My Crazy Army Plan - 16 Down and onto Aeldari (again...)!, 2000 Points for each army!

[BIG]

Hi all, bit of a mixed update today.  But a few pictures to get through.

Had a three player game of Mordheim on Monday night, won't dive into a blow by blow account, but rather just wanted to show off the lovely scenery we played across.  I did manage to get my first Mordheim game win in this small developing campaign, but as luck would have it, the post game sequence was probably the worst I have had in the four games so far and I felt for the first time my warband went backwards. 

Before the game began I rolled for the "old battle wound" one of my youngblood's received in the last game.  On a roll of a 1 he has to sit out the game.  Wouldn't you know it, I got a 1, what a surprise.  In a competitive sense I should fire him and get a replacement as they are pretty cheap and he hasn't advanced very far.  But I find that Mordheim is all about the character that your members develop and I want to keep the poor guy around.  Although his loss in the exploration phase after the game was keenly felt.

On to some pictures.

Regular visitor's will recognize the jungle and buildings from the 40k campaign, but until I get my act together and finish off more buildings our warbands are staying in the cover of the trees......I had a lucky deployment position that allowed my two crossbow armed marksmen to set up in great positions from the start.

Even being able to spot a Beastman trying to hide in the trees (he was actually second in a line of 3 Gors). I managed to hit him (needing a 6!) but the dice deserted me and I was unable to wound the tough critter.

Aerial shot of my Warband spreading out while covered by the crossbows.  You need to forgive me the unpainted heroes, they are on my to do list and scratching at the back of my brain that I haven't done them yet.

The third warband of the game Tileans, from the city of Miragliano which gives all the Marksmen +1 to hit and heroes the same if they use crossbows.  Needless to say except for the Youngbloods, everyone is carrying a missile weapon of some sort.  VERY nasty, especially as they set themselves up on that lovely bridge and waited, daring anyone to come out in the open.  That is a lone piece of wyrdstone on the bridge, we all ended up with 2 pieces of Wyrdstone each after the battle, so that was a nice even spread.

Such a long way away......

The Beastman warband (which is quite small in numbers) split itself in two, the heroes went one way and the Henchmen went the other.  So I had 3 Gor and a pair of Hounds pursuing my Marienburgers and the Tileans were being stalked by a Chieftain, Shaman and Minotaur.  That poor Minotaur has really achieved nothing in his games.  Probably gets tired from chasing everyone as they seem to run away from him a lot....

He has a great time hanging out by the river though.  Maybe looking for Trolls?

Unfortunately for the Beastmen, confronted with that many missile weapons with an excellent view of the surrounding area they just couldn't risk a headlong charge.  Or at least not without some cannon fodder; I mean valiant Gor's to screen the Heroes behind.  So they got a little stuck hiding in the jungle and didn't get to grips with the Tileans.

I began my advance, there was a piece of Wyrdstone in the ruin on the left and on the fountain to the right.  But there was also a pair of war hounds about to have a drink from the fountain and three Gor ready to climb up the ruin.  I though it better to let them come at me as I felt confidant in my numbers to be able to counter attack where and when needed.

The stand off at the fountain, I had my best Champion (doing his best impersonation of an all white statue) backed up by a similarly unpainted Youngblood ready to climb onto the Statue and seize the Wyrdstone.  You can see the Warhounds threatening to attack if I attempt the move.

Here are the three Gor that did end up climbing up the ruin to gather the Wyrdstone that is on the second level.  I had a couple of pistol shots at them, but from long range it proved ineffective.

The Tileans keep a watchful eye on the Minotaur and his mates, lurking in the jungle.  But ultimately they started shooting at the warhounds which helped me out a lot.

The warhounds charged at my henchmen, one failed its initiative test (to charge a model you can't see) so only one came for a snack.  I was lucky that it failed to hit my plucky warrior and in my next turn I counter charged and my Captain stepped up and dealt with the beast with a pistol shot through the head.  The Tileans were kind enough to shoot the other offending hound that failed to charge.

