Warhammer The Old World battlereport: The Sandglass of Ghur

On a cursed desert plateau, known as the Red Mirage, ancient Elven ruins rest in the shifting sands. Time warps between weather-worn obelisks and the winds howl with forgotten voices. In the shadows of a particularly high dune, storms uncover a forgotten barrow. Its looming gate creaks open, revealing Azhag the Slaughter, or rather Azhag the Time Traveler. Guided by prophetic visions (or possibly a concussed brain squig), he has led a rampaging horde through a time portal into the desert. He's searching for a mythical artifact known as the Sandglass of Ghur. According to the whispers in his skull, this relic allows the wielder to change the flow of time itself. Will anything stop the time-warped warlord from getting his green mitts on this great prize? 

Azhag the Time Traveler and his pointy-horned friends fight a bunch of pointy-eared glitterboys and their mercenary friends.

The muster is called, the host assembles, and the peasants showed up as well!

After reappearing with a shameless plug for my first book, it's about time I got back to writing about slapping paint on unsuspecting miniatures. Writing, to be sure! I have not been sitting on my hands for the past months—quite the opposite: I have a finished projects backlog to write about. This is a marked contrast with my usual the pile of shame too unfinished to write about. Anyway, on to a lot of painted miniatures (not all at once). Here's my completely finished (cough—not quite—cough) Bretonnian muster.

If they had a mighty keep inside the Mighty Fortress, they wouldn't need tents to sleep in.

 

Guards! Knights! Squires! Prepare for battle!

Over the past few months I've been painting models for my Bretonnian army. I never got around to posting finished models due to a lack of tufts and the ambition to make a flock box (it failed). Today I decided to just grab ready made tufts and finish and photograph a whole bunch of models at once. Here's (most of) the planned core of my army, consisting of ten Mounted Knights of the Realm, a Paladin bearing the Battle Standard of Mousillon, Duke Maldred of Mousillon on his Royal Pegasus and his illegitimate daughter Malory leading the first cavalry wedge with her duelists' blades drawn and her visor open. 

O Fortuna
Velut Luna
Statu variabilis

Is it hip to be square? These Bretonnian Peasant Archers seem to think so!

I used to be a renegade. I used to fool around. But I couldn't take the constant rule updates, and had to settle down. Now I'm fighting in The Old World again, and yes, I must be fair. Because even though I prefer rounds, the bases must be square. 

Having given that bit of eighties nostalgia quite enough abuse, let's skip on to the main course: my first square based unit in (at least) a decade.

"Sire the people are revolting!"
"You said it, they stink on ice."

Beware the Jabberwock, my son! It's even got a coat of paint on...

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves.....oh dear I can't just copy paste mr. Caroll/Dodgson for the entire length of a blog post, can I? Back to regular blabla then. I finally got around to finishing this wonderful sculpt of the famous Jabberwocky It is a fun monster to add to my collection of miniatures and I'm rather happy with the paint job I applied. 

Just when you thought it was save to go back into the forest.

My classic HeroQuest has been fully painted (and it only took 34 years)

Classic HeroQuest, now there's a project that has been terrorising my various shelves, windows sills and piles of shame over the years. No more, I say, because I've finally finished all the models needed to play the game. Here's a quick group shot of some beloved classics.

Here they are, the full cast of the first HeroQuest box set, published (in Dutch) in 1989, painted (by a Dutchman) in 2023.

Classic Space Ork Battle Wagon

One of the best gaming supplements ever written - as far as I'm concerned - is Waaargh the Orks. After fleshing out Chaos in the venerable Realm of Chaos books GW decided to really keep going and give their Space Orks some background. I bought the book way back when it came out in 1991. Even though I curse the decision to give it pre-punched holes for a binder and forsake any glue for the cover I still love it. I even attempted to start a Space Ork army way back then (and sold of most of my models over the years). One of the things I never bought when it came out was a classic Space Ork Battle Wagon (I couldn't scrape the funds together for a full mail order and there was no GW point of sales within reach way back then (and no internet*). Thanks to the miracles of 3D-printing I now have one. Obviously it had to be covered in paint as quickly as possible. No need to paint it red, you don't have to go fasta' when you'z got lots'a teef!

