Seeing these get a new lease of life might be the nudge my sad old harlies have been waiting for. I did one squad about 6 years ago and sadly abandoned a second squad and some jetbikes to languish unpainted in storage ever since. Just another one of those projects I always meant to get back to.
Take care though, painting Harlequines can be a burn-out in numbers like this.
Hope you are coping with the virus and get well soon. Tough spot to be in - we are lucky here in Aus that our response seems to have worked well so far (touch wood).
You have piqued my interest with the old harlies and I hope they see some love soon. They are an absolute favourite line of mine and I'm not sure I've ever seen so many in one place before!
Wow, Covid really sucks. After almost two weeks off work, I went back to work for the last day of term. Thank God it was the last day of term, as I don't think I could have done the next day. Since then, I've been non-stop exhausted, still sleeping way too much, and way too drained the rest of the time. I went Christmas shopping Monday due to the new restrictions meaning I can't go to my parents' house, and then slept for four hours to recover!
Nevertheless I have done some stuff. Crusader squads are all complete, and this drop pod marks 50 PL complete. Almost exactly 1000 points. I will do an army shot at some point, but that sounds like a lot of work!
The next 25PL are three Land Speeders and three models!
The 25 PL after that is a drop pod that is already base-coated and 7 more Mark III fellas. Apothecary, Champion and 5 Sternguard.
25PL after that, and 25PL again after that will actually be a lot more work, but will get me to 125PL. I might take a break before that though.
Glad to hear your feeling better, though it sounds like it’ll be a while until you’re fully better. The drop pod looks cool and the next batch of stuff should be great too. Merry Christmas!
Colour test for a Zone Mortalis board. I've been trying to decide on colours for a long time and something occurred to me.
I have LOTS of Abaddon Black, Corax White, Retributor Armour, Leadbelcher, Macragge Blue and Waaagh Flesh from Conquest and Mortal Realms. The Corax Whites are already drying out and I need to find way to use them.
This was undercoated black, edges picked out in Leadbelcher. Colours blocked in with 1:1 Corax:Abaddon.
The bronze bits are 1:1 Leadbelcher:Retributor and the blue is a roughly even mix of Macragge and Waaagh and a touch of White Scar.
It needs washes, of course, and probably some more highlights. I think I can live with this.
This was Big Brush painting rather than airbrush. I dislike airbrush enough that I might do all twelve full-size tiles like this... we'll see.
Good use of excess colours! As it’s terrain big brush works well, it just represents it being a bi roughed up. Sometimes airbrushed stuff looks a bit off to me, so I’ll enjoy seeing these come together!
Nice start on the plates. I think a wash and a drybrush with some contrasting colors to tie all surfaces together could be an easy way to finish those.
Guardling wrote: This looks like an interesting paint scheme, but one thing is bugging me:
Why is the tile cut out like that?
Good question!
I have so far bought twelve tiles, which will make a 3'x4' board, perfect for Necromunda or Combat Patrol/Incursion games.
Two of the tiles have bits cut out of them like this, though one is in corner instead of the middle. I can either slot these bits back in, or replace them with a bottomless shaft, gooey pool of liquid, or something similar, and put the bit cut out as an island in an even bigger pool or shaft.
Another two tiles have been cut completely in half so that I can put in a river/canal or a bottomless chasm. That way, with twelve tiles of ZM and four tiles of shafts/gooey pools, I can make a 4'x4' board.
I've been working on these tiles for the last few days, making decisions about walls and columns, and I will post an update soon.
So, I am doing my Zone Mortalis board in a conveyor belt system, but I pushed a few bits a bit closer to finished...
* I have done a sepia wash on one of the walls and a thin black one on the floor.
* I need to do a wash, probably Agrax, on the bits I have already done brass.
* I need to decide how to paint the glass of the lights. Considering buying jewelling paint from GW.
I need to make some decisions;
1) I need to decide which bits of metallics on the wall to leave lead coloured, and which to do brass/bronze.
2) I need to decide whether to do the upper grate stone, with just the interior metal bits brass/bronze, or leave it entirely metal.
3) I need to decide how may tiles to do in the blue-green colour of the bottom left tile.
4) I need to decide whether to stick to a black wash in the recesses of the floor tiles, or switch to a sepia wash to match the walls. I think I am happy with black wash on the floors and sepia on the walls.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also, my club are doing hobby bingo. Most people put a sensible number of things in their bingo. I got carried away...
Hopefully post-Covid fatigue will wear off soon so that I have some chance of completing a column, row or diagonal!
Not that it is a competition, and nor are there any prizes. This was a fun collage
That doesn’t seem very bingo-like. Although you could have skipped one for a free space in the middle.
I agree, but I just think most people don't have as many projects and potential projects as me!
Considering I left out; 30k Raven Guard, 30k Imperial Army, 28mm modern vehicles, Oldhammer Adeptus Titanicus, Necromunda Venators, Oldschool Necromunda Orlocks, Necromunda GSC-infected Orlocks, Aspect Warrior Army, Eldar Superheavies, Eldar Corsairs (damnit, I ought to have included that one), Shadespire core warbands...
Well, yeah, basically I have a problem! (So other people tell me. I don't actually see it as a problem at all!)
Like how the Necromunda terrain is coming along. How about an unforeseen Option 5? I have seen and heard a lot of good stuff about using oil washes over the top of a paint job like yours. Would you be interested in exploring this?
IGtR= wrote: Like how the Necromunda terrain is coming along. How about an unforeseen Option 5? I have seen and heard a lot of good stuff about using oil washes over the top of a paint job like yours. Would you be interested in exploring this?
Thanks for sharing
It is something I want to explore in the future, but this is something I want to just progress with using the resources I already have. I also don't want this to be the first project I use oils on, and don't want further procrastination as I practice elsewhere.
Several of the chaps at my gaming club make excellent use of oils, so it is defintely one to pursue in the future.
Yes, that is a good point - getting terrain done is the key! My Dark Uprising terrain remains in the box, and still largely on sprues, so I can see that your desire to crack on rather than procrastinate is a virtue!
I've been spending most of my hobby time lately building and painting Zone Mortalis and there are two problems with that...
It's boring, and it gives the mind time to wander...
All of my Firstborn marines are earmarked for established paint schemes (30k Raven Guard RTB001s, 2nd Ed Mentor Legion and Badab War secessionists) but I've been using spare models to come up with paint schemes for my Primaris...
I am a big fan of quartered schemes and whilst considering what colours would go well with turquoise, I had an idea...
Painting many, many models the same can be a boring experience which leads to quite a samey army... so what if there was a common unifying colour, like you'd do for a Freeguild army, but then variation within that which followed a *theme* instead of a colour...
The variation could be at company, squad or perhaps even marine level...
And so I give you two test models from my as-yet unnamed chapter - one from the Deth Leppard company and another from the Crazy Horse company.
(Other companies might be easier to paint, such as the Black Panthers, Snow Bears, Ferocious Ligers, and so on...)
I welcome suggestions for chapter and company names.
(These are just test models, so please forgive lack of recess shading/highlights, thick paints, etc...)
I love the concept. It makes just the wrong amount of sense to fit right in to 40k. I think the white looks a lot better. I think the brown would pair better with a red.
Cool idea, that would give quite a variety of options to keep the entertainment up. As for names, maybe something like the Emperors Pride or Pride of the Emperor?
As a rule, my hobbying has been pretty disciplined for the past 18 months or so, maybe a bit longer, but I'm concerned that some of my flights of fantasy are taking away my focus and turning me back into a hobby goldfish at the moment. My attention span is close to zero!
I should be working on the Executioners and finishing Gitsplitta's Mantis Warrior Ancient, and maybe my Undead. Whilst I can allow myself the distraction of a long-term side project like the ZM project, here are the other ideas that have distracted me in the last week or so;
1) Building 3rd party Ogryns to use in Necromunda, even though I know I probably won't use them!
