Trollblood Fennblades and Rok.

 

A cold rain drizzled down through the trees onto the assembled Trollkin sheltering there. Since the fighting had renewed in the Thornwood, the Kriel had been driven to move, seeking sanctuary where they could.

Finan Firetongue, Kithkar of the Kriel's Fennblade company moved to stand next to his friend on sentry duty. They stood staring for a few moments through the grey mist which hung low, caused by the light rain further out. The drips from the trees plinking off of their armour, the Kriel tabards soaked but still displaying their proud colours.

"This is a miserable place, I miss the wee old grove" 

"I know Connal, but our duty is to the Kriel, we must protect our families. Doomshaper wouldn't have sent us this way unless there was something here" Finan replied to his friend.

Connal nodded and resumed his lookout and Finan toured the other sentries, sharing a joke or word with each before returning to Connal.

"You know, I hear Rhiannar has started looking for a mate, maybe..." Finan trailed off as Connal held up a hand to silence him. Normally feasting and mating were the main topics of conversation but Finan now followed Connals' gaze westward.

There the orange fire-glow of steam boilers under power betrayed the presence of a human warparty. Shortly two units of slight humans with cloaks and rifles could be seen trying to stealthily approach the woodland.

Giving their position away the human leader had brought their forces forwards too soon, lightning glowing from swords and the lumbering tread of the huge Warjacks. Each painted a rich blue and white, with the Cygnaran crest boldly shining upon them.

Finan gave out a shrill whistle and the Kriel encampment was suddenly a hive of activity. The other Fennblades raced from their sentry positions to join their Kithkar. Kriel Warriors gathered battered sword and iron cast shield, then embraced their family and moved to join their company.

A great booming song-shout sounded, echoing over the noise of gathering warriors and the rain.

"Brothers and Sisters" the voice sang, "Remember our duty to protect the Kriel, our families are here and need us! Rejoice, for we have a chance to prove our valour and worthiness to belong to Braggs' bloodline! This will be a day for deeds to brag about, to work up a thirst and hunger, we will feast afterward the battle is won! The mating musk will be thick in the air, mark my words, oh you lucky lads and lasses!"

Lusty cheers answered the Fellcallers' rallying speech, Finan noticed that Connal joined in enthusiastically with a knowing grin.

The Trollkin formed a ragged battleline at the edge of the trees and waited for the Cygnaran's to come to them...

*****

Out of all the different factions between Warmachine and Hordes, I don't think there are any real standout factions more then the others.

Sure, there are some which I personally feel are weaker, Legion of Everblight for example, as I'm not keen on the blind, insect look of their models, Skorne with their psuedo-Samurai/Oriental look (remember I already have a historical Samurai collection) and Protectorate of Menoth, which whilst they have some miniatures which I really like (The Paladin of the Wall for example) I'm not keen on their Catholic Church/Middle Eastern mix up inspiration.

Until they began introducing the fairytale stuff and demons, I really am not keen on those sections of the range*.

Of the other factions, I really like a lot of what's going on. 

 The Trollbloods are as close as it comes to a true "good guy" faction as they're just trying to survive and make a home for their people after being driven out by the more "civilized" factions fighting through the Thornwood.

Even Cygnar, the posterboys of Warmachine and originally portrayed somewhat as the "good guy" faction, have slowly turned into shades of grey, expelling the religious Menites to the Protectorate and trying to use the Trollbloods as a buffer by giving them weapons and such.

But the Trollblood Kriels, as far as we knew by Mk.2 were just looking for a home to settle, and yes, whilst they had driven Cygnaran folk from their land once. They were promised land by the King and been used as pawns to try to check the Khadoran and Skorne borders, fair is fair**.

The mixture of barbarian tribe and Celtic influence is plain to see on these models and I've tried to incorporate some form of patterning on the tabards of the Fennblades.

I'll get better at this the more I practice I do, maybe go for some more complex patterning on the Heroes and Characters, and leave the rank and file troops with more subdued patterns.

I've kept to a core palette of dirty metal and leather, with the blue skintones and tabards drawing the eye to details.

Again I've used my generic light basing paint scheme.

Rok, is a named Diretroll, one smart enough to use an axe it seems!

This model is actually one of the mail order Extreme Diretrolls direct from Privateer Press, which has had the Top upgrade pack attached to it.

I didn't actually mail order this as I got him in a great deal off of eBay, along with a pair of Troll Impalers and a set of the Sons of Bragg all for £30 as a Father's Day gift this summer just gone past.

