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Hails to all that read this. Welcome to the start of my "everything that isn't scenery or terrain" blog. This is where I'll share my WFB (AoS) and W40K universe projects. I need some motivation to get back to work on painting miniatures. I expect after a while this will become my primary thread.

I don't have any WIP to share currently so I'm going to post a few pics of what I've been doing in the last couple months. First is a shot of all the Chaos Warrior miniatures I'd finished from 1996 to 2015. Total is 102 models:



A few months ago motivation struck and I finally built the entire rest of my collection and painted a massive block of Chaos Warriors and Chaos Knights. This is what I accomplished from late October to December 31st 2017. Total 74 models. That's a staggering accomplishment for me.



Here's what I have left. This pic was taken December 9th so the Chaos Warriors on the left and center are done. Everything else is still pending:




Another major accomplishment was figuring out how to transport 40 Chaos Knights. Here's what I came up with:



Before figuring out how to store / transport in a secure case they had been in an open-topped cardboard box. After breaking a bunch of them when I slipped on ice at a friend's house I decided that was it, something was getting done about storage and transportation. This is what I came up with and I'm really happy with how that came out. I've spun this around and have even thrown it across the room onto my couch (on purpose, was testing how the models would survive) and nothing even shifted. 100% win, and I'll be doing the same with my Skeleton Horsemen.

Thanks for stopping by. More will be coming soon.

Some nerd stat stuff- Yesterday was my 8th Dakka anniversary, this is my 30th thread, and this post is my 4,000th.

After seeing your terrain- subbed :-)

Thanks SG. I paint miniatures the same way I paint terrain- sloppy with lots of washes to hide the mistakes, so lower your expectation on this thread and go easy on me



Here's pics of a past project very close to my heart. I started it in 1996 when a friend of mine gave me a fistful of the original metal Warhammer Zombies. I don't remember when the plastic box set came out but I was all over it. I really like this army a lot. Of WFB it's tired with my Chaos Warriors as far as passion to collect and build goes. I'm done collecting for this army now, though another Corpse Cart and a mounted Necromancer would be welcome if I came across them.

All total I have 360 Zombies, 2 corpse carts, and an assortment of Vampires and Necromancers. That's all I need for this army. It's absolutely brutal as it is.

This shot is from 2011:



fast forward to April 2017:











One thing I'm doing for this army is converting the standard and musicians to reflect my view of zombies. I see Zombies as mindless animated corpses and as such I don't like them using instruments or carrying banners. I don't even like them with hand weapons but given their magical nature (opposed to toxic or biological causes) my suspension of disbelief is more forgiving for things like weapons, bloody stumps, and severed heads. But the traditional standard and instrument had to go. Here's my solution- a big hammer and a sharp pole:



Ta-da! A hack job any apprentice Necromancer would be able to manage. I have 5 more sets of this "standard / musician" combination and have only started 2 of them so far. It'll happen when I pull out my painted but unflocked base zombies.

To date I've painted over 500 zombies and that collection has at least 6 different manufacturers. I really enjoy the GW plastic zombie set the most. I have a huge collection of zombies on 25mm round bases and use them as Plague Zombies. Most have been converted so none of them have weapons of any kind.






Not my best paint on that last one but his eyes cracked me up so I had to post it

Once I get back into 40K and reawaken my Plague Marines I'm going to look into Pox Walkers and very likely "counts as" these models for them.

Zombies will show up on this thread again in the future. I'm looking forward to when I can call this a 100% completely finished project.

Oh glad to see these looking forward to seeing your Plague Marines back and have you seen the Zombicide Zombies?

I haven’t post for so long but I saw this zombie swarm and had to write I fraggin love you for it, Skalk.

Here for the long haul my friend.

That zombie horde is epic, you don't do things by halves do you!

Llamahead- The Plague Marines suffered a massive culling last year by better than 1/2. I was in such a rush to put models on the table that I didn't give them the attention (re: icky Nurgle conversions) that they needed to be more than just "Green Marines". Example:
I've kept the GW metal ones and the ones that I did a decent job on. The rest are sitting in a box waiting for redeployment on someone else's table.

Ragsta- Glad I could pull you out of the lurking depths for a post. I won't be working on them soon but the Zombie horde will return to this thread at least 2 more times.

Camkierhi- If it's worth doing, it's worth doing in a ridiculously obsessive way. Also, thanks for the inspiration. While I was writing this response to you I had an excellent idea for making movement trays that for the shambling horde (1.0mm polystyrene sheet)



I find it interesting that so many of my Dakka friends are from Scotland. Clan MacLeod (grandmother) and Clan Kennedy (grandfather) on my mom's side. I have no idea who my father is so ... yeah, let's just believe he was a marauding Norseman.

Moving on. Today is a happy day. I ordered 4 new carrying cases to reorganize my miniatures out of tote tubs with bedding foam into a real carrying case with proper foam. I've been consolidating my collection and playing a lot more "away games" and this satisfies both:



Those cases represent the WIP of my entire collection. This has been a significant project for me (reorg and storage) over the last year. I'm controlling my collection instead of it controlling me and feeling a lot happier with this evolution than I did when it started.

Hey, don't knock sloppy painting with washes to hide it that's all I ever do on mine! Basecoat, rough drybrush to add texture, wash to add depth and then maybe another drybrush over the top for skintones.

Love the zombie horde dude I wonder if you've got enough to make an entire 1500pt army solely out of Plague Zombies...

Ynneadwraith- I don't know the point cost but with 233 Plague Zombies I'm guessing I can cover that.

Installment #2 of my "organize into cases" project has arrived!



I'm genuinely excited about this. No more breaking models because they were in totes or cardboard boxes, no more totes and cardboard boxes making my hobby space look like a storage locker, and no more totes and cardboard boxes- period. My hobby space is as much a project to me as building a Rhino or panting Cultists. I'm planning on taking some pics once I have the entire room done.

Speaking of Cultists, I've recent started working on a "counts as" project for my Slaves of Darkness Chaos Warriors. I play an orderly and strictly regimented Chaos force. Each unit is equipped with the same or similar weapons (all axes, all maces, all hammers, and alwasy same shields) all have the main color scheme (steel armor with bronze trim) is repeated throughout the army. No mutations or other icky stuff. I use the original Archaon the Everchosen (on horseback) model as my Daemon Prince if my Warlord ascends, and the 3 Chaos Dwarfs from the Helcannon crew if he goes Spawn.

Recently I looked at Chaos Spawn stats again and decided I wanted to try a list of nothing but Spawn. I still need Battleline so I opted for 2 (or 3 as needed) chariots, a 100pt Lord on foot, and the rest are Spawn. But I don't like Spawn (Spawn Spawn Spawn lovely Spawn, wonderful Spawn)... models. They are gross and icky and all writing tentacle eww. Quite the conundrum until inspiration struck- use my old Empire / Bretonian / Mordheim soldiers on 40mm bases as "counts as" Spawn!

I present to you the only TRUE "free people" of the collected Realms-


What I like the best of this is I am putting modeling into play that would likely remained bitz or completely unloved on my Shelf of Shame. Another thing that makers this so cool to me is I can always re-purpose any of the individual models if I ever need to.

It's a goofy list and it's a silly modeling project but it's funny to me and I hope it turns out to be brutal on the table tomorrow night, throwing down 1,000pts consisting of 1 Chaos Lord (100 pts) 2 Chariots (160 pts) and 14 stands of Freedom Fighters (700pts) standing against Sigmarite tyranny.

Apologies for the photo, I'll fix that soon.