2) Piddling about with Space Marines. Two different projects have now merged into one... I have been testing out colour schemes, some seriously, others... well, still seriously, to be honest. The actual schemes were meant to be for Primaris, but I tested them on spare Firstborn... (There were others which didn't make the cut to get photographed)
But I also had another couple of Firstborn I got in a trade, and other bits I picked up. These have bits of Imperial, bits of Chaos... I've always wanted to find a way to use them. I've considered Sternguard, Fallen, etc...
I recently started bashing some bits together myself, with patchwork repairs and so on...
During a chat with a friend on Facebook, I had the idea that over in Imperium Nihilus, everything is going a bit tits up. There must be Marines scattered all over the place who can't find their chapter, or can't reach it, or are the only survivors. They'll do a lot to survive. They'd probably team up with other marines, some individually and some in small groups. Some might skirt closer then normal to Heresy, but overall they probably still have the vague notion of being loyal to the Imperium and hatin chaos, but they are now semi-mercenary. They have to survive almost like nomad-predators, but with a veneer of being on the side of the surviving Imperials... Using the Deathwatch rules for them. And then I thought of these guys from the Rogue Trader rule book, and immediately tied my crazy colour schemes to my sinister looking chaosy/imperialish dudes.
There would be ENORMOUS scope for modelling fun, painting fun, gaming fun, narrative fun. I even know how they would fit in with a 40k story I have written about 20,000 words for, in a sequel.
3) I also dug our some bits for trade and realised I can do a 25PL Corsairs force EASILY, and get it up to 50 without too much hassle, then add two Phoenixes and a Vampire Hunter to push on...
I have models on here from AGES ago relevent to this, plus some models I started converting in about 2009 (Just a few shown here as examples) I reckon I might need to redo the GS work, and some old, old Guardian and Jetbike models... The Falcon is at least four years old. The Autarch is older by far.
4) I've been playing around with making some Chaos Spawn...
Then, by chance, a friend mooted the idea of a 1500 point Oldhammer 5th Edition campaign weekend once lockdown ends, so I've been sorting through and looking at units of beastmen, marauders, warriors and knights. Quite a commitment!
I've got more bits for more Spawn on the way too, but the painting will be the big part of the job, not the modelling.
I think I need to knuckle down to get the Executioners up to 100PL or maybe even 125PL, then decide which project from the above to pursue first...
Oh man, I really love those animal patterns with the turquoise. I think the idea of an army of those with different squads taking different animal totems is awesome - but also exhausting! The plain white and red quartered has a nice retro vibe to it somehow and the yellow on the other guy is super rich.
The fluff and art for the space marine mercs sounds awesome - funny how inspiration can just strike!
I am a sucker for old metal anything and the eldar and spawn both look promising. That falcon is lovely too - smart work with the glowy lines.
I love the idea of a band of RT style SM mercs. Your inspiration pic showing the old stylings really is the coolest idea. And the way you describe them, fluff-wise, super plan. It reminds me a bit of a story by Kid Kyoto over on Dakka Fiction
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/711894.page Band of Astartes left behind seek to rejoin their chapter and make a long journey on it. Very nice read if you're thinking along these lines.
Painting-wise, I don't know. If you have a work thing and a fun thing you could reward yourself for putting the work into a unit of something by painting a fun thing after. Incentivise to drive progress.
Can't help you to make a decision, but I would have fun to see every project develop And in regards to the "animal print" marines, the leopard one reminded me immediately of Wag the Dog. I believe they made some animal print on the uniform of the fake regiment. Maybe it got picked up in the 41st millenium as a historic document
All of them! I think theCrowe has the right idea though, have a business mode and a fun mode. The roving band of Merc Marines would be my choice of fun project, perhaps tying them together with a common icon somewhere? The business one would be whichever you intend to use first, the Chaos 5th Ed campaign sounds cool
gak, after noticing it ages ago, planning to do something special for quite a while, and remembering it days before, the ever-present tiredness that follows Covid made me not even realise that the post I made on the 15th Jan marked the ten year anniversary of my blog.
I had intended to write some sort of retrospective and make a fuss. I guess I still will, just bummed that I missed tha actual day of it :(
I was planning this post for the 15th January, to celebrate ten years of my blog! It doesn’t have as many pages as many other blogs, but it certainly has some experience. Sadly I missed that date. My mind is not operating at full speed since I had Covid in December.
A lot has changed for me since I started the blog. I gave up American Football about five years ago due to encroaching old age. I’ve played a lot of tag rugby since then though. (For those of you in the US, tag rugby is the rugby version of flag football, with the Velcro tags to pull off, and so on) . I no longer work in Hackney, but now work in Kilburn instead. I gave up the whole Head of Year stuff too. In fact, I’ve gradually given up ALL of my extra responsibilities so that I am “just” a teacher and I on;y work four days per week! I’ve moved from East to South-West London, meaning I commute for two hours to get to and from work in Kilburn, up in the North-West! Most significantly of all, I got married and so now I have to balance my desire to spend all of my money on toys with buying “nice” stuff for the house. My wife does not agree with me that framed pages from my “spare” Slaves to Darkness are “nice”.
Anyway, if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to give a little retrospective of my blog!
I started with Badab and it has remained my main passion. This fella was right there at the start of my first post, along with the first replies from Gitsplitta and inmygravenimage. Thanks for all of the support, fellas!
I still think this Baal Predator from page 5 was my greatest accomplishment from the early days of the blog.
Astral Claws stuff starts popping up from about Page 5, and by the end of Page 7 it was already January 2017! That means the next 25 pages came in the last 4 years. At least I am getting faster! These from late 2015 are still unfinished though! (I’ve made progress, I promise!)
Just before Page 8, I bought in big-time to Afterlife via Kickstarter. That led to a friendship with Joel from Anvil Industries, a great bloke and the creative mind and co-director of what I consider one of the best hobby companies out there. This is my original take on one of my favourite Afterlife minis.
And then, we’re really into the “modern era” of my blog, and still only on page 8!
I still want to finish a GSC army, but I like what I did with them for early Necromunda. Those yellow bases are gone though!
I really got into it with my Eldar, and they became the first army I ever truly “finished” I remain super-proud of what I made there, and still plant to keep expanding on them, probably for the rest of my life. I even did some sculpting, making and casting a sword and green-stuffing some real conversions I still love to show off, as well as some very cool Guardians and Warlocks.
And that brings us to the halfway stage, in terms of pages! The second half of the blog all comes in about 18 months, real-time!
I started my Executioners, but it was my Mantis Warriors that I finished first. I’ll never love them the way I love those Eldar, but they are a completed army, and I am pleased with them.
Parallel with the Mantis Warriors, I started my Nighthaunt. They are a simple army to paint, but as tends to be the case, I like to make life hard for myself, with details and extra conversions. I even taught myself how to sculpt 28mm roses!
I was very pleased with the recent addition I made to my Nighthaunt, and I’m getting ahead of myself in terms of page numbers now, but this is the photo I want to use to show off my Nighthaunt, simultaneously with their display board and some of the terrain I made to go with them.
Back to the correct sequence, and something I am really proud of. I made a chance comment to John Blanche about auctioning some art to raise money for the NHS during the first UK lockdown. Not only did he say yes, he asked me to help organise it! As a thank you, he sketched my wife and I!
After that, I returned to the Executioners that I started before the Mantis Warriors and pushed on to 50PL. My favourite part is still the magnetised Scouts coming in on their choppers… I mean Land Speeders Storms, listening to Wagner. The Executioners are almost up to 75PL, and I will get them to 100PL before putting them away for a while before pushing on to 125PL. (I have another project about to take over!)
I have to include a picture of this chap. I actually did a little more work on him, adding some red into the recesses that I decided I had mis-painted as other colours. I have finished two of these guys and five more are mid-paint. They are now what I turn to when I want to paint carefully instead of quickly.
And that brings us pretty much up to date.