He's been a different experience painting as it's a lot of blue, which isn't a colour I've use a lot.

I worked his skin up from a dark Kantor Blue bsse, by drybrushing up through Caledor Sky, Calgar Blue and then Thunderhawk Blue all over to give that weather beaten blue-grey look. I then went back and picked out the visible veins on his flesh with pure Kantor Blue.

Likewise the stone sections, his back, shoulders, knuckles, beard, started at Mechanicus Standard grey washed with Nuln Oil.

Instead of starting the drybrushing with Mechanicus Grey, I opted instead to start with Stormvermin Fur, then Karak Stone and finally a drybrush of Ulthuan Grey.

I kept the tanned leather the same as on the Fennblades, reasoning that this guy wouldn't be wearing Kriel colours, but I added a second layer of colour to the leather using Tallarn Sand, when washed with Earthshade the two browns blended together to create a nice interest on the kilt.

Finally as the Leadbelcher was mixing into the grey stone areas too much, I painted his runes with Retributor Armour, reasoning that the Trollblood Kriels would give offerings to this Avatar of Destruction, stamping them with warding runes to protect Rok in battle.

A face only a mother could love...

These two units clear another two boxes for an additional Twenty points. This gives me a new total of One Thousand and Fifty points.

I'm not sure what will be on the plate for Warmachine next, I mainly work on these models as and when I feel a need for a break from GW models.

Until next time...

* Again this is just my opinion about the factions in the game. If you like them, you do you.

**Mk.2 is the last book I bought when I was playing Warmachine/Hordes regularly years ago (where does the time go?). I know that there has been updates and the story moved forwards a lot, but I work with what I know and like.

Black Legionaries - Close Assault Veterans.

"A great storm of darkness will descend upon the Cadian Gate. A tide of destruction will sweep aside the naive usurpers of the Corpse Emperor and the servants of the Dark Ones shall reclaim the citadel's thereupon..."

Legionary Kaal turned away from the Dark Apostle preaching his ravings and strode through the gathering throng. Here in one of the assembly bays on the Vengeful Spirit the forces of the Despoiler were gathering to pay homage to their warlord and work themselves into a frenzy for the coming assault.

Bludgeoning a pair of beastmen out of his path as he walked, he focused upon the preparations which had taken their Warmaster centuries, oaths recalled, favours offered and repaid, misdirection and misinformation.

Even now Lord Khiron had surrendered himself to the Imperial Lapdogs and was spreading misinformation to them, weakening their resolve before the coming storm...so he had been told.

Kaal thought it a fools errand, better to face the enemy with bolter and blade in hand then be tortured for information and executed.

Though he was not a member of the command echelon's, so what did his opinion matter.

The Warmaster had his plans, Ygethmor had his plans, even his own Lord had plans, inscrutable though all of them were.

Twenty minutes later Kaal entered his squads arming chamber, he had told the rest of them to remain there and arm themselves, as he knew there would be nothing would be beneficial for them at the moment.

Aurgeth sat with his back to a storage crate, monotonously banging his head against the lid, he had done that since being wounded during the twelfth crusade.

Ereyan and Morcoth dueled each other at the rear of the chamber, half shrouded in darkness, the lights glinted off their armours trim, making them seem like shadows come to life, chainswords sparked as they met.

Malwyn, his second in command looked up from the dataslate he had been reviewing as Kaal entered, his baroque armour growling with freshly serviced servo-motors.

"Well?" Malwyn asked, "Anything of note from the Apostle?"

"The usual raving of a madman" Kaal replied.

"Show me a sane man around here, and I'll show you a liar!" Malwyn said, replying with humour.

"Are we ready?" Kall asked, and the entire chamber fell silent. The screeching of chainswords died off as Ereyan and Morcoth turned towards the conversing pair. Even Aurgeth ceased his eternal thumping to look directly at his warleaders.

"Yes, we're ready, has there been word for when the assult will begin? Everything around the ship is coiled to the breaking point!" 

Somewhere deep within the ship Klaxons began ringing and an automated vox message rang out "Helbrute escape. Helbrute escape. Helbrute escape".

Kaal reached out and shut off the internal ship vox and turned back to his squad.

"Soon".

*****

As we move on further through the month, it's not necessarily a race to get stuff finished, but I know that I'll probably be gifted some more gear at the end of the month (is there a certain day approaching?) and aim to. Lear some stuff off the painting table.

Also, I aim to make a good start on the forces I'll need for "Project EoT" so this is a post going forwards with that.

