When it comes to fantasy Orcs, anything but green and the less bulky the better, as far as I'm concerned. With the LotR orcs being 10/10 stylistically for me, and WFB Greenskins at 1, that guy is a solid 8 or 9, and would work perfectly in LotR as a Black Guard, Feral Uruk or even Half Troll.
I'm quite happy with how both types came out. Small numbers of odd and different things provide a nice break from blander large-scale projects of many figures.
Automatically Appended Next Post: The moment I saw this model in the Bones II list, I knew I wanted to buy it. Marouda likes Bulls, as she's a Taurus (not into astrology, but likes the animal and imagery). As I've written before, the Brass/Bronze Bull is a thing with a strong Ancient Greek heritage. As much as I like the Foundry Model, this one is a good bit bigger, and as such, more impressive. Incidentally, this model is a Bob Olley sculpt, and a nice one at that. I started this a little over a month ago, after starting a brief survey on how to base it.
Reaper's Brass Bull. You can sort of see the glowing eyes I gave this one.
Now, I know that most Reaper Miniatures are essentially "counts-as" models for various Dungeons and Dragons beasties. What was interesting to me was when one of my friends was over for Friday Night Zombicide, and saw the part-painted model on my paint desk, and remarked that he recognised it as a "Gorgon" and talked about it turning enemies to stone (ok) via a breath attack (huh?) Now, as I've mentioned before, I'm not a huge D&D guy, and to me "Gorgon" always meant a snake-woman of Medusa's Ilk. Medusa being the name of a specific Gorgon, rather than the name of the snake-haired woman's race. Because, you know, that's what they are.
This shot shows off the freehand Hoplon shield. I'm quite proud of it.
So I did a bit of Googling the next day. I found that, yes indeedy, a Brass (or Bronze) Bull is a proper D&D Monster that petrifies its foes via a breath attack. Huh. Still, it required a bit more reading to figure out. Eventually, I found this blog post by F.Wesley Schneider (of D&D and Pathfinder fame) who explains it all in a way that makes it all make sense. It'll still never make it a Gorgon to me, but I can absolutely understand and respect the reasoning behind it, as well as the many years of legacy to those who play and are familiar with D&D. It's much the same kind of acceptance as my own to bright green Orcs, which was not something I'd ever considered or pictured before my introduction to and immersion into Warhammer in my early teens, but now after several decades is a thing I automatically default to.
Showing the discarded Kopis sword.
A couple of flank shots. When I saw the photographs of these I noticed a small amount of wear (already!) on some of the scales. I've gone back to retouch those bits and will be giving them a bloody decent shot of varnish tonight and tomorrow.
Finally, a size comparison shot. We have Stabby McStab, the Chronopia model, the Reaper Bull and finally, the foundry bull. While the basing does make a difference, the Wargames Foundry bull is significantly smaller. I'll still manage to work out a use for both in the eventual Mythical Greek Army. I've got some ideas, and both bulls would remain very nasty opponents. I might add some flower tufts to the base of the Reaper model, though. I like the contrasting effect that flowers have with such a terrifying monster of Brass and Steel!
Yep, like the bull. I've probably seen 5-6 of these painted now, he seems to be a popular bones 2 mini on the facebook group, though I think your execution is top notch. I'd have to paint mine like the rulebook and go with a blue steel kind of look.
Since you have it, and I can't find it online, would you mind giving me a quick rundown of the minis in Wrath of Ashaldaron, either here or via PM if you don't want to clog up the thread?
Amazing Bull, I love the story possibilities that the shield suggests. Has a Hoplon Soldier seen the bull and ran away (the sensible option) or has the soldier been crushed underfoot? You are right to be proud of the freehand, that must have taken a fair few coats of thinned down white.
Thanks guys. Rebasing the bull really paid off well, I think. I liked the ambiguous nature of the discarded sword and shield, as well as the simple colour it brings to what would have otherwise been quite a plain base. As you said, It could be a Hoplite who has been crushed, or fled from the bull, or even the gear from a friendly that has been killed while the Bull moves up the battlefield. The shield was a bit tricky, but the best part about it was seeing that I can actually do a Greek Key pattern in that scale. The worst part is now I'll have to do it again. And again, and again...
Para - I saw your thread and added my thoughts, and a few worthwhile links to rules and figures. Enjoy!
As others have said the Bull (or should I say Gorgon as a D&D lover?) looks absolutely amazing. But that shield? Your free hand work is exceptional and if you plan on an entire unit equipped with them that is quite an undertaking.
I'm thinking that the front row of several units might get freehand shields. Or a mix of freehand designs along with transfers that look exceptionally nice combined with the more elaborate kind of freehand rims like this one. Rear ranks will be much more transfer-friendly with less complex rims.
Love the freehand shield azazelx. Thanks for the link explaining why its called a gorgon. I always thought it was odd. And I have to admit when reading Lotr I always imagined the orks to come in many colours, including but not limited to green. Someone aound here painted their orks yellow through to red and I thought it worked quite well.
Thanks. I'd never even heard of a metal bull being called a Gorgon, so I was very much thinking WTF when my friends called it that.
Another couple of the Dungeons and Dragons Boardgame models today. The Zombie Dragon and the Werewolf. Both are decent sculpts, though nothing outstanding by my standards.
The Zombie Dragon is a reasonable beast, though details are a little soft in places. It's also undersized to my eye, for a dragon at least. Dragonling perhaps, but not a full fledged dragon, undead or otherwise. A zombie dragon is, apparently a distinct thing from a Dracolich. I guess that's a Dragon who is a Lich, rather than a Dragon who is a Zombie. I guess perhaps Dracoliches can be the ones who animate Zombie Dragons. I've still got to finish painting the Dracolich that came with Ravenloft, so enough about that for now.
Since this thing is (or used to be) a Dragon(ling), and also a Zombie, I went for a kind of traditional green palette, knowing I could stay dark on the carapace while highlighting the majority of the skin to a really pallid, desaturated green, so the carapace and wing membranes would provide a harmonious contrast. Of course, the other contrast that I wanted to have nice and strong was that of the blood, gore, viscera, exposed muscle and so on.
The beast doesn't look like it's been dead for all that long, as there's not a huge amount of decomposition on the model so far. I mean, the details are pretty soft, so it's easy enough to go other way, but I thought the head looked a little sallow as opposed to being made up of exposed bone. This is why I painted the eyes as hollowed-out but bloodied sockets. As though the crows and carrion-eaters had picked them out of the skull, before reanimation had occurred.The midsection and exposed ribs were again a bit soft, so I used some tube-putty to create some intestines hanging out of the chest/midsection cavity, along with a relatively fresh trail of viscera and blood being left in its stride. All of the exposed wounds were finished with Tamiya Clear Red, and the trail of dripping gore was made up of the same Clear Red along with some Water Effects.
The Werewolf also, is a simple figure. Again on a par with an average Bones model. Very much a 5/10 sculpt and model, in my opinion. I went for grey rather than brown, since grey rather than brown wolves and werewolves fit the pseudo-gothic-horror aesthetic of something like Castle Ravenloft for me. The incredibly awkward pose and posture doesn't do a whole lot for me, either. Interestingly, this werewolf is female. Though she only has two breasts, that are completely covered in fur, rather than six-to-ten teats. Not something I'd thought about much before.
We all know that there are actually painters out there that really can make a silk purse from a sow's ear. I'm not sure if I consider myself one of them, but I know that I could have made this model look better than it is. The question, as always is whether it would be worth the time invested. In this case, I did a little with facial markings and called it good enough.
In the end, these two are simply used as Bossed for the Ravenloft box. In theory, both could have a place in a Kings of War Undead army, though I've got better (Confrontation) Werewolves that I use for that game, and better ones from Citadel, Reaper, and even Mantic that I can use for everything else. The Zombie Dragon would need proxy-stats for a creature much less nasty than a proper Dragon to be of use. Obsidian Golem stats of some kind, perhaps?
I have to admit- I'm not a fan of that Werewolf. The paint job is awesome, just that pose looks like he's doing one of those goofy dances you'd see an embarrassing dad doing lol.
As part of my continuing push to clear off my painting desk via actually finishing off models, I gathered together these three Goblin Fanatics a couple of weekends ago. I got them either from eBay, or WAU, or something like that at least a couple of years ago. I can't even remember, to tell the truth. It was certainly before we bought this house and moved in. They had been assembled, sprayed black, had their bases painted goblin green, and parts of their skin had also been painted goblin green. Unless that last part was me. Anyway, they'd just kind of floated around since I got here, and had been separated, and one of them had suffered a fall from the shelf due to Leonard the Cat going "fishing" from the top of the bookshelf - snapping the chain, which was hanging by a thin thread of plastic.
So anyway. I saw a couple of them taking up space and decided to finish them as a quick weekend project. The plan was to get them entirely done in the one weekend. It ended up taking two, but close enough. Glued the chain back together and off I went. It took a bit to decide what to do with their clothing. I feel that while Night Goblins can be dark as you like, it's nice to make their "special" models pop in some way. I also hate checked patterns on goblinoids, so I went with flames. Initially using an off-white, I decided they'd look better with a bit more colour, so I went with the brighter flames.
Yes, I know that the base of the flames "should be" yellow as it's the hottest part, and the red at the edges. These flames, of course, are made of paint representing a pattern on cloth rather than actual flames, so I'm fine with the red being adjacent to the green of their faces, and the yellow against the black of their hoods. It's all about contrast and "pop" here, but without over highlighting black cloth or green skin up to white, which always bothers me a little. I also experimented a little with the balls and chains. I wanted them to look like worn and rusted metal.
While they took a little longer than I'd planned, I'm quite happy with the final outcome. Now, on to the next models.
The contrast between flames, skin and robes works really effectively to bring a lot of interest to the models. I think they are really worth putting a bit of extra time in. Your results certainly show what can be accomplished.
Thanks everyone. I enjoyed doing them enough that I've just dug out a bunch of other, similarly neglected old classic goblin models to get finished as well.
The rusted balls took several steps. It probably took longer since I was experimenting, but hey, it was still easy. Painted what I think is Army Painter chainmail (it came with a Mantic KS and has no label), then washed with AP Dark Tone, then AP Strong Tone. Lightly drybrushed with the chainmail again, then some stippling with VMA Rust (you could use Tin Bitz/Tinny Tin/etc), then stippled with Citadel Ryza Rust (you could use any orange paint for this), then light, sparing stippling with the chainmail one last time. Done!
Now, some more photos. More Dungeons and Dragons Boardgame models today. The Wraiths and Blazing Skeletons. Both of these sculpts come in transparent blue plastic, so painting them is a little different.
You really don't want to be undercoating these if you want to retain the semi-transparent look. I gave both of them a bit of a wash with dark blue ink in order to deepen the shadows, which has worked in one way and not been so great in another, as they have lost a certain amount of their transparency by doing so. The Blazing Skeletons are pretty nice models, actually - the only really "difficult" part being how the fireball is indistinct from the rest of the flames happening on the model.
The Wraiths aren't bad models either. A little ham-handed perhaps, but that's hardly a new thing to miniatures. Simple enough, but overall quite effective.
Obviously, the place for these figures to get more use would be in the Undead Army. What to use them for on the other hand is a little trickier. The wraiths would obviously see most approrriate use as Wraiths, but that role is more than competently taken care of both by the reams of Army of the Dead models from LotR as well as the old Citadel Spirit Host (Ghost Swarm) models that I repainted last year. Smaller numbers have any number of very nice models in LotR Barrow-Wights, Otherworld Miniatures' Wights and the like. Perhaps if the AotD get split off into a separate Army of the Necromancer or something. I dunno. Suggestions on near-term use for those models would always be welcome.
The Blazing Skeletons have a similar problem - what to use them for? If I were really lazy or creative, I could try suggesting that they're stand-ins for War Machines. What with the huge blue fireballs they're about to Ha-dou-ken at their enemies. Thing is of course, that I already have some Undead Warmachines (and two more Skull Chuckers to sort out, and a TK Screaming Skull on the radar.)
So, I dunno. Smush them in with Undead Archers since they're all ranged? Seems a bit ill-fitting somehow. Use them as Undead Characters/casters? While that could work ont he surface, these models don't look like interesting characters, and Undead Characters seems to be one of the most heavily-populated subgenres of miniatures available - both from older metal collections like my Citadel stuff as well as endless newer models from Reaper, Bones, etc.
