UPDATE- Obviously read the last page, cuz that's where it'll be.

Or start from the beginning and which my decent into madness as I get back into painting and completely succumb to the beast that is a never ending pile of minis to paint.


BEHOLD.

Restic.

Poorly shot.

Shoddily painted.
I was playing with various washes and inks, trying to get these guys into an appropriately nasty skintone. My horrible lighting in the middle of the night is certainly not doing anyone any favors here either. Oh well.



I started painting up a Sedition Wars box for a Christmas present for a cousin who is getting in to gaming, especially miniature heavy boardgames. The nice things about Sedition Wars is that-
A) It's cheap
B) You get a lot of junk in the box
C) Most of the figures can find part time work in other games and gaming systems
D) All of the above.

If you answered D (because we never guess on multiple choice questions), then you are CORRECT.

My brother (Barzam round these here parts) has been pestering me incessantly to get started on a P&M blog.

I guess it's finally time.

With school wrapping up shortly for winter break, I shall soon have time on my hands to showcase the oddities in miniature that I continue to collect.

HELL YEAH!

It is about time!

Because, you know, any excuse to get this pic back out in the wild:



Get into it!

Looking forward to seeing what you post in here...

It is high past time where we all should be HIGHLORDIN' IT UP!

About time! I shouldn't be the only one posting pictures. I should note, this is the same cousin that I painted the PanO minis for. Maybe someday we'll get him on here.

Let me know what gets him Highlordin' (Lizardmen, Fishmen, Cthulhumen) or Barzamin' (Undead in armor, Non-Goat Beastmen, Gnolls) so I can get his pic ready!

So... vacation is almost at an end.

What have I been up to?

THIS.



He's Warlord Mamaro To from the Noh Empire, part of the Relic Knights line from Soda Pop. Like most of you weren't already aware of that.

He's got all his base colors on him (except for his sword scabbard I just realized), and now it's time to paint some eyes on him and start doing some shading and detailing.

I'm trying to keep the bright skin tones as they match my Mantic Ogres, and I'm thinking this guy will make a cool hero for Kings of War.

I have no idea why that picture is so large either.

I'm now rather intrigued by these Mantic Ogres

No luck on those ogres yet. In fact, no luck on taking new photos even. I keep painting in the dead of night, and the lighting in my house is really wonky. They've got the same bright red skin tones that Mamaro To does, who seems to have had all his friends suddenly show up in my home. They'll be joining the painting party soon enough.

I'm going to try and take some photos of recent work tomorrow, since the sun will be up and I won't be at work. Perhaps I will let Barzam do the photographing, since he was going to come over and nerd it up with me while the wife is stuck "volunteering" (read as "slave labor") for the Japanese school.

In the meantime, here is a recent pick of one of the Bones Ettins I was working on a while back, and haven't ever posted.


A bunch of random Bones figures. Not sure why the barbarian dude has such milky white thighs. They don't look that bad in person!



and Ssybrios of Khthon, who was quite a pain (literally) to hold on to while painting. Unfortunately when I put an ink wash on him, it really mucked up the paint and I've been to distracted by other stuff to fix it up.



A bit closer view of Chaagmuth the Jaw- Taker, who was hanging out behind Ssybrios there. He's quite a bit larger than the average goat too. Need to get him standing next to a regular Gor to get a better effect.

Stupid Ssybrios should've fallen to my Plague Marines. That bastard's tough. I seem to recall he took several. Bolter rounds and shrug off the Marines' poisons.

So, I have a pile of half built models piling up in front of me.

Do I get cracking on all these Relic Knights? Nah.
The assortment of random GW stuff I keep picking up? Nope.
The various dinosaurs and dino mounts that are gathering dust? Uh uh.
The half dozen built Darklands figures waiting to get painted? Not even close.

Instead I spent my evening slopping paint on these dudes.



WHY?

Not sure, but I had a hell of a lot of fun doing it. These guys are just goofy! Their elongated arms, mushy details, lego hands, weird facial experssions...

I actually kind of like them. These are the first humans I've attempted to paint in quite some time. I even tried giving them eyes, dammit!

Mind you, they aren't finished, but then again, I wasn't really trying to paint (or build them) very nicely either. Sprue marks abound and I didn't put enough paint on in certain spots.
Made me feel like I did when I was painting beakies and random Ral Partha figures back in the late 80s/ early 90s.

No matter. I'll touch them up and attempt to make them somewhat presentable.

Speaking of touch ups, I think I'm almost done with my big bad Oni guy from Relic Knights.



I like how he turned out. Then again, he's so large it's pretty hard to muck up. He has a weird glare on his nose that makes it look like the paint smudged.
After messing with those Men at Arms, I felt like building something a little higher quality from Mantic, so that's why Mr. Oni has company in that photo.

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:

How long until I get to try and kill these.... things? I think I need something suitably obnoxious to fight them though.

You can try and kill them when I have more then just the 4 of them! There might be a 5th one floating around my house somewhere. Painted too.

Here's what I've been up to.


I also got the metal guy on the left in the mail today.



He's a Dragyri something or other from Dark Age. Guy is BIG. He's on a 50mm base and just hangs over it in just about every direction.

Seems vaguely reptilian, so I'm sure he'll fit in nicely with my current clutch.

Also spent homework time assembling the piles of dwarfs that I seem to have accumulated in the last few weeks. Now to get started on painting and basing them.

So for some reason, I've gotten it into my head that I should start painting up a dwarf army. I'm going to blame Mantic for sticking those Kings of War rulebooks in the Deadzone wave 3 shipments. Always liked Mantic's dwarfs. So why am I painting GW ones instead?

Convenience I think. These guys were made from left over bits I'd gotten in a lot auction on Ebay a while back. I figured I'd start working on them while I wait for my Mantic ones to arrive. Not sure what they would be considered for WFB, since I don't own any army books. At least I know they'd be Ironwatch or whatever the ranged dwarfs are called for Kings of War.

Here they are in various stages of painting. There's actually enough for a 10 man unit. The other dudes just weren't handy, or had paint drying.


I tried to stick with a simple paint scheme. These guys are a pretty big deal for me though. I've never actually sat down to attempt to paint an entire unit at the same time, and I often get distracted with my borderline ADHD and never complete what I set out to start (when it's done in large batches like this).

So I'm pretty happy with myself so far. Will post a photo of them when they're actually done. Now to just figure out how I want to base them. My first thought is base them for Kings of War, but then I've had this idea boiling in the back of my head for doing a skaven vs dwarf Dwarf King's Hold type scenario. Maybe I'll keep them as individual figures for the time being.

I think they look good so far. I know exactly what you mean about getting bored halfway through. That's why I usually end up doing them one at a time. It's harder to get bored painting just one guy.

We need more Highlordin' in here!

If we can't get more Lizardmen, we need more Fishmen!

We need more Hadross!

So I snapped some photos (or actually had Barzam do it for me) of some of the Sedition Wars stuff I painted.





I'm happy with how these guys turned out. I know my cousin especially was happy with them. He really liked that Grendlr.

I love the fact that I can still smell the gloss sealer on them, even though they got sprayed with a dull coat as well.

Nothing makes me get nostalgic for painting toxic models of my youth like the smell of gloss coats or enamel paints. Ah, the good old days!

We'll see about putting up some lizards tomorrow after we deal with attempting to get ripped off by a contractor!

Looking good really like the Sedition Wars (strain?) models.

I'm very impressed at the randomness of your blog, I thought I was bad

Helps keep it interesting though, well thats how I feel. I get bored if I'm painting the same type of minis over and over again.

Looking forward to seeing whats next, the large Skaven dude looks very interesting.

I did a bunch of painting this (3 day) weekend!

None of it was hobby related unfortunately.

Stupid contractors had to patch up a huge hole in our kitchen ceiling, and supposedly matched the color. Uh, nope, that didn't happen. They went with a grey while our ceiling is most obviously white. Not sure what they color matched, but ended up having to repaint everything they did.

I did manage to do a bit more work on my Vermin Lord, and even put him together. Next up is his tail, his armor, and some highlights and details.



Still not sure what I want to do with his base.

Wrapped up all the painting on my Mantic dwarfs as well. Time to splatter a ink wash all over them and take care of their bases.

By the time that's all done, I should have my shiny new Boneripper finished being put together, and my Wrath of Kings should be here and it'll be time for fat chicks and flying babymen!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Kids got done with homework somewhat quickly, giving me time to paint- things besides the house at least.

Got my first batch of Mantic dwarfs all finished up, and now it's time to glob a bunch of ink washes on them and take care of their bases.

Lo and behold, I got my Titan Forge Ancestral Guardians today (they were purchased from an overseas ebay seller, so they took a while).

First off, they were nowhere near as crisp as my undead orcs. Some serious mold slippage which meant I spent the better part of an hour whittling and chipping at things until they looked decent.

Biggest bummer is that I only got one metal/ armored head, and two regular Dwarf heads. Would have preferred to armored versions, but I'm actually kind of liking the bare headed dwarf riding in the giant suit.

Dwarfs have now been pushed aside because all my Wrath of Kings stuff came in. There's a lot of it too. It's pretty overwhelming just how many packages I've got to open and catalog. I don't think I'll be doing it all at one time.

The Dwarfs are all pretty much finished except for basing as it is. I'm going to try and sneak off to the hobby sop after lunch since I've got the time today and pick their brains on how to deal with basing them.

I've also got a gak load of metal stuff that needs to be primed. I got a few cans of primer last week, but every time I try to go out and spray stuff, the weather forgets that we're in Southern California and gets all grey and wet on me. Dumb weather.

So because I'm so impatient, I started working on my Nasier. Shock of shocks, I'm not doing the sharks up first! I guess their size just kind of got me a bit unmotivated to start on them.

Nasier were the faction that I was most interested in to begin with, so it's only fitting they are the first ones to get some paint on them.


First up is this guy, who I was playing around with dark washes on. It's hard to see it on his mask and stuff. Wasn't sure what to do with his armor plates around his waist.



As you can see, this guy had some detailing done to his armor, but hasn't had any washing done on him. Plus I didn't really prime him, and I was half asleep when I was putting the red on his spikes and mask and totally missed a few spots. Kind of a pain in the butt painting the details on the miniscule linework on the plates, but it does stand out a bit more. Plus he ends up looking similar to my Skorne Ancestral Guardian guys, who seem like they'd like to hang out with the Ashmen when we've got Song of Blades and Heroes games going on.



Here's the two Ashmen with one of their leaders, whose name escapes me since I don't have the book handy. He's also nowhere near ready to be shown off, but whatevs. I'm not sure if I like the shiny armor plating on him or not. He's supposed to be the boss of the ashmen, why not let him have a little bling, right? May go back and just use a few blacks and greys on him instead.

Look at you, Highlording it up over there. I wish my shipment would come so I could taunt you with my Skorza. They're looking pretty good though. How long until we start seeing your big ladies?

I have in fact been working on my ladies. Apologies for not getting pictures up sooner. Sick kids and grades means not as much time to get things painted. Apologies for the poor camera quality. Still need to finish the bases for everyone, and need to put it more in focus to show some of those details.



Been plugging away at getting things painted, but real life has considerably gotten in the way. Here's the whole Nasier gang so far, including a Longhorn and a Howl. I've got a few characters and specialists for Nasier getting painted up at the moment, and I'll probably be starting some of the Teknes piggies soon. I went ahead and actually tried to put the yellow details on all of the Ashmen, which took some time since most of my brushes are really sucky and big.



As I said, bases still need to be finished. I should have some basing materials arriving in the mail today, so that should help finish these up. The dwarfs too. They're really clogging up my table waiting to get finished!

By the way- here's those Ogres mentioned some time ago. The champion is probably the farther along at this point, and should go well with my Mamaro To, who will be leading them into battle (who was also posted some time ago).



Not a big fan of the ragtag patchwork style they've got going on, but I do like their look better than the GW ones. I might grab a few GW ones and try painting them in a similar fashion, just to see how they match up.

Your Nasier are too cool, hope that WOK is released at retail soon. The limited colour scheme really works.

As for the KOW Ogres do the metal command bits cause any balance problems?

Those metal bits cause some SERIOUS balance issues. Everything has been pinned in place, but the standard has managed to come unlodged from his base already despite being pinned at the feet to the base, and having a notch for the standard to lodge in and get glued. I'm going to guess my kids had a hand at that one.

My pictures don't do the Nasier justice. I think I've got at least six different shades of grey (I don't have 50 to use unfortunately) on most of them, but my camera makes it look like one. Oh well. Some lazy Sunday afternoon when I'm not busy I'll try reshooting them to pick up the detail. Everything looks all blobby, and I'm not THAT bad of painter!

That's why I've suggested using an actual camera instead of your phone. They take a higher resolution pic than your phone can.

I can attest to the quality of the Nasier paintjobs. They do look very good in person. You're really breezing through them though. By the time I actually get my stuff, you'll have finished all of yours at the rate you're going.

I forgot you saw my Nasier stuff.

There's another six or seven in various states of paint as well.

Rate I'm going, I probably will end up having an adequate force painted by the time you get yours.

What I really need to do is start taking care of all the Skaven I've been accumulating lately. Those rats are multiplying like there's no tomorrow!

I've got those Chaos Cultists from Dark Vengeance showing up today as well, so I'll probably get started on them just to do something a bit more GrimDark for once.

I could tell that the photos (under artificial light?) were doing your minis a disservice. The photos earlier in your thread look better, but I still stand that the limited Red/black/grey/white metallic scheme works great (I think perhaps you thought I meant lack of shading/highlights).

I assumed that the Ogre command would be a pain, but I am still a big fan of Remy's work on those.

As for the WOK stuff is the material a little better than any past experiences that you may have had with resin plastic?

I have 30+ Cultists to do myself, hopefully yours will provide me with some motivation.

I really like the ogres too. Way more bestial looking. Never been a fan of the big lummox type, although I do have a soft spot for a lot of the original GW ones, when they were more mercenary- like. If I can stop buying other stuff, I'd like to start putting together an actual army rather than just have a hodgepodge assortment to be used as allies.

In regards to the Wrath of Kings stuff, I really like it. I've had a few of them out sitting with various other restic figures, and there's a big difference in clarity of detail/ sharpness. A lot less necessary clean up as well.

My hope was to get started on those cultists this evening (so they can see some action Saturday) but alas my students have given me whatever virus they've all been passing around each other. Nasty little buggers. I've got a fever now, and unfortunately I don't think that cowbell is going to cure it.

So since I needed to start painting cultists, you know what I did? Went to the hobby shop and bought all sorts of random figures instead. Like this familiar face.


I always liked this guy, and he's got that heft to him that only lead figures seem to have. Hopefully my kids don't decide to go chew on him or anything. He's still in early stages of work, but I hope to have him finished by next week.

I felt like I was painting to many greys and blacks these last few days, so I thought I'd go back to my traditional greens, and started slopping paint on these guys.


The Mantic trolls have slowly grown on me. It didn't hurt that I snagged the 3 of them cheap. Where the 3rd one is currently, I'm not sure. Probably tucked away in a box somewhere. Their lizard pet is from Dark Sword Miniatures I believe, and it unfortunately got nailed by stray primer splatters that I have been trying to clear up (you can still see a bit on his belly) and finishing up the facial features on it.

I also have gotten back to work on trying to fix this guy up.

When I got him, it looked like they had washed him with inks, without any primer. They had also glued gemstones all over him, and it looked really ridiculous. Whatever they had used to attach those gems would not come off either, so I've had to paint over it in fear of scratching the crap out of him. I've been trying to figure out what they used to cover his base with though. I quite like it.

Speaking of basing, I tried out some of that Army Painter basing material. I guess it's made out of cork or something. Very soft and spongy. I used it on a few old figures I'd been wanting to put the finishing touches on.



And just for Alpharius



That skink is one of the very first figures I tried painting when I first started getting back into tabletop stuff.

Last up on the table, I'm trying my hand at actually painting some skin tones.


Now there's a motley assortment of random figures! An Avatars of War Slayer, a Deadzone Reb, and a WoK Teknes Union guy to be precise.
My challenge is going to be to give each one a distinct skintone after starting with a similar base. We'll see how things go!

Hopefully I can put some cultists up tomorrow or tonight, if I don't succumb to hallucinogenic fever dreams first!

Your Khorne guy is looking really good. Actually, so do your orks and dwarves. I'm looking forward to seeing your cultists. Since they aren't done though, I can take a little bit of time getting my Afterlife figures finished so they can take them on in all their fully painted glory.

Ah.

A nice refreshing weekend of nothing does wonders for one's health!

It also gives one time to catch up on hobby stuff.

As promised, I started up on some cultists. Apologies to the heretical Menoth monolith- bearer who will now serve as an evil sorcerer/ cultist.


They have a ways to go. There's quite a few more of them where they came from too, but the plan is for the others to have different paint schemes.

Next up is a Molik Karn I picked up about a week ago when I went on a consignment case binge. He was already painted, and pretty decently I might add.

I've slowly been working on tightening up everything, adding in details, and making him more of my own look (and having him match up with all my ogres).

Later on I'll have to post up my consignment haul. It was a pretty awesome deal. Here are a few of the guys from that haul, waiting to get primed.


All those guys were new in their packages, and had for 2 bucks a pop. Yes please! That plague monk champion is probably going to be a Grey Seer stand in very soon.
That White Lion elf guy went along with a brand new box of White Lions that were had for the low low price of 5 bucks. FIVE BUCKS. NEW. ON SPRUE. SCORE!!!

Speaking of things I have to get around to...


This all just came in the mail. I won this in an auction for 30. Thought it was mostly complete. Nope. 100% complete. Nothing has been built- some of the knights were clipped off the sprues, but that's about it.
Those lizards will help to bolster our reptilian forces.

Last up are 2 guys I've been trying to finish, an Avatars of War Slayer (who showed up here earlier) and a Shieldwolf Troll. I wanted to get that troll done before the Kickstarter began. Just barely made it!


I'm really happy with the Slayer actually, despite him being out of focus. I will post some pictures better showing him- I'm still finishing up his banner pole. I'll post him when that's attached.

Or maybe I'll just post it later tonight...

Well, you're going to be busy this week, I see. Glad I got my Afterlife Republic troops finished. They'll be ready and waiting to gun down your cultist rabble.

Some very nice painted work here - and some bloody nice hauls!

Thanks for the kind words. My painting leaves a lot to be desired (on my part at least), but obviously the more I stick to it, I imagine I'll get better.

I've certainly seen some improvement in the last 3 years or so since I've come crawling back to the tabletop.

I've got my Slayer pretty much finished at this point.



I tried to get every little detail, crack, and crevice on him. Gave him proper eyes and everything. Even attempted to write something in proper Dwarven runes on his little book there- not that they say anything worthwhile, just thought it would be fun to use the old army book that's got the runes listed in there.

You can see a few of his Mantic buddies in the back there. Got a unit of Thunderers waiting to get painted up next. Went ahead and primed all those metal guys from the other day. Also finally got around to start priming that Dragyri dude from quite a few posts back. Sucker is MASSIVE. Looking forward to painting it and that White Lion hero.

Went ahead and placed my Valentine's day order. Got myself a Mantic Ogre army, along with a few more dwarf heroes to compliment my current stuff. Doesn't help that it will all probably arrive at the same time as my Bones II order!

Subbed. Back to read later when I get the chance!

That slayer has worked out really nicely. Is he a Mantic model, or GW, or AoW, or...?

That Slayer is an Avatars of War model. The figure is called "Bor Dragonbane." Came with a dragon skull trophy that I ended up slapping on the dwarf's back (and it seemed to conveniently contour to the back of his dragonskin cloak).

I enjoyed painting him. Makes me want to dig out the few other Avatars of War figures I've procured.

If I can control my wild purchasing binges, I may spring for AoW's plastic slayer box set. Not that I don't have piles and piles of stuff to paint as it stands.

Speaking of paint! Time for photos! Apologies for lack of crisp details and/ or focus!

First up!


I've been steadying working on Mr. Ghazghkull pretty steadily. I think he's coming along rather decently. He's definitely a throwback to a bygone era, that's for sure. I miss the less junky orks.

Barzam's been bugging me to get my Proxie figures put together, so I slapped some glue on a few to play around with this week. I even managed to glue my fingers together a few times in the process!


While I've been working on my ork boss, I've been furiously trying to finish up my first set of Mantic Thunderers. I must say, I prefer the GW ones to the Mantic ones. At least while painting them. I feel like the GW ones have a bit more character. Mantic only have 2 body types really, and a handful of heads, along with 2 basic poses. After painting them and using an ink wash though, I feel much happier with my Mantic guys.

I've still got another 10 Thunderers in the box, as well as multiple cannons and a unit of Mantic Shieldbreakers to get to work on. Crazy thing is I've got enough heads, gear, and arms in the box with crossbows that if I order some bits bodies, I've got an entire other unit to go with these guys. I may just have to do that once I've finished off all my other dwarfs.

Plus quite a few GW dwarf units as well...

Up next though are some of my recent consignment case snatches. I LOOOVVVVEEE my local shop's case. I've gotten some really ridiculously cheap deals there. Every figure on this update was $2.00, tops, with the exception of this guy right here, somebody I have REALLY been wanting to get for a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNGGGGG time.



