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'Tell me, what is the greatest lie in all of Azyrheim? Surely, that we all "live in peace", is it not?' said Siegfried as he finished the last of his drink and set the pewter flask down upon the tavern table. 'Here in the lower levels, in the slums, Sigmar has forgotton us, be we Man, Aelf or Duardin. Our God is all but consumed with his war even while this city rots from the ground up.'

'You speak too much, Captain,' said the Aelf dressed in ancient armour. 'Will you take us or not?'

'The map is incomplete.'

'We are aware and had hoped you could circumvent any missing passages. Your reputation precedes you, after all.'

Siegfried smiled at her words. 'Do you have the coin?'

She tossed a rawhide pouch across the table.

'Then it would be my pleasure...' he regarded the second Aelf sat at the table, '...your Highness.'



Introduction

Once-upon-a-time there was a "world-that-was" and there was myself, happily returned to the hobby, taking the first steps into Warhammer Fantasy Battle with a growing Empire army. I made a blog which can be found here: link

But then that world blew up and everyone died... the end.

Fast forward 40,000 years (or thereabouts) and we are now in the Age of Sigmar. Same models, different bases, rules and fluff.

I love the rules. I love the bases. I love the freedom of army composition. The fluff...?

I'm still warming to it.

Where's the GW trademark grimdark? I don't buy it. If Man, Aelf and Duardin live in harmony in Azyrheim for what reason did Sigmar open the Realm Gates once more?

No. There must be a dark side, a rotten core. Sigmar to me is an incredibly petty God, prone to his obsessions and revenge. The people of Azyrheim have been left to their own devices: the fanatical zealots of cult Sigmar. The dispossessed Duardin with their grudges. The many facets of Aelfdom and the Free Peoples, all stepping on eachother's toes.

Azyrheim is a multicultural city like none before. And there is not a chance they are all living in harmony together.

That leads us to this blog. Here I will be doing my best to inject some grey back into Age of Sigmar whilst finding a home for my displaced 8th Edition army. Throughout I will be aiming to improve my painting too and of course have lots of fun along the way.

If you ever read my Necromunda blog (here), this one won't be as structured or narrative but I hope to have a fast pace and include some fun extras like battle reports and other things along the way.



Siegfried's Desperados

My 8th edition Empire army is evolving to the freedom Age of Sigmar offers. No longer are they the city guard of Altdorf, they are now known as 'The Desperados', a band of inter-realm smugglers, treasure hunters and misfits operating out of Azyrhiem. When Sigmar opened the realm gates once more an appetite for luxuries found beyond the Celestial Realm grew amoung the upper classes of society. Siegfried and his Desperados were some of the first to capitalise on this market.

The Mortal Realms are perilous especially beyond the areas newly liberated by Sigmar's rampaging Stormcasts, but for those willing to brave the dangers, the treasures to be found amongst the ruined cities are without count.

Siegfried Stormhart

Brash, compulsive and prone to vanity, Seigfried Stormhart is perhaps an unlikely leader of the Desperdos, however he has gotton his men out of enough dire situations to earn their respect. At a young age his mother would tell him wonderous stories of a "city-that-was", a place called Altdorf where the God, Sigmar, ruled when he was still a mortal man. His mother even claimed lineage from the city's nobility, an unknowable truth that Siegfried fiercely defends.

Intrigued by the ancient city still to this day he has dressed himself in the city's colours, red and blue, and many of his desperdos follow suite. Siegfried hopes that one day his adventures will lead him to stumble upon the location of this long lost city.

This model is really the last I painted for my 8th Edition Empire army (where he was intended not to be my general, merely a captain). I am particualry proud of his face, which I think came out very well. The highlights on his clothes are a bit sharp and untidy in my opinion. I am considering to switch to white undercoat for my remaining Empire models and I am interested to see how they will look side by side.

More to come.... thanks for reading!

Cornacaprious

Once an Amethyst Wizard, Cornacaprious is now a wanted outlaw sought by many in Azyreim. Not long after the Realm Gates were reopened he came into possession of a book, the book of Nehek. This tome was filled with the dark secrets of Death Magic from Shyish, with one problem - it is written in a language dead for thousands of years.



He has agreed to work for Siegfried in return for the protection the Desperados offer as he travels the Mortal Realms seeking to learn the ancient language the book of Nehek is written in.

This miniature was my first attempt at painting from a white undercoat. I largely painted the lighter tones first and then inked down to create shadows. It was a learning process indeed, but a fun and rewarding one! I really think white undercoat is going to help improve my painting I just need to make sure I get a smooth finish from the spray, as it came out grainy this time.

What do you think?



More to come...

LeCacty wrote:Oooooooooooooo STUFF! Nice painting too!

LeCacty wrote:This is some high quality shiznizzle.

Cheers buddy :-) thanks for taking to time to read. Lots more to come soon!

The book of Nehek - Summoning Incantation of Spirit Hosts

The nefarious studies of Cornacaprious (The Desperados' Necromancer), have yielded its first dark fruit. Cornacaprious has unlocked an incantation to summon a host of spirits at his bidding.

This is what I love about Age of Sigmar. I'm starting a Vampire Count army essentially, but until it is ready to be a force in its own right I can add it into my existing Empire army. No books needed, no complicated allying rules, just a narrative about a rogue wizard slowly being corrupted by the book he carries.

These models were an absolute joy to paint.

- White Undercoat
- Nihilakh Oxide
- Lahmian Medium + Biel-Tan Green 50/50 applied in recesses
- Celestra Grey first highlight
- Pallid Wych Flesh second hightlight

I enjoyed painting them so much I am going to do a Banshee and some Hexwraiths in a similar scheme.

