Tabletop Apocalypse
Saturday, 15 January 2022
Warhammer Empire - Averland Army
Monday, 10 January 2022
Fantasy Orc Army - first 500 points complete!
Overall, I'm really happy with this army. I've never really found a greenskin recipe that I liked until now, and the oldskool reds and blues set them off nicely. There's a mix of models here, with plastics from 5th Edition mixed in with Battlemasters orcs and a classic metal command for the big 'uns. I got a plastic troll for my birthday a few weeks ago too, originally from one of the starter sets. I'd love to source a few old metal stone trolls, but they're like gold dust!
The scenery in these photos is all stuff I've been working on too and us scratch built as a set to match the army. Speaking of, I hand made the mushrooms on their bases too with some regular milliput. It turns out that it's not hard to do, and seems to be a pretty good thing to do with leftover putty!
Thursday, 6 January 2022
2021 in review - I painted 387 models!
Despite a distinct lack of posting on the Blog, it's actually been an incredibly productive year for me. More than any year I can remember, I could completely track my progress as I finished my first oldhammer Bretonnian Knight on 4th January 2021. Throughout the year, I made a huge comeback to Warhamer Fantasy with multiple armies in the works and models both old and new on the painting table. What you see is the result of all this effort - with several sizeable forces at good levels of completion.
I got everything together on one table for photos and I have to say, I honestly don't know if I should be proud or scared. One thing I will say, is that 2021 was the year I completely mastered batch painting - often producing full 20 man units over a few days. It was also a year with a lot of time on lock down, although as I work in an essential role, I was still working full time through the whole pandemic. Despite that, I still struggled to get everything in shot. I did take individual army photos, so I'll post the armies properly later, but here's some shots:
I actually wasn't sure what the final numbers would be like as it was easy to lose track. If I was guessing, I would have said 200 models, not 387. That's including dragons, chariots and anything sharing a single base as one model, so there was no fiddling the figures!
To break things down in the count, here's the list, with a rough idea of the points value in 5th Edition Fantasy (without magic items):
Skaven: 95 models complete - around 1500 - 2000 points depending on characters included.
Empire: 57 models complete, about 1250 points
Vampire Counts: 80 models, around 1250 points complete
Bretonnia: 17 models
Lizardmen: 37 models, Over 800 points complete
Orcs and Goblins: 31 models, 600 points complete with some extra models.
Dark Elves: 25 models, 500 points complete plus Black Dragon
Nippon: 23 models, 500 point army complete
Beastmen (still work in progress): 12 models
Total: 377 models complete in 2021!
Oh, and aside from Warhammer, I painted Megumin from Konosuba by Klukva miniatures which makes the actual total 378...
Sunday, 13 June 2021
Blood Dragon Vampire in 3d! (Soulblight Gravelords Blood Knight)
This is a first on the blog - miniatures in 3d! and you don't even need goggles to do it. I knew we'd get there one day. Finally something futuristic.
This is sort of a test post, and more photos will be coming in later. A month or two ago, I posted about re-doing my Lizardmen, and following on from that, I've been re-vamping (pause for laughter), my Vampire Counts. I have to admit that some of the new "Soulblight Gravelords" models are rather exquisite and I was ... transfixed... by the new Blood Knights. Blood Knights actually weren't a thing in my edition, but mounted vampires were as far as individual characters go. I'll probably be using this one as a Battle Standard Bearer when the time comes, although she might be a Count for now while the force gets off of the ground again.
I will try and fine-tune the 3D image making process for better results in the future. I got a cheap spinning solar display stand on eBay and basically just put a backdrop up and quickly filmed the model, then converted to a Gif. There is room for improvement, but it's pretty cool. Hopefully it'll display properly on the blog!
Saturday, 5 June 2021
Bungo the Barbarian, Chapter 22 - Crunchy Confectionery that Kills!
Chapter
22 - Crunchy Confectionery that Kills
Janboe leapt from Wendy’s back; sailing through the air like a diminutive suicidal comet plunging into the sun. His drop from the colossal bovine beast’s back had been considerable, and he hit the floor with a resounding thump; finally arresting his rolling momentum by going headfirst through a display stand for alchemical components. He had just enough time to catch a glimpse of the angry horde of Butt-Goblin head-hunters that were swarming through the gap where the wall had once been before he slipped into unconsciousness.
