Token Effort

With a scenario for the Salute demo game of The Silver Bayonet: Egypt planned, we were missing just a few things - namely, objective tokens and clue markers! With a couple of weeks to go, I knuckled down and produced a few using random bits and pieces from my collection.

The skeletal pieces came from the Oathmark skeleton kit, with a bit of clipping here and there to remove bows and arrows from hands, and the tools from the Oathmark Dwarf Light Infantry. I've had the chests knocking around for a while - I think they're from the Massive Darkness board game. The relic is from a Plague Monks sprue - this is the second time I've used it as a marker (the first being my original Frostgrave treasure tokens - seen here).

As the game is set in Egypt, I thought it'd be fun to model a few things once claimed by the desert sands and wanted to give the impression that some of these are half-buried. One of the chests was clipped at an angle to appear somewhat sunken and a couple of spare sections of sprue were added to provide the framework for various drifts and pits.

The sprue frameworks were, in hindsight, a great addition - Polyfilla (my basing material of choice) is great, but giving it something to hang on made life a lot easier than just trying to sculpt with it!

Painting was fairly quick, and mostly completed over the long Easter weekend. In an effort to make the pieces pop a little more, I went back after the usual all-over brown wash and touched up the sandy areas with a bit more khaki and the bones with a flick of white.

I wouldn't say they're my best work, but I hope they're fun and easy enough to spot on the tabletop! One thing I have absolutely learned - I need a painting handle or something. Trying to keep hold of these was more faff than I really wanted!

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Mini Sorta-Vikings

My friends are very patient. They've been playing Blood Bowl 7s (a.k.a. the best version of Blood Bowl) for a while and allowing me to take their teams to the field while deciding what team I want to build myself. That's taken... several months.

Part of the problem was that, while I have really been enjoying the game, little of the current range of official miniatures really appeals to me. Fortunately, there's a huge range of third-party companies offering Fantasy Football miniatures so it became a case of figuring out the kind of team I wanted and hunting down some appropriate minis. Realistically, the first part of that equation was simple - running, dodging, and passing are for teams with more skill than guts - so I pretty quickly settled on the Norse for a straightforward smashmouth style. That done, I found the "Fenrir Sons" range from Hungry Troll Miniatures which were exactly what I wanted - simple, clean sculpts that would paint up really quickly.

Or so I thought. The models were brilliant and I can't speak highly enough of Hungry Troll's service - but, once basecoated, my momentum just evaporated and they sat on my desk for months. It's only this last week or so that I turned back to them and got them finished. Truth be told, they painted up really well, so I'm not sure what the obstacle was!

First out the gate were four basic Linemen to make up the numbers. Most of the time, I'll probably only be fielding three, but I figured a fourth would be useful to have just in case. The slightly crouched one in the helmet had some horns clipped off just to blend better with the other helmet-wearing model but, outside of cleaning up maybe three stray supports from the printing, that was the only prep I had to do on the whole selection.

With the basic players out the way, I then got onto the specialists. First up, inevitably, were two Ulfwereners - even more berserk berserkers. While actual Berserkers are an option, I MUCH preferred these models, so that made the team selection for me! 

Painting all of these was a doddle - flesh and dark steel for the most part, with dark grey for the trousers, dark brown for straps and belts, bone for the bone codpieces, and light grey for loincloths and fur. I wanted a very dark theme as I was, right up until the last minute, toying with the idea of finishing off the models with corpse paint to theme them along the lines of a Scandinavian metal band! I changed my plans there, but the dark scheme really works well with the green pitch and white lines, I think.

Having said that actual ball skills are for cowards, I did figure that I needed at least one model capable of scoring, so drafted a Valkyrie. I think the Hungry Troll range was originally designed for a previous version of the Norse team, so this model is 'officially' a Thrower (a role since merged into the more jack-of-all-trades Valkyrie). 'Official' Valkyrie models did come with the rest of the team (presumably, Hungry Troll updated the range in line with the new edition), but I just preferred this model - even though it is carrying a ball. In a game where an actual ball is moved about the board, it has always irked me that so many models are permanently carrying one! Tucked under the arm, though, is relatively unobtrusive compared to many, so I'll live with it.

Of course my final player is a Yeti. Given the choice, it was ALWAYS going to be a Yeti. This was the only model I thought had a bit of a flaw, however - the mane of hair on its right shoulder is very flat, with practically no texture. Looking at the stock photos on Hungry Troll's website, I think it's the sculpt itself, rather than any issue with the printing. A minor negative, but a noticeable one given the proximity to the focal point of the model and the pronounced texturing on the rest of the fur.

