mortem tyrannis: walkers

  ..qui sanat contritos corde, et alligat contritiones eorum
    - Psalmi 146:3

rule of three

As I intimated in the last post, I went a bit crazy in the end of winter, converting up bio-mechanical horrors for my Death Guard project. I decided I wanted to have a trio of dreadnoughts, but wasn't pleased by the idea of them all looking more-or-less the same. Chaos in general - but Nurgle especially - should lend itself to mutability and change. Plus, I'd been staring at moldmoldmold's work way too much, and had some Ideas...

Castraferrum-pattern Dreadnought (corrupted; Death Guard affiliation)

That said, I do like the stock kit, especially this chap from the Assault on Black Reach box. Plus, he was cheap on eBay, being already assembled. Which was a bloody mistake - the pilot really wanted to have been sub-assembled, oh my fucking God.

The sheer expanse of flesh was also quite challenging - not to paint (I think it came out well) but to slog through. In the end, though, it's a lovely sculpt and it was lots of fun. I especially enjoyed drenching the exposed cables in blood as though they were raw and bleeding, although the effect is kinda mid in the end.

Distinguishing between bone, pale flesh, and off-white armour is also not always easy. Here you can see that the armour panels somehow came out slightly differently despite being the exact same technique!

Who doesn't love a mouth-hand?

+ + + ERROR + + + ERROR + + + ERROR + + +

I was worried that I hadn't nailed the intent with this guy, but I have been absolutely blown away by the response to him. He was featured on Goonhammer's Content We Liked and has been shared and liked on Instagram way more than usual. So I guess I nailed it?

He's mostly milliput and half an Age of Sigmar Mirebrute Troggoth, with a Heresy-era twin-linked autocannon from a Contemptor and a missile pod from a Myphitic Blight-hauler (that was covered in milliput!).

The scales on his legs are done the same way as the armour elsewhere in the army (the Stripey White tutorial that's almost lost to time on Bolter and Chainsword - but with some changes), while the fleshier parts were a pale human skin tone. Unfortunately, the distinction isn't as clear after the final white layer, natch.

The intent - like I said, inspired by moldmoldmold - was for something that had overgrown with living fungus balls, swollen and no-longer fully sapient or human in intelligence, but with the rusted-in remnants of his original form (hence the autocannons). Part-way through sculpting, I happened to rewatch Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Keeping the overrun village from the opening scenes in mind helped keep me focused.

The combination of pale organics and dark, tarnished metals delights me. Once I had the specific combinations of rust and metals down, the rest of the piece came together very easily.

I think the missiles are probably conventional, despite the overgrowth, but possibly not...

C0nnn??-t777??-pattern Dreadnought (corrupted; Death Guard affiliation)

Finally, the chap I finished tonight. You can see where (most) of the rest of that Troggoth went, as well as the Blight-hauler. Partly because I'm cheap, but also because I had a vision of a roller-skating troll dreadnought that would not go away and was also hilarious.

In the end, the kitbashing resulted in a figure that looks overgrown and wild, like Chaos sprouting out of control - it would also work for a spawn, probably. My mental vision had the arms slumped, claws dragging along the ground, but my sculpting skills (as you've all seen) aren't quite there yet. The natural pose is pretty close, though, especially combined with rust.

I don't want to talk about how long it took to balance all that together. I'm glad that the gooey paint job helps conceal the mess that went on down there.

The skin and crusted, dried blood-scales were both trying something new. I borrowed the skin technique from Michael Hanns's Gundabad project.  My end result isn't quite the same.

I did Dead Flesh, a thinned Sepia, some Orange in the folds and scars, Dead Flesh > 50/50 Dead Flesh/Elfic Flesh > Elfic > glaze of Sepia (and re-doing thinned orange over the scarred wrist), with the proportions a little guessed. Maybe there was a 75/25 D/E as well? It's hot, I forget.

Hanns does more and thinner layers and glazing, and ends on a final Elfic Flesh highlight, but I was worried I'd repeat the 'flesh and armour are too similar' mistake from Mr Fluffy, above. The process was very fun and highly rewarding, though. I think I might use it on something else as well.