He was one of the first lizardmen I laid eyes on, ages ago, and he really resonated with me. He's the finecast version unfortunately, but I don't see any real issues with his casting at least. Considering he was half off, I have no qualms with purchasing him in this material. Now to just figure out what colors to use!

Up next is what seems to be a Reaper hobgoblin of sorts, and I'm going to guess a weird Dark Age beastie...


As well as some honest to goodness Dark Age figures.


Now those Dark Age figures were pretty much finished when I grabbed them. There was a bit of chipped paint here and there, some loose basing materials, pieces falling off, so all I did was patch them up basically, and give them a matte finish blast. I'm pretty sure one of the employees at the game shop did them, so all praise/ hate should go to him.

Speaking of Dark Age stuff, I got to work on my Draygiri finally.


His colors are really making me think "Khorne." I don't know if that was intentional or not. Not that I'll ever get around to an actual game of WFB any time soon, but I guess he'd make a good Daemon Prince or some sort of Ogre type.

Speaking of Ogres, I bought myself some GW ones. They are still in various stages of work though.


They're going to have lots of gold and bronze (as well as dark armor) to go along with my Mantic Ogres and my Relic Knight Noh. I've been enjoying these guys so far. I seem to have ended up with a pretty nice starting Ogre army in the last few days too- I'll have to post up some of the funkier ones I've gotten put together. I won a bunch of ebay lots, and the original owner slapped all kinds of random pieces all over them.

Here's an older figure I've been meaning to post.



I believe he was a Goblin King from the Crucible line, which I think was from Ral Partha. Some funky figures in that line. For a goblin, he's rather large. I like the crazy plumage on him. May go back and do some of those feathers up in different colors. I do like the blue though.

Since today is an early day, and the kids have already got their homework started, I plan on plowing through those Ogres and getting to some of the newer figures I've got. Maybe start my dwarven cannons as well. I shall leave you for the moment with an incredibly poorly lit shot of my finished Verminlord.



That one needs much better lighting, I know. It was really dark and foggy this morning, and I wanted to snap as many photos as I could.

Wow, and I thought I was all over the place! Nice stuff

That Draygiri looks pretty fearsome, and so doeso that verminlord sheesh!

Slightly more indescribably horrifying since he's infront of the lovecraft completed works book

That's an impressive update, you always have lots of interesting minis on the go.

Makes me feel like I paint at tortoise speed in comparison. I'm lucky if I get one mini finished a weekend.

I honestly tend to work at a snail's pace most of the time. I also have a bad habit of *almost* finishing a figure, just like one or two things need to be done, and then I'll ignore it for months on end.

The biggest factor is I'll see what my brother is up to, get irritated at the speed he seems to churn things out, and try to step up my game because of it. We'll see how much I can get done this afternoon!

So I finally did it.

I managed to spill one of those GW ink pots. It was bound to happen.

It just happened all over this Plague Monk champion I've got.


He's crying Earthshade. How sad. This was after wiping up the big puddle of the stuff..... I guess he doesn't look bad after drowning in it.

I still can't make up my mind about that robe color. Or fur color. Grey seers are grey, no? That's what I planned on using him as.

I managed to save some of the ink and splatter it all over the ogres I've been working on.

Here's one of them.


He was then joined by his buddies to harass some of the shrimpier kids in town...



Until they were chased off by the crazy old guy next door and his pet.



Can't wait to paint that crazy dwarf on a badger. He's not the only new dwarf I've got here either- I seem to have gotten a whole bunch of Mantic heroes recently, so they'll be fun to all do together.

I really wasn't happy with how the ogres' bases were progressing, and ended up scraping most of it off. Back to the drawing board.

I'll have to photograph those trollbloods by themselves later. I really like how they turned out. Some of my better ones.

Well, you're certainly getting a lot more done right now than I am. Most of my stuff is packed away in storage now.

I have to say, the Ogres look a lot better with red skin. They looked way too human otherwise.

Dude, I HAVE TO get a lot done. You should see the pileup I'm getting.

I don't just have a few guys laying around that need to get painted- I have ENTIRE ARMIES waiting to get built at this point.

I did manage to slap some paint on my strutting mushroom man.



I still have about 40+ ogres that need to get painted, but I have time to paint a strutting shroom. Go figure.

I need some more ink after my big spill, so I think I'll probably end up back at the hobby shop on Sunday. Who knows what else I'll walk out with.

Don't hate the detritivore, hate the game?

Well the strutting mushroom man is the most random mini I've seen on any blog for a long time, keep up the excellent work

Strutting Mushroom Man is getting some buddies done this week too, you best believe it!

In other news, I've been attempting to save that Plague Monk Champion/ Grey Seer stand in that drowned in my Earthshade.

Progress has been made in resuscitating him.



Not sure about the pink nose.

Among my Skaven ranks though, there has been contention over the role of the Grey Seer. It seems that horned rat above is just a pretender to the title, as this guy just showed up this weekend.



Obviously he isn't suitably filthy enough yet, but we'll get him good and plagued up for befitting his job title.

His cronies in the photo are a new one for me. I'm going to try and paint the clanrats up the old fashioned GW way, with patches of skin showing. Most of my prior rats were all just painted in with straight one color fur. My plan is using these older clanrats as slaves, and using the newer Island of Blood style rats as actual clanrats. It also doesn't help that I've got a mixture of both types number well into the triple digits at this point, mostly unbuilt. Going to have to rectify that!

In addition to those rats (and there's quite a few more of those clanrats in the process of being painted), I FINALLY succumbed to picking up this guy.

Yeah, he's the finecast version, and after starting to paint him I realized he's got air bubbles in his toes, but whatever. I love the Deathmaster model! I've wanted him for quite some time too.

Funny enough, I'd gone to the hobby shop with Barzam with the plan to replace the bottle of ink I spilled, as well as getting some more primer. Instead I ended with the rat and none of the things I actually needed. Oh well. I'm not sure who his buddy is. I'm guessing just another random warlord. Not that I don't have more than enough of those at this point.

I also started in on this guy I got this weekend, since he's such a funky pose.


I never realized he's got an orcling/ snotling hanging off his robes near his head. I'll probably paint him in a different shade of green to differentiate the two of them.

Also started in on the 40 or so ogres that need to get painted. I figure I'll just work on a Kings of War sized unit at a time with these guys.



Unfortunately, I put up a large quantity of ebay bids this weekend. Then I proceeded to actually win all the auctions. There will be even more random stuff showing up here soon!

Nice progress blog. Lots of random stuff.

I may have to run away and never come back... i forgot how much I have <3's for skaven.

I've always loved the Skaven too.

I think I've got the bulk of all the named figures already. I'll have to start posting them up at some point. My plan is to eventually use them in Kings of War with a mix of goblin rules for infantry, a bit of abyssal dwarfs for weapon team stats, and hodgepodge together points and stats for the larger more interesting stuff.
I've been collecting my Skaven together in a very backwards manner. I bought all the big stuff before ever having any infantry to go with it. Those storm vermin are looking mighty tempting too...

I really like the Plague Monk Champion/ Grey Seer's pink nose its very rat like.

It always amazes me the scope of your collection, what on earth is that weird red creature in the second/third picture on the right?

That monster is a Bones Rust Monster. He hasn't shown some of his weirder/doofier figures. Though, strutting, whistling mushroom man is pretty weird.

I probably shouldn't be surprised that you've already slapped some paint on the ninja rat. I haven't touched the figures I bought yet.

That little red bug(ger) is my son's "oxidization beast" from Reaper's Bones line that he painted. Whatever it is, it most certainly isn't a monster that would cause weapons to rust, that's for sure.

Amusingly I know when he's been at my table because that little bug is inevitably in a new place, regardless of what he's been messing with and attempted to put back.

My daughter is similar, except she just moves all the scenery pieces around rather than the figures.

Its good to see that they both have an interest at a young age, they will be playing in no time (if they don't already).

Man, I was all set to go work on painting ogres and rats, and instead I spent the evening doing homework and reminding my kids not to behave like savages, and ended up barely getting anything done.

I did however manage to make some progress on one of my dwarven cannons.



You can see a few of the newer Bones figures I've been fiddling with as well.

I've debated about putting the whole thing on a base, but considering the crew are all based and everything, I'm somewhat hesitant to pop them off and redo everything. Also debating whether I should glue the barrel on, as it's currently unglued due to the fact I've got a multitude of Mantic barrels that all fit the cannon chassis. Maybe I'll just seal them all and that way I can change them out depending on what they'll be used for in battle?

I also dusted this guy off the shelf, as I want to do something with him, just not sure what.



I have no idea what he actually is supposed to be. I don't know if he's a construct, a human in big armor, some sort of undead figure... no idea. I just kind of went middle of the road with him paint wise, figuring that way he could be used for whatever purpose he's needed for. I'm debating about touching up his base, as it's very static and kind of boring. Maybe toss some grass and rocks in? That might help.

Hopefully everyone behaves themselves today and I can chug through my big lummoxes and stinking little rats.

That looks nice, and I see you're also painting the armed nun

Could prep all of the barrels, and use them all. Magnets if they won't stay still but cannoni don't tend to move much.

How could I resist the nun, right?

Mine won't be as mean as your Sister Sinister, as mine will be kicking ass in the name of the Lord for Fear & Faith games.

Those cannon barrels fit pretty nice and snug. I thought about the magnets, but having never really used them, I'm hesitant to go chopping everything up. Maybe I'll talk Barzam into giving me a quick tutorial one day.

Been trying to plug away at Deathmaster Snikch.



Somewhat satisfied with how he's turning out so far. Obviously he's not finished yet.

Speaking of not finished, I started working on the Berserker Lord on a Brock (A giant angry badger).



Yesterday was a metallic paint explosion. Every time I tried to paint with a metallic color, the paints exploded out of the bottles. I had wanted to touch up Chakax's armor (who is also coming along peachy), and the gold paint just erupted like a volcano. I tried to get as much as I could onto the brock's armor before it all dried out.

Biggest pain in the but with this guy is figuring out what's armor, what's fur, and what's the rope that all the armor is attached to. The fur just blends in to everything! I know I need to lighten up the area around his face, and possibly lighten up his fur as well, but he should be ready for battle soon enough.

Speaking of being ready for battle, I finally decided to finish up my Gutrot Spume, or whatever his name is. Now normally, I'm not a big fan of Nurgle stuff. Too much guts and pus for my taste. But I love this guy and his tentacles, and knew he would fit in with my Dark Mariners from ShadowSea/ DeepWars. Here he is with some friends. I think he fits in pretty well...



And now for something completely different. I started working on these guys.



Yeah. I did some Space Marines. Yikes. Eventually they'll be Dark Angels. I got some Dark Vengeance terminators coming to join them as well. Always wanted to paint some Deathwing terminators ever since I had Space Hulk. Hopefully they'll turn out decent!

More late night photos.

Been plugging away at my rat monkey Skaven. I have high regards for others insane enough to regularly paint these little . I'm only doing 10 of them currently (plus a handful of characters) but it just is SO TEDIOUS. I can't wait to get around to painting the other 100+ rats I've got strewn about the house...

So getting sick of the rats, I sucked it up and worked on getting Chakax finished. Not 100% sold on the green plating. That's what my kids wanted me to do, so I thought I'd humor them. Otherwise I'm happy with how he's turning out so far. I was playing with the ink, so he's quite a bit glossier than he needs to be.



He also got a couple of buddies that are starting to get painted this next week. I got the priest a while back and promptly forgot about him until last weekend. He had been a consignment case score for way cheaper than he should have been, new and sealed too. Gor Rok just showed up and is determined to join in the fun of slaughtering plague marines and undead that seem to find their way to our house on the weekends.


I wanted to try and paint him really bright and colorful. So far so good. It's been a while since I've done any skinks, and I've never done them this color before. I like it. Might have to go paint a few more like this.

And a shot of random reptiles , just because. These were all I had handy at the moment.



This week it's time to finish up the rats, finish up my Nasier's bases (still never got around to that), and get my berserker badger all ready to go (he's getting close).

I really love the bright red ogres, and I want to see more of them.

Highlords are gonna Highlord.

I don't think you'll be facing down my undead or Plague Marines for a while. now, my Dark Eldar...

I'm fine with facing your Dark Eldar at some future point. Would we be playing an actual 40k game? Because I've got those Grey Knights coming, and they'd be more than happy to put down your blasphemous xenos.

I'm really trying to finish up some of the clutter on my table. There's unfortunately quite a lot of it. Mostly rats and Wrath of Kings figures. I'm waiting for my basing materials for the CMON stuff, and I need more ink to wrap up the rats. The plan is to hit the hobby shop tomorrow and gets some more Earthshade after spilling it all over my Plague Monk/ Grey Seer champion guy.

I should be done with my Berserker Lord on top of a Brock soon.


Obviously he still needs some details filled in, his boots and stirrups done, his hammer, his eyes, and a few other odds and ends (as well as the base), but he should be finished by Friday.

While I wait for a chance to steal away to the hobby shop to get much needed supplies, I've got these guys also clogging up space, so I'm guessing they will be next on my platter.



Some savage orcs, a cybernetic ape, a chaos hound (I think), and a Megalith Games' Godslayer figure with stylish armored oven mitts. The lord of the oven mitts was originally going to be a greenskin, but after continuing work on my Dragyri, I'm thinking this guy is going to get similar treatment- both in skin color and armor too.

Today is unfortuantely super busy with multiple meetings, people coming and going, and the contractor coming to hopefully fix our leak issues once and for all, and most likely putting an end to my hobby purchases for the rest of the month. Hopefully he'll let me off easy!

Attempted to base my Berserker Lord. Not super happy with the results. First time really trying to use flocking/ static grass of any sort.



Kind of irritated with this model after the fact- there was a lot of weird molding/ design issues that popped up once I started actually painting him, and I came across all sorts of bits of flash that were pressed super close to the model (which I didn't even notice while priming). Eh. He's at least tabletop decent.

You can kind of make out the fact that I did his eyes, tried to do some highlighting and detailing, but it doesn't really come out clear in my phone's camera. I also globbed way too much glue on the base when I was trying to put the grass on, and ended up matting a large chunk of it down. I went back and tried to fix it up later, and it seems a bit better now.

There's a first time for everything though, so I'll chalk this one up as a learning experience.

Speaking of first times, here's the first time in 20+ years I've tried to paint a Terminator. I had all the old Space Hulk expansions, and when I got Deathwing I totally wanted to have some actual Deathwing terminators. Unfortunately my dad never had any similar colors to paint them in, and I could never seem to mix up something that matched the box. So here's my attempt at getting one of the guys from the Dark Vengeance box done properly.



I'm hoping this is a decent basecoat to use.

The Termintor color looks okay to me. I've seen people use all sorts of shades for Deathwing, from stark white to bone, to even using green tinted colors.

A really nice, eclectic collection of models you've got on the go there! You've reminded me again about how cool a lot of the Skeven stuff is and gotten me worried I'll miss out on finishing (the purchases of) my Skaven army since I don't have the cash right now to do a big US order before they feth fantasy up completely by discontinuing half of the models with the End Times stuff.

Thanks for the kind words.

Time to get started on painting what I've got then, as sadly my purchases have come to a dramatic halt as my wife tabulated just how much I've spent on various things in the past few months, and a moratorium has been placed on all hobby purchases effective immediately.

So I started trying to paint my Deathwing terminator. Was satisfied with his base color, started adding more to it, and thought all was well and good, and went to put some ink around the joints and stuff.

I should have heeded caution and cracked open the new bottle. Instead I used what was left at the bottom of the spilled one, and all it did was just cake on to my terminator, making a layer of filth. It sucked. Completely ruined the paint job.

I went back in, trying to scrub away at the mess I had made, to some degree of success. Totally had to redo the purity seals all over him. They were suck mucky you couldn't even see the white parchment or the scribbly text I had made on them. Will have to redo my scribble lines tonight.
Here's the poorly lit results so far. I'll continue to work on him. Maybe I can stick him in that painting contest. Hah!


I also started painting this random undead guy I had found for a buck. Why? Why not? I had some leftover gold paint from something, and tried to judiciously spread as much of it out as I can. Obviously the gold needs a few more passes.


And while I was painting something else, I was inspired to use the paint I had out to get rolling on this Dwarf ranger from Kings of War. I know he's got a name, but what it is, I don't know.

Looking cool. I'm actually painting (and trying to finish) a mounted version of that same skeleton at the moment. What kind of legs does he have - and is that an official Mantic Dwarf? It looks like quite a nice model you're doing there.

That's an official Mantic Dwarf. Goes by the name Herneas the Hunter.

http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/kings-of-war/dwarfs/product/herneas-the-hunter-1-figure.html

I have no idea what legs that grave guard has. Walking legs? They're armored, I know that.

Haven't been able to get much done this past week. I did try starting up on this guy.



This is the first of the grey knights I've tried doing. He's definitely not done, but I'm happy with what he looks like so far. You can see Captain Stern off to the side there.

I was supposed to get a bunch of other grey knights this past week, but all the sellers I ordered from seem to have forgotten to mail them. Annoying to say the least.

Ouch that sucks about delayed orders =/

If I ever get to play my own character in a D&D game, dwarven caver/ranger is up on the list... Herneas would work well!

Hot damn - your Grey Knights look great!

Thanks.

I'm thinking I'm going to cheat and use a Gundam pen on the scrollwork on these guys and save my sanity from trying to paint readable words with my crummy brushes.

Link to said 'Gundam pen' please!

These kinds of Gundam pens:


For panel lines. Super fine tip permanent marker types.

They make paint markers too, in all sorts of various sizes, but I've never been as big of fan of those. Panel line pens are awesome.

I used to be totally addicted to panel lining all my SD Gundams. It's so time consuming and meticulous. A lot like cleaning up restic figures!

Only reason my addiction stopped is all my Gundams got panel lined.

You should be able to find those pens from sellers on Amazon or ebay, or Hobby Link Japan. Heck, some of the local hobby shops even carry them around our neck of the woods. They should get distributed through Right Stuff along with all the other Gundam stuff. Barzam would probably have a better idea than me in that regard.

Word of advice, don't use the pen until after you've sealed ththe paint. Otherwise, you run the risk of scratching the paint off and ruining the pen.

Grey Knight does look good though. How many of them did you wind up with?

At this point, I've got these Grey Knights:



A box of Terminators, who all at least have a metallic base coat. I'm thinking I'll use these guys as Paladins. Or at least a few of them, since they're expensive points- wise if we ever play a 40k game



Brother Captain Stern, who I got in metal, new in box, for a fraction of the finecast version's cost, as well as a box of Dreamforge Valkir.

Not entirely pleased with the Valkir. Not a lot of freedom in how they get built, and I screwed up a few of their legs, even though I was following the directions. I do however very much like the bulky knight look to them, and I think they'll look pretty decent hanging out with the other knights.

I did however actually start painting one. Yet another unfinished work in progress.



Not sure what their official colors are, as I tossed the box in the trash as soon as I got them, and I'm too lazy to look online. As annoyed as I was with how these guys fit together (especially their legs, and lack of arm choices) and whether that was my own ineptitude, I am still tempted to pick up a box of the basic troopers to use as an Inquisitorial force of stormtroopers or whatever an Inquisitor is supposed to have.

Barring that, I might grab a few of the Bones scifi dudes instead. I think I have a few... somewhere.

IMEF dudes (reaper, and several are in bonesium now) are preeeety chunky. Like, their proportions make space marines look good. Or well, they're probably thicker even than cadians and that's saying something. I think they have another group though, Nova something maybe, that run thinner.

I don't like the Eisenkern storm troopers myself because I don't usually do WWII in spaaa'aaace, but the Valkir are interesting. As power armor, not terminator armor, at least for me. They just aren't bulky enough. And they have to have the knight helmets for me to like them. With the knight helmets and swords they really do look like space knights though... not sure *what* I'd use them for but they're kinda growing on me.

Thanks for sharing

Looking good here Lordy. There's one Mark of FW Terminator armour that's quite a bit less bulky than most of the others, so they work for me.

WELL.

I finally had a moment to actually upload some of the junk I've been working on. It's been quite some time, has it not?

Unfortunately I don't think I've finished any of those Grey Knights or Eisenkern yet. Woops. Got sidetracked by a million other things.

One thing that continues to preoccupy me are my Skaven. Why? I don't know. I painted up a big batch of the old monkey proportion ones, but haven't photographed them yet. Maybe later. I also put together and painted quite a few rat personality types, but we'll get to them later. I did manage to snap a photo of something that has sat on my table for a LOOOOOOOOONG time.



That weapon team has sat on my desk for close to a year probably. I finally sucked it up and started working on them. Then I stopped for a few weeks, and built and painted those rat ogres standing with them. They all need their bases finished in one form or another, but the figures themselves are pretty much done.

Now to get to the other six or seven weapon teams laying around, the doomwheels, the lightning cannons, the storm vermin, the vermin in general... ugh.

Next up is this big guy, who couldn't even fit in the photo entirely.



