put out a quick post to elaborate on the four DoK Melusai I did for Fembruary – they are intended to grow the small DoK warband I started last year, very much with Warcry in mind. Collectively named ‘The Wrath’, these four outcasts have sought Seros out, as rumours of her status as prophetess have spread:

I’ve gone for a 50/50 split between hitty Bloodsisters, and shooty Bloodstalkers. I also built one as a Bloodstalker Krone in case I wanted her lead the warband some time instead of Seros herself (who will count as a Bloodsister Gorgai).

 

Speaking of Seros, I originally built her without a specific weapon loadout in mind, and she needed a big shitty spear to roll as a Gorgai. I didn’t want to mess with the model, so I had the idea of converting a male Dark Elf retainer to carry it for her, along with some yummy squeezy-heart drinks:

As he took shape, I decided that he represents Kaulgar from the background fiction that I wrote last year. (TL;DR, Kaulgar was Seros’ lover before Morathi found out about the couple & got all cursey and shit). Kaulgar won’t have an active role in-game, and is just there for fluff reasons.

 

I also used some spare bits from the Blood Cauldron to create some themed scenery – nothing fancy, just using up bits to make some themed scatter:

 

And here’s the whole warband as it stands, ready to make their way into the Bloodwind Spoil:

 

 

Finally, a bit of accompanying fluff – I want this warband to be really driven by the narrative, and for them to have a good reason for venturing into the Bloodwind Spoil. If you like, you can read more about Seros’ background here and here, before you get the latest instalment:

 

For many months, Seros continued to grow her strength during her exile in Chamon, the Realm of Metal. Increasing numbers of would-be followers sought her out, but most failed to survive the venomous ‘kiss’ she used to single out the worthy. Those that did undertake the ritual consistently displayed the blood-red flesh and ruined face that characterised her followers, but more extreme mutations also began to manifest themselves.

Seros intuitively knew that the mutating power of her venom would increase in potency as she grew in power, and with growing excitement, she observed that some Aelves undergoing the ritual began the painful transformation to forms that resembled the half-snake Melusai, or graceful winged Khinerai. However, they always succumbed to her increasingly potent venom, and her Chamonite lair became littered with the bones of such failed aspirants.

Fused femurs and ribs were mixed with twisted and elongated spines and the bones of vestigial bat wings, and the skeletal remains began to pile up in drifts. Seros made no attempt to hide these remains, and her reputation as a rising power ensured that new aspirants continued to arrive and subject themselves to the ritual in spite of the danger. Their mutated bones continued to join those of their predecessors, until eventually the day came when a quartet of Aelves proved strong enough to withstand the transformation to Melusai. These four became the first of Seros’ elite foot soldiers, and were thereafter known as The Wrath of Seros.

The creation of The Wrath was a pivotal point in the rise of Seros – for the first time in history, Melusai were created that did not originate from Morathi herself. Seros knew that her power had passed a crucial nexus, and that her former mistress would not bear another to share her ability to reshape Aelven souls to create new life. Seros began to get restless – she knew that she needed to move on from Chamon, but was unsure where to strike out. It was at this point that a lone Warlock found her lair – the first male Aelf to have done so.

Her followers immediately surrounded the Warlock and were about to execute the intruder out of hand, for Khainites have little tolerance for males within their society. Seros stayed their murderous instincts, for she recognised this Warlock as none other than her former lover Kaulgar, and her heart broke anew. Kaulgar also recognised Seros, and while his heart and soul were no longer capable of feeling love thanks to the Doomfire runes were burned into his flesh, he certainly remembered their time together, and he remembered the vengeance that they owed to Morathi.

This was why Kaulgar had sought Seros out after all this time – he had travelled widely since the fateful day that they were cursed, and had learned much. He spoke to Seros of a wild and dangerous place called the Eightpoints – a bastion of chaos, but one littered with items of  vast power. He proposed that they venture to the Eightpoints via the Bloodwind Spoils, seeking such artefacts, looking to grow the power they would need to overthrow Morathi once and for all. We join Seros and Kaulgar as they leave Chamon and embark on their quest for revenge against a goddess.

 

So that’s it for now folks, I hope you’ve enjoyed this update to the narrative. I think I’ll be adding a few winged terrors to this warband over the coming weeks, and maybe a few surprises as well – we’ll see how March goes.

One thing for sure, I’ll be starting my prep for BOYL in April, so expect a pivot back to the Oldhammer scene between Easter and Summer 😊

2020 Fembruary round-up

03 Tuesday Mar 2020

Posted by in Fembruary Challenge

≈ 42 Comments

Tags

,

Greetings Terrans, I can’t quite believe it, but it’s March already, and it is time to wrap up this third installation of Fembruary!! This post will be showcasing all the excellent entries for this year, as well as my own humble efforts. We’ve grown again this year, with 18 Bloggers taking part including myself – that’s up from 13 last year, so thank you all for spreading the word & getting involved! Also as usual, I’ll pick out my favourite of the bunch – no prizes I’m afraid, just the fleeting glory of the win 😊

Right, in no particular order, let’s get to it!

