Artwork - Varsavian Idol Constructs, Concept

Another 'filler' that I prepared a long time ago for a time when I won't be able to post regularly - I guess now it's the time.

Here is a concept that I drew for my own take on the Ushabti from the Tomb Kings range, as a part of my adaptation of their units to fit my Vampire Counts army in an unified legion, kinda like I already did with the Necrosphinx and the Carrion.

I actually remember coming up with this idea in 2016 - to take the Slavic idol statues that I use pretty often on my bases - and build whole walking constructs around them, creating patinated, ramshackle versions of the pretty constructs from Khemri. It's actually quite sad that I didn't manage to even start those things - but the amount of scratchbuilding needed encourages me every time to rather try something else. Now that the concept artwork is in the open, I have fewer excuses! Now I just need some time.

Seigneur Crinierre

So, the hiatus is on, but I still want to fill the blog with something, so it's time to show off some of my older minis that I'm not too ashamed about. I actually made photos of them long ago and kept them in reserve for a time when I won't be able to post something new each week...

My first army ever was Orcs & Goblins in 5th Ed. WFB and the second was Hordes of Chaos in 6th Ed. - but those armies got either sold off or were stripped of paint. It's my third army - Bretonnia in the 7th Ed. that managed to stay in their proud forms, unsold, unstripped (and mostly unpainted). Today I am showing you a Lord on a Hippogriff, a metal model from the times when Bretonnia still existed in GW stores - and painted around 2010.

The shadows could be deeper, the highlights stronger, the little shields could use some tiny freehands, but I generally like the red color scheme and the pattern that I went with on the wings. It could be worse.

Most of the time, Earl Sagremor is able to manage with the undead menace in his realm, but when the forces of evil are too formidable, he can call upon his good ally, Seigneur Piers Crinierre. While such a call is against the old rules of seniority, Sagremor saved Crinierre’s life in a campaign many years ago - and the two were joined not only by this life debt but also friendship. That’s why the Lord can use his superior resources to help the Earl from time to time - which Sagremor pays off just as often, naturally. When he’s able to, Crinierre even shows up personally in battle, riding his trusty Hippogriff Marteau and wielding a formidable sword Radieux to serve as an especially terrifying, flying shock force.

Hiatus Announcement

I am not the guy to bore people with personal details, but I also don't like things when things happen and nobody knows why - so, on a bittersweet note, I am announcing a hiatus in my progress here. The bitter taste is because hiatuses are always a bad thing - and the sweet is because the reason for this is my family got bigger a little more than two weeks ago - I am raising my own little Nurgling (he's not too fond of cleanliness)!

I gathered some backlog photos and considered myself ready to cruise on them during those difficult and sleep-deprived weeks, but the reality overwhelmed me. The last post about Viktor von Greifen - I took photos of that mini the day before the little one was born - and the process of editing and writing, which normally is done in an hour at most, took a whole week this time... This means that even if I have that backlog, conversions, the next Blood Bowl Match Report and other goodies, I am afraid I won't be able to edit them in time - so I decided to announce this hiatus here.

Ideally, I will be still posting every week, only with artwork and my older stuff, if I am able to, while waiting for the times when I'll find some extra time for the hobby (hopefully before he goes to school). If not every week then every now and then. I'll be around to comment and exist in the community, to keep myself at least a bit engaged and avoid losing sanity. Thanks for everyone visiting here and enjoying the content that I produced so far!

Also, to keep this post from being too dry, here is a quick doodle that I made of the little Nurgling which indeed brought a lot of beloved Chaos into my life:

Viktor von Greifen, Captain of the Prenzlauer Guard

Finally, Victor von Greifen, the Devil of Nemnov is finished!

Quite some time ago I kitbashed myself a model to try out an upgraded color scheme for my The Prenzlauer Guard, my Blood Knights converted out of older Chaos Knights. He was fun to convert, but then it was time to actually try out this new 'renovation' idea of mine.

The main idea was to avoid flat and featureless red plates on the armor and to replace them with something clearly similar, but fancier and more detailed. I went with a marble pattern because I really like painting those and it seemed like a good idea to give some regal, noble note to the model. This first step was messy - wetblending, sprinkling, washing, more sprinkling, glazing, all at once. When that was done I could comfortably move to the other parts - adding more contrast to the metal elements, actually highlighting the flesh on the black horse, etc.

While I like the dark and grim style of Viktor, the old vampires still have some charm to them. Still, I leave the judgment on whether I improved on the old The Prenzlauer Guard to you readers. All things considered, I'd sooner convert new Chaos Knights into Blood Knights than try to repaint anything.

The elite unit of the Prenzlauer Guard was with the von Greifen brothers since their killing of their own sire Laurentin - but they were a blood-crazed and unruly bunch. To keep them in check, Constantin turned a promising soldier from Kislev into a vampire and made him a captain of the unit. He may be more level-headed and intelligent than his subordinates, but he still managed to bloodily beat some discipline into them and it would be a grave mistake to consider him forgiving or compassionate. Known as the Devil of Nemnov, he keeps the settlements under his care in line mostly through fear - dealing bloody retributions for the merest of slights. While Constantin prefers a more pragmatic and humane approach to his mortals, he’s willing to sacrifice those people and tolerate Viktor because he gets the job done and keeps the flank secure, freeing the brothers to focus on other parts of their lands. That and his hammer in an invaluable help in any battle.

Blood Bowl Nurgle Extras - WIP

Well, the Nurgle train never stops - I have the Star Players, now it's time for even more! As I mentioned in the post about Anirion the Weather Mage, I love Blood Bowl for all kinds of accessories and extras that exist in the game - staff, cheerleaders, markers, etc. You don't really need them represented as models - but you can - and that's what I did for my beloved Nurgle team, the Putrid Punters!

