Tag Archives: Undead

Mors Omnia Aequalia

17 Thursday May 2018

Posted by in AoS, AoS Undead

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Greetings, fellow humanoids. Wow, it has been quite some time since I posted anything – simple reason for that… it has been ages since I painted anything!! To be honest, I’ve been in a bit of a funk of late – life has been a bit up & down, and my motivation levels have been pretty much non-existent. I don’t think I’m back to 100% yet, but with gritted teeth, I managed to get some paint down. I don’t know about you guys & gals, but whenever I’m coming out of a slump, I like to tackle something straight forward to get my juices flowing. I find that undead are a great candidate for that, so after a quick rummage in the lead pile, I picked out some cool zombies from the ‘March of the Dead’ kickstarter from last year. Sculpted by the rather excellent Philip Hynes, these minis are the perfect addition to my eclectic undead horde and were all painted in an unfussy way, mostly with washes.

 

First up, let’s look at some of the ‘regular’ zombies from the range:

There’s a definite black humour, self-mutilation vibe going on with this group – for example, Mr. face-peeler is definitely processing some issues! Highlights in this group are the attitude farmer giving it the finger, and the manic grin on the headless lady. I’m chuffed to have another zombie lady and an undead dwarf to add to my army – death is an equal opportunities employer after all! The anatomy demonstration mini is a pretty cool concept too, and would be a great piece to include in a suitably macabre diorama.

 

Next, we have this trio of ‘big ‘uns’:

There is less humour on display here, but these guys are just straight-up awesome. The minotaur & Ogre add yet more diversity to my zombie horde, but I decided to paint the ‘crypt thing’ as a living creature – he/she/it is probably going to be the start of a small Ghoul contingent.

 

Finally, here we have the real reason I was drawn to the KS in the first place –  undead farm animals:

These three beasties really push the boundaries when it comes to adding diversity to my undead army – I love the image of all manner of corpses being used in an undead army… death cares not from whence the clay comes after all! I must admit, that pig is about the most disturbing thing I have ever painted… it’s enough to put me off bacon sandwiches! (ok, so that is an exaggeration – nothing could put me off a bacon butty)

 

Here’s the whole group together (minus the crypt thing):

 

Anyhoo, that’s it for now folks – I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing these weird & wonderful additions to my legions of undeath! I’ll try and keep the momentum up and get back into the swing of things with some more Eru-Kin and maybe a bit of Necromunda. Catch y’all on the flip-side 🙂

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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 🙂

Primaris Marines (?!) and some ‘Nasty Bush’!

08 Monday Jan 2018

Posted by in AoS Undead, OldHammer, Primaris Marines, Side projects

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Greetings fellow aironauts, and welcome to the first ‘proper’ post of the year on Leadballoony. I really haven’t had that much time for hobbying over the Christmas break – it was a pretty busy time, but I did manage a few bits and bobs, starting with a few jungle bases:

 

This is a continuation of my side project to create some psychedelic jungle terrain, and is meant to provide some really dense patches of bush (fnarr fnarr) with small paths wending their way through. Placing minis on said path is a bit of a bugger, but is absolutely doable. There will be plenty more to follow on this project, so expect to see the odd bit of jungle turning up over the coming months!

Next up we have some unplanned and unexpected Primaris Space Marines… yeah, random! There is an explanation though – my youngest son surprised me a few days before ‘the big day’ by asking for some…  He was quite clear that we needed some real ‘goodies’ in the collection, and that the heroically proportioned and clean-cut Marines were the way to go:

We (I) got them built and undercoated gold over the break, but my boy dictated the weapon loadout & colour scheme, as well as doing all the drybrushing & inkwashing. It was great to see him totally absorbed by the process, and I have a feeling that he might get into the hobby as he gets older:

There is no specific chapter in mind for these guys – my boy wanted to do his own colour scheme, so the purple & gold is very much ‘rule of cool’. I reckon it looks rather smart! I specifically left out some of the finer details, (like highlights on the coloured panels and chapter iconography), just so that they can be improved at some point in the future. No doubt my son and I will slowly grow this small band of brothers as the year progresses, and I’m actually looking forward to doing some more – they are really rather nice to paint! Unlike a lot of folks, I don’t have any skin in the Astartes game, so I was actually happy to see correctly proportioned Marines hit the market… There. I’ve said it… I’m coming out as a secret Primaris fan. Hell, I can even largely ignore the awful & clunky fluff that justifies their existence! As far as I am concerned, this is what Marines look like now – indeed, they should always have been this big, so this as-yet unnamed chapter will be entirely made up of Primaris. Here are a few fun pics of them engaging some wily Eru-Kin on some distant death-world:

 

It hasn’t all been space jungle & giant Marines over the holiday though, there has also been the ‘small’ matter of Azazel’s ‘Painting Decembruary’ challenge… Happily, my version of Arkhan is progressing very nicely – the build is finished and I have started adding colour, but I’m keeping all that under wraps for now so you’ll have to settle for more B&W for the time being:

 

That’s it for now folks, hope you enjoyed the post & catch you all soon!

