Girly legged minotaur

The long-legged androgynous minotaur got a little of the time I had to spare over the holidays. Jonathan provided the feedback, and a strap for the shoulder pad now helps the bullman man it up a little.

Not seen in this particular picture is the green stuffed improvement to his too neat hair style which has now got a bit wilder down the back.

I am still not sure if I should fur up his thighs. That would mean his furry panties would no longer work though...

Meh'zo Hawhny

A long-legged minotaur with furry panties like MOTU-dolls, almost!

As you can tell, he is a random conversion that just happened as I tried to work off some of the stress from the office and the subsequent xmas shopping. Sawing and cutting followed by green stuffing does the mind good.

He is no masterpiece. Some may hate him for his soft and girly legs, hairless and long. Others may not like the very upright pose, or you may not like my removal of his weapon and sculpting of muscle where there used to be chain. It will all cover up nicely with primer, and I am debating giving him more fur as well.

Product review

Vallejo Dark Earth is a nifty paste for jazzing up your bases or dioramas. It says it is a "gritty paste og acrylic resin, pigment and micro particles", and I can only assume that last bit to be the ground bones of enemies. It is what it says it is.

I painted my bases brown first, but you can probably skip this stage if you prime black, brown or grey. These were white though, so I played it safe.

The paste is easily applied without being too messy. I am using an old cheapo crafts brush which usually sees use when I apply liberal amounts of cheapo craft paint to bases. Using a nice brush would be plain stupid, but a knife or spatula, clay shaper or whatnot might also be fine. The texture is like sandy plastic putty, and it can easily be used to hide the slot in the base or weird gaps between feet and base.

One can supposedly make track marks or other cool effects, but I have yet to try that. Letting it dry and building it up or anything like that seems very easy though. Planting grass tufts in it would also be easy, and likewise with battlefield debris etc.

It looks like dirt! It dries in about 45 min at room temperature and looks pretty much the way it looks going on. Basically the next step is to just dab on some spots of glue, flock/grass/tuft and then call it a day, but I suppose one can drybrush it to lighten highpoints, but I did not feel the need or urge.

Darkside Goatboys

Seeing as I have other unfinished business, ie two other teams to paint that see action, getting played in the league, it really made little sense to paint these.

They even look familar, because I recently painted abother team, the Rams-looking one, that had the same goats. So no, it was not really the challenge or some sort of mad inspiration.

Am I a Cowboys fan? No, not in the slightest. I have painted these up as Cowboys, because I toyed with the idea with a friend, and then I could not let it go without trying. Suddenly I was halfway through the goatses, and I liked the different look from most Chaos teams who tend to be dark.

The loin cloths were supposed to be silvery, but the mix came out a shiny, and not exactly with a metallic look or sparkle. And of course beastmen wear no helmets, so the silver helm is... their massive belt buckle instead. They like belt buckles in Texas though, right?

The warriors are converted and primed. They will have silver helmets. Promise.

Pact for pizza

As a favour to my league opponent and generous host of our boardgame antics, I took on the project of supplementing his team of converted humans with a dark elf, a goblin, a skaven, a troll and a minotaur. In return for some free deep pan pizza.

There were two challenges.

1. Keeping cost down. This was a "just whatever you can find"-job, but with a clear focus on getting in some cheap players. That meant conversion, as I obviously have loads of time for that...

2. Matching the paint job. I had one of the other players to work from as a dummy, and I had to try and match his base as well, obviously. This meant that the paint job is not representative of my current level of skill as such, as it involved some cheap and easy techniques that I would otherwise not be using.

That said, these minis should match up nicely with the ones he has, providing him with another team to play, and a unique one at that.

Undead team

I know I said I was done with the dead, and indeed I am, but I lined them up for a neater picture, and it sums up the effort with a bit more gusto.

I have more undead/necro lying around, so we will be coming back to these at a later date.

Necromancer - the coach

"The spirits of the dead who stood
   In life before thee are again..."

