Undead - Markus Vellen & Gert the Hood

Tonight my final two recruits for my undead Warcry warband join the ranks. Markus Vellen, wight, and Gert the Hood, lowly skeletal spearman. Markus is another of Gary Morley's legendary wights, while Gert is yet another Bob Olley, though not one you see about too much.

Look at that helmet. Pure metal.

I used the same technique on Markus that I used previously on Einar Haugen. Again, contrast paint made painting the black armour a breeze. I spent more time on his cloak than on his entire suit of plate. The green-tinted axe and red cloak give him a little more jazz, and there's a purple pouch in there too someplace.

I used the ever handy Typhus Corrosion on the hem of the cloak to weather it a little. There's a wee spider on the base too, if you can make it out. 

Gert is a simpler fellow, though he did get a spider too. As with all things Olley, his ragged hood and tunic led me down many a merry path. I found myself painting bone as cloth twice. Never underestimate a Bob. 

With these two complete, I now have a full Warcry warband ready to Harryhausen it all over the Eightpoints. Of course, I'll be adding some more members as the warband grows. A nice big undead beastie maybe. 

As you can see, there's a distinctly Deadite flavour to this warband. Three spear armed skeletons, three with sword and shield, a skeleton captain, two grave guard with wight blade and shield, one with great weapon, a seneschal and a necromancer make up the starting band, the Swords of Dreux.

Undead - Einar Haugen, Wight

I'm still enjoying painting the living dead at the moment, so today I present the wight Einar Haugen of the Order of Dust.

I've had this fellow since he was first released back in the 90s. He was one of eight spectacular wights sculpted by Gary Morley. Each of them looks like an undead warlord in it's own right. I needed a couple of wights for my undead warband, so that seemed like a good opportunity to finally paint them up.

The Hateful Eight. Also, check out that vampire.

This was also my first outing with the new Games Workshop contrast paints. My own take on contrast is to integrate it into my existing way of painting and see how it fits in. I wanted the wights to have black iron armour, and having seen a very helpful tutorial from Tyler Mengel on black armour, I set to work.

I've found painting black armour a bit of a challenge in the past. Priming with Leadbelcher spray, I applied two coats of Black Templar paint mixed 2:1 with contrast medium. Contrast medium is a must have when using the new paints. It opens up so many more options to control the translucency of the paint. The effect of the black over metallic was to give the armour a black, oily, metallic sheen. Something that I'm not sure I could have achieved by simply drybrushing over black. I am very much sold on the contrast paints as another arrow in my painting quiver.

I also used Nazdreg yellow to tint areas to look more gold/brassy. Again, this saves me a lot of time without any loss in quality, and that, my disciples, is the painting grail. With washes of red, yellow, brown or green you can add rust, verdigris and filth to further tint the metals. So, with 90% washes and an all over drybrush of Mithril Silver the metal is done. It took about half the time I would have expected.

The wight blade took a little more thought. Several glazes of Waywatcher Green and heavier washes of Scorpion Green mixed with Lahmian Medium built up the colour. I wanted it to look like the metal was suffused with the magic of the wight blade rather than glowing. Again, a drybrush of Mithril Silver over the top finished it off.

Einar here is the first wight from my latest version of the Order of Dust. Their ancestors fought in ranks through several editions of Warhammer, but now it is time to pass the banner to a new iteration of the Order.

You can rest now grandad, I'll take it from here.

My next wight will be hot on the heels of Einar, and has a helmet any undead king would die for. Again.

It's Christmas on the Mumblings - Chaos Style

I've painted this festive fellow up for the Scale Creep Christmas post. I've not had him too long, having spent a good long while tracking him down. He's a lovely chunky old chap, and after battling flash and mould lines, he was painted up in utterly traditional Christmas colours, which seem to make him a devotee of Khorne. There are some mind-bending nooks and crannies to get paint into, but he's such a nice sculpt I didn't mind too much.

I have never used snow effects on my bases, but I had some Hudson & Allen slush and snow that has been in my basing box for years. I put down a layer of slush, then when that way dry I added the snow. I thought of adding some glitter into the snow mix for extra Christmasness, but then I forgot. Still, the sparkle from the slush is plenty shiny anyway.

So, with that, I imagine this will be my last model of 2016. It's been a productive year. I'll most likely do a look back over the year soon, and think about the projects for 2017. There are already more lined up than I have the possibility of completing. Anyway, thanks for reading, and a Merry Christmas to all the readers of the Mumblings!

The Haul - Citadel Compendiums & Warshrines

So, we stare into the blasted wasteland that is January. Traditionally my least favourite time of year, I refer to the months of January and February as 'the waiting room', as they are the most dreary of months. However, they are great for getting some hobby time in, so this year I will endeavour to make the most of these two grey months and get some stuff made and painted!

Over the holidays I came into possession of two of the first three Citadel Compendiums, and the second (first version) Citadel journal. Treasure troves of old school warhammer yumminess, they kept me entertained over the holidays with old warhammer scenarios, pages of Citadel miniatures from the golden age of the 80's, the first Kaleb Daark comic strip, even some shield and banner designs and some cardstock terrain! Ah, happy times. Now I just need to track down the rest of these old slices of Citadel nostalgia. I believe there were four journals and three compendiums all in all.

On a more 21st century note, I received the new chaos warshrine as a Christmas present. A great kit, though I wouldn't really be interested in assembling it as intended. No, this beauty is going to end up as a fimir war altar. I have a lot of hacking and sculpting planned for this model. I think turning the mutant bearers into fimir warped ones will be my favourite part of the project, though making a human-scale dirach to stand at the front of the altar will be good fun too. I may magnetise him so I can use him on a 25x25 base as an extra wizard if needs be too. I have yet to do any magnetising apart from bases and movement trays, but I can see the advantages for variety and ease of transport, especially on the newer Games Workshop kits, which are awkward sizes with lots of slender pointy bits.

Right at the moment, I am sculpting detail onto the half dead unit's slave driver filler. He's coming on nicely, and I think will look the business once he's done. There was some jiggery needed to get him in the pose I wanted, as all the GW savage orc arm positions are locked, but that wasn't going to put me off, no sir. I'll post up some photos once he's complete.

Wishful Thinking - Top 10 Most Wanted

Having seen Thantsants top 10 most desired Citadel miniatures on Somewhere the Tea's Getting Cold, I decided to mull over my own list of the miniatures I most covet from the mists of time. I thought though, I'd include series of miniatures as well as individuals. Here we go! Oh, and thanks to all the folks whose images I may have pilfered a bit.


10.  Jes Goodwin - Hrothyogg, Ogre Captain. (C23 ogres)
I'm not an ogre player, but I've always loved this ogre. If I did play ogres, this would be my tyrant, hands down. Plus Jes Goodwin is one of my favourite sculptors.




 
9. C100 Space Marines
Not fantasy, but I've a mild impulse to build a squad of these venerable old space marines.I loved Rogue Trader, and they remind me of it a lot. I have five or six, so we'll see.




8. Zoats
I don't know why I like zoats. But I do. I'm currently hunting for one to use in storm of magic games.








 
7. Kevin Adams - Citadel Orcs
You want character? You won't find better than the goblinoids of Kevin Adams, specifically the Citadel  ranges of the 1980s. The GW orcs of today are cool, but the 80s orcs, these are the real deal. One of my long term army goals is to build an orc & goblin army from this range. I have some few, but many more are still out there...

6. Realm of Chaos Chaos Thugs
Ah, realm of chaos. What a great time to play chaos. The chaos miniatures of the time were, and are, fantastic. I loved the thug models with the crazy armour, random mutations and general madness.





5. Original Krell, Mikael Jacsen & Heinrich Kemmler
This trio have long eluded me. I have pretty much every undead miniature Citadel ever released, but these lads still manage to stay out of reach. Want.



 
4. Chaos Dwarf Hobgoblins 
1990's chaos dwarf hobgoblins. I need a stack of these, and boy are the pricey. Easy enough to come across, if one has the cash. So far I've had to skirt around ebay picking off stragglers. Still, getting there.



 
 3. Night Horrors
Citadel night horrors. Now we're talking rare. There are still a handful of these that I haven't managed to acquire, and one or two I've never even seen for sale. Sigh.





 
2. Chaos Dwarf Ass Cannon
Yes, the infamous asscannon. I would simply love one of these for my chaos dwarf army. The look on folks faces would be utterly priceless. Sadly, this is as rare as hen's teeth. Were you to put a gaggle of chaos dwarf enthusiasts into a room with one of these things, blood would flow for possession.




1. The Chaos Dwarf Juggernaut
The big one. I doubt I'll ever own this rarest of models, and the prices it commands put it well out of reach, but one can dream.