Back in the Game

I've not been posting a lot of painting for the past few months. I've had a dearth of motivation brought about by several factors that I won't go into.

However, at the tail end of May I went to the UK Games Expo and whilst there I pick up a handful of individual boardgame pieces that I figured I might be able to use in Carnevale.

I've no idea what games these miniatures come from and they were all single piece sculpts. I picked up 5 models but I didn't notice that one of the models had rather anachronistic trousers and shoes, and so I'm hoping to convert that one.

Although I'm a fan of the official Carnevale miniature range, I'm not massively keen on the city guard models. Therefore, this will serve as the first member of my own take on the subfaction of the Patricians, reflecting their control of the levers of power.

I'm not sure which exact profile I'll use for him, but I suspect, due to his armament, he'll end up being a Guard Captain.

I was unsure of which faction to look in to find a use for this miniature. The ornate robe made me consider some kind of spuellcaster for the Strigoi, but I figured that some of his clothing had an Ottoman feel to it, with a European look to his face.

In Carnevale, the Ottomans are in the pay of the Patricians, and so I thought that a noble envoy affecting Ottoman style suited the character of an Adventuring Noble, which can also cast spells.

The easiest model to assign to a faction was this cultist which will be joining the Rashaar as a Cult Officiant of the Church of Dagon.

My Rashaar forces continue to grow ever more numerous.

The final miniature was this unassuming woman, who could easily have been a Citizen working for the Guild or Household Staff for the Patricians. 

However, I ultimately decided that I wanted to add to my entirely proxied Strigoi force, and the cut of her clothing suggested the idea of her being a Romani.

I'm genuinely quite pleased with the skin tone I've achieved here, and I'm going to look to add a few more Romani style miniatures to the faction over time now that I know how.

I've often found small wins the best way to fight painting slumps, and so you can expect a few more smaller projects to help get me back into gear.

Acquired: 76

Painted: 123

Lead Mountain: 701

A Shokking Development

I fear I missed my calling.

When I eventually came round to building my first 40k army. I opted for Blood Angels as I had a handful of Space Marines and the 4th edition codex came free in White Dwarf.

However, I should have been an Ork player from the start as cobbling stuff together from scrap turns out to be right up my street.

This time I've built the dreaded Shokk Attack Gun.

A contraption that dates back to 1991 and require literal pages of rules in its first iteration, the Shokk Attack Gun punctures a hole in reality allowing Snotlings to be teleported to somewhere in the vicinity of their enemy (sometimes appearing inside them).

Needless to say, this is the sort of fiendish device I want in my Waaagh and given that I had some Snotlings to paint, the time seemed right.

My Shokk Attack Gun is built mainly from a spare weapon mount from my Land Raider Spartan and some lengths of wooden skewer. The stand is a Leviathan Dreadnought's foot.

The iconic three-pronged spinny thing is a conveniemtly shaped bit of sprue and some beads with a bit of Daemon fire added to give some sense of motion.

The front cone is a hanging basket from the Mars Attacks terrain.

I and really running out of Orks in my bits box, and so I've drafted in a Heroquest Orc to serve as my Mek. He got a shoulder pad, a hand swap from the spare arm of the Mek I painted last year and a metal Necromunda backpack which has appeared from somewhere.

I needed to reposition his left arm to get it to an appropriate angle, and I had to reattach his right leg when it shot off whilst I was removing his chunky base.

The Snotlings, including this on the base of the Shokk Attack Gun were easy and fun to do, although they were much more time consuming.

I'm the current game, as well as in 5th edition, the Snotlings don't actually serve a purpose, however in 2nd edition they were essentially ammo markers.

I have no problem just having these for the aesthetics.

I am now properly out of Orks or Grots to add to my army unless I was to tool up some more Heroquest models, something that is not totally out of the question given my relative lack of Boyz.

However, there's a new edition due out soon with Orks in the somewhat discounted starter box, so it's quite likely Armageddon that.

Acquired: 15

Painted: 105

Lead Mountain: 654

Cost Cutta

I said a couple of posts ago that I might have a go at cobbling together a second vehicle for my Rebel Grotz in Gorkamorka.

And I have.

This is my take on the Rebel Grot Cutta, a lightly armed and armoured, sail-powered vehicle used by Grots who don't have access to the same quality of scrap as the Orks.

It's a totally bodged together creation made from bits and pieces from my bits box combined with some coffee stirrers and a wooden skewer.

