A big lad

The need to paint something wholly different from WW2 continued in my head, so I plucked an old fig from a neglected project and got to work. It's a metal Reaper Miniatures "Plague Harbinger", a really nice sculpt from 2004 by Werner Klocke that I'd bought originally upon release and had left on the shelf of unloved minis with the intention to paint up as the last member of my Inquisimunda/INQ28 Nurgle Coven! (I need to have a serious word with the "Hoarder" in me.)

Hadn't realised, but I had not worked on this project since 2012, the previous entry being a bits-mash-up deamonhost! O_o This feller is representing a "Big Mutie" in the rules, as well as being unnaturally large, he also has a "Claw" (Originally represented by an old metal Great Unclean One hand, but since replaced with a more manageable and better looking plastic hand from the GW giant kit.) and some sort of rotten flesh-type "toughness" mutation. Overall in-game he'll be awful when shooting with his ancient pistol, but nasty in hand-to-hand combat.

Dark pits for eyes made him seem more creepy in my mind. Check out the dirt under those fingernails - ew...

This brute claims to have taken those Templar pauldron shields from Space Marines he had slain in one-on-one combat. Whilst the rest of the team doesn't believe this story, they aren't about to risk a good  kicking saying so. 

Bone-handled knife is a cool bit that adds I think to the scummy wastelander feel of this mini.

Rust on most all of the exposed metal areas. (Looks good enough for me.)
Between his feet are a pile of bloodied bones - a previous meal/victim/captive/pet?

The scheme was an attempt to blend in well enough with the rest of the Coven, but be individual enough that he’ll still stand out in a group shot. The stripy cloth on his hood was an attempt to make the image more interesting, yet not distract for the overall look. As well as the plastic giant’s hand that replaced his Sickle armed left hand, I added some sort of Warhammer Fantasy holstered pistol, Warhammer 40K Kroot knife and a grenade that I think comes from the Kroot sprues as well. Overall it really is a sweet mini and I think the additions “Grimdark” it up enough to fit in the Warhammer 40K universe.

No idea on a name for this mutant as yet, though I’ll happily take suggestions.

With him finished, that sees my Chaos Coven complete. Still lots to do on other teams though for the future and after really enjoying painting this mini, I’m rather hankering to finish up some of the members of the (also) neglected Inquisitorial investigation squads. We’ll see what takes my fancy.

(I’ll get a group pic up in a future post when it’s not so rainy and nasty outside.)

One Year

Today is this blog's anniversary I believe. I also passed the 9000 views mark.

Not bad for my lazy arsed self.

Just a quick post to say thanks for coming by, offering advice and being a general all round encouraging bunch. Being the antisocial jerk that I am, it's nice to know my hobby offerings can be presented before you lot and get some fair responses.

So applaud yourself, cos I wouldn't have kept up with this otherwise. Thank you.

I managed to keep my New Years Resolution as well, having 65 total posts and so averaging more than one post a week. I call that progress folks. (You can call is modesty.)

Hopefully in the near future I'll have something exciting to post up included but not restricted to:

1. I've stuck all the RT Guard troopers on their bases aside from Heavy Weapons Squads (I have no 60mm bases - anyone know of a super cheap resource for these?). Heads will be next, then it's time to prime.

2. Creed, his Vox 'porter, the three Plague Marines are all getting wee spots of paint, though still far from done.

3. The big Mutie from the Nurgle Chaos Coven for my Inquisimunda campaign is near complete. Somehow found some enthusiasm for the model, which is nice considering it's been a hard slog to want to paint this up until now.

4. After jumping on the Dreamforge Kickstarter, I find myself now with the impending delivery of a further bunch of miniatures (Couldn't resist, they looked so darn good.) and who knows, I may well dive into the game too once the rules are released.

5. A pal of mine has been asking me to get on board with his Flames of War group. I plan to make my first attendance (For any game in a few years since Warmachine 1.0) on the 12th to see if I like it. If it grabs my attention, then I guess for my birthday (the 20th of this month.) I think I may well put some funds into that new starter set to get a British force going. We'll see though.