Let me know what you think!

More to come...

Paradigm wrote:Excellent! I really liked your WFB stuff, and you seem to be continuing in the same vein here! Keep it coming!

Thanks man! The WFB stuff has been on hold for a little while with the uncertainty before AoS, so it's great to be back.

Bruticus wrote:I love the ideas and the presentation. Nice graphic design.

I think that AoS has so much potential for a dark side, more so than the Old World even, and I think it is a bit of a shame we have only been given a look at the Eternals so far. Like you I wanted to dive right in and get started on something else, but there is always the risk that what you do won't fit in with what GW does, when it eventually does it.

I suspect that the germanic influence will be dialed down when it comes to the human survivors, possibly the religious side (fanatics and such) dialed up. I hope that elves and dwarfs are re-imagined quite dramatically It is frustrating there aren't many hints about it yet.

Good start, keep it up

Really interesting comment, yes there's a chance that any story I make doesn't fit with GW's fluff later on. Hopefully there will still be trade and commerce between cities though (surely!?) because that would also hint at crime, smuggling and all those black market pastimes I need here :-)

Littletower wrote:Great start, Wizard looks very good.

Will be waiting for more!

Thanks!

Paradigm wrote:Those minis look sooooo much better on round bases! The awesome paintwork helps!

Yeah, I love the circle bases. It really enhances the miniatures, but the models that have improved the most are cavalry with their oval bases! Can't wait to post some here.

RiTides wrote:Very cool project so far! I especially like how you encapsulate it here:

 Bottle wrote:
That leads us to this blog. Here I will be doing my best to inject some grey back into Age of Sigmar whilst finding a home for my displaced 8th Edition army. Throughout I will be aiming to improve my painting too and of course have lots of fun along the way.

Some "grey" would be most welcome in Age of Sigmar, and I really like the look of the models and the story you have started here.

Thanks very much! I hope it stays as interesting as the project grows.

Thanks for the comments everyone!

The book of Nehek, Chapter 2 - Summoning Incantation of Deathrattle Warriors

The clatter of shields, the rattle of bones. Warriors of Death slowly approach.

Cornacaprious has unlocked more mysteries from the book of Nehek. Now he can summon forth long dead warriors from ages forgotten to wage war once more.

Here is my first unit of Deathrattle Skeleton Warriors armed with swords and tomb shields.




I had an absolute blast painting these miniatures, some of the most enjoyable to paint miniatures I have ever had.

Again, these where painted from a white undercoat. I took extra time on the rusty metals. I wanted to use the turquoise of Nihilahk Oxide to give them an ethereal and fantastical touch. I think I pulled it off convincingly, but I would love to hear your thoughts.

The pink makes a nice colour to contrast with, the scheme was taken from the new studio Death army.

I think at some point I would like more skeleton warriors to paint. Perhaps some Grave Guard next time...

Cornacaprious can summon quite a legion now. See the force all mustered below:



More to come...

LeCacty wrote:I have to agree with you on round bases. ESPECIALLY when the whole mini is contained in the base (I hope you get what I mean), or atleast is for the most part. That is really nice looking!

LeCacty wrote:AWWW YISS SKELETONS!
Stop making me want to buy skeletons. Stahp.

Thanks! And yes, I love the round bases. One of the best things about AoS for me.

Warboss_Waaazag wrote:Beautifully painted miniatures!

Cheers :-)

WaaaaghLord wrote:These are awesome, when I get round to AOS I'll be doing something similarly narrative, albeit probably not as impressive as this.

Thanks! Yeah the best way to build an army is to have fun with creating the story around them.

Hey guys, a real quick update to say...

I GOT ADDED TO THE GW FLICKR POOL :-D

Cornacaprious and his death hordes are now the first picture in the pool and it comes up on the website Flickr pool preview. Check it out!





Direct Links:

Blog - http://www.games-workshop.com/en-GB/blog/blog.jsp

Flickr Pool - https://www.flickr.com/groups/gamesworkshop/

Feels pretty cool considering I visit the blog every day (even Sundays...).

Maybe one day I can aim for actually being featured in the post? Guy can dream right? I'll probably have to get a better photo set up than an iPhone and a piece of A4 paper though :-P

Januine wrote:ooooh - some vrey very nice stuff here! I'm in!! Particularly like your Cornacaprious fig. Tidy stuff bottle

Gomawoyo! I love your work, so it's great to hear that from you.

toasteroven wrote:Some really nice painting and modeling. Those skeletons are almost enough to convert me over to the round bases side. Almost.

I hope AoS allows and even encourages the sort of storytelling you're doing.

Thanks! When you play a pile in, round base on round base, you'll never want to go back. Trust me ;-)

My biggest problem with AoS so far is how dull the background is to the game. Especially compared to the Old World. I really hope with time GW can improve it as they expand it. If not, I'll just stick with my version of things :-)

LeCacty wrote:

 toasteroven wrote:
Some really nice painting and modeling. Those skeletons are almost enough to convert me over to the round bases side. Almost.

I hope AoS allows and even encourages the sort of storytelling you're doing.

Not to derail the thread but I think that was the intent. If you wanna converse about it let's PM so we don't distract from PURPLE SKELETONS OHMYGOD I WANT, *ahem* Sorry.

Haha. I stole the colour scheme from GW. Love those purple robes they have done one of their death armies in!

squall018 wrote:Bottle, loved your Necromunda blog. Really like the work you are doing here as well. Your empire / VC models are top notch.

I personally don't like the direction AoS has taken, but I have been having fun with my fantasy models in other games such as Mordheim and Song of Blades and Heroes. Keep up the good work and I'm glad you're having so much fun with it!!

