Friday 30 October 2015

Tutorial : Walls




A very quick tutorial on how to make very quick walls for your battlefield. All you need is:
  • Base - I used plasticard, but you could use any non warping material like mdf/ply
  • Extruded polystyrene - but you could use foam card as an alternative
  • A couple of textured stones
  • Craft knife
  • PVA glue
  • Sand
  • Thin card
  • Matchsticks
  • Bitz
  • Black, white, green, brown paint
  • Basing materials (whatever matches your models - so I've followed my usual guide)


 Step 1.

Cut the polystyrene into thin strips and then press down upon them with a textured stone to create a textured stone look


Step 2.

Cut the strips into small blocks (in hindsight mine were a bit too big). Cut the plasticard base to your preffered size.

Step 3.



Build the walls as if you were a builder... Stack the blocks with a layer of PVA between, remembering to stagger their position. When constructed add some thin card squares along the top of the wall. Whilst the pva is still wet, sprinkle on some sand which will nicely fill the gaps between the blocks.


Be creative, have some fun with the construction and always do some image research in advance. I typed in "crumbling  drystone walls", "wall and wooden gate" etc into Google Images.


The gate is simply made from cut and snapped matchsticks and pva'd together.


Step 3.5.


I should really have added some bitz here, perhaps a spike or two on the wall pillars, a perched bird, a skull or discarded weapon on the floor or a signpost or such. These extra details make a huge difference as they can add to the narrative of a piece, but also are a pain in the arse to paint!

Step 4.


Painting. Unfortunately I lost my wip photo of this, but basically don't prime with a spray on undercoat or else the polystyrene will shrivel away. You could coat the walls in pva or a sealant first if you want to spray. A spray undercoat does have the advantage of better coverage, especially between the brick gaps. I painted a dilute grey acrylic over mine first and then dry brushed up to a pale grey.


To really make them pop, just add a few washes of green and brown to create a weathered appearance.


Step 5.


Basing. Again I don't have any photos of this stage, woops, but check my guide out. Obviously it's best to match the basing to how you base your models or other scenery. In addition I've added some small roots and pieces of moss to jazz up the detail and final appearance.




And ta-da, that's walls done.

Monday 26 October 2015

The Lost and the Very Damned - progress report


I've just got hold of a nice mat-o-war, added my completed trees from antenocitisworkshop (one of my favourite hobby shopping websites) and dug out some of my older scenery, so that I can take some atmospheric photos of my growing Lost and the Damned legion. When I've completed each of the entries for the Lost and the Damned retinue table,  I'll then use the Chaos Allies list in Warhammer Armies to build an allied contingent before completing the army as a complete Nurgle war host using the list form the Lost and the Damned. Planning it in small, accomplishable stages like this helps me to not get overwhelmed and gives me nice targets to aim for before expanding.

Anyway the point of this post is to take stock of what I've completed so far as the warband has grown quite large under the leadership of Dargon Grimspew:



















So you can see from the to-do list on the side of this web page, that I have the following to complete to accomplish my first aim (the retinue table challenge):
  • 4 Cultists (plus Chaos Warrior and Sorcerer as Magus leaders). I'm using the Red Redemption models plus a couple of my favourite Nurgle Champions to lead.
  • 8 Skaven (Classic Jez Goodwin sculpts plus one newer model as a leader)
  • 1 Dragon Ogre (my converted Shaggoth)
  • 4 Minotaurs (some classic heavy lead, including a couple of conversions I've started, one of which gives Ox-Roar some wings..)
  • 8 Mercanaries (using Foundry's ex-Citadel humans)
  • 4 Harpies (using Foundry's version again)
And then for my Chaos Allies:
  • sorcerer/leader
  • lots of Chaos Dwarves
  • more centaurs

On top of all that, I've also started work on some Nurgle inspired art that I'd like to use as a new banner for this blog as well as lots of other Chaos conversions in the works, including:
  • the cavalcade
  • diseased flagellants
  • warhounds
  • spawn
  • knights
  • and of course my bitzbox warband (which is currently being greenstuffed).
Right, I'd better get on then...




Wednesday 14 October 2015

Orctober 2015 pt1

So Erny's annual Orctober is well under way (here's my orcs and goblins from last year) and for this year I wanted to use his very own Orc warband generator to create my own little Orc warband.

Here's what I rolled up:

JugNugg Igg - Orc Shaman - Level 10 (Magic Teef)
Harnack - Underling Level 5 Orc (The Beserker)
7 Orcs (2 are missing from the below photo as they are in the dettol bath)


And here are the models I will use, including the first painted one, the beserker orc :


Here's my first painted orc for this Orctober, an old favourite from when I first collected Orcs!:
I love his dynamic, beserker like pose and open mouth, you can almost hear him with a battlecry. What do Orcs cry into battle again?

So a little bit of painting to do, time to break out the baneblade brown and the rotting flesh skin recipe....

