Fantasy - Thugi Ironhand, Cogsmith of Ironweld

The roar of the furnace, the clanging of iron hammers upon hot metal, forcing the materials to his whim, to become what he wanted instead of what nature had intended for them.

These were the things that Thugi Ironhand lived for...well, those and smashing the heads of anyone who dared to try to shut down his forge with his arcane hammer.

Known within Sigmaron for being a brilliant, if eccentric forgemaster, with a way of combining metallurgy and the arcane, many members of the Ironweld Arsenal were surprised when he announced in the council that he was leaving Azyr to head to the small town of Ancestor's Fyrd.

Upon arrival, he immediately set up at the towns arcane forge and began work upon his masterpiece, a suit of heavy steam powered armour which, with an enchantment upon his shield, purchased from a cowled peddler back in Azyr, would not only render him nearly impervious to enemy attacks, but increase his strength and speed as well.

Months later, he had completed his works, disaster struck during his trial run however, when one of the warding enchantments he had placed upon his shield reacted badly with a shipment of inscribed Sigmarite being brought into the forge.

The two magical spells fought one another, their very essences battling, until the Sigmarite enchantment won out and the shield, along with Thugi who was still holding it, was ripped from the realm of Ghur and cast into the void.

Finding himself standing in nothingness, the realisation that he had been tricked by the peddler whom he bought the enchantment off dawned upon the stranded Duarddin.

With nothing to vent his anger on, Thugi screamed vengeance, a distant chuckle of laughter, no louder then a whisper but audible from a distance answered him and echoed through the void.

A belch of smoke from the stacks, the scrape and creak of metal upon metal, Thugi Ironfist set off and entered the looming Silver Tower, determined to find a way back to Ghur and the peddler whom had cheated him.

Ahhh, Dwarves and their machines, almost as good as Volcano dwelling Dwarves.

This model, made by Scibor Miniatures is a fun model I picked up at the beginning of this year, put the flags out, I have completed a model inside of 12 months!!!!!

Packed with runic detail, it screamed out for a simple paintjob and was actually the easiest of the heroes so far to paint, despite the varying metallic layers and washes each panel of his armour received.

Just like the Stormcast, he got a Space Wolf head, of terminator variety this time if I am correct as I didn't like the helmet he was supplied with.

Adding a little to his story through the "enchantment peddler", originally he was going to be a little throw away line, but I got thinking, what if Thugi had purchased the chaotic spell in Azyr itself?

What if the agents of Chaos were operating within the shanty towns which I imagine would spring up near each realmgate?

So I ran with the idea and that's how I ended up with a steam-powered Dwarf Cogsmith, rather then the somewhat bland Cogsmith model which Games Workshop make, in Silver Tower.



Until next time...


 - Lewis

Fantasy - The Lady of Vines, Branchwych

Sylvaneth are thought to be immortal creatures, in a way they are, but nature works in cycles.

Life and Death should be in balance at all times.

This was what The Lady of Vines was trying to tell her Queen before the hordes of Nurgle had descended upon their realm and the Sylvaneth forces had begun the long retreat to the Hidden Glade.

Alarielle had begun to favour life, rampant and vigorous, more then the balance of nature. All the elder Sylvaneth could see what was happening and what would come to pass if their queen continued along her path, but she was not to be persuaded from her course and drew the followers of Nurgle like moths to a flame.

Many bitter battles and losses occurred during those dark times. The Lady of Vines never far from Alarielle's side or the council of ancients.
Each treeman ancient lost was knowledge and memory which could not be recovered, unless the surviving Sylvaneth could retrieve the fallen seedstone before it was defiled.

Many times during battle, The Lady of Vines engaged in magical duels with a sorceror who was unlike the pestilent fiends plaguing her homelands.

This one was crooked, wrapped in robes of luminescent white and wielded a staff wreathed in coruscating flames.

The she fell in battle, a momentary lack of concentration as the queen had called out under attack.

She felt weak as she stood, shut off from nature, unable to commune with anything. As she looked around, she realised with horror why that was.

Nothingness, bright, white, nothingness surrounded her no matter which way she looked. Slowly, panic rising, a pathway appeared through the void. At her feet, one reminder of what she was lay.

As she uttered the spell to create a familiar from the small pieces of broken wood which had been transported with her, a distant chuckle of laughter, no louder then a whisper but audible from a distance away echoed through the void.