Cheers, It's really nice to hear you liked my Necromunda too (still my favorite GW game ever!) The Necromunda thread will come back eventually. I've been eyeing up my Ratskins recently... but no. I have to stay focused on AoS for now.

In the end I do want to expand into other games with my miniatures. Mordheim is an option (can it be played with round bases?) and also some AoS meets Warhammer Quest hybrid. So much gaming to do, so little free time...

rhesusforbreakfast wrote:This blog is the first thing to make me excited for AoS. Can't wait to see more from you.

Wow! Thanks a lot :-)

More to come...

Heroes of Order

More of my old 8th Edition Empire have passed through the realmgates to Azyrheim (i.e. have been rebased onto a circle base). This time it's Wolmar Held, Battle Standard Bearer, pledging his service once more to Siegfried.

Sigmar might have forgotten about the lowly denizens of Azryheim, but the Free Peoples are a suspicious lot and the Desperados are no exception. Wolmar Held carries the Desperado's totem aloft no matter how dank or dark the dungeons they find themselves in across the Mortal Realms.

What's next?

I have lots on my painting station that I am hoping to finish soon. Cornacaprious has been busy delving into the dark arts and I have a Wight King, Tomb Banshee, Cairn Wraith and Hexwriaths all nearing completion.

Meanwhile Siegfried has been making allies among the outcasts of Azyrheim. I have two High Aelf heroes coming as well as a Duadrin Warmachine. All coming soon!

LeCacty wrote:WOW DUDE! Congrats! Seriously! You definitely deserve to be up there

Thanks a lot, mate! I was really stoked. Hoping to appear on it more if I can!

Azazelx wrote:Great work, that Undead warband looks fantastic!

Thanks, Azazelx. I am a big fan of your blog too, so that's nice to hear. :-)

More to come...

Duardin Steam Guilds

The Duardin of Azryheim are known as the “Dispossessed”, stripped of their homelands, their mines and their fortunes. They have been refugees for an age ever since Sigmar first closed off the realm of Azyr. Through that time they have never forgotten nor forgiven any who have wronged them, for the Duardin are notorious for the grudges they bear.

Now that Sigmar has reopened the realm gates the Duardin have began to cast their gaze back across the Mortal Realms once more. The great Steam Guilds of Azyrheim each crafting their own plans to retake the lost holds or to carve fortunes anew.

Expeditions of Prospectors, Surveyors and Cartographers have been sent out to map the Mortal Realms and it is not uncommon to see bands of Duardin alongside armies of Free Peoples or Aelves selling thier services in battle for the chance to chart unexplored territories.



Prospector Glimmer

Prospector Glimmer of the Ironfire Guild has joined Siegfried and the Desperados under the provision of first mining rights on all potential rare metals found as well as a cut in the treasure. The Ironfire Guild has provided a Battle Cannon to Siegfried with the promise of reinforcements if their ventures are successful.





These are models from the old Battle For Skull Pass (the WHFB 7th Edition Starter Set). They are not the greatest of sculpts but to me they have some charm. I wanted to experiment with them a little bit, so I went for a NMM (non-metallic metal) approach to try and recreate a cartoony appearance similar to say, World of Warcraft.

There are no complicated blends, so it's not a true NMM style. Instead matt base coats and simple edge highlights for grey and gold pieces. What do you think?



This Cannon has been nicknamed "Baby Cannon" as it is fielded next to my Empire Great Cannon in games. It fits perfectly on a 40mm base, and the only word I can think to describe it is... "cute", haha.

Like my Vampire Counts models, these Dwarfs will eventually become an army in their own right. I have plans to paint the Thunderers from the BFSP set next and then perhaps to add new models. I love the Gyrocopter and the Ironbreakers, so those are strong candidates.

What do you think of my Duardin?

....and that's not all. Cornacaprious is still busy binding dead souls to do his bidding....

... More to come

Thanks for all the replies everyone, it's really encouraging to hear!

Da Boss wrote:Fantastic work. Your undead are amazing, love the corroded bronze weapons. But everything is gorgeous.

Thank you :-) I think it turned out really well too. I am a big fan of GWs Nihilakh Oxide and Ryza Rust, both of which got used a lot on the Skeletons' weapons and shields.

Paradigm wrote:Cracking stuff as usual! Love those Dwarves, and the Undead remain fantastic!

That style of NMM is one I personally prefer over the uber-shiny look. The thing I've found helps a lot (which you might have already done, but I'll suggest it anyway) is washes; purple over your 'gold', black or very thin blue over your silver/steel, works a treat to just tie the highlighting in a bit more and add another layer of depth.

Hmm, that's really interesting. Do you have a link to any guides? I only used good ol' Agrax Earthshade on the metal parts of these models, but I would be very interested in improving my technique!

Januine wrote:Beautiful work yet again B. Keep 'em coming

Cheers Januine!

nathanie1 wrote:So very cool, your skills as a model maker and painter are so complimentary, subbed, subbed subbed subbed subbed

Thank you! Although I don't think I am much of a modeler, just a painter. It's one thing I worry about with my blogs - I come up with stories for all my miniatures to try to bring them alive, but I never attempt conversions or the like. I wonder if there is ever a disconnection between the two sides because of this...

GiraffeX wrote:That's really cool on the Flickr page, keep up the great work.

Yeah I was stoked!

LeCacty wrote:I can't get over the round bases.That cannon is really great!

Agreed. Round bases has to be the BEST part of Age of Sigmar, haha.

Kommissar Waaaghrick wrote:Oh my Zog these are so good. I'm ashamed of my army now.