Painting Decembruary update, and a little bit of jungle

19 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by in AoS Undead, OldHammer, Side projects

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Hi guys, just a few bits to share with you all today – my main effort has been focussed on progressing my big Deadcember / ‘Painting Decembruary’ project. I also got a little more jungle built as well, but let’s take a look at the big fella first:

As described in my previous post, the main part of the build is the rather lovely Death Dragon from Grenadier Masterpiece Editions. Happily, all the pinning, bracing and filling worked out really well, and the beasty has held together & can successfully bear its own weight. I have jazzed up the base with some scenic bits and bobs, and ghosts from the Mortis Engine kit, (an accompanying host of spirits are ‘a thing’ in the AoS warscroll).

I have also done some work on Arkhan himself – he’s a funny character to capture really, what with him being a Liche King, a powerful sorcerer, and a pretty formidable fighter too. He is based on an old metal skeleton knight, with some newer plastics added to refine the look a little and to get him equipped correctly. The first thing that had to go was the lumpy and outsized head – this got swapped for a suitably warrior-magey one from the skeleton kit. The next thing to get sorted were the weapons… Arkhan is supposed to be armed with a staff & tomb blade, but I decided to be a bit liberal with my interpretation of his gear. The staff looks more like a combat weapon, and is made of various components including a bladed staff head from the tree revenant kit. His sword, (slung over his back), is also of Elven make, so it looks like my version of Arkhan might be an ancient Elven warrior-mage of some sort! I also added a small jousting shield from the Brettonian Knight kit – it’s a smaller item than the one that the model is designed for, so it doesn’t hide the figure in the same way, but still gives me a flat area for some freehand. Here’s a closeup for you:

Terrible photos I know, but hopefully you get the idea. I still have some work to do – he needs a sleeve added to that right arm, and a proper saddle for example. I’ll be breaking out the green-stuff this week, with the aim of getting him primed for the weekend.

In other news, I also managed to crank out some more psychedelic jungle terrain for a bit of fun:

I’ve just realised that it’s hard to judge the scale with this photo, but if you look closely there are some bits and pieces on the base that help… basically I went big here, with a vague idea that these trees are carnivorous, and that their area of effect is shown by the big bases that they sit on… They don’t have to be used this way of course, but it’s nice to have the option to go for a deathworld type narrative if I choose. I’m pretty pleased with how this little side-project is going, and have much more to add further down the road 🙂

Anyhow, that’s it for now folks! I’ll try to get an update out next week, but if not then I’ll catch you dudes on the other side for the traditional retrospective post. Peace & goodwill to you all.

Baby, we were spawn to rock

12 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by in Eru-Kin, Side projects

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Greetings fellows, I have three more Eru-Kin to share with you today – these are the last three basic troopers. These guys share the same body as the second set of three that I painted up, but have bare heads, so they add more interest to the group. I persevered with purple, blue & a khaki green skin tones:

I love how they look amused when viewed from the right, and evil when viewed from the left 🙂 I just have some sergeant types to finish and then I’ll call this phase done with three squads of five, but don’t worry, I have many more to add to the spawning in the new year!

It hasn’t all been about the Eru-Kin since my last post – I also did a bit of building for Azazel’s ‘Painting Decemb-uary’ challenge. The aim is to finish up a ‘big thing’ that has been sitting around waiting for paint. Trouble is I didn’t have anything suitable in the queue, so I had to delve into the lead pile for something to tackle. The choice was made for me when I spotted my Death Dragon from Grenadier Masterpiece Editions… I’ve been putting off getting started on this wee beastie for ages – it is a huge piece of lead, and quite the challenge to build. I bit the bullet and put the dragon together over the weekend – much pinning and gluing required! Here she is as of Sunday morning:

Obviously the elastic bands will come off once everything has set 🙂  Next stage is to give her a nice scenic base and a new converted rider, (the one that comes with is a teenyweeny mage type who might well end up in my planned chaos gnome army… yeah, that’s another project for the future). I’ll be running the completed piece as a counts-as Arkhan the Black, Mortarch of Sacrament in my AoS Death legion… Mwhahahah!!!

Peace out dudes!

Rising from the grave…

30 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by in AoS Undead, OldHammer

≈ 16 Comments

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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 🙂