On the Painting Table: Skaven Characters!

Well LAST Christmas (before the one we just had) I got a bunch of Skaven miniatures in my sack. In typical fashion I spent a year getting round to painting them.

And here they are!

This is the dude from the Warhammer boxed game Isle of Blood.

He's amazingly nice but in some ways I kind of don't like him.

Then there's this Craventail chap.

Reasonably cool I guess.

Observant viewers may notice he has a solid gold ponytail.

(Grins inanely)

And then there's this happy chappy!

I actually like him best! I'd love to make a rat ogre with the warlord on his back but haven't got round to it. I'm kind of hoping GW will produce one sometime. This is the miniature I would probably use if I was going to do a conversion.

All of these models are going to be special characters in my campaign at some point. For now they're just lying in wait.

And of course we've already seen Killbloater!

On the Painting Table: Celestial Dragon

Heh heh.

Well what Nippon army would be complete without an Oriental dragon!? So I went on eBay and bought this handsome chap from Reaper Miniatures.

Well, imagine my surprise when he came in the post and this was how he matched up for size! 

I did have a chuckle but he's actually kind of cute.

Obviously in-game I can't give him the same stats as a full sized conventional dragon but I see him as a fast moving war machine hunter flanking unit. I may even give him access to spells.

I went with a gold dragon look. I always liked gold dragons back when I played Dungeons & Dragons and it suited the special nature of this miniature. I used Dwarf Bronze | Flesh Wash | Dwarf Bronze | Shining Gold | Burnished Gold and Kommando Khaki | Bleached Bone on his belly.

 And here he is with the rest of the army as it stands!I'm getting there!

Pretty soon I'll have a force big enough for a little Skirmish game against Dark Elves and soon after that I'll have a proper army!

Nippon Characters!

After a long break I have finally got back on track with my Nippon army and here are the first two characters!

This first dude is going to be one of my Lord level special characters. He's half human, half Oni and all ass kicking in combat.

(See what I did there?)

The miniature's from Bushido, a welcome Christmas present from my friend Neil. 

I painted him dark red | black ink wash | dark red | lighter red | light red. The metal bits were Tin Bitz | Dwarf Bronze.

This slightly grumpy looking woman is one of two assassin heroes I'm going to have, hiding in a unit, just like a Skaven assassin.

She's a miniature called Kimiko from West Wind and I have to say DOESN'T look as nice as I expected - mainly due to my lacklustre paint job.
 

But she'll do for now. 

 And here's my comp0lete Nippon army as it stands.

You can see that the Samurai are a little smaller than Kimiko but not TOO much.

I'm liking the colour scheme and the start of the imagery I'm going for. When it's done I think it's going to look great!

On the Painting Table: A Beastmen Lord... with a Difference!

As you may have noticed I tend to get very excited about new projects.

I'm sure you'd agree I am right to get excited about this one.

How cool is this guy!?!?!?!?

This monstrous fiend is the new Special Character Lord for my Beastmen army who will, when the time comes and the story catches up with modern times, get a hefty chunk of storyline in the Tale of Years.

For now I don't have a name for him yet or even much thought on his stats.

I'll be looking at those for the War Mammoth for a starting point but I don't want him to be quite as powerful as that (mainly as I want to maintain my incentive to buy one one day).

Scale-wise here's how he matches up to the Beastmen and Giant I have already. This guy is all about being a centrepiece and he fits that role perfectly.

Painting-wise I started on very dark grey and worked my way up. The tusks were Graveyard Earth | Kommando Khaki | Bleached Bone. I wanted to keep these subdued so scrimped on the lighter colours.

His pose is a tad static for battle but he does look like the regal head of his army, coldly directing his slavering troops before wading into battle himself. Which is how his character will develop.

For those interested, he's the Poacher model from McFarlane toys - still available on eBay. If you get him as well you'll find that the sword is more posable than it looks. Mine snapped at the hilt though which limited me to the down angle.

The only real downside to this model is that weird skull he's holding. I don't like models holding decapitated heads and such. The image created is too much of a snapshot. Surely he doesn't ALWAYS carry his lucky skull into battle.

