Assembling and converting 3d printed FDM Leman Russes

I played around with 3d printed resin proxies before. This is an experiment in cost/value analysis.

Conclusion: FDM printers are way better than I remember them. Perfect for big boxy vehicles!

Descent into Avernus: Wrapping up Elturel

Having defeated Gideon and his undead, we took our time looking around the cemetery.

The first and most obvious devilry was the large ditch with foul smelling yellow-green liquid bubbling inside it. It contained several corpses; throwing another one in did nothing. Many footsteps were there coming out tho, so we signalled the base to send people to fill it in.

We also talked to the mad mage who had helped us with some fireballs, and we finally convinced her to go  to High Hall and cooperate with the survivors.

The building itself was wrecked, but two stained glass windows miraculously survived, one with an illustration of Torm placing the helmet on a paladin, the other Lathander among dead soldiers collecting souls. Next up: the basement.

Fixing up, magnetizing and painting 3d printed Hippogriff and Centaur proxies

I bought one set of the vehicles... the rest can be 3d printed.

Descent into Avernus: Fighting through Elturel

On route to the graveyard, we passed by a collapsed wizard's tower. In front, on the remains of a teleportation circle, a mass of human and fiendish bodies. Looks like somebody tried to send people out to another plane - unsuccessfully. We discovered the remains of the wizard, cleft by a huge blade.

Next up, the wrought iron gates of the cemetery. A large mass of zombies and skeletons were milling about, and we started shooting them down from a safe distance. At first they did not react, then retreated. We headed in the direction of the chapel, but three giant skeletons charged us from behind some crypts.

October review and November goals

October is gone and it went... Surprisingly well.

On the Warhammer front, I'm taking a breather. The new codexes are brutal and I need to reassess my daemons before continuing. Good thing I have other stuff to occupy me.

We restarted the Dungeon of the Mad Mage and immediately went on a hiatus again. Working with minimum capacity is brutal for scheduling. Alas we are scheduled to play once again next week, wish us best of luck.

At least we are active in Avernus, as the blog posts show. We are preparing for a Mad Max style bit next.

Finally ASOIAF will take center stage in November as I'll attend the Realms of Battle event in Warsaw. I don't expect to win any prizes with the amount of practice I haven't been getting, but it should be fun, at least if my leg will hold it together.

Speaking of ASOIAF, the Free Folk have been central to October's hobby activities. I painted my last units and so this project is finished - for now. I still have a few Guard stragglers, both infantry and vehicles are still coming in slowly. However I might skip painting them in favor of more daemon troops. I'll dip into Tzeentch first with a lot of screamers on the painting table, then whatever I come up with next. I am just on schedule with the painting count, and I want to keep it that way.

So... I painted Free Folk and played daemons during October, and I'll do the reverse during November.

Painting commission naga as Heroes 3 Naga Queens

Reaper snake demons, totally following my previous Naga Queen... with a few hiccups.  

Painting commission fantasy heroes

A motley collection of heroes, Reaper bones except the metal dwarf.

Chaos Daemons vs Custodes, 20.10.2026

We tested the new Custodes codex! I used a similar list as last time, but I switched out the two Khorne heralds for a unit of Pink Horrors. On the other side... surprisingly many models, with 21 Sisters of Silence present. That, and 9 Terminators with Trajan, plus two Dreadnoughts. 

Painting a commission werebear

This werebear painted as a European brown bear. I looked up some pictures of bears and it looked like they were darker in the front and lighter along the back/spine. So I drew inspiration from the polar bear technique and went to work.

Painting a commission bone giant

The "biggest" commission of 2026. 

Chaos Daemons vs Orks, 13.10.2026

Chaos Daemons are back, this time against the brand new ork codex. I made a more well rounded list instead of a monster mash and went at it again with the Daemonic Incursion. Be'lakor is still here with his two bloodthirster buddies, but I had 3 infantry squads in reserve and nurglings clogging up the middle. 

The orks had two loaded squads of meganobz, a big boy squad, the big man Ghaz himself, as well as two dakkarigs and a deff dread. Other units rounded out the list for scoring purposes.

Painting more Unsullied Swordmasters and Targaryan heroes

Probably the last commission of the year, rounding off the Unsullied infantry.

