Merry X-mas and... I'm in Warhammer Visions!

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone is having a great day.

Because of my shitty personal life etc. my blogging and hobby time haven't been great lately.

But right when you need that extra boost to continue what you, BAAM you open latest issue (23) of Warhammer: Visions and there is one of your models in it. Thanks White Dwarf team, you got my hobby juices going again.

I know there's hundreds of models showcased each month, but I don't think I'm the only one dreaming of this since they first started painting miniature models. This is the second time I  have one of my models showcased in a GW publication, last time was in White Dwarf in 2013.

It's once again one of my Empire models, and this time my General on a Griffon. Not an favorite of mine, but there's at least some conversions and green stuffing done to it. Anyway, a really pleasant surprise to find, now I'm off to painting some more stuff again.

Miniature Monday: Empire Crossbowmen

I'm painting a lot of different stuff right now and among them are some backlog projects for my Empire army. Like this Crossbowmen unit, it needed one more model and some touch ups on the rest to make them look nice with the rest of the army. So I did and a magnatized unit tray as well so here's the result.

A nice unit tray makes the whole unit look much better, and a lot easier to move around when you play. 

Still love to paint my Empire in Ostermark colors. 

The last dude had to stand a little taller because the unit is hard to rank up otherwise. 

Have some more backlog projects for my Empire, next up is a Handgunners unit. My Hurricanum and try to finish my Greatswords unit and Knights of the Black Rose unit. 

Miniature Monday: Mordheim Riekland Captain

I'm dabble with Mordheim from time to time, haven't played it in like ten years or so but really want to try it out again. Anyway, I have a lot of nice Mordheim miniatures which I'm considering was the golden age of Game Workshop produced games and miniatures. So expect some more Mordheim in the future.

This model however is a count as Riekland captain and is painted as an Ostermark captain. Always thought it was odd that Ostermark didn't get any warband considering that Mordheim actually was the former capital city of Ostermark. Don't know if the Riekland rules makes most sense but I went that route because I already had some miniatures painted which I bought from eBay.

This is such a miniature, painted up really nice as well so I didn't want to change it up to much. Repainted the cloak to Ostermark colors from Stirland, redid the metals, the shield and added some highlights and changed the base to make it work with my Empire army which I may have him in at some point. 

Happy with him in the end, a lot of character in the actual sculpt which I think we had in most of the old Mordheim sculpts. Anyway that is all for now, hopefully I will bring you more Mordheim stuff in the future. 

Miniature Monday: Greatswords Horde

I painting on infantry models for my Empire army and this time I've painted some more Greatswords, and these are the last of my fail(metal)cast models to be painted (badly cast models did exist prior to Finecast and I have whole batch of them). And that is really nice because the new models are so much more fun to paint up. I do need to purchase some more of them though because with the latest finished models this unit is now 26 men strong and I think I have bits for 4-5 goldswords more or so, and I want this unit to be 40 men strong when finished.

As you can see on the first pic here Iv'e also made a new Horde movement tray for them, it's still WIP but it's all magnetized. That's all for today, also planning on some kind of unit filler for these so if any of you have any suggestions for a Greatswords unitfiller in a Garden of Morr'sque setting please let me now.  

The Empire: Halberdiers Detachment finished

Twenty more Halberdiers to the army, luckily I did not have to paint these up from scratch as they where quite nicely painted when I bought them. Also I really dig how it's kit bashed with old haldberds, Great Swords bodies and heads from different Empire kits (not a single head is the same in this unit), and even 40k Catachan heads. But I have done some quite extensive repainting, they where Stirland and is now a part of my Ostermark army instead.

I had to repaint the yellow parts of the uniform as well as It was a little sloppy in my opinion. The only thing I haven't done much to is the heads and hands, just some touch ups here and there. All in all I'm very happy with how they turned out and is a great addition to the army, will probably never upgrade this unit to a full 40-50 men unit as I need so many more Great Swords bodies, but a command group would not be impossible to give to them and up them to 25 men. But until then I consider them finished, hope you like them.