For basing, I actually applied my usual Polyfilla/mud effect and painted it all up. I even 'sculpted' some gouges in the earth that I left mostly free of the static grass applied thereafter. The idea here was to give the effect of a churned-up pitch. I didn't love it until I added the white lines, breaking them where the pitch was also broken. A few drops of a couple of brown washes on the lines and everything tied together nicely!

I'm really pleased with how everything came out - it was definitely worth the wait! Not sure when they'll be taking the field for their first game - hopefully soon.

I do, however, need a name for them. Current front-runner is the Djúrabý Draugar.

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

You Dirty Rats...

Not exactly 'hot on the heels', but my recent Skaven painting gave me the urge to paint a few more of the verminous lads. As I said in that post, it was the old Rat Ogres that first brought Skaven to my attention, and so, in a fit of nostalgia, I went looking for something that hit my impression of what a Rat Ogre should be.

First to be rejected were the official GW ones. Enough said. I did consider tracking down the classic Jes Goodwin ones, but they're a little on the small side these days and there's only two of them - I wanted three to better suit monstrous units in Dragon Rampant and Oathmark.

I eventually found some 3D prints on Etsy of Rat Ogres from a studio called ResinWarfare. They've got a fairly substantial range of Fantasy Rat-Men, including multiple Rat Brute designs. I opted for the most vanilla ones - no weird steampunk weapons or bladed limbs, just hulks of muscle and ferocity. The sculpts themselves are lovely and the prints were very tidy. One pose looks a little like its cocking its leg to relieve itself, but otherwise they're splendid!

Unfortunately, the tails broke in shipping and I just couldn't get them to reattach securely. In the end, I clipped off the stumps and green-stuffed some more fur over the remnants. Honestly, I thought it would bother me more than it does. In any case, the classic Rat Ogres didn't have tails, so this is continuing that fine tradition!

Painting was a doddle too - the size of the models and the well-defined detail on the sculpts meant that it was easy to pick out teeth, eyes, and the like. Even so, most of the work was done with dry-brushing - a bone/khaki for the flesh and, originally, light grey for the fur. I had initial plans of going with an albino-style look, but this didn't really work in practice - the skin and fur weren't distinct enough - so I went back and darkened the fur with a darker wash.

All told, I'm really happy with them, and I suspect they'll be auto-includes in my Dragon Rampant force.

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Big Chungus

I'm a big fan of including a large model or two to break up the silhouette of a warband or army (previous waffle on the subject here) and, looking at the Choleric Order of the Yellow Bile, I realized that I didn't really have anything that fit that description. Dirty Frank is a big boy, but he's really only about twice the height of the average human model... that's not big, right?

Well, let me introduce you to Big Chungus.

Big Chungus is a 'Bloat Giant' from Rocket Pig Games. Covered in sores and wounds, and with a shaggy pelt of back hair, he's a great fit for the Cult. He's also immense.

The model itself was picked up from a retailer on Etsy - I think it's the first 3D-printed model I've ever painted! That process was... a bit of a mixed bag. First off, the model was pretty cleanly printed, with sharp detail and most of the supports cleaned neatly off. It was entirely hollow and, given the size, I thought it needed some more heft - so I mixed up some plaster of Paris and filled the whole thing via the holes in its base (you can't tell from the aftermath of my basing, but it's standing on some sculpted rocky ground). After everything had dried, I had the heft I wanted... but discovered that certain seams on the model (the armpits and an earhole) had allowed the plaster to leak out. I don't know if those sections were perforated or were just thin enough to give way or what, nor if it's a design issue or a printer issue - but I do know that it meant that I had to scrape away a fair bit of plaster from the surface of the model.

And then to basing. I stuck it on a large MDF disc and thought nothing of it. Except, for the first time I can remember, the MDF warped and, when dry, had a distinct 'wobble' to it. I sanded down the base to flatten it off again - no massive job, but by this point I was getting distinctly fed up by the whole thing.

Am I ever glad I persevered, though. After getting the flesh basecoat down (which took three coats for decent coverage!), everything just flew by. Once all the basecoats were on, I gave everything a khaki drybrush - which is the first time I've tried that, but it did give some nice highlights once the classic brown wash went over everything. Before that, however, I threw a variety of washes (red, purple, and green) onto the flesh to create some odd, unhealthy-looking complexions, mixing and blending them on the model itself. Once the all-over brown wash went on it helped bring those more disparate colours together. Really happy with the gruesome effect.