Converting and painting more Free Folk Giants

I've already worked on some Free Folk giants, see Converting and painting Free Folk giants. I have another pair of savage giants, one of which needs to become a spear thrower. Obviously I won't do the same conversion again. Instead I came up with the idea of a pine tree thrower, as previously the guys joked a lot about pine trees flying across the table. I also put some work into the other guy, just to make sure everybody understands that this is a melee giant. 

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: ...and all of your heads explode

The party regrouped in Waterdeep, and spent some time selling off loot, shopping for magic items and high quality diamonds. They actually found nothing of interest after rolling poorly on the merchant tables, so they used their old teleport network to take a detour through Neverwinter. Here they bought some gear and a diamond to resurrect Szivem. Initially Groin began the ritual on the high street in front of the temple of Lliira, but on rolling a 1, he had to retreat inside before a procession of nobles. Still many people gathered to witness the miracle[1] and the temple gained new followers.

After a well deserved long rest, the adventurers once again descended into the Dungeon. They explored the rest of the mansion, going through the chambers of a noble couple, abandoned in a hurry. They saw and heard signs of being watched. Twice they encountered Star Spawn Larva Mages materializing from thin air. They fought the first one, to general disgust at all the worm-related happenings.

Painting a lich

Painting the lich from the Reaper DDRPG Kickstarter with the purpose of completing the purple experiment done on the cultists. 

Painting Reaper cultists in yellow and purple experiments

Painting the cultists from the Reaper DDRPG Kickstarter and having fun with new color schemes.

Chaos Daemons vs Thousand Sons, 29.09.2026

 

For my first foray into Chaos Daemons since a long time, I chose the easiest possible army to play: daemonic incursion with 6 greater daemons (models courtesy of my opponent, I just brought two Bloodthirsters). Against me, the Thousand Sons with Magnus in the lead, on this Dawn of War deployment. My opponent proclaimed my imminent victory.

I wasn't so sure so I deployed somewhat conservatively, with one Bloodthirster in reserves, one on the left flank, and everything else in a death star formation around Be'lakor.

September review and October goals

Summer and holidays are definitely gone now, hello school year and glorious autumn! 

Just kidding, I hate the changing weather and flu.

Anyway, with the holiday season gone, schedules are somewhat on track. I had some more leg-related issues, but those should be done for the time.

We did not manage to restart the Dungeon of the Mad Mage due to... as I said, I hate the flu. At least we sneaked in some Descent into Avernus, with the bodies of fiends piling high everywhere we go. D&D5.5 is a great extension of the game. Triss is having a blast.

ASOIAF is based, with a small local tournament serving as training with the new patch. I also dipped into Chaos Daemons, and got my ass kicked, although I can see the potential. My excitement for 11th edition is waning, and we just got another massive changeset... we'll see.

At least the hobbying went well. My backlog of Imperial Guard infantry is almost finished, and I also went through some vehicles. Fantasy miniatures help shore up the numbers: several dragons, which I've been eyeing since the start of the year, are done. For the first time this year, I was ahead of schedule, even if by a measly 2... I'm behind again by 7, but a new batch of minis is soon done. This includes low effort Warhammer marines, ASOIAF commissions and some Free Folk for yours truly. All this should eat into the 98 minis scheduled to be painted until the end of the year.

As for the next batch, I will continue in the same vein. I have just two more units of Free Folk to paint up, one being already converted. I have a large amount of Warhammer minis converted and primed, ready for some paint. And of course, fantasy minis, mostly of the Reaper kind, also sit in boxes. I have no plans set in stone. I just want to get this through!

Painting Frozen Shore Bear Riders

Poor Bear Riders... they won't see the table during S7, but I like the models so here they are.

Painting Free Folk Heroes 1... and some attachments

After my essay on Slapchop 2.0 and its vigorous testing and finally codifying... all that's left is to apply it. 

17th Battle of Cluswar: A Song of Ice and Fire tournament

One final event before university season starts and everything gets crowded. Also the new balance patch is out! I decided to try the giants once more, to gauge the amount they've been nerfed by.

