The Relief of Plavigorica - Mark's Araby Contingent - February Rank & File Month 2

 A hard coming we had of it. For twenty days, we trekked north across the Badlands, finding water where we could; our astronomers guiding us by night.  On the ninth day, a great scorpion rose from the  scrub before our caravan, standing higher than a man. Emir Suleiman himself slew it with his scimitar.  In the days after, six of our brothers fell to the crude arrows of the Chomped Lug'ole goblins, whose wolf riders clashed incessantly with our brave vanguard.  We buried our martyrs before the sundown in accordance with our customs.  

We were not rid of the greenskin dogs until we crossed a great ravine and the first fast running water we had seen since Al-waha al-kubra.  Now the air is cooling and the grass thickening.  We press on to the Border Princes. It is our ardent hope that we reach Plavigorica and break the siege lines of the hated Skaven before it is too late.  This is our pledge. We cannot return to Araby before it is fulfilled. 

This month I've been painting a bow unit, the Rumah-Al-Sahra or "desert archers". These are converted 1996 Bretonnian plastic longbowmen.  The standard bearer (also plastic) is from the Perry's Mahdist war range, while the commander and musician are metal Gripping Beast Moors. 

The banner is supposed to read: "Arrows of the Wind". I replaced the standard bearer's straight sword with a Skeleton Horde scimitar, aiming to make him a little less historical and more fantastical.

Infidel origins - those crenulated hoods were tricky!

Front rank

Rear rank

  Baggy trousers and curves to the knives were the main additions.

In each unit, there's a little orange for Dundee United FC, known as "the Arabs" for their sandy pitch (sports field).

                                      

 

The Contingent so far:

January - Arabyan Guard with spears, shields, and a hashishin 165 pts link

February:

• 9 Desert Archers with standard and musician: 77 pts
• Level 5 commander with light armour and bow: 33pts

     ----

See you in March. More light, more days, what could go wrong?

Tom's Goblins and Orcs: Rank and File #2

This month, February, shalt be the month of the wolf...  As with war machines, I really struggle with anything calvary-like, so it's a massive relief to have these done! 

I think it's because I'm never quite comfortable with painting them all glued together, so I have to paint them in two parts, wolf and rider. Which I don't like 😂

Annnnyway...

This wolf has got a bit of blood on him. What a good boy.

The shield design is just some thing super simple. Channelling that rosengarten_paints_black - instagram - energy, (although to a much less accomplished state!)

On the same  tip, I gave the wolves pupils. I'd usually go for just red, buuuut...

And here's all five of them together. 

Please excuse the dark pic. Bit of a last minute photoshoot!

Flushed with success I moved straight onto the orc chariot. Best get it out the way whilst motivation strikes!  It came in its original hardshell blister - a lovely swap with highland_painting (instagram) for some earlier era orcs 🙂

Here's the two crew.

And I pinned the front bit that saddles the wolves onto the chariot, and then pinned the wheels into the base.

And here it is! The boys are a bit side on, it's super cramped in that chariot!

Getting da bossez shield to fit was a pain too! It's why I chose the smallest on I could 🙂

Of course they've nailed a falcon or other bird of prey to it. Probably to taunt the hated elf.

If you look super closely you can see the pin poking out of the bottom of the chariot, from the orcs foot!

Hopefully the last thing you see after encountering da rampaging boyz!

And the shot of them all together agin :)

Here's the links back through the challenge:

Intro: link

January - rank and file: link

February - rank and file

45....   5 x wolf riders

81....   1 x orc chariot

Total: 130 points

See you next month for more rank and file!

A game of Warhammer Quest with the boy

Sybou's chaos dwarf_Rank and files_february_Owac IX

 Hello,

even if February is the smallest month, even if you plan to paint few miniatures we're all still in a rush to finish what we planned.

For February, I planned to paint some shooters:

Your classic crossbow guys for shooting support

These guys are from the citadel range, one of them is from the first chaos dwarf, one of the first shooter for chaos dwarf.

An other angle

When you build them, you got to be careful for the crossbow, they can be big and can give you difficulties to rank them properly.

The swivel gun

So when i build it, I wasn't really knowing what was a swivel gun and treat it more like a rocket thrower. So I added various rocket on the base.

 

An other angle

The crew

For the crew, as there are not much chaos dwarves crewmen, I added various goblinoids. It makes just some slaves that will help for the loading of the warmachines.

That's it for the month of February, I was willing to add the bazooka but I wasn't fast enough. It will be painted for March.