At a push, it can probably carry around five Rebel Grotz, which is more than enough to prevent me from overloading the Big Lugga and allows them to fart off from the main force in search of scrap.

The sail is nothing more complicated than a triangle of old dust sheet painted cream. The paint gives it a bit of thickness and shape.

The rest of the painting was done with my usually Orky blend of washes, drybrushing and sponging.

All in all I'm really pleased with how my kitbash has turned out and as you can see, it's pretty close to the original model, although I might see if I can add some sort of steering mechanism at the back.

I'm delighted with how this Gorkamorka gang has turned out. I now need to get my hands on a couple of the rulebooks, Da Roolz and the book from Digganob, as I currently only have Da Uvver Book.

I know I can use pdfs from legally grey sources, but I really like having the physical products when I'm playing.

Acquired: 15

Painted: 102

Lead Mountain: 670

Scrapheap Challenge

Whilst my mind was occupied with all things Rebel Grotz, I also explored my somewhat diminished pile of 40k bits and pieces to see what else I could cobble together.

The answer turned out to be...cannon!

This creation is my attempt at a Gretchin Lobba, essentially a mortar, designed to drop large templates of explosive death somewhere in the vicinity of the enemy.

The decision to make a Lobba rather than any other form of Gretchin cannon was informed by the fact that in 5th edition 40k, which is the version we play most often, units of Big Gunz are required to all be of the same type.

As I already have a catapult-style Lobba, a mortar it needed to be.

The Lobba itself is mainly made from spare parts from my Leviathan Dreadnought, which were stuck together to form the frame of the gun.

The wheels are spares from when Pete printed me some Soviet AA Guns for Bolt Action, with the tyres that I removed from the car I turned into Fallout scenery - fortunately they fit perfectly.

A few metal resin bits from 7TV kits and other areas of my bits box finished off what I think is a pretty good approximation of the real model.

The crew are the last three Gnoblars I still had hanging around. One of them had his hands swapped so he could be holding two flintlock pistols (that counts as an Auto pistol, right?)

After painting the metal Rebel Grotz, these were a bit of a chore as they lack the detail and character of their more venerable cousins. I kept things simple to get them done quicker.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased with this unit. I've managed to craft something unique which evoked the spirit of the official model and is totally recognisable as to what it is.

I'm still in a kitbashing mood, so I'm keen to see what else I can come up with. Given that I have two more of those wheel/tyre combinations left, along with the original third wheel from the Big Lugga, I'm currently looking at how to construct a chassis for a Grot Cutta for Gorkamorka.

Acquired: 14

Painted: 99

Lead Mountain: 673

What Can Men Do Against Such Reckless Numbers?

So, a new year and a new assault on the Lead Mountain, only this time, there's a slight problem.

More on that later.

For now, look! Men of Rohan!

Not an especially exciting start to the new year, but I'm still taking part in Arbitor Ian's Tale of Four Hobbits and these are more of my pseudo Men of the West list that currently includes Aragorn. Legolas and these five.

Mind you, that does make over 400 points out of 500 because Aragorn the King is a beefy boy.

I've gone with Men of Rohan as that's what I had lying around after my second hand purchases several years ago. I still have a few more archers from those lots as there always seemed to be more archers than were necessary...or allowed, with a 33% limit.

I've stuck with the same rather uninspiring colour palette I originally used simply to make these models fit in with the rest.

One of the reasons these models were likely out was due to damage. Both of these two required a bit of fixing up to deal with a bent sword and a broken spear.

Unfortunately, was not able to do anything about the somewhat static poses and large flat areas where the spear meets the cloak.

I have, however, done something about the lack of a banner in my Rohirrim with this very simple conversion: a hand swap, a metal spear and a Wood Elf pennant did the trick.

I have had a go at free-handing a sun motif on the banner. It's not amazing, but it's not awful either. I'm never fond of free-handing, but this is fine.

Anyway, onto the other issue.

I mentioned before Christmas that I wanted to do a recount of my unpainted miniatures as I was sure that over the last couple of years, there have almost certainly been accounting errors and I wanted to see how realistic my running total of 240 actually is.

And so I got everything out. All of it. We'll apart from some Carnevale miniatures I was undercoating and some Dropzone Commander models I forgot about, but almost all of it.

It turns out my numbers were wrong.

Quite a bit wrong.

My current total is, minus the Rohirrim I've painted, 756.

There are several reasons for this disparity:

1) I've included boardgames like Star Saga, which contains 71 minis, that I had intended to sell but have recently changed my mind about.