I dug deep for this one... Heh. Get it? I believe he is an old Grenadier necromancer, but I may well be wrong. He fits the scale and vibe of the team pretty well with his robes and mummy bandages.

However, the green robes give him a bit of a Dr. Doom feel that one may or may not be enjoying amidst ones undead.

Quick paintjob on this guy too, though I went a bit wild on his robe, and that makes us completely done with the dead in quite a hurry, actually. For now.

Ghouls!

"Thy soul shall find itself alone
’Mid dark thoughts of the gray tombstone..."

Finished! Well, I plan to add a coach, ie a nasty necromancer, but these four corpse-eaters are enough to take the team to 16 players, and so it shall remain, forever remain.

I am not entirely sure what my goal was here. To make them pink and somewhat 'stealer hybrid-esque? Mission accomplished, I think. I did want to give them more colour than the dead members of the team, and I wanted them to look a bit inhuman and unhealthy, without getting into any nurgle-tones.

I decided against painting blood on them, grime etc. I think a cleaner look is a bit creepier anyway.

There you have it. Done.

Wights! Here comes the razor's edge...

"Razor's edge to raise the dead..."

These are no doubt the most colourful undead that I have ever produced. I can't quite decide if I hate them or not, but I think they work with the others.

They get to avoid football gear because they're of course just ancient evil douchebags who have crawled out of their graves to bash heads.

These are metal, except for the GW plastic heads.

Skeletons! Evil walks behind you!

These are plastic as well. GW, but with heads swapped for football helmet wearing ones. Not that the GW heads would noy have worked in a pinch, but still...

Simple to paint, yet quite effective. I would have liked them a little more awkward-looking, and doing the bones in this way is og course a choice too. They could have been whiter and/or had darker/black shade.

Will I field three? Probably not.

Zombie attack

Here are the zombies!

Plastic, yes. While there are good zombies to be had elsewhere - and I have them - I wanted to stay strictly 28 mm or at least on the small side of 30, and I wanted to experiment with quick and dirty techniques for the skin, ie coloured primer and a series of washes. So here it is.

Skin decomposes in many funny ways, so imho there is no one way to do zombie skin. Except to generally stay away from rotten skin colours, as they are usually just a bathroom set light green...

This is also an experiment with static grass, this particular kind being 'dead'. Fitting, I thought.

Team colours are poisonous green and brown. Skellies up next! All comments welcome.

Mum is the word

My undead are taking shape, speed-painted and strictly 28 mm, yet with a mix of plastics thrown in just to keep it cheap and nasty.

Well, truth be told, I have boat loads of the undead, but few that really matched in size and style.

First up: mummies. Note how they are not giants. Assuming you are not a bandaged ogre, you would be smaller than you are now post mortem, dried up and with several organs missing. So. Death to huge mummies. Do not want.

I go for the toilet-papered look all the way. Grey or brown? Not striking enough. 

Mine are maybe a bit too athletic for such a low AG...

Skaven coach

Huh? No, I am not sidetracked and working on a skaven team. I merely fixed some details on this converted fantasy skaven with a playbook so that he may perhaps coach a friend's skaven team to glory.

His hand with a lame staff has been surgically removed and replaced with one that waves the players on, and obviously the grimoire and pointy hat are untouched. One cool detail is the very 'football in the 80s' scarf that he also wears.

Chaos group shot

In case anyone wondered about the relative sizes of the players... They are from three different non-GW manufacturers, but it's hardly an issue here.

All that's missing are numbers on the bases and varnish.

Chaos warriors

These four complete the project dubbed 'The Tzeentch team' when asked what I am currently working on.

They are of course not originally Blood Bowl players, but I think I managed to get them all to look as if they could be out there chasing a pigskin and maiming opponents, rather than looking like someone just snipped their weapons.

I did more or less steal a St. Louis Rams colour scheme, regretting it several times along the way, but I am quite pleased with it here at the end, and in spite og the pains of working with colours that are opposites, the contrast does work, and the blue is dark enough to keep the warriors menacing.

