Back to Rank and Flank

Looks like some of my future projects are a return to games involving mass ranks of troops organized in blocks. Its a good place to return to, and its been a while. First on deck, I finished up my first unit of Early Imperial Romans. I have mounted them on a 120mm x 60mm base, and I really like how it lets everything breath and have room. The basing size is compatible with the Impetus rules system, but I think I'm aiming to build the army around a heavily modified version of Neal Thomas' One Hour Wargames rules.

These are Victrix plastic kits - Roman Legionaries Advancing. I've got three more blocks of these cats to do.

I also drifted back into Oldhammer this week by completing a fourth unit of High Elf archers. The command group is cobbled together, but overall I think it works. Also of note in this unit: the archer on the viewer's right is the first ever model my girlfriend has painted. She sat down to try it out and under my cruel tutelage managed to do an amazing job for her first ever mini!

This unit brings me to 40 archers in the army. 

On deck are more Roman infantry and a classic Tiranoc Chariot that's been begging for some attention. 

Cheers!

Mixed Bag 16: Clean Up on Aisle 16!

Since I last updated this blog I've been chewing away at finishing up some projects that have languished on my painting table or in my bitz box. These are projects that I always meant to do, but got side-tracked from completing - I have to say that it feels really good to have these projects done.
First up was a trip to Warhammer Age of Sigmar-land.

These five Blood Warriors have been on my desk for an eternity, but now they are
ready to bring destruction to the foes of the Blood God for an eternity! These guys
bring me to two ten-man units of Blood Warriors for the whole army.

Staying in a fantasy theme, I decided to turn my paint brush to my Oldhammer High Elves. I've had a unit of Dragon Princes that I've been nattering away on for months - doing one model at a time - mostly because I just found painting them somewhat tedious. Its not a bang on the sculpts, I think I'm just coming to a conclusion that I really don't dig painting cavalry!

These cats took way too long to get on the field, so I'm sure they will die horribly
on the battlefield without making an impact. FUN!

Next was a command section and a handful of bowmen to round out a new High Elf archer unit. Once they were done, I decided to finish the Elf Prince mounted on a Griffon that came with the Isle of Blood starter so long ago. I plumbed for a wild green color - I wanted something different and reflective of the Chaos-ey nature of the monster. I realize it's not going to be everyone's cuppa tea, but that's was kinda the point. 

SCRAAAW!

Finally, having picked up the new 40k Apocalypse rules-set I decided to try and round out my Nurgle army for some giant games. This led to the assembly of a third Foetid Bloat Drone. The Bloat Drones are pretty powerful units - nearly on the level of some tanks - and were a quick way to add some firepower to my army while only having to raid my bitz box. 

Three happy little daemon engines all ready for a good time!

This brings my yearly total for models painted to 241 so far. Still a bit to do to get to 365, but not too shabby. 

Cheers!

Foul Blightspawn and Noble Elves!

Last week I posted a work in progress shot on a Foul Blightspawn for my Death Guard army and I managed to sort out a base for him up shortly thereafter. Here he is in all his feculent glory:

Feculus Spew is ready to spread death and decay.

                                 

The weather here in Seattle has turned pretty cold, so its not optimal priming/spraying weather. Instead, I turned to models I already had primed before the weather turned; so that means more High Elves. The army is getting pretty sizable now. I've only got to complete four cavalry models and I should have enough to play a reasonably sized game now. 

Finally finished up a command group for these spearmen. 

Then I cranked out five more Lothern Seaguard to bring that unit to a full twenty troops.

Then I added five more bowmen and a champion to bring that unit to fifteen guys. This photo is super weird. The angle
I took it at makes the bowmen appear to be shrinking. Its like if MC Escher painted Warhammer.

Finally, I did an additional five guys for the other bow unit as well as finishing a wizard who is pretty fuckin' metal.

With the cold weather, I've also spent a bunch of time assembling models. I've got some more Death Guard stuff on the way as well as a Knight Castellan. Oh, and more Imperial Fists. Of course. 

Cheers!

Loyalists, Traitors and Pointy Hats!

First on deck is the first five Assault Marines for my Horus Heresy army. These cats have been a lot of work - mostly due to the fact that I think I'm hitting burn-out for painting yellow infantry. That said, I'm super happy with them. I need to get cracking on the next five. This will bring me to about 4,000 points/200 power levels for my Imperial Fists.

These guys are a mix of MKIV and MKII armors, with shields and jump packs by Kromlech.

After these cats were done, I needed a break so I turned my attention to a single model for my Death Guard army - a Foul Blightspawn. The current Death Guard are just such a treat to paint up. I've still got to work on a base for him, but he should be finished up pretty soon.

This guy is literally dripping with detail.
And I loved every nub and bolt.

I'm pretty chuffed with the painted liquid in his tank. 

I've also been nattering away on more High Elves. I've still got paint up a command group for the spearmen, but the rest are finally based and ready to go. Pretty soon I'll have to turn my attention to some more cavalry for the force.

I'll end up adding at least ten more of these cats to the army.

