Painting an inquisitor with power maul and plasma pistol

Introduction

The second of the trio of classic inquisitors, named after the platinum blonde Ilithyia from the series 'Spartacus'.

Dark gold

 

Painting an inquisitor with incinerator

Introduction

The first of the trio of classic inquisitors, named after Lucretia from the series 'Spartacus'. (Yes I know she was a brunette, I only came up with the names after I painted the miniatures.)

Merry Christmas!

 

Painting Inquisitor Kyria Draxus

Introduction

I bought this kit some time ago, along with some classic inquisitors. I disliked the bald head, so I replaced it with one from the Escher kit, sporting a stylish mohawk and a bionic eye. I also disliked her official black color scheme, so I went with something else instead.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Meeting Willow (and Halastree)

We took a short rest and continued the exploration of the forest. Luck took us right into the waiting arms of two sentient trees, who blocked our way and asked about our intents regarding the forest. We said that we are explorers[1], and they agreed  to take us to Willow.

Painting Inquisitor Greyfax

Introduction

I bought this kit some time ago, along with some classic inquisitors. I loved everything about this kit, including the official color scheme. I went with it, although of course I experimented with the coloring of the metalics.

Alternate metallic armor (blue/green)

 

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Whispers from the grave

We flew downriver on our brooms, only to pass through a heatwave (and gain an elder rune of fire) and enter an illusory outdoor forest, complete with a shining sun[1] and everything. I tested the ceiling - it was still there. Good, we're not going (completely) insane. Let's move on.

Naming my Bloodthirsters

After the game with the Deepkin, I was inspired by the naming of the nuns and also finally decided that my Bloodthirsters finally earned their names.

So here's to Grimvex Goreface, the Shredder of Metal, who killed enough Space Marine vehicles for this:

As well as good ol' Arbra'Gax, the Reaper of Vengeance:

Painting a Grey Seer (ratman sorcerer)

Introduction

A blast from the past - an out of production metal Grey Seer, hiding in a box ever since I bought it for $3 on eBay.

Astra Militarum vs Tyranids, 2021.12.02

Introduction

Back to a more casual game style with terrain placement right out of the rulebook. Time to break out the nuns for this Reconnaissance Mission incursion game from CA2020.

Painting assassins

Introduction

These are Kor from Magic the Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers board game, but they shall serve perfectly as rogues/assassins.

Painting a fly demon

Introduction

A Reaper Fly Demon for my wizard, to summon a Chasme in D&D.

November review & December goals

I just can't catch a break. Kindergarten is closed due to COVID... again.

Now D&D is on hold as well due to... you guessed it.

At least I got some games of Warhammer in during the one kind of free week I had. 

I worked a bit on Be'lakor before hobby time became a premium. Then I just switched to D&D miniatures, where a quick Contrast basecoat feels that you've actually achieved progress, and highlights can come later.

With the holidays coming, I just hope I can finish big B this year.

Khorne Daemons vs Necrons, 2021.11.19

Introduction

I've learned a lot from my first "tournament style" game, let's put that into practice. I expanded my 1250 points list with some Bloodcrushers, up against an unknown army... turned out to be Indomitus necrons!

Brown fur (Contrast)

 

Painting more D&D miniatures

Introduction

At the same time as the other batch of D&D miniatures, I painted these, but with a different approach. As they wear mostly metallic armor, I decided to start from a silver primer.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: When you see the white whale...

We gathered ourselves to meet the great white abomination in battle. We were 5 adventurers present, but I still advised to engage a remote group of sentries first, to learn their strengths and weaknesses. Thus Ireth wild shape'd into a giant octopus to carry the girls, while I took Solid on my flying broom. We entered through a side corridor to fight two immense crab-like creatures.

Painting a white wizard

Introduction

The planeswalker Jace from Magic the Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers board game has 3 illusory clones. I painted one up as a white wizard.

No finished picture as the miniature got accidentally mixed up with the D&D crowd.

Painting D&D miniatures

Introduction

Painting the nuns was an exciting project, but it was monotonous... I will never ever paint a unified army for any gaming system again. As a quick break, I painted some random miniatures for D&D. They are from D&D boardgames, and are not that high quality, so I broke out the Contrast paints. Ever experimenting with speed painting, I decided on mostly applying just 1 layer of highlights on most areas. I am quite satisfied with the results.

