Beginning AoS skirmish - Full steam ahead on the Warbands

[GuitaRasmus]

Hi guys - I'm considering starting up AoS skirmish (I've already got a 1500ish pts Rotbringers army), and I just got an itch to paint up a spirit host last night - I had some lying in my bits box from a shelved project, and I replaced the arms with Dryad hands to make them more creepy, glued a bunch together, and went to town with Nihilakh Oxide, Coelia Greenshade and white and black. I kinda like the result, especially them having more contrast than you usually see. 

Now, what next? I have some ideas for a Crypt Horror werewolf, and perhaps some of the new shadespire skeletons for my warband. 

[Tommy]

The high contrast looks great, really menacing. Crypt Horror werewolf sounds like fun!

Edit: Also the dryad claws work great!

[GuitaRasmus]

Wooo! First reply! Thanks.  

Yep, the dryad claws seem more creepy to me than hands and knives. 

I actually think I'll go for a vargheist instead - mostly because I don't have any fenrisian wolves for the tail and head, but I'll tweak it a bit - it'll have arms, I think it's weird looking with just wings. 

[Killax]

Lovely work mate. Pick up that Shadespire game! I know you'll love it with your convertions itches!

[GuitaRasmus]

Thanks! To be honest, I'm not quite sure what the game is - how it's played, the deckbuilding, everything. I'm not really into board games as such, which I'm thinking it is, and the warbands are what they are, right? If so, I think theres too little creativity in it for me, but I appreciate the concept.

[Rhivan]

These guys look awesome. In many ways they look and feel more menacing then other spirit hosts I've seen. The more angular arms and how you've handled the painting (I haven't seen black on them before) really makes them look fantastic.

[GuitaRasmus]

Thanks a lot.

I've been really inspired by the idea of Skirmish the past days. The concept is brilliant for me, since I am a notorious hobby butterfly, so a small warbands are a manageable task, which I should (emphasis on SHOULD) be able to actually finish. Also, I've always had a thing for skirmish gaming - it often makes for better stories in my experience, and the task of setting up and playing isn't as big as it is for a 2000 pts. standard AoS game. 

Anyway, here is my Vargheist conversion - I wanted him to have arms, since I thought they looked weird without them - I also shaved off a little of the top of his head, giving him a little less cone-head look: 

 

 

 

I also got hold of the Sepulchral Guard Shadespire pack today - what a brilliant bunch of models. Best plastic skeletons I've seen, that's for sure: 

 

 

The plan for the warband is a follows: 

Leader: 

Cairn Wraith

Units: 

1 Vargheist

1 Spirit Host

1 Black Knight

2 Grave Guard 

4 Skeleton Warriors. 

 

I might exchange the black knight for another Grave Guard and a Skeleton Warrior, but we'll see. 

As I told you, ideas are dangerous; I've started rummaging through my embarrassingly big bits collection, and I have A LOT of bits for Fantasy, since I've always liked using bits from that range for 40k conversions. I found a Stormfiend kit, and an idea started coming together. 

 

Skweek was born a runt of the litter, which is the same as a death warrant in the Skaven community. Not only was he very small, he was almost hairless, hunchbacked even by skaven standards, and had stumpy deformed limps. He was abandoned, and left to die. By blind chance he managed to survive his first years in the tunnels, scurrying in the shadows and learning the skaven tongue by listening to the chatter of others, though he was still a deformed and measly excuse for a clan rat - by this time some of his teeth had grown through his palate, the way rodent's teeth tend to do when not used enough - and food was a rare luxury for Skweek. He heard the legends of Skweel Gnawtooth whispered and he realised that Skweels story was not unlike Skweeks - although Skweek sorely lacked the legendary packmasters affinity for beasts and giant rats. Still he dreamt of becoming more than just prey for a giant rat in the tunnels...

In time Skweek found the workshops of Clan Skryre, and was amazed at the wonders they produced. When the workshops were mostly abandoned in times of war, he would walk the floors, and marvel at the incredibly technology. He stole small knick-knacks, cogs and whatever else he could get his hands on - as the next few years went by, he built small mechanical devices, and discovered that he had an affinity for technology - and he kept dreaming. 

