An Undercoat Is Still Painting, Right?

Yesterday I didn't do anything hobby related, really; apart from putting together some pre-generated characters for a one-short Dark Heresy 1st Edition game I was going to run tonight at the local TTRPG club. Alas, the Omnissiah was not with us, and a fault with our car meant I had to cancel. With the newly freed up time, I did the only thing I could possibly do:

 No, not work on the commission.

 Of course not. Why would I do that?

I painted the names on the latest additions to the Ninefold Path of Eight Ways! These three are the "Arrows of Fate", a small henchman group to support my various close combat monsters and to provide a bit of a guard for my Magestrix in case something nasty comes to try and fight her

That said I didn't just paint the names on some models. Oh no. I also broke out the Abaddon Black and some recently 3D printed minis, and undercoated them. This included...

...this chap! I finally managed to print the Yuzbasi who commands the Iron Sultanate Warband without the top half of his strange harpy-creature's head disappearing. I did need to fill a bit on one of her wings, but that wasn't nearly as difficult as replacing the top half of her head!

 
The other figures include two copies of a woman with a spear; one for my putative Slaaneshi Chaos Warrior army and one for a vaguely-conceived idea of a Skavenslave unit that's made up of a whole range of various figures (not just Skaven!); both of which are 6th Edition Warhammer armies. There's also a prisoner who'll work nicely as an objective for Mordheim scenarios, and a slightly misprinted (as it turns out) High Elf wizard that I was planning to add to my Maiden Guard army. Having undercoated her I'm not sure I like the model enough to actually use it, so I'm on the hunt for a new model now. Ah well.

Speaking of new models, a while ago I backed a Kickstarter for a new Mordheim warband: the Court of Profane Pleasures, sculpted by Dario Biancheri. I got access to the STLs today, and now they're all downloaded I think I'll probably print a few over the weekend. They'll be great to scatter around all sorts of places, from Mordheim to 40K.

 

A Change Of Clothes

I didn't get a great deal done today. I started to put some paint on my new version of my Maiden Guard commander, as well as swapped the enormous sword on her old version for a new, smaller (but still large) one. I also printed the rest of the Iron Sultanate models I have, although the Yuzbasi seems to have a strange error in the file - the head of the funny little harpy that sits on his arm just refuses to print properly. I've printed two of them now and both have the same error. It's very odd. I'll have to investigate it.

It's only a start but I think it's a serious glow-up

The Lion of Jabir is a cool mini but my favourite is the Azeb woman with the flag

Tomorrow I'm going to paint more. I want to get my Maiden Guard sorted!

Friend Computer Is Your Friend

And you can trust friends! This evening P and I went down to meet up with the local RPG nerds in Llangefni again, and this time instead of playing Dungeons and Dragons, I ran a one-shot game of PARANOIA: Red Clearance Edition. Troubleshooters PIP-R-1, MAR-R-1, REB-R-1, TIN-R-1, ARI-R-1, and SON-R-1 were tasked with a serious and urgent mission to defend Alpha Complex from terrorism! By taking a malfunctioning scrub-bot to a Technical Service Centre.

In the course of this mission, four clones of ARI-R died, two clones of REB-R, one of MAR-R, and one of TIN-R. This meant the casualty rate was 133% amongst the Troubleshooting Team. Additionally, an unknown number of Infrared clearance clones were eliminated (they were probably traitors anyway. Or communists. Or mutants. Or maybe even communist mutant traitors), the Technical Service Centre was set on fire, the scrub-bot was exploded, and several items of mission-critical equipment such as the megaphone and three fragmentation grenades were lost, damaged, destroyed, or - worse - utilised inappropriately.

Following the debriefing, the Combat Officer was both eliminated and promoted, the ARI- line of clones was deleted from the clone genetic database, MAR-R-2 was demoted to MAR-I-2, and TIN-R-2 was promoted to TIN-O-2 and made permanent voluntary mandatory bonus duty Combat Officer. 

Final mission status: [error: please report all errors to the <filenotfound> Department]

Everyone seemed to enjoy it which was gratifying and they may even want to play more in the wonderful world of Alpha Complex, where a request for Pom-Poms is met with a robot giving you 27 copies of page 1 of 3 of the Pom-Pom Request Form which must be filled in in triplicate using only blue ink. You still don't have any Pom-Poms. And why haven't you completed the form? Wasting forms is suspicious behaviour, citizen.