First up is TIM – aka The Imperfect Modeller, with a quartet of kick-ass minis from Hasslefree. TIM has a great eye for miniatures, and each of these is proper little character & beautifully painted:

 

Next we have Wudugast with a couple of ladies added to his Warcry Warbands. It is no secret that I love Wudu’s painting style, and I think that his treatment of metal and flesh in these two minis is just superb:

 

Next up we have Bjorn the Stormborn with a cracking pair of AoS minis for us – a Knight Incantor, and the Briar Queen. I love the moodiness of the paint job on both, and kudos for the spell-casting effects on the Incantor:

 

Beaming in from the Starship Vorenus, we have a wonderful Chaos Sorcerer (Sorceress) for Mikeland’s AOS 28 spin on the classic 1989 game HeroQuest. The Sorceress is beautifully done, and I heartily recommend taking time to take a look at the whole HQ28 project:

 

Davekay at Scent of a Gamer has put forward a beautifully painted Sanctioned Psyker from the Blackstone Fortress: Escalation expansion. This has to be one of the best Psyker minis that GW make, and this paint job certainly does it justice:

 

Next we have some classic minis from Warburton – a female proto-Avenger (one of my favourite Eldar minis of all time), and a beautifully converted Inquisition/SoB preacher. Both are lovely, but I’m particularly drawn to the conversion… Warbs based it on a 1998 GD winner, and I might have to borrow the idea myself!

 

Mikko at DawnoftheLead has painted another beautifully rendered dweller of his very own pirate town Port George, (yes, he really does have his own pirate town!). This time it’s ‘the Governor’s Daughter’ from Black Scorpion. She’s a wonderful little sculpt, and Mikko has done her justice with a lovely paint scheme:

 

Marvin at Suburbanmilitarism has gone distinctly imperial with his entry this year with a superb diorama of Empress Catherine the 1st. The painting is lovely, and the miniature selection & placement is beautifully done – there is fantastic atmosphere to this piece, so go check it out!

 

John Robin has painted up a tough cyber-punk street assassin for us – I love the contrast between the bright pink hair & antique looking flintlock! John doesn’t have a blog, but frequents the Oldhammer forum, where he posted this pic:

 

Next up, it’s another tour de force from the Imperial Rebel Ork. As with the previous two years, IRO has gone big with a post-apocalyptic diorama in homage to his daughters… This time, he imagines them a little older, and a helluvalot more experienced! I can’t really do this piece justice with a single pic, so I strongly recommend taking a wander over to his site for a better look:

 

BigBossRedSkullz has brought the Nestorian Infestation to Fembruary, with the truly disturbing Mosuo dan Bribrix, Genestealer Matriarch of House Akan. I really admire Big Boss’ skill when it comes to bringing proper horror to his work – some of the most disturbing minis I have ever seen are from his talented hand/claw/appendage. His Matriarch is no exception, and is well worth a closer look… if you dare!

 

The Argentbadger has submitted a trio of deadly-looking and very nicely painted Satyxis Gunslingers to the challenge. These ladies are for the Cryx faction in the game ‘Warmachine’, and it sounds like ArgentB has had some success playing them – they certainly look like they can dish out the hurt!

 

Thomas at HighTimesontheEasternFringe has gone with a piece for the boardgame ‘Mansions of Madness’ – such pieces famously tend to have softer definition & less detail than a ‘proper’ miniature, which makes the quality of the paint job that much more impressive!

 

Subedai has put forward a whole squad of classic DE Witch Elves over on TheLostAndTheDamned – part of his drive to complete a 3rd ed WHFB Dark Elf army. Dark Elves are one of my all-time favourite armies from back in the day, so seeing these being done so beautifully is a real joy:

 

SoldiersofTin has prepared and painted a superb ‘half patrol’ of 42mm scale Girl Scouts. This was a tricky project, as these figures had to be converted from Boy Scouts. SoT used tissue paper and PVA glue to create skirts, scarves and hair, as well as using it to give the girls a fuller figure. I’ve never heard of tissue paper & PVA being used in this way before, but it certainly does the trick! This unit is finished with a paint job that is intended to look like it has been done by early 1900’s toy manufacturer ‘William Britain’, so SoT deliberately used flat tones with no shade or highlight. Now that’s dedication!

