FOR KHORNE! - Arnuld Clotchewer

Arnuld here is my entry for the Haemo-Erotic tag for the upcoming Gorechosen game over on Scale Creep. I've not painted a chaos mini in a long time, so I thought it would be nice to paint up my favourite thug ever. He'd been sitting in his box for about thirty years, so y'know, it was time.

I wanted to give him quite ruddy skin, which I hadn't painted in a while. Added to that I wanted to use his shoulder plate as test for the armour technique I want to use on his mates, whenever they might appear. The blood spatter is done with my trusty old toothbrush. I just made him a little kitchen towel poncho and then flicked watered down red paint on him. I often mix a little brown or black into the red for dried blood, but this is fresher, so it stayed bright.

This guy has been a nice palette cleanser from my terracotta warriors and it's given me an urge to paint more blood-soaked maniacs. For now though, it's back to ancient China/Nippon and time to get some pottery crossbowmen painted.

Undead Captain - Available at Shortwars

The undead captain was a very small project I ran a while ago for a wee group of folks. We did a tiny run of this evil fellow, who sold out in short order. Such has been the amount of queries that I've been getting about this guy that another run had been done, albeit a small one. He's currently available on the Shortwars website for the time being, so if you fancy a leader for your undead warband, this chap is just the ticket. The captain is a two part model, as you can see here, and weighs in at 35mm tall.

There are a lot of other goodies in the Shortwars webshop right now, the goblin hotpot cauldron catapult and  Renaissance style halflings being especial  favourites of mine.

The Woods - Secrets of Shandisholm Sourcebook

Released very recently by Oakbound Studios, Secrets of Shandisholm is a sourcebook for tabletop roleplay set in the world of The Woods. it's a world of Celtic folklore where the lives of everyday mortals brush up against the supernatural realm of the Folk. 

Creatures such as the Fae, Sprites, Phooka and Nuckelavee are all detailed within, as well as the background of Shandisholm itself and all the rules for gaming in the world of The Wood using the SystemMech rules, which curiously do not require dice. The narrative always take precedence, which is something I can get behind. The book is crammed full of lovingly crafted stories and background, and anyone with even a passing interest in Celtic-style fantasy would do well to grab one. 

I was lucky enough to be asked to work on a painting tutorial for a Myeri Tiarna for the book, which I had a lot of fun doing. Of course, the Myeri are of particular interest to me. The author describes them thus: They're a blend of some things which have been massive influences on me- the Heroquest Fimir, The Dark Crystal, the art of Alan Lee, Irish folklore, Polynesian carving, Inca social structures, walking in the Dartmoor countryside. It's fair to say I poured a lot of my favourite things into them!

A man after my own heart. There is a lot of detail on the Myeri in Secrets of Shandisholm. For a taster:

The Myeri's origin is shrouded in mystery, but their own myths say they were created by a god called Dagda and were intended to be a perfect society, which is why they have a caste system based on physical traits. For some reason Dagda then rejected them and cast them from their home realm, leaving them wandering through the Void until they happened upon the Mortal Realm, emerging out of the sea. They were sustained on their travels by a piece of coral from their homeland which resisted the crushing horrors of the Void and guided them to the new land. Unfortunately the power of the coral drew the attention of the Fae, which sealed the doom of the Myeri and caused them to be scattered into the fens.

It's pretty fair to say a lot of love has gone into this book. The Myeri are easily drafted into a fimir clan, and any fimir fan should really take a look. Accompanying the book is a Myeri clan box. Inside are 9 metal miniatures: 5 Losbast warriors and 4 Oibrithe workers. The box also has parts to convert a Losbast warrior into a Draoi wizard, an Oibrithe worker into a Scealai (wandering poet/piper) and to change one weapon into the Pou-Koruru totem of the Meirge (ancestor guardian).

I am always excited at anything Celtic, stooped and cyclopean, but what excites me most about this set are the non-combatants. The workers and the wandering piper are something I that I'd really like to add to my clan. My absolute favourite Myeri was the piper from Oakbounds previous set. These look to be more of that ilk, the smith and mushroom gatherer my favourites, bar the Scealai. The huge Losbast with the totem is giving me the eye too. Well, he has only one, after all.

All in all, a tremendous read. As I say, if you are keen on Celtic folklore, fimir or a new narrative biased game system, give Secrets of Shandisholm a go. You can get more info a the Oakbound site, or from the Facebook page.

Shadow Empire - Terracotta Warrior Swordsmen Unit

Today sees the second unit of terracotta warriors for the Shadow Empire army finished. I had a little trouble finding command figures for this unit as I only had one set of the John Jenkins Designs command, and alas they are no longer available. After some searching I found an excellent source of Chinese Qin era miniatures at Renegade Miniatures in their Warring States range. I had previously sourced my Qin shields, halberds and swords from them (okay, the swords are Saxon, but nobody will notice, Shhh.) Not only do they have plenty of infantry and command figures, but also a good range of cavalry, so I guess those terracotta warriors riding bronze horses is going to be happening now.

On another note, Renegade's customer service is exemplary, they made sure I got exactly what I was after and then some, I can't recommend them highly enough.

Here's the Renegade command set below. There are a couple of officer models, the other one with the fabulous moustache will be leading the crossbowmen.

I particularly love the standard bearer. I made the standard from steel rod and a printed flag (repainted once attached and folded/torn) topped with a plastic skull for garnish.

The John Jenkins sculpts are a lot of fun, the definitely have a nice sense of humour to them. I love the guy on the left here who's using another warrior's arm as a weapon. His back is entirely caved in, as is the warrior's back on the right, who has given up his shield in favour of holding his torso together. They probably secretly hate Mr 'All in one piece' there in the middle.

So onto the crossbowmen. Once they are done, it'll be onto the non clay-based portions of the army such as LoPan's retinue and the vampires. I will be adding the aforementioned cavalry and a chariot to the terracotta contingent down the line as the army grows.