Ghost Archipelago 1 - Undead Deckhands

Yo-ho! Avast ye swabs, the Mumblings be a come over all nautical of late! I've embarked on a new project with some pals, and we are assembling some warbands, terrain, monsters and such for Ghost Archipelago. The plan is to build and paint now, and play later when things allow for it. It keeps us all hobbying, and gives us something cool to look forward to down the road.

As you may have guessed, Ghost Archipelago is all pirates, treasures, strange islands and terrible beasties. I took this as an opportunity to finally paint some undead pirates. As with orcs, everyone gets to pirates sooner or later. 

So, having chosen the crew of the ghostship Kraken as my salty swabs, I picked out a band of ten undead buccaneers. I need at least four crew, so I picked out the first two as testers for the group.

Empty Isaac is a lowly deckhand aboard the Kraken. He is a forgetful fellow, and struggles to find the words to communicate with his shipmates. Happily, Benjamin, his gull, is most articulate and can express what poor Isaac no longer can. This may have something to do with the fact that Benjamin has eaten most of Isaac's brain over the years. Many postulate Ben isn't actually a real gull at all, but some phantasmal flicker of Isaac's persona. Ben ascertains this is nonsense, and he is a perfectly normal talking seagull.

Both the minis here are from a Kickstarter run by Warploque Miniatures for their Arcworlde game some years back. They released an entire crew, so there will be a few more from the range appearing in the band. 

Yardarm Tom has been a deckhand aboard the Kraken ever since he was cut down from the gallows, though he had been left there a little too long in truth, and the crows had had their way with him. The experience has made Tom somewhat grumpy, and he whispers hoarsely to himself constantly. It's better not to listen to what he is saying. There's a lot about crows.

I used a lot of Contrast paint on these two fellows, especially on their skin. Red, green and purple, thinned down with medium makes for fun painting. A round or two of highlights and that was them done. I added some planking to my usual basing technique to give it a more seabed flavour, while still sitting well with my normally based undead. I added some dead lichen, which could be dead grasses, wavy seaweed or dead coral, depending on how you squint at it. I've accrued a few fish and sea creatures from the Idoneth Deepkin range, so I'll be lashing them onto the next bases I do. Some are big enough to make for individual miniatures in their own right. I feel a pet moray eel coming on.

With these two lowlifes done, I'll be moving onto more prestigious members of the crew next.

Undead - Morglug the Oblivious

Continuing with my current enthusiasm for all things undead, here we have an undead orc, Morglug. He's from Diehard  Miniatures, one of a set of non-human undead. As joining the ranks of my undead host, he will also serve aboard the ghostship as part of my Ghost Archipelago crew as a bit of muscle. 

I have quite a few other undead orcs, so I may build up a warband of former greenskins in time. FOr now though, it's just this lad. Here's his tale:

Morglug is the most unusual of orcs. He has been dead for some time, but for some reason, seems have decided to ignore this fact. One explanation is possibly that most perplexing of orc traits, their belief that is something is, then it is. Morglug believes himself to still be alive, and so despite his internal organs falling out and his skin rotting away, merrily continues on. There is no necromancy that animates Morglug's bones, no master he follows. He insists on continuing on much as he once did, though the grog tends to go to waste as he pours out into his empty throat.

In recent times other undead greenskins have been seen in Morglug's company. Perhaps his power is growing, raising others to follow him in his wanderings across the lands.

So there we are. Next up we have some salty undead crew members for the ghostship. (name to be decided, but it'll be super spooky.) Some regular crew first, then we'll get onto the tasty characters like the captain and the old man of the sea.

Whaddaya mean I smell like old socks filled with hairy cheese?

Undead - Momentous Mori

After a long time spent ticking away at this large dead guy, I have today for you the undead giant, Momentous Mori, just in time for Halloween and the upcoming Scale Creep Living Dead Challenge.

The miniature hails from Macrocosm Games, and I've added some extras to his gangly frame, such as the armour on his upper arms, which hail from some unknown ogre kit. I bought a job lot of ogre bits a few years ago and it's one of the best source for handy parts I have, I dip into it constantly. Some savage orc arrows in his chest, and a vulture from the giant kit whispering into where his ear used to be, and he was good to go. 

