Skaven, Warcasters, Stormblades, and Vash the Stampede?

 The finished, retouched, Skaven Globadiers.

Its the first go at the Agrellan Earth on bases and I have some learning to do... more thicker paint! It's a hard habit to acquire!

 One poor guy is missing his air tank... I have some steam power backpacks from max mini someplace that I'll swap in.... once I locate them that is!  They are not in their assigned location!  

The glowing green poison daggers are inspired by the Mordheim Video Game art... love the ratties!

They were looking just a bit too green so they got gaseous blue lenses and warp tokens just to pop a bit.

 For salvage these came out ok... perfectly usable on the table top.  There is a small pile of left over rats like these coming through the table as well as some Reaper Ratmen that are very Skaven-esque.

 Now there is a reason why this Cygnar Warcaster is painted in heretical colors instead of the traditional blue and cream... but we'll get to that a bit later!

I think this is Captain Victoria Haley and I'll keep the moniker as I press her into service as an agent of the Inquisition.  She'll lead the personal retinue of the Inquisitor that is responsible for confirming compliance of a recently rediscovered/ recontacted Inquisition element that had been isolated by a warp storm for a very long time.

 Red and White are good Inquisition colors, although my most recent foray into that realm has a grey and red scheme... no worries though Captain Haley's small team represents a visiting inspection and not part of the regular unit.

 Accompanying Captain Haley are these Stormblade infantry storm knights.  Her personal, hand picked, retinue.

 The real reason for the color scheme!  I saw this Warcaster, who I think is Coleman Stryker, I don't actually play War Machine so its all a bit awkward.

Anyway!

I saw this guy and thought... WoW... Privateer Press made a Vash the Stampede Miniature!?!

I gotta play that game!

Turns out I was way wrong... but still... Meet Inquisitor Inspector General Vash the Stampede.

These are a bit on the steampunk side of the Grimdark but I think they'll do.


Off to paint more, and make up more story line....

Cheers

Raging Heroes, Carnevale, Rackham, and GW works in progress.

 A lot of stuff in progress... very little finished! 

A lot of legacy stuff that I discovered loose and was too OCD to skip.

The closest thing to finished in this batch is this Rackham mini.  I really love this line of, sadly, extinct miniatures. I'm not sure what it's supposed to be ... a gorgon... or a vampire... I painted it to use either way in a truly willful display of indecision!













This model was partially painted with the skin a dark metallic gloss green and enamel blue boots.  I kept the original color scheme and adjusted shades and textures to suit my taste... primarily lighten the oppressive skin, making it ... not... metallic, and not gloss... same with the boots.... still blue but a different shade and texture.  the rest was an experiment in a quick, translucent nightgown.  Based to fit in with an old undead army of mine and added to the troop tray.

 Next up are some legacy Skaven Poison Wind Globadiers.  These were also acquired from a friend and were painted in very bright, almost glow in the dark, colors in gloss enamels.  We've been playing a bit of Mordheim on the computer and the Globadiers are the Bevie! favorites!.







All I did here was paint in some ropes, repaint all the base colors to get rid of the gloss finish drop a wash or two on them and weather up the air tanks a bit.  They are still a WiP but are close to finished.  I did leave the clobes exactly as originally painted though... the original painter did a really good job with them!

Onward into legacy mini land!  Krell, a model I've never really liked... and likely farmed his banner-pole out for a conversion some years ago, returns in all his chaotic, skeletal, glory!  He's not yet based and a replacement banner-pole is being kit bashed together.  Always fun to have an undead chaos warrior around.

 A more recent model that is nearing completion is the Kickstarter Exclusive Strigoi from the Carenvale Kickstarter.  It's a great pose of the Strigoi climbing the walls or vaulting a fence.

 These models are very old school, inspite of being relased within the past year or two.  I kinda like the rough hewn look of the Strigoi and the scultor did a good job of capturing the horrific aspects of Vampirism.  The Strigoi are not at all the glamorous vampires of the modern tradition but cleave more closely to the older and more monstrous tales.

 Early days on the only male character model for Raging Heroes TGG1 Kickstarter.  Aleksandr Kurganova, patriarch of the Kurganova clan and commander of the KST.

I got this model in metal and its huge, heavy and beautiful!  So far its just the cloak and the basic armor being worked but he'll wind up rapidly as the cloak is the majority of the mini.

 Some WiP views of Arushka.  She's from Raging Heroes and is a KST Yaga.  I refer to her variously as "The Wind Witch", "The Angel of Victory", "The Mad Winds of Despair", or "Aleksandr's Fury""


 She'll be an elemental specialists with Air, or Wind magic and is a bit touched.  All magic is perilous to health and spirit but riding the winds is, of the elemental magics, the most perilous to the mind.. Arushka pays the price!

