A big lad

The need to paint something wholly different from WW2 continued in my head, so I plucked an old fig from a neglected project and got to work. It's a metal Reaper Miniatures "Plague Harbinger", a really nice sculpt from 2004 by Werner Klocke that I'd bought originally upon release and had left on the shelf of unloved minis with the intention to paint up as the last member of my Inquisimunda/INQ28 Nurgle Coven! (I need to have a serious word with the "Hoarder" in me.)

Hadn't realised, but I had not worked on this project since 2012, the previous entry being a bits-mash-up deamonhost! O_o This feller is representing a "Big Mutie" in the rules, as well as being unnaturally large, he also has a "Claw" (Originally represented by an old metal Great Unclean One hand, but since replaced with a more manageable and better looking plastic hand from the GW giant kit.) and some sort of rotten flesh-type "toughness" mutation. Overall in-game he'll be awful when shooting with his ancient pistol, but nasty in hand-to-hand combat.

Dark pits for eyes made him seem more creepy in my mind. Check out the dirt under those fingernails - ew...

This brute claims to have taken those Templar pauldron shields from Space Marines he had slain in one-on-one combat. Whilst the rest of the team doesn't believe this story, they aren't about to risk a good  kicking saying so. 

Bone-handled knife is a cool bit that adds I think to the scummy wastelander feel of this mini.

Rust on most all of the exposed metal areas. (Looks good enough for me.)
Between his feet are a pile of bloodied bones - a previous meal/victim/captive/pet?

The scheme was an attempt to blend in well enough with the rest of the Coven, but be individual enough that he’ll still stand out in a group shot. The stripy cloth on his hood was an attempt to make the image more interesting, yet not distract for the overall look. As well as the plastic giant’s hand that replaced his Sickle armed left hand, I added some sort of Warhammer Fantasy holstered pistol, Warhammer 40K Kroot knife and a grenade that I think comes from the Kroot sprues as well. Overall it really is a sweet mini and I think the additions “Grimdark” it up enough to fit in the Warhammer 40K universe.

No idea on a name for this mutant as yet, though I’ll happily take suggestions.

With him finished, that sees my Chaos Coven complete. Still lots to do on other teams though for the future and after really enjoying painting this mini, I’m rather hankering to finish up some of the members of the (also) neglected Inquisitorial investigation squads. We’ll see what takes my fancy.

(I’ll get a group pic up in a future post when it’s not so rainy and nasty outside.)

Delinquentry

Poor poor neglected blog. Has it been 2 months since I've seen to you? Well, I'm a firm believer that one should not attempt something if one's heart is not fully into it, so, I didn't. But I'm back again now and whilst there have been no hobby updates of late, there has been work done on the hobby front in general.

First off, I am painting furiously again for an upcoming Flames of War tournament on Sunday at ConQuestSac - 2000points of mainly armour (Max of 500 points able to be spent on other stuff.), so I've made a list from the Market Garden book, 11th Armoured that includes no fewer than ten 17pdr guns. German armour is going to die, hard. :) Along with a tank paint-fest for this, I've also finished up my 6 pdr platoon and Lloyd Carriers and a Hawker Typhoon. Pics to come very soon

Sad face all around as my Mum’s all too short visit from the UK is done with and she’s now in Las Vegas on the next leg of her journey. Good thing about Mum coming over though is that she usually brings some of my old minis that were stored in her loft! (Apparently there's still a bunch to send over - including a 1st Gen Leman Russ painted horribly, 1st Ed Dark Elf BB team and 2nd Ed Orc BB team and a bunch of other crap I haven't seen in yonks. But those are for another time.)


So here’s the haul:



1. My old Orlock gang and Necromunda Bounty Hunter. These will be useful for some Inquisimunda creations I have in mind.





2. Yes it’s true, your eyes do not deceive you….. for one reason or another, I bought Harlequins back when they were first released. *le sigh* I’ll probably shove these up on Ebay and see what I can get.





3. #2 of my Chainsaw Warriors… holy heck my painting was shite back then. Again, he’ll probably become part of some Inquisimunda project.





4. Something far more tasty – some old Chaos Thugs and Dwarves. These are some seriously cool and characterful minis. I might have to roll up a 2nd Chaos Warband and include them somehow!