How many of each kind do you have? If you have enough blazing skeletons use them a unit unto themselves, still skeleton archers in stats... but visually different. Not sure about the wraiths.
You get three of each mob type - excepting the bosses where you get one of each. So enough to mix into/bulk out similar units but way too few to make anything.
Looking good! I think the 3 skellie fire throwers could be a stand in for a 5-man Skeleton Archer unit (if they can go that small)? It's chaff, but chaff is great for KoW anyway!
The D&D minis look great, especially seeing as the plastic they use for these is so awfully wonky! Well, mine from Ravenloft are anyway. Were your spectrals also cast in transparent blue plastic? Though the detailing on the models isn't bad at all for minis that are supposedly cast in a single colour and chucked in a box at the end of a game as boardgame pieces first and painting pieces not at all.
I think Skelly archers start at 10-man units. I could always try to find some kind of appropriate filler and make up a diorama-unit base, as long as I can still remove them for Ravenloft/roleplaying.
The Wraiths and Blazing Skellies were both cast in the transparent blue. Some of them have wonky bases, and even hot water doesn't do much to reset them. I found the Ashardalon Archer Orcs yesterday, so I might do them soon. (Queue-jumpers!) As they give off a very nice Uruk-hai vibe.
Finally finished a bunch of those metal Moria goblins yesterday as well. 11 Moria Goblin Prowlers, 4 Archer Captains and 1 Spear Captain. Now just 2 more Sword & Board ones to go, and then it's onto Duburz, the other King who comes on a Warg and Foot, and then it's just plastics (and trolls!) left for Moria. Perhaps time to buy a shaman or two, and maybe knock out some Wild Wargs and Orc Warg Riders to use in their army...
I've decided that I want to finish ALL of my Moria Goblins (perhaps not all of the trolls) and ALL of my Gondor models (no exceptions) this year... I'm going to need some luck!
I still maintain that if I didn't have so many things to do already, and if I wasn't in a hobby spending freeze... I would totally get some of those Moria goblins. Looking forward to seeing what you do with the rest of those goblins and LotR minis. I never got into buying them myself, but seeing what you and Paradigm have come up with for them makes me feel like I missed out a bit
I should be able to get some photos of the Prowlers by the end of the week, the Captains and their units will very much depend on the weather and how much it rains so I can get my varnish happening.
I'd look at getting some of the Moria Goblins now if you ever want to get them. They'll only get roe expensive and harder to get hold of as time goes by, so you may as well grab some now while they're reasonably priced. I think with my next pay I'll have to get some new LotR stuff from GW direct. It's getting to the buy it now or don't ever get it stage for some of the stuff there - and eBay is way more expensive that GW direct for so much of it as well...
@Grim: if you want a couple dozen Moria Goblins for use as generic short stabby things, check eBay. They've featured in several LotR starter sets over the years, so the core troops are still rather cheap and available. Might have harder time finding the metals, though, as half of them are OOP now.
Some great stuff going on here, the Fanatics are my favourite...they just evoke so many memories of getting into the hobby. Whether that was taking chunks out of your opponents or your own army is an entirely different matter.
I love seeing the different ranges of minis I have no idea about too. I really like the flaming Skeletons, a nice ethereal fire effect you have there.
Thanks! I enjoyed painting the Night Gobboes so much that a few more made it out of the purgatory of the half-painted figure case on the weekend to become queue-jumpers. Bastards!
In the meantime, here are some of their dirty cousins - the Moria Goblins!
I finally finished these Goblin Prowlers last weekend after starting them about a month ago during my Moria Goblin push. Unfortunately, and, I guess rather predictably, I got sick of painting Moria Goblins, and they sank to the back of the front of my queue. I took them to work a couple of times. but there were just too many of them to get anything substantial done, so they sat for a little while. I finally split them into two groups and took them to work last week to get stuff done in a more focused manner, and then finished them off on the weekend.
As with this sort of thing, I put more effort into these than I do with faceless plastics, but still - they're not exactly models that inspire my top-tier paintjobs. I also wanted them to look grotty and grubby, so after my usual highlighting and shading I gave them a glaze/wash of AP Soft Tone. One commentator remarked at one point that they felt that the Moria Goblins were Ochre rather than Green, but my reviewing of both stills as well as and statues and other such merchandise makes them pretty well green. Though it's more of a light olive. I'm using Citadel Foundation Gretchin Green (sadly discontinued) as a base, then highlighting it with blends into VGA Rotting Flesh. They do blend upwards into yellow-greens, but Ochre really seems to be something based off this particular still, which can be found with more than one tone to it anyway. Either way, this tone fits the Moria mob much more than the traditional Goblin Green of my (and many other) WHFB Orcs and Goblins.
Both pics here just pulled from pages on the intarwebs, with no touch-up by myself except for resizing and renaming.
How Green is my Goblin?
All depends on the light or filter, I guess?
In Kings of War they'll be part of my Goblin army, though I couldn't find an appropriate unit for how they're armed - and the actual goblin infantry all seem to be listed as pretty much rabble.
Since this simply won't do, I'll be using the unit profile of a KoM unit - either Foot Guard with 2-handers or perhaps Berserkers - it works legally as the armies can be allied anyway, and it thematically fits the unit. I'll be doing a similar thing with the Gundabad Blackshields when I get around to doing them (probably "regular" Foor Guard). My only real issue is that even Goblin Kings in KoW are Yellow-Bellied, so it'll be a bit odd to have their Elites braver than their leader. Then again... even that kinda works thematically as well if you think about it...
12 for a Regiment of "20", and two leftover for other duties and fill-ins. Unfortunately with only three sculpts there are no fancy-pants models to be banner bearers or leaders, but such is life. Let's face it, I'm way too slack to convert any for this mob! More pics over on the Wordpress for anyone interested in more individual shots rather than the unit-based ones.
The Goblins work well. The color scheme is great, I really like the hooded guys with their faces covered. Although I am pretty sure I saw someone that looked just like that tagging a wall the other day. Now that is a creepy thought.
I think Bezerkers would work well as they may be too crazed to care about courage or bravery and its a good way to explain why they won't run away.
For a banner bearer you could simply hang a banner off the axe of one of the guys waving it menacingly in the air.
Gah. Stop posting fantastic Lord of the Rings, they're really pushing me to get my force up and running but I'd have to fill it out with OOP models. If I cave and end up purchasing them, I will hold you and Paradigm responsible
But surely it wouldn't hurt to check ebay... that can't be too bad can it?
eBay is a real mixed bag. Worth checking ...though your wallet might regret it.
I don't have the War Drum ...yet. That might be changing real soon now, though.
I don't think they need a banner, etc, but I think they'd work well with a horn, and perhaps a goblin with one of those axes in one hand, and pointing with the other.
ONI-S3 wrote: If I cave and end up purchasing them, I will hold you and Paradigm responsible
But surely it wouldn't hurt to check ebay... that can't be too bad can it?
I could say the same to you about Halo Fleet, but I was already going for that anyway!
EBay is great for the plastic troop minis that will form the bulk of your force, and be easily converted to Captains/banners ect. The OOP metals though will tend to cost more than a shiny penny, to the point where even die-hard LotR fanatics like me baulk! Still, you should find something to get you going, especially if you can get a good price on a job lot.
I won't drag Az's thread further off topic, but if you find yourself interested in starting up then start a thread down in the LotR forum or PM me and I'm more than happy to give you some advice on getting going.
Automatically Appended Next Post: @Az: perhaps an archer would be a good conversion base. Cut the bow and replace it with a pointy hand, then stick an axe in the other being waved above his head?
The plastic archers just don't inspire me. I reckon a unit of metal hard-cases like that deserves a metal leader. I'll keep the idea in mind, though. Perhaps if I pick up more metals in the future I'll convert something appropriate. I've got a few that would probably have done the trick as conversion bases, but they're already done now (to be shown soon, when I finish the last two). In the meantime, here's the latest stuff I've been working on (sans the Zombicide stuff I've been working on at work in my breaks)
Some of my old(hammer) 3rd ed-era goblins getting rebased 2015-style. Also an old Bolt Thrower-crew Orc who was started 10? years ago and is now nearing completion. A couple of old Skeleton command also getting close in the back, as well as my first two Goblin Fanatics - ugly Bob Olley models.
Here we have a mix - more goblin fanatics (1991-era) that got started back then but never finished, as well as a really old (2e?) goblin and various other things. Old Skelly, original Bloodletters, Celtos Skeletons, Moria Goblin kings, clubber and netter, and in the back that bloody Dwarf Slayer and Ogre I've been trying to get around to finishing for a month or more now...
Lots of WHFB goblins that got started a long time ago and never finished. Their time is now. fethed if I know what I'll do with so many fanatics, though. And I have more to come...
I'm hoping to have a good chunk of those old Gobboes finished this weekend. We'll see how I go. I think I'm getting sick... damn winter.
Here's some painted stuff I completed a week or so ago. I picked up this pair of Skeleton Spearmen recently via eBay, paired with some Rackham Ghouls. They were reasonably priced and looked nice enough, and I was buying other stuff from the same seller, and I'm building an undead army, so why not?
The one with the helmet had a spike atop his headgear which I thought looked a bit crappy, so out came the clippers and it was a problem of the past. The same fellow also had what I initially assumed was a kind of banded mail but turned out to be somewhat unconvincingly-sculpted ribs. His radius was also way-oversized, with a tiny ulna to match. I decided to cover up these issues by painting both as bone-themed iron armour - the ribs as the banded mail I thought they were in the first place, and the entire right forearm as a bracer. His mate had much more sensibly-sculpted proportions, so they were all left as bone. I painted the pair in the Undead Army's themed colours - Black and Red with (obviously) Bone, worn metal equipment with worn brass/verdigris-blue-green accents.
Nice enough figures bought for about AU$2.50 each. Can't say no to that! Now I just need to get them 10-22 mates and we've got another unit for the table! A bit of research has revealed that they're from the Fir Bolg range for the Celtos Miniatures Game. The tabs of these models had "I-Kore" on them, and so apparently Celtos was originally created by I-Kore, and later sold to Urban Mammoth and later on-sold again to Brigade Models who currently own the game.
Parts of that range seem to have a strong influence from Chronopia, but I'm more interested in sticking to these (Irish, apparently) Skeletons. I might grab some more, now that I know where to get them. I've got a soft spot for metal skeletons for some reason. They're almost like the perfect things for me to paint at work. Might be a few other things for me to pick up as I scour through their range. I better get onto them before they're sold again or disappear completely!
I really don't mind the sculpts at all. May have something to do with how you have painted them. The banded mail looks fantastic. But the poses and cloak really make them look more than the run of the mill skeletons running around the place.
Yeah, I'm happy with how they came out. I think I'll be buying some more of them this week, now that I've tracked them down (and found that they're quite reasonably priced).
That's great to hear. While playing around with their site, I found that their shipping is very fair and they deduct the 20% VAT, so they seem very much above board.
In other news, I finished some of those Goblins tonight and found that it's officially now too cold to spray models in the evening. Gotta hope it's a reasonable morning/afternoon, then!
This weekend I finally knuckled down and finished the C23 Ogre Mercenary with 2-hander who I'd been staring at for the last couple of months. He's outside having the varnish dry in the sun. So far, so good. I'll get some pics of him and his unit this coming week and show them off then. With him down, the next part-painted-aeons-ago Ogre steps into the front rank of stuff to get finished soon.
This guy:
I think the reason this guy has been in the "stuck" file is because I just can't figure out what colours to use for him. I'd originally given him a purple skirt with the intention of painting some stars and moons and pentagrams, etc on it - which I think is based on mis-remembering the first time I saw him painted, which was probably the figure pictured in this White Dwarf advertisement from 1989. Orclord of SoL fame also has a nicely painted example in his personal collection.
So what of this guy? Well, the purple robe would have worked better is his outfit was a onesie, but he's got that fur-cuffed vest as well, so that means we need something else as well. I'm thinking dirty grey-white hair to give him a sense of age and authority. His pauldron could either be worn steel, "coloured" metal, as in the Chaos Ogre from the berserker unit this guy will be inspiring/attached to, or a bright, enamelled red as worn by the one member of Olley's Ogres. It all depends on how much I decide to make it "pop" as both former solutions are much more subtle and low-key than the latter, and this guy is, after all, a Character in the army.
I'll clean up the chestnut browns on his boots and arm wrapping, go with my typical bone effect for the warhammer-head, and go with contrasting browns for his pouches and belts, but ultimately it's the skirt and vest that have got me stuck.