The WIP on my hobby room took a huge surge forward last night thanks to my IRL (and dormant Dakka) friend Feldenglas. I've finally acquired all the cases I need and once I complete the labeling I'm done enough to call it finished. I am for certain going to re-arrange the boxes, this is just what I piled up last night around midnight. I'm very excited about this. It's the first time I've had 100% secure storage and functional portability for my miniatures:



I've eliminated all totes except the one on top left which has my Imperial tanks. I was obsessive with collecting armor in the 90's and have too many to consider moving them to standard cases but at some point I will replace the tote with something more aesthetically appealing. For now it provides my models a safe place to live and easily accessible.

The red box has my original Undead army (the very first army I painted for WFB) and I'm considering switching over to a GW case but again, no immediate need. I'm drawn to symmetry so it's a likely possibility but for now I'm calling this done and if I decide to switch in the future it'll be purely for visual aesthetics. I'll post a new pic when I share my entire Mekshop later this month.

The space I've reclaimed in my hobby room cannot be overstated. When I first moved to my new house in Jan '17 it was madness incarnate. It's been a massive task culling items down and it has genuinely taken a year to get to this point of organization. The expense involved was considerable but manageable because I'm not buying hobby-related items anymore (other than the basics like glue, blades, brushes, etc) and the end result justifies everything as the quality of my hobby life has significantly improved.

I'll be back with actual modeling work soon. I'm hoping to be able to get some work done on my LoER competition entry and get some paint on my friend's Mantic buildings this weekend.

I seem to be saying this a lot lately and I'm happy for it- today is a good day.

Seriously Skalk. I’m going to have to show this photo to my fiancé. She thinks my 2-300 minis is a lot. You have a MASSIVE collection. It’s funny what you said early in the thread about controlling your hobby, not letting it control you. I’m so in that boat. I sold 5 lord of the rings armies, ultramarines, orks and nids. Got down to just my chaos and it felt great. Then I sold off my khorn and my Tzeentch. Feeling even better. I still have ample projects with just my Nurgle armies and somehow those even keep growing. Ahh the hobby.

sennacherib- feel free. I present this as a cautionary tale, and also as a "justification" for collections ("geez honey, I only have 6 cases! Look at this guy on Dakka! I'm nowhere near that bad!"). I hope this serves that purpose for you.



I've been wicked busy. Here's an update for all the stuff that covers the last months an a half:

Warhammer 40K- I've decided to dust off my IG ( ...excuse me, AM). I haven't been able to sit down to read through things yet but I have the necessary tools and I'm looking forward to rejoining the grim darkness of the far future.



I visited the Underhive, played 3 of the tut games, not overwhelmed by N17 but I'm ok w/ it. I'll revisit it at some point but I don't feel the love yet.



I also hauled out my old WFB Undead to inventory for a massive 5K AoS game my friend Jayce and I have been talking about:



Also finally finished up Season 2 of our Blood Bowl League. Season 3 is about to fire up and we've all decided to play a ridiculous and hopefully hilarious theme- Goblins and Halfling teams only. I've made some progress since this pic. I'm playing the Scarcrag Snivelers team straight from the box, I'm already at a disadvantage because I'm going to play by the Nuffle rules against people that have no problem hiding chainsaws etc. I'm hoping that fair play and clean living will propel me to a winning season, but likely not.




This next bit should have gone on my terrain thread, but it didin't. I moved much closer to completing the Mantic stuff for my friend and I am really looking forward to it being completed.



Time for working on that project has taken a hard hit because of...




( wait for it)










I merely mentioned to my game group that I'd like to try it again at some point. The response was immediate an unanimous- A first for my group. I am so happy right now I can barely contain myself. Sleeping has become a nuance (i have modeling to do!) and the only reason I go to work is so I can continue a revenue stream to support my addiction hobby.