One day, an opportunity arose, as Skweek saw a slumbering sedated stormfiend awaiting maintenance and upgrades. He knew instinctively that this was his one chance. He patiently awaited till the workshop was empty and acted quickly - his theory was that the shriveled pilots on the stormfiends back depended on his bigger partners vital fluids, but the Stormfiend much less so. He acted quickly and stabbed the diminutive pilot with a shard of metal from the floor and promptly removed the husk from it's seat. Skweek was ecstatic, this was his shot-chance, this was great, nothing could stop-stop him now... Except that he had not thought his plan through. The sedation was rigged to the pilots brain, and with the pilot very much dead-dead, the giant Rat Ogre began to awaken. It rose, and blinked a few times, and Skweek, who had seen the carnage these creatures could cause when running rampage, knew he was done for. It rose above him, 8 times his height, and looked upon him, Skweek readying for the deadly blow. He closed his eyes and... 

Nothing. Nothing happened. He dared to look and saw the rat ogre studying him, sniffing, and then turned away, walking towards a tunnel. Skweek was dumbfounded, even more so when the Rat Ogre suddenly dropped to one knee, then to the floor. He slowly approached the gigantic creature, and when he came close he saw a small dart sitting in it's neck - he had seen these before, a tranquilliser dart Clan Skryre used to avoid... Unfortunate events. A shadow formed behind him, and he turned to run, but was quickly grabbed in a mechanical claw, his throat squeezed hard, he struggled for air and passed out. 

When he woke he was chained, and the Warlock Engineer from the workshop, known as Critch Cinderborn, stood before him. He demanded to know what Skweek was up to. Skweek knew that he was a good as dead now. He had the choice of telling the truth and dying quickly or lying and dying in the torture chambers, so he chose the truth. He told his story as quickly as he could, while the Warlock listened. 

The warlock had watched the entire spectacle from afar, and was intrigued - for some reason the Rat Ogre had not shown agression towards Skweek. This was interesting - could it be that his diminutive size rendered him as little more than the vermin and rats frequenting every corner of every skaven tunnel? No matter what, this was an opportunity to further evolve on the Stormfiend project - the diminutive pilots were a hassle to breed, install and had a tendency to burn out in the midst of battle. Could tiny skaven handlers be the answer? He would have to study this pathetic little excuse for a skaven, and his interaction with the Rat Ogre. 

Much to Skweeks surprise, he wasn't killed immediately after his explanation. Even more surprising to him, the Warlock made him an offer - if he would be part of a new experiment, and train with the Rat Ogre as it's handler, his life would be spared - for now. He took the offer without blinking, yes-yes, for sure, no hesitation, and spent the next months in the training pits of Clan Moulder, learning to handle and steer a Rat Ogre, using bait, simple commands and his spiky stick for getting it's attention - and learning to get out of the way when it grows tired of being bossed around. 

Critch watched the strange symbiotic relationship between the two develop during Skweeks training, and was intrigued at the development - this could surely be a breakthrough in the Stormfiend program, but he would have to make further research, and test the subject in the midst of battle to see if the bizarre partnership would be useful in the heat of battle-battle. As such, he would bring Skweek along on the next few upcoming missions, of course-course with a bodyguard of some his finest StormVermin, should the situation get out of control. 

Skweek was happier than he could have imagined. He had it all; food, a place to sleep, a 10 feet tall bodyguard to fend off any unwanted afflicters - and as he lay down beside the slumbering (though admittedly very foul smelling) Rat Ogre he had affectionately named Rat Pitt, he dreamt of ripping through the enemies of Skavenblight, riding the back of Rat and squeezing the trigger of the gigantic Ratling Cannon on it's back. 

 

With that wall of text overwith, I hereby present the start of another warband; 

Skweek and Rat Pitt:

 

 

 

WIP of course, with the models concept shamelessly stolen from the Trollbloods Dire Troll Blitzer. I'm not sure what the rest of the warband is going to be yet, but I really like this guy. 