These stalwart spearmen patiently await a trio of heroes to lead them.

So far, I've managed to paint up about fifty models or so since January. Not too shabby, but I think I can increase my velocity some. 

Cheers!

More Elves March to War

Lately, I've decided to start growing my High Elf army. I've played a handful of games of Warhammer Fantasy Battle and Kings of War with what I have now, and I'm re-learning a lesson that I'd forgotten: namely that most massed battle games aren't as much fun as smaller games. Its not that games I've played haven't been fun per se, its that feeling that they'd be so much more interesting with more units. To that end, I'm putting some more paint on some new units for my High Elves.

This weekend, I managed to get a 15 man unit of classic Spearmen painted up. I still need to finish four more guys, paint the unit's bases and wait for a Champion model to arrive from Ebay.

These old models paint up so quickly with assembly line techniques. And the nostalgia I get painting them keeps me well motivated, so this should skip along pretty fast. I'm going to graduate out the command models currently in my missile units to serve in melee formations, so I've been painting up some bowmen to replace them.

These two will replace the standard and musician snatched away
for melee units.

I also finished up a test model for my Imperial Fists Assault Squad. It uses two different kits and the shield and jump pack are resin models from Kromlech. After all the bits and extras, I probably should have just ordered the standard assault squad from Forge World for cheaper - but this feels more unique and more "mine". 

"For Dorn! For The Emperor! For Terra!!!"

I hope to get at least the first half of this squad finished in the coming week. This should be the last infantry unit for my Imperial Fists for a good, long while. I'm kinda excited to finish them and then dig into some tanks!

Cheers!

Mixed Bag 14: Singles, WIPs and Gaming!

Trying to continue with the weekly update... I've done it twice now, so I'm totally gonna keep it up all year, right? Ha! We shall see. Most of my painting this week has been one-off figures and prep work, so not super exciting.

    

I finished up two single figs this week. First was a High Elf Dragon Prince. I needed a commander model for an upcoming game of Kings of War and this guy had been languishing on my painting desk for a while. I figured he'd make a good Elf King to game with. He also acts as a test scheme for a full unit of these guys - a project I should get cracking on.

Later in the week, I cranked out a quick Aethermic Navigator hero for my Kharadron Overlords. This was the last model I needed to bring me to a 2000 point army. I ended up having to mail order him directly from Games Workshop, as no local stores or Amazon dealers carried him in stock. So much for giving the FLGS the business if they can't get what I want. Ugh. In any case, I should take some nice beauty shots of the whole army at some point, because I think I'm done painting Sky Dorfs for a little while.

    

I also worked on a few more High Elf archers and, you guessed it - started ANOTHER Tactical Squad for the Horus Heresy. This is the last one for a long, long time; I swear!

Finally, I wrapped the week up with some gaming. I managed to get in a small game of Kings of War to kick the tires on the system. Its fine. I like the simplicity of the game and it goes quickly, but I think we really need play it with larger forces. At 1000pts, everything dies just a little too fast. Until I can expand my army for the game, I think its hard to judge the game's merits.

My High Elves stand ready to defend a small settlement.

A rampaging horde of Gobbos advance from the hinterlands to crush the Elves.

Later, we played a big game of Age of Sigmar. I got to use my Kharadron Overlords against an immaculately painted Beastmen force. We had to control bits of falling stars that randomly arrived on the table. I decimated the Beastmen in a hail of bullets, but ended up chasing my own tail so much that I got blitzed when it came to scenario points. It was a ton of fun though, with a lot of back-and-forth. 

Those minotaurs go down hard. Don't let anyone tell you different.

After killing the shit out of a Minotaur Lord, my commander fell to the fury of a very upset Bestigor herd. I guess that's why they are the best...igor.

A unit of Gors and a Beastman Chariot totally crushed a unit of Arkanauts. Unfortunately, one poor dumb bastard survived so I couldn't shoot at these units with the rest of my army.

Every time I play Age of Sigmar, I like it more. And I already liked it a lot. Its just a nice fun and intuitive game - even if it does use way too many die rolls. I've been on a bit of tear with it lately - a few weeks ago I got in a game against an amazingly painted Daughters of Khaine army. I managed to squeak out a victory with my Overlords on that one. 

I was very worried about the amount Witch Elves on the other side of the board, but some judicious application of hot lead saw many of them off to meet Khaine in the afterlife.

These girls are hot. No really. That's magma.

Morathi is a beast. Literally. Look at that tail. But like any rabid beast, a gun will solve that problem.

More gaming and less painting lately, I guess. It'll probably flip back to normal soon. 

Cheers!

Mixed Bag 13: Bits and Bobs

After a big project like my Nurgle Knight, I have a tendency to slow down a bit for a week or two hobby-wise and pick off small projects and this time was no exception. I first returned to my High Elf army and knocked out a couple of extra Lothern Sea Guard models and a Sword Master that I had laying around. These models will just add to the existing units to bulk them out a bit. I actually played a game of 6th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle against my buddy's gorgeous Goblin army, but sadly forgot to take any decent pictures.