I also added a dead knight to his base to give him a bit of scale. That knight was one of the very first miniatures I ever owned, and has been waiting for some paint for ooo... 35 years or so? 

Next I added some wee gravestones, the odd few scraggly branches (bless that dryad kit) and a toppled statute to finish off the spooky vibe.

The painting on this fellow followed my usual undead recipes, though I continue to experiment with dead flesh. The giant still has meat on his hands for some reason. Maybe he moisturized. I did use some contrast paints to glaze the leather under his coif, and the branches at his feet. I'm still slowly working contrast into my techniques, it's mighty stuff.

So, here's the background on the Momentous Mori:

Morbius the liche is notoriously sentimental, and has many pet projects that he refuses to abandon. The Momentous Mori is one such experiment. The giant is not the remains of one monster, but rather an assembly of bits and pieces. The creature is given animus by flickers of soul-stuff woven together by both Amun and Morbius, but somewhere along the line they seemed to have created an entirely new soul. While the battle-knowledge that was embedded in the beast's being made it terrible foe, when not required to hew apart mortals with it's rusty cleaver, the giant could be found pointing up at clouds, trying to play with animals and following Amun or Morbius around like a child. 

Morbius found this adorable.

So it is that the Momentous Mori is a favourite among Morbius' creations, and so woe betide the wight or wraith who upsets the beast by not playing 'throw the skulls' or 'chase the direwolves' with the massive construct.

Fimir - Seanchaí

After a bit of a dry spell I have another fimir for you today. Tadhg, Seanchaí of the Fir Domhan. (The Fomorian Wayfarer from Krakon Games) He's a human size fimir, and is unlike many fimir-style models as he looks more of a wanderer than a warrior, despite his long spear.

I've been looking forward to painting him for a while. I decided to take my new Raphael series 8404 brushes on a bit of a test drive with him, so I added a spot of freehand to his cloak.

They are really nice brushes. They keep their point very well, and hold a nice volume of paint. I had been reduced to painting with scraggly ruins until they arrived, so it was a delight to have new brushes. I best not leave it so long next time. 

Here's Tadhg's backstory:

Tadhg is a welcome sight among the settlements of the Fir Domhan. He often appears around times of festival or celebration, but also times of mourning or ceremony. He is a Seanchaí, or storyteller, a custodian of tradition and keeper of heritage. He is also quite the gossip, and carries news and goings on from village to village. A master orator, his tales of heroism and tragedy are much loved by the fimir, though he is a frequent visitor to the human villages of the Tuatha Taiden as well.

He carries a long heavy spear, though in truth it seems to be more staff than weapon. More famous yet is his cloak, the Eagna Mac Tíre. Cut from wolfskin, it is heavily tattooed with beasts, heroes and passages written in Fimar, the written language of the fimir, which shift and change to compliment whatever tale or speech Tadhg is giving. 

Tadhg is not a tall fimir, and is, indeed, of the shearl class. In fact, he is quite rotund, being given to enjoying the constant hospitality offered to him. Despite this, he enjoys the respect and deference of even the dirach and the nobles of the Fianna. The Seanchaí is a sacred office, and to bring harm or disrespect to one is the most terrible offence.

Tadhg's tales are of the past, the present, and on occasion, the future. He presides over matters of custom and gives eulogy over the dead. He recounts to the fimir of the wrongs done to them, and reminds them of the deeds of heroes and villains long gone.

Then he is off on his way, and days are counted until he returns again.

For gaming purposes, Tadhg will count as a minor magic user or lesser hero. I'm adding s few characterful fimir at the moment so I can build up a nice warband for Warcry, Frostgrave and so on. I have a daemonmaniac coming up that'll work for any larger ogre-sized beastie I might need.

Elatha and Fedelmid catch up on the news as they escort Tadhg into the Ráth.

Fimir - Jes Goodwin's Limited Edition Fimir

Aah, a return to one of my absolute favourite factions, the fimir! I've been promising myself I'd get around to painting Jes Goodwin's 1987 Limited Edition fimir for years, and finally, here he is. May I present Elatha, Fian of the Warped (Na Buile). I have several bucket list minis I have decided to take on this year, this being the fist.

The fimir were always intended to be roughly human sized, as this fellow is. The reasons they ended up the size of ogres is already well documented already. This rare treasure though, is the archetype as far as I am concerned.