I stopped taking photos after this, mainly because I plain forgot.  The next few turns went quickly, with the loss of the two hounds the Beastmen were forced to take a rout test (the warband is tiny so forcing rout tests is quite easy) and as the dice gods would have it failed their first attempt fleeing the field.  This helped me as the three Gor on the ruins were set to run amok among my warband (they are probably the most experienced henchman group in the campaign with a few upgrades) and could have been hard to deal with.

But it left me facing off the Tileans who had superior fire power and fields of vision.  After a low point where I spent too much time whining and complaining (which I can be prone to do more than I care to admit) I massed my warband for what I knew would be a painful charge.  Trying to keep my henchmen out front to catch arrows for the Heroes behind.

I made a mistake of not bringing my own crossbows into range as I thought "this won't last more than a turn or two".  As it turned out this charge lasted a further 4 or 5 turns!!! I could have probably had three shots a piece if I had moved them up.  Ah hindsight.

The wash up of the charge was a lot of my warband lying in the dirt, but I got very lucky that the injury rolls had turned against my opponent (which was a stark difference to the start of the game where the first 5 injury rolls resulted in the poor model in question going out of action immediately).  I managed to get a few charges off only to discover that those pesky pikes dotted among the Tileans not only struck first, but they could attack anyone that was within 3" at the start of combat, so what started as a glorious charge ended up being a bloodbath, but again the injury rolls were kind to me and it became a bit of a war of attrition which after passing a couple of my own rout tests the Tileans failed the first one I forced on them giving me the victory.

It was a little hollow as I let my frustrations get the better of me and I complained a little too much during the game when I should have just shut my mouth and the victory would have been that much sweeter.

Now, on to some painting progress; Chaos Dwarfs ahoy!

Slightly dodgy photography aside, I am pretty happy with these guys.  From the left, my Daemonsmith/Sorcerer Prophet (depending on game size), Army Standard Bearer and Castellan (who with the right magic items can be an invincible rock to break my enemies on).  I painted these three to enter into the monthly painting challenge as the Villain theme suited them.  Plus it would motivate me to paint.

Better photo of the Daemonsmith, very happy with him, especially the armour.

The Castellan, for some reason in these photos his face is really funny looking.  Almost like a rubber mask.  I thought it a strange sculpt for him to be holding another Chaos Dwarf head, but didn't feel like converting it to a different one.

My Standard bearer, as per previous posts I was not entirely happy with him, but after repositioning the banner I feel much better about him. The Green is probably an odd colour, but I wanted something to contrast against all the red, gold and silver that is throughout the army.

For scale, here are the "leaders" back up by one of the Bull Centaurs, they are ridiculously large in comparison.......the Taur'uk is slightly bigger again......

Thanks for reading and hope to continue the painting motivation.

[Emplion]

Great stuff.  I used to love mordheim back in the day.  Played many a campaign with Skaven, Orks and Dwarves.  Brings back the memories! 🙂

[BIG]

Thanks for stopping by. 
I thought about doing a dwarf treasure hunters Warband, but I lack any trollslayers so would be limited on my hero choices.

Also would like to do a Skaven Warband as I would roll them into one of the Skaven armies I intend to do in the future. 

[BIG]

So a very short update to prove I am still lurking.  I inherited a collection of models from a good mate that never fully got sucked into the hobby (lucky guy).  All in various conditions and there were 25 odd marines in an absolute diabolic state of painting.  Since there are many threads and questions about stripping paint (although not as many as there used to be) I thought I would post a couple of pictures of my experiment.

So here is one of the offending marines.  Poor guy doesn't even have a face anymore......

So I contract work to a number of companies, one of which is a chemical supply company and I had a chat to them about thoughts of getting acrylic paint off a plastic model.  The consensus was IPA (isopropyl alcohol) as it shouldn't leave a residue on the model (which methylated spirits with its other additives can do) or eat the plastic like your average solvents will do.  Plus IPA is pretty ubiquitous and is available in just about every country whereas a lot of options people present aren't (such as Simple Green).

