Ready for Gardenhammer

Once again, I do not find as much time for the hobby as I would like, but I finally managed to finish my 4x4 Realm of Battle gaming board and if the weather holds, I'm now ready to play some Gardenhammer! I also started to paint some reinforcements for my Badab Enforcers as well as more terrain for my 40k/Heresy collection.

Pict 1311: Realm of Battle Board ready for Gardenhammer

Pict 1312: Realm of Battle Board

These boards took up so much space, I had to put them away once the normal work week started. And of course, once out of sight, they were out of my mind. But with the bank holidays in May, I got them out once more and worked on them whilst watching the Star Wars prequels. I'm super happy with them and am very much looking forward to getting to play on them!

Pict 1313: Crebain

These birdies were a really unexpected little project. I decided on saturday morning that I wanted to play them on the sunday in a simply Isengard army and started by putting them together. The painting as done within about an hour in the evening. Really what took the longest was carving the backs of the wings free from additional material between the feathers. They are clearly not my best painted units, but they should fit in nicely with the rest of my Isengard collection!

Pict 1314: Badab Enforcers (WIP)

Pict 1315: Arachnos Rogue Doc and Orderlies (WIP)

Reinforcements for the Space Police, including a dog! Of course, there is also a Rogue Doctor to patch up any wound they might sustain. I also kitbashed two cultist lads with chainswords. I like how their masks mirror the one worn by the Doctor. Clearly the Enforcers of Badab have already been infiltrated at this point!
At this stage, they had the base colours and sponged on highlights applied and are ready for an oil wash before getting onto the finishing touches.

Pict 1316: 40k Terrain (WIP)

Now that I have a nice gaming board for games in fantasy settings, I also wanted to do some more work to prepare for the upcoming edition of 40k and get some more Sci-Fi scenery on the go. Same as the Enforcers, these pieces are mostly ready for an oilwash.

Even more Terrain

These past weeks, I continued with the terrain pieces I had started in my last post and after that used my remaining time to make some good headway on four more Real of Battle tiles using the same colours.

Pict 1304: Charnel Throne

Pict 1305: Charnel Throne

Pict 1306: Tabletop World Wells and Middle-earth Statues

There was really not that much more to do with these smaller pieces of terrain. What took the longest was doing the highlights on the throne and while I'm happy with the result, I don't think I will paint any skeletons in the next few weeks... After I was done with everything, I also decided to put a small piece of plastic card on the bottom of the statues so they don't look to far out of place should they fall over during play.

Pict 1307: Realm of Battle Board (WIP)

Pict 1308: Realm of Battle Board (WIP)

Pict 1309: Realm of Battle Board (WIP)

Pict 1310: Realm of Battle Board (WIP)

I'm really plowing ahead with my New Year's resolutions now – these tiles will get me to a playable 4x4 gaming board, fitting quite a lot of my scenery. For now they are in various stages of completion. The different sorts of static grass and greenery do take some time to dry. And because of their size, I can really only work on two at the same time

Finishing the Garden of Morr

These past few weeks I focused on terrain and managed to finish my Garden of Morr, getting ahead with another of my New Year's resolutios. Quite pleased with this success, I got myself a Charnel Throne and started painting it right away alongside some smaller pieces of scatter terrain.

Pict 1298: Garden of Morr Gate

Pict 1298: Garden of Morr Gate

Pict 1299: Garden of Morr Walls and Fence

Pict 1300: Garden of Morr Walls and Fence

Pict 1301: Garden of Morr Fences

Pict 1302: Garden of Morr Fences

I'm really happy to have finished these last missing pieces of my Garden of Morr. Matching the paintjob from almost two years ago was not to hard (thanks to having noted down my recipe) and I very much enjoyed rusting up the iron fences. The first few colours are a bit stark, but the final layer really ties it together. The assorted greenery then gives it a bit more contrast and ties the terrain into the gaming table.