……………………..
“Eat my biscuits!” Bellowed Bungo; the throaty roar
eliciting both terror and confusion from his adversaries as he jammed a fistful
of crunchy confectionery down the throat of his would be attacker. He followed
this unconventional attack with a swift kick that sent the unfortunate creature
spiralling back down the home-baking aisle; before crashing headlong into a gang
of charging Butt-Goblins.
Choking and spluttering in dazed confusion; the bruised
beasts didn’t even have time to draw breath before Bungo was amongst them. The
world seemed to go into slow motion as Bungo’s mighty fist collided with a
goblin’s unprepared face. There was a sickening crunch as its cranium imploded
and the goblin’s brain burst from the back of his head and splatted wetly on
the opposite wall like a damp ball of snot. The whole scene was lent an air of
both hilarity and depravity when to the horror of the onlooking goblins, the
brain-ball oozed its way onto the already roaring grill of a display barbecue
and burst into flames.
The finest warriors of Turdmondaz turned tail and
fled in abject horror; their simian brains entirely unprepared for the heroic
might of the unshackled barbarian. Unwilling to give up so easily, Bungo
grabbed a straggler and drove him buttocks first into his armoured
crotch-plate; splattering the poor creature into a grotesque
chunky-cheese-omelette of death.
“Excelsior!” The barbarian leapt atop a potion
display stand; gyrating menacingly at the remaining miscreants as they
scampered out the door of the Adventure Mart. They looked back in terror, only
to see Bungo as he pointed towards the barbecue again and rubbed his herculean
six-pack hungrily. It wasn’t until he started to motion the next phase of their
potential trip through his small intestine that several more goblins died of
sheer terror.
Suddenly, all went quiet. Even the Butt-Goblin that had
been dying a slow death choking on biscuity crumbs was suddenly dumbstruck in
mute awe as a colossal dark shadow fell across the otherwise well-lit adventure
mart.
“The … the champion of…of … Turdmondaz” The creature
rasped the words with its last ragged breath, dying with a smile on its twisted
lips.
“I challenge you” the voice that issued forth from
the shadow was strong, yet clear and held with it the power of wisdom and
certain victory. Bungo looked up towards the door which swung inwards perfectly
on cue; revealing the colossally armoured form of his new adversary silhouetted
against the light of the setting sun.
Wednesday, 7 April 2021
Warhammer - Empire Helblaster Volley Gun, Averland
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Owen Wilson struggles to work out what to do with his ram-rod thingy... |
Saturday, 3 April 2021
500 Point Warhammer Fantasy Skaven Army (Also the end of Monster March)
It sounds really fast, considering it's 40 models, but I realized early on that I would need to be painting fast if I wanted to actually ever finish a Skaven force. This is only 500 points, but is already 40 models!
I also have Grey Seer Thanquol (below), who I'm using as an ordinary Warlock in this force. It's a really old model, but I think the sculpt is still nice. I did a little bit of a glow effect around his eyes which I think came out really well. It's something I don't do very often, but I wanted to make him look a little bit magical. I've also been reading the old Gotrek and Felix books that feature him quite heavily, so it's fun to be able to use the model. I just wish I had an old metal Boneripper to go with him!
The unit below is 25 Clanrats in a massive block. I wanted to get a good quality finish quickly, so for the whole army, I airbrushed a yellow colour over the whole of every model. I hadn't used contrast paints before, but I basically used the yellow as a nice bright undercoat that I could pick out the main colours over. They're quite detailed models, but by batching them in pretty big chunks of 10 or 15, I made it to the end of the force in good time. Their fur is Gore Grunta Fur Contrast and the blacks are Black Templar. I did do highlights on each part, but it cut down on the middle stages. It was also nice to work with the contrast paints because they're so fluid that they were easy to apply. Whenever I build an army, I have to decide it it's going to be more for play, or more as an art project. These guys are definitely designed for play and are a speed and quality that matches!
And that's about it. It certainly was a productive month - I painted a Dragon, a Stegadon, and 40 Skaven. The best part is that I'm really happy with how everything came out! I have planned to increase the army to 1000, and It's quite achievable. It's pretty much just adding a Doomwheel, 10 Stormvermin, an a few more Plague Monks.