Heralds Of The Storm - Some Early WIP Pics

I've really struggled to get anything done for these lately as I had been working evenings and with the kids evenings (once they're all settled into bed) are then only time I ever get to actually build or paint my minis generally. Luckily I've gotten on to the day shift at work now so I have my evenings back which means I have my hobby back!

Been playing in a fantasy campaign at my gaming club which starts out with 500pts armies and even that's a woeful unpainted mass of half-built proxy miniatures so I'm eager to try and get some of these guys done. I also really want to paint my first character to try and enter the COTEC painting competition but I'm going to be tight for time on that now I think so will have to see how it goes!

Some WIP Chaos warriors with halberds, got another 16 of these to build for this unit yet!

The character I'm working on - Tarkal Khagan - I really love the Harry The Hammer miniature and I was glad to get my hands on another one after converting him and using bits of him to make my BSB for the Devotees of Elazar way back when! Itching to try out the colour scheme for this army on him (or any mini for that matter!) so will hopefully get him started in the next couple of nights!

In the background you'll spot a load of great weapon wielding marauders. They're all mostly with the exception of the all need heads on their weapons as they're currently just running around with big sticks! Then with a bit of tidying up and some GS they'll be ready to paint!

Hopefully there'll not be anywhere near as long between updates this time and I'll have some more to show off soon!

Heralds Of The Storm - Getting Started

First off, it's shocking that there's not been an update on The Glorious Works since June! A lot has happened in that time with a new baby and a new job so I'm only just now starting to get my hobby time back!
They say that everything goes around in a circle and so it seems as here I am starting a new Warriors of Chaos army. This one actually kind of follows on as the background ties in with the old Devotees of Elazar, and in particular with the Storm God narrative campaign that I wrote...
So first off some new fluff!