I also didn't want to have to invest a heap of time in scrubbing the models as I have a fair few I want to do and anything more abrasive than a toothbrush will end up damaging the model anyway.

Here we have the results of 24 hours of soaking and a quick once over with a toothbrush......

I am very happy with the result and it seems that those Marines that were looking at a quick trip to the bin may find a new life.

Disclaimer: IPA is not to be handled lightly; as with almost any chemical it has inherent risks (it is absorbed through the skin, through inhalation and of course if drunk).  It can kill you, send you blind etc. etc. So if you want to have a crack at it, read the relevant MSDS and use appropriate safety gear.  Gloves and glasses as an absolute minimum.

Thanks for reading.

[Krefey]

Noice!  I assume it was soaking in a sealed container to prevent the IPA evaporating?  That's a very clean result.

[BIG]

It was soaking in the metal measuring cup you can see in the second picture (1/4 cup measure for those interested, about a third full to cover the model) and I then put some glad wrap over the top of that and put it well out of reach of the kids.

[BIG]

Continuing on with the Gate scenario from the campaign, that saw my Iron Hands/Imperial Guard stop an Eldar force effectively coming through some Webway gates, we are going to play it again, but swap roles and I am using Necron as the defenders.  

I had committed to supplying some suitable markers for the Necron gates this time around and with the game looming I got my act together and knocked some out.  Although my health got in the way and I had to cancel the game, but at least the markers are ready when we managed to reschedule the game.

I tried to copy the beautiful jungle terrain that my opponent has made for our campaign, he was even kind enough to supply me the same aquarium plants he has used.  The "rock" is insulation foam that I just tore into with a hobby knife and gave a thick coat of sand before painting.  Then arranged some aquarium plants to hopefully blend them into the jungle terrain for our games.

I ended up with some excess Monolith parts that I cut up and fitted into the insulation foam to hopefully appear like Necron tech that has been overtaken by the environment.  I used pieces of clear poly-carbonate sheet to fill in the gaps to which I painted a swirl sort of like that on the Monolith's Eternity Gate.  I had intended to try some heating of the polycarb to get some interesting effects and although I started experimenting I abandoned it for speed of finishing the gates.

Pictured with a few Necron that hopefully will emerge from the gates during the game to defend them.

Thanks for reading.

[Plasman]

Those look great!

 

It's funny how really basic (and even rubbish) terrain is actually perfectly fine. Last game I had was with a mate who I told "go to the $2 store and buy whatever cheap toys or aquarium shite that will accommodate a game" so of course we had all these bits and pieces from a cheapo army men set, bright tropical trees and plastic rocks etc. but once you're playing it's all about the game!

[BIG]

Thanks Plasman,

You are completely right. In isolation the aquarium stuff is a little “shiny”. But once you have an awesome, lovingly crafted table full of the stuff it looks normal and like it’s meant to be. 

[korocite]

Very nice. You have done well to match the jungle terrain - I should have thought to give you some of the brown base paint but these will work perfectly. Looking forward to seeing what emerges from them.

[BIG]

So to get an entry into the May painting comp I decided to knock out a Kroot Mercenary and his Kroot Hound.  They will appear in my Radical Ordos Xenos Inquisitors warband when I get around to her and the menagerie that will accompany her.  Here is Krug and Krug.....they are hideous photos, but they are done.

[BIG]

Ok, so I had intended to post this last week as we played another game in our campaign.  But I got distracted and failed to post.  So here we go, memory is a tiny bit foggy now, but the pictures will probably remind me.  Remember, we are still playing this campaign under 8th edition rules.