My Ogre force does not have "army colours" as many of my other armies will and do. Some units will have their own heraldry (or just a dominant colour) but nothing across the whole army, which I see as a collection of individuals from a number of tribes.
I could go with strong reds to make him stand out on the battlefield? Keep the purple and give it the patterns I thought of originally? (But what of the vest?) Copy Orclord's scheme? Something completely different? I really don't know, which is why I'm posting this here and on a forum I frequent, so I can see if I can get some feedback that will inspire me enough to get this guy finished - and to take less than three months to actually get it done.
With the wild hair and the horns, I'd be inclined to say this guy pops enough that you don't need red or purple on him. I vote to keep his clothes as leather, with the belts and pouches in a darker color so they don't get lost.
What are you planning to use him as. If you ever want to play GW games either a Butcher or Firebelly should recommend a palette. He'd look good in the Reds Yellows and Oranges of a Bright/Fire Wizard as well.
I think sticking with leather and browns would be a bit dull for him, especially in context of the guys he'll be alongside. He's going to be used in KoW as an Ogre Shaman. I can't see myself going back to WHFB, so I'm not too concerned there - though I do have the actual Firebelly model that I'll paint with a Māori colour scheme, Tā moko-inspired kirituhi and tattoos.
いIn that case, how technically-advanced are your ogres? Would they have access to the same dyes or fabrics as, say, Basileans or Dwarves? Or would they use leaves and mashed bugs to dye their hides?
Yes to all of the above, through occasional trade (including within their sub-groups), frequent plunder, slavery when convenient and mercenary work as a staple. They're also racially diverse, not just in skin colour, but via sub-races such as RoR, C23, GW90's, OK, Mantican, RPE-Olley. Some forge and produce their own gear, others trade for it, some get it custom-made by dwarf or human artisans, still others scavenge. Here's the most recent group photo, which is a little out of date now. (Needs more ogres!)
Your ogre horde is looking pretty impressive. But from that photo of the group I feel you could use light colours on the Shaman to have him stand out from the crowd?
After some consideration, and with your point of standing out in mind, I think I'm going to go with fairly bright reds, though a little dirtied as well.
The first two figures in this update are a pair of the first batch of Squig Hoppers released by GW for 4th Edition WHFB, back in 1991-1992. WHFB3 (the "Oldhammer" edition) didn't feature Squigs in any form, and goblins were really just goblins. When WHFB4 came around with it's 40k-codex style army books, Goblins gained several subtypes in a properly-supported form, such as Night and Forest. I seem to recall mentions of Night Goblins predating 4th edition, so there's that. Night Goblins have kind of become the de facto subtype in more recent years as opposed to the more generic ones from WFFB3. Anyway, I really quite liked these models, and so I collected quite a few of them. One of these two was painted quite awhile ago (5 years? 10? Who knows!) while the other was started right afterwards and only finished last year. It was shown last year in near-complete WIP form at one point, but I never showed off the completed model.
As I've stated elsewhere - sure these Kev Adams sculpts look cartoony, disproportionate, and not especially realistic. But they do have real character. I'm well aware how often "character" is used as a kind of code/excuse for poor sculpting of older models, but here I really do mean it as a positive. These models might be a year or two out from "Oldhammer", but being from the Kev Adams run of goblinoids, they're Oldhammer and Old-school enough for me. More importantly, they're great models in their own right that still stand up well today.
The second pair I'm sharing today were both painted a long, long time ago. Back when I used to actively play WHFB, in fact! These are Bob Olley sculpts - Goblin Fanatics from his Iron Claw range circa 1998. Since they're painted in the colour scheme of Night Goblins, they'd have been painted during the early days of 4th Edition. As regular readers will know, I'm not an especially big fan of many of Bob's sculpts, and these are no exception. Still, back in the day you pretty much only had what was available - and this was it. No eBay, no internet shopping and mail order to GW from Australia was a rare and exciting occurrence. Especially for a teenager or young adult. You can see that the flame motif used on my more recent Night Goblin Fanatics goes way back, though. Because I am nothing if not imaginative and experimental.
With these models being real outliers of the "weird and random" part of the WHFB Orc and Goblin list, they don't really fit in to a KoW Goblin Army as the list stands right now. Hopefully with the "officially unofficial not-GW army lists" that are supposed to come out later on in the year, these guys will find a home on the tabletop again in 2015.
Next to be shown should be a set of 3 C23 Ogres from the late 1980's that I just (finally) finished the third man of a couple of weekends ago (just need to take the pics). Work is pretty full-on right now, so the only painting I've been dong has been on my lunch breaks - a half dozen or so more Night Goblins from the early 1990's - a netter, a clubber, a few more fanatics and also a goblin from 1986-ish that I've been unable to properly identify.
And here they are!
After last weekend, the latest unit of my old-school Ogres finally got finished, with the completion of "Bounty Hunter", who like so many other models I've been completing recently was started 10+ years ago. Without too much chatter, here they are:
As I said, this guy had been part-painted and in a minis case for some amount of time probably approaching 20 years - sometime around when the others were started and the initial ones were painted, in any case. I've kept as much of the original paint I started with him and worked on the rest. Still, I had one hell of a mental block to overcome in order to finish him.
Gutlagg here was basically finished years ago. I may have even shown him off on these pages before, but now his unit is finished, and he's been promoted to the unit leader. So hey!
This guy has a name, but he's usually just referred to as "Ogre Thug". There are two versions of this guy with just a small variation between them. This one has a small pouch attached to his chest, while the other has a small armoured disc. Since I somehow ended up with three of this guy, including both variants, I ended up converting two of them. One can be seen here, with the original mace head replaced by a hammer head and the spike on his helmet removed. The guy showcased on this page was originally painted in an embarrassingly garish scheme. (Yes, how he appears here is heavily toned down). His weapon mod was also embarrassingly bad. So bad in fact that I don't think I took any photos of him at all before reworking him. His mace head had been replaced with an Advanced HeroQuest (Or Dark World? Something like that, anyway) Ogre's Big ugly tree-club with a spike added to it. It looked awful. I ended up adding a Mantic Ogre's 2-hander blade to it, and it looks roughly a million times better now.
Here's the final, completed unit of these Ogres. I'm getting down to the last few of these old models now to paint and finish, which is both heartening and also a little sad.
I really do love your old ogres. Almost wish I could have used them for my ogre army. So much variation and character. I really like your different skin tones.
Have to choose the middle guy with the axe as my favourite. He just has so much attitude. Very fitting for an ogre.
What did you make the movement tray out of. It looks solid and I like the appearance.
I made the tray out of plasticard and square plastic tube. Made a couple of them - they're pretty good, but I've found getting motivated to make any more of them is pretty difficult. I agree that Gutlagg the Executioner is a great model - that's exactly why I decided that he'd be the unit leader.
I've got some more old goblins on the go. If I'm lucky they'll start to get finished this weekend. I've just finished 3 Reiksgard who were sitting around for ages (and started another batch of 3).
As I typed this post up, I became aware once again just how random my output is. This is a result of too many models and a short attention span when it comes to painting. There's always something new and shiny that has caught my attention and taken it away from whatever I was already painting. Combine this with a propensity to regularly buy more models off eBay and other second-hand sources, and I've got way too many half-painted models sitting around. Now that I'm trying to engage with finishing these things, and only rarely allowing myself to start new models (mostly those that fit into an existing project, like the Moria Goblin Shamans and Captains that I found the other day) it seems that my output is even more random. Especially since I'm posting things as I finish them much more frequently, rather than holding them back for months or years till something is "finished" (though I'm still doing that as well - at present with the plastic Moria Goblins that are waiting on their commanders.)
Anyway.
For the past year or more, I've had a smallish pile of these guys taking up space on my paint desk. Bought from someone, somewhere at some stage (or eBay) they've taken up space for several years in their badly-half-painted original form. When I started getting into KoW, I planned to paint them properly, but was discouraged by the fact that I only had 10 of them (even my truncated units take 12 models) and worse yet - they're a mix of 2-handed swords and 1handers with shield. I've wanted to flesh them out into two full units for some time, but the prices of Reiksgard on Foot on eBay are, frankly, ridiculous. Well, this weekend, I finally had enough - I spent far too much on two lots of them (though both reasonably priced by comparison to the usual), and decided to knock a few of them out.
To start with and for ease of painting, I chose three identical models - and beyond that, I chose three without shields. Started on them Friday evening, finished them Saturday afternoon, and by Sunday the varnish was dry. Probably worth pointing out that I did a lot of other things over the weekend besides just paint these. Mostly work-related. Yay.
I went with red stockings since it's easier to highlight/shade than Black or White and more visually interesting. Also, I've got about a million Warriors of Minas Tirith in Silver plate armour with black leggings, and so I wanted to do something different, and a bit more "Warhammer". In short, they're nothing especially special, but they're neat and they're done - quickly.
This also marks the "official" start of my Empire Army, which I've been collecting on and off for a couple of years now. I can't see myself rushing into them, but as I finish a unit here and there they can naturally ally to others in KoW. Gondor would appear to be a natural first stop. Or perhaps one of my Basilean armies...
I remember that one from the pages of the White Dwarf, I think he was part of Guy Haley's Empire army when they rebooted tale of four games, IIRC. He called him commander Pineapple Head.
Nice! I had no idea Empire used to have Foot Knights.
If you want a cheap way to expand the units, try Perry HYW Foot Knights. They're probably a little slimmer, but have the right kind of armour and plenty of weapons.
I think I have a twenty man unit with greatswords and a twenty man unit with sword/flail and shield. Thanks for reminding me of how awesome those models are.
Now I want to finish up my Empire army - Bogenhafen (Reikland). Very inspiring dude!
The more classic miniatures the better as far as I am concerned. The Ogres are so characterful and you have done an exceptional job on them. The blending on the skin is beautiful.
Thanks! The last few weeks have been a bit of a painting drought. I finished some Warhammer gobboes last weekend, but it wasn't until yesterday that I got a chance to varnish them since it's been too cold to risk spraying for most of the week. I've got guests over shortly, but I hope to finish the bases tomorrow, so I can hopefully get some pix a bit later on once the PVA dries. I've got another 8 Fanatics on the go right now. Hopefully it won't take too long to get them done and dusted.
I've been thinking about that, and the best I've come up with so far has been to put all of them into a regiment base together and perhaps use the stats for the Ratkin unit "The Blight" (aka Skaven Plague Censer Bearers) to represent their speed, damage, and general scariness.
Today's update shows off an "Oldhammer" Warhammer Goblin Unit made up of 2nd-3rd Edition models, almost entirely sculpted by Kev Adams back in the day and based on Rounds and turned into a KoW regiment by virtue of some blu-tac and a movement tray. These figures have been painted over quite a few years, with many painted 5-10+ years ago, a couple last year, and the last stragglers done in the last few weeks as part of my "finish those bloody things" drive. I'll show them off in threes to start with.
The command group of the unit (not that these things matter in the new edition of KoW, but I digress). The leader is "Kleaver" from the Goblin Battle Chariots box set with the addition of a Marauder Goblin Shield. The rest of the crew also found their way into this regiment. I think I started painting them to add to the chariots, which I never got painted and slowly faded into the depths of time. I'll have to do something about those sometime soonish. Perhaps they can have some plastic crewmen? The other two are simply command figures from the late 1980's, probably painted sometime in the 1990's. I didn't feel a need for a flag or pennant. Not all standards are giant flags, after all. I gave the musician a Nine Inch Nails back tattoo, since as a gobbo musician he's clearly really into his industrial music. The leader got a red hood to make him really pop, especially given his chainmail coat and plate boots take away a lot of the opportunity to add colour and interest.
The next three feature two more from the 80's command figures - the mod-posed figures are a Champion, a Leader and their cohort is a regular goblin from '91. Though I think he looks like the sort to be a unit champion with his cute little glaive.
Two of these three also came off the chariot sets mentioned earlier. The centre spear and hammer. Clearly the "red" spear is a close relation to the Hammer, and no doubt that helped me decide to paint the pair of them at the same time. All three of these were originally painted in the 1990's...
...and then the two on the outer were "re-finished" this year. The copper and Bronze scale mail were originally red, and purple. Hideous, you might say? Yes. The shield was originally absent entirely - just a shield boss sticking out of the back of the figure, painted black - so I decided to add a shield. I went for a leering goblin face design. I'm not entirely happy with it, but it falls under "good enough" for me. I could spend time trying to figure out why I'm not satisfied with it, or I could just move on and do a better job on the next freehand shield. So I've chosen the latter.
