Display case upgrade

Last week I've finally managed to drag new vault for the miniatures collection 🤗

In fact I bought it last year but wasn't sure where would I live in 2026 so it had to wait. It's not hobby dedicated display case, but spare piece from local computer shop. As you can see it's over twice size of classic Ikea's Detlof so finally I can put whole Undead, Chaos and Bolt Action armies on single shelves!

It didn't have working lighting so last weekend I got some parts and temporarly placed LED tapes in front corners. I still have to prepare some rails for it (light should spread more evenly) but it's cool already. Check it out: lights on (night):

And here the vault during day (lights off). Massive beast, ain't it? 😎

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 🙄

Moon Clan (Chaos beastmen) #5- finished! 🤘🏻

"...and it will be a time of great strife, when the moons are united in darkness and the dead shall walk the earth once more..."

The Children of Chaos project is finally finished. Models have actually been painted a while ago, but now they got proper display base. As for the base used about 10 years ago I painted other unit standing on the same thing - Fabius Bile's  Plague Marines. Back days those chaotic creatures got a trophy on Pyrkon painting contest, and now - beastmen were planned to appear on Oldhammer Weekend Poland 2025 (3.10-5.10.2025).

I even signed up for Warhamer Fantasy campaigh, but sadly real life kicked in and hobby plans got dumped. Oh well, maybe nexy year. Or maybe never...

Like mentioned before - working on these oldies was lots of fun. These sculpts are essence of Warhammer spirit for me, and no printed / digitally designed hi-tech boring model can change that. Right now to take a step back from Warhammer I brought good ol' Deathjack on painting desk, but after it's done I deeply hope to assemble another warband from old range. Don't think I have enough junk to assemble Rogue Trader style band, but surely I have enough greenskins for the project...

Looking at viewers counters these models were damn popular compared to other stuff I paint. No idea why - my guess is GW released fresh Beastmen armybook or something. But we'll see what happens when new stuff leaves painting desk. So here they are and back to work...

Take care! 🐐

Moon Clan (Chaos beastmen) #3

Before launching hobby-spam there's quick technical annuncement. As you can see I've slightlty changed layout of the blog. I think it's temporary (header seems bit too massive) but we'll see shortly. I've also dumped "best posts ever" widget. I was nice to have most popular posts around, but sadly most of them contain old pics f#cked by Photobucket back days, so they weren't much cool anymore because of that silly Photobucket logo attatched 🙄

Also a while back I found a bug is "spam of the year" section as well: 

the top post (the one with Plague Marine)  was launched in 2014 and yet it's still on the top last year's best chart. No idea why: there's no way to make any post sticky, tried to re-launch that gizmo - no effect. I can sure delete old post but the again - why should I surrender to some stupid bloggy bug? 🙄

If you have any idea how to fix that - shout, I'll be grateful for any help. 

As for the proper topic - another 3 villains joined beastmen gang, so the project is ~70% finished: there are 3 more fellas to be done + basing. I was deeply hoping to bring them for Oldhammer Weekend Poland 2025 painting contest, but sadly once again real life stepped in so the plan got dumped. Oh well - at least I don't have to rush with them anymore... The guys got bit more reddish flesh tone but apart from that I tried to keep the same color palette so whole team looks coherent marching together. Painting those oldie beastmen is ton of fun, but really cannot wait to cross them off the list to paint something from science fiction range (like Chaos Cultists band from 40K...):

And finally: goat boys vs squid boys split second before a brief but vigorous fight erupts!

Nasca Razide (Warzone)

The end of year is coming and Warzone is on a roll!

Funny thing about it, but for some mysterious reason autumn / winter is somehow the best moment for painting oldschool junk. My guess: it's subconscious thing - I remember I got lured into Warzone trap when it was cold, so the terapist might find some connection... 

Crazy or not since do-gooders got some reinforcements, it was fair to paint something for The Evil Side. The beefcake below is nasca razide from Dark Eden line (Warzone on Earth simply speaking). Must admit I wasn't sure about this model and in the middle of painting I was considering washing it off to start again but all in all model turned out to be pretty cool. It's main flaw is too much muscles on the top (it falls easily) but apart of that - it's classic, goofy piece of art from oldie Warzone.  

As for paintwork I decided to keep it "fleshy" instead of violet like on official artwork. Somehow it's totally not my cup of tea. The only violet or blue skin tone in Warzone I can stand is Nepharite of Semai and praetorian stalkers ^^ 

The gun is just chunk of metal. There was a plan to add some color buttons or stickers but that would make it look like Nerf gun, rather then Algeroth's death device. Plus it's pretty dark and that makes nice contrast with rather monotone model.

