Alakhai the Cunning

Alakhai is well over seven feet in height. His armor is forged of petrified human souls, it's surface etched with runes telling of the atrocities he commited to acquire such protection. 

His piercing eyes cast a fiery glow across his thin lips and sharp teeth, which are always visible through his maniacal smile. 

Always accompanying Alakhai onto battlefield is the Meat Wolfer, his huge battle sword...

Well that shit freaks me out! 😱
And those tiny guys on the pic below most probably have already fouled their panzer pants after they noticed it's Meat Wolfer's feeding time... 🥶

Anyway I've finally done it - after all those years my Dark Legion got worthy commander!

This model is kinda special (most of Warzone models I have are kinda special): 

official Paul Bonner's artwork was one of my very first Warzone pictures I spotted back and on that very moment I just knew that was it. That second I was sold to the Dark Soul...

No matter how cool the artwork is, model is just... Well - oldschool Warzone style: maybe cool but also kinda goofy. Color choice was based on "official" paintjob I spotted in Mutant Chronicles zine. The plan was to add more red elements (like armor edges) but dropped it - I am more then sure such thing would look just flat. Red cloak is test piece: I want to add unit of acolytes wearing red robes. They should look striking especially on grass green battlefield. The final result is ok, but next time I'll use violet instead of dark brown the shading.

Like most models I have this one is second hand. I got it slightly damaged - the rim on right back shoulder pad. The top of the horn was also broken so I cut it off and replaced with greenstuff prosthesis. I made it bigger then original horn: it makes Alakhai even more badass and besides we all know what do girls say about nepharites with big horrrrrrns...

I'd love to ask the sculptor about the gem on left knee. No idea what was the idea behind it but my guess is round piece of greenstuff was left there by chance. Accident at work. On the other hand - old Warzone sculpts were specific and gem on knee ain't most weird thing...

And since this one is painted it's time to modify army composition for the coming game...

Cybertronic Cuirassier Attilla

After finishing Undead wyvern it was good idea to take a step back from classic fantasy theme to see what's going on in the good old dark space...

Turned out there was actually lots of going on in that matter. 

Last weekend we managed to play another Warzone game. It was probably the 3rd game this year so it was quite an achievement especially given the fact Warzone is supposed to be dead system for quite a long time. Luckly for the game what is dead may never die! 😁

And luckly for us this time instead of sever rules modification we added scenarios from 3rd edition of Warhammer 40000 and must admit it was a blast. It was actually so cool we decided to use these rules during another match - hopefully maybe even next week.

One of most deadly models during that game was my opponent's Cuirassier Attila. That deadly clanker managed to eradicate most of my undead legionnaire squad with a single rocket missle. It was huge pain in the ass until I managed to reach it with my long range weapons. The model my opponent brought to the game was painted with just few base colors so I decided to give it some fresh tones - such a model deserves looking nice.

Must say I've always liked this sculpt - since the time my buddy introduced Warzone to me - at the beginning of high school. It's just damn cool: cold blooded (cold oiled) killing machine, equipped thick armour and big gun. With no skulls, spikes, loincloth and other useless crap models from most popular miniatures company on Earth wear... 🙄

I was asked to paint the model using more less original color scheme. But I was also asked to keep the head (face mask) gold. There's a story behind it:

Back, back days when we were starting the Warzone thing there was group of a few playing but none of us had any painting experience. In mid 90's my city was dark shit hole as for hobby. As for other thing most probably too. We brely had any painting tools and paints - I even remember I was also using those stinky, toxic enamels to paint first models ^^
My opponent (that time collecting Brotherhood) was trying to paint his units but I remember he had only 4-5 colors at the disposal: blue, red, white and brown (probably) aaand gold...
For some mysterious reason he decided to paint bald head of the seregant with gold which was just utterly stupid idea. It you cannot imagine it - check this guy 😋 (the band is pretty good actually). So to give the honors to the old times and bring out some cosy memories of careless times Mr Attilla got some gold to shine in the dark, cold, cosmic abyss.

Below - supporting squad of Chasseurs (some more pics of this unit here):

And here - patrolling dead zone alone:

Thanks for reading!

