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*the late 1990's

Yes, I have finally caught up, in internet terms, with the turn of the millennium by setting up a blog. Not much there at the moment, just a few older pics and some blether, but recently I've been more energised about hobbying than I have been in a good long while, so hopefully the added motivation of keeping the blog updated will lead to some genuine progress in my various semi-active projects. The opening post follows...

So, blogs. I tend not to be very good at this sort of thing; I'm not particularly extroverted so I usually require the provocation of an existing thread or conversation before I put finger to keyboard, and then when I do I tend towards excessive verbosity, but I'm at the stage now where I'm(albeit infrequently and inconsistently) updating WiP threads on several different forums, some of them faction- or game system-specific, so consolidation seems sensible and blogs seem to be the done thing in that regard.

A brief warning for those of a delicate constitution; I tend to type how I speak, meaning I will likely be swearing here, frequently. I understand that's a problem for some people, so be ye fairly warned.

All that said, lets begin with a quick rundown of what folk can expect from this blog. These days I find myself much more enamoured of GW's presently defunct but potentially soon to be resurrected Specialist Games than I do of their "core" offerings, so the meat & potatoes of my updates will relate to Mordheim, INQ28, and Battlefleet Gothic, with occasional forays into Forgeworld's Heresy-era Tactical Strike system(ie, Kill Team done properly). Age of Sigmar will find no purchase nor favour here. The content of said updates will mostly focus on modelling, sculpting, converting etc over painting since I enjoy and feel like I've much improved at the former and don't tend to have much fun with the latter, although I am trying to do better in that respect. You might also find yourself subjected to my fluff writing, for which I sincerely apologise.

I'm presently clearing my desk and sorting all my half-finished projects, so to close out this opening foray I'll include a few older pictures.

-pics-

I can make no promises about the frequency of forthcoming updates, but the plan at the moment is to focus down on three main projects; Adeptus Mechanicus(the completion of my 40K Explorator Team and also of a 30K Magistratum Strike Force), Adeptus Arbites(a 40K INQ28 project that is still in the concept phase), and more dark denizens for Mordheim this time in the form of the bestial Northmen(a warband based on the Border Town Burning supplement rules for Chaos Marauders, likely the Norse subfaction).

I hope that eventually a few folk will find some inspiration in the work I post here, as I have from the blogs and plogs of others.

Cheers,
Yodhrin.

I look forward to seeing the blog develop. I remember being wowed when first seeing your Possessed made from the Empire Huntsmen set (a very underrated set, in my opinion!).

Hopefully you'll post some of the pictures here too?

Anyway some lovely work in that first post already. :-)

Cool, I'll check this out. I enjoy your posts here, you're a good writer.

Great work on the possessed warband there. I really like the conversions and detail that you've put into the builds. If I could say one thing though - keep the round bases! They just look so much nicer than the squares - and AoS be damned.

 Azazelx wrote:
Great work on the possessed warband there. I really like the conversions and detail that you've put into the builds. If I could say one thing though - keep the round bases! They just look so much nicer than the squares - and AoS be damned.

I know, on many levels I do prefer them, but I really want to try and move past being bitter about the butchery of Realhammer so I can focus on just enjoying the material that exists, and round-basing my fantasy models is tied inextricably in my mind to the brief period of optimism we had between first hearing rumours of skirmish-Fantasy and the depressing reality of AoS becoming incontrovertible, so is a perpetual reminder of disappointment. By contrast, square-based fantasy skirmishing aids in settling into a nice warm bath of nostalgia as it recalls all the fun that was had around and after the launch of Mordheim.

Bottle; When I get new stuff I plan to follow what seems to be the done thing with blogging - I'll post a selection of pics here and elsewhere on forums and leave most of my blethering and the extra detail photos on the blog so folk can click-through if they want to.

The Huntsmen are a great kit, I'd actually initially bought the box I cracked for the Possessed to do plastic Marienburg Mercenary heroes, but I'm thinking I'll probably not bother with them now since I don't want to do 3 warbands all based on exactly the same models(they're also perfect for River Watch from the Mutiny in Marienburg setting), plus it has some great heads in there.

I've been round-basing my fantasy models for years now, purely for aesthetic choices that go back to the RT days - and something that also worked as a final breaking away from GW-centric HeroHammer into other games.

I still really like background of The Old World, and I'm happy to ignore Realms of Ogors and Aelfar or whatever they're called - (though I like a fair few of the AoS models on their own basis).

 Azazelx wrote:
I've been round-basing my fantasy models for years now, purely for aesthetic choices that go back to the RT days - and something that also worked as a final breaking away from GW-centric HeroHammer into other games.

I still really like background of The Old World, and I'm happy to ignore Realms of Ogors and Aelfar or whatever they're called - (though I like a fair few of the AoS models on their own basis).

Hmm. I'm wavering on the issue, I really do like the way rounds look. We'll see.

Anywho; couple of updates! One for INQ28 and one for Mordheim, more pics etc at the blog;

Love that Ad Mech servitor thing.

EDC

Gonna bump this up, your greenstuff skills are incredible. Do you have anything new after the cool Skaven gizmo I see in your blogspot? What are you working on currently?

Cheers Bottle

I've been distracted again - I dug out a lot of old BFG ships to sell off the rarer ones(realistically I was never going to complete SM and IN and AM fleets before FW bring the game back again, hah, and I'll need all the hobby cash I can get for the DW release and the upcoming HH box), and in amongst that were a fair few of the plastic cruisers for both Chaos and the Imperial Navy...so now I'm doing a small pre-Heresy Iron Warriors fleet.

I might even actually get around to assembling that Ramilies Starfort I panic-bought when FW killed their original SG range

EDIT: Wow, this is proper broken, can't do my post at all. Right lets try paragraph by paragraph then...EDITagain; huzzah, 10 edits and it worked, dunno wtf was going on there, kept cutting off after the first paragraph despite the whole thing pasting in fine.