Aside from the inside of the loincloth, the only tricky part of painting was the wraps on the arms - they wind over and through the hair on the forearms and the detail on my model was a little soft. In fact, the only criticism of the design I have is that the back hair stops very abruptly on the back of the neck - I would have preferred a less harsh line and, were I doing it over, I'd probably green-stuff a little more pelt. Still, it's a small criticism - the model is phenomenal, and I'm already looking at Rocket Pig for other centrepiece models that could inspire a collection.

And Big Chungus really is a centrepiece - as I said, he's immense. Dirty Frank may be almost twice the height of a human, but Chungus is almost twice the height of Dirty Frank!

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

A Fresh Outbreak: Poxwalkers

I'm still no great photographer, but I'm much better than I used to be! I figured it was about time to revisit some of my older pieces from the Choleric Order of the Yellow Bile and update them with some new pics.

First up, the Poxwalkers: original post.

There Were Rats, Dad...

"There were rats, dad."
"Rats?"
"Yeah. Big ones."

I think my very first GW purchase was the yellow "Monsters" deck from the original Citadel Combat Cards, and it was definitely the start of my love of Skaven. That deck included a picture of one of Jes Goodwin's classic Rat Ogres (I don't think both were depicted, but might be wrong). It's weird that, to this day, I have never actually acquired and painted one (or both) of those classic models... that's something I might have to remedy. When I got my first Warhammer army book a few years later, it was - inevitably - for the Skaven.

Of course, I wasn't able to afford a whole army, let alone have the patience to build and paint one - especially one like the Skaven that demanded huge numbers of troops! By the point where I had the time, attention, and disposable income to indulge my wargaming hobby (thank-you skirmish wargaming!), the then-current Skaven range didn't really appeal to me as much and I found other models more to my liking.

Fast-forward more years than I really care to remember and, with the Choleric Order of the Yellow Bile an appropriate home for them, I decided it was time to paint some rats!

The Plague Monks are one of the older kits still in the Skaven range, and definitely have the older, more bandy-legged design that newer sculpts have eradicated. Still, they are incredibly on-brand for my army, with hunched poses, bandages, ragged robes (that serve to hide their bandy legs), and boil-marked flesh. With the addition of wire spears and some Oathmark Human shields to tie them to my Templars and link them more into the force as a whole, they fit right in.

Painting was a doddle - they're relatively simple sculpts and took to my wash-heavy style nicely. I opted for a really pale flesh tone to offset the darker robes and applied a light red wash to their eyes to give them a rheumy, albino effect.

I have five more of these guys built and ready to go, and I'm toying with the idea of adding some more to the Cult in due course, perhaps a banner, an officer figure, and another three spears to fill out the unit to a full 15.

And, of course, now I also want to track down those old Jes Goodwin Rat Ogres...

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Wizard-Hunting for Pleasure and Profit

I wrote a thing! And it's just been published!

I'm always toying with little rules and systems for Frostgrave, because I've been elbow-deep in it for so long now, finding new tweaks to entertain myself. Most of these come to absolutely nothing, but I'm fortunate in that I have Joe McCullough himself as a sounding board if I think something has potential. I was fortunate enough to be invited to contribute a scenario to Wizards' Conclave, and I did also chip in some mounted rules for an early issue of Spellcaster, Joe's original self-published Frostgrave zine.

Well, Spellcaster has given way to Old Bones (with so many games under his belt, producing a zine for each game wasn't a viable option!), and I've been playing with more bits and bobs - this time, a set of new NPC 'monsters' and accompanying rules for building small groups of recurring foes to really menace the wizards and their warbands. I bounced them over to Joe for his thoughts, and was thrilled when he asked if I'd like to work them up as an article for Old Bones.

So, I did, and this week, I came home from work to find an advance copy of Old Bones #3 waiting for me...

Alongside Joe's scenarios and rules for Crocodilians can be found my own article: "The Most Dangerous Game". This is a collection of eight new opponents that hate magic and wizards, and who travel in small groups to the Frozen City to hunt and destroy these sworn foes.

Yes - I looked at Frostgrave and thought "needs more witch-hunters".

These 'anti-magic cells' are generated by all players in a campaign and (typically) include a mix of these new opponents and regular soldiers, stalking the warbands, and waiting to strike when their prey is at their weakest... And they keep coming until you stop them for good.