That's it. Go drink, paint and be merry and I'll do the same.

Ain't Getting on no Plane!

"Ben Bones, a former pit slave from Hive world Kolos XII, caught the eye of the Ordo Malleus Interrogator Scheiner whilst on mission to rescue the daughter of the Imperial Govenor from the clutches of a small Genestealer Cult. The hulking pit fighter managed to save the Interrogator's life and tore a purestrain Genestealer limb from limb in single combat. The Governor's daughter had sadly already been indoctrinated by the xenos and so had to be purged along with the rest of the evil sect, though Bones' efforts had been noted as more than beneficial to Inquisitorial investigation. The Interrogator ordered the Ogryn released from his indentured servitude and offered the brute a position within his team, which Ben Bones accepted eagerly, seeing his new lease on life a 2nd chance from a personal representative of the God Emperor Himself. "

Okay, blurb for this chap may be a bit crap, but writing with a 7-year-old next to you asking incessant questions tends to make a clear stream of thought somewhat tricky. :) Took me an age to finally get back to this character as I had been out of ideas for an effective scheme to deck him out in. The sculpt itself is from the Heroscape kids boardgame, some sort of Ogre (though I can't find the figure online for the life of me.). It's made of very soft plastic though, so modding it was a rather interesting affair - though it turned out okay in the end. (Only real complaint I have about the sculpt is the silly join between his right arm and shoulder/chest - a bicep growing out of there is rather weird, but there you go, it was a free fig afterall.)

The stripes on his back are meant to be scars from the whippings he would have taken as a slave. And eventually I'll make some sort of stencil to add some sort of code type text to the bomb on the base. The devotional adornments and graffiti on his blade are a tribute to the original fluff written for Ogryns in the 40K Compendium where they were said to look up to Commissars as their personal voice of the Emperor himself.

Below the pics (In natural light for once!) of Ben Bones are a few shots of my display case and the mini's I have painted thus far.

Lastly, done a little more work on the Brother Captain Stern commission. I so do not like this sculpt. Not as bad as Draigo, but still annoying to paint.

Interlude 3

Bit quiet around here eh?




Not been totally idle though.



1. Remember those old Rogue Trader Guard I scored and bragged about a couple posts back? Well they have all been clipped from their sprues and sorted into some wee containers I managed to drum up, ready for when I finally get to them. I also added in the other Guard that I’d already owned and I think I should be able to put together about three or four 10-man squads along with some extras to fill out both heavy weapon teams and platoon squad members. Score right?



2. Speaking of Guard, I read in some blog that I was too silly to bookmark about a Guard player who had found an awesomely cheap alternate model to use instead of the $30+ GW Chimera model. The blogger had chopped the gun off the turret (Or maybe replaced the entire turret?) and shoved on a GW gun instead and added a few 40K-esque details on top of that. I only saw pre-paint pictures of the finished tank, but I liked what I saw and the price of the finished piece even more! On top of the blogger’s mods, I plan to switch out the abominable wheels for something more beefy, though have yet to find an affordable option for this. (Prefer a wheeled transport as opposed to tracked, just seems meaner to me.) This is the shop where I plan to buy 4 of these to make my armoured platoon – http://littlegreenmentoys.com/Tim-Mee-Tan-Armored-Car-02-0001.htm and here’s a pic of the piece pre-mod:

3. O and painting! Well yes, I’ve also managed to get some painting in too. The hobby room got flooded a couple weeks back (Along with the upstairs landing.), which was rather annoying and will prove to be an expensive fix I fear. Thankfully only the flooring was affected so I’ve been able to go in and work, though not often due to the fact that my wife doesn’t like going in there with bare floors. But I have gotten some painting done: a. Work on the Brother Captain Stern commission has started and I’ve got the base metallics started. Customer wants a similar scheme to the studio one, so red next.

b. My Raven Guard dreadnought and Captain Sicarius models have been primed black. Doubt I’ll get to Sicarius anytime soon, but the dreadnought has been calling to me for some reason of late.

c. I am close to finishing the paintjob on the Ogryn from the Radical Ordo Malleus team for my =][=munda project. Shading and all sorts is done on almost all areas of the fig, just need to break up the large bare areas of skin with some freehand tattoo’s and scars. The scars are going to represent his former slave status and will hopefully look as though he’s been lashed a good few times. With the tattoos I’m hoping to effect a design that reflects some sort of devotion to the God Emperor with script work or Inquisitorial seal-type imagery. I’m rather intimidated by the prospect though so we’ll see just how well it all turns out. Hopefully will have an update with pictures by Sunday.



