Hail The Fallen - The New Year Approaches

In 2025, I have painted more miniatures in one year than I have ever painted before. Today I capped the year off by painting two of the same model - Erika Chappell's Scrungaloid 01, "Tag and Release". The Scrungaloids are quite clearly variations of the Rogue Trader Space Marines from the RTB01 set and the associated metal models produced around the same time, and as a result I looked to Rogue Trader for the colour schemes. Obviously the Crimson Fists needed representation, and then I wanted a nicely wild option for the other one, and what better than the original red-and-yellow dazzle pattern Minotaurs from the famous spread of Chapters represented in the Badab War?

Brother Greg, of the Crimson Fists Red Hand, and Brother Pax of the Minotaurs Angry Bull-Men (both legally distinct names and concepts thank you). I used different bases to see which looked better; I think the larger base does actually suit Marines more than the 25mm one, but the 25mm one is the proper period base for the 1980s and well into the 2000s too for that matter

I leant into the graffiti bit from Rogue Trader - both Greg and Pax have various things written on their armour; Pax has LUV and HATE on his kneepads, and Greg has KIL on his right greave and DIE on his left hand

You can't expect a Space Marine Scrungaloid to know how to spell

You get a good view of Pax's dazzle scheme here. I did it a lot more crudely and simply than the last time I painted this scheme, just in case I'm unhinged enough to turn this one mini into a proper force...

This model is a really really good interpretation of the 1980s beakie Marines, and I'm very excited to see what else Erika's made for Scrungaloids: The Lowest Form Of Life

So with that, my painting spree for 2025 has come to an end. Over the course of the year I painted over 500 models for a total of 548 Painting Points! On average I completed one and a half Painting Points' worth of models a day, so my goal for 2026 is to equal or beat that. Coincidentally, Games Workshop has a promotion on where they're trying to get a million miniatures painted in 2026, and if you paint 100 between Janury 17th and May 9th you get a whole bunch of swag, which I'm very keen to get my paws on! Obviously that has to be 100 Games Workshop miniatures, but I do in fact have at least 100 of those unpainted kicking around... and I can buy some new ones as well, mwahahaha.

Other than "paint 100 GW models between Jan 17th and May 9th" my wargaming goals for 2026 are as follows:

• Open and run the LUNAR Club in Llangefni
• Run a Mordheim campaign at LUNAR Club
• Finish the Maiden Guard and participate in the Old World Escalation League with them
• Complete (or continue) the magnetisation and storage of my collection
• Finish at least the ruined buildings from my 40K terrain collection

I wonder how successful I'll be!

Painting Points:
Today: 2
This Week: 2
2025: 548

 

Is It A Bird? Is It A Plane? No! It's A...

 ...SCRUNGALOID! 

Almost no work done today, but - but! - I did print two Scrungaloids from Erika Chappell's upcoming game, Scrungaloids: The Lowest Form Of Life, which I am aiming to paint... err... tomorrow. 

They may look like RTB01 Marines, but these are legally distinct SCRUNGALOIDS, I assure you

Why so quickly? Well, there's a challenge - if I can paint one to completion before January the first, I get a free starter set (PDF rules and STL files) and I am actually quite excited about that. I'm going to try and do one up in simple colours and the other in a more esoteric scheme. Something like this, maybe:

I painted one of these years ago, I can paint one again!

Tune in next time to see how deranged the last day of 2025 makes me...!

Dungeons, Dragons, And High Elves

My son, T, has been staying (as he frequently does) and yesterday, not only did we manage to make time to play a game of King of Tokyo - which he won - we also started a game of Dungeons and Dragons. 3.5 Edition, of course; the edition I started with back in the early 2000s, an edition I can pretty much run without really thinking about it, and, just as traditionally, he rolled up a Human Fighter to start with.

Suffice it to say that he's been having a blast, and the adventures of his as-yet-unnamed character will, I suspect, be many and varied. As long as I keep rolling as awfully as I have been, that is. He has, as is the wont of players, totally ignored the NPCs that might be able to join him as party members, and is currently soloing everything I put in front of him. This may or may not last. We'll see if his partner E wants to join in next time she's over with him.