Another model I have had part painted for ages, not ONE year this time, but at LEAST five, possibly six years, where does time go?

Anyway, The Lady of Vines is a Games Workshop Spellsinger model, which I am going to count as a Branchwych from their Sylvaneth range. One of my favourite sculpts from the old Wood Elf range, she is definitely up there on the "top models" lists.

Her colour scheme comes from the fact that I cannot fathom how Wood Elves in their classic sense are meant to survive. Look at any type of creature which lives in a specific environment and it adapts to it's home.

In their classic iteration, Wood Elves, as Fey Creatures, all have white/pale skin which seems to glow with an otherworldly power, and often long blonde or silver hair...when was the last time you saw a blonde tree?

Instead I decided to give my wood elves green skin and hair, paired with deep green cloaks and robes, the only reason she has a white dress is to break up the miniature a little and draw your eye to some of the details, like the wines wrapping their way around her body and such.

Her name partially comes from this last detail, but also from the Realmgate Wars series of novels Games Workshop put out when Age of Sigmar was going through it's first campaign phase. These were a hit and miss series of books in my opinion, several were excellent, others not so much and one was a definite chore to get through.

The Lady of Vines, appears in Book 4, Wardens of the Everqueen, and she is the handmaiden of Alareielle. I wanted to take this aspect of the background and build upon it, having her calamity which draws her to the Silver Tower take place during the first invasion of the realm by the forces of Nurgle, creating the replacement Lady of Vines which features in the novel.

My own character being ripped from the realm of life and thrust into the formless expanse surrounding the Silver Tower, feels cut off and powerless at the end, creating her little woodland familiar. On the model this is represented by a wood familiar from Reaper Bones, a fun little addition, gameplay wise this counts as a Bittergrub which she can use against her enemies.


Until next time...


 - Lewis

Fantasy - Garviel, Lord-Castellant of the Celestial Legion

From their garrison at Ancestor's Fyrd, The Celestial Legion of Stormcast Eternals maintained a vigilant watch over the Azyrite holdings within the Drakespine Mountains.

Punitive raids were conducted regularly to keep the local beastmen tribes in check, patrols over the ancient Battlefield of The False Prophet kept looters and other more vile things away.

Over all of this the lords of the Legion reigned, none for longer without reforging then Lord-Castellant Garviel. For over 70 years he maintained watch with the legion without being brought low once.

During a rising of the Black-Axe tribe of beastmen, several contingents of Plate-Clad Slaves to Darkness aided the vile half-human foes.

One in particular, a Sorceror riding a floating disk seemed to mark Garviel out for personal attention. Firing spell after spell at him, eventually one found a weak point in Garviel's formidable defences, both physical and magical and he was blasted from his feet, blacking out.

When he came to, Garviel found himself not within the reforging palaces of Sigmaron, instead brightly lit, a path wound it's way towards a giant gateway, leading to the fabled Silver Tower of Tzeentch, fate seeming that he should head inside to fight the profane and perverse followers of the Chaos God.

From the brightness, a distant chuckle of laughter, no louder then a whisper but audible from a distance away echoed through the void.

This model has been sitting part painted for a LONG time...we're talking over a year I think, and I don't know why it took me so long to get him finished really...

The Lord-Castellant is one of my favourite Stormcast Eternal models, all hefted Halberd and brandished Warding Lantern, minions of Chaos beware!

As before with my other Stormcast models, I gave him a head swap with a Space Wolf marine head to give a sense of their humanity, and also their "going native" after being in the wild lands of Ghur for so long.
Where the Knights Excelsior (I think it's those) are quite Inquisition-esque, in the sense that they murder anyone, man, woman or child, whom they think may have even come into contact with someone who is tainted by Chaos. My own Celestial Legion are meant to be more Classic Barbarian in the style, living off the wilds, fighting the wild tribes and protecting those weaker then themselves through a sense of honour.


I enjoyed writing his little background piece, especially about not being able to go back to Azyr to be reforged...

Until next time...


 - Lewis

Fantasy - Tik Tok, Skink Starpriest

High above the skies of Azyr, the stars in constellation know as "Omek's Tears" flickered and flashed in the darkened sky.
Kurkori, the Dreaming Seer of the Nightmare War, reigning Slann Mage Priest of the constellation flickered his attention to one of his lost servants, as his larger Seraphon forces fought in a bitter war against the followers of Tzeentch in the realm of Ghur.