These three are a little more interesting. The first goblin, with the hammer and net is an early slottabase figure, from the C13 Small Goblins range, circa 1885-ish. I haven't managed to find this specific figure in the catalogues, but it looks to be the same style as figures like "Spear Thruster", so possibly/probably sculpted by the Perrys. This one was entirely painted recently, and while I'm not super happy with how his musculature came out, the head is fine, and the mohawk was a fun old-school touch.
The other two figures were also painted years ago. The middle figure is one of Bob Olley's Iron Claw Goblins from 1988. It's from the same range that the recent Fanatics I shared came from, and he was probably even purchased in the same blister that they came in. I went for something entirely different on his shield, trimming off the edging and painting it in a kind of pseudo-3D goblin moon-face style. Why is the moon red rather than yellow? Probably so it'd stand out more against the green of the goblin's hide. Dunno. It was an experiment, after all. That's what the more individual metal models did for me back in the day, before mass plastics were the norm. I liked to experiment with a lot more of my models' paint jobs, even if it meant that they lacked a unified unit look. The final figure, another of the late-'80's "champions" also had a shield experiment.
The narrative to that figure, if you will - is that he painted his shield himself. I always wondered how brutal creatures like Orcs and Goblins, who had brutal and crude weapons and armour always had such fine, delicate and artistic designs on their shields, banners and gear. I decided to paint this guy's shield as though he'd painted it himself. [See boxout above] Recently. The skull is crude and simple. The blue (and red) paint is messy and spattered everywhere (including on his clothing) and the paint had also pooled at the base of his shield, leading to a mess on the metal where it was leaning on the ground in a pool of paint. Cast yourselves back to your Primary/Elementary School Art Room, and you'll feel the inspiration for this guy.
On the backside of these three, both the Iron Claw goblin and the art-school candidate had their clothing repainted. Iron Claw boy lost his garish purple and yellow 1990's tunic and skirt while The Artist's blue scale mail was repainted in a bright copper.
Are Heartbreaker miniatures "Oldhammer"? Technically probably not since they were sculpted after Kev Adams left GW's employ, but then again their aesthetic follows the 3rd Edition Warhammer Fantasy look and feel quite closely. This guy is still available today from Ral Partha Europe/RPE as part of their range of Kev Adams Goblins. I should buy some more of them sometime, but at 2 quid a figure by 12 or 24, that comes to £24/48 or a little shy of AU$50-100 for one unit, which is a bit hard for me to justify to myself right now. I just wish they had discounted unit prices for sets of 10 or 20. Basically, they're super-cheap for heroes and unit leaders but it adds up quickly if you want to build whole units. (Though they're probably still cheaper than whatever GW is charging for plastics these days!) Still, this guy is a great figure and for only 2 quid, an easy and easily-justified purchase.
They look great. Really great. As always I feel you are too harsh on your free hand skills. Those shields are excellent and I absolutely love the Ork who has painted his own shield. Your back story fits so perfectly.
Man, I love those old Kev Adams orcs and gobbos. I never could afford an army of them when they were available, and I still regret getting rid of the few that I did have. Seeing yours (with those fantastic paint jobs) makes me feel half nostalgic and half jealous.
Thanks all for the compliments. I've oddly enjoyed painting them up and I'm tempted to do some more after I finish these fanatics which are almost done (and should have been finished on Sunday, probably). I'll see how I feel afterwards, since I'm supposed to be finishing a bunch of other stuff. I am pretty happy/satisfied about finally finishing (kinda) a unit for those goblins to take to the table with. Even if it's for a different game system in the end!
I'd be getting a bunch of Orcs done as well, but they're on 25mm square bases in KoW, so I'd have to finish 20 to make a unit instead of 12, and then I'd have to work out a regiment tray. It's a bit off-putting when compared to painting 12 and blu-tacing them down to a store-bought Renedra tray, so it looks like Da Boyz will be waiting for a fair bit longer.
they're cracking. really love them. send me back ....a few years wee gobbos always have such great character and you've totally brought that out. lovely stuff
Great work on the Gobbos, they bring back memories of getting into Warhammer around the time of the 3rd edition boxed set and that is great given there are only a few GW minis from that time in the unit.
The next few posts will feature a few callbacks to older figures I've painted and shown off here in the past. Don't worry, there's a point and context to it all, though.
These were some of the very early figures I got. Bloodletters of Khorne from the original Slaves to Darkness volume of Realm of Chaos circa 1988. Painted back in the day and touched up several times over the years. Pulled out of a storage case a couple of weeks ago to be rebased and lightly touched up again.
The middle guy looks a bit odd in the front-on photo, but the Conga-line profile shot helps him to make more sense. These early figures might not have been the greatest of sculpts, but they had a twisted physiology that made them work really well as Daemons. I'm glad that GW has returned to a design close to the original with the recent plastics after their iterations as cosplaying budybuilders and spiky beastmen in the interim.
I never had many of the original Bloodletters, and still don't. Getting them up to an even 8 (or 10, or 12) is "on the list" but they're not cheap or easily found on eBay. Back in the day, a Night Horror Demon (I guess he could be a gargoyle, but the trident is telling) got roped into the gang and has been a part of the small unit ever since. I somehow ended up with a broken Bloodletter torso, and so ended up grafting it to a spare pair of Chaos Warrior legs I had lying around after an uninspired Bear Centaur conversion. The arm is off an early Jugger rider.
At some point these guys will hit the table again. I'll use Abyssal rules for KoW, though it's doubtful that I'll run a full daemonic army, and instead ally them with "The Herd" (Beastmen) and whatever Non De Plume that Warriors of Chaos end up with. They might be willing to ally with Nurgle, but not with the hated Slannesh or the duplicitous Magicians of Nurgle. I'm sure they'll also end up on a 40k table, after I get some more forces up to scratch and work out which version or combination of the rules my group will play with.
Thanks guys. I think I'm definmately going to have to pull my finger out and get the rest of a unit's worth of the old Bloodletters. I might see if I can pull my fist out and paint up one of the original Bloodthirsters as well (Fun Fact: - I had one painted years ago and then stripped it because I don't know why!)
In the meantime, here's a look at the crap in the front of my current paint queue:
Two very old goblins. The one on the left is a crappy touch-up of a crappily-painted crappy sculpt that was crappily repaired/converted. Crap ahoy! The other one is a very old Kev Adams one (from before he really developed his distinctive style) that sat half-painted for 20 years and I managed to finish in about 2 hours today. Ok, I still need to do his shield. Which will cover all of the detail on his face magnificently. Oh early models. How we love your poor choices!
Following that are a pair of Moria Goblin Shamen who probably don't need much time at all to finish off. I've got friends coming over shortly (they're already late) so hopefully I'll manage to get them done tomorrow. Behind those are 2 sets of the Blackroot Vale Archers command from LotR, which are the only things preventing me from having two more fully-regiments for KoW (and have been the cockblock for several months now)
Next up are two of the old Regiments of Renown Black Orcs by Nick Lund. I only ever painted these two, so they're basically just being rebased and having some clothing touched-up (I know now much more than I did then about the history of purple dye!) I'm in two minds about repainting the double-crescent-moon standard to bronze or brass, since I did a nice job with the yellow way back, but it unfortunately looks a bit like a pair of bananas... With them is a Moria Goblin King, who, like the Shamen won't take much to get done once I knuckle down and put my mind to him. The next model, a Necromancer/Lich from I don't know which manufacturer also shares that (need to knuckle down and just do him) as does the decapitated Golem/Frankenstein type Night Horror model.
There's a few more goblins ripe for repainting from the figure case there as well, and also Denethor (I had his robe shaded really nicely, then fethed it all up with a wash - putting me right off finishing him), that Ogre Shaman, a Troll, and a pair of Dark Elves and that Dwarf Slayer. Basically a whole bunch of single figures that just require a bit of knuckling down (and some more goblins).
Last of all, the first 4 of the Brigade skeletons I picked up recently, along with an oversized orc that I'm debating sticking on a 40mm base and therefore paralyzed, and a gorgon from the Night Horrirs who is getting a repaint and rebase. She can go into the Mythical Greeks once I get her done. But again. Needs knuckling down!
Archer wrote: Such an amazing variety of models. It really is great to see them all especially as I am firmly in the grip of GW in regards to my models.
The funny thing is that except for the Necromancer and the Skeletons, (and maybe the fat orc?) all the models in those photos are indeed GW ones. A lot of them are just older.
GiraffeX wrote: Looks like you are really busy, lots of interesting models.
I think you should leave the standard though those bananas look really good to be honest.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. It's nice to get other people's opinions when you're not sure about aspects of models at times. The nice thing is I'm actually feeling like I'm getting some momentum up now after a few days off work. I'll have some more goblins to show soon as well. Probably in the morning, because it's time for sleep now!
These models are from Early 4th Edition Warhammer Fantasy Battle, when "Goblin Fanatics" got handed over to the Night Goblin faction (revived pretty much from earlier editions of Warhammer, and the early "C" Series models, but mostly forgotten in 3rd). As 4th Edition Models, released in 1992 they're technically not "Oldhammer" by about a year for those who care about strict definitions. (Not me, but hey - I like the history.) Unlike the last batch of goblins from a few days ago, these were all painted in the last few weeks.
Four 4th Edition Night Goblin Fanatics
Now the more astute amongst you will have noted that there are way too many Fanatics here to be sensible at all. As always, there's a good reason for this. I had a bunch of my own back in the day (which got started but not finished) and my friend Jared had started a Night Goblin/Savage Orc army of his own, though he never got (m)any of the models completed before losing interest and selling them off. I purchased many of the half-and-un-painted models off him, with the intent to repaint them myself one day - and ending up with way too many fanatics for a normal game of WHFB. For the most part, they've sat in a series of figure cases since then.
Four More 4th Edition Night Goblin Fanatics. Including a couple repair jobs!
Anyway, between Jared's goblins and my own, I ended up with quite a lot of Fanatics, who as I mentioned have done nothing since the mid-1990's besides take up space in a case. Over the years, a couple of them had their fragile chains break, and so got repaired with brass rod. So it's a ball on the end of a metal rod on the end of a chain. That's still unsafe, so it's ok!
Hopefully the last four 4th Edition Night Goblin Fanatics I'll ever paint!
Since one of my aims this year aside from directed army painting for KoW is to clear off my desk and shelves of half-painted, unfinished and even slightly-started stuff, it wasn't a huge stretch to extend that to the stack of figure cases that have the same in them. I mean, the reason I'm trying to finish the stuff on my desk is to avoid adding to the reams of unfinished stuff in cases, so this just follows the same ethos, albeit, slightly in reverse.
These Fanatics all followed the same general scheme shown with the newer plastics that I finished recently (who were cluttering up my desk) - and were also the direct inspiration for me to pull these out and paint them up. I quite like how they turned out in crazy loose formation (though I seem to have a bit of a contrast issue with these latest photos).
A horde of dangerously insane goblins swinging their big balls around!
Finally and as usual - the "unit shots". Anyone familiar with KoW might be wondering how I intend to use these, as their Goblin army doesn't really have any equivalents to much of the crazy-colourful stuff in the Warhammer list, including Fanatics. My initial thoughts were to use the profiles of Twilight Kin "Blade-Dancers" (Witch Elves) as they've got lots of attacks but are fragile, but the recent Ratkin (Skaven) list also gives the option of "The Blight", which are kinda-sorta Plague Censer Bearers. Dunno for sure yet, but I'll find an appropriate profile for them once the new rules and lists are ironed out and I'm able to start playing again. Until then I'll just push on painting the semi-random crap on my desk and building "units" as I can.
Given that the unit is made up of psychotic goblins swinging their balls & chains around like mad Dervishes, I've felt free to face them in various directions rather than all front-on, also with the intent to make the unit look interesting from multiple angles.
Now this just leaves me with needing to figure out what to do with those new plastics and the Iron Claw Fanatics that I've painted...
If you were fielding them for a regular game of Fantasy I'd call you both mad and entertaining, as such a large number of them are bound to hit something, either the enemy or the regiment they got tossed out of!
Heh, it'd be mad fun to run that many in a WHFB game. Pretty much certain doom for their parent unit(s) and probably anything else that was close enough as well. In other good/bad news I found a starter set worth of WHFB 4th goblins in a small box yesterday...