Note: yes there is a miniature from the Magic the Gathering boardgame that has sneaked in to these photos. Nevermind him.

Astra Militarum vs Sisters of Battle, 2021.11.07

Introduction

Time for the nuns to take to the table again, this time in a more competitive setting. Retrieval mission from Chapter Approved and WTC terrain setup. I was facing down the Order of the Bloody Rose, led by Saint Celestine.

Proto-miniatures of my childhood

I recently helped my mum move house, and discovered these gems in a cardboard box. You see, I was into toy soldiers as a child. And into watching WW2 documentaries on the Discovery Channel. And whatever I saw, and I was missing, I made it myself! The yellow tank is supposed to be a Sherman if I remember correctly, while the tracked cannon next to Santa Clause is a railway gun.

I also did sci-fi stuff, such as the Transformers on the right. I had toy cars and motorcycles, so when the robot transformed, I just replaced the figure with the vehicle. Also note the sea monster - I think from Godzilla.

At one point I got into 3D stuff, such as the knight, crossbowman, and caveman. I also made the flail-wielding amazon to be able to sit on a plastic horse.

Things got wild by the end.

Oh, the "plasticine" is equal parts flour, salt and water. Mix until homogenous. I remember that you can obtain harder or softer material by varying the ratios. Create what you want, then bake in the oven. It's soft and usually won't stand up, so 3D stuff require multiple iterations. The material works as an excellent bond as well. Mix in toothpicks, but don't bother with plastic as it will melt in the oven.

Painting a goblin commander and shaman

Introduction

The goblin command group from Reaper, intended to command (hehe) a large group of goblins in the near (maybe not so near) future.

Painting Gideon, the planeswalker

Introduction

With the planeswalker Gideon done, I am close to finishing the miniatures from Magic the Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers board game.

Painting giant bats

Introduction

Another large batch of identical old school miniatures bought for cheap. Just like these guys. 

Painting a South-American Indian warrior

Introduction

Some sort of convention-only miniature (Salute 2012), which I bought on eBay because it was cheap.

October review & November goals

Today's my last day of isolation due to COVID. It wasn't a holiday, either; my entire family caught it, and we were all pretty much ground into the mud for most of two weeks.

I was unable to go to the painting competition... but so was everybody else as well, so it got postponed.

I haven't painted much. Even by the time I was able to sit in a chair, I lacked the focus to concentrate for any significant period of time. This is the reason I just published older painting posts. At least by now I finished the inquisitors; I just need to take pictures. I plan on doing shorter projects until I get back on track; then I should really, really finish Be'lakor.

Gaming wise, you can take a guess. I played a single game of Warhammer 40k right before I got sick, so at least the nuns have seen some action, alongside Eisenhorn. D&D moved to online again, and at least I was able to participate. I don't see any of this improving in any meaningful way during November...

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Klaabu and your mom as well

After a short rest (and just 3 adventurers, Zyn, Tari, and Okos being the generic icon), we proceeded to the next cavern room where we met a group of 4 Kuo-Toa quietly enjoying their meal of rotten fish. They were in bad shape, sickly and all. Okos decided to walk up and greet them, at which they grabbed fish bones and charged to attack. They did not even manage to hit once, so I yelled at them in Undercommon to cease the foolishness at once. They agreed that they are indeed fools, and took us to their leader.

Painting a modern trooper

Introduction

Remember this one? Well, due to the Corona shutdown, I still could not hand it over. But perhaps two birds with one stone - I have another friend in the military, and I intend on giving him this modern trooper as a gift.

Adding LEDs to Be'lakor's lava base

Introduction

My first ever encounter with LEDs in a miniature. It took some basic research to find out what I need. A primer by a friend who lent me his soldering iron reawakened some memories from physics class about circuits and thus I skipped watching youtube tutorials. A quick search in the local-ish Warhammer community revealed a couple guys who did this before, and were also kind enough to provide some advice. Finally, I asked around where to buy supplies, and in the end I found a local store downtown with all the things I need.

Painting the base for Be'lakor

 

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: If they're talking, they might be talking...

We rested in the ashes of the underground forest, resummoned the invisible owl, made sure there's nothing ahead, then went into this small chamber to look for mushrooms. Roll for initiative, as two darkmantles fall on my and Tari's heads...