We played a repeat of the Gate scenario from last time.  But this time I was "defending" with Necrons emerging from their previously dormant gates (which I finished painting on the Sunday before the game).  We decided it was only fair to play the scenario exactly as we did last time (even though we had identified things that could be improved).  So my opponent set up his beautiful mixed Marine army to investigate some Necron gates.  Inquisitor Dial decided it wasn't worth his time to have a look, so he delegated the task to a pair of Lieutenant's, I really hate that Burning Blade artifact.......

Such a good looking army.  I again was worried about the Terminators.  I don't know what peoples complaint about them is, but I find getting through that 2+ save an absolute pain in the proverbial.  My opponent had not been anywhere near as aggressive in building an army for the scenario as I had been in the previous game.  But he had a secondary plan that would unfold later that I hadn't considered in the previous game.

A pair of the gates on the left hand side of the board.  The central bunker hadn't made an appearance yet in our games and has a removable lid so you can fully use the internal space during games.  We rolled off for first turn and my opponent won.  I started to get a sinking feeling as this is exactly how the last game started.....

With no opponents yet to appear on the table, the Marine army surged across the board.  I don't think my opponent rolled anything less than a 5 for the advance rolls on any unit and that sinking feeling started to grow as a wall of Terminator and Power Armour started to rapidly cross the table.

However, unlike my poor opponent last game, I was lucky and came up with a 6 for gate activation on one of the gates and chose to dump a twenty man Warrior squad onto the table.  I figure they could throw out a fair bit of firepower and had enough bodies to tar pit anything trying to reach the gates nearby.  Hopefully reinforcements would arrive in time and with the Reanimation Protocols I thought the squad would hang around for a little while at least.

I was wrong.....

Unfortunately I really couldn't get a good bead on anything I wanted to shoot at, so unleashed on the Rhino and was actually pretty happy to knock a couple of wounds off of it.  But that didn't slow the Marines advance down all that much.

A combat squad of Vanguard Veterans, Lieutenant with Burning Blade and a Rhino all decided that the Warriors had to go.  But before they charged in anything that could draw a line of sight opened up on the squad.

From a glorious 20 down to a much more manageable 10.  Terminators, Tacticals and the Veterans all took a toll at range.  With only 10 Warriors left I was now thinking it only a matter of time before I lose the whole lot and Reanimation would be impossible.

Unsurprisingly the Rhino charged first (I have decided that I really don't like tanks "charging" into combat, I think let them ram/run over things sure, but to be able to tank Overwatch I think is a little much. Ok, rant over).  Any hits I did score I wasn't able to add much to its wound tally and the Vets and Lieutenant waltzed into combat ready to try to annihilate the Warrior squad.

And in short, they did, almost.  These Marines get so many rerolls it can be a lesson in pain and my poor Warriors were like wheat to the Scythe.  Even though two survived, morale soon saw to them and the whole squad disappeared into thin air.  With my plan of the mighty tar pit now evaporating, I hoped my gate rolls would be good and I could exact some revenge.

And I was EXTREMELY lucky, with three 5's I managed to bring in three new units.  I started on the left flank bringing in another unit of 20 Warriors to try and slow down the marines that seemed to have decided the left flank was worth more and there was a lot more targets on this side.

The right flank was going to be much kinder to me and I brought in a 10 robot unit of Immortals with Tesla (having NEVER played Necron before today outside of tiny, tiny games, I didn't know what these did and by the end of the game loved them).  There first mission was to dislodge a combat squad of tactical marines that were firing rockets at my poor Necron from the safety of a ruin.

To really spice things up I brought a unit of Praetorian's in right next to the Veterans, as per the scenario rules units summoned through the gates act normally (although always counting as moving) when they appear.  You want to play in melee? I can accommodate that....

So the Praetorian's charged the Lieutenant and Veterans as overwatch wasn't much of a threat.  They did exactly what I needed them to do and wiped out both groups.  I am not sure if I also charged the Rhino but ignored it or consolidated into it after the combat.  Either way I had it in combat to at least shield me from the Terminators a little bit.