4. Someone needs to take down Kickstarter by the way – along with the awesome Sedition Wars KS, I also have found myself putting down some $$$ on the Relic Knights KS with a mate. And now I’m drooling over the lovely Dreamforge plastic Eisenkern trooper boxed sets and Leviathan titan-thingy. It’s a good thing I have the thriftiest budget-conscious wife in the world, else I’d be in the hole terminally if my hobby urges were allowed to have free reign.



5. Lastly, a mate recently found this boxed set from his gaming days of yore. He knew I am a painter and (still) a roleplay gamer and so gifted me it along with a handful of hero-esque miniatures from the same age. Can’t wait to get painting those pig-faced orcs! (After the commission. After the Ogryn. After the dreadnought. Etc. Etc. Etc.)

Again, next update with actual hobby pics will sometime before the end of Sunday.

Interlude 2

I hope some of the viewers I get on here hopefully gave that vid a look-see in my last post? The model's been sculpted from the ground up by a mate of mine from Denmark called Jon Micheelsen. He's an amazing sculptor and this is one mini I for one will be purchasing (Just as soon as I can figure a way to get said purchase past my wife.).  and I hope some of you  lot also like the look of it enough to get one (Or more) yourselves.

No pics today, which as a person with 115 blogs to follow, I know can blow, but painting that Dreadnought took it out of my hobby energy reserves and I've been taking it easy in the man cave.

Saying that, I've not been idle. There has been some progress, it's just slow progress is all.

1. Beastmen Penitents: After getting inspired by Mordian7th's wonderful Beastmen that he's put together for his cool looking Imperial Guard regiment (Clicky!), I decided to put some work into my own Beastmen squad that had been sat on a shelf primed and neglected for far too long. Currently just base-coats though I'm getting close to be done with that stage. Like the rest of my guard though, I think I'll just stick with a tabletop quality paint job as I don't want to get bogged down with these too much.

2. Malcador Defender: A very cool fellow on the SonsofCorax forum put forth a nice article on the From the Warp blog about the best ways for painting vehicles WITHOUT an airbrush that shows a technique or two that I'm going to try I think. Airbrushes are all the rage it would seem in the "littleplasticmen" hobby scene, but I'll be damned if I'm going to pay that much for something I don't know the 1st thing about how to use properly. Aside from that, the Malcador NEEDS to be painted, I mean, that driver/commander has sat there painted and ready to be glued in the top hatch now for a month or something! Some of it's metallics have been painted. I'm torn between a tan/brown scheme or just plain dirtied steel-type colour. Had thought about trying to make an effect as though the Chaos drivers had shoddily re-painted over a loyalist scheme (With parts of the old scheme showing through here and there.), but not sure my skills are up to that task.

3. Brother Captain Stern: Yet ANOTHER Grey Knight commission. And another overly detailed space marine terminator blokey. The fig's been sat on my wee shelves that sit over my painting table for a while now and I know the customer would really like to get him back sometime..... I just... have problems feeling excited about painting Grey Knights. Am I wrong for feeling this way? He's now primed black and ready for his metallics.

4. After valiantly and excitedly slapping paint on the now completed Raven Guard Land Speeder (Clicky!), I have been trying to convince myself to get back and finish off the rest of the Sternguard Vets that have sat on my desk for 6 months or something. Bolt guns and hoses are now silver and base colour for bone-helmets and emblems has been applied.