Painting Frankenstein's monster and his bride

Introduction

These 2 are Reaper Bones, but I can't find them on the site. Like the other greater undead type figures, the guy is quite monstrous, while the girl is a 10/10 cheesecake.

Astra Militarum vs Orks, 2021.10.06

Introduction

I initially intended for the nuns to be a small force, perhaps 500 points or so in a Crusade or the start of an escalation league. By the time I painted them, life happened, and the local escalation is already at 1500. No matter - let's try to put them on the table, using Cadian rules and plenty of allies to make up points.

Painting classic vampire and vampiress

Introduction

This pair of classic looking vampires from Reaper. The dude is rocking an original Dracula feel, while the girl reminds me of the brides from this classic.

September review & October goals

September has ended, and I just finished publishing the posts regarding my newly painted proxy Astra Militarum nun army. I did not expect to finish posting before getting them into some games, but here we are. 

Progress on Be'lakor ground to a halt when the Guild Hall announced their latest painting competition. At least I got pretty far on that, I expect to finish my entry soon and then get back to the big man himself. Although I am now also pretty far into some more Imperium-related stuff... to be posted probably later this month.

All in all, I haven't got that much to show due to working on individual models rather than large units, but I'm happy with the results.

D&D is the best, even with only one set of sessions going forward. At least we're meeting face to face, and we even got in extra play time occasionally.

On the other hand, I haven't played Warhammer in about 2 months. About time I get back in the game.

Painting a mummy and a mummy queen (?)

Introduction

Perhaps in a decade or so, my necromancer will level up enough to create undead such as these.

Nuns finished!

 

Special nuns (mixed habits)

Introduction

Same Kickstarter, same minis. For the office cadre, I decided on something special: doing them all in the habits of different orders, for quick identification on the field of battle.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Crystals, mushrooms, trees...

We ended the previous session just after combat, so we picked up the game looting and foraging for mushrooms. We debated on resting and finally decided on a short rest, as the day was still young[1]. Somewhat rested, we took a good look on the finally revealed map of the 4th level, and went back to a larger cavern we skipped on the way. We flew over a large trench and landed to collect more mushrooms.[2] Then on to this place full of crystals and three large tentacled stone monsters. Roll for initiative!

Naming my nun army

I can't explain why, but, while painting the nuns, my mind really got snagged on the concept of a personalized army a.k.a. "Your dudes" (dudettes?). I had previously only named my Bloodthirster and Great Unclean One, but never showed it on the minis themselves. I decided to try something new, and name every single miniature... by writing a name on the front of the base. 

Nun command squad (black habit)

Introduction

Same Kickstarter, same minis. This hilarious command squad includes a not-Aquila standard and an old timey telephone.

Shiny gold

 

D&D 5E one shot collection - Grinding through the Slave Pits of Quabus

Last time, Dace had just barged in on some guards investigating the slaughter. Upon consulting his party members, he decided to turn tail and run. The adventurers prepared to ambush the guards, but none came - Groot heard the leading hobgoblin bark orders to set to defend.

Ulfgar decided to get a barrel and make Groot and Bernie crawl inside, then roll the barrel down. Sure. They went down into the darkness. With noone to fight, they let the barrel roll - to no adverse effects. And then the doors opened, and the guards threw javelins.

Nuns with heavy weapons (black habit)

Introduction

Same Kickstarter, same minis, just with heavy weapons.

Painting cobblestone (Contrast base)

 

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Ireth joins the party

 Our long lost party member Ireth has come to visit us in person! In her honor, we quickly organised an out-of-schedule game session. We obviously started late, but in the end we did manage to kill a few enemies and loot some stuff. Here's us, carefully advancing into the cavern where I was ambushed at the end of the previous session.

Painting Nuns with special weapons (black habit)

Introduction

Same Kickstarter, same minis, just with special weapons.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Battling dark elves

After some delays due to the internet being down (in this day and age? preposterous), we finally began the session by sending in an invisible own to the next cavern. It detected 3 dark elves behind a large rock. Unsure of how to catch them all, I disguised myself into T'rissa and marched in. Fortunately, all 3 were bunched up, and Selene loosed a fireball. We killed them all before I could take any picture, but one of them managed to whistle a call, and soon we had even more dark elves on us.

