Painting a giant spider

One of 4 giant monsters for this fall MAGUS commission. From Reaper's latest Kickstarter.

Painting a red dragon

One of 4 giant monsters for this fall MAGUS commission. From Reaper's latest Kickstarter.

Here's for the next commission dragon inspired by its Heroes 3 counterpart.

Painting a Callidus assassin

Introduction 

Another eBay find. I made her hair - now she's getting paint on.

Painting an Eversor assassin

Introduction 

I bought this old metal assassin off eBay back in the day. Now it was time for him to join the fight for the Imperium.

Painting Vindicare assassins (custom models)

Introduction 

I bought two of these elf snipers (?) off eBay for a bargain. No idea what they are, but they are excellent Vindicare stand-ins.

Painting an elven prince on gryphon

Another $2 eBay find. Already assembled, half primed, some mould lines to be removed etc. Time to paint this bad boy, just for fun.

Painting a giant beastman huntress

Winter is coming! Literally, but that is also the theme of the following local painting competition. I decided on painting up something new, and finally picked this miniature from the 'pile of potential'. She may or may not play an ascended huntress somewhere in the far future in a certain D&D campaign.

Painting a pizza dragon

The mascot of the Escape from Pizza Dungeon kickstarter, here's something silly.

Painting a Krampus

A Reaper Krampus holding kidnapped children. Will I ever use it in a game? I don't know. Is it a cool miniature? Hell yes.

Painting Reaper cat folk

Cat-folk adventurers from Reaper.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Player 1 has entered the game

Not content on defeating the snake people, we wanted to loot all their stuff. And I mean ALL. That's how we got into their poisonous spa.

November review and December goals

November was crap.

OK, so the first part was fine. The Giant Monster Commission™ is done. I painted some random miniatures on the sides. I'm super pumped about D&D and worked on my spellboook. I had some games of RPGs. I went to the autumn painting competition and had a game of Age of Sigmar.

Then we got sick (as a household) and nothing moved hobby wise during the last two weeks. This also postponed all the IRL stuff to do, which will obviously flow over into December. There go any goals I had set up...

Painting Haarken Worldclaimer

I purchased this model more as a collectible when visiting my so far first and only official GW shop. I wanted to try out a fancier looking black armor for some time now - and it's looking pretty good. I'll never start a Black Legion army, though.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Snake boss fight

Summary of last session, which I missed: we beat a golem, some undead, and a mage commanding 3 undead minotaurs. Good job. Now on to the fun stuff.

Black fur (Contrast)

Painting a Gold Dragon

Introduction

This year's first larger commission piece, this Reaper Bones dragon has become golden due to a clear Heroes 3 influence.

Maggotkin of Nurgle vs Slaves to Darkness, 19.11.2022

After a 7 month hiatus, here I am back for Age of Sigmar! The prize of Gallet scenario was played out between my no-Plaguebearers or galetian veterans of any kind Maggotkin versus a horde of Chaos Warriors.

Painting Chaos Space Marine Bikers

More Word Bearers on the production line: these old timey bikers.

Reviewing and converting Chaos Bikers

Kit review

Disappointingly boring. Given their very specific weapon options in the codex, I expected all that to be in the box. Instead, there are 3 identical sprues to build the 3 bikers. This means they will all have the same chest, backpack, front plate, and a choice of two heads. If you assemble yours, make sure to mix it up using any other chaos marines kit, or at least that's what I did. You also need to do that for the weapons.

Conversion & magnetization

I assembled the champion first, using only options from the kit. I also glued in his bike combi bolters, as he cannot replace them. I also needed to see where they fit, as the instructions are lackluster.

Painting Furry Force themed Possessed

As much fun as it was to convert these guys, it took a long time and I grew tired of them. Time to slap some paint on!

Converting Furry Force themed Possessed

I suppose you know about this gem (also part 2 and part 3). Now up until this moment, all my conversions have been utilitarian. If I'm missing the right model because it's OOP or whatnot, maybe the right wargear, I'd convert it. I never 'got' themed conversions. Until this one clicked...

Painting metal Havocs

As is the case with many of my OG marines, I bought these guys ages ago. After updating them to current standards, I painted them as Word Bearers, as usual.

