Bungo the Barbarian - Chapter 7

Work on another explosive miniature continues in earnest. I'm very happy with the way the paint work is coming along so far. 

Bungo the Barbarian - Chapter 7, Enter the Warrior.

 

The throne room was quiet; so very peaceful for such a long time now. The Derpo king sighed lethargically as yet another uneventful day slid by; continuing silently with his knitting. He was lazily daydreaming about making fortunes for his kingdom selling hand-made elasticated Derpo pants, when it happened.

 

Suddenly the colossal oak doors exploded inwards in a shower of wooden shrapnel. Bungo entered seconds later; riding the unconscious body of one of the huge Ogroid guards like a surf-board. He skidded to a blood curdling halt 10 feet into the chamber and leapt from the top of his unwilling mount; before landing with his hands on his hips. The colossal barbarian paused for a moment; pulling several unnecessary flexing manoeuvres for the benefit of nobody in particular.

 

The Derpo king was only sure of one thing; this didn’t bode well for his knitting enterprises.

Grot Deffkopta Squadron

The title pretty much says it all, and what the title doesn't say the pictures do. These Deffkoptas were actually the first thing I built for my all Grot army. They were surprisingly thrifty too from e-bay as the original models come from the Black Reach box, which at the time about 2 years ago meant that the models were quite abundant.

Conversion wise I basically removed the Ork pilots and replaced them with grot ones. The orks didn't want to let go though (they're actually melded into the seats). I managed to re-sculpt the seats again after a lot of hacking away at the raw plastic. Using the plastic runtherd kit it wasn't too hard to convert the grots so they looked like they were actually piloting the things (thank god for those stikkbomb arms!).

They've done me fairly proud on the tabletop too - it's hard to argue with 3 twin-linked rokkits flying about the place for a fairly low points cost.


Definitely my favourite moment was when the unit was reduced to a single kopta. I managed to knock 1 hull point off of a chimera with the rocket and then charged. With hammer or wrath I had just enough strength to glance the rear armour. I rolled the dice and what do you know; a pair of 6s. The chimera was wrecked and it was just laugh out loud funny. I seem to remember the game ended with the Kopta in combat with an imperial guard platoon command squad. After about 3 turns they were still swinging ineffectually at each other!

Does anyone remember that old PS1 game RC Stunt Copter? I had a demo of it and the only thing I can really remember was how uncontrollable the thing was (for some reason I seem to remember having to rotate the analogue stick constantly to go up or something). I never could get through the window in that barn!


Is anyone else thinking it might make a great new box game for GW? -  RC Grot Copter. The aim is to race around a course collecting as many mushrooms as possible while not crashing. Also there are weapons ... and maybe a few robots.

Building Bungo - A Warhammer Quest Barbarian

A few determined blog followers may know that I've been doing a series of comedy stories titled "The Chronicles of Bungo". They're basically the culmination of a childhood spent watching Conan the Barbarian and an overactive imagination.

Inspired by my own fiction, I decided that it was time to create a model of Bungo himself in all his grandeur and exactly as I had imagined him. It would also be necessary to consult some important reference material and make suitable adjustments to the model.

Hmmm, huge muscles and leather pants?

 

 

Does everyone else secretly really enjoy anything with Kevin Sorbo in it - Hercules was a great show. Also note the flowing hair.

 

I identified 3 areas of concern with the Darkoath Chieftain model (which I bought on e-bay for a surprisingly reasonable sum of about £7).

• First, he needed billowing barbarian hair
• Second, leather pants to make even Conan proud!
• Third, a bigger display base suitable for his personal bigness!

The first 2 steps would be a job for the greenstuff. It wasn't too hard to remove the loin-cloth from the model (I'm sorry GW it just wasn't cheesy enough). For the base I wanted something really overblown. I decided that rather than raid my bits box (as my fantasy spares are a bit thin on the ground) I'd have a look and see what was available in the world of resin bases. Handily, I'd seen some rather nice stuff from Scibor Miniatures before, so I checked out what they had. In the end I bought a set of 3 resin statue head style bases for about £5.50. It turned out to be a great deal and they were rather impressive when they arrived.

 

I mounted the resin base in the centre of a larger base and then went to town adding additional details.

It turned out that the most difficult part of the whole build was repairing his buttocks - or should I say forming them in the first place! The GW model was entirely flat, so after a bit of delicate surgery he was endowed with a manly behind!

Not bad, considering the total cost of the model is about £12. He is actually about the same size as Mortarion now!

The finished model is now ready for paint. We'll see how that goes later. For those who missed Bungo's adventures, find them here:

Chapters 1-3

Chapters 4-5

Chapter 6

The junk in the trunk!

Here's an excerpt of the good stuff to wet your appetite:

Bungo thrust his armoured crotch plate wildly at a swooning tavern wench.

"Another Mead" he bellowed enthusiastically. His booming voice was punctuated by a dull thump as another buxom maiden fell to the ground; rendered unconscious from the sheer rapture of his manly presence.

 

Bungo took a heroic gulp of his drink, chugging back the beverage with warrior-like abandon; and spilling equally large quantities down his chiselled and bulging torso, eliciting sighs from the on looking villagers.

