Wednesday, November 16, 2022

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!

Friday, November 11, 2022

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... 💀

Sunday, November 6, 2022

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.