5. I also went out and bought a crapload of polystyrene from Lowes and a 2'x4' board to start making my long-planned graveyard =][=munda battle board. Have both the Garden of Morr and the Warhammer Chapel, the Forge World Roadside Shrine and am hunting down the best deal on the nicest gravestones I can find. Then it's on! This'll be my first terrain project so I'm kind of nervous I don't feck it up.

So there you have it. once the beastmen are a little closer to a finished state, I'll stick up pics. I also haven't forgotten my =][=munda project and all the remaining team characters yet to see paint, just been hard to feel inspired as my gaming group has seemed to lose interest in the game. Though I could be wrong.

The end.

A Pretty One

In service to the almighty Emperor of Mankind is reason for existence, regardless of the paths through life that we might find ourselves lead along. A Sage in the employ of Interrogator Pince, Lillit Rebko was not always engaged in such important employment. She had at one time been courtesan to no less than the Rogue Trader Glablenka herself. Her position was lost due to infighting between herself and the Trader's son, who framed Lillit for theft consequently losing not only her prized position of comfort, but her left hand as well (A common punishment thieves receive in the Romonovski Sector.). Little did Glablenka or her son realise, that Lillit Rebko had acrued quite an impressive amount of evidence of the Trader family's crooked dealings and tax evasions during her time with them and so the last laugh was on them and the Trading family were arrested by local Arbites personel. The ability to gather such a hoard of personal data did not go to waste and the former courtesan was quickly snapped up to serve Interrogator Pince as his personal Sage.

The model is a Reaper sorceress fig with a bionic hand and holstered hand cannon. I tried to make her pretty, but I'm not sure it worked well enough. She has purple eye shadow, green irises and wierd coloured hair. My wife says the colour of her garb doesn't "pop", I'll let you decide if you agree.

Trust the Mutant (REDUX)

Right, a few modifications to the paint job on the beastman. I like the red/pink eyes, but gave him some pupils. I also took the advice given on my previous posting and added somemetallic paint to the sword as scratches, etc and think this has made the striping not look so bad. Also added a bit of shading via washes here and there. I have also written a little fluff for this fellow to be found after the pics.

Living the life of shame Keyes the mutant has time and again tried to attone for his sin of being so malformed in the eyes of the God Emperor. He signed up as an Auxilary trooper to the local Planetary Defense Force. Often he had attempted to show his devotion regardless of his affliction, but his lot would not change. In despair he turned to throwing himself into the most dangerous situations, missions where even a skilled warrior like himself would have trouble, but he would not die as he wished. The peace of death in the Emperor's name eluded him time and again.

When on business in the industrial hives of Tsinguzh IV, Interrogator Pince heard of the mutant's prowess when on Inquisitor Tharlborough's business and met the freak himself. it was quickly evident that the Beastman's skills would be better used if pressed into the service of the Inquisition. Offering a small salary, Keyes was officially discharged from the PDF Auxilaries and added as a member of the Interrogator's own investigation unit.

Sometimes, the foulest of tasks are better to delegate to the foulest of abominations.

Trust the Mutant

"Beastman bad. Bad Beastman. Dirty. Emperor no like.
Beastman love Emperor. Give blood to Emperor, Give heads to Emperor. Say sorry."

This is the quote that got my attention in the original 40K Compilation army book.

Beastmen not being soley in the "badguy" forces was one of the coolest parts of Rogue Trader 40K. Beastmen being mutants, should be available to Imperium forces commanders, afterall, Psykers, Ogryn, Ratling and Squats are all tolerated by the Imperium to certain degrees and they are all mutants of varying degrees?

So with sadness it was, that after 2nd Edition, I came back to find that along with deleting my beloved Squats, that Games Workshop had also forced a rather sad and bland state upon the Imperial Guard as a whole.

But not in MY vision of 40K.

So here I present you with the Beastman Mutant Acolyte from the Radical Ordo Malleus team. He has a name, but I'm at work and for the life of me I can't remember it. (Think it was Marvin or Normon or some such.) I'll write a little background info on my next post cos he's a cool and rare character type (I think) for an Inquisitorial Cell to take so a proper job reason for this deserves a little more work.