My view - the GM screen is actually from the 40K TTRPG Dark Heresy 1st Edition

In other news, today the Handmaiden of the Everqueen model I'd ordered from Games Workshop at the beginning of the week arrived. I was busily putting her together when I realised I had a spare left arm from one of the 3D prints that might work really well for a new pose...

It's not the best angle, but the way she's posed now is as if she's beckoning her troops forwards, swishing her cape aside contemptuously to expose her sheathed sword, filled with haughty grandeur and the knowledge of her own skill and power - she makes a much better army commander than my poor kitbashed and converted model on the left

Of course this led to some decisions. I had originally intended her to be used as "just" a Handmaiden of the Everqueen character in larger games, but the new pose is so cool, and so commanding, that I decided she will replace my existing Aeilliniarie model, who will become the champion of the next unit of Handmaidens that I make. Which of course now means I need to decide how to represent Aeilliniarie's shield without ruining the pose and lines of the new model... and I also need to paint the new version before this coming Tuesday... and I need to rejig my larger lists because I'll be short a Handmaiden (who, regardless, can't sit with the "Lothern Sea Guard" without removing their cool Sea Guard ability to reform before receiving a charge or be able to stand and shoot while doing it). Ah well.

And, as a final note, I realised that the bases I'd put my Azebs and Sultante Sapper on were too big. They're supposed to go on 25mm diameter round bases, not the 32mm rounds I actually used. Guess I'll fix those tomorrow.

Sound The Trumpets, The Minions Of Shaytan Approach

Today my copy of the Trench Crusade rules arrived, completing my Kickstarter pledge reward for Trench Crusade. I have, of course, immediately flicked through it (it's gorgeous) and plonked some of my Iron Sultanate minis onto the painting table alongside the more Maiden Guard that I'm working on.
 

It's a beautiful book, nicely laid out, and with really high production values. Well worth the wait

The Iron Sultante troops I have at the moment ready to paint are three Azebs, a Sapper, and a Jabirean Alchemist. I have some other stuff I can print too, such as a Yuzbasi (the commander), more Azebs (including a really swanky standard bearer) and a Scripture Guardian, which seems like an interesting creature.

The front two are a bit out of focus, but they are the Jabirean Alchemist (front left), a Sapper (front right) and then behind them three Azebs, two (left and centre) with muskets and the third (right) with a flamethrower. Death to the infidel!

As for the Maiden Guard, well, it's strangely comforting to paint them now...

I'm really proud of my kitbash for the Battle Standard Bearer (front right) and the 3D prints are all really quite nice - reasonably crisp, paint up well, look the part when complete

So although nothing finished today, a lot started and hopefully I'll be a nice way along towards completion of the Maiden Guard by the end of the weekend. We'll see, as I so often say on this blog...

Blessed Is The Holy Machine, Sing Praises Unto The Divine Will Of The Omnissiah!

Or in other words, after years of waiting, my Mars 2 Pro resin 3D printer is up, running, and printing stuff. This is slightly wild; I have never before experienced the mind-bending glee of taking a file, fiddling about a bit in Chitubox, sticking the USB stick into the printer, pressing "print" and a while later having... miniatures? Absurd. I will have to be disciplined (she says, with 65 Battletech 1:285 scale Clan Elementals currently printing) otherwise I can see myself becoming entirely overrun with things to paint, and I have something of a backlog already. 

Speaking of things to paint, I can tick something else off the Pile of Opportunity - spurred on by my game yesterday against N, I painted my Casket of Souls to completion and named the Tomb Priest using it: Ankhefendjaf, or He Who Lives For Djaf. Djaf is the Nehekharan god of death and war, so it amuses me that Ankhefendjaf's name is what it is. 

Experimenting with backdrops in my lightbox. Black seems to work better than white, I think. From this angle you can see the eerie glow from Ankhefendjaf's eyes and mouth

Can you spot the spider on the steps of the Casket?

I'm not totally satisfied with the way the leg wraps look in this image, so I might go back in and tidy them up. Or maybe not - it's a very minor thing, and this isn't really a display piece

The deep black of the casket itself is a mix of blacks, purples, and blues - the top is much more marbled, while the sides are wet blended for a strange, unearthly feel

Now all I have left for my Tomb Kings at the moment is the consort of Hapshetsida, on his bone dragon. I do need a massive base for that, and slightly better weather so I can prime them both, but I'm looking forwards to sorting him and the dragon out. Probably in the New Year.