And what are those new opponents?

• Castoffs - victims of spells and experiments gone wrong, possessed of random powers (generated from the Demonic Attributes in Forgotten Pacts or the mutations from Grave Mutations).
• Echo-Hawks - birds of prey with the natural ability to reflect spells that bond (and share this ability) with a handler.
• Hounds of Zaroff - the answer to the question "what do you get if you cross a nullman with a mastiff?"
• Husks - burned-out spellcasters who have lost their magic, now turncoats lending their knowledge to groups of hunters...
• Inquisitors - templars, bounty hunters, and paladins that provide a martial backbone to these anti-magic cells. Can be generated randomly or cherry-picked to match specific models.
• Lodestones - magnets for magic, able to draw spells away from intended targets and to themselves instead!
• Wreckers - we've seen vampire hunters and demon hunters... now meet those that really hate constructs.
• Zealots - fanatics that hunt wizards using specialized poison.

I hope the rules offers new and entertaining ways to challenge your wizards.

Oh, and the art by Barrett Stanley is great!

You can pick up PDF and print-on-demand copies from DriveThruRPG.

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Standard Troops

Hot on the heels of the recent reinforcements for the Choleric Order of the Yellow Bile, I polished off a couple more cult models that have been waiting for ages for a paintjob.

A while back, I realized that my force were looking more militant than I wanted from my cult, so I built a couple of banner bearers to add more of a processional feel (and to add nice focal points to units!).

First up, a banner for the Faithful - thus filling out that unit to a full 20. This was built from - surprise, surprise - Fireforge's Living Dead Peasants, with a banner from some GW kit or another (Skaven, maybe?). The banner-pole was replaced with a wire pike, clipped to an appropriate length.

Yes, the fact that the banner is following the line of the pole and not the dictates of gravity annoys me... but not enough to prevent me from getting it painted!

Added to a unit, I reckon she looks good!

Next up, a banner for the Templars. While the Faithful's banner is relatively modest in size (some might say "sensibly sized"), this one is... objectively too big. I was genuinely concerned that it would not actually stay upright (the metal base isn't the most substantial of counterweights!), but it seems to have held together. Like the other banner, this is from a GW kit - I'm guessing Ogre Kingdoms by the size and the fact that there are random rocks tied to it - and had the banner-pole replaced with a wire pike. The bearer, like the previous Templars, is Oathmark Human Infantry with a head from the Frostgrave Cultists kit.

Both these models (the Templar one especially) reminded me of why I dislike painting yellow. On a small scale (the Templar cowls, a spot colour on a cultist's clothing, etc.), it's fine, but on bit sections like this, it just doesn't suit my wash-heavy style. Still, brown wash makes everything better (if not good), and I'm just about happy with it).

I'm not currently sure what insignia or emblems I want on the banners... I might not want any, with the 'purity' of the yellow sheets representing the 'purity' of the Yellow Bile itself... or I might just not have had the right idea yet. I might go back and apply some transfers... but I will not be attempting free-hand!

I kind of want more banners now. And some musicians...

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Cult Reinforcements

I got the urge to paint the other week and, with my Blood Bowl team (more on that later) still en route from Spain, I turned my attention to some reinforcements for the Choleric Order of the Yellow Bile that had been patiently sat waiting for a lick of paint for a looooong time (so long, in fact, that I can't remember when I kitbashed them).

Like the previous cultists (here and here), these were built from Fireforge Games' Living Dead Peasants, which, alongside their regular non-undead 'Folk Rabble', really are the gift that keep on giving! Four of them received wire spears, and one was built as a dual-wielder, so that I have a readily identifiable 'officer' for each stand should I need one.

That said, I doubt that I'll ever field a whole unit of spear-armed cultists, so I'm going to sprinkle these amongst the other rabble, giving the whole unit an even more ramshackle look.

These five bring my unit of the Faithful to 19 figures (including their two Magisters), so I have just one more to go...

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Slinkers and Stinkers

It has taken me altogether too long to get these four models finished off! They've sat on my desk for months in various stages of completion, and I'm kind of glad to have finally got them done.

They're Ur-Ghuls from the Blackstone Fortress box, and while I love the aesthetic and design, I really dislike the fact that there are only two poses that are incredibly similar. I would love a box with these creepy blighters in a wider range of poses, creeping and skulking their way across the tabletop.

