Kruleboyz Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast and Marshcrawla Sloggoth

Over the weekend I finished a Kruleboyz Snatchaboss on Sludgeraker Beast and a Marshcrawla Sloggoth. That's a lot of words to describe two models. Don't the good folks at GW take blog headlines into account when naming their creatures? Snide comments aside, these two (and the vulture) sold me on the Krulebozy faction for AoS so it is quite a pleasure to have them painted up and ready for battle. 

As far as I'm concerned the Marshcrawla Sloggoth beats good old, fat Grom the Paunch and even the ancient Goblin King's Chariot when it comes to chariot design. 

I started working on these models over a month ago, but got distracted by an impromptu trip to Berlin (awesome city) and a severe case of Rimworld addiction. I actually intended to bring them to a tournament I participated in a week ago, but it was not meant to be. In the end that didn't really matter. I joined to give myself a reason to actually learn the new AoS rules (you don't want to be the person panic reading the rulebook on a day like that). Aside from that, tournaments are not my thing. I enjoy chatting with fellow hobbyists, but watching them take a steaming dump on the concept of the game is a bit of a challenge. To each his own, but that doesn't stop me from watching you in amazement as background, storytelling and fun are swatted away in a never ending quest to field an unbeatable death star WAC-army whilst you sound like Dustin Hofman's character in Rain Man as you drone on about stats and odds.

No doubt about it, I would run from this. 

On to my part of the hobby: telling silly stories with zany looking models on the table. Winner of this year's design award (well the year's still young so lets call it a good nominee) is the Marshcrawla Sloggoth. As far as I'm concerned this is a Goblin chariot done right. The nasty grots have captured and blinded a toll and proceeded to tie a chariot to its back. I had an absolute blast painting the troll, working hard on my newly found 'let's work a lot of color into pale skin' technique. I have to admit that I kind of rushed the goblins on the back, but that doesn't stop this model from combining creepiness with a bit of tongue in cheek cruelty. Peek Warhammer as far as I'm concerned (without a single skull present, I never thought that would be possible). 

The design of this monster is just awesome, I would call its poise 'understated menace'.

The Sludgeraker Beast is another model I can't help but love. Let's call it a second promising nominee. As a much needed alternative to the wyvern, this lizard-like monster mounts swamp Orcs and looks the part of a greenskin riding creature (a creature ridden by greenskins, not the other way around, that would be difficult to model). I had to stick an Orc with a man-catcher pole on its back. The one holding chains looked okay, but this one is just fear-inspiring. Together with the gibbets dangling from the sides  of the saddle there's nothing funny to see here, just dread stomping your way.

Streaking Grime makes it insanely easy to make brand marks like this one stand out. 

I found the 'official' GW paint job on the Sludgeraker Beast a bit too dark green for my liking. It hides a lot of shape of the monster. As I'm leaning into the entire swamp theme anyway, I wanted to give my skintone a bit of a snail skin like color. But how do you get there? In the end I airbrushed bits with Vallejo Light Cam. Green and other bits with Bronze Fleshtone (a favorite yellow of mine). I lightened both colors with a bit of Dead Flesh. All Vallejo airbrush ready colors. I washed select parts (mostly the tail) with a bit of Athonian Camoshade and covered the entire monster with AK Interactive Streaking Grime (for dark yellow vehicles). Rather the same approach I recently took with the Hell Pit Abominations and the Great Unclean One. 

Once again the addition of tea leaves helps make the base stand out, although it is a bit of a pity that none of my home made texture paste is showing through. It is rather good, but you'll have to take my word for it.

The rusted armor and cages where painted (airbrushed) with my standard rust recipe (Hull Red with patches of Rust and Hot Orange applied on top). I drybrushed these with a silver and then picked out the edges with an actual loaded brush as well. The dead skin saddle was painted in the same way I painted the other Kruleboyz in my collection. The only bit of truly creative painting here was the bridle (Nato black with Prussian Blue mixed in for highlights) and the nails (same color combination). All in all he looks quite intimidating ( I think) and ready to appear on a (non-tournament) battlefield somewhere in the future. I need to paint ten more Kruleboyz with hand weapons, three with crossbows and a ballista team to finish this army. That'll tax me as I'm getting burned out with Orcs (for now). Let's see if I'll muddle through anyway.