On the Painting Table... Zombies, Dire Wolves, Dire Wargs, Crypt Horrors and Terrorgheist's, Oh My!!!

Well, it's been over a month since the last post. Work and other commitments have really gotten in the way. But hey, it's a blessing to have family and work.

As for the upcoming battle report on my Beastmen Army, well that battle has to happen first. It too had to be rescheduled. So in the meantime, I thought I would add to my 10mm Vampire Counts Army.

Given its been a while since the last post, I thought this one should be a biggy. So here are a couple of photos of the latest batch of undead recruits. All of them no doubt eagerly awaiting the return of Nagash!

First up, we have the Bat Swarms.

These little beasties are from Pendraken. I used their bases for the command units of my Beastmen heroes, so with the help of some greenstuff and clear flying bases, they now will look like they are flying over rocks. The standing stone in the background is from Copplestone Castings and will be a prominent feature in the upcoming Beastmen battle report.

Next are the Crypt Horrors.

These are Games Workshop The Hobbit - Goblin Town Goblins. I cut the slot base from the base of their feet and glued them to a Warmaster bases. They are now painted up now to look like Crypt Horrors, complete with splashes of dried blood. I think they turned out pretty good!

The photo with the flash on below shows the colour definition better.

Now for the Dire Wargs.

These are zombie wolves from Khurasan Miniatures. You can see some Games Workshop Warmaster Dire Wolves next to them giving some perspective of their height. For a 15mm miniature, these Khurasan wolves make a really nice sized undead warg.

Another flash photo reveals the excellent detail of the internal rotting organs on these beasties.

Next are the Dire Wolves.

These are Games Workshop Warmaster Dire Wolves. I really lament the fact that GW have pulled their specialist lines. I wish they would provide a casting-on-demand service for their older lines. I would be happy to pay a little more in order to get discontinued stock. These wolves were excellent in detail. They come with a lot of flashing on them from the casting. But that was fairly easily removed.

And now the Terrorgheist.

This bad boy is a Descent miniature. One of the lieutenants from that game. I can't remember its actual name (Ah found that beasty's name, its Dar Hilzernod), but its perfect for a Terrorgheist for Warmaster.

It does need a bit of green stuff around the wing attachments, but I am a novice with green stuff, so if I can do it, anyone can!

And finally, the meat shield Zombies.

These dudes are from Kallistra. Painted up around eight units so far I think. So the shambling hoard is growing.

Now, off to finish those terrain pieces and some Beastmen hero's.

On The Painting Table... Chaos Giant (part 2)

In part one of this thread, I showed off a Reaper Miniatures River Troll model that I wanted to paint up as a Chaos Giant.

Here is the finished product. Only need to paint and flock the base and its ready to maraud the countryside.

Copplestone Castings new 10mm Dwarf range

Over a week ago, Mark Copplestone of Copplestone Castings announced in a news email that his excellent range of Middle-earth style 10mm miniatures  had expanded to include a new range of Dwarves. His 15mm range of Dwarves is really fantastic and the 10mm range is of similar design.

It took me all of about 2 seconds to decide to get some. I ordered two packs of the Dwarven Axes, Dwarven Warriors, and Dwarven Spears (and some other stuff).

 

So how do they stack up height wise against GW, Pendraken and Battle of Fire Armies dwarves? Here are a few photo's:

From left to right below are the Copplestone Dwarves' Warriors, Axes and Spears.

Below is a close up comparing the Copplestone Dwarves to GW Dwarves (left) and BOFA Dwarves (right). The Copplestone Dwarves stand about 9mm's tall and are larger than the BOFA mini's but close to the same height of the GW Warmaster range of Dwarves.

Another comparison shot showing the Copplestone Dwarves with the GW Dwarves.

One final shot showing the Copplestone Dwarves on a stand in order to give some comparison of what the miniatures would look like when based. Below the Copplestone Dwarves are flanked by GW Dwarves on the left and Pendraken Dwarves on the right.