The only alteration I made to the base model was filling in the deep holes above the mouth with some liquid green stuff, smoothing out the head a bit more. Painting was quick - I used a really diluted glaze to apply the purple tone over a light grey basecoat, then dry-brushed on a couple of lighter greys.

On that note, I've become a complete convert to using makeup brushes for dry-brushing and now have a set of about a dozen in various sizes for about half the price of a single hobby-specific one.

As to what these are going to be used for... well, they're perfect weird mutants for hunting my Stalkers, weird aliens for Stargrave, Nullmen for Frostgrave, and they may or may not make an appearance in future Rangers of Shadow Deep games...

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

The Scarlet Imp-in-Hell

This was an unexpected addition to the painting queue, but one that I had to paint pretty much as soon as I got it! The figure is a Reaper Bog Homunculus, but in Bones plastic, rather than metal (presumably the product of a recent Kickstarter not yet available for retail). It was a gift from a friend at UK Games Expo earlier this month, and I love the ugly little thing!

I'm not a huge fan of Bones, especially for smaller figures, but this was relatively straightforward, with most of the work in prep was fixing the integral base - I have never seen a model with such a concave base! Clipping and sanding the base to something flat enough to glue down was quite a chore!

Painting was a doddle - various fleshy tones, a couple of washes, and some bone to pick out the teeth and talons etc. The eyes were large enough that I (for once!) painted them - a bright red, with a dot of yellow just to add a little more impact. For once, my efforts have actually photographed semi-well, and I'm even more pleased with how they look in person. Will I start painted eyes on all my models? Well, no...

Not altogether sure what I'll end up using this little imp for - maybe the start of a new cult? He'll almost certainly be my go-to for a small demon in games of Frostgrave and Rangers of Shadow Deep.

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Dark Hills

My terrain collections is... scattershot. It's generally just enough to accommodate most games, albeit with a bit of squinting and hand-waving. 

Recently, though, I have been on a drive to bulk up my options, with a view to consistency, and now have enough to build a small rural village or farmstead that serves most purposes from Medieval to Fantasy, ruins in the same style, and, recently, even some trees! What I didn't really have were hills (aside from one old GW hill I think I inherited from a friend). Perhaps this is down to living in middle of the Thames Valley, but all my games were taking place on a similarly level playing field.

I decided that it was time to rectify that omission, so I snagged a few of Gale Force 9's 'Battlefield in a Box' rocky hills and escarpments. I am a big fan of the GF9 terrain and have more than a few pieces in my collection. As always, these were largely usable straight out of the box, though the application of the supplied flocks (two different types, which is a really smart inclusion!) and a spray of PVA glue to fix them really added to their impact.

Simple, quick, and effective - exactly what I want from my terrain! If I had any complaint it's that the two larger pieces don't actually sit especially flat - there's a noticeable gap between hill and table on some edges. Unlikely to be an issue in-game, but still a little annoying now that I've noticed it!

With luck, they'll see their first games of Rangers of Shadow Deep very soon...

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Rats!

Every good plague cult needs a swarm of vermin. It is known. I've had a bunch of these Anvil Industry rats knocking around for a long time, just waiting for some attention. Well, over the long weekend, they finally got it! 

I chose to mount them on individual 25mm bases, rather than on larger 40/50mm bases to better match the rest of the army... jury's still out on whether that was the right idea, but I can honestly say that I'm not painting up any more rats for a while! 

They're lovely sculpts, with plenty of variety in the set - some groups, some individuals, some up on rubble, etc. - and nice, sharp details that take well to my wash-heavy approach. The only issue I had painting them was the low profile meant handling them was a little awkward, especially when it came to varnishing and finishing the bases. I might need to invest in a proper painting grip or handle or something.

The low profile also seems to make photographing them a challenge, especially with my limited skills in that field. They could do with a re-shoot soon, along with some of the earlier models on this blog - while my painting hasn't improved substantially, my photo set-up has and I can definitely do better than the muddy brown photos of the Poxwalkers and the Plaguetouched (it's the photos, not the paintjobs - honest!).

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Pac-Man From Hell

It has been altogether too long since I did any miniatures stuff for pleasure (Feb 2022), and even longer since I painted anything (July 2020!). Recently, though, my minis mojo has been on the rise, and I've been dabbling with a few projects, some new, some unfinished. I've even been inspired to break out the paints again!

