Silver Bayonet - Baba Zoya

This dark Winter's eve I bring you Baba Zoya, grandmother to all the lost souls of Morozov's command.

A devoted sister to the great mother, Baba Yaga, Zoya is nonetheless a powerful witch in her own right. The souls of the dead vie to light her way to the Sabbath, such is their love of Baba Zoya, for she makes the crops ripen and the cows give milk, and her wrath can wither the flesh from the bones of the impudent and the unfaithful.

Baba Zoya travels with Morozov and tends to the souls of his retinue. Her soft whispers and potent salves can bring precious relief to the damned, and they would no more offer her disrespect than a man would curse his own family. She is as the bones of the land, and so from the highest vampire to the lowliest walking corpse, they defer to her in all things, and would shield her from harm with the last scrap of their withered flesh.

Baba Zoya is, for now, the final member of my Silver Bayonet squad. She was a bit of a tricky mini to paint, and despite her small size, required me to paint her in three pieces, her arms and cloak being painted separately. She is a Reaper Bones mini, and the detail was soft in places, requiring a little improvisation, but she came out well I think.

There are quite a few doodahs under that cloak. A bird, some manner of banjo(?), what looked like mathematical instruments, and other bits. None of which you can see now, once the cloak was glued in. I spent a great deal of time on her face, which I enjoyed immensely. She's a creepy looking gal. I can't but think of Hellboy when I see any Baba Yaga reference.

So that's that! I'm looking forward to playing some more games with a full squad. I may come back to paint a mounted undead Cossack in time, if the whim strikes me, but for now, Morozov and his creaky crew are ready to take to the haunted fields of 19th century Europe, and at the rate the expansions are coming out, far beyond.

Silver Bayonet - Serzhant Ursov's Bearform

On this most appropriate evening, I present Serzant Ursov's cadaverous were-form, the undead Russian bear. Amazing what niche rabbit holes you end of going down in this hobby.

The stinky giant is from Diehard Miniatures. He's a great sculpt, and has been lounging about morosely on my painting desk for months. He's big enough too, sitting on a 50mm base. I resolved to get him finished for Halloween, and lo, here he is.

Ursov's fur is drybrushing and thinned contrast paints, which is a very pleasant way to paint. Ratling Grime contrast makes for a great recess wash for mid-browns. Lots of red, purple and green washes on the flesh over a Rakharth Flesh basecoat, a Rakharth Flesh highlight, and the soggy bear flesh was done. The old exposed muscle was Khorne Red with purple, dark brown and red washes, highlighted with Khorne Red and a little Corax White. The usual bone recipe, some maggots and claws, and that was about it.

This fellow wraps up my my minimum required minis for my Russian Silver Bayonet squad. Huzzah! I have one more character I want to add for now though, and she'll be along presently.

Silver Bayonet - Serzhant Ursov

Good day to you all, I trust you're well? This day I have a strange fellow for you. Serzhant Ursov, undead shapechanger and hard-nosed (it's made of bone) sergeant. 

Ursov is a were-bear, and as soon as I read about this entry in the Silver Bayonet Russian list, I knew this was my guy. Technically an undead dogman from Flintloque's 666th foot box, he's just the ticket for my particularly eccentric unit. 

Trudging up the snow-laden hillside, the jerky, ungainly infantry were having a hard time of it. Though indefatigable, they were making slow progress as they stumbled and occasionally fell, vanishing into the white drifts with undignified puffs of snow.

Morozov would have been hugely entertained if it wasn't costing them so much time. They'd never make it to the forest by dawn at this rate. 

Near the base of the rise, Ursov sighed heavily as he righted a groaning private and barked orders at the flailing soldiers nearby. It was taking too long. Far too long. Desperate measures were called for. Handing his rifle and sword to his ensign, a sudden ripping sound exclaimed his drastic solution. 