I'd like to introduce you to the Flintlock and Flagon Mercenary Company. Hailing from Reikland, they have no lack of martial discipline but do have a distinct disregard for the dregs of humanity they hire as henchmen. the F&F (as they are referred to locally) have a unofficial motto regarding hirelings- "If you aren't wearing red, we don't care if you're dead"





(bases courtesy of my friend Chris 40K)

A day before those photos were taken the Reiklanders were just random bist in a bitz box. I've made a lot of progress on them since and will post them again in the future.

I'm also running an Undead warband w/ a Vampire, a Necromancer, and 13 Zombies. No one likes playing against it. I love that.

Additionally, I'm running a Beastmen Raiding Party w/ a Chieftain, a Shaman, 2 Bestigors, and a Minotaur. The reaction I've received is again completely excellent. I love this game.

I'm playing multiple warbands because I don't want to cap out a brutal warband that no one wants ot play against ever. My Zombies are annoying but they won't wipe out a warband. My Reiklanders however can do massive damage and they have already progressed 2 or 3 times each. Shooting from a distance at WS 4 with ST 4 weapons is a great way to shorten a game.


This is where we have been searching for wyrdstone:











A couple building in the pics above are from this MDF kit:



It's fairly awesome, only complaints are no instructions, and it's not true 28MM, more suited for 25/20mm.





That said, no one is going to care about a doorway they have to duck through, the models are awesome.

Speaking of awesome models (ha) I made some wyrdstone counters:



Pay no mind to the Beastmen Chieftain with the massive axe. He's more afraid of you than you are of him.

Or not.


So there's an update. I'll be back again with more, trying to keep Dakka on my schedule.

Well, that should all keep you busy for a bit.

Good stuff, good work, nice table layout.

That mordheim table is amazing- you've raised the bar there, Skalk!

Dr H- I have no want of things to do, only of things I want to do.

SFG- Thank you for the compliment. I have the "fantasy terrain" part of my brain in full gear and I'm cranking out new pieces every week. Scatter scenery is my big things right now, focusing on stone / brick walls and weathering for my newest buildings. I always fall short of what I envisioned but so far have exceeded the expectations of my gaming group so I am comfortably "good enough". Someday though I'd really like to sit down (meaning IRL, not YouTube) with a master craftsman and learn some techniques. I've been keeping track of local hobby train and military modeler conventions, no doubt I'll find someone at one of those.



Brought some miniatures to work w/ me today so I can sling paint during my lunch break. Everything is WIP, I know some of what I posted is really messy. Also, apologies for the lighting, at work and using a mobile phone. Here's how the stand right now:

Up first are the actual Reiklanders:



...and the desperate henchmen that work for them:



I love the facial expressions on the Reiklanders. When i was going through my bitz bin I wanted to use the most psychotic faces I have. I think it turned out well. Thank you, GW sculptors!

You'll notice the color scheme is red for Reiklanders and green for the henchmen (hence the motto "If you're not wearing red, we don't care if you're dead"). Henchmen in this war band do not get gear unless they earn it by leveling up to something cool. Right now the henchmen on the left and right are "dead", I'll rehire them after the next game.The henchman in blue is a special case, he has 2 attacks so they gave him a spare axe and sword because the Reiklanders think it is funny to let henchmen believe they actually matter. I really like roleplaying this warband. I play the henchmen as survival-minded and my Youngbloods as invincible snotty posh boys with a chip on their shoulders. If I have a henchman and a Youngblood together in a "fight or flight" situation I roll D6 for both characters. If the henchman wins he yells some sense into the far less experienced Youngblood and they seek cover / shelter. If the Youngblood wins it's a ridiculous headlong charge towards gold and glory... with the henchman out in front. If they tie they break off and go separate ways, henchman seeks cover and Youngblood forces the hand of fate. It's not the most tactically efficient method of play but it's forging an awesome narrative for my warband and I'm really enjoying this a lot.


Next is my Beastmen Raiding Party. Minotaur stayed home today, focusing on the Bestigors and Shaman.



