Hey look! It's a doggie!

After getting in a couple of Company Of Iron games with my first two Grymkin units it was definitely time to go back and add some more stuff.

I decided to start with a light warbeast which for thematic reasons to be revealed later will be the Gorehound.

The Gorehound gives me a fast and ferocious beast for my Company Of Iron force while also moving me one step closer to being able to field a proper Warmahordes army.

-Jay

Something wicked this way comes....

Never say never I suppose.

After an extended absence from Warmahordes for a multitude of reasons I've finally been drawn back in.  Two things drove this decision; first a new faction The Grymkin that have a classic fairy-tale/horror theme about them, second a new play format called Company Of Iron which seems more inviting to new players looking for a smaller lower powered game.

I'll start off by saying I've always liked the Warmahordes core mechanics and thought that the games worked fairly well.  What I haven't historically been a fan of are the one-shot game winning combos (not a bad thing, just not my style of play really), and how visually uninteresting I find the game when I see it being played locally.  Dropping Warcasters/Warlocks for the smaller Company Of Iron games should drastically reduce the killer-combos, and playing themed narrative games should mean using cool 3D (normal) gaming scenery as opposed to the boring looking flat cut-outs that seem to dominate competitive play where I live.

My first unit for my new Grymkin force is the Hollowmen.

The Hollowmen are basically deserters from the various armies of the Iron Kingdoms that have been cursed to a sort of unlife due to their cowardice and dereliction of duty.

They are drawn to the eerie magical light from the Lantern Man who effectively curses and press-gangs them into the service of the Warlocks of the Grymkin.

I'm excited about trying out the Grymkin in a game and am looking forward to returning to a game I had previously walked away from for reasons that had little to do with the actual core game play.

-Jay

Zoe's World - Chloe The Robot

A few weeks ago after I painted Scrap Bot I mentioned there would be more coming down the pipe in that vein.  As I've been working on Zoe's first Pathfinder adventure I wanted to put together a group to accompany her character so it feels more like a traditional fantasy story but we're playing a single player game and I didn't want to layer on a whack or random NPCs that would potentially drive some of the direction things go in.

After watching an episode of Wolverine And The X-Men which featured a Sentinel named Rover who has befriended Marrow and joins her against the other Sentinels Zoe asked if I had a robot she could paint.  Out came the Grind Jacks and Zoe and I picked out some stuff (she really liked the claw) to make her robot companion for our game.

Chloe The Robot has a very similar colour palette to Isabeau the last figure Zoe painted so they should look good together on the tabletop.

The next (and final) step for assembling Zoe's companions will probably be an animal familiar of some sort to accompany her.

Another couple of weeks and there should actually be a game to report on as well!

-Jay

More fantasy steampunky goodness

One of the things I mentioned in an earlier post is that I was going to be painting alongside Zoe with figures that went along with or were similar to the figs she was painting.  During her last session while she was painting her armoured female paladin with blue robes I was painting an armoured female warcaster with blue robes.

I'm not entirely happy with how Ashlyn turned out.  I feel like the face ended up with too much primer on it and ended up losing some detail.  In any event it was really just an exercise in efficiency and from that point of view it went fairly well.  Ashlyn won't be winning any painting contest but she was sort of an "extra" figure I had lying around and I got her done in roughly 30 minutes.

The other figure I got done while Zoe was painting was this generic pulp style robot from Reaper.  I figured he would blend in reasonably well with some of my other steampunk stuff and he has the added benefit that he doesn't look like he's just for Malifaux or just for Warmachine.

While painting the Junk-Bot (that's what I'm calling him anyway) I did get hit by an idea for another daddy-daughter project that should both be fun and something that might be incredibly useful in a couple of upcoming games....keep watching this space.....