*

Rumpolt Staudinger panicked as he tripped over a rock underfoot. At one time he’d been weary of his drawn out existence but now suddenly faced with his potential mortality he found himself desperate to survive. The daemon Elazar had used him as a pawn and as a chronicler of all of the being’s nefarious deeds and to aid him in this task he’d extended and twisted the old man’s life out for a great many generations more than he should ever have seen. And now in hindsight he realised it had all been destined to lead to that one specific point in time. Elazar had sent Rumpolt into the north to a massive cleft in the earth at the foot of which The Storm God slumbered. An ancient Shaggoth, kin to those other names dreaded of their kind - Krakanrok The Black and Kholek Suneater. Aarakturious Stormfather had spent centuries in hibernation, awaiting the great storm that would summon him to war once more.
A being aflame with ambition Elazar The Glorified sought to summon the very storm that would awaken Aarakturious. Alongside a coven of sorcerers sworn to his service they channelled vast energies to birth vast black clouds that crackled with the pent up fury of the storm. The summoning destroyed the minds of the sorcerers and the chaos energies warped their forms into hideous mutated spawn but for a Daemon Prince of Elazar’s standing the energies were easy to bear with very little strain.
The terrible storm that followed was a thing of nightmares. Thunderclaps sounded and the world shook at their roars as if the sky was splintering overhead under such tremendous force. Hail and lightning lashed the land amidst such chaos the Storm God stirred. The Daemon Prince Elazar demanded fealty of the ancient Shaggoth and Aarakturious responded with a deafening roar that made the thunder overhead seem tame. The Shaggoth climbed from the cleft in which he’d slumbered to the cliff tops above. Again the Daemon Prince demanded the fealty of the Storm God and was in turn swatted aside with contemptuous ease. The tribes that surrounded the lands where the Storm God slumbered had built a temple to the sleeping behemoth and the chaos gods that he served and to this temple Aarakturious strode bathing in the lightning that now struck repeatedly at his titanic form.
His pride now a stinging wound in his daemonic heart, Elazar The Glorified soared to the temple built to honour Aarakturious and the ground shook as the two beings duelled amidst the great pillars risen by the tribes in tribute to their infernal patrons. The Chaos Gods watched the contest, the storm had drawn their attention but the combat that raged between Elazar and Aarakturious now held their gaze.
In Aarakturious Tzeentch saw the changes that would be wrought upon the world by his armies and he spied all the paths of fate leading to and from this moment plotting their course. Slaanesh bathed in the ancient pride of the Shaggoth and could already sense the great torrents of fear that would drown his foes. Nurgle sensed the despair in mortal hearts at the Storm God’s reawakening and knew that in their wake his armies would leave fields of carrion to be tended by flocks of crows and swarms of flies, each host to plagues and diseases beyond counting. Khorne could feel the endless rage of the storm, the infinite hatred of the dread Shaggoth and knew that towers of skulls would be heaped at the foot of his great brass throne in offering.
In that moment Aarakturious carried the blessing of each of the Ruinous Powers and Elazar felt only the scorn of his own beloved patron. With a ferocious strike Aarakturious destroyed the Daemon Prince’s physical form banishing him back to the realm of chaos. The storm overhead swelled with power as the chaos gods fed its power to herald the awakening of their new champion.
The Devotees of Elazar had borne witness as events unfolded before them, helpless to intercede as their beloved leader was destroyed. With a roar Aarakturious summoned his own followers to war and those tribes that had journeyed to witness the awakening of the Storm God descended upon the Devotees. But, for all the ferocity of the Astragar, Kavakh and Mulghar men it was the egos of the champions of the Devotees of Elazar that spelled their doom. Each keen to ascend in Elazar’s place they killed their own just as readily as the Storm God’s followers sought to slay them. Some such as Harkaitz made their stand and were cut down by the tide of tribesmen whilst others like Endika Fleshtearer fled to escape their doom.
Amidst the chaos Rumpolt Staudinger had thought he’d made good his escape until he glanced back and spotted the half-dozen riders dogging his steps. In an instant the fight was gone from him, he felt the years of his extraordinarily long life catching up with him all at once. Resigned to his fate he hobbled over to a rocky outcrop and sat himself down.
The riders sensed an end to their sport so quickly covered the ground between themselves and the old man. All six of them were Mulghar men. They were each frightful in their own way bearing slight mutations that marked them as servants of the dark gods but it was the man that rode at their head that scared Rumpolt. He wore a helm and armour on is right arm that seemed alive with the electricity of the storm that still raged overhead. Arcs of lightning played over its surface with an audible crackle but the man himself seemed not only unharmed but unfazed by them. On his chest a brand of a lightning bolt had been burnt into the skin, marking him as a servant of the ascendant Storm God. The man leapt down from his mount, a beast clearly touched by the warping energies of chaos, and then hoisted Rumpolt to his feet. He said something in his own tongue that Rumpolt didn’t understand and within seconds the other five men had leapt down from their steeds and began to bind spears together with twine. The man stood watching Rumpolt as the men in his thrall set busily to whatever task he had set them. His face was hidden behind his helm which he’d topped with the skull of some beast. Even without being able to see the man’s face though Rumpolt could feel the barely contained rage which seemed to charge the air around him, the fury of the storm above them seemed to echo in the heart of that man and Rumpolt felt only dread as he regarded him.
When the Mulghars had finished they had bound together dozens of spears in the image of the eight pointed star of chaos. Another shout from their leader saw the men grab Rumpolt and drag him struggling to the chaos star and bind him to it. Rumpolt alternated between howling in fear and pleading with the but if they understood his words the made no outward show of it. With two thick ropes they raised the start upright and into a hole they’d dug into the ground to plant it.
“The storm will decide your fate,” the armoured man said his voice iron as it sounded from behind his helm.
As the men mounted their horses and continued southwards riding ahead of the storm their leader glanced back over his shoulder and watched the lightning raking the ground around the chaos start they’d erected and then saw it catch light as another bolt struck it and it burst into flames, a fiery sigil of chaos against the black clouds that stretched back on the horizon. He thought he heard the old man’s agonised screams for a moment but the thunder drowned out the sound like cruel rumbling laughter.

