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

ChrisP's Orks - February - Leader Month

 This month I've painted my warboss, and also a little diorama.

 

 

 

 Like I hoped, Thrugg Bullneck works well in Evil Sunz colours.

This diorama is my attempt to re-create this classic artwork:

 Of course, it's not a one-to-one copy of the art, but I think I captured the spirit of it. I used a modern Horus Heresy marine because it's so large, making it easy to arrange all 3 orks around him. The orks were bashed together out of all kinds of bitz, from plastic zombies to chaos warriors. And yes, that's a marine shoulderpad on the screaming ork's head. For the colour scheme, I wanted something grimy and earthy to contrast with the marine, so I chose a "pre-clan" paint scheme for the orks. This was inspired by another artwork, the cover of the classic supplement 'Ere We Go.

Byron's Invasion of Ulthuan - foraging mission (395 pts)

An army marches on its stomach. And, goblin stomachs are often full of mushroom. 

While waiting to hear back from his scouts, Grom turned to the next important business for his army, Food. Nearly all of the food packed onto the rafts had been eaten during the voyage or was already spoiled. The goblins were hungry and needed grub in their bellies before they turned on each other. 

Night goblins shamans are skilled connoisseurs of mushrooms; it is a key ingredient in their spells and nogs. So, Grom sent Madlum the Shaman in charge of a foraging mission to find Mushrooms. 

Cimrond Joyriver greets the morning with a White Lion stretch,
while the brothers Kurwyn and Dolryll share their latest groovy jam.

Madlum, was smart enough to know that he didn't know where to find mushrooms on Ulthuan. But, he was also keen enough to know what kind of elf would. Those kind of elves always made themselves known by their particular kind of music and their proclivities toward stretching on rugs and breathing funny for a long time. As silly as they were to him, Madlum knew their mushrooms made the best ingredients for his magic and to get his fanatic friends all worked up. 

Kalerond lightstoned, standing wide in mountain pose,
tells of his recent retreat at Tor Elyr

Just as Madlum had told them, the elves made themselves known. Grobbit and Gribbit spotted the unwary elves from their vantage point in the underbrush. 

Grobbit peaks over the underbrush

Grobbit spies on the elves while formulating a plan with Gribbit. 

Teamwork makes the dream work - at least so says Grobbit.

Grobbit and Gribbit lower down a bit and wait for their buddies to spring the trap - with the say so of Madlum, that is. 

The attack is begun! Grobbit and Gribbit prod their squigs out of the bushes toward the elves. 

Eadrihyr Joykeeper grabs the reins of Shadowprancer
but the horse is startled by the unfamiliar monsters approaching

One of the elves tries to mount up and escape to raise the alarm, but he is caught by a second group of goblins that emerges from the bushes poking squigs toward the elves. 

Madlum is gleeful. These elves will undoubtedly know where to find the mushrooms he needs. If not they can make a good stew for Grom and the others. 

Now for pics of the minis:

The new lot all together.

Goblin Fanatics (30 pts each). The fanatic on the right is a converted Bequest goblin.

Madlum, Goblin Shaman Champion (83 pts). Madlum is a harlequin goblin sculpted by Kev Adams.

Squig Hunter Teams (8 pts each). The herder team on the left is another bequest miniature, but their pitch fork was swapped with one of the other hunter teams. The bequest team is giving "Goblin Gothic" vibes. 

Squigs (20 pts each). Mostly bequest miniatures, except for the dragon squig in the back. The Squigs are mostly good sculpts, but many of the other bequest sculpts have very soft details. 

Total: 395 points.

Finally, pics of my progress toward covering the entire shelf. Despite easily meeting the 200 point goal, and the minimum threshold for a rank and file month, I did not get close to my goals for February. 

My goal for March is to focus on models with bigger bases in hopes that it will close the gap. Lots of trolls, wolf riders and chariots are lined up for March. 

JohnR's Month 2 - Rank and File (195 points)

God I hate February - might just mulligan it next year 😜

Did get my painting quota done though :)

 Mutant Space Pirates!

These are more BigMrTong minis and were great fun to paint. I used a similar palette to January's space pirates to give the force so far a cohesive look.

 

 Mutant Troopers - armed with lasguns.

 Special Weapon Mutants - 3 boltguns and a lascannon.

 

Mutant Champions - lead by the Hero 'Butterbean'

Points:

Mutant Minor Hero - Plasma Pistol, Power Sword, Refractor Field = 49 points

Mutant Champion - Mesh Armour, hand weapon, Laspistol, Frag and Krak Grenades = 17.5 points

Mutant Champion  - Refractor Field, Laspistol and Hand Weapon = 16 points

9 Mutants - Mesh Armour, 5 Lasguns, 3 Bolt Pistols, 1 Lascannon = 112.5 points

Initially I was going to list all the mutations but they don't count for points values and are pretty obvious on the minis.

 

Finally I have my offering for this year - a Skaven plague monk - Squeeg Pussboil.

 

I always do Goblin Green bases on my WFB minis but for a change I experimented with a non-goblin green base. I don't like it and will never do it again 😅

 

That's all for this month - see you all in 5 weeks time !