Harvester of Souls finished display boards

I just realized I have yet to post images of the finished display boards my brother and I brought to the Harvester of Souls this September. So better late than never!

Jarom's turned out very well and was very popular among the tourney-goers. The reference to Mad Max was obvious to everyone, so mission accomplished. As you can see Jarom's army was unique in that it was all bikes and vehicles. Keep in mind, this was before the new codex and all the new vehicles. So you could say he was doing the Ork motorcade before it was cool.

This was my miniature display board. I brought my Verminlord Skrax army, and didn't want to bring the sewer board again. The only new stuff in my list was a small battalion detachment of Kabals, so I did a display board just for them, also as a teaser for next year's big project for my space pirates. Depicted is a dark portal and a massive kraken-like creature emerging from it (the big head and tentacles are all 3D printed). Also on the bottom is the name of the Kabal, similar to the process I used to make the Coven's name plate.

The Void Corsairs - Part 2

Last time I introduced everyone to more of my planned Drukhari army. I have built some more of it, and I have some of it painted to fill out what I need for my Harvester list.

Let's start with my painted, and based, Kabalite Warriors:

The Sybarites. I distinguished them all with each wearing something on their backs and wielding a melee weapon.

Heavy Weapons, Splinter Cannon and 2 Dark Lances

Shredders

Blasters

Regular Kabalites

Here you can see the scale cloaks that fit most of my space pirates together

Fleetmaster Karrik got a paintjob. I am keeping with the theme of my characters having lighter armor than the rest. You will notice his base is different from the other painted models. This is because I have a big Tantalus project planned later, and he will be spending most of his time on the table riding that ship, so I tried painting it to fit the planned deck of the ship.

Since I planned on taking a Kabal Battalion Detachment, I would need another Archon, so in addition to the Fleetmaster, I also made First Mate Ozuros. His body is from the old Lokhir Felheart model, and the shark jaw I got from the Fleetmaster kit. Then various bits I have.

I also built a Raider, but tried to go with more of a ship theme, I think I pulled it off well enough. This is one of the ships in the fleet.

Notice the rear deck is made from the Scourgerunner Chariot. The ship will have a helmsman, but I will be painting him separately.

I wasn't sure what was something unique I could do with the 6 Reaver jetbikes that come in the Gangs of Commorragh box. At first I had an idea to combine them with the new Akhelian Guard models, but the more I thought about the idea, the less I liked it. Then I remembered there was this thing called windsurfing. The Drukhari ships ride these aetheric winds, so why can't the reavers do it as well?

For ease of painting, the riders will all be painted separate, but I am really excited to see the cool poses I have planned put on the surfing Reavers.

With what I have built for my Wych cults (the Reavers, Wyches, and Hellions) I can run an Outrider Detachment of them. Of course I need a character, so I caved and bought a Succubus. I creatively swapped a few bits, giving her a scaled cloak to fit the rest of the pirates, and a mask to fit the wyches. I like unconventional wargear so my Succubus will be wieding hydra gauntlets like the rest of the wyches. This is Fleetmatron Aravesh, consort to the Fleetmaster.

The Void Corsairs - Introduction

I am not done with the Drukhari. Verminlord Skrax was the first part. The first part to my Exiles of Commorragh. Drukhari that are not allowed to return to the Dark City. Both either deemed too weird, or heinous traitors, even for the dark kin.

This next army are the Kabal of the Void Corsairs. A pirate fleet that have no base of operation or place to call their home, except the cold empty void. They still traverse the webway, but are careful in doing so to avoid running in to their Commorrite brethren, or Craftworld cousins.

So these are what I have built so far for them, but there's more to come, like the vehicles, which I am really excited about.

They are lead by the Fleetmaster, Karrik. A brutal unflinching humorless Archon who is haunted by visions of a kraken. It's not of any creature he knows of in the galaxy. It permeates his every dream. What he knows for certain, or at least he believes he knows, that kraken will be his demise. The day he meets the creature, is the day of his death. Until then, every encounter he survives.

The model itself is based on the GW Fleetmaster model with a blast pistol. I loved the blade peg leg of the model, and the dragonscale cloak which you will see is a common theme among my Corsairs. His head is from the now discontinued old Lokhir Felheart model, fortunately I was able to get a hold of finecast version.