I wanted to start with something relatively simple to get a quick 'win' under my belt, so opted for a single creature, rather a new unit or something. As it happened, the target of 'simple' was achieved on all counts! The model I selected was a Roiling Oil from the Pathfinder Battles line of pre-painted miniatures. As I've said before many times on this blog - I love the D&D/Pathfinder pre-paints for big monsters. They tend to hold better detail than smaller figures in the same lines (fewer bendy weapons!) and they're usually fairly cheap to pick up on the second-hand market despite the arbitrary rarities allocated to each model. Mould lines are often a bit of a drag to remove but, again, easier to do on the larger models.

This one was a large ooze - a perfect addition to the Choleric Order of the Yellow Bile, which has gone a while without reinforcements. Naturally, the black ooze was re-skinned to represent one of the cult's sacred idols, a physical manifestation of the Yellow Bile itself (or so they believe).

The paint-job was simplicity itself - brown base-coat, dark yellow all over, brighter yellow highlights, brown wash all over. Done.

All told, I'm rather pleased with it and have found it a home alongside the Choleric Order on my shelves. It's actually a more effective centrepiece than I first thought - the model is much larger than one might expect. That works nicely enough given the fluff of the force!

All I need to do now is figure out what stats I want to give it. Of course, it's a big, yellow maw, so I reckon it has to have some kind of bonus against ghosts and other ethereal undead...

Nom nom nom nom

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Heavy Lads

So it goes again - back to models after a long layoff. In between a few smaller ideas (which I hope will grace this blog soon), I have revisited the Nameless Army, adding a bit more weight to the force in the form of five heavy infantry.

Unlike the standard Nameless Army troops, who are fairly stock models from the Fireforge Northmen kits, these chaps are made from a fairly eclectic mix of parts. The legs and arms are from the Fireforge kits, but the torsos are from GW Greatswords with the skulls and wreaths on the breastplates filed off. These parts didn't mesh up especially well - the GW torsos are designed to sit on much more narrow-hipped legs, so I carved back the hip area on the legs to blend them in a little better. The join between the two was still a little severe, so I added some tassets repurposed from the Van Saar gang shoulder-pads to help balance out the two elements. Only one of the tassets ended up wonky, so I ensured that it was covered by a tightly held shield arm.

Very wonky tasset at bottom right. Slightly less wonky tassets everywhere else.

The heads came from Anvil Industry's Daughters of the Burning Rose. Though intended for Gothic SF, these visored barbutes are perfect for Fantasy and fit nicely alongside the helmets worn by the rest of the force (they also have hooded versions if I ever want to do something more Templar-y). I did need to do a bit more carving to enlarge the neck sockets on the Greatsword torsos and, as the heads are resin and I wasn't convinced by the contacts between the elements, I pinned all of them in addition to super-gluing.

They're not perfect, and the smalls of the back still attest to the fairly significant size different between the tops of the legs and the bottoms of the torsos, but I'm pretty happy with them! Once painted, they will add a much-needed bit of hitting power to the Nameless Army, lending support to the single five-man unit of swordsmen I currently have.

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.

Chernobog

The kitbashing urge remains strong... even as the painting urge remains zero! Fortunately, the Stargrave plastics offer ample opportunity to muck around with plastic and build some random stuff!

Since I first saw the AK-looking weapon in the Mercenaries kit, I've known that it would eventually find its way onto a Stalker-type model to accompany my existing zone raiders. Moreover, one of the torsos in the same kit (the one with the chest pouches) was a vaguely near-future SOF-style get-up. I even grabbed a helmeted head, backpack, and grenades from the same kit, causing me to worry that I was building a 'stock' figure for the first time in ages!

Fortunately, my desire to add stuff to the model to really kit him out like a seasoned zone raider meant that I had to dive into my bits box to find some random gubbins. There's a Geiger counter bit of tech on his left hip that's off the Necromunda Van Saar sprue, and a bedroll from... somewhere. Canteen, holstered pistol, knife, and a couple of extra pouches from various Warlord WWII kits rounded out the ensemble.

So, I give you Chernobog, an ex-Spetsnaz operative, now active in and around the Zone. 

Still need to finish off a couple of things (filling some gaps with green-stuff and drilling out the gun barrel), but otherwise he's ready for basing and painting!

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Disclaimer: All links to third-party sites are solely for the purposes of sourcing the products I have discussed, if anyone is so inclined. I have simply linked to the original manufacturer or the source I used (but feel free to shop around!) and make no money from people clicking through.