5. Beastmen, Marauder on the left and early Citidel on the right, again, for potential future warband.





6. Drybrush city! I really liked this version of the Slaaneshi daemons. Not at all svelt and alluring as their current incarnation, maybe why I liked them so much? :)





7. Stupid Highelf mage. Another one for the Ebay slaughter…





8. Super cool orc model. Tres old and full of character. Excited to paint him up just for the hell of it.





9. The one fig I was most excited to find, I’ll strip this old Marauder Warrior and use him as my Chaos Champ in my current warband I think.





10. Some old school Citadel Norse fellows. I shall name them Cass, Thrasher, Erik and Snolb.





11. This fig was just a cool buy back when I found him in an old LGS. No idea who published the sculpt, but it is such a cool post apoc image, I’m dead excited to strip and repaint him.





12. Lastly, there were some ziplock bags of a tonne of bits, mostly RBT01 marines, but there’s a few hidden gems in there that I’ll look into at a later date. Most of this will be put together and sold on Ebay.

The Science of Shouting

"I suppose describing a one-hundred and forty-seven year old man as being in the prime of his life would sound strange to most people. But they don't know Plutarco Etcheverria de Dios Otero Antormarchi. The man is a force of nature unto himself, driven with an energy pubescent boys can only dream of. What he dreams of, he plans out. What has been planned out (meticulously) he puts into action. What is already underway, he most certainly finishes and with an impressive efficiency.
Being the Lord Commander of the 104th Expeditionary Fleet on the outer reaches of the edges of Imperium Space, he has lead his fleet and ground forces to conquer and subjugate many lost planets and brought them into the Imperium's fold. He's Recovered mysterious Archiotec and discovered ancient Mechanicum devices long thought lost by the Adeptus mechanicus. All the while stamping his family crest upon new frontiers and profiting immensely from the proceeds - all in the name of the Imperium of Mankind."

Not great background as it was written rather swiftly at the end of my lunch break. i may go back and revise it some. This is my penultimate fig for a finished command squad and has me well excited. It's rare to finish a project, even though it's a small one.

I love the Creed sculpt. I think it's full of character and shows an Imperial Guard mob-boss looking leader. All he needs is a fedora and tommygun and he'd be ace! :)

Much like his younger brother (From my Inquisimunda Rogue Trader Crew - Antolio), he wears a sash, though coloured lime green as befits his own position as 4th son within their Trading house family.

Tried hard to get his cigar to look like it's actually lit with ash-line, etc.

One Year

Today is this blog's anniversary I believe. I also passed the 9000 views mark.

Not bad for my lazy arsed self.

Just a quick post to say thanks for coming by, offering advice and being a general all round encouraging bunch. Being the antisocial jerk that I am, it's nice to know my hobby offerings can be presented before you lot and get some fair responses.

So applaud yourself, cos I wouldn't have kept up with this otherwise. Thank you.

I managed to keep my New Years Resolution as well, having 65 total posts and so averaging more than one post a week. I call that progress folks. (You can call is modesty.)

Hopefully in the near future I'll have something exciting to post up included but not restricted to:

1. I've stuck all the RT Guard troopers on their bases aside from Heavy Weapons Squads (I have no 60mm bases - anyone know of a super cheap resource for these?). Heads will be next, then it's time to prime.

2. Creed, his Vox 'porter, the three Plague Marines are all getting wee spots of paint, though still far from done.

3. The big Mutie from the Nurgle Chaos Coven for my Inquisimunda campaign is near complete. Somehow found some enthusiasm for the model, which is nice considering it's been a hard slog to want to paint this up until now.

4. After jumping on the Dreamforge Kickstarter, I find myself now with the impending delivery of a further bunch of miniatures (Couldn't resist, they looked so darn good.) and who knows, I may well dive into the game too once the rules are released.

5. A pal of mine has been asking me to get on board with his Flames of War group. I plan to make my first attendance (For any game in a few years since Warmachine 1.0) on the 12th to see if I like it. If it grabs my attention, then I guess for my birthday (the 20th of this month.) I think I may well put some funds into that new starter set to get a British force going. We'll see though.