I’ve made a decision regarding where to go next. The Oldhammer Campaign that I mentioned is looking like a certainty to happen. ArbitorIan, real-life friend (for over ten years now! Wow!) and inspiration for this blog, is also taking part in it and he and I are planning something big for it! I just have to hope he doesn’t simultaneously start the Badab campaign he’s been promising as I am not sure my painting speed is up to the Oldhammer project AND getting to more 40K Badab armies done in the next year!
I’ll be posting some preparation and plans for my Oldhammer project soon, so for now, I just want to say thanks to EVERYONE who has posted in this blog, especially those like Gits and Graven who have been around the longest, and those who have given me the most encouragement over the last few years as the pace has picked up. It is great to know people like Captain Brown, Gobert, Nevelon, Viterbi, The Crowe, Youwashock and others will help me to maintain my enthusiasm!
Theophony wrote:THe Mantis Warriors and Night Haunt are coming along great.
Really get a warm feeling for those Chaos Spawn, I know it's just nostalgia from the metals, but they look fun.
Good to see some old Eldar popping up again.
Thanks Theophony. You are another whose encouragement I value!
Gitsplitta wrote:Been a real joy to support you Fifty! Looking forward to many more years! I'm sure Solar-lion would love to see those Lamenters!
Yes, Solar_Lion was a regular commenter when I was still sticking to my main love, but I've been away from them for so long...
I'll get back to them soon, but in the meantime, I think my new project will be taking up a chunk of my time...
Captain Brown wrote:Here is to another 10 Fifty.
Cheers,
CB
Thanks Cap'n!
inmygravenimage wrote:A lovely recap, and good to see you going strong! Teacher-gamers are strange, strange people
I am not sure if I am strnage because I am a teacher, or a teacher because I am strange.
Nevelon wrote:Amazing collection of stuff. Well done!
Thanks. I am surprised by how little there was, as I have left out lots of stuff over the years. I am showing a lot more of what I do now though, which is why I think I am racking up the page count.
youwashock wrote:Congrats on the first decade. Here's to 10 more wonderful years. Those Chaos Spawn are perfectly Oldhammer.
Thanks As for the spawn, yeah, I feel really pleased with how well I have caught the Oldhammer vibe with them. I have obtained two more minotauts from the same range to make more with, plus I am converting some minotaurs from other eras too. I want at least five of those C25 Citadel minotaurs to make a squad of five though.
IGtR= wrote:Great collection of stuff, nice to reminisce about the thread. Looking forward to the next steps!
Thanks for sharing
Cheers, and it has been nice to see you start following
I think the Eldar are my favs too but that Predator is some serious Oldschool cool. Always a fun blog to visit. Congrats on ten years of hobby blog goodness.
Da Boss wrote: Lovely retrospective post! Sorry to hear about the Covid, that was my nightmare this year as well.
That Blanche piece is something to treasure!
You replied so close to my own reply that I missed yours!
Thanks, and yes it is a nightmare to recover from.
I am lucky with the effects of Covid that I am quite happy with my own company and entertaining myself, but even if I weren't, the Blanche portrait would be a great bit of compensation!
theCrowe wrote: I think the Eldar are my favs too but that Predator is some serious Oldschool cool. Always a fun blog to visit. Congrats on ten years of hobby blog goodness.
And then I missed another response! Much appreciated. Glad you like the Eldar.
For now, the Executioners are tucked away in the project box. Once I get warning of Badab action coming up, I shall have to rush them into final form, but for now I can relax a little as I know ArbitorIan, the man most likely to provide Badab action for me, is busy with a few other things, including this...
Oldhammer has always been a keen interest of mine. I have collected every single Jes Goodwin Chaos Champion, for example. I've never properly assembled my Oldhammer armies though, due to lack of people pestering me to do so. With an Oldhammer campaign weekend on the horizon and the lure of potential warm-up games, not to mention something very special on the way from ArbitorIan, now is the time. The man producing the campaign pack is basing it on the one written back in the day for the 5th Ed rule book by Tuomas Pirinen, but he put out a call for pictures of our miniatures to include for our own personalised pack.
I obliged by using my very few painted miniatures, the one or two stable bits of terrain I could find and the back of a felt Blood Bowl pitch! The Chaos guys on the left, plus the Ogres are painted by me. The Beastmen and the Champion with them are from EBay... I had to do very clever positioning to hide unflocked bases, black rims, broken terrain, etc!
Two Chaos warbands clash over control of a stronghold on the edge of the Haunted Forest...
They are so focused on their taunting that they do not even notice the tower's resident, a powerful sorceror, watching them from above...
Later, their differences settled through bloody conflict, the survivors arrive at a town, set on pillage and destruction...
...but mercenary Ogres bar their way!
That was Saturday. Sunday saw me restoring and reinforcing terrain. Here's an example, though probably the worst due to the repairs bing exposed. I need a black sharpie!
A bonus from this piece though is that I could use it to re-enact The Battle at the Farm, from Rogue Trader!
Great potted history of your plog, lots of cool minis but the Eldar really rock! The Oldhammer pics came out great. Nice work hiding those ugly non-goblin green bases!
Do you need some green flocked hills for your games?
I have some that want a new home where they get used.
Cheers,
CB
That might be very useful, yes. It all depends on the details of the campaign we are running. If it is all at one of our clubs, we will probably use terrain we already have, and we have LOADS, but if we play a lot of the games at home, then I will probably either buy some snooker table felt or paint some of my boards green, in which case I could definitely make use of them to go with my trees and Townscape buildings. What sort of size are they?
I have been working slowly on some more Spawn. I am doing well at being disciplined to let greenstuff dry each time before I move on to the next stage, but this WIPs are just about worth showing...
This guy is proper gribbly. Three stages so far - rolling out the teeth, then positioning them on to a layer at the back of the gums, then laying the front of the gums over them. Despite using a magnifying glass and the head of a pin for the sculpting, they aren't quite what I wanted, but I think I am pretty happy. Tomorrow I have to put them lips on and pray I don't balls up my hard work so far. After that, I will give it a pointy tongue. One of his arms will have a mechanical claw fom an old metal Chaos dreadnought and the other arm will be a giant tongue!
This guy is going for a different facial feature. That ball is going to be an eyeball. The sharp bits of greenstuff are going to be claws and I will be giving myself the huge challenges of sculting fingers and a hand and forearm holding the eyeball. I will also be taking a razor saw to his belly to cut out a triangle and sculpting in a grinning belly mouth.
Finally, I had a Marauder minotaur wiith one of his feet already mangled. I got the feet in the same pack and couldn't resist. Then the hands occurred to me to make him really silly. I might chop of one or both of his hands, but won't do it yet until I decide what to put there... Possibly one of his old feet?!
Really impressive retrospective Fifty, thanks for sharing. What an achievement - both in terms of painting progress and keeping the blog alive!
Beautiful vignette to kick off the oldhammer phase. They could be pics out of an old WD.
The spawn are looking great. I love the old metal minotaur minis and your conversions are looking spicy so far. Neat GS work on the maw, and Hornhands McGoofyFoot somehow looks even more oldhammer with his additions. I really like how he looks now, but can you ever really go wrong with too much silly??
That looks like a pretty fun project. The giant feet made me laugh. Great work on the teeth, they look the business.
Looking forward to seeing how these all develop.
Great looking old-school spawn Fifty, and your retrospective was a great read too - nice to look back at your accomplishments. Definitely gonna use your rose tut in the future too!
For the Minotaur I suggest a ripped up parasol, but the balloon idea is also ace.
Those conversions look really amazing, mad and sick at the same time Can't wait to see more progress on them, good luck getting the lips on without a hitch.
Thanks everyone. I am enjoying converting the minotaurs and might do some more this evening. Right now, I just finished work and decided it was time to prepare my first "proper" squad. Spawn are all very well, but I can only fit five in a list, and I am already working on five and have bits for two more!