Saturday 10 October 2015

The Bitzbox Warband Challenge

I've got too many bitz and kitz, so to try and use them up and to test my imagination, problem solving and creativity I've decided to set myself a challenge (and you can join in if you like!)
Let me introduce the inaugural "Bitzbox Warband Challenge"
Here are my self-imposed rules (feel free to change as you wish):
  1. Every model must be converted / kitbashed to hell (and therefore unique)
  2. I must use only currently owned bitz (no buying more stuff!)
  3. I must not use more than two parts from the same kit on one model
  4. If using Realm of Chaos, then rolls must be adhered to or complete the conversion and then find attributes to match (I did the latter here).
This is what I "rolled up" on the Lost and the Damned retinue table:


  • Seth Spawnbloat. Level 10 Human. Champion of Nurgle. Infestation of Nurlings. Atrophied Arm, Enormously Fat. Palanquin, Shield, Warhammer
  • Darn the Veiled. Chaos Marauder. Mark of Nurgle, Horns, Heavy Armour Shield.
  • 5 Beastmen. Standard. I decided to create a Beastman champion to lead these; 
  • Araf. Level 5 Beastman. Mark of Nurgle. Bestial Face (Dog), Limb Loss (leg), Demonic Steed (Skull Face, Horn)
  • Chaos Centaur. 


So over the last couple of evenings I have been busy with my imagination, bitzboxes, scalpel, clippers, pin vice, paper clips, plastic and super glue to create the first bitzbox warband.
Here it is in the pre-greenstuffing stage:


Seth Spawnbloat atop of his Nurgling Infested Palanquin.

Note the writhing torsos emerging from the throne

Lots of plastic Nurglings. The bitz range from a wizard's head, ogre torso, chaos knight shield, chaos warrior hammer, skaven banners, blightkings icon and shoulderpad, skeleton torsos, ghoul heads, zombie heads, corpse cart flames, orc legs, plaguebearer arms



Darn the Veiled. A Chaos Champion body with the knight of Nurgle head. Plastic shield.

Chaos Centaur musician

A cold one body, some flagelant boards, orc drums, horror head and arms and a dragon's tail.

The beastmen led by Araf.

Cow man: the standard bearer.

Made from the giant's cow body, a fanatic's hat for the tail, chaos warrior head, skeleton spear, skaven pole and head, plaguebearer arms.

Griffon man: Beastman body, zombie guts, cold one claw, orc shield, plaguebearer arms, flagellant mace, empire (?) griffin head

Grumpy Arquebusier: Free company body/legs/arms/gun, beastman foot and head. This one did not quite fulfil my initial criteria, but I love him as it is.

Lizard man: Cold one head, beastman body, plagubearer torse, chaos warrior mutation arm, cold one tail, metal palanquin rider leg, orc arm, black orc axe, plaguebearer trophy.


Fly Boy: OOp Savage orc body, chaos warrior sword, plaguebearer head, random shield,

Araf, Beastman Level 5. 


Wood Elf horse, oop Bretonnian horse neck, skeleton horse head, vampire arm, nurgle knight sword and shield, zombie torso, flagellant banner, catachan fighter arm, random horn, oop chaos knight legs, mordheim dog head.



You may recognise the steed, it is based upon Tony Ackland's illustration from the Lost and the Damned, see below:


So there we go, it was loads of fun to make this warband over a few long evenings. It made me use my imagination and creativity in how I searched, combined and then positioned all the bitz (I always try and go for dynamic poses if I can) and it was quite a nice sense of satisfaction that all these bitz were lying unused and unwanted from previous projects. I realise that I have enough to do many, many warbands if the desire returns.... but i must get on with some greenstuffing and then painting before I do any more bitzbox converting.


Thanks for reading and I'd love to see other people have a go for whatever race or faction they want and indeed in whatever quantities. If you do please post a link here so I can see your efforts.

 Go be creative and use up some of those bitz from your boxes!

Wednesday 7 October 2015

Painting for other bloggers

A few months ago, to celebrate my blog's first year, I offered to paint some miniatures for some of the contributors to my little part of the web; specifically:

Leif “Laffe” Eriksson


Timothy Edwards

Jean-Baptiste Garidel (leadplague)


Leif and Timothy sent me an AoW Nurgle Sorcerer and his familiar and a 40k Inquisitor respectively and here they are, finally painted (they both gave me carte blanche):



Painting for someone was a surprisingly refreshing thing to do, especially as it wasn't a commission. Obviously it's always nice to do something for someone else, but for me it was also good to paint some models that I would not normally choose to paint. Especially the 40k model. It also made me really focus on my painting techniques, as I wanted to do a proper job on these as, unlike the other miniatures I showcase on here, these will, I imagine, be studied quite closely by their owners! So I had to keep my standards high, even on the back of the miniature!



Gents, could you please email me your postal addresses, so I can send these back to you? Many thanks.

I'll also use this post as an opportunity to remind JB that the offer is still open if he wants to send something my way.....