Let it snow - How I did my Snow bases

Just a quick post about my snow bases, which I have redone. My Beastmen are from the Grim up norf (just like me) so I wanted some snow bases for them.



The glue I used, just infront of the book I researched "yellowing" in



I've heard alot about snow bases, and the use of baking soda. I was concerned about "yellowing", the process where chemestrium chloride oxidises with CO2 and ionises the bosons (or something...) and turns white snow into yellow snow over time. I decide to play it safe and go for GW snow.



Well, that was a mistake. I don't know how GW got away with pedalling that crap - It's rubbish. It's basically white flock, the same stuff they use for grass, but white. No matter how hard I tried, how accurately I followed the online snow tutorials on GW.com, it always looked rubbish.

So, having a word with Daz, he had experience using snow bases on his Throne of skulls winning Throgg army. He suggested using wood glue, not PVA (I know, there's a difference!) and one year on the snow is still as white as pure driven...white stuff.

He also pointed me toward Kuffeh's Snow base tutorial which was extremely helpful. So, I went off and had a practice, and used my own technique.

Kuffeh's snow look nice, white and fluffy, the sort you'd like to roll around in an throw snowballs. What I wanted was a more harsh, icy, sharp snow. The stuff that has thawed and refrozen, the sort nasty kids used to put inside snowballs and throw at mums at school and cut their face (true story!).

I used Dr Oetkers bicarbonate of soda, which cost me 82p from Morrisons. I also used some wood glue that cost £2, which from now on I'm going to call WPVA. Already cheaper than GW's white grass. I decided not to make a solution, but just mix the WPVA and soda together. If it was too "claggy" and didn't apply easily, I just added more WPVA.

I sprinkled a little bit of extra soda on after application, just to add a bit of crispy definition, then left it. Easy peasy.

Not a bad result, I think you'll agree.

1500 points - Complete!

So, I know my updates have been sporadic, but I've been getting my head down and painting like a Razorgor on heat.

Before I start, I'm going to point you towards my good friend James's blog Gaming with the Asur. I'm hoping it will be a blog of misadventure as no doubt he'll be blogging about how he constantly fails to defeat my beastmen and how I always stay one tactical step ahead, but I doubt it. Give it a look anyway, he's usually quite sharp with the tactical tips (unlike me).

Okay, so I've completed my A Gathering of Might list, and it's fully painted. I've got 8 or so Bestigor left to fully base but I'm waiting for the bases to dry before I put the snow effect on. I've played with them against Daz's Daemons in a Blood Forest scenario (It's watchtower, but instead of a building it's a blood forest). I got a resounding victory (only losing a chariot), although I believe my familiarity with the daemon book, Daz's unfamiliarity with said book, using the wrong list, poor dice rolling, my continuous hatred, a beast of a razorgor AND his recent obsession with 40K all led to my victory. But other than all that it was all my tactical acumen...

This game helped me a little bit to get use to "gamey" situations, and learn the ins and outs of tournament fantasy. Daz is an old hand at competative play and was full of tantalising tips, helping me use my redirectors to their maximum effect. I'm getting to grips with fantasy a bit more now, but I'm still forgetting silly things like reforming after combat. Magic however is something I've taken to quite well, so I'm hoping I can avoid the wooden spoon on my first outing at a tournament with a "sub par" list.

I'm extremely happy with the way this army has panned out. I'm dissapointed I rushed my bestigors a little bit, but in the end I think it was unavoidable. My time is heavily budgetted at the moment, and this 1.5k worth of points really needed finishing. I'd given them until saturday to finish, and it's monday night and they're 99% done. There's little that could convince me to spend time highlighting armour and cloth on 20+ bestigor when only 5 would be fully visible.

I've rejigged my list, and I've managed to fit in another Razorgor. I could swap my chariot for 10 ungor raiders, but I don't actually think they're that good. Chariots seem to scare the crap out of most players, so I'll keep it in. I also like the model, and I can't be bothered painting up 60 points of models when I have a lovely 80 point one already finished!

This weekend will be a small mini tournament at our local club, as a bit of a warm up. Hopefully this should be enough practice to make sure my list, and my generalship, is up to scratch.

Apologies for the dark pictures, but you get the idea of what I've completed.