Remember to check back on Friday for the continuation of Bungo's epic tale

Mortarion Primarch of the Death Guard Painted

Well, I finished painting Mortarion. I'm happy with the results, although I have to admit that I found the whole process rather difficult. It was mostly just getting the colours to look good that I struggled with. My own style tends to be quite vivid, I like bright reds, blues and purples, but Mortarion is a sort of creamy off-white. It wasn't difficult as such, but more that I found it difficult to think it looked "good" as it isn't a colour I would personally choose. To compensate for this and to make him look a bit more interesting I used the full range of Death Guard Colours (adding in green and red compared to the Forgeworld one). I'm particularly happy with the freehand numerals on his armour.

On the subject of his armour, it was also difficult to match the colour of his armour with a good colour for the base - too light and he'd just blend straight in. Equally though it had to be muted so that your eye would be drawn to the model and not the rock he was standing on. In the end I went with a stone effect for the top and just tried to keep the rest fairly dark.

For those who missed it, I also painted Roboute Guilliman (Primarch of the Ultramarines). You can read all about it here:

Painting Guilliman 

That article contains a fairly comprehensive painting guide for him too if you're interested in the kind of techniques I use.

Bungo the Barbarian - Chapter 6, A Fortune in Gold Pantaloons.

"A Thief!"declared Bungo loudly. His booming voice reverberated deafeningly around the chamber like the rumbling of distant thunder; only far more ear-splitting.

Shallica eyed the small man quizzically as the titanic barbarian held him aloft by his hooded jerkin.

"Do you have like ..." She paused thinking "any proof at all?". Bungo's headlong charge down the corridor had been arrested when he had come across a small prison complex buried at the heart of the dungeon. After freeing most of the captured travellers, he had plucked one man from the crowd as they raced to freedom.

"I have this" insisted Bungo; shaking the man roughly by the scruff of the neck to exaggerate the point. His seemingly innocuous victim was turning greener by the second from a mix of asphyxiation and an afore-unknown type of motion sickness brought on by the barbarian's gyrations.

"I see a small, slightly fat man in a hood" Shallica insisted. She was secretly enjoying the reparte as she gazed longingly into Bungo's dark eyes.

"A hood!" Bungo roared as though the statement made perfect sense.

"Only a thief would wear a hood; for secrecy!" The barbarian continued enthusiastically "an elf can be determined by his pointy ears, a barbarian by his leather pants." He paused to pull up his own leather pants unnecessarily as if to make the point. "And a thief by his hood!" Bungo made the last statement as though he was sharing some sagely golden-nugget of truth.

"I don't think..." Shallica began. She was interrupted mid sentence as Bungo had started to shake the man more vigarously in an effort to prove his point. There was a loud crashing noise as a fortune in gold doubloons dislodged itself from the man's straining breeches.

Shallica could only stand silently; dumbfounded by the efficacy of Bungo's primitive logic.

"Excelsior!" Boomed the barbarian; suitably drop-kicking the now unconscious thief back into one of the prison cells, before scooping up his bounty and dashing further into the complex. Shallica followed in his wake with a vacant look of dazed adoration.

As the barbarian's footsteps dwindled into the distance  the prison returned to silence once again. The calm was broken by a diminutive figure that stalked from the shadows.

"Yes, head further into my lair." The high pitched voice's sinister invitation hung in the air like a curse.

"I'll get you yet Bungo..."




Well that rounds out another chapter. Don't forget to check back in next Friday for another exciting tale from the Chronicle of Bungo.

In other Bungo related news, I've now started on a miniature of the man himself! So far things are going rather swimmingly.

Age of Sigmar/Fantasy - Undead

I like a little variety in my projects, so in contrast to my usual 40k I've got some fantasy for you all today. I painted this unit of skeletons purely because I wanted to, and for no other reason that that.


I have to admit that the new models really are nice. When I compare them to the old skeletons that I had in about 2000 (when I had my second ever army - Vampire Counts) the difference in the quality of the miniatures is marked. I really love the feeling of decay - the rust on the weapons and the holes in the shields. It's very evocative and really breathes life (somewhat ironically) into these models.

I like them so much that I actually bought some of the "new" (to me) Black Knights too (pictured below). Remember when they were Mounted Wights?

I converted the head slightly as I like the "Death" look

Anyway, I'm off now to flay the living and eat their still warm flesh. I'll catch you all later for tomorrow's exciting episode of Bungo the Barbarian (If you missed it - his exciting adventures can be found here: Bungo The Barbarian)



Killa Kan Mob - Let the Blattering Commence!

In an all grot army (yes I have one of those) there was only one choice of weapon - the Grotzooka. I converted a full mob with the weapons and I can honestly say I've never regretted it for a second. There aren't many units that can shrug off 6 strength 6 blasts and keep coming. As the units of actual grots are so weak, I use these guys to fill the role of infantry on the battlefield. The good part is that the points cost of Ork vehicles is so low it is actually quite viable on the tabletop as far as army construction goes.

 

Other than the guns, I've converted upwards - adding towers to the back of every Kan. Not only does this provide extra height and make them look more interesting, but it really reinforces the rickety ramshackle look of the force (and is also an excuse to add more grots to everything - are you seeing a theme here?)

The Dread-Mob in all its glory (backed up by the Deff Dread)

They've become an absolute staple of the army; plodding forward and blasting away. The actual units of Grots themselves are completely useless though, so I tend to use them to grab objectives while the rest of the force roams around killing.