First thing to paint up will be eight Chaos Warriors. One of these guys (Haktgore, far right) actually says Chaos Champion on his tab, but I've only ever seen him listed as a Chaos Warrior on SoL and similar places, and even if I had, it doesn't really matter. I'd suspect him of being a recast, but I bought him from GW Maidstone and he has the same tab on SoL! Many of my actual Chaos Champions will be used as Warriors anyway.
Two of them will be stripped first, and one of them (Vangart Soulspiller) is a bit of a shame as I painted him in the early 90s, but he has never been one of my favourite efforts and he just doesn't stand up to modern use. I've taken some photos to share here to record him for posterity. I have two of this model and one of them will be getting a weapon swap with my other double, Stro'Knor Macekiller, who was painted when I got him from EBay.
I am going to start by painting all of the furs, and try to make them exotic mammals, especially big cats. I am worried the high level of texture might make this difficult. After that, I keep dithering over colours. There is plenty of leather, of course, and that will be ainted various leather shades, but I don't know whether I will do the metals as metallics or colour them, for example in blacks, dirty whites or maybe faded oranges. Whatever happens, I will probably use turquoise as a spot colour.
I am 99% set on round bases as I will be buying or making movement trays anyway and it allows better positioning. These chaps rank up terribly on square bases. What is tougher is deciding on how to finish the bases. As it is Oldhammer, I think classic green grass might be the way to go, but maybe some cobbles and mud too. I was planning to match my Nighthaunt with dark grey cobbles and gravel, but although that would make them match my 4'x4' mat, I won't be using them on that often anyway, so I have changed my mind. As you can see, they'll have classic 80s Citadel shields.
Those are very nice. The only one of those I have is the guy with the raised shield but I have a whole bunch from that same release.
Also... why did you make me think about volcanic bases?! Aaaargh!
The main modelleing of this is now complete. Just need to add a tiny bit of greenstuff where the balloon is tied off and do some tidying up. Then, if it will just stop raining, I can undercoat...
You know that thing where they ask people, "What's your favourite ever...?" and it is ALWAYS whatever they are working on at the time? That is 100% how I feel about this guy.
I love him and I'm glad that you do too! It's awesome to see a fun idea really come to life and it seems like this one has turned out just as great in real life as it was in your head. Super excited to see him get some paint!
The warriors look promising too. I am a huge believer in the goblin green base but think a few cobblestones and gravel patches wouldn't go astray either.
Right then, I've done the lips. I am more or less happy with the lips themselves, but now I think I need to merge them ino the surrounding skin/fur better. I've prepared three different sizes of tongue, bu now I am worried all three might be too big...
I also did a bit on the eyeball-in-hand... Very happy so far, though I have had to rearrange it twice already. Hopefully it will work..
Plus his belly maw. I am trying to decide of the teeth stick out far.
Finally, forced myself to start painting. Very happy with this so far...
Cracking progress fifty, the modelling on the spawns is fantastic, proper old school. The GS sculpting is really great, and taking your time has certainly paid dividends. The image within an image on the balloon is such a cool idea, I hope you get it done. The big cat on the warrior looks really cool
Thanks I am quite excited by how well it is going at the start! I hope I can keep it up.
Don Qui Hotep wrote:Damn! These warriors are: very rad. Love the choice to paint up as big cats, the sabre-tooth tiger looks great! Nicely done on the ear tufts.
The Minotaur with a balloon made me smile. I miss the whimsy of Oldhammer. Nice to see you bringing it back.
I am glad you like the tiger. I looked at a lot of reference picures for it! I really wanted it to look as realistic as it could, for the sculpt.
I think whimsy in Chaos is one of the things that has been lost since the early 90s. Chaos now means evil and spiteful, whereas it used to mean crazy and indifferent to suffering.
Gitsplitta wrote:I had no idea you were such a talented sculptor Fifty. Wow... color me very impressed.
I am not sure I am actually all that talented! I am not quite managing to achieve what I want to - just getting lucky that my approximations so far look good.
gobert wrote:Cracking progress fifty, the modelling on the spawns is fantastic, proper old school. The GS sculpting is really great, and taking your time has certainly paid dividends. The image within an image on the balloon is such a cool idea, I hope you get it done. The big cat on the warrior looks really cool
Thanks also! Doing this modelling on the spawns has made me want to try my hand at sculpting something from scratch, but that might be a leap too far. For now, slow and steady wins the race.
The image on the balloon will be tricky, due to the size, but I'll give it a go. Then I need to get a photo of the minotaur holding the balloon printed onto a balloon, so that I can hold the balloon!
Fifty wrote: The image on the balloon will be tricky, due to the size, but I'll give it a go. Then I need to get a photo of the minotaur holding the balloon printed onto a balloon, so that I can hold the balloon!
Fifty wrote: The image on the balloon will be tricky, due to the size, but I'll give it a go. Then I need to get a photo of the minotaur holding the balloon printed onto a balloon, so that I can hold the balloon!
Tiger pelt looks fantastic. No tongue will be too big for mouth-neck. The guy with the freakishly huge feet and balloon is absurd and wonderful. Eye-in-hand is really turning out well.
Viterbi, you are right - it shouldn't work, but because it is Chaos it does! Even Orks couldn't get away with party balloons!
I'm not sure it is safe, but I am reminded of a line from Deadlock of the ABC Warriors who asked, "What else should you do with dark and mysterious forces but play with them?"
I haven't put the finishing touches on Balloon Bull yet, as I have been working elsewhere...
I am so pleased with the belly mouth. I was worried at one stage, but I am delighted with the outcome. Hand-in-eye is tougher. I did some work on it today and am not sure I am happy with the progress on the fingers. I was a bit too tired and think I need to get back to it when I can focus better.
Mouth-neck got his tongue arm and I put his mech-pincer arm on too. Missed it out of the photos though! Pretty happy with the tongue, though it is not perfect.
This seemed to go okay, but I am not quite sure eyeball-neck works. Still, done now! Maybe eyelids would help. I think I am going to give him a flytrap arm like the character from Bad Company...
I am suddenly thinking of putting multiple eyeball protrusions all over that last one. Belly eyeball. Armpit eyeball. Back eyeball. Calf eyeball. Different sizes. Maybe even some round and some slitted. Maybe a cluster of eyeballs on the so far unfinished arm...
These guys are looking cool fifty, the eye-in-hand looks fine to me. Mouth neck is properly disturbing, I would not like to meet him walking down the street!
Thanks gents. The sculpting has been on hold for a week as I've been too busy/tired. I've managed to put a few basic colours on a few models. I am just making it up as I go along!
I'm going to make the black shiny, the turquoise as deep as possible, with a lot of layering, and the one that has a Rakarth Flesh base will be lightened all the way up to a dirty white.
Half-term next week, so I am really looking forward to making some progress!
You know what I think would look really awesome. Some sweet turquoise action on that big axe the sabre tooth chaos tiger. I'm not sure why. I think it's the black armour with the orange fur, it just wants a counterpoint. And if anyone can get away with a sick green axe blade it's a chaos warrior.
Love that belly mouth, you're just right to be chuffed with that one. It's fits so well, it's a perfectly creepy thing.
theCrowe wrote: Fantastic! Exactly the tone I had in mind. You might even get away with a glowy turquoise eye slit in his helmet to tie it in.
I already tried that, in fact! I think I am going to get rid of it, as it draws attention away from the tiger. I'll post photos before I make a final decision.
One more vote for the glow, works really well together with the weapon, and without the glow it kinda turns into a tiger-headed Chaos warrior (which is fun in its own way, of course, but ...).
Glow and axe look great together, if the glow was taken all the way up to spot light highlights it would be distracting, but as is MobilSuitRandom's right that it gives definition to the warrior's face. Maybe keep the final armor fairly dark? A stand-out model, regardless!
I mentioned that I was doing something awesome with Arbitor Ian...