I'll be back with more updates soon - and that's a promise.

The toy room goes - Pumbagor chariot WIP

So, this weekend has been filled with bad time. It was inevitable. I knew it was coming. But I had to go through with it.

I had to clear out the toy room.

The spare room in the house my girlfriend and I share has been my "toy room", my private abode for sticking things together, splattering acryllic on plastic and generally keeping me off drugs or organised crime. But with my girlfriend needing to crack down and do her thesis, she's taken over the nest, not only making me clear out all the junk I've hoarded in there, but also move around the furniture!

So, my organised mess has been cleared up. I now have no idea where "that bit" is (funny how I did before I tidied...). I've been given the front room to play in - but having to take stuff out and put it away every night I ant to do some modelling wont be the same.

So, luckily, I've had chance to do some modelling in the old room last night. Here's two chariots, one Razorgor and one tuskgor.

So, the main chassis is the orc plastic chariot. The yoke is from the corpse cart, which gives an extra bit of height to go over the pig and help make it look a bit different from the tuskgor chariots. It has four holes which allowed me to put the plastic chain and hooks from the marauder horsemen kit around the spikes on the razorgor, meaning I avoided any need to greenstuff a harness around the pig.

The riders are the metal beastlord which I got free in a random ebay trade and an ungor with his feet bent.



Business end. Oink.



Here's the considerably more dull WIP of the tuskgor chariot. Yawn.

And finally, with the clear out  I got my finger out and got all my army case sorted for all my beastmen army. There was alot of foam left over from the pick and pluck trays, but I needed somewhere to put it all...



...Lining the inside of a tank box from Maelstrom games. Boom, instant monster carry case!

Brakka Braytooth, Bearer of the Herdstone Standard (The Gelded)

So, here's my newest character, Brakka Braytooth. He's a mean Son of a Sow. I painted him really quickly, I just really enjoyed this model. Such a great character. The axe was a bit hair raising to paint around as I was worried about snapping it off.

The banner had a few false starts. I decided to paint it in a similar vein to my Wargor BSB, just to help tie them together. This banner was inspired by the artwork in the beastmen army book, with the shamen infront of the towering herdstone. Liber Chaotica tells us minotaurs are sacred protectors of herdstones, so I thought that a standard of a long distant herdstone would be a standard worth fighting over.

I painted his axe in a similar fashion to my Doombull's to again tie them together.

Banebeast Minotaur standard bearer review

With a little friend

So this weekend, after proxying the majority of my horde, I decided to splash out on the banebeast minotaur standard bearer whilst there was still the 16% off. I was toying with the idea of converting a plastic BSB for my mino army, but in the end I decided I would rarely use it in a competative list, so took the easy option and went with the £17 banebeast. The Skullbearer of the Taarviks Khaargstrukk (or however you spell it).

Well, I can honestly say I was not dissapointed! What a cracking model. He came in several parts - the body consisted of right arm with weapon (all one piece), body with left arm, and left hand and banner all in one piece. His head and tail came on another sprue, the head being all one piece.

The torso came with...erm..."anatomically correct" lower body. In his gooch was a huge pair of fruits. I thought long and hard (giggedy) about whether to keep it or not. I decided to get rid.

I'm all for realistic sculpting, but he would look out of place being the only model with a scrote. There was not loincloth to hide his modesty and, with no effort to sculpt one or a suitable size bit in my bit box, I just lopped them off.

Our bull, post gelding

So, after I gave him the snip, I put him together. The parts went together smoothly, with just a tiny bit of filling on the right arm. The right arms weapon looks a bit bent and flimsy, but thats the risk of having a long shaft made from resin. The resin is really nice to use and work with, and is perhaps a little nicer than games workshops finecast, just because there was no faults in the casting and the details were immaculate.

So, once I finished putting the model together, I got to putting my own personal stamp on this cheeky chappy.

In comparison to a standard minotaur and my doombull

I took a spare skull dingle dangle (tm) bit from my bits box and attatched it to his gutplate, just to help connect him to his fellow beastmen who have loincloths. I added a minotaur shield to his left arm as BSB he'll be most likely taking as much armour as possible. I finally added a small club from the ogre bulls box to his waist to show his armed to the teeth - a gorebull can never have too many weapons!