The model is in resin and is a bit flexible so I may need to stiffen the join at the base a bit... or maybe not!  The flex seems to act as a shock asorber so I may just let it ride.
















Last up today is the lower half of Baba Yaga.  She's the Crone, Earthmother, and Wolf Lord of the KST.  Model in metal for strength in the pose. 

There is also a whole pile of rats adventurers and villains from the Reaper Bones I Kickstarter and a handful of legacy skaven also being processed.  I also got a Tabletop World Townhouse and a  Mantic Abyssal Dwarf Iron Caster on Dread Abyssal primed up and in the queue.

Now if only I could find some packages od 20mm and 25mm square bases,,, hmmm...

Cheers!

Mantic Dwarf Berserker Brock Riders and Hero

As commanded by The Bevie!

Our Kings of War Dwarf army is founded with the completion of the first unit of Berserker Dwarf Brock Riders and the Berserker Dwarf Hero on Brock.

Now she'll have to get to naming them!

These are great and inexpensive models that I built with very little clean up or prep.  They are pretty characterful with expressive faces.

I painted up all the extra arms and heads from the kit which gets me about halfway to the next unit... in arms and heads anyway!

 The unit comes with a brock cape for every rider but I elected to leave those off except for the unit champion and standard bearer.  The cape makes the figures very stable on the brock but the overall effect was very very gray... especially on these gray bases.  I went with gray bases because Bevie wants to use dwarf themed movement trays.  Those are Dwarf Hold stone gray and once I get them in I'll color-match the base with the movement tray or vice versa.   I think the little bit of color from the cape-less dwarfs makes the unit stand out better.

As I like to build my fantasy armies to be compatible with 3rd Edition WHFB lists I'm at a bit of a loss with these.  No dwarf cav in that list, and certainly not Slayer cav!

That said I also elected to not paint the whole unit with Slayer orange hair... I like the more Nordic feel these guys have.

New bits, broken tools, a Supreme Ironcaster, and a mystery vehicle

 Its been slow the last couple of weeks, mostly due to a bad bounce that resulted in a broken frame on my magnifying headset.... Score for the clumsy!











So, by way of making lemonade out of lemons... I took the opportunity to replace the headset with a higher quality one.  The new one has a strap that is actually large enough for my head so it sits more securely up there, and has a frame that is both more durable and lighter weight.

 Then a box of Mantic crazy boxes arrived!  It's huge, as shipments from them seem to trend, and is chock full of random goodness.

One of the things I really like about the Mantic Crazy boxes is that they are not just second quality odd bits dumped in by weight.  They are actually complete models selected from across the range so.. if you are into several of their games you get a lot of stuff that is useful in it's own right... and not just a huge addition to the bits box.

 These boxes included Marauder buggies, Iron father heavy weapons and crews, Units from all of the Warpath/Deadzone factions, Mars Attacks, a pile of building sprues, Logos? pieces and more.

 This mystery vehicle looks like a Mars Attacks Martian vehicle... its a bit hard to see still in the bag but looks like a big walking truck. 

 Completely apart from the Crazy Box is an Abyssal Dwarf Supreme Iron Caster on Dread Abyssal.  I was cleaning this up while waiting for the headset to get here.  Its pretty large so could be worked on a little better. 

Basically they took one of their Dragon models and gave it a metal bit work over to create the Dread Abyssal and saddle.  The Ironcaster himself has a choice of two heads and can equip either a sword or a scepter/wand.

Equipped with new seeing aides I should have the first of the Dwarf Berserker Brock riders up a day or two.

Cheers!

Iron Empire Mecha Lance goes operational

 The last of the Iron Empire Mecha comes online completing the Ushabti Honor Guard for my Necrontyr.

These great models took a bit of getting used to but I'm more confident in the construction method now and the other faction Mecha should be a lot easier to assemble. The models have complete freedom of pose so can be a very dynamic element on the tabletop.

 Here with Mortaria and Vera the Ushabti prepare to enter the fray.

The kit comes with three different heads so no two are alike in this unit.  The heads are really elaborate funerary masks so identical heads could just as convincingly be used if you prefer... or really have a big pile of Mecha!

I'll have to name these individually as I imagine them to be notables of the Empire serving in a near death state... possibly even former Yagas or, perhaps, their loyal parents.

I've relocated the the army lists I was working on for these so that's another thing to get up to speed.

Back to work on Dwarfs, Papa Kurganova, and the rest of the Yaga coven.