Haha! No way. But thank you :-D

And now for something completely different

So as well as painting warhammer, one of my hobbies is messing around in Photoshop and InDesign. You might have guessed from the level of presentation this blog aspires to. Anyway, I had this crazy idea to make my own Battletome...

And this weekend I put in lots of the ground work. Please see some of the mock ups below!

<Edit - Pictures removed, you can see the whole thing just below :-) >

The idea is to have 8 pages in total. 6 that detail the story around my Desperados and 2 that are appendix pages for reference. I would then print out all my warscrolls and add them to the back of the book to create a nice gaming aid.

What do you think of the mock-ups so far? I've actually almost finished the entire thing, so I need to turn my attention to the last few remaining models to reach my first milestone with this project.


...More to come

Please behold below my custom Battletome! 8 Pages, that hopefully weaves a tale of Siegfried and the Desperados amidst the dark and corrupted world of Azyrheim. Any feedback is greatly appreciated! (Especially spelling and grammatical errors - already noticed "Siegfried" is misspelt on page 4...)

Hopefully it will catch the eye of my opponent when I next go to GW for a game :-P


Page 1


Page 2


Page 3


Page 4


Page 5


Page 6


Page 7


Page 8

Paradigm wrote:No link to a guide for the NMM, I'm afraid, it's just something I came across reading years ago, always thought it was a bit of an urban myth, and then actually tried it and it worked a treat.

Those pages look very nicely done!

No worries! I am already trying it out on some miniatures. The blue wash seems to be working well so far :-D

LeCacty wrote:Well that's pretty fluffin fancy... heh.... fluffin.

Mr Morden wrote:Lovely models, great fluff - loving this

Thanks! And I promise to return to posting photos of miniatures again now.

... More to come

Cornacaprious never rests! He has captured the soul of a Tomb Banshee and a Cairn Wraith to summon up in battle.

He has also reanimated a Wight King to lead the Deathrattle hordes.

This largely finishes my Death models for the moment (although I do have 5 Hexwraiths coming too). I'm am now moving onto 2 High Elf heroes and a big rebasing project for my old Empire to get my 30 model school league army all finished.

The Wight King came out a little messy unfortunately. He won't be a part of my "Desperado" army (as he cannot be summoned), but will become part of my larger Death Army once it is big enough.

I found it incredibly hard to take good photos of both the Cairn Wraith and the Tomb Banshee together due to how dark one is and how bright the other is haha. I will try and add more photos in future posts.



The Cairn Wraith is one of my favourite models ever so I am really happy to have one all painted up.



I decided to do the Tomb Banshee monotone to fit in with the Spirit Hosts, what do you think?

I was going to do the Hexwraiths in the same scheme but have since changed my mind and the Hexwraiths will be in black robes to fit with the Cairn Wraith.

It's been a busy few days if you can tell! But I am pretty happy with this productive push :-D

... More to come


Automatically Appended Next Post:

LeCacty wrote:THIS! Is what I feel AoS was made for! You should write Codices for Geedubs, but first we'd need to inject pure evil and anti-consumerism into you! MWAHAHAHAHA!

Haha thanks man, and I agree. Age of Sigmar is best for letting your creative juices go wild! And that's why I am having so much fun.

Paradigm wrote:

 LeCacty wrote:
THIS! Is what I feel AoS was made for!

Agreed, every time I see a post about this army or the school leage 30-model format, I'm so very tempted to start up a small force with all kinds of kits that I'd never want to build a full army for. I think I could even (just about) manage to get that all painted to a decent standard without getting too distracted!

Cracking work on that document. Inspiring stuff!

Thanks Paradigm! The prolific painter that you are, I am sure you could create a 30 model force in no time at all :-) let's see it! I know you already have your fanatsy models on circle bases.

Llamahead wrote:Bah round bases! Seriously though it's nice to see regular humans in AoS. The gritty heroic underdogs vs the hugely powerful evil overlords was a big part of Warhammer to me. I'm still not particularly interested in making the change as I want massed ranked infantry blocks myself but hey if your enjoying it. Beautiful models and the flexibility of the smaller model count is a huge advantage.

I think there's a compliment in there somewhere ;-) I agree the charm of Warhammer was the little guys. That was the reason I collected Empire. That charm is still there in my opinion, only now the other guys are even bigger!

I haven't posted much of my Empire as they are due a rebase. But I plan to do some more Empire units soon. (I have a unit of Hunstmen I am dying to paint)

Januine wrote:Stunning stuff there Bottle. Absolutely cracking work. 잔짜좋다!!!

고맙습니다! ㅎㅎ

Thank you everyone for the kind words about the Wight King. I had thought he came out messy to begin with, so it's nice to know others like him. I snapped a few more pictures for a better view.

I also got to play with my Death army as a standalone force on Friday at the local GW - I would like to do some full on battle reports in future (like I did with my Necromunda), but I don't have the set up at home just yet so this single picture snapped in the GW is all I can offer :-P

LeCacty wrote:Great work as usual. The wight king is such a cool model. I really need to pick one up. Any plans for black knights and/or krell?

Thanks! I'm doing some Hexwraiths at the moment. Krell is a super model but I am pretty scared of finecast. I am painting two High Aelven heroes right now at the experience has just been horrible :-(

Black Knights are a maybe for the future! I find the Vampire Count models so quick to paint I could see myself growing a large army of them!

Bruticus wrote:extremely productive. I really like the Wight King - I admire your neat+tidy style but I think the slightly looser paintjob on the Wight looks great, I love the dirty bone colour and dirty, rusty armour.

Great work on the army book too.

Thanks man!

Januine wrote:loving that wight king - think i'm gonna have to get one!

Does this mean we get to see you do fantasy, Januine? Or do you imagine some cool Admech conversion....