Morozov's eyebrows raised slightly as he beheld the huge cadaverous bear bounding up the hillside, several zombified line infantry gripping it's flanks or simply riding on its back. A novel solution to be sure, but one that would see them make the cover of the forest eaves with time to spare. As the huge Ursa thundered past, Morozov was certain he heard one of the privates make a 'Wooo!' noise. 

Just the wind, he reassured himself.

The sculpt is surprisingly detailed, so took me EVEN LONGER than normal to paint. It does suffer from Bob Olley syndrome (and I love Olley sculpts) of wondering, is that bit a fold of cloth, or flesh, or billowing smoke. Or all three? I acquired a new love for the Contrast paint Garaghak's Sewer painting Ursov. Duly thinned with medium it makes for a fine weathering wash.

Finishing Ursov gives me, finally, a full unit. Almost. I still need the bear form for Ursov. 'Where will you get an undead bear, eh Dave?' Hah I would say to you. HAH. In this age of miniature abundance, undead bears are no challenge. It is on the painting desk as we speak. But, here is the final unit for your interwebby judgement.

Do svidaniya!

Silver Bayonet - Gunner Three

Another member of the unit rises from the cold Russian soil. Gunner three, my artillerist.

Three is another Flintloque miniature, this time from the Corpseov line artillery set. The set has quite a few crew, bit this guy, with his ramrod, (which doubles as a handy two-handed weapon) looked like the very fellow for the job.

Gunner Three had no memory of his former life, he was named for his function once raised to undeath, that of servicing the mighty cannon to which he and his companions were bound. To say he performed this function dutifully would be to give him too much credit. It was no more dutiful than a mill wheel turning. He had little awareness of the tasks he performed, and no sense of  the passage of time.

This was all to change one bitter morning as their line was raked by enemy fire. The baleful metal monster he and his fellows were slaved to took a direct hit, and as it was blasted to spinning shrapnel the grim hold it had exerted over its crew simply ceased. Along with many of the crew, it must be said.

Gunner Three was released from his fugue, his senses and thoughts boiling back up to fill his mind in a wave of renewed self-awareness. Skills long forgotten crept back into his remembrance, there to augment his now expert knowledge of artillery and explosives. Such a useful soldier was not left idle long, and soon he was sequestered to Morozov's retinue.

He never could remember his name though.

Once again, I dove into the historical internet ocean for info on the correct uniform for a Napoleonic artilleryman, and applied… elements of it to the artillerist’s ragged gear. 

For painting, I continue to work contrast into my style, especially on the skin. I’ve recently taken more to dry-brushing again, after listening to Byron from Atris Opus on The Painting Phase podcast. I really need some better dry brushes. Mine are a disgrace.

This guy brings me up to almost unit strength. One more character and they are good to go, though they have already seen action in reduced unit co-op games, which were excellent.

So, next up, the Russian were-bear!

Silver Bayonet - Rasputrid

Continuing on my Silver Bayonet buzz for the moment, I've finished another member of the squad. Morozov's second, the liche Rasputrid. I’m using him as a champion of faith in the game. 

Rasputrid is ostensibly under Morozov’s command, but in reality they are more partners serving a common cause. His knowledge of the esoteric is profound, and his great red book contains the accumulated knowledge of generations of masters of the arcane arts. He can call back undead soldiers that have suffered the most grievous damage, bone and sinew re-knitting as he extorts them to heroic feats in service to the Tzar. 

Rasputrid’s necromantic powers take the form of rousing oratory. Such is his fiery conviction that it can invigorate the dead and still the hearts of his enemies. Little wonder that Morozov places such worth in his counsel. 

For his part, Rasputrid sees great potential in the vampire, if he can reconcile his past and learn to tame his demons. 

Rasputrid is another Flintloque miniature, from the Deadloque set. (God damn I love that set.) Despite being mostly greatcoat, I’m very fond of this guy, and it was a treat to finally paint him.  