Or maybe he does.

Perhaps I should write rules for him and his lucky skull!

On the Painting Table: Beastmen Giant and Bray Shaman!

Man, I am so close to having a reasonably sized playable Beastmen army and that's partially thanks to this dude!

Say hello to my Beastmen Giant!

I painted my original Beastmen Giant a year and a half ago and though I bought this guy on the same day it's taken me this long to get round to painting him. I actually lost him for a while!

He was another Papo toy originally but based up on a chariot base (this one made by sticking smaller bases together) and painted to match my Gors, he blends into the army quite well.

His upper torso is Khaki | Brown Ink | Khaki | Dheneb Stone. The armour is dull metal | black ink | dull metal | bright metal. The bronze bits are Warplock Bronze | Dwarf Bronze. The horns are khaki | bone | off-white.

But what about scale...

Well he's about right... for a giant.

He's a nice model with plenty of detail work

It's going to be interesting having two themed giants in-game.

Unfortunately I have several giants already and actually find the rules terribly dull. The quirkiness actually just irritates me.

Here he is next to my other Beastmen Giant. They make quite a nice pair.

I'm thinking of writing these up into my Tale of Years, not as mindless oafs but as strong and revered characters.

And here's my new Bray Shaman!

This guy was an easy conversion from a Beastman Gor with one of the more distinctive heads and a lance from the Chaos Knights frame.

It's just enough to make him stand out and with my other Bray Shaman (who is a bit better), complete the magical element of my army.

Alternative Exalted Greater Daemon of Slaanesh

Well look at this beauty!

Approve or disapprove the use of toys and action figures as proxies - and I've been laughed out of more than one GW veteran's nights by nerdy guys with one half painted army (he said bitterly) - but I like them!

Obviously there is an element of money-savingness but also I've come across and developed what, to me, make lovely centre pieces.

Let's look at the model. 

This was originally the McFarlane figure, Lucidique, from his Tortured Souls range. With a repaint and basing, I'm using her to represent an Exalted Keeper of Secrets - Greater Daemon of Slaanesh.

More specifically she represents the special character in my campaign and ongoing Tale of Years, K'syarta, the instigator of the corruption of the Elves and a key influence on the turning days of the Warhammer World.

Painting-wise, I used Dwarf Flesh | Flesh Wash | Dwarf Flesh | Elf Flesh on her skin and dark red | black wash | dark red | lighter red on her skirt.

Her hair was drybrushed very dark and then lighter grey.

The base was cut from foamboard to the same dimensions as the Araknarok Spider base.

Scale-wise, she's big - and unlike a lot of the other big models I've done, quite slender.

Here's a shot of the proportion to other models - which I'm pleased with. She's huge and scary but there's still an element where you're not sure whetehr you would or wouldn't want to meet her on a dark night.

And of course she is the leader of the Slaanesh element of my Daemon army - and can be used in 40k!!!

Finally, here she is with her eternal lover, Prospertine. If you've started to follow my Tale of Years you'll know that this pair are pivotal and have been mixing it up since just about the dawn of time.

In the present day campaign they command the northern and southern wings of the Daemonic Incursion from the Pernicious Gate.

Time will tell how they fair on the field of battle....

On the Painting Table: Warhammer Samurai!!!

It's wargasm time!

I don't know about you but I like them.

These are Wargames Factory Samurai miniatures that I'm going to be using in my new Warhammer Nippon army.

Scale-wise they're a little small (though GW models tend to be a bit over-chunky) but still usable and there is a general difference in stature from people from the east and west anyway.

I've gone for a dark red | black ink | dark red | lighter red armour plating with khaki | cream on the cloth.

I wasn't sure about it at first but am now pretty happy.

I'm not great at faces I have to say but for mass infantry in a wargame they will certainly do.

I didn't feel my painting was up to my usual standards but these are only the first five of a much larger force.

It's a major bummer that the sprue connects to the swords and is thus really hard to file clean without damaging them or leaving a little nob.

I've decided to have a little Dark Elf / Nippon Mordheim campaign so we should be seeing lots more of these guys in the near future. My wife is eager to get playing.. which is real nice.