This is ther newest warband I've put on the table and I'm excited about it because I'm using models I've had since the mid-90's that have never seen the tabletop. A friend of mine gave me his Beastman army in... 95 or 96, losing track now,... and I never got around to playing it. I've though about taking it out for AoS but I am NOT going through the looking glass on that one. Anyway, I muscled these guys up to the absolute max. I did horribly in the first game (a Bretonnian Squire took my Minotaur down after 4 rounds of combat that I did nothing but roll 1's) but I am undaunted, the Moon Clan will rise! (get it... Moon Clan rising? eh?)

and finally, swapped out the model I was using for my Undead warband, repurposed a long-abandoned WFB model.



He's very happy to be back on the table killing things but feels very confused, has a fuzzy memories of commanding legions of Undead hordes in a previous life instead of knobbing around with an arrogant Necromancer and a gaggle of Zombies.

ooh..old beastmen....me likey.

"Old" Beastmen? There are newer ones than these?

Some awesome stuff here Skalk, inspiring as always- btw, check your terrain thread, your namesake terrain piece is done!

Brilliance abounds, see this is why we missed you so much, wonderful stuff.

SFG- I updated my thread today, great job on that plasma generator and I really appreciate the dedication!

Cam- Dakka is my wargaming home and I enjoy being here. Thank you for the compliment, it's appreciated.



No update today, just some eye candy of some recent games and a pile of WIP I'll be working on soon.

Here's two actions shots and 1 setup from recent Mordheim games:








And here's my Goliath models I hauled out the other day for a game of Necromunda. They will be seeing more paint soon.





Apologies for not being around as much. 8 months of bleak depressing weather was suddenly interrupted by the unexpected arrival of spring and between my game schedule, IRL responsibles, and having my motorcycle back on the road I'm not finding a lot of time or motivation for modeling. I will be back as soon as I've done some actual work, but until then I'll be surfing other people's threads. I enjoy Dakka and you all are the reason why.

Can't blame you for finding other motivation after the long old winter we all got this year.

Nice set-up, and look forward to seeing some 'munda goodies whenever



Edited for stupid auto-correct

Monkeytroll- After the winter we just had, if I hear anyone complain about the heat or humidity... yeah.



Actual update today!

Here are the two newest additions to my Undead warband. Meet Horatio and Socrates:

Horatio:


Socrates:


group photo:


Of the GW Ghouls they have released, this generation is my favorite. A bit too tall, but really has the "devolved and depraved yet still human" look that fits the rest of my warband well. Again, bases by my IRL buddy Chris 40K. These pics came out much larger than I thought and show way more (lack of) detail. I paint to a "5ft away in a poorly lit room" tabletop standard these days. It's good enough for gaming and I have no lack of pride in them but I'm starting to have to accept the fact that my eyesight just ain't whut it used to be.

My Undead warband has progressed very slowly due to only having 2 Heroes (Vampire and Necromancer, the rest being 13 Zombies) but I've lost only 2 games and have banked most of my gold. Right now I have 270GC and 14 shards. I also have 2 abilities w/ my Necromancer that help me repopulate my Zombies, one being Reanimation (5+ on 2D6 replaces 1 Zombie that went out of action during the last turn) and the other being Spell of Awakening (automatically animate any opponent's Heroes that are dead) plus if I capture a model I can kill them and raise them as a Zombie. As you can see, I have excellent opportunities to replace Zombies during and after the game at no cost. Apparently my Necromancer is a frugal bargain shopper.

On those occasions where a Zombie is too broken to be raised again I'll be filling those available slots with Ghouls. 40GC each instead of 15 but I've laid the groundwork for my empire and Ghouls are part of the next phase of my plan- more Heroes. Unlike Zombies, Ghouls are Henchmen that gain experience, which means they can roll "The Lad's Got Talent" and become a Hero. More Heroes = more dice rolls during Exploration, more dice means more shards and more opportunities for doubles. More doubles means more opportunities for awesome stuff, and more awesome stuff means a way more brutal warband. My ultimate goal is to become so brutal that no one in my game group wants to play against my warband anymore, which means I have dominated the entire city and Mordheim is mine to control. Muahhahhahaahahaa!!!

