Bugman's Dwarf Rangers wait for no Elf!

So there I was, happily working on my Wood Elf army project, when a bunch of rather rowdy Dwarves popped up on the paint station. Obviously, I could've told them to wait but they had free beer with them...well I hope it was free, I don't want to see the bill otherwise. I guess I'll find out when they're back from defending their brewery from a Goblin invasion... 

There's only one thing better than gold, and that's the golden glow of Bugman's XXXXX.

Trespass not, for the woods watch with a thousand eyes and none forgive

Last post I promised more green scum, although this time not of the Goblin or Orc variety. So here's a collection of goons from another wretched hive of scum and villainy: Athel Loren. 

There may be no borders in the forest, but stray across the wrong root, and the Wood Elves will show you exactly where the invisible lines lie on their ineffable map.

Squigs, spiders, snotlings and even more Goblins

The Green Tide keeps flooding in, so to speak. After the previous waves of Goblin Banner Bearers, Wolf Riders, Orcs and assorted Night Goblins and Orcs I have one more wave of Goblins to share. Let's call them 'Da Rest of Da 'Orde' and be done with it. (Until I finish painting more Greenskins, or decide to rebase the last holdouts on rounds after all). 

Boing, boing, boing, or should that be Poing*?
* The sheer horror of remembering that song is worse than anything this horde could ever inflict.

Is there such a...oh dear, I've used this headline before

As I typed that headline, I heard a million SEO-consultants cry out in terror, suddenly silenced. Smart move on the consultants' side, as I've added even more Greenskins to my square-based horde, making them utterly unstoppable*. Some of these have been rebased, but I've also added a nice unit of Middlehammer Wolf Riders, some 3D-printed Wolf Riders and another Wolf Chariot to the mix horde.

 * Until the first bravery test, that is. 

A lean, mean, green flanking machine!

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.

Oldhammer-style 'basing with flock' tutorial (featuring a bunch of re-rebased Orcs)

This weekend I decided to go crazy and rebase my old Orcs on new-fangled big 30x30 squares. To be quite honest, I promised myself I would only rebase Ruglud's Ladz, knowing full well I would get carried away doing that. Besides, I figured, rebasing a bunch of Orcs should only take a Saturday morning's worth of time (for me, starting any task requires a complete miscalculation of the time required to actually do it). So a full weekend and a few mid-week evenings later, here's a bunch of rebased Greenskins, ready to take on The Old World in style.

These ancient Orcs have always been based, now they have also been rebased!

Is there such a thing as too many Greenskins?

I remember the old days. With Morrslieb ascendant, Goblin Green was the only green and raving lunatics slathered it onto bases with glee. Ol' Gorfang Rotgut—he must've been at least thirty years old back then—pulled me aside and said: "If da ground ain't shakin’ when yer marchin’, you ain't bringin' enough boyz." 

Come to think of it, this might've just been a fever dream (not even the maddest maniac applies Goblin Green to bases, after all*). 

But the advice still holds, and even if it didn't—no one who values an un-butted head argues with Gorfang. 

That's why I always keep extra Greenskins lurking around the paint station, waiting for a coat of paint. The jury's still out on whether I place them there, or if they appear out of thin air. Either way, here's the latest batch I painted.

* Warning: you need at least one Dwarf flame thrower (or flame cannon) to enter this entirely artificial flame war ;)

Just when you thought it was safe to head back out into the forest...

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!!!

Making some Warhammer/AoS scenery: High Elf waystones/Lumineth spires

As Warhammer scenery goes High Elf waystones are a staple, and I think they fit on any AoS tabletop as well. I've always wanted a few in my collection but all my previous attempts turned out badly. With the Lumineth closely mirroring the High Elves (thank you GW) I thought it about high time to make a couple. And here they are.

Get off my lawn! 

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. 

My Warhammer Townscape is complete

After a rather dismal failure involving a Killa Kan project last year I decided to cheer myself up by building the old Warhammer Townscape from foamboard and coffee stirrers. To be honest I did not think I would see this project through to the finish. But as of this weekend, I can proudly say I did. There I said it: I finished the Warhammer Townscape. Its also a bit more terrain than I'll ever need for a single game :)

"This is madness!"
"Madness? This is Frugelhofen!"

Townscape page 3 all buildings completed

Yesterday I finished the final two 'buildings' for the Townscape: the outhouse and the two tents. Let's just start with these and kick this quick post off.

Finally a chance to go camping in the Old World (or on the Mortal Realms).

Warhammer Townscape page three progress

Buoyed by the completion of page two I've gone to work on page three of the Townscape. Only thirteen buildings left to build (and paint). Perhaps only twelve, as I'm still on the fence about building number 35 (The Tower). It just looks so wonky compared with the rest of the buildings. With that said, lets go for some work in progress pictures of the last batch.

Now to illustrate social differences in the Warhammer world: the huge Manor House next to the cottage. 

Warhammer Townscape second page finished

Warhammer Townscape is an iconic eighties Games Workshop book. Its hardcover holds cardboard cutout buildings to be used in fantasy wargames. October last year I decided to fulfill a long held ambition: rebuilding the entire set using foamboard, balsa and other materials. To add a challenge (and to make sure I'd build all of them) I decided to use the numbers in te original instructions as the order in which to build the entire set. Yesterday evening, after putting the project on the back burner for a bit, I finished page two (of three). Here's half of this lot.

Here's the first set of page two in the Townscape instructions.

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.

More Townscape buildings finished

My blog may have been a bit silent, but that didn't mean I didn't get things done. Without finding time to type about it, I've been continuing my Townscape project. With some pride I can now state that I've finished the first of the three pages from the 'assembling a building' instructions. Here's three of my latest additions in a row.

It almost looks like a street if I put them like this.

Oldhammer meets Age of Sigmar: Battle for Black Fire Pass

As most likely none of you missed, GW recently announced that its necromancers are hard at work resurrecting the Old World. They expect to take about two or three years to give us more clarity on what this will mean. Meanwhile as one of those madmen that like both the current AoS lore AND the Old World I've just decided to go have fun right now (as to what is planned: que sera sera). One of the things on my to-do list was fight a big battle over Black Fire Pass. Yesterday evening, I did just that.

And some call this a skirmish game...

Tutorial: flock basing around buildings and painting rivers for Warhammer and Age of Sigmar

Building the Townscape gives me ample opportunity to make some pictures for tutorials. Let's start off with a double feature: Flock basing around buildings and painting rivers for Warhammer and Age of Sigmar (and any other wargame as well for that matter). Followed up with some bonus content about adding signs to buildings. To follow along you'll need some appropriate bases (I prefer MDF), a few colors of flock, grass tufts, instant filler and (optionally) plaster and molds. Let's get started.

We start with the end result, this is what I'm aiming for here.