Now, this Campaign is going to be decided I believe (I am still a little fuzzy on the end game details) on who can retrieve the most STC fragments.  There are rules for trying to gather them during games (Ultimately you roll a D20 and on a 20 you find one, plus a heap of bonuses to apply to improve your chances).  Now when I was the attacker in this game I ignored trying to find the STC Fragments and instead built an army to close the gates.  My opponent cleverly though saw this game as a great opportunity to try and collect the fragments.  Something that I hadn't considered; and this Praetors of Orpheus combat squad decided to quietly duck inside the bunker to their left to look for fragments.

Undeterred by the loss of the Veterans and one Lieutenant the Marines press toward the gates.  A lot of these photos focus more on the right flank, but you can see the Necron Warriors on the left flank being approached rapidly by another Lieutenant (with Jump Pack) and one surviving member of a Veteran combat squad my Warriors almost shot off the board (I split their shooting between the Veterans and a Terminator squad.  They almost wiped out the Veterans, but didn't get a single wound on the Terminators from 20 shots....)

The Rhino dumped its cargo of Marines and fled the scene, so now my plucky Praetorians had a Terminator squad approaching and a fresh squad of marines.  I wasn't so concerned about the Tactical Squad as they lacked melee weapons to crack the Praetorians, but the Terminators were a different story.

After weathering a hail of shots from Terminators, Tacticals, one Veteran and a Lieutenant the big squad of Warriors received the charge.  With only 7 of them left it wasn't looking good for them to survive. 

But I continued to roll well for reinforcements and I chose to bring in some speed.  Tomb Blades to be precise and they dropped right next to the Gate to try to buy more time for reinforcements.  I had considered bringing the Overlord in, but unsupported he wouldn't have lasted against the Terminators.

Over on the right I dropped another unit of Tomb Blades right in front of the Terminators.  I figured they would at least be a speed bump and get to shoot the Terminators and then overwatch if they got charged.  Then I could get the charge with my Praetorians in my following turn.  You can see the Immortals are still trading shots with the Tacticals in the Ruin ahead of them.

A wider shot to show whats going on.  The Silver Skull combat squad are fresh from having closed the gate to the left of the photo, so I was down to three gates to bring in reinforcements, I pretty much dominated the right side of the board, but the left was in the hands of my opponent.  Another Praetors of Orpheus combat squad are combing the ruin for STC fragments and their is one inside the bunker as well.  I am hoping I can deal with the Terminators on the right quickly and readjust to try to hold the still open gate on the left.  At this stage I still had an Overlord, Cryptek, Scarab Swarms and Deathmarks to deploy.

So unfortunately I had run out of steam and forgot to take anymore photos after this point.  But we were at teh end game anyway.  I had Scarabs come in (and I used the stratagem where you can blow up a scarab base to inflict mortal wounds to troll the Terminators).  I lost both lots of Tomb Blades after they did some decidedly average shooting which was disappointing as they look cool and are really quite expensive units; although I guess they did cause 4 unsaved wounds on the Terminators on the left.  

But I dealt with one lot of terminators with the Praetorian's (they are formidable).  However, I lost use of a second gate.  

Next up I brought in the Overlord and Cryptek and along with the Praetorians and Scarabs they moved over and cleaned up the remaining Terminators, Lieutenant and Silver Skull combat squad.  The Immortals stuck their Tesla Carbines into the bunker and toasted the Praetors of Orpheus.

So ultimately I think the Marines were left with a single combat squad (I think...) left at the end of the battle (i did blow another Scarab base up to kill the Lieutenant which I found disturbingly satisfying).  Technically the Necron had won, and had given the Marines a seriously bloody nose.  However, in the over-arching scenario Inquistor Dial has taken a formidable lead as his forces were able to salvage another 2 STC fragments.

So I think in the wash up, they lost this battle but are well placed to win the war.  Curses.

Thanks for reading.

