The Space Hulk Librarian is complete!

Since the Black Templars don't employ the use of psychics, it would not have been appropriate to model a Black Templars Librarian. I still wanted the model to relate to my marines, so I settled on their father chapter, the Imperial Fists. (Both the Black Templars and the Crimson Fists are second foundings, descended from the Imperial Fists.) I figured the Templars might work in tandem with an Imperial Fist Librarian at the behest of the Emperor.

The model itself didn't require much in the way of conversion sculpting. There was a surprising lack of Blood Angels embellishments, and the right shoulder pad was completely blank. Perfect for sculpting an Imperial Fists icon! The rest of the sculpting went into touch-up work where the detail on the plastic kit had been smoothed out to avoid undercuts in the mold. There was no need to put him on a round 40mm base as he wouldn't see action in my 40K Templars army; I simply used some styrene card to patch up the gap in the back of the base and cover the Blood Angels icon.

The Imperial Fists chapter colors gave me the chance to paint something outside of my regular pallet range of blue-grey, black, brown, bone, and red. I dig painting yellow armor (at least, I always think I do until I actually start painting it). Black lining is an exercise in tedium, but the end result is so striking that I can't help myself. Thanks to everyone who offered tips on my Facebook page; I'll experiment with some of those techniques and see if I can save some time (and eye strain) on the next one.

This is not my first Imperial Fist model, though. Waaay back in the day, I painted this guy for Games Workshop. I used mostly the same techniques– A light undercoat, yellow, and a bit of orange for the wash; then meticulous black lining and a white highlight line, with light yellow over that for the brightest highlights possible.

It was based on Games Workshop's image of this Pre-Heresy Imperial Fist. I recreated it down to the last rivet, using styrene card for the extra armor plates and crenelations on the shoulder pads. The elbow and knee pads were cut to match the shape, and the head and feet were taken from older, metal models to match the helmet style and the crenelation pattern on the feet.

The model appeared in White Dwarf #300 as part of this spread of Pre-Heresy marine chapters. Looking through the magazine brings back fond memories of the good old days at the Glen Burnie headquarters.

On a funny note– While looking for that image of the Pre-Heresy marine, I stumbled across my model from the White Dwarf photo on someone's Deviant Art site. The person was claiming to have modeled and painted it himself. I say that it's funny because he was using the same clipped model asset from the magazine (you know, the photo that used to my name right next to it?) and the quality of his other models by comparison was, shall we say... lacking. It was an older post from about 5 years ago, and (other than my comments calling him out on his thievery) there didn't seem to be any recent activity on his page. Still, there's no expiration date on being an ass-hat.

Here are some more shots of the Librarian. One image with detail insets for the gallery, and the full shot from which each detail pic was pulled. Even though Librarians typically wear blue armor as the symbol of their office, I really wanted to paint this model with yellow armor to make him stand out. The blue is represented on his shoulder pad.

And with that, the Space Hulk Terminator challenge is complete! 12 marines in 12 months, converted from Blood Angels into my army's chapter. I made an effort to replace every detail removed with an equal embellishment across the entire line. All the bases are magnetized so I can use them in my 40K army and swap them onto squares for use in the Space Hulk game.

I keep toying with the idea of making a 30K Pre-Heresy army. It would obviously be the Imperial Fists– the Pre-Heresy version of the Black Templars. The Betrayal at Calth board game has a nice selection of Pre-Heresy marines, but I already have two sets of Dark Vengeance marines (with all those Terminators!) so I can't really justify buying more, especially considering how rarely I get to play these days. We'll see what the future (or rather the past?) holds.

'Til next time!

If any of you remember my Shelf of Shame post from 2014, you'll know how long this thing has been kicking around. Part of the delay in finishing it was work and other, tastier projects that kept popping up. Then I went on a big Skaven push while my buddies and I were involved in our Warhammer campaign. Mainly I just didn't want to basecoat, wash, blend, re-wash, and highlight all of that rotting flesh on the corpse pile.

I don't even remember when I actually started this model. I think I assembled it when I was still in Seattle. The cart sat in that stage for at least four years, but it's finally finished. The model was converted from the "stock" cart with the wooden cage frame. This one has been adorned with Chaos spikes and the cage was replaced with a spiky fender around the wheels. The cart is also festooned with carrion birds. The largest of which are from the old Nurgle Chaos Lord's sign post. This is why I couldn't find more crows for my cornfield and there's only one lonely bird on the scarecrow; the rest are all on this rolling buffet table!

The front of the cart has also been modified with the body from the Corpsemaster's spear. The corpse has been impaled on a spike and is being pecked at by a crow.

Now I have two of these bad boys to roll into battle. The flaming skulls (representing the Balefire upgrade) are pegged in place. I'll eventually make a pair of bells so I can replace the Balefire with the Unholy Lodestone upgrade. I had left the Corpsemasters off of them because I was intending to keep the rider separate to distinguish whether or not the cart was being used as a mount for a Necromancer, but I'll likely paint them up at some point and pin them onto the corpse piles. Each cart should still have its own driver, even if it's not a Necromancer, per se. (In Age of Sigmar there's no longer the option to put a Necromancer on a Corpse Cart.)

I wonder if GW is ever going to get around to making a new zombie kit, one with proportions that more closely match the zombies on the cart. They are officially the oldest plastic kit in the Vampire Counts range, going on 17 years now. (Ha, look at me, talking about Warhammer like it's still a thing!)

With the completion of this cart, there are only four unfinished projects from my undead Shelf of Shame:

The Hellsteed– This model just needs a paint job and a rider. But unfortunately, Hellsteeds aren't an available option in the Age of Sigmar Vampire Count warscrolls. Even under the substitute warscrolls, it doesn't acknowledge the Vampire on Hellsteed, probably because they never made a Hellsteed model. I suppose it could pass as a vampire with wings and a hellsteed, but I'm pretty sure that's an "either / or" situation. I'll figure it out once GW releases an Age of Sigmar FAQ. (I was almost able to finish typing that sentence with a straight face!) I'm still building my Vampire Counts force with 8th Edition Warhammer sensibilities, so maybe I'll get around to finishing this, but the enthusiasm is gone, so probably not.