-Jay

Hobby Grab Bag - Works In Progress

The last little while I've been splitting my time somewhat evenly between painting and playing Warhammer 40,000 and finally getting to actually play some Pathfinder.  This has meant that I've been a bit back and forth on projects and more than usual I've become one of those people who starts a lot more things than they actually finish.  With that in mind I thought I'd show off the next few things I'm working on in no particular order.

First up is my almost finished Assault Marine squad for my Blood Angels army.  These guys are about 90% done, basically I need to do their weapons and markings (and a few blingy bits for the sgt) and then I can call them done.  The only hold up is that I will need to free-hand the squad markings and to be honest I've never been completely enthusiastic about that......

Next up I'll be filling in the biggest gap in my Blood Angels army with this Dreadnought with Multi-Melta, generously donated to the cause by my friend Dave Switzer.  I've barely started this model but given that it's a single fig and none of the things that need to get painted are all that fussy I'm sure I can paint it in one solid session if I just get to it.

Isabeau Laroche isn't for me.  This will be Zoe's next figure.  Zoe was very interested in watching my recent Pathfinder adventure so she is excited again to get an appropriate figure painted so we can play a game.  Isabeau is a heavily armoured figure so I'm hoping that Zoe and I can get her done in an hour or two of painting.  Right now it looks like this might be something we do together on Father's Day.

Last up is Ashlyn D'Elise (I think that's her name?).  She is a mercenary warcaster for Warmachine, to be honest I don't have any use for her at all but Zoe seems to do better painting-wise when her and I are working on similar figures together at the same time and I didn't have a lot of other heavily armoured female fantasy figures on hand so she was the logical choice.

That looks like it for now, but I'm also considering some appropriate baddies for my first Pathfinder game with Zoe and will probably look at adding some Death Company to my Blood Angels when the Dread and Assault Marines are done.

-Jay

Thrullg (I swear that's not a typo)

Finished up one of my optional baddies for my Witchfire game today; the Thrullg.

The Thrullg is a really cool monster from the Iron Kingdoms setting, it's basically like the Rust Monster but it "eats" magic rather than metal.  I also like the figure because in a pinch I think it would be a good substitute for a generic Cthulhu monster if I ever needed one.

I also wanted to share an "ah ha" moment I had while prepping to do some photographs today.  When Wyrd first released their Terraclips scenery the one thing I didn't like about it is that there is a grid of one-inch squares printed on all the base pieces.  It was never an issue for Malifaux but if I was playing a game where sometimes guessing distance is an issue I wouldn't want it to be there, however now that I'm gearing up to run an RPG in a fantasy steam punk setting suddenly discovering I have a ready made set of floor tiles wasn't exactly a bad thing.

-Jay

Thunderwicket and the new Technical Paints

I finished up my antiquated, poorly-maintained Warjack last night and while I was at it I experimented with two of the new Citadel Technical Paints.

First up Thunderwicket itself.  If I end up needing it in my game Thunderwicket is an old out-of-date and poorly kept up Warjack that has been retrieved from an unsavoury part of the city of Corvis.  I started off by painting Thunderwicket in basic Cygnar colours and then went back over it to weather and distress it.

So let me give you my two-cents on the two Citadel Technical paints I tried out while painting this model:
NIHILAKH OXIDE; I liked the effect I got from the Oxide paint but to be perfectly honest I was still a little underwhelmed.  Years ago while doing a big table for Games Day I got an almost identical effect from watering down Hawk Turquoise.  So even  though it works fairly well  I just didn't find it really represented anything 'new' under the sun.  I would also recommend anyone using it dilute it before applying because I found it a bit thick for what I wanted, though to be fair that could just be me.
TYPHUS CORROSION; My experience with this was the exact opposite to the oxide paint.  WOW!  This stuff is absolutely fantastic, my only failure with this model is that I used too much, but that's a learning for me not a short-coming with the product.  The colour and density is great and the grit in the paint/wash really gives the model a terrific corroded texture as opposed to just looking dirty.  I can't recommend this paint highly enough!

-Jay

The final Thrall...seriously....I mean it this time....

