Wednesday 31 October 2012

On the Painting Table: Alternative Greater Daemon

I LOVE this guy!


He's an Aries figure from McFarlane toys who is subbing quite nicely for a Greater Daemon special character in my campaign.


Originally, this dude was in the running as a possible K'Daai Destroyer but I went with the minotaur model for that and kept this more lithe chap for the Chaos Daemons.

He's poseable when you buy him but I glued him in position and filled the joints with multi-purpose filler.


As I plan to use him for 40k as well as Fantasy I pushed nails up through the base I made for him from foamboard. I drilled holes in his feet so now he can have his base switched whenever I like.


For painting him I used Khorne Red | Black Ink | Khorne Red and Dwarf Bronze | Black Ink | Dwarf Bronze | Shining Gold. The black parts had a light drybrush of Eshin Grey.

The flaming hair do was a series of highlights up through orange to yellow.


Rules-wise I'm probably either going to invent my own (based loosely on a wingless Bloodthirster) or go with the rules for Skarbrand as they exist. I haven't decided yet.


Either way, this guy is going to be one of the commanders of my Daemon army facing the Space Marines in the north and will play a starring role in my History of the Daemons when I get round to writing it.


I'm really looking forward to seeing how he does in-game!

I'll find out soon enough! He's going up against my Men of Stone Space Marines later this week (if my wife's up for it)!



Sunday 28 October 2012

The Defence of Beggar's Mount

Gill (Vampire Counts) vs Tim (Chaos Dwarfs)

The rolling tide of the undead invasion had been stymied and repulsed but with the massacre at Fortress Malefic it was rushing on again, pushing north, invading the lands snatched by the stubby grasping fingers of the Chaos Dwarfs.


But the stunted ones were not about to surrender their misappropriated lands. Their host arrayed itself as the two forces came together of windswept Beggar's Mount, in sight of the sinister guillotine that once had slain so many of the innocent and not so innocent.


Under moonlit skies, the two armies clashed, both of them circling in toward the guillotine at the peak of the mount; the dwarfs because this landmark stood as a rallying point of their conquests, the forces of the vampire counts for darker purposes.

Summoning the fell spirits that had long haunted that withering place, the vampire countess, Rebecca
Belikov, sent them charging forward, knowing that the towering behemoths of the Chaos Dwarfs could do them no harm.

As wraiths led the attack against one of the indomitable K'daai Destroyers, the spirit host assaulted the Dwarfs themselves.


The Prophet of Hashut, riding the powerful shoulders of his Bale Taurus soared to the right, hoping to outflank the enemy approach through the woods but he didn't see the charge of a Black Coach until it was too late to avoid it. The skeletal driver swung his scythe over and over, hacking at the dwarf general, but though the coach was destroyed under the hammering hooves of the great bull, its rider was slain.


Still the battle raged between the ethereal elements of the undead force and the most powerful units of the Chaos Dwarfs, both slowly being worn away but neither giving ground, while elsewhere, a morass of zombies closed on the stunted ones as Rebecca herself slashed and hacked at the whirling blades of a mighty Skullcrusher.

Bearing the Runefang she'd taken from the coffers of Sylvania, Rebecca tore the Skullcrusher apart, caring little for its devastating might, but as the Dwarfs alongside brought down the zombie horde, she was yet repelled and forced to withdraw.


The Chaos Dwarfs targeted the enemy magic users, taking away their ability to summon reinforcements and the Daemonsmiths ran to battle, their enchanted weapons the only thing that could harm the spirits immediately turning things around, even as one of the K'daai Destroyers fell with a roar.


Soon the undead army was little more than tatters but it was too late.

The guillotine was theirs and even as the the Chaos Dwarfs closed in to finish the skeletons left in guard, Rachel, from her observation point, uttered the last syllables of an incantation and the Dwarfs were cast off the Mount, their stunted bodies hurled to the very edge of the region.

The loss of hundred of zombies mattered not at all.

Beggar's Mount belonged to the vampires. Their invasion of the Devil's Pathway was underway once more!



Thursday 25 October 2012

On the Painting Table: Men of Stone Space Marines!

Well the mighty Men of Stone are looking nice.


I've embellished them with shoulder pads from Scibor's SF range and love the way they look ranked up for games of Warhammer.

Incidentally, I'm planning to use these guys as Sternguard Veterans in my conventional 40k Space Marine army (though I may repaint them first with my new Crimson Blade colours).

I have a game with these guys coming up in the next three games so they should demonstrate their worth on the tabletop before you know it.

Tuesday 23 October 2012

Warhammer Forge Chaos Dwarf Skullcracker Painting Guide


So you want a Skullcracker - perhaps one of the best units ever invented in Warhammer?


Well good choice!



Let's find out how I went about doing it...

1) First build your Skullcracker.

Not an easy thing to do. It is quite a delicate model and kept coming apart in little ways.

The secret here was to mount it on a base for stability and to give you something to hold. I used foam board for this, making sure the knife I cut it with was ultra sharp to get a smooth cut.