Vampire Battle Standard Bearer– As I mentioned in the Shelf of Shame post, I need more loose bats to put on his cloak. But, like the Hellsteed, there's no option for a vampire to carry an army standard in Age of Sigmar. I'd be fine using this model to represent a wight king with an Infernal Standard, but I already have a wight with an Infernal Standard. The whole point of making the vampire was that there used to be different rules for the two different character types. So, I don't know where this guy is headed. He's not past the point of no return, so I could replace the banner arm with something else. I'm already considering replacing the sword with a smaller, more vampire-y version and shortening that armbecause it sticks out much too far.Either way, this model is too nice to not use for something.

Mounted Battle Flag– This guy, on the other hand is definitely getting finished. He just needs paint and the banner.

The Winged Ghouls– Ugh, these things. I'm not sure I have the motivation (or the time) to work on a major sculpting conversion theme across an entire unit of 40 infantry. Back in the parts bin!

First in the pipe, though, are the new Spirit Hosts. Once I nail down the ethereal effect, I'll be able to move on to the Mortis Engine, and then some of those Morghasts that I hear all the kids are crazy about.

'Til next time!

The Vampire Counts range contains a lot of ethereal models– banshees, spirit hosts, the mortis engine, and hexwraiths. I've been sitting on these models because I was never quite sure how I wanted them to look. In the past, my banshees and spirit hosts were simply drybrushed with grey and white but the new, ubiquitous blue-green hue of ethereal models has started to grow on me.

I had painted a bunch of banshees during the End Times campaign, but I was never happy with the result. I attempted a subtle wash over some white primer. They were fine to get some models on the table but the color wasn't quite what I was looking for.

During my recent Skaven blitz, I had painted the smokey plumes from the plague censors with an effective technique using only a few green washes over a white primer coat. I was able to dial in my wash technique and get a really nice transition between the white smoke and green glow of the warpstone.

After digging around online, I found some techniques and colors that worked pretty well, and decided to have another go at it on my newly assembled spirit hosts. The idea was to come up with a formulaic process that could be easily replicated when I get to my other models like the mortis engine.

Painting Ethereal Spirits

For this technique, I am using some of the Citadel shades and technical paints. They are simultaneously the greatest things and the worst things in the world. On the one hand, they result in really smooth shadows and glazes. On the other hand there is only one way to use them, and deviating from using it straight out of the pot can lead to terrible results. GW Lahmian Medium, at least, allows you to thin them, but adding any water ruins the properties of the shade. You also need to cover the entire area in one go, without portions of the shade drying because, once it begins to dry, painting more over top before the coat is completely dry will cause it to peel and flake, leaving deposits, lines, and "crumbs" on your otherwise smoothly shaded miniature.

Supplies

I picked up a pack of large brushes to use for the washes and drybrushing. A fine brush was also used for the details. The list of paints I used are as follows:

GW Citadel Paints

Lahmian Medium

Nihilakh Oxide

Coelia Greenshade

Dryad Bark

XV-88 (brown)

Screaming Skull

Formula P3 Paints

Thrall Flesh

Cryx Bane Highlight

Gnarls Green

Menoth White Highlight

Gun Corps Brown

Cold Steel

Quick Silver

Other Paints

Black

White

Liquitex Transparent Burnt Umber Ink (Brown Ink)

Vallejo Game Color Ghost Grey

Model Master Medium Green

Testors Dull Cote

Model Master Navy Aggressor Grey (spray)

Assembly and Priming

When assembling the spirits, I was meticulous in cleaning the mold lines. Not that the lines were excessive, I merely wanted to ensure that there wouldn't be any seams that might capture the wash and be made more prominent. Each base has three spirits that fit together into a swirl of ghosts. I assembled and primed each one separately to ensure proper coverage in the recesses.

I stuck some double-sided tape over the attachment points so I wouldn't need to scrape the primer away before gluing the plastic together.

After spraying the models with white primer, I removed the tape and completed the assembly of all of the spirits hosts. I attached them to their bases, making sure they could rank up cleanly.

Each host base was then attached to a priming stick for the next spray step.

The models were given an all-over spray of Testors Model Masters Navy Aggressor Grey, and then a top spray of white primer.

Painting

The first step is to give the spirits an all-over wash. I find that Nihilakh Oxide is a little too blue, so I added some Thrall Flesh to give a more green hue. The ratio is a little difficult to gauge because I mixed a large batch. I poured a fair amount of Lahmian Medium into a cup and then added a few brushfuls of Nihilax to bring the color up. Then, I added a couple drops of Thrall Flesh. In these shots, you can see the color before and after I added the Thrall Flesh.

Then the wash was painted over the entire spirit with a large brush, taking care to cover as much as possible in a single pass so I wouldn't get lines at the edges of the wash where it may have dried.

Once the wash was completely dry, I mixed up a batch of Nihilakh Oxide, Thrall Flesh, and Ghost Grey, and drybrushed this over the model. The intention of this drybrush was to bring the color back up on the raised areas and eliminate any points where the wash may have pooled outside of the recesses. I kept the brush very dry to avoid any brush streaks.

Next, I used more of the first wash and a fine brush to paint it into some of the recesses. These were recesses that I wanted to darken a little more, or that may have filled in from the drybrushing. I also painted it more heavily on the undersides of the spirits and on their hands to shade the gaps between their fingers.

I wanted the bottoms of the spirits to be darker, so I mixed another wash of Lahmian Medium, Coelia Greenshade, and Cryx Bane Highlight. The ratio was about three parts Medium to one part Greenshade, and one part Cryx Bane Highlight to add a little grey into the green. This wash was painted heavily on the bottom of the "tails" of the spirits, and a little thinner as it blended up toward the body.

After the wash was completely dry, I mixed another wash of equal parts Lahmian Medium and Coelia Greenshade and painted this over the lower areas of the spirit to add a darker green shade in the recesses.

The next stage was to smooth over the mid tones and fix any places where the washes were patchy. To do this, I used the colors from above in various combinations to match the mid tones and build highlights. There were three main steps:

First was to match the mid tone using Nihilakh Oxide, Thrall Flesh, and a little Coelia Greenshade to keep it from getting too bright. This was used to blend the middle area where the green transitions from light to dark.

Then I started to build up the highlights using Nihilakh, Thrall Flesh, and a little Ghost Grey.

More Ghost grey was then added into the mix to brighten the highlights.

Finally, I mixed equal parts Ghost Grey and White and painted the brightest highlights on the head tails, faces, and arms. With that, the ethereal portion of the model was finished.