Overall, this model is absolutely fantastic. The banner I would have liked to replace as it's a bit bland, but when the models finished it doesn't look too bad.  The axe also rests close to the ground, leading to potential ranking up issues should he be in the second rank of a regiment. The base he came with was also slightly warped, so I just put him on a standard GW 40x40 base.

All in all, a solid 8 out of 10 from me. If the rumours of upcoming minotaur regiment from banebaeasts is true, I will definately to purchasing a box!

Blood in the Badland - Turn 3

Turn 3 came with game successes for the Some High Elves, Tomb Kings, Empire and Ogres, whilst Chaos as a whole, orcs and the other contingent of elves suffered defeats. Here's the maps, stolen again from the GM.



And, as its a little hard to read like that. With Colour!



Key

• Ogre Kingdoms - 3 Relics, Iron rock (may include O&G forces in any of your armys), Mine +150pts army, Random event = Embattled
• Beastmen - 2 Relics, Barak Var (+3 Fort bonus), Mine +150 Army, Random event = Regiment of Renown
• Tomb Kings - Mine + 250pts Army, Random event = Raiding party
• Chaos - Mine + 200pts army, Random Event = Prepared Ambush.
• Orks n Goblins -1 Relic, Mine +50pts items, Random event = Siege Force
• High Elves - 1 Relic, Mine + 300pts army, Random event =  Plague
• Empire - Mines, nothing. Random event = Forced March
• High Elves - 2 Relics, Mines +60pts items, Random event = Cunning Commander

Game changing random events

Prepared Ambush - Gets to pick the scenario and if they go 1st or 2nd.

Beastmen

So, I decided to forge a path down south with Kravyn's list, whilst my beastlord's list remained oop north and defended Barak Varr. My minotaur list will return in two weeks, so that's not a big deal. Since my Kravyn list hasn't actually had a battle yet, I decided to give them a regiment of renown, just so when they did fight they'd be a little bit elite. So the bestigors in this list have devestation charge - get in! My next game will again be with Grosque's army, in potentially a fort match again the (as yet!) undefeated High elves of George.

I also wrote up a little bit of background for the Minotaur armies spanking, and my armies march south.

Chapter 3:

Karniforex stomped through the camp, massive axe gripped in his fist. It was several days after the battle with the Ogres. His warherd had stormed leagues through the Badlands, trampling and destroying all in their way. Until they met the Ogres of the Tyrant Kurr.

His force outnumbered the foe by more than half, yet the impetuous of the frenzy whipped beastmen was their undoing. Confusion had reigned, with his units arriving piecemeal to the plane of battle. The drunkard four legged Kanter didn’t even turn up, only a handful of his centigors being in a fit state to engage the enemy whilst most of the Gore Garrons were scouting.  The Ghorgon, the unthinking brute, wandered where he pleased ignoring the will of his commander. The lesser Gors on The Great’s left flank turned tail and ran, leaving his Minotaur’s open for a devastating charge from the Tyrant’s honour guard. Karniforex crossed blades with Kurr, both monstrous beings evenly matched blow for blow. Around him, however, his herd was run down mercilessly.

Only the massive block of puny Ungors had performed admirable, taking the battle to the Ogre’s and engaging the Ogre heavy cavalry and their daemonically engineered destriers without fear. It was unfortunate that they had been left to a grim fate as the rest of the armies broke and fled. However, their grizzly death no doubt stalled the fleeter elements of the Ogre force from pursuing the fleeing beast army. Undoubtedly the best use for an ungor, so Karniforex had no regrets about that.

What should have been a massacre was a stern lesson which cost him the blood of his Minotaurs.

Only a handful of his broken contingent had returned after the battle, collecting around the largest rock they had passed on their travel south. This makeshift herdstone was a natural gathering point, and after Karniforex had spent most of the previous night bellowing into the night sky his errant forces began to filter back. There were too few to form a significant force and have another go at the ogres, so Karniforex has no other choice but to return to Barak Var for reinforcements.

Karniforex walked straight to his standard bearer, the pathetic Brakka. He squatted, braying mournfully over his lost axe. His magic relic was torn from his grasp as the surviving Minotaurs fled, and the bond a Minotaur makes with is tool for killing was a sacred bond. Without this weapon, he was a changed beast.

