Battle report: Cryx vs Khador

Since oldie Warmachine is back in action again (you might have noticed recently Privateer Press stuff got pile of shame rescuing priority) my One True Foe and I decided to bring some full metal minis to the gaming bunker for 50 points skirmish battle, on ancient dragons boneyard. 

To be honest it was kinda special event:

not only it's been ages since we were playing Warmachine, but also most or my opponent's army has actually been painted! Not by himself, but apart from Doom Reavers squad and a war dog, whole army was properly painted, based etc. Because of that I decided such a special battle also deserved special setting. For years I was looking for any idea what to do with these old bones, and as it turned out - these are great dead ancient dragnon's skull proxy 😁

It's been lots of fun - hope to play some more Warmachine soon, especially because I've been working on another pair of Deathripper bonejacks recently...

So here they are: both armies circling around ancient dragon's remains trying to get opportunity to strike:

Scrap thrall got itself under deadly Spriggan's grenades volley:

Cryx advancing:

Kodiak taking defensive measures against Reaper's harpoon:

Cryx's steel fist turned into heaps of scorching metal after Butcher's furious charge:

The final duel: this time Asphyxious was much better swords... eee... eee... forksman! 

Pics enchanced by my One True Foe - looking forward for re-match so I can hopefully see burning Khador junk!

Arkhan the Black - finished! 💀

Another painting nightmare was just saved from Pile ov Shame oblivion.

It took long time to get this model so really cannot wait to see it display base leading undead chartiot platoon. Sadly both cases are full so looks like I need another Ikea Detolf. 

Painting this thing was pain in the ass. As mentioned earlier the model had to be painted before assembling to reach everything and shit. Sure it makes painting easier, but it takes much more time which I really don't like. I wanted to paint original banner first, but whole thing is colorful enough already. 

Must say I like what the final result, maybe except for that Lollipop of Damnation carried by mr. Black. The idea was to keep original colors, but it turned out as some stupid plastic toy.

See? 😁

The model got slightly larger base then original (5" x 5") so taking photos took some limitations because of small backdrop. Definitely not enough space for 3 or 4 more chariots...

Arkhan the Black - work in progress

Here I am again. Still alive.

Just as I promised to myself I took a break from painting weird sh!t and decided to paint bag full of ancient bones and magic stuff rotting on the very bottom of washing jar: Mighty Nagash's first lieutenant: Arkhan the Black. Back days it was one of those dream models I could never afford of even get where I live. Always considedred it badass sculpt: undead pope pillaging South of Men Empire. Ohhh... How nec-romantic... 🥰

I got the model ages ago but long after I quit playing Undead and Warhammer Fantasy at all. Those days I used to paint pretty lots of stuff for Ebay auctions and for commissions so there were funds for whims like Arkhan and other useless miniatures.

When I got it (it was second hand, badly painted piece) I was pretty sure it was complete. Kinda was: when it was stripped and examined it turned out although where were all parts, some of them were broken so it took some extra time to pin and assemble whole thing properly. Horses which came with the set were broken so I had to replace them. Looking at the model now I think it was good idea to add some variety to the ponies (thanks, Radek!). Just exactly like with other undead chariots I have the base was made of PVC sheet. This time it's 5" x 5" square to provide enough space for the horses and yoke. It's not much according to the rulebook (I guess) but I really don't give a f#ck about them. And besides - it's my toy so I guess I can place it on whatever I want, right? 🤔

One thing that bugs me now is the banner. Should I paint original, super-striking banner from Undead army book or rather stick to black and white banners used for all units in the Undead Army. The stripes look kinda more sinister and make nice contrast to rather colorful model, but think decision shall be made after the Black Pope is panited.

So here it is: the current stage. The black pope himself arrives when (or rather if) I can re-attatch it's broken Staff of Damnation:

There's one more tech-thing: apparently either blogger got screwed or I've been spamming those posts for too long but "Spam of the year" list is messed. There started to appear post much older then a year. Tried to reset it but with no effect. Any idea what could be the reason of it would be appreciated 🙄

Dragon ogres

One more wicked spark of pure Chaos emerged though Gate in the far north. 

This time it's one of my dream-units: dragon ogres. Must say I've fell in love in these monstrocities the day I got copy of Chaos Warriors rulebook bazillion years ago - sadly, 'till now I never got opportunity to assemble and paint them. Better late then never I guess 🙄

Painting process didn't take as much as I was afraid initially, but getting my ass to start doing the job took ages. I was shit scared of painting those damn scales, painting lizard and human body on the same model etc but all in all wasn't THAT bad when I started.

Initial thought was to paint them with very strong, vivid colors, like in Chaos armybook for Warhammer Fantasy 4th edition, but all in all I went for more natural tones. Such flesh fits Slaanesh force I've been working on, but at the same time the unit looks still pretty universal - if I ever get an idea to place them under command of different Chaos God...

So here they are - taking a walk in Empire's outskirts:

And here dragon ogre champion is about to send Heinrich Kemmler, the Lichemaster straight back to Nagash! Looking at this clash of steel and bones I now know what's the reason of fielding wraith champion in Undead army 👻

Cheers!