The weapons needed to be picked out with metal, so I base coated them with Cold Steel and then washed them with the following mix: Three parts Coelia Greenshade to one part each of Lahmian Medium, Nihilakh Oxide, and Thrall Flesh. I also used the wash to shade the fingers gripping the knives.

Once the wash had dried, I touched up the fingers with Ghost Grey.

Basing

Normally I add the basing elements during the assembly process but, because the models were primed white, I wanted to tackle the tombstones separately and rely on the natural brown of the ballast as much as possible to minimize any potential splatter onto the nice, clean spirits while painting those elements.

The Tombstones were all affixed to a stick with double-sided tape.

They were primed black and drybrushed with successively lighter layers of grey, mixed using black and white with a little Screaming Skull.

The bases were painted with Dryad Bark and the skeletons with XV-88.

Then, the skeletons (and the skulls with the tombstones) were drybrushed with Screaming Skull, then washed with a mix of Brown Ink, XV-88, and a touch of Lahmian Medium. Once this was dry, a much drier brushing of Screaming Skull and then Screaming Skull with a little Menoth White Highlight was applied.

I touched up the ethereal wisps around the skeleton with a mix of Coelia Greenshade, Nihilakh Oxide, and touches of Thrall Flesh, and Cryx Bane Highlight. I found that adding a little Gnarls Green into the mix allowed me to increase the opacity while matching the color. This was thinned a little with water and glazed over the chest, shoulders, and around the skull. Finally, more Thrall Flesh was added to the mix to punch up the highlights on the tendrils.

I super glued the tombstones on the base and then used white glue to add the ballast.

Once the glue had dried, I painted the sand with Brown Ink to darken it just a bit, then drybrushed up with XV-88, Gun Corps Brown, and Bleached Bone.

The Edges were painted with Model Master Medium Green and then the whole model was sprayed with Testors Dull Cote.

The final touch was to add static grass and paint Quick Silver on the edges of the knives (I saved this step for after the Dull Cote so the metallic paint wouldn't be matted by the Dull Cote).

The Finished Spirit Hosts:

'Til next time!

What a lousy year.

Looking back at my blog posts from the past year, there was a lot of substantial content. Not as much scenery as I would have liked, but some pretty decent modeling projects and tutorials.

In the real world however, things were substantially more dire. John Stewart and Steven Colbert leaving Comedy Central; the loss of celebrity icons like Leonard Nimoy, Wes Craven, Yvonne Craig, Christopher Lee, Motorhead's Lemmy Kilmister; all the lives lost in the terrorist attacks... On the bright side, the US Republican candidates all seem determined to escalate to World War III, so I guess we'll have that to look forward to.

On the tabletop wargaming front, we got to witness the death of Warhammer as we knew it (and along with it, some pretty entertaining wargaming podcasts). I feel like the gaming community is still deciding where the fate of fantasy wargaming will fall– Age of Sigmar, 8th Edition, the 9th Age, Kings of War, something else perhaps?

Speaking from my own experience, my gaming group's hobby mojo was stagnated. One local shop had some Age of Sigmar preorders, but the Fantasy game night is dead and they are liquidating their Fantasy inventory. Another shop that I don't get to often enough seems to be switching to Kings of War, but I don't know if Age of Sigmar is altogether dead there. Some Warhammer podcasts are embracing Age of Sigmar, while others have ended, but I don't know of any NEW podcasts that started up since Age of Sigmar began. So, all in all, I can't really say whether Age of Sigmar is a success or not. I think (as I had predicted) it is likely a wash.

The Final Campaign Update

Our Campaign has officially crapped out. The last update was in September of 2014, but we've been trying to maintain progress. It's been slow going, to say the least, and I think we're finally at the point where we should just call it quits.

Our Players

Justin Cunnane: Chixl's Warhost (Lizardmen)

Jason Pierson: Waaagh Blackfang (Orcs & Goblins)

Rob Hawkins: Skryre Lord Skreekits' Lightning Engineer Cult (Skaven)

Turn 13

The Skaven besieged the city of Malko (territory 64) in an effort to wrest control from the Orcs. It was a massacre, the Skaven were unable to take the city and their banner was Scattered.

The Skaven banner attacking territory 74 suffered horrible losses was also Scattered. Against the Lizardmen in territory 12, the Skaven sufferen only a minor loss– A difference of less than 300 victory points would have been a draw; Justin won by 396 points, so my army retreated back to the tower of Tor Anrok.

Turn 14

All-out war erupts across the Skaven and Orc front... But no one has any time to play.

In territory 75, the Skaven massacre the Orcs. Jay had been consistently taking a gigantic block of 70 Orc Boyz, a medium sized regiment of Black Orcs and a medium sized regiment of Savage Orcs. I managed to break the large block of Orc Boyz and inflict approximately half casualties on the other two units using the Plague spell and the new Stormfields' rattling cannons.

When I faced Jay again in territory 76, the battle was much closer. He deployed his Orcs in a semicircle around his Rock Lobbas in an effort to prevent me from attacking them with my infiltrating Gutter Runners. The Rock Lobbas killed my Screaming Bell on turn two. Then the Stormfiends tunneled up and shot up the Black Orcs, wiping them out over the course of a few turns. and over a few turns. Jay's Rock Lobbas scored 2 hits on the Stormfiends, but only inflicted 1 wound each time, which wasn't enough to kill even a single model. The Gutter Runners infiltrated turn on turn two, and by turn four had eliminated two of Jay's Rock Lobbas.

I had eight Warlock Engineers as chaff, and they were able to hold up the large Orc Boy unit and prevent them from getting too close. Jay tried to use the Hand of Gork spell to get them into position, but the unit was just too large to effectively position.

The Grey Seer, having survived the destruction of the Screaming Bell, moved over to my Skavenslaves and continued slinging spells like Plague. He scored a solid hit on the Savage Orcs and then it spread to the Orc Boys. The Savage orcs charged my Stormvermin, but my assassin failed to kill Jay's warboss, and the unit broke. The Stormfiends then shot them to pieces. The battle lost, the Orcs retreated to territory 79.

That's where we called the campaign. In the final standings, Jay's Orcs have the clear advantage with my Skaven coming in a close second. Justin's Lizardmen are third, with Josh's Ogres, Lou's Dark Elves, and Steve's Empire all eliminated respectively.