The wheels weren't all at the same level (classic Forge World - oops, did I say that?) so I used glue and sand to fix all the wheels in place on "the ground."

2) Paint the whole thing a dark metallic colour (I used Boltgun metal at the time).

3) Shade the metal using black ink.

4) While it is drying, place it on top of some paint pots.



5) Start picking out contrasting areas in Dwarf Bronze (or another colour of your choice) as well as a bit of Warplock Bronze.

6) Be sure to dry model on some paint pots and place empty glass nearby in case of emergency. 


 7) Give those parts a good shading of Flesh wash.

8) Blow nose and discard tissue nearby. 

9) Knock over paint pot in frustration.



10) Start highlighting up the metals with progressively brighter silvers and golds, ending on a bright silver highlight for the end of the spikes.

11) Make pile of books and old VHS tapes on which to display finished model.

12) Decide not to bother with display stand. Stupid idea!



 7) Paint the Dwarfs to match the rest of your army.

8) Paint the coals in orange and red.


 9) Dry brush the upper surfaces of the coal black to get that glowing look.


10) Finish the basing and sit back to enjoy... 






Monday 22 October 2012

Massacre at the River's Crook

Chaos Dwarfs & Beastmen (Tim) vs Tempestrians (Gill)

Of evil Dwarfs and deadly Beasts this tale tells,
Of a place where the river bends and trees crowd close,


Of valiant men of Tempestria, ranks of archers and noble knights,
Mighty steeds on falcons wing,


Mighty machines of terror and war gushed smoke,
Stunted legs of sinister warriors strode remorselessly,
Howling man-beasts readied to charge,


Hell Hounds bayed as a ord of darkness surveryed his legions,
The great winged bull beneath him breathing steam and flame,


Towering behemoths of steel and heat swung massive hammers,
Striding through the river undeterred,


And as the forces clashed they fought,
Knight's bane man slayers and their victims all,


Dying men, failing virtue, tainted water,
Death and death and only death,

Only of death does this tale tell.

Friday 19 October 2012

The Guillotine on Beggar's Mount

There is a place renowned in the Black Mountains for nothing but grisly obscene death.


There is tell that in times of old, the region there was rich in wealth, the mountains teeming with prospectors. Gold and jewels were to be found with little work and dwarfs and humans alike flocked to the area to increase their wealth.

The Border Princes has ever been a tough place to live or work and those days were no different. The prospectors had their share of predators, both beast and humanoid, but they defended their claims and formed a society of sorts, bartering and sharing, as little settlements sprung up in crevices all over the mountainous realm.

But in the centre of this nascent realm was a place called Beggar's Mount, a tall hill upon whose top was built a stage. On top of that was placed a deadly guillotine. No records tell of the builder of this dreadful device but tales speak of its need as thievery ran rampant because so much wealth was to be had.

The crime of theft was dealt with swiftly and finally by the hard line prospectors. They were there to grow rich. Any men who got in the way of that had to be dealt with.


The years went on and the number of executions increased. People say that the prospectors took a fondness for the sound of the sliding blade; the thunk of the decapitation. Whispers speak that not all the victims of the fiendish device were thieves. Not all were guilty of any crime.

It became merely sport as new arrivals to the area were weeded out so that the original prospectors could go on gathering more and more wealth.

And gather wealth they did until (as the rumours say), each prospector owned vast hordes of gold and jewel; wealth beyond counting. And still the guillotine on Beggar's Mount fell, cutting the necks of any who challenged their prosperity.


But it could not last forever.

Too much evil in one place can taint the land itself and the guillotine was the focus of decades of accumulated hedonism and murder. As time went on, the spirits of the unfair dead were said to howl round the mount when the moon was dim or when an execution was scheduled.

More than one passerby vanished in the night leaving no trace but their screaming lopped off head in the guillotine's catch-basket.

Stories of the horror surrounding this awful place grew more and more prevalent until it wasn't just fear of decapitation that kept away travellers and hopeful new prospectors. All those who heard of this dread region in the south east of the Border Princes knew that to visit there would assure death and eternal damnation.


Then finally, one cold winter night, every single inhabitant of the crooks and valleys for miles around was slain.

In one night, over two hundred prospectors and their families were dragged to the guillotine and decapitated.

Nobody knows who did it. No human being or dwarf remained alive at the end of that night within forty miles.

When travellers next passed through that region it had become a deathly silent place. Every cabin was deserted, every settlement falling into decay.

And at the guillotine on Beggar's Mount were piled the decapitated heads of every one of them.

People came in search of the treasure - despite their fear, of course they would. But none was ever found.

Every prospector had been murdered and every lump of gold; every diamond; had vanished.


Designer's Note: During games the guillotine of Beggar's Mount provides the following bonuses to units within 6": 

Undead Units: Gain an extra D3 wounds from spells which raise the dead. 
Other Evil forces: Gain Frenzy. 
Good and Neutral forces: Are subject to fear but also gain Stubborn.