2) I actually counted things in my bits box which I didn't last time, and I think I've been deducting painted models from bits box from the overall total.

3) When I received the motherload from Will, there are things that were up for sale that aren't now.

4) I've counted things like Flames of War tank crew that aren't getting used unless I buy more tanks...which I won't.

5) I clearly can't count.

Despite the shock this has induced, I have actually been able to tidy things up and get a better handle on what I have. I already have plans for how to use models, and I've tacitly decided to part company with a fair chunk of it.

Let's see how we get on.

Acquired: 0

Painted: 5

Lead Mountain: 756...good grief!

Leaving '25 Behind

And so we come to the point where it's time to emerge from the dark confines of '25 and venture into an unknown future, hoping that it doesn't end up being an irradiated wasteland full of bloodthirsty killer and giant bugs.

In other words, it's time for my review of the year!

I only set three targets for 2025 and there's been a mixed bag of success:

1. Decrease The Lead Mountain - Success

Oh boy have I decreased that pile!

There were 640 miniatures in my backlog at the start of the year and only 240 as of today. It also not as if I haven't been buying and printing new things, it's more than I have offloaded quite a chunk and I've painted a whopping 532 miniatures.

At this rate I might even...whisper it...clear the whole backlog in 2026...dun-dun-durrrrr!

2. Get Out More - Fail

Although I started off the year well by attending a Badab War Combat Patrol event at Warhammer World, I wasn't able to attend any of the other events in the campaign due to scheduling conflicts and the fact that they were held in London.

Additionally, I only managed to get to one wargaming show this year too and the UK Games Expo fell on my 20th wedding anniversary, and we had other plans.

I definitely want to return to this next year.

3. The Path of Damnation - Success

I've had a really good time painting up my old Chairs miniatures into a Nurgle themed army. 

Although I still have about half a dozen miniatures to go, I can field a 1500 point army in Warhammer: The Old World (although it's a bit short on core troops) and I'm really satisfied with how it's come out.

So a bit of a mixed bag, but, on reflection, it seems that I didn't get out more because I was sat at home painting, so that's not necessarily a bad thing.

So this year's targets are likely to look eerily familiar:

1. Decrease The Lead Mountain

The endless endeavour continues.

However, the end is perhaps in sight, which is scary. Mind you, one of the first orders of business in 2026 is a recount as I'm pretty certain my numbers have got messed up over the past decade.

2. Get Out More

Although I failed last year, this was largely due to scheduling issues, so I think I need to be a bit more pro-active on planning ahead.

At the very least I want to get back to going to the amount of shoes I used to attend and maybe build up the courage to attend a few more events.

3. Tie Up Loose Ends

There are few dangling projects that I want to return to and wrap up. Some of these are painting projects that are close to completion and others are gaming campaigns that I started and lost focus on.

Painting Projects:

- Path of Damnation Nurgle Army

- Age of Sigmar Skaven

- War of 1812 British

- Carnevale Venice board 

Gaming Campaigns:

- Five Parsecs from Home - Fortune's Fools

- Five Leagues from the Borderlands - Hawk the Slayer

Doubtless I will distract myself with newer and shinier ideas, but the intention is there.

And do there we have it. I'm really not sure what new projects are likely to emerge this year, but that's actually quite exciting.

Happy New Year!

The time of the Orc has come!

It's literally only just occured to me that the first things I've painted in what, in gaming circles at least, has become somewhat commonly known as 'Orctober', are so Orcs.

How fitting?

This motley bunch are a group I cobbled together for spares and leftovers some time ago. I undercoated them but lost my mojo and they have sat unloved since Matt ruined Lord of the Rings by killing Frodo in my Quest of the Ringbearer campaign.

I was looking to expand my forces of Mordor for a potential foray into the Gondor At War campaign book, but wanted to do so cheaply (as is my way). 

Therefore I started by smashing together the remaining handful of dark ages warriors bodies I had left with some heads and weapons from the Wargames Atlantic and Oathmark spurs I'd used previously.

After that I did something similar with a sprue if Frostgrave warriors, although, if you look closely, I ran out of orcish heads and had to improvise.

I kept the painting really simple, just like I'd done with my other Mordor Orcs (let's face it, they're never the main attraction in an army). Just a black undercoat dryprushed, then leather, metal, skin, fur and bone picked out before an overall wash.

All rather unremarkable.

The only thing of any real note in this batch was the inclusion of this ugly fellow. I've no idea of the manufacturer l, but I know I've had him for a loooong time.