Not actually mustering up a proper blog update as of yet, but I posted these over on the book of faces so why not forums too. I've actually not been as idle as the date would suggest, I'm just reticent to post WiPs since I often end up putting projects into a box on the shelf for months until I'm interested in them again. On the plus side, I finally have a phone with a camera in it that doesn't produce images that look like pixel art. Anyway, the blurb, and then the pretty piccies:

First of my "artscale" Custodes is ready for paint(not that it's likely to get any given my track record), or close to it as I'm undecided on whether to add a shoulder half-cape to the left arm similar to the ones on the Deathshroud(but nicer lookin' obviously ), and the remaining four are almost done, with all the sculpting work complete bar the handles on the extended weapons. Each one has been chopped apart at the ankles, thighs, and waist to add 1mm plastic spacers, then the armour and robes resculpted, and the weapon hafts extended by 3mm to match. Also I've narrowed the shoulders by both removing the raised "mounting discs" from the torsos, as well as by trimming down the shoulder section of the arm slightly to move the pads inwards, and also trimming the inner-pad on the shoulderpads to account for that. To my eye it now looks much more like the classic Visions of Heresy art pieces that really defined how the Custodes should look for me.

A couple of quick workbench pics attached, since I couldn't be arsed getting out the Foldio, including a wee comparison with a very, very early WiP of a "truescale" Deathwatch Marine based on a Primaris.This last bit is just my "fluff brief", I write up a wee bit of flavour text for projects before I begin, feel free to skip it if you're not a lore person:

"The Vigilant Sodalities are as old as the Custodes themselves. Four small bands of veteran warriors, in the centuries before Horus' betrayal the Emperor commanded that they answer to The Sigitilite, acting as the mailed right fist to the shrouded left hand of his Chosen operatives. In the wake of the Emperor's Ascension, different groups among Malcador's Chosen, along with others, formed the basis of several different Imperial organisations, including what would become known as the Eyes of the Emperor. The Four Vigils each provided one of the first four Eyes, who took Malcador's icon as their own and were granted control over a large portion of the Chosen's covert apparatus. The Vigils themselves have maintained extremely close ties with the Eyes ever since, striking rapidly against any threats they identify from their hidden stronghold, The Watchtower. The Vigilant Sodalities are; the Vigil of the Dawn, the Vigil of the Sun, the Vigil of the Dusk, and the Vigil of the Moon. The present membership of the Vigil of the Dusk are; Watchkeeper Sceafa Euxantius, Vexilarius Kallimakus, Vigilant Aiakos, Vigilant Hyperenor, and Vigilant Siyavash."

I'll also be modelling versions of the Vigil of the Dusk mounted on jetbikes(already WiP, waiting on a second box of Wardens to harvest the same torsos, pads, tassets, heads etc as the on-foot versions), and kitted out in Aquilon Terminator armour.

And now I'll stop blethering







And as I attempt to push past aforementioned cageyness with incomplete projects, I have a few pics of the start of my Goliaths that have been lying about since late last year; a heavy stubber guy using the GSC weapon, and an early WiP of my Boss based on a splice of the two different Deathbringers.

Great work on the Custodian.
The servitor further up is fantastic!

Your conversions are always great stuff!

Great conversions! For the custodes, could you post a pic of him next to a standard unmodified GW conversion? I think that will accentuate the visual difference on your work.

Cheers guys

Warboss - I actually forgot to post exactly that. I got my second box of Wardens the other day(harvesting the heads, torsos, tassets etc to convert the same characters on jetbikes) and tacked together the same parts I used for Aiakos. The middle cork is actually only fractionally shorter, the angle makes it look a lot more different than it is.



Also, I'm nearly done with the rest of the ones I was working on, saving some tidying work and the completion of the captain's cloak which at the moment is just the initial gap fill layer of putty.

















My plans have expanded a wee touch as well though. I'd originally planned to give the Vexilarius a Sentinel blade, but I no matter which arms and poses I tried I couldn't get the model to balance out visually, it always ended up either looking like he was about to fall over, or just awkward, so I eventually gave in and just went with the shield. However, I'd already converted the left-handed blade, and much like with everything else about these Custodes models I found with just a couple of wee tweaks all the issues I had go away - in this case, they always look to me like they'd snap off at the hilt in a stiff breeze, but in using a hand with a thicker grip from a Guardian Spear and moving the hand up closer to the pistol-crosspiece, the whole thing looks a lot more solid - so I intend to convert up a sixth man with sword & board.

I've also been working on the jetbike stuff on the side using the inevitable leftover putty(I always mix too much), I'll get some pics of that once I figure out attaching the Warden chestpieces to the lengthened Vertus legs.

Brilliant! These conversions would make for such a small difference to the untrained eye but I really appreciate the work you've put in. I was surprised already by the scale of the Custodes I have but they are really helped by the heroic scale. I'm really impressed! They look great. Super eager to see some paint on them.

Also consider me subbed

Thanks for the comparison pics as they show even more definitively that your conversion is a big improvement.

Man these are just brilliant. Artfully done

Fantastic looking conversions - well done!

Oh my goodness all that attention to detail and sculpting. consider me subbed.

Cheers folks

Custodes have gone into their box for the moment, as a wee contest over on the Mordheim FB group to write up rules for a new Hired Sword combined with a binge-watch of Salem has got me fired up to work on some Witch Hunters. They're still at the stage of picking which bits and bodies to use and figuring out poses, but I did get the model for my own contribution to aforementioned competition - a Black Guard of Morr - up to a "sketch" stage that gives some idea of how the final product will look once I do the sculpting.