In painting news, I didn't do anything yesterday but today I highlighted all the leatherwork and painted the base layer of skintone onto the Maiden Guard:

Slowly getting there. Next step is to block out all the different shades of gold, then wash the skin and gold with Agrax Earthshade prior to applying highlights

I'm also going to print myself a Scrungaloid and see if I can get it crash-painted before the New Year, for a daft challenge set by Erika Chappell, the designer of the very funny and quite good little game SCRUNGALOIDS: The Lowest Form Of Life. Paint a Scrungaloid, get the starter set for free!

The Work Continues

I actually may have used that title before. Ah well. I did do a little work yesterday on the Maiden Guard, but I got distracted by Vampire the Masquerade: Coteries of New York and didn't manage to make a blog post about it. Anyway, today I painted all the leather and gold areas in Rhinox Hide, which doesn't sound like a lot (and isn't, really) but it does bring them all one step closer to being finished:

What's this? Maiden Guard? Again? What a surprise!

The magic bows are missing something, but I'm not sure what. I might try and put a little more blue into them, but they're alright, and I'm tempted to reserve judgement until just before I get the basing done. I've used a little yellow on the standard tops, to suggest a sunrise, which is a reasonably common High Elf motif. I'm hoping to spend a fair chunk of time painting tomorrow, so who knows - maybe I'll get the leatherwork and gold done, and that'll mean all that's left will be skin, hair, and gems.

Is It A High Elf If It Isn't Wearing White

Well, even though I'm using a pot of MIG Ammo matt white rather than the really awful GW stuff, painting white is still a pain. However it's done now - at least for the time being - and the first 500 points of Maiden Guard are now at the point where it's time for leatherwork and basecoating the gold areas:

The Sisters of Avelorn have magic bows, so the white is going to get a blue wash and then some work to make them look like magical flames

I also did some more on the Everqueen, who now looks very High Elf due to her long flowing white dress and white magical staff. 

And on that note:

NADOLIG LLAWEN! 

 

I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas

But I live in the time of climatic collapse and the UK, so I'll have to make my own, by which I mean tomorrow I'm going to make some time to paint white onto a load of clothes, spears and bows. In preparation for that today I basecoated all the cloth in Corax White, and all the weapons (except the magic bows of the Sisters of Avelorn) in Space Wolves Grey. Then I mixed some Yriel Yellow into some Skarsnik Green to put the final highlight on the shields, and did a similar mix for the Warpstone Green Cloaks. While I had the greys out, I started work on the Everqueen herself: she's wearing almost nothing but white and golds, but I might make the strip of cloth that hangs down the front of her dress green to tie her into the rest of the army. Who knows. Anyway she's a bit of a side project at the moment.

The yellow tint in the greens really works, I think - it'll look nice with the reds and golds, and the rubies on the shields will look really nice too

Tomorrow is, of course, Christmas Day, so I'm not planning on doing a particularly great deal. I will, however, get the white done. That means after I get all the leather stuff done there's not that much more to do: gold and red details, gems, skin, hair. 

Then I get to start all over again with the next 12! It looks like the end of 2025 and the first part of 2026 is shaping up to be a very Elf-y time. Fitting, given the time of year, I suppose. You've heard of elf on the shelf, etc etc...

Green Grows The... Shield?

I spent today slowly but methodically applying the first highlight to the various greens on the Maiden Guard, and plotting the way the army will develop over the next year of the Old World Escalation League I'm going to be playing in. It starts at 500 points - which is the force I'm working on - and then increases by 250 points each month. My next step will be to bring the two units of Maiden "Sea" Guard up to 15 strong each (well, one at 15 and one at 13 plus a battle standard bearer and the general) and add three more Sisters of Avelorn. It's not a lot of extra stuff, just another 13 models, but it will make the force a bit more resiliant and up the amount of shooting a bit too. 

Starting to take shape; the highlights on the greens and silver really makes a difference even with almost everything else in black!

I suspect that I should get the greens done by Boxing Day and might even start on the white clothes, bows, and spear hafts by then. My aim is to try to get them done and sorted before the 13th of January, which is (I think) the first day of the Escalation League.

When In Doubt, Slap A Wash On It

Today I did a fair bit of work on the Maiden Guard. Most of the actual work was done by washes - Asurmen Blue on the silver, and Biel-Tan Green on the, well, greens. 