Today we have just a few models. All three were painted recently, though the standard was completed last (week!), since I was a little uninspired by the cloaky nature of the sculpt and struggled to find a way to finish it to my satisfaction. In the end I decided that there wasn't a lot I could do without getting unnecessarily ornate with the cloak which is really just supposed to be a darkened rag-cloak and that the head(skull!) and banner itself would serve suitably as the focal points
These Skeletons are from at least 1989, and I believe that all three of these were sculpted by Aly Morrison. I've kept to Marouda's overall Undead army colours of Black, Red, old Brass and Steel (and bone!) Shields can be a bit of a challenge, in that I like to keep to smaller ones that don't overpower/hide the rest of the model too much, but want to make them interesting in their own rights. I went with an era-appropriate smaller shield and gave it a half-skullface design, with a bit of an attempted depth painted onto it.
The unit they will lead does not yet exist, so rather than hold them back I decided to show them off now. The Standard bearer could potentially end up as one of the ASBs in the bigger undead army, but we'll have to wait and see after the new KoW rules come out in a week or so. Of course, I can always use them in AoS in the meantime.
Last week I read a post over on Hobgoblin Orange that reminded me of a project that I'd started and actually managed to finish back in the late 2000's. A couple of units kitbashed from Chaos Marauders, plastic Catachans, and whatever other bits I found to suit (plastic Goliaths, bits from the Kroot Sprue, Mordheim guys, etc). I couldn't even remember why I'd put them together at first, and it took digging them out and looking at some of the other figures near them for me to realise/remember why I'd started them - they were to be a part of a smallish Lost and the Damned force from Codex: Eye of Terror. The idea was that they were to be vaguely Nurgle-themed, but without the specific pustulence and decay that we typically see on Nurgle models. This was to keep them a little generic and flexible for potential use in other games, forces and scenarios. Besides, every cult needs some cleanskins ...right?
I went with US Desert 3-colour camo and a military green for the armoured plates for a few reasons - I wanted to keep to the general colours of Nurgle, but also retain a kind of Military (or Paramilitary) feel to the models. Brass fixings because Chaos (and it looks good against the green) with red spot colours for leg wraps and headbands. As well as that, I enjoy painting real-world camo patterns, and the 3-colour desert both looks good and is also pretty easy to replicate. I also chose to paint them with plastic-looking pseudo-wooden furniture on their weapons in imitation to the garish look of those AKs we all saw plenty of throughout the '80s and '90s. The flamer guy naturally got the cigar-chomping head from the Sentinel kit. And flames on his bandanna.
By keeping the "Chaos" on them slightly subtle (and even moreso compared to recent kits!), I figured I could also use them for various techno-barbarians, space pirates, deserters or even a militarised Body builder's club-cum-Citi-Def/PDF unit (which is more of a weird Judge Dredd vibe kinda thing - but then, pseudo-Dredd has always been a core part of my 40k ethos going right back to Rogue Trader.)
The Viking Muscle Power Gym Militia, ready for hot, buff, sweaty, oiled-up action. Or Nurgle Cultists. Whatever floats ya goat! - These guys are the Ranged "squad". There's also the Close Combat-themed "squad" which I'll get a post up for soon. I've got to say that even now I remember how much I enjoyed building and painting these guys. Aside from the choice of kits and "one special weapon, one heavy weapon" IG squad thing, it was really liberating to just have a bunch of kits and bits, and to give myself free reign over how I put them together.
"The Viking Muscle Power Gym Militia, ready for hot, buff, sweaty, oiled-up action."
Amazing! Ha!
It is always good see a good ol' bitz box raid. I cannot get over how well blended the flesh is too. So were they painted in the late 2000's or more recently?
As ever you blog is a journey where we never know where the next turn off the road will be, keep it up.
Feel the BURN!!! They like to pump it I can see. Maybe their nurglishness is limited to not wiping the sweat off the gym equipment after they used it...
Nice kit bash. I am doing something similar, but using scout legs. I am using mine as a Necromunda gang and renegade marauders in a Tyrant's Legion list. (See my sig)
I had to Google what the hell Magic Mike was/is, but good call there. These guys would have been painted in the mid-late 2000's, though exactly when I can't recall at all. They could even be from the early 2000's. I can't find exactly when the Marauders were released, but they're in one of the 2005 catalogues.
Weety - once I photograph and show off some of the others in the nascent force, you'll be able to see how they fit in with the others, through paint if not pustules. Though you've now made me think about re-finishing some of these guys with satin or gloss varnish on their bare skin. I shouldn't, though...
I've got to admit that the Stubber/Bolter guy is my favourite as well. The pose, silly-gigantic gun and that particular head with it's windswept ginger hair all work really well for me. I also like the unit leader but he's much more "typical" of this sort of thing. I imagine their lasrifles are being their equivalent of AKs. Cheaply made and nasty looking, but hardy as all hell. Thanks Fifty - I checked out your Plog. Now updates! Thanks Joe - like yourself and Fifty I probably had it in the back of my mind to use them as Goliaths in Necro as well as LatD. Makes sense as it fits in with the way I tend to think, and also the less obvious nature of the chaos iconography. I've got to take a couple more pics today and hopefully get the second squad of these guys up tomorrow.
What's that about the Marauder plastics going OOP? Or do you mean in terms of expecting most of the current range to go OOP/be phased out?
Azazelx wrote: I had to Google what the hell Magic Mike was/is, but good call there. These guys would have been painted in the mid-late 2000's, though exactly when I can't recall at all. They could even be from the early 2000's. I can't find exactly when the Marauders were released, but they're in one of the 2005 catalogues
SNIP
What's that about the Marauder plastics going OOP? Or do you mean in terms of expecting most of the current range to go OOP/be phased out?
It was a rumour on bell of lost souls that a number of the old fantasy chaos and empire kits (including the marauders) were going oop with age of sigmarines.
I think they'll slowly phase the existing kits out. Hopefully not too quickly, though - as there's a lot of stuff I'd like to slowly pick up.
Following up on the post from a couple of days ago, here are the pics of the second "squad" of probably-chaos-but-possibly-bodybuilding cultists. These guys are kitted for close combat in the far future, which is why they're armed with axes, flails and swords (and a shield!)
The paint scheme on these guys (3-Colour US Desert Camo, plastic-looking, pseudo-wooden weapon furniture, etc) is pretty much exactly the same as that of their rifle-toting brethren, which makes sense since these were kitbashed and painted together. These guys got a couple with fur capes/pelts, which is to distinguish the Leader of the Pack (sing it!) and his second.
Swinging those things around in tight formation seems safe. What?
The "other half" of the squad, though in practice on the table top they'd all be mixed in together anyway. I wonder if I could use this squad in Kings of War without anyone noticing? I removed the horns from the one guy's helmet both for variety and for common sense. GW-sized "viking" horns and a flail is a clear OH&S-violating combination that's just asking to end up in traction on Cultist's Worker's Comp.
Here's the usual squad shot. This half of the group is what really makes them into a feasable Necromunda Gang - using Goliath Rules, naturally! Though as noted, there's lots of scope to use them as all kinds of generic bad guys and nutters.
Thanks! I've just noticed that I forgot to paint the grain on the CC group leader's Bolt Pistol. D'oh!
Automatically Appended Next Post: A quick question for y'all before I get back to showing finished work. In the last few days of my break from work I'm trying to really knock out a bunch of single miniatures that have been clogging my space for too long. This old Marauder Orc (Biggin?) is one of them. Most of these figures have something or another that's acting as a "block", causing me to avoid finishing them or working any further on them. The problem in this guy's case is his basing. Because of his physical size, he'll have to be used as warmachine crew, or stuck on a chariot, or used as a mobile hero on foot. Bear in mind, I don't give two feths about "proper" basing for WHFB, KoW, AoS or anything else. I'm going for the best aesthetic choice given his role and the games can work around that.
The 40mm round looks tghe best to me. His toes hang too far off the 25mm, and the 40mm square looks too big for him, with a lot of space in each corner.
If you happen to have a 32mm round base, how would that look under him?
I don't know what I'm going to do with him yet to be quite honest. A chariot is just one of the options. All I really know is what I'm not going to do - and that's have him in a regular unit as a regular grunt. I do agree with both of you on the 40mm round, though - which is my leaning.
I don't have any 32mm rounds (yet!) though you've just given me an idea. I think I have some WM-style lipped 40mm bases. Let me check...
This is the final post of the triptych that deals with my little batch of cultists. It's probably worth pointing out at this point that at the time I kitbashed these guys, the only cultists that GW had produced were these guys, nice enough figures, but a mere four sculpts which I also believe were also well out of production by then. They had also released a "mutation sprue" that was sold in a bundle with plastic Catachans and other stuff as a "build your own" solution for Chaos Cults and LatD armies. This was also long before Forge World stepped up to the plate with their own designs.
The smaller of these two guys are pretty straightforward. More kitbashes from the Catachan and Chaos Marauder sprues. The big guy in the middle was originally a metal Ork Nob that had been an unfinished conversion into some kind of DiggaNob prospector hero (from GorkaMorka) by (I believe) a GW Melbourne Staffer. I somehow ended up with it through sale or trade. He originally had a shovel, which I swapped out for as "normal" looking a pistol as I could find from my own Nobz. I thought he looked just the part for the leader of a Chaos Cult. Over-bulked up? Fingernail-talons on the end of his fingers? Skull-beard-braids? It all works. I added the chaos-style plastic plasma gun and its sling (I must have had Necromunda in mind actually - I always gave my leaders a Plasma Gun!) As always, cheap-looking plasticky "wood" panelling for the weapons.
Rear View, with the plastic-wood panelled Plasma Gun. The Banner I kept completely plain. Green adds a possible implication for Nurgle, as do the brown and green tones of their clothing, while also not tying them to being only used as one-trick ponies of Nurgle.
And finally, the money shot of all of my cultists. I'll undoubtedly paint up more cultists at some stage, but they'll be a different batch and style to these guys. On one hand I'm somewhat tempted to revisit these guys and add a ton of tattoos and some satin and gloss varnish to represent sweat and oil, but on the other hand, they're done, have been done for years and I'm still happy with them - no purple pants on Orcs that need to be repainted here! So I think I'll leave them be and move onto other figures that actually do need to be touched up - and of course - completing and painting entirely new models.
More models for the Lost and the Damned. A bunch of WarZone 1st Edition models first up that fit the Nurgle Cult theme.
He's a Spawn of Demnogonis from the first edition of WarZone. The stitching and bandages make him thematically suitable for a Nurgle force, and the model looks to be suitable for perhaps a 40k Hearald of Nurgle or a Big Mutant directly from the LatD list. He's mounted on a 30mm base from some brand of semi-soft plastic prepainted figures that was available in the 1990's.
WarZone Carnal Harvester. He makes a great Big Mutant or Chaos Ogryn for Lost and the Damned forces. He's not an especially Nurglish model, but he's been painted to go with the Kitbashed Cultists from the previous few posts. Though without a wood-grain finish on his weapon.
And a little group shot. I've got another half-painted WarZone figure (Gomorrian Emasculator) somewhere that will make another great Big Mutant/Chaos Ogryn if I can find it and finish it, as well as quite a few others that are entirely unpainted.
These models are actually Warzone 1st Edition Dark Legion Blessed Legionnaires, to be used as Nurgle Plague Zombies in one form or another. I showed them off last year, but the photos weren't the best, and so I took a new one as part of the Lost and the Damned force I'm showing here (and seeing what I have ready to run and what's started and part-painted while I do it).
...like these guys that I've just found. 11 More of them. They've been spray primed and are now going into the paint queue to be part of this army.
Sadly these are all figures painted some time ago. I've still been painting, but I thought it'd be nice to show off something more cohesive from the vault than a few random bits and pieces here and there. Once these guys are shown, I'll probably show some recently completed LotR stuff - and then back to the randomness of cleaning the desk off.
Released in 1995 and we played it for a couple of years. It was a really good/fun ruleset, but the second edition which had nicer models somehow killed it for my group.
Some more painted figures from the LatD Army-oriented models.
I'm still pretty proud of this figure, another from the WarZone 1st Edition line - he's a "Dark Legion Heretic". I'm not especially a fan of Iron Maiden, but with that face, could he actually be Eddie in miniature form? I clearly thought so! Replicating their well-known font on a tiny miniature t-shirt was always going to be a bit much, so I went for more of a "Heavy Metal"-friendly font.