Assembling Chaos Havocs using the old metal/plastic hybrid kit

I broke out this old Havoc kit for assembly. Of course they are tiny compared to the current iteration of Chaos Marines, and they are supplied with 25mm bases. Time to fix all that.

M.A.G.U.S. - It's alive!

The adventurers started by retiring for the day[1]. They went back to the sea-side entrance and slept, keeping watch in rotation. The rest cycle went by uneventfully, with Shamil sharpening his dagger and Dalibor drawing plans of the dungeon.

Lord Discordant finished!

Wrapping up the Lord Discordant

With the base and model painted separately, and the LED work done in interwoven steps, I could finally finish this model.

Painting a Lord Discordant

After the Venomcrawler, comes its master. The LED work in the model and base is kind of similar, but I painted them up separately.

Magnetizing a Lord Discordant

The Lord Discordant was hard to magnetize - the Astra Militarum tanks were a breeze compared to this. It doesn't look as on the box art due to fitting issues - here goes.

Adding a LED light to a Lord Discordant

I learnt stuff while doing the Venomcrawler. I decided to put the switch on the side, instead of underneath.

October review and November goals

October was OK. The Furry Force squad is done, as are some Chaos dreadnoughts - already battle tested in the one game of Warhammer I got to play. We finished our WFRP adventure. That's about all.

November will see us return to the dungeon in MAGUS, and hopefully in D&D as well.

On the hobby side, there's a new painting competition announced. The miniature is currently going through the last phases of building up the base - soon to be primed. During downtime, I started on the remaining parts of The Giant Monsters Commission™ - I need that shelf space freed up!

Happy Halloween!

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay session 3

We started off by talking to Ilse, the roadwarden, who we met at Rudi's decoration ceremony. She invited us over at a beer at the Exploding Pig. Seems legit.

Painting a Venomcrawler

The final element of the Shadowspear set to be painted without any major changes.

Adding a LED light to a Venomcrawler (by making a huge base)

Unlike the Astra Militarum tanks, this model does not have a large and accessible interior to hide the inner workings. Time to get creative! I learnt a lot here, the process was unwieldy, I'll do something else for my following project.

Prepare a circuit with LEDs

 

Word Bearers vs Yellow Scars, 22.10.2022

I had the honor of facing the Yellow Scars (White Scars... but yellow) during their first outing in Warzone Nephilim. This meant that the game took even longer than usual, as the mission, the secondaries, the CP stuff etc. was new to the Space Marines. Not to mention my entire army. But alas, we confronted each other in this scenario of Abandoned Sanctuaries.

The Scars deployed heavy on their left with a Redemptor and the Outriders, so I countered with my daemon engines, Rubrics, Helbrute and Bikers.

Painting a Dark Apostle in Word Bearers colors

After a copious amount of time in the box, here's a Dark Apostle to lead my new and improved Word Bearers.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay

This session is due to the courtesy of one of the new MAGUS members, who wanted to try out DM'ing the system. Note that this a bit of a spin on a published adventure with pre-made characters. The party consisted of most of the MAGUS team, taking on the roles of Else, the witch hunter (me); Ferdinand, the amethyst wizard; Molli, the halfling; Salundra, the noble; Gunnar, the trollslayer; and Amris, the elf merchant.

Painting Chaingun Havocs

After the conversion, paint them up!

Converting Havocs using Kromlech miniguns

Kromlech has some really nice bits, let's test these Chaos Legionary Reaper Miniguns using the old Chaos Space Marines plastic kit.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Into the swamp

We started off by going above ground to sell our loot. Time passed so I anxiously waited for the Wand of Lightning Bolts I ordered. Well, tough luck. The caravan was robbed. We went to investigate, only to find that the robbers used high level magic to teleport to an exact ambush location. I set the Zhentarim to work, and we went down to the next level of the dungeon.

Painting converted Havocs

More Word Bearers on the production line! This time, the converted/fixed up eBay marines.

Edit. The title is a lie, one guy is actually a Legionary on a 32mm base.

Converting/fixing eBay marines into Chaos Havocs

I dug out a bunch of old eBay marines and started working on updating them.