All comments are welcomed as usual.

[GuitaRasmus]

*taps mic - is this thing on?*

I wanted a Cairn Wraith as a leader for my warband, but having used the (admittedly brilliant) original model for 2 or 3 conversions already, I wanted to try out something different. One of the Skeletons from the Shadespire pack already has a scythe and some kind of hood, so I had a plan...

I used the "dress" from the Tomb Banshee as the bottom of the miniature, cut the skeleton in half and pinned them together. A bit of dremel work, some tattered cloak bits from the new Death Guard and some green stuff, and I have what I think is a nice take on a cool character.

[Peacemaker]

love tge dryad hands and the high contrast on those spirits.

vargiest conversion is so simple yet so good!!!

[Mengel Miniatures]

Wow, I love everything in here. That Spirit Host looks great with the Dryad hands and the colors really work as well. Your Vargheist conversion is spot on, and that Wraith conversion...That. Wraith. Conversion. Pure awesome. If I can ever justify buying another Sepulchral Guard box just to make that conversion I may have to have a go at copying it.

Looking forward to more.

[GuitaRasmus]

Thanks a lot, guys! 

@Mengel Miniatures: I have to admit that some of your tutorials are part of the reason why I got inspired to start a Death Warband - so your praise is much appreciated.

I've definitely not been idle since my last post, in fact I've been incredibly inspired by this new project, and I've been converting and building like crazy - only problem is, that I'm so inspired by this thing, that I'm actually working on 6(!) different warbands at the moment - Undead, Skaven, Greenskinz, Tzeentch, Slaanesh and Sylvaneth - and I've bought some miniatures for a Kharadron warband as well - that I haven't actually really finished anything. Story of my hobby-life. Oh well, always follow inspiration.

I got hold of a lot of cool bitz from my buddy Allan, and amongst these was a vampire queen torso - it looked so cool that I had to do something with it, so I made a new leader for my undead:

Her background story and a more finish conversion will follow soon.

I also made a somewhat chunkier than usual Grave Guard for my warband, the second in command of my Vampiress:

 

He's based on a blood warrior, with all the detail scraped off and his armour dremeled to hell and back. 

 

Also, I've got a bit of progress on my Greenskinz warband. The idea is that the little Shaman, Giflip the Magnificent (he has titled himself, btw) has somehow found a special brew of madcap mushrooms, that gives him the ability to control the minds of other greenskins - which he puts to good use, by assembling a little army of VERY nasty looking big guys. 

 

Giflip himself: 

 

 

His bodyguard, Gulg the Stone Troll (needs a lot of stones sculpted, obviously, and some more work on the armour)

 

 

 

 

And some 'Ardboys thrown in for good measure - I've also got two Orruk Brutes on the way: 

 

 

Hopefully more updates later this week!

 

 

[Lysandestolpe]

These are coming out very well! Keep it up, I'm excited to see some paint applied.

[GuitaRasmus]

Thanks a lot - hopefully I'll get some paint on some of them during the christmas holidays - for some reason I like to do longer sittings when I paint, whereas when converting a little time here and there is fine. 

[Greasygeek]

That vampire queen is seriously cool. You told me that the spite heads were good for vampire heads and damn you were right. Fits like a glove. Would love to have my puny drunken- trigger happy-scoobylooking warband flee hysterically from you. As soon as the undeads are ready the Order of the grape will seek you out!

Also.. really getting that itch to begin working on those Khorne Orruks now..

[GuitaRasmus]

Thanks a lot, Allan - yup, those heads work very well for feral/nosferatu style vampires. 

The more things change... The more Tzeentch likes 'em!

A few updates from my friday evening - the wife was exhausted and the kitten got neutered today, so they both went to sleep early - meaning hobby time for me!

I've been working on the Troll for my Tzeentchian warband - I've wanted to make a downright FUBAR'ed chaos troll for some time, and what better chaos god than Tzeentch to FUBAR something? His background story, which I'll come around to soon, is that he was a nice, regular, barbarian-eating stone troll from the north, who somehow had the misfortune of running into a spawn, eating it and the rest... Well, it was a meal that didn't end well.