Can't remember his name, but he's sat semi finished for probably close to a year as well. He was pretty much done for a long time, except for his base. I should probably do something with his teeth and mouth- they look a little plain. I'm just happy I got his base done. I've been trying to play around with grasses and stuff. I think it looks decent for a starting effort.

I've been trying to clear out a lot of stuff that I know I'm just not going to do anything with. That meant a lot of my Privateer stuff has made visits to ebay. Which is sad, because now I'm missing some of them. Some, not all. I cleared out all my Cryx stuff, Khador, my Circle figures, all my Troll troops/ non- personalities, and most of my Minion metals. Thinking I was clear of WMH, I went and bought this because it was really cheap and I've wanted to paint one for a long time. I got him last night, and got this much done on him so far.


His armor colors match up with all my giant mammal units (and skaven heroes) for whenever we have our "Song of Fur and Scales" mammal versus reptile skirmishes.

Progress!

Progress continues on my Warpwolf. He's just about done- need to give him a wash and some highlights, but that's about it. Some shading on his nails as well.



Only thing I'm not happy with is how his base photographs. It looks like mushy fungus. Not at all like what it actually looks like. I was trying to be all good and painter- like, putting layers of lighter colors on top of each other to make a nice sandy look, but it all comes out photographed mushy.

Here's what I was working on all weekend though, when I wasn't touching up the wolf.


Tyrant Xerxis! One of the first Hordes figures I ever saw, and one of the figures who got me interested in the line in the first place. I have had this guy for a long time. A LONG TIME. I never thought I could do his design justice. I've been doing so much painting these last couple of years, I felt I could finally give him a shot. I don't know if I zoomed in too closely or what, but the paint looks really splotchy. Wish it hadn't come out like that. I was happy that I got all those stupid intricate details and panels filled in on him. Very time consuming. Thankfully there weren't that many colors involved!

Finishing him has given me a bit more confidence in actually being able to put together an actual Skorne group. I think I'll take it really simple, and just do Xerxis and a pile of Titans. I've got Tiberion, a Gladiator, a Sentinel, and a Bronzeback all waiting to get done. Maybe I'll do the 4 of them together to speed things up. Of course, that Sentinel is metal and in need of serious work...

Here's something I don't think I've ever posted. My Teratons!



I'd gone and sprayed them with a finish this weekend (before it started raining). The Rebs one I feel a bit so-so about, but I'm happy with the results of my Plague version. I have some Dreadball ones coming as well. We'll see how they turn out.

Here's another set of Deadzone figures I started working on as well...



I think it'll be time to do some Relic Knights after all this random stuff! Ooh, and all the ShadowsSea guys that just came out need paint too!

Love the Teratons. The werewolf looks great, too. Can't really tell what the Forge Guard are up to.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Love the Teratons. The werewolf looks great, too. Can't really tell what the Forge Guard are up to.

Forge Guard are doing what they do best- guarding their forges.

I just put a basecoast on them. I'll get them up to snuff once I've got the Skorne and rats out of the way.

Yay terratons! Also, forge guard woot.

Forgot to post these guys up the other day.

I actually finished this guy before I did Xerxis.


I was happy with how he turned out. Doing him made me feel like I could tackle Xerxis in the first place. Naturally the photo is way too dark, but I tried to get all that freaking intricate armor detail on him. This was made worse by the fact that he has so many pieces of armor shoved directly into his skin.

I might go back and change the color of the bandages on his arms, as the photo makes it look like the same color as his skin. Maybe it's just the poor lighting that's the problem, or the fact that I took this in the middle of the night.

Next up are my Skorne titans. I spent the evening last night trying to yet again get the paint off my sentinel. I don't know what they used to paint this thing with. Possibly some industrial military grade stuff. It was done up in a nasty garish red. I've got the bulk of it stripped, but there's still clumps in all the cracks and niches, which unfortunately there are quite a few of on this guy. My goal is to have him built and primed by the end of the weekend. We'll see if I can stick to it.

I also finished up this guy.



It's funny how dinky this guy looks, but has such awesome stats in Kings of War. On the other hand, he makes a pretty good dwarf player character. Happy with how his face turned out. He actually has eyes!

The dwarf looks good. The other guy is a bit too blurry to make out details.

At least on my iPad. Or maybe it's my eyes.

It's quite irritating that my pictures keep coming out blurry. On my phone they're pretty sharp and clear. Not sure where the issue lies.

Happy today since I'll be getting my Hatriya Warriors for Relic Knights. As far as I can tell there are NO pictures of these guys straight out of the box out there. Only photos I can find are pics from shows where painted copies are on display. Curious to see how big they are, as they're a bit more money than any of the other Noh stuff.

In honor of their arrival, I started working on my other Noh figures.



Obviously they still need work, especially the Render dude in the back with the gun. Bases would probably help too. A nice was would help as well. We'll get there.

I spent what little free time I had last night working on my stupid Skorne Sentinel, scraping away crappy paint that will NOT leave the figure under any circumstances, and started filling gaps. I hope I have enough green stuff for the job! It looks like my Bronzeback will be here this weekend as well, so hopefully I'll be priming my elephants on parade soon.

The Noh are looking great so far, they look really fun to paint.

BEHOLD THE GAPLESS SKORNE.



Today was a milestone for me. I don't have a lot of experience with greenstuff. Today I finally sucked it up and gave it a try.

That metal Skorne sentinel on the end with the halberd had massive gaps. Big enough to stick limbs of other figures straight through him. I should have taken photos of it! Got EVERYTHING filled in on the big . Was on a role, so I went ahead and touched up Tiberion as well a Bronzeback that showed up on my doorstep the other day. Happy with my results. They blended in well!

Plus I tried out a new Tamiya primer that I'm quite happy with. Didn't get all grainy on me like my last primer I tried out. Also got a bottle of Army Painter silver I plan on using to batch spray some Mantic Elves as well as some Grey Knights. Fun!

You've done a ton of stuff since I last checked in. I especially like the Warpwolf, the Skaven and the Noh. Those Skorne things look like they'll be bloody scary once they're done as well!

Work has begun on the Bronzeback Titan.



Now to figure out how to make his back bronze. I'm thinking an orange- brown blended in around the height of his back maybe? Something subtle.

At least trying to do all that gold trim is a little easier on such a large figure, compared to when I was doing Naaresh and Xerxis. My goal is to have this one done by the end of the week, and hopefully the entire team done by the end of the month. Still going to need quite a bit of touch up in various spots. Next time I do one of these large models that has their limbs in all sorts of positions, I think I'm going to start painting it in pieces beforehand. Not sure why I didn't this time. I usually do!

With the wife and kids bailing on me to go to Japan a week earlier than me, I'll have some time to possibly get an actual game of Hordes under my belt, which I will no doubt horrendously lose.

Since today is an early dismissal day, I hope to take care of bases for all my Relic Knights and Titans which should clear a rather large spot off my painting area.

The Bronzeback is looking good so far, looking forward to seeing what you do with the orange/brown.

Your stuff is looking good. I've been very slow since getting back, so I think you've overtaken me in terms of productivity. Then again, I'm slowing myself down by working on stuff other than figures.

You got that house to work on.

Oh lordy lord do you ever have to work on that house.

Been there, done that.

I find the urge to paint comes in waves. I'll go gung- ho for a while, get a bunch done, and then lethargically sit and stare at everything on the table waiting for it to magically paint itself.

I'd ask you to get your Menoth stuff out, but it's all in storage so I doubt that happens any time soon. I may just have to loan you some Hordes stuff if I want to play against you.

The house is going. I mean, we've got the downstairs painted.

I've been working on 15mm stuff, terrain, and my new walking tank. That stuff takes time.

 Barzam wrote:
The house is going. I mean, we've got the downstairs painted.

I've been working on 15mm stuff, terrain, and my new walking tank. That stuff takes time.

Show some work in progress pics then. I'm curious about your terrain and 15mm stuff. You never did show me any!

Was it vehicles or just infantry? I know you got infantry.

Mostly infantry and some power armor. My 15mm vehicles are, like everything else, in storage.

I more or less finished a garbage skip ladt night. It isn't the most interesting piece, but I can post it tonight.

So I got my Bronzeback Titan pretty much finished. Just needs a matte finish at this point.



It's hard to see in the photo, but I tried to do the area on his back in an off- brown stripe. It's more noticeable in person. Happy with how it turned out, other than the mold line I missed on one of his tusks.

With the first Skorne Titan finished, I felt it was time to move on to the next one. Here's Tiberion with his giant tetsubo.



Skin is done, his giant club is all nice and neat with the red and gold, but he still has a lot of work ahead for him. Forgive the sloppy slopping of black paint everywhere. It will get cleaned up!

I also seemed to have ended up with yet another Titan this past week, bring the total to 4. I may as well hunt down a 5th and make a ranged one as well! I've got the extra parts for one. Maybe I can scrounge up a battlebox and chop the gladiator in there up into a cannoneer.

I went on a bit of a basing spree the other day. Got Gutrot Spume FINALLY done. He's been waiting for a base since he came out!



While I was doing his base, I also finished the bases for two more of my Noh that came in the battle box starter set.



Upon further inspection, I might add a little more gold to the pot bellied guy on his groin armor. It's too red I think. Other than that I feel like he's at least tabletop ready. The girl though had almost no surface detail. A pain in the ass to try and paint.

Those lanky thin figures like that do not work well in restic. Actual resin would have been much nicer, but then again since she's naked except for her sleeves and a strategically placed ribbon, I don't know if extra surface details would have mattered much. Her face was non- existent. Having to figure out where her eyes were, or how that headpiece of hers worked was tough.

Also, speaking of tough to paint since there's no surface details, time for something completely different!



MY APOLOGIES. I am sorry! I cannot paint people well! This lady from Relic Knights' Shattered Sword faction, Isabeau Durand, was a PAIN IN THE ASS to paint. No details whatsoever. Everything was soft and mushy. I tried. I really tried. Honestly. I don't know why I even painted her- she came with the ogre I was really interested in (who has yet to be painted). I guess for the joy of trying something different.

Looking at these photos also really pisses me off. When I snap it on my camera, it's super clear. I post it, looks all out of focus and washed out. Somewhere I'm not doing something right...

Wow, you got her painted fast. I don't envy you painting her though. She really had no details.

Yeah, the detail on that girl was super soft. In fact, all the Relic Knight girls I've done so far have been totally soft and lacking in definite lines to work with. I am not the sort who can just freehand tiny intricate details. Sad thing though? I wouldn't mind painting a few more. I really like the Relic Knight stuff. I've been keeping my eyes peeled for whatever deals I can find on the line.

So rather than finish up the Titan I started with the club and shield, I decided to get started on even more random stuff. How random? How about a human Hell Dorado figure?



I like this guy. I don't know why but he reminds me of Michael Caine. Maybe it's the big sideburns he's got. Dude looks all sorts of mangled up too. Metal plate in his skull, and I'm pretty sure that giant glove is a replacement hand.

Nice thing is he looks like he'd fit in a scifi game really easily- especially 40k. He'd be perfect as an Inquisitor. Hellgun, power glove, some sort of field generator with that backpack respirator he's got... plus he came with the dopey little sidekick guy plodding along there. Hopefully the Hell Dorado stuff doesn't get too scarce too quickly. I really like the line.

I also was working on getting these guys wrapped up these last few days.

Dude on the left is a Tre Manor barbarian from Reaper, middle guy is a Cal-chk scientist from DeepWars, and the bandit guy was from one of Tre's Red Box kickstarters.

That scientist is holding some sort of biomechanical weapons in his lower arms, and using some sort of powered aether tech sphere in his smaller limbs. With his breathing apparatus gear on, he totally would fit in for use in a scifi game.

I also started working on these guys.

Left is a mosasaur (sea devil or some such name) for use with Shadowsea. Originally produced by Dragonblood Miniatures, Antimatter bought the molds and are making it themselves. The oni guy is obviously yet another Noh figure from Relic Knights, and the last guy there is a Chronopia Stygian Tree Devil I found for a buck at the hobby shop.

For some reason they suddenly had a large cache of Chronopia, Warzone, and AE WWII figures all piled up on the shelves. I had to do my civic duty and start picking up random stuff to help clear some shelf space.

Hopefully I can get a bunch done this weekend since there's no super dramatic important events coming up. Maybe I can redo some photos if the sun decides to stay out.

Looking good, I think you win the award for the most random miniatures on any blog and all in the same post a well

Looking forward to seeing that big croc painted.

I like the sea monster

Guess I'm going to have to start working on that Mosasaur then...

Ehh, it's all pretty interesting, do what you like

Well I guess I just caved in to peer pressure.



I tried painting it up like one of my kids' Animal Planet toys. He had a Leopluradon figure that was painted similarly. We'll keep plugging away at it.

I'm happy with how the foamy water turned out around his base.

He's joined by a Chronopia Stygian lizard dude. My game store decided to unearth a large pile of old Heartbreaker/Target game figures, for about a buck a fig.
Needless to say, I drank deep from that well...



A selection of Dark Legion figures I picked up. Some of them had to be put on larger bases. I noticed the entire line seems to exist on 25mm circles, and most guys overhang drastically.
There is some serious nostalgic ugliness going on with these guys. I like the guy on the far left particularly, with his tank tread leg (which promptly broke when I tried to glue him to the base).

I was enjoying these guys so much I started to paint the "special" figures.



Look how awesome these guys are! Fat guys with tank treads, double amputees wheeling mortars around on their rolling boards, servitor midgets, fat guys commanding his minions to bring him tacos... how can I not love these guys?

Also finished up a bunch of guys I had already started (like that Inquisitor type, my whole Noh battle box, Grey Knights of all shapes, sizes, and ranks) but I'll save you from the photos for now.

Barzam and our cousin were discussing a game of Song of Blades and Heroes next weekend. My goal is to put together a brand new warband.
I literally pulled random figures out of my unpainted box, and am going to get them (hopefully) finished by Saturday.

Figure one-


I like this dude. I want to say he's from the Rusted Heroes game/ line. He's big too, sitting on a 40mm base. Dude could go toe to toe with Khador manowars, Bastions, or Trollkin warriors. I've been using lots of purples with my chaos/ bad guy types, so we'll have this guy follow suit. I pulled out that old Ral Partha chaos command guy behind him to use in this warband as well. He's another one I've wanted to get for a long time. Finally did, had him sit in a box for a year. Time to get him finished!

I've got some more goodies coming in today, so hopefully they won't distract me too much from getting my warband ready. Or maybe they'll just join my new warband!

Big blue croc is looking fantastic so far

The Hellfire Cart looks to be money well spent. Where's the Purple Shark?

The purple shark is eyeballing that Chaos Knight guy in purple.

Law of attraction?

I didn't even spot it there!

Yay seamonster! Also.. that is an eclectic mix of minis, looks like fun to paint, probably keep you from getting bored huh.

I really do tend to keep an eclectic pile of stuff around to paint. You're totally right, I rarely get bored since there's always something totally different from whatever I'm currently working on just within arm's reach.

Started putting some paint on those Warzone guys. Just about finished up these two Dark Legion guys.



Naturally my phone washes out any sort of color depth or detail that I attempt to put into them. The weird naked golem thing especially is frustrating as I did try to put some depth to him and highlight around his muscles. I need to touch up his spear and finish his base obviously.

The guy with the gun had a TERRIBLE mold line running straight down the middle of him. Covered in flash. Tried to clean it all off, but there's still remnants there. Was an absolute pain to get rid of. Considering the age of the mini, I stopped caring once I had gotten the bulk of it dealt with.
What's weird is the photo makes it look like his leg and chest armor are different colors. They aren't- they're the exact same! Not sure why it came out like that. Still need to do the gun and his ammo belt, and probably going to do his spikes all in gold. Maybe do the ammo belt and chambers in the gun with a bronze or gunmetal? I don't know.

The red armor all has a swirly pattern to it. Not sure if I want to use a black ink to bring it out more, or drybrush it in gold.

Also did a bit more work on the various bad guy knights for my next Song of Blades and Heroes warband.



I noticed that Purple Shark is still sitting in the background too. Gotta paint it purple, don't I?

That's a nice update lots of purple and if the purple shark is called that then he should be purple I'd say.

The dragon type creature to the left of the bottom picture looks interesting as well.

I swear that stupid shark looks like it should be attached to a roller coaster or some kind of kiddie ride.

The colors you've chosen for your Dark Legion guys look good. Am I going to be fighting them this weekend?

Orange-brown blend sounds about right. Maybe the fur can be a bit more golden yellow - or a darker orange-brown than the rest of the "skin" looking back. Do you have an airbrush? it looks perfect for a bit airbrush blending there.

Sadly I do not have an airbrush. It would greatly help on some of these figures.

Work is continuing on my Dark Legion figures.



I like that middle guy. He's big and chunky and there's all kinds of detail on him. Impressive for a single piece. There were also RIDICULOUS molding issues, he's totally misaligned, and the underside of his weapon and body parts are just hot messes of squiggly flash. I just flat out gave up trying to clean the sucker.

I love the guys with the flower petal restraining helmets. So ridiculous looking. Was this considered cool when they were released? The aesthetic is definitely starting to grow on me, to the point that I might be picking up some of the Warzone Resurrection figures next month.



These guys are just about finished. Going to give them and ink wash and they're good to go. They've been joined by a Ral Partha figure from their Crucible one, ready to fly up and rain death on Barzam's sucky warriors. I want to say he's supposed to be an elf. He also has backup coming along nicely...



The flying dragon types are also part of Ral Partha's Crucible game. I put the hornblower there for scale. Those dragon knights are really skinny and lithe, to the point that they barely are attached to the base. Their wings are super flimsy as well. They instantly reminded me of Sauron from the old Captain Power and the Soldiers of the Future TV/ Game/ Toy line.
The spiky dragon guy with a flamethrower is part of the same army.
Funny thing is I am absolutely certain a bunchy of various figures from this line showed up in Mage Knight as well- mostly in the Dungeons lines from what I can remember. I know that dragon guy showed up as some sort of executioner, minus the wings.

Today's plan is to ignore the Privateer stuff that's arriving, and put some basing stuff on the ones that are finished, or have their legs finished and are likely not going to get messed up in the process.

Not sure what's going to rumble with Barzam's armies yet. When this current batch of stuff is finished, I'm thinking it's time to dig into the mystery box of Bones and see what materializes.

Just for Barzam- the Purple Shark rises!

Spent last night drilling the hole out on the bottom of it and gave it a quick slap of paint for a base coat. Good God is this thing ridiculous. Really not sure what I'm going to do with the guys in it. It will most definitely be getting lots of pinks and reds along its sides and underbelly.

Happy with the flying guy. Unfortunately at this resolution most of the details are all lost and he looks like a purple smushy blob, but it tried to drybrush and highlight all the filigree and detail on his armor to make it stand out more.

The three bigger guys with guns in the previous post are nearing completion, and really just need a bit of touch up on certain spots, some ink, and basing materials and they're done. Hopefully it won't rain this weekend and I can go out and seal them with the spray stuff on Saturday.

The more I paint this stuff, the more I want to track these old figures down. I'm disappointed I didn't take advantage of Prince August's clearance of Chronopia stuff when I had the chance. Whenever I can escape from my domestic duties I am so going back and picking up all the ugly figures I can find.

Unfortunately, in the interim Everblight's legions have started to swell across my tabletop. Photographic evidence will be supplied shortly...

Lol that isn't how you said you were going to paint it. Were it me though, I'd leave it as is and paint some rad flames on the sides. then I think it would be appropriately tacky. Ooh, you should also totally glue a Bones fireball to the engine.

What are you talking about? I said I'd do it with a purple head, and all the hoses and stuff red and pink. I'm worried that I might get some odd looks from everyone at home if I do the super phallic route with it.

I think the super tacky flames might be a better solution.

Really enjoying these figures though, and I totally blame you for that. I'm hoping I can get more of them this weekend. Otherwise, I'll have to wait until next week.

June rolls around though, I'm totally going to order some Resurrection stuff. Not sure exactly what- probably some of the multi limbed figures, and some dark legion. That huge Behemoth figure is tempting...

Just like Barzam, I too have been on a trip back into the 90s.

These guys came with me.


I want to say they came from Target's Chronopia line. I think they belong to the Stygian faction. They have no hair. Odd.

I'm sure we'll find all sorts of uses for them however.

This guy is going to keep them in line.


My God there was such a ridiculous amount of mold lines on this guy. RI.DI.CU.LOUS. I tried to clean them, but in what seems to be an ongoing pattern with these old Warzone/ Chronopia figures, I just threw my hands up midway through, said it and just started painting him. I love his random tank tread leg. So pointless. He's also quite a big figure, and was basically one piece, which was surprising. I'm guessing he was a later figure in the line. There's a lot more detail and things going on with him.

At this point I just need to ink around his shirt, and go back over a few of the hoses, and do his base (which is going to get done with a big pile of other guys some time this week).


I also got the urge to try and finish up that Grey Knight Terminator squad I got way back when. I had to paint a lot of stupid little details, and I'm still not done with them all. The commander and the guy on the right in front still have some litanies I need to scribble on, and a few more purity seals need to be painted, but the guys themselves are pretty much finished. Of course, I've still got a squad of Valkir to hang out with them, and a squad of basic Grey Knights as well... one thing at a time, right?

