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.

Space Dwarf

Having built my Space Devils the other week, I was still in the mood for kitbashing with the new Stargrave sprues. Fortunately, the sample Crew sprue had arrived, so I had even more options to play with!

I love Dwarves in Fantasy, and I love Space Dwarves in Sci-Fi. Normally, I'm not interested in 'Fantasy in Spaaaace', but there's something about Dwarves that transcends that. Perhaps it's the 'dour engineer' stereotype meshing so well with the classic Fantasy Dwarf stereotype. Whatever it is, I have no problem with Space Dwarves even though I might scoff at Space Elves/Orcs/Goblins/etc.

I've been sat on a box of GW's Kharadron Overlords Arkanauts for quite some time, without really having any plans for them - I like their boiler-suited look, and some of them aren't overloaded with bits, pieces, gubbins, and skulls. All told, a cracking starting point for a more industrial Space Dwarf. To this, I added one of my favourite heads from the Ghost Archipelago Crew sprue (the last time I used this particular head, I managed to mangle an ear... happily, I avoided that this time!). The arms are both off the Stargrave Crew sprue - I've been waiting to use this shotgun since I saw the digital renders! This was the trickiest part of the kitbash. While the separate supporting arms make porting across to different kits easier, the Arkanaut body is very wide, and the flat surfaces where the arms attach slope in towards the chest. I had to flatten those surfaces out a bit, and actually used a different supporting arm than the one intended for use with that particular shotgun. A little slicing and filing, and the judicious application of polystyrene cement, and it's worked out pretty well!

Incredibly chuffed with this guy, and looking forward to getting him painted up!

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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.

Space Devils

I've been in a real lull minis-wise recently (since, umm... July), but am, finally, back on the horse! 

The other day, I got a parcel containing something I've been eagerly awaiting for months - a pair of test sprues for the Stargrave Mercenaries and Troopers (still not seen the Crew!). Having checked these to get them rolling for production, I couldn't resist kitbashing a few crewmembers. Naturally, I also couldn't resist mixing in a variety of components from other kits...

I've always had a soft spot for Star Wars' Devaronians - the space-demon-looking chaps. No idea why, really - I just like the look!

Devaronian, by William O'Connor, from The New Essential Guide to Alien Species

Fortunately, I also happened to have a sprue of the Frostgrave Demons, which includes a couple of heads that work perfectly for Devaronians and also fit nicely with the Stargrave figures in terms of neck joint and scale.

My first one was a simple kitbash - Trooper arms on a Mercenary body with a Demon head. The only work that was needed for the head was to flatten off the ball joint on the bottom of the neck a bit to both reduce its length and fit better in the socket on top of the body. He's not quite finished - I still need to base him (once I've decided how I want to do that) and drill out the gun barrel.

Having got this guy done as proof-of-concept, I decided to try something a little more involved for my second one. The base elements of this second Devaronian were the same - Demon head, Mercenary body, Trooper arms (this time the machine gun from the sprue). Given that he was toting a big, ammo-chewing gun, I dug out the large backpack from the Frostgrave Knights sprue. This didn't quite fit flush to the back of the Mercenary body, but a little bit of filing and carving soon fixed most of that, while a knife from one of the Stargrave sprues filled a small gap and some ammo pouches from a Bolt Action sprue over each shoulder helped make it feel a little more heavy-duty. At this point, I felt that the backpack itself was a bit plain, so I found some random pouches from my bits box and mounted them to the sides.

Really enjoyed both of these and am very happy with how they came out. My kitbashing was a little rusty after going so long unused, and my use of polystyrene cement was a little heavy-handed, but it's good to be back!

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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.

Good Boys

Having built and painted the kennelmaster, it was a somewhat tough wait for his hounds to arrive! Fortunately, Otherworld Miniatures delivered two packs of their war dogs really quickly (many thanks, Otherworld!), so he wasn't long without his best friends.

These were the first metal miniatures I'd worked with in quite some time, but there was barely a mould line to be scraped away - really lovely, clean sculpts. The paintjob was basic, but is nice enough in person, though I cannot, for the life of me, take a decent photo of them!

And that's it - the last unit I currently have planned for The Nameless Army. There will be more, I have no doubt, but it's time to move onto something different for a bit. Of course, I am waiting on a couple of upcoming kits (no spoilers) that are earmarked to provide characters for the force, so there's a good chance they spin out into full units, and I have just caught myself thinking "maybe they need an artillery piece...". And I do quite fancy adding some more light infantry, perhaps in the form of scouts and militia. Yeah... this isn't over, is it?

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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.