He is something of a wiz on YouTubey stuff (that is my technical term for all of the editing, sound levelling, colour-matching, etc, but my brain just lumps all of that difficult stuff into one pot!), and invited myself and a couple of others to join him for a Tale of Four 90s Gamers project. He has produced an intro video for a campaign, plus interviewed us about our plans, then he has done an awesome job of putting it all together. I think there is a real gap in the YouTube "market" for this. There are one or two decent efforts at this already out there, but this already looks likely to be the best, in my opinion, and Ian is well organised enough (as you can tell from his blogs on here!) to make it work.
So, here is Ian's YouTube page, which has a whole bunch of videos that you should also watch and here are his videos introducing the campaign and introducing the project!
Going with the glowy eye slit was definitely the way to go. Your mate is pretty good at the YouTubery, your beard seems to be coming on pretty well too!
I've kept the glowy eyes, but I have toned them down. Much happier now. I have done quite a bit more Chaos Warrior painting, but I'll save those updates for next time.
I spent some time being OCD about bases. I am using round bases for this army, so I want my cavalry bases to be rounded too... It is fairly straightforward for the doggies whose tabs were already snipped as I just shortened some 70x25mm bases, but I hate cutting off tabs unless I absolutely must so the others were... fiddly. If this looks unnecessary, just wait until you see the lengths I am going to for my metal Chaos Knights...
I now have four Minospawn waiting for undercoating. Balloonbull won't get his balloon glued in place until after painting. Clawarm and Clawneck need rebasing. Neckbiter is good to go.
And two more are making good progress... For Bellymouth I just need to decide how much arm to have extending from the neck before reaching the hand. I am nervous to cut ANY wire off incase I cut too much!
The hand is not perfect, but it'll do.
Eyeball proceeds...
And I have four more victims... volunteers... villains... ready for modification. I don't want to cut into those C25 chaps, so I'll mainly just be pinning on some bits and sculpting over what is there. Axedude is going to get ONE wing and some tentacles. Headless won't stay headless - he'll be getting a Venus Flytrap style head. Fatbelly and Blackbull need somme ideas. I'll probably just hold some bits from the bits box next to them and see what looks good...
That’s some serious base butchery, I take it you’ll be using movement trays to get the authentic unit formations? The Minospawn keep looking better, will the parasol be a cocktail umbrella?
Yes, I will either construct my own movement trays, or get some knocked up at Illusionary Terrain as I am friends with the guys. They already make some of what I need and it would be simple to modify their files to produce the other bits I need, or so I am told.
As for the parasol, I MIGHT use a cocktail umbrella, but am leaning towards making my own from styrene rods and greenstuff.
How about using paperclips or fine florist's wire to make the arms, and hold the whole assembly inside a styrene tube to be the handle? Like a skeletal brolly? And you could always do pva and tissue for the "fabric" if you wish?
inmygravenimage wrote:How about using paperclips or fine florist's wire to make the arms, and hold the whole assembly inside a styrene tube to be the handle? Like a skeletal brolly? And you could always do pva and tissue for the "fabric" if you wish?
My first plan so to try and make it entirely from styrene. I have a hexagonal bit of rod which might help. Of not, that is an alternative I have considered.
Arakasi wrote:Surely cutting slots into new bases would be easier? Last time I tried to modify a base like that, trying to get all the joins smooth was a real pain.
Probably, and having done it the hard way a few times, I might switch to that. I have limited bike bases to hack apart and essentially unlimited square and round bases though, so...
Good thing Dakka was all for glowy eyes on tiger guy, it worked out really well. And love the continuing madness with those chaos sculpts. Axe guy from the new batch to be converted made me chuckle "Do I hold this the right way?"
I posted Bellymouth on the Facebook Oldhammer Community pages. He got almost three hundred likes. I was well chuffed.
Eyeball is nearly done. Depending on how I paint his eyes, he'll either be The Watcher or Crosseye once finished.
I need to sculpt the tentacles and eyelids on the arm-cluster, and at least some eyelids and whatnot of the leg-cluster. I haven't decided yet how much though. It might look nice to have a cluster of unlidded eyes on the back of the leg, or it might just look half-finished...
Dang, those cluster of eyes just scream Oldhammer to me. This is great. This is like one of those fun articles they used to run in White Dwarf, when they actually encouraged conversions! I meant to ask earlier, where's the power klaw for Eye-leen come from?
Eye think it is from a short-lived Ork Nob in Mega-Armour set. I had to file some orky glyphs off. Not confident in answer though. Might not even be GW, though I think it is.
Here is the latest Tale of Four Gamers video from Arbitor Ian!
And here are all of the images of my models featured in the video, plus a few more that weren't. Forgive the repetition of a few of them, but these all have a better background.
Here is my colouring in so far
Here are two from the early nineties who need rebasing and a little more work on them
Here is my what's coming up; my marauder mob, an unstripped test model for my marauder horsemen and the first of my chaos hound squads
What a cool update, the warriors group shot is great and those spawns really scream chaos. Lovely seeing what the future has in store for this project.
Fifty wrote: Here is the latest Tale of Four Gamers video from Arbitor Ian!
And here are all of the images of my models featured in the video, plus a few more that weren't. Forgive the repetition of a few of them, but these all have a better background.
Here is my colouring in so far
Here are two from the early nineties who need rebasing and a little more work on them
Here is my what's coming up; my marauder mob, an unstripped test model for my marauder horsemen and the first of my chaos hound squads
/
Copied over for the page break. Great stuff, Fifty! Love seeing those classic Goodwin sculpts again.
Those warriors just scream Oldhammer! It’s funny how they still look like a unit despite such different colours, impressive stuff. The spawns are really coming together
I got these most of the way to tabletop ready today.
They need their black highlighting, their brown washing and highlighting, chaos sigils painted cleverly into their fur, plus some detailing like teeth and whatnot, but I am pleased so far.
This will be my basing scheme for this army. I am going to try out some static grass and see how it affects the overall look, but the main thing is the blood and body parts!
Doggies are looking good, and nice idea to do the bases alongside them before finishing off the models so that you can see it all in context rather than separately
The pack of dogs look good already, the bases are a treat too. Plenty for the doggos to snack on that’s for sure! . The different colours on the bases work well too
No updates for a while, but I haven't been lax in my hobbying...
More for my squad of Chaos Warriors, including conversions for standard bearers and musician.
I might horrify some people with the fact I chopped up some 80s Chaos Knights to use them as Marauder Horseman. I have kept all of the bits in the same models though, so they could be restored.
I also prepared rounded cavalry bases, to maintain the general theme.
Auspicious beginnings! I love the bichrome warrior in the first photo. As far as being horrified at chopping off chaos knights goes, yer elevating the classic pewter for sure. Keep it up.
Good to see you’re still plugging away at these guys. Knocking out some great paint schemes and some cool conversions coming up too. The new bases seem to have cast up pretty well too
I'm just at the end of two weeks holiday for Easter, so I braved the weather and managed to get a couple of games of Gardenhammer in. I laid the patio last summer and bought the folding sawhorses in a sale so that I could set up a 4x4 or 6x4, but this has actually been the first opportunity to use them due to lockdown.
I only remembered to take a few photos, mainly due to how much my arse got kicked by the new Drukhari codex. That thing is brutal. I mean, I was using a fluffy Mentor Legion list of Firstborn Mantis Warriors, then a slightly more optimised but still fluffy list of Firstborn Executioners (Using Black Templar rules), but even with an optimised Primaris list, the Drukhari would have been terrifying, and very tough to beat. The Drukhari hit so hard on the charge, and have such long charge ranges, that even playing on a 4x4 instead of minimum board size, they have terrifying threat ranges on the charge. Short of sitting at the back of my own deployment zone and pretty much surrendering even the notion of board control, I don't know how I would have done much differently. I made a couple of small errors, but their units are all fantastic.
Keep in mind those new board sizes are recommended minimums. There is *literally* no rule that says you have to use them. Glad to see you out and playing though.