Word Bearers vs Custodes, 29.09.2022

The Word Bearers invade Imperial space once again in this mission of Recover the Relics.

I am not one to usually blame the dice, but let's call this game 'When the Custodes couldn't fail a 4+'.

September review and October goals

September was... accomplished as far as real-life goals go, but hobbying suffered accordingly. I barely painted anything.

At least the gaming side was great, with two games of Warhammer, D&D and MAGUS. The Word Bearers suffer defeat after defeat, so I might retire them in favor of the daemons. However, I still have some WIP projects... we'll see. D&D is back and it's great, I love it once again. The MAGUS crew is still crawling their way through a dungeon, and they're now all out of health potions. Fun, fun, fun.

As for October... I'll be working on my Furry Force inspired Possessed. Yes, you read that correctly.

Painting converted Obliterators

Introduction

Nothing new about these boys, mostly inspired by the first two Obliterators.

Converting Obliterators

Introduction

The idea to do this is actually very old. Once upon a time I used a lot of Obliterators in a local tournament. I borrowed the models; saw how well they did; and decided to get some. At the time, we only had the old Finecast models which were a) resin b) horribly expensive. I decided to convert some. Of course with real life knocking out the hobby side of things for a while, it all remained a fanciful idea. When Shadowspear came out and we finally got updated models, I was disheartened to see that the models had grown to be humongous. I left everything half baked... Now as I started on my Chaos Marines, I decided on finishing these lads as well.

Word Bearers vs Emperor's Children, 22.09.2022

Round two of some Chaos on Chaos action, with the scenario taken from Tempest of War (although my opponent request we scrap the extra mission rule, to which I agreed to).

Triangle deployment, with brave, brave Cultists ready to jump on objectives. On my side most things hide inside transports, while the Emperor's Children blob up the center. Abaddon and a large squad of Terminators waiting to teleport in.

Painting sandbags

 

Painting the Master of Possessions

The Master of Possessions from Shadowspear, in Word Bearer colors.

Painting Obliterators (Shadowspear)

Introduction

I bought the chaos half of Shadowspear when it came out, but never got around to assembling the models. In preparation for the Chaos Space Marine codex release, here's the two Obliterator models.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Scouring the princess dollhouse

We carried on with our investigations, relentlessly scouring the halls for anything to do. And we did find a control room, with levers and buttons. We found controls for lighting and heating inside the castle, as well as ambient music and door switches. The first truly interesting lever teleported us to the top floor. Let the dungeon crawl continue!

Painting an axe murderer

Part of a Mansions of Madness lot I bought off eBay some time ago. I decided against the slapchop method, as I envisioned the guy in a white blood stained shirt, blond with a manic smile.

Painting zombies (slapchop method)

Part of a Mansions of Madness lot I bought off eBay some time ago. With the success of the slapchop method on the flesh golem, I decided to try out multiple color schemes.

Painting cultists (slapchop method)

Part of a Mansions of Madness lot I bought off eBay some time ago. With the success of the slapchop method on the genies, I decided to experiment more on cloth.

M.A.G.U.S. - It's the Blob!

The adventuring party reassembles once more, in almost full numbers! Cahir was replaced just for this session by a surprise guest, the assassin Nor. A good thing too, given the prevalence of combat encounters during the evening.

Painting Rubric Marines in a Heresy-era color scheme

This unit of 10-man flamer-equipped Rubric Marines should be useful as auxiliaries to the Word Bearers. Just in case I'll ever start a Thousand Sons army, I want to set them apart from the usual blue/gold guys. And so I decided to paint them in Heresy-era red/gold. Incidentally, this is also an easy, drybrush and Contrast based color scheme.

Rubric Marines kit review

I know the kit isn't new... but it is new to me.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Inside the princess castle dollhouse

Previous session synopsis, which I missed (first one this campaign, I think): the party exited the side cave, only to encounter a patch of quicksand, where Stella[1] died. They went into another side cave, encountering a pool of darkness. They crossed it on flying brooms, but Stella was made to jump and she died again. Inside there was a castle dollhouse, which the adventurers approached while diminished in size by some magical effect. Inside they fought a homunculus and a flying sword.