That's it. Go drink, paint and be merry and I'll do the same.

Ain't Getting on no Plane!

"Ben Bones, a former pit slave from Hive world Kolos XII, caught the eye of the Ordo Malleus Interrogator Scheiner whilst on mission to rescue the daughter of the Imperial Govenor from the clutches of a small Genestealer Cult. The hulking pit fighter managed to save the Interrogator's life and tore a purestrain Genestealer limb from limb in single combat. The Governor's daughter had sadly already been indoctrinated by the xenos and so had to be purged along with the rest of the evil sect, though Bones' efforts had been noted as more than beneficial to Inquisitorial investigation. The Interrogator ordered the Ogryn released from his indentured servitude and offered the brute a position within his team, which Ben Bones accepted eagerly, seeing his new lease on life a 2nd chance from a personal representative of the God Emperor Himself. "

Okay, blurb for this chap may be a bit crap, but writing with a 7-year-old next to you asking incessant questions tends to make a clear stream of thought somewhat tricky. :) Took me an age to finally get back to this character as I had been out of ideas for an effective scheme to deck him out in. The sculpt itself is from the Heroscape kids boardgame, some sort of Ogre (though I can't find the figure online for the life of me.). It's made of very soft plastic though, so modding it was a rather interesting affair - though it turned out okay in the end. (Only real complaint I have about the sculpt is the silly join between his right arm and shoulder/chest - a bicep growing out of there is rather weird, but there you go, it was a free fig afterall.)

The stripes on his back are meant to be scars from the whippings he would have taken as a slave. And eventually I'll make some sort of stencil to add some sort of code type text to the bomb on the base. The devotional adornments and graffiti on his blade are a tribute to the original fluff written for Ogryns in the 40K Compendium where they were said to look up to Commissars as their personal voice of the Emperor himself.

Below the pics (In natural light for once!) of Ben Bones are a few shots of my display case and the mini's I have painted thus far.

Lastly, done a little more work on the Brother Captain Stern commission. I so do not like this sculpt. Not as bad as Draigo, but still annoying to paint.

Interlude 3

Bit quiet around here eh?




Not been totally idle though.



1. Remember those old Rogue Trader Guard I scored and bragged about a couple posts back? Well they have all been clipped from their sprues and sorted into some wee containers I managed to drum up, ready for when I finally get to them. I also added in the other Guard that I’d already owned and I think I should be able to put together about three or four 10-man squads along with some extras to fill out both heavy weapon teams and platoon squad members. Score right?



2. Speaking of Guard, I read in some blog that I was too silly to bookmark about a Guard player who had found an awesomely cheap alternate model to use instead of the $30+ GW Chimera model. The blogger had chopped the gun off the turret (Or maybe replaced the entire turret?) and shoved on a GW gun instead and added a few 40K-esque details on top of that. I only saw pre-paint pictures of the finished tank, but I liked what I saw and the price of the finished piece even more! On top of the blogger’s mods, I plan to switch out the abominable wheels for something more beefy, though have yet to find an affordable option for this. (Prefer a wheeled transport as opposed to tracked, just seems meaner to me.) This is the shop where I plan to buy 4 of these to make my armoured platoon – http://littlegreenmentoys.com/Tim-Mee-Tan-Armored-Car-02-0001.htm and here’s a pic of the piece pre-mod:

3. O and painting! Well yes, I’ve also managed to get some painting in too. The hobby room got flooded a couple weeks back (Along with the upstairs landing.), which was rather annoying and will prove to be an expensive fix I fear. Thankfully only the flooring was affected so I’ve been able to go in and work, though not often due to the fact that my wife doesn’t like going in there with bare floors. But I have gotten some painting done: a. Work on the Brother Captain Stern commission has started and I’ve got the base metallics started. Customer wants a similar scheme to the studio one, so red next.

b. My Raven Guard dreadnought and Captain Sicarius models have been primed black. Doubt I’ll get to Sicarius anytime soon, but the dreadnought has been calling to me for some reason of late.

c. I am close to finishing the paintjob on the Ogryn from the Radical Ordo Malleus team for my =][=munda project. Shading and all sorts is done on almost all areas of the fig, just need to break up the large bare areas of skin with some freehand tattoo’s and scars. The scars are going to represent his former slave status and will hopefully look as though he’s been lashed a good few times. With the tattoos I’m hoping to effect a design that reflects some sort of devotion to the God Emperor with script work or Inquisitorial seal-type imagery. I’m rather intimidated by the prospect though so we’ll see just how well it all turns out. Hopefully will have an update with pictures by Sunday.