Kurkori's essence raced throughout the void seeking his lost Seer to no avail, no trace of the magical spoor could be found and this vexed the ancient being, causing the stars to flicker more fiercely.

Tik Tok, Seer to the mighty Slann Kurkori, opened his reptilian eyes and grimaced. Fierce bright light filled the area in front of him, gingerly he reopened his eyes and they slowly adjusted to the formless brightness in front of him.

Flicking his reptilian tongue and hissing at the taste of Chaos in the air, a path formed into the nothingness in front of him, fate deciding that he should head forwards.

From the brightness, the form of the Silver Tower of Tzeentch loomed, a distant chuckle of laughter, no louder then a whisper but audible from a distance away echoed through the void.

Recently I have begun playing Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower in solo mode.
Mainly due to a lack of people to play with, also the fact that my main gaming group is split on both sides of the Pennines makes it a pain to try to get a game of something Silver Tower, unless its at the end of a day of gaming and we are waiting on food to be delivered (good gaming days always involve a take-away or bar meal!).

To that end however and being bored at home one night during part of my annual leave from work, I dug out the box, had a flick through the rules and played through the first adventure in about 90 minutes and decided to dig out and finish off various character models I have had lying around for ages part painted to give me options.

Tik Tok is one such model, I did post him up in an earlier post, but went back and tidied up a lot of the scales on his back and some area's of his staff.I may go back and brighten up the feathers adorning him at some point, but for now he is usable on the table.

The little piece of background links him to both AoS (in case I ever want to make a dinosaur army) and Silver Tower, we'll see if he gets picked and how he gets on...maybe...


Until next time...


 - Lewis

Terrain - Wrecked Car Scatter

Ideas always crop up in amongst other projects, be it an idea for a cool unique unit to convert, a back story to explore or in this case, some scatter terrain...

The other half crafts decorative photo frames, often with vinyls on the glass for whatever the period in question is (Easter, Christmas, teacher, pet, etc) and so we make somewhat regular visits to Poundland where they often sell picture frames at 2 for £1.

I always detour to the toy aisle to see if there is anything useful to me and came across this car the other day;

Perfect scale, just about, for some scatter terrain once the awful wheels are removed, it almost looks like a Range Rover*, pictured here with a miniature for scale.

So, upon arriving home, ideas came about and gears churned into motion, a moment's work with a screwdriver had the car into it's component pieces;

And with the wheels removed, it becomes even better for scale;

Off to my terrain supply drawer in my hobby area, and a suitable base was finagled from a piece of scrap 3mm MDF, positioning finalised, a resin oil barrel and crate were added, to give the impression that people still used this vehicle husk as something (a meeting/trading point, i don't know).
The rocks are from a tub one of my friends picked me up from Ikea, this was meant to represent chunks of buildings which had collapsed around the vehicle, in the midst of all of this, a hammer was used to judicious effect and the car was battered to within an inch of it's life;

After texturing the rest of the base with my usual dried builders sand, the piece was primed and then hit up with base colours:

• Baneblade Brown, for my usual basing scheme.
• Abaddon Black, for the bumper surround.
• Kantor Blue, for the main shell of the car, a choice by the other half I might add.
• Mechanicus Standard Grey, for the concrete blocks.
• Leadbelcher, for the obvious metals.
• Lothern Forest, for the oil drum and crate.

Anything which was metal also got a drybrush of Leadbelcher, then a Wash of Agrax Earthshade.

After going on Youtube and finding this tutorial by Behind Enemy Lines Wargaming, and having some weathering pigments available, I decided to have a bash at adding a really rusted, extremely weathered effect;

• Humbrol Rust Pigment.
• Humbrol Iron Oxide Pigment.
• Humbrol Smoke Pigment (for the burnt out interior).
• Humbrol Matte Cote, instead of the matte varnish he used in the video,

This is where we ended up, the picture doesn't show it, but you can still see the blue paint showing through the layers of rust on the outside of the vehicle in places.

I should add, that until this point, I had kept the car in two separate assemblies so that I could paint the interior, as you can see it, I focused my attentions on making this seem burnt out and liberally added Nuln Oil washes, as well layers of Humbol Smoke Pigment mixture to the interior.

Last steps were taken and the entire piece was drybrushed first with Baneblade Brown and secondly, more lightly, with Ushabti Bone, which is my usual combination for the top of bases and to represent dust flying and gathering on surfaces.