Pict 1303: Charnel Throne, Osgiliath Statues and Tabletop World Wells (WIP)

Finishing something often has an inspiring effect on me and I stared with a few more pieces of scatter terrain and a new Charnel Throne using the same colours. The pices are a tad eclectic – the statues come from the old Osgiliath ruins set and feel very different to the Age of Sigmar era Charnel Throne while the two wells by Tabletop World are in an other league entirely. Nevertheless, I hope to tie them all thogether, even if I don't see me using them all right next to each other for now. There's not that much left to do on them. Only a few more highlights and of course the greenery.

Radukar the Beast for #MonsterMarch

I just about managed to finish Radukar the Beast, my #MonsterMarch project during the last few hours of march. Before that I was distracted by the five Badab Enforcers but I also got those done.

Pict 1289: Radukar the Beast and Vyrkos Bloodborn Attendants

Pict 1290: Radukar the Beast and Vyrkos Bloodborn Attendants

Pict 1291: Radukar the Beast and Vyrkos Bloodborn Attendants

I'm really quite happy with how Radukar came out in the end. I dreaded painting the pale skin because I remeber this being the hardest part to get right when I painted the laset few vampires from the Cursed City box. But with the help of the wet palette this was significantly easier. I also like the eyes I painted on Radukar – the faces on the two Vyrkos Bloodborn were a bit more difficult and don't look quite as good...

Pict 1292: Badab Enforcers

Pict 1293: Badab Enforcers

Pict 1294: Badab Enforcers

The Badab Enforcers really came together with the highlights sponged on and a brown oil wash. I did go back in with a few smaller brushed on highlights, but not that much. I like how fast these were to paint and the dirty, grimy effect of relying on the sponge to do highlighting and texturing at the same time.

When I did the bases, I also went back to the Howling Griffons to add some pigment to them as well. I also gave them a small little decal of the chapter icon on the shoulders were appropriate, since I had acquired some late last year but had not used them yet.

Pict 1295: Fell Bats (WIP)

Continuing on from these two projects, I started on the Fell Bats needed for the first Cursed City expansion. The base colours went down quickly. After the washes I hope to finish the highlighting equally as fast. But having started them, I appreciate these amazing new sculpts even more!

Pict 1296: Howling Griffons Captain and Sternguard Veterans

I also started to paint up some more of the beautiful metal Space Marine Veterans for my Badab War Howling Griffons. The one with the Thunder Hammer is the 2008 Games Day Captain, the others are assorted Sternguard Veterans. The process of sponging ran even smoother this time with some new reverse-action tweezers instead of normal ones. Oh, the joys of new tools!

A Scottish Werewolf in the Desert

One week late, because the Real life is rearing its ugly head once again leaving me less time to paint than I would like... Nevertheless I managed to paint up five miniatures for Infinity to make a start on one of my new year's resolutions and put some paint on Radukar the Beast.

Pict 1285: McMurrough and Friends

Pict 1286: Yara Hadadd, Yasbir, McMurrough, Daylami and Ghulam Infantry

Seems like I cought the Infinity bug again. I blame Ash Barker's Tactical Awareness podcast! I've been listening for a while and have been thinking about painting something from the Infinity universe. These five will form part of my Hassassin sectorial.

The stand out has to be McMurrough the mercenary Dog-Warrior. What's not to love about a scottish Werewolf with a giant sword!

The Yara Hadaddad miniature is a conversion from an old Tuareg scuplt. I converted her right at the end of  my last stint with Infinity and painting her now seemed like the right thing to do!

The Ghulam with HMG is one of the oldest sculpts in my collection, right out of the first edition of the game. He'll probably play the part of a Ghulam with Grenade Launcher, at least as long as that load out is not available.

This was also the first time for me to make my own grass tufts. Really not that hard and they look great on the bases! Only problem is, that I will now have to go back through my collection and add tufts to the bases...

Having painted these five, I completed the first part of one of my new year's resolutions. Now, I only have to go ahead and play a game with them as well!

Pict 1287: Radukar the Beast and Vyrkos Bloodborn (WIP)

This is the first update on Radukar the Beast I'm painting for #MonsterMarch on my blog. You can see a first picture with the base colours established on Radukar the Beast and his two Vyrkos Bloodborn minions over on Swordmaster's blog. By now the three have had their washes and are waiting for the highlighting and detail work.