This guy came in the mail the other day too, and I basically started working on him as soon as I got him.


This here is Fenris from Privateer's Khador army from Warmachine, in case you are curious. He's a dragoon figure, which means he comes with both a mounted and on foot model. Of course, they kind of cheaped out and included the same torso for both models, just different legs and capes to differentiate how to put them together. His horse is rearing up there behind him- the mounted model had fallen off when I took the picture, and landed upside down, making it look as if the horse had bucked him off. I should have photographed it. Maybe next time.

Regardless, this guy was one of the other main figures from Privateer's catalog that piqued my interest in the line (besides Tyrant Xerxis from Skorne, who already showed up here painted). I always figured I wouldn't be able to do him justice. I feel the foot model is close enough to the style of the studio paint job that I'm happy with him. I still need to do his base, and the fur trimming on his boots and gear should be lightened up a little, but I was going to do that with a batch of other furry things that will show up here soon enough.

I love the details on this guy. Swords chained to his wrists, cape and hair all flying out wildly behind him, dude just looks nuts (and actually is due to the fluff with the swords he has being possessed by the spirits of those the swords killed). I think he also out grimdarks most of my GW fantasy stuff what with his swords being made out of skulls, all his head trophies, the skull accents hanging off his cape... Fun guy!

Horsie there will probably be the last step, as I want the mounted figure to match the foot model as closely as possible. I'd started them off together, and was doing well with that, but then I just said screw it and went to town on the foot model (which I really like). The foot version more than likely will be replacing some sort of fighter- type for whatever dungeon crawling board game I'm playing at the moment (which is Myth for the time being).

I'm going to have to get a Maximus figure to go with him soon enough. That way they can be blade buddies.

If I can remember to bring a glue bottle home from work, I'm going to try and start getting all the bases on those Target guys finished up. Then I can start the next batch of guys I got last week.

I also have a bad feeling I'll be going back for some of their Chronopia dwarfs soon enough...

The Nepharite is looking good. He and the slaves would be great for Mutants and Death Ray Guns. Assuming we ever play it.

We have mutants and ray guns? I'm guessing it's a PDF somewhere... will have to go looking for it. But yeah, I think most of the Target stuff would be perfect for that.

While working on various things, I thought I'd finish up Brother Captain Stern to go along with the rest of the Knights I did. Also finished up that old Ral Partha chaos command knight to go with all my bad guy stuff.



Once again what was crisp and clean on my phone came out mushy and blurry on the computer. So irritating!

Stern actually has a face. Like, with pupils and teeth and everything! I was happy with how he came out. Even happier with the chaos knight. He's just kind of weird, with those flag banner things hanging off his shoulders/ right behind him. His sword is kind of mundane compared to the rest of him. I'll have to take a good picture of him so he shows up in web searches. I can't think of seeing any painted versions of that guy out there.

Started working on Fenris and his horse, and have about 12 or 15 ogres that require bases of some sort. Clearing them all out should make some serious space on my table.

They're looking good. One thing you could do, if you want to snazz up the Chaos Knight's sword, is make the blade darker (straight black works, too) and paint one some runes. If you do the runes using OSL, it winds up looking pretty bad ass.

I could swear I'd sent you a .pdf of MDRG back when I'd first bought it.

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:

I love the guys with the flower petal restraining helmets. So ridiculous looking. Was this considered cool when they were released? The aesthetic is definitely starting to grow on me, to the point that I might be picking up some of the Warzone Resurrection figures next month.

Well, you know how the WarZone figures mostly look a bit ridiculous and/or silly these days, and only a few actually look properly good?

Yeah, it was like that when they came out, too. Though WZ1 was a good enough game to have so many of us look past the ...uneven nature of the figures and play it anyway. I played Cybertronic and gave then nWo Wrestling tank tops, since that looked to be the best of a quite average set of the initial models. The C̶h̶a̶o̶s̶ Dark Legion guys were a very mixed bag, as you well know by now.

I've been enjoying these old Target figures, good or bad. I've got a lot partially painted that I'll try to get done once the rest of the family ditches me on Thursday, as I'll have a lot of time to myself (at least for a few day until I join them).

I've been enjoying them so much I ended up with these guys the other day.


Almost as bad as my addiction to reptiles for the tabletop is my interest in multiple limbed units. The more arms or legs, the better. Except for centipedes. I don't like centipedes.

On the left is Shiryo-X, a Mishima hero I believe. His head is not glued down, because I'm not sure if I want it there. Problem is I don't know what kind of head I want in there instead. Any suggestions? There's enough space for just about any ball socket head, and with a little greenstuff I could probably put a big ornate helmet type head jutting out.

The crucifier is one of my favorites from the Warzone stuff, bar none. I always liked the original, and the new one is no different. I'm thinking about actually painting it up in the old red with black stripe pattern like the original artwork. We'll see. Got to get through some of the other stuff in the way first.

Like this guy.


Mounted Fenris is pretty much finished- I just need to touch up his cloak and his skulls. His horse is started, and coming along nicely. I've got to do all the little trinkets in his mane and his tail, his teeth and hooves, and he should be finished.

Funny thing is I have practically no Khador stuff left to speak of. Maybe a set of Man-o-wars. That's about it. That's alright. Fenris is still one of my favorite designs.

Problem is he's got some competition.


I really like Zuriel. I had seen a red schemed Everblight, this guy in particular, that I really liked and decided I would blatantly try to copy. Apologies to the original guy who posted that somewhere on the internet. I got all the base coats done on his body. Just need to do his swords and start detailing him up. Started painting a bunch of my Everblight Nephilim in matching colors.

Problem is, what to do with these guys?



I keep acquiring random heroes and solos for the Legion of Everblight. There's a few more unpainted ones not pictured as well. All my Nephilim have gold armor (so far) and I'm debating if the elves should as well. Or if they should have some reds mixed in their to match up with the dragon stuff.

Tomorrow I need to go clear out some of my stuff in the consignment shelves at the hobby shop. I'll probably end up clearing out their Stygians from Chronopia as well.

You got those guys fast. I was going to be bad and order a Crucifier of my own last night, but they were no longer on sale.

Well since there's no homework tonight, I need to worry about with the kids tonight (one is having a party, the other got to go home early since they had their big singing assembly) I'm going to start working on those Warzone guys.

Still debating if I want any more, considering how much other stuff I've got waiting to get painted.

I started working on my Kallus from Everblight, but he isn't much to look at so I didn't bother posting pics. He's just armored up for the moment, like his stock paint job is. I'm thinking I'll go in with layers of metal and eventually hit all his details with gold. Not sure if I should do his skin blue (like Fake-or or whatever that heman guy was called) or do his skin red like the rest of the dragonspawn I have. Decisions, decisions.

I've also got Fenris just about totally finished. I need to fill in the cuts on the horse's flanks and glue the rider on. Maybe paint the eyes of the horse as well, but they're so deeply sunk in the armor I don't know if they'd even be noticeable. Plus horse eyes are usually kind of black or brown... maybe I'll just stick a splotch in there and call it a day.

Still trying to figure out how to do those Menoth warcasters I got the other day. Some sort of combination of purple, black, and red to match up with all my other heretics, cultists, and zealots. I also have a feeling that Reznik will more than likely be joining them today. Possibly with a few racks to hang up the impure/ use as scenery.

Not letting Barzam have all the fun with the religious right!

Fake-or had blue skin. You should totally go with that.

What color wash are you going to use on Fenris' horse? I would suggest using washes that match the color of the base paints. So, use a red was on the rsd bits, brown wash on the brown bits, etc. It seems to give a better sense of depth when you do the washes like that, rather than spamming the black wash.

I didn't end up doing too much washing on the horse. Black basecoat, super dark grey highlights, black grey drybrushing, watered down German grey where the grey was too bright. Maybe I got all my grey variations mixed up, but I'll take a picture of him this weekend. Or better yet, make you take a picture since mine always suck.

So my glorious weekend of no family to worry about started much later than I expected. Took me nearly two and a half hours to get home from LAX. It was getting dark by the I got home. I left around lunch time. A long day indeed.

I did find time to watch some random documentaries and start painting some Chronopia dwarfs.



Not a big fan of the Chronopia Dwarf line. They've got GIANT heads and teeny tiny bodies. Remind me of the Rackham dwarfs. In fact, I bet the two companies' dwarfs would look pretty well together. I'll see how they look together. I stuck a GW one there just to get a sense of head size.
I ended up grabbing these guys when I realized they have completely enclosed helmets. Not a big fan of painting faces, and I also love big ornate helmets. These guys look like a perfect candidate for me then. They'll be getting really simple paint jobs, with the gold one being the unit leader, I guess.

Also, I went ahead and went with the Fake-or idea for Kallus' skin.



I had started with the basic armor, drybrushed with silver, and then started washing certain parts over in gold to help make it pop a bit more. He still needs some work.

He also got a Gargantuan warbeast in the mail yesterday....


Because I don't have enough Kaiju at home or at work. I'm really liking this new one. He *might* fit on a 120mm base. He's huge. He's a DX Kaiju, but unfortunately when Bandai went and shrunk ALL their kaiju down when the 500yen line started, that menas he's about the same size as all my other chunky older ones.

Where I can I see more figures from that Kaiju line?!?

I need them!!!

For Kaiju of various sizes, I'd suggest checking out HobbySearch or Amiami. They're both in Japan, ship to the US, and have pretty reasonable prices. They also carry all sorts of scale kits if you're into Japanese kits from less well- known manufacturers.

Ebay is probably the easiest place to search out kaiju.

You've got to be careful with kaiju though, especially since their scales are really inconsistent. For tabletop stuff, I whole heartedly recommend using the capsule/ trading/ supermarket figures. Here's a couple of random ones culled from my classroom at recess today.



The human is a Horrorclix figure I had in my desk for some reason (?), and he's probably pretty close to 28mm to get a good sense of scale. The supermarket/ capsule/ trading stuff tends to cap out around 50-75mm, so they're perfectly suited to duke it out with your speysh muhreenz.

We learned how to play Song of Blades and Heroes a few summers ago using nothing but these guys and SD Gundams. Fun times.

Dude on the left needs to be based, stat! He looks like he'd be right at home hanging out with your Dark Legion.

The thing on the left was from one of the Ultraman Cosmos movies. I think. I know the thing had two forms. One was a more bug like typical kaiju then such a straight looking machine.

I had the larger typical sized figure of its other form, but I don't know where it is now, and neither of the kids can remember. They aren't much help. I have to track it down just to prove it to myself that I did own it and I'm not going crazy(er)!

Huh... It's been a while!

Probably didn't help that I wasn't at home for the last month or so. I was here:


That's the front yard at my inlaws' house in Japan, taken from the front window. They live out in the countryside, where space isn't as much of a premium as it is in the big cities, so everything is a lot more spread out there.
Plus it rains constantly, so that garden stays vibrant pretty much all year long.
My wife's father pretty much maintains it all by himself, with occasional help from whatever children are present (myself included). It is grueling work. Every single one of those plants needs to be trimmed individually.

The pond also needs to be regularly cleaned out, and has quite a few large koi and frogs that live in it, which the tanuki in the nearby forest often try to come and steal.


Their house literally is on the edge of the forest. There's a river that runs through it, mountains, caves, the works.

One really interesting thing I have to show off. This piece of poetry.



Even my wife had difficulty reading this piece. I can pick out bits and pieces. The interesting thing is what's on the left- hand side. The signature. This poem was written by Isoroku Yamamoto, the Admiral of the Japanese fleet during World War 2. Yamamoto was from the same area my wife's family is from. There's a museum about him about 20 minutes away in fact.

This poem was given to my wife's Grandfather at some point before the war actually broke out. Her Grandfather, being the firstborn, was not allowed to enlist in the military in order to take care of the land and his family. It's been hanging in the living room ever since.

Thankfully civilization isn't more than a 20 minute car ride away, where a hobbyist is likely to experience a sense of nerd nirvana.


This is the local hobby shop I've been going to for the last 15 years. It's not the biggest, but this is only 1/3 of their Gundam selection, nevermind all the historical models, trains, girly figures, castles, other robot models, hobby supplies... it's a pretty cool store (and quite reasonably priced). Newer Gundams are on the left, various Bandai properties on the right (One Piece, Pokemon, Funashi, Youkai Watch, even a few random Macross kits are still there.


One of many hauls, for less than 30 bucks.

Upon coming home, I was greeted to 4 boxes of mail and about 12 packages I had to sort out, but I basically set it all aside because this had just come out.


Can't remember what the name of the "chapter" is, but I really liked this color scheme and am starting to work my way through the starter set.

I also have a horrible addiction that whenever I have spare arms for Chaos figures, they all end up with multiple limbs. Sorry Mr. Marauder, but you and all your buddies are getting mutated.

You should have let me know - I've would have had you pick me up a bunch of Gaiking, Getter Robo, UFO Robo Grendizer and Gamera stuff!!!

Looks beautiful over there - I haven't been to Japan since 1998.

Ha! Pick up Gaiking and and all those big, heavy, metal robots in giant boxes?

Dude, you don't even know how much of an evil eye I caught from my wife for the little that I bought this trip! I have to disassemble any models I get and pack them into the small container I can find, and that's if I'm lucky.

She crams each and every suitcase with as much stuff as she can possibly drag home- usually it's stuff for the kids' school, clothes, study materials, books, etsy supplies she uses...

Literally almost every trip through customs involves them opening up all of our bags and boxes looking for something.

I wish I had taken a picture of the "game" store I found. Only place I've come across in the area that sold proper board games and miniatures.

It was literally the space under the escalator. It looked like a cave. It was both sad and awesome at the same time.

The owner mentioned that he wasn't even aware of any local wargaming scene. He said most customers bought 40k stuff just to paint.

Japan looks really cool from your pics its not somewhere I've been.

Ultramarine looks good as well

Wow, the place looks way overgrown since I was last there. Then again, that was nearly 10 years ago.

I hope you got the Astray those Matsuri weapons all go to. Your haul is nothing compared to mine when I go. But, that's one of the perks of being single.

You Marauder conversion looks good and clean. Nice work on that. The Sigmarine looks good in those colors, too. Except, the scheme and overall design makes him look like an Axe Knight from Castlevania.

That yard isn't overgrown at all. Her dad cultivates it a certain way, down to the moss growing on rocks and on spots in the path. He got pissed at me for sloppily raking leaves and uprooting a small clump of orange moss that was near a green one.
Her dad's out there every weekend that the weather permits, and even then I saw him cutting and trimming stuff in the rain. I know I've dealt with the leaves in the rain.

I didn't get the Astray. I have the SD one, which is good enough.

Also notice I said it was *ONE* of my hauls. These days I go a lot more in for books than I do model kits. Not much SD stuff at the moment either.

I totally see the Castlevania color scheme in that Sigmarine. Nice catch. Too bad they don't have an enclosed helm that doesn't have a Sanguinary Guard face plastered on it.

I'd bet that it wouldn't be hard to find the right kind of helmet among GW's Empire Knights or some Perry knights.

Yay! I finally got something finished!



I need to seal these guys, but I'm out of sealer and have no car at the moment to go get some since a moronic driver totaled it and I'm still having to deal with his shenanigans via my insurance company...

Regardless, I'm not sure what came over me but I just started rolling on these guys. I'm happy with how they turned out. They're quite large too! Makes me hopeful for what the Age of Sigmar will hold for the Children of the Horned Rat.


Also had a bunch of leftover Ogre pieces, so I started slapping all kinds of things on them and ended up with some armored weapon masters.



I'm going to try and get those guys done within the next two weeks or so. I had a few more weird ogre conversions, but the lighting is terrible and it's impossible to make out the details.

Recently I got a bunch of Stonehaven Miniatures stuff in the mail.

I had backed their Half Ogre Kickstarter, and ended up with just about everything that wasn't a Half-Ogre.

Stonehaven's stuff is a bit hit and miss for me. On one hand, they have pretty unique concepts and their figures have a lot of character. On the other hand, their figures tend to be very flat, mostly due to their being one piece.

Regardless, there's still a lot of fun stuff in their catalog.

First up is this little guy.


The mysterious stranger! He's a gremlin gunslinger! He's super tiny! I'm also going to totally be using him as my new character the next time I sit down to play Shadows of Brimstone!

Another figure from the same campaign, is this Half Dragon Duelist. It's super zoomed in and his base isn't finished, but he's just too cool for school.


I like to refer to him as hipster lizardman, who is unimpressed with your paintjob/ your army/ your conversion/ your momma. He's seen it all and nothing will ever get through that thick skin of his.

This is the perfect figure for me. If he wasn't a single piece and had a bit more volume/ depth to him, he'd be one of the greatest figures ever in my personal reptilian collection.

My Stonehaven guys recently encountered another group of strange figures that made its way to my home.

THE FIGHTING FUNGI.


These are the first three I've got painted, but I have an entire hefty box of them to go through. I think I got every sculpt they made in their Kickstarter. From left to right is the slinger, the archer, and a moldy zombie mushroom.
Unfortunately the hipster lizardman is suitably unimpressed.

I also got my wizard painted up for playing Barzam at Frostgrave.


The whole warband will be made of old Rackham dwarfs. Possibly with a smattering of Chronopia ones as well. Happy with how this guy turned out. I'll post my other Rackham models I painted this week later on.

Great stuff all 'round. I really like the little gunslinger as he looks a bit like Orco but with guns

I love that little gunslinger. He's a cool little figure, both figuratively and literally little!

He also got a friend of his finished the other day.



That's one of Stonehaven's Tengu mages. He's most likely shorter than the gremlin, but he's got a big hat and giant getta sandals on.

Here he is with a few of his Stonehaven buddies.



My criticism still stands that the Stonehaven figures are a bit flat, but they're a pretty varied lot. Their half orc campaign (of which these all came from) had a lot of variety in terms of character races and professions.
The girl with the guns in the back is one of the few Half Orcs I actually got from the set. Down the road I may have to get myself a few more random figures from this company. I have a few more guys from the half orc set, but they're all half painted/ half primed and just aren't worth showing off at the moment.

These guys are a bit further along than my other Stonehaven figures.



The thermopriest is looking like a bit of a mess at the moment, and I hope to get all that sorted out. The gunners are just about done, with a few things to fix and we'll call it a day on them. Thanks to whoever gave me those at that swap & shop! These guys are going to end up in my Frostgrave warband. Hoping to track down some more Rackham dwarfs to flesh that group out. Really like the thermowarriors and priests. Need to get more! The local game shop used to have a bunch. I went back to snatch them all up, and someone literally bought out all of their leftover Rackham figures. I was very disappointed. I guess I need to head back to Brookhurst Hobbies one of these days, since they seem to have a neverending supply of Confrontation stuff.

Also decided to get started on the last few Skaven heroes I've got laying around.


They've got a ways to go, but I'm pretty sure they're the last of the individual stuff I've got for my rats at this point. After that, it's warmachines, weapon teams, and rank and file. Probably in that order. I've got quite a lot of big ratty stuff to do. I keep putting it off, and I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm just intimidated by the sheer size/ mass of having to paint some of the larger figures? I have to keep reminding myself I did finish a Vermin Lord and a few other large figures, so it's not like I can't. Maybe once I clear out all these little guys...

You and your hydrocephalytic dwarves. I wish I could stay home and paint stuff. I've got a couple Stonehaven figures on the way. I'm looking forward to painting them. Hopefully they won't be too flat.

Never hurts to see some Rackham minis getting painted. Fungi look cool, too.

Wow those guys *are* tiny tiny, cool.

Stupid Army Painter.

I was in need of more primer and matte sealer, so I went to the hobby shop the other day. They didn't have any of the brands I usually get, so I got some Army Painter, figuring it wouldn't be that bad, considering I like a lot of their basic colors that I've acquired through Mantic and other Kickstarters.
Primer was fine. Primer is primer after all. Sprayed a ton of stuff, no real issues.

Went to seal the stuff I'd been working on. Stuff just SPEWED out. Totally ruined a bunch of detail on some of my figures. Absolutely ruined my Bronzeback for Hordes. His back is all smooth and there's no more detail whatsoever. That Skaven looking Banebeast guy I've been working on? Totally lost details on his face and weapon.

The sealer also completely ate all my metallic paints. The sealer I usually use is really good with metallics. I love using metallic paints. Very disappointed.

This guy I don't think I've shown yet. I picked him up the other day for a buck. Between Barzam and myself we cleared out a large portion of old Target miniatures our hobby shop had discovered.



He's a Chronopia Warrior of the Sun. Since he's a Sun warrior, I tried to practice my poor caligraphy skills and write the characters for sun on his banner. My kids and wife instantly criticized me and I was teased all day about my poor Japanese writing ability.

This guy was also a victim of the sealer debacle, but you can't see it too much (it's mostly on the other side). His rat buddies in the background there were also victims. The lighting at home isn't very good at the moment, so I'll try to photograph them better tomorrow.

Up next I have a few more Sigmarines to finish (and hopefully not ruin with the sealer) and then it's time to start wrapping up all the Hordes figures I seem to have accumulated these last few weeks. Also giant rat machines.

Sounds like it's time to bust out the Simple Green. Sure, you'll lose all that work you put into the figures, but at least they'll have their details back.