*

This is going to be an Undivided Chaos force. The followers of the Storm God worship the four ruinous powers as well as the Storm God as the gods' chosen champion.

I was inspired by The Temple of Skulls shown in White Dwarf 381. My wargames club has just bought one so I painted it similarly so that there's now some themed terrain where I play all my games! Just need to build and paint the army now!

I've also put together some mock-ups of for my chaos ogres. I saw a great Ogre Kingdoms army using the Minotaurs somewhere on blogger. Their owner had sculpted pants etc to make them Ogre bulls but I figure the chaotic feral feel of the Minotaurs is perfect as is for some very raw looking Chaos Ogres.

An Excuse To Play With My Toys

Not much I can say here. Wanted to get a feel for the train on the terrain board and couldn't resist putting a few minis on. What it does show is just how much work I have to do!
The boards need doing, the pioneer town that's built up around the tracks needs doing, the train needs repainting and obviously my crews need to be painted too!
Then there's the swamp board to do...

How Many Swamps Must A Man Wade Through.... Part 1

Will post a proper update of Teddy later on or tomorrow as he's getting closer to being finished. Been working on some Malifaux scenery in the mean time when I've gotten the chance. Had plenty of family drama this last week though so it's been a very rare and valuable commodity!
Again, nothing interesting to see yet but thought I'd keep tthings up to date!

One of the projects I'm working on is a 4' x 4' swamp board. Not a lot to see here so far but a blow by blow account all the same. The Bayou area plays a strong part in the background of Malifaux so seemed a logical place to start for the Malifaux scenery as I've wanted to try my hand at a swamp board for a bit.

The board is built with two layers of foamboard to each 2' x 2' square. The top layer has the shape of the swamps cut out so as to be able to create a realistic depth to them. To start with I drew the planned shapes of the swamps on the top layer to cut out. I realised that I'd have to make the banks from filler myself so drew an outline around the original shape to give me the space to do that without shrinking all the swamps below the size I'd planned on having them.

After that the shapes of the swamps were cut out, this was relatively easy, not least as I didn't have to be especially tidy as there will be lots of filler around the edges I've created.

The top layer was then stuck to the bottom layer so as to create the bases of the swamps ready for them to all be filled which is what I'm currently working on.

Another scenery project I'm working on but more in the planning stage is a little Pioneer town so that my gaming club has something to tie in with the nice western theme there. Not got anything to show for this yet other than a train that I've managed to procure!

Every Wild West style town needs a train running through it! Was quite hard to get this one. The trains for 28-32mm gaming need to be roughly 0 scale to be the right size from what I can understand. I don't know if anybody has an interest in model railways here but those trains are exceptionally expensive! Anyway, I stumbled upon a company that sells these train sets but they seem to be relatively easy to find over there in the States but night impossible over here! Managed to find an old listing for one in the UK on ebay that had finished without bids so I got in touch with the person who'd listed it and they still had it. So, after much searching I have the train for another Malifaux board! Going to repaint sections of the train and add some shading & weathering too just to make it look less like a kid's toy but it goes backwards and forwards on the track and plays train noises too apparently... (WIN!)

Quick Update

Forgot I hadn't posted these pics of the Warriors here yet. Haven't gotten any more done since but hope to get some more painting done today. One more highlight and I'll be moving on to the gold.





As I said I haven't done much painting in the last few days. Most of my painting time occurs when my daughter decides that godforsaken o'clock is the ideal time to wake me up so she can go downstairs and watch Peppa Pig or Teletubbies. Miraculously she's been sleeping through the last few nights so I've not painted anything. Anyway, with the half term, doing papier mache with my son and my nephew was the perfect excuse for me to able to make a start on something I've been wanting to try as well.