[korocite]

Nice write up (again!). I think you played this cleverly, while I made a few mistakes. My list really should have included some faster units, though I agree that I got lucky with advance rolls. Another mistake I made was sending too many units to search the ruins. The assault team could have done with some more help. One more unit may have tipped the scales, maybe... Your choice of units was excellent, very well thought out, and deployed sensibly. Hopefully I will have a more defined campaign structure before our next game.

 

[BIG]

I am not totally fussed with a fully defined structure.  I kind of like the idea that Inquisitor Dial actually "knows" what is going on and why he is planet side. Whilst Inquisitor Tasetus is simply being a pain in the butt because he feels like it, but is behind the eight ball as he doesn't really know the background.

[korocite]

Haha, Dile doesn’t know exactly what is going on either, and his handler not much better! For now, we both know that STC fragments are important but don’t have a context as to how important. This is worth rectifying, even if it is in a fairly loose way.

[BIG]

It’s been too long since I posted. No actual progress to show really. I have allowed myself yet again to become distracted by too many projects all at once so am taking tiny bites out of a lot of things. Not great for updates since I don’t tend to like WIP photos. But does keep things fresh. 

So far I have been working on those little modular cottages. I have added an extra layer of thatching to the roof as it was a little sparse. 
 

I am also well toward getting to the next stage of the Iron Labyrinth terrain I got a heap of last Christmas. I have also prepped 12 large cylinders to act as some serious line of site blocking terrain. I plan to prep it the same as the Iron Labyrinth and pipe network, hammer tone paint and then the rust technique. 
 

I have also managed to put a magnet under the base of almost every model I have to make transportation easier (I made a travel case that has metal trays in it). I am also about 3/4 to varnishing my whole collection for a little better paint protection. 
 

On the painting table I am close to finishing Mortarion for the Death Guard for my mate (that will leave just the Spartan), I have put a hold on the Bull Centaurs as they just aren’t thrilling me. I am halfway into the three k’daai fire born for the Chaos Dwarf army so they shouldn’t take too much longer. 
 

I am sure there are a few things I have forgotten, but I am still chugging along and am actually really enjoying my hobby at the moment so I think that is a positive except for my lack of posting on this blog. 
 

Thanks for reading and hopefully have some photos soon. 

[korocite]

Good to hear that you have been getting some hobby time. I'm impressed that you have magnetised and varnished so many minis. That must have taken some time. 

 

What is the plan for the Iron labyrinth terrain - underground facility for the campaign? 

[BIG]

One of the perks from working from home I guess. Especially with my line of work I have a certain amount of “free” time that I am making use of. 

I have now run out of magnets so need to get some more to finish off the bases. I have the Alpha Legion and Astra Militarum armies to go (as well as 30 Gnoblars for the Ogres). In varnishing needs it’s the same plus the Aeldari army to go.

Yes the iron labyrinth and pipe network will hopefully feature as an underground complex. Should be able to cover a good swath of the board with it all and have it pretty dense. 

 

[BIG]

Right, so it has been some time since I managed to get myself organised enough to post.  Computer issues being one of the biggest problems confronting me.  But I have managed to stabilize rather than fix it for now.  But I have not been idle.  Much work has been undertaken especially towards terrain.  I really think that I am approaching a critical mass of personal terrain and I am hoping by some time next year I will have enough terrain to handle almost any sized table with any theme you could want.  

But lets get into some pictures because that's what we are all here for isn't it?

First up, with the introduction of 9th edition for Warhammer 40k I made the firm resolution that I would not amend my exhaustive lists that are driving my collecting to bring them in line with 9th.  They have been amended as necessary based on the final Chapter Approved values for 8th edition and when I eventually adopt (if ever) a new edition of 40k I will make my armies work as best I can.  To that end a couple of my completed armies are in need of some additions to bring them up to the 2,000 point mark.  Namely this is the Orks (where I will add a 5 man Flash Gitz mob and 3 more Nobz who are currently on my painting table) and my Aeldari army that will have another Warlock (also on my painting table) and a squad of Storm Guardians.