Gitsplitta wrote: Keep in mind those new board sizes are recommended minimums. There is *literally* no rule that says you have to use them. Glad to see you out and playing though.
Playing on a minimum board size of 44"x30" would be insanely cramped. 48"x48" was just about okay, but felt a bit tight. 48"x72" would feel better, I expect.
What a weird and wonderful collection of mutants you have going. The green stuff work really brings them to life. I’m loving all the old classic minis here.
Viterbi wrote:Hoping for more sunny days, so you can get more games in, looks like a great setup, as gobert said.
Love all the Chaos madness coming along, the red going to yellow axe looks really cool!
I was pleased with how the axe came out. It was going baadly, then the streaks of colour saved it.
The Riddle of Steel wrote:What a weird and wonderful collection of mutants you have going. The green stuff work really brings them to life. I’m loving all the old classic minis here.
Here is some more sculpting -
I need a standard bearer and musician, and don't want something that is not era appropriate. Here is the work so far...
It has been way too long since I last posted, so here is a quick blast of some finished models!
Two units of hounds will do for now. I have another fifteen of these dogs to use in future.
And a total of twenty Marauders. The two batches are quite different but will all fight together in the same unit.
I've made a lot of progress on Knights and my Chaos Hero too, as well as started a Sorceror Lord. I need to have an army for Bring Out Your Lead, so I need to get a wriggle on.
Cheers folks. I have duplicates of a few of these guys, including bony. I am thinking I will do a red and metallic version. Just need to decide the ratios of red:iron:bronze. I have another fifteen dogs to paint at some point too!
Sorry for the slow updates. I just having been finding the time to get photos ready to go on here. I've been putting a lot more on Instagram lately, which makes me feel a little dirty, but has greater reach.
I have a few bits to show now though...
Firstly. I got a sorceror on disc and a champion on disc ready for a game against my friend's Dark Elves. He beat me without taking a single casualty in our practice, no scenery game, so I wanted to bring mobility. The sorceror mobility only for emergencies, but the champion and harpies were intended to harass my enemies missile troops, especially his repeater bolt thrower.
I didn't previously like the champion model, despite him being a Jes Goodwin, but now I realise he is just lopsided and needs to be balancing on a disc.
The game itself was a lot of fun, and not just because (spoilers...) I won! We played at Bad Moon Cafe near London Bridge and it was a lovely set up. Really nice terrain. We used some boxes from the shelves to create a barrier down the middle of the table and deployed in ignorance of each others armies...
Nathan put his Repeater Bolt Thrower in the centre to maximise its potential, a unit of Crossbowmen wide on a flank, Scouts just inside the Crossbowmen on one flank and wide on the other flank. His Hydra and Mage lined up next to the Cold Ones. His Harpies deployed backwards, ready to fly high or swoop forwards.
I set up with Marauder Horsemen opposite his Crossbowmen, Ogres just inside of them. I used two units of Chaos Hounds with their handlers to screen a large unit of Chaos Marauders, which contained my Master Sorceror. My Champion on Disc and Harpies sat back, ready to fly high.
I sent my Horsemen snaking around the flank, which led to a couple of turns of his Crossbowmen spinning and reforming on the spot to avoid getting flank or rear charged before his Harpies eventually descended and did a surprising amount of damage to them.
My dogs got whittled away, but my Ogres and Marauders pushed forwards. My Disc Champion took out his Bolt Thrower before it did as much harm as I expected.
Tzeentch's Bolt of Change, cast with Total Power, took out his Hydra, and I started to get confident. My Marauders managed a charge on Nathan's Mage by just 3 or 4mmmm, which then led to them charging further into his Cold Ones, where my Sorceror killed his General.
My Harpies descended on his scouts on my right flank, then got some assistance from my Disc Champion to kill them off.
I had Destroy Spelled his best spell, so his Mage turned into a Hydra, but by this stage his Cold Ones were running, his Scouts were dead, his Harpies (who had fled, but surprisingly rallied) were undermanned and only his Crossbowmen offered any threat. They were, however, surrounded buy a few Horsemen, five Ogres, a Disc Champion and Harpies, so we called it.
It was a fun game, and good revenge for our first game, in which he tabled me without losing a single model! I definitely had the dice go in my favour when it really mattered.
My Disc Champion and Harpies did not do huge amounts of damage, but gave me the tools I needed to make the game go very differently.
Since then, I have made more progress on the horsies, but the photos are not up-to-date, so more on them next time. Here is just one pic of their Chaos Warrior leader, however...
I have also completed one of the "modern" warriors and two that I started painting way back in the early 90s, making them almost 30-year paint jobs, if you ignore the fact that all but six months of that didn't actually involve any painting... The zebra stripes did not turn out as well as I hoped, but they'll do. Lion mane guy could do wit his black touching up, if I get around it.
...and I have started painting the disc sorceror...
Finally, I have started a rather delightful mini from Knightmare Miniatures. You may be able to spot a few influences on both the sculpt and my paint job.
It was one of my most enjoyable games for a long time. Recently, I find I a enjoying old-fashioned WFB more than modern games. I still enjoy 40k and AoS, but I like the challenge of winning within the constraints of the movement rules.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Also, I have been giving thought to my next project. I could do with an army that is halfway competitive, without being cheesy. I think I want to start getting some of my Primaris built and painted.
I have a notion towards a quartered scheme using White Scars colours. This is the idea I have, with a minor variation to it.
On Chogoris, there is an ancient legend of The Whirlwind.
Once, when the land was young, a group of raiders returned to their tribe to find that not only had their home been raided in their absence, which was a natural part of war, it had been attacked by a massed force and wiped out. This small band pursued the attackers, and after three nights, found their roaming camp. Before they could attack, a whirlwind struck, doing huge damage to the wrongdoers but preventing the pursuers from attacking. Their pursuit was hindered, and they caught up with their enemy again two nights later. Again, a whirlwind struck their enemy, though far weaker this time. Under the cover of the terrible wind, they were able to wreak great havoc in the enemy camp, slaughtering many, then escape before the enemy could regroup. The enemy moved on again, but the avengers came upon their new camp again the next night. This time, no whiriwind hit the surviving foe. They still presented a fearsome opponent, and some of the few pursuers feared to attack. Then, their leader stood tall, and in an impassioned speech, declared that henceforth they were the whirlwind.
The Whirlwind struck the camp with such fury that even though they were terribly outnumbered, their enemy, already disoriented and despairing from the previous nights, fled before them, but not a single warrior escaped their wrath, and all were slain. The survivors, it is said, split into two groups. One, mostly consisting of the youngest warriors and a few of the wisest elders, found themselves wives and slowly rebuilt their tribe. The older warriors, past the age at which they would have sons and daughters of their own, but not wishing to be a burden to the young, became a roaming brotherhood, offering their swords to other tribes in exchange for shelter and the opportunity to wreak vengeance on other wrongdoers. When the last of these died, so legend has it, a whirlwind took up his body, along with his horse, and he was seen riding to a group of similar warriors.
Now, many a warrior will pray to these ancient spirits for support in quests of vengeance. Who can say how many times they have answered?
Millenia later, the White Scars have been granted the honour of a successor chapter. Captain <insert name here> has been granted the honour of leading this new chapter, but instead of them being immediately hived off, he is turning the 3rd company into the new chapter, building them gradually and fighting as part of and alongside the White Scars, until they are strong enough to take their full independence.
He has chosen the name The Whirlwind as he is of the tribe it came from. He seeks vengeance upon all humanity's enemies, but especially hates Drukhari, not least because of the stories involving Jaghatai Khan and Comorragh.