I finished up my Thrall from the last Hobby Grab Bag, and shortly thereafter a thought that should have occurred to me before finally hit me; I've painted 4 of these...I should have just painted a whole unit.  But in any event I'm going to move away from the Thralls for a bit.

This guy is a great fit with the first 2 Thralls I did in terms of size and style (love those swords), but I love the fact that they are nonetheless distinct and different as RPG figures always look out of place to me if they are overly repetitive.

Same colours and techniques used here as for the others.

I may (hopefully) by posting another fig here tonight that was not something I was planning on doing but decided on this morning on a lark.

-Jay

Hobby Grab Bag: More Fantasy and Superstuff!

I've been "away" for awhile but wanted to show 3 of the 4 new projects I've been working on and share my thought on a couple of others....

First up I've decided to replace one of the Thralls I just painted for my Witchfire Trilogy game.  When I looked at the 3 models I had done together the smallest one really didn't fit in with the other two.  The size wasn't really the issue what I noticed stood out was how the swords looked on the other two with their glowing runes and realised that having one model without was going to look out of place.  So I've got a bit more work to do on this fig and then he'll join the team.

Next is another fantasy fig I'm not still not sure if I'm going to use or not.  The figure is a knight from Fantiaztion's "Rusted Heroes" line.  It's a skirmish fantasy game that I don't know anyone who plays but it was on discount at one of my local retailers so it gave me the chance to pick up some knight and cleric models on the cheap.  I'm considering him as a Captain Helstrom model (again for the Witchfire trilogy) but the absence of a pistol or any other techie bits makes me a bit hesitant.  At any ate he's a cool figure so whether or not he makes it into that game I'm sure I'll be happy when I finish painting him.

Here's a thought most gamers have experienced at one time or another; you walk out of a movie theatre and your first thought is "boy I sure would like to game that movie/battle/scene/etc".  After seeing the trailer (JUST THE TRAILER!) for Captain America: The Winter Soldier I'm pretty sure I'm going to want to game a big throw-down between the forces or order and chaos in the Marvel Universe at least once.  So I've decided to re-base and touch up every SHIELD agent figure I can get my hands on.....now if only I can get an actual Winter Soldier figure somewhere....
*Incidentally for those of you unfamiliar with the Heroclix line I think this is the first time I've ever posted a 'before' picture.  You can see the paint jobs are serviceable but will look out of place as-is next to actual painted figures.

I also want to touch on a couple of other irons not-quite in the fire yet.
I'm really eager to continue work on my Blood Angels but after my plastic cement fiasco of a couple of weeks ago I'm not super-excited about the idea of gluing together a bunch of 10+ part tactical marine models.  I had decided to ease myself back in by buying some of the boxes of 3 plastic marines with bolters (which are simple 3 part models) only to find they are now special order only.  So I will be doing up some tactical marines after I'm able to get my hands on some of the simpler style models.
Warlord Games has just released their new Judge Dredd Miniatures rules, so I will also be getting cracking on getting those done ASAP.

A lot going on hopefully I'll have some completed models to show for some of this before the end of the week!

-Jay

Alexia's Triumvirate of Thralls done!

Alexia's final (for now) Thrall is done!

Yet another cool Reaper miniature that I bought years ago without really knowing what I was ever going to use it for and now it's ready to saddle up and play some games!

Next stop on the Witchfire train will be Alexia herself and then I need some waterlogged zombies and a Thrullg.

-Jay

Alexia's Thrall Army grows!

Quick update on my pig-faced-orcs; the five trooper models are done but I've decided to refrain from showing them here until they make their appearance at Strategies Games & Hobbies.  Having said that I do have a 6th pig-faced-orc (the wizard) who will be getting finished up this week and then he'll be posted.

This weekend between assembling and priming my Rust Monsters I got another Thrall done.  I've been reading my way through The Witchfire Trilogy and I have to say it has me pretty excited to run some games in that setting.