I'll still be slinking around in the shadows w/ my Vampire and Necromancer for a while though. Both have gained considerable skill but they haven't come into use much because I've been waiting for the right time to strike. I had "out of action" scares during my first 2 games w/ my Vampire and since then I've had him hold way back with a few Zombies as bullet-catchers and charge interceptors. He rarely engages anyone anymore unless they are scrub Henchmen, summoned rats, etc. He wears Heavy Armor w/ a shield, a Lucky Charm, and a Rabbit's Foot. My Necromancer holds WAY back surrounded by a bubblewrap of Zombies. The Necromancer has a Lucky Charm, Rabbits foot, and the Sprint skill so he can run away very quickly.

But soon, very soon, the full fury and horror of my Vampire will be revealed. All shall fall before him, and the dried husks of defeated warbands will herald the coming of the new age... of DEATH!

Man those are some perfectly ghoulish ghouls. also love the idea of ghouls as heroes

amazingturtles- thank you. I'm really looking forward to getting more Ghouls and seeing them start to level up. Once they start becoming Heroes I'll really be able to put the pressure on the other warbands. I'm not a great gamer overall but I have Mordheim figured out and I'm genuinely pressing for total domination.



Not an update per se but did get some WIP weathering on one of my MDF pieces. Terrain work is posted on my terrain thread but this is relevant to Mordheim so I'll post one pic here. Bonus- it's not one that I posted on the terrain thread.

Ordered a werewolf that Llamahead turned me on to, going to use it as a spoiler when we have an odd number of people, or come up with a "warband breaker" scenario.



I'll run his friends w/ wardog stats.

Snazzy model. Where's it from?

graven- They are from the Zombicide game. I'm not the biggest fan of that range, the castings are similar to plastic army men. If this were 1996 I'd have a more positive review of them, but they are cool enough and I've already started painting them.



Not an "update" again, just dragging up past glories again and presenting them as a repackaged idea. This time I'm digging out my WFB Zombies that re-purposed as Necromunda Plague Zombies (round bases instead of square and no medieval hand weapons) that are being upgraded once again to N17 Chaos Cultists. I'm bringing them up because I wanted to try a "frothing horde" cult and to maximize my available points I didn't give weapons to anyone except the Demagogue (hereafter referred to as Father Jones).

I chose the "least dead-looking" models I have. There are a few blood stains and a couple open sores (you'll never guess who my chosen Ruinous Power is hahah) but overall I think they look like slightly mutated I know there are many repeats of the same few heads but I'm hoping the difference in painting style will make them unique enough to not look like the exact same model over and over.

Father Jones is the Scavvy boss from Outlands. He's no stranger to keeping unruly idiots in line, and he's armed WYSIWYG as far as weapons go.









I'm not naming any of my Cultists (other than "1", "2", etc) because I don't want to develop an attachment to them and with my intended playing style (bunch up and gang-rush the closest enemy) I expect to lose a lot of them, especially in scenarios that seriously affect the number of models I can take. In scenarios where I can bring my entire gang though I'm expecting to absolutely dominate by purely overwhelming the opposition. Plus I'm looking forward to seeing people freak them out when they see their 7 Eshers are about to be curb stomped by 25 frothing maniacs. Not even Van Saars have enough firepower to hold back a mob like that. If some cultists start to advance and wind up with some cool abilities I'll arm them with something appropriate and redefine their battlefield role.

I'll post some pics and a short batrep once I have the chance to play them.

As a big fan of slobbering hordes in service to his nurgleness, I heartily approve of this!

Excellent plan.

I think.


Ahh, I do like those scavvies, nice to see them getting used.