It's been a few years since I painted a fimir, so as you do, I tinkered with my recipes a little. I altered the skin, toning down the yellow and replacing my highlight colour, Elf Flesh, for a less yellow tone, Flayed One Flesh. I also added more green to the bronze. I'm pretty happy with the results.

I also had a go at making the club tail quite dark, and blending it into the flesh tone. It gives him a little more visual interest, so I think I'll keep that for now. Elatha is the first member of a new unit of fimm, the Warped. These are fimir that suffer from battle frenzy, and enter into the warp spasm in battle. There will be a lot of weird mutations and so on. I have a couple of larger daemonmaniacs I'll be adding to this unit as unit fillers as well as serving as larger beasties in warbands.

I am finishing off a second fimir right now, of a very different type. A Seanchaí, a wandering storyteller. He'll be for adding to warbands for Frostgrave and Warcry. I plan on proxying the fimir as Bonesplitters in Warcry I think.

Speaking of warbands, here is Elatha, serving as Fian in Fedelmid the Dirach's warband.

Fedelmid leads his fimm and half-dead in search of transgressors.

Gaslands - The Faithful Sons

With the Gaslands project complete, it was time to take some shots of the whole gang. So, here there are, The Faithful Sons genestealer cult Gaslands gang in their entirely. Two heavy trucks, one performance car, one car, a buggy, two bikes, three acolytes on foot and five neophytes on foot.

The Zealot laying down some heavy fire.

I enjoy small contained projects like these, though I fell down the rabbit hole hard with this one. 20mm genecult near-future car gangs pressed several of my buttons. I could still go on and do a set of cult-inspired terrain for this. My terrain in general is sorely lacking! That might be a project for later in the year.

The Patriarch extorts his flock to greater efforts from the deck of The Ophanim.

I particularly enjoyed painting the bikes for this warband. I was stumped for what to use for bases, as I didn't fancy squares. Then I remembered I had a few clear bases left over from my Man O'War Khorne fleet, which worked out just fine. The infantry are on 20mm Renedra bases, with HobbyMad 20mm magnetic base bottoms for transport, and also because I like the nice clean black finish on the undersides. We all have our quirks eh?

Left to Right - The Joyful Word, Little Beast, The Ophanim, Jackal One and The Zealot.

With the gang complete, I'm hoping to get some games in once such things are possible. In the meantime I have built myself a list of 'must paint' minis I've had on my mind for years. I'm starting off with the Limited Edition Jes Goodwin fimir. After that I have some of the Skeleton War Machines set to do, some 28mm Genecult minis, (the kelermorph in particular), Genecult chaos coven minis and a certain beloved Tzeentch sorceror and Khorne warlord from my youthful warhammer exploits all in my sights.

One is excited.

Gaslands - Neophyte Hybrids

Today the last of installment of my Gaslands project, the neophytes. It's been a very enjoyable project, but the time has come to wrap it up for now. These five eager brethren are the final addition until the 20mm love hits me again. 

From Northstar, and sculpted by Mark Copplestone, these bald fellows make for perfect neophytes. They were a joy to paint, as most Copplestones are, being sufficiently detailed, but really easy to read. I gave them my standard genestealer cult colour scheme, and added to my small trio of acolytes, they make for a nice little group of foot sloggers.

So with these guys completed, I am more than ready for Gaslands fun, once I pick up a few gaming accessories that is. I'll be posting some shots of the complete gang soon, but for now I'll leave you with a photo of part of the gang limbering up for some missionary work. 

Some of The Faithful Sons doing a grocery run.

Gaslands - Acolyte Hybrids

Today we have a trio of acolyte hybrids on foot for my Gaslands genecult. Making these wee hybrids in 20mm was something I put way more effort into than I should have, but it was terribly enjoyable. The original minis were 'Dark Brethren' from CP Models. Here are the un-defiled minis:

So as you can see, they've been fairly brutalised. I mostly used greenstuff to make the ymgarl hybrid heads, with some claws from my bits box. For the other hybrid with the mancatcher, I used some Instant Mold to make a mould of parts of one of the old metal genestealer familiars, which gave me enough pieces to work with to make an early generation hybrid.