MuchoDonchatz wrote:Very nice, perfect for the Season of the Witch indeed. I particularly like the banshee and the rust looks fantastic on the wight and that scythe wielding fellow.

Thanks

Januine wrote:Bottle - if you have any more wraiths or wights yet to paint - perfect for an entry in Para's monthly comp. This month's theme is Halloween~ish.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/665629.page

Sadly my Hexwraiths are already half painted so don't qualify under the rules! Maybe something for November?

Modhail wrote:Niiiccee!
Great painting and a very enjoyable backstory.
Definitely going into the inspiration folder. How did you paint the ghosts and banshee, love the effect.

Thanks! I am a really big fan of your work, so that's nice to hear from you.

The Ghosts were super easy to paint, and very fun:

- White Undercoat
- Nihilakh Oxide
- Lahmian Medium + Biel-Tan Green 50/50 applied in recesses
- Celestra Grey first highlight
- Pallid Wych Flesh second hightlight

Paradigm wrote:If you do have any deathy, magicy or spooky stuff left to do, then they'd be most welcome entries to the challenge!

 Bottle wrote:

Thanks Paradigm! The prolific painter that you are, I am sure you could create a 30 model force in no time at all :-) let's see it! I know you already have your fanatsy models on circle bases.

I probably could, especially if it were a mix of stuff rather than the same over and over again. The hard part would be halting at 30 models... My first force would have to take advantage of the alliance potential, which would then become two separate forces, which would then need opposing forces, which would then need allies of their own... So on and so forth. If I had a gaming group open to playing AoS (or scratch that, a gaming group at all) then it could well happen...

Just throwing some stuff out there, how would this work as an army with the 30-model school league rules? I'm not overly concerned about effectiveness, more just synergy and coherency and having all my bases covered.

Spoiler:

Elves:
High Elf prince on Griffon
5 Dragon Princes of Caledor

Empire:
2 Empire Wizards
10 State Troops of some variety

Dwarves:
some kind of Big Gun (do these count as 1 model or do I need to count the crew?)
10 of whatever the gunners are
Master Engineer or whatever he is?

30 minis, got a little bit of everything in. Would that be workable?

It would be very workable! The only thing is the gun does instead count the crew as separate models (so a cannon would be 4 models for example). Of course a Gyrocopter or Gyrobomber could be a great addition.

And I am in the exact same boat as you. I have my current 30 model army almost to completion (Siegfried's Desperados), but after that I want to expand the Duardin and Death into separate 30 model armies each and dust off my Night Goblins for a 4th 30 model army....

Gallahad wrote:Great painting. I love the face and reds on Cornacaprious in particular. Thank you for sharing!

Thanks a lot

Smugglers, brigands, sell-swords and deviant scum. Seigfried and his Desperados have been called all and worse. Some of it might even be true... for the right coin, of course.

The Desperados are a motley crew of misfits if ever there was, but who would expect anything else from the city of Azyrheim? Man, Duardin and Aelf fight side-by-side, some under the banner of Sigmar, others for gold and others still for reasons unknown. And yet it is Siegfried they follow across the Mortal Realms, exploring lost tombs and crumbling cities to seek fortune and glory.



For every player making the transition from WHFB to AoS there is one decision we must all make...

Do I rebase my existing army?

Over the next few weeks I plan to move all my painted Empire models onto round and oval bases. Here we have the first 10 Swordsmen to make the transition as they will be part of my 30 model "School League" army.

I love round bases. Not only do the models look better, they also look much more imposing. 10 models standing flush on square bases doesn't have much of a footprint, but 10 on circle bases in a loose formation looks quite formidable on the battlefield.



These models were painted close to a year ago, and with a black undercoat. I think my painting has improved lots since but they don't look too shabby.

They are very much still Altdorf City Guard in appearance despite me rebranding them as the "Desperados". Again this is something that every player making the transition has to deal with too, how does my army fit into the new fluff? When I have the chance to paint some new Empire to add to these regiments I will start to play down the reds and blues in favour of natural leathers and creams to give them a more rag-tag appearance.

LeCacty wrote:Hexwraiths, black nights, same thing, eh? Horsey dead men. And yea, I feel your pain on finecast. Metal can be bad, but not THAT bad.

Oh, I disagree! Metal is fine to work with, all my Necromunda is metal and I love it. Metal doesn't have air bubbles or crumbling detail, hardly any flash and stuff that's bent out of shape can just be bent back again :-P

Azazelx wrote:Great work on the dwarves, and I love what you've been doing with the undead - both the ethereals and also the black-robed and corporeal ones.

Thanks! I have some Hexwraiths coming to join my Cairn Wraith and they will be in matching black robes to extend the theme!

Thanks for reading and for all the comments as always everyone!

More to come...

Of all the races that took refuge in Azyrheim it is perhaps the Aelves who struggled to adapt the most. The feuds and rivalries of the Aelves were brought with them to the city and now play out in close quarters and behind closed doors. Political intrigue is rife among the Aelven nobility, where lands long lost from the Mortal Realms beyond are still bartered and fought for. Down the dark corridors of the Aelven palaces at night can be heard the footfall of exiled assassins as they bring plots to dark fruition.




After a bloody night of executions, Shiran-khan found herself the last in her bloodline and heir to a lost Kingdom. Fearing for her life she fled the Aelven palaces accompanied only by her loyal handmaiden.

With the Realm Gates open once more , Shiran-khan now has a chance to return to her family’s Kingdom and lay claim to her bloodright, but getting there will be no easy task.




