28 January 2018

Second Mounted Necro


A rushed attempt at filling in my need for a second mounted necromancer. About 30 min. of sculpting work on top of an old plastic Citadel skelehorse, and probably no more than another 30 min. painting. Turned out OK. Not professional looking or anything, but it's my own and has an oldschool sort of charm (i.e. not up to modern standards.) Progress shots and a final photo below.








26 January 2018

Old Half-baked Photoshoppery


I was looking through Photobucket looking for some old photos, and came across what I can only describe as dumbass half-baked Photoshoppery from years past -- I think all of it done as lame attempts at being sarcastic (or whatever) at warhammer-empire.com.

I think the first was a string of ideas regarding casting the old Angry Bear spell on a cannon, I think with also "flaming attacks" for some reason. I think it was inspired by (and part of) a discussion about conceptually weird rule combos that popped up in games. Taken literally, I guess. I don't entirely remember. It was a long time ago. Anyway, on to the pictures...


Oh... wait... no. I can't show you that photo, because when I click on it or download it (even within my account), Photoshop gives me their extortion image instead -- in spite of vehemently denying that they are "holding images hostage." (They have also removed the option to download entire folders -- you have to do it image by image now. That option disappeared soon after the whole 3rd party hosting fiasco, as people - myself included - tried relocating their photos.)

At any rate, there was a photo of a flaming, angry bear being fired out of a cannon. Poorly photoshopped. By me.

The rest worked. By "the rest" I mean my ridiculous evolution of the ideas. Like flaming angry polar bear pigeon bombs.


Obviously a benefit to the Imperial arsenal. Just like the flaming angry panda bear blunderbuss.



I don't remember what the next one is, but it seems about as Oldhammer as it gets, and probably predates the term Oldhammer. Squat Zoat Cavalry, Riding Fire Breathing Space Manitee. Truely art. Use it in your next RT game.


I'm not going to post the full evolution of the pike-asus, just the start and end. Again, the origin is hazy. Maybe someone brought up the idea of a pegasus rider armed with a pike, and I took it down it's (il?)logical highway?






You really didn't need to look any further than the flaming panda bunderbus, but I thank you for your perseverance. I will return to making quality posts ASAP. Or at least pictures of painted miniatures & things like that.


20 January 2018

Giant! (a game)


Revisiting an old idea for a game.
D


Drawn by the smells of the alehouse and sizzling wurst, a giant is lumbering (possibly drunkenly) towards/into the village/shire/whatever. The militia gathers and makes its stand. Individually, the hobbits may be small and weak, but the cumulative effect of their steadfast defense just may be enough to hold off the super-sized raider.

It will be like Ogre for fantasy skirmishes. But also not. 


Edit: It could really be any asymmetric battle... dragon & kobolds, Goremaw & goblins, etc. I happen to like painting & collecting giants and Hobbits.

19 January 2018

more Stuff! In the Mail!


Another installment of Stuff! In the Mail!

This time, stuff I paid for. From Krakon Games' recent Kickstarter, a few more skeletal ogres. One is a new variant of Slanga. I previously painted the old version. I got two of the new mini, one to leave as-is, and one to repose/convert.


Ugh. I took & cropped this photo with my phone, but now that I see it on a larger screen, I see how out of focus it is. Whoops!

Four figures? What? Oh yeah... I also picked up Krakon Games' "Queenie, Killer Cyborg" as an addition to my Diverse Meat Hating Robot Pirates. I think she'll fit in well with my tiny collection so far --  and the robots I still plan to buy.


17 January 2018

Stuff! In the Mail!


I love getting Stuff! In the Mail! (Who doesn't.)

I recently got a package from a serial benefactor, Shadespyre, who sent the following f'ing amazing surprise:


That would be the Heresy miniatures giant. A beautiful (can I describe a nasty giant with that term?) sculpt, and clean casting. He's now on the schedule for Big April. This year's April challenge is shaping up to be fewer in quantity, but larger in size than previous years. I'd like to finish the Warploque giant started last year, and paint this Heresy giant and the Otherworld giant.

Big plans.

10 January 2018

Lucrezzia Belladonna



Painted up one of the mounted mages. Went with a color scheme similar to my favorite Mordheim warband (who have been distributed throughout the Marienburg mercenary regiments.) I wanted a subtle pattern on the caparison, similar to the standard I painted on a Repanse model turned standard bearer many years ago.




A peek at my thumbnail sketches for trying out colors and patterns prior to putting them on the model...




07 January 2018

Robocrab



A few years ago, I did a "steam crab" amphibious assault craft, as a surprise for someone's pirate/nautical themed WFB army.


I am giving serious consideration to revisiting this idea with a more futuristic "robocrab" for the Meat Hating Robot Pirates. While I do want an eclectic band of robots, I also want to include a a lot of nods to oldschool pirate cliches.

So... something very similar to this (using the same toy as a base) but more sci-fi robot-y. No hatch or tall exhaust, but  maybe a missile rack or something like that.