All comments are welcome.

Chaos was the law of nature...

I have completed 12 beastmen and a converted minotaur... for no apparent reason.

Well, the primary reason being experimentation. These were painted rather quickly and with no pressure to deliver. This meant that I stuck with the Rams-colour scheme even if hated it at one point along the way and came close to changing it.

The warriors are 60% done, so they are to follow as soon as work permits me to focus on them.

Trollish randomness

With several other teams to work on, I randomly put together a chaos troll for no good reason. I huess that is why this is a hobby, and not a job. Well, this and the whole paying for stuff to work on and lack of profit made.

So. Trollish fun.

Ogre

This ogre is intended for the human team I did ages ago. He took his time, as my fovus switched to other projects, but I am quite pleased with him now.

He is rather minimally converted, but apparently a gladiator is almost a bb-player anyway. It is not THE nicest sculpt, particularly not the legs, and he rather lacks detail. He is a nice, slim type though, with a good mean face.

Born with a heart of steel... Norse!

I have managed to put together a unique (?) team of norse barbarians, and so far I am quite pleased. They are still glossy, but due for anti-shine soon.

I am not sure I like the tundra tufts from Army Painter, so I may change my mind and do some snow effect. Bases are not completely done.

They are of course conversions. I did the two wolfmen out of gors with converted feet and head swaps, the snow troll is cobbled together from my bit box, and all models are different. I have used hair colour to indicate position, but even with poses to help, it may be too subtle. The blitzers wear head gear to make them stand out, and while they are quite different, and one may seem on the silly side, I did that on purpose (read: on a whim, I threw in a hint of Norway) and I didn't have two bear heads that worked. The catchers are the ones without beards and long, golden hair, and the throwers with their white hair got to look more old and wise and Odin-like.

The snow troll or "giant" is a bit of an experiment. He changed head a few times and originally did not have a claw either. I felt that he had to have one though, and I have had that head for a while without any really obvious mini to use it on. I am sure he'll be one of those "nice enough, but not for me"-guys, and that's fair enough. I just didn't fancy dressing up another big hairy ape man for the part. He got red hair too which I am sure some will not like either, but hey. I thought about doing his skin differently, but I didn't want him to stand out in that way, and he's more of a "touched by the gods"-guy than a "look at this hairy fucker that we've brough along"-guy.

The main "problem" is the lack of stuff to paint. I went with the bold, emerald pads to set off all the earth tones that I had in skin, fur and hair. I guess in retrospect I could have given some of them black hair, but I wanted them to be more "Scandinavian", and I suppose I could have given them grey furs to warm their balls. But I didn't.

I have a coach wip as well. He took a back seat for a moment, though.

WIP teaser: chaos troll

Not the most chaotic creature to lumber out of the Northern wastes, but a nasty and highly mobile troll.

I am pleased with him, or I will be, when I finish his legs, and quite happy to get that head of his onto a good body and the pitch.

He has no real, visible mutation, so perhaps Disturbing Presence?

Yes, I know, he'll be a pain to place prone...

WIP teaser: Chaos ogre

Continuing the flippant cutting and gluing with more or less random bits, I am still trying to push boundaries so that all big guys do not seem so dreadfully similar...

1. Ogre. Bald Vinny Jones-type, bodybuilder.

2. Troll. Gangly fellow, orangutang arms and Muppet-face. Often looks sad for some reason. Are trolls depressed by nature?

3. Minotaur. Massive torso/shoulder. Face can be like basically any animal, but it must have horns. Tends to have hooves, not feet these days.

Well, so I am deconstructing these slightly and incorporating random mutations (that no sensible coach might pick), as I figure the gods are fickle and have a weird idea of the word 'gift'...

Without further ado, a bearded ogre with very long legs. WIP.

Teaser WIP

I do like cobbling together big guys from bits, sculpting the odd detail to cover up problem areas where things did not quite meet up as neatly as intended, creating unique focal points for a team...

