A Skaven Plague Furnace rolls into view

 Aside from a rather over the top crazy 3D-printing project that's taking a lot of time, I've been refocusing on my Skaven horde. Just to be sure: I never fully take my eyes of them, they are a rather untrustworthy bunch after all. One of the clans in my collection that really needs a boost is Pesilens. My Plague Monks need reinforcements. I have good news for them: there are several extra units lined up (and glued together). This weekend I painted a Plague Furnace for them to die cluster around. 

They see me rollin', they hatin'...

Annual Running of the Bull(gor)s, starring an Aurox Minotaur Slaughterhorn Chieftain

Oh dear, it seems I'm on a bit of a painting streak these days (sorry for overposting). Last night I finished weathering this fascinating 3D-print by Bestiarum Games. Part of their Aurox Minotaurs Collection, it is called the Slaughterhorn Chieftain. Personally, I call it the 'nicely sculpted Doombull'. The model has an amazing, intimidating pose, begging for a proper vignette photo. Let's go for it...

Stop! Printing! Monsters! AAAAAAAAAH!!!!!

Skaven Plague Claw Catapult, Warpfire Thrower Team and some Packmasters join the horde

Two clans need expanding in my slightly overgrown Skaven collection: Eshin and Pestilens. On the Eshin side I have more assassins primed (but not ready). On the Pestilens side I mostly need a few more warmachines. With this Skaven Plague Claw Catapult I have started solving that last problem. And as I was splashing more paint on rats anyway, I also added another Warpfire Thrower Team and some Packmasters to the horde.

You have to wonder how disgusting something needs to be before a Skaven puts on a gas mask.

Take the kiswa maker hook and ride Squeek-Hulud like a leader of ratmen!

Yeah the 'conversion' that had to happen, has happened. Egged on by regular readers Toby and Lasgunpacker I looked around for a kiswa hook, settled for superglue (I'm short on Arrakis Fremen gear) and made one spare Skaven ride Squeek-Hulud like a leader of ratmen. Frightened squeels and regular spraying of the musk of fear have not been included with this picture. 

Polish comes from the cities, wisdom from the desert and Hell Pit Abominations come from the Hell Pit.

Another Great Unclean One joins my pantheon

When it comes to painting my weekend was - very - productive. I added a rider to one of my Hell Pit Abominations (Squeek-Hulud has been created), I painted a Skaven Plague Claw Catapult and assembled and painted this Great Unclean One (in a day). I even got an evening of gamemastering Soulbound in. When it comes to blogging, I guess I'll have to smear the results out over the course of this week. Yeah I'm bragging a bit, but you have to enjoy excessive hobby-productivity in some way :).  Let's startof with a shot of my Great Unclean One hunting some hapless peasants. 

And the rock cried out, no hiding place...

Buddy gets company: Master Moulder and two 3D-printed Hell Pit Abominations finished

Almost six years ago I finished my Skaven Hell Pit abomination Buddy Since that day he's seen quite a few battlefields. As he survived no battle so far, I thought it was past time to get him some friends and a proper handler. Without further ado: here's a group shot of Buddy (a GW original), two 3D-printed friend (yet to be named) and their handler, a Master Moulder (by GW).

Okay I've named the center one 'Buddy', perhaps I should name the one on the left 'Fluffy' and the one on the right 'Spot' (<- deft McDeath reference right there (also misplaced, but let's ignore that)).

Skaven Plague Monk speed painting (and releasing the lead)

So there I was, busily painting my new Orcs, when all of a sudden I realized my birthday's coming up in less than a month. Traditionally I buy myself some new Skaven to celebrate. But what to get? As that question is tough to answer, I took stock of what I had (both painted and unpainted). With a lot of unpainted Skaven on my paint station, I decided to check how fast I could stamp out a unit of Skaven Plague Monks. I did these over the course of this weekend (and I'm pretty chuffed about both the speed and the result).

After many years spent languishing in a cardboard and plastic prison, these Plague Monks are finally free to terrorize the Mortal Realms (and the Old World when the opportunity presents itself).

Painting the backlog: Necron Barbie, Diehard Orc and Dwarf, Dwarf Thunderers, Skaven Stormfiends and Skaven Doom-Flayer

 Recently I had a bit of a painting fugue, grabbing models from my Window Sill of Shame and just finishing the bastards. The result is a lot of joy (I finally added paint to the bastards) and a conundrum: how do I blog about painting the bastards. I decided to just throw them together in what will undoubtably be a completely disjointed blog post. Enjoy dear readers ;). Lets fire this one off with the Necron Barbie.

We can do anything, right Flayed One?

A gibbering Chaos Abomination storms out of the ruins

Diehard Miniatures finished another awesome Kickstarter earlier this year and (even though I should finish painting what I already have ;) I couldn't resist. One of the models I chose from the offerings was this Chaos Abomination (Abaddon the Unchained). The picture looked freaky, which turend out to be a very apt description of the model in real life, if you aske me. With my mind boggling over the details I just had to paint him. Here's the result.

The road to power leads to either of two fates: "the triumphant shriek, voiced from the throat of a newly -birthed Daemon; or the gibbering of a once-man, a Chaos Spawn, wallowing in the stench of its own failure."

