My first Gnoll finally done!

I feel like I've been trying to get paint on this guy forever now, but he's finally come together for me.  My original plan was for him to be a "test model" but the more I thought about it the more I disliked the idea of a coherent looking group of gnolls.  Don't get me wrong I'm sticking with models of a consistent scale based consistently but I'm think I'm going to vary the colours a lot over the group.

While I was waiting for various washes to dry on this guy I got a decent amount of work done on my last 5 Revenant Crew for Scrapheap so hopefully they will be showing up here tomorrow as well.

-Jay

Project Vampire: A New Beginning

Yesterday I alluded to the fact that I was going to be starting a new project (really should finish Scrapheap first....) and today marks my first entry.

As I started getting away from doing the undead for RPGs I found I had accumulated a ridiculous amount of models for roleplaying, more than I'd ever be able to use in an encounter that would fit on my kitchen table.  So I've decided to do some chopping and swapping with the goal of turning those models into a mass combat army for games like Warhammer and Kings Of War.

My first project was to rebase and touch up a couple more wolves who will be joining the 5 wolves I did a few months ago.  On one hand this is great as it either gives me the start of a second unit or it allows me to bulk out my original unit to 10 models.  The downside of using blind-pack pre-painted models for something like this is that I don't know when or if I'll be able to find 3 more wolves to complete this.

The bulk of what will be getting painted for Project Vampire will be some D&D pre-painted Zombies & Ghouls getting touched-up and re-based for mass combat as well as a pile of Mantic Skeletons finally getting some much needed paint.

-Jay

Return to the hobby grab bag

A bunch more stuff in-progress today.

First up 2 items from project scrapheap; the long awaited final 5 Revenant Crew and Skarre herself!  When these models are done all I'll be left to finish are 2 Revenant Crew Cannons and something worth 2 more points.....

....unless I switch gears and add a 4 point unit and drop 1 or 2 other things!  The circle of life came full circle for these Black Ogrun figures last week.  I had bought them during my first go round painting Cryx, decided I wasn't going to paint any non-undead, gave them to my friend Jordan, who also didn't paint them for 4-5 years, and now he's given them back to me!  These guys fit extremely well with my pirate themed force and will give me some punch in a force that has only 1 warjack.  I'm extremely excited to have these.

And last but not least, slow progress continues on the Gnolls.  I've started up my test model and he should be done by tomorrow (hopefully).

I'm also going to working on another project on the side.  This is a bit like Project Scrapheap in that I'm going to by building a force for a game out of some figures I have on hand in-spite of the fact that they are not the 'proper' figures for the game in question.  The idea was inspired by 2 elements; first my buddy Darren showing off his cool Mortis engine, and secondly my realisation that if I'm not going to be using my vast collection of D&D pre-painted undead models for roleplaying then they might be able to do something else for me instead.....

Stay tuned!

-Jay

Another blast from the recent past: Warmachine Cryx forces

When I started project scrapheap the goal was to get a playable Cryx force out of stuff I had lying around without having to go out and get miniatures because I already had a collection of painted Cryx miniatures I just didn't have ready access to.  I still haven't played my first Warmahordes game of 2013 but guess what found it's way back to me......

First up are my Cryx solos, casters and infantry unit.  These guys are the basic components of any army I've played in the past but the one thing of note in this batch is that The Withershadow Combine is something I painted but never got a chance to play with.  Those might be jumping into a game alongside the forces of project scrapheap.

Next; the jacks!  This is really what Warmachine is all about.  Giant steam-powered-fantasy-robots who can kick, punch, shoot, etc.  One thing I've always liked about the Cryx jacks is that they have a wide variety of rules and options at their disposal and are always interesting.

And last but not least my Cryx 'cavalry'.   The Soulhunters are probably still my favourite Cryx models although in my last few games they had fallen on hard times.  To be perfectly blunt about it; I don't win very often at minis games and after the Soulhunters almost single-handedly won me 2 games in a row I started to rely on them WAY too much to do everything.

Work on project scrapheap will continue because as you can see even though I have a decent sized collection I still need some infantry units anyway and along with the return of my own painted figs 2 of my friends contributed some unpainted and new figs I can add to my force (more on this tomorrow).

-Jay

Project Scrapheap: Revenant Crew (15/20)

One more figure finished for my undead pirates.  This time it's my second unit leader which is the Razig figure from Reaper's Warlord line.

This figure is very unique for a naval miniature (historic or fantasy) in that the figure is styled with some cool metal armour pieces.  For obvious (I hope obvious) reasons chunky metal armour is not typically popular with troops serving on boats but it looks good and let's be honest in the world of steampunk fantasy realism and safety aren't super big concerns.

