2 Chariots of Nurgle - 500pts

 The Warriors of Chaos who follow Nurgle are more inclined than other Champions to ride Chariots. This is partly because carts and wagons form the Nurgle cavalcade, and chariots give an appropriate sense of pageantry. Another reason may be that Champions of Nurgle often pick up uncomfortable debilitating diseases which make it difficult to walk or ride a horse. Chariots are often larger and more like wagons or carts than those associated with other Powers. Chariots may carry banners, flags or other decorative features and may have additional non-combatant crew such as Nurglings....

Straight out of the Lost and the Damned and a nice bit of writing to create a context for me to make my own Chariots of Nurgle. I chose a couple of obese and mutated, plastic Nurgle characters to ride my chariots, thinking these figures would find it hard to slog on foot or mount a horse and I deliberately chose a plague cart as one of the vehicles to match the description in the above caption. Hence why there is also a fair amount of decoration on the chariot itself. The non-combatant crew for me are a couple of Chaos Dwarf drivers (one of whom is on a step to be able to see out of the chariot!) as I recall reading somewhere that they were often pursuaded to do so. 

The draught animals are quite the mixture for each chariot. Below is made of a Gorkamorka mutant steed and I have added a skeletal head and painted it in a zebra scheme. The Gorkamorka head has been transferred to the plastic steed and a reptilian tail too, to keep the scaly texture.

The Chariot itself is modified slightly, an old Orc Man-Mangler facial emblem has been added at the front (a nice hefty chunk of lead on an otherwise plastic model) and I went to town on the weathering with Astrogranite applied to the bare plastic prior to undercoating to create a rusty texture before the appropriate rusty oranges and brown colours were washed on. The metallic scratching you can see in places was simply added with a pencil.

The other chariot also has the Chaos Dwarf driver with whip, but this time is pulled by a Reaper Bones model (I know not the name). For me this acts as a draught animal that has been turned to a Spawn and yet is still devoted to, and loved by, the Champion in the Chariot. Slow, writhing progress across a battlefield. A jewellery chain was wrapped through it's gaping mouth and re-attached to the underside of the plague cart to show how it is pulled. The design of the plague-cart, I think, is perfect for a chariot of Nurgle.

It took quite some time to paint all of the eyes on this beast.

Lots of weathering washes on the wooden frame of the cart, and a mutated Chaos Dwarf.

A close-up of the modern plastic Nurgle miniature, they really are pretty impressive sculpts. You can see me attempting to get some dappling on his numerous tentacles here:

And finally the WIP photo that shows the kitbashing/converting/texturing and choice of models before they were painted up:

So that's another 500pts to the army, now standing at a total of 5125pts, with some Diseased Flagellants up next...

New barbarian recruits

On my last post I forgot to mention my love of Frank Frazetta's art and how my h this was inspiring my ideas for a Barbarian warband, well I've painted some more, hopefully evocative of his style.
Three more to be precise, added to the warband; another Hasslefree model, but this one with a ice dynamic running pose, a Red Box game miniature with a head swap (the original looked far too small and besides I had this nice Spacewolf head going spare in my bits box) and a Reaper Bones wild dog to finish off:

And so you can see where some of my I spiration has come from, some classic Frazzeta:

The start of a Barbarian Warband

This is all going to be about musculature and flesh-tones. To help me with this project I have gone full method acting; last night I re-watched Schwarzenegger's "Conan the Barbarian", I've started reading Robert E. Howard's titular book (not enjoying it so far), I had a protein shake this morning for breakfast and I'll be hitting the gym tonight (maybe). Oh and I've [carefully] looked for different skin tone painting techniques that I can try out on so many scantily clad Barbarian models.

You saw my Bob Naismith Thrud and friend and here I've gathered a couple of his friends that I have previously from Hasslefree Miniatures as well as a Citadel "fan" and a Reaper Bones leopard:

To add to these, I've captured a couple of very cheap old Citadel lead Tribesman from ebay (£1 per model!), Big Momma and a Dwarf beserker, also from Citadel, another Hasslefree model with a nice dynamic pose and a Red Box games (which I've head-swapped) model too. Additionally a plastic kitbashed model to create a Shaman and another Reaper Bones wolf. I'll share these next time if I can find time between my gym and protein shake routine.

To do in 2019 (aka preparing myself to fail)

It's highly unlikely that I will paint any of these before a new idea/model/miniature jumps to the forefront, but just in case I do, here's what I plan to paint during the coming year.

I hope that priming them makes them a step closer to being painted (and also moves them from the "to assemble drawer" to the "to paint drawer").

Whadya see?

Frostgrave Bestiary Challenge: Boar and Snow Leopard

The Snow Leopard, incongruous away from the melted snow, approaches the static and serene boar

Circling around the boar, the snow leopard ruminates whether it can take the bristly beast down. 

It decides to approach from the rear, avoiding those pointy tusks, but realises quickly that it's rear end is worse.

The snow leopard gets too close and as swift as you like, the boar turns, grunts and chases the snow leopard away. Perhaps an easier meal awaits back in the Frozen City

Scenery

I want to add some detail to my fantasy settings; I've been working hard on the large scenery (boards and houses) but want to add that extra layer of interest with some additional detail, either as a backdrop for narrative games or indeed for interaction between player and scenery.

So over the past few years(!) I've collected and made a sample of such scenery and last night I finished painting some:

These two bookcases (perfect for Frostgrave or for furnishing a dungeon or interior) are from the Reaper Bones line. I primed them grey (forgetting, out of habit) that you don't have to and then used lots of drybrushes and washes.