4. Someone needs to take down Kickstarter by the way – along with the awesome Sedition Wars KS, I also have found myself putting down some $$$ on the Relic Knights KS with a mate. And now I’m drooling over the lovely Dreamforge plastic Eisenkern trooper boxed sets and Leviathan titan-thingy. It’s a good thing I have the thriftiest budget-conscious wife in the world, else I’d be in the hole terminally if my hobby urges were allowed to have free reign.



5. Lastly, a mate recently found this boxed set from his gaming days of yore. He knew I am a painter and (still) a roleplay gamer and so gifted me it along with a handful of hero-esque miniatures from the same age. Can’t wait to get painting those pig-faced orcs! (After the commission. After the Ogryn. After the dreadnought. Etc. Etc. Etc.)

Again, next update with actual hobby pics will sometime before the end of Sunday.

Interlude 2

I hope some of the viewers I get on here hopefully gave that vid a look-see in my last post? The model's been sculpted from the ground up by a mate of mine from Denmark called Jon Micheelsen. He's an amazing sculptor and this is one mini I for one will be purchasing (Just as soon as I can figure a way to get said purchase past my wife.).  and I hope some of you  lot also like the look of it enough to get one (Or more) yourselves.

No pics today, which as a person with 115 blogs to follow, I know can blow, but painting that Dreadnought took it out of my hobby energy reserves and I've been taking it easy in the man cave.

Saying that, I've not been idle. There has been some progress, it's just slow progress is all.

1. Beastmen Penitents: After getting inspired by Mordian7th's wonderful Beastmen that he's put together for his cool looking Imperial Guard regiment (Clicky!), I decided to put some work into my own Beastmen squad that had been sat on a shelf primed and neglected for far too long. Currently just base-coats though I'm getting close to be done with that stage. Like the rest of my guard though, I think I'll just stick with a tabletop quality paint job as I don't want to get bogged down with these too much.

2. Malcador Defender: A very cool fellow on the SonsofCorax forum put forth a nice article on the From the Warp blog about the best ways for painting vehicles WITHOUT an airbrush that shows a technique or two that I'm going to try I think. Airbrushes are all the rage it would seem in the "littleplasticmen" hobby scene, but I'll be damned if I'm going to pay that much for something I don't know the 1st thing about how to use properly. Aside from that, the Malcador NEEDS to be painted, I mean, that driver/commander has sat there painted and ready to be glued in the top hatch now for a month or something! Some of it's metallics have been painted. I'm torn between a tan/brown scheme or just plain dirtied steel-type colour. Had thought about trying to make an effect as though the Chaos drivers had shoddily re-painted over a loyalist scheme (With parts of the old scheme showing through here and there.), but not sure my skills are up to that task.

3. Brother Captain Stern: Yet ANOTHER Grey Knight commission. And another overly detailed space marine terminator blokey. The fig's been sat on my wee shelves that sit over my painting table for a while now and I know the customer would really like to get him back sometime..... I just... have problems feeling excited about painting Grey Knights. Am I wrong for feeling this way? He's now primed black and ready for his metallics.

4. After valiantly and excitedly slapping paint on the now completed Raven Guard Land Speeder (Clicky!), I have been trying to convince myself to get back and finish off the rest of the Sternguard Vets that have sat on my desk for 6 months or something. Bolt guns and hoses are now silver and base colour for bone-helmets and emblems has been applied.

5. I also went out and bought a crapload of polystyrene from Lowes and a 2'x4' board to start making my long-planned graveyard =][=munda battle board. Have both the Garden of Morr and the Warhammer Chapel, the Forge World Roadside Shrine and am hunting down the best deal on the nicest gravestones I can find. Then it's on! This'll be my first terrain project so I'm kind of nervous I don't feck it up.