Now that this guy is done I'm down to my final 5 trooper models and then these 2 units will be finished!  I also finally cleaned and puttied my warcaster model so she should be ready to rock before the weekend!

-Jay

An encounter with Gnolls (WIP)

I mentioned the other day that I had based up and prepped a pre-Chainmail Gnoll for painting.  Since then I was able to dig up 4 more unique Gnoll miniatures from the Chainmail line to add.  These figures look great, I have a really hard time believing that they are 15 year old figures from a line that failed to catch on!

What's great about the assortment of figures is that I have a couple of basic warrior types along with a ranger (Gnoll warbands are usually led by rangers) and a slightly mutated character (this should show better when they are painted.

Work continues unabated on project scrapheap but I have to say I have been really enjoying this trip down memory lane working up 'classic' D&D monsters.

-Jay

The Iron Patriot Take Two

I got what I desperately wanted from the Iron-Man 3 movie Heroclix set; the new Iron Patriot model.
(apologies for the poor photo, I shot it several times and I'm not sure if it's the reflective paint but it just doesn't want to focus properly).

I think the Iron Patriot figure is great for a number of reasons.  First up, let's be honest, it's just a cool figure!  Between the shoulder cannon, the military markings and the colour scheme it just looks like it's all business.  Secondly the figure is a little more multi-use than an Iron Man figure.  At the end of the first Gamma World campaign I played in my character had found a suit of power armour with a big gun and this would have been perfect, in addition it would work in any sci-fi or superhero setting where you need a U.S. themed Patriotic figure.  And lastly he's going to be yet another star player on my 'What If ?' Avengers team.

The other thing that's kind of cool if the figure gets used for some Marvel based superhero RPGs is that a friend of mine recently informed me that in recent Marvel history 3 completely different characters have donned the Iron Patriot armour. 
The first was Norman Osborn (The Green Goblin) who wore the armour during the Dark Reign story line as the head of the Dark Avengers (still one of my favourite Avengers books ever).
The second is in Marvel Ultimate continuity Tony Stark (Iron Man) wears the Iron Patriot Armour serving under President Captain America in a near future ultra-patriotic USA.
And third in the recent Iron Man 3 movie Jim Rhodes (War Machine) ditches his War Machine armour for the Iron Patriot suit.

Love the look of the armour in the comics and movies and I love this figure!

-Jay

Project Scrapheap: Revenant Pirate Crew (14/20)

Late last night I finished off the other 2 of my officer-style crew for my undead pirates.

Not much to say this time around, it's basically a duplicate of the figures I finished a few days ago.
I'm working on my second unit leader now and then it's into the home stretch for the last set of troop models.

Also on the classic fantasy RPG side I just cleaned up and based a pre-Chainmail Gnoll.  And I'm looking for suggestions if anyone can recommend a decent sized (fit onto a 40-50mm base) Rust Monster?

Thanks

-Jay

Coming soon to a dungeon (or wilderness setting) near you! ....... OWLBEAR!

The last of my 'almost dones' from the grab bag last week the Owlbear is now ready for the tabletop.

I have to admit it's been quite a few years since I dug out my Chainmail models and I forgot how good the sculpting and casting was on a lot of them.  In hindsight I think the problem I had with the line at the time was that there wasn't a faction that I was excited about from top to bottom, but now that I'm revisiting the figures with an eye towards planning out single encounters I've found there's some classic fantasy stuff in there that from a quality point of view is still over the top.

Now back to Project Scrapheap before I get too distracted by shiny things.

-Jay

The first of three fantasy crypts

I finished up the first crypt from my Garden Of Morr tonight.  I'm very pleased with the overall result and think it will fit really well with a number of fantasy games I'm currently either playing or planning to play.

Finishing up this crypt also got me to dig out my Warhammer Armies: Vampire Counts book so my hobby A.D.D. might be about to get the better of me again.

-Jay

Project Scrapheap: Return Of The Revenge Of The Even More Undead Pirates

Last night I finished up the 2 pirates I had mostly done when I posted the grab-bag the other day.

Of the 4 variants of the basic troopers from these packs these ones are definitely my favourites.  All 4 options are cool but these ones just stand out as being full of character and feel (to me anyway) a lot less generic than the first 2 variants I painted up.  Their colour-scheme is being done to match the officer model I had already painted.

If all goes according to plan I will have another project from the grab-bag done when I get home from work tonight!

-Jay