Sisters of Avelorn at the front, Maiden Guard to centre and rear

The shields are Skarsnik Green, and the cloaks are Warpstone Glow, while the edging around the scale mail and the lining of tunics, skirts, or other bits of cloth are Warboss Green. The next step is to do a couple of layers of highlights, which I'll probably use a yellow to do in order to make the green warmer against the colder whites of the rest of the cloth and the spears and bows. The leatherwork is all going to be a mix of browns, and then after that it'll be gold, rubies, red ribbons, and a variety of details.

I still don't know how to paint the skin or hair. Part of me is considering something like this image by Kiikiibee, which is a sort of coppery skin and red-brown hair; but I'm also thinking about maybe doing some darker skin tones and darker hair too - that might go nicely with the greens and whites. Or maybe a general mix. 

Elven Steel, Elven Bows

Spent some time today undercoating the Maiden Guard and getting the base coats on the armour and weapons. The plan over the next few days and weeks is to get the mithril armour and blades done, then to work outwards - whites and greens - before going in with detail such as gold and skin. I'm not totally sure what sort of skintones to use, because I'm not massively convinced by the pale skin and blonde hair look. That's a while off for now though:

It's only 27 models but when you're batch painting it seems endless

I should probably also think about working on some of the Pile of Opportunity again, too, but for now I have High Elves on the brain!

My Kingdom For A Musician

I have been busily 3D-printing elves over the last couple of days, and have been doing some kitbashing and converting with it. It turned out that the file I'd been using for the alternative Maiden Guard, although it had an Everqueen miniature, lacked a command group. So I got P, who has been learning Blender, to make me a standard bearer's arm, and cobbled together a champion and standard bearer. But I had no idea what to do for a musician; so one of the units of Maiden Guard is awaiting one. In the meantime I printed some Sisters of Avelorn, who are Maiden Guard specialist archers, using magical bows and whose role is to act as scouts and rangers, and hacked up my original metal Maiden Guard champion to make the High Ef Noble who will be leading the 500 point force:

That massive sword being weilded by the Noble is magical, which is why she's single-handing what should really be a greatsword... and who's that next to her? Why, it's the Everqueen herself!

 Anyway, with the first 500 points nearly complete - I'm just waiting for a musician and another Sister of Avelorn - the next task is, of course, painting them. I'm going to use the relevant pages from the Uniforms and Heraldry of the High Elves book:

Lots of green and white, which is a nice combination

Not sure if I'll water down the theme with units that aren't Maiden Guard, but if I do this is great

And who knows, I might even win some games with them.

 

The Horn of Isha Blows

Ever since they were released, I have wanted an army of High Elves based around the Maiden Guard of the Everqueen of Ulthuan. When they came out, back in the late 1990s, I thought they were incredibly cool - the idea that there were 100 Elf women who fought with spears and bows as the bodyguard of the Everqueen, and the look of the miniatures - it was all just an awesome package for small me. But, of course, I couldn't afford them and anyway I was collecting Undead and various Imperial Guard and Space Marines at the time. I did end up, somehow, with a metal Maiden Guard champion, but I have no idea how or when. Fast forwards to a little while ago, and the various wargamers in and around Llangefni were talking about an Old World Escalation League - starting with 500 points and building up from there over the course of a year. I initially was thinking about making an army based around a force of High Elf 'marines', as it were - Lothern Sea Guard, Shadow Warriors, Eagle Claw Bolt Throwers - the sort of troops that the High Elves would have on board their fleets, who can go ashore and make raids or travel uprivers and strike from there.

 Then I remembered the other High Elf unit that uses spears and bows. And I remembered that I had a working 3D printer.

So I started looking around for models that could work as Maiden Guard...

 ...and I found some:

These are made from scans of the original metals...

...and these are made as a multipart kit inspired by the originals

 So now, at long last, I'll have my Maiden Guard army. The first 500 points is small - as is to be expected from the High Elves - with just two units of "Lothern Sea Guard" and one of Sisters of Avelorn, led by a Noble. Should be able to get them ready for the start of the Escalation League in January I think. 