Exactly the same scheme as the rest of the army, did have to convert the Fusion guns.  I also did the same as the other Storm squads and two of the swords are a blue to represent the different weapons (it used to be Power Swords and now I think its chainswords).

This makes the army quite large with 4 Defender squads and 3 Storm squads.  Lots of bodies and it looks pretty good spread out across a battlefield.

An interesting side note is I discovered the Dwarf Artillery army I did was actually short on points somehow.  Not sure if I had intended something previously and forgot or what.  But I was tempted to juggle a few things and force in a Gyrobomber.  But I scrapped that for a number of reasons. 1) I really don't like the newer Gyrocopter/Bomber 2) Was looking to save some money 3) I had this guy kicking around from Mordheim and points wise he fitted perfectly as a Dragon Slayer Hero.......

So let me introduce Barack Barksson, Dragon Slayer.  Currently recuperating at Kark Veng and goes out with the Artillery Train to help out and deal with any horrible gribbly that tries to drop in and threaten the Cannons and hopefully meet a glorious death in the process.

Next up is back to the Chaos Dwarfs.  Sort of.  Here is the first of my K'Daai Fireborn.  Now as I understand it, these are suits of Chaos Dwarf forged armour possessed by fire daemons.  They won't survive the battle ever as they start to take damage from turn 1 so are a real smash something quickly sort of unit.

Here is number 2.  The models are packed with detail, but it is generally all flame and armour plate so I was struggling to add a little bit of interest to the models.  Then it occurred to me that the armour is carved with a lot of tiny little runes and if I could highlight them it may add that little extra point of interest I felt they were missing.  So I ended up going with green as it was quite a contrast to the other colours already used on the models.

The 3rd and final K'Daai.  Probably my favorite pose as it looks threatening.  Plus I like the helmet.

They rank up surprisingly well considering the strange poses they are in.  Although I did keep it in mind when gluing them to their bases.  So the only thing left is to do a movement tray for them, a coat of varnish and some magnets under the bases.

So although my attention has been firmly on building and painting terrain I am still managing to get progress on the armies themselves (even if a fair bit of it has felt like back tracking).

[BIG]

So the next painting update I wanted to share is the next step in getting the Death Guard commission finally finished for my mate.  I have had this guy "almost" finished for an absolute age and I have been putting off trying to finish him.  But I finally summoned the courage and here he is......

Daemon Primarch of the Death Guard, Mortarion.

I pretty much used the same painting formula that I used for the rest of the army so far.

I had no particular reason (or guidance) for the choice of parts to use (you can choose an alternate pose of weapons on this guy).

But overall I am pretty happy with the look and result.

Interesting story though is somehow I lost one of the wings of the orange imp behind Morty.  Not sure what happened, but between a house of dogs, cats, toddlers and a wife that loves the vacuum cleaner I have not managed to find the lost wing.  So after much swearing, cursing and trawling ebay to see if I could find a replacement I cut the surviving wing off and made a quick mould off it and cast a replacement.  I think it just works.

There is a face under all that detail.  I swear.

Really happy how the Scythe turned out.  I did try a bit of verdigris on the metal of Mortarion (not something I have really done on the rest of the army).  Unfortunately I went a little overboard and in particular the brass ended up looking solid green and needed me to repaint it.

The wings actually were something I agonized over and I had the rest of the model complete except the wings and I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do with them.  In the end I went with a green as I didn't want to stray into the white/bone that is often used.  Partly as I don't think my painting skills were up to it and partly it would be the only model in the entire army with those colours.  I think it works though against the olive green of the armour.

A bit of a nod to Typhus I think, but I really like the flies pouring out of the vents.

In true Nurgle fashion the myriad of little Nurglings laughing and capering along make the model really enjoyable and fun to paint.  Probably just as Papa Nurgle planned.  My wife dared me to paint each a different vibrant colour and I accepted her challenge.  I don't think it detracts at all from the Primarch.

So there you go, my progress since my last post.  Haven't got any of the terrain to a finished state yet.  But it has dramatically progressed from where I was.  Hopefully have some more frequent updates soon.

