Raise high the black flags, my Goblins, and ride with fury!

As I mentioned quite some time ago, I like big banners (and I cannot lie). One of my biggest pet peeves with Age of Sigmar (and by extension modern GW fantasy miniatures) is the absence of banners in the units. With my recent Goblin projects I had a chance to rebase one of my older, more ostentatious banners and to try a by now ancient technique on another banner. Here's the result.

Raise your banners, Goblins of the Night!

Khazukan Kazakit-ha! (Old World Dwarves on the warpath!)

Wow! 2024 seems to fly by with no time to spare for blogging. Luckily I have found time to paint and - as is the prerogative of  wargamers - switch projects :). My Bretonnians have been (temporarily I'm sure) pushed aside in favor of quickly finishing a Dwarven army. I used (a few days from) a week of vacation to finish a bunch of Stunties. Here's the result.

The heart is bold that looks on gold. The Dwarves no more shall suffer wrong.

More loyal heroes added to my Sigmar's Children Stormhost

My Sigmar's Childern Stormhost is expanding at a slow but sure pace. I keep a small number of  Stormcast assembled and primed, ready for when I just feel like splattering a lot of (pink) paint around. Recently this allowed me to finish painting (and I have to look the names up): a Lord-Castellant, a  Knight-Vexillor with Banner of Apotheosis and a squad of Annihilators. Or as I know them: knight with lantern and doggy, knight with banner and three knights in very heavy armor (there are reasons I'm not employed as a Battle Tome writer ;).

Stop! Hammertime! /obligatory opening.

Lord Celestant Eidolon of Sigmar's Children rides in, heresy and all (with another big banner tutorial)

Those of you following along with my blog may have noticed I've had a rather over-productive weekend last week. I couldn't resist sharing the more or less last model to come out of that painting fugue. It is the second Stormcast unit for my very own Stormhost of dubious originality: Lord Celestant Eidolon of Sigmar's Children.

The exemplar all other Stormcast can only look up to in envy: Lord Celestant Eidolon. The only thing tempering his perfection is his loyalty.

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....

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!

Skaven warlord on brood horror and some classic Plague Monks

I should've known the Gutter Runners where just a vanguard heralding more Skaven to come. That and the new Battle Tome. It restores the Skaven to their own backstabbing and conniving version of unity. I love it. I haven't had time to get a game in with my Skaven, but just seeing all the clans back together is a treat in itself. Over the course of this weekend I focused on finishing two units that had been getting some on and off again attention over the past few weeks. The first unit is a Skaven warlord on Brood Horror by Forge World and the second is a group of twenty classic Plague Monks. Lets start off with the Warlord, I should say Clawlord on Brood Horror (although Forge World hasn't updated the warscroll just yet).

Now there is someone I wouldn't want to invite over for dinner.

Grom the Paunch arrives in the Mortal Realms

The Made To Order service Games Workshop has been running for the past year is both insidious and incredible. On the one hand it eats cash I should've kept in my account on the other it gives access to models I've always wanted at prices below e-bay crazy. An example of this is Grom the Paunch, the model I just finished painting.

Grom the Paunch is one portly psychopath.

Oldhammer fun with the Nightmare Legion and metal zombies followed by a dash of heresy

With the influx of new old models I decided to shove all the other projects aside and have a little Oldhammer fun painting the Nightmare Legion. Now I remember the day my friends and I bought this box set (along with Ruglud's Armoured Orcs, Skarloc's Wood Elf Rangers and some other stuff) at the only store we knew that carried GW in quantity. It was about an hour's drive so visits where confined to birthdays and special occasions. After the others left Warhammer I took over their miniatures only to sell them on years later. Now they are back in my possession. I love this unit, particularly the helmet of the unit champion, and I've been dreaming about repainting them for quite a few years now. Here are the results.

Welcome back to my collection Nightmare Legion.

Boyz, Boyz, Boyz, get ready for a Waaagh!

Not that they need it, but my Snotlings have got some backup in the form of twenty angry Orruk Boyz.

Hack, slay, blood, gore, nothing less, nothing more!

A Lightning Cannon, Doom-Flayer and Stormvermin join my Skaven army

My current obsession with Skaven continues with a few extra units that have joined my army. Around my birthday at the start of this month I decided to give myself the present of more Skaven for an army that I've been collecting on and off for the past 25+ years. The dawn of the Age of Sigmar makes the Skaven a very versatile and colorful army that allows you to play in many different ways (most of them involve dishing out a serious amount of nasty mortal wounds). My army lacked the excellent new Thranquol model and it was the first I assembled and painted (it is pictured in the link above). The second unit that has been missing for all these years has been a warp lightning cannon. I think the original model arrived on the market just as I went into the traditional 'beer and women hobby hiatus'. Anyway I got a new plastic one, had some fun being headstrong during assembly and created this model.