Problem is that new teams often start off this way, sucking the creative energies out og current projects. This, however, is a guy I am working on when I need a break from painting, and I am enjoying both, so all is well.

He should fit in well on a Pact I am putting together.

Book review: Knight of the Blazing Sun

I have been quite busy lately, both with life/work/etc and with "The Hobby", so this blog is due for some attention at last.

I have read Knight of the Blazing Sun by Josh Reynolds, a popular Black Library writer who has also written some of their 40K-stuff as well as some other books about knights in his Bretonnia-books. I like his stuff, generally speaking, though the Word Bearers books got a little too heavy on the blood and battle stuff for my taste. But back to the book at hand...

Whenever someone is sent to investigate the death of an emissary anywhere in a Warhammer setting or perhaps in general, we can all be sure that dark powers are afoot and that larger/further misdeeds are planned. Every single time. It is never just a case of some guy having an actual accident, so that our hero gets to turn around and go back home again having found nothing interesting to see. So, same old in this book, but we do accept that, and the plot here is never hard to unravel for a keen mind (ie not absurdly drunk or mentally disabled): A knight of the Blazing Sun is sent to check up on his brothers on an island off in the North (Danger! Danger!) near Marienburg, after the death of the previous guy that the grandmaster sent to do the same, and all is not well there. Lets leave it at that.

Reynolds knows his history for sure. This comes through in his Knights of Bretonnia-books, and here as well. He knows his Templars, and he's boned up on "norse" as well, sprinkling the narrative with some norse words for colour. Well done, mr Reynolds, as so much is indeed won with a few details. One might cheekily suggest that a not TOO extensive re-write could have transported this story to 40K, where inquisitors, rogue space marines or guardsmen etc might all have substituted the characters in this book and seen the plot survive almost intact nevertheless. Here we have knights of the South with the interesting goddess Myrmidia as their patron pitted against the norse who continue to be the most interesting people in Warhammer, stuck as they are on the edge of Chaos and in religious turmoil.

We are not treated to terribly much detailed info about particular exotic locations in this book. There IS a bit about what Myrmidia and her knights are generally all about, and this is weaved into the narrative in a rather succesful way where it doesn't come off as too contrived for the characters to either be explaining themselves or thinking about stuff that is obviously already a fairly strong presence in their lives. There are quite a few other examples in books like this where some random character sits around thinking more or less out loud about what his role is... as you do. Not. I think I can give a passing grade to the effort made in that regard in this book.

Random things that I did not like in no particular order: The meeting of the chieftains with its slapstick squabbling, guy transforming into a bear, random riverboat tryst, trident-hand knight.

The book is well written, never boring or predictable beyond the acceptable, and descriptions are vivid and crisp. Perhaps Reynolds is experienced enough to know exactly what he can fit into a book of about 400 pages, or perhaps his editor sliced it just right, because it seems to have neither too much or too little fluff, and the characters have just about the right amount of depth and development for a book of this type.

I give this book four stars or skulls or what have you, and a spearhead pointing up. For it to reach five, it would have needed more obscure nods to templars and such, and some weeding out of the stuff that annoyed me. All in all, a very good Warhammer-book.

Finished treeman

Waiting for elves to play with.

This guy looks mean, and would just not work with halflings. Partly because he looks so mean, but also because I have just the one, and only a fool fields halflings with one tree.

His foot is quite big, yes. That is due to him being a non-slotta. I cut his blobby foot, to a slice out and repositioned his legs a bit in order to fit him on a 30 mm.

He got sanded and flocked with a more summery mix that I would normally like, but I am currently experimenting with my basing.

The gold shoulder pad is not an ideal choice, but that matches his team mates.

Treeman

While painting the porky orc'ies and getting fed up with it, I distract myself with some side projects. The necromancers I have to finish? No, of course not!

So here is a treeman. He needs pads and some work on the base, but he is close to done, and obviously looking for elves to hang out with.

Comments always welcome.