This was my first time ever dealing with Finecast and I came to loathe it haha. The sprues arrived with so much flash I had to carve out the legs from the resin. Air bubbles a plenty, warped sections too. When I sprayed with my white undercoat I made the mistake of spraying from too far away causing a grainy finish on the models... I really wanted to throw them away at points.

I persevered though, and while I don't think this is my finest work (especially under close scrutiny) and am still happy with how they turned out in the end!



And this marks a historic landmark in the project! My 30 (+15) model army (designed under GW's School league Rules) is complete!

Here are all my heroes assembled above, making up a D&D style party. I haven't shown the final empire rebasing yet, so stay tuned for a full army showcase ASAP. What is especially nice for me is it is almost exactly a year since I got back into the hobby and painted up the Bright Wizard shown above.

Thanks for reading and commenting as always!

More to come...

youidiotkid wrote:Excellent work, Bottle. You seriously tempt me to rebase all 100+ of my Night Goblins for AOS. Maybe I'll give the new rules a try first, haha. I'd love to see some action shots of the Desperados in-game. The paintjobs must look striking on the field.

Thank you! and that's great to hear :-) actually I have 100+ Night Goblins I need to rebase too (and largely paint, haha) But that's a project I am keeping in the pipeline for now :-P

I'll try and do some battle reports soon, most of the players in my local GW field grey models though (which is a shame), and often half assembled models (an even bigger shame). But when I get a chance to play another fully painted force I am going to take many pics!

Januine wrote:great stuff as ever Bottle. One tiny thing I noticed - might try adn smooth out the transitions on the Aelvean cloaks though. Lovely looking band coming together there though

Thanks man! Yeah... I was rushing these a little by the end. I bought some paints to fill the gaps so I can smooth out those blends.

LeCacty wrote:I agree with jan on the cloaks, but I think that may just be because of how damn colorful they are!
Amazing work, as usual though!

Thanks!

Paradigm wrote:Good stuff! Is that still NMM on the elves? (if it is then well done, if people have to ask whether you've used NMM or regular metallics then it's mission accomplished!)

I'd agree about the cloaks, though, they do stick out when the rest of the model is so smoothly done.

Yeah, I tried that blue wash technique you mentioned :-) again, I don't think this NMM is my finest work by any stretch, but they look nice from 4ft away haha. All your comments have made me decide to revisit the cloaks to smooth them out.

Mymearan wrote:Wonderful work as always Bottle!

Thanks Mym!

Here is the rest of the Empire I have been rebasing:











As mentioned before this is my School League army 100% painted. I will get an army showcase together as soon as I can. Unfortunately I don't have the set up at home (all the pics you see here are just taken on A4 paper with an iphone), so I was hoping to get some photos in my local GW, but I am off sick with a cold at the moment so maybe next week :-)

Januine wrote:Lovely stuff there Bottle. Particularly like what I'm now calling the Soju Gunner - fella on a horse blasting off rounds and packing a few bottles of the evil stuff on his saddle. Great work!

Haha yes! A new name for him. He has D3 shots with his gun but I should only allow wanshat!.

LeCacty wrote:Awesome riders! I personally would have found some helmets for them but these actually look nice (I hate the default outrider heads)

I like their mustachioed faces haha. The pistoliers heads are being used for an upcoming Halberdiers unit! What sort of helmets would you use?

impulse wrote:Wow, very inspirational! I only wish I had a gaming group who'd be interested in something like this.

Thanks man! Do you just mean AoS?

Winter wrote:Awesome work, really great use of colour and the freehand on the banner was awesomely executed.

Would be nice to see some more inventive basing, but it's hardly something to fault you on.

Thanks! Yeah, they do get my little pointy toadstools on bases as a personal flair but I tried to largely mirror the studio bases. I have a Mortach to paint up and hope to do something more exciting with that base!

Mymearan wrote:I really like your painting style. It's not the cleanest when it comes to blends etc, but it doesn't matter because you're great at putting highlights in the right color, where they belong, which is more important imo than blending.

Thanks man. Yeah I try to paint as quickly as I can which means not always devoting as much time as I can to blends. These Empire guys were painted close to a year ago now and from black undercoat. I can't wait to paint some empire with my new painting style (which you can see best on my undead)

Long time no post!

Well, you know I don't like to post without an update, so here's a unit I finished today!



10 Duardin Thunderers to accompany Siegfried and his men.

These models are from Battle For Skull Pass and look a little goofy, but I have had them lying around for almost 10 years so it was time I painted them! I am trying out new things on these dwarves - firstly I am trying to speed paint them from a white undercoat and secondly I am trying out a few NMM painting styles. I am going to limit any NMM to these dwarves as I think it gives them a nice cartoony-world-of-warcraft look but will stick with traditional metalics on my Empire and Undead.

I mentioned I am trying to speed paint them from a white undercoat, I'll give you a rough idea of what I mean: (big images within)



I have big plans for this thread in 2016.

Not one, not two, but FIVE armies are planned! With a stronger return to the narrative snippets I have been a little lax on recently. I want to thank you all for following this thread in 2015, and I promise to get a whole army shot of Siegfried's Desperados soon, it's difficult with my iPhone and a piece of A4 paper!

More to come...

2015 - A Snapshot Review

I see other P&M Blogs are doing an end of year recap - I'm not going to post anything in depth, but I thought I would post where my painting was at the start of 2015, and how far it has progressed:

Start of 2015


At the start of the year I was still painting my Empire swordsmen which was the FIRST Warhammer regiment I ever completed. I had only been back into the hobby for a couple of months, and this regiment seemed like a mammoth task at the time!