The addition of these cats will really help out their units. In our game, my regiments felt
painfully small.

Then it was a quick trip to Age of Sigmar Land to finish off a character from my Kharadron Overlord collection. This time it was an Aether Khemist, a very useful character model that can buff ranged attacks for nearby units. I have a feeling he and my Grundstok Thunderers will be the very best of friends. 

I was literally going for quick and dirty with the paint job on this fella.
I managed to crank him out in about 2 hours.

This guy has a ton of details, but I just wanted to keep him simple. I think it
helps him feel cohesive with the rest of the army.

Afterwards, I made an about face and headed back to more Elf-y goodness and completed a second unit of armored Archers and another Bolt Thrower. I think this firepower will really help the army in the long-run. 

This should help me dominate the shooting phase and make Orlando Bloom happy. 

I reversed the color placement from the scheme I used on the original unit. This way, each unit feels slightly distinct while still maintaining the feel of the army by using the same colors.

Finally, I also swung into the world of DIY paper miniatures for my D&D group's latest adventure. We play a super stream-lined version based on the original D&D rules that takes a more narrative "theater of the mind" approach and normally eschews the need for miniatures and maps. This adventure was the culmination of a year-long story arc and would be pretty complex. The characters were attempting to get a hold of a magic hammer and destroy a cursed gem in the midst of a battle between Cthulhu-esque Cultists and undead Dwarves. It was also a lot of fun to quietly do this and pull it all out for the final encounter. Everyone enjoyed it a lot and I was really glad I made the effort. 

The intrepid adventures prepare their plan to run the gauntlet and claim the Hammer of Creation from the Temple of Arra.

All the standees were designed to folded into place.
Also pictured: My tubby mug explaining something. 

The hammer was floating over an altar between two massive statues. It was a simple effect to pull off and really sold the
adventure.

The evil High Priest and his army of cultists and Deep One allies nearly managed to thwart the
players' efforts, but the forces of Good won out in the end.

I really enjoyed making these paper-craft items. There is a certain simple charm in them when they are done. 

My next "big" project that I'm gearing up for is building a Storm Eagle gunship for my Imperial Fists. Its a lot of work with resin and I feel like I need to mentally prepare for it before jumping in. Wish me luck.

Cheers!

High Elf Army

This week sees me putting the final nail in the 1000 points of my High Elf army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle 6th edition. I plan on expanding the army, but I'll probably try to get a few games in and squeeze in some other projects before expanding it.

The army in all its glory.

I'm really happy with how this all turned out, and the whole project has been a great mix of old and new sculpts to work on. 

The commander model is a classic Jes Goodwin sculpt. I love the balance here of elegant elf-y-ness with an almost
Celtic barbarian-ness.

On the other end of the spectrum is this High Elf mage who takes advantage of every modern part separation trick
to create a wildly dynamic model.

A unit of Lothern Sea Guard, which is one of the best sculpted incarnations
I think GW has produced.

These Sword Masters of Hoeth are great rendition of otherwise classic designs. 

This archer unit brings back some more classic sculpts by Jes and the plastic guys just have a special place in my
cold, black heart.

And the Reavers... well... we love the Reavers anyway...

So there it is. My little host is ready to march to war - against some invading goblins and their ilk, it looks like. Blow the horns of war and make ready your swords! We seek our glory or our doom!

Cheers!

A Sensitive Bit of Horseflesh!

On most projects I work on, there is always a kit or unit that I leave for last. Usually, its because it looks like a nightmare to build or a pain to paint and most times I'm pleasantly surprised that it wasn't the chore that I thought it was going to be. For my High Elf army that unit was the Ellyrian Reavers. And man, was I NOT pleasantly surprised. This unit was a chore from start to finish, but they are thankfully done!

Unlike the rest of the High Elves I've been working on, these guys were a nightmare to assemble AND
to paint. I don't know if was that I just wasn't in the mood to paint cavalry or what, but I could have
done a better job if I wasn't so hell bent on just getting them done.

This did lead to some re-working of my original army list, as I had factored for a full command with the Reavers and those sculpts weren't part of the set. That free'ed up some points and I now have room to add another Hero to the army. I think the army will benefit from the leadership boost and the extra melee attacks.

I'm using a classic Jes Goodwin sculpt for the Hero. I've still got to sort out a shield and
his base and then he's ready to lead my army to battle!

So now as it stands, my army list is as follows:

Heroes

Hero - Mage upgrade to Level 2 - 130pts
Hero - Commander w/heavy armor and shield - 76pts

Core Units

Archers - 10 w/standard and musician - 148pts

Lothern Sea Guard - 12 w/shields and command - 179pts

Special Units

Ellyrian Reavers  - 5 w/ bows - 120pts

Swordmasters - 15 w/command - 225pts

Rare Units

Bolt Thrower - 100pts

Total - 978 w/22 points for magic items

I should be able to finish up the Commander this week, then I'll take a few army shots of them all to show off. For all intents and purposes, though - I've finished up my first 1,000 points for Warhammer Fantasy Battle 6th ed. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some games in soon.

Cheers!