 

Ericritters at Candore Et Labore managed to squeak in on Leap Day with a beautifully painted Malifaux character called ‘Miss Step’ – talk about a deadly looking cyborg! I’m a big fan of the Steam Punk / horror vibe of Malifaux, and this mini sums up the game perfectly for me. I love the ridiculous contrast between the mechanical bits and the negligée!

 

We have three pieces to enjoy from Joe M of Joesavestheday – an AoS Pallador Knight, a Kill Team Sanistasia Minst, and a 40k DE Haemonculus. Joe has done a cracking job on these three, with the Pallador being particularly gorgeous! I wouldn’t even know where to start with a mini like that, so I’m full of admiration.

 

Finally, I managed to wrap up four Melusai for my own slowly growing Warcry DoK force. I built two of them as Blood Stalkers (shooty), and two as Blood Sisters (hitty), and I painted them up to match my Daughters of Khaine from last year.

 

Wow, so that’s it for the 2020 Fembruary Challenge. Congratulations and a huge thank you to everyone who took part – best Fembruary ever I reckon! It almost seems obscene to try and choose a winner from this lot – it’s a tough call, and there are so many strong contenders this year!

Notable mentions for Bjorn’s Briar Queen, and I love the whole concept and execution of Mikeland’s HQ28 Sorceress, but for me, the winner this year is BigBossRedSkullz with his representation of Mosuo dan Bribrix, the Matriarch of House Akan. This mini combines so many things that appeal to me – a fantastic conversion & paint job of course, but the real clincher for me is the sense of narrative and story to her… She has a real sense of presence, and I find it all to easy to imagine such a creature in some twisted corner of the universe. Well done BB – take a bow mate.

 

So that’s all for now folks, catch you all soon.

Counter Culture

27 Monday Jan 2020

Posted by in Blood Bowl, Side projects

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

, ,

Greetings Terrans, just a quickie from me today – I managed to get a quick game of Blood Bowl in last week, and so I bashed out a few counters to use instead of the standard ones. They weren’t quite finished for the game, but I’ve tidied them up this weekend & thought I would share.

For those not in the know, Blood Bowl games primarily track three things – Turn, Re-rolls and Score. Many coaches create their own snazzy counters to match their team, so I came up with these:

 

Simple things, but they are fun & are a sign of ‘doing it right’ in BB circles 😊

As for the game itself – turns out Wood Elves are bloody good… even when coached by a noob like me! I wanted to try as many positional players as I could, so I took 2 War Dancers and a Treeman, but I only had 1 re-roll for the team… A risky strategy, but the Corpse-Wood Wails comfortably ran out 2 – 0 winners against well coached a Human team. Come on the Wails!!!

Inq28 style Grim-Bowl team

13 Monday Jan 2020

Posted by in Blood Bowl, Bloodbowl, The Chapel

≈ 25 Comments

Tags

, , ,

Greetings Terrans, how goes it? I have a fun post for you today, as I have finished a quick project to create a Blood Bowl team. As usual for me, I wanted the minis in my team to do more than one job, so they needed to stand as their own thing as well as work as a BB team. I tried the same trick about 3 years ago when I made and painted a bunch of AdMech servitors that could double as an Undead BB team.

Coincidentally, I’ve gone back almost 3 years for the inspiration behind my latest team, and I revisited some ideas that I’ve been kicking around since I took part in The Chapel project… Long-time followers of this blog might remember that I had a lot of input into the Albino Forest – a setting that was used as part of the Chapel campaign. During the project, I bashed together some grim denizens of the forest, and even put together a short story to introduce some of my ideas. There was something about the concept of the tree-devils in particular that has been tickling away at the back of my mind ever since, and creating a horror-themed Blood Bowl team was the perfect excuse to dip back into my Sylvaneth bitsbox for another journey to the Albino Forest.

I loosely had the idea of using the tree-devil concept to build a Wood Elf team – a very literal interpretation one might say! A starting Wood Elf team can go one of two ways – either 2 Wardancers, a catcher and a bunch of linemen, or a Wardancer, a Treeman, a catcher, and a bunch of linemen… There are a few less common builds that involve fewer re-rolls, more catchers and/or a thrower, and I wanted the flexibility to experiment, so I ended up with the following list:

  • 8 Linemen
  • 2 Catchers & 1 Thrower
  • 2 Wardancers
  • 1 Treeman

The ‘linemen’ are all based on the Dryad mini – a hard-working but basic monopose plastic body with separate arms. I’ve trimmed and matched the arms, and I replaced the heads with skulls & sculpted in vines & tendrils for ‘hair’. The Catchers and Thrower are variations on the theme, just tweaked for a more catchy or throwy pose. Note the slight colouration of the ‘hair’ to denote role:

 