Karniforex gave the weeping beast a sickening kick to the face, his triangular hoof cutting a gouge in his cheek and spraying blood into the air. The sobbing beast was knocked to the floor, his woes about his erstwhile weapon forgotten for the time being. “Get up weakling. Get our bulls together. We head back to the Dwarf Fort.”

Hopefully the Man-child’s fury at this set back would have subsided by the time they returned.

**********

Kanter walked into the inner vault of the Dwarven hold. He struggled to walk, tottering like a newborn deer.  The mix of the extremely low ceilings common of dwarven architecture, the cobbled floor and the six kegs of strong ale he needed to help quell his fear all contributed to his unsteadiness.

The walls of the vault were streaked with slick gore. There was a cracking noise under his front left hoof, and on further inspection it appeared he was treading on a piece of skull bone, a tiny horn jutting upward, one of many shards of ungor skeleton. In front of him stood Kravyn, his back turned to the door. His fists were clenched and knuckles down a stone table with his head lowered.

“You’re wiser than I give you credit for, Kanter. Sending those ungor in with your news from the front perhaps saved your life.”

Kanter cracked a smile. He has scouted ahead of Karniforex’s force before battle was met and saw the Ogre army that marched upon them. Even with alcohol fuelled bravado he knew he wouldn’t stand a chance against those steam powered steeds their outriders rode. Instead he watched from afar, and galloped hard to home to relay Karniforex’s failure to his liege.  Nothing made you look better than the failure of your peers.

“It was ill news.” Kanter looked around the blood soaked room. He was surprised it took ten ungor for Kravyn to fully vent his anger.

“My fury was spent after killing five.” Kravyn stated, making Kanter start in surprise, unsure if Kravyn was reading his thoughts. “I just didn’t want the other’s going back and sowing unrest in their blighted kin. The ungor are unreliable enough as it is.”

“You are wise, my Lord.” Kanter stepped closer.

“You are not!” Kravyn snapped round and grabbed the centigor by his throat. The grip was vice like, the ugluhand strengthened beyond mortal capabilities. Kanter did not fight, knowing to do so was certain death. Certain death was worse than the probable death he faced this instant.

Kravyn brought the centigor’s face down to his, unperturbed by the stale alcohol on the four leg’s breath. “I only let you live because your death would not have prevented  that idiot’s complete failure. Should it become beneficial to cease your existence, it will be done. Ensure you still have a use to me.”

He released Kanter, who stumbled back clutching his throat taking great breaths, “Y...yes my lord.”

“Gather your Gore Garrons. We head south. Skullcrown gives word the Elves march on Grosque’s position. I intend to use this distraction and head an army towards the fastness. One of our armies has taken a human fortress to our south west, so this should allows us safe passage. We are serving no purpose remaining in the north.”

Kanter nodded, “At once, my lord.”

Kravyn nodded to the far corner of the room, “Then go, for I believe I’ve missed a spot in that far corner.”

Kanter looked behind him and saw some dry brickwork free of ungor innards. Without hesitation he made a hasty exit out of the vault.

Despoilers - Bestigor standard bearers

So, I've not updated for a few days as basically I've not finished everything. I've hit a crappy state where I'm stuck being unable to sit and finish any model completely. Well, any model I'm suppose to be finishing. Ho hum.

So here's what I have finished. A couple of bestigors.

First up is my despoiler marker/unit filler. This cheeky chap will sit on the back rows, toasting a nice flag. Once I take some casualties I'll remove him and put him to one side with a dice, and for each banner my unit takes it will be signified by a dice on this model. I have a load of spare cavalry bases, and figured the bestigors will give the guy with a huge burning flag a bit of space...

The bretonnian flag in in the livery I'd use for a bret army, which I'd love to do if they updated the aging range. The sea monster is based on an existing coat of arms from the bretonnian book.

Second is my actual bestigor banner. The image is something I just came up with. It's suppose to be the chaos star made from twisted horns, around the pink eye - the mark of the albino. The banner is a bloodletter flag and the weapon blade was swapped to make it unique in the unit.