* A horrifying thought, I know

"Fasta' you zogs! We needz'ta leave! 'Oo knows what'll happen when two weirdboyz call shotgun at da same time."

Tom Meier's Zombie Dragon and an Undead Lord join the host of the unliving (and a cheeky bonus Nurgle Spawn/Daemon Prince jumps after them)

A few weeks back I discovered a small bookmarks folder named 'RP Wishlist'. Yes I still use bookmarks, I'm old :). Apparently a few years back I decided to buy these models by Ral Partha Europe 'some day'. 'Well,' I thought, 'lets not Aragorn this, and make it this day'. Long story short: a package arrived and these are two of the Ral Partha Europe's models I really wanted to own: Tom Meier's Zombie Dragon (a Citadel classic) and an Undead Lord by Chaz Elliot.(one of the early sculptors at GW, now part of the Die Hard Miniatures team). 

The lichlord and his hound scoured the abandoned keep, searching for fresh recruits to join the undead host...

Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift test scenario #3 Linden Way redux

During the lockdown I turned Bloodbath at Orc's Drift into an Age of Sigmar campaign aptly named Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift. On Saturday the ninth I will be hosting the full campaign with a small group of friends, before that time I wanted to retest the third skirmish in the campaign: Linden Way. Here's the battlefield for the scenario's redux. A synopsis of the original tryout is here. 

The re-imagined Linden Way table. I forgot to bring a lake and a few copses of trees. We solved it by improvising.

Skarloc's Wood Elf Archers join the Vanari Auralan Sentinels

This weekend I had no planned outings or social encounters, freeing me up to paint a tower, a dwarf , another two projects (on and off) and the rest of Skarloc's Wood Elf archers. A good thing as they'd been giving me authentic Elven Aelven stink eye for quite a few months. I've had this unit (with a brief having sold it interlude) since I got started in the hobby in late eighties. Finishing it to my current skill level gives me that wonderful shot of nostalgia mixed with accomplishment.

We're mean, we're green and we're definitely not Orcs!

Slow progress on Skarloc's Wood Elf Archers

How typical, after finishing my five year blog-birthday post I can't find the time to blog. Well the (non-existent) rumors about my blog's demise have been greatly exaggerated (although quite a bit of lost hobby time can be described as 'Rimworld related'). No matter, I've finally picked up my brushes and started painting again. First order of business: add more splotches of color to Skarloc's Wood Elf Archers. I've finished five (actually six) of the twenty members (actually twenty-one) of the unit on my paint station.

Come on guys, I've applied paint to you, stop glaring at me. The rest of the unit will follow soon...

My blog's fifth birthday is today

Unbelievable how fast time passes when you're having fun. Today marks the fifth year I've been blogging about my hobby. I'd been planning to start earlier, but I kept finding excuses to put it off. Chief was wanting to keep it all in my own hands. In other words: as long as I didn't take some time to build my own site, I wouldn't write. Well enough of that - I thought five years ago - you're a copywriter for #@$@'s sake. Just produce some content on blogger and take care of the rest some other time. This marks post number 286, but I'll move someday soon....sure I will ;) Anyway enough bla bla. I was planning all kinds of spectacular posts, but to be honest I've been to busy with work, life and unfinished projects. Instead lets just reminisce about my favorite projects. I'll start with 'Buddy'. 

Who's a good boy? Buddy is!!!

Classic Nagash shuffles into my collection

Earlier this year (actually Christmas last year) I finally assembled and painted the new Nagash model. As I mentioned in the previous post the classic model was high on my wish list. Apparently I have a genie stuck in a lamp somewhere around my paint station as classic Nagash made its way to me through a second hand site at a reasonable price rather sooner than expected. Now I had a real challenge: giving a model named 'the ugliest model ever made' a paint job that would make him look like a proper villain. Well there's no accounting for good taste, but I think I succeeded, and (as usual when I paint a model I don't really like) I like him now (as a model, not as a monstrous necromantic deity). 