Yes, this certainly does continue the trend of rather random pictures of god only knows what!
It's going to be my scenery piece to represent the Herdstone Shard magic item in the Beastmen army. Whilst I like the idea of the item, the idea of burying a rock in the ground doesn't seem half as good as burying a tainted acorn or some such and a chaotic tree sprouting like something out of Jack and the Beanstalk. It'll be based on a cd.
The problem with this whole project though, is I'll probably never use the magic item. My Beastmen are going to be a very mobile army and having to bunker shamans in my deployment zone just seems like suicide.
Anyhow, this is the framework of said tree.

The Storm God, Scenery, Foe-render and beginnings of an Elazar conversion!

Been a little bit since my last update but I have been very busy. Here are some pics of what I've managed in between.

I finished the Fortified Manor House I had been painting. Sadly I didn't manage to get any good pics of it before returning it to my gaming club but I did get the following (not particularly great) two.





I finished the green stuff work on the Foe-render last night. Will start painting him tonight. Thoughts and feedback appreciated as ever










I've just spotted the mould line on the beard so that's gone! I haven't decided quite what to do with his base yet so I'm hoping inspiration will strike whilst I'm painting him!

I've also been working on a few other conversions. I started on a rough idea for Elazar himself.



The head is going though. I've tried a couple of different things to make the deceiver's head less ugly but it just looks ridiculous. Back to the drawing board on that.
I'm still not entirely convinced by it all though. Seemed like a good idea at the time but I'm just not feeling it with this one at the minute. Maybe when I get the head right I'll be happier with it...
The rest of the Pegasus Knight kit has given me some interesting ideas for other minis though!

I also have some more fluff from the players in The Storm God campaign.
First up Brian with some background for his Empire army:

*

The door to the Gunners Daughter Tavern swung open, the sudden fresh air swirling the smoke from a dozen pipes and the moist heat from the logs burning in the grate. Honveii, Warrior Priest of Sigmar glanced over at the figure that entered "It looks like things did not go well at the meeting of the Engineers Council. too bad for Sigmar and the Empire" he said quietly to his companion, who glanced up at the priests words and seeing the figure at the doorway, raised his hand and his voice "Over here, we saved you a seat by the fire!" the cloaked figure at the door swung it closed behind him with no little force as if to seal the tavern against whatever vexed him. As the figure slung himself into the offered chair, the priest pushed a flagon of the fiery Nuln spirits across the table. "This will warm you and if, as I surmise, things have not gone well, ease some of the anger you feel."
"No things did not go well with the Engineers Council, they refused to fund my research into weapons development! They say the monies are better spent on tried and trusted weapons....Tried and trusted, some of our designs are hundreds of years old...." his voice trailed off as he drank from his tankard "I lost my temper" he admitted "I stated that I, Cerdic the Black, would find the monies elsewhere if they were too Miserly, Pinch-pocketed, Hidebound and Blind to see that my ideas would be of service to the Empire." Cerdic sighed and rested is head on his hands.....
"Wish I could help you, as you have often helped me, but a Captain of the Empire, even one who's father is a count, has too small a purse for weapons research!" said Karel, the third member of the group, "but when he set me up with the training and appointment as a Kaptain of Knights he told me it was sink or swim time, not that I blame him, he did well by me as one born the wrong side of the blanket. And when Last he wrote he said he has heard glowing reports of my growing skill and was proud of me."
the Priest raised his eyes to the ceiling and spoke quietly as if musing to himself "Word has come down to my chapter house from our brethren in the north, It would seem that Chaos is stirring and the old stories of the crown of Arnaldo are doing the rounds again. It is said that crown was made from the purest gold and decorated with the most prized gems and also that it was magical in nature. " the priest paused and looked at his two companions " I have been placed with a unit of spearmen and their detachments, we are to move to the border ready for deployment in the coming campaign, If say we were to encounter an engineer going our way we would be surprised if he did not travel with us for safety, and if we were to have an escort of knights under a proved Kaptain in war, we would, quite naturally place ourselves under his command, and war, being full of the unexpected......" He glanced at his two now cheerful companions
"I think the engineer would have a Hellblaster in tow, and escort of pistoleer's, I know a sargeant that owes me several large favours" grinned Cerdic
"my my" murmured Karel urbanely "I always wanted to be a General."
"so we are agreed then" said the priest and he raised his voice and tankard " For Sigmar and the Empire!" Two tankards and two voices joined his "FOR SIGMAR AND THE EMPIRE!".