This brings the squad to six. I have two more to paint, the were-bear and the artillerist to bring the squad up to full strength. I do plan on adding a couple more though. Maybe a mounted Cossack or the Baba Yaga herself.  

Silver Bayonet - Oleg the Enduring

I've circled back around to my Silver Bayonet unit for this latest instalment. My Russians need a few more members before I can call them ready for action. So here we have a former Cossack ready to serve his undying master.

Oleg is another Flintloque sculpt from Alternative Armies. He's a charming wee fella, with his giant cuddly moustache. I looked over a few ideas for Cossack colour schemes for wee Oleg. Boy, they sure liked those vivid outfits. So, I gave him some fairly once-fancy colours, not least of all to contrast with his rather dour looking comrades. 

Oleg will probably be run as an irregular or light cavalryman in the game.

Oleg has served Morozov for some years, long before his current woeful condition befell him. Often sent of errands to far off locales to glean some scrap of information or token carried to him by other agents of the vampire, Oleg is an indefatigable horsemen, who, conveniently enough, rides an equally indefatigable horse. The long leagues he travels mean nothing to the undead Cossack, on the contrary, they still manage to generate a spark of joy and memory in his withered old soul as the wind whips through his still-magnificent moustache.

Stargrave - Loot Tokens

A small addition today. Some wee loot tokens I recently finished for Stargrave. Three physical, three data. These were used at the recent Stargrave weekend when my buddies and I pew-pewed our way across three days of sci-fi action. 

The Necromunda control panels are ideal data tokens, and I used one of Duncan's old GW videos for some tips on painting up the displays. I think it worked out pretty nicely.

The physical loot are a shrine, also from Necromunda, and two bits box builds of machinery doohickeys. Some drybrushing, washes, contrast paints, weathering, a green glaze for the physical, a red for the data, and that's them done!

Dress a Willy Sculpting Challenge

Something a little more unusual today. Back in March I came across the 'Dress a Willy' sculpting challenge on TheStillTower on instagram. Aside from the fact I was in a GorkaMorka adjacent mood, the idea of a naked, scrawny wee human toting gear taken from a dead grot made me chuckle something fierce. I contacted Pablo at TheStillTower and pleaded for a copy of wee Willy to convert and paint up. Pablo was very amiable and sent me on a copy right away.

One thing I liked when the mini arrived was that the resin support block he was attached to was sculpted as orky ruins and glyphs. Solid idea.

First off, one thing I was NOT doing was giving him any pants. It was far too hilarious leaving him flying free. Under the terms of the competition though, he had to be converted. even slightly. Here is the pile of Willie's ready to be posted. Ahem.

So, as you can see from the image at the top of the post, I added some orky shoulder pads and a shin guard. Some other folks went a lot further, such as the master convertor Axiom from Magpie and Old Lead. If you've not checked out Axiom's blog, do yourself a favour and wander on over.

For painting, I wanted wee Willy (giggle) to be a test model for an upcoming Digga mob for GorkaMorka. It's mostly natural materials, but the armour gets a little more zap with some dirty orange. I'm thinking of calling them the Sad Moons, as they want to be like the Bad Moons but can't paint yellow and have no cash.

I bet you weren't ready for that.

Sooo... in case you are a young whipper snapper, the joke is that Willy gets his gear from this guy:

Taken from the magnificent Leadplague, painted by Asslessman. Take a look at his gloriousness at the Leadplague blog. Bring snacks.

But didn't see fit to take his pants. Then again, I'm not sure I'd be brave enough to try on some grot underwear either. Some doors must stay shut.

Incidentally, TheStillTower also make absolutely sublime linocut prints, I have several in my basket. The ork sprue vinyl sticker is very fun. I wish I'd spotted this one in time:

Patriarch linocut print from TheStillTower

So what's next for Willy? I hear from Pablo a new mold is in the works and he's added more hands, another weapon, a squig and the body of a cetain looted grot. Take a look at the pics below. 

