In the Graveyard of Terrain

 The 'paint undercoated shit' project continues...

Garden of Morr

This set has a pretty bad reputation. The Goonhammer article describes several mistakes one can make when painting it - and that guy has an airbrush. Ana has several criticisms in her old series where she modifies the hell out of hers, criticising the tacky skulls everywhere. Neither of these guys really go hard enough on the damn thing.

I've had mine for a few years now. I got it through that monthly magazine for Age of Sigmar (in which I think it's called a Sigmarite Mausoleum or something) and was initially keen. It's a big kit, it's plastic, and it works really well for Mordheim. Ana had also done a tutorial on buildings which I wanted to use (and I did, along with referencing her graveyard series and her tutorial on verdigris).

You can even see where I'd undercoated it in 2021 and played a game of Mordheim around it. Very suitable for my Undead warband.

Unfortunately, while 'yeah, paint all the stonework, then pick out the metal railings, the skulls, and the vines' sounds pretty easy in theory, in practice it fucking sucks. There is a LOT of stonework, and it's incredibly boring and tedious to grind through, even using washes, sponges, and stippling. And there are so many fucking skulls holy fucking shit.

I only really enjoyed the buildings, where I followed Ana's tutorials pretty closely (including a first experiment with her trademark white-and-black splatter effect) to give the grounds a pop of colour. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if the initial colouring on the stones hadn't gone so grey.

Anyway, the damn thing is done. It'll make good terrain for Sun Rot, Hag28, Mordheim, or any other horror skirmish game - or even some historicals, if you don't look at it too closely. All the individual buildings are removable from their bases and the whole thing can be split apart to cover more ground.

I have had a little good weather lately, and managed to undercoat a bunch of guys (and some more plastic Age of Sigmar terrain for Mordheim uses), although I have still failed to undercoat my Praetor...

Project: Hag28

 For a witch stands on the very edge of everything, between the light and the dark, between life and death, making choices, making decisions so that others may pretend no decisions have even been needed. Sometimes they need to help some poor soul through the final hours, help them to find the door, not to get lost in the dark.

    - Terry Pratchett, The Shepherd's Crown

The Hunt of the Death Hag Mother Skaïth

My friend Jimmy is the artist on one of the latest games to come out of the 28 Movement - Hag 28, written by TM Cibelius and currently on Kickstarter. Each player takes on the role of a Hag, be she of the Wode, Death, Desert, Brine. The Hag collects a Hunt of various creatures, and they battle over the soul of local villages, treasures, ancient arcane whatevers. The tone is a mixture of Terry Pratchett, classic folklore, the folk horror trend, and the 'kitbash whatever the hell you like' ethos of the 28 crowd. 

I love the idea, and I love even more the idea of supporting my friends... plus, I have all these horror miniatures I've bought over the years burning a hole in my backlog. So I bashed up a gang and got very lucky a few days ago with some weather clear enough for priming and here we go.

    Hunt of Mother Skaïth

    Mother Skaïth
    Death Hag
    Hex: Death is No Excuse
    Hex: Evil Eye
    Weapon: Basher (wand)

    Terror/Spawn
    Weapon: Basher (or maybe a Poker) (staff)
    Damn Spooky; Make your Entrails your Extrails
    Pretties: 9

    OR if Spawn
    Hex: Nightmare
    Mutation: Where There's a Whip, There's a Way

    Mercenary (x2)
    Heavy armour; Scarred veteran
    Weapon: Chopper (sword & knives or axe)
    Pretties: 4 (each)

    Goblins (x4)
    Ramshackle weapon: Choppers (scratchy claws and rocks)
    My Handiwork
    Mutation: Vicious OR Where There's a Whip, There's a Way
    Pretties: 2 (each)

The above is a 25 Pretty warband based on the 2.0 playtest rules. I think some of the models can be flexible, depending on what's more fun to play with. The Hex Death is No Excuse is a little redundant with the Whip mutation, and similarly with the My Handiwork trait, so we'll see how they interact in a game.

On to the miniatures!

Old World Army Challenge: VI: Necromunda: Failure Redeemed

 How many subtitles can I fit into a blog post?

ladies doing it for themselves

2023 was the last time I attempted the Old World Army Challenge. I was excited - the first year we were doing Specialist Games, I had all this old Necromunda and Gorkamorka metal to paint up; it was going to be good. Alas, I succumbed to the way of all flesh and only managed to get two gangs painted up - my Skavvies, Smilin' Jack and the Bitter Dregs, and my beloved Pit Slaves, Helreach United Miners, Fabricators, Haulers Local Θ-26/20.