Heinrich Kemmler, the Lichemaster

It's good to be dead.

I mean: it's good to be BACK... ekhem, ekhem... Right...

Recent months were some sort of tornado in every aspect of my life: the fact it took me 2 months to paint anything speaks for itself. But there's still everlasting plan to paint models I have during the lifetime so every little counts I guess.

There're many miniatures I'd love to see rescued from the pile of shame, but the one chosen this time is kinda special. With no doubts it's one of my most favotite models ever made: 

Heinrich Kemmler, the Lichemaster.

Not mentioning it's background, the fact there's RPG campaign based on Kemmler's malicious plotting, the sculpt is just Middlehammer's classic. In fact it's the 3rd or maybe even 4th Kemmler sculpt I've painted so far. 

Like many models from the Middlehammer range it doesn't fit models in the unit. No fu#king way. To deal with this problem at first I wanted to put it on slightly larger base (25 mm) but this would also ruin unit's composition. The solution was using even larger base - 40 mm: model fits the unit and also I could add 3 skeletons rising from the ground, so no one can say it's just a filler 😋

It's unique model so decision was made to give it unorthodox paintjob. Most versions of this piece it rather dark, so I painted mine in fashion of ordinary (evil) wizard. It still has rather healthy flesh tone and rather clean hair and beard which makes him rather regular guy (among evil wizards). The staff's top has been taken from zombie dragon - original part broke off a while back and while I am pretty sure I still have it, I thought every way to make model look different is worthy trying. Ok, here's the guy:

Take care 💀

Undead chariot #2

It took a little while since I painted the previous chariot, but now my deaders got another wheeler. As most of miniatures from this range, this one brought me back and I'm really glad I got opportunity to work on it. The chariot is really old piece and I got it recently in exchange for goblin wold riders set - never had any use for greenskins so I consider it great deal. 

The model I got was painted and was mostly complete - scythes were missing and there was only one crew member so I added 2 more skellies from Wargames Factory to make the platform more crowdy. Speaking of which - I really like WF sculpts but assembling those bony models is just pain in the ass. Bony ass that is! 💀

I really like black and white stripes banners idea so the chariot also got one. Shambling horde of undead marching under banners like this should look supercool. Haven't decided yet should army standard should be the similar or maybe I should make up something else.

And all undead "heavy hitters" together. Looks lije there's one more chariot and Arkhan the Black himself yet to be done...

Lich Lord (not Lichemaster though) - review and walkthrough, part 5

It is finished! The paintjob is done!
Finally! That was traumatic experience and it's SO good to have it behind me.

As I wrote it the previous posts working on this thing was huge pain in the ass. I think the worst thing was assembly - that is model had to be painted assembled so manipulating was just very uncomfortable. Best example - banners. Painting them separated would be much easier and would bring better results than what you can see. I also didn't like sculpted sandglass and death - I'd prefer these banners plain or sculpted a'la Henrich Kemmler's apron - assembled bits of face skin. Really grim and totally badass!

As for the good things: all in all I like it, it's pretty striking sculpt which will surely pop out of infantry regiments. It's messy but I wouldn't expect anything cleaner from long dead evildoer.

What next?
Well in the meantime I managed to get some oldie Undead (heh, history made a full circle - I got rid of of core of my Undead army like 10 years ago?) and I'd like to build small, oldschool army, based on ~4-5 WFB edition models, or at least 90s' stuff.
Don't think that will be gaming but should look just cool in the display case.

Ok, that's it for now. Time to plan the overall shape of Undead army. And play Dark Omen!

And just to keep things more less tidy - here are links  to prior Lich lord posts if anyone's interested: part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4. See you soon!

Lich Lord (not Lichemaster though) - review and walkthrough, part 4

Slowly  we're reaching the end of the journey.

Thank gods for that...

Anyway this time I managed to:

- paint main (dead) body of the cart,

- attatch it to the base,

- attatch it to the apocalypse pony,

- paint the base.

Working on the cart main structure was hard - not mentioning problems with manipulating based model it was simply boring: there's lots of skulls and bones to paint. I decided to paint the cargo with dirty tones - browns and chalks were addsed to glazes and washes to make the thing look natural (as much as natural pile of remains can be that is).
Same chalks were added for shading wooden and metal elements - such thing makes the piece look coherent.

At this stage lich is not much more than some rags and handful of bones so it was painted black - the dark cherry on Nagash's birthday necro-cake. I thought that should make it pretty eyecatching - dark character sitting on a top of much brighter bones. The banners will also be bright - no idea what tone at this moment though.

As mentioned above model was attached to the base - lots of greenstuff was put under wheels and to connect cart with the horse, but it was absolutely necessary. It is supposed to be gaming model and because of nature of the sculpt - solid pinning was not an option.

The base itself is just sand washed with browns and olives and then drybrushed with bright olive and bleached bone. there will be artifical water in the hole but it's the very last step. I will also sprinkle some dirt / mud  but again - whole thing must be painted first.

