More greenskins: Kruleboyz Swampcalla Shaman and Pot Grot join the horde

To be quite honest, I was planning to save my Kruleboyz until I'd finished a lot of other 'open projects'. This ambition turned out te be on par with 'not buying anything new until I've painted what I've got'. Utterly impossible. As I'd finished a lot of longer term open projects recently (and promptly failed to blog about those) I decided I was allowed to reward myself by cutting apart some shiny new sprues and assembling the new line of Orcs GW introduced with the release of the Age of Sigmar 3.0 Dominion Boxed set. Without further ado: here's my take on a Kruleboyz Swampcala Shaman and Pot Grot.

Hello there, can we tell you all about our lord and saviour Mork (or was that Gork)?

In come the other Madboyz

Oh dear, I got so carried away with other things, I actually missed the deadline for the painting competition I entered. A day late I did however finish the other two ancient Ork Madboyz I pledged to paint. A day late, or thirty years late? You decide ;)

Who you tryin' ta mess with ese? Don't you know I'm loco?

First fukushima kami-crazy Madboy finished

Painting a miniature that has suffered a few decades of neglect always feels special. This classic Space Ork Madboy is the first of three I've entered into a competition and I'm quite satisfied with him.

I just had to add a modern oversized Space Ork shoota to this model. In case of Orks bigger is better. 

Painting Ork Madboyz step one: Warhammer 40K style Industrial basing for impatient people

My hobby painting got slightly delayed by a major real-life project. I had to build a 1:1 scale shed after a fire wrecked the previous one. Aside from that activity I've got a lot of half finished projects (including some playing around with contrast paints) crowding my painting station and no real inclination to finish anything. Time to end this lazy attitude! Luckily a painting competition was announced on the Oldhammer Community group on Facebook. The mission: to paint Bob Olley sculpts. In other words a call to start a small project with a tight deadline (for painting purposes). Now that sounds like a lot of fun.

Joining a painting competition on the Old Hammer Community is a bit foolhardy. The best painters not actively working as pro-painters tend to hang out here (in my very humbly opinion).

Making leaves out of leaves

After my previous post on shaking paints with a Nail Lacquer Shaker I thought I'd do another review/tutorial combo. In this case making leaves out of leaves. I'm planning to base a future army on autumn style bases. That would require leaves and these can really cripple your bank account if bought to scale. Luckily you can just press your own with the same tools scrapbookers use.

The pink and purple punches where cheap, the yellow punch works. 

The Mighty Fortress is ready for battle

After the epoxy resin disaster last week I decided to redouble my efforts to complete the Mighty Fortress. It paid off as the old polystyrene model now stands ready for battle. Lets start off with a few pictures of the completed set.

The Mighty Fortress is an epic piece of scenery to put on a gaming table.

Disaster strikes the Mighty Fortress

Let's start this post with a quote from the latest AoS rulebook: "One of the greatest joys of collecting Citadel Miniatures can be found in the modelling and painting of your collection as you assemble and recreate all of the great heroes, terrifying monsters and amazing landscapes of the Age of Sigmar." I'll be keeping that in mind as I continue posting on the Mighty Fortress project. It took a slight turn this week and ended up in 'horror show county'.

I still think it's a fine looking moat.

Building and painting my Mighty Fortress (and about time too)

Way back in 1988 (when people still yelled at me to get off their lawn instead of vice versa) the Warhammer Siege expansion appeared for Warhammer Fantasy Battle. This 140 page book has rules for everything you'd ever want to do to take or hold fortifications. Alongside the book GW released a new terrain kit called Mighty Fortress. This is a polystyrene set of towers and walls to use in games of siege (and general battles of course). I got my hands on one almost thirty years ago. As it (often) goes with miniature (related) purchases it did not get painted as quick as I imagined when I got it. Long story short: just before Christmas last year (2018) I got this box out of the to-do pile and started planning.

The Mighty Fortress came in a big pretty box that has been sitting around looking big and pretty for long enough now.

Rebasing Skaven and Orcs for Age of Sigmar

For a game that was supposed to do away with bases, I seem te be rebasing very often since Age of Sigmar was released. To be honest it's mostly me, I just want my models to look right (and prefer round bases for that) and I don't mind trying out new things (like multiple models on a single base). The occasional rebasing is just part of the cost for this attitude. As it stands now, AoS plays better if each model has it's own little plastic bit of the world to stand on. Which brings me to my Skaven.

They may not have been expertly painted, but there's a lot of them with color on, so impressive enough for my tastes...

Veerhuis completed (Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part six)

Yesterday I managed to complete the paintwork on my veerhuis (ferry house). As per usual with an overtly documented project like this, I forgot to take in-between pictures as I got carried away painting. Maybe during the next project I'll remember to snap photos as I paint. I have more MDF bases lined up, so I might continue with this village. To start with this house, here's the end result. (For people interested in the construction see post 1, post 2 and post 3).

Now there is a lived in house ready to be fought over. 

Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part five - Building one (veerhuis) detailing

Yesterday I picked up a bushel of balsa wood (yes, I've decided that's the correct turn of phrase for it). So last night I could go in and finish the last two doors on my ferry house (veerhuis). Lets start with a 'final product' shot first. Yes there it is, ready to be primed.

Next step on this building will involve painting and flocking the whole thing. I can't wait to get started.

Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part four - Building one (veerhuis) making doors and windows

I left off work on my veerhuis (ferry house) building with gaping holes where windows and doors should be. After a bit of head scratching and designing I rejected the idea of putting in windows made from balsa wood. With all the lattices it would take too much time to do it. Luckily I found a bag of HO scale industrial windows in my bits box. I think I added it to an online order to hit the free shipping limit. Lets see what I can do with these...

The things I find in my bits box often manage to surprise me.

Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part three - Building one (veerhuis)

I had a bit of full social weekend so not much time to work on the fantasy terrain set. Having said that, I did get to spend a lovely Friday night and a bit of my Saturday morning working on the main part of the terrain set: buildings. To start with the ending (as usual). This is how far along I am right now.

Step one: start at the finish. 

Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part two - Trees

I got a bit carried away building scatter terrain for my new fantasy village this weekend. Part of this building fugue consisted of assembling bases to hold a bunch of model railroad trees in an interesting way. Yesterday I painted and flocked the bases. So without further ado, here's the end result.

It's not the glow of the runestone that gets you, its the chanting cultist hiding in the wood with guns that does that...

Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part one - scatter terrain

Recently I played in the Dutch Bloodstorm AoS event and won the Sportsmanship Award. Besides making me smile it came with a certificate and a brand new gaming mat. This last bit has to be celebrated! So this weekend I started building a brand new terrain set to go with it. The 'I have to start scratch building some fantasy stuff'-itch that has been flaring up lately helped a lot. So to start with the ending I went ahead and made a bunch of scatter terrain. Here are some completed project pictures. WIP and a lot of 'how I did it' rambling will follow lower in this post.

The good, the bad and the orky...

Three more Fellwater Troggoths join my Greenskins

Ever since painting the old metal River Trolls Fellwater Troggoths I've been meaning to paint some of the new plastic ones as well. I like the way GW has managed to keep the mix between comical and evil on the faces of the newer models. Besides, when you're on the battlefield, you can't go wrong with pot bellied monsters that puke all over the enemy. Last week I got my hands on three second hand Troggoths.

Warning, troubled stomachs ahead!

Operation Dead-Pile in progress, Necromancer and Grave Guard finished

As far as I know every hobbyist has his own lead-pile or plastic heap: the collection of cool models that just had to be bought, but haven't been painted yet. Recently I started noticing a related phenomenon. I have an ever growing collection of models halfway through a paintjob that subsequently never got finished. Now the lead-pile will be there (and grow) forever, but I think this dead-pile can be rectified (and if not, I'll have a bunch more models painted so its one of those win-win type situations). I've called this new activity Operation Dead-Pile, mostly because I was really stumped for a title to this post (ssssh don't tell anyone). Between my regular painting (currently enjoying old Empire Freeguild models) I'll just grab a unit or model that is languishing with a basecoat and some colors blocked in and finish the thing of (quality be damned!)

The trick to finishing toy soldiers is occasionally just forcing yourself to sit down and do the work. Oh no, forced fun, life is hard ;)

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.

Rebasing and painting Moonclan Grots

Of the many Warhammer Fantasy starter sets over the years I have to admit liking the Battle for Skull Pass (7th edition) the most. It featured an intersting Dwarf army including some fences and a cart for the miners. On the Goblin (Grot) side it had a tied up Trollslayer and a Shaman's hut. It had a lot of miniatures (32 Dwarves and a cannon and 73 Goblins). Nicest of all: it frequently appears on second hand sales for rather reasonable prices. I have at least two Battle for Skull Pass sets (and maybe three). When Age of Sigmar came along the Night Goblins turned into Moonclan Grots (and the Spider Riders became Spiderfang Grots) and basing was left up to the person with the paintbrush. To save time sticking models on the table I based my Moonclan Grots like this.

Multiple models on a base speeds up play, but turned out to become a nuisance around terrain.

My Imperial Knight Errant stomps onto the stage!

The part of Ferrous Maximus in my Crusaders for Knowledge army will be played by Remulus Ortyllis in his Knight Errant. I had to change the weaponry on my first Imperial Knight as going for cool trumps all considerations of following nice pictures in rulebooks (and rules). With the re-release of Renegade I got the chance to get a nice bit of scenery and two Imperial Knights at a splendid price. As I always wanted an Imperial Knight, getting two was too good a deal to skip. I have to admit I got a bit overexcited by having the kit and started building it between waiting for my Necromunda barricades to dry. Yesterday evening I put most of the finishing touches on the model (excepting a few small details I added this morning before breakfast (I may have gotten carried away by this project).

I know what you're thinking, did he fire at 100.000 gigawatts or 150.000 gigawatts. Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself.