A Man Out Of Space

Sort of, anyway. This is a Thirty Years' War puritan preacher from Warlord Games, repurposed as a preacher of Morr or similar. Some sort of Warhammer Fantasy sort anyway, perfect for games of Mordheim or Guards of Traitors Toll. 

My kingdom for a lightbox. The figure's head is at an odd angle, as he's looking at his book and declaiming from its text, but the quality of photos I can get with my current set up is variable at best...

I like the little golden button on the back of his jacket, and the red hat band. Both signify that despite his attire he isn't quite a puritan from our world... a man out of space, perhaps, if not time

Just the one mini today, and none yesterday, mainly because of the heat and the fact I'm getting ready for Death Unto Darkness event 11: Heretek, which is this weekend. My Sister of Battle, Sister Superior Humility, has had her armour cleaned and the paint touched up, her soft kit has been washed, and she is ready to go and purify the unbelievers with sword and bolt pistol in the name of the Divine Emperor. Much to the dismay of all the other non-Sisters players, I expect. It should be a huge lark and I am extremely looking forwards to it!

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 5
2025: 369

What Happened To Those Space Wolves Again?

Well, today I managed to semi-sort the internet AND I moved downstairs to where it was marginally cooler, so I was able to crack on with some painting of my own things to get myself back to a headspace where I can work on commissions. So that involved finishing off the Necron Immortals and the Pariahs, and looking at the Space Wolves and going "mmm, not in the mood at the moment". What I was in the mood for, apparently, was a repaint/fix-up of some medieval peasant types I bought way back in the very late 1990s, and which I think I can now repurpose for stuff like Mordheim: Empire In Flames, Guards of Traitors Toll, or even just basic RPG games.

The last five Immortals for the squad. These Necrons are tough and mean and carry Gauss Blasters rather than the Warrior's Gauss Flayers. 24" range, S5, AP4, Assault 2  - brutal weapons that'll turn anyone wearing anything lighter than Power Armour to mince

They're pretty brutal looking from the rear honestly - wide and intimidating

Pariahs - eventually there'll be another five. These are technically meant to be Lychguard in modern parlance but pah, fie upon that, I say

They're bulkier than the Warriors but slimmer than the Immortals and I deliberately painted them to have a little more in common with the Necron Lord I have

And from robot skeletons from the depths of time and space to random medieval types. I thought these were Redoubt Enterprises, but I can't see them in their catalogue. Then I thought maybe they were Gripping Beast, but also no. I'm at a loss! I remember buying them as a very young teenager at, I think, Warfare in Reading. Although it may have been Salute! or possibly even Attack! in Devizes... All I can now remember is painting them in these colours (not as neatly) sitting at my then best friend's kitchen table in about 1999. Anyone who happens to know who made these, please let me know. 

L-R: A wealthy sort, a stallholder, a leper, and a drunk in the stocks

I particularly like the colours young me chose, all those years ago - all I did here was clean them up and paint them a bit more carefully

Tomorrow I'll crack on with the commissions, and maybe some more peasants and civilians. I'm rapidly coming up on the 300 miniatures painted from the Pile of Opportunity before July the 17th, which I honestly wasn't sure I'd do, so I'm very pleased with that. Just four more to do!

Painting Points:
Today: 4
This Week: 4 (+ those 10 Necrons above that I finished last week that I didn't get a chance to post about)
2025: 368
 

Technical Problems, Please Stand By

So I've been AWOL for a few days. Partly this is because my internet provider has decided to have a local outage, and partly it's because the UK is extremely hot and where I normally paint is uncomfortably hot. As a result I haven't made as much progress as I've hoped on stuff recently and even if I had, posting about it has been impossible. I'm piggy-backing off someone else's internet to make this post, and hopefully things will be fixed soon. Now if you'll excuse me I'm off to melt quietly into a puddle of sweat.

Rally The Horse

I spent a bit of time today working on the English Civil War commission, blocking out the horses and starting on the saddlecloths. I need to finish those, then do the leather, trousers, sashes, and details on the standard bearer and musician before whacking them all with Agrax Earthshade and then picking out the metal. I'm hoping to do this by the end of the weekend and then make headway on the other two units.

In other news, I also dug out the last remaining Necrons - five more Immortals and five Pariahs - undercoated them and started painting their metal basecoat. I need to do a bit of work on the barrels of the heavy gauss blasters carried by the Immortals, but I reckon I can get the Immortals and Pariahs finished up tomorrow.

 Also, not this coming weekend but the one after, I'm going to Death Unto Darkness, the 40K LARP, as my Sister of Battle Superior. A friend of mine, M, gave me a 3D-printed bolt pistol a while ago and I've given it some paint to match my chainsword, and a name, because you have to name your wargear.

I'm looking forwards to pointing this at people and yelling "SANCTIC BOLT" at them like the huge nerd I am.

 

An Accidental Hiatus

So over the last few days a variety of things happened that stopped me updating, including but not limited to a need to re-install Windows 11. Anyway today I managed to put paint to model again for the first time since last week, and I used it to both add the names to the bases of the Space Wolf characters, and to finish the Venerable Dreadnought - Játgeirr the Teller of Tales!

Dirtied down and covered in bling, the Venerable Dreadnought is ready for violence!

Side view showing personal heraldry and the multi-melta

Notably no Adeptus Mechanicus symbols on the power plant!

A wolf skin and the old storm shield used by Játgeirr before being interred. The scrollwork on the power fist says FENRIS

The named ones - L-R: Játgeirr, Grímur One-Arm, Lady Valda, Old Armann 

The Wolf Guard (and a Long Fang) Pack Leaders: Fastulfr, Hjordis, Eyyindur and Ragnheithur

In the background of 40K, Dreadnoughts are frequently used by Space Marine Chapters as repositories of Chapter knowledge and ancient lore, with the Marines interred inside the armoured sarcophagi sometimes being many centuries or even thousands of years old, and recalling things long forgotten. So with Játgeirr's name I wanted to lean into that a bit, hence the "Teller of Tales" sobriquet. I imagine him standing in the feast hall in the Fang loudly declaiming sagas of centuries past, the heroic tales of mythic figures who to him are as real as the warriors around him. I just hope this helps him roll well on the tabletop!

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 5
2025: 354 

Respect Your Elders...

...Or else! I have started working on the Venerable Dreadnought, doing a couple of layers of drybrushed highlights to the armour plate, and getting the gold and bone elements to a point where they can be highlighted and detailed. I suspect much of the work on it will be on the right arm, which has got quite a lot of detail on it in the form of the wolf skin, shield, and so on. I also managed to get the latest ISS Vanguard lander finished as well, which is great! Oh, and I've started on the Parliamentarian cavalry. They're meant to be for Second Newbury (1644), and with three units I'm probably going to try to make them at least slightly resemble some of the regiments of horse that were at that battle - obviously Cromwell's lot, then maybe Waller's and Sir John Norwich's. Not sure how quite yet, a little research required here I think.

A lander - this is not a great photo sadly but the big blue canopy is pretty cool. That said I'm actually tempted to redo it to the gold canopy... I'll see what the commissioner wants

A better photo thankfully. It's a funky little ship!

Looking at this made me realise I'd missed a bit on the other side which I have now fixed. Success?

The reason I might change the colour of the canopy to gold is because the engine glow is blue as well...

The dreadnought! Stompy and angry

Warlord Games' Parliamentarian cavalry - the buff coats and plate are basically the same across both armies and all cavalry regiments! The sashes tended to change colour and I'm going to do these ones with orange sashes

So a lot of work in progress, and one completed mini. Not a bad outcome for the day.

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 4
2025: 349

Long Fang Time

Yesterday saw my painting time replaced by surprise dog-sitting time, which was (as always) lovely. Our friends' dog is an absolute delight. Today, however, I cracked on with the last two Long Fangs and finished them, which is a great step forwards in the whole force - I "just" have the Grey Hunters, Blood Claws, and Rune Priest to do now. Oh, and the Dreadnought. 

Two lascannons give the pack some good anti-armour punch, with the high Ballistic Skill of the Long Fangs allowing just two to have a decent chance of knocking out most vehicles they'll face

The giant rifle aesthetic is pretty good, I must admit

Bulky battery packs and pack markings

I'm already dreading trying to cut a transfer to fit the pauldron of the Long Fang on the right...

 With them complete, the whole pack is done: 

The Iron Priest is attached to the Long Fangs because I think it makes sense for them to be together - the Long Fangs giving fire support and the Iron Priest able to survey the battlefield and move to repair whatever needs repairing as and when required

I also took delivery of another commission today - this time 36 English Civil War Parliamentarian cavalry troopers - which I'll be working on alongside the existing ISS Vanguard stuff and, of course, the Space Wolves. Tomorrow I should have another finished boardgame piece from that commission, an interesting work in progress block of the first 12 roundheads, and some work on the Venerable Dreadnought. 

Painting Points:
Today: 2
This Week: 3
2025: 348

Steady As She Goes

Another day, another Long Fang. I have also brought the last two Long Fangs up to a point where I can probably finish them off tomorrow, and did more work on the commission ships - again, I should probably be able to finish at least one tomorrow. So not a bad start to the week, really!

I really like the grimacing grill on the helmet of the Mk VII armour plate

Simple but effective pack marking - I particularly like the starkness of the black and white against the blue-grey armour

The massive power pack for the plasma cannon is not a subtle piece of gear

What self-respecting veteran Space Wolf doesn't have some fur on their armour, eh?

With almost the entire Long Fang pack done, I think I'll probably do the Venerable Dreadnought next - who knows, I might even keep focus on the whole lot of them!

Painting Points:
Today: 1
This Week: 1
2025: 346

Another Ship And A Wolf

With tomorrow going to be intensely busy - P and I will be at Bedworth Pride - I took the chance to settle in and finish at least one of the Long Fangs, and the next commission spaceship. Having got the Long Fangs all to a certain point I'm finding it much more satisfying to focus on them one at a time, which is something I used to do before I got really good at batch painting. It does at least mean I can put a little more effort into things like eyes, and hopefully I'll still be able to hit my target number of figures painted by P's birthday in July.

A grizzled old greybeard, who now I have photographed and blown up to about four times his actual size, I can see I need to sort his mouth out... grrr!

The pack marking for the Long Fang squad is on the face of it simpler than the others, but you try getting a consistent diagonal line running half-way up a curved shoulder pad

A simple power pack because I don't truck with flashy lights

Mind you if I'm complaining about the pack markings, I should definitely be complaining about the Great Company of the Sun Wolf's marking...

 

A nice, simple, quite Mass Effect sort of scheme for this little lander - I went for a clean finish and a coat of matt varnish to protect it from handling as it's a boardgame piece

Engines ahead full! Blue contrast over white with a gloss varnish really looks great and I'm going to apply it to as many of the landers as I can for a consistent link between them

I am assuming the down-up-down-up cheat code is actually some kind of name in an alien glyph language

The cockpit is a nice gold colour to hearken back to astronaut helmet visors

With the first of the four Long Fangs with heavy weapons completed, and another commission ship done, I feel a lot better about this week. It may not have been the most productive week but it's another step towards getting through the whole Pile of Opportunity, and it's always nice to complete things that people are paying you to do!

Painting Points:
Today: 2
This Week: 4
2025: 345

What's Painting Without Mistakes

While I was happily working on the details and highlights of the Long Fangs, and going back and forth into the commission ships, I realised something odd about the Iron Priest and the Long Fang Sergeant. The Sergeant's armour seemed a bit... lighter. I picked them up and compared them and realised, to my horror, that the Long Fang Sergeant had not just had one highlight of blue-grey, but two or maybe even three! So I'm going to have to go back into the Iron Priest and the Rune Priest as well as the Long Fangs and add some more highlights to their armour. Pants. Oh well. That rather took the wind out of my sails for painting today, but it wasn't a total loss:

With the Long Fangs now pretty close to about a third done, they may well get finished off in the next few days. The commission spaceship will definitely be done tomorrow, and then I can move on to another one. 

I might actually step away from the Space Wolves for a while. They haven't really captured my desire to paint them so once the Long Fangs are done and the various Priests have had their extra highlights, I'll probably put them on the back burner for a bit and move onto something else. Not entirely sure what, though.