Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

 angelofvengeance wrote:
Nice looking craters- are you going to put a few bits of flock on there to give it the freshly blasted look?

I considered that, but I want them to work just as well if I drop them down on a Secret Weapon Tablescapes Urban road or my desert mat. (or even a DeadZone mousepad.) Thanks for that link, Littletower. I'd seen that article before but forgotten the page. I'll likely make a few of those down the line as well when the weather gets better, since I do the craft-y stuff out in the shed.

The ogryn is looking good, as are the craters.

A couple of weeks ago , I bought a bunch of Bolt Action kits from Warlord. After checking out the T-34s, I noticed that the kit wasn't especially complex, and so perfectly suitable to start and actually finish as well, since I've got a habit of ..not finishing everything I start. When my DeadZone stuff arrived this week and I found that they missed the additional rulebooks and a few other things, I had a bit of a rage for a bit, and then decided to start assembling the tanks to get my mind off it. I thought I took some photos, but this is where I'm up to at this point:



Basically, all assembled excepting the final assembly of the two halves of the hull, and the turret will just pop on. I'd have magnetised it, but I didn't think of that until after I'd assembled the two turret halves, so...

The tanks have been sprayed with PSC Russian Armour, airbrushes with a 50:50 mix of VMA Russian Green and Camo Light Green, followed by a 70:30 mix. My airbrush skills are awful still, or maybe its the cheap POS airbrush I have. Either way, the results are far from impressive. Once that was done, a 50:50 mix of VMC Russian Uniform and Army Painter Camo Green for a final-ish highlight. Next will be some sandy/buff colours for weathering. Tracks got a coat of Vallejo Panzer Aces Track Primer with a drybrush of VMA steel over the top.

I still need to hit the whole thing with PSC weathering spray and have a play with weathering powders and the like. Add some decals and then finish them. Hopefully next update!



The other thing I've been doing today was opened up a care package from a mate. Quite a lot of loot in there, along with something I totally was not expecting - ghosts!



The ghosts were mounted three each to several goblin green-painted 40mm square bases. I pried them off immediately, and after a bit of faffing about, decided to mount them on some Back to Base-ix resin "ruins" bases I bought years ago. I felt they raised the Marine figures up too high from the "ground" and so never used them for the original intent, but they work perfectly with these undead. The weight of the resin also stops some of the more lop-sided members of the gang from toppling over.



After mounting them, I took them outside the hit them with some Rustoleum Heirloom White. You can't really see it here, but it's a slightly off-white with a slight touch of coffee brown to it. Better for projects like this than pure white. I mixed up a suitably-ethereal coloured paint wash using a mix of Citadel's Lahmian Medium and Gauss Blaster Green. Stupid names, yes, but the paint being fit for purpose is all I care about.



They're outside now. I was going to start on the bases right after I did this, but decided to seal them with gloss varnish, since it was a bright warm sunny day - so wanted to take full advantage of that. That stuff dries much much faster in the sun. This way I can work on them tonight, and maybe even finish them off. It'll just be the bases and some touch-up work - then a coat of matt. Also hoping to have those T-34s finished tomorrow, or perhaps the following day...

...then I can get back to the grind of my other half-finished projects. Gondor, ahoy!

Great idea, should come out nicely! The T-34s should be good too. How far did you get on your other tank project?

Tanks are coming along nicely! I started on my T-34s for the same reason haha.

 Paradigm wrote:
Great idea, should come out nicely! The T-34s should be good too. How far did you get on your other tank project?

I've got 4 T-80's partially assembled, and then I stalled. Being "proper" model kits, there's a lot more fething about to assemble them, but I plan to build some more of those as well in the next week or so. Also waiting on stuff like the MA terrain, and the SWM ground tiles, so we'll call that project a slow burn.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Yonan wrote:
Tanks are coming along nicely! I started on my T-34s for the same reason haha.

Yeah. Just need to add some colour to the road wheels and then I'll get weathering. If not tonight, then tomorrow. Or the day after. Or the day after that.

Looking good. That's a lot of ghosts.