Here is the finished piece:

I say it is finished, but I want to add a few "Arid Grass Tufts" I picked up from eBay, but they haven't arrived yet.

Overall I am really pleased with how this little project turned out, not bad for a £1 whim on a toy car, some supplies I already had and a couple of evenings work.
I have enough basing MDF left over to make 3 or 4 more bases, so I'll probably pick a few of the saloon version of the car that they make and produce a few more of these, they are versatile in use as it could be used in anything from modern day combat, to zombie or post apocalyptic games, even 40k really.

*Although why anyone would spend £80,000+ on a Range Rover is beyond me...

 Until next time...


 - Lewis

Fantasy - Elvisia Henderthane, Elven Diabolist.

Something different for the Pathfinder collection, this is a metal miniatures produced by Avatars of War as a Light Elf Mage.

My friend gave me more of a brief with this miniatures rather then "just paint it" like usual.
That's because this is going to be used for his next character, his current character is an actual Dragon, which is working at politically (but sometimes with brute force) taking over most of the countries in the current campaign he is playing in.

So for something different he is going to play an Elf, the class Diabolist (I think that's right) is a summoner of infernals and demons, basically a warlock in old money.

Elvisia Henderthane

Daughter of the Chelaxian noble house of Henderthane, Elvisia developed an interest in conjuration, the occult and 'forbidden' knowledge at an early age and enrolled at the Egorian Academy of Magical Arts' Infernal Binding course.

She suffered from debilitating muscular dystrophy from birth, causing her to live a sheltered and secluded life, however, she was mysteriously 'cured' while at the Academy.

After having graduated, she went on to serve in the Chelaxian Office of Naval Research and also took an increasing role in the Henderthane family business as weapons merchants.

Her desires now, are to further her knowledge and to exercise the independence once denied to her by her disability. Thus, she enjoys travel and takes a more "hands on" approach to both her trade and academic pursuits.

Despite no hard evidence ever surfacing, she continues to be mired in several controversies, and her ambitions are of no secret amongst the nobles. Rumour has it the Imperial bureaucracy would love nothing more than to be rid of Elvisia, however she remains too valuable and powerful to simply kill. 


The basic background information I got sent, more then I was expecting truth be told. Lots to work with in there, and after talking about colour schemes, Black and Red were chosen based upon this image:

After looking at the miniatures for sometime, I decided to switch the colours around and to add Gold as the third layer, considering she is wearing armour, whereas the reference image is not.
With light skin, reds and golds dominating the colour palette, I went for a warm brown for her staff rather then a cold silver or such. Keeping the model in "warmish" colours helps to tie everything together, unlike with the Angel where i wanted the contrast to draw your eye from the mass of white in her wings and robes.

Until next time


 - Lewis

Fantasy - Hill Giant

Continuing with the Reaper Bones models, This Hill Giant has also been finished:

Moddhor, Hill Giant.

Very happy with this model as I wanted a very weather-beaten and unkempt/dirty look to him, Agrax Earthshade works wonders!

I am also pleased as this model is one of the fastest that I have ever painted, clocking in at around 3 hours for the entire thing, the longest time was waiting for shades to dry in order to carry on painting (not counting the interior filler which needed to dry on the base.

Until next time


 - Lewis

Fantasy - Sabrael, Angel of Wrath

Working through the box of Reaper Bones figures for my friends Pathfinder collection, here we have one of the latest miniatures finished:

Sabrael, Angel of Wrath

A burst of light and a quick, bright flash of blinding energy mark the coming of Sabrael.

After landing with incredibly force, shattering a marble column, a tall being with completely white eyes stands in front and surveys the area.

White, feathered wings look beautiful and imposing at the same time, her lean, but muscular body moves as if every move is calculated and is clad entirely in robes of pure white.

She holds a sword in one hand and a shield in the other, clearly ready for battle.

A grimace is clearly visible, she turns her gaze toward an unknown distance, before departing with incredibly speed.

She is "Daeva" from the Bones range, I have converted her with a GW sword for strength (and also because the polymer resin sword she came with was bent out of shape completely) and a Daemonette head, one of the more human styled ones, but it is still other-worldly and has a ponytail, as her original head was bald.

The base was painted in the same style as my Azyrite Ruins, I'm not sure if he will have any terrain like that, but it looks good and draws your eye as it contrasts so well with the white angel above it.

Until next time