All I managed to get done of the third gang, the March gang, was the four juves. Alas, alack, and other a-words that mean: dangit.

Still, this year is seeing me finishing a couple projects up, and then I was out of undercoated things for those projects, just as winter bit in and it got too cold and wet for spraypainting. I scavenged for some undercoated things to paint - with some success so far - and remembered the Escher gang. Let's fucking go.

The Gleaming Falls Ghasts  

 

Leader: bolter, laspistol, twin knives (170 creds)

Heavy: heavy stubber, stub gun,* sword (200 creds)

Juve: autopistol (40 creds)

Juve: stub gun, sword (45 creds)

Juve: autopistol, club (50 creds)

Juve: stub gun, pick (45 creds)

Ganger: autogun, stub gun (80 creds)

Ganger: shotgun, autopistol (85 creds)

Ganger: bolt pistol, sword, frag grenades (110 creds)

Ganger: plasma pistol, pick (85 creds)

Ganger: twin swords, stub gun* (80 creds)

Ganger: autopistol, sword (75 creds)

Ganger: autogun, stub gun* (80 creds)

Ganger: autogun, stub gun* (80 creds)

Ganger: lasgun, laspistol* (90 creds)

Ganger: laspistol, flail (75 creds)

Ganger: shotgun, sword (80 creds)

Ganger: autogun, sword (80 creds)

 

TOTAL: 1,550 credits 

*or some other kind of pistol; it's in a holster. 

This is enough for a starting gang and a half! I'm only missing three of the original sculpts (the other leader, heavy with a plasma cannon, and the chainsword and autopistol ganger). If I see the other three on eBay or something, I'll have to pick them up.

I went with a relatively classic look, because the original style of the Escher --- well, first of all it, it can't be beat anyway, but it's also one of reasons I got into Necromunda in the first place. Punk glamour in all the right ways, black leathers and bright yellows, with a variety of hair colour that never goes away.

To give myself some guidelines, I decided to follow the original colour scheme a little - if a sculpt was painted with blue hair originally, she got blue hair - but all the hair had to be different. I also tried to keep roughly on theme with the loincloths, but wanted everyone to be unique, so those got played with more.

Also: pink gun casing. Because hell yeah, but also because I want to use pink more often. Shoutout to Stahly at Tale of Painters for doing it first and better.

Those Who Were Undercoated

 Winter has come, and I am once again unprepared.

Undercoated Family photo

It's too cold to undercoat any of the projects that I want to concentrate on, so I've dug up a handful of already-undercoated models from projects I stalled on - most from years ago - and done a little brushwork on them. Not included here are three models finished from my Age of Sigmar Flesh Eater Courts, because I'm going to do a big project post for those when the whole army is finished. I also have the original Escher gang that I didn't finish for the last Old World Army Challenge I was in, but I haven't been able to do much on those yet.

I'm also working on some terrain, and I'm prepping a bunch of miniatures for when the weather warms up so that I undercoat tons at once. I really ought to plan these things better. Maybe next year...

After Action Report: Revenge!

 Reylissa brushed away the still-blistering scrap of pseudofabric. It was warm, wanting to glue itself to the back of her glove, but she shook it away, scowling as it disintegrated into ash. Danika hadn't really needed to torch the thing - it was no face-hugger - but the thick-armed heavy liked burning things. The juve squinted across the ruined stonework they were crossing at their ward. This von Cage, dressed in robes and carrying a very fine staff. There was something Danika should burn. The old man stank of blood, even to Reylissa's inexperienced nose for these things. But he also stank of money, so here she was, escorting the old fool through the rotting domes of Rustwater Gulch...

deployment - a long-abandoned dome

This Sunday just gone, I had my second game of 2025 against long-time usual opponent Mangs, half of over half the battle reports here. I should make some more friends.

Mangs is always a good opponent, generously letting me take lots of photos and notes on our games. This was Necromunda, an opportunity for me to finally bring out the ex-Slave Ogryns which I painted -- in 2022, sweet lord. These are a really fun gang to use, being incredibly daft (as we'll see) but also very hard to stop (as we'll see). Plus, Necromunda is always a great game, especially if you play it like Mangs and I do - starting gangs only, no fucking Tactics cards, relatively WYSIWYG. I'm sure we'd both like to do a campaign one day, but this style avoids a lot of the Modernhammer problems with the game (scale creep, Tactics cards, etc).

Mangs brought Valeria Sly and the Nightshade Crew, who we've met before over in Ghast Grove:

Nightshade Crew

The mission? Escort Guilder agent von Cage. Should be easy money, unless there are ex-slaves in the area who are looking for revenge...