You got your Frostgrave warband together yet?

Search in MajorTom11's posts - he had something similar happen to some beautifully painted Blood Angels and there was a solution.

It was so long ago, so I'm not 100% sure it was the SAME problem, but it won't hurt to check BEFORE sacrificing time, blood, effort and tears to the all consuming paint destroyer that is...Simple Green!

So I said it and intended to use that stupid sealer come hell or high water. It wasn't cheap, it's a huge bottle, and I've got a ton of models that need it.

I tried spraying some stuff I was a bit indifferent about losing all that time and energy towards making them decent.

Started with this Bones Ork Warboss that one of Dakka's darlings sculpted. He's been getting lots of leftover paint slapped on him the last few weeks.



Most of the detail seems to have made it intact. More importantly all of the metallics seemed to have survived, unlike my poor little rat warlock guy from the other day.

Also tried it out on this warpfire thrower that's been waiting to get finished for months. Metallics turned out alright as well.



Biggest quibble with this stuff (other than unpredictably spewing out all over my poor bronzeback's back) is that it leaves everything with a really rough texture. The Krylon matte sealer I had left everything nice and smooth. These guys feel all rough and grainy.

You can also see I've been playing around with some turquoise Sigmarines behind the rats. I was kind of going in blind on these two since the few models that have been painted in this scheme don't even match each other! I'm somewhat pleased with them so far, and now that the sealer seems to want to cooperate, I'll probably get them done before next weekend.

The inevitable march back to school is coming closer and closer, which means my hobby time will be more and more limited. What does that mean for me? I need to squeeze in as much stuff as I can before I need to worry about work!






So I wrapped up the next of my Stonehaven guys. This guy is supposed to be a half orc ranger. I misread half orc as hobgoblin. Why? Because there was a different figure that was a hobgoblin in the KS campaign and I confused them. Oh well. I keep saying it, but it bears repeating. These Stonehaven guys are neat! There's such variety in their jobs and sculpts! They've got a halfling campaign going on now, and I'm sure I'll be picking up a few... halflings, I guess. At least they've got halfling barbarians riding feathered raptors.

He's hanging out with an out of focus Rackham goblin guy that I finally got around to finishing. Funny thing, all these Rackahm guys. I put a huge lot of stuff up in the Spring on ebay, had tons of views, lots of people watching it, and a few really lowball offers. Ended up saying it and just started in on them all myself. Let me say, I am far happier for it! I'm sure I'm going to have to go back to Brookhurst before I start work and stock up on more Rackham junk.

Speaking of Rackham, I finally got started on a Grave Guardian I had laying around.


He's got a ways to go, but I'm happy with the progress I've made on him so far. I'll glue his arm on once I'm finished with all the stuff that ends up obscured by his blade.

Also got started on two figures I've been wanting to paint for some time now.



A Crucifier from Warzone Ressurectoin and Braylen Wanderheart, badass Trollkin bandito lady. Braylen's just a bunch of primary colors at the moment but she's getting to where she needs to be. The Crucifier is just a base red coat since I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him yet. Eventually I'll be diggnig out all my other Warzone/ Warzone Resurrection stuff in the future. But I also started these things in the next photo, and I know they'll be taking some SERIOUS time to get done.



A Bones Balrog, A forgeworld Skaven warlord on big ugly rat thing, a Stormvermin champion, and my ridiculous Banebeasts Rat Abominaton. I don't even know what it's called. I love that model! Flamethrower heads, drill arm, crusher claw, blades all over its back, robotic spiked tails, it's all that's wrong (in a good way) with Skaven sensibilities.
In typical fashion, I've broke both those models countless times. I'm really bad about putting resin models together. Once they're done, great, no problems. They're solid. Prior to building? Busted up in pieces constantly. I've broke that FW skaven guy's feet, his trophy rack, his (now nonexistant) reigns, the teeth on his mount, the shields that are supposed to hang on it... it's been bad.

The rat construct thing had a bunch of wires on his back break as well as spikes on his tail mace. At least those aren't noticeable, and I managed not to castrate him like a lot of my other big hairy Darklands stuff.

Lots of nice models your working on highlord, the rat guys look like really nice models.

Looking forward to seeing Braylen painted.

Braylen was finished the other day actually. Finally got around to sealing her paint.



Camera doesn't do a good job of bringing out the highlights, but whatevs. I'm happy with how she turned out, and even my daughter thought she looked decent (though she'll only judge by painting on "fighting girls").

That wasn't enough for me though, so I started painting Janissa Stonetide, another femal troll, to hang out with her. Then I realized it was 2:00 AM and I was already finished with her.



You'll notice I even tried to do the tartans on them. I hate doing the tartans!

Still not satisfied, I dragged out a model I've had sitting around for years now, since I first started getting back into tabletop stuff. Captain Gunnbjorn, and you guessed it, yet another troll.



A lot of painting in not a lot of time! I had no choice since I'm going to take the family down to San Diego for the weekend. And naturally, wouldn't you know it, but I get confirmation emails stating I've got stuff coming in while I'm gone. It figures.
A bit bummed the hobby shop in Old Town SD finally closed after all these years. It was always fun stopping by there whenever we would visit (which was fairly often growing up), and regardless of how overpriced certain things were I always ended up going home with something.

I guess this trip I'll just have to grab some more tabletop Alebrijes. I love Alebrijes! Look them up if you don't know what they are!

A shame a lot of the details aren't being caught in the light. I really tried to hit all the different metals and materials their gear is made out of, but it doesn't show up. A shame. Maybe I'll try reshooting them at an earlier time of day.

I also wrapped up the final details on my Lords of the Celestial Vindicators. Here they are:


I'm not sure what their chapter's Lords are supposed to look like, but I figure, eh, that's probably close to how the official paint schemes would be.

Also finished up the last of my Rackham dwarfs!

Three cheers for more Rackham. That Wolfen Grave Guard is a favorite. The Sigmarites also look very cool.

Those ogres are interesting, as are the dwarves.

Those big armored guys are very bright and rather violent looking

Well San Diego was hot. Damned hot. What a hot weekend. That's some of the hottest weather I've experienced down there. At least all the yummy Mexican food and gallons of margaritas helped keep cool. Damn that food was good. But still, it was hot.

Of course when I got home and it was over 110 degrees, it made me appreciate SD's weather a bit more.

I had a bunch of stuff left on the painting table from before we left on Friday, so my first priority was to finish that stuff up.

First up, yet another Stonehaven Half- Orc. This one is a "Spellblade," whatever that is. A mage that infuses their weapon with magic I guess? I kind of remember reading about a class like that in D&D. Anyway-



I think this one is a girl. I'm not sure. Doesn't really matter. I'm going to assume it's a girl. Pretty sure it is. Like all the other Stonehaven stuff, got a lot of character. Smirk on her face, layers of fancy clothes, pocketwatch flopping out of her jacket...

I feel like I should do something with her sword to make it look a bit more magical.

I also finished up ANOTHER Stonehaven guy. This time it's a half dragon rogue.


He's one of the heftier figures from the bunch. Still kind of flat, but larger and thicker than most the other figures. Plus, he's a reptile guy so he's a must purchase.

Also almost done with my Stormvermin champion, who my daughter was busy haranguing with a pack of kobolds.



Some of those kobolds are in need of finishing as well, but don't tell them that!

Guy looks pretty dignified for a Stormvermin, so I tried to keep his armor nice and clean looking, and used a bit of gold to really polish him up. You can kind of see him here from the front with a friend of his.



I know he's a bit out of focus, and he's not really finished yet, but I'm happy with him so far. He's in a really weird pose, so no matter what angle you photograph him from he looks awkward.
Another awkward thing about him was his original weapon. It was so flimsy! I had a leftover sword from the big Nasier Wrath of Kings guy (who will probably show up here soon), so I did a quick snip and gave Praach here a new weapon, and it seems to suit him pretty well.



More mushroom goodness from Ganehsa Games' Fighting Fungi. Love that axe man. They have a new dwarf Kickstarter starting tomorrow with some really crazy looking stuff, so I'm looking forward to that! Plus I've got piles of mushrooms still to get through.

Last but not least, I've got this big ugly thing.



It's a Skaven Warlord mount, and it is gross looking! The lighting washed out the nuances of how gross it looks, with all its saggy skin folds, weird pustules, growths, and random warpstones growing off of it. It'll make a fine addition to my Skaven forces then!

Well I managed to take a good chunk out of my right ring finger the other night while I was cleaning out a closet, and after my daughter demanded to "heal" me (by putting a giant bright pink Hello Kitty band aid on it), my ability to hold a paintbrush correctly is somewhat limited.

Nevertheless, I've been trying to work on my big giant Skaven stuff. Both Boneripper and my proxy Abomination are seeing a lot of progress, the Abomination especially. It's got its base coats done, base is textured and started to get detailed, and now it's time to clean it up and put more highlight work into it. Not that you can tell from the poor lighting.



I really love that Banebeast Rat Abomination though. I have some credit with Mierce's webstore, and may end up getting one of their Vermin Lord stand-ins while I'm at it. At least if I don't end up with a Forge World Exalted Vermin Lord first.

Funny thing is that for an army of little rat men, I have an awful lot of very big things for them.

Also trying to finish up one of my Nephilim Bloodseers.



I'm thinking I'm going to start painting up some of my Bones scenery once I finish my current batch of stuff. A big brush and a bottle of grey paint ought to do a good job of getting it started.

Those big Skaven dudes look great.

I didn't know they did bones scenery, hmm off to ebay I go..

That putrid skaven mount takes the cheese for this update

Neat stuff all around but I can't help fixating on that horrible monstrosity. Mushroom man with the axes is funny too, looks like he's ready to commit fungicide.

That rat thing looks WAY worse in person.

Camera didn't bring out all the browns, pinks, reds, and purples to make all the sores, pus, welts, and wounds stand out. It really is nasty, and I didn't even do that good of job on it compared to some of the stuff I've seen online.

Come to think of it, I think I've got a Lightning Cannon and a Doomwheel in the box down in my garage. I may have to dig those out and build those after I finish my other Skaven stuff.

I think if I actually used them in an official Age of Sigmar game I wouldn't really be able to put much else on the table!

I keep looking at these new giant rats that Reaper did in the last Bones kickstarter, and I keep trying to figure out how to turn them into mounts for Skaven.



It's a crummy image to be sure, but it gets the idea across. Maybe playing with some greenstuff, leftover skaven bits, and possibly doing some cutting on the legs at least of some older skaven, I could probably get myself some rat cavalry for Kings of War. Hmmm....

I'm also thinking of using this hound aberration or whatever it's called from Darklands as some sort of Skaven mount, if the doggy will allow it.



That one might make a better mount for a warlord or engineer. With the right colors it might not even look that much dog like anymore too. I don't really plan on doing anything with the Ysians for Darklands anyways, they can sacrifice it to those filthy rats (who the Ysians are supposed to be allied with in Darklands anyways).

Hmm interesting choices. I noticed I had giant rats in bones 2 as well, though I'll probably just paint them up for misc D&D-ish purposes.

Those mega-rat ogres are pretty cool, sorry to hear about the massive self inflicted injury, at least the little one is supportive

Fingers healed up now at least.

Brain not so much, now that I have to go back to work. Students are wiping me out on a daily basis so far.

For my last hurrah before school started, I went down to the hobby shop a few freeways over since they've got a good selection of lots of stuff (Brookurst Hobbyies).

Brookhurst still seems to have a few Confrontation kits laying around for reasonable prices, and I've really enjoyed their dwarfs, so I figured I'd pick up some crossbowmen for Frostgrave, and maybe one of the cavalry guys.

I ended up with a lot more than that.



So as we were trying to figure out what to actually purchase, Barzam and I spied the clearance bins. I love clearance bins, just due to the completely random nature of what you can find inside (Hello Chronopia!).

I found a few French Confrontation figures all knocked down to a buck or two. I went and asked at the counter if that deal was on all the French figures, the clerk said yeah, so I walked out with about 15 metal figures for a little over 20 bucks, including two rather heavy Wolfen figures.

Started in on the orcs. Will photograph later. Got distracted by this stuff showing up.



Kingdom Death and Troll Outpost figures. I've been waiting a while on those Troll Outpost guys! I had to swap out one from my origianl KS pledge since they still haven't bothered casting him. Happy with the Fimir replacement guy though.

If only these had arrived a few weeks sooner, when I had time to paint them! Alas.

Looks like tomorrow I get my Miniature Market sale stuff... grass basing and a bunch of Krosmaster figures.

What the hell? How'd you get some of your Kingdom Death before me!? Argh! You suck!

I cannot decide if the FLG stores near you tremble in fear or rub their hands with glee when they see you and Barzam approaching!

A very nice haul there, and at an extra nice price.

Are the Kingdom Death figures as nice in the flesh as they appear to be?

I'm sure the local shops don't mind us coming. We tend to clear out whatever random odds and ends they've got (which is basically anything not GW or PP).

We're both already planning another trip soon to clear out what we missed the first time around- mostly Confrontation Goblins for me, probably AE WWII stuff for Barzam.

The Kingdom Death stuff is nice. I'm very hesitant to go to work on it. I'll start in earnest on it tonight.

Man that kickstarter ran ages ago... Can't believe you're still just now getting stuff.

Nice clearance bins. None of the stores in driving distance of me have those. A couple of clearance shelves bug its not the same thing. MM has a lot too but 2 hours is hardly local.

I have some crazy necroskellelicheton from that french game. Never found a way to paint him that I liked.

Yeah, Troll Outpost is still actually waiting on a few sculpts from that Kickstarter. I don't know what the deal is.

I finally got fed up and contacted them, asking to swap out one of the figures they were waiting on for something I knew they were already selling. Bam! Got it within a couple of weeks.

I know I'm not the only one still waiting on stuff either.

Having the Kingdom Death stuff in hand, I now regret not getting more. I mean, I got a fair amount, but I really enjoyed putting them together. Even attempted to put some paint on the Link- inspired Messenger.

Can't wait to do the Berserk guy though. Guy was nearly 20 pieces, and with his billowy cape, scarf, swords, and gear all decked out, he cuts quite the character. Gets me excited to think what I can do with the armor sets I'll be getting with the actual game and all the expansions.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Apologies. Pictures are a bit out of focus/ clarity and kind of zoomed in a bit too much.


Started in on base coats to the Messenger of Courage.



Finished up ANOTHER Stonehaven figure. This time it's a Half- Orc Pistoleer.



The ornamentation on her tunic is contrasting a bit too much with her belt buckles and stuff. May need to do them in silver or grey instead. She's one of the last few Stonehaven figures I have currently. I still have two of the Tengu, who I'll probably get around to at a later date. I want to finish some of the stuff I've already started first!

Most likely I will pick up a few more Stonehaven figures between now and when their Halflings ship. Not that I probably won't end up with a few dozen halflings, but whatever...

Also got some of the basing materials I wanted from Miniature Market's summer sale.



The grass stuff looks a lot nicer in person. Mushrooms need something to grow on, right? One of my kids thought I went outside and cut the grass and glued it on.

My wife thought it would have been easier and cheaper to just use the leftover leaves after she makes tea. Probably would have made them smell nice!

The Skaven stuff looks very cool, and amazing score on the Rackham models as well.

The Stonehaven stuff often has a ton of character as well. I've only painted a couple of my own ones so far, so it's always great to see more on the go.

Awesome Confrontation score. Nice KD model, too. It's really happening.

The Mushrooms look good with the new basing flock

Really like that Messenger of Courage model. looks really nice.

I've got about 20+ figures all sitting around on my table waiting for me to finish them.

In the hustle and bustle of the weekend I attempted to do that.

Naturally I had to start with the new freshness though,and wrap up the Kingdom Death stuff.

One thing I realized I hadn't tried photographing before is this one goblin from Mantic. I love this guy! I'm trying to dump most of my greenskins, but this guy is staying. He's got this look on his face like he's all innocent, pointing to the real bad guys, all the while pulling a blade out from behind him. Sneaky git.



Here he is hanging out with the finished Messenger of Courage, who looks like she doesn't have a face now due to the crappy resolution on my photos.



Here she is also with her newly finished friend the Messenger of Humanity.



Looking at him now, he doesn't really remind me of Guts so much. At least not since I've painted him. Too much actual color on him. You can't notice it but he still has his metallic arm.

I'm thinking now I probably should have put a different color on the inside of his cape, for a bit of contrast. Not a big deal, but I kept him pretty simplistic paint- wise. The red billowing from under his cloak is actually a scarf.

Stopped by local FLGS for some primer and some matte finish. Found a Skaven poison globardier for 5 bucks. New. Sure! Only deal was his blade had snapped, so I need to repair that.

Also got the new Obavnik Zerkova from Warmachine. Mostly just for the two reaver guys that go with her, but it should be an interesting challenge painting up Zerkova as well.

Hopefully my Mantic box of stuff shows up this week. Preferrably with the right stuff for once...

I think not-link is more Iconic than not-guts. Seems to track as link is generally more Iconic than guts anyway. Still cool that someone made a model for Guts. Did they have a Griffith? I'm not sure I'd want that much creepy in my collection but its still a curiosity

Great stuff as usual!

I agree with Grim. I have no idea who Guts is, but I picked FemBoobCosplayLink as soon as I saw her.

Aw, come on Azazel. Berserk is like, the single biggest influence to Kingdom Death. I don't think there was a Griffith though. Shame, somewhat of a missed opportunity, there. Whenever my messengers arrive, I'm going to shoot for a proper Black Knight Guts look on him.

I still have no clue which Messengers I got though. I think I might've gotten all of them except The First Messenger/Ayla from Chrono Trigger. If I got him, Kamina/Messenger of the Spiral should be interesting to paint.

I skipped the whole KD:M thing, but now wonder if they would form a nice Slaanesh army for his/her/it's return in AOS.

Sheesh, I may have backed it for some of these homage/tribute/knock-off/parody characters. Had I know. But I would have been pissy about how long it's taken for sure.

At any rate, thanks for sharing

I'm kind of surprised nobody has gotten around to making more Berserk style homages.

A company like Tales of War, who seems to thrive on making all kinds of pop culture/ video game homages ought to get on the ball doing Guts. Preferably in his armor.

Speaking of Tales of War, I think it's high time I start working on their Death from Darksiders knock- off.

Question is, do I do it like the in- game version primarily in blues, or do it like on the packaging, using lots of reds instead? Both versions look cool.

Still debating whether I inevitably get the War figure they made to go with him.

...so I've got a bunch of greenskins on ebay I'm trying to unload. Never been a huge fan of orcs and goblins.

So what do I do?

Buy more greenskins and start painting them, naturally!



That's a Reaper Iconic Warpriest for Pathfinder hanging out with a pair of dollar a piece Rackham Jackal Warriors. I really like those Jackals, which is funny, because as I said, not a huge fan of greenskins per say. That guy on the left is awesome. What a vet- missing an arm, a leg, and an eye, stitched up... dude's just a tough looking SOB.

Both of them have some awesome 70s mutton chops rocking their chomps as well. As I try to get rid of my orcs, I find myself scouring ebay for more Confrontation ones. The Behemoth faction Orcs are some of the coolest I've seen. Way different feel than the typical GW style.


I'm really tempted by the big living legend guy, Shaka Morkhai.


Not sure how big the guy is though. If he's about Wolfen size (which I'm guessing he is, considering he's a boxed set), I might bite the bullet and try to track him down. Anyone know?

In the meantime, I also wrapped up this guy, who started life green but has come around to seeing red.


A Bones Ogre I bought ages ago. I think he fits in well with my GW ones. He's a bit bigger than my Mantic guys though.

Started working on this guy now.


Obviously needs to finish getting the base ready. Next step is to get a bit more contrast in his skin color (plus he kind of blends in with the wall behind him). I think this is the first Wolfen I've actually purchased. May not be the first painted, but I've had him for a few years now. Glad to see him finally getting his proper dues.

Unfortunately my rats are getting upset that they're being neglected, especially so close to being finished. Going to be lame and base that giant rat mount with some grass and call it a day with him, and then it's off to seal all my big stuff. Hopefully they'll be done by this weekend.

Well... seems I ended up finding a Shaka Morkhai for a reasonable price, and ended up ordering him. Should be a fun challenge to paint nicely.

I scrapped together a few hundred dollars worth of stuff to take to the hobby shop yesterday. I'm sure if I could be arsed to sell it on ebay I would have made a significant amount more.

Everything was priced cheap enough that I know it'll move quickly, especially since the bulk of it was painted stuff- some I've shown here, a lot I haven't. The question is whether I will blow it all in credit at the store or take the cash for a spin or two online. Online I can blow it on stuff like Darklands, but store credit can get wasted on big ticket Age of Sigmar goodies I don't want to pay my own cash for. Decisions, decisions....

Somehow ended up with a few more portly Khadorians. Why do I need fat Khador troops when I have no intention of playing them, and when I sold almost all of my Khador stuff off? I'm not sure! Will post who's who tonight when I have a chance to prime them. Yesterday there was no free time to play with spray cans outside, as I had to take care of a lot of house- related stuff.

I did manage to squeeze in some painting on this thing.