Almost done. Just need to have the last paint wash dry, rim the bases, spray matt and then add some flock or maybe little teeny tufts.

Still can't get over how much more badass the new spirit hosts look when compared to these lol.

New one is cool but I think I almost prefer the aesthetic of the old. I mean the new one is nicer overall, but it's almost too dynamic for me. Kind of like the implacable slowly advancing unrelenting undead horde.

I do like the look of the new ones, but these ones were free, painted in a day (they're finished now - photos on Wed, hopefully), won't snap off their bases if you look at them funny, and are a lot more versatile - at least when based individually.

I just can't see those new ones passing muster in a Pulp Alley/7TV scenario game of Scooby-Doo using the Hasslefree figures - can you? (and yes, I'm half serious there)

 Azazelx wrote:
I do like the look of the new ones, but these ones were free, painted in a day (they're finished now - photos on Wed, hopefully), won't snap off their bases if you look at them funny, and are a lot more versatile - at least when based individually.

I just can't see those new ones passing muster in a Pulp Alley/7TV scenario game of Scooby-Doo using the Hasslefree figures - can you? (and yes, I'm half serious there)

Free? 'Nuff said then haha!
Not had any experience with the Hasslefree stuff tbh.

This is what I'm talkin' 'bout, Willis.

[url=http://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?product=gang-and-dog~hfn016&category=miniatures~modern-non%252dcoms-%2F-civilians]
[/url]

[url=http://www.hfminis.co.uk/shop?product=post%252dapoc-gang~hfa093&category=miniatures~modern-adventurers]
[/url]

When I was working on them, I noticed that they looked a lot better/more impressive spread out more than how they'll be when I'll use them in a unit for KoW. I then started thinking about alternative uses for them - stuff like Pathfinder, but also for stuff in scenario based games - especially those based on TV shows like Supernatural, and then even Scooby-Doo. (and yes, I own the Scoob figs - though they're still unpainted...)

Those are pretty awesome. Especially the weaponized version.

I could see designing a scenario that starts off like a typical Scooby-Doo adventure, and once "the gang"'s players makes it to the safehouse, taking their figures away and replacing them with the second set, and turning it into a L4D apocalypse scenario...

Too bad you live ridiculously far away in a den of horribly deadly native beasties.... I would totally play that game

 GrimDork wrote:
Too bad you live ridiculously far away in a den of horribly deadly native beasties.... I would totally play that game

Lol that's rich coming from you Grim, I seem to recall the U.S. having a fair number of horribly deadly native beasts... Not quite so much as Oz but still plenty to go at lol

Here they are! - Citadel Spirit Hosts - Based as a unit of Wraiths for Kings of War. As stated last time, it's a quick and simple job, but it's effective enough and they look good on the table.



So it seems that these figures are properly called "Spirit Hosts", and appear to date from 2000 when GW split the undead army into "Wet" (Vampire Counts) and "Dry" (Tomb Kings), as that's the first reference I can find to them over at Stuff of Legends. They usually mount three to a 40mm base, but I'm using them for Kings of War, so individual 25mm round bases does it for me to turn them into a regiment of Wraiths, and easily used as Individuals for skirmish games.



From the last post where I talked about the paint process, I simply painted the bases (base, drybrush, wash, weathering powders) and added a thinned down Citadel Sybarite Green paint wash to the eyes, nostrils, mouths, and around the belts and necks/hair of the individual ghosts to emphasis those parts slightly. And of course, a nice matt varnish to finish them off. - And yes, that is a spot of weathering powder on that front guy in the photo. Sorted now! Some might be critical that I'm using what now seems to be the "official GW palette" for ethereal models, but I liked the effect when they were used on the Army of the Dead figures more than a decade ago, and to me the look really is suitable for undead, and looks better than the "dirty sheet" look that was used before.

While I was photographing these guys, I thought I'd also take a pic of my Citadel Lord of the Rings Barrow-Wights. These two (and their third - a former Army of the Dead figure) are used both as actual Barrow-Wights in LotR SBG, and also as a troop of Wights (surprise!) in Marouda's Kings of War Undead army. Well, she hasn't used them yet, but soon.