The kabalite warriors form the main crew of his fleet. They are made primarily from the Black Ark Corsairs kits, mixed with Kabalite Warrior arms, weapons, and heads. The special weapon models have heads from Reavers. I really like the poses of these models, it shows them in constant motion. There will be more of these guys coming as I get more corsair kits.

I have a single unit of wyches. They are pretty much made from whatever spare bits I have put together from the various Drukhari kits I have bought so far. The top 3 will be painted up to look like their gauntlets are on fire, trailing flames. These count as hydra gauntlets. I used some bits from the Witch Aelves. I like their small shields and am using them as their hekatarii blades. The helmets also add a really cool look to the unit.

I absolutely love Hellions. Such a cool kit. I bought some a while ago and with the addition of the Gangs of Commorragh box this Christmas, I had to add them all to my army. I will use any excuse I can to add all these guys to my army. I think they have so much potential for RADICAL posing and SICK moves. The more dynamic poses are helped with some of the crew bits from the Raider and Venom kits. The Helliarch on the top (3rd from left) is from the Scourgerunner Chariot kit. Each Hellion has a breastplate from the Black Ark Corsairs kits. There are 3 more of these coming, I just need more breastplates.

I have more coming for this army, but in due time.

Drukhari - Combat Drug Tokens

I have always had some plans to expand my current Dark Eldar force with some more traditional (not rats at least) Dark Eldar. I have some plans for them and more on that later. With everything we have been seeing about 8th edition 40k, I am getting more excited than ever to get back into the grimdark future. One thing is Dark Eldar (I like the new name, Drukhari) seem to have gotten a boost. It's a combination of changes to their army and just the new edition being much more friendly to their play style.

So I whipped these up in a night. It was nice because I didn't need to prime them, and I wanted to get started painting something simple before I moved onto bigger projects. These are combat drug tokens. The units with the combat drugs rules get to choose which drug they are taking at the start of the battle, but each one has to be different per unit. So making 6 tokens to remind myself which unit has which drugs seemed like a fun little project. I could just write the benefit (like +1s, +1a, +1ws, etc) on a scrap of paper to follow the units around, but I sort of fell in love with doing little hand painted things after making my display board plaque.

Following a similar process, here is how I made them. This would be good for just about any hand painted tokens you want to put on the battlefield.

First thing is I found the little symbols I need and printed them out on sticker label paper. Then I cut them out and stuck them on 32mm bases. The symbols I got from game-icons.net, which is an excellent source for this stuff. Check it out. The only one I didn't get from there is the Dark Eldar helmet, which I just got from Google images. I stuck them down on my surface using blue tack.

Next it's just as easy as painting the base colors inside/outside the lines. Trying to leave most of the black lines from the print in place. Here is also where I experimented on the colors I would use. Originally the lotus flower to the right I started painting in blue, but then I realized the drug was called Grave Lotus, so I opted for black instead.

This step is kind of subtle, but I went around the symbols with a lighter color, painting in a sort of splotchy pattern to highlight them over the background darker color.

Next I wanted the tokens to have a cool border because I knew I wasn't going to be able to paint a perfectly round border where it meets the black of the base. So I just did a black splotchy pattern around it to contain the symbols and colors.

I really like the black lines, so to preserve them I went back over the lines with a fine tip artist pen to redefine them.

Next I went with the lighter corresponding colors inside the symbols and painted them within their base colors so some of that is still showing through the edges. This brings them out against the background.

Finally I touched up with some final details and I am done! This is always a fun little project because it's easier than painting miniatures and you get more freedom with it. I would recommend doing something like it.

Now, can you guess which token represents which drug?

2016 Year in Review

This was an exciting year for me with a lot of completion on a lot of projects. Very productive. So here is a wrap-up for the year, as well as an update on my many projects.

Zone Mortalis Tiles
I spent countless hours casting the bits, gluing them together, and painting these tiles. It's a total of 18 tiles with doodads, and they have gotten some play time. Our local game store had an event where my tiles handled about 4,000 points between 4 players. I am surprised at how well they handled the punishment, and the players were all impressed with the table. They are a little brittle, but that is due to the material used, where I went a little cheap. A lofty goal in the future will be to create a fantasy themed set of tiles, but I may splurge for the good dental plaster if I can find out where to get a hold of some nearby.

