Tag Archives: Painting

Organised Chaos

17 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by in OldHammer, Side projects

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Greetings Terrans, I hope this finds you all well. It has been a hectic time in Leadballoony-land – the idea of running the Wolf Time campaign next year has got me motivated to paint some Greenskinz that I have been hoarding for far too long… I’ve been examining the campaign (in the Book of the Astronomican) to get an idea of the forces needed – and the answer is ‘bloody loads!!’ Quite a few can be re-used between games, but the effort of matching models to stat lines is quite the challenge… I’m determined (for now) to stick to late 80’s lead where possible, and to apply the WYSIWYG principle. I have the first raft of Orks based, primed and ready to take on holiday for a spot of al fresco painting, and I’m super excited about it because the bulk of this lot is made up of RTB02 Space Ork Raiders…  Thing is, the RTB02 boxed set was my first ever Warhammer purchase, and Thrugg Bullneck was my first ever ‘proper’ paint job, so I’m really going way back to my roots with this project, and boy, does it feel good! Here they are, ready to enter the carry-case dropship to painting Valhalla:

I’m going for a general militaristic desert theme for these guys – Wolf Time happens before the idea of Ork clanz Is firmly established, when Orks were really more like savage humans than anything else! As such, I primed them black, and then gave them a light zenithal coat of Zandri Dust – the perfect (and quick!) start to any desert scheme. The theme itself seems like a good fit for the minis – it isn’t particularly novel, but it works for the pre ‘red-era’  period of the Book of the Astronomican, and they’ll fit nicely with my Praetorians too… (Last Stand at Glazers Creek anyone? :-D )

It hasn’t all been preparation though – I also managed to paint a thing this week! He’s a chaos warrior from the Pantheon of Chaos range, and I absolutely love this mini. I keep having the urge to do a chaos warband one day, and he has been primed and ready for painting for quite some time, but I never seem to actually get around to doing anything with him! This week, I had some time to paint but didn’t want to start anything big – long story short, I picked him up and gave him a tickle with my hairy stick:

I have the vague recollection that this guy is supposed to represent Malal – a mysterious anti-Chaos chaos god from the pre-Slaves to Darkness era. I don’t know much of the lore personally, but Orlygg has put together a brilliant piece of research on the subject – you can find it here. From this research we can learn that Malal is all malicious and insecty, that he despises the other chaos gods, but that he isn’t a friend of the ‘good guys’ either, and that black & white skulls is his vibe… As such, I kept the palette restricted, but I did try out a thin wash of violet over silver to give a rather pleasing metallic purple on the armour. I have never tried this technique before, so I’m dedicating this to Azazel’s ‘Technical August’ challenge :-)

Anyhow, that’s all for now – I’ll be off the grid for a couple of weeks, but hopefully I’ll be back with a decidedly big green bang in September! Peace out dudes, and be excellent to each other  :-)

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! :-)