Kanathion von Cage (from Mangs's collection)

mortem tyrannis: finis

 Thus, all tyrants projects.

Daemon engine. Defiler-class. Cognomen: 3-9-ϴ-27

This is it! The last model for the (post-heresy) Death Guard! Except for that pesky Lord of Poxes, anyway, but I can get him when he's released. This is the last planned model. I've finished another project! Exclamation marks!!!!

mortem tyrannis: lil guys (and an officer)

 I was misinformed the other day when I said I only had four miniatures left for the project...

squirmy wrigglers

Lord of Virulence

I have been going back and forth on including some Nurglings in the project. On the one hand, they aren't really Death Guard. On the other, everybody includes them in lists (not that I've played a game of 40k in 10th) for holding objective markers. They're also cute little guys, and I would be building fun little dioramas for each lot... but I could 'finish' the project quicker if I didn't do them.

In the end, I not only did some (nine!), I bought new bases and some extra models from eBay...

mortem tyrannis: engines, daemon

 Good lord, I've been painting this accidental project for over five years.

Second miniature of 2025: a second Plagueburst Crawler, a Death Guard-unique artillery and battle tank. It was challenging making this different from the other (painted in 2020, apparently - I need to focus better on projects), as the kit is quite detailed and unique, but with limited options to customise.

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...

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...

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.

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.

Those Guys

 Just some lads.

lads lads lads

I try to group the civilian posts by theme, but these lads (and the below robot) are all I've done in the past few months, so they can go up together. These four are available as Sailors at Crooked Dice.

yeah just headed to the space-pub for a space-schnitty

I randomly decided to make one chap a football fan because why not. The meaty bloke on the right is into the same punk band as one of my squats:

we ain't dead! say it a-fucken-gain!

bleep-blorp

Finally, we have the non-sentient P0-N3 bot, 'Bill', from Skull & Crown's Space Scrappers line. An absolute treat to paint up!

Project: Blood Bowl - Amazons

 It's been a while. My computer became too unstable to write anything longer than an email, [redacted] occured, I got promoted at work. Luckily, I've done fucken tons of hobby stuff since April. Let's start with a fully completed project.

watch the parrot!

Of course, about sixty seconds after I finished the last of these girls, Games Workshop released a new ruleset for them. It doesn't look too bad. Catchers are gone and while the blitzers are reduced to 0-2, we now have blockers, who are also 0-2. So I should be able to use the team without too much trouble - if littlemangs and I ever get around to seeing one other in real life, that is.

Presenting the Lemuria Leopards!

Old World Army Challenge: Wood Elves II: Beasts!

 Over at the Old World Army Challenge, the March issue is out!

grr. argh.

I really enjoyed painting these beasts! We're past the halfway point, and some great miniatures are still to come...

morten tyrannis: officer

 Good to get things ticked off the list.

hail mortarion! hail the death-of-kings!

Okay, I don't have a list. I do enough project management stuff in my work that I don't want to start doing Trello cards for my miniature hobby. But with the current weather systems across eastern Australia, I can't get any undercoating done. This guy has been on my desk in his undercoat for something like a year now, so I painted him!

Part of the reason I was so hesitant was his cloak. With the red-right-arms on some of my XIV Legionnaires, I didn't want to go the obvious route of an officer's red. Likewise, a muddy green would be too obvious for a captain of Nurgle. I decided to pick up a pot of Hobgrot Hide to see what that looked like, and then.... figured I might as well try it on this guy.

Pretty pleased with it.

I'm not sure I really nailed this, and my gradually failing phone means that the photos aren't the strongest - but he is done and that is the very main thing.

Those Who Work: Prospector

 A civilian painted a little while ago!

make sure your helmet is polarised against radiation, kids

This guy had been sitting on my desk for a long time, but I managed to finish him over Christmas. He then sat in my photos account! I was hoping to get more civilians painted to post him with, but the Old World Army Challenge started up, and that's that.

Not really much to say - he's from the Genestealer Cult range, which have a great unified aesthetic for mining and industrial workers, while being grounded in Warhammer 40,000's setting. I demilitarized him a little, giving him a mining laser and the wrench arm, but there is no conversion work.

..so, yes, he still has grenades and a pistol holster. Hellsreach-style planets are dangerous places!

There are still loads more civilians in my pile of inspiration or whatever we're calling them these days, but I really need to get cracking on their terrain.

Old World Army Challenge: Wood Elves II: Swordsmen

 My work continues on Wood Elf II over at the Old World Army Challenge V.

Warrior Kithband

Head over to see the February results! Don't forget to check out the other challengers.