First ones up are my own interpretation of 'Bloodweiser Kegs / Babes' - a relatively cheap upgrade which allows your players to get up more easily after getting knocked out - fluff-wise by giving them copious amounts of beer. While dwarves, humans, goblins, orcs may all be satisfied with the usual stuff, I thought that Nurgle players would have more sophisticated tastes - so I converted them a special brew. The idea came to me when I was organizing my bits and I noticed this big bell from the skaven kit - which would actually quite well for my Putrid Punters, considering Nurgle's fondness for those instruments. I bought some Poxwalkers from WH40K and paired one of them with the bell as the first 'keg'. Seeing as you can have up to 2 kegs in a game, I took another Poxwalker and turned him into a living, walking keg of beer - full of delicious Nurgly goodness - which he can easily share with the tube he holds in his hand.

I call it the Infected Pallid Ale - or IPA.

The next ones are Cavorting Nurglings, a Nurgle-exclusive upgrade that rouses the fans on the stadium to cheer a little bit more and support their team a little bit better.

This was a simple thing - I bought a single base of AoS/WH40K Nurglings and bloodbowlified them a bit - an extra BB Nurgling in the front, a football helmet, a foam hand and a hotdog with a worm inside, all good fun.

Getting even smaller and even less essential to the game - re-roll markers! While absolutely anything can be used to mark the number of available re-rolls on the board, sooner or later, I want everything used by the Punters to be personal and fit their theme - including those markers.

For this I used Eyestinger Swarms from Kill Team: Rogue Trader box and converted them a bit to fit Blood Bowl better - so the corpses/body parts on the bases use BB bits and there is a small sculpted, deflated ball there.

Finally, there are two other markers that come with every BB team from GW nowadays, a 'hand' and a coin - which I use for marking score and turns. The hand is barely touched, I just added there some tentacles to make the little base a bit more crowded.

On the coin, I used some extra greenstuff to turn the flat Nurgle sigil into much more pronounced eyes - which will mimic the Punters' own logo. I actually sculpted the hole of the iris and the pupils there - which I will later fill with transparent resin. I am curious if this 3d approach to eyes will work on this scale. Time will tell.

That's it for now - but I had lots of fun with all the Nurgliness here, so expect much, more for the Punters.

Cultists of the Radiant Wheel

Some time ago I painted my first Kickstarter miniatures - Black Crab Miniatures, a great set of minis made by Meridian Miniatures and inspired by amazing artwork by @blackcrabart. They were so successful that the author went with the second set of similar miniatures - which I naturally bought. Now they are getting painted - and here are the first four out of twelve.

I used the minis from the first Kickstarter as the leaders of a cult founded by the wights in my little narration - and those individuals here are their direct subordinates. They use the same color scheme as the High Council, but while the leaders were clean and ornate, the cultists are dirty and wear some additional clothing that doesn't fit the original color scheme - I wanted to bring them closer to the unaffiliated, poor villagers that they try to convert by breaking the purity of their 'uniform'.

As with the previous miniatures, those here are great sculpts with very good quality. Their robes are flatter than before - and thus not as interesting to paint, but they were still fun, especially with additional textures and weathering.

The Cult of the Radiant wheel is spreading through Varsavia well, but the members of the High Council are not doing that by themselves - they appoint loyal cultists from amongst their apprentices and send them away to surrounding villages. Those wretches then try to infiltrate the communities, earn their trust and become useful to them - from where they start influencing the local leaders’ decision while covertly spreading information about the cult itself and serving as spies. Affected by the wights’ magic to some extent, those cultists tend to look weird, but the people of Varsavia are used to it and accept them - with the amount of dark and chaotic magic flowing through the land, the poor villagers here are rarely as ‘normal’ as their cousins in the Empire.

Blood Bowl Star Player - Guffle Pusmaw

After my favorite Tolly Glocklinger, it was time to slowly go through the rest of the kitbashed Nurgle Star Players - and today it's Guffle's turn.

Just as with the rest of this set of stars, Guffle's color scheme matches my Putrid Punters team - with nice yellowish flesh, dark/black armor and green clothes. He can be induced only by Nurgle teams, so there's really no need to consider any alternatives.

One thing special on this one was his Monstrous Mouth of course - a great focal point and a chance to paint some nicely disgusting details. When I finished painting him, feeling as if he's lacking something, I decided to once again try doing some slime strands out of UHU glue - last time I used it on zombie spider's guts, 2 years ago. I struggle a bit with this technique, but it still adds some special quality to this most famous of the Nurgle stars.

Now I only have to find some use for him on the pitch! He may be an exceptional catcher, but there are no good throwers on a Nurgle team! Other than the chaos-affiliated thrower star Lewdgrim Whiparm, I am left only with my rather unlucky rotter Ted as the agile one...

Atypical for a Nurgle Player, the agility-based playstyle of Guffle Pusmaw secured him a spot amongst one of the best-known stars of contemporary Blood Bowl. With fame like that, he was well over the budget of disoriented and disorganized Putrid Punters. That was until one of the Bloaters, Globbmax, managed to reach one of his clouded memories and remembered that he helped the previous coach depositing some of their money in a bank - before the last warp-displacement - and now, decades later, with all the accumulated interest, it was a small fortune. After a small meeting, they decided to indeed induce Guffle himself in their next match - if not to use his talents, then at least use some of his reputation to raise their own status and maybe even rise as something more than a gimmick team in the eyes of the fans and sponsors.