06 January 2018

January Goals



I mentioned before that I had some plans for the first few months of 2018. Here's what January's looking like...




I've previously shared some pics of high elves I've painted as an ongoing, long term commission for a local gaming friend. I'll be starting off the year with some interesting additions to that army. As much as I'm a lover of rank & file mass battles, I do still love cool fantasy models. That's part of what sets fantasy gaming apart from historicals, after all. So this will be a fun diversion from all the undead that I've been working on.

I'm counting on these taking most of January to work on. There's a lot of fiddly little details that will be a difficult to paint. But I'm going to squeeze in a few of my own models as well. Especially since I have to wait at least a couple days for the weather to cooperate for priming. The current plan is some more odds & ends, such as...



(Finally) finishing two mounted mages for the Marienburgers/mercenaries, and a second mounted undead-necro-whatever.

The plan for the latter is to sculpt a hunched figure of tattered robes riding that horse. I've got the lower half of a skeletal rider on there for a guide. Maybe I will leave the feet showing out the bottom. Maybe not. Not really sure how to go about it yet.

As for the former two, I need to decide on a color scheme. That's what's largely responsible for holding up the progress for the past few... years.


On that topic, I was looking for inspiration on the internets and stumbled across this: http://beardbunker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/battle-wizards-now-with-ovaries.html


What an awesome conversion, and great painting as well! Not relevant to what I was looking for, but I had to share. Click the link to check out the whole process and more photos.



05 January 2018

First New 2018 Goal

See, it doesn't take long for me to get side tracked & distracted...


https://store.privateerpress.com/hooch-hauler-preorder

I love this. But it does look a little too large, and I'm not spending $165 on a mini. So I think one of my new 2018 goals should be an armoured ale wagon for the JTC. (Though I've already had nebulous plans for a wurst wagon that I haven't got to yet...) Point being -- this is still a cool model, even if I don't have one.

01 January 2018

Goodbye 2017


HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I'm currently suffering my way through the holidays at the hands of one of the chaos gods...


POP-KHORNE!

Just before Christmas I got a bit of popcorn kernel stuck between my teeth. After much work, I was able to dislodge it, but it had gotten into my gums and irritated them so much that it became infected and to the point that I've had excruciating pain throughout my gums and skull for the past week.  I'm already on my second round of antibiotics. So my first goal/hope for 2018 is to fight off the god of blood and skulls, and eradicate the presence of his unusually subtle servant from my household, the foul snack food of chaos.

On to more positive things...


DEADCEMBER '17



I'm pretty impressed with my painting output for Deadcember this year. I changed the target half way through, and in both cases over-planned for what I thought I could get done -- so I'm pretty happy with it. Even if I did cheat start the armoured skeletons a few days early. The total looks something like:

  • 15 Armoured Skeletons
  • 16 Skeleton Spearmen
  • 2 Mounted Skeleton Cavalry
  • 1 Mounted Wight/Necromancer/Whatever
  • 2 Liches
  • 1 Undead Owlbear
  • 12 Skeleton "Commandos"
  • 1 Necromancer on foot
  • 1 Small Skeletal Dragon

By my revised goal, I would have liked to get another 12 "commandos" done, but I hadn't planned on painting the dragon -- so I'll call it even. Especially given the pop-Khorne issue above, and its impact on my painting the past week.


THE REST OF 2017

...was a mix, I guess.

I'm disappointed I barely got any gaming in. A few hours with my old friends at their regular Game Day, and the recent KoW tournament. I had hoped for more. In particular, I missed a couple of Oldhammer events this year, and had really wanted to run a participation game at a convention (was aiming for Con on the Cob.)

On the other hand, I did paint (and blog) quite a bit. A few highlights... (Click to enlarge)

Starting on the Jackrabbit Trading Company:






Big April:



More Fomorians/Fimir:







Half-Orcs! (an unexpected side-quest, and one of my favorite projects of 2017)




There were more... disciples, hobbit scouts, goblins, and of course more undead. But that's a lot of pics already.


ON TO 2018!

What am I looking forward to in the new year?

To start with, I'm going to be painting a few more high elves to compliment the commission work I've done before.

After that the current outlook is mostly more of the same:




  • Jackrabbit Trading Company
  • Fomorians/Fimir
  • Giants (Big April '18)
  • Undead (mostly rank & file)
  • Marienburgers (mostly rank & file)
With a few additions:

  • Meat Hating Robot Pirates
  • More "Regiments of Renown" style mercenary units
  • Goremaw

And, of course, more gaming. There's another local KoW tournament planned. I'll see if I can make it to that. Maybe a convention this year? Oldhammer events? Solo board gaming? Hopefully something!


Thanks for reading, and thank you to everyone who comments. Since I don't game much (or get out of the house/office much at all), gaming blogs, fora, and a couple of FB groups are the closest thing to the social aspect of the hobby that I have.