Bare flesh is kinda plain so I tried to give it "texture" by adding some cuts. Now I can see I should finally invest in some better quality brush for such task but all in all I cannot complain. Neither can mr razide.

So here it is: facing Cybertronic patrol on Luna's outskirts:

And here about to gun down necromutants commando:

And da beefcake itself:

And the last thing. You might have noticed the globe counter on the right panel has been replaced. About 2 weeks ago that thing simply disappeared. Turned out it was shut down and that's just it. Tried to find some replacement so there's brand new, blue globe spinning right now, but it doesn't seem to show any visits. I'll try to look into it 🤔

Juggernaut (Khador)

Recently some of my trusty Cryx models have been rescued from the pile-of-shame tar pit so there was a plan to paint some more candies for Warhammer Undead army for a change. But before that I decided to paint little (well not that little actually) something for my buddy to boost him to get rest of his Warmachine's Khador force painted.
Or at least assembled... 🙄

That's right: back days before all those utterly stupid units have been released Warmachine was just over the top game. Few week back we were talking about it and decision was made to take old warjacks for a walk. My friend used to run Khador army, but from what I know his old models have been sold long time ago, so now new force is being grown.

What you see below is Khador's heavy warjack - Juggernaut.

It's one of core units of this faction: heavily armored, strong hitting and reliable. Not even mentioning the fact it's metal model! 😍

Usually Khador models are painted red - according to the fluff these are kinda steampunk Ruskies. I've never liked it so this one was done using mostly "natural" colors. Red elements were added for nice contrast. I like the final result - hope this model will encourage my trusty old foe to get rest of models painted. Playing with unpainted stuff aint's worth battle report 🙄

And little technical thing:
Recently I read about some blogger updates. There must be something about it, because I've been getting e-mail notifications about new comments under posts - which don't appear on the blog. No idea what's the reason but I'm more then grateful for constant support 😊 

Duel of the classics - Juggernaut vs Slayer:

Scale shot: scrap thralls about to perform death burst suicide attack:

Test expansion on FB

Hey,

this time's it's just quick technical announcement.

A while back I've noticed quite a lot of blogs I follow started moving on social platforms: facebook, instagram etc.

I like blogger a lot but looks like the times simple change and people are often interested in getting stuff from a single site, than skipping links. My guess only, that is...

To face the reality (and readers demands) last week I started blog on facebook:
it's rather empty at the moment but I think it's gonna be mirror of the blogger.
That's the idea, never before done anything similar.

So on the right panel there's new "Facebook thingy" button if you care to click it and give a like and from the next post (about oldie Warzone...) stuff should also appear there.

Over and out.

Warzone Biogiant + US paratroopers

Hey again,

It's been a while since the last post but this time I had serious reason: 

since February I've been preparing for the exam which was last on Saturday 24.09.2016 - and I passed it!!!
I still cannot believe my head can be used for anything more than wearing bike helmet. 

And hair.

Lots of minis wanted me to slap some paint on them this year so since there's bit spare time I'll try to make my pile ov shame bit lighter. So for starters 3 models which I've been woring on since the last spamming.

First one is huge and totally useless support for my Dark Legion army:
Algeroth's very own biogiant.
During golden age of Warzone I didn't like this model enough to purchase it. Frankly - don't think many gamers did. But I got it recently from friend who is running Mishima and this big guy was part of some large bundle of second hand model. Or something. Important thing is biogiant was no use for him.

Model came painted but required new colors. I am far from praising my paintjob, but original colors were basecoat at best. Most of spikes were missing too so I had to sculpt some.
I was trying to keep close to the artwork so there's dark armour and clothes contrasting with pale flesh (also now I see more necrotic tone whould be better).
Even though painting is simple this model took lots of time and effort - like some fucking energetic vampire. Which makes me even more happy to see it away from painting station.

As for testing new things I was trying to add static grass with an applicator. Results are not as spectacular as doing it on flat sheet of pcv but I still might use if for basing my Bolt Action troopers.

Too bad fielding this piece is just waste of points:
it's so huge it can be targeted from almost any point of battlefield and for that cost I can get a nepharite pimped with necrobionics and some spells. Oh well. So - the piccies:

And the scale shot for those unfamiliar to old Warzone range:

I wrote there are 3 new models. Lucky for me remaining ones were not as time, paint and life force consuming: Bolt Action US paratrooper.

These two are my very first painted infantry models from BA. My first impression about sculpts wasn't too optimistic, but all in all I must admit these models definitely have some charm and character.

And they keep the scale to the vehicles!

Color scheme was based on what I saw on the box, but I do not care much about recreating original uniforms, weather they were carrying olive backpacks and black helmets or not. I like them as they are so hope to finish rest of the squad similar way. Hope you like them: 

And one more scale shot. My invading force is growing like well fed yeast!
(Which reminds me - there's new photo album dedicated to Bolt Action miniatures - check the right panel).

