Blood Angel Mortalis Destroyers and Aster Crohne

During these past two weeks I managed to finish up all the Blood Angels for my tournament list, that is the ten Destroyers and their Rhino. I also put the finishing touches on my rendition of Aster Crohne. I then converted more Blood Angels heroes and started on some more Undead miniatures.

Pict 1383: Blood Angels Mortalis Destroyers and Rhino

Pict 1384: Blood Angels Mortalis Destroyers and Aster Crohne

First up, here are the ten Mortalis Destroyers as well as Aster Crohne. I really like how they came out! The Destroyers use a bit of a darker red. Combined with the black panels, this really makes the gold and green details stand out! Aster Crohne is also very nice. I pushed the contrast on the gold this time around and I have to say it does pop more than with my ususal recipe. I might have to get myself some Destroyers to swap out the special weapons for flamers since Crohne gives them a boost...

Pict 1385: Blood Angels Rhino with Reinforced Armour

Pict 1386: Blood Angels Rhino with Reinforced Armour

I'm also very happy with the way this Rhino came out. As with Crohne, I pushed the contrast on the gold. Other than that the big panes were quite fun to weather. It has been quite a long time since I last painted a vehicle and I could see myself doing more of them. Besides the Dreadnought Drop Pod I have still on my table there are also two more for Infantry.
Anyways, this meant I managed to paint every model I neede for the tournament, only to get sick a few days out preventing me from going. Next time it is then...

Pict 1387: Blood Angels Librarian Conversion, Raldoron and Vigilator (WIP)

After finishing everything I needed for the tournament, I went back into build mode and did these three heroes for my Blood Angels. The Vigilator is pretty much stock with only a little bit of green stuff to elevate the helmet a bit. Same goes for Raldoron – here, I removed the sculted blood from the blade and of course I also gave him a helmet. I realised that the Blood Angels Preator in power armour uses a helmet that is based of an illustration of Raldoron and so I had to behead my painted Praetor... He'll be getting a new head as well. The Librarian is based on the model for Ahzek Ahriman, I still had from my Betrayal at Calth box. I used plastic Mk IV head and torso and removed a lot of the sculpted detail. I really like the clean look I've achieved and very much look forward to paiting these three!

Pict 1388: Warhammer Vampires through the Ages

Lastly I also played a short introductory session of Cursed City on Halloween which reminded me of all those beautiful miniatures I want to paint for my Undead collection. I got the project box out and selected a few miniatures to paint up next. They come from various eras – the Vampires and the Werefox are from the Night Horrors line from the late 80s/early 90s; the metal Neferata and her cat Bastet are from the 6th edition Vampires whilst the plastic Necromancer is a modern sculpt from the 8th edition. Ever since the plastic Neferata was released during the End Times, I wanted to convert her on foot. I've had the bits, including a scond hand Yvraine, for quite some time now and after fiddling with the Librian, I also started outlining this conversion – the next step will be the green stuffing and some minor details.

The Dead are rising

These past two weeks, I took a bit of a breather from Infinity and painted some more Undead from the Mortal Realms as well as Wraiths from Middle-earth.

Pict 1083: Kritza raising Minions

Pict 1084: C18 Wight

Pict 1085: C18 Wight

Continuing on from the Oldhammer Vampire I painted a few weeks back, I also had this Wight from the same time period. I painted him to match my Cursed City skeletons – maybe he will see play as one of the Ulfenwatch?

Pict 1086: Kritza the Rat Prince

Pict 1087: Kritza the Rat Prince

Pict 1088: Sepulchral Guard Petitioners

Pict 1089: Sepulchral Guard Petitioners

Because the Wight painted up so quickly I also dove into my pile of shame / pile of possibility and came out with the three Petitioners from the Sepulchral Guard set as well as Kritza. The skeletons once more match the Ulfenwatch and are really nice modern miniatures. I do look forward to painting the remaining four from the set! Kritza was converted a little bit: I removed the rat tails trailing from his coat – they were a little to on the nose for me and I do like him better as an aristocrat at first blush. He then also got a simple 32mm base instead of the oval one he came with and I am really happy with the paintjob!

Pict 1090: The Dwimmerlaik and the Witch-king

Pict 1091: The Dwimmerlaik and the Witch-king

Back to Middle-earth! With GW releasing a new Witch-king I thought I should paint up the one I currently own to distract me from the new "shiny". I knew I also had a Dwimmerlaik named Nazgûl in the drawer and painted him at the same time. Now, Nazgûl in and of themselves look not that impressive, but they got the gears turning about other Mordor models I might want to paint...

Pict 1092: Warg Riders (WIP)

After finishing the Nazgûl, I started to work on some Warg Riders including heroes. When the metal Warg Riders were available last year, I snached up two blisters and converted three of them to have some more varied poses. For now, the Wargs themselves are pretty much done and I hope to finish up the Orcs quickly and to get them on a game table soon!