In retrospect, perhaps a good idea for future map-based campaigns would be to end the campaign once half of the players have been eliminated, rather than letting it limp along with only a couple remaining players who find themselves battling each other four or five times per turn. It also gives a bit of power to the the players who are in the middle of the pack, allowing them to play "kingmaker," so to speak. As the bottom tier is eliminated and the top tier scoops up large swathes of territory, a mid-tier player can strategically eliminate himself when one of his allies is on top.

In our case, that would mean that after Steve and Lou were eliminated, Josh or Justin could have dropped out, bringing the player eliminations to the halfway mark and ending the campaign, giving the victory to myself or Jay, depending on who was on top at the moment.

I think we were all getting fatigued with the campaign though, and then the End Times and end of Warhammer as we know it just killed any drive to do, well... anything for the hobby.

The Future of Warhammer

I've finished all of my outstanding Skaven modeling projects, so my attention has turned back to my Vampire Counts. Not sure where I'll land on the Warhammer front. The guys have been mostly against Age of Sigmar. I have yet to play a game using any of the army building comp packs. Hopefully those will allow for some balanced army machups. I've only got three Age of Sigmar games under my belt so far and, while they were all fun, they mostly felt like they weren't balanced– That is, the games were won or lost because the army builds weren't comparable.
 

Everyone talks about scenario play, and how the books contain all these great scenarios. So the game that boasts free rules is great if you purchase a bunch of $60 or $70 books. For me, that's never going to happen because I have ZERO interest in the story of the Age of Sigmar, and I can't justify that price for a few pages of scenarios. I just listened to Garagehammer's lackluster review of the Seraphon Battletome, and it gives me little hope that any of the armies from Warhammer will see any justice in the new age. Sure, the Slaan themselves have escaped the Old World and can call up their former legions from memory, or stardust, or whatever-the-hell, but what about the mortal races? Have your Empire or Bretonnian generals and heroes also slipped their earthly bonds and been magically transported thousands of years into the future? No? Then I guess they're just dead.

I can't remember if I said this in a previous post, but as far as I'm concerned, my armies' mythology is still rooted in the Old World. I'm fine with using Age of Sigmar rules to represent Old World battles, but the idea of my Skaven characters surviving thousands of years into the future, or even my necromancers and vampires existing eons later in the Realm of Death is kind of ludicrous.

A local store is trying to get regular Kings of War tournaments off the ground. They've been holding one each month, and I think they have a decent following. So I might try the Kings of War route. but even if that pans out, it will still be "pretend Warhammer." I'll be imagining that my army is still a force in the Old World squaring off against "Chaos Dwarfs invading Sylvania", instead of Abyssal Dwarves fighting in Mantica. Whatever.

On to 2016

A lot of my blog time this year was spent playing catch-up from missed posts. I think next year I'll be treating the blog as more of a project log, with weekly updates of whatever I'm working on, rather than holding out until I have full-blown tutorials and completed projects to post. And, of course, more terrain.

'Til next year!

Happy New Year, everyone! I can't believe it's been four years since I started this blog. Thanks to everyone for following along. Extra kudos to you if you've been following since the beginning. Hopefully I've kept things new and interesting for you.

The project log this week is something from the "I bought this years ago and I'm just getting to it now" file– The Mortis Engine.

I had held off on this for a number of reasons, mainly because I wasn't sure how I was going to paint the ethereal swarm, and because the whole kit seemed pretty intimidating. Once I began assembling it, however, the parts went together fairly easily. Cleaning the mold line on the spirits was probably the most time-consuming aspect. All the pieces fit together pretty simply to form two halves of the spirit horde:

I kept the halves of the horse bodies and the weapon arms separate so I could spray the undersides. Then I glued the horses together and the riders' arms in place and re-sprayed everything with grey and white.

The banshees that swirl around the top of the Mortis Engine were also assembled and pinned onto dowels for priming and painting. The attachment points for these are really flimsy, so I may have to get creative when it comes time to attach them.

The bone cage around the blasphemous tome also went together easily. The sculpted flame on the skeleton braziers was a bit two-dimensional, so I embellished it with some putty. 

The real work went into the base. The "chariot" frame of the Mortis Engine is a stone stairway with roses and thorns sculpted onto the steps. I wanted the Mortis Engine to be a monument to the legacy of my wraith Korak the Grim, a floating funerary barge where all the souls he's taken are bound in eternal torment. No living thing should be able to exist in its presence, so I removed all the roses and thorns where I could, and covered the rest with piles of skulls. 

These are a combination of Secret Weapon Miniatures resin skulls and a few plastic GW skulls.

The skulls were all carefully positioned to fit around the robes of the Corpsemaster figure. This model will perhaps represent Korak himself, riding his chariot of death across the field of battle.

'Til next time!

Corpsemasters

Last week I discussed the chassis and spirits, since then I've been working on the corpsemasters who will be riding atop the Mortis Engine. When I bought the kit, the keys on the master's staff weren't formed properly. I got a replacement part from GW, so now I had a spare front half of the master. I decided to make two riders:

The first is a "normal" corpsemaster. The stock model has a face with a blindfold, which I have other plans for. Instead, I used one of the faces from the Corpse Cart. A little putty work was necessary to fill out the hood and hair.

The other rider is Korak the wraith. To make the back of the model, I used one of the bodies from the Empire wizard kit. The mismatched join was smoothed over with putty, and his back and shoulders built up a little. The hood was taken from the Corpse Cart rider, and a classic skeleton head (also known as a "skull") was trimmed down to fit inside the hood.

I built up the top of the hood and "shawl" on his back with another layer of putty, and filled out the bottom of his hood around the front.

The scythe that normally goes at the top of the Coven Throne will be added in place of the staff. Then, I'll need to either find or sculpt a suitable skeletal hand.

Having the two corpsemasters will allow me to field Korak as part of the Mortis Engine if he's not on the table as a wraith hero. Perhaps the artifact in the reliquary might be the earthly remains of Korak himself, and maybe the "normal" corpsemaster could be the manifestation of his human form?

Morghasts

I've also been playing around with the Morghasts. I have four, and I'm building them with interchangeable weapon options. The body assembly, while complex, was relatively easy; there were a few spots where the parts didn't look like they were going to fit properly, but it was just a matter of "popping" the parts into position.