He's a distorted chunk of metal that lacks detail and definition, but he has a certain character that means he might serve as a captain.

If Peter Jackson can serve up that sponge-headed Goonies reject, Gothmog, this misshapen fellow can lead my forces.

I'm not sure if October will feature any more Orcs got me, but 10 is a good amount.

Acquired: -73

Painted: 433

Lead Mountain: 339

Scale Creep

I have an FDM 3d printer.

Compared to resin printers they are slower, significantly less detailed and are not really intended for most of the STL files existing in the miniature gaming world.

However, they are cheaper, produce less fragile miniatures and handle larger projects well.

So I went large.

This is a Baneblade.

It's a super heavy tank typically used by the Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum, if you must) in the world of 40k.

Although they can be used by Space Marines in Horus Heresy (they were included in the Legacy pdf for 2nd edition, and I presume 3rd), they are widely considered a 'sub-optimal' and and overcosted choice.

So why on earth arth have I printed one?

Basically, because I could and I wanted to.

I came across a free file that not only looked good, but also had plenty of positive reviews and isn't a straight scan of the GW model (there are notable differences, such as the sponsors being further back). Although it's nowhere near as detailed as the official model, it was more than good enough for me.

The hull printed in three sections, and the only issue I came across was the fact that the connectors between these didn't really fit. However I fixed this with a little ingenuity and brute force. I did my best to hide the join lines (although the model itself does a pretty good job of this.

The main turret and three sponsors were also separate and move, although the heavy bolters on the sides are fixed in place, which like them being further back seems to be a decision made to reduce the use of supports.

Painting was not complicated, but was time consuming due to the scale of the model. I undercoated in black before masking off the larger areas of metal and spraying red. The black bits were then dry brushed silver.

Then came the laborious process of panel lining, picking out silver and gold details and washing them before going over the red again. It was straightforward, there was just a lot of it to do.

Transfers were added at the end and the Baneblade was done.

This is possibly the largest model I've painted, with the possible exception of my Mumakil for Lord of the Rings. Here it is next to a Land Raider Spartan for scale as I had no bananas available.

I'm really happy with it and I'm also happy that it's extremely likely to get one-shotted by a Titan the first time it hits the table.

Given the cost of the official model I really don't think I would even have got one without a 3d printer as there's no way that a Baneblade would have ever been a priority purchase for me.

Acquired: -73

Painted: 397

Lead Mountain: 375

Path of Damnation: The Frog Prince

I've been slowly painting Chaos Marauders cobbler together from some of the oldest miniatures in my lead pile for a while now. However, having reached the point where they might actually be a functional unit, I decided to reward myself with a character model.

Not one to start small, I opted to honour,in a small way, the insane conversions of the The Lost and the Dammed, from which my inspiration for this army is being drawn, and kitbash together a Daemon Prince to lead my burgeoning horde.

As ever, the limits of my kitbash were defined by what I already had access to in my bits box and lead pile.

Fortunately, after completing my Heroquest project a couple of years ago, I still had a second Gargoyle, which was in fact the damaged one I had originally owned back in the eighties.

Way back in the mists of time, I had intended to use my Heroquest Gargoyle as a Bloodthirster, but back then, I very rarely acted on my intentions beyond buying a few random packs of miniatures (at one point I owned a whopping three Bloodletters) before the next idea struck.

Obviously, in it's original form, the Gargoyle looked to much like a Daemon of Khorne, and so I combined a metal head that I believe comes from a very old modular Chaos Spawn, a trophy rack from a plastic Daemon Prince (to hide the break in the wings) and the tail from a plastic Screamer of Tzeentch (to cover up where the hideous glue I'd used to fix the wings had filled up the chainmail).

I then threw in a weapon swap (the whip evoked it's Bloodthirster-like origins) and a couple of metal Nurglings on the base, and ended up with something that could work as a Nurgle Daemon.

They don't all have to be fat. It's Chaos.

When it came to painting, I opted to go for green skin. I'll admit that this decision worried me. 

The model has been sitting in my queue for some time because I was concerned that if I went for the traditional Nurgle green, there was a chance that my converted Daemon Prince might bear more than a passing resemblance to Kermit the Frog with teeth.

Fortunately, I opted to go for Elysian Green and give it a wash of Agrax Earthshade (along with everything else) and it seemed to work. He's still fairly reminiscent of a Kroxigor, but the wings, spines and Nurglings do root him firmly in the Chaos family.

