Melcavuk

A MALIGN PORTENTS STYLE INTRODUCTION The Lord Aquillor felt wearied, for days his party had followed a trail of destruction that carved a scorched scar across the face of Shyish, villages that mere weeks before had been vibrant hubs of life that greeted them with looks of joyed salvation and relief now merely blackened husks of their former selves, silent but for the creaking of buckled wood straining against its own weights. The farming village of Tarrin was simply the most recent and yet for a reason he could not quite place it struck a chord within him that made the world seem that much heavier a burden, in the night before his vanguard had approach the flickering glow of the burning village from afar as though some cruel guiding star spurring them onwards through the night, the still air of the Realm of Death carrying the earthy scent of burnt wood occasionally punctuated by the stomach turning richness of burnt flesh. When they reached the village outskirts the Aquillors eyes were drawn to the pyres encircling the village, a warning beacon perhaps... a last call for aid or the desperate attempt of a mortal soul trying to stave off the very darkness of the night in some last showing of defiance. His face was warmed by the still glowing embers buried beneath the crumbling wood, and yet this gave him no joy or relief. Mustering his resolve he tore his gaze from the pyre and brought his mind back to the task at hand, casting a glance down the debris strewn dirt path that led to the heart of the village and to his men that had moved up ahead. No building within the village had been spared the blaze, this destruction was unlike anything he had seen before, it was... absolute, precise even vindictive in its completeness, everything that could burn had been touched by the flame. And yet there were no bodies, a fact that instead of relief left him feeling hollow and apprehensive. Following the dull crunch of his mens' boots grinding the charred debris into the dirt he picked his way further into the village, spurred once against from his darkening thoughts by a call from his second he leapt deftly over broken cart and cluttered remains, racing toward town square. When he approached his pace slowed, his second stood over a small cloaked form laying on the ground... its size was little more than that of a child yet so damaged was the cloak by the fire he reticent to turn it over. “Please not the children... his murmured softly, no amount of wars could ever ease the agony of such a discovery. Removing his golden helm and taking a knee in the dirt beside the broken and huddled form he reached out slowly, cradling it gently in his arms as he pulled the hood delicately away from its warped and burnt visage. “Holy Sigmar...” The lord Aquillor cast the creature back down into the dirt, the leering visage of a grots twisted grin visible through the burnt skin, any relief he felt for the fact it had not been a human child washed away by the shock and disgust at the look of elation on the dead grots face. How any creature could look so over joyed at such an agonising demise was beyond him, but what worried him more was the totality of the villages destruction, Grots were capricious, violent yes... even malevolent and destructive but this blaze had an intensity, a completeness entirely out of character with the wanton and random destruction of their species. Whats more the creature cloak smelled sickeningly sweet, a smell he could remember from a life once lived so far away, like the ruby sands of the coast in Aqshy... a smell too far removed from this still and rotting realm. Casting his gaze up from the creatures form he looked upon the town square for the first time and found the answer to a question that had nagged at his mind since they entered the village... “Where are all the people”. Piled, cluttered and thrown into great mounds in the centre of the village lay the charred remains of its populace, propped in seemingly ritualistic pyres of corpse and wood they formed a circle around a crudely carved boulder that was entirely out of place in this village of man. Its effigy was... Orruk... Ogor... some hideous beast at least, a primitive carving of their deity no doubt and yet its eyes seemed to burn into his very soul, an intense and unsettling glare from its stone features. Captivated he approached... picking his steps carefully to avoid desecrating the fallen villages, drawn to the monolithic stone head by some force he could not truly understand, was he drew close he extended a hand... at once curious and ill at ease with the situation his fingertips tentatively neared the effigy. It was barely a brush of skin on stone... a second contact and yet he regretted it in the heartbeat. The glowing embers from the great stone maw roared to life with a heat and intensity unlike any flame the Lord Aquillor had ever known. The rush of air reverberating like a bestial roar echoing between the charred shells of the burnt out buildings. “Run!”

Cheers I’m really happy with how he’s turning out. introducing the top half of my first Gothi Fyri grot priest for the Suneaters. This one wears the garb of the Phoenix or more precisely that of any bright enough coloured bird to be mistaken for a Phoenix. A sign that even those great birds are but a meal for the Might Suneater. His lower half will come from the moon clan herald tomorrow

The joys of airbrushing, much of the base work can be cleared in quick succession leaving time do detail work around it. Its one of the most enjoyably ways to paint for me. Here's some base work!

More work completed on the Prophet on Magma Drake! Horns have now all been touched up though i may go back and push the contrast when I'm done with the rest of the model. Have also added more edge highlighting across the rider, completed the straps on the saddles and tweaked some of the flame glow. Next I'll be working on the base before revisiting the riders accessories (rack of meat etc) and the dragons collar.

Rules, fluff and warscroll for the faction will be worked on here: If anyone wants to contribute creatively to the faction I'd love community support.