Dahshat Company, a Disaster and a very old Vampire

These past weeks I mainly painted some more Infinity miniatures for my Dahshat mercenaries. Seems I'm back on the Corvus Belli train! I also painted an Oldhammer Vampire matching my Cursed City undead.

Pict 1066: Dahshat Heavies

Pict 1067: Jannisary, Djanbazans and Zuyong Invincible

Pict 1068: Jannisary, Djanbazans and Zuyong Invincible

For the first time in forever, I was over at a friend's for a painting session. Since we both play Haqqislam, I started to work on these four infantry models and finished them over the last few evenings.

Pict 1069 - The Rui Shi Disaster

Pict 1070: Rui Shi

Pict 1071: Rui Shi

When I went to varnish these Infinity miniatures last week, disaster stuck when the Rui Shi took a dive down two flights of stairs and shattered into several pieces. After collecting most of the pieces I was quite disheartened especially since I already hated putting it together the first time. Well, now the remote is back together with only little battle damage and only one piece has gone missing.

Pict 1072: "Your wife has such a beautiful neck..." - Graf Orlok

Pict 1073: C18 Vampire Attacking

This lovely miniature is a Vampire from Citadel's 'C18 Night Horrors' Series, released in December 1986. Of course I watched the silent film Nosferatu in preparation and then painted him up rather quickly. I really enjoy his expressive face!

Pict 1074: Erebor Dwarves

I also updated the bases of my Erebor Dwarves to match them to my Iron Hills army. This way I can ally them thogether for a Battle of Azanulbizar theme. Whilst cleaning up the paintjob around the feet, I also took the opportunity to repaint the named heroes' faces. Lastly I also decided to paint up a separate base for my Iron Hills Chariot Captain to stand on, for any time I would ever need three Captains.

Pict 1075: Garden of Morr (WIP)

And here is an update on the rest of my Garden of Morr set. I managed to remove most of the sculpted roses from the all the walls and fences. The stonework has a basecolour and is ready for drybrushing. The detailwork will probably take longer than I expect, but I hope the work will pay of.

Early Plastic Genestealers

Since I showed you what was on my painting table last week, I had to start aomething different instead of finishing one of the older projects. So here are some more Tyranids that I was able to finish so that my table wont become even more cluttered.

Pict 401: Genestealers

Pict 402: Genestealer

Pict 403: Genestealer

I showed these 'Stealers when I finished up the other batch of Tyranids. Since then they were stripped of their original colours and repainted. I like the aesthetic with more of the open flesh areas reminiscent of the Alien Xenomorph. They painted up rather fast and I'm happy they did, because I kinda lost some of my hobby mojo seeing these Dúnedain skulking around my table and never getting finished.

Pict 404: New Projects

Other than this painting, I also had time to build and prep a few more miniatures - some more Tyranids, a bit for my Warhammer Woodelfs and some ForgeWorld kits. I had to get some Iron Hills Dwarves with Matoocks so that I'll be able to play the Battle Company without using Grimhammers as stand-ins.

Spinefist Termagants and of course more DnD

The Termagants from last week were finished up fast but since I didn't have to much time to hobby, I only got to one more project.

Pict 396: Termagants (Spinefists)

As I said earlier, these were only missing a few colours last week. I only had to put on the brighter red and clean up the carapax in some places with black. I also used the black for the spots on the head, the shoulders and around the hips.I really like how the spinefists look - I wanted some Gants with this more unusual gear so that the spinefists wouldn't all end up in my bitsbox and to break up the units.

Pict 397: Intellect Devourer

Pict 398: Intellect Devourer

This Intellect Devourer is the next miniautre for my growing D&D menagerie. On top of that it's the first one I painted from Gale Force 9's Dungeons and Dragons Collector's Series. These miniatures are awsome scuplts but sometime you do have to quite a bit of greenstuff work to fix the seams. And you do have to be careful to not break them. The Intellect Devourer painted up pretty fast as well since I didn't use to many colours but I really like the way it turned out.

Pict 399: Genestealers (2nd ed.)

With the Termagants done, I was inspired to do more of them and so I started by cleaning moldlines off of some more old miniatures - this time it's Genestealers. I also broke of some of the arms to swap them around so that I could have more than two poses.As you can see they are rather colourful right now - they were bought with a larger lot and are awaiting some primer to get them started as soon as I can get to it.

Winged Synapse and more 'nids

With the incomeing winterbreak, I had a bit more time at my hands and I finished the Tyranids I started last week, but I didn't stop there and went right ahead with some more gribblies.

Pict 309 : Tyranid Warriors (2nd ed)

Pict 310: Tyranid Warriors (2nd ed)

The first item I painted this week were the two second edition Tyranid Warrior. I love these early sculpts and I'm tempted to get some more of the early Tyranid miniatures and build up a larger force for second edition 40k.