Here are the fellows in more detail.

Brother Hastun Medlock

Brother Davon Yogoth

Brother Jerec Yogoth

These three fellows are the first of eight cultists on foot. That should see me right for most predicaments the Faithful Sons might find themselves in.

Of course, I do see myself adding a covered truck to the group at some point, if only to echo the vehicles from the illustration in White Dwarf 115 above. A covered wagon with some purestrains visible in the back would be pretty cool.

Finally, the patriarch has some hybrid mooks to order about. 'Make sure it's a skimmed milk latte my child.'

So, with that, I start on my final push to finish the project, the neophytes on foot. I leave you with an image of just how wee these guys are! I've grown used to the scale, but boy, they are teeny.

Gaslands - Jackal Bikers

The Gaslands project careens towards completion. The last vehicular additions are these two wee bikers. Kol Venner and Sayben Desh riding Jackal bikes operate as outriders and scouts for the Faithful Sons.

Both of the bikers are 3D prints, graciously sent to me by a pal once I announced I was looking for genecult bikers in 20mm. I mounted them on bases I had left over from my Man O' War project.

Kol Venner on Jackal One.

This one has an obvious warboy vibe, but suits equally well as a neophyte biker. I painted on some residual brow ridges just to reinforce the genecult theme, as well as  a purplish tinge to his skin.

Sayben Desh on Jackal Two.

Kol here is much more obviously a miniature atalan jackal. Where he hails from, I know not, I was just delighted to my hands on him.

With these two outriders, the gang is technically complete. However, I'm going to add some cult members on foot should 20mm cult wargaming opportunities loom at some juncture.

Little Beast flanked by the jackal riders.

Gaslands - Little Beast

Today we have the last of my vehicles for my Gaslands gang, Little Beast. I wanted to add a buggy to the roster, partly as it's another vehicle type, partly as I like that sweet Northstar gunner and partly because I love this car. It's the only one I bought from a modern range specifically for the gang.

This was the only car I took apart to paint. I drilled out the post once I had consulted YouTube on the matter. Painting it in sections was much easier, and it went back together really easily. I added a driver too, who you totally can't see in these photos, but he's in there, all highlighted up, rarely to be seen by the eyes of humanity.

For parts, I used up more of my Northstar wasteland warriors drivers crew pack, leaving me only one lonely passenger mini. I used another 3D printed gun and some parts from the Implements of Carnage sprue. I have a handy tub of Adeptus Mechanicus parts that are unbelievably handy for odd parts, such as the gun mount and windscreen shield. Some bendy corrugated sheeting for amrour and that was that. 

I kept the original wheels this time, as I had run out of alternatives! Still, they look grand. With that, the gang is ready for road, though I am adding some more models, namely a pair of neophytes on bikes. After that, we're looking at some neophytes and acolytes on foot.

Little Beast and The Zealot.

Gaslands - The Ophanim

The Gaslands project chugs on. Today I add the main man to the gang, that patriarch himself, on his tricked out limo, The Ophanim.

I wanted a performance car for the gang, and not adding a limo to a genestealer cult Gaslands crew would be a major missed opportunity. Happily I came across an the perfect vintage die-cast car in a €1 tub of similarly unloved cars at a local scale-modeller shop.

Once I'd mutilated the old car, I ferreted about for some tasty parts to make it into a conveyance for the more ostentatious patriarch. A throne made of all sorts of detritus, a nasty ram, assorted do-das and a nice laser cannon. The crew are from Ramshackle, Northstar and Games Workshop (big daddy is in fact a genestealer cult familiar). I love the Northstar wasteland warriors, they make perfect neophytes. I have several prepped for duty as dismounted crew down the road. Down the road. Eh? No?

Fine.

The car was painted up much the same as the rest of the gang, heavyily weathered and with plenty of black contrast paint. I added a little heat damage to the laser and painted up the... lasery bit as if it is hot to add some visual interest. I fear for that crewman's nethers if that thing misfires.

The performance car has two build slots, so I chose the laser and grabber arm. The reason I went for grabber arm is that I wanted something to represent the patriarch's psychic powers as he mentally compels enemy drivers to plough their cars into walls, off bridges and into each other. The arm can change an enemy vehicle's facing, so that works nicely.

