This puppy just loves everyone!

Wowzers! Over a month since my last post!

Well, hobby mojo was next to dead so didn't feel like painting at all after my trip back home to the UK. Until this week, that is.

So here i present you some of the stuff that I can show off from the paint station:

Actually just finished this current model by Games Workshop of a Beast of Nurgle. It was a pain to put together as a kit, but the finished model looks pretty good (if one picks the least cartoony options.).

Painting took a few lengthy sessions and i had lots of time to get stuck in yesterday and today seeing as I've been home looking after a feverish 13-year-old.

What i painted originally to get me back in the mood are as follows. Just simple contemporary zombies and some 3D printed scatter terrain pieces. Nothing fancy, but a nice reintroduction to painting.

I like to call 2nd from left "Pegs"

Next up? Well, I've got some Badgers and Burrows minis on the desk and maybe just maybe I'll work some more on those poor unloved Winter Germans, or, heaven forbid I remember to get back to the commissions i should have finished an age ago!?

Bit and bobs (WIP)

Painting did not happen this past week, again. But that’s okay as I did get some construction, basing and priming finished on some upcoming projects namely:

1.       Beast of Nurgle

This fun looking critter is Games Workshop’s latest version of the daemon and the first as a plastic kit with a few options for personalization. Neither simple nor difficult to build, the instructions were the only reason I found this taking a bit longer to construct  than I’d anticipated. But the finished product, wow. Just a well-designed model kit and with the left over bits, I think I will try my hand at some sculpting with air-dry clay to see if I can’t make him a pal to give me two for any future WH40K Daemons list that I might try out using the current 8th Edition rules (That I recently got a hold of.).

He's since been primed grey and is awaiting me to decide on a suitable colour scheme. 

2.       Volksgrenadier

I realized that I can’t stand the Warlord plastic Grenadier sculpts and that their metal sculpts are so much more fun to paint and full of character in contrast (Think I’ve mentioned as much somewhere before?). So I gave my left over plastics to Densmol so he can build even more Krauts for me to mow down. Instead, I bought Warlord Games’ Volksgrenadier Squad and spent time prepping them for primer (They are now drying post-prime). Bit dressed down for the depths of Winter I guess, but they’ll do for some inexperienced level fun.

Poor buggers, thrown into the gaping jaws of the Soviet war machine. Doesn't matter how up-to-date and shiny their kit is, they're still inexperienced recruits and will probably die horribly in every game I use them in! ^_^

3.       Objective Markers

I ordered some VERY affordable 40mm round mdf bases from a Spanish-based Ebay seller that arrived quite quickly and used some of them as bases for some old resin Chain of Command objective markers that were a kind gift some time ago from Stew. Still debating whether I should Winterise the things or leave them as generic as possible so I can use them in multiple theaters? Opinions on this are welcome. Notice the 5^th one with the German duo – another kind gift from the good Admiral Drax. Excited to paint this one and it will end up being done in a Winter theme.

Objective markers that can be used in multiple games, or as extra scatter terrain in a pinch.

4.       Lights, Camera, Action!

After seeing some of my fellow bloggers’ super well done pics using ultra-affordable portable lightboxes, I decided to get one for m’self. And low and behold, it makes my own figs look better in pics too, AND, it’s easy to set up and store and takes up little space even when left set up, so I will be using the thing from here on in to show off my painted goodies for you all to peruse.

My recently previewed SS-Grenadiers. Think the black background makes them pop way more than before. 

Hoping to get some stuff painted up this week for sure, so next post should hopefully be a bit more interesting for you!

Clever Hans (Part 6 - SS Squad complete, more Winter scenery and Market Garden!?)

Here's the squad in an action scene next to the cabin that I also painted up this weekend. 

The last two troopers from my Winter SS squad were finished up this long weekend - the ammo carrier for my previously previewed LMG bloke and a cheeky crouching SMG trooper. Now they just need their Half-track painted up to cart them about the battlefield! Once again, I went with Oak Leaf camo that I think turned out okay on their uniforms and Pea Dot on their rolled up thingies strapped to their back. I really like Warlord metal minis, they've got some really good sculptors making lovely dynamic poses and full of character.

I swear these pics weren't out of focus when I reviewed them last night. O well. >_<

I've since started on my Heer Grenadiers squad and the platoon medic. Far less camo on these chaps, so they should paint up for more swiftly. Hope to have a post up on those later this week.

Next up is a small cabin by Charliefoxtrot Models. Cute little mdf kit that was exceedingly simple to build. I kept the paint scheme simple as well as the snow effects. I wish I could add Icicles (To all my Winter houses infact), but they'd not be very convenient for gaming purposes. 

Saturday saw myself and the good Densmol head over to the Ogres Den LGS in Orangevale for a Market Garden event organised by Travis Heitt. Not a tournament, but 5 or 6 tables all set up to represent the airdrop of Allied paras and the bridges that had to be held at all costs until the armoured units of the XXX Corps could reinforce their positions. Densmol and I teamed up as the German defenders on the Hells Highway table where we were to cause as much damage to the XXX Corps convoy and do our best to prevent them from moving off our end of the table and on to the first bridge. The game was exceedingly fun, though we both consistently rolled abysmal dice (14 Panzerfausts, a Pak40 and a Stug fired and missed or failed to damage) and failed to kill any of the British tanks on our table and the whole column just ran on through to the next table and the 1st bridge. 