He's a Ysian Aberrant hound from one of the Darkland kickstarters. Don't even remember which sadly...

Not sure what to do with him either. He looks like he's been skinned, so I tried to come up with a good raw muscle color. Other than the armor plates and stuff like his teeth and claws, not sure what else to do with him. He'll still probably end up hanging with my Skaven. Maybe put some Skaven symbols on him? Cut some brands into his hide? I dunno.

Is that a pink or a red basecoat you used on it? I'd recommend bringing it up to a lighter shade of pink, then hit it with a Carrbourg Crimson wash. That should give it more of an exposed muscle look. I think using a purple wash over the current shade might not look bad either.

Nice work on those Rackham orcs - they look really good. I'd also second Barzam's advice for the flayed dog-thing, though I'd go quite diluted with the purple washes.

Wolfen. Personal favorites. Your mini collection is a thing of beauty.

Two headed skin dog started super girly pink, got a nice reddish wash, looked like a plague dog from Deadzone, got a redder wash, and ended up with his current color scheme. A bit of purple might help. Maybe a very light pink highlighting or drybrushing?

I've really enjoyed painting that Wolfen. Will definitely be on the lookout for more. I've got a few more that need priming, and a fair amount of Devourers as well that will be good to go soon.

My hope is this Labor Day to clear out as much of the French Confrontation as the store that still has it is willing to let me walk out with, especially if it's as cheap as it was last time.

I passed on a bunch of greenskins, and after painting those Jackals (and ordering their big guy), I can't help but feel like I need to go pick up the rest of them at the store.

I really like the Confronation Orcs. Was never a big fan of GW's, and unfortunately that seems to be the prevailing style of tabletop guys for the most part.

Guess I'll keep my eyes peeled for Drakerys' orcs once they hit retail.

I totally forgot about Drakery's, having just read their latest KS update they say that backers may well get their pledges before the year is out so I guess retail may be ready before 2016. Their dragon is cool too.

I agree with Barzam's Carroburg crimson call, that wash is a godsend.

The Not-Link and Reaper/Rackham Orcs look great.

Man, so jealous of all the Rackham loot!

 Wehrkind wrote:
Man, so jealous of all the Rackham loot!

If you think that's bad, wait until Monday, if all goes according to keikaku...

If they let me, I will quite literally buy up any and all kits I can if they're still a buck or two a pack. Will also grab some of that red wash you guys mentioned.



[RANT]

I was all set to go and prime stuff yesterday... until I ended up having to shadow the exterminator as he went to war against the spider kingdom.

We had defeated the vanguard force weeks prior, their units consisting of mostly orb weaver troops and a smattering of elite brown widows. Since it was an ambush we wiped out their forces and it was a major route.

With the intense heat of the last few weeks, their troops began serious preparations for a major offensive. Most of the orb weavers had been defeated, with a vast strike force of brown widows laying in wait.
It was a massacre. Bodies everywhere, big and small, young and old, lay in the wake of the destruction the exterminator wrought upon them. We brought in the siege equipment and smashed their fortifications, elaborate webs almost the size of a grown man, intricate webwork that had taken generations to build, all gone in the span of a moment.

It was glorious. I hope they all rot in hell, widows.

I did get around to painting me some dwarf buttocks. Since Dakka is a family site, we'll go with a more family- friendly view. It's a start- there's a lot to go.



Had some leftover paint from doing these guys' base coats, so I began work on the dreaded mushrom 'chuks.


Also finished up my giant rat beast behemoth thing. All that was left? His crotch. I'll save Dakka from having to view drybrushed rat genital hair.

So the nice long weekend is over, and it's back to work for me.

Of course, most of the weekend was spent researching refrigerators, a plan was formulated to purchase one of these refrigerators, and then at the last minute we changed our mind about the refrigerator and started all over again at the research phase after seeing the models in person that we had wanted to purchase.

Needless to say that fridge hunting took precedence over mini painting.

I did manage to sneak in a trip to a semi- local place with Barzam. Had the guys check in the back for Confrontation stuff and found something I've wanted for quite some time.



A Clain Nain box! I was so pumped! I have been SEARCHING for this! In English as well! YESSSSSSSSSS.

Well... no. Turns out, when I got home, and started going through the parts... I'm actually missing a fair bit of stuff. The little guy in the wheelchair is missing his wheelchair, the packmule robot is missing his front half, one of the thermo-warriors is missing his boiler and arm, and one of the forge guard is nowhere to be seen. Also a few cards are not in the box, but that isn't a huge loss, as I doubt we'll play the official game any time soon.

The other kits were all new, but it was a bit disheartening to get the one set I wanted incomplete. Ugh.

I finished up those guys on the boors over the weekend, as well as the Wolfen I was working on, and started in on some crossbowmen as well as a bones guy to go with all my dwarfs.



Nothing fancy mind you, and they'll take a while to get done. Should go well with the rest of my Tir Na Bor crew.

Also looks like Shaka- Morkhai is coming today. Curious to see how big he is. Can't find an actual photo of him with other orcs to get a sense of size. With his arrival it's going to be time for painting more greenskins...

Always liked the Pilzhenbir(?) model. Great finds.

Yeah, I've got both versions of that Defender of the Plains guy now. There's features of both of them I like. Got him primed already to go with the other Dwarfs.

Got my Shaka Morkhai today.

Since I couldn't find any size comparison pics, I made one.



He's definitely bigger than the average orc, but not ridiculously so. I guess he'll be a lot larger when he's got all his gear on (which is laying in the background).

Still like the dude with the mace resting on his shoulder. He just has such a "eh" attitude about the whole thing. Hipster orc.

The Shaka Morkhai model is really cool. Except for the legs... for the longest time I thought he was bursting out of the ground, like a berserker were-mole. Then I realized that he wasn't waist deep in dirt, but rather... under-endowed below the waist. The Formor fiends suffer from that as well, but man, I have always wanted to put a different set of legs on ol' Shaka because the rest of him is so cool.

My only real gripes about Rackham:

1: Tiny legs on big bodies.
2: Wasp waisted wulfen
3: The 1 mm bits of handle between the hands of Drune troopers' swords and the hilt, i.e. "breaking point".

4 might be the chindo the devourer's wear, or their gorgets in general, but those are all pretty minor compared.

Here's the same guys from my last update, this time with a bit of paint.




Shaka is a lot farther along than the rest obviously, and they are all graced by the presence of the Magnificent Ronaldo and his angelic voice. I spent the last few days doing Shaka's swords, which are all bundled together on his lower back/ hip area, and in the process cover up all the detail underneath.

I still need to do his huge trophy rack. Hoping to get at least a base coat on it tonight. Debating whether I want to drill in to him and pin the thing in, or just let it sit there glued on. Having that rack will help keep his topknots from getting bumped off as well, which I've naturally done multiple times. The rack works as a perfect buffer zone to keep things from getting broken.

I was all set to go prime stuff outside today, and then it decides to go and start seriously pouring rain. Darn. I've got a pile of stuff waiting to get painted too!

I've got my new Thyron, Sword of Truth coming today, so he's probably going to be bumping his way up the painting cue. Dude looks rocking.

Got a bunch of Trollbloods, Confrontation, and Wrath of Kings stuff coming my way this week too. Where it will fit in the painting cue, I'm not sure. Would prefer not having to add them all to the pile of shame (closet of shame? cabinet of shame?)

Weather was certainly not conducive to getting stuff primed outside last night. Everything was wet. Humid and wet.

Didn't stop me from priming a bunch of stuff anyways. Sprayed it and brought it in, and everything was dry this morning.

I couldn't help myself much either, and started in on two more figures.



Was busy speeding through a Khadorian Kayzay Assassin Underboss. Will be touching up/ highlighting his skin, and fixing up his blades. Obviously need to do something with his base as well.

He also got a friend to hang out with.



Keep in mind I JUST started him. I know that linework is atrocious on his sword, and there's a ton more to go. He'll be decent by the time I'm done with him. His loincloth I did kind of a lame job on, and I'm tempted to just leave it a solid color as I can't really do the linework like in the official version with my crummy brushes and the way I positioned his hands.

Thyron is also really big. I have no clue why. I mean, he's at least a head or two taller than the Underboss, who is a pretty good sized regular human (being Khadorian on top of that). Probably big enough to be an Infinity tag...

Did you just get Thyron yesterday? That's fast work. I may need to get my own.

Yeah, I just got Thyron yesterday.

Wasn't that hard. Brass, dark grey, blue, black, dark brown highlights... then all that damned lighting stuff. I should have him finished by tonight.

Funny thing- he's missing one of his shoulder fins. There was only one in the box. Case was intact, so I know it didn't fall out when I opened it. Already filled out a claim with Privateer for an extra one to complete him.

I also, FINALLY, got my orc head for my Avatars of War guy. It only took 6 months of me nagging them to finally send it. Jeez. At least I can get him started along with all the other orcs.

Looks like the Kriel Warriors I ordered Monday arrive today as well.

Just got Thyron, just finished Thyron.



I might touch up a bit of the brass, maybe put an even lighter highlight on the edge of his blade, but for the most part, the guy is finished. I have a TON of stuff that needs a sealer, so he'll probably jump to the front of the line.

Guy is huge too. Are all the Elves in Warmachine this big?

Speaking of huge, he's almost the same size as some of the new Trollbloods. I got the new plastic box of the Kriel warriors for less than half price on Monday, and it already arrived yesterday. Pretty impressed. Can't complain about 13 figures for 30 bucks. The difference in size is ridiculous though, comparing the plastics to the original metals.



Same basic grunt guy. New plastic one is at least a good 2 heads taller and broader than the metal version. Metal on has its own charm, but man do those new plastics have a lot more presence.

It dawned on me the other day- I have so many Trolls, why not use them for an Ogre army in Kings of War? Heck, that Kriel box gives me at least 2 units of foot troops. A box of scatter gunners gives me another 2 ranged units. I can group a bunch of casters and solos together for another unit or two. My warders would make fine Siege Breakers or whatever the heavy armor guys are called for Ogres. Maybe use a Bouncer for the Siege Breaker hero.

Gives me a good excuse to actually try and get them all painted! Of course, then I'm going to have to find some 40mm circle movement trays now...

Almost finished Shaka- Morkhai's trophy rack. My goal is to get it done tonight, so he can go in the pile of stuff to seal. Should probably wrap up the other Confrontation orcs I've got almost done, as I have a box of Amok Slayers coming tonight.

Used up some paypal credit and made a Miniature Market order. Finally ordered those Troll Northkin Fire Breathers. Really wanted those guys, yet not a single shop in my area has any in stock.

So Shaka- Morkhai is finished, and the photo does not really look that good. I know his body is super glossy, and due to that, you can't see any actual shading or detail. Darn. Some of my inks end up super glossy, some end up really flat and dull. It's hard to predict which way they're going to go.

Regardless I'm very happy with how he turned out. I will try to take another photo of him once I've sealed him, which I didn't end up doing last night. I was all set, but then I had an unexpected delivery. Fearing that it might be Kingdom Death, and me not having a spot to work on it or store it, I hastily began clearing shelf space and a spot to work on it.

In the end it was all a false alarm- it was another Kickstarter game I had backed that had turned up unannounced (Catacombs for those that care). Kids were excited to have that one at least, but then promptly took all evening to finish their homework, resulting in nothing getting played.

It did however give me time to prep more Trollbloods and Confrontation Orcs. I've got to say the Kriel Warriors are a lot better quality molds than some of the earlier plastics I got from Privateer. Way less mold lines, way less gnarled bits of sprue to hack off... much easier to put together. Only hassle is there's a ton of pieces, and no discernible method to putting them all together other than trial and error.

I also won a bunch of dirt cheap auctions for Warmachine stuff, so it looks like I'll have more Khador and Retribution stuff to paint soon.

What's up with you buying elves? You've never used elves!

That is really weird how your stuff always comes out looking glossy. You use a lot of Army Painter amd Reaper paints, don't you? Maybe that has something to do with it?

Have you put together a warband for tomorrow's game yet?

Well, I've used elf... stats. For my Nasier.

Thyron just needs some buddies to hang out with. They were also very cheap, so I'm not going to complain about that.

I'm guessing the gloss is coming from the inks. The paints are mostly regular vallejos and a bit of their game colors on the body, with an earthshade wash on top.

The rack is the same brands of paint, with a reikland wash. That came out matte.

I thought I mixed up the inks pretty well, but maybe I didn't. Honestly I kind of like giving it that glossy sheen. I ought to get some brush on gloss sheen. Some models need a slimy, shiny look to them.

Looks like today I have some random two dollar Hell Dorado figures coming in.

I like the Ork he looks very cool and thats one big trophy rack.

my backlog of stuff to seal is getting ridiculous.

I've got a good 20+ models all waiting to be blasted by the sealer. Some of them quite large.

Hopefully the weather holds as they keep talking about having rain down here in SoCal. We'll see, won't we?

At this point I've got a large, LARGE pile of Rackham Dwarfs all waiting to get finished.

I wrapped up about 8 or 9 of them that I know I haven't posted here.

Here's some of them.



That's a Thermo- Priest of Tir Na Bor, attended by his Thermo- Guard. Basically they're all carrying steam boiler which can naturally go haywire if it doesn't power their weapons to ridiculous extremes.

Now if I can only find the more armored versions...

I've got a fair amount of Orcs left on the table, and after that (or possibly before) I'm going to finish up my Noh Empire stuff from Relic Knights. They did well when they fought Barzam the other day. Why not continue the trend?

If by "did well" you mean they lost half of their forces while I only lost one guy to them, then sure, they did well. What do you have left for the Noh? After seeing yours in action, I'm a little tempted to grab a couple for myself. They don't seem to have suffered as much detail loss as some of the other factions did. Of course, if I got any Noh, they'd have to have blue skin.

I feel your pain with the pile needing to be sealed. Mine has been growing as well.

You forget- I had 300 points fighting 600 points worth of guys on two different fronts.

Not only that, I had a lot less models than both of you. I only had 4 figures total. I was thinking of doing a photo batrep using Deadzone terrain and my own models as stand ins for your guys, but I don't have any Skitarii so that would have been difficult.

So yeah, wiping out everything Tony had down to 1 guy, vaporizing your AdMech guy on the first turn, and tkaing pot shots at them the rest of the time, not too bad in my book.

If I'd had dedicated warbands to fight both of you, I think you would have lost.

Next time though? Antivenoms for everyone!

I think you should get the Noh. They're nice figures. Outside of the sorceress and the other female figures, the detail is pretty solid. The girls seem a bit more soft. Like I told you, there's some ebay sellers that have a lot of the figures REALLY cheap. I got started on the guy who's standing on top of the giant shishimai. Saw one online for 13 with free shipping. Sucker is huge with his mount.

You only had one less guy than me. Next time around, I'm going to bring a bit more variety to the table. I need to give my robots some action.

I saw the cheap Noh on Ebay. I'm tempted to get a Render. I've just got so much other atuff to paint right now is the problem.

So I had an order arrive earlier than expected.

It was mostly Krosmaster stuff for the kids and myself to play with, especially with Krosmaster Quest FINALLY coming, but there were a couple of interesting things in there for me as well.

I had picked up a few Avatars of War figures I wanted. I really like their figures (when they remember to include all the parts), but I'm not a big fan of their prices. I think my expected prices are still stuck in mid 90s mode.

One of the figures I got was the new(er) Saurian Mauler. Why? Because reptile, that's why. I figured it'd be about the size of a regular lizardman. NOPE.



He's not just a head or so bigger, he's quite a bit larger. Like, Kroxigor size I'd say- I wouldn't know as I don't own any Kroxigor. He's big. From this angle he looks kind of flat but he has a nice sense of depth to him.

Also got an Orc Pit Figher. Not sure why. I like his trophy rack and he has a giant hook hand to fight with.



The guy would make GW proud, the way he's festooned with skulls of all shapes and sizes covering all his armor. He's also a fairly chunky figure as well, sitting on a 40mm base. There was no way he'd fit on the 25mm square they gave him- he barely fits on the 40!

You can see the Savage Orc in the background who finally has head, 6 months after his purchase.

Here are a few other handy models to try and give a sense of scale.



I like those spikes on the back of the Saurian. Will be a fun one to paint. With a bunch of ebay stuff currently getting haggled over and some Krosmaster stuff my family wants back in stock, it looks like we might be making another Miniature Market order soon. If so, I think I'll be grabbing the other lizards Avatars make. Maybe the new knight and gladiator as well, just for the hell of it.

Also went and sealed about 24 figures this evening. Tried taking photos, nothing came out well.

Sigh...

I was supposed to get Kingdom Death today.

UPS decided, nah, I should wait another day, because reasons. BARF.

Soooooooooo... I had to drown my stone face and hand nightmare fueled disappointment in ebay auctions, and ended up getting a nice lot of Confrontation goblins for a very reasonable price. Thank you ebay seller!

I had my Shael Han and Goritisi figures from Bartertown show up last night. Apologies to the person who sent them, but my friend, your gluing leaves a lot to be desired. I managed to slice myself at least three separate times prying those guys and gals from whatever quagmire of hardened epoxy you put them in.

At the very least, they were glued directly into those deep dish pizza bases, and with a little PVA glue and some fine grain rocks and sand, nobody will be any wiser that I mangled the out of some of those bases, trying to get those figures off.

Thankfully it was only the Shael Han who were already glued, and outside of a few character figures, they were just a bonus. What I was really after was a Starter Set worth of Goritsi. MUUUUUUCH nicer. I can build these at my own whims, which I certainly plan to.

Speaking of building things- the que is growing. Considerably. And fast. I cashed out some credit at the game store, got the new Kromac figure as well as a small unit of Trollkin Long Riders. While they aren't as big and imposing as the newer plastics, their bisons are quite large as it is.

I tried to take a quick photo of my finished Dwarfs and Orks, but the pictures came out severely washed out. Blah. It is frustrating because it makes my painting look quite simplistic and basic... which it usually is, yeah, but I do try and put a bit more effort into it than that. Of course after uploading it, I selected the darker filter, which makes things even more difficult to identify.

So Kingdom Death is going to arrive today, and I have nowhere to set it up. The horror!

As promised/ threatened last week, I told Barzam I would finish up all my Noh Empire stuff for Relic Knights. I started in earnest on my Hatriya warriors.

Now the thing is, as far as I can tell, there are NO painted samples out there really. While a few hobby bloggers have done work on the Noh, and there's some great examples out there, far better than mine, these dudes in particular are nowhere to be seen...yet. Which means there's no real good paint schemes to borrow or steal. Heck, the only sample I can find is from Sodapop's case at some convention, and even that is from a bad angle and you aren't able to see both of them.

To compound matters more, the artwork doesn't really match up with the actual models. In fact, the artwork is WAY cooler looking. I wish the models looked more like the line art. I'm not a big fan of either of their poses, but I'm also not in the mood to hack and melt them into a position I'm more satisfied with, so for the time being they're staying stock.

Since there aren't any painted samples out there, I did a very sloppy, rushed, slapdash base coating of them.


There's a lot of work ahead for these guys. Clouds and scarves need blending, armor needs detailing (like the faces on them), the belts and knots all need painting, I need to ink in the weapons, highlight and shade just about everything... it'll be a while.

Also- these guys are BIG. Those are 50mm bases. They're right next to that wall I've been using in the background lately. You can get a sense of height by checking out some of my other photos. I'm going to have to game the Song of Blades & Heroes system like my family members do when I put these guys to work.

Also wanted to get this guy done for Wednesday, what with it being Yom Kippur and all, but sadly he still isn't done.



Not many people realize just how pious Orcs are I guess.

Tekiah Gedolah!

I've got those Hatriya warriors to a decent tabletop quality paintjob. At least I'm not too embarrassed looking at them now.


Still need to do some cleanup on them, and feel like I should do something with the recesses in their weapons.

Hopefully the next time I play against Barzam and our cousin these guys can get fielded.

Despite selling a ton of stuff, consequently purchasing more, and having it pile up on my dining room table to build while I supervise homework, I haven't really started in on any of it yet.

I started working earnestly on my Kriel Warriors in the hopes of getting enough Trollbloods finished to use in a proper game of Kings of War the next time I have vacation. I know I'll need to invest in some movement trays, which is fine, but I really can't stand the one local store that is going to be hosting games. I don't like the staff, the people that game there are a bit too far over on the scary end of the gaming spectrum for my tastes... and yet that's the only real option.

Tossing metals warlocks and solos in, as well as warbeasts, I can probably put together a good 1500 points already. With the Kriels, a box of warders, and some scattergunners, I have a good 4 or 5 regiments, a horde or two, and a fair amount of heroes and monsters to bring along.



I'm trying to go through one color at a time, and hit all 13 of them, but that's a little easier said then done. Some figures are a bit farther along then others, with the guy in the rear probably the most furthest along. Hopefully I can get them all finished in the next week or so.

Progress continues on those Kriel warriors and their never ending supply of straps, buckles, random armor plates, and tartans.

A few Trolls are close to being done. Hopefully by next weekend. There's just so much tiny surface detail on them to take care of it's rather time consuming. I'm trying to do it all in batches, but it still is not so easy. I'm trying to vary up the armor and skin protrusions a bit to make the repeat sculpt a little different.