End of 2015


I'm going to choose the above image as my best work in 2015 - hopefully you can see the improvement from the swordsmen to the Undead. One of the big changes for me was moving to white undercoat which I vastly prefer. This image was also featured in the little flickr pool box on the 'What's New Today' which while might not be an impressive feat for many, made me very happy all the same!



Goals for 2016

So what can you expect from bottle in 2016...

MORE UNDEAD - I think everyone likes my undead (I do too), the only reason there hasn't been more of them is because I have a big painting backlog I am trying to clear! My Undead army will expand in 2016, do not worry.

MORE EMPIRE - All the Empire in this thread have been rebasings of my old 8th Edition army. I want to paint some new Empire models from white undercoat and develop the colour scheme to move away from the strictly Altdorf scheme but still matching my current models. I already have some Empire Huntsmen in the pipeline...

MORE BIG KITS - Sometimes my blog feels like; infantry, infantry and more infantry... I want to do some bigger kits. Looking in my painting backlog I have 2 Rat Ogre's, 3 River Trolls and 1 Mortach to begin ;-)

MORE ARMIES - Did I just mention Rat Ogres and River Trolls?? Yep, Night Goblins and Skaven will get added to this blog in 2016, although they won't be fighting on Siegfried's side...

MORE NECROMUNDA - Well, not really relevant here. But in case you're interested, there will be a second chapter to 'The Good, The Bad and the Deviant Scum'.

CLEAR THE BACKLOG - Apparently, it's not as serious as Paradigm's, but I do have a lot of models without a lick of paint on them. For me it's actually an issue of space and storage and so I am taking drastic measures this year. I am only going to buy 6 new miniature kits (well, that's the plan). Now, this could be 6 starter sets, or 6 clamp packs, but I am imposing this limit on myself to help manage my projects. (Note, this only applies to miniatures. I can buy as much terrain, books, paints etc as I want :-P)

BUILD AN AOS GAMING TABLE - I have a whole set up for Necromunda, but when it comes to playing AoS at home my armies are running around on blank boards of MDF in between the unpainted mausoleums from a Gardens of Moor set. It's time to change that!

 NAVARRO wrote:
Great painting

Very cool tutorial too, loved it.
I bet you cant wait for the FIre Slayers

Oh you bet, my body is more than ready, haha!

Actually all this Dwarf prep is exactly for the upcoming Fyre Slayers.

Thanks to everyone for the positive comments on the Dwarf Thunderers! I have a few more stunties on the conveyor belt at the moment so expect some more soon :-)

Hey did anyone read 'What's New Today', today? You may have noticed some familiar miniatures haha



I am so stoked! It also makes me happy that my Tomb Banshee and Spirit Host are framed on an incredibly old OOP piece of GW Dwarf Scenery mwhahahaha

The next goal has to be getting in White Dwarf or Warhammer Visions!

 The_Grey_Knight wrote:
Love the models, and the story behind them, though I've got to ask, are you going to write about any of their adventures, or just the history of the beautiful models. If the first is true please include some Wood Elves...

Yes, I would love to write about their actual adventures. Battle Reports, Battleplans, Short Stories. It's something I really want to do, but I am still working on my set-up. Once I've got a battle board and painted terrain we are ready to roll!

I have lots more in the pipeline, so please wait for updates soon :-)

Vulkite Bezerkers of the Fallen Lodge, Khadúm

The steamhead Duardin of the Ironfire Steamguild were not the only dwarfs to join Siegfried's Desperados. Almost a year after they had first set forth from Azyrheim to deliver the princess Shiran-Khan to her lost kingdom were they joined by a band of Vulkite Bezerkers, Fyreslayer Duardin.




The Bezerkers led by a Karl named Thorgrim were the last survivors of the Khadúm Lodge which had be ransacked by forces of Chaos as the armies of Nurgle swept across Ghyran. Thorgrim accepted Siegfried's offer of allegiance in return for any Ur-Gold the Desperados found on their journey.




Thoughts

Wooo, I am so happy to finally show you guys this completed unit. It took ages (2 months!) - partially because I am in the midst of buying my first house, but mainly because these models are 99% skin and metal, and being a bright spark I decided to do none-metallic-metals on all my dwarfs and there's no turning back now!

What does everyone think of them? I am really happy with the finished result. These models divided opinion on the quality of the sculpts. I think we all saw that particularly bad picture of the fyreslayers punching their shields into the air, right?

The truth is you do have to be a bit careful with this kit. I wanted to go for the shields option, but I definitely did not want a load of them to be in dumb poses. You get 4 models in the kit with their left arm raised... so what was the solution?

- Make one the Hornblower
- Make one the Karl (champion) - with 2 axes
- Give one a dual weapon loadout and strap the shield on his back
- Let one of them fist-pump the shield in the air.

So with these considerations, I think the kit came out very nicely. What do you guys think?

More to come...

Wow, thanks for the overload of positive comments guys! :-)

Almost makes me want to add some more to my dwarfs, but I've got to take a break from any sort of NMM for a long time after these guys!

A quick update for you all:



I finished rebasing another 10 of my Empire Swordsmen from my old Warhammer Altdorf army so they could join their brothers and be reborn in the Desperados.

This marks a milestone for me because these are the last of my Empire I still had on square bases. I stuck them all together for a photo and dragged in Siegfried himself as well as Wolmar Held:



They look badass (even if I say so myself). I love this about Age of Sigmar. This was a tiny tiny regiment in Warhammer, and it's now a giant rabble of nefarious types from all over Azyrheim haha. The paint jobs do look a little dated now, and I can't wait to show with you some of the new Empire models I am working on from white primer instead of black.

angelofvengeance wrote:Btw Bottle, your Vulkite Berserkers are up on the GW site's Flickr pool.