The Coven of Verminlord Skrax (Warhammer 40,000 - Dark Eldar Haemonculus Covens)
This was quite a project that yielded a proud achievement for me. A lot of effort when into the modeling and painting and display board, not to mention the wonderful comic illustrated by my brother. It was all paid off when I won Best in Appearance at the 40k GT Harvester of Souls. A trophy which is still proudly displayed in our living room.

Jarom's Orks Commission Here and Here
The undertaking for illustrating my comic was no small feat, so I gladly paid in painting small portion of Jarom's Orks in exchange. Jarom also took Best in Orks at the same tournament.

Gorkamorka
My brother and I haven't really acted on our plans to run a little Gorkamorka campaign yet. Both of us live a distance from each other, and he has been busy with a job enough as it is. So Gogmagog's Questing Knights (Mutiez) and Da 'ard 'eads (Gorkers) will remain unpainted for now. I am looking forward to fielding Da Hukka Trukka on the table sometime in the near future.

Heavy Gear Blitz!
My Heavy Gear plastics kickstarter delivered this year. I now have a lot of plastic sprues of tiny mecha. I have been a very long fan of Heavy Gear's setting, but never got a chance to play it in any form. This game seems pretty solid, and my brother has expressed a desire to give it a shot. I look forward to that sometime next year.

Deadzone
My addiction to small skirmish games continues even still. Deadzone is an example of my enthusiasm that builds in a game in intense bursts. Then it dies out. I am still up for playing games with it though. So I have several small armies built for this game, but the beauty of most small skirmish games I own, a lot of the figures can be used interchangeably. So even when I am not playing Deadzone, I can still use the terrain and minis for something; like Rogue Stars... but that's another post for another day.

Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower
The three of us (Jarom, Timo, and I) have been slowly working our way through the trials of the Silver Tower, and watching the story unfold and our characters progress. Jarom is playing an Orruk Warchanter, Timo is playing a Chaos Lord, and I am controlling the Order side with a Cogsmith and Lord-Relictor. What's even sweeter about this is how little money I have invested in this game and we are getting a lot out of it.

Censers and Tocsins (Warhammer: Age of Sigmar - Nurgle Rotbringers and Clan Pestilens)
This project will likely be set on the back burner. I love the idea of a Nurgle themed fantasy army, but until I get that burst of inspiration for it going again, I won't be doing much with it for now. I do believe I have some good ideas for the Nurgle Rotbringers at least. The Skaven, however, I can only think to make everything as-is. Which is fine for most, but I become passionate about something when I can think of a unique angle to take with it.

Forgesworn Eternals (Warhammer: Age of Sigmar - Stormcast Eternals)
I am proud to say my entire Forgesworn Eternal army is completely painted (barring some basing I still have left to do). Not something I can say much of for my big armies. I really don't plan on adding anything to this. I feel I have gotten all the minis I am interested in. I was considering some Dracoth Cavalry to make more dire bear riders, but the problem is finding variations of suitable bear heads, of which I have only really found the one. But for now I'm good.

Forthammer Clan Throng (Warhammer: Age of Sigmar - Dispossessed and Ironweld Arsenal)
Not all of my Warhammer Duardin are among the ranks of the painted, but a good portion of them are. I experimented with a unique paint scheme for dwarfs that I think has paid off to a color that complements my Forgesworn Eternals. All I have left for this LVO army is some basing, and maybe a display board. Carry-on luggage restrictions are becoming an issue.

That sums up this very awesome year. In the new year I will outline my goals for 2017.

Harvester of Souls 2016 - Best Appearance Winner!

I just got back yesterday from the Harvester of Souls 2016 Grand Tournament, and am pleased to say I won the trophy for Best Appearance! My Dark Eldar army got a lot of positive and excited feedback, especially among the tournament organizers. Naturally everyone loved the comic as well, which I think is a big reason I got a lot of favorite army votes from the players.