He's painted with Dark Legion iconography rather than Nurgle or Chaos, but the DL is pretty much Chaos with a different name. The interesting/fun part of this model is the Gatorade bottle I gave him.
These two are (I think) Necromutants. I can't find them on the Prince August site, and I suspect that these two might even predate WarZone 1e and actually be Mutant Chronicles models. Clearly these two were sculpted by Kev Adams as their faces both have their trademark style. From their faces, they look almost like they used to be an Ork and Squat, now fighting side by side in undeath. Which suits Nurgle just fine. Even looking at their gear and posture, I find them to be very reminiscent of early Rogue Trader Orks and Squats, right down to their quilted armour. I've really got to dig out and (re)paint my RT-era Boyz sometime...
This guy is an Undead Legionnaire. They usually come in sets of four models, but apparently I only have the one painted. While the Blessed Legionnaires are much more generic zombies, the models of the Undead ones are designed with the look and uniforms of the WarZone corporations. This guy is a former Cybertronic trooper. I believe I have some more of these - but - down the track!
Sharing is caring - want some sausages?
This pic isn't that great. I may have accidentally turned off the Macro function, according to Marouda - and the Zombie is pretty washed out. I built this guy using Citadel Catachan models combined with their Plastic Zombies and a bit of putty. I built it for use with the first edition of Frag! as I recall. He's also got a welcome place with Papa Nurgle's band of misfit models.
A group shot of all of today's figures, sans the Zombie Horde part...
Much like the DL Blessed Legionnaires in the last post, I've shown these DUST Zombies before but took the opportunity to take a new photo of them, as Nurgle Plague Zombies were always one of the things I had in mind when I painted them originally early last year.
That is so cool, its mondo cool. The Zombie sausage merchant, genius. Well done for making that He is all like "Intestines anyone?". That gatorade bottle. That's extreme. I don't think I've ever tried writing on a tiny cylinder before. They are all fantastic, and I may have to look them up - I bet they are cheaper than citadel.
Thanks guys!
The WarZone 1e figures can all be purchased from Prince August, and still at a very reasonable price. The stuff I've been painting and showing here are all from the Dark Legion range, which to be qute honest is pretty uneven like the rest of the WZ1e range. The 1e game itself it pretty good as well, though I haven't played it since my old group moved onto something else back in the 90's (WZ2e killed off the group's enthusiasm for some reason).
http://shop.princeaugust.ie/mutant-chronicles-warzone-classic/
Thanks guys. I'm thinking it might be worth visiting "The Trooper" at some stage. He'd make a good Army Standard Bearer for the undead, surely?
Now, more stuff! Despite having collected rather a lot of them, I've only ever finished a couple of "normal" Plague Marines. These are those few.
First up we have one of the Two Nurgle Lords in Terminator Armour. Both of these figures were shown in the very early days of this blog about 5 years ago - but as with several other models, new photos and a new context. This guy is a Terminator Champion of Nurgle. Converted for me by my mate Dave who had a good supply of figures and was willing to cut them up (I was unwilling to cut up my own metal models after a certain point in time.) Simple enough, it’s a Chaos Terminator base, Jes Goodwin Chaos Champion head, terminator combi-weapon and left shoulder with a Abaddon Lightning claw, with beckoning fingers to finish. I can’t remember if Dave put the tentacles on it or if I added them myself later on.
Abaddon's claw is still a fantastic "bit". Makes for a great "come, try it" beckoning look. Paint-wise, I thought the work metallic green looked quite good on him, and it was the thing that inspired me to paint the copper-tinted guys below. Who in turn got me started on a green-tinted squad based on the Terminator's colour scheme that I never got finished...
Another Terminator Champion of Nurgle. I think Dave started this guy but I was unsatisfied with the result so extensively reworked it myself. Abaddon body, Chaos Warrior right arm with the original Chaos Terminator Power/Daemon sword on the end of it. I’m pretty sure I swapped out the original left arm for the GorkaMorka-era Ork Bioniks Claw and swapped in the plastic Chaos Champion head. I also drilled out the various tri-abcesses in the armour, added the bloated torso with putty over the top of some plastic Zombie intestines, added the dismembered heads, sculpted the simple hooves and added the tentacles.
This guy in his olive-coloured armour has much more of a traditional Death Guard Plague Marine colour scheme of the days when I painted him. When I get back to my Plague Marines and past the half-finished ones, I need to figure out a scheme to go with for the rest and then try to stick with it. Greens? Browns? Grungy Metallics? Death Guard White and Green?
This combat squad of 5 is all I managed to finish. I went copper/black with metal and some hazard stripes. This was years before I decided to build an Iron Warriors force (that I also need to get back to!) but the stripes will integrate the two of them nicely. The Plan (which never got finished) was for the second squad of these guys to have a very similar scheme, but with metallic green replacing the copper. And if you're wondering just WTF that one Plague Marine is doing - he's giving his enemies the crotch chop. Because I am nothing if not classy.
Look suitably Nurgle with a nice unique color scheme. May want to check the solo photos of the champions as I am seeing the same two photos for both Champions. Only in the group shot am I able to see the second guy.
Remember this guy? Still stuck. Some of the suggestions from last time have been taken up. The purple skirt is now a deep red. It will have mystical symbols painted on it (probably in yellow - when the rest of the figure is done) since he's a Shaman. Thoughts for the vest? I'm really stuck. Once I get a vest I'm happy with, the rest of the model will fall into place and finally get done. I want to avoid garish, or overly-drab.
So remember that guy!! loved that fig. Still have him (somewhere) back at home in Ireland. really need to go a digging when I get back home this summer and try and find all my old figs
He's a shaman, and therefore a pretty important character for the army, which is why I'm very hesitant to go with muted dull colours such as browns and leathers. Black is one option, but I'm obviously open to other ideas...
I think it's actually going to be Tiger. The splash of strong colour on the shaman will work nicely and (should be) exactly what I want. But I promise I'll Zebra up another Ogre in the near future.
But first...
These guys provide the final set of newly-shared figures (for now) of my Nurgle Lost & Damned force. With a bit of luck, I'll be able to get a fair few more painted up before too long. I bought this figure back in the Realm of Chaos days, and started painting him not long after in the browny green olive tone above. Unfortunately, I stalled out for whatever reason and it took over a decade before I'd get back to him to finish off. I did so about 4-5 years ago now, and did so with a combination of The Dip and normal highlighting and shading. Basically, I wanted him to look properly disgusting, which seems to have worked decently well.
The nice thing about these models was the fact that you could essentially build your own unique Greater Daemon - as there were multiples of all of the main components, so you could really put together a series of unique models, and your Greater Daemon was unlikely to be identical to your friends'. Something replicated somewhat these days with the new plastics, but still not to the extent of old (without a bunch of kitbashing, anyway!)
I might have another one of these somewhere with different components - I'm not 100% sure. I do have the later one that came out in the mid-90's, though I have the early version with the horns and prehensile tail. I also have a FW one here as well, though neither are painted, and it'll probably be at least a while before their numbers come up.
This big dude is probably unfamiliar to most readers. It's a Devout Tormented from the Chronopia line of the mid-late 1990's. Chronopia was essentially Heartbreaker's take on Fantasy Skirmish following on from the Success of WarZone. Unfortunately, with the fall of Heartbreaker, both games fell. WarZone has had several resurrections over the years, but Chronopia has sunk into the dust, mostly forgotten. I had this model sitting around for quite some time before I decided to use him as part of The Lost and The Damned. As is often the case, the idea behind him is for multiple use. He can play the part of a Chaos Spawn when needed, but also fill the role of a Daemon Prince of Nurgle. He's a good size, and is much more of a unique model than the usual Daemon wearing Space Marine armour. I've got a couple of those to build one day as well, but it's nice to have something very different as well.
Obviously the sculpt has some Nurgle-friendly elements. Being torn in half and still draging himself along the ground like a Zombie Crawler is one thing, and the large mono-horn ties in strongly with the Plaguebearers. As such, he can also fit in with my eventual "proper" 40k Daemon army, and in my Kings of War Abyssal (Daemon) Army (of Nurgle). The two will be mostly the same figures dual-purposed, as you do. Shortly after painting the "Gym Cultists", I painted this guy. I used a similar palette to tie him in with them, and used "The Dip" via brush on his exposed viscera and dismembered sections, to tie him in with the Great Unclean One. It hasn;t come out well in the photo above, but the back of the base shows a trail of blood and general disgustingness behind him.
This is the boxed set he came from. Along with a very Dragon Ogre kind of model - the Damned. Both are mostly resin with metal detail accessories. Unfortunately, they're the resin of the time, so don't expect something like McVey or Mierce's stuff here. The resin is "drop-cast", like Scotia Grendel's scenery and while the Tormented here is fine due to his design, but all of the space underneath the Damned's torso is filled, and you're kinda expected to paint it black etc and try not to notice it. I suspect that the resin components of this kit might have even been outsource-cast by Grendel.
A group shot with the Plague Marine Sergeant shown recently, to give a sense of scale for the two models. Not huge by today's standards and more recent models, but they were both big for their time, and I think retain a lot of their presence simply by being cool models.
The whole army for the time being. It's probably not a legal force, with a tiny points value with all of the zombies and cultists - and there's obviously more to come, but this was the first time I ever managed to get the whole lot of them together on the table. So it's nice. Marouda also took some photos at the time, so I'll have to get hold of her photos and if they're any good add one final update (for now) of close-ups of the force...
Thanks guys! It's funny, I don't think of my stuff as "retro" models, though I do use the "oldhammer" tag when I post on wordpress but when I step back I actually can see just how many are quite old indeed. It's not so much intentional as the result of making myself finish stuff that's been half-finished for years, and updating the older stuff I painted with new bases and touch-ups. Especially since I'm (mostly) not letting myself start new stuff till I clear out the part-painted stuff I've accumulated over so long by actually finishing them off. Still, I do really like and enjoy a lot of these older models, which is not to say that I don't also really like a lot of the newer stuff as well. I'll probably be rolling in my few Chronopia Dwarves into my Chaos Dwarf force as well. Archer - we'll have to set up a game sometime, though I have to admit I'm incredibly rusty on 40k these days and haven't played in quite some time.
Nice classic Nurgle work. That GUO will always have a place in my fetid heart. I think it takes real application and reserve to back repainting/rebasing like you do, it must give you a great sense of achievement.
Hey I would be quite happy to learn KoW or any other tabletop game going. I am far to easy going when it comes to rules and gaming that I am happy to fit in wherever.
Chronopia Dwarves will be quite awhile out at this stage, though Chaos Dwarves are one of my "special" projects that I'm really wanting to start on, along with old-school Crimson Fists.
The rebasing and touching up is pretty rewarding and (mostly) pretty easy I find. It's rewarding getting older models back up to scratch so I'd be happy to use them on the table rather than just being old models in old figure cases, but the best thing is getting figures and models I actually dislike to the stage that I legitimately like them - as with the old Regiments of Renown Ogres and the Bob Olley Catapult.
Automatically Appended Next Post: It's back to Lord of the Rings models for this post. Showing off some models recently painted, as well as some models less recently so.
These four - 2 of each sculpt - are the Citadel Blackroot Vale Archers Command. Some of the last waves of metals I bought from Maelstrom Games shortly before GW brought into place the ROW embargo onto UK retailers and customers in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. They're reasonable models, though the sculpts are nothing special. Solidly on a par with many Historical sculpts - though far more expensive - and not up to the same high standard that much of the LotR range is. It appears that I started them about a year ago, and finally forced myself to get rid of them from my painting desk a couple of weeks ago by knuckling down and completing them. I'm not sure why GW decided to go with the Blackroot Vale moniker, as they're not really correct for those troops anyway and Faramir's Rangers lacked a command section for games like WotR. In my thinking they'll be used (thematically) as part of the wider force of the Rangers of Osgilliath. They were the final models needed to complete these two units for my Kings of War Army of Gondor. I had thought these were painted earlier this year, but looking through my painting list it seems they were actually finished in July last year - the first batch one day off from a year earlier to their commanders.
