Nighthaunt slightly delayed by grandfather Nurgle

It has been way too quiet on my blog this past month and  I blame dear old grandfather Nurgle. He kindly blessed me with a bad case of the flue. As a self employed madman professional I had to switch to a slightly higher gear to catch up with unfinished work after that. Nurgle aside, I also spent way too much time testing out this newfangled Elite Dangerous game. I played this game rather fanatically in the eighties and now they seem to have added textured the wireframes (and added some other stuff*). Luckily Fallout 76 turns out to be a bits of wood and metal collection simulator, so I get to use my hobby time elsewhere**. That in turns mean I found the time to finish five Chainrasps. That makes the production of a new army official. Here's a group shot of the five with some other models that accidentally fall within the range (and mostly have nothing to do with the army I'm working on).

* a lot of other stuff...
** note to self: don't ever pre-order games again...

I had to re-glue the Spirit Hosts in the back (left) for the tenth or so time just to fit them into this picture. I don't think I'll be using them on a tabletop, it will cost me too much glue ;)

The Nighthaunt form an undead army consisting of ghosts (insert ghost buster joke here). All of them have been punished for some transgression in life. They are also part of the new Age of Sigmar starter box I bought on release. So aside from some of the painted models pictured above I had the start of an army by getting that box (and even more unpainted Stormcast to wonder about). For the color scheme I wanted to avoid the 'He slimed me!' look that seems to be achieved by applying Hexwraith Flame to a white undercoat and calling it a day. Instead I used a combination of the leaflets provided by GW in the boxes and an 'Eavy Metal Tips picture that I manage to save from Facebook oblivion.. Both of these get a ghostly look working by using layers of off-white recess shaded up to Stegadon Green. An interesting effect is added by glazing these colors with blue and green glazes. I need  to improve a bit on my skill there but I think the basic test is working (and there are plenty of ghosts to practice on).

The first 5 Chainrasps are ready to form a horde, another 35 to go...

I picked up the battle tome to check out possible armies to build and to make sure I finally make one that actually uses battalions and the like. Who knows maybe I'll actually use some of the new stuff in Age of Sigmar 2.0 to my advantage with this army. Difficulty setting was that the army had to use the contents of the starter box. Unfortunately not all units in the starter box match the sizes of the ones in the battle tome (assuming you use pitched battle profiles (i.e. a point based army)). Sigh. The Grimghast Reapers come with four in the box and need five to make a unit. You do find five Glaivewraith Stalkers in the same box, but they come in units of four. I smell a typo gone live into the world...

Step 1. Replace skull (and reposition spear to form scythe).

As I picked up the Nighthaunt portion of a Tempest of Souls box (same models as the starter box minus some of the characters) I could convert two Glaivewraith Stalkers. These are the undead Skaven that turn out not te be undead Skaven at all but some weird story about merging a rider with a horse. And there I was hoping for a prelude to undead Orruks, Duardin and other assorted species different then humans. Ah well. I cut off two (not-)Skaven skulls and replaced them with skulls from the best box GW ever produced.

Step 2. add blob.

As Grimghast Reapers are blindfolded I used my mediocre green stuff skills to push a roll of blob in front of the eyes....

Step 3. flatten blob. 

And then I used a rubber topped sculpting thingy I bought to compensate for my lack of skill to push the blob down to sort off blind fold shape. After that I folded a flat strip over the head to make it more or less work. Notice the double layer of cork on the bottom of the base. Glaivewraith Stalkers are a lot smaller than Grimghast Reapers so I added height in the hopes of blending these two in.

Step 4. add scythe blade to another model.

I also took a scythe from a Nurgle sprue to change the second Extoller of Shyish (unit commander) into a regular Grimghast Reaper. This will allow me to make a single unit of ten models out of them. You can see the folded hood on one the converted Glaivewraith Stalkers in the background.

That's beginning to look like an army...perhaps I should add some paint.

As I wanted to see how quickly I can build and paint an entire army, I build the entire army (minus three boxes that I had to order). As an aside, these models are amazing. I loved the Cairn Wraith model from the day it was released. That's why I have painted two (I never use on the battlefield). Having an army of flying black cloaks to add to my undead horde is just too good an opportunity to pass up. The most important model on order is Kurdoss Valentian, the Craven King. This model managed to trigger a 'must own it now' reflex in me.

To my surprise this actually works extremely well if you want to add painted things to finish a base.

As you can see on the previous picture I used the fact that I had the Citadel Skulls box to my advantage and blue tacked a random bunch of them to bits of cardboard. I also added the basing material I found in the box with Crawlocke the Jailor. I thought it would be easier to airbrush. wash and highlight/drybrush these extra's separately and then simply add them when the base is already painted (and going by the first five Chainrasps, I was right).

Basecoated and ready to paint, ignore all the other works in progress in the background, nothing to see there...

I dusted the entire army with a Zenithal basecoat (Vallejo German Grey primer topped by Vallejo White). I am absolutely unsure if this does anything for the models, but it makes me feel like a very serious painter when I do it (and the effort is rather smal anyway). After this I applied the basic layers for a ghostly lower side to all models. Then I fell ill and got distracted flying virtual spaceships. Flash forward a number of weeks and the first five are now finally finished. I'll see if I can remember to make some painting in progress pictures for the next installment of this army. I'm also working on some Skaven (and a lot more besides) so I guess the speed test will be a bit of a challenge to make. Ah who cares, its a hobby. Lets end with a last shot of the models just as they where standing finished on the painting table.

In case I fail to recall my own recipe: spackle on Vallejo Dark Earth Paste, wash with Agrax Earthshade when dry, drybrush with Talarn Sand, drybrush lightly with Karak Stone, add Mordheim Tufts and skulls to taste, paint rim German Grey.

Before I forget it. Let's add two extra blobs to the wargame bingo card. I sculpted something on a model (blindfold) and I've tried out a color scheme I normally don't use (I actually try to do that for every army, but now I actually remember to stamp that dot on the card...)

Bingo?