Mordor Orcs, Cursed City Vampires and a third Venomthrope

During the past two weeks, I painted quite a few Mordor Orcs including a Captain and two Warg Riders. I also finished the two Vampires from the first Cursed City expasion: Lady Annika and Carmilla DuSang. And while I did not paint any more Tyranids, I also converted a third metal Venomthrope to make them a legal unit in 10th edition.

Pict 1332: Mordor Orc Reinforcements

Pict 1333: Mordor Orc Captain, Orc Warriors, Warg Riders

Pict 1334: Mordor Orc Captain, Orc Warriors, Warg Riders

With some Middle-earth games going on, I got back to painting Mordor Orcs. The foot troops are all beautiful metal models that were originally released in 2001 and were availiable recently as a Made-to-order. Having painted them now, I have grown to love them even more. They are so characterfull. Especially the faces and helmets.
Same with the Warg Riders - the metal versions are vastly superior to the plastics and with a bit of converting, you so get some more poses that the three that were released. Here the one with the bow is the unaltered one, the shield bearer my conversion. I had converted these models and started to paint them in November 2021... really a good feeling to get them done now!

Pict 1335: Lady Annika and Carmilla DuSang

Pict 1336: Carmilla DuSang and Lady Annika

Pict 1337: Carmilla DuSang and Lady Annika

As a quick little project inbetween I painted the two Vampires I was still missing for the first Cursed City expansion. Two really great miniatures with completly different characters. I'm happy with the way they turned out. But I have to say, painting the faces was tricky behind the mask and the armour spikes respectively.
While I'd like to get these two on the table before long, I think I will paint up the models for the other expansion first. I'd like to start a new playthrough once I have all the minis together.

Pict 1338: Venomthrope (WIP)

I also got myself a second hand metal Venomthrope to make a legal unit. After dissasembling and removing the old paint, I went about converting a more dynamic pose. Cutting off the head and reattaching it on a slant unlocked the turning body and the tentacles simply fell into place. Now I want to get more even of them and make more cool poses... But first, I'll have to paint the bunch – we'll see, where the butterfly takes me next!

Screamer-Killer Carnifex

Only a small update today after the having cought up in the last one. I finished a Screamer-Killer to get back into painting Tyranids and made some good headway on the Trygon as well. I also converted five more Blood Angels Scouts and primed them up, ready to be painted.

Pict 1327: Screamer-killer Carnifex

Pict 1328: Screamer-killer Carnifex

Pict 1329: Screamer-killer Carnifex

Before taking my painting to the expensive ForgeWorld Trygon, I wanted to refamiliarise myself with the process. And of course I could not say no to the big boy of the new box and painted up a Screamer-Killer Carnifex. It's a neat miniature but in places you notice that it's easy-to-build / monopose. Nevertheless I'm quite happy with the way he came out using my Kraken scheme. While certainly not my best model of all time, it painted up quickly which is important when going for a big swarm of Tyranids!

Pict 1330: ForgeWorld Trygon (WIP)

The Trygon is also quite far along, with only the red stages of the carapace and some cleaning up left to do. Having painted the plasic version in the past, I have to say that the ForgeWorld mini really is miles above it in terms of details. There a virtually no flat surfaces so that everything looks suitably organic and like a living organism.

Pict 1331: Horus Heresy Blood Angels Scouts (WIP)

I also converted five more Scouts for the Blood Angels Legion – including some more funky hair styles and a Sergeant with a power fist and a hand flamer, just because it's cool. I also primed them all with the usual formula of black primer with a red zenithal. They should not take to long to paint but I might be distracted by the Tyranids for now...

Catching Up: 40k Terrain, Bats, Enforcers and Tyranids?!

So, my last post was a full four weeks ago! The Real Life™ really had its talons in me... Nevertheless, I managed to finish up a few things and and finally photograph them too: There are some Fronteris terrain pieces, reinforcements for my Badab Enforcers and Fell Bats for the Cursed City. And of course, the 40k hype train did not pass me by and I started to work on some old Tyranids.

Pict 1317: Badab Enforcers on Patrol

Pict 1318: Fronteris Landing Pad, STC Hab Bunker and Bastion Vox Array

Pict 1319: Fronteris Landing Pad, STC Hab Bunker and Bastion Vox Array

In my last post, I showd a WIP of some more 40k terrain. Shortly after this picture, I threw on an oilwash and once this had dried, put on some highlights with a sponge. And of course the finishing touch are the weathering powders. I'm really happy with these and look forward to playing a game of 30k or even 40k on them!

Pict 1320: Fell Bats

Pict 1321: Fell Bats

To get back into finishing up miniatures and highlighting (instead of just building and putting down base colours) I finished these three Fell Bats. Once again, these will be part of my Cursed City collection and do count towards my resolution of painting and playing at least of the expansions.

1322: Arachnos Rogue Dox and Orderlies, Badab Enforcers

Pict 1323: Arachnos Rogue Dox and Orderlies, Badab Enforcers

I also finished up these reinforcements for my Badab Enforcers. Once again painted to be usable as part of the Tyrant's Legion. Doctor Arachnos and especially his two cultist orderlies were a bit more of an experiment on what skin tone I could achieve with sponging and an oil wash. In the end they are a bit pale for my liking but I will call them done and be content for now.

Pict 1324: Horus Heresy Blood Angels Scouts (WIP)

Keeping with the Sci-Fi theme, I converted some Scouts for my Heresy Blood Angels. I removed the wings on their chestarmour and added some era appropriate bits such as the Thunder Edge pattern Chain Swords from the MK III kit as well as a Vexillum and a Nuncio Vox. I really like how the bare heads from the new MK VI kit look on the scout bodies. To avoid to may repeats, one of them got the obligatory Blood Angel boy band haircut.

Pict 1325: Wight King BSB (WIP)

Whilst building, I put together this Wight King BSB that was made by ForgeWorld. I recently got him in a bits lot fro really cheap sind he was missing one of the skeletons holding his banner. Thankfully a dive into the bits box rectifyed that vacancy quickly. I'm looking forward to putting paint on him; probably at the same time, I get to the Grave Guard needed for Cursed City.

Pict 1326: Trygon and Vernomthropes (WIP)

Lastly, the terrain was not the only thing that got me back into 40k. A new edition is always a chance to get back to some favourites. And of course, for me that's the Tyranids, the miniatures that started me on my hobby journey.

For now, there is not that much to show - just a base coated ForgeWorld Trygon and a pair of Venomthropes. The Trygon has sat in this state for years now and I really should do them the honor and get some paint on them. The Venomthopes probably were my first attempt at a conversion using metal miniatures. I'm surprised the hacked of and switched out tail of a Zoanthrope did not fall of as often as it did – back in the day I did not use pins between the bits! Anyways, I had taken them apart and stripped them a few years back. Redoing the conversion at my current skill level was really satisfying and I'm looking forward to painting them!

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!