The troops, made from the Rangers of Middle Earth catch-all plastic box are to be quite blunt - poor models as far as modern HIPS plastic kits go. Softly and mushily detailed, slightly oversized to the rest of the LotR range, and featuring overly-chunky details in their cloaks and clothing. They are a lazy boxed set marketed in a lazy manner - replacing all of the previous metal ranges of rangers. I'm ok with mine - as I got them all second-hand from eBay - and seeing what the sculpts were actually like I decided to paint them with the effort that they deserved. So I used base coats in a series of naturalistic colours, added minimal highlighting, and washed them all in Army Painter Dark Tone (aka Devlan Mud). I did the skin in a speed-paint version of my usual way, and did bother to pick out the eyes, but they're simple wargame models painted as simple wargame models - not as "nice" pieces. They look good enough and appropriate in a block on the table.
I have a bunch of the "proper" metals, and they'll be painted either this year or next since I want to finish off all of my Gondor (and Moria) stuff ASAP, but for the time being they're down the priority list while I continue to try and clear other models from my desk. In the meantime if I get around to playing through the LotR scenarios in the SBG books, there's enough of them painted now to cover most instances from the first several battles they appear in as well as two units for the mass battle KoW tabletop.
Archer wrote: Hey I would be quite happy to learn KoW or any other tabletop game going. I am far to easy going when it comes to rules and gaming that I am happy to fit in wherever.
GrimDork wrote: You've got plenty of WHFB armies for KoW as it is Archer, and it's a pretty easy game to play.
If you guys do meet up, be sure to give all of us poor armchair generals a nice battle report
Will do. We might even have some cameos from the vicious wildlife that we encounter on the day.
I missed those LOTR models when I posted. You did a great job on them, they genuinly look like guys who spend a lot of time wandering through and hiding in woods and forests.
GrimDork wrote: You've got plenty of WHFB armies for KoW as it is Archer, and it's a pretty easy game to play.
If you guys do meet up, be sure to give all of us poor armchair generals a nice battle report
Will do. We might even have some cameos from the vicious wildlife that we encounter on the day.
So if you survive there will be two battle reports. A gaming one and a real life one.
I really enjoy reading what you have to say about all the minis. I came into the hobby much later, so all of the old models just blend together for me as relics from the before time. But learning about them brings them to life and gives me a new appreciation for the history of gaming miniatures. Thank you for that.
Also, the painting is great and I am going to steal your techniques.
Thanks. I actually find that part of my blogging to be one of the most enjoyable. I have to think about the figures, when I got them and they were produced, and what for (originally). It also forces me to look up models I'm not sure about, and find out which ranges they originally came from. There's a couple I'll show soon that I can't seem to find, so it'll be interesting to see if anyone can identify them.
I also agree with what Bob said. I've only been around since 3rd editon 40k or 5/6 whfb and know virtually zilch about the LotR stuff, so it's neat to hear about it.
None of that today, as it's a pretty homogeneous bunch to show.
More Lord of the Rings stuff - I recently finally finished what felt like an endless run of metal Moria Goblins. I know some of them were definitely released as "Captains" while others were probably released as them, and others might have just been released essentially as metal grunts. No matter! If they're metal, I'm promoting them to captains - to keep the unruly and also-endless horde of plastic plebs in line. Remember all of those posts where I was bitching about painting Goblins? Here's some of the reason why.
Because of the piecemeal nature of how I acquired these figures over quite a few years, there was no strict rhyme nor reason why I have any given models. No attempt has been made to differentiate them from one another, with the exception of slight variations in dirty-hair colours. They'll all stand out well enough when dropped into their own units. I could do with a few more spearmen and a few less swordsmen, for their Kings of War use, but c'est la vie.
I added the little bits of slate in order to more easily distinguish them from their plastic counterparts when playing SBG and for friends less well acquainted with the various sculpts. The slate also serves to tie them in a little better with the model of Durbûrz, who will be one of the leaders of this force in many instances. Stones on bases becoming a mark of leadership - at least of sorts.
The usual group shot of the models from today's update. This many "Captains" will help fill out quite a few units for Kings of War, LotR SBG or anything else I might wish to play using them. I'd have taken pics of them slotted into their units, but it would be long and repetitive, and as such, bloody boring. So I thought I'd skip that.
Speaking of multiples of the same models, I've got 11 sprues of the plastics (132 models - which I'll do in batches of 44, and probably sub-batches of 22), then a bunch of Gundabad Blackshields with command, Golfimbal on foot and mounted. I need to buy a couple of models from GW (the named shaman, the "command set" with the other regular shaman model, another of the same captain and the drummer set).
Also several metal Trolls, the MoM plastic Troll, the named metal (hill?) troll character, and then some Wild Wargs and Warg Riders, that aren't strictly speaking "Moria" models but will be used with them. Plus War Machines that aren't "officially" Moria-related, but will work for KoW - from LotR and WHFB.
I'll get photos of the currently finished leader models up soon, and also an army shot (I have to retake some pics). Seems I've got about 1500pts ready for KoW if I space stuff out by using 6 regiments instead of 3 hordes, reuse the Wolves from the Ogres as temp wargs, borrow the WHFB O&G War Machines, rope in some other stuff, etc
Even if a bit tedious, it's nice stuff as is usual for you. Thanks for sharing
I really like the skinny/cunning/craven LotR goblins, not goofy GW goblins with their ridiculous proportions. Could really see these guys lurking in the shadows cowering as adventurers passed by until one straggled behind a bit..
Yeah, I've never been especially fond of them myself, but since I've been finishing them they've begun to grow on me. They're the kind of models that I don't find fun to paint, but enjoy once they're done. Though I still love Kev Adams' goblins, since they were one of the things that I enjoyed all those years ago.
A bit of a sci-fi diversion today. Two of the figures that have been taking up space on my desk and in a figure case for years are this pair. Lt. Varras from the Warhammer 40k 4th Edition "Battle for Macraggae" starter set. He's also often simply known as "Imperial Pilot". In any case, he's been kicking around here for 11 years - and had his boots black and greatcoat grey for much of that time.
Dr. Diana is a cloned doctor from the Cybertronic MegaCorp faction in WarZone (1st Edition, though she's apparently still a thing now in WarZone resurrection.) She used to have a black top and bare legs as part of my nWo sub-faction for Cybertronic, back when we used to play regularly in the mid-1990's, but after the campaign expired, she just sat in a case and never got finished. Several years ago, I decided to pair her with Varras as a fellow Imperial Navy Officer and paint her outfit in a matching grey, and again - like Varras, she's been sitting around part painted for the years since. It's a pretty safe bet that she's a Werner Klocke sculpt, since she shares the same female face that almost all of his models have. Yes, she's been part-painted for going on 20 years. God I feel old. I was going to paint a red or green cross on Diana'a Med-kit, but I decided against it in order to keep her a little more generic.
So anyway, the story ends a week or two ago when I was looking for stuff to make myself finish as part of the desk-clearing project I've been on for the past severla months and spied these two. Always easy to overlook, I finally forced myself to knuckle down and got them done. Aside from using them as potential 40k objective markers and such, they'll also easily fit into my RPG games of Rogue Trader (once I get it off the ground) and both are generic enough to work for many other Sci-Fi/skirmish games from Inq28 to Judge Dredd. And now I'm actually quite happy with the pair of them. They make a nice pair of Imperial Flight crew.
No probs. Prince August bought out the remaining stock, so presumably once it's gone, it's gone.
A lot of that stuff wasn't too flash to begin with, to tell you the truth. WZ was a very uneven range even at the time, and much of it was poor even then. It's really a range you need to cherry-pick from if you were to buy any of it now. I had a fair bit at the time, and picked up a bunch more during the fire sales at the end.
Thanks guys. I'm all ears if anyone can think of any other figures that would also fit well with these two. I think it'd be good to have a nice little "bridge crew/away team" set.
Great progress going on. The LotR Goblins are fantastic. The group shot looks awesome, but you have done an amazing job on each one individually to boot.
Thanks Archer. I'll get the last of the (painted) Goblins up soon. I was holding off for the Mounted King, but I haven't even started on him yet, and he's going to need a GS saddle for his warg, amongst other things.
I haven;'t posted much WIP stuff lately, as I’ve had a fair bit of painted stuff to show. A little while ago, I placed some first/test orders with Brigade Models and Ral Partha Europe. The long and the short of it is that both companies came through nicely, so I wanted to put together a smaller review of some figures I picked up pretty much as impulse purchases while buying the other stuff.
Das Schwarze Auge – Undead Ogre – Axe, and Undead Ogre – Club. I assume these are sold by RPE under licence, as they have a fair bit of licenced product. DSA (The Dark Eye) is a German RPG of some description, and I don’t care to know any more about it. What I do care about is cool models and models that have potential for my own use, so I bought a trio of them. I’d have preferred if there were three distinct sculpts in order to make up a KoW unit, but beggars and choosers, so despite preferring the Axe sculpt, the club seemed to have more potential for simple conversion, so I got two of the club and one of the axe.
Castings were reasonably clean, needing a bit of work with a scalpel to clean them up, but not bad at all. I decided to make the two clubbers distinct from one another by doing some work on both of them, to move them both ever-so-slightly away from the original sculpt in different directions. One I simply de-horned, while the other I changed the club to an Axe with the help of the head off a Mantic Ogre’s 2-handed axe, which I pinned onto the end of the cut-down club handle. To make him a little distinct from behind, I added an old Marauder Miniatures-era Undead shield to his back as well.
Mounted on a 40mm base, and with a bit of putty to bring the base level with their integral metal bases, and some bits of slate to add interest and break up the flat area, and we’ve got a decent little unit of Undead Ogres (We’ll just proxy the Undead Troll rules) for Marouda’s Kings of War army in metal for only £15/AU$30. Not too bad for such a unit. Not as cheap/model perhaps as the UK prices for Mantic’s restic or GW’s HIPS Ogres, but still cheaper than a single Metal/Finecast Ogre from GW or even a good chunk of Reaper’s metal Ogres. And not even Reaper (who seem to make every odd thing) make Undead Ogres. Aside from this one. Who doesn’t really count for most wargaming.
Now I just need to stay focused long enough to actually finish painting them. I’d planned to take them to work where it’s guaranteed I’d get the bone and metal done – which is how I can justify “queue-jumper” models to myself, but with the large bases added, they’re difficult to transport to work in the little cases that I favour. Oops.
Hah, those are cool. I'm still torn between making my mantic ogres into ghoul-ogres (Ogrhouls?) sitting at the back of a pack of ghouls or just leave them generic mercenaries. These obviously skeletal guys give no room for interpretation and really look the part.
Skeleton ogres absolutely rock. Those models are great I really need to expand my horizons for different model companies. Quality seems pretty good. How did you find the sculpts up close?
Those are pretty neat. I've been wanting to pick up some ogre-sized undead models so I don't have to pay through the nose for more ushabti, and these may just fit the bill.
I saw that manufacturer's stuff about ten years ago. Really neat models. I was in Kansas City on business at the time and the shop had them tucked in a corner. Back then my googlefu was week and all that popped up when typing that name in was German Porn sites , I think the name has alternate meanings .
Archer wrote: Skeleton ogres absolutely rock. Those models are great I really need to expand my horizons for different model companies. Quality seems pretty good. How did you find the sculpts up close?
They're not too bad. They "feel" very much like 90's-era 4th-5th edition chunky undead, though without the off-putting ridiculously huge hats. I have no idea when they were actually sculpted, and any dates are now glued into oblivion on their bases. They're not fine-detailed like the more recent VC stuff or even the Mantic Ogres, but being both Undead and Ogres I'm okay with that, especially given the price. I reckon they'll look pretty kick-arse when they're painted and on the table, so I'm quite happy with them.
I could have converted them further, and briefly considered sculpting some cloth or even a cloak onto one of the twins, but then I decided that a slung shield would be much quicker and easier - and also look a bit more striking once painted up. There's a ton more of their stuff on the RPE site, and quite a lot of other cool fantasy models, including a lot of the old Heartbreaker metals that Kev Adams did.
Yeah I have to admit if you hadn't shown the shot of the two club wielding models before the conversion one I wouldn't have realized it was even a conversion of the guy standing next to him.
Another cool couple of miniatures that I never knew existed. The simple weapon swap and shield addition really work to differentiate the sculpts. Now on with the queue jumping!
Thanks guys. They turned out to be a nice little random find on the RPE site that I'd never have come across normally myself. I like to mix in a bunch of figures people don't usually find in their typical GW armies to keep them interesting for me and a bit unique.
These three are the top end of the Moria Goblin Army I've painted up for LotR SBG and KoW (and WotR if I ever actually play it). Durbûrz, the Goblin King of Moria will lead the forces until Golfimbal on Foot and Mounted are finished, and no doubt sometimes even then.