Anyone recognise the green spines of the collection on the left?

These two below are metal pieces from Midlam Miniatures. I needed an anvil for my in progress forge and the door will be useful in dungeon games and for a tavern interior I have planned

And finally a scratchbuilt fountain:

Made from (bottom to top) a mayonnaise lid, a fruit shoot lid, a felt tip lid and a couple of plastic horses heads. It was all primed, given a coat of the GW texture paint; Astrogranite and then highlighted up and washed down with dilute greens and browns  The water is an experiment with using Woodlands Scenic water for the still water and Vallejo water effects for the moving water. I'm pretty pleased with how it came out, even though it was a fiddly affair.

Forstgrave bestiary challenge - rats and a blood crow

Sometimes the smallest creatures can provide a whole lot of nice detail to a game. You have to have rats lurking in a corner of a dungeon or creeping around some barrels of a street corner. And of course the lowly adventurer likes an early, easy kill. The crow certainly adds a bit of flavour, not just with it's dark, brooding and menacing pose but with the addition of a perch - in this case a damaged signpost for the city of Felstad. 

The Rats are Reaper bones (very cheap with just enough detail), the dark three primed black, highlighted up with greys/browns on the fur and a touch of Elf Flesh - Bleached Bone on the skin. Albino rat was primed white, washed with Baal Red and then highlighted up with very pale pinks (from a Titallating Pink base with added white).

The crow is from the metal Nurgle Lord kit and has been in my bitz box for years (quite surprisingly as he adds a fair bit of character and could have been used for a whole host of conversions or basing/scenery). Well he gets his time as his own model now, rather than supporting another and was painted onto a black primer, highlighted up with some greys and then glazed with some blues and purples. The wooden sign was kept deliberately pale with Graveyard Earth as a base and highlighted with very pale greys. After the freehand writing was applied it was washed with some greens and browns to create a weathered look.

Some quick paint jobs but pleasing to cross off another two requirements for my Frostgrave Bestiary Challenge.

Warbands! Part 1: Family Adventurers

As stated in my end of year review; 2016 will start off for me all about the warband, which admittedly is not a huge change considering a lot of my 2015 work was focused on the Realms of Chaos. However I'm expanding my horizons away from 3rd Edition Warhammer and towards some new games systems; chiefly Frostgrave but also Dragon Rampart and Songs of Blade and Heroes. And at the same time using my miniatures for a bit of Family Heroquest too. All these games require a small quantity of miniatures (which means I can lavish more attention on them both in terms of painting and background story) and my first stop will be with the exciting game of Frostgrave (just without the snow). I like the fact that it has inspired me to make some more scenery to add to my town of Rensburg (more on that in a future post).



So my first three painted miniatures of 2016 are additions to my Heroquest family, which now have enough models to become a Frostgrave warband; those new miniatures being a Witch, an aged Barbarian (representing the grandparents) and our Cat Tom who will represent a warhound in the warband. Here are the 3 new additions:

The Witch is from Heresy miniatures, the aged Barbarian from Hasslefree and the cat is a slight conversion (in that the tail was clipped and resculpted to look more feline) from Reaper Bones.

And here is the entire warband, ready for some Frostgrave (or possibly Heroquest) action, exploring the City of Rensburg (read Frostgrave):

So the main spellcaster is the Witch (Grandma) and her apprentice (200gc) is Lily (my daughter). These two are ably supported by myself and Grandad as Barbarians (100gc each), Tom the Warcat (10gc), Sebastian the Infantryman (50gc) and finally Rosie and Willow (wife and daughter respectively) as the Thieves (20gc each).










Further Warbands to follow will include my 3rd Edition Orc warband, my Nurgle Warband, an Empire Warband and a Fighting Fantasy warband. Watch this space...

Dungeon tiles: submerged room

I've been wanting to start on a new dungeon tile where I get to use some coloured water effects. Every dungeon crawl needs a room like this, with the mystery of what lurks beneath or what the murky liquid actually is... In the back of my mind I had this scene as I started work on it (I wish I had added an eye or tentacle poking out now in hindsight):

Here's a few work in progress photos:

Here you can see I've added some cut up felt tip pen lids for pipes, a piece of plastic tubing for a rogue metal pole and some twigs and seed pods for alien like swamp fauna.

Just before the painting stage I also added some Mantic skeleton bits and a mushroom, all of which I thought would look quite cool partly submerged. For the painting I used my usual technique of a dark grey household paint (it's in a huge tub) then drybrush/highlight up with added white, wash down with a very dark grey and add some final glazes of green/brown to dirty up the stone.

It was the next stage that gave me the most trepidation, pouring the Woodlands Scenic Realistic water onto my polystyrene tile... After some research, experiments and remembering my past attempt here, I realised that I would have to properly seal my tile. For this I was instructed to use Polyeurathane Interior varnish, which I brushed on liberally over the areas which would receive water. One this was dry I mixed the Realistic Water with a very small amount of green ink added and a very thin amount was poured in. Of course the liquid found a very small gap in the construction of the tile and seeped out, but I remedied this with a glue gun dam and re-poured:

You may also wonder what the velcro strips are for, well I'm experimenting with detachable walls that can be used on the dungeon tiles and some Frostgrave ruins I've got in mind...... More to follow...

And here's the finished water effect, pretty happy with it!

And here's some photos with models involved, you can add your own narrative:

A partly submerged GW troll that  converted and painted some time ago

The first Reaper Bones miniatures I have ever painted, decent sculpts and detail for a bargain price.

Here's another source for my inspiration which is from SaintJG at DevantArt:

Many thanks for looking.