I know it's a mess right now, but I promise it'll start to make sense, once I get some greenstuff on him - or not, which is probably good, since it's a Tzeentchian Troll.

There's so many different parts involved, that I can't even begin to make sense of them - mad props to anyone who can name them all.

The other update is a couple of simple conversions - a Chaos Warrior of Tzeentch (based on a blood warrior) and a Pink Horror from the Silver Tower box, with a couple of arms added (to get rid of some of the "blister pack syndrome" he suffers a bit from.)

[Kisufisu]

That tzeentch troll is soooooo cool, although while staring at it, I think it might look even better with the big upper punchy arm removed, would bring the mouth on the shoulder out more. Idk, maybe I just like the mouthy bits. I've been thinking of building a tzeentch skirmish warband myself, and the conversions would probably include a ton of additional mouths and eyes all over their bodies. But anyway, that's one cool troll!

Also, I found some of my old greenskin models a short while after reading of your goblin shaman's warband, and in the past few days I've been inspired by the post enough to start making my own greenskins skirmish posse. Also also, damn cool vampire lady, altogether: cool stuff!

[GuitaRasmus]

6 hours ago, Kisufisu said:

That tzeentch troll is soooooo cool, although while staring at it, I think it might look even better with the big upper punchy arm removed, would bring the mouth on the shoulder out more. Idk, maybe I just like the mouthy bits. I've been thinking of building a tzeentch skirmish warband myself, and the conversions would probably include a ton of additional mouths and eyes all over their bodies. But anyway, that's one cool troll!

Also, I found some of my old greenskin models a short while after reading of your goblin shaman's warband, and in the past few days I've been inspired by the post enough to start making my own greenskins skirmish posse. Also also, damn cool vampire lady, altogether: cool stuff!

@Kisufisu Thank you very much - I find it really satisfying when my models can inspire others - looking forward to seeing what you do with the Greenskins! 

You are absolutely right about the arm - I saw it too, when I studied it today (it's always good to "sleep on a conversion" and look at it with fresh eyes) and I've come up with two alternative versions, which I like a lot better, but I am having trouble deciding - any opinions, anyone? 

Just a shot to show how creepy the faces and arms are - I'm really getting a "The Thing" vibe here, which I love:

Also, I've been working slowly on a Warlock Engineer for the Skaven warband - here's a sneak peek of him so far:

 

[Kisufisu]

20 minutes ago, GuitaRasmus said:

@Kisufisu Thank you very much - I find it really satisfying when my models can inspire others - looking forward to seeing what you do with the Greenskins! 

You are absolutely right about the arm - I saw it too, when I studied it today (it's always good to "sleep on a conversion" and look at it with fresh eyes) and I've come up with two alternative versions, which I like a lot better, but I am having trouble deciding - any opinions, anyone?

The second one with the tiny arms, that one buggy scythe thing is enough on it's own. Now it's gonna be an even cooler troll, ha! Damn sweet warlock engineer btw, wish I had some skitarii and newer skaven parts for my warband/army of skryre. Maybe eventually. Anyway, inspiring stuff, once again!

My greenskins will be quite old and random as I am not gonna buy any new models, I just plan to give new life to my childhood goblin posse. I will be basing the group's style around night goblins, even though there really aren't many actual choices for them in skirmish. But it's gonna be a skirmish posse for fun as I never play in tournaments, so I'll have some freedoms. For example, I'm just gonna use old square bases for everything so I don't have to order new ones, and I'm gonna convert some squig riders and use them as counts-as wolf riders, because squigs are awesome.

[GuitaRasmus]

Thanks! 

Cool project, about reviving old models - believe it or not, a lot of what I've done so far, has been rummaging through bits boxes, getting bits from friends and reviving old models too. For example the Warlocks lower body - I used the upper body on a hunter killer drone mechanicus thing for Kill Team, and I had sort of wondered what to do with his lower body - perfect mechanical replacement for a Skaven Warlock Engineer, who've had his lower body blown to bits in a Warpstone experiment explosion. 