Rat or no rat, just kill anything that comes to close, close, squeee!

I like big banners (and I cannot lie)

What are the defining characteristics that set apart an old school gamer versus a new one? Aside from being long in the tooth and (most likely) having a larger collection? Well for some there is the uncontrollable urge to grumble that everything was better way back when. But to be sure it seems the susceptible gamer tends to get this bug after about a month in the hobby. For others it is the rosy feeling of nostalgia that just makes old stuff better. And to be honest I can't stop loving the old Genestealer Patriarch, the Chaos Toilet and the entire Realm of Chaos range. Even when people manage to quite effectively substantiate counterargument. I will never stop loving my tiny Changer of Ways, even as my shiny new plastic one towers over him.

I like big banners (and I cannot lie), you other gamers can't deny, when a git walks in waving an itty bitty pennant or a round thing in your face...

My Skaven army takes on a Von Carstein castle

My birthday came up and with my painting station filled with Highborn Aelfs and Grudge of Drong terrain I thought it was high time to buy myself a present at the local GW. I should've worn blinkers... Instead of getting the last few required Aelfs my eyes fell the Skaven releases I missed in the past few years. Pulling my attention back to this force. I hoped to get back to Grudge of Drong, but I have to interrupt with a short sidestep by presenting an overview of my Skaven Army as it stands today, with a bit of style by having them do a fictitious storming of a Von Carstein castle.

A Skaven horde: not the best view for any proud castle owner to wake up to.

January, the month of Tzeentch!

I spend a lot of time painting and building over the last weeks of last year. So much that I did not update the blog. That means more text for January, expect a few big updates on my Age of Sigmar terrain later on. For now, it is a second unit of Warriors of Chaos, this time with the mark of Tzeentch. With the Warhammer Community announcement of Tzaanuary I focused on Tzeentch.

Ten followers of Tzeentch march in, ready to kill.

I think this kit is from around 2007-2008 and it is getting rather old. You have an out of the box choice between two weapons or a weapon and shield combination and (in this case) a finecast two handed weapon upgrade. What you don't have is a lot of liberty in posing the models. On the plus side, it makes painting a unit like this easy and fast. All horns where removed from the helmets on general principle. 

The airbrush works like a charm on the cloaks of these models.

For the colors I picked blue cloaks and bronze armor with a bit of verdigris. I used the head of a 40K mutant (I think) on one of the models and the bare head on the musician (whose axe-blade broke off during painting). The leader of the unit has the head of a small dragon/large lizard. The rather ridiculous horn from the Chaos Knights kit fell out of the bits box and I felt like having some fun. The banner holds a (Ravenwing) book and a baleful eye freehand. Next step is releasing these guys on a battlefield somewhere, and getting ready to own one of the new plastic Daemons of Tzeentch.

Azhag the Slaughterer is ready to despoil the Mortal Realms

While working on my Age of Sigmar terrain I spotted Azhags dragon standing alone, forgotten and abandoned between some tools in the hobby shed. I started on this model and never got around to finishing it. So over the course of this weekend I painted Azhag himself, finished up the dragon and put some color to the banners. It does fit nicely with my other rediscovered Orc and Goblin models.

Watch it, Azhag is ready to despoil the Realms.

The Leper Messiahs join my Nurgle warbandI II

For me the trouble with Chaos is making decisions. I actually would like to have five armies, one dedicated to each of the major gods (with daemonic support of course) and a group of undivided Slaves to Darkness. As I also have ambitions to paint just about every other army in Age of Sigmar and 40K this will probably not happen for quite some time. For now though I have a group of ten warriors ready to fight for Grandfather Nurgle.

*wheeze* *wheeze* Plagues for the *cough* <damn flies> Plague God! (It's not easy being a Chaos Warrior).

Enter the Putrid Blight Kings

This weekend I finished painting my unit of Putrid Blight Kings. I should say first unit because after painting these models I really want another set of them. So much fun, so many option, so incredibly disgusting. As an extra honorary member of the unit I also painted a Plague Lord. This guy and the plastic Cairn Wraith are two of my favorite miniatures launched by GW in the past ten years. I really want another one, just to do some interesting conversions on it.

We heard the tea was ready and thought we should drop in.

All praises to Nurgle, our grandfather of plagues, here are the Blight Kings

I have been meaning to build a chaos army for quite some time now. Having grown up with the Realm of Chaos books I know nothing offers quite as much opportunities for wild conversions and interesting riotous units.

What has delayed me for all this time was an inability to decide on my chosen power to worship. I have a few older metal models for Khorne, Slaanesh, Nurgle and Tzeentch. And as a temporary fix I painted up an old school pantheon a few years back:

The great four powers of Chaos band together to destroy La Maisontaal