Comments and suggestions is always welcome, and sorry for my poor photographing skills on these. Sometimes it just doesn't work out.

The Empire: Halberdiers Detachment

Some time ago I bought some models up on Tradera (Swedish eBay) and among some quite nicely painted Halberdiers that was also really nicely converted using only Greatswords bodies and legs. All of them also have a unique head so no head is the same in this unit and I love those little details.

Anyhow, I didn't think I needed to repaint much as as I saw them on the pics they where already nicely painted and also in Stirland colours so I only really needed to change the green to purple. Well so I thought. It was much easier said than done, the models where nicely painted, especially the heads but the uniforms where not my cup of tea. The green I would change anyhow but the yellow where to heavy washed and with a to dark wash as well, so I needed to repaint that. Also the armour and weapons where a little sloppy so I tidied that up as well. I also changed the bases so it matches the rest of army. So the only thing I didn't need to repaint much was the faces which I just made some minor things with.

The unit I bought was twenty men so I will use it as a detachment I think, or mix into my bigger unit (40 men) if needs be. I'm almost done with all of them but here are the first five Iv'e finished, as always comments and suggestions are very welcome.

The Empire: Ten Handgunners finished

Another unit for my Ostermark Empire army is finished, ten Handgunners. I got these a while ago painted up quite nicely but in the wrong colour scheme. So I re painted them and 'upgraded' some of the parts I wasn't as happy with. And here's the result, I'm especially fond with the actual conversions here. No model look the same and each one has his own character, so I'm glad I bought these models. The movement tray is magnetized as well so these fellas isn't going anyway I don't want them to go :) As always c & c is very welcome.

Full unit of ten

The back row which I just finished painting

The Empire: Five Handgunners finished

I bought these from the Interwebz fully put together and painted, but not in "my" Ostermark colours though and I also needed to tidy up the paint work here and there. So I did that, and it took more time than I had thought because you always see new things that can be improved and so on. Anyway I like this kind of painting where you skip the base colours and just 'upgrade' to how you want them to look. And now I have finally finished the first row of five Handgunners in a unit of ten.

I must say that I really like the kit bashing the guy have done with these, mostly old militia bitz but also from the old plastic Empire State trooper sprue's and the new Archers sprue's. Also no one in the unit has the same head and I love such details. Really like how these turned out and I'm currently working on finishing the last five along with a magnetized movement tray for them.

Miniature Mon(Tues)day 'WoC and Empire'

Yea didn't make it yesterday so once again we get a miniature Tuesday instead, but that is okey as content is the same anyway. So what have I been doing hobby related the past week? Well painting mostly but not as much as I would have liked. I really want to finish up painting as much as possible before I get my Warzone: Resurrection miniatures (and I will get a lot of them) as they have already started to show up at some of the backers of their kickstarter, we how have more complicated orders with a lot of stuff in it (like me) will have to wait some further so here's the chance to paint up as much as possible of my Warhammer stuff before I will focus a lot on Warzone.

So what have I been painting on then?

Warriors of Chaos
When I finally finished painting the Skullchrushers opportunities opened up to paint some other things, and the one thing I wanted to paint for some time now is the Mutalith Vortex Beast. Really fun model to paint but it will take some time to complete.

Some other things I want to do next is the Nurgle Chaos Ogre from Kromlech, I have just started to paint him up now and will do an tutorial on how I paint him up, so look out for that one in the future.

The Empire
Got plenty of Empire stuff on the painting table as well, I'm in the process of change colour scheme and tidy up the paint work on 10 Handgunners and 20 Halberdiers, it is going forward but slower than expected because I still find a lot of new things on them that needs to be fixed painting wise. Still really nice kit bashed conversions though and all of the have a lot of character. I need to get on with the Knights and Hurricanum as well but it will be after the State troopers are done I reckon.