I also won Best in Dark Eldar out of 3 total Dark Eldar players. It was mostly the painting and appearance score for that though as I only won a single game of the five I played. My army wasn't really that competitive, but that's the great thing about the Harvester; 33% of your overall score comes from actual gameplay, 33% from sportsmanship, and 33% from appearance and painting. This is in contrast to most grand tournaments placing a higher stake in gameplay over the other two. It doesn't alleviate hyper-competitive players and lists, but it also doesn't encourage it, and puts more emphasis on the hobby, which I love. They also do something unusual, they don't use the ITC missions. Each table at the event has its own terrain set-up with its own narrative scenario. Every time I go back I am playing a different set of 5 games. Most of them are a lot of fun.

This was my 3rd attendance to the Harvester, and I love it. Anyone wanting a good fun tournament and you are in the north-west area of the United States (or even western Canada) the Harvester of Souls is a lot of fun.

Finally a few acknowledgements for this award:

• First to my beautiful patient wife, Beth. She supported the entire effort from the beginning and offered encouragement. She is awesome and helps balance my life in this nerdy hobby of mine. She also edited the comic book to made sure it made sense.
• Second to my brother, Jarom. The cutaway of the underground sewer and how to achieve it was his idea, and of course his awesome art on the comic really brought my story to life. They exceeded my initial storyboard. On a side note, congratulations to Jarom for winning best in Orks. He really rocked it this tournament and his army appearance was a definite improvement over last year.
• Third to my friend, Timo Swaner. He was a big encouragement and someone I could really bounce lists and ideas off of. A partner in crime when it comes to 40k.
• Fourth and final to the War Head blog. It was this post that started the ball rolling on the idea and I cited them since the beginning. It was the idea of space rats as Dark Eldar which festered within me for quite some time that culminated into my own take on it. This is a gorgeous blog to follow if only for the pictures alone, even though most of the time it's in Finnish.

Now I gotta get working on finishing my Duardin for the LVO!

The Coven of Verminlord Skrax - The Comic Book

I have something very exciting to share with you guys. I commissioned my brother to illustrate the comic book which will tell Verminlord Skrax' story. I wrote it out and did a basic layout and storyboard for my brother, and my wife edited the text. And so I bring you the comic book:

 

These are all the pages of a booklet I will be giving away while my board and army are on display at the tournament. I just got to get them printed, folded, and stapled and everything for my army is good to go! After the tournament I will provide a report of how well it did.

Verminlord Skrax' Lair - Title Plaque - How I did it

Doing a painted title plaque was a last minute idea for my display board. I wanted originally just to do a simple print of the army title and stick it on the base. However I knew it would look cheap and unimpressive, even if you find the perfect font for it (which is Dark Crystal font, by the way).

I thought of this idea because I wanted something hand painted to title the whole board. So here is the process of how I went about doing it:

Start off by printing off the text onto label paper. Label paper is just a big sheet of paper with a sticker backing. It's primarily meant for printing labels onto things. I kept the size of the font so it would fit within the 1" thick base of the board. Luckily the font I donwloaded had an outline version, which made this so much easier. I cut out a sizeable portion of the label paper and stuck it on a piece of plasticard, then stuck the outlying sticker on a piece of wood that I usually do my cutting and painting on. This is to prevent curling and a hard back for the painting. As the paint would dry, the whole thing would want to warp. You can see the outline of the plasticard underneath the label.

Next I painted within the text and the background of the title, trying to keep within and without the lines as much as possible. I purposefully painted outside the boundaries of the plague because I knew I was going to cut it out, and it would be better than having white within the cut.

Using the colors of my army's armor and warpstone, I painted a reflection type gradient. This was easier than I thought because I didn't bother with any sort of wet blending, just applying layers of the right colors.

Next I applied a layer of a lighter red surrounding the text to bring it out a little more. It still blends well enough with the background.

To finish the text, I used a fine tip black ink marker to recorrect the original black outline. It sharpens up the details. Then I give the whole thing plenty of time to dry, so any tendency to warp would be done by now.

I marked out the borders with a fine tip pen and cut it out using a hobby knife and a metal ruler to ensure the angles were as right and edges straight as possible.

Then using a black I painted a thin uneven border around it just for effect. Some warping still happened, but not as much if I hadn't use the label paper to keep the whole thing down. Also I painted along the white edges of the plasticard so it wouldn't stand out, that can really distract the from the overall feel of it.

Then I gave the whole thing a quick coat of spray on matte varnish to protect it, and glued it to the display board.