I have to say that the attachment points on this kit are less than stellar. A lot of the joins don't provide a definite, locking fit, so it's possible to build things misaligned if you're not careful. The shoulders, for example, have a ball join with a peg that will attach the arm in a fixed position so that the halberd hands align properly. It's a neat feature, because the pegs can be cut off to allow more freedom in the pose (and the instructions point this out when assembling for the hand weapon option). The problem is that the pegs are so small they don't really snap into position, and have a lot of play that can cause the arms to be misaligned anyway. 

I changed the legs around to create more variety in the poses. In the two unit options, one has the chest armor and a helmet, and the other a bare rib cage and skull. I'm planning to build the models with the chest armor glued in place, because even the unarmored version still has shoulder and arm armor, and it seems silly to have armored arms, but not the body. I'll leave the helmets removable.

The kit comes with four hand weapon designs, so you can build up to four models before repeating any of the weapon styles. That's a nice feature. 

The more I looked at them, the more I felt the sword blades were a little bland and cleaver-like. Since I had spares in case I messed up, I decided to cut some "bat-wing" scallops into the blades.

I'm very happy with the results, and the blades are much more wicked and menacing now.

Now begins the arduous task of pinning all the weapon hands. I'm attempting to make a universal configuration so all the sword hands will fit all the arms and I won't need to keep track of which of the 16 sword hands goes with which body. I'm using a double pin so the hands won't rotate, either.

Once these guys are built, I plan to assemble the Dread Abyssal mount for the Mortarchs and paint all of these monsters in one batch. Before that happens, I need to work out the basing and finish the Mortis Engine.

'Til next time!

Just a quick update this week on two of the projects I'm working on– I've gotten all of the weapon arms pinned for the Morghasts. Each wrist has two pins to keep them from twisting, and I've added a little putty around the wrists to make sure each appears to have a seamless join.

I'm working on the heads now, trying to figure out a way to attach the skull and pin the helmets on (there's no room for magnets). The pin hole will probably be visible when the helmet is removed, so I need to angle it at the back so it's not as obvious. The last thing I want is a big hole in the top of the thing's skull. Worst case scenario, I can just glue the helmets on. The shoulder and chest armor will be painted separately so I can get at all the skulls and bones under and around them.

The corpsemaster version of Korak is finished. I didn't have a suitable skeleton hand in my parts bin, so I sculpted one.

Painting is underway for the rest of the parts for the Mortis Engine.

The banshees and shields are finished. If the wind ever stops blowing, I'll be able to take them out and Dull Cote them.

Another project that I've been working on in the background is a new version of Korak himself. This guy has been a long time coming and it's been very satisfying to watch him take shape.

'Til next time!

Morghast Armor
 

The issue with the Morghasts' helmets has been resolved. I drilled a hole in the back of the skull, aligning it along the angle of the helmet plate.

With a drop of glue, I attached the pin to the helmet. Once the glue set, I covered the pin with a layer of putty.

The putty conceals the pin, and adds a little more stability to the attachment point. Viola! Removable helmets!

The shoulder and chest armor are all attached to a painting stick so they can be sprayed and painted in a single batch.

All that remains is the wings and feet. I'm currently working on a couple scenic pieces to use as perches. The Morghasts' toes will be modified to fit around the perch and the spirits will be removed from the wings.

Dread Abyssal Assembly

Because the Dread Abyssal that Nagash's Mortarchs ride has an anatomy similar to the Morghasts, I am assembling it, so they can all be painted as a single batch. Despite the complexity of this model, it goes together pretty well.

I don't rememer if I've brought it up on this blog before, but I think the days of simply assembling a GW model and painting it as a single piece are over (for the larger ones, at least). There are so many overlapping pieces used to create the depth of detail that it is impossible to paint the visible areas in the interior once fully assembled.

The tail and pelvis and the two body halves will need to be kept separate so I can get at all the little skulls inside.

The legs have three main parts, the interior and the outer covers. Again, the covers need to be left off so the inner skulls can be painted. At the end of the day, I think this model will be in nine pieces when I paint it, and that's not even counting the spirits, heads, armor, and rider.

One neat feature is that the forelimbs of the monster offer a lot of posing options. The upper arm attaches with a peg which allows the shoulder to rotate...

And the elbow joins are a working hinge.

So, even though the monster's back legs are locked in a single position it's front legs can have a wide range of poses, and it looks like the head can swivel a bit on the ball-and-socket joint. If you're fortunate enough to have three kits so you can field all three Mortarchs, you can make subtle changes in the pose so they don't all look like they're riding identical monsters.

I'm still debating how to attach this guy to his base– whether to use the spirits he comes with to hold him aloft, or to use some gothic scenery as a monster perch. I guess we'll see how things shape up as the project continues to evolve.

--Til next time!

One of the things I enjoy most about building miniatures for this army is coming up with the story behind my characters and units. One of the first regiments I had built was a block of skeletons, and I painted their wraith champion to match the shield decals. This was the first unit and character I made for my undead army. You can see the history of the army in my post "The Legion of the Infernal Skull: A (not so) Brief History."

In life Korak was a necromancer known for preying on villagers for his grizzly experiments. Eventually, the village elders discovered his lair and slew him, entombing Korak's body in a barrow mound protected powerful spells. The necromancer lord, Nieman Kimmel, discovered Korak’s tomb and released him to serve as his undead lieutenant. Korak returned to the village where he was defeated, and murdered everyone. As The Crimson Reapers, they are now eternally enslaved to Korak and do the wraith’s foul bidding.

Korak the Grim and The Crimson Reapers remains one of my favorite units to this day. I have wanted to update Korak's model for the longest time and now, after a decade of patience and planning, I have finally done it.

This specific conversion has been in the works for the better part of a year. I had been waiting for an appropriate wraith-like miniature to use as the base model, something more imposing than the classic GW wraiths. The new plastic wraith, while larger, isn't really my style of wraith and it's too open on the bottom. I considered models like the Changeling (Chaos Deamons), and the Watcher (Lantern wraith from Kingdom Death), but they didn't fit the bill.

The corpsemaster from the Corpse Cart had some really nice sleeves (and plenty of spare options in the kit). I had used them to make a Curse of Years spell counter, and I could imagine these as part of a larger build with more robes and a scythe. (Check out the post about how I made this counter here.)