Undead army wyvern #2

Undead army just got another fast attack unit.

After finishing the "serpentine" wyvern I was actually hoping for a bit more from the rider. Thought it would be bit more "epic" - it's wight lord after all. On the other hand it's just better dressed and armoured skeleton so I guess it fits the mount. To make it more coherent with the other units model got black-and-white stripes on the shield. It got spike in the middle 'cause shield to hide the pin - don't want it to fall off in the heat of the battle...

It's a big model so I tried to take some herohammer styled pics for group shots. Using large game mat was good idea but the landscale background is just too small. I think I'll just have to paint one sometimes instead just using prints.

So here they are:

diving from the blue sky to bring death and destruction to the empire of men! Bwah! Ha! Ha!

Another scale shot:

(most probably) about to get dead-ass kicked bit time by Khorne's daemon prince:

And here matched duel with greenskins wyvern:

Supporting unit of zombies:

This is where the magic happens. Looking at the picture I am quite sure I need like twice wide background for taking pics of large units or armies. The game mat I use comes from terrains4games - definitely recommend stuff they make!

And some close ups:

Thanks for reading.
Next stop: dark future... 💀

Undead army wyvern #1

October was pretty fuc#ing busy month.

I had it all planned but unexpected load of work from real life pushed away whole painting I was hoping to finish. Life's a b!tch, but apparently that's nothing but yesterday news 🙄

Hoping to get on track again.

So after returning from this year's Oldhammer Weekend I decided to add some more models to the Undead army. Not that I expect to start playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle on regular basis (or playing it at all...), but working on fantasy themed stuff is just fun: 

lots of colors and lots of ideas contrary to Bolt Action armies for example.

During Oldhammer Weekend it turned out my army was pretty lousy. I sure liked all models but it was just way too slow for any attempt of offensive play. Most of armies I've seen there were led by badass general mounted or even more badass monster: dragon, manticore or such thing. I know it's Herohammer, but general on dragon is just too much for my taste.

So while digging through pile of shame graveyard I found old serpentine dragon. 

I remember I got my copy like 8-10 years ago and I really liked the model until it arrived. After I put my dirty hands on it suddenly I had no idea what to do with it. Tried to assemble and paint it but there was no painting mojo anymore so it ended up on the top of pile of shame...

...until I came back from the mentioned Oldhammer Weekend. Driven by Warhammer frenzy started looking for proper mount for wight lord. And tt was perfect: old dragon models were much smaller compared to modern dumb as fu#k placcy monstrocities so it was great candidate for winged nightmare of wyvern.

There was only problem: dragons have 4 legs but wyverns have only 2... 

But on the other hand there's no problem which cannot be solved with brutal strength and wallpaper knife. Quick surgery supported by Doctor Dremel and suddenly Undead army got frying monster to command!
To make rider fit the mount even better (and to hide all post-surgery grievious wounds...) I made simple saddle and model was ready for painting. As for color choice I used trusty color combo. The beast is part of Undead army so it got blue tones instead of green - like it's younger cousin serving the green horde.

The base is pretty busy but large bases are perfect places to dump incomplete models, spare bits and other junk from the bottom of the bitz box. Judge for yourself. 

Next stop: wight lord riding that beast and I can move to another post-apo themed piece.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

Oldhammer Weekend fever has went away. Must admit first thing painted after the event would be something Undead related, but surprisingly - something else was found on the bottom of the Pile of Shame. Funny thing speaking of this actually:

every time I take a look into the Pile I am wondering whether or not I can paint it before I die, or which models will be left untouched even by undercoat mist. Pretty creepy 💀

Back to the point.

Model I chose is larce scale (1/35?) post-apo inspired character. The moment I took a look on the sculpt and I had that S.T.A.L.K.E.R. sign glowing with sick green light in my mind. Sculpt itself is fragile and very detailed - it's one of those sculpts which are just fun to work with from the very beginning.

It's not gaming model, so I gave it fancy display base. I like when miniature tells some story: 

I imagine it patrolling perilous wastes after nuclear war. Or something. 
Like "Fallout" but during winter.
Nuclear winter...