The scabs were done in a couple techniques. Some were pure Blood for the Blood God, some were Vallejo's Thick Blood, some were 2:1:1 Flesh Tearers Red: Cygor Brown: Medium - and some of these last had some of the blood effects placed over the top. All of these effects worked in various ways, but the technical paints were of course glossy, so I went back over the lot with a 1:1 mix of Stormshield and 'Ardcoat (Citadel's varnishes - .i. 50/50 gloss and matt varnish).

I really do think I'm getting the hang of rusted, horrible metal. Note here that the 'head' is actually a secondary engine; this thing's face is in his belly and has lots of little teeth...

That's it for now! I'm on holidays for the next couple weeks, so it's very unlikely there will be anything more painted before 2025. This project is very close to finishing, though - two characters and two tanks left...

mortem tyrannis: flesh and steel

augebit Dominus plagas tuas, et plagas seminis tui, plagas magnas et perseverantes, infirmitates pessimas et perpetuas

    - Deuteronomium 28

Mars-pattern Rhino transports (corrupted; Death Guard affiliation)

A few months ago, winter put a halt to undercoating and therefore painting, but that freed up my hobby time to allow me to finally convert the trio of second-hand Rhinos that I had accumulated. I may have gone a little overboard...

Project: It's About Turnips

 I actually hopped on the #turnip28 bandwagon when Max FitzGerald first started putting it together a few years ago. I went all in, got several boxes of historical plastics, converted and went nuts with muck and slime and weird little helmets. I got my partner to design some cool banners... and then we just straight-up weren't able to print the damn things.

Триста Тридцать Третий Репки Родины
[trans. 333rd Turnips of the Motherland]

In late September, we finally did it. We painted 'em. I finished another project!

All it took was gluing four pieces of paper down and adding a little muck to them, photographing them and posting them. Managed to do that for Instagram -- but of course I forgot to post anything here...

Gnow There are Gno More Gnomes To Paint

 Look at that. A second post.

the new villagers

Back in 2020, for the Old World Army Challenge, Old School Miniatures was kind enough to sponsor my entry: a small force of their wonderful alpine gnomes. I never considered the project complete, though; one regiment of spearmen was under-equipped, and I wanted to expand the cavalry regiments a little.

As part of my new focus on finishing projects (I know!), I have managed to actually complete the gnome army. I also wound up adding a second spearman regiment as well as a small pile of new villagers (above).

The force is fairly small in most editions, especially as Byron's list design eschews heroes in favour of wizards, but I'll be able to ally in Wood Elves or my old, ancient Empire army (whichever of these boxes that's in...) if I really need more points.

So, what's new?

mortem tyrannis: decay and renewal

It's been a while. Let's move on.

 

Aspiring Champion-Sergeant Sānchóng

A lot of things happening since I last posted. Rather than get into it - most of the readers of this blog follow my instagram anyway - let's just move on to the miniatures. I've been working steadily to try and finish off some of the 'big projects' I've got, in an attempt to reduce the ongoing strain on my mind from having so many things unfinished. A relatively easy one to finish is this accidental Death Guard project... especially as I was unable to undercoat all winter, so I did a lot of sculpting on some vehicles and... others. Stay tuned for those!

Old World Army Challenge: VI: Necromunda

That's right, chummers, I'm doing the Old World Army Challenge again.

c'm'ere and call me that, cleanskin

This year, the Dread Lord has opened the call to Fanatic and Specialist Games, including Necromunda, so I'm trying to get something like seven Necromunda95 and Gorkamorka warbands done in six months. Let's see how we get done.

Introduction post: Wherein I reveal my madness.

January post: A 'rank & file' post for the Skavvy gang.

Coming up next: Pit Slaves.

CanCon with the Too Fat Lardies

 Last weekend was CanCon, one of Australia's larger hobby conventions. Despite living in the capital for years now, I usually only attend to do some shopping and a bit of gawking. This year, I was invited as a spare to the Too Fat Lardies Chain of Command campaign weekend. There was a real chance a few players' schedules might be shaky, the Australia CoC scene is always recruiting, and I'm local: a great combination.