Citadel LotR Barrow-Wights
I've shown these on the wordpress blog before, but that was some time ago, and the pictures there aren't exactly the best, so why not show them again in a slightly better light? Why not indeed.

No problems for using that palette for the undead. Sybarite green hey, I thought it looked a bit like Vallejo verdigris but it definitely works for that ethereal feel. I didn't see the "dirty sheet" look but from the sounds, yeah this is much better. It does look like it was a quick job but it doesn't look like a bad job so win-win ; )

Those barrow wights are great, I love the contrast in blue-green cloth and dark/rusty metallic armour and leathery skin.

Love those Barrow Wights and Army of the Dead minis, very nicely done!

Yeah. There's really not a lot to these spirit hosts, so as long as they look good passing the "three feet test", then it's all good. (and they do - I checked - for science).

With the Barrow-Wights I was trying for a similar ethereal feel with the cloth, but with mummified corpses clad in the armour they once wore with the steel they once wielded. They're also much darker than the AotD figures (which I'll show later) to make them stand out a little.

Those Spirit Hosts look loads better Nice job

Liking the Barrow Wights too. Looking suitably undead and ghastly

Both units are quite awesome I like the way you've based your spirit hosts, I'm looking to do something similar (individuals plunked into a tray) for my Bones orcs/goblins/etc.

Yeah, works for me, saves some figures - regiments are usually 20, these are 12, but still look good - and gives a lot more cross-game flexibility.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
A bit of a WIP update on the T-34s that I started assembling just the other day. I included them in the update a few days ago - partly to keep me motivated. At the time, my plans to finish them were "I still need to hit the whole thing with PSC weathering spray and have a play with weathering powders and the like. Add some decals and then finish them." As it tuened out, it was a bit more complicated. I decided to forego the PSC weathering spray on these (I'll still use it when I get around to my 15mm stuff) and instead pretty much spent the entire day today working on these. AP washes, multiple weathering powder washes, oil washes, pin washes, foam weathering, more weathering powders, Tamiya Weathering Master kits, Decals, Micro Sol, some freehand and some touching up. And in all kinds of order.

Hopefully I'll get the final bits finished tonight or tomorrow, and take some better quality photos with a nice background and such - but in the meantime, here's some WIP shots showing the progression. Enough words - have some pictures!

Over the years, I've accumulated a lot of stuff. Amongst that stuff has been some Rackham Confrontation starter sets from the prepaint plastics days. Griffins vs. Wolfen. While I've not done much with the Wolfen to date, the Griffins have recently been multibased on cardboard for Kings of War, and I've done a bit of work on the terrain. Since I've got more than one of these Hill Ruins, I decided to paint them in different ways. The temperate climate hill is still being worked on, but I finished the desert scheme hill, and so here it is!







I've been using weathering powders a lot more on things recently, and I found them to be a bit of a double-edged sword on this piece of terrain. I thought it looked great without the powders, and it lost a fair bit of the distinct looks of the stone slabs when I added them, but I felt that the realism of the sand gathered between the stones made it worthwhile. Added some grass tufts around, just enough to make it look a bit more "real" but not so many as to hinder gaming on the piece, which after all is the whole point of the thing. As I keep saying, I do quite like terrain that can work well across a variety of games, and this one is characterful enough that it works for pretty much anything - though the dragon might be a little out of place in the Libyan desert of WW2, it might still pass if we squint a little.

Damn you've done some good work on those T-34s!

That hill looks really good, I like the weathering powder makes it feel more real as you say.

Something about the decals/lettering just makes those older model tanks look much better.

The hill is nice, I think the weathering stuff is superior overall. If you want to use the hill in a historical/contemporary setting, just put a slab over the top, shouldn't be too hard to find some rocks or what have you.

I have been trapped in the Nations capital for work for the last week and you have been soooo busy. The spirit hosts look fantastic and I LOVE the idea of a Scooby Do scenario that ends up all weaponized.

Keep the work coming love the updates.

Thanks guys. Have been busy trying to clean up for the last two days. Almost finished the T-34s now - just need to finish the commander and then give them a nice matt spray to protect them.