 

Incy Wincy Spider

Sometimes you need to walk on a ceiling as a giant spider, and that's what I spent my evening doing tonight as a Wood Elf Druid together with P (playing a Tabaxi Warlock) at a pub in Llangefni, along with some other lovely people: M, the DM, B (playing an Elf Druid), E (playing a Human Warlock with four distinct personalities), T (playing a Human Rogue) and D (playing a Dragonborn Paladin). 

We rolled some dice, had a laugh, and interacted with random drunk locals who were by turns curious about the game and just reasonably cheery with drink. It was a good night. 

Memorable moments from the first fight, sketched in pen: my druid, wild shaped into a Giant Spider, tried to wrap a skeleton in a web and missed, then jumped onto the head of another and bit it. The venom in her bite was ineffectual, to say the least. Also the scale is off, this giant spider shape is giant - like, bigger than a person giant... 

Then when I got home I spent eight whole pounds on myself and got some STL files for my mad High Elf project. P helped me by using their newly-developed Blender skills to chop some of the files up to make a standard pole. I daren't ask them to make me a hornblower's arm just yet though!

Decisions, Decisions

Having finally completed the printing for C - six mechs, four Alacorns, four Shreks, seven trucks, two articulated lorries, two Maxim II hover APCs, six Warrior VTOLs, and 12 bases of GEV infantry - and having completed all the current mechs I had to paint, I'm now contemplating my options.

On the one hand, I have a small selection of figures to paint (Alarielle, the PDF trooper, and a 5th Edition Warhammer Fantasy High Elf Handmaiden of the Everqueen champion) which would be a nice little palate cleanser and give me an idea about colour schemes and concepts for my planned Old World High Elf army based around the Everqueen, or I could print some Skaven and build my Stormvermin unit up to 20, as well as adding some extra stuff - like a Warlord to command the army in games too small for my Grey Seer to take charge. After all, I did tell N that I'd take Skaven against his Chaos in the New Year once they return from holiday back to university.
 

L: a 5th Edition Handmaiden of the Everqueen unit champion; R: a 3D printed Alarielle the Everqueen

Honestly I'm quite excited for my mad idea. It's hugely uncompetitive but I've been wanting to make it literally since the release of the Everqueen and the WD article about her and her Handmaidens back in the late 1990s!

All Systems Nominal

Today I managed to finish the Falcon Guard mechs and, to all intents and purposes, the Canopians as well. On top of that I got some paint onto a couple of the figures I've recently 3D printed, and managed to get the Alacorns and Shreks done for C, too. A pretty productive day, really:

L-R: Warhawk (Cluster Command Star), Vulture (Alpha Trinary Fire Star), Vulture (Bravo Trinary). Note the anti-glare panel in front of the Warhawk's cockpit glass

Just visible on the "cheeks" of the mechs here is the Falcon Guard emblem of a Jade Falcon in flight with a sword clutched in its talons

All three of these omnimechs are in their "prime" configurations - four ER PPCs and an LRM-10 for the Warhawk, two LRM-20s, two large lasers and two medium lasers each for the Vultures

From this angle you can see the Gamma Galaxy emblem - a Jade Falcon flying over a moon - on the "cheeks" of the mechs

After getting those mechs squared away, I started in on the Canopians:

2nd Company, 2/1 CANCUIR - Mech numbers 49 to 60

An Archer from the Company's command lance, with the chassis number 52, and a Wasp from the scout lance with the chassis number 60 - the Wasp is therefore the last 'mech in the company

Like the larger Phoenix Hawks, the Wasp's medium laser can be jettisoned in an emergency

Although originally designed and built by Kuritan factories for Kuritan units, the -2K variant of the Archer is an easy conversion popular with many across the Inner Sphere

The size difference between the 20 ton Wasp and the 70 ton Archer is very noticeable here

 Finally I picked up my 3D printed version of Everqueen Alarielle of Ulthuan, and the 3D printed version of an Imperial Army trooper, and slapped some paint on: a basic undercoat for the Queen (soon to be a Level 4 mage) and some base coats for the Imperial Army trooper. I reckon I'll paint a small force of Rogue Trader style Imperial Army figures as a PDF unit to populate my desert world for 40K games. Very basic weapons, basic vehicles, essentially there as a speed bump against the enemies that they'll face. As for the Everqueen, well, I have plans for her:

I have a horrible feeling that I've printed Alarielle a little too small. I'll measure some High Elves tomorrow and see if she's out of scale - she's correct for 28mm, but are GW High Elves from 4th Edition 28mm or 30mm... as for the Imperial Army woman, despite casting off her body armour she retains the identity disc which will eventually denote squad, platoon, and company

Tomorrow I'm going to make some repairs to the misprinted GEV infantry I printed for C, and then package it all up and post it to him. About 54p per piece, which is pretty good investment to be fair. Other than that I'm hoping to have some progress on the Everqueen as well as finish off the PDF trooper.