The campaign day was run by a chap named Steve, who is probably now in my top-five Friendly Wargaming Lads. We'd never met, but you'd never know it for how welcoming and chill he was, happy to explain rules, point out fun details, and just generally be a chill bloke. He also ran a fun weekend, with an interesting scenario - on some very fine terrain by John Bond.

The scenario is as follows: Some time following the Normandy invasion, the British are pushing into this French town. Day One (Saturday AM) involves crossing the fields and entering the town proper. Day Two (Saturday PM) is attempting to make the bridge. Day Three (Sunday AM), the Germans have to hold the bridge itself or blow it. Day Four (Sunday PM) was flexible, depending on the previous days, but there was a chance for German armour to arrive and retake the British side.

In the end, the games fought to a standstill over the bridge - the Brits were held in place and didn't cross, but the bridge stayed open. I only fought a few rounds, rolling some dice during Sunday AM, but it was great fun and really sealed the deal on me digging out those Early War Poles...

After Action Report: Terror in the Peaks

    Réfractaires, it is not your duty to die uselessly.
        - Resistance pamphlet

somewhere in the mountains of Occupied France

An old friend of mine and wargaming/role-playing buddy has finally made the pilgrimage down from to visit me, mostly to play in the Too Fat Lardies event at CanCon in a game of Chain of Command. He's even convinced me to be a backup player in case one of the others has to leave early and cannot finish the campaign. Of course, I've never played a game of Chain of Command, although I am interested in the increased historical verisimilitude of it over its main competitors. 

So we decided to head to the local store and bodge together some terrain and play an intro game. Jolt has an incredible selection of terrain, but it's mostly intended for far-future or vaguely fantasy settings, and it also turned out that every single local gamer wanted to test their armies before this weekend's tournament scene at CanCon. But we made do with the above layout. A forked road, a burning farm, some rough cliffs and pine forests, an ancient church. Could be somewhere in Europe, sure.

Al brought me an infantry platoon of horrible fascists, reinforced with an additional Senior Leader (Keptain Köwærd); he brought an adhoc platoon-sized contingents of French rebels, communists, and jumped-up peasants, reinforced with some stolen submachine guns and a backwoodsman calling himself a sniper. Both sides had low morale; it was freezing, there is little food, and nobody wants to die for their fatherland in the arse-end of nowhere.

fascists cower in the gutted church

My favourite thing about Chain of Command is the initial patrol phase. It makes the act of deployment a game of tug-of-war with your opponent and really livens up the otherwise straightforward bit of 'you're on that side, I'm on this side'. Having units come on from the jump-off points that are then scattered (and can be moved!) about the field is the only wargame I've found so far that does a good show of mimicking the fog of war.

In these snowy hills, the fascist regulars didn't know from where the cursed marquis would come...

who dares impede us

I did get lucky in my first few turns, managing to bring on two squads at opposite ends of the field. By getting enough initiative to put the churchgoers on overwatch meant that Al, who had intended to come through the forest opposite, was immediately on the defensive.

"i see zem! i see ze kowartly frenchmen"

Al is a generous opponent. I had initially thought of the open, flat-topped hill next to my roadblock jump-off as a death trap. It was open and flat, with absolutely no cover. Of course, it also provided a huge view of the entire field. Once he pointed that out, I scurried a squad up it and sat them in overwatch up there, much to his frustration.

"okay ve vill leafe ze khurch but only slowly"

He also reminded me that squads come in two elements, and that I could move the manoeuvre element while keeping the machine gun in overwatch. Naturally, he immediately deployed his submachine gun-heavy squad into the forest, preventing me from safely assaulting that jump-off point. Git.

line them up...

..BLAM

First blood to the French resistance with a good old-fashioned duck hunt. Hill's risky.

if you go down in the woods today, you'd better go in disguise...

'if we line up in a row, they will be caught by surprise!'