LeCacty wrote:

 angelofvengeance wrote:
Btw Bottle, your Vulkite Berserkers are up on the GW site's Flickr pool.

Damn Bottle! GW loves ya!

Whooo! I am always so happy when I get on (my 4th time now, and 3rd for this blog!).

I always take a screenshot to commemorate:



Thanks guys for notifying me of this. I wonder if I'll ever get into White Dwarf or Visions? Hopefully next time! :-)

The Wise Dane wrote:Gotta say, your take on the setting improves my opinion on Age of Sigmar with about 3400%. Like, I want to make a Warband just like yours, just seeing this!

Thanks man, the best part of AoS for me has been to collect and paint exactly what I want and not a figure more. Eventually all the Desperados will go their separate ways and be armies of their own but for the moment they are battling together. I hope to actually post some battlereps in the future like I did with my Necromunda Blog.

IGtR= wrote:These would have been soooo much better as a marketing too than the pics GW released. Kudos bottle

Wow thanks, it's really nice to hear praise like this!

A quick post to say:

GROUP PHOTO :-)



I bought an A2 piece of paper so I could snap some cool group shots... Well that was the plan. Sadly it wasn't as easy as just using a bigger piece of paper, and the iPhone struggled to take a nice picture. Still, it's great to be able to post all my finished miniatures for Age of Sigmar in a single photo. I could almost convince myself this is a finished army...

...but really it's more like 5 unfinished armies lumped together :-P

I'm going to start fleshing out each of the different factions into its own force and then onto making a table and maybe even getting some battlereports.

Thanks for dropping in as always!

More to come...

Thanks a lot for the kind words guys! :-)

 angelofvengeance wrote:
Will you be playing Empire as their legacy rules, or the Freeguilds for GA:Order?

It's certainly an interesting question for me! I will definitely be buying the book (cannot wait, I have the Death one already and it was worth every penny).

But - I've now got 3 OOP units in my army... Alarielle, the Handmaiden and the Empire Cannon. I will likely use old warscrolls for the two high elves, for the cannon I'll see what the Dwarf one like in the Ironweld Arsenal and decide if I should play them both with that Warscroll.

For all the other units I'm going to use the warscrolls from new book. Love the name "Freeguild" and can't wait to start referring to my army as that. :-)

Hey everyone, thanks for your kind words as always! Really helps me keep motivated and working on my armies for Age of Sigmar. Speaking of which I have just finished off another unit!

Hexwraiths





Another unit to add to the necromancer Cornacaprious' disposal. The paint jobs are perhaps a bit quick and rough - maybe not quite up to the standard of my Fyreslayers but I am happy with them all so them. Actually, I am quite relieved to have them finished. I started these guys in... October? The robes were painted pink/purple to begin with to match my skeletons' rags - didn't turn out very well making them all look like the Grim Reapers of Ribena haha, so I repainted the robes black... but did so by painting them Eshin grey and then using Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade to get it to black. All in all a very tedious project that was ever put onto the backburner in favour of something else!

And with this unit my Death army is getting very close to becoming its own entity. I want to do a thematic battle report about Corncaprious' betrayal of Siegfried with full pictures. Similar to my Necromunda thread...

Well, that means I need to paint up some scenery and get a battleboard put together doesn't it... hmm....

More to come...

Thanks AoV!

 Mymearan wrote:
Really love those Hexwraiths, the horses in particular look suitably grimy... How did you paint them?

Cheers man. The skeleton of the horses was largely done by just painting Gryphonne Sepia (the old sepia wash) onto white undercoat, after that a bit of Agrax Earthshade is dabbed into the very deep recesses and Rhinox Hide is added to any parts the wash can't reach (like deep in the eye sockets). After that I did a few quick highlights in Screaming Skull and Pallid Wytch Flesh.

The metals were done with Skrag Brown followed by a wash of Agrax Earthshade and strippled Ironbreaker - Typhus Corrosion added sparingly and a drybrush of Ryza Rust in places, followed by verdigris created by Nihilahk(sp?) Oxide and then mixing it with Pallid Wytch Flesh for the lighter spots.

Black robes where done with Eshin Grey covered in a few coats of Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade with some quick drybrushing of Pallid Wytch Flesh and Karak Stone to create soft highlights.

The ethereal flames where done with Nihilahk Oxide over white undercoat with Biel-tan green drabbed into the shadows, highlighted with Pallid Wytch Flesh and then random placement of Waywatchers Green glaze.

That should cover everything :-)

Hey everyone, it's been a little while since I last posted so even though I usually don't post WIPs I thought I would make the exception today.

The recent coverage of SCGT really opened my eyes to how awesome tournaments seem to be, and so I quickly hunted down the next one close to me and signed up. It's the 'Bristol Smash' in June. So I am now preparing my army to be tournament legal and adding some much needed reinforcements:




1x Steam Tank,
1x Cogsmith (Grimm Burloksson)
10x Archers

All WIP so far with the steamtank and Cogsmith coming along, the others are still just basecoats on top of white undercoat.

I have learnt to magnetise so the steamtank pilot will be able to sit in the turret or go on a seperate base (he is too nice a model to stay coped up in the tank all day long). The steamtank marks one of my new year goals to tackle bigger models too.

Seems like I have enough time to get these finished for the tournament on June 4th but I am also moving into my first house this Friday! So life is super hectic!

Anyway thanks for stopping by :-)

More to come...

Thanks guys, it's all still a work in progress. The Steamtank still needs highlights, details and the base finishing. The infantry need even more work still. I will update with some more pictures once I have some more progress. Moving house this Friday so everything is in boxes now!

Once me and the wife are finally in our own place again, hopefully things will really start to take off with this blog! ;-)