I lightened the shade of pink to help it stand out on the dark background. I'm crap at free hand! Let me know what you think.

Grosque Manculler - Pestigor Beastlord

Evening fellas. Well, after Grosque picked up my warherd's first victory last sunday I decided that he earnt himself a nice pretty paint scheme and basing. I now regard this model finished.

I really enjoyed painting this guy - the plastic models are a delight to work with! As you can see, he's a big bastard! Not much to say about him - he's painted using rotting flesh for the skin tone neat - I've not had chance to use it since my plague marines in 2001!

Reckon he turned out alright. Enjoy!

My best bestigor (and a couple of campaign markers)

Just a quick update to show you all I'm still alive - here's my first bestigor painted - I always try and paint one miniature in the style I want before I crack on with the rest of the unit - just to see if it matches up with the image I had in my minds eye. I'm suitably happy with him, so Bestigors a go go!

He took about an hour to paint, so hopefully I should speed up the process. Ignore the base...it's not ready yet!

Also here's two WIP markers for the campaign - hanging rock and stormhenge. I'm really getting my teeth into this campaign malarky!

That's all folks!

Blood in the badlands - Fiction

Hi guys, here's a collection of fiction about my armies taking part in the Blood in the Badlands campaign. It's actually spread across several posts on our forum (www.leeds-nightowls.co.uk/forums), so I've collected them together in a bundle pack, for you LUCKY LUCKY PEOPLE!

Prologue



Gruf Kravyn, the Turnskin



Gorash Sowbane



Gruf Kravyn was once a man, an esteemed mage in the Imperial college of magic. The winds of fate was to change that, however, his bright career instead transformed into a a life of blight. An unfortunate encounter with the forces of chaos was to steal from him his humanity, and slowly he became a grotesque mockery of what he aspired to be. But that is not a story for here, for the end of that tale is the beginning of this one.

Kravyn, after many long and arduous years on from that fateful night, was now the head of an unusual clan of beastmen in the north, for their skin was pale, their eyes pink and their fur as white as snow. Albinoism is a common mutation, affecting less than one in a thousand born. Yet they all migrate north, pulled inexplicably by an unnatural bond with their kin. For many years, the Albinos of the Snowhide tribes remained in the north near the chaos lands. Until now.

Kravyn is still a powerful sorceror, moreso now with his ties to humanity severed. His body is that of an animal, yet his mind is a sharpened tool. His intellect remains, only his outlook is skewed from his experiences and the corrupting power he now holds. Many nights he dreams fitful visions, some are clear in their meaning - others not so. One however, to a sane man would be utter jibberish - for a former wizard of the colleges of magic, it's meaning was painfully clear. A floating tower, crashing to the ground in gouts of blood soaked sands.

Fozzorick's floating fastess would be landing, and Kravyn would ensure the humanity he now so desperately hated would never see it return to the sky.

A brief tribal meeting was all it took to convince the tribe to head south to the Badlands. The beasts of the tribe would rejoice in bringing one of the greatest constructions of man to the ground, whilst the more subtle shamens realised that the inside of the fortress would also be filled the highly powerful magical items.  Summoning every blood bond and debt he could, the Snowhide tribe marched south...

Dramatis personae

Great Karniforax, Das Mann Fleisher

Gruf Kravyn, Ugluhand, The Manchild - Great Bray Shamen – Born a man by the Name Gryff von Cravann , now the revered leader of the Snowhide tribe.

Gorash Sowbane – A wargor who betrayed his old clan to his new found Albino kin – Bearer of Kravyn’s personal standard and his personal bodyguard

Great Karniforex, Das Mann Fleisher – A feared minotaur lord, Krayvyn has both freed him and enslaved him to his will. He leads the minotaur hoards of the tribe, who were too unruly for Krayvyn to control through guile alone.

Brakka Barktooth– Karniforex’s gorebull standard bearer, who's braying is so hoarse it sounds like the barking of a hound

Grosque Manculler, Blightmaster of Nurgleth – Follower of Nurgle, he and his pestigor retinue are a herd for hire, travelling the north fighting for whoever would pay the right price. The promises of spreading plague and pestilence in the south was enough for Grosque to join Kravyn’s expedition and lead one of his detatchments.