With the limo done, I am starting work on the final car of the gang, the buggy.

Genestealer Cult - Macrocosm Space Dwarf Bikers Kickstarter

Today, amid the turmoil of the rapidly changing world we now inhabit, I have some rather unusual delights for you. A while ago I became aware of a new project from Macrocosm, some space dwarfs, including bikers. There were parts to convert them into mutants, which look very much like genestealer cult squats, so naturally I was most interested.

Chris from Macrocosm was kind enough to send me a selection, and I set to work. They are modular, so there are a variety of arms, heads, weapons, packs and so on. Along with the number of regular squat parts, there are several hybrid heads along with some mutated arms, and a dedicated hybrid biker body with an extra arm.

I used that very biker body here, on Dagur Griefkin, Atalan Jackal of the Kabeiri. The set was sculpted by Bob Olley and Alessio Cisbani. I'm quite the fan of both sculptors, and as Bob has sculpted so many genestealer cult minis before they fit in nicely.

The bikes are metal, so have quite a bit of heft to them. I recommend pinning where possible.

Here we have Baerdal Clawhammer and his gunner, Lythur Griefkin on a Wolftrike. (A very fine proxy for the Atalan Jackal Wolfquad) The trike is a charming mini, perfectly at home in a retro Bob Olley heavy cult. I do recommend painting it in sub-assemblies though. I tested out my scheme for vehicles for the Kabeiri on these bikes, and I'm quite happy with it. I think it'll work well on ridgerunners and goliaths.

The faces on the hybrids were a joy to paint, with lots of nice detail. I used mostly contrast paints on the skin, and essentially washed in all the colour over a Pallid Wych Flesh basecoat, with only one set of highlights over the washes.

There is also a set of infantry available. So for anyone wanting a nice squad of modular hybrid squats, now's your chance. The claw arm on this guy is a conversion, using the hand from the mutated arm in place of a regular squat hand. There are heavy weapons as well as melee and ranged arm options for these.

So, if you fancy some of these, head over to the kickstarter which is due to start any day now, and see what tickles your fancy.

Gaslands - The Joyful Word & The Zealot

It's been a while, but at long last my next two Gaslands vechicles are ready to roll. Two heavy trucks, The Joyful Word and The Zealot join The Preacher and get the gang up and running proper.

Since I built The Preacher I went on something of a parts ordering spree. The Ramshackle Games ranges were ideal, giving me loads of guns, turrets, rams, armour and some tasty cultist type crew I could have driving and hanging off the various vehicles. Combined with the Gaslands Implements of Carnage sprue from Northstar and some nice 3d printed parts I had enough bits to kit out a number of vehicles.

The two trucks have been in my possession a very long time, almost forty years I think. They were originally two Kellogg's Cornflakes delivery trucks I sent off for as a lad. Little did I know as I cut out those wee coupons from cardboard cereal boxes that I'd be ruthlessly defacing them several decades later. Life, you scamp you.

As well as the parts I amassed, I carved some armour plates from plastic card for the windows. That combined with some corrugated iron served to armour these lads up. Oh, and some nice big rams. The Joyful Word also has some skeletons chained to the front. These are from the All Quiet on the Martian Front range.

The Joyful Word above is kitted out with a machine gun, crewman with grenades, ram and a wall of amps. Not the most efficient weapon, but huge laugh potential. The magus is no doubt extolling the faithful to ever greater effort via five huge meaty amps. 

I used a combination of traditional and contrast paints here. Mostly to quiet down drybrushing or add some vibrancy. I also used the Shyish Purple contrast paint with some medium to apply some recess glazes to the cultist's red robes. The slightly smaller scale begs greater contrast, though I might start using it on my 28mm stuff too, as it works nicely.

The Zealot is a more aggressive machine. Armed with a minigun, harpoon, ram and a crewman with a machine gun, it's an unsubtle automobile. These two trucks won't be super nippy, but they'll certainly be good for turning rivals cars into flaming scrap metal. With these two done I think I'll need to add something more nippy like a buggy or performance car. Maybe a bike or two.

My next build will be a lot more overtly genestealer cult related. I mean, the cult limo is a staple, but I'm thinking something more open top, with just a sprinkle of throne room thrown in. Daddy needs a sweet ride too.