Here is the photo of February:

Thank you for reading me.

Cheers!                                                                                                                    Sybou

Ben D’s Skellibobs - Febru-Terri-Fying

Weather: Thawing

Mood: Frazzled

Music: Nine Inch Nails

With February done and dusted (we’re getting this one in under the wire folks,) I can safely say that we’ve cleared the ten models a month requirement for the challenge. I counted them all myself. 10. Ten skellingtons, or 100 boney toes. 

Hey, come on out, the rest of you! You’re making me look bad!

That’s more like it. Thank you kindly. 

This Month’s Total

+10 Skellibobs

100pts

I said most of what there is to say about their coloration last month, so in lieu of that, why don’t you look at this instead?

I enlisted my partner to help me construct some of these Halfling villas I’d gotten from TT Combat, to create some fresh set dressing for my future gnome vs gnome action. Since the undead gnome army is likely taken from the alpine gnome graves, I figured it only fit that they’d come back to haunt their descendants. This is my first time working with MDF board, and while it’s not my favorite, I have to admit that they fill a space quite well.

Their stacking capabilities are… poor, but workable. Hopefully they don’t quit their day jobs.

And then here we are, eyeing up all the models done to date. Twenty Skellibobs makes quite a handsome block of halberdiers, don’t you think? I’ve managed to misplace the tufts I was using for this army, so there’s a finishing touch left undone, but they’re otherwise ready for the table. All else that’s missing is some necromancer to raise them!

Total Points

 220/2003

It occurs to me that I’ve forgotten to pick minis to be Wights for these huge blocks. While this might have been a quieter post than most, I now have a new sidequest to add to the other surprises I’m planning for the next four months. Thanks for the attention ghosts and ghouls, and have a safe start to your March.

+++++

Next Month’s Preview:

🎩🐑💀🧠

Jaakko and Rugluk - Rank & File month #2

Night lay heavy over the valley. Trolls snored. Snotlings squeaked.

Rugluk squatted by the fire, gnawing a bone, when the flames twisted unnaturally. Smoke coiled, shadows stretched… and a towering figure emerged: Rugluk’s father, battle-scarred and ghostly, eyes blazing like forge fire.

“Rugluk,” the ghost’s voice rumbled, echoing across the valley. “Da path ya walk… leads only to ruin.”

Rugluk froze. “Father?”

“Da ambition in yer heart… it will devour ya if ya walk blind,” the ghost hissed. “Yer boyz, yer trolls, yer snotlings… chaos follows every step. Watch it. Trust none. Not even yerself.”

Rugluk tightened his grip on the bone. “So… what should I do?”

“Do?” the ghost spat. “Remember da blood ya spilled, da tribes ya crushed… and know… every choice… feeds da fire dat eats ya.”

A snotling peeked from a bush. The ghost’s eyes flared. The snotling squealed and ran.

The ghost drifted higher, silent now, its eyes burning like dying embers.

Rugluk’s gaze fixed to the ghost’s fading figure. “Dat made no sense... but I fink dis ain’t done. Dis ain’t over.”

Somewhere, a distant howl cut through the valley.

The ghost was gone. Only the fire and the whispering wind remained… and the uneasy knowledge that destiny had just spoken.

Here we are again! I had a lot of time at the beginning of this month and decided to start working on one of the largest units in the army. I ran into some unexpected trouble during the month, including a thumb wound that kept me away from the painting table for a while, and ended up ten models short of completing the full unit. The silver lining is that I have ten nearly finished models on the table, promising an easy month to come. But no more rambling-here are the models!

I managed to paint a unit of 20 Savage Orcs. They were pretty quick to paint, as many of them are equipped with just a loincloth and a blade. I loved all the sculpts and really enjoyed painting them.

I see the Savage Orcs as an orky version of the Dwarf Troll Slayers. That's why I wanted to take something from the dwarven death cult and turn it around, and decided that this tribe bleaches its hair. The original concept also included white body paint (ash?). I didn’t have time to experiment with it, so I skipped that part. I also have a unit of Savage Arrers, and might try the body paint idea on them though.

Da Boss

The month in points:

On the green skin

I’ve been painting models for Heavy Metal Hordes for their upcoming Kickstarter project as a side quest. They asked me for pictures and some explanations for a painting guide. I’ve also received some enquiries about the orc skin recipe I use, so I thought I’d share the pictures with you along with a few words about the skin painting process.