The Wardancers are unconverted Spite Revenants – I love these minis, so there really wasn’t anything I wanted to change! The sharp-eyed among you will notice that there are 3 of them, even though you can only have 2 in a team… I’ll explain the spare in a bit:

 

The Treeman is a re-posed Kurnoth Hunter, (obviously, he is too short to be more than a sapling compared to a real modern Treeman, but he is the perfect size for Blood Bowl). I brought the legs together so that he could fit a standard 32mm base, and I trimmed back the most extravagant branches. Again, I swapped the head, this time bringing in a bestial skull that I liked:

 

And here’s the Wood Elf team assembled in a few different ways:

 

So remember that spare Wardancer? Well, as I was building the minis I was debating whether to swap out the heads or not, but I felt that the Spite heads had a really nice vampiric look to them, and I decided to keep them. I also watched Dracula over Christmas, (superb TV btw!), and putting two and two together, I thought I’d check out Vampire teams in Blood Bowl. Turns out that they are really simple teams to build, as there are only 2 types of player – Vamps and Thralls. The only real decision is how many Vamps to include in your team… They are excellent individual players, and mathematically, you can take up to 6, but you would be mad to do so… Vamps roll for Bloodlust every turn they try to activate, with a 1 in 6 chance of failing. If they fail, you either burn a re-roll and hope for the best, feed on a Thrall, (stunning said Thrall), or bugger off to feast on the crowd… Basically, Vamp teams need to balance the number of Vamps with statistics, the number of re-rolls, and the number of Thralls available to snack on.

Most starting rosters suggest 2 Vamps, 10 Thralls, 5 rerolls, but you can reasonably push your luck with 3 Vamps/10 Thralls/4RRs. That’s why I did a spare Wardancer folks – so I can run the three as Vampires, and use the Dryads as Thralls:

 

And here’s one final pic of the lot together, and a reminder that these minis are not just a pair of Blood Bowl teams, but are a horror-inspired warband in their own right:

 

I have a feeling that I may return to the Albino Forest setting again and again… The thing is, the Albino Forest of my imagination is a wonderful and terrible place. It is not a single group of trees, but rather a multi-dimensional network of flora that spans time and space. It exists in patches across the 40k universe, but can also be found in the Mortal Realms of AoS, or the Old World. It is a place that can be visited in the worlds of Frostgrave, Erehwon, and Shadow Deep… You can find it on Toril, on Midkemia, and on Middle Earth… If you’re lucky, you can even find it in right here on our world, in our time – just ask Wudugast!

Go outside, visit an ancient and deserted piece of woodland in Autumn or Winter, and let the small hairs on the back of your neck guide you… you might just find yourself in a small part of the Albino Forest, where the normal laws of nature are twisted and the dead do not rest easy…

See you on the other side ;-)

 

Saying Adios to 2019 – the last of the Eru-Kin

06 Monday Jan 2020

Posted by in Eru-Kin

≈ 21 Comments

Tags

, ,

Greetings Terrans, and happy MMXX to you all – I trust you all had a good holiday season, and are fit, healthy, and looking forward to 2020. I apologise in advance – this is a slightly belated post, and is just a quicky to show off the last of the things I painted in 2019. I finally managed to complete the small Eru-Kin army I’ve been working on, wrapping up the force with some psychic support.

First up, here is a duplicate pair of fantasy style mages:

Next a duplicate pair of sci-fi mages (same body, different arms):

Not too much to say about this quartet really – they are identical pairs of very similar models, and are all painted in much the same way. I did add some gold elements to their helmets, and I reversed the armour colouring compared to the non-magical Eru-Kin, just to separate them visually from the rest of their tribe. I also include some bone coloured armour pads here and there, for the same reason.

 

Finally, here’s their superior – a high-mage type:

He’s a very imposing mini, and is clearly the magical heavyweight of the group! He was good fun to paint, and I pushed the armour colouring a little further from ‘normal’ to reflect his status. I also went for albino skin to show how special he is, and I’m really pleased with how it came out! (This was a very happy experiment with the new white contrast paint).

 

Here they are as a group:

In practice, these magical frogs will be split them up & assigned to squads within the army – speaking of which, I’m planning on getting my Eru-Kin packed up properly soon to make some space in my display cabinet. When I do, I’ll make a point of arranging them all for an army photo session & share 😊

 

Anyhow, that’s it for the time being, but fear not – my next project is already well under way. When finished, it should make for an interesting group of minis with a nice woodsy horror vibe…  There should be enough minis and variation to allow me to make up either a team of Blood Bowl Wood Elves, or a team of Blood Bowl Vampires! Both teams have low positional variation, (especially the Vamps), and are very amenable to proxy figures. Fingers crossed it all goes to plan!! 😉