His battle doctrine is an unusual one for a White Scar. Though he fights in the normal manner of a White Scar (Inheritors of the Primarch doctrine) he believes that it is most effective when employed predominantly by the heaviest troops, and his company has long favoured Gravis armour alongside other, more mobile armour and equipment. He was often mocked for this by those who relied on speed and speed alone, as the epitome of the White Scars doctrine. <insert name here> would often support such actions, saying that speed and surprise are the supreme way of fighting, but that any force should have a plan B. He considered himself to be the White Scars' plan B, and without dismissing surprise and speed, he allied it to reslience and overwhelming force. He was proven correct when his Heavy Intercessors, Aggressors and Eradicators were able to lay waste to a group of Drukhari raiders who had threatened to isolate and destroy and mobile force of bikers and assault intercessrors. He has continued this doctrine into his creation of the new chapter, not wishing to limit it to one way of fighting. He has promoted sergeants and lieutenants who show versatality to lead his new chapter.
Red and white always look fantastic together. White Scars are one of my favorite armies, although going for pure white is a major challenge for painting (for me anyway, without an air brush). A really light grey is more forgiving. Looking forward to seeing where you go with it.
Great pics of your battle, looks like you guys had a fun time!
The latest warriors look cool, loving the variety of schemes you’re throwing together. For me the zebra stripes look a bit too symmetrical but still look great.
The SM chapter sounds cool to me too, I’m with Riddle that Grey might be an easier choice. Save the pure white for the extremes of the highlighting
Right, I fancied the idea of creating a battle report, but didn't get the idea until after my latest game. I have used the Battle Chronicler software to recreate as well as possible the most recent game I played. Once again I was up against my friend Nathan, this time at HATE Club, which plays at Bethnal Green Working Men's Club.
We played at 1500 points. My list consisted of;
CM20 Infantry, Chaos Marauders, led by a Chaos Warrior
CH1 5 Beasts, Chaos Hounds
CH2 5 Beasts, Chaos Hounds
Og 6 Infantry, Ogres
Ha 8 Flying Infantry, Harpies
GenChaos Master Sorceror, General, on a Disc of Tzeentch, with Chaos Armour, a Chaos Runeblade, a Ruby Chalice and a Helm of Many Eyes
CCChampion, Chaos Champion, also on a Disc, with Chaos Armour, a Halberd and the Shield of Ptolos
MH 5 Cavalry, Marauder Horsemen, led by a Chaos Warrior.
We were playing Scenario 3, Meeting Engagement, so had to write out our order of march and deploy in that order.
My plan with this army is that the Chaos Marauders, led by my general, advance behind a screen of Chaos Hounds, who stay close to the Marauders, because they need to benefit from the general's Leadership. He has the Ruby Chalice to protect the unit from shooting and his Helm of Many Eyes gives him Strike First and thereby protects the slow-moving unit when they inevitably get charged.
The Ogres hold the ground next to them and act as a bit of a distraction. They can take a lot of hurt, but aren't actually all that amazing at hitting things! The Marauder Horsemen snake around the flanks and threaten flank charges. Even if they don't make a flank charge, the threat of one forces a response and can pull a unit out of formation. The Harpies and Champion on Disc are there to deal with archers, bolt throwers and so on.
Nathan had;
CO 5 Cavalry, Cold Ones
Ha 5 Flying infantry, Harpies
Sc1 5 Infantry, Scouts
G Cavalry Hero, General, on a Cold One with, no doubt, some magic items!
S2 Cavalry Hero, Sorceror on an elven steed, with a Book of Ashur
Cr9 Infantry, Crossbowmen
H Bound Monster, War Hydra
HoDP Flying Hero, Hero on Dark Pegasus with a Heart of Woe
Nathan deployed with his Cavalry central and his General in the unit. His Sorceror flanked them. His Hydra was nearby, and beyond that his Crossbowmen. On the opposite flank were his Scouts and Harpies. I was expecting his Harpies to simply foil my Harpies, which is one of the reasons I brought eight. His scouts had done a lot of shooting damage in previous games, so I was afraid of them. I had learned to fear his Hydra, especially its breath weapon. His Hero on Dark Pegasus was an unwelcome surprise!
We rolled that the game would be only four turns.
I rolled ELEVEN Chaos Gifts, and but the only one I didn't get was Nurgle's Rot, so I could not slow down his Cold Ones. I killed a couple of Scouts before we even got started and my Marauders landed up with a leader having a Scorpion Tail and all at +1WS.
I drew three decent spells from the Tzeentch deck; Glean Magic and a couple of damage dealing spells.
Nathan had the first turn, and caught me by surprise by charging my Hounds with his Harpies. This would cause a roadblock and even if I could get around them, stop me marching. They killed two dogs and I killed a harpy in return. Elsewhere, his Crossbowmen killed one of my Harpies. His Hydra and Cold Ones moved forward, readying for a charge.
In response, my Harpies charged his Crossbowmen. Two can play at that game! Sadly, I played it poorly, and they killed another as my Harpies flew in, then I achieved no kills!
My Ogres advanced, and my other Hounds and my Marauders inched forwards. My General left his unit to be able to cast his spells at the Hydra, planning to return later, when he was needed. He only managed to cause one wound on the Hydra though! My Champion went the other way, for reasons I cannot fathom. At the end of the turn I felt I had made several errors I would come to regret.
In Nathan't Turn 2, his Hero on Dark Pegasus charged my Ogres. I should have though that suspect, but more on that later. My Harpies fled his Crossbowmen, and were cut down. You ought to have flown, you fools! His Cold Ones swung around ready to advance on my Marauders. His scouts shot my Hounds and they fled, standing directly in front of my Marauders. More traffic!
His Hydra failed its leadership roll, so it stood doing nothing, struggling against its binding magic!
He also tried to cast Soul Drain on my Marauders. I ummed and aahed about whether to use my Wrath of Khorne Chaos Gift, or to use Drain Magic. I wanted to use Glean Magic to steal Soul Drain, so I foolishly used Drain Magic. Despite using my Tzeentchy +1/-1 re-roll, I lost a magic level!
In my turn 2, my dogs made his Harpies flee. My general charged his Hero on Pegasus, but caused no damage. The Ogres attacked his Dark Pegasus steed and did a wound, causing him to flee. It was a very poor LD roll for Nathan, followed by a very poor flee roll. My Ogres and general both pursued and hacked down his Hero. It turns out that was very fortunate, as he had a Heart of Woe and killing him would have ripped the heart out of my army.
Contrary to the map, I now remember that my Champion charged and killed his remaining Scouts by the building.
My Marauder Horsemen snaked around the edge of the board to where his Crossbowmen would not have a shot.
In Nathan's turn 3, his Crossbowmen reformed and shot at my Horsemen, but the dice were not on his side and none died. He was cursing his decision to start turning his Cold Ones as my Ogres were now right behind them. To get them away from trouble, he charged the dogs that were pursuing his Harpies. He easily beat them in combat, but then he pursued them straight off of the table!
Incredibly, his War Hydra failed its Leadership test again, meaning it could not breathe fire on my Ogres. Hurrah!
But... his Sorceror cast Soul Drain on my Marauders. With Total Power. I cursed my decision to use Drain Magic. Had I used Wrath of Khorne, I might have even destroyed that spell! Nine Marauders died and his Sorceror gained 4 wounds!
In my turn, my Ogres and General took advantage of his Hydra's struggles and charged! They did quite a bit of damage, but it survived. Nevertheless, they did enough wounds to weaken its breath attack, which was important!
My Disc-riding champion charged his Sorceror. I think my remaining dogs (who had rallied the previous turn) did too, though that is also missing from the map. His sorceror was not killed, but fled and was cut down.
My Horsemen had reformed the previous turn, so now they charged the Crossbowmen. They did get hit, but enough of them hit, including their Chaos Warrior leader, that they won the combat and cut down the fleeing crossbowmen.
At the start of Turn 4, Nathan's Cold One Riders returned, along with his General, but it was too late. The game was over and they would not get to do anything. His Hydra died this turn (I think it even failed a THIRD leadership test)
Conclusions;
Forgive the minor discrepancies between the photos, text and maps! I only decided to write this AFTER the battle, so it doesn't quite match!