Took two sessions to paint him, so he's pretty quick and dirty. I felt that a true mutant needed some not-human eyes, so I went for the red, though now I'm thinking I'll go back and add a little watered down orange and a black pupil or something? (And yes, I know the hazard stripes are pants, but after doing and re-doing them, I ended up saying "feck it" and decided he'd painted them himself to explain their rubbishness.)

*if he seems a little shiny, that's cos I've yet to give him a layer of Clear Coat.*

Bathing in Blood WIP

A long time it’s been. Much gotten done, I have not. A break for the soul is good, no?

(Don't worry, my crap Yoda impression is done with.)

Truth be told, it was good to get back into the paint mode again these past few days and I’ve been rolling along nicely. Not on my own projects though, but working to kick out the couple commissions I have sat on my desk.



“Commissions?! Why this bloke barely paints better than tabletop!” I hear you say. It’s true, it’s true. But there’s lazy people out there and for some reason one came to me wanting his figs painted so he didn’t have to. No monies involved though, more bartering for comics and some other things.



So what is it that’s been worked on – well, Draigo, Lord High Pickle Features of the Grey Knights. Now, I’m not one to rant, but I am one to write falsehoods, so let me tell you my thoughts on Grey Knights in general. No, not from a silly 40K gaming perspective, (though that will be included in a wee form.) but from someone who’s been following this hobby on and off since Rogue Trader was first released and I bought my first pack of IronClaw Squats some…. Lots of years ago.



The Grey Knights were first released in White Dwarf as a mythical super-secret part of the Inquisition – a Space Marine Chapter created to combat that which even normal Space Marines had trouble taking down. This is back in the day when the fluff had it that Chaos, the Warp, daemons and other such sticky nonsense were not preached about in the churches and cathedrals of the Imperium. There wasn’t even the slightest whiff of them at all. Space Marines even, knew little to nothing (Librarium aside.) of the Warp and it’s dangers aside from – “It’s bad. Don’t think about it.”. Those who had the misfortune of being in contact were either destroyed, turned into servitors or mind wiped and reprogrammed to serve again from scratch… and that’s just the Legio Astartes! Normal citizens were usually destroyed outright due to the risk of them inviting (Unwittingly or otherwise) a Chaos incursion upon the systems of mankind. Preachers, Deacons, Cardinals and all of the other Ministorum dignitaries just stuck to “Worship the Emperor, despise the Xenos”. The End.



So here we are, with Chaos as the great enemy that only the highest echelons of Man’s military and religious might had knowledge of. Sure the Inquisition were there to root out the evils that went along with Chaos and it’s nasty ways, but sometimes that just wasn’t enough. Sometimes even their nasty torturing, brutal ways couldn’t finish the job – enter the Grey Knights! Space Marines even more highly trained than regular Astartes and e.v.e.r.y o.n.e a Librarian to boot! Powerful enough to take on Greater Daemons and have a chance of winning. They looked like normal marines in Terminator Armour, but with way more decoration and with these kick arse superduper halberds with bolters stuck on – it was awesome! Their army entry was for armies to be able to take ONE squad and just by that, it made them special, elite, badarse.



Fast forward to 2011 or when ever it was the latest codex came out.



Grey Knights… have a codex, an army book of their own. WTF? Weren’t they supposed to be this super secret, rarely, if ever, seen uber elite daemon-hunting force that offered the services of A SQUAD to those forces in the direst need of help against the forces of Chaos??? O, so that’s changed then…. Now they are a whole army of their own and… o right, now everyone knows about Chaos, they fight Chaos regularly without penalty and they get up again to do the same next week. So Grey Knights are now as “Special” as Paris Hilton crotch shots or news that the economy has gone bad. Again.



I no longer like Grey Knights. At all. I don’t like their ridiculous huge storm-bolter-on-wrist armours. I can’t stand how much decoration is emblazoned on their armour. And I can’t help but dislike how GW allowed the codex author to completely take all that was cool and special about them and then to completely feck it all up. It saddens this old 40K fan’s heart, almost as much as when Games Workshop ret-conned my beloved Squats, citing “Space Dwarfs” are stupid – yet continuing to embrace stupid pointy hat Space Elves, atypical Space Orks and other direct translations from their fantasy line.