Classic Nagash is out about the town...

Bloodbath at Orruk's Drift test scenario #3 Linden Way

With another lockdown lifted, I got a chance to test scenario number three from my reimagining of the classic Blood Bath at Orc's Drift campaign. This time the villagers of Linden Way had to escape while a small visiting army tried to hold the little town against yet another invading horde. As with the previous scenario's I first had to reinvent the table layout as wargaming tables have shrunk (while quite ironically the models keep on growing  #scalecreep). Here's the Linden Way table for the Blood Bath at Orruk's Drift campaign.

Linden Way reimagined for a smaller table. I made an improvised lake by cutting a plastic tab divider to shape and covering the edges with moss.  

Prince Imrik rides forth again

A while back I found yet another mystery bag in my box of old miniatures. I upended the contents and out rolled an original Prince Imrik. That was a stroke of fortune (well to be honest I was looking for old High Elves to add to my Lumineth, but lets ignore that bit and focus on the sheer surprise ;) ). Long story short (yes I cut and pasted a too long intro that was originally here): Prince Imrik rides forth again. 

"I walk through the Dreaming Halls and I feel change in the wind. In the rhythm of their slumber, I see omens. Minaithnir tells me that he, too, feels his brethren swimming towards consciousness." <- hint hint GW, please make more dragon riding High Elves Lumineth

Sword Masters of Hoeth or Vanari Bladelords? You decide!

New High Elf Lumineth models keep pouring out of GW, and my brand new army book has been rendered obsolete faster than actual play was possible. A new record. Anyway, with the new wave of models a unit called Vanari Bladelords has appeared. I have to admit I'm rather enamored by the new models, but I did have these Sword Masters of Hoeth on the paint station already. So I painted them up anyway. Bladelords or Sword Masters, they've been painted and that's what really counts.

"What are we?" 
"Sword Masters!" "Bladmasters!"
"No Sword Masters!!!" "No not at all!!!!" 
"Just shut up and wave your blades around like you mean it!!!"

Lumineth Realm-Lords Vanari Dawn Riders, Auralan Wardens and classic High-Elves

My last post ended with five Vanari Dawn Riders slowly sinking into the Biostrip-dip. This post, I'm can happily report the same five have been scrubbed, cleaned, primed and painted in more proper colors. I'll start with their new paint job and then give you an overview of a bunch of my new Lumineth models as well as some older High Elf models kicking around in my cabinets. With another unit currently on the paint station I most definitely am in a Asur Lumineth state of mind. 

The sheltering shade of the forest calling come in silence. Accompanied only by the full moon howling of a night wolf....

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. 

I resurrected three ancient Skeleton Army chariots (bonus oil washing tutorial at the end of this post)

As you sink deeper into the madness some of us call the 'wargaming hobby', you start accruing more unpainted miniatures, second hand models and random bits than you can keep track of. By now I'm far enough removed from the shores of sanity to occasionally find a box or zip-lock bag that I can't even remember storing. Recently a pair of bags turned out to contain skeletons, skeletal horsemen and chariots from the venerable Skeleton Army boxed set. I couldn't resist restoring three chariots. 

When they said 'ride eternal, shiny and chrome' this was not what I expected.

How old-school can you go? Drastik Plastik Orcs old maybe? (with old school basing tutorial)

People occasionally wonder why I spent time painting ancient models. After all I could also use it to paint the newer, better looking kits. Most of the time I point out I like Oldhammer's unique style just as much (sometimes even more) than the newer models. Sometimes its just pure nostalgia. The Drastik Plastik Orcs of 'yore fall completely in the nostalgia category.

Never fear, the Drastik Plastik Orcs are here....wait up, that should be: Cower in Fear, the Drastik Plastik Orcs are here!