I picked up the new plastic banshee and necromancer, and began experimenting with the different parts to kitbash a suitable wraith. Here you can see the banshee's skirt, with the top half of the corpsemaster, the necromancer's cape/ sleeves, and the elaborate scythe from the Empire Wizard kit, which seemed appropriate for a character wraith. These parts sat for well over a year. Every now and then I'd fit them together and consider the build, never quite happy with how it was shaping up.

Then I began working on the Mortis Engine, and this portion of the ethereal swarm jumped out at me:

It had the height I was looking for, and there was room for a skull to fit inside the hood. There was room to fit the sleeves that I wanted to use, and some of the ethereal tendrils would add an element that would tie it to the spectral wing I picked up an extra set of the spirits online, and got to work.

These are the parts that went into the conversion: The spirit, the sleeves from the corpsemaster, and a plastic skull.

I took the bit of ethereal smoke from the bottom of the wraith and added it as a trail behind the scythe.

I'll go into the conversion in more detail in part 2, but here's how everything turned out:

'Til next time!

Converting the Wraith

As I mentioned last week, the base model for Korak is this wraith from the Mortis Engine's ethereal swarm:

That wraith is combined with the sleeves from the Corpse Cart's corpsemaster. A plastic skull with the back portion trimmed away is used for the face. At this stage, I haven't yet decided how I'll handle the scythe, other than that I'll add the spirit tail behind the blade. I'm torn between the pitted scythe from the Mortis Engine or the "flowery" scythe from the Empire Wizard kit. Since I first envisioned this conversion, I've imagined Korak with a larger, fancier scythe than the regular rank-and-file wraiths.

I cut the flat portion off of the wraith, and trim the bottom of his robes a little. Where the flat spot used to be, I sculpt some layered robes.

The sleeve is blended into the body with putty. I leave the top of his hunchback a little rough because it will be covered with a second layer for the hood.

The "tail" of the spirit clinging to Korak's back is extended and filled out with more putty to create a base for the model. The spectral cloud continues up under his robes. I also work out the model's positioning on its base. (Although, the base would be changed out later because this one melted under the heat lamp while cooking the putty. It wasn't even in the heat for a long time, only a few seconds, but the base began to warp quickly. The black GW bases have a MUCH lower tolerance for heat than the regular plastic.)

Next, I add the other sleeve and sculpt the wrinkles on the connecting putty.

The hood and shawl come next– a layer of putty over the back, smoothed over and shaped at the bottom. The folds are blended around the neck. The holes are made with a pointed sculpting tool by poking into the putty and pulling down slightly.

The edge of the hood is enhanced with a bit of putty.

At this stage, I notice that there is an indent in the spirit's skull. I think it's part of the attachment point when it fits together with the other parts of the spectral swarm. Either way, it looks odd, so I sculpt over it and added some tendrils that blend into the wraith's robes.

I had removed all the flowers from the Mortis Engine's chassis, under the assertion that nothing would be living in the presence of this much Death Magic. I apply the same principle to Korak, and remove the roses and thorns from the scythe. (I imagine the grass and vegetation withering in his presence as he floats by.) The scythe handle is made from a length of wire, pinned into the scythe head. The hands are from a Tomb King's skeleton, and the wire runs right through them. I leave the hands unglued, and base their spacing and the bend of the handle on the positioning of the sleeves on the wraith.

Once the fit is correct, I glue the hands in place and attach the spectral trail.

I wrap some putty around the wire and smooth it out to create the wooden handle. Some splits and wood grain are pressed into the putty with a knife.

The final step of creating the scythe is to extend the spectral trail with putty, blending it into the blade.

A new base is added and the weapon is glued in place. The last little bit to be added is the hand grip on the scythe, made from a section of a plastic spear shaft. I had planned to add a second handle closer to the blade (scythes usually have 2 hand grips) but, in order for it to be "anatomically" correct, the grip would need to extend up, perpendicular to the blade, and in front of Korak's face, which would look terrible when viewed from the front. It also seems odd to have both handles on the scythe and Korak using neither of them. So, one handle it is! (If anyone asks, Korak will just explain to them how the other handle broke off ages ago, and then murder their soul.)

And that's all there is to it! Now that he's painted, I can't wait to get this guy on the table.

'Til next time!

The painting is proceeding on the ethereal portions of the Mortis Engine. You have already seen the banshees:

This week I finished the two halves of the spectral horde. The basic spray and wash was done back when I finished the Spirit Hosts, then I neglected them for a month or so while I worked on Korak. I finally sat down the other day and highlighted all the spirits. Once that was finished it was a simple matter of basecoating and washing all the metal areas.

The two halves were then glued together and attached to the base. I added the shields and moved on to basing the model.

As with the Spirit Hosts, the tombstones and skulls were painted separately and then glued down with the brown ballast. The ballast was inked and drybrushed, and the sides painted green. The next step was to spray it all with Dull Cote. Finally, I highlighted the metal bits with P3 Quick Silver and added the static grass.

All that remains is the chassis, cage, and corpsemaster.

'Til next time!

I'm in the middle of a terrain commission, so I haven't had much time to work on my Mortis Engine, but I took a spare moment to finish painting the corpsemasters:

The different versions are a "regular" corpsemaster and a wraith version meant to be Korak the Grim riding the Mortis Engine. I'd put him up there in the event that he's not in the army as a regular Hero-level character.

All that remains on this model is the bone cage surrounding the reliquary and bits like the skeletons and book. I'll hopefully find some time to work on this so I can get it off my plate and focus on other projects (alas, the Morghasts are already resigned to the Shelf of Shame). My buddy Chris also put forth the challenge for me to finish painting my Dreadfleet set before he finishes his Deathwatch Overkill set. Challenge accepted!

In other news, those of you following me on Facebook will have seen that I'm getting ready to release my first resin terrain set. I hope to have these tombstones and shrines up for sale sometime this month. More on that in the coming weeks...

'Til next time!

My Dreadfleet box has been sitting in a closet for the past four years, which is a shame because it looks like a fun little game with some really beautiful models. Chris Walton has challenged me to finish it before he can finish painting his Deathwatch Overkill set. Challenge accepted! He just received his Deathwatch set today, so IT'S ON!

