Murr-Loon da Wizard on da Walking Castle

Hi guys - although it's been a busy weekend, I managed to get a few hours of hobby time this sunday evening, where I got to work on my (Privateer Press Hordes) Trollbloods Mountain King, that had been sitting in dishwash and water for some hours.

I really like the idea of a giant troll being a hero in this army - but I just don't like the aesthetics of the Dankhold Troggoths, and the Forge World Troggoth Hag looks bad - in a bad way. I really don't like that miniature at all. However, the size and the concept (rules and abilities) were cool, so I decided to make something out of the Mountain King, which I've liked since I first saw it. Privateer Press are weird in that sometimes they make amazing miniatures, other times they look like... Well, poo.

Anyway, this is a great miniature. The size, the pose, and the details. Great cast too. There are a ton of gaps to fill on the rocks on his back, but this is pretty easily done.

The idea is that Murr-Loon, da mighty Shroomwizard, advisor of Arr-Durr, has somehow magically tamed this gargantuan troll, and rides the troll into combat (hence the magic abilities). The Troll throws rocks in every direction (6 vomit attacks, at 10") and hits very very hard (bulk and fist attacks).

I won't be doing too much to this miniature, as I really like it as is. I need to figure out exactly how to make the shaman stand of the shoulder of the troll (I imagine him holding a chain, bolted to some of the rocks?), remove the last of the troll whelps emerging from the trolls skin, and figure out how to make some ears.

First the photoshopped concept sketch:

Here he is (excuse the lump of blu tac holding his head into place while the green stuff is drying): 

And here you can see a close up of the face; Trollbloods don't have noses, which make them look very distinctive; this I needed to remedy, so I used a spare nose from the Rockgut kit, and modelled it onto the face - still needs greenstuffing, which I've tried to emulate with Photoshop here - I'm still pondering what I'm gonna do about ears though - any ideas? (Rockguts and River Trolls are a bit too small for this)  - but his new nose makes him look much more like he belongs in the Warhammer universe: 

Da Walkin' Shroom Farm

Hi guys - a bit more on the Gloomspite Gitz project.

I've always liked the idea and concept of Giants and I wanted to include at least one in my Gloomspite army - but I had to do something with it, both being a compulsive converter, and wanting it to fit into the Mushroom theme better.

It didn't take long before I began to get this idea of mushrooms infecting a living creature (a bit akin to that horrible fungus thing ants can contract), and an idea of the model began to form.

I took the most mindless head from the gargant kit, reposed the legs to make them look more zombie-stagger-like, and attached a bunch of mushrooms to his body and back (including the top of his head, them coming out of his brain - ew!)

Being completely Shroom-Zombified (totally a word), he needed a grot minder, giving him orders, and his own little lookout barrel. I'm really digging the vibe of this guy. :)

Also, 3 more trolls, with some minor conversions and swaps.

Getting Squiggy with it...

Alright, no more excuses. I'm terrible at this blogging stuff. I'm a lazy painter, I only paint/build/convert when I feel like it, and there can be anywhere from a day to a year between updates. Oh well - it's a hobby, so I'll just do it whenever I feel like it. And now I feel like it. :)

I haven't done much hobby related stuff since my last updates. However, upon seeing the amazing new gloomspite gitz, I couldn’t help but start a new Squig themed army.

The army will be as follows;

LEADERS

LoonKing Arr-Durr: Loonboss on Mangler Squigs (300)

- General

- Command Trait : Fight Another Day

Da Wizard MurrLoon on da Walking Castle: Troggoth Hag (380)

UNITS

Da Squierz: 5 x Squig Hoppers (90)

Da Uvver Squierz: 5 x Squig Hoppers (90)

Sir Gawaaagh and da Knightmares: 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (200)

Sir Perciwaaagh and da MidKnights: 10 x Boingrot Bounderz (200)

Da Horsies: 6 x Squig Herd (70)

3 x Rockgut Troggoths (160)

3 x Rockgut Troggoths (160)

BEHEMOTHS

Aleguzzler Gargant (160)

BATTALIONS

Squig Rider Stampede (140)

ENDLESS SPELLS

Scrapskuttle's Arachnacauldron (50)

total: 2000 pts

I’ve bought, cleaned, assembled and based everything, except for the second unit of trolls and the troll hag (which will be converted from at WM/H trollbloods mountain king (on it’s way - it's gonna be cool, a shaman riding a giant stone troll to war - Merlin riding Camelot), and I’ve spent the last week trying out some different paint schemes. I have an unfortunate tendency to be way too ambitious with my painting, which results in my projects ending up infinished, so I’ve lowered my standards a bit, finding solace in the idea of “finished is a quality in itself”. 😊

Another dogma; almost every army or warband I've ever done has been muted, natural hues, not quite Blanchitzuish, but in that vein. While I think it's a great look, and I like the gritty realism, they just don't "pop" out on the table, and I wanted to try to do that for this army - therefore I wanted to try out a really vibrant colour scheme that would go POP on the table.

