The Horseman

I very much enjoyed painting this one up. So many versions of his story…

He’ll make an interesting character in an undead army. 

Abyssal Lords, and a Mummy Troop

I have recently completed some random stuff for armies here and there. Sometimes you just have to paint up odd things for no apparent reason.

This time I’m painting a bunch of Archfiends of the Abyss, and the first is finished and ready to join his army, some of which is waiting to be rebased away from HoTT (sadly, no games of that fantastic rule set have even looked like happening 😦 ). So KoW here we come…

First up, here is Ygg’thruiiigh’n, Archfiend of the Abyss. Just call it Bob. It seems to answer to that.

He’s a Reaper Bones model, and has again surprised me with just how well these figures can paint up. They’re also just a bit heavier than plastic models of the same size, but far lighter than metal models would be.

This is a big model, that’s a 50mm square base.

Back View

Front View

Side View

Whilst we are on the topic of Abyssal nasties, here’s the Lord of Lies from my collection. No, I can’t spell its name. Don’t ask.

It’s an old Citadel model from many moons ago, painted by my brother when he was into the whole miniatures hobby thing. Still a good looking sculpt.

Front View

Back View

And to finish, some progress on an existing army project. It’s an updating of my old Mummy Half-Troop from an earlier edition of Kings of War. With a recent rules update this particular unit vanished from the list of permitted Mummy configurations. I’ve known they’d need a rebase and some extra bandage-heads to be legal in the game. Now it’s done. Extra figures from the “Undead Box” and a new base and we are rockin’ the afterlife…

The left pic is the “Before” shot, the one on the right is “After”.

Before (Half Troop)

After (Troop)

They’ve been nerfed a bit in the latest edition, but heh. Every undead host needs some.

The Dwarfen Artillery Train

The train is well and truly on the rails. In fact, this artillery train has quickly outgrown the ability of the army itself to support it with Regiments. So this lot can’t all be fielded at once. At least, not yet…

To the guns!

Whoops! Shell goes in the other way!

Master Hulnir, Gunnery Captain from Kromdahr

Thon Gunroar, Gunnery Captain from Thurmyr.

Mad Mjolnir, Ironbelcher Cannon

Grendar’s Regret, Ironbelcher Organ Gun

The Pianola Gun, under new management

Grumpy Grognar, Ironbelcher Organ Gun

Thorny Thorthona, Jarrun Bombard

Glolgora, Ironbelcher Cannon

Dhuzmumir, Jarrun Bombard

The Dwarfen Host Emerges…

For twelve long years the Dwarfs rebuilt their broken army. The defeats at the hands of the Ogres of the Mountain were unforgotten and vengeance would soon be at hand with the fury of a reinforced legion of the combined Clans!

The Host assembled for a rousing speech from their High King. Many cheers and warchants were bellowed and much ale was downed. “Oh well,” said the High King, “The attack can wait until tomorrow.” So he refilled his stein. It would be a long night…

The Dwarfs have been a project I had been putting off for no good reason other than the usual “shiny thing” distractions in the path. However I had recently acquired a large part-painted collection of models from a friend, and in my usual way began basing the painted stuff as quickly as possible. This has led to a rather substantial army out of what seems like nowhere. I like this sensation.

I’ll post the artillery pics later. Suffice to say, I still do not have enough painted regiments to justify all of the big shooty stuff. I’ll get there, sooner or later.

Pics:

Ironwatch Crossbows from an unnamed unit.

Grussumir Ironclad Regiment

The Dulgrum Ironclad Regiment, despite it’s name it is actually only a troop due to never recovering from recent losses.A rather old unit of mine which will be interesting to game with.

The Nungrulir Ironclad Regiment, though this ragged bunch I’d rather refer to as Dwarf Militia.

The Kromdahr Shieldbreaker Regiment. More Dwarf Militia…

Dwarf Highlander Berserkers from Glorignum Hold. They hold no Regimental honours as membership in this unit tends to be temporary at best.