Painting Points:
Today: 5
This Week: 5
2025: 546 

Printing And Painting

Yesterday for a variety of reasons I totally failed to get a blog post up, but I did do some painting. Nothing huge, but I got the Warhawk and Vultures most of the way finished, and put a coat of Iyanden Yellow contrast on the Wasp and Archer for the Canopians. Today was spent printing (and failing to print) things for myself, P, and my friend C:

Falcon Guard heavies (and an assault), Canopian light and heavy

The Falcon Guard stuff basically needs the canopies and green accent panels highlighting, the details doing on the markings, and then a bunch of dirtying down. The Canopian mechs are probably halfway done, I basically need to do the black bits, any silver bits, and then dirty down. If I actually sit down to paint tomorrow I can crank all five of those mechs out no bother.

In terms of things I printed today... well that's a bit of a mix; some of it was successful and some of it wasn't. I've releveled the print bed and cleaned the FEP, so hopefully the Battletech scale tanks I'm printing for C will be done overnight without issue. 

A terrible photo of an Elf Queen and an Imperial Army trooper

Don't look at the rotor blades... these are Warrior VTOLs from Battletech for C

 What can that High Elf be for, with her big 25mm base? You'll have to wait and see!

Fly, My Falcons, Fly!

Even though Schlock Mercenary rightfully said that an armoured infantry trooper in flight is nothing more than skeet, the Elementals of Echo Trinary are now all done. Perhaps because they've read their Schlock Mercenary, none of them are in flight (although one has fired off their SRMs):

75 Elementals, making up the final infantry component of the Falcon Guards Cluster in their camouflaged green powered armour suits with integral jump-packs and one-shot SRM launchers on their shoulders

 I also finished the five light Omnimechs that, combined with the already finished mediums and lights, mean I can now say that two of the five Trinaries are complete: Delta and Echo.

I'm still getting to grips with the lightbox, so the glare is a bit unpleasant here annoyingly

These are all 3D prints, but with the paint on you can't tell at all unless you put them next to a CGL model

The Kit Fox is one of the mechs that the Jade Falcons were famous for using during the invasion of the Inner Sphere, along with the Summoner and Hellbringer

I actually forgot to do any of the dirtying down until after I'd based them, which was a little embarassing

Other than that I also got to the "coated in Nuln Oil" stage on the two Vultures and the Warhawk, which - when they're done - will mean I'll have completed three of the Cluster's five Trinaries, and the Command Star. Exciting stuff! Still nowhere near the number of mechs that C has in his massive Davion force, which is now well into Regimental Combat Team territory.

Also present - two Canopian Cuirassiers' mechs, undercoated and ready for their Iyanden Yellow contrast

I've also been printing a load of stuff for C - some ComGuards mechs, and a bunch of infantry and tanks. I managed to make a mess of the scaling for the tanks and infantry, so I'm going to reprint those, but the mechs are fine. The trucks and Maxims that are currently on the print bed are, I hope, more to scale than the tanks were originally!

Painting Points:
Today: 20
This Week: 20
2025: 541 

Slow Progress Is Still Progress

Well I may not have finished anything today, but I did get 50 Elementals to the same stage as the first 25 of Echo Trinary; meaning that - if all goes well - tomorrow I will finish them. I just need to paint their guns and visors black and then base them, after all. I also basecoated both Vultures and the Warhawk:

 

Elementals! Caliban Green, drybrushed Waaagh Flesh, with Averland Sunset on their SRM tubes ready for some tiny little hazard stripes...

In other news my friend C sent me a bottle of resin with which to print a bunch of 'mechs for him. So that'll be a fun little weekend project!