Above is the first finished unit. The blue is quite quick (about 20 minutes pr squig, being mostly drybrush and washes), the teeth taking a bit longer and the green on the grot being a bit time consuming as well, but I’m aiming for about 40-50 minutes pr Battleline model as a goal.

Long time, no blogging...

Yup, usual excuses - band's been busy, being a houseowner, work, wife, etc - and most of all, just not being inspired. Anyway, GW's doing a Kill Team - and while the teams look very bland to me at the moment, that's not stopping me from doing a cool project I've been wanting to do for a few years - Ork Pirates! I know that they sort of divide people, some people think they're stupid, some think they're awesome - IMO, if any race should have pirates, it must be orks. Without further ado, very much WIP, I bring you...

Kaptin Jakk SparrOrk and his Freebootaz!

Kaptin Jakk SparrOrk, Gibbz and Hectork:

Da Cannoneers:

Da Powdermonkeys:

Ol' Clanka:

Not shown yet is a Stormboy conversion. More to come soon, hopefully. :)

Rats!

Been working a bit more on the rat warband - it's starting to come together. I think I've solved the issue about the Warlocks claw - I really wanted him to have a mechanical claw, but the first iteration was to orky and big. This is cobbled together from some Dark elf spiky things, and a Kataphron servitor claw. He also got an extra mechanical arm with the warploque pistol, just because:

I also made the second rat ogre for the warband - just a IoB rat ogre, with an extra arm added and another head - and a bit of a repose. I really like those rat ogres, but I wanted to tweak it a bit. I'm also contemplating giving him a warpfire gun and a mechanical claw on the lower left arm, but I'm a bit stumped about what to use for the warpfire gun.

And a group shot, also including my gutter runner with a little gas mask:

More scenery

Hi guys - nothing too crazy, just wanted to show that my skirmish terrain collection is slowly but steadily growing - I got the Ruins of Osgiliath multipack, which is actually a pretty good value, and you can do some really cool stuff with it, if you cut it up a bit - I'm really liking the ruins, which I hope will be fun to play on.

Next week, Skullvane Manse is up for preorder - yay!

What's this then... Scenery?

I hope you've all had a happy new years eve, and gotten a good start on 2018. :)

I've been really busy on the wargaming front, but there's little to no progress on the warbands though - for the past two weeks I've been mainly focused on developing and playtesting the AoS skirmish rules I'm working on ( http://aos28warband.blogspot.com - please check them out) and getting a wargaming table and terrain done for the man cave at Casa De GuitaRasmus. 

I've always really liked the Warhammer terrain GW made about 5-6 years ago, but at that time I was only messing with 40k, so I didn't buy any. Fast forward to Age of Sigmar, where GW, for reasons unknown, decided to stop producing some of their coolest stuff - and the prices on ebay are atrocious. 

Still, I've managed to get my dirty mittens on some different stuff on various used warhammer stuff channels, facebook groups, etc. for reasonable money, and I've gotten my hands dirty (literally - there's SO much paint on these houses, compared to miniatures) stripping them of paint. 

I've got a watchtower and another chapel still in the stripper, but I'm working towards getting some cool stuff: 

The Temple of Skulls is from an old project, an Armies on Parade board for my Khorne Berzerker army that never got done, and it had been saved apart, so I had to painstakingly glue it back together, and sculpt a lot of seams - good times. 

This is an experiment, I wanted to do a mansion of sorts, but a bit more elaborate than just the fortified manor - so I took another chapel, chucked it on top of a watchtower base, and made the little sentry house a part of the house. I kinda like it, it seems fittingly ramshackle. I still need to make some stairs for the door on the top house, and some kind of walkway around the top house. 

I also really wanted a Skullvane Manse (and a Dreadstone blight as well), but the used kit prices are absolutely insane - 300-350 pounds on ebay - so I had sort of given up on them. Imagine me squeeing with joy, when I saw the Malign Portents video, featuring the Skullvane Manse and the Dreadstone Blight - they're coming back!! I'm definitely getting both. 

*Warning - bitter old painter's rant incoming*

On a side note, it really bugs me when people act like scalpers - for example trying to sell a used Skullvane Manse at grossly inflated prices on ebay. Sure, I get the whole supply and demand thing, but seriously - you are just holding plastic hostage.

You are the war-games equivalent of the guys who fill their spare rooms with Dinky Toys still preserved in their antique packaging. The people that care are an ever decreasing circle of like minded hoarders who all dream of turning up on Antiques Roadshow with a blister or box that will pay for your dream retirement village.But thats not going to happen. Because GW is re-releasing the kits and you are left with a pipe dream of a wallet full of scalpers money.

There - that was good to get off my chest. ;) 

This weekend I put my shop teacher skills to work, and started work on my foldable 5x4' table - the base is done, and it folds neatly in half, though I still need to figure out what to do for legs. I'm also considering making it a 4x3' instead, for size reasons, and because skirmish/kill team battles seem very doable on 3x3'. 

Why the extra feet in width then? It dawned on me that it would be a necessity to have somewhere to put ones warscrolls, dice, slain miniatures etc.