I experimented a little using some Seraphim Sepia wash on his armour to try and give it a "gold" feel, as befits a king. It didn't exactly work for gold, but I didn't want a shiny, nice, bright gold anyway. Still, it looks decent anyway on him, and different enough from the standard muddy-steel look. The rock he's perched on was also the impetus that led to adding bits of slate onto all of the "leader" models in the Goblin army, including all of those Captains I finished recently.
These two were a nice surprise. I thought I had some shamans, somewhere but couldn't for the life of me find them. I gave up and grudgingly resolved to buy some at some stage, and then lucked out and found these guys, along with a bunch of unpainted Gundabad Blackshields. Since I've got two of the same sculpts here, I added some colour to distinguish the two by glazing their armour plates with Army Painter red and green washes. These, as with the sepia washed armour on the King kept the palette within the one chosen for the army while giving both models a bit of individuality.
I still need to buy Drûzhag, The Beastcaller and possibly the Moria Goblin Commanders set for the alternate Shaman model and the Drummers. Aside from those, the Blackshields and the more exciting and exotic models like Trolls, Wargs and the like, it'll just be the 11 sprues of plastic Moria Goblins and I'm done. 132 models. Bleugh. I see some dead-eyed batch painting in my future.
Haha, that's a lot of goblins to paint... but quite possibly my favorite goblin range (even though I don't own any and am not terribly likely to buy any!), so there's that at least.
New guys are nice, look leadery and different but similar enough to work. Good stuff.
Those coloured washes on the armour certainly work. I remember doing a fair few Moria Goblins back in the day but nowhere near 132 of blighters. I think batch painting is the only way to not go mental.
Yeah, it's going to take awhile. I've decided to hold off starting the next load(s) of plastics until I've cleared a good amount of working space/room on the desk. I've been pulling half-painted figures out of cases as well as figures that need to be updated (new bases, touch-ups, partial repaints) to keep myself interested.
This is good because it means stuff is getting finished and updated. but less good since it's not helping the desk space situation all that much. But... the point has kinds morphed from just clearing the desk by finishing half-painted models to finishing off half-painted models, whether they're on the desk or shoved away into figure cases.
The good news is that I cracked 300 figures today for the year! 302 to be exact. Well, 303 in about 30 minutes.
I've got a pretty simple system for "counting" figures that I finish. I've seen systems where people count cavalry as two figures, tanks as 5 or 10, and so forth. Mine is simpler. Every "thing" is one figure. Cavalry? One model. Tank? One model. Older Figure that just needs rebasing? One model. Scenery piece? One model. Single barrel or crate? One model. Simples.
I did want to finish that Dracoliche and Chaos Dwarf Boar Centaur Whirlwind this weekend, but we had guests Friday night and Saturday, so all my energy went onto getting smaller models done and out of the way instead. I did get the last 4 Skeletons with scythes done from the Brigade models mob I bought a couple of months ago. Now I just need a decent day so I can spray all of this weekend's models, so I can flock them and then take pics. Just too cold/wet right now.
Love the workplace shot. I hang my head in shame as I unfortunately cannot at this stage afford a permanent setup so don't have the benefit of being able to spread out like that. All my stuff is mobile and can pack the lot away. Oh how I wish I could have a set up like that.
Yeah, some people even spray varnish their models in between painting steps. I guess to protect the detail they've already achieved. I do seal my minis after the dip and before the base as clear spray would likely fog the acrylic bases I use.
Nice workspace Az! Grats on 300, I'm still down... in the ... sub 150s, but chugging along. I prefer your method. All things are a point. Even little teeny things that take five minutes to paint. Helps balance out the dragons without having some kind of convoluted counting scheme and you will always be technically/numerically correct in your count I do the same thing. Just need to scrounge up some of those little things to balance out the dragons
Archer wrote: Love the workplace shot. I hang my head in shame as I unfortunately cannot at this stage afford a permanent setup so don't have the benefit of being able to spread out like that. All my stuff is mobile and can pack the lot away. Oh how I wish I could have a set up like that.
This used to be my temporary paint desk, and could be put away pretty easily. But then more and more crap started to pile on....
JoshInJapan wrote: Did I read that correctly? You spray seal your minis before you do the basing? Do you base in more than one step?
I often seal the mini and base before adding static grass etc. As I tend to handle the mini when basing so want it protected.
Pretty much this. I add the static grass after the final protective coat of clear matt polyurethane spray.
GrimDork wrote: Yeah, some people even spray varnish their models in between painting steps. I guess to protect the detail they've already achieved. I do seal my minis after the dip and before the base as clear spray would likely fog the acrylic bases I use.
I also do this - sometimes. I need to get some more Testor's Dullcoate so I can do this again. I like a fast-drying varnish that's ...non-obtrusive. The Polyurethane "feels" thicker, so I prefer to only use one (final) coat of it.
Nice workspace Az! Grats on 300, I'm still down... in the ... sub 150s, but chugging along. I prefer your method. All things are a point. Even little teeny things that take five minutes to paint. Helps balance out the dragons without having some kind of convoluted counting scheme and you will always be technically/numerically correct in your count I do the same thing. Just need to scrounge up some of those little things to balance out the dragons
Heh, yep. Little bits of scenery - and rebasing and touching up old figures tend to give the numbers a nice bump. It kinda feels like cheating in one sense, but then if I'm getting figures out of the cases where they've been in storage for years and I'm happy to display or use them again, then I think it's fair enough. It also motivates me to get those little bits of scenery done quickly so they get out of the way faster. That reminds me. I found a bunch of resin crate-piles the other day....
Yeah, protects them and matts them down nicely. Though different sprays have different finishes, so you can vary the finish based on that, as well as spot-varnishing with brush-on sealers in matt/satin/gloss or any ratio mix thereof.
Actually I just remembered I did start sealing my minis when I first started painting, you've jogged my memory. I think my World Eaters are, with everything kept in boxes I forget what I've painted sometimes lol.
GiraffeX wrote: Actually I just remembered I did start sealing my minis when I first started painting, you've jogged my memory. I think my World Eaters are, with everything kept in boxes I forget what I've painted sometimes lol.
The last (currently) painted "proper" model from my Moria army - aside from extra models that will be roped in like my GW Orc & Goblin War Machines, and other monsters from Reaper Bones and such. The first Moria Troll from GW's Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring range. I painted this guy using GW's studio model a general guide, and somewhat followed their scheme and style of blending between the flesh tones and the blackened skin, as well as the flesh between the cracks. Since I followed their scheme it's most likely a fair bit brighter than the actual movie CGI model, but hey.
I added a couple of resin "orc" skulls and a femur from some blister I bought in the mid-90's, along with a Moria Goblin Shield. I'll need to push-mould some replacements!
Aside from obvious uses in LotR games, he's going to act as a Troll Bruiser (hero) to start with in Kings of War. Later on when I've got the other Moria Cave trolls painted, he'll simply become one of a unit, and eventually Buhrdur, the Hill Troll Chieftain will take over the Bruiser role in the army.
The model was painted as a Christmas gift for Marouda back in sometime ..around 2003-5. He's pretty much lived on shelves ever since. I'll get some WIP Moria army shots up soon. Hopefully this weekend.
The skin tones on him are fantastic. That's something I really struggle with and I'm a little jealous of how good and "realistic" you've made this look.
squall018 wrote: The skin tones on him are fantastic. That's something I really struggle with and I'm a little jealous of how good and "realistic" you've made this look.
You should check out the GW tutorial on painting the Maggoth Lords. Duncan Rhodes shows you a pretty good technique for skin tones.
I have two Cave Troll models myself: one from the Mines of Moria boxed set, and one metal one with a spear. I painted the one from the Moria set (badly, as it was one of the first miniatures I ever painted in my life), but I'm thinking of either stripping it or going back and painting over my original bad paint job. Honestly, the Cave Troll was one of the coolest monsters in the LOTR movies, and yours is pretty well done Azazelx!
Thanks Gents. I'll be doing my Skull Pass-era O&G trolls in a similar kind of colour scheme. I think the LotR ones are more realistic looking than Warhammer ones because (particularly with 4th, 5th, etc edition) the WHFB ones became cartoon/comic characters while LotR as a film had to look more feasable and "realistic".
Just compare Wolverine (or any of the X-Men) or Hawkeye or any of the other Avengers in the movies to the traditional comics.
squall018 wrote: The skin tones on him are fantastic. That's something I really struggle with and I'm a little jealous of how good and "realistic" you've made this look.
You should check out the GW tutorial on painting the Maggoth Lords. Duncan Rhodes shows you a pretty good technique for skin tones.
Thank you. Hopefully I'll get to the others before too long. I'm going to hold them off for a reward though - so after I finish the 11 sprues of plastic Moria gobs.
Another blast from the past today. Well, not that long ago in some ways and a long bloody time in another.
These scenery pieces, more of the Grendel stuff I picked up in the mid-1990's sat like so many others in storage for pretty much 20 years until 2013, when I finally got them out and finished them. Sometime around the 8th of August when I finally tallied up a bunch of stuff finished in the weeks before then.
As with so many of these old scenic pieces, they're still available in Scotia Grendel's website: 10010 - Skull Fountains. Amusingly the description on the webstore suggests that to make them particularly evil, you can paint the water as blood(!) I don't think painting the liquid as water ever actually occurred to me. The paint was the usual greys for stone without any additional brown weathering along with an attempt for a kind of brushed-steel look with a minimal amount of rust, provided by my early experiments with MIG enamel washes. The blood was painted via a mix of GW and Vallejo reds and a touch of orange, with clear red and gloss varnish added after the rest of the pieces were matt sprayed.
As you can see, they're drop-moulded and so the back side of them are completely flat and lacking in detail. You can butt them up against a wall, or either side of a dungeon archway or whatever. If you want something less dungeon-ey and more wargame table-y that's free-standing, I guess you can always butt them up together like I have above.
Those are pretty awesome. How big are they again? Like a 28mm model sized or something significantly larger? Nevermind, I looked. Pretty decent size, fairly imposing. Good stuff!
You need to do a group shot making a dungeon or tabletop set up of some of the awesome terrain pieces you have featured. Maybe with a few choice units/models manoeuvring around them....
Good points, guys. I'll do a bigger diorama/group shot kinda thing down the line, but in the meantime here's a much simpler version to show scale of these fountains.
A couple of months ago I ordered a bunch of "Fir Bolg" Skeletons from Brigade Models, originally produced and still sold for the "Celtos" skirmish miniatures wargame. Roughly two weeks later, which translates to two months ago now, they arrived and I reviewed them. As I've said in the past, I've got a real soft spot for one-piece metal skeletons. There are some other lovely models out there, but many of them are very fragile - and I prefer more sturdy models for wargaming, especially with some of my Ham-Handed friends.
Now, I've finished painting the first unit of them - or the first 12 out of the 59 models I purchased, at least.
The colour scheme is pretty simple and in keeping with the rest of the army - Red and Black, Iron and Brass, Rust and Verdigris, Cadmium-Red wood - and Bone. The tabards and cloth have simply been quartered with the cloth colours to keep it simple. One each of the three sculpts for your perusal. I purchased four of each in order to set up 12 on a 100mm x 80mm base which will represent a Regiment in Kings of War.
The group shot showing all of the 12 I bought. Since we're just talking about duplicate models, I thought it more interesting to skip showcasing each individual duplicated sculpt. With a recent game of KoW against Marouda's Undead showing how effective Horde-sized units are, I'm tempted to buy another set of these guys for her - and some of the other Regiment-sized groups as well!
Based like this, the models work very nicely as a KoW regiment - Tournament-approved as well as I've checked with Daedle. Beyond that they're very easily popped off the regiment base for use in Role-playing or any other tabletop or board game. Maybe even Celtos! More poses would be ideal, but these will still work nicely enough on the table. Overall, I think these are great models - very much fit for purpose, and I'm very happy with them.
Thanks Archer! Your TK look kickarse, and you paint entire armies in the time it seems it takes me to do a single unit, so there's also that. What was that about backlogs in the other thread the other day? The basing is simply sand of a couple of different grain/coarseness sizes. Painted and drybrushed with a little bit of static flock, also drybrushed just to take the super-bright edge off it.
Thanks Para. They'll play as Revenants with 2-handed weapons in KoW. I don't particularly look forward to facing them across the table, actually...
those flames really makes them pop!