So that is all for now, a new Miniature Monday (or Tuesday) next week.

The Empire: Halfling Hot Pot finished!

The Halfling hot pot is done! Sadly you can't have them in games anymore, well not since 5th ed anyway. Well I will incorporate some Halflings into this army anyway and even GW which still sells this model is suggesting to use this as an Helstorm Rocket Launcher instead, and that is my intention as well. Will probably not use it much in gaming anyway since the Rocket Launchers suck pretty much but still a fun choice to have in the army. And the models are such classics.¨

I made my own base for these using four cav bases to make it into a chariot base instead, not really satisfied with the result but I didn't have any spare Chariot bases so this will have to do. Other than that I'm happy with how the turned out, the yellow needs some more work, especially on front guy where you can see his back on the second pic. It needs one more highlight I think.

So what do you think, you like these classic models? And do you want to see Halflings again in future Empire releases? I sure want that to happen. Tell me in the comments. 

The Empire: Ten more Flagellants

Why I paint ten more Flagellants you ask? Well.... certainly not because they are any good in the game now but I quite like the models and a big unit of them looks really nice. My unit needed some reinforcements and some touch ups though so I got around and painted up ten new models for the unit. I'm also in the process of upgrading my unit filler which I will show you on the next Miniature Monday so stay tuned for some more conversion work being done.

Until then here's some middle of the unit Flagellants, meaning I haven't been putting that much time into painting them. These are also some of the old metal minis I have wanted to repaint for ages, so many of them are in the same pose (accept the girl which is an Mordheim Middenheim youngblood if I remember correctly)

Empire: Archer unit w/ skirmish movement tray finished

Much much work to paint up these measly 70 Pts, not just that you have to paint all the archers. If you want a nice movement tray you have do a special one that works with the skirmish rule, which I had to do of course (not that hard actually). So now they are finally finished, the first five where done long ago so it was just the final five I needed to paint up, and the movement tray of course, which I'm probably most happy with actually.

Please tell me what you think, but you don't have to remind that the purple is different between the old models and the new. I will change the old ones in due time, but not right now :)

The gang together

The new boys in town

From above, as you can see the Garden of Morr theme continues 

Bottom is in metal so I will magnetize the bases for the archers so they don't fall of the tray. 

Showcase: Empire Steamtank

I repainted this one a couple of months ago and took better quality photos of it. I forgot to post the photos here though and of course I want to show the pride of the Empire, the Steamtank!

Empire: Grey Wizard finished!

Iv'e had trouble lately to actually finish my models, and this miniature has been on the to do list for quite some time now. So it feels even more great when I finally announce that it is now finished. As you cans see it is Gandalf....... ehm I mean a Grey Wizard, so he knows Lore of Shadow. I must say I'm really fond of this model which is originally from Mordheim and was called Nicodemus. And even if I will use him as a Shadow Wizard in Warhammer first and foremost I may use him in Mordheim as Nicodemus himself if I ever play that wonderful game again. Just see the back story of him under the pictures to understand why anyone want to use him.

Nicodemus, the Cursed Pilgrim

By Alessio Cavatore,as appeared in Empire in Flames

Nicodemus was a promising apprentice to the mighty wizard Ganthrandir. During one of his master's many absences, Nicodemus felt an irresistible call from one of the ancient artifacts stored in the wizard's laboratory: an exotic magic lantern. Created when the world was but young, this mighty artifact imprisoned the essence of a powerful Daemon. 

Many times Nicodemus' master had warned him not to touch the dangerous lantern, but the voice in the young wizard's mind was more convincing than even his mentor's: "Free me" it was saying "and 1 will grant you your heart's desire anything you want will be yours! Mine is the power to crake it so! Free me... " Nicodemus knew something of dealing with these denizens from the Realm of Chaos and immediately asked: "Do you swear it on the name of the Power you sewer" After a moment of silence, the voice answered: 'I swear it in the name of my Master!" So the ambitious but naive young wizard was hooked and proceeded to break the runic seals of the lantern.