While I've been doing the trolls, I got back to work on this Noh Beastmaster, who was last seen around these parts back in May. He's coming along steadily. I'd done his paints and base skin back then, and nothing since. He should be finished for the next Song of Blades and Heroes encounter.



Maybe if I can stop buying Confrontation figures or backing Kickstarters I can wrap up the Noh stuff and complete the entire faction. Will probably pick up the ladies next.

The Oni are looking good. You need at least one blue one though. I suppose you could also use a Momotaro. I can't decide if I want my Mechanicus Menials to fight them (I'm pretty certain I can make my human bomb Junkers work) or if I want to field my psychic Soviets.

Have you received your Kingdom Death stuff yet?

Yeah, Kingdom Death came already. Last weekend in fact. I've tried to read through the rules but haven't had much time to due to kids' homework and birthdays.

Only built the beginning survivors for the prologue and the lion. Haven't touched anything else yet. Some of it I legitimately have no idea how it goes together.

Orcs and Dwarves and Oni-types are looking nice. I wish I'd gotten some of the Relic Knights Oni. I wasn't too fussed about all of the other stuff, but I did like the look of those, and you make them look very nice indeed.

Those AoW models are pretty sweet. I ordered their Chaos Ogre Lord guy the other week. I had no idea that the Orc or especially the Saurian were so large. I might have to pick those up next time I trade with the Troll.

The Noh are pretty nice. Sometimes there's some soft details, but even for a poor painter like me there's a lot of solid definite lines there to guide your brush. For the most part they're solid.

I too was surprised about the Avatars of War stuff. Most of the other AoW figures I have seem to fit in with other figures pretty well. That Saurian is especially large though. I'm going to have to pick up the other lizards at some point down the road. I don't think they'll be as big, but who knows.

The Noh look cool. They are impressive models.

Finished up the Noh Beastmaster. Started in on the big huge kitty that comes with Kasaro To. Will probably put pictures of it up tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on how busy today is (I've got parent conferences scheduled well past my contractual time). The things already got its base coats and I'm starting in on the detailing. The boss oni isn't far behind, and having just finished the Beastmaster I have a pretty good idea of how to get him done quickly as well.

While I've been working on my last few Noh I have been trying to get all these Kriel warriors finished as well.



We've got these two lovely ladies of the Kriel almost finished here, and you can see the Beastmaster hanging out with his Skaven scale reference buddy in the background.

I hate painting tartans. I figure I'll keep doing it, eventually I'll get better at it. Doesn't help that their clothes are flowing all over the place in folds and windblown positions. Makes it a pain. I don't know how my dad ever painted all those Highlander figures he's got in 1/32 scale. He painted so many tartans over the years! I ought to ask him what his technique was.

These two ladies are the most farthest along at this point- they need an ink wash, the lead lady needs her tongue painted, and other than basing they are just about finished. It will be nice getting them out of the way, because 13 trollbloods on 40mm bases do eat up a serious chunk of table space.

To be a proper beast master, I think that guy is going to need a couple of ferrets.

He can have the Skaven stand in as ferrets for now.

He also would need a panther to be a proper Beastmaster, wouldn't he?

I might have some (or all) of those animals laying around in Bones. Hmm...

I wouldn't mind getting his Hounds of Nozuki eventually. They're pretty large "hounds," considering they all sit on 40mm bases and take up a good chunk of it.

Big enough to swallow a human sized figure at least.

All in due time...

 Barzam wrote:
To be a proper beast master, I think that guy is going to need a couple of ferrets.

Ferrets. And John Amos.

While I dig through my boxes and bins for ferrets, human- birthing cows, giant bat stomach people, bondage monsters, and ferrets, here's how the Noh leader guy Kasaro To is coming along.



His ride is just about finished. Need to do the exhaust pipes on his engine block (probably with a brass casing) and maybe some panel lining. I need to fill in the energy banks on his underbelly as well.

The Noh Oni guy, Kasaro To has gotten most of his base colors finished. I need to work on his armor plates still, finish up his giant moon crescent back ornament, and then it's time for detailing the two of them. I actually got their base ready, I just haven't bothered gluing them down since I still need to do the robot's underbelly. I still think the supplied 80mm base is too small- the thing should really sit on a 100mm base, as just about every single limb hangs off the base in one way or another. I'd switch to one of my other bases, but then it wouldn't fit in with the rest of my Relic Knights stuff, which I've made sure have all kept their funky purple bases.

I do hope Soda Pop eventually comes back to the line. They seem way too focused on Super Dungeon these days, and I kind of feel that after the Kickstarter was fulfilled the game was basically left out to die.

I like the color I found for the cat thing. Reminds me of the color of ED-209- especially the toy my brother had as a kid (which in turns brings back the nostalgic smell of burnt caps, since the robot had a hammer mechanism in it to pop caps).

I think I'll use that same blue/grey color on my Rangers Project Salamander that I've had sitting on a shelf since I got it at that Minis swap.

that is a great color. What is it? I wouldn't mind using that on some of my mechs.

I'll let you know when I get home. I'm not really sure.

It honestly should be called 90s anime blue gray, because that's totally what it looks like.

It's such a mecha color.

While I finish up Kasaro To and his schweet ride, in the words of Monty Python...

"And now for something completely different."



ENTER THE MOUSLING PRINCESS.

What possessed me to purchase her? I don't know. Why did she feel the need to cut in line? Not sure.

Why is she hanging out with the grim reaper mushroom man? Beats me. Maybe he's a good conversationalist.

What's the rat man doing there? Maybe he just got friendzoned by her highness after being strung along for quite some time.

My Kriel are still in various stages of painting. My goal is to have at least half done by the weekend. I was supposed to go volunteer at the Japanese school on Saturday, but my wife said she'd cover it, which means more time for painting (after cleaning and chore stuff naturally).

Kasaro To looks very cool. Such a monstrous figure. And The Reaper, well, he just rocks.

Kasaro To is a cool figure. He's all done and just needs to be glued to his ride- except I ran out of super glue! Ugh. I know what I'll be hunting down this afternoon.

In between searching for glue somewhere in the house, the mousling princess had her erstwhile companions finished.



They may not be of the most scrupulous character, but when a job needs doing, these mice mean business.

Something about the princess looks off to me. She looks like a cross between a monkey and an ewok. The other two at least look like mice. Frustrated by the assassin one because I actually did paint the details on his face, they're just naturally obscured by his cloak, which I guess they should be, what with being a brooding assassin and all.

I'm totally buying more of these guys next time I'm at the hobby shop (which will probably be tomorrow).

So after painting up Kasaro To's mount, I decided to try using that same dark blue gray color (the official name of it at least) on some Retribution guys.

I keep picking up cheap Retribution guys from Warmachine. Not sure why. Elves aren't usually my thing. Maybe just for the chance to have something different to paint?

Behold the brethren of the pointing swords...



Obviously there's a lot more to do here, but I think it'll be an interesting armor choice for them. The Dawnguard really reminds me of a Masamune Shirou designed landmate mecha or something. I think it's the head and the overly large thigh armor.

I should have a few more interesting pieces showing up in the next week or two.

I also sucked it up and started painting my dragons don't share. My dragon ended up... pink. Should be fun.

Changed things up a little with the armor color.




Tinted it a bit greener, seems more "elfy" that way. Changed their cloaks to a more blue- green (but not turquoise!) so they were more in line with Thyron, the Sword of Truth, who I guess they'd be hanging out with if they actually were used in a game of Warmachine. They will most likely be making my next warband for Song of Blades and Heroes, as these guys are a lot smaller and more portable than lugging around 60mm based snakemen or giant Oni that I don't have containers large enough to carry them in.

Will probably go back in with a black ink to get all the crevices filled in.

Here are their buddies that will soon be requisitioned into the elf warband.


Funny thing is none of them match. At all. I think I used a different green on every one of them. On the other hand, they're all supposed to be fairly independent operators, so it shouldn't really matter if they aren't the most cohesive looking set of guys.

I'm also starting to think those Stormfall Archers I was going to sell or going to end up supporting these guys as well.

They're looking a bit less mech-y now that you've changed their shading. I didn't know you were planning to sell those archers. I'd be willing to swap you some chunky Dragyri for them.

I think the beta Advanced SOBH rules were supposed to be sent out sometime soon. We'll have to test yhem out. If you end up using these guys, I think they might wind up being your most normal army you've fielded.

Yeah, they did lose a bit of the mecha- ness in the tinting of their armor. Maybe if I pick up some more invictors down the line. Problem is finding a shading that I'm happy with. Believe it or not, those guys have gone through a few palette changes already- I just didn't photograph them.

You're right about these probably being my most "normal" warband so far. That will soon be rectified, don't you worry!

Elves ready to get blasted by a double dose of sealants this afternoon upon my arrival home.



Went back and did some highlighting with the original anime gray color I used on most of their armor. Finished up just about everybody, and flocked their bases. Will probably toss a few random rocks on their bases, because why not? May use a few more grasses as well.

Should be fun giving these guys stats. A fair warning to Barzam and Obstinate Baton (our cousin, if he's out there lurking), these guys are getting geared to shoot the crap out of your guys, and we won't be playing the poison game this time around. Of course Thyron will have to have him super swordsman abilities imported from Warmachine, so we'll be pulling some of the Advanced rules out for him, like using his sword for ranged defense.

Got about half of my Kriel bases and ready to go as well. Hope to have the rest done this weekend and have all this big stuff out of the way.

My plan after that is to work through some of my Bones pledge, and possibly some of the random Hell Dorado humans I've accumulated. I think if I stick with a simple paint scheme I can roll through them pretty quickly.

Looking very good.

We'll see how well they do. If we're expanding the rules, I'll be bringing explosives and combat stims to the party.

So I tried out that gloss primer we got on Saturday, and it wasn't as glossy as I had hoped or expected. Went to put a matte coat on top of that later, and I saw absolutely no difference. Probably didn't help that it was pretty much dark outside when I was doing that. Needless to say, we'll give those elves another blast today, as well as all the Noh that were hanging out with them in the back yard.




My Kriel are all finally glued up, tartan'ed, and detailed. About half of them have their bases done. Another half have all been inked as well. Ended up spending most of my evening cleaning and playing board games with the kids rather than get any painting done.


The plan is still to put these guys to work in a Kings of War Ogre army. The Kriel alone give me about 1000 points of ogres spread across 2 regiments or 1 regiment and 3 troops. I figure the caber guys should be their own unit and count the cabers as a two handed weapon for the crushing strength bonus.

Some day my Scattergunners will arrive, and that's at least another 2 regiments, or split them into smaller units as well.

One thing I want for my Ogre'd Troll army is some Siege Breakers. They're supposed to be heavily armored guys with shields and hammers. I thought, that sounds just like a Warder unit! Too bad I sold off my painted Warders. They were kind of cool too, since I did custom bases on all of them and my Champions. Oh well. I'll probably get more and put them on some of those CMON Micro Arts bases I've got sitting around.

Siege Breakers need a Siege Master though, a hero who's even more heavily armored, with an even bigger shield. Sounds like a job for a Troll Bouncer! I grabbed a metal one last weekend as I like the metal sculpt a lot more than the plastic. Plus, the metal is carrying a ham hock around like a Rackham figure. But then I thought, hey, I've got someone even better suited to being a Siege Master with a giant shield.!




Even has 3 fingers and a thumb like a good and proper trollkin. With the helmet on I don't need to worry too much about the difference in facial features- I do need to fix one of the missing tusks however. The skull on the shield is just about the same size as a gnarlhorn's head too. I've got a spare Bugbear that I'll be painting more appropriately later on.

The Kriel are finally out of the way. Everyone is painted, even the caber tossers. Just a few more in need of basing materials and I can put a checkmark next to that group needing to be finished.

So with them finished, it was time to start wrapping up a few other projects I had taking up space on my table.



I'd been using whatever leftover colors I had on these guys. That's my Avatars of War Orc Gladiator, a Warlords of Aegytpus To-Tanem Hero of some sort, and a Bones nature spirit I believe.

Very frustrating as I'm currently waiting on about 4 different orders to arrive at my house, and they're all MIA for the moment. No idea why either. Some are coming from California as well, so I don't get the hold up. Irritating. Then again, it's not like I don't have piles and piles of stuff to work on...

Yay! The weekend is finally over!

Saturday was Undoukai day, which is a Japanese sports/ track & field event day. Of course, it was supposed to rain, but that would deprive us poor parents from sitting out in the sun for a good six or seven hours, wouldn't it? Naturally it wouldn't be an old fashioned track event without having to drag the parents out repeatedly to participate.

So nope, no rain, just sun and no barbecues or alcohol allowed, which many of the other parents lamented with me, as it would have made the day much more enjoyable for us. In the end the kids all had a good time, and sadly the red team (our team) lost to the white team by one point, 493 vs 492. Sad. We won last year at least.

Sunday was spent cleaning. Just cleaning cleaning CLEANING. At least my house is presentable again. I'm not sure who's a bigger packrat, my wife or my daughter. Both perhaps?

I did manage to at least get my Orc Pit Fighter from Avatars of War pretty much finished up.



Just noticed that the ink seems to have congealed on his axe blade, so I'll have to fix that, and I accidentally painted some of his skin gold like his chainmail (which you can see more clearly from a rear view, which I didn't bother photographing obviously), but he's pretty much finished.
Whatever pit he's supposed to be fighting in must obviously have once belong to GW, as this guy's got skulls adorning him like they're going out of fashion. There's even more on his back! I'm thinking I'm going to make all the runes on his skulls seem like they're glowing. They all have different runes as well. I find it hard to believe he was supposed to fit on a 20 or 25mm base. He's actually on a 40mm one and his toes overextend in both directions.

So I got a large pile of Dystopian Wars stuff this week. It was mostly French and American units. I had planned on using the Americans as a gift, but decided I'd give up the French as well, which was hard considering I had two of those sweet mobile air fields. Oh well.
Ended up keeping the Russians, which wasn't such a bad deal as I had a landship, a few medium tanks, and some of the giant burrowing drill transports coming very soon.

Decided to try painting up a Kamchatka class medium tank.



Wasn't sure what I wanted to do with the bases, so I left it alone for now (it's not glued on yet). Maybe just straight flocking on them? Dunno.

I thought I did a decent job. Doesn't really show in the photo- I did all the individual rivets, some sweet wood paneling on the decks, painted in all the windows and port holes (which must be massive given the size of these machines compared to regular humans).

Here's the tank next to a Trollblood I've been working on these last few days, Horgle Ironstrike. God what a ridiculous name. Horgle.



I thought I did a decent job on his tartan- not that you can really see it in the photo.

The other thing I've been working on is some Zombiesmith figures from their War of Ashes line. Not sure what the skinny one on the end is called, but I know the furry kobold looking fellow is a Jaarl. I like 'em.



Those are Bones Mouslings and kobolds with them, on top of regular GW 20mm bases no less, to give you an idea of how big they are. Kind of surprised Barzam didn't go in for any Jaarls, as he's usually pretty keen on Romanesque regalia and these dudes have it in spades.

Their fur came out kind of similar in the picture, whereas skinny guy is a much more yellowish color in person.

Honestly, I'd never looked all that closely at the War of Ashes line too closely. The quality on them looks pretty good. I just don't need more fantasy stuff right now.

You know that Zombiesmith has a mouseling line, too, don't you?

Yeah, I saw Zombiesmith's mouslings when they were doing the Kickstarter. It was before I started reading Redwall to the kids however, resulting in them not really caring much at the time.

I hope to get the rest of the lot primed this weekend. I hand primed those guys up there with a brush, and it just seemed so ineffective compared to grabbing a can and blasting a huge batch of stuff all at once.

Plus I love how durable that Tamiya primer is too.

My hope for tonight is to keep working on that Minions Bugbear that I'm using as a troll.

So between repeatedly getting nagged all week on Ebay about a figure I was selling (that the nagger eventually decided to purchase, but has yet to pay for), I've been trying to work on my Bugbear/ Troll Bouncer guy. He had been painted with leftovers from when I was doing the Kriel Warriors, so now it's time for him to get some dedicated paint.



He's got all the armor parts base coated, most of the straps and bones, and at this point I just need to finish the ornamentation on his shoes and then it's time to start highlighting and detailing him.

As is par the course, I naturally found a bunch of spots that I didn't clean very thoroughly. After I'd already started painting it as well, of course. Not sure what color I'll end up painting his robe/ loincloth thing. I think I'll do it up like a Trollkin tartan to make him fit in better.



Speaking of things I'm unsure to paint, I've got this guy who's been sitting around for a bit. Unsure how to proceed with him. He's a vampire guy from Reaper with all kinds of crazy ornamentation on his armor. I'm thinking I'll do the fancy stuff in bronze, including the faceplate thing, but the actual armor I'm not sure. The armor also seems to have some sort of padding on the underside, so I'm unsure how to proceed with that too.

Absylonia behind him just arrived and her arms do not want to cooperate and stay attached. Stupid tiny contact points... ugh. I'll probably be doing her up like the rest of my dragon infused legion figures (a nice dark red). I still have a bunch of Everblight figures that aren't as messed up by the dragon that I'm unsure how to proceed with- the one ninja style warlock especially. Most of my legion stuff is all in gold. A ninja would look a little strange in gold I think...

I must have forgotten to comment on the Orc he looks very cool indeed, looks like a really fun mini to paint.

That vampire does look like a tricky mini to paint, theres just so much going on.

At this point for that vampire it's a toss up between black(ish) armor with red padding and highlights, or the opposite in red armor with black padding and highlights.

I finished up my EXTREME Troll Bouncer. Here he is with some friends.



Of course, the focal point of the photo ended up being Axis the Harmonic Enforcer instead. He was my test trial for an Army Painter primer I had wanted to try out (a plate mail primer), and other than glopping on too much spray in certain spots, he came out alright. The primer at least did. He still has a lot of work ahead of him. Hopefully I can get him done in the next few days. Once I finish the gold on his toes I'll go ahead and put him on a base, along with the requisitioned bugbear troll.

Blasted a bunch of Dystopian Wars stuff with that metallic plate mail color too. Shouldn't need a whole lot more painting on them to be tabletop ready.

I also had no idea what ever happened to my Epic Asphyxious that I ordered, along with a Retribution Myrmidon, so I took the plunge and picked up the Lich Lord at the local shop, considering it wasn't much more than the best of the internet prices anyways.

Turns out that this morning, the shipping information on that order which hasn't been updated in almost three weeks suddenly has arrived at my local post office. Now, the seller did mention they were going to swap out my order with something else, and it would be shipping out soon... maybe that's what it is? We'll see.

Also grabbed a bunch of CHEEEEEEEEAP Skorne guys on Saturday. Cheap enough that I could have turned around and just flipped them on ebay and easily made my money back and a fair amount on top of them. Maybe I'll head back on Wednesday and clear them out if Barzam hasn't already...

I have no intention of buying them. They're all yours, assuming nobody else beats you to them.

You're going to need to post some more angles on your "Trollkin" there.

Ask and ye shall receive.





With his buddy.




Started in on my Elven Kung Fu battle mage dude. Love this sculpt. Him and the House Thane actually look like they're about to go partake in a battle, what with all their kit and gear packed up on them.

Started up on his Phoenix myrmidon buddy but it isn't very exciting to look at currently.

Great stuff. That Minion Ogre/Troll looks especially good. Still spewing that I forgot the end date of that particular KS' relaunch.

I'm pleased by how my bugbear bouncer turned out.

I've started up on my second one which will be done up like my Reaper bugbears. His armor is starting to match up with the one vampire lord that I had primed a few days back.

Finished up my House Shyeel Magister. Of course most of the details are lost in the camera quality. He's ready to get his kung fu hustle on with the wannabe Tyranid hanging out behind him.



I picked that new Skorne beast up for a whopping 12 bucks, already painted. I've been doing some touch up work on it, but I can't complain about the price one bit. They had a bunch of painted Titans for about the same price, and teams of Basilisks as well. Naturally after I got rid of all my Skorne stuff.

Also had my Bearka show up in the mail yesterday. I wish the bear was a bit larger, but then it wouldn't fit on the 50mm base that all the mounted warcasters use. Would have been cool putting him on a huge monster of a bear on a 120mm base though. Maybe whenever the next version of Madrak Ironhide shows up he can be the super deluxe huge warlock.

Going to have to try and prime him tonight.

Here is a sloppy first photo of that vampire lord.



A lot to clean up and highlight obviously, but I think I've at least settled on the colors for his armor.

Dude just has a crazy ornate suit of armor.

The guy behind him is some random Saracen from the Hell Dorado line I got for a buck and decided to randomly paint.

So what should I do when I have entire cases full of half finished figures laying around?

Start another figure from scratch, of course!

In this case, I'd picked up version 2 of Makeda from Skorne last Saturday. Had her primed on Sunday, and she sat on my table the rest of the week. Late Thursday or Friday night I got the urge to start painting her.
Sunday morning she'd be inked, based, and sealed.



Also, a long awaited figure (by some). I actually sat down and got my Reznik painted up. He's just about finished at this point. Base coats are all done, time for highlighting and stuff.