Thats my dude, work in progress currently but will be part of my Suneater Tribes I'm working on

My other half has commandeered my airbrush to learn and gain confidence with it. Early results are promising! And my own Day two painting, trying to get the rider a bit more definition and building out details on his throne and captive Mustings on Warscroll

I used one in a narrative event admittedly we allowed monsters to cross grand alliance so mine integrated into my Fire Aelves. Currently designing a new destruction faction of which the magma dragon falls under the banner and is available as a mount. Beautiful model and lots of fun.

Cheers, its a fair call I'll see how well he takes to painting later and if neccessary nothing is impossible to remove. Since I have an early start tomorrow I've had to pause him for the night but here's where he ended up so far:

I was but only because I'd googled it. Thought it would be a more SIgmary way of relating to the Great Maw of old fantasy.

Airbrushing begins!

Its been a while since i did anything that majorly inspired me in terms of destruction for Age of Sigmar as it can be very challenging to get excited about a faction that can come off as two dimensional, whenever i start out a new project I tend to design and make one big centre piece model for the faction to get me inspired for what I'm going to be making. So looking at the most unloved of the destruction faction the Firebellies (one model, finecast). I did like the lore of regarding Gorkamorka as the Great Suneater so working that forward I'm working on a faction that revels and reversed in the flame in all its forms, wanting nothing more than to turn the worlds around them into firey reflections of their gods laughing face. To this end I will be working on custom scrolls, models and fluff for the faction to grow them into arsonist based mixed destruction faction with unique spells and a story behind them. So to give the concept some legs here is an early WIP of Svangr Prophet of the Suneater atop his Magma Dragon

Cheers, the cost is somewhat prohibitive but its the first time I've had some rough flesh on a destruction army concept to work with in quite a while. Was considering trying to go back to competitive play for a while there but I cant find the joy in running the numbers of taking only the best units (to a degree it seems quite soulless to me creatively) so I may end up going the other way and working on a custom battletome army which left either death or destruction as the two lacking variation. So far possible conversions: Prophet of the Suneater on Fire Dragon Slatr Warbeast - Squiggoth with Ogor drummer and either a cannon on the front or a crew of Orruks with nets/spears Mighty Slatr - Gargantuan Squiggoth, see above but with War mammoth profile and ability to embark units on it.

I'm considering a conversion but its hard to tell if its a good idea or ultimately would just be a terrible waste of money (Anyone whose seen my previous conversions might lean toward the latter but I dont do things small ) whenever I'm in a creative slump I like to go through and plan one big piece that hopefully inspires me to make an army. Most of the time this involves browsing every monster in the GW range in order to find one that speaks to my current mood. So what does the community think of the following: Suneater riding Magma Dragon The conversion itself is simple enough, most of the Ogor firebelly model, the legs and saddle from the stonehorn model and ofcourse the beautifully sculpted forgeworld magma dragon with some greenstuffing to blend it all together. In my head it ofcourse looks amazing but I'm not sure if it reaches the point in cost where alot of players hate custom scrolls (mostly because people tend to get over excited and make it OP) and might ruffle people the wrong way

I think part of the reason today is such a bummer in terms of rules leaks is because of how exciting the stuff for the military and eels was yesterday, they kind of built up to strong leaks and then the drop down to average feels alot lower down.

More work completed on my squad of Afflicted Paladins for my Stormcast host, pack leader just needs basing sorted and then I need to work through some of the smaller details of the rest of the pack and sort out all bases. And then finally will be weapon and shield glows on the two packmates.

Cheers, it stemmed from her brief of "I just want Nature Aelves with animals!" and I tend to have to grimdark everything up a little. I also like exploring the concept of Aelves without a benevolent god, literally having to find their own way of surviving in the wilds, it leaves them nomadic as if they remain in one area too long they will end up wearing through all of the local Fauna and decimating the wildlife, so at once they want to protect the natural wilds and are themselves a danger to it.

Working on something a little different to my Feral Stormcast today, my Girlfriend wanted something for a more Naturey Aelf army but loved the Gryph Charger models. So here's an Aelf trick riding a Gryph (reins to be added when this greenstuff dries and tidying up the armour on her back. The background for these Aelves works around Exiles who bond their souls to animals in order to stave off Soul degredation, doing so is a parasitic act rather than symbiotic as they eventually wear down the beast with which they had bonded, prematurely aging it before eventually consuming it entirely. The older the Aelf in question the more intuitively they have bonded with beasts, always bonding with a similar creature their very minds take on traits of the souls gthey have consumed.

Managed to get more work done today and collate what I have on hand thus far, also found three prosecutors in my bits box so I'm chalking that up as a win. The army so far stands at: Lord Celestant (both on and off mount) - Painted Neave Blacktalon (Painted) 5 Liberators (without helmet) - Painted 5 Liberators (with helmet) - Part Painted 3 Werewolves (Count as Concussors) - Alpha painted, 2 packmates part painted 3 "Gryph" Hounds - Painted 10 Vanguard Hunters (Primed) 1 Wolf Riders - Converted 3 Prosecutors (Primed)