Painting purity seal wax

 

August review and September goals

I had to dial hobbying back in August, due to both real life responsibilities, as well as time off with the family. However, it still went well. 

I got some Word Bearers done, including two cool daemon engines. I painted a batch of infantry. And I also stripped some old models of paint, readying them for September. But now the daemon codex is out... oh well. We'll see.

Gaming was also subdued, with one session of D&D (which, however, went surprisingly well. I feel motivated and excited about the game for the first time in months); one game of Warhammer 40,000; and one session of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay. That was new, we'll probably continue next month.

September might be tough, with the school year starting and real life still looming around the corner, but here's to new and successful endeavours!

Painting a shield maiden

I got her as part of a job lot, already primed a dark silver. Her right face is disfigured (bad cast?), but I'm sure I can work that into her story one day.

Painting dwarves with 2 maces

I got them as part of a job lot, already primed a dark silver. At least I could track down these minis, they are part of the Dungeons & Dragons: The Legend of Drizzt Board Game.

Painting knights

I got them as part of a job lot, already primed a dark silver.

M.A.G.U.S. - Through the dungeon

The adventurers gathered themselves in the round chamber. Biznard and Shamil threw up on each other[1] as Cahir broke in with fresh chowder made of undead whale. It was also at this point that the new party member, the rogue Dalibor made his appearance.

Painting a dryad

Introduction

I bought the miniature pack for the nymph but the dryad proved to be a fun project as well.

Painting a nymph

Introduction

I bought her and the dryad on a whim. I like these transparent miniatures, as they are quite fun to mess around using Contrast paints.

Painting a fairy

Introduction

I bought her just in case of more forest adventures. I decided on a woodland fairy/nymph/dryad type greenish color scheme.

Trail of Cthulhu demo game: Ritual Pursuits

I had previously played an intro adventure for Call of Cthulhu, although I haven't blogged about it. This was something else - as far as I gathered, a simplified, or rather more streamlined version of the system more focused on the mystery and investigation part. Not that I had any idea of what I was getting into... all I heard was "Who wants to play something something Cthulhu?"!

Painting a snake lady

A quick Contrast-based paintjob on a metallic undercoat.

Painting a light green ghost/banshee

Introduction 

This ghost is another cheap eBay find, so I have no real idea what it is. Looks Warhammer though. I have yet another ghost painting tutorial to try out, this time with greenish opaque colors.

Painting a brush holder dragon

Introduction

A gift from a friend and a good way to 'rest' in between all the NMM done on Be'lakor. Also: I did not really care about the color scheme, so I let my daughter choose the dominant color (she chose green).

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: Meeting Stoned Giants

We descended into the next level, prepared for any manner of horrors we might encounter. All we met were umber hulk remains and large caves. Right up until we walked into a giant throne sculpted into the rock. Upon inspection, it was surrounded by precious stones, which we immediately decided to mine. 

There were two exits from the room, one marked with an X and one with noise coming from that direction. With no help from Augury, we decided to investigate the noise. But first, let's stand on the X! Or rather, let's push one another unto the X, to see what happens! Well, nothing.

As we advanced into the noisy room, the noise stopped, so I sent my zombie forward, only for it to be squashed by a stone giant. Sigh.

Painting spell effects (disk and hand)

Introduction 

A couple of fun miniatures depicting spell effects. The disk is obviously Tenser's Floating Disk, as for the hand... well, I'm sure I'll get some use out of it.

Painting a Night Hag and Dusk Hag

Introduction

The last batch from my latest purchase of Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures.

Painting a Frost Salamander

Introduction

Another giant mini from Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures.

Word Bearers vs Emperor's Children, 05.08.2022

One last game before the summer holidays hit. One thing's for sure: Chaos Space Marines will win this game!

Note: We completely forgot about the warp lightning storms.

Note 2. We just set up a symmetrical battlefield, but the deployment zones were unusual, and we barely had any cover. I just placed a lot of stuff in front and hoped to go first. I did.

Battle round 1

Full steam ahead, everything does its job. For the Land Raider and Cultists, that is: draw fire.