I went through the sprues in the Dreadfleet box, and it seems a little daunting, but after breaking things down, the intimidation factor is greatly reduced. The parts are all arranged and organized pretty nicely. The largest sprue holds all of the island parts and the measuring tools:

All of the bases and all of the masts and sails are each on their own sprue, meaning they can be primed and painted all together:

The small ships are each arranged in their own section of the other sprues. Scattered among these are the treasure icons and smaller auxiliary ships:

The Skabrus and Shadewraith ships are a little more spread out on their sprues:

The last one holds the Heldenhammer and Bloody Reaver, and the remaining auxiliaries as well as the sea monsters:

That's a lot of stuff! To start, I've broken down the sprues and separated each ship from the other parts around it. That leaves me with the eight vessels– Grimnir's Thunder, the Seadrake, the Swordfish, the Flaming Scimitar, the Curse of Zandri, and the Black Kraken...

...the Shadewraith and the Skabrus.

The Heldenhammer and Bloody Reaver parts remain intermingled on the final sprue:

Most of the islands and wrecks are a single piece. The others, once assembled, greatly condense the number of elements to be painted:

And that leaves a handful of remaining bits, including the measuring stick and turning gauges:

So now the question is: Where to start? Probably with the bases. I think it's safe to say that the sails will be last. When I bought the game, I was considering sanding the sculpted imagery off of the sails and painting my own, but now I don't know. I think I'll just go with the original designs. Thankfully, we're starting to get into ideal priming weather. I've got a lot of painting ahead!

'Til next time!

For of you who haven't been keeping track, my friend Chris Walton has challenged me to finish my Dreadfleet models before he finishes his Deathwatch: Overkill boxed set. Chris has started his own hobby blog, where you can follow his progress on the Overkill models (and I'm sure he'll post plenty of pictures of the other projects he's working on). Check it out:

http://worldofwaltonscrafts.blogspot.com/

I've really been dragging my feet on the Dreadfleet challenge, but I've finally gotten through the bases.

They went about as quickly as I had hoped, painted in an afternoon. The bases were coated with Formula P3 Exile Blue and then drybrushed up with the P3 colors Cygnar Blue Base, Cygnar Blue Highlight, Meredius Blue, Arcane Blue, and then some Arcane Blue and Morrow White for the highlights. The green areas were given a glaze using a blend of Thrall Flesh and Gnarls Green, and some straight Thrall Flesh for the highllights on the wave crests. It was all washed with GW Coelia Greenshade and the floating bits were picked out. The final step was to paint straight Exile Blue on the edges.

Only the base for the Skaven vessel Skabrus remains. It's got the interior guts of the giant fish carcass that the ratmen are using as a boat. There's also a trail of chum in the water behind it that will need to be picked out with greens and reds.

The Islands are coming along, as well. All of the rocks are finished and now it's a matter of going through and picking out all of the ship wreckage and water.

A few of the islands are finished–

Corpseface Cliff:

Castle Island:

And the appropriately named Skull Island:

'Til next time!

The first two ships are finished– the Black Kraken and Grimnir's Thunder. I painted the ships on their sprues, trimmed down so they were only attached by the bottom. This allowed me to sufficiently clean the mold lines (the lion' share of which were on the Kraken's tentacles). There is a lot of interior detail that's still visible, but would be difficult to reach once assembled.

I didn't deviate much from the basic color scheme. In the book the ship has green accents, but I went with Fang Grey. The rest is just silver and gold. Considering how simple the color scheme was, it certainly took a long time to paint. The detail on these models is so tiny and so tight it needs to be given the same level of attention a regular model would receive. All those cannon hatches needed to be picked out in gold, and then the silver of the cannons poking out, then all of the silver accents washed with brown ink.

The Black Kraken was a little easier to paint, since it's mostly tentacles. The color on the hull is Formula P3 Coal Black. GW Coelia Greenshade was washed over the hull and gold bits to give everything a blue-green hue.

I also painted the treasure tokens. So, I have enough to "officially" play a small game with two enemy ships going head-to-head. It's been over a year since I read through the rules, so I'll have to sit down and muddle through it to see how the game works. It looked interesting when I read it, but it seems like there are a lot of random events to keep track of throughout the game like damage effects, fate cards that get drawn every turn, shifting wind, etc. I suspect this will be one of those games where you forget to do half of the things you're supposed to do every turn. We'll see how it goes.

'Til next time!

The Dreadfleet progress has been slow, but steady. I have finished all of the shipwreck scenery bits:

I have also assembled the next batch of ships: On the Dreadfleet side is the Curse of Zandri, and Skabrus. These should be straightforward– no sails to paint, just the ship and a single top bit. They are open enough that I could assemble them and paint them as (mostly) one piece.

On the Grand Alliance side, we have the Seadrake and the Swordfysh. These will be the first of the sailed ships. I chose them because of their easy-to-assemble hulls and because the sails look like the simplest to paint– a black background for the Swordfysh sails, and solid blue sails without any elaborate designs for the Seadrake. This will allow me to see how fiddly the design work on the sails will be to paint.

Once I get these ships finished, I'll have three per side, including some sail ships so the wind gauge will have a definite effect. That will allow me to play a more involved test game.
 

I tried a little one-on-one fight with Grimnir's Thunder and the Black Kraken. I used a small portion of the map and it was a quick affair. Two turns worth of volleys was enough to sink a ship. I wasn't using the wind marker and I disregarded any Fate cards that referred to things I didn't have available, like the sea monsters. As the ships closed to firing range, the first few turns were spent building up game effects like fog that incurred command penalties, random attacks on ships, etc, all generated by drawing Fate cards. I have read some reviews of the game that said the random Fate events ruin the game. I can definitely see how that could be the case. It seems that a simple solution would be to draw fewer Fate cards (or no cards at all). We'll see once I put together a larger skirmish.

In other news, I'm nearly finished with the graveyard terrain that I teased a couple weeks ago. I have a big announcement to drop in the coming days.

'Til next time!

This has been a long time in the making. You don't appreciate how much work goes into setting up a business, making products to sell, figuring out packaging, etc. until you sit down and do it. ButSkull Forge Scenics LLCis finally a go! My goal is to produce high quality resin scenery kits, battlefield accessories, and all manner of scenic elements for tabletop wargaming and model building. All the kits are designed, sculpted, and cast by me, and sold as Skull Forge Scenics.

In the interim, while I work on getting a proper webstore up and running, I have set up an Etsy store to sell my kits. You can check it out at: www.skullforgescenics.etsy.com

To start out, I've stayed close to my wheelhouse of all things dead and buried (or soon to be un-buried). I teased these a few weeks back, but here are my first products in all their glory:

Roadside Shrines

There are two different shrines, sold as a pair. The spikes on the top of the second shrine are a separate part for easier casting. The shrines have areas of engraved "text," (really just dots and dashes to create a faux lettering that could represent any language, real or fictional) and there are blank areas and banners for ambitious painters who want to freehand names and whatnot.