Pict 1288: Badab Enforcers (WIP)

Lastly I also started on these five Palanite Enforcers. I bought them second hand at the start of the year, so I don't know if they are built with legal loadouts. But since I want to use them in even smaller, narrative circumstances, I don't care that much. They will be part of my Badab War collection, forming the human compartment of the Tyrant's Legion.
For now, the basecoats are almost done. I plan to use mainly sponge highlighting and a heavy oil wash to give them a grimy look to tie them in to my Howling Griffons.

Sanguinius, The Great Angel

The main part of my hobby these past two weeks was spent painting up Sanguinius, the Great Angel, Primarch of the Blood Angels. However, I also found the time to quickly whip up some Mordor Orc command miniatures as well.

Pict 1277: Sanguinius, the Great Angel

Pict 1278: Sanguinius, the Great Angel

Pict 1279: Sanguinius, the Great Angel

Pict 1280: Sanguinius, the Great Angel

Pict 1281: Sanguinius, the Great Angel (Base)

There he is, the big, winged golden boy to lead my Blood Angels. Really an amazing model, these characters are what Forge World exels at.

For the gold armour I used two different shades of Vallejo Liquid Gold (these paints are really amazing!) shaded with Seraphim Sepia. Following this, the details were rather simple – pretty much only a basecoat, wash and some highlights. And even the leopard's fur was not to bad after I had finally convinced myself to start at it. Really a great project to push myself and learn new techniques!

The base is made using the rider from a metal Bloodcrusher. I found that the deamon needed very little adjustment to the pose. Just a few cuts, a left hand from a Crypt Ghoul and some Green Stuff. I also like that the metal gives it a bit more weight to pull down the center of gravity. I the future, I might want to try my hand at a scenic base to insert this one into with the remaining Khorne Juggernaught and of course more demons to mimic the ones on the painting.

Pict 1282: Mordor Orc Banners and Shaman

Pict 1283: Mordor Orc Banners and Shaman

I painted these Mordor Orcs on a whim – I really would like to have some more Orc warriors as they open up so many variants of Mordor and Angmar armies, but I dread the prospect of batch painting them.
These three however were great fun! Of course these miniatures stand out more than the common Orc, but a way forward might be to paint the Orcs I have in smaller batches.
The freehands on the banners were great fun! I looked at the old Mordor supplement from 2008 to get inspired for banners from different regions of Mordor. The one with the red face is more of a general banner but is inspired by the designs on the Minas Morgul banners. The other one I painted with my Black Gate army (including the Troll Chieftains) in mind.

Pict 1284: Radukar the Beast (WIP)

Finally, after the great success of last year's Dreadtober, I want to take part in the #MonsterMarch challenge, as organised by Swordmaster. I want to take this opportunity to get some paint onto Radukar the Beast. The miniature is very cool and it is used in both Cursed City expansions. It's one of my new year's resolutions to paint and play at least the first expansion of these, so painting Radukar will hopefully be a good start to that!

The High Host of the Blood Angels

Once again, quite a successful couple of weeks with some more Blood Angels as well as a setof ruins from the Moonbase Klaisus.

Pict 1272: Blood Angels High Host Destroyers

Pict 1273: Blood Angels High Host Destroyers

Pict 1274: Blood Angels High Host Destroyers

First up are the five Destroyers of Zephon's High Host. They painted up very quickly after my last post. A small squad of five Marines really paints up fast! I'm happy with how they came out and look forward to painting some more of those cool double pistol Destroyers!

Pict 1275: Moonbase Klaisus

Pict 1276: Moonbase Klaisus

After the Marines, I finally got to some more terrain to be used as a backdrop for the Heresy Marines. These ruins come from the Moonbase Klaisus set from a few years back. At first I was a bit taken aback with how blue the colour came out of the spraycan, but with a black oilwash, some sponge weathering and the pigments they do look quite nice now. As usual, I've written up how I painted these ruins on a separate page for future reference – you can find it in the sidebar on the right.