There's nothing particularly clever going on with the painting, but liberal doses of Nihilakh Oxide, Nurgle's Rot and Blood for the Blood God technical paints were used to cover any inadequacies not drenched in Agrax Earthshade.

I should point out that I was surprised at the level of detail in the Chaos Spawn head, there it quite a lot going on, and it serves as a good focal point to draw the eye away from what is, to be honest, a some what simplistic sculpt from Heroquest.

Overall I'm delighted with how my Daemon Prince has turned out. He fits the aesthetic of the army so far and it's clear what he's meant to be. I've also managed to salvage a damaged model and get the first character for my army. I also still have the Gargoyle head that might find it's way into a different project.

Admittedly, he's a little small. Compared to more modern Daemon Princes, he's tiny, but he's also somewhat towered over by the original metal Greater Daemons. However, I opted to raise his base to give the illusion of height.

Also, Chaos is chaotic. If it amuses the Plaguefather to create a diminutive, frog-like Daemon Prince, then who's going to stop him?

Acquired: -79

Painted: 386

Lead Mountain: 383

P.S. This post takes me past a notable landmark. So far this year I've painted more models that I actually have left in the lead pile. That's promising...

Vindicated

After printing and painting the free Rhino STL a couple of weeks ago, I went back to look at what the same 'creator' had available and picked up the STL for a Vindicator and a Predator.

I began with the Vindicator as I suspect that the sponsons and other elements of a Predator might be problematic.

I also took the opportunity to slightly change the print settings and went with 'optimal' rather than 'standard' with a smaller layer height. I'm trying to get the balance right between print quality and speed.

I think I might have hit the jackpot as this setting has much less noticeable layer lines whilst not upping the print time very much. This was useful as there was more to print, including the dozer blade, turret hatch and camera thing for the top.

I might try the next setting up for printing a Predator just to see if there are more small gains to be made. Additionally, I'll probably switch to the 0.2 mm nozzle for the top elements as they don't take long and a couple of other bits I printed didn't really work.

Painting was done simply and imitated what I'd already done for the Rhino, with only minor changes based on the slightly different details.

I am a torch worried that the big blue expanse on the dozer blade needs something adding to it, but until I know exactly what, I'm going to leave it alone.

I almost stuffed up applying transfers because I was repeatedly too impatient and came close to destroying the two large lion heads. A lesson in patience helped me to fix my own mess.

I also took the opportunity to use a couple of the additional bits I'd printed to improve my Rhino with turret hatches and a pintle mounted storm bolter.

In order to get them to sit flush I had to clip and fil the protruding elements and found out that PLA does not clean up easily. I might need to invest in something like a Dremel if I plan to do more of this.

All in all, the 3d printer is really coming into its own with vehicles, something which has significant implications for most of my 40k armies.

Acquired: -95

Painted: 161

Lead Mountain: 393

Production Lines

As I ran out of miniatures to paint for my Astral Claws, it became simultaneously apparent that it was extremely unlikely that I would be able to attend any of the remaining campaign events.

This had a massive impact on my desire to spend much more money on an army unlikely to see massive amounts of table time.

However, this did open up an opportunity to test how well my FDM printer could handle vehicles other than ramshackle Ork constructions.

I've started with a Rhino which is a free file available on one of the well-known sharing platforms. I printed it using the 0.4mm nozzle and standard settings as using the smaller nozzle had a ridiculously high print time.

The Rhino printed in three pieces and is hollow inside and there were no issues with the print, although getting the supports out of the racks was a bit fiddly.

When it came to painting, I kept things as simple as I have done with the whole Astral Claws army. Spray silver, wash black, dry brush silver. Add blue bits (gloss varnished) and gold details (Agrax wash) and then finish off with the lights.

I limited the amount of transfers on the model as I am trying to avoid buying a new sheet and there aren't many big flat spaces on the model.

Overall, I'm happy with this little experiment although I do have to admit that the layer lines are very much visible and this is no match for one of the plastic kits.

However, given that I'm not trying to paint this army to anything other than tabletop standard, from 3 feet away the Rhino looks fine and cost significantly less than the RRP of a standard Rhino.

I'm going to go the 3d printed route for a few more vehicles for this army, a decision that is helped by the same creator having a couple more vehicles in the same style (the Astral Claws made heavy use of the Rhino chassis apparently).

This experience has helped me to decide that I probably won't print any additional vehicles for my Blood Angels as I want to keep my armies consistent. Where I actually buy more for them remains to be seen.

Acquired: -97
Painted: 150
Lead Mountain: 406