Legionary Kaal and the beginnings of a squad of Close Assault Chaos Space Marines and the Hellbrute 'Tarn the Tormented' are my first experiments with the Black Legion colour scheme.

Sure on the surface, it's just black and gold with a little detailing, but not all Black paints are equally good when finished and I wanted a different look to these miniatures when compared to my Deathwatch for example.

The Chaos marines have a basecoat of Corvus Black as this has a very dark grey finish, not entirely black like Abaddon Black for example.

Gold trim is Retributor Armour (to get a good solid colour), metals are Leadbelcher and the red started at Khorne Red.

At this point the entire model, including the base which is Mournfang Brown to lock on the sand, is washed with Agrax Earthshade.

This I find darkens even the Corvus Black in the recesses where it wouldn't on the pure black. It also weathers all the trim, metal and shades the red areas.

Final steps are to highlight the red with Mephiston Red to draw the eye to details and then finish the bases with my usual Baneblade Brown, Ushabti Bone drybrushed and paint the base rim Abaddon Black.

Legionary Kaal and his squad started off as spares from a group I bought from Mirfield Miniatures, a shop which specialises in second hand Warhammer.

I got fifteen chaos marines for £18 which is a very good deal. Two already came with chainswords, so it was a quick matter to clip off a couple of Boltguns and a Missile Launcher and add spare parts from some Raptor Sprues they sent in the box with them.

'Tarn the Tormented' is an old Dark Vengeance (the 6th and 7th edition starter box) model which I have had kicking around the hobby gear for years and not known what to do with.

There is a lot of flesh on this model compared to the others, but the armour and trim were painted as the marines. The fleshy areas are just Cadian Fleshtone washed with Earthshade instead of Fleshshade. To add interest to this model, the cables buried in its flesh are Kabalite Green rather than Mephiston Red as they blended too much into the skin tone.

These models clear two boxes and a line for Seventy points and a new total of One Thousand and Thirty points.

I'll post more on Project EoT,towards the new year, but it's still a ways off yet.

Until next time...

Horus Heresy Base Tutorial (or how I make them anyway!).

 

It is an Age of Darkness.

The Galaxy is aflame.

Brother turns on Brother.

This is M.31.

*****

Terra, cradle of mankind, center of the Imperium that had conquered the galaxy. Once it had been a proud shining beacon of Humanities progress and manifest destiny to rule the stars.

Now it was strangled and besieged by the warships of Warmaster Horus, the Arch-Traitor. As he sought to wrest rulership from the Immortal Emperor and bring worship of the Dark God's of Chaos to the galaxy at large.

Orbital bombardments punished the planet, focused mainly around the Emperor's Palace and the strongholds of his forces. 

Some however, were directed at civilian population centers in an effort to pull loyalist forces away to defend the targets. 

Gothic architecture which had stood for the centuries since the Emperor had unified the planet was smashed asunder, stone compacted to powder, blocks falling into the ruined streets.

Already the vast city which had grown around the Emperor's Palace was a ruined nightmare, choked in the perpetual twilight of the fog of churned dust, warriors of both sides attacked and counterattacked as they sought the end the war which had torn the Imperium apart at its very core...

*****

Recently I posted my Son's of Horus Esoterist miniature, the latest finished for the project.

I posted the link on the 30k subreddit to several likes and a question by u/sarabando about how I make the bases.

So here we go:

I mainly use cork from a 3mm tile. I've cut up several 3mm by 2mm blocks to serve as bricks and also tear up some small pieces to serve as smashed concrete (or whatever the 40k version is). I also gather a few interesting bits from the old bitzbox and my tub of builders sand (which I've dried out for use on models).

I generally start with the larger piece of cork, as I want to make sure I have a good secure place to mount the model on later, here it is with my newly converted Master of Signal. 

I check several times through the base build to make sure he fits, looks good on the base and has a good securing point.

After glueing the "concrete" down I look for the interesting ways that the bits can be added, this piece is fromma Valkyrie kit I think, but it makes a great electrical conduit for example.

Afterwards I begin added the "bricks" around the base, as well as the other doodad parts from the bitzbox. In this instance I didn't end up using the armour panel.

Pop the miniature base on to check all is well, looking good so far.

Next up is the sand. Some people use PVA but I just use paint and have never had a problem with it flaking off once sealed with primer.

I've used Screamer Pink here to show where I add the sand. Generally it's anywhere on the base which would be flat plastic, but also in-between the bricks and ontop of several of them. 

Remember that you need to leave space for the model to stand on, gluing ontop of sand hasn't worked out for me in the past.