Thurmyr Ironclad Regiment.

The Ragnir Ironclad Regiment. The Captain of this unit finds his hearing to not be quite what it once used to be…

Riflemen from Stoneriver Hold.

Some Throwing Mastiffs of the Airborne Divison.

Dwarf Lord Magn Redroar of Stoneriver Hold. He is a borderline berserk this one, his fury is rather well known across Dwarfdom.

Thane Tharthrom Thunderfury and his Amazing Hammer

Lord Dardur Dirgeaxe of Thurmyr

A cameo from a well known movie star

Thergrum, a Stone Priest from Glorignum Hold.

A Greater Eath Elemental known only as Pebbles to his friends

A New Warmachine & Hordes Board

Nothing special in a basic Warmachine/Hordes board like this (a standard 4×4′ for those not familiar with the game). Though this one is special for me because it is made from the offcuts of the games table itself.

The boards that make up the tabletop were supplied as 2400mm (almost 8ft) sheets. They had to be cut to fit the 1800mm width that I wanted and therefore had offcuts very close to 2×4′ in size.

All I had to do was glue some texture down and paint them. To keep the theme overall I painted-to-match two old hills that I had lying around. I’d like to add an Iron Kingdoms style building or two at some point but they’ll have to wait.

Dark brown wash applied to baby-poo brown base colour

Christmas green splodged on with a scrap of sponge

Splodges highlighted with a bit of yellow in the green

Game 1 to test out the boards. They performed flawlessly!

Oh noes!

After a bit of reading I have discovered that there are no longer any Organ Guns in the Kingdoms of Men list for Kings of War. This means the Pianola Gun is no longer part of that army!
My options are to either rebase it and give it a Dwarf crew, or be rid of it entirely. I don’t want a useless memoir on the shelf. Argh, and I had just finished fixing its base up for KoW 2E.
Margulbrggmogmph.
Back in the queue with ye, Pianola my darling. We have to operate!
Note to self: KoW lists change. I should have learnt that last time, when the Artillery Master I bought and painted just before the first hardcover came out vanished from the list. History repeats.
Righto, back to the painting desk…

Undead Archers

Presenting the next unit in my Kings of War rebase and update project – a troop of skeletal archers! The figures are a combination of RAFM and Reaper Miniatures.

I’ve decided to forgo any other fantasy miniatures game (other than maybe Warmachine/Hordes) and focus all of my available fantasy miniatures into Kings of War. That’s a lot of minis, for those who know me.

These guys were formed into a small skirmish unit based on round bases for whatever skirmish game I felt like playing. Not much of that was happening, so I’ve turned them into a troop of archers who might even prove their worth on the KoW battlefield one day…

…and here they are…

Skeletal Archer Troop

Skeletal Archer Troop

Skeletal Archer Troop

Skeletal Archer Troop

Skeletal Archer Troop

The Pianola Gun

Not satisfied with a normal Organ Gun, my “Volley Gun” from my Kingdoms of Men army for Kings of War was renamed early on during a particularly silly in-game conversation. So much so that the label has stuck.

With the release of Kings of War 2nd edition I’ve become (possibly a bit too) excited and have been working on unit after unit of rebasing, basing and painting to try and get the human army back on the table. Over the last year or so it has been sadly neglected – no games of KoW and much DBA has stripped some of its units leaving it at about on 750 points, and simply not big enough for the game in question.

The first step has been the artillery train, and the Pianola gun is no exception. With the new frontage requirement of 50mm per war machine, I decided to limit the bases wherever possible to 50mm width instead of painting lines to mark the frontage as suggested in the rules. So, Mr Pianola had his base edges trimmed, and the frontage brought down from 60mm. Not something I’ll do again in a hurry.

Looks OK, though.

I also added a name tag on the base edge (you can probably see it in the picture). The crew has earned the right to have that there, let me tell you!

