With AoS and particularity now with Skirmish coming out I feel that more dense terrain on the table = a more visual, tactical and thematic game.
I'd go as far as to say the current (May 2017) GW offerings are pretty bad for positioning units entirely within them to take advantage of the bonus save. The Wild Wood for example, whilst large enough to place a unit within, actually doing so is so fiddly because of the trees branches that hook onto everything, (especially Dryads ironically).
So with these things in mind I've started working on a set of naturalistic terrain that I can use for both AoS and 40k which is based around the idea of where sand stone columns have formed over thousands of years where rivers have carved away softer parts of the rock. This sort of thing is seen across the globe in deserty/canyony areas but is quite bizarre looking and should fit the AoS aesthetic well, (could be any realm). This is my attempt at that...
These formations were carved from insulation foam with a hot foam cutter rod type thingy with a twisting motion, then I gave them a good sanding with a flailing sanding drill attachment to make them nice and smooth. I glued these to 6mm MDF bases with the smallest gaps about large enough for a 32mm based model to pass through (there are several areas where 60mm based dreadnought sized models can go). Then using fine surface wall filler (NOT flexible filler) the rock formations were blended into the bases and a bit of surface undulation added here and there. Then I sealed them with several coats of thinned PVA adding a bit of sand to the mix to get a bit of extra texture and durability in there.
To make the terrain visually more interesting I wanted to use Agrellan Earth to give the dried cracked river bed look and to add a different texture to the terrain. I imagined that in this region the water still comes and goes through these formations and dries out. Eventually I'd like to complete a whole table that has a small central river remaining that has shrunk back leaving pools that have dried out as the water has drained away.
The terrain was painted mostly with a mix of household emulsion (tester pots from Wilkos, UK) that I colour matched (by eye) to Agrellean Earth. I roughly painted some dark grey onto the areas where I wanted a strong cracked earth effect, before applying lots of Agrellean Earth (not cheap ) and allowing to dry.
I used a thinned down Agrax Earthshade to add definition to some of the grooves in the rock formations before giving the whole lot a light drybrush and adding tufts to finish off the pieces.
I have lots of skulls that I plan to dot around here and there to give the terrain a GW feel but overall whilst they were time consuming and not cheap to make I'm quite pleased with how they've turned out and plan to steadily make more.
So I've always had a bit of a soft spot for Khornate Chaos Warriors as they always had some really badass looking models but I'd always managed to resist buying into them, until now. With the arrival of Silver Tower came the perfect excuse to pickup one of the meanest looking dudes of recent times...
Slaughterpriest with Hackblade and Wrath-hammer
I've always shied away from blood effects but as I've decided not to use a traditional red colour scheme on this model it seemed like the perfect opportunity to have a go at some. This model is still work in progress and I'd love to hear any feedback or suggestions regarding the paintjob/colour choices. I still need to highlight the skin and I intend to add a load more BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD splattered around but just wanted to get everything else right before I do so. I'm a little worried there might be a bit too much of the greenyblue on the model or maybe it's too bright a blue, (I could make it darker). I'm considering some freehand on the cloth (maybe just a line or some Skaveny triangle pattern) but I'm not sure. I wanted the brass to be kinda a realistic looking pale and greeny looking. I could add some Nihilakh Oxide or just a bit more black to it, but again I'm not sure.
I am pretty excited about Bloodbound at the moment, I do have the other Slaughterpriest from the WHQ Mighty Heros expansion and I also have the AoS starter set models so I'd may do a small army in the same colourscheme.
Thanks for looking.
Warhammer Quest Silver Tower is super cool. I've set about trying to paint up the beautiful models, starting with the Brimstone Horrors.
I haven't exactly decided how to do the bases yet so I'm going to leave them black until I've painted all the models then decide and do them all as one big batch. I've nearly finished the Blue Horrors and I'm also working on a Slaugherpriest.
Here's a group shot of Freepeoples Em-pire so far...
There's 5 more Knights and 10 Swordsmen still to assemble, the knights are on the Hurricanium horses and I intend to give them greenstuff fur cloaks using a Micro Art Studio light fur mould, (I can sculpt small areas of fur but find it takes ages so the mould should really help). They are sort of Knights Panther but in the new age, so maybe I'll call them something a little different (I'm open to suggestions) I'm thinking maybe Panthero Knights. I definitely think this army is going to need the Griffon as a centre piece.
The Swordsmen were an experimental colour scheme that I need to repaint, (primarily switching the yellow for green). The Hand Gunners are base coated now...
The Gunners should start to come to life a bit more when I start tidying them up, shading, highlighting etc. However they've all gone back in the box and on the back burner for a while (could be quite a long time) as I'm getting ready to get stuck into the Silver Tower.
Another project that's on the back burner is the Orruks, this is how far I got with them...
Hello world.
I decided to start a shiny new blog here to report on my round based journey into the Mortal Realms. Going forward with this new game and new army/s it made sense to start a fresh blog. I've previously played High Elves and now maintain a massive Orcs & Goblins army (Orruks & Grots for you young whippersnappers). You can see my greenskins on Da Warpath. Below is a hidden montage of my best miniatures to date.
I find gaming casually using my greenskins on square bases works just fine using a "virtual round base" mentality, but specifically for AoS I've started working on a Freepeoples Em-pire army. (Its technically my partner Emily's army that I'm making for her/us to play with, hence the hyphen). Also with my greenskin roots I've naturally bought all the latest Ironjawz models and will likely pickup any future greenskin releases, so they might appear here along with terrain and anything else I decide to mutter about.
The Freepeoples Em-pire so far:
3 Generals (1 mounted and 1 with a banner)
4 Wizards
1 Witch Hunter (to keep the Wizards in check)
1 Master Engineer
20 Swordsmen
20 Hand Gunners
6 Knights Panther
10 Archers
1 Cannon
1 Helstorm Rocket Battery
1 Helblaster Volley gun
Not very powerful I know, but it's about 80% a painting/modeling project and only contains models I really like. I don't intend to expand it much beyond this, (maybe just a Griffon and some Demigryphs), just to keep the project manageable. I've assembled most of these and after much deliberation and painting of test models (about 20 in total) I've settled on a teal, navy blue and yellowy green colour scheme. Here are the two test models that I felt happy with:
I wanted to try and steer away from any particular province from the world that was and I intend to remove as many of the Karl Franz references from the army as possible, (at this time he's kinda myth/legend) where as Sigmar is obviously fine as he is the here and now. These are just test models but critical feedback on these or any of my stuff is most welcome as I'm always trying to improve.