Overall, this battle was determined by Leadership tests. Nathan's fearsome War Hydra failed the tests when it really mattered. It is a big risk on such an important unit, but to fail twice was very unlucky. It still terrified me! Even worse was his Hero running away when he needed just 9 or less to stay. Had he done so, I think it all would have turned out very differently. Nathan felt it was a big mistake to start turning his Cold Ones to go after my Marauders. I think it was the right decision at the time, but it turned out to make his life a lot harder when the hero fled.
I felt my Hounds performed well, despite causing a traffic jam for my Marauders. I do think I need to position my Marauders more carefully in future as this was their second game in a row where they have not reached combat. The Ogres soaked up a lot of attention, but were very lucky to avoid that Heart of Woe. My Harpies underperformed. With just one attack, I think they are better off going after fleeing units or artillery, but at the time it seemed like a good idea. When my general left my Marauders, I initially regretted it, but it worked out well in the end. The champion did well too, not so much in terms of how much damage he did, but in terms of his mobility and threat, and he did eventually deal with the enemy Sorceror. My favourite unit are my Horsemen. I just love sending them snaking around a flank forcing units to redeploy to deal with them! I expect Nathan will have a plan for them if we play again, so I might try to think of another way to use them. They are damn flimsy at T3 and a 5+ save, so I am worried he might charge them with his harpies and kill a few before I can properly respond. I had better remember to deploy them where he can't easily do that!
Yeah, playing some old games has been a lot of fun. Although I finished with 4th edition back in the day, 5th edition "feels" the same so I am enjoying it. We are organising a mini-tournament in mid-September and I hope to play plenty before then.
I have almost finished my leader for the Marauder Horseman unit...
5th was where I spend almost all of my WHFB time, and we played the heck out of it.
Battle report take me right back to the 90’s. Chaos and Undead were my 2 big armies, and my friend played DE.
IIRC mounted marauders with flails hit almost as hard as chaos knights, but were much softer. I don’t recall cold one knight doing much except to keep the chaff off the DE general. Trying to scrub my brain for other facts from the old times, but it was many moons ago.
Those horsemen are amazing! Great bath rep too. Have you posted any picks of your ogres? I can’t remember seeing them
Automatically Appended Next Post: Those horsemen are amazing! Great bath rep too. Have you posted any picks of your ogres? I can’t remember seeing them
Best shots of the ogres are at the bottom of page 32. I haven't posted better pics because, a) I painted them in '92 or '93, b) they aren't quite finished! c) they are bay chipped from the intervening years.
When the time comes, I might repaint them or I might restore them. In the meantime, I have another dozen era appropriate ogres to paint that are bare metal, so I'll hold off on stripping these chaps as long as I can.
I don't know anything about WHF, but I like it! Might I suggest some shots of the units actually facing each other in close-up? It would give something for your audience to relate to.
Gitsplitta wrote: I don't know anything about WHF, but I like it! Might I suggest some shots of the units actually facing each other in close-up? It would give something for your audience to relate to.
Yeah, that is something a few people have said, or variations on that theme and better photography is general is definitely the big thing for next one.
I absolutely love the old-school battle report maps showing units movements and positions. I love looking back at the old White Dwarf magazines for those reports. Great work.
It has been ages since I had time for meaningful hobbying, and even longer since I posted here, but I am playing a game of Oldhammer at my house on Wednesday, so I decided to get my trees ready. I had a bunch of old Javis Scenics trees that I bought at GW in the early 90s, so I glued them to 40mm bases, then used a thick sheet of polystyrene sheet, followed by a thinner layer with 40mm holes cut in. I then roughed up the whole thing with sandpaper and put some vallejo sandy paste on it...
Also, I have had a Blood Bowl ogre with a missing lower leg for ages, so over the weekend I resculpted it...
Identical but undamaged mini in the pic for comparison.
That wee green boot just warms my heart. It’s like a happy ending Christmas story where the old unloved toy finds a new lease of life and gets a new foot. Nice sculpting on that.
And I also was enjoying your battle report videos (like a silent lurking not commenting kind of way, sorry.) They certainly evoke that 90s white dwarf feel and are showing promising improvement. I hope you do more if the opportunity arises. When the harpies did “Fly High” i got all nostalgic. My war hawks and eagles used to fly high, until the rules changed! Bah!
By strange coincidence, it has been exactly a year since I posted anything. I'm posting a lot on Instagram, but had a hankering to return to old haunts and post some pics. If my Lamenters belong aywhere, they belong here...
I split my Lamenters into old and new era models and played a game of second edition against my friend Bobbie's beautiful 2nd ed Novamarines. She lives up in Lincoln, so we rarely play. The battle photos are from all the way back at Bring Out Yer Lead!
Good to see you back fifty, and the Lamenters are looking great! Still amazed at the precision of the freehand chapter badges, I’d probably struggle getting the initial dots in the right spot
The 2nd Ed battle pics look awesome, doubly so with the OG cardboard ruins. Both armies look really cool, though is that a rogue Mantis Warrior Apothecary I spy?
gobert wrote: Good to see you back fifty, and the Lamenters are looking great! Still amazed at the precision of the freehand chapter badges, I’d probably struggle getting the initial dots in the right spot
The 2nd Ed battle pics look awesome, doubly so with the OG cardboard ruins. Both armies look really cool, though is that a rogue Mantis Warrior Apothecary I spy?
Well spotted! He snuck in to bring me up to the full 1500pts.
Lamenters? A bold choice mate - you've done a great job and they look freaking awesome - but I cannot imagine painting a whole army of yellow and then topping it off with a complex chequered pattern!
edit: I did belatedly recall that youve painted lamenters since you started the blog... um... its always been a bold choice I guess? sigh
Now you seem to be back i have a quick cheeky question: Did you ever finish this enormous non-standard standard?
This image stuck in the back of my mind for some reason and I used it (really loosely) as inspiration for a banner (far far smaller) I made myself. Im just curious and havent seen it on your blog or instagram
Lamenters? A bold choice mate - you've done a great job and they look freaking awesome - but I cannot imagine painting a whole army of yellow and then topping it off with a complex chequered pattern!
edit: I did belatedly recall that youve painted lamenters since you started the blog... um... its always been a bold choice I guess? sigh
Now you seem to be back i have a quick cheeky question: Did you ever finish this enormous non-standard standard?
This image stuck in the back of my mind for some reason and I used it (really loosely) as inspiration for a banner (far far smaller) I made myself. Im just curious and havent seen it on your blog or instagram
Cheers!
KT
I've done more, but it is not finished yet. We are doing the sequel campaign this year so I will have to finish it.
I do all of my posting on Instagram these days, but I am back to painting Lamenters, and it just feels like they belong here.
I have a Kill Team I'll try to find time to post too, but now I am working on a Space Marine Combat Patrol. I am doing it for ArbitorIan's Tale of Four Gamers and one of my goals is to use up old models. It is for Badab and on top of that I want to use up old Firstborn, so my squad of five Infernus marines is actually old flamer marines, all from old new edition boxes! The Terminators are the same ones from here that I never finished years ago!
I think basic flamers look a bit crap, so I drilled them out with a fat drill bit, drilled out a bit of plastic rod with a teeny tiny drill bit, then glued the small bit into the large hole. Looks a lot better, I think.
The terminators are being painted with some recently acquired and restored Sunburst Yellow, the lack of which was why they remained unfinished for a long time. The flamer marines are done with Bad Moon Yellow Contrast Paint over a drybrushed base layer.
Good to see you back on dakka fifty! I’ve gotten behind watching the tale of four gamers vids, will have to catch up. Loving the yellow on the Space Hulk Terminators! Still can’t get over the dedication it takes to paint all of those chequers
got something in my eye...
And in regards to the "animal print" marines, the leopard one reminded me immediately of Wag the Dog. I believe they made some animal print on the uniform of the fake regiment. Maybe it got picked up in the 41st millenium as a historic document 
/