A blast of grey primer and it brings everything together, now you can really start to see how it will look when finished.

And finally, a last check with the miniature placed on (not glued), to check it's still working. I ended up spinning the base 180 degrees for the Master of Signal, as a lot of the detail added would have been behind the miniature and lost to people looking.

This last step is important as it locks everything in your mind as to how the model will look, and if you need to make any changes you can now before painting and risking ruining your hard work later on.

I hope this helps, I'll do a painting tutorial for the Master of Signal if people wish as I've had several comments on my SoH paint scheme, let me know.

Until next time...

Sons of Horus Esoterist.

It is an Age of Darkness.

The Galaxy is aflame.

Brother turns on Brother.

This is M.31.

*****

 The battle was taking too long. Each day that the siege drew on, the remaining loyalist legions had time to draw closer to Terra and break the traitor forces.

No force could sustain a siege when attacked from the rear.

Esoterist Zaust entertained these thoughts privately, but deep down he knew that every officer of the Sons of Horus had drawn the same conclusions.

Crouched as he was in a bombed out building, he watched as another wave of Imperials counter attacked down the throughfare. Their courage was admirable if misplaced, however the Blood Angels Astartes accompanying the mortals provided the necessary inspiration for them to charge towards their certain deaths.

Sons of Horus Legionaries and so-called traitor guard units opened fire, but their numbers had been culled in this area by constant counter attacks as they tried to advance and take ground further towards the palace walls.

Zaust's eyes turned white as they rolled back in his head. Spittle drooled from the corner of his mouth as it sounded syllables which no mortal mouth should. Every cultists around him broke out into a cold sweat and the advancing Imperial troops stopped dead, their guts turned to jelly as their resolve faltered.

Shimmering into being, creatures of sulphur and bone stretched long limbs and shook horned heads. Razor sharp claws flickered into existence and a hulking sword of beaten bronze with dread runic symbols appeared.

Zaust barked an order in an otherworldly language which made Cultist's ears bleed and the freshly summon daemonic troops launched themselves forwards, running in a starting, sitting motion like a pict out of sync.

His eyes and faculties snapped back into place as the first of the daemons met the Imperial line sending limbs flying as the mortal troops recoiled in horror. Only the Blood Angels, this noble Astartes rushed forwards to intercept and fight the daemons.

Zaust smiled sickeningly at his nearest Legionaire, through blood slicked teeth he ordered the assault to resume...

*****

Into December, the final month of 2021 and I cleared off a model which if I'd have had time, would have been done in November.

This Sons of Horus Esoterist, a specialist librarian, was an experiment as to whether I could make a Chaos Space Marine Sorceror model fit in with the Horus Heresy miniatures.

A Mk.IV marine head, backpack, shoulder pad and left hand were used as well as a Chaos Space Marine axe to replace the staff the model normally comes with.

Painted using my normal Sons of Horus scheme, but with unearthly flesh which used Deepkin Flesh and Reikland Wash, I think he fits well with the other models.

Zaust in all his traitor glory:

Hobby Bingo and I've cleared a Kitbashed Model box and a Line for Sixty points, bringing my total to Nine Hundred and Sixty points now: 

I'm going to add some normal troops to this army next, but I am also thinking towards next year and focussing down on projects as I've jumped around somewhat all year and don't feel as if I've gotten projects finished, inspire of painting nearly two hundred Miniatures so far this year.

Until next time...

Hobby Bingo - November Recap.

 

So the eleventh month of the year has passed. Where has the time gone?

As usual at the end of the month it's time for recap of what projects we've gotten finished and how we stand on our various Bingo grids.

Now that I've settled into my new job, I'm finding a lot more time for hobby then I was before, feeling happier about everything in general because of my career change also helps I think.

To this end I managed to get the start to a Horus Heresy project on the go with some Cataphractii Terminators and Tactical Support for the Sons of Horus.

I also added to my Imperial Guard forces with some more Catachan Guardsmen and some Cadian Kasrkin which kicks off "Project EoT".

Dave has passed his summer hobby hibernation period and worked up some Napoleonics of both British and French flavours.

He also painted up some absolutely gorgeous Sisters of Sigmar models at the very end of the month, seriously go and check them out!

Chris is still AWOL from the house.move, but we're hoping for a showing to end the year in December.

Updated score boards look as follows:

Chris: 1250

Lewis: 900.

Dave: 250.

Onwards to the final month of the year.

Can I pull out the stops to paint that piece of terrain to clear a grid?

Can Dave paint something cool to end the year?

Will Chris ever post again?

Until next time...