'Free at last!" boomed the voice of the Daemon as it emerged from its prison in a billowing, many-hued cloud. The smoke then seemed to coalesce into the vague shape of a huge humanoid creature, with a bird-like head atop a long thin neck and vast wings seemingly made of iridescent light. The Daemon looked down on the human, and Nicodemus, controlling his fear, shouted: "The wish! You must grant me the wish as you swore it!" The mighty Chaos being smiled enigmatically and asked: "What is your wish then, manling?" 

Fighting hard against all the instincts telling him to flee as far as he could from this unearthly abomination, Nicodemus revealed his wish: "I want to become the greatest wizard known to Mankind!" 

A few long heartbeats later the fiery gaze of the Daemon left the wizard: "Granted!" whispered the Daemon and with one last evil chuckle disappeared back to the nether world from whence it came. 

Nicodemus did not perceive any immediate change and wondered how long it would take for the wish to come true. Only one thing was clear, he could not stay there anymore, because his master would certainly not be pleased by his actions. So Nicodemus picked up his things and fled, beginning his wanderings across the Old World. 

Only a few weeks after that fateful day did Nicodemus realise the Daemon's trickery. His body was growing abnormally quickly - he was now an inch taller than the previous week and his body was getting proportionally bigger. The greatest wizard! The cunning Daemon had taken his wish too literally! Nicodemus had been taught to be extremely careful with the wording of anything related to wish-magic, but the sheer terror generated by the Daemon had overcome his training... Now he was doomed to live with his mistake. 

From that day on, the life of Nicodemus has been an uninterrupted quest, a desperate search for a way to negate the curse of unstoppable growth. The only remedy he has stumbled upon is a powerful potion concocted by a wise hermit he met in the World's Edge Mountains. The potion's ability to delay the effects of the Daemon's powers has become a lifeline fur the sizeable wizard. Unfortunately for Nicodemus he requires regular infusions of wyrdstone for the potion to take effect. Thus Nicodemus has been drawn to the greatest concentration this wondrous mineral - Mordheim, City of the Damned. 

Nicodemus's skills have greatly developed during his time in the dark streets of Mordheim and he is now something of a legend among the many warbands trying for supremacy in the city. Who knows where he will appear next and who will he join in his never ending search for the precious magic stones... 

This background story was copied from the really usefull Mordheim site 'The Mordheimer's Information Center'.

Showcase: Empire Outriders finished!

I had to re paint quite a lot actually, and even re build as the champion previously had an Hochland Long Rifle which they are not permitted to carry any more (shame because they where the best to have them with their BS5) . And also reworked the basing to fit in with the rest of the army and now I quite like this little unit. Tell me what you think and if you think Outriders are worth it now days.

The Empire: First five Knights of the Black Rose finished

So the first row (well except the Preceptor) is finished for my knight bus. As you may have seen before they are from the knightly order of the Black Rose and I like hoe the unit is turning out now when I changed some colours around. Please let me know what you think.

The last knight I have finished. Now I just need to convert and paint up nine more :P

Showcase: Demigryph Knights Unit Finished!

So at last my unit of six Knights Manticore (yup that's the Knight chapters name) riding Demigryphs is painted and finished! I have put a lot of time into these, much because of the Quick Shade I think which almost made them take longer to paint (and this is of course not usually the case) and I will not use Quick Shade for the next Demigryph unit. But I'm really satisfied with the result in the end. I also really like the look of these big monstrous cavalry units, even If I don't think I will field units of six if I ever play with them in a game.

The last of the bunch, the musician with his special '"horned" shield

Feels great that they are finished anyhow and that I now can move on to other projects, will be more Empire in the near future as well as Guardians of the Covenant, but next post will be the Jan White Dwarf review. Until then please feel free to leave a comment below.