*

Then Mark with background for his Warriors of Chaos:

*

Lady Herner looked out of the window for the hundreth time. The night was moonless and lit by distant lightning. A bad omen in these cursed lands. Living at the edge of the empire the forces of magic and evil were stronger than that of the southern lands.
She had been unable to sleep and had come back downstairs to tend the fire, from the window see could see no other light in the village, they were blistfully asleep, something that had alauded her for the last two nights. It was almost as if she could feel something approaching. Those stories in the Tavern hadnt helped. Some begger kept going on about maruaders and some Chaos Crown buried in the woods. She had never put pay in these cheap fireplace stories much heed but they amused the locals well enough. However as he looked out the window she couldnt help but feel cold, and aggitated.

Another flash of lightning, for a split second the world turned an icy blue. There in the wood line, a shape, or was it? She could of sworn she saw a knight. She strained her eyes but nothing. No alarms from the watchtower all must be well. She looked up at the watchtower the small lantern still burned. Another flash and she lept back. In the ligntning she had seen the tower lit up, two bodies hung from its side, a horrible rune written on the side of it. She screamed and dove under the table.

Her family above her rose shoting in the dark, calling her name, she cared not for their concern all she could her was the sound of rusting armour from outside her front door.

*

The campaign will be starting 21st March so I have until then to get everything sorted. Will be a challenge as I've given myself quite a bit to do. Will post more soon!

Fortified Manor House

Done a little bit more on this scenery piece. I've done the stonework on the tower and have started base coating the plaster. Thought I'd post a progress picture for you to see.





Going to get this to the same sort of stage as the main 'house' part of the building then start on the details on both. After that it's the walls of the grounds and gates to be done but hopefully they won't take too long. I want to get on with Be'Lakor and the Hellcannons etc now! My gaming club has a tournament at the beginning of August so I'm putting together an army list for that so anything that goes into that will take priority to be painted if it isn't already but I'm expecting the list to include Be'Lakor so it's ok to get him finished at least! Beyond that though I'm not sure!

Fortified Manor House

I've done a bit more of the Manor House now. I plan on doing the tower and the rest in the reverse order paint wise. It'll be so much easier to paint the stone before the plaster parts so that it'll be easier to cover the mistakes as I go along! For some reason I completely forgot to do the chimney when doing the bricks but I'll just do that when I do the rest of the stonework on the details.







Let me know your thoughts!

Fortified Manor House

I'm currently painting up some scenery for my gaming club. At the minute I don't have any of my own scenery as I do all of my gaming at my club but I might have to start putting some together, not least because my son is starting to become interested in the hobby. He already plays Space Crusade with me (how I got started in the hobby so figured I'd sucker him in the same way!) and has is interested in all of my projects at the minute.
Anyway, I've only just made a start on this but it's a bit since I've posted anything and I wanted to show that I'm doing something. I'm basically going to replicate the colour scheme Games Workshop used for the Fortified Manor House as I really like it (particularly the red roof tiles) and whilst I don't possess an encyclopaedic knowledge of my gaming club's scenery I can't say I've seen anything painted likewise so it will be nice to have a bit of variety. Let me know your thoughts and any suggestions you have.





P.S. Have finished Fulgrim. What an awesome book! I have an overpowering urge to do my Chaos Space Marines as Slaaneshi marines now! Started Descent of Angels, seems ok but I'm not a huge fan of the sons of Lion El' Richie...