Rant over.



Here’s a WIP of Draigo per the customer’s specifications. He’s doing the basing, which is fine by me. Just the banner to go.

I've also managed to get a little done on my Raven Guard Land Speeder, but that's a post for another blog and another time. Hope to have another update sometime this weekend!

2 and 6!

Sadly no hobby update as I've been sick as a dog this weekend.

But in my rambling about in other blogs, I saw that Pulp Figures are soon to release these and thought that with a few brass etch aquilas here and there, how cool a ship's crew they'd make. (Very 5th Element too.) Perhaps some npc's to rescue in a mission or some such?

Promises promises

Wrote a little while back that I'd show my small painted Guard section and to be honest, forgot just how small the amount of painted figs were. But here they are regardless. Hope you like. They are the troops of a personal army belonging to a Rogue Trader of House Draquon. As well as the stuff pictured below, I also have about 7 or 8 infantry, veteran and/or heavy squads of both Rogue Trader plastic Guard and metal and plastic Squat models. I used the idea that the Trader Prince had rescued the dwarf contingent from a Tyranid threatened base during the Squad purge. So lots not pictured below. One day I'll look into buying them a tank or two. :)

Also there is a small WIP of what I've been adding a little lick of paint too for my =][=munda project.

Commander Isiah Tholme, Pay Master Scheiner (Commissar) and Gorrt, Mutant Standard Bearer and Trusted Protector of the Lord Trader Draquon's family crest. The Commander will probably end up being a 3rd Pay Master.

Armaud Destrierre, trusted Astropath on board the Lord Draquon's trading vessel,  Sergeant Lorch, overseer of the Beastmen Penitents and Ukko, Gretchin member of the Ratling sniper squad.



This squad was my tester squad for the Burgundy and cream scheme. I like it as it seemed the kind of thing a showy Rogue Trader would have his ship bound troops wear.

Squat command group with unpainted beastmen penitents in background. Squats will be stripped and repainted as they have a 14-year-old-me paintjob right now. :)

Trying to fit these Grotz in the list. Was thinking some sort of veterans or bodyguards to the Rogue Trader.

Creed model is my Rogue Trader along with his Command group. The two "white" no arms figs will be removed I think and added to a normal infantry squad so I can fit in the above Grotz. The Fleet advisor will be stripped also in order to be painted in the correct colours.

Washed out pic of (Left to right) Ratlings snipers, 2nd Platoon command, Catachan squad who will be painted as ship's hands and the start of another infantry squad.

Why so much infantry? Well, fair question, seeing as how tanks are the thing right now with Guard. but I always LOVED seeing pics of the masses of RT guard marching across a battlefield with titans in the background and little else to help them aside from their numbers. So I always wanted a Guard force made in such a way. All praise the meat grinder!

Lastly a wee WIP of what I've been painting of late. (Commissions aside.)

He Ain't Heavy

Brother Thelonius - a kindly looking, bearded man of enormous proportions for his species (He is about 6'8" and weighs nigh on 400lbs) is the keeper of the Emperor's word within the Countess' Cell. Beneath that portly jovial exterior is a soul dark and bitter for all the evils it has had to withstand and destroy. One minute a kindly blessing for the lowly servants of the Imperium, the next burning those same souls for fear of their being tainted by those unspeakable horrors who none speak of in his presence.

(I've been dealing with a lot of real life pish tosh of late, hence the lack of posts - so much easier to just read everyone else's blogs during moments like that. Anyhow - This one had a load of detail to get creative with colour-wise. A little frustrating to be honest. Tried my hand at the black and yellow striping on his chainsword, my first attempt, looks okay for that I think. I tried to show a little of the "deranged zealot" about this fellow also by painting one eye open, the other closed. Not sure I've conveyed what I'm on about though... My editing program is rubbish, so please forgive the washed out colours - looks far better in person.)

A small bonus to this post - I've bee working a little more on this Xenos chap. Has been lots of fun to paint and I am excited as he's almost done.