Note that we were only 5 players, and we decided to play with the Phantom Scourge again - a simple list piloted by either the organizer or myself, depending on matchups.

Game 2.5: Phantom Unsullied vs Greyjoy

Playing two games of The Winds of Winter really took a lot out of me, but I gave my best to hold up the savage Greyjoys.

Round 2 saw more posturing and no points scored.

Round 3 saw the Greyjoys want to hold objective points; whereas I was fairly certain things were going to get killed, so 2 points on killer units. The Greyjoys of course blocked me off the right hand objectives, but at least they failed their charge. The middle unit accepted the hits from the stakes, but this gave them a points advantage.

I rushed in for the kill on the unit left hanging, but of course Balon brought them back. Then we went to to toe where my units lost the 4-3 fight. 

The game almost ended in a draw, but the cavalry couldn't make the final kill. Victory to the Greyjoys!

Game 2: Free Folk Giants vs Baratheon

The Giants faced the Baratheons during The Winds of Winter. Refuse flank for the Baratheons, with the Giants converging on them across the table. Stakes protected the middle as usual.

Game 1: Free Folk Giants vs Phantom Unsullied

A Game of Thrones facing the smooth brain Unsullied list. Round 1 posturing, as usual.

Kit review, magnetizing, adding LED lights to the Hippogriff and Centaur... also painting

I haven't bought Warhammer in a while... and of course they went ahead and released new Guard vehicles. Well here they are! 

Overheated chaingun muzzle

 

Descent into Avernus: The defense of High Hall

I technically missed a session but there was only some fighting on the road in Elturel on route to High Hall. And that's where we started now: at the entrance to the ruined fort, ambushed by giant crabs and a bearded devil riding one of them.

Descent into Avernus: A stroll through Elturel

The session started with a giant lore dump, first regarding our Candlekeep research, then about harvesting the body parts of devils. 

Painting Casterly Rock Knights and Clegane Butchers

Yet more Lannisters to paint... but this time I asked for them unpainted (technically primed white) to experiment with horses.

D&D 5.5: Descent into Avernus

We quickly wrapped up the ghost story by getting a reward: two Candles of Tomorrow. Then we were off to continue our serious adventure involving devils and stuff. Oh, and we also got an infernal puzzle box from the DM. This marvelous 3d printed contraption kept attention off the main happenings for a long while, and we somehow opened it to find M&Ms inside.

Painting Unsullied Swordmasters and Targaryan heroes

The next batch of Targaryen commissions.

Painting Targaryen heroes

More Targaryen commissions, for variety. No Unsullied-type characters, those will be done along with another block of infantry.

Astra Militarum vs Tyranids, 31.08.2026

Back for revenge with the nuns, this time I changed up everything. Well, almost everything. We were too excited to start and I didn't take pictures with the deployment, so take a look at the map after round 1. I went all in with Scions, and with the Armored Infantry detachment I can redeploy 2 more squads into reserves. That means I only got Gaunt, Sly Marbo, Kroyle, a Callidus, a squad of Cadians and a random Cyclops Demolition Vehicle because of points. Everything else is Militarum Tempestus in deep strike. I also took Take and Hold disposition and fixed secondaries to destroy the Tyranid monsters.

Painting donkey cavalry as rough riders/death riders

I painted some more of these donkey riders to reach some respectable numbers in case I ever need more Guard cavalry.

Group picture with all the donkey cavalry

Painting Kriegers

With the final installment of Kriegers painted, time to consolidate the color scheme and all.

Group photo of every Krieger in blue-grey

August review and September goals

August is done, and life should be back to the same old... somewhat.

The gaming side took a pause with everybody on holiday, though I still managed to sneak in a couple of games of Warhammer. Also D&D5.5 is now trucking on.

On the Warhammer side, I am now officially ditching the guard after 6/6 lost games. I actually wanted to quit earlier, but that would mean motivation to paint the rest of my stuff would vanish. I kept it up as long as I could. In September, I'll go back to my original army: Chaos Daemons.

On the D&D side, motivation is soaring. I love playing Triss, my sorceress. The big reveal was finally done: we are playing Descent into Avernus. Although we might go back to Call of Cthulhu at some point, this is perfect for now.