Slugtongue – a nefarious shamen who spreads pestilence and famine wherever he treads. His visions led him to Grosque Manculler, a like mind in the ways of pollution.

Blackleg – Pestigor of vile temperament, he’s the bearer of the Manculler’s standard

Chapter One

Kravyn unsteadily walked down the slope into the hovel, brushing aside the number of fetishes and trinkets that hung from the ceiling. It was early, the sun was currently colouring the badlands a blood red as it climbed into ascendancy. The rest of the tribe slept off their hangover in the valley above, celebrating their arrival in this forsaken land. Kravyn had not joined them in their festivities, he had other things pressing his sharpened mind this moment.

On arriving into the Badlands the Snowhide tribe had happened upon an old dwarven mine. At first, this was an unexpected boon. Upon further inspection however, some of the old occupants still remained. The ungors ad managed to get out a supply of dwarven liquor before the fierce fighting within the mine brought it down, taking a large chunk of Kravyn’s manpower in a plume of ashen smoke. He’d also had to send out one of his lieutenant’s, the Nurgle follower and his bilious company, to deal with an unusual hoard of red skinned Orcs that threatened to delay his armies advances towards the flying fastness.

No, he was in no mood for games right now.

“Crone!” he bellowed in riekspeak, choosing to use his old tongue, “Dream walker!  Show yourself!”

A cackle returned, a raspy croak of a laugh. “I knew you’d come, man child. It was a matter of time.”

Kravyn pressed on into the cavern, the light from outside replaced by candles and other artificial sources. Something screetched as he trod on something softer than the loose stones that littered the floor. “Have you been responsible for the visions I’ve had? Are you the reason I’ve trekked hundreds of miles to get here?”

Another laugh returned, “Yes...and no. Our masters demanded it, I am merely the tongue with which they speak.”

“Why?” Kravyn stopped “Show yourself hag!”

The woman stepped into the light. She was a beastwoman. She shuffled using a large braystaff for help. A ragged cloth covered her modesty poorly. She had only one eye, a large blue eye in the centre of her forhead. Her other, natural eyes were now just empty sockets, their occipital occupants absent. “I’ve watched you, man child. It was no accident that night.”

Kravyn snarled at the reference of his rebirth. “What do you know?!”

“Everything that needs to be. I know that this point in your life is merely a stepping stone in your quest. You have been chosen for a reason, that blade was always meant for you.”

Kravyn looked down at his warped body, the changed wracked upon him since that fateful night returning from Kislev “What is wanted of me?”

“You have done well summoning this mighty host. But there is more to be done. Soon you will return north with your prize, and thousands will flock to your banners. The dread legions will chant your name, and you will be powerful beyond imagine!”

“What prize? The fastness?”

The crone shuffled to a small fire and haunched on her legs “Yes...and no. You think two dimensionally. All will become apparent.”

“I’m done with these riddles,” Kravyn spat, and turned to leave, “find some other fool to play with.”

“Nagash!” The crone spat back after Kravyn had made several steps.

He paused, and turned back. Nagash was a name he’d heard in whispers. Ghost stories. “What does the fell powers want with the shrivelled husk of a fairy tale?”

“Not him. Again, your mind fails to comprehend. Not the man, but his work.”

Kravyn turned fully, his mind finally realising what it all meant. “The books of Nagash...”

“The Liber Chaotica!”

“Is here?”

“In the fastness!”

“With that book...”

“You would more power than any sorcerer in the northlands.”

Kravyn smiled. Suddenly this was a game he wanted to play.

Huskygor Chariot

Evening all, how are we? I finally got my chariot base from GW this weekend so I set about finising off my chariot conversion.

So I decided to convert a plastic orc chariot, but I decided to replace the cute boars for a couple of warhounds. I was a bit sceptical at first on whether the conversion would work, but it actually turned out alright! I might even say I'm pretty cuffed with myself!

I decided the hounds, or "huskygors"as I've now named them, needed something to connect them to the chariot body, so I added the eternally useful "dark eldar hook chain" from the ravager kit and connected them to their rumps. I greenstuffed the taught skin over the hooks too, I figure beastmen are pretty brutal with their livestock!

So, here's my huskygor chariot. Woof woof!

That'll do dog. That'll do.