Anyway, back to the Blessed Machine:

Trench Crusade miniatures from the Kickstarter. I backed for a warband, and chose the Iron Sultanate, because I loved the design of the Jabirean Alchemist. This was my first foray into using Chitubox and I think I may have done something wrong - there is an odd misprint on the Captain's strange harpy-bird, who is missing the top half of her head. Oops!

The problem is - having started printing things, I'm not sure I will know when to stop printing things!

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 6
2025: 504

 

Praise Be To The Burny Fellows

I finally, finally finished them. They took days longer than I expected, and they're done. Hurrah! 

A bad photo sadly but they look great all finished up

Slightly better photo showing how lovely the fire motif looks on both red and yellow

The whole lot is a gang in and of itself, but can also be mixed into my Unworthy Servants Cawdor gang as well if I fancied it. I am particularly pleased with the way the robes ended up and how the burning hats ended up through a mix of contrast, washes, and paint.

I also took the time today to finish making the free minis I got from Wargames Illustrated and Miniature Wargames:

German late-war paratroopers in winter gear that have been turned into Trench Crusade Heretic Naval Infantry Legionnaires and Troopers

I think that the paint scheme on these minis will really make them fit into the Trench Crusade aesthetic more - as it stands they are, after all, just Fallschirmjager!

Then, on the front of Miniature Wargames, there was a sprue of Wargames Atlantic's Sneakfeet - these are Ratling Snipers with the serial numbers filed off, who are in turn of course Hobbits (in space) with the serial numbers filed off...

Haven't decided how to base them yet

I deliberately picked the smaller guns on the sprue because I think they'll probably end up being Generic Sci-Fi sorts for something like Five Parsecs From Home or Space Station Zero.

Having knocked out the Redemptionists, I'm a bit unsure as to what to work on next - I might actually have a break from painting for a bit! Who knows. 

Painting Points:
Today: 7
This Week: 7
2024: 198 (349)

Oops, A Distraction

I don't know if you've noticed but Tuomas Pirinen, him of Mordheim and Warhammer Fantasy 6th Edition fame, along with some other creative types has made a ridiculously successful Kickstarter for a new skirmish wargame called TRENCH CRUSADE. Trench Crusade is an alternate universe / alt-history 1914 where the First Crusade accidentally released Hell onto Earth, and so the next thousand years or so have been a long war against Satan's Legions and their various human auxiliaries and soldiers. There's a lot more information out there, I recommend this Goonhammer article for starters.

Anyway, I did some painting on my Redemptionists - blocked out the skin, did the flames apart from the gloss varnish, and started the hair - and then, after picking up a copy of Wargames Illustrated with a sprue of Warlord Games' winter-uniformed Fallschirmjager stuck to the front, decided to rummage in my bits box and make some Heretic Naval Raiders...

They're so close to done. So close. It's painful now

You can see some bits and pieces in the bottom left corner of that photo from the Warlord Games' frame. I opened up the playtest Trench Crusade rules (available on the Facebook group, here) and had a look at what a Heretic Trooper actually has available. As I'm doing Naval Raiders, they get access to sub-machine guns, which is quite nice, so I'm going to do three with SMGs, one with an automatic shotgun, and then two Legionaries with a machine gun and a semi-auto rifle (later to be upgraded to an automatic rifle).

They might look like Germans from the late war, but if you look at their belts you can see some hearts dangling from straps... uh oh! These guys are Heretic Legionaries, with better accuracy than the regular Troopers, and funky padded trousers to help differentiate them. I think that the paint scheme is going to do a lot of work making it clear what they are - strange, deathly pale skin, esoteric runes on their helmets, dark blue naval infantry type uniforms...

Not entirely sure what sort of conversions I could do to make things like an Artillery Witch, or a Heretic Priest, but we'll see. Part of the problem I'm having is that the scale of the Warlord Games' minis is not really compatible with the bulk of my bits box, which is almost entirely Games Workshop's heroic scale stuff. Anyway, that's for another day. Who knows, maybe tomorrow I'll finally have finished those Redemptionists.