What's left?
Apart from basing there is a zombie which lich is raising from the deaders pile (no idea what's he doing actually, I know he's grabbing zombie's neck), there's a skeleton holding ye magick booke (I will paint it nice and clean, dry bones - better contrast with rest of corpses) and of course: banners.
Frankly I wouldn't mind if those were just stripes of leather (maybe something like Lichemaster's cloak) but banners with sculpted patterns should also look decent. I think I will paint them like rotting flesh - that should look striking and make the rider even more visible.

Piccies time. The next post should be the last about this case:

Deeply hope the next post will be the very last about this case.

Lich Lord (not Lichemaster though) - review and walkthrough, part 3

Hey again, the painful adventure continues.

Since the last time I managed to slap some paint on the lil' skellie and the pony.

That doesn't seem to be much but this model doesn't want to cooperate at all. There are minis you enjoy painting and there are the others.

Chariot of the Harvester is one of the others.

Since there was not much painting there cannot be much babbling (this time).
I painted the dead kid first - it's nice accent, pretty wicked. This character is just some bones wrapped in dirty rag so paintjob is neither spectacular, but the sculpt is cool:
it's very delicate - there's lots of fine details. There's also creepy bit - the skellie is carrying skeleton-ragdoll on it's right arm.

There was more fun painting the pony.
It was painted with olives and some broken reds for the contrast. It turned out rather bright but that should contrast nicely with dark base and dark chartiot frame.
This sculpt is very delicate - it's legs are so raw-boned I didn't dare to pin them. Instead I glued bars (or whatever the proper name of those bits of metal under minis feet is) straight into base. Model has already been varnished but I am planning to sprinkle some mud on it when the chariot is ready. Maybe not as much as on my Gone muddin' painting challenge entry but there still should me lots of mess.

Ok, pics time. And speaking of rotting ponies - clicky!

And that's how big the thing will grow.
It will be more impressive because of large banners on each side.
Really cannot wait to see it done... No more Gamezone. Speaking of which - I should have spare GZ knight (a'la EE Empire / Bretonnia) if anyone needs.

Laters!

Lich Lord (not Lichemaster though) - review and walkthrough, part 2

So here's the second part of my adventure with painitng Lich Lord.

Painful adventure as it turned out...

The next step is basing:
in case of "ordinady" models (that is: minis which cooperate with me instead of just being pain in the ass) I prepare the base, mount model on it and even sometimes - paint it first. The matter of personal taste that's all, basing is just fun.

In case of this one everything was more tricky:
model is made of several parts, it's pretty unbalanced and heavy which made painting it already based impossible. Assembling it also wasn't easy (lots of greenstuff was used to fill the damn gaps and make bits stick together) so in my opinion painitng the parts separated and assembling them later would not me a good idea.
So the decision was made to paint a pony and dead girls already on the base and other parts - separated. Base itself will be painted as the last thing.

As you saw in the first part of the walkthrough I used placcy GW regiment base: it's big enough for a chariot and it also has borders around so it's fine for applying artifical water. Weird thing: I was taking pics from the very beginning but when pics were downloaded it turned out some of them were missing and other - very blurry. By some mysterious way autofocus was off. But I should've expected paranormal activity - it's lich after all...
Paranormal or not - I managed to save only pics below so as for stuff you cannot see you'll just have to believe in my babbling.

First the base was filled with cork (around place I chose for the "pond" to get irregular, natural edges) and ~5 mm thick foamcore. I must admit I chose foamcore only because it was easier to fill the space than cutting and assembling cork. Then everything was covered with 2 layers of white glue and sand.

Then I realised a wagon filled with dead corpses crossing swampy area would surely leave deep tracks rather than just gently step on the very top of sand layer. 

Like some sort of wicked necro-ballerina... Jumbo size...

Carving thick layer of sand would be pretty hard so just made 2 brownstuff "sausages" and made the tracks on the sand layer. In the end there will also be some vegetation, foliage and fallen leafs (lots of damp trash) so it should be no problem.

Everything as covered with sand again.
Damn you lich, damn you and your autofocus sabotaging!!!

I marked places where models will stand and drilled holes for the bars.

At this stage I was really happy I chose foam board: it's easy to work with but it's just great for pinning models into. Except in this case there will be not much pinning. Gamezone stuff I got is really thin and fragile I am quite sure any attempt of drilling would simply break the limbs. Pain in the ass.

And here's the first painting-patient: dead girl. 

Pretty wicked idea - you cannot see it on the pic but this litle lady is carrying skeleton doll on it's rigth arm. Some greenstuff was put into the hole in the base, then superglue applied, models was pressed into this and surface was masked with sand. Bulletproof bond.

This model will be kinda test model for swampy colors to be used. I want to keep whole thing in rotten / greenish hue but we'll see whan happens. Whan I know for sure is I will try to paint very dark, deep shadows on the chariot to hide all gaps I didn't manage to cover properly with greenstuff. Wish me luck.