Finished my first Stormcast unit and it belongs to...drumroll...the Sigmar's Children Stormhost

Stormcast are the face of Age of Sigmar and I've had a lot of trouble with them from their release. Not the  regularly encountered 'they are the faceless face that killed my hobby' sort of trouble but the 'how do I paint these properly kind. I found this three year old post documenting my search. Short version of my troubles: painting them gold does not work for me, black makes them fit in a bit too well with my Undead and Skaven and Stegadon Blue made them look too much like science fiction warriors. In the end it took a bit of cynical Scifi theft to get my own Stormhost and pick my colors. I proudly present a unit of liberators from: Sigmar's Children.

I had a lot of fun experimenting with paint techniques on these guys, one of them was using blue to paint shadows (in stead of adding a wash). 

Bloodthirster of Khorne, Beastman Shaman and Ajjatahr the rotting dryad

I recently had one of those wonderful moments where a friend drops by with some old models and says: “do you have a use for these or should I bin them?" Never bin your models people, just give them to someone who owns a vat of Biostrip. Lets just start with a shot of a metal Bloodthirster of Khorne. I weighed him in at 250 grams of solid metal. If you lose the battle you can knock your opponent out with this model (but that will cost you sportsmanship points ;) ).

I made his lolling tongue and gums stand out by first painting (and highlighting) yellow and applying Tamiya Clear Red over it. I gave it more depth by applying Blood for the Blood God in the recesses. 

A Die Hard liche, some Chaos Sorcerers, an Orc and a gladiator walk into a bar...

Sorry for the awful headline. I did not get around to a lot of painting over the weekend as my brother convinced me to give Elite: Dangerous a few more hours of my life. This game balances utter boredom with the anticipation that something wonderful is about to happen (I did glob a few extra jots of paint on some Lumineth that have been standing around on the desk since forever). Anyway, I'll use this as a chance to show a few models I painted earlier this year but never shared on my blog. Lets start with more Die Hard Miniatures awesomeness: Melcor the Liche. 

I originally painted his eyes red, switching to glowing green was a very good decision. 

Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift test scenario #1 Kachas Pass

As far as I'm concerned the best wargames are narrative games. This year I planned to slap Oldhammer and Age of Sigmar together and reimagine a classic. Unfortunately grandfather Nurgle's 2020 tour made it irresponsible to host a day of group gaming. On the plus side it gave me time to actually polish my scenario. To take it up one notch (and because we can safely have limited contact again) I actually tested the first scenario. Now there's a first. Here's some ramblings about applying old school wargaming to new rulesets. 

With a roar the invading Skaven horde stormed the stockade manned by two units of Dark Elves and their commander. 

Die Hard Chaos General, Witch & some friends

With the Townscape complete, I finally have room on my desk to get back to painting miniatures. As a starting of point I decided to give a few special models extra attention before getting back to my usual army painting shtick. Front and center where two models from an order I placed with Die Hard Miniatures. Lets get started with my brand new Chaos General. 

A wonderful sculpt by Die Hard and, thanks to the latest General's Handbook, I can make an appropriate AoS warscroll for him.

Battle for the Comet

This Sunday Goblin Grot Spider Riders, Skaven and the Oger Ogor Mawtribes fought against Dark Elves, Fyreslayers, Dwarves and Bretonnians (*cough* Flesheater Courts *cough*). Seers foretold three precious comets would land in the (wisely) abandoned village of Schweifsternheim. Whoever could claim the precious rocks would gain untold power and riches. Reason enough for a good scrap.

 

With a deranged roar the packed Ghouls stormed a horde of Skaven Clanrats.

Skaven Verminlord Warpseer Rikittar Slysnout (and an old school metal friend)

Over the course of last week I've finished a Verminlord Warpseer that has been staring at me in partially painted condition for way too long. Using one of the utterly marvelous Character Name Generators at Realm of Plastic I can now dub this painted fiend: Rikittar Slysnout, Conniving Usurper of Torn Realities.

I've been painted and I have a name! What a day, what a lovely, lovely day.

Fixing some ancient Chaos models

With the number of reasons to go out reduced and GW closing down, I've had all the time in the world to work on my backlog. The recent restorations of Maalicia Ironhoof and Lt. Varras motivated me to fix some more models I've owned since I discovered Warhammer. Here is the result.

The good, the bad and the ugly?

How to (speed-)paint Bloodletters properly red

How do you paint Bloodletters properly red as most highlights tend to turn them rather orange. It is quite tempting to say a quick apologetic prayer to the Blood God and just go for white or bone colored Bloodletters. It even has the added bonus of red showing up quite well on white. But I personally like my bloodcrazed maniacs looking red. So for those interested here's my technique. It's a very quick way to get these guys painted.

Do you have a minute to talk about our lord and saviour Khorne?

Chaos Sorceror Maalicia Ironhoof painted

This weekend I plucked another model out of my 'to be painted' box. In this case it was the 1987 Chaos Sorcerer Maalicia Ironhoof. I saved the model because I really like the classic Chaos Wizards. In the case of this one the face on a stick with the faceless hood combination is just so wonderfully Old World. In my mind she's got a perfectly human face until the mask comes off. Then there's the void...

Now to think up a proper backstory as to how she lost that leg.

Oldhammer Skaven Jezzail Team

As frequent visitors to this blog know, I'm quite a fanatic Skaven collector. Four classic Jezzail Teams are a part of this collection as well as three of the latest edition (late middlehammer I think). Just before Easter weekend I decided to dip one of my classic teams and give them a new coat of paint.

Oldhammer Skaven in a properly oldhammer setting for the picture. I'm still deciding on an airbrushed puff of green for some OSL around the warpstone pellets. Maybe I'll add that at a later stage.