The Best Laid Plans O' Meece An' (Wo)men

 Gang aft aglae, and all that. I had intended to paint up a load of Jade Falcons tonight, but instead I undercoated a bunch of Elementals and 'mechs in black, and then spent a long time looking at stls of High Elves, Dark Elves, and Wood Elves to mull over some ideas for 500 point The Old World armies. A wargamer's projects are never finished... anyway, here's what I was up to today:

 

Unfinished Jade Falcons and a lot of undercoated Jade Falcons... argh!

Who knows. Maybe I'll get them sorted tomorrow. Maybe not. Perhaps by the weekend? We'll see!

Accursed Men-Things!

Tonight I had a demo game of Mordheim at the LUNAR club with D, who is a very nice chap and a decent opponent. Order was restored to the universe following my previous victory over N by me promptly losing at the first opportunity with a failed Rout check! Scenery was provided by the de-facto Club Warboss, M, and very nice it was too. I provided the warbands - Skaven and Marienburgers - and a jolly time was had by all. Except the Skaven, who discovered that those flashy clothes don't mean the men-things are bad at fighting, not at all...

Deployment from the Skaven side. We rolled up Skirmish, which is a straightforward fight. The mat is a 3'x3' one, which is a bit smaller than it should be, and there is definitely not enough terrain, but as this was very much a learning game for both of us it wasn't a problem

Deployment from the Marienburger side. I deployed first and then promptly lost the roll to go first, too!

End Marienburger Turn 1: A slow and careful advance in the centre and left, while the handgunners fired ineffectually at the slingers - the penalty for long range was just enough to make the shot a bit too hard for the BS3 Marksmen...

End Skaven Turn 1: in contrast almost everything ran, and I used the fighting claws on one of the Black Skaven to scurry up the wall of the ruined house and down the stairs - more to show off than for any practical purpose. The Sorceror didn't run because I thought that he couldn't run and cast spells... but they can! Live and learn, eh?

End Marienburg Turn 2: A speedier advance up the board, with the Marksmen reloading on the move. The Warriors on the left got some charges off against the Giant Rats, while the Captain carefully shot a rat with a sling and took it Out Of Action. Moments later one of the Warriors followed suit and skewered a Giant Rat, taking it Out Of Action too!

End Skaven Turn 2: The Black Skaven with spear on the left, and the Black Skaven with fighting claws in the centre, got charges off against a Warrior and a Youngblood respectively. The Giant Rats charged the Warrior that hadn't got into combat last turn and the Champion with two pistols. The Night Runners and Assassin Adept lined up for a series of charges next turn while the surviving Skaven with slings and the Sorceror made a firing line to challenge the Marksmen and the Champion with halberd. Shooting was ineffectual, with the six (!) slingshots only resulting in a light concussion and a Stunned Champion - but the Sorceror's Gnawdoom resulted in 10 S1 hits against the Youngblood with basket and, shortly afterwards, an Out Of Action Youngblood. On the other hand the Black Skaven both whiffed, and the Champion with pistols made short work of the Giant Rat that had charged him

End Marienburger Turn 3: The Captain and Champion both charged into ongoing combats, and the Marksmen fired (again ineffectually) at the Skaven in front of them. The Captain promptly shot the Black Skaven, Stunning it... and then the Youngblood stabbed it, taking it Out Of Action. Over on the left, the combats all resulted in no injuries or even hits in most cases. But it was enough! The Skaven had to take a Rout Check on a Ld of 7, and I rolled an 8. Back-flee to the safety-warmth of the burrow-nest!

I may have lost, but it was a very fun game and a really nice introduction to the LUNAR club. They all seem like a great bunch and I got to meet others, like E and B and a person whose name I didn't catch, who have a roleplaying/boardgame club on Thursdays which P and I are going to start going to from next week. And, of course, although I have a bunch of Jade Falcons to paint I now have the Mordheim bug itching at me...

And speaking of Jade Falcons, the Omnissiah has blessed me and the printer works once more (I levelled the build plate again and that seems to have cured the problem)! So I managed to crank out a bunch of bases for the Elementals, as well as that Warhawk, another Vulture, and more Elementals to finish Trinary Echo:

Two Stars of Elementals accompanied by a Warhawk Prime and a Vulture Prime

 Tomorrow, I think, I will knuckle down and see how far I can get with some serious painting after work. I really want to get these prints and the various Clan light 'mechs sorted by the end of the week.