Today's Thrall is the smallest of the three and also has the least amount of details.  Regardless he still has a lot of texture on his armour and he turned out fairly well.

A few more RPG figures and then I think I might finish some Judges on Lawmasters.

-Jay

Hobby Grab Bag: It's all about roleplaying

This week in the grab bag I'll show a bunch of the next batch of RPG figs I'll be working on for both my Pathfinder game and Strategies Games & Hobbies painting contest.

First up my Alexia Ciannor figure.  This is one of those things that will be doing double duty because she is both the central character in The Witchfire Trilogy and she is a unit leader (sort of) for Warmachine's Mercenary faction.  Although the Privateer Press model for Alexia is pretty cool I've had this great Confrontation figure for years (probably more than 10 years at this point) that I knew I wanted to use for something and she's a perfect fit for Alexia.  I can't remember her name (package is LONG gone) but she was a variant of a named character for the Griffin faction for Confrontation.

Next up 2 more Thralls for Alexia.  As much as I swore I'd get away from doing undead for RPGs for awhile Alexia has some power and control over them so when it comes to gaming The Witchfire Trilogy I will need a bunch of undead figures that fit with the look of the Iron Kingdoms and I'm trying not to have them look all piratey.

And last but not least, the start of my pig-faced-orcs.  I have the day off tomorrow so if all goes to plan these will get finished tomorrow and then I might, emphasis on 'might' have enough time to do a third entry for the Immortal Brush Competition.  I just started these guys but much like my gnolls the figures are so crisp and well textured that they are super easy to paint.

That's it for now, got to put a rush on the orcs but those other figs probably won't resurface again for several weeks, I've also got some more Blood Angels waiting for my attention around here somewhere.....

-Jay

A new thrall joins the fray

After typing my post the other day about starting work on some miniatures for The Witchfire Trilogy I decided to go digging through my figures to see what I already had on hand and what I would need to get ordered up.

I was quite pleased to find that I had 3 Reaper figs that would excellent Thralls for Alexia.  The first one of these got primed and painted in about an hour.

I'll show you the other 2 tomorrow in my next 'grab bag' installment and I also found an old Confrontation figure that is perfect for Alexia Ciannor herself.

-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

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

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

Hobby Grab-Bag

I've been bouncing from project to project lately so I thought rather than keep everybody waiting until something is done I thought I'd show off a few of the things I'm working on and let you know what they're for.

First up....Project Scrapheap Zombie Pirates
I haven't forgotten my undead pirates, I've just been back and forth on other things lately but my next 4 are almost done.  Here below I've shown the 2 that are furthest along.  I like theses figures because they look like a cross between actual naval troopers and Cygnar Gun Mages so I think they'll work great for Warmachine.

Next up....The first crypt from my Garden Of Morr
The Garden Of Morr is an AMAZING piece of Warhammer Fantasy Battle scenery that I will be using for Malifaux, Warmachine and Chaos In Carpathia.  The basic "garden" consists of 3 separate crypts and a statue all on really intricate bases along with an outer wall.  I'm doing up each piece individually so I can make use of it however I need whenever I need.  So far the base for the first piece is completely done, now I just need to get in an hour or so to finish the building itself.

 

Last but definitely not least....OWLBEAR!
Every year around the Christmas holidays I get together with some of my old gaming friends who don't game that regularly anymore and we play a game of D&D or Pathfinder.  Every year I end up DMing and we always end up playing some sort of horror themed game because that's what I have fantasy models for.  I've decided this year to get some more generic or classic D&D monsters done up so we can play a straight up heroes vs monsters fantasy adventure.  While reading my friend Darren's blog I was reminded that we had both painted Owlbears 15 years or so ago and I decided to dust off the extra Owlbear I bought and make him the start of my return to the old-school.

Well there you have it.  I'm all over the map today but hopefully there will be some cool stuff finished and on the tabletop soon.

Cheers

-Jay