Luckily our forces were able to withdraw once the situation got untenable and then move on as reinforcements on the next table. Not that they did much more there either! In the end, XXX Corps managed to hoss on through another two tables before they were stalled and finally started taking damage to their armour. A good day of gaming, regardless of how ineffectual Densmol and mine forces ended up being.

Our initial table. The British preliminary bombardments pinned all of our deployed units into complete uselessness. This allowed the Brit column to pretty much move up at full road speed and MG the crap out of everything with little to no ability to respond. Rubbish.

Two Pak40's, set up with great lines of sight down Hell's Highway. Shame only one was able to get a (missed) shot off all game before both were Machinegunned to death.

My StuG arrived from reserve, surely this tank hunting beast can pierce the flimsy side armour of those arrogant British!? Nope. Another miss.

British Recce Jeeps speed off the table to help the paras attacking the 1st bridge quickly followed by a Sherman. (In Sicily camo I think?) 

Fearing nothing that the German defenders were throwing at them, the Allied column presses on.

Game over man. Not a single casualty on the Brit side. A lot of dead and burning germans in return. 

The next table and we try to reinforce Craig's beleaguered Fallschirmjagers defending this bridge. Densmol did manage to brew up two jeeps, but my own forces were just a miserable as they were on the last table and only managed to gun down some of the Brit paras.  

British armour press on to try to reach the next bridge! (Which they did. :/)

Targets aplenty if only my StuG would come on from reserve. Which it wouldn't. After this 2nd game, we had to leave.

 Lastly, a kind gift arrived in the mail from a papanurgle forum mate in the UK to help fill out my daemons ranks so I can have enough ready to be able to play a game of Warhammer 40k with 8th Edition. Some 2000-and-something Pestigor beastmen that will be counts-as Plaguebearers and some beautiful 1st release Nurglings, enough to make 3 bases (Meaning I'll be able to plop down 6 total.). Some of my fav Nurgle models here - can't wait to get painting on these. (After, of course, I finish my Germans!)

This coming weekend will also see my good friend Stew (Check out his blog!) coming over for some Age of Sail action. Not sure what rules we'll be  playing, but be sure to see a little write-up on the game thereafter. 

Where were your evolved sensibilities then? (Part 5 - Done!)

And she's done.
Think this is the largest model I've ever slapped paint to and I'm glad i finally gor her finished.

For once, I'm actually proud of my work. Quite possibly my best paint job to date.

This thing can be used as a GW Great Unclean One, or any sort of horrible demon type thing really. She stands around 6" tall and with the added little demon things took around 10 hours to finish. No idea when or how I'll get to use her in game but shw certainly looks great in my display case!

Enough waffling, on to the crap pics!


General spin around to show the goods.

Closeups of face, belly, back and bootie. A real catch for any immortal, right?

The Lampads, three with torches to light her way through the underworld, two behind her that are merely frolicking.

Her rusty blade. At least i hope it looks rusty to you?

Lastly a wee action shot showing a couple of badarse barbarian adventurers that obviously took a wrong turn.  (For scale)

A little blurb behind where she comes from in my gaming setting. This is Hecate wife of Hades in the Greek mythology. She is in her war form not in her beautiful Queen of the Undead typical look. The little demons about her feet are Lampads, the underworld beings that light Hecate's path as she passes through Hades' realm. 

To finish this small project i still have around 9 or 10 "Harpies" that ive put together that also need painting. We'll see how my motivation is at when it comes time to tackle those girls.

Where were your evolved sensibilities then? (Part 4 - No Hope WIP?)

Real life has taken the wind out of my sails hobby-wise of late, so little has been done until this weekend. (Little = nothing at all infact.)

But this poor unloved thing was batting it's baby... whites (?) at me from her spot on my hobby shelves and so I felt pressured to slap some more layers about her gruesome person. I hadn't even touched her since the last time I included her in a post (Has it really been over 2 years since???), so this really was an overdue effort on my part.

Still along way to go, but I'm getting close to what I'd consider "finished" with her skin and yucky parts. Loads left to do on her mouth'n'tongue, sword (Not pictured.), exposed guts, base and the wee Lampads about her feet.

Lighting is harsh, so all the shading and highlights are bleached out of these photos

If you think her back looks yucky, just wait until she's done and I take some pics of what remains of her backside. 

A hefty lass. This is the largest model I've ever painted. She towers over regular 28/32mm minis!

There were some games played of late, but sadly no pics taken. I got a game of Bolt Action in versus Densmol. I think he won. It was ages ago though, so it might have been me. My mate Stew (Who'll soon have a blog of his own to view - link coming soon.) brought over some of his 1/1200 Age of Sail minis and a fun rules set to try out where my French tall ships managed to defeat the pride of his British navy. Not a genre I'll be buying into, but one I enjoy playing and look forward to trying it out again in the future.

Hope to have some more progress to show on the big lass pictured above soon!

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.)