Start with a base colour of Elysian Green. Then apply a wash of watered-down Druchii Violet with a dash of Agrax Earthshade in it. Add small amounts of Druchii Violet to selected areas, like the eye sockets, between fingers, etc., for a more dramatic effect if needed. Highlight with Elysian Green, and add Ogryn Camo to selected parts of the skin on the face. Knuckles, knees, and elbows get Ogryn Camo with dots of Kislev Flesh.

And that’s it for February! Next month, I’ll paint a few more Savage Orcs, but I’ll try not to stop there. That might mean something a bit darker, something much bigger, or maybe some fast-attack choices.

See you later!

Waill and Roll's whole lotta little bugs (1083pts)

 It's 6mm Warhammer 40,000, NOT Epic 40k!

>Astropathic comunication detected
>Translating
>Translating
>Translating
>Ordo Xenos report
>Tyranid Bioform codename Exocrine
>Threat level attached
>High Priority
>Emperor save you.

Well... Only hours after my last post was published I discovered a very ancient document. These incredibly low resulution images are my only evidence of rules, for 2nd edition, for the Exocrine I painted last month. This shred of paper would have been packed with the 28mm version from Armorcast Miniatures and while it is pixalated beyond all use, we can at least see that the beast was 165 points.

It's not pretty to look at, but there it is.

So, that out of the way, what's new this month?

1 Hive Tyrant with Venom Cannon, Bonesword and Lashwhip 219 points,
3 Custom Ripper Swarms 60 points,
10 Hormagants 80 points,
10 Gargoyles 160 points,
1 Trygon N/A points
1 Harridan N/A points
Total points this month = 519 points

Which, added to last months beasties brings us to a tatal of 1083 points

That's the bulk of my smaller bugs painted (excluding some Genestealers) so the coming months will shift focus to bigger monsters, titans and perhaps some terrain. Hitting 1000 points is quite a landmark so I shall also spend a portion of March on a Battle Report for my next post.

Taking a closer look at this months additions, I started with another Hive Tyrant and three more bases of Rippers.

I've always love Hormagants, I remember the old metal ones appearing in my first issue of White Dwarf as a kid and have loved every iteration of the kit that has followed. These Epic scale Hormagants are pretty big and in my opinion out of scale, but they ceirtanly have a charm. The Gaunts are followed by a Trygon, there are no rules for this one in 2e so it's just here for moral (Synapse?) support.

Last of the new additions are the air wing of this force. Ten Gargoyles and a Harridan Bio Titan.

And here's the family so far. It's looking like quite a lot of bodies, there's a lot more to come.

Adrian February rank and file: Linden Way militia and dwarf engineers (192 points)

Rank & File month #2

Linden Way is a small frontier settlement and trading post that has grown around a garrison posted to watch the crossroads. However, the garrison moved South to defend Ortar from the goblin hordes. The small militia formed when the orc horde was spotted moving towards Meledir.

While the menace seems overwhelming, they shall not fallback, as they must buy time to organize the defences of Meledir. The fate of their families is at their hands.

A fun collection of militias that I have been collecting for years. This batch are made of Perry Miniatures, Midlam Miniatures and Armalion/Ral Partha armed peasants.

Yeah, I know, if I wanted to recreate exactly the two peasant ilustrations from the campaign book there were two citadel peasants exactly like those. But... I'm not expending silly money in this project and I do not have in mind complete a Citadel villager collections.

I've seen the one with the hay pointing with the fork at Nuln spearman level price and it's completely absurd. I'm happy with my fellow peasants here.

I went for a colorfull display of villager clothes, with mix of greens, browns and pastel colours. They will be complemented in the future with a small set of city guards to represent the militiamen with slightly better weapons and the bows.

I would have loved to include the Linden Way militia standard. However, I couldn't get the lot I've in mind from the old Citadel mercenaries, still in production by Foundry ex-citadel.

This month couldn't be complete without a bunch of the dwarf engineers from Ashak Rise. They're the old citadel engineers, and they all are lovely miniatures. I'd recommend that anyone that love dwarfs have a set of these fellas because they're a joy to paint and blend perfectly with all the editions.

In terms of points.
13 human militiamen: 117 points
5 dwarf engineers: 75 points
Gives a total of 192 points, 18 miniatures.

Next month I'll be in a work trip so expect that it is more light in terms of miniatures but I will try to get the terrain done as part of my Wildcard. Fortunately, the package I was expecting arrived and with that, all the remaining villagers for Linden Way. And of course, the tribute to our beloved Overlord.

Until then,
Adrian’s out