Pict 311: Tyranid Shrike

Pict 312: Tyranid Shrike

Pict 313: Tyranid Shrike

Pict 314: Tyranid Shrike

Pict 315: Tyranid Shrike

Pict 316: Tyranid Shrike

Just today I put the finishing touches on my Shrikes. I'm happy with the conversion but since the poses are rather similar right now, I might look at doing some more in the future - the only problem I see with the Varghaist wings is that they dont have the fleshy bits carved into them. But that's marginal. I hope that the fast synapse will keep my army together.

Pict 317: Tyranids (WIP)

Contiuning on with the Tyranids, I built and primed some more of the 'nids from my 40k box. Right now I'm working on similar basecoats to the ones last week but on a Tyrant Guard, two Zoanthropes, some Sporemines and my fith Hive Tyrant (you can never have enough!).
In the new year I hope to write a narrative campaign for the two biggest 40k forces I own - the Tyranids vs. the Flesh Tearers. I do have some things in mind and I hope that a campaign will give me the drive to finish up some more of the miniatures in my 40k box before I am distracted.

Again with the Death Guard but also more Tyranids

This week I finished the Nurgle Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer from last week's post. And, after I finished reading the new Tyranids Codex, I again picked up the brush to get some more bug on the table, but see for yourself.

Pict 303: Nugle Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer

Pict 304: Nugle Chaos Space Marine Sorcerer

Pict 305: Chaos Lord, Malignant Plaguecaster

Pict 306: Chaos Lord, Malignant Plaguecaster

Other than the aforementioned Sorcerer, there are pictures of the Chaos Lord and the Malignant Plaguecaster. The former is there because I finally managed to finish his basing the latter, since I noticed that up until now I only had shown him in the group-picture of the finished Death Guard from the Dark Imperium Box, but not on his own. He was finishedd right before I took the group shot, but somehow I forgot to take singles of him.
With that I managed to paint up all of the Death Guard again, but I'm tempted to buy some more Poxwalkers and more Plagemarines - we'll see what I'll get myself for christmas.

Pict 307: Tyranid Shrikes (WIP)

Pict 308: Tyranid Warriors 2nd edition

With the new Tyranid Codex I looked at all the Tyranids that lay unpainted in a box and discovered these fun little Shrike conversions. I was sad to see, that they are not only no longer in ther Codex, but that the loadout I build them with (all close combat weapons) is not even legal when playing with the Index. I didn't bother to change them since I'm playing so little 40k these days and I do hope my opponent wont take offence to how they are built since we mostly play open or narrative scenarios. Other than that there are two second edition plastic Warriors. I painted one up in 2015 and now I feel like painting the rest of the brood.
Right now I only drybrushed the skin areas. The next step - doing the carapace - always takes the longest but I hope to power through so that I can finish them all before christmas.

A Dwarf, Monsters, Animals and Schicksalspfade

This week was quite sucessfull with over ten miniatures painted or repainted. The main focus was the session of DnD I hosted on the saturday.

Pict 148: Male Dwarf Fighter (Barbarian)

Pict 149: Male Dwarf Fighter (Barbarian)

First up is a miniatrue for one of the heroes. One of my friends decided he wanted to play a dwarf barbarian and so I was on the lookout for a fitting miniature (Gimli as a stand-in is cool but not quite the same...). I imideatly liked the dwarven fighter by WizKids and with the agressive pose and the fur on his back he would be make for a nice barbarian. The moldlines were not as bad on this miniature as on some others in the WizKids unpainted line. The highlights on the blue cloth seem a bit harsh on the picture - in person they are more suttle.

Pict 150: Grells (Ral Partha) and Batswarm (Armalion)

Pict 151: Blood Hawk, Frog, Badger, Fox and Bat

Next up are some monsters and some animals I painted for the game. The monsters (two Grells by Ral Partha and a Batswam by Armalion) have not yet been pittet against the heroes. And the animals (a Blood Hawk from a Woodelf, a frog from the 5th edition Morgiana and the badger, fox and bat from WizKids) were also not needed, because the druid of the party is still learning the ropes and not quite ready to transform. Nonetheless now there are more options! The batswarm is mounted on a 40mm base, so that I can use him with my Moria Goblins in games of Middle Earth SBG.

Pict 152: Schicksalspfade Heroes

Pict 153: Schicksalspfade Heroes

And lastly I present you with four heroes for the game Schicksalspfade. I use them as heroes in the DnD game since I painted them some time ago when Schicksalspfade was released. I decided to rework them - new resinbase, eyes and better shading - now that they are in use. Getting the miniatures of their original bases was quite hard with the ones that have robes to the ground, beacuse the miniatures have a large bit of metal to keep them upright without pinning. I bought pretty much all of the rules availiable for Schicksalspfade and I hope to use the miniatures for their intended game once the opportunity strikes!