Here are some detail shots of the naked resin parts themselves. The scenery is sold unpainted and unassembled. One of my goals with my kits is to minimize mold lines, or at least make sure they are in places where they are easy to clean and won't interfere with any detail.

Tombstones

There are 15 different styles and sizes, and there are two of each for a total of 30 in the pack. I incorporated some of the design elements used in the shrines so the two sets will have a unified appearance. I call this my "Land of the Dead" series, and other elements I add in the future will be similarly designed.

And here are the bare resin parts as you would receive them. Astute viewers might notice that each of the tombstone "twins" has a different pattern of cracks and chips, so technically there are 30 unique casts in the set. Some (but not all) of the tombstones have mold lines on the sides where they are easy to scrape off.

Thanks to all of my readers for your support and feedback. I know a lot of you have been fans of my terrain work for many years, and now I hope to give you the opportunity to enjoy it on your own gaming tables. These graveyard sets are just the first in a series of terrain kits that will expand to include a wide range of genres and environments brought to you by Skull Forge Scenics.I hope to have your continued support as I move forward in this bold new endeavor!

'Til next time!

Okay, I've been neglected my blog long enough. Most of my time has gone into Skull Forge Scenics business, so I haven't had much time to work on any models. The Etsy shop has been updated with international shipping options, so those of you abroad can place orders.

I've begun work on more pieces to produce, including some stone walls and skulls:

The walls will go nicely with the graveyard terrain or any medieval fantasy setting. I'm planning on having interchangeable tops and end posts to expand the set with more variety as time allows. I'll be able to use the skulls as assets on my terrain sculpts and also sell them as individual packs.

The Dreadfleet Challenge

Ugh. I haven't touched my Dreadfleet ships in weeks, so that's how the challenge is going. I think Chris has finished all of his Genestealers and only has the marines and the basing left. I've practically put the ships back in the box since I'm focused on making terrain now. Maybe I'll find some time to squeeze in a ship here or there.

Age of Sigmar

I haven't played a game (of anything) at all since the last time Chris was out to visit and we played that game of Age of Sigmar. That was in November, so it's been about five months!
 

GW looks like they're going to be putting together a points system for building armies, so that might be cool. Seems like it's too little too late, though. I think most people have already moved on to a different fantasy system, or developed their own tournament packs. I thought I heard a rumor that the new "competitive" tournament system was developed in coordination with guys who run the South Coast Grand Tournament, so maybe it won't be a total upset for the existing tournament scene. We'll see how it turns out. Whether it's necessary or not, most people want structure for their miniature gaming. I don't know if it will sway my group out of its current Warhammr malaise...

I think new orcs look fine. Different, but not so different that they don't match. The anatomy is slightly altered; they seem to have lost their "pot-bellied-derpy-butt" posture, but the faces look the same. The armor on the models is much more rough-hewn, which is appropriate for orcs. The yellow armor, while not the best color choice for orcs, is beautifully painted. The the shading, edge highlighting, and rusty chipped corners looked good enough to eat! I think I spent about an hour looking at close-ups of the rotations on the GW site.

One final note– Skull Forge Scenics on Facebook

I have started a Facebook page dedicated to SFS, where I can post progress shots of upcoming projects and whatnot. I'm thinking of putting together a poll to see what kinds of terrain kits people would be most interested in, sort of a way to influence which of the many projects on my to-do list I should prioritize first. You can follow it here: https://www.facebook.com/skullforgescenics/

'Til next time!

This week, I finally finished up the Mortis Engine.

I don't usually paint source lighting on my miniatures, but as I was painting the chassis and assembling it, I decided to add some yellow to the green of the spirits where they pass near the flames. I also added a little green hue to the bottom of the bone framework to help to blend the different elements of the model and give it a more unified color scheme, rather than distinct areas of "green""bone" and "flame."

The corpsemaster can toggle between the "regular" attendant and the wraith Korak the Grim.

Other than repainting my Banshees so they match my new ethereal color scheme, and putting together the remaining wraiths that I have in my parts box, this wraps up the "Spectral" wing of the Legion of the Infernal Skull– all the ethereal elements, led by the Korak. Now to tear them all off their bases and put them on rounds! (No, not really.)

*Edit:  Just remembered that I also have 10 Hexwraiths in a box somewhere. I guess it never ends...

Coming Soon: Skull Forge Scenics Skulls and Walls

The molds are finished for the skulls and I'm finishing up the wall segments. I'll be posting some pictures soon and hope to have them up for sale by the end of the month (hopefully sooner), but here's a peek at the skulls as I've incorporated them into the end posts for the walls:

'Til next time!

A couple new items are coming up for Skull Forge Scenics. The first is a pack of skulls. Here are the master casts set up for molding and I'll have these up for sale soon.

Edit:  The skulls are up for sale now in my store:  

https://www.etsy.com/shop/skullforgescenics

The wall set I had been sculpting was taken back to square one. These earlier pieces (the ones I posted pictures of a couple weeks ago) weren't working for me. Since they were sculpted from a relatively flat section of putty over the MDF core, the stonework wasn't giving me the difference in depth and angle in the stones that I was hoping for, and the placement of the stones didn't match on the reverse side.

These new walls were made by placing and sculpting individual blocks of putty, and I'm much more satisfied with the result.

The stones are sculpted from Aves Apoxie® Sculpt, and any deep gaps between them are filled with Brown Stuff modeling putty.

Here are the two side-by-side:

The wall posts use the "skull shrines" I previewed on Facebook.

One of my pet peeves when it comes to wargaming terrain is wall sections that don't properly line up or "join" at the corners, or that don't have proper "ends." I've designed these so the inset skull shrines are recessed enough that the walls will insert into them and link the segments together or form corner posts. The wall posts can also be used as stand-alone elements for the bases of a statues or monuments.

I'm working on the tops now. I've kept them as a separate part for ease of molding. Any significant "lip" would be difficult to pull out of the mold, or might have bubbles, ruining the whole wall. I can also make different wall toppers (flat stones; spiked fencing, etc.) to provide more variety in the future.

'Til next time!