So there you have it. once the beastmen are a little closer to a finished state, I'll stick up pics. I also haven't forgotten my =][=munda project and all the remaining team characters yet to see paint, just been hard to feel inspired as my gaming group has seemed to lose interest in the game. Though I could be wrong.

The end.

A Pretty One

In service to the almighty Emperor of Mankind is reason for existence, regardless of the paths through life that we might find ourselves lead along. A Sage in the employ of Interrogator Pince, Lillit Rebko was not always engaged in such important employment. She had at one time been courtesan to no less than the Rogue Trader Glablenka herself. Her position was lost due to infighting between herself and the Trader's son, who framed Lillit for theft consequently losing not only her prized position of comfort, but her left hand as well (A common punishment thieves receive in the Romonovski Sector.). Little did Glablenka or her son realise, that Lillit Rebko had acrued quite an impressive amount of evidence of the Trader family's crooked dealings and tax evasions during her time with them and so the last laugh was on them and the Trading family were arrested by local Arbites personel. The ability to gather such a hoard of personal data did not go to waste and the former courtesan was quickly snapped up to serve Interrogator Pince as his personal Sage.

The model is a Reaper sorceress fig with a bionic hand and holstered hand cannon. I tried to make her pretty, but I'm not sure it worked well enough. She has purple eye shadow, green irises and wierd coloured hair. My wife says the colour of her garb doesn't "pop", I'll let you decide if you agree.

Trust the Mutant (REDUX)

Right, a few modifications to the paint job on the beastman. I like the red/pink eyes, but gave him some pupils. I also took the advice given on my previous posting and added somemetallic paint to the sword as scratches, etc and think this has made the striping not look so bad. Also added a bit of shading via washes here and there. I have also written a little fluff for this fellow to be found after the pics.

Living the life of shame Keyes the mutant has time and again tried to attone for his sin of being so malformed in the eyes of the God Emperor. He signed up as an Auxilary trooper to the local Planetary Defense Force. Often he had attempted to show his devotion regardless of his affliction, but his lot would not change. In despair he turned to throwing himself into the most dangerous situations, missions where even a skilled warrior like himself would have trouble, but he would not die as he wished. The peace of death in the Emperor's name eluded him time and again.

When on business in the industrial hives of Tsinguzh IV, Interrogator Pince heard of the mutant's prowess when on Inquisitor Tharlborough's business and met the freak himself. it was quickly evident that the Beastman's skills would be better used if pressed into the service of the Inquisition. Offering a small salary, Keyes was officially discharged from the PDF Auxilaries and added as a member of the Interrogator's own investigation unit.

Sometimes, the foulest of tasks are better to delegate to the foulest of abominations.

Trust the Mutant

"Beastman bad. Bad Beastman. Dirty. Emperor no like.
Beastman love Emperor. Give blood to Emperor, Give heads to Emperor. Say sorry."

This is the quote that got my attention in the original 40K Compilation army book.

Beastmen not being soley in the "badguy" forces was one of the coolest parts of Rogue Trader 40K. Beastmen being mutants, should be available to Imperium forces commanders, afterall, Psykers, Ogryn, Ratling and Squats are all tolerated by the Imperium to certain degrees and they are all mutants of varying degrees?

So with sadness it was, that after 2nd Edition, I came back to find that along with deleting my beloved Squats, that Games Workshop had also forced a rather sad and bland state upon the Imperial Guard as a whole.

But not in MY vision of 40K.

So here I present you with the Beastman Mutant Acolyte from the Radical Ordo Malleus team. He has a name, but I'm at work and for the life of me I can't remember it. (Think it was Marvin or Normon or some such.) I'll write a little background info on my next post cos he's a cool and rare character type (I think) for an Inquisitorial Cell to take so a proper job reason for this deserves a little more work.

Took two sessions to paint him, so he's pretty quick and dirty. I felt that a true mutant needed some not-human eyes, so I went for the red, though now I'm thinking I'll go back and add a little watered down orange and a black pupil or something? (And yes, I know the hazard stripes are pants, but after doing and re-doing them, I ended up saying "feck it" and decided he'd painted them himself to explain their rubbishness.)

*if he seems a little shiny, that's cos I've yet to give him a layer of Clear Coat.*