Just one thing - please, please, please cough up the few pounds/bucks/euros it costs to give them round bases; I've always hated square bases - models look so much better with round bases. 

[BrotherJim]

Full steam ahead indeed! Some really great stuff, I cant wait to see them all painted, I can tell you are having fun with it!

So good to see

The Cairn Wraith and Vampire Queen are legendary

[Kisufisu]

3 hours ago, GuitaRasmus said:

Just one thing - please, please, please cough up the few pounds/bucks/euros it costs to give them round bases; I've always hated square bases - models look so much better with round bases. 

I have 2 aos armies going on now that require a ton of rebasing, and I'm planning on doing a skaven warband, a nurgle warband, and a tzeentch warband in addition to the greenskins. So I already need a ton of bases. Anyway, main reason for using old bases is that the ordered bases take damn long to get here, and I just want to build and paint something already Besides, I have 2 old night goblin figures that I repainted once, and I'm gonna base the rest of the group on those guys, and they have square bases. Aaaaaand I just sort of based a shaman and 2 ardboyz an hour ago, so too late

[Thundercake]

This whole thread is awesome, not sure how I have missed it this long. Your grave guard is great. It also has me convinced that Rotbringers could be made out of blood warriors.

[GuitaRasmus]

2 hours ago, Thundercake said:

This whole thread is awesome, not sure how I have missed it this long. Your grave guard is great. It also has me convinced that Rotbringers could be made out of blood warriors.

Thanks a lot for the kind words! 

I'm sure they could be made of blood warriors - personally, I find the blood warriors (most of them) to be a bit too dynamic for Nurgle guys - but I can see what you mean.

[Mr. White]

On 11/17/2017 at 6:36 PM, GuitaRasmus said:

 

Where do these wings come from?

[GuitaRasmus]

On 11/12/2017 at 4:30 AM, Mr. White said:

Where do these wings come from?

Oh, didn't see the comment 'till now - they are just the ones that come with the Vargheist kit.

 

 

 

Hi guys - It's been exceptionally busy in our house, this christmas being the first time the missus and I are hosting for both our families - so the last week has been all about shopping, christmas decorating, cooking, cleaning, etc etc - we're pretty beat, but tomorrow night is the night!

Anyway, enough of my everyday dribble - I've managed to get the Tzeentchian troll almost finished during the last couple of nights - a few touchups and the base is all that is needed to call him ready for paint (now. that'll be a whole different challenge). I'm very pleased with him, I think I managed to pull off him being very mutated and fluxating, without him looking like a troll dipped in glue and thrown into the bitz box.

For the narratively minded of you lot, I've also written a small bit of background on him, posted below the pics. As always, comments are much appreciated, and a merry christmas to you all.
 

 

 

 

The tale of Vlorg the Novence Blessid.  

“HurtFeedPainHungerKillRunFeedHurtPainHun… “

A maddening stream of emotions constantly crashed against the shallow mind of Vlorg. Vlorg was very angry with the voices. Vlorg hadn’t previously felt much - hunger, once in a while, when he’d slept so long that he hadn’t fed in weeks, and not much else. Often anger, rarely pain, never fear. All that had changed when he’d found that strange creature in the mountains - it was so brightly coloured, moved so quickly and strangely, and Vlorg had never seen anything like it before - lots of teeth, arms, and the weird noises it made… He had gotten curious and had to see what it was. As soon as the creature felt his presence, it was afraid - Vlorg knew when something was afraid - things were always afraid of him. It hissed, spat and screamed at him, as he lumbered closer, and cornered it against the rocks and sniffed at it - it smelled strange - like the sulphur lakes of the mountain deeps. As he loomed closer, the creature got desperate, feeling it’s own doom approaching and lashed out with several malformed arms, tentacles and limbs at Vlorg  It lashed out with a talon, and cut a deep wound on his belly and he got enraged - he bellowed his anger and lunged at the thing. Vlorg dropped his axe, and began tearing the creature limb from limb, while it screamed, sang and whirred in it’s maddening sounds. Soon, Vlorg stood in a pile of malformed body parts and a pile of bodily fluids, grasping one the creatures heads in his hand, a strange lump of flesh with several fanged maws and no eyes. The maw opened and closed, and Vlorg was about to throw it to the ground and stomp on it, when a voice was heard through the snowstorm: 