Tried to take a better shot of that Vampire Lord as well. I started doing all the edges of his armor in bone white, but there's only certain parts that actually have edging on them. Tempted to do it all just for the hell of it, but that's a pretty tall order.



After working on these three I noticed they all have similar paint schemes, so I'm going to just say they're all BFFs and have them all work together as a unit. Started painting my other Bugbear from Minion in matching colors as well.

Also got this dude over the weekend (in addition to a bunch of other stuff).



Dude is a Pathfinder Orc. Kulagar, Orc Barbarian to be exact. I was informed by a fine young fellow at the game shop that this here orc is carrying a magical chainsaw. Fair enough. Said fellow also smelled quite magical to boot, as he regaled us with stories of his latest Pathfinder adventure fighting 4 armed female Predators armed with shock poles or some such nonsense we never asked about... it was quite an event!

Didn't realize until I got him that this figure has a rather large cavity on his back where something obviously needs to go. There was nothing in the package however, so I contacted Reaper. When I woke up this morning I got a message with a tracking number with them having already dispatched the missing piece.

The way the email read it sounds like they sent me a whole extra figure, so if that's the case I might dump this extra one on Barzam.

After finishing up Makeda the other day, I started thinking to myself, "You know what I should do since I just finished painting Makeda? Paint another Makeda."

So I did.



Started her last night and just plugged away at her. Forgot to do her eyes, now that I notice. Base will get done this afternoon.

Here she is with herself/ her clone/ evil sister/ whatever.



I think the only natural conclusion to what I worked on this week is to go and get the 3rd version of her- which actually happens to probably be my favorite design of her, with the big swirly battle skirt and the giant pole arm blade she's wielding. I guess I know my weekend plan!

Also sucked it up and tried to finish doing all the trim in bone on that vampire lord.



Arms and thighs are all done, and those thighs were a pain considering how the armor is designed. Only thing to do now is consider everything below the knees. Not sure if I should bother doing the edging on the boots and what little armor is on his feet, or just leave it as is. Suggestions?

Once these are all out of the way, I think I'll be moving on to a bunch of Legion of Everblight stuff that I finally decided on a paint scheme for. They won't match up with the Nephilim I've got, but oh well. Nephilim are supposed to be all elite and cool, so whatever.

I've got no idea what any of this Hordes stuff is, but it looks great. The Magister came up really nicely, I especially like how the details on his chestpiece came out.

I've got a very cursory understanding of the Hordes stuff myself, picking up pieces of fluff here and there. I just think the models look cool.

So speaking of cool, y'know what's cool? Ninjas. You know what else is cool these days? Dark elves. Even cooler than that though? Dark elf ninjas. Let's take a step further though- dark elf ninjas that have been tainted by dragon blood!



Started working on Rhyas last night... and then realized it was morning and she's just about done. Cool. She's supposed to have spines and horns starting to grow off her. Not sure if I'll get the regular version of her sister, but I'm tempted to pick up the 2 pack of the upgraded version of the twins.

Not a 100% sold on that hair color. I might fiddle with it a bit more, try washing it out with a few other colors to make it a little more natural. As it stands she's a pretty anime- inspired dark elf dragon ninja. The scarf totally gives off a Hotsuma vibe (the guy from the ps2 Shinobi game with the awesomely long scarf).

Rhyas didn't come alone. I started working on her Strider friend here.


If I remember correctly (I don't), the Striders are all supposed to be really jacked up with dragon juice, really twisting and warping their bodies. Most of them have reverse jointed legs, horns and spines growing off of them... fun stuff like that. You can see the Strider Deathstalker here is quite a bit larger than little lady Rhyas as well.

If all goes according to keikaku (translator's note: keikaku means plan) I should have a box of the plastic Striders showing up on my doorstep today. Hopefully they're just as tall and lanky and lurchy as this lady here. Not sure if I'll actually do them all up in an actual unit, or give the repeated sculpts alternate loadouts instead- the plastic guys have two sets of heads as well as dual knives or longbows.


One last guy I've been finishing up is this Saracen dude from Hell Dorado. Some day I'll even figure out what his official name is, as I'm too uninterested to even bother looking. He looks a good and proper fighter though, and should I ever feel the need to put together a human warband (which I will someday) he'll make a nice bruiser type.

Ninja elves have been cleared aside to start up on my Legendary Salamander resin guy from Dungeon Saga.

In fact, my only figure from Dungeon Saga, as he was the only figure add on I got. Kind of wish I got more now.

Be gentle. This is a very early work in progress.



First thing's first. He's BIG. He really fills up that 25mm base. He could probably be quite comfortable on a 32 or 40mm base even. He's also covered in horns- one could say he's quite... horny. Pardon the juvenile word play.

The paint scheme I've started with here certainly isn't doing him any favors as a hero, that's for sure. Reminds me of a Khorne daemon. Probably the red and the horns everywhere.

I need to lighten up and highlight all the armor plates, lighten up the armor plating on his underbelly, do his eyes, highlight his skin, paint the flames, do something with the sword... like I said, there's a lot to do still.

My FRP order showed up at the same time as my Dungeon Saga add ons. Naturally. Why have one order at a time to enjoy when they can all pile up and not get the attention they deserve, right?
I popped open project pandora. Have the rules sitting here with me to read through at recess. The restic details look kind of shallow on the figures, but I think I can manage, considering I've had a bit of experience dealing with Mantic's stuff. Didn't realize there seems to be only one way to build the Veermyn though. Makes me look forward to my future Deadzone plastic ones that much more.

My Strider Blightblades showed up, and made my restic Veermyn look like a cakewalk in comparison. Maybe I've gotten too complacent dealing with Privateer's trollkin- sized restic stuff to remember what it's like dealing with the material in a smaller scale. YUCK. Eventually I'll suck it up and build them. Still haven't made up my mind if I want to keep them as an actual Hordes unit or just mix them all up and do whatever with them. Probably would've gotten started on them if the glue I was using didn't keep shooting out and gluing my fingers together.

The plan for this weekend is to head to Brookhurst tomorrow and see what we can scrounge up in the clearance section. That's always a fun trip. Supposedly there's a pile of clearanced Mantic boxes of old? I sure hope so!

First- let me preface this by saying those Nyss Hunters and their tiny contact points that don't actually connect.

Now let me digress and go back to Saturday, when this all started. I hit up Brookhurst with Barzam on Saturday thanks to a tip-off from another member of Dakka (thanks Bob!) that they had a bunch of stuff on clearance that would interest us- mostly Mantic VHS boxes, and the hopes of more cheap Confrontation stuff.

Well, they did have plenty of Mantic stuff, especially if you are into the undead. I snagged a box of 20 skelies and a catapult for under 10 bucks, so that wasn't bad. Also grabbed a bit of Void scenery and was really impressed by the quality of the castings for what I paid (five bucks for a box of 10 craters? Sure!).

I also stumbled upon the old Nyss hunters box set- the six man version, not the more recent full unit one. I wasn't going to complain though, because a) I don't actually play Warmachine, and b) they were less than 2 bucks a figure, which isn't a bad price at all for modular Privateer stuff. Hell, all six of them look completely different! That's nearly unheard of for Warmachine units! Naturally I gobbled them into my shopping cart, ignoring all the warnings I'd seen on the internet about how much of a bitch those bitches were to assemble.

Well, internet, you were right. 2 days, 3 cuts, multiple glued digits, and 2 pin vice puncture wounds later the damned things are put together. UGH. Giant colossal sigh. Such tiny connection points I had to find a bit for my pin vice that was small enough to not damage the figures, with one bit breaking in my index finger due to too much pressure on it, the other slipping and jamming my middle figure as I had nothing to hold on to the tiny little arm with otherwise.

They're done, and in the end I'm quite happy with how they look. Barzam was complaining about their derpy heads, and gave me some Dark Eldar heads to try swapping with. Those were way too big, so I ended up sticking with the derpy ones. Hopefully I can have photos of them up in the next few days.

In the meantime, I tried to take a better picture of the Legendary Salamander from Dungeon Saga. Picture does it no justice, so blame me for that.



Contrary to how it looks, I did use quite a bit of highlighting and shading on him, which I was quite proud of, as I'm usually pretty cut and dry when it comes to detailing figures.

Also managed to wrap up the Deathstalker Strider. Need to finish up her base, but she's done at least, and looks like she'll fit in well with the rest of my Everblight warband I'm working on.



Speaking of Everblight, I started working on another dragon- infused character- the new version of Absylonia. I tried to have her match up with my Nephilim I already have painted. I'll try to take a photo of all of them when Absylonia here is finished.



Ignore her base as it's not finished. She looks super glossy right now. Hopefully the matte sealer will help fix that.

Also got started in earnest on her newest rival, Kromac, Champion of the Wurm... or whatever he's called now.



Dude is seriously hulked out as he's standing on a 50mm base these days. I just finished up his cape and all the crap he has hanging on it, so all that's left is his left gauntlet and the axe basically- they're both gold and I just haven't done those colors yet.

So once they're all out of the way, it's time to clear out those Nyss along with a BUNCH of trolls. A ton. Plus I want that new Doomshaper that comes out this week, so I really need to clear those trolls out. Started up on my Longhorn cavalry, so we should see pictures of them soon as well.

UGh man, I hear you on those Nyss hunters. One of the few PP kits where I thought "You know, it might easier to build one or two and then just cast the damned things," the other being the bloody Cyriss infantry that requires 40 minutes of clean up each. The Nyss just had way too many parts and way too tiny connection points. A really poorly designed model set.

Aw, the heads were too big? That's annoying.

I hear you about the pin vise though. I've done that several times myself. Getting stabbed by a broken drill bit does not feel good.

Finished up Kromac and his base. Satisfied with my results. Nowhere near as nice as the company photos on Privateer's site, but he's definitely passable.

I was quite pleased with how his skin turned out- not that it shows in the photos. Started super pale flesh base, reikland wash, darker skin tone highlights, agrax wash on certain parts, went back over certain sections with the pale skin again... looks good. I had done something similar with my Ysians for Darklands some time ago. Speaking of Ysians, I just remembered I've got the really big hulked out Death Dealer looking guy on a horse that I've never even put together. Hmm...

As you can see there's a smattering of various elf types all in various stages of progress. Why am I on such an elf kick lately? No idea. Usually can't stand pointy ears.

A bit sad that the Blightblade guy in the back isn't as large as the Deathstalker guy. She's quite bulky compared to this guy, even though they both have reverse jointed legs and stretched out limbs.

I'm thinking I'm going to have to get a bunch of these guys ready for the weekend. I'm feeling a skirmish coming on against Barzam this Saturday, if he's man enough to take me on in my home turf. Naturally we'll need a good amount of terrain involved!

Glad that tip paid off for you.


I love Kromac, Maleka and the vampire lord. Your painting style is so smooth and clean that the minis sometimes look like colored plastic.

The salamander looks good, too. I might take your red scheme and add some bright yellow snake patterns to his skin for contrast, something like the fire lizards from the book Kiyomi. (Not really. I never paint my minis.)

Very nice. I don't have any PP minis, but it's fun looking at yours.

You play SoBaH with Barzam, is that right? What version do you use? I have been introducing my 6-year old to the game, but the army lists (if that's what they are) in the version I use feel a little sparse.

Thanks for the compliments.

I actually do try and go for the colored plastic look sometimes. I've always liked that simple toy-like aesthetic. Nostalgia for the toys I had as a child possibly? I had lots of bizarre and monstrous toys. Some of them are probably still hanging around somewhere at my parents' place...

I do often play SoBH with Barzam. For the most part, I tend to use the original rulebook and nothing else, regardless of the fact that I've got all the supplements and both Barzam and our cousin who plays regularly are a bunch of ditry min- maxers.

I find the sparseness a plus, especially when having others learn it. It's also very vague and generic, letting you plug in just about any type of figure you can think of.

I taught myself and my son how to play with piles of Honehonezaurus I'd picked up one summer while we were in Japan. Worked perfectly. The less rules the better I feel.

I hope to have a pile of crap battle this weekend, with both sides taking piles of crappy low- quality figures with terrible combat scores, as all too often our battles devolve into super elites with piles of abilities trying to out- gank each other.

I'm thinking goblinoids vs undead, with Barzam more than likely taking the shambling hordes. No more Plague Marines or Skitarii!

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:

both Barzam and our cousin who plays regularly are a bunch of ditry min- maxers.

Lies and slander! I just statted them to match the fluff. Our cousin though? Yeah, he's totally a dirty min-maxer.

No more Plague Marines or Skitarii!

Well, I guess I don't need to rush on my android priestess then. Tell you what, I'll bring a pile of prepaints to fight with.

A garbage prepaint fight?

Challenge accepted.

So I attempted to continue to churn models out in what little free time I had the last two days. Most of it was spent shopping for kids' clothes as we'll be heading back to Japan over the course of Thanksgiving week. No turkey and pumpkin pie for us this year sadly- nothing but ramen and sushi from the sounds of things!



Here's the first half of my Nyss Hunters. I went really heavy on the eyes on the girl intentionally, so yeah, I wanted her to have an almost Domino looking face paint look to her. Not visible is her pointlessly exposed belly button when the rest of the unit is all geared up and decked out in pretty thick armor.

Middle guy has a weird pose. You can't see his left foot, and the way his jacket sticks out it seems like it should be there- it's not. It's almost directly behind his right foot, and makes him look a bit flamingo- like.



Guy on the left is some tracker/ hunter for Everblight, while the one on the right is one of the new(ish) plastic Strider Blightblade figures. I really like those Blightblades. Funky blades, reverse jointed legs, claws and horns growing out of them... they're just kind of messed up. The feathered cloak is a neat touch too. Reminds me of a movie I saw once. Not the ewok adventure movie though. That thought occurred to me that the witch in one of those Ewok movies had a feather cloak like that and turned into a crow no less.



Another plastic Blightblade, as well as a Blighted Swordsman Champion/ Sword Master and a Swordsman Abbot.

That Swordmaster Champion dude is one of those Privateer sculpts I saw a long time ago and always wanted to get it. Finally found him cheap on ebay so I had to snatch him and his abbot friend up. This poor model has been rebuilt and reglued so many times now. I've dropped him at least 3 times, and his right arm is obnoxiously difficult to get pinned into place due to his legs being in the way. Hopefully this time he sticks!

Also, something COMPLETELY different.


A Warzone Resurrection Crucifier. Why do I own him? I'm not sure. I actually have a few random Warzone figures. As it stands, I don't know what else to do with him. I'mnot a big fan of the tiger stripes all over the original illustration, so I won't do that. Maybe some dark grey trim or something? I don't know.

It seems I'll be getting the last of the Makeda trio in the mail today, so once all the Elves are wrapped up it will be back to painting gold and red trimmed armor. Yay. Can't wait.

Now if only I could find another reasonably priced Xerxis, Fury of Halak now that I missed my prime opportunity to get him already.... that's going to be my next mission I think.

Finished up the Swordsman Champion along with another Nyss Hunter.



Looks like I'll be getting a couple of other warcasters in the mail today. If she doesn't arrive today, I should be getting my final Makeda figure tomorrow then.

Since my report cards are all done and the kid leave early, I'm planning on running off to the hobby shop during my lunch break and pick up plenty of primer and sealer for all the stuff I've finished in the last week or so.

I'll also more than likely be picking up the new Doomshaper figure. I think I might grab some Cygnar stuff as well, just to paint something that isn't brown, red, or black, or some variation of those colors. I don't really have a whole lot of blue models other than my trolls.

Maybe I'll scrounge up some good deals in the consignment case! That damned epic Xerxis on his rhino is going to nag at me for quite some time I'm afraid! I wish I'd bought it...

A weekend of being busy busy busy resulted in not much time to paint.

HOWEVER- lack of time is pretty much my middle name, so it was pretty much business as usual.

I got a basilisk drake for Skorne about two weeks ago. I got the bug to get him done. Here's a crummy picture.


I tried using that cracked earth stuff on the base, but I'm not super pleased with the result. It really REALLY cracked in some spots, to the point where it looks like it's going to just chip off the base. Hmm... not sure if I did it wrong, or how to really fix it.

Also got that Swordsman Abbot from the Legion of Everblight done. He might have shown up in primed form. You can also get a better view of that basilisk.



Picked up a Stormblade Captain from Warmachine on Friday. I have a thing for overly decorated knights in extra thick and chunky armor. The Captain here certainly fits the bill!


Dude is nowhere near finished, obviously. I actually had a finished base handy so he got glued to that one. Not even sure who I had made that for.

Here he is with an unfinished Maximus, a crazed pigman possessed by an evil ancient sword.



I need to detail Maximus' armor, his base, and touch up some straps on his back, but he's just about done. He's been a languishing project for a few months now, so it's time he gets his due.

Speaking of projects... here's a new one. Barzam and I were at the hobby shop on Sunday, and we decided to have a little Gentelemanly competition. We both grabbed a new warjack kit for Warmachine, unbuilt, unpainted, and had to start painting it today.

Well Barzam, good sir, the gauntlet has been cast. I managed to at least get a base layer of blue on my Firefly while I was trying to get the kids ready for school.



If all goes according to keikaku (translator's note: Keikaku means plan), I'll probably have the base coats done tonight.

You got a head start on me in the morning, but it seems I've won. Mine is already finished and posted.

In my defense I had to help with homework, which took some time for both kids last night, and I had to get to bed relatively quickly since Keiko had to go teach in the morning today, meaning I had no extra time to get things finished.

Here's what I got so far:


I just need to paint the lighter silver parts and his base coat is done, and then I can start getting more detailed on it.

I did however wrap up my Stormblade Captain, and I'm pretty pleased with him.



Some of the highlighting even showed up in the photo for once! Amazing!

I still don't get how you do that cracked earth stuff. Mine came out really disappointing on that basilisk. Any suggestions? Should I pile more on top of what's already there?

Well it seems that Barzam beat me to finishing his warjack before me. Drat. I tried though. The kids' homework as well as the grading period and reports cards being due today certainly put some time constraints on me noodling around painting.



The thing is at least finished for the most part. Gotta do the base and a little bit of detailing in certain spots, but otherwise it's good to go.

That means I've got time to start up my next project (in addition the the dozens of half started other projects laying around in my office).



An Exemplar Bastion Seneschal! God I love this figure! He's so ridiculously huge and bulky. How could anyone possibly wear that much armor? I don't even think it's supposed to be steam driven or anything- there's no boiler on him anywhere, unlike stuff like the Khador Man-o-wars. Barzam thought those banner poles on his back are supposed to double as smoke stacks, but they have nowhere to draw power from that I can see.

He's also missing his super gigantic shoulder pads, which are almost as big as the armor plates hanging from his hips. What's crazy is all the stuff that goes under both the hips and the shoulders is all sculpted on. The plates under the hips are all supposed to be gold, so those already got finished.

My plan is to get one of the most overly armored, out of control ornamented, super blinged out improbable armored characters from each Privateer faction. Menoth is obviously taken care of, and my Cygnarian Stormblade Captian is a pretty decent choice. I've got a few other good choices for some of the Hordes factions I'll show off later, but I'm definitely going to have to get a Tyrant Vorkesh from Skorne due to having larger pauldrons than even the Seneschal here.

More progress on the Bastion Seneschal



Got his shoulder pads in place, most of the base colors done, now it's time to clean it up and detail it. Started painting lots of tiny damn rivets all over his gear.

Picture looks all splotchy, but it's much nicer in person (I think).



Certainly looks more evil/ imposing in black rather than Menoth's absurd "pure" white.

Finished up the guys I've been working on.

My Exemplar Bastion Seneschal is done now. Quite happy with how he turned out. Look forward to piling layers of sealer on him so he can actually see some use outside of being a giant ornamental suit of armor. Here he is hanging out with his buddy Reznik in equally gigantic, ridiculous, ornamental armor.



Wrapped up the Firefly as well. Sucker does not want to stay attached to his base.



Once again, all detail put into him is totally washed out by my phone's camera. I made sure to highlight all the edges n' crap on him! Ugh. Irritating.

Now that they're in the pile of about 30+ guys to get sealed, I moved on to my next project.



Obavnik in her combat thigh high hooker- heeled boots! What is going on with her? She is both completely over the top in her skin tight outfit (that the sculptor seemed to have made sure to pay extra attention to her posterior on) as well as totally awesome looking with her haughty strut going on. Just started her last night. Bought her more for the Doomguard guys that came with her, but her figure has grown on me so she's further along than the men that follow her around on a leash.

My last two Nyss Hunters are *almost* done. Need to touch up the fur on their armor, put some highlights on the cloth parts, and paint the hilt on one of their swords.

Hopefully I can get everything done before tomorrow night. Sunday morning it's off to freeze my tuchus off in Japan and go rampaging through the super market models, magical girls, and kaiju aisles of the toy section. Being the dutiful father that I am, I already started combing Amazon with the kids to figure out what we'll be on the hunt for.

It seems there are new Hone Hone Zaurus sets in stores that contain all the secret parts needed to make the deluxe creatures if you bought the entire series. We'll be getting those for sure. My daughter wants me to get the girly robot from Build Fighters, and I'll be trying to track down some of those fat little guys from the latest Gundam show. Both kids are also demanding I get some Youkai Watch kits as well. Going to be fun!