That's it for now.
There's lots of minis I'd love to see painted fast but after hard struggle with biogiant - cannot decide which will be first. I should probably make some poll about it.

Ok, see ya next time!

Animated corpses, pigs, Facebook...

Kinda :)

The first thing is technical announcement - I decided to give a try to Facebook and some time ago the test FB site of the bloggy has been launched. I don't think there will be anything more published than links to new posts but we'll see if I can use it for something productive.

The site is just raw now - some background photos will be added just when I get any time (so don't expect it shortly). And because it's Facebook - there's brand new "zombie-like" linky on the right panel. Will probably replace it with more personalised pic sometimes.

And now something more hobby related.

I've been trying to learn taking decent pictures of my models since always. The more I tried the more I was sure it's equally hard to painitng models. My mentor in this matter is constantly Mahon - just check the pictures in the Chest of Colors gallery he took. Some of these were taken using dedicated vinyl backgrounds - there was review of that stuff somewhere on the CofC, report worthy checking.

I thought such backgrounds might actually be the improvement I've been looking for so I ordered some patterns. These is not any pro stuff dedicated for miniature painters bullshit, but samples of vinyl wallpapers. It looks quite interesting now but I will wait with the final opinion until I manage to place it behind miniatures in the light box and take a shot.

Which leads me to work in progress picture of zombie dragon project:
Few days back I managed to more-less finish the wight lord rider. The model is awful, no doubt about it, but it fits well the old dragon - and I really like the beast. It's one of the minis I've been trying to get painted for a looong time for several reasons, so be ready for a whiny, nostalgic (for me) story when I get it eventually done.

The plan was to paint the whole thing the "oldschool" way which means vivid colors a'la Warhammer 5th edition. Evil Sun banner is part of the story behind the project which will be revealed when the piece is done.

The pictures above were taken straight on the painting station, but I also gave a try to one of the new backgrounds. I am sure the results would be better if I took pictures in the light box but I am quite satisfied of the brick wall behind.
There are still 7 pieces of vinyl to be tested so expect to see them used on the next painted models.

And the last thing for this post: conversions.

The first one is nothing more but original model provided with new head: the master plan was to give it brand new set of spider legs or spider torso plus some minor modifications.

It didn't take long to realize my converting-fu isn't strong enough to do the job well, so I walked easy path. 

More-less easy: it is truth what people say on forums about assembling this spider bitch. Getting it done is huge pain in the ass and probably wouldn't be possible without joints already casted with the limbs. Mortenebra is fully operational, armed and dangerous (and last night washed off the battlefield Dr. Arkadius and his band of war hogs).

Another model prepared for painting is epic version of Deneghra - my fav Cryx warcaster.
Even though I like the fluff and special  rules the model is just horrible. So the decision was made to customize it a bit so I can field her with no mental resistance.
Basically I needed to get rid of the lower half of the miniature. I've already seen some really effective conversions, where most of the model was replaced by Rackham's spectre (or whatever is was) mini, but I wouldn't feel comfortable mutilating any of Rackham's classic beauties so I've been looking for something else.
About 3 weeks ago by accident I spotted a ghost model from Reaper brand, which I thought might be good material for the job:

The description said it was plastic, but this seemed to be rather good news:

- plastic is easier to convert

- Reaper is (supposed to be) quality.

The model came. It was light but what else could one expect from plastic?

The problem was it wasn't plastic like EE or PP uses but some weird rubber-o-placcy crap! After I got it I read it's sth from new "Bones" series, and it was my very first contact with that substance. And the last one at the same time.

Model was very easy to cut but was so bendy it was pretty hard to make is the center of the model. Moreover because it's more rubber than plastic I've found it impossible to file (sic!), so all mold lines had to be removed with a knife...

Anyway I am very glad she is done now, nothing special but way better than original sculpt. The field test of her nasty spells arsenal is planned for the Sunday night, so I hope to harvest some pig souls for the glory of Lord Toruk!

 

Laters!

Still nothing...

Yeah, that's it:

I had so many big plans what to do after the graduation but because of my brother's wedding last weekend and (still) moving to new place I barely can find pair of pants, not mentioning the painting stuff.

 Looks like there's no other choice but waiting patiently until the whole mess calms down - I would love to paint anything.

There's one technical announcement though: because the Plinth Country site is to be shut down as soon as possible all tutorials stored there have been moved into the sub-blog. To get there all you need to do is click proper button in the side panel:

Just be warned - the site is still under construction so it will get new look when I get some spare time for the job.

Hope to bring here some minis shortly

Demi