+Go on, Vlorg - you’ve defeated it. You are victorious. Eat the flesh. It is your right, your spoils of war.+Vlorg looked around, but no one was to be seen. +Yes, Vlorg - eat it.+

Vlorg was somehow compelled to take a bite out of the head of the creature. As his gigantic teeth crunched through flesh and bone, he found it tasted bad, like sorcery, like chaos. He hated the taste of Chaos. He was somehow compelled to take another bite. It tasted bad, like the armoured warriors of the northern tribes. He took yet another bite, and he began devouring the rest of the steaming carcass… 

Soon Vlorg had eaten it all. As he began to make way back to his cave, he felt a strange sensation in his belly - as if something was trying to get out. Suddenly, fingers poked against his belly from within, pushing against his skin, pushing further, his skin impossibly stretching as an entire arm formed from his skin. He roared and ripped the arm away, only to see that maws were appearing on his skin as well, along with other limps. Suddenly he felt a snapping sound, and fell to the ground contorting as his spine snapped in half and twisted inside him. Blinding pain ripped through him, and he roared at this invisible enemy, making him hurt so much. As he slipped out of consciousness, he heard the voice again;

+Yes, Vlorg. You are changing. You are mine now. For I am Tzeentch and you are the puppet that dances to my tune…+

When Vlorg awoke, he was covered in snow from the blizzard. He felt… Different. As he rose and reached out for his axe with his right arm, two arms reached for it. Puzzled, he began to look at his body, and seeing arms, limps and gnashing maws emerging and disappearing from his body, constantly changing. He heard… no, felt, a voice inside his head, screaming bitterness, babbling madness, crying out in pain, screaming for bloodshed, and for the first time in his life, he felt fear. He screamed his rage and terror out into the mountains, and the gnashing maws of his flesh followed suit. The spawn and he had become one. 

*********

Khezaon Nethergaze had never seen such a marvellous manifestation of his Masters will before. Spawns, yes, but they had a tendency to burn out within hours, days or weeks after their transformation. This was something else entirely. A trolls legendary healing powers, combined with the constantly mutating power of the Puppetmaster - Khezhaon was almost excited at this unexpected turn of events, this running into such a magnificent creature. Yes, excitement, a feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time - such was his masters blessing, the future was often hinted at, if not known. He watched with his one baleful eye, a nimbus of light, visible only to the blessed of Tzeentch, swirling and circling the raging troll. He had to act quickly, for his Tzaangors and warriors could only hold onto the chained troll for so long. 

He focused his mind as so many times before, but this was a … Challenge. He needed to not only break through the walls of a trolls shallow but stubborn mind, he had to soothe the insane part of the troll too - the sputtering mad mind of the spawn. 

+Be calm+ Khezaon pulsed.
The troll turned while snarling - +You did this too me! You are the one that made me hurt!+ 
The trolls reply was more a whirl of thoughts and emotions, than a an actual reply. 
+I did not do this to you. My master did, and he can do much worse things to you. Now, be calm.+
The troll struggled against his chains a few more times, but was finally at ease. 
+I can make the voices stop. I can make them quiet. Serve me, and I shall. Do not, and I will make them even more unbearable.+
+Serve you? How?+
+Destroy my enemies. Whenever you hear the voices, those before you are my enemies. Kill them, and the voices will stop. They are the ones who cause you fear, pain and anger. Follow me, and you shall be freed from the maddening voices.+ 
+Vlorg serve you+ The troll replied. 

With a last strain of focus, Khezaon pushed the spawn back to the furthest corner of the trolls mind, although he left the magic wall around the spawn with a few cracks and chinks, ready to be broken down at a moments notice, when the trolls rage was needed against an enemy. “An exciting turn of events indeed.” Khezaon thought, as he walked towards the troll in the middle of the warriors, it’s chains slack and at peace for the first time in weeks.