The Copplestone Castings 10mm Heroes pack has a dwarf hero in it, and some command/standard bearers come in the dwarf packs as well. So you can easily make up Command stands as needed.

Final thoughts: these are really nice miniatures and come in great poses ready for battle. Given my current need to finish off my Beastmen army, I sadly won't be getting around to painting these lads for a little while yet. But I am looking forward to painting some up and adding them to my Dwarf Army when time permits.

On the Painting Table... Chaos Giant

Yet another of my work-in-progress projects...

I need to have a Chaos Giant ready for an upcoming game. The scenario being played has one as part of the Beastman army. So I had a look through the mound of as yet unpainted miniatures that I have and came across a nice Reaper Mini's River Troll.

Like all of Reaper's mini's, this is a very nice model. Based like a WM Giant should be, the creature has an ominous look as it leers at enemy units in front of it.

Its the right size of a WM Giant as well, as you can see here.

Now I have to figure out what colours to paint this brute.

On the Painting Table... Beastlord on a Tuskgor Chariot - part 1

My latest work-in-progress, a Tuskgor Chariot fit for a Beastlord.

The chariot consists of an Orcs and Goblin Characters set chariot with its wheels replace with a Chaos chariot's wheels. The boars are Armoured Boars from Pendraken and the Beastman Charioteer is from the Hounds of Khorne character that comes with the hounds in the pack. I've added parts from the Chaos Chariot to give the chariot a more nasty feel to it, something more befitting of a brutal Beastlord.

The actual Beastlord will be a Beastman Character from Eureka Miniatures which I am painting up separately to the chariot.

The Children of the Forest... Warmaster Beastmen, part 2

Whilst the Chaos Warhounds are away getting rebased, I thought I would show off my recent reinforcements to bolster the Beastmen army. These new additions come from the Arkham Horror board game series of models.

These beasties come on a thick base, but can easily be removed from that base. I used a pocket knife to cut under the base of the model, separating it from the base. I then found a suitable flat base and glued the models to these. Once dry, I sanded the bases, but I have yet to flock them.

I can't remember which models are which, but the ones below I believe are a Star Vampire (left) and a Shoggoth (right).

I have been fortunate enough to get a number of Harpy Units on eBay over the years also. Saved me a lot of painting and there are some excellent paint jobs done by those I bought them from. You can see these units below.

Here is a close-up of the four nasties in question, affectionately dubbed (from left to right) as Snotty, Slimy, Shouty and Trevor.

In the game, their stats will likely be Chaos Spawn for Snotty, Slimy and Shouty, whilst Trevor will probably use the Giant stats or some house-rule stats for the Jabberslythe.

These mini's are a pretty good fit for Chaos style nasties and add some variety to the monsters available to the Beastmen.

On the Painting Table... Battleboard Swamps

Time for an update on how the GW Battleboards are going. I wanted to paint in the areas of the board where all the skulls are located in the depressions and turn these into small swamps.

Initially I covered over the skulls by mixing glue with some water and poring a small amount into the depression. I then sprinkled sand over the area. I was careful to ensure that I only covered the skulls. When this all dried, I went through the painting process I posted about early on in this blog.

Now came the hard part. How can I make the swamps. Seeking advice from my local friendly GW and HobbyCo staff, a plan was hit upon. Use 'Ardcoat!

A word of advice, make sure you try this on something else before doing it on the battle-board.

Firstly I glued the tuffs of grass to the board in areas within the swamp. When dry, I added a few drops of blue ink and twice as many green ink to the 'Ardcoat in its bottle. I mixed this up and pored it into the depressions. When it dried, there were a few areas where the 'Ardcoat had cracked. A second coat over the swamp covered these cracks and gave extra depth to the swamp. Here's the result:

 

You get a nice reflective shine with the 'Ardcoat.

The varying depths of the depression, and the transparency of the 'Ardcoat work together really well to give the look of variable depth of a swamp. The green/blue ink colour mix to the 'Ardcoat also gives a great colour.