The red woman is me, disguised. I kept up the charade, for the first guy only yelled "T'rissa, I knew that you were good for nothing!". Later they saw through the illusion, so I dropped it.

Painting Nuns with Laserguns (black habit)

Introduction

The nuns are from a Kickstarter campaign I backed ages ago, back when I had dreams of running multiple 40k armies. They're still hilarious and could work well as a small Astra Militarum detachment, or perhaps inquisitorial acolytes to go with Eisenhorn. For the common soldiers, I'll go with the most recognizable color scheme, the traditional black habit.

August review & September goals

August was cool. I finished my surprise project (to be revealed soon) but by the time I did, the 60+ miniatures I painted for it no longer filled in the points of the 40k escalation league. Sigh. I'll expand on it later. For now: Be'lakor! Yes, I bought the beast (already showcased in some batreps) and I started painting it. It will definitely be my best work so far! And I did some LED-work for the base. I can't wait to finish and showcase it.

I got in some Warhammer as well, just to scratch the itch. D&D carries on brightening my days, although the one-shot campaign stopped due to party members taking some planned absences.

All in all, a good month (even with the holidays taken), and I hope September will at least match it.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Spider people

We jumped right into the action as Solid ran straight into some owlbears around a corner. Somehow, we managed to roll very high on initiative and took them both out before they had a chance to act.

Legion of the First Prince vs Idoneth Deepkin, 2021.08.10

Introduction

1250 points of Idoneth Deepkin clash with the lackeys of Be'lakor on this beautiful desert map in The Vice battleplan.

Chaos Daemons vs Yellow Scars, 2021.08.04

Introduction

We set up the table, cutting off the part of the mat where the Yellow Scars are gathered. We had the secondaries from GT2021, but not the missions... so we rolled Retrieval Mission from the core book.

D&D 5E one shot collection - Slave Pits of Quabus, part 2

Slowly but surely, the adventurers chewed their way through the defenders of the dungeon. 

With the cleric missing (Wizzik? Never heard of him.), Ulfgar took over as healer, and dutifully spent all his turns patching up his fellows, while the bugbear kept bashing at him. Nothing the dwarf couldn't handle, while also exchanging crafty insults. Dace sliced through bandits, Bernie kept hidden and stabbed a bugbear through the kidney, while Groot hacked, slashed and threw axes.

But the highlight of the fight was the chain of events following this picture:

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Magic mushrooms

After last time, we resolved to start the game at an earlier hour. We were somewhat successful. I played my hand quickly and made a deal with Azok regarding the large amount of barrels containing Undermountain beer - his goblins took it all to the surface for 10% of the barrels and then 25% of the price. We still made decent money, as I could then sell the beer to pre-established taverns. I bought another Bag of Holding to hold all my minions, and placed an order for a Wand of Lightning Bolts.

Next up: descend to level 4.

Painting the daemonhost Cherubael

Introduction

The "yin" to Eisenhorn's "yang", his best asset and corruptor, the most tragic plot twist ever... I give you Cherubael! There were less experiments done on this model compared to Eisenhorn, but it was still a long journey (at times, it felt like a slog) to paint this guy. 

Converting the daemonhost Cherubael

Introduction

For the first painting competition, my dynamic duo entry is Eisenhorn and Cherubael! Of course, the official daemonhost model is out of production, so I had to roll my own.

Painting Inquisitor Eisenhorn

Introduction

I bought this model some time ago, as I am a huge fan of the novel series. When the dynamic duo painting competition was announced, it took me about 5 minutes to get hit by inspiration. Unfortunately I had no ideas about a color scheme, but I liked the vibrant colors of the box art, so I went with it. I present to you "wet blending: the model"... and some other experiments, as well.

Painting an Inquisition base

 

Painting Leyline Phantoms

Introduction

These are the Leyline Phantoms from the Magic the Gathering: Arena of the Planeswalkers board game. I initially wanted to do a traditional blue color scheme on these guys, simulate transparency and whatnot. Now that I possess a sizable collection of Contrast paints - I know better.

Painting armored goblins

Introduction

Armored goblins from Lord of the Rings. I like this kit. They might be monopose, but they are small (perhaps too small, but I hate how huge the Bloodreavers are) and not overly complex. I mean, a good amount of detail, but nothing that overwhelms (looking at you again, Bloodreavers).