As I moved one of the riflemen squads down past the hedgerows, another group of partisans emerged, ready to initiate a firefight. Al and I got several rules wrong here - he should have gone tactical and hit the dirt (after being reminded, my hill-squad did that, but he never remembered to). Additionally, I added far too many dice for the squad's machine gun - although my dice consistently rolled below-or-only average, so I don't think it mattered too much.

'merde.'

Nevertheless, the end result for this squad of rebels was most of them being killed and sufficient shock to break them. I also concussed their sergent, reducing the partisan morale. This group broke and ran, freeing my outflanking squad to move towards their jump-off point.

'right, that's it. forward!'

Losing a jump-off point in Chain of Command causes significant morale damage to the hosting force. Seeing the easy route my squad had toward his right-hand point, Al decided that his only hope lay in cracking open my little church fortress.

bullets fly!

Unfortunately, his dice failed him. I shot down several partisans and caused some shock, with almost no losses of my own. My succeeding phases didn't do a lot, but his numbers significantly dwindled.

the keptain comes out but continues to kower

I'd kept my second Senior Leader in reserve, waiting until I needed his shock-removing talents - so right when Al had caused several casualties and enough shock to reduce the church squad's effectiveness, Keptain Köwærd pulled himself out of his foxhole and shouted for the men to hold; reducing the shock in both sections to nothing.

At this point, the store was closing and so we decided to end it there. The Germans had a clear line to take a partisan jump-off point and had caused about thrice the casualties. Al still had a real chance to swing it, if he made a big assault and got a bit lucky - the loss of a squad, NCO, officer and jump-point would probably have shattered my platoon - but that would have been a significant shift from how the game looked on the table.

At any rate, a cracking game against a real gentleman of an opponent. I think I have to dust off that old Polish project now. Let me see, a 1939 Polish infantry platoon has three squads of fourteen men, and I already have...

"Mercenary captains are either capable men or they are not."

 Goblin's Paladins, a small mercenary company operating in the Periphery, has recently completed a re-arm and re-fit, allowing us to see part of its Order of Battle.

Goblin's Paladins - Command and Fire Lances

I have three factions planned for my Battletech collection. The first, 1st Canopian Cuirassiers of the Magistcracy of Canopus, we've already seen, including in action against Periphery mercenaries and pirates. The second are my mercenary company, now with two lances finished. I intend to add a third lance at some point to give it some better bite, but for now:

Elements of 1st Company, mercenary company "Goblin's Paladins", c.3067-3085

mortem tyrannis: growth and growth

 A few additions to the Death Guard.

Aspiring Champion-Sergeant Gehazi

Aspiring Champion-Sergeant Naaman

Aspiring Champion-Sergeant Joab

You may remember my squads of 7-strong Death Guard infantry. Fluffy, fun, neat - a great part of this accidental project. Unfortunately, the 9th edition codex made those squads immediately illegal. Now, while 9th edition is basically unplayable due to a) the overwritten rules making it hard to follow the game and b) the constant rules changes making any faint understanding immediately obsolete, I wasn't totally happy with a few aspects of the squads anyway. One lacked an icon, for instance, and I wanted more of the fun equipment that 8/9th has brought to Mortarion's Chosen.

So I painted and converted a few more lads. Now the three squads are ten-strong, which is less flavoursome but there are still three of them - and I can always drop a few members if I ever actually play a game with them.

Those ex-Slaves

You are not machines, you are not cattle - you are men!

there's power in a union

I've had these on my desk since they came out. Always love a narrative of working lads breaking their chains. It's even better if the chains are laser-powered. The pit slaves in Necromunda '98 had similar vibes, and the tale of Bull Gorg goes hard. It's tragic that we never got a miniature of him.

The ex-Slave Ogryn gang in Necromunda '17 fills a similar place, with the addition benefit of just straight-up lobotomizing some of the workers. grim But solves a problem! or does it

The gang (for which I'm yet to decide on a name) also fits into the vague 'civilians' project. These guys can be an outlaw gang of workers in revolt or they can used as flavour or muscle for various factions - all their 'weapons' are really tools, after all. This is why they have my desert basing instead of the grimy underdark basing you've seen before.