Thanks for reading.

[korocite]

Mortarion looks spectacular! The wings work well - what colours did you use for them? I'm glad you took on the vibrant colour challenge for the nurglings. They are small enough to not over power the drab colours of Mortarion. 

 

I'm impressed with the what you have done with the eldar. I always find it hard to go back to an army I considered finished and add to it.    

[BIG]

Thanks Korocite. Glad to have him out of the way. It’s a bit of a Monkey off the back and hobby time is flowing a little easier than before. 

The wings started life as pallid such flesh base coat with layers of green wash applied with each successive layer trying to leave a patch in the centre of each membrane so it got darker towards the veins. 

Then used the pallid flesh to dry brush around the edges and tears. 

Finally the pustules were painted white and Blood for the Blood God technical paint was applied around the edge. 

The rest of the wing was painted with my usual bone method. 

[BIG]

Just thought I would stop by and touch base with anyone reading.  It's been a while since I updated and I am definitely still plodding along.  I have almost got a heap of the medieval buildings ready for photo updates (yay) and I am also progressing well with the castle.  

I have also begun assembling the Chaos Dwarf Infernal Guard (I need a shot of motivation for the Chaos Dwarfs and decided to assemble the remaining models for the army).  I think assembling models is my second favorite part of the modelling side of the hobby.

Hoping that putting the 36 Infernal Guard with shields and 20 with Fireglaives together will drive me to get interested in painting them again.

Hope to have some photos up soon.

Thanks for reading.

[Krefey]

Looking forward to the pics!

[BIG]

Another delayed update from me which isn't unusual.  But I am still ticking along in the COVID afflicted world.  I do hope anyone out there reading is safe and as well as can be.

I have now been working from home for about three months now and I am thankful my employer is happy with that my productivity and focus on my work is pretty poor in my opinion.

However, I am able to get some decent hobby progress as I am often in the home workshop doing some prototyping which allows me to pop into the hobby side of the shed and do a few odds and ends.

I am really focusing on terrain at the moment as I feel I am reaching a critical mass of terrain.  I still have heaps to do, but I think I am well on my way to not needing or wanting anymore terrain after what I have on the boil at the moment.

But enough chat and on to some pictures. So I have mainly been focusing on the medieval village and I have put the finishing touches on the next two buildings.

Here are my long houses.  They are MDF laser cut buildings that I have done the same texture technique for the white parts as I did on the previous small houses.  Then I did the same thatch roof as well to tie it all together.  The laser cutting was provided by our own Krefey and his Laser Shark Designs.

The cool part of these is the buildings are modular so they can be pulled apart to allow for gaming inside them.

One day I may put some tavern furniture inside if I find some that is cheap and looks good. 

They are both two floors and you can pull the second floor off as well.  It will be a tiny bit odd that they don't have a floor on the ground floor.  But I am not going to lose sleep over it.

For scale you can see a few Ork Nobz wandering around, they are a lot bigger than I had originally thought, which is cool as it will add mass to the village quickly.

I did paint the door larger than what had been etched by the laser and you can see compared to the height of the Orks it was probably the correct decision.

And finally you can see one of the original smaller farmhouses thrown in for reference.  I think they go together well and look like they could be from the same village.  I made a mistake and I didn't notice it until I took this picture that I used a different brown for the timber between the original 4 houses and these two.  But again, I won't lose any sleep over it.

I have almost finished another two of the small houses (which will bring the total to 6 small houses).  The plan is also for a really large hunting lodge from Laser Shark Design, but with the issues Krefey is having with the laser it is still up in the air if I will add it to the village.  If it does come through I was wondering if I should try to do a slate roof rather than the thatching to give it the feel that its the nobles residence rather than that of the commoners?

I am hoping next up will be the castle walls for the village as I am keeping them pretty simple and depending on the pieces to wow an onlooker rather than a detailed paint job. I hope. Time will tell.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think.