Mantic Berserker Brock Riders WiP, repairs day, and a Mystery figure

 Lots of stuff seeing the light of day after a long time here... Given how often I move its no surprise that I am often rediscovering projects that have languished for years, sometimes decades, in a storage box or bin just waiting to be finished.  Today I knocked out a few.

Random GW ghoul that I got from a friend who was , sadly, getting out of the hobby.  This is a salvage job that had been partially painted a long time ago.

 With salvage work I like to retain what I can of the original paint scheme and you see that in these GW Zombies.  They came along in the same batch as the ghouls and had been base coated and the first colors blocked in... primarily the yellows and blues... I kept the scheme but gave them the Blanche treatment which narrowed, and dulled, the color palette and gave them a "just dug up" vibe.









Some GW Spectres or Wraiths... I don't remember which ... and there may be one of each..  These are form different editions and show the growth in figure size over the years... mind you,... both of these are older edition models and, as such, are considerably smaller than their modern equivalent.  Fortunately the Undead army they will be joining has been kicking around the tables for for 35+ years so they are in good company scale wise.

 A mystery figure.... Hey Pat!  I think this might be one of those Rackham models.

This is a really great Elven Fire Mage.  I'm going to lump it in with the Carnevale stuff for the moment and use it in that game until I get Cadwallon running...

 Mantic Berserker Brock Riders!

Ok its just the Brocks at the moment but they are well under way.

Here you see the size difference between the Hero mount and the regular Brock.... That is one big hunk of angry metal there!

 I'd first thought of Brocks as bears... but on closer look they remind me more of  badgers, wovlerines, or some similar feisty... subterranean... rodent thing.... obviously not sourced from the Skaven.... but.... if you are gonna have some shame to work out ...

Bevie has comanded the creation of a Dwarf army stat!  and wanted Berserker Brock riders first!  Of course, it doesn't fit with the "Everything Fantasy must be playable in 3rd Edition WHFB"  but maybe I can get a friendly geek to cobble me together an army entry for them anyway!

Next post should have the final Iron Empire Mecha up and more salvage work...

Iron Empire Mecha 2 and Mantic Musings

What's better than an Iron Empire Mecha?

Why two Iron Empire Mechas!  The second of three rolled off the line today after some major construction mishaps.... I managed to drop the thing during assembly and accidentally batted it across the room while trying to catch it.... making a small drop into a long journey.











The beast broke apart as expected but the bad impact angle caused half of the Halo to snap off and those tine little resin support struts were a booger to reconstruct.  Its together now so I'll try not to repeat that particular bit of drama in future!

Number 3 is coming along which will finish up the unit.











Here you see the pair escorting Hilda.










 I'm leaning towards calling these mummy driven mecha "Ushabti" in keeping with my Necrontyr theme.  These are great Tomb Guardians and life support systems animated by the will of Necrontyr nobles who have aged well beyond their normal span of years.  These heroes are trapped within the life-giving shells and have been maintained for centuries in the twilight land between life and death.

 Over the Holiday... and really a bit before that... I got involved in a ton of Mantic Kickstarters.  I've always been attracted to Mantic because of the price point but had been afraid to get much from them because I'd heard horror stories about the tremendous amount of clean up they required.

I bit the bullet and went in for Abyssal Dwarfs and then Regular Dwarfs and then.... Warpath and Deadzone... DoH!

 Anyway after looking over the minis I was very pleasantly surprised!  The minis were great quality, the casting was relatively clean, and certainly no worse than average... the material is solid and dry to the touch.  It took primer very well so I'm not anticipating any problems with paint adhesion..  all in all I gotta say these are ace models and a great value for money as well.








I got in about a dozen games of Kings of War second edition over the holiday and now feel like I've got a grasp of it.  The rules are very fast playing and easy to learn.  I think they are a bit too streamlined for my preference, but not a lot so and I think a few house rules would make them just the right amount of fiddly... for example there are no formation changes in KoW.  It would be pretty easy to add that to the game and bring the complexity level up to my comfort zone.  Also there are only about six spells in the magic system... its a very tight system and that would be harder to mess with in terms of balance.  I approve!  Mind you I'm a 3rd Edition WHFB player at heart so all of my fantasy armies are built with the idea that they'll be used in that game as well.

Finally... Our friend Ed let us know that we'd missed out on a pile of expansions for Firefly the Board Game!  For Christmas we got ourselves that big pile and are busily working our way through them!  Zoom Zoom! 

See it set up on a 6x4 table... lots of board and just enough room for all the card decks.


All is shiny in the verse!