Note that in September, the Dungeon of the Mad Mage should get back on track, and I should play a couple of games of ASOIAF as well. Just bring out the damn patch already! 

But all of this might not go anywhere if my leg keeps acting up...

Finally, on the hobby side, August saw a monumental effort to get back on track. Even though we were on holiday as well, with my bad leg, we didn't go anywhere far, so I could sneak in some painting here and there. I am now only behind schedule by 67, with 188 minis to go by the end of the year. This... is a tall order. So how to fix this? Well first of all, I do have some things in progress. The final, final batch of Guard infantry in the shape of Krieg command squads is on the table, as well as a bunch of 3d printed vehicles. Getting all of it done should provide a big boost. Then it's on to whatever next... probably some fantasy minis, to escape the Warhammer fatigue.

Astra Militarum vs Tyranids, 25.08.2026

Giving my mixed list another go: tanks and scions vs Tyranid monsters. I thought I'd have an easy time, with all tanks having lethal hits against the monsters, and the scions rerolling to wound...  well, not so much.

Tyranids got first turn and took position for early Take and Hold points.

Tan flesh

 

Painting Varamyr and friends

Although it's currently the season of giants... Varamyr still serves. 

Painting Cadian command squads in the brown and black of the Carmelites

Rounding out my 3x20 squads of black-and-white Cadian shock nuns, these command squads include extra models in case of exchanging the currently useful weapon types.

D&D 5.5: Candlekeep ghost story

We concluded our journey preparations by visiting Satiir Thione-Hhune, the matriarch we had previously rescued from the Vanthampurs. I presented myself as concerned about her health and all, hoping for a monetary reward, but she promised a favor instead. Good enough.

Once outside Baldur's Gate, Rheia went about her charity work among the Elturel refugees. We also met another Hellrider called Bran, who told us about their order's history and his desire to rebuild it. He was also heading to Candlekeep, so we let him tag along.

Speaking of...

Painting Death Korps of Krieg in bluish grey

 

Painting silver metallic with gold trim

 Originally trialed on Lannisters.

Simple blue tinted power sword

 

Painting grells

I did these in a day just in time for an appearance in Dungeon of the Mad Mage.

Painting Free Folk Skinchangers (with a 3d printed variant)

For that future Free Folk zoo build with deep striking bears! One set of white, black and brown minis each. 

Painting donkeys

 

Simple marble

 

Dungeon of the Mad Mage: ...and your head explodes

Still riding the high of defeating the Angel, the adventurers rested among their duergar allies, then descended into the next level of the dungeon. At least it looked nice, much like a noble manor up in Waterdeep. But it obviously contained horrors - the party was immediately beset by several grells. Being fully rested, high level spells and divine smites flew all around, from fireballs to fire storms.

Painting Free Folk Heroes 3 proxies

I have already converted and painted a Lady Dalla, see here. I decided to get 3d printed proxies for the rest of the minis in the Heroes 3 box.

Converting and painting Commissar Yarrick

Yarrick's return cinematic was hot stuff, and I immediately set to create a proxy/conversion. I had several ork bodies 3d printed to have a pile of them for the base, but the model turned out to be set on 32mm. Sigh. I dismembered just one body, and decided to have Ol' Bale Tits standing on it triumphantly.

Astra Militarum vs Orks, 06.08.2026

After the first three games of infantry squads dying in droves, I cooked up a list of tanks backed up deep striking Scions. Test subject: Orks! I got first turn, and I sent all 3 of my battle tanks into reserves, wanting to ambush the orks on all sides. Seeing the field clear, the boys scouted up 6".

Painting Inquisitor Kroyle

Loosely follow this excellent video by the Warhipster, at least for the mount.

Lannisters vs Free Folk, 27.07.2026

I basically wanted to see the other end of the stick, and prove that Lannisters can stand up to giants with some tailoring. Surprisingly, I faced a 6/2 list which is not at all how my opponent usually operates. I on the other hand was playing Lannisters as Free Folk: 5/3 with lots of cheap units, and both Robert Strong and Jaime (Kingsguard) for auto-wounds. Game more: A Feast for Crows.

We both placed stakes around the left side objective, but I won the roll-off and placed my opponent's cheeky stakes on his side.