Left side

Front quarter

Right side

Rear arc

Kings of the Rings, and Things…

Big battle fantasy has always been an interest of mine. Not big battle in the fluff of a game, but free-wheeling fantasy as I see it. I like to use fantasy as an outlet for creativity rather than a recreation of someone else’s fixed universe.

In other words, I like to paint up whatever fantasy models I like, how I like.

To scratch this particular itch in the past I’ve indulged in various game systems, most recently Kings of War. I had decided to drop Kings of War and move on to using Hail Caesar (or Hail Sauron, if you swing that way), but I feel that as Hail Caesar (along with its brothers Pike and Shotte and Black Powder) have already taken over my historical gaming, sticking with a purely fantasy oriented ruleset like Kings of War would be more sensible. Besides, that would mean less rebasing.

Nobody likes rebasing, right?

So… I’ve had a new army standard bearer for my Kingdoms of Men army ready for ages, but he’s been sitting on the shelf waiting for a rules decision. Now that I’ve made it, here he is:

Army Standard Bearer – Left Side

Army Standard Bearer – Right Side

This model is from Gamezone Miniatures, and I like it a lot. Beats the foot ASB I was using – his metal banner kept dragging him over onto his face during games…

Next up I’ve finished basing and ‘flagging’ a regiment of Easterlings. These are GW models from the Lord of the Rings range. Who knows, I might yet break with tradition and build some armies for their setting (I have enough models). If I need extra reinforcements for my generic armies they can do double duty… These were painted by Nuemonic.

Easterling Halberd Regiment – Front

Easterling Halberd Regiment – Side

Easterling Halberd Regiment – Rear

I was tempted to give them generic ‘evil’ flags and not worry about their LoTR background story, instead of the ‘proper’ Easterling ones that I ended up using. I may still take that route later on with later units, but I haven’t had a chance to think about that much. I do prefer my fantasy settings to be generic… And non-restrictive…

A Fantasy Human Army Groweth…

Most of my recent efforts have been concentrated on getting my collection of painted stuff based up for games I actually, or plan to, play. Warzone Resurrection has been an exception to this (and I still have plenty for it on my workbench). The following models are not an exception. These units were originally assembled for Mantic’s Kings of War, and, as I’m moving all of my mass-battle fantasy efforts over to Hail Caesar, there’s a lot of rebasing to do.

The Human army is still without a name and fluff. I’ve been gaming with these figures for over two years now and still haven’t done anything about that. That’ll need to change. I’ll also have to stat up units to fit with the rules, and cost them with points values. (Eventually.)

The two human units here are small units as per the rules and I might paint up the necessary figures to make these units to standard size. I only need to buiild and paint nine, but as I’m concentrating on rebasing for now, all that can wait.

Arquebusiers of the Grail Regiment. Models by Citadel.

Detail of the Great Grail Regiment standard. Flag is by Zvesda (I think) and the miniatures are by Citadel.

The Swords Company of the Great Grail Regiment. Flag is by Zvesda (I think) and the miniatures are by Citadel.

I’ve also completed an Ogre Auxiliary Regiment, the first of maybe no more, depending on funds. It’s only called the Ogre Auxiliary Regiment for the benefit of the humans in the army, as their name in Ogrish is unpronouncable…

I’m also planning to use the rather ungainly cannon-wielding versions of these guys as artillery units (instead of missile units), with human crews for loading, etc with the ogre acting as a walking gun carriage. This will need some rules tweaks, but I think it’s worth it for the eye candy that will result. It’s a fantasy army after all, and if ogres were available this kind of walking artillery carriage might actually have happened. Maybe. 😉

Those soon. Until then, here’s the Ogre Auxilary Regiment in all its glory:

Ogre Auxiliaries. Models by Citadel.

First flag detail. I’ve gone with a martial black and white theme for ogre flags, with detailed images of death like skulls, skeletons and hourglasses along with a fantasy script to convey the straightforward, but warrior-like and intelligent creatures that ogres are in this setting.

Second flag detail.