So, the story IS, our wee dead grot was playing his gameboy (gameboyz?) instead of watching out for humies and got a rock in the back of the head. 

I love it.

Stargrave 3 - Captain Aesir Vortag

We all have our favourite champions. Tiny metal, plastic or resin protagonists that we've become unreasonably attached to as they've battled in our name down the years. This is one such mini, a venerable warrior that has been leading my renegade hordes since I was a teenager. May I introduce Captain Aesir Vortag, formerly of the XII legion.

Vortag has a much storied history, mostly from some decades ago. Back in the late 80s and early 90s the Captain (though in his hubris he was Lord Vortag back then) led his renegades warbands against all comers. Myself and my buddies at the time gamed A LOT back then. We were all about Rogue Trader and then 2nd Edition 40k, and we played the bejeezus out of them. We built our own rudimentary, but enormous, campaign system. We even recorded many of our games in a large ledger, complete with maps, drawings and army lists. I have it to this day, and I get quite the warm fuzzy feeling when I look back over it. I was very close to posting one of my early doodles of Vortag in action from the ledger, but I will spare you that.

The Captain and his heretics butchered his way though Ork warbands, Tyranid hordes, loyalist Astartes, Imperial Guard detachments and assorted Eldar pirates. He accrued favourite enemies, and they harried one another over many a tabletop. 

Aahh... such days. 

But, eventually, the guns fell silent. Vortag's enemies took ship into the void (or college, as it was known on some worlds), and with no wars left to wage, the Captain and his warband made for the stasis pods. It was to be a long sleep.

Years passed, and other heroes came to the fore. Games came, games went, but I always had a tremendous soft spot for the infamous Captain.

 And so, when a plan for some of my gaming brethren to gather this Spring for a Stargrave weekend, I decided it was time for a new chapter for my slumbering hero.

Vortag is one of the Jes Goodwin Warhammer Fantasy Realm of Chaos champions. One of the curious set that seemed to be blessed with 40k weaponry and technology. Back then, chaos champions could indeed be gifted with rewards from the 40th millennium. They make very fine fallen legionnaires.

At the risk of getting overly maudlin, I found it quite an emotional experience finally getting paint on the old villain. I used mostly contrast paints and medium over metallic base coats. His tail and sword were blended and stippled, before getting a unifying glaze or two. I had been using Flesh Tearers Red mixed with medium for red chaos armour, but I wanted to turn up the vibrancy on Vortag so I added some Blood Angels Red to the mix to make it roughly 1:1:1. It was extremely satisfying finally getting him painted. He's one of four great heroes of my early days of gaming that I wanted to give such treatment to. The other three are still awaiting their turn.

Space rippled and shivered as the space hulk translated back into realspace, or rather, most of it did. Sections of the hulk tapered off into translucent ghost-shapes and tatters of best-forgotten memories. The hulk, the Odyssey of  Devotion, was never truly in one place, and it's labyrinth of ancient passageways could lead a traveller to an infinity of destinations and times, whether they willed it or no.

One such lost soul shivered into existence in the stillness of an abandoned gunnery deck, the dim lumens barely casting enough light to lift the figure out of the darkness. It stood there, in the silence. The darkness seemed to deepen, shifting and reaching out before suddenly recoiling as the warrior heaved a long cackling exhalation. Captain Vortag of the World Eaters Legion addressed his ship:

'Finally. Finally. You see, Malum? I told you. I told you I would find my way back.'

Around the speaker more figures coalesced, similar in aspect. The grim ruin of fallen Astartes, only barely recognisable as once noble space marines, but no less dangerous, and infinitely more wrathful. Some had clearly had to make battlefield repairs. Others seemed no different than moments, years or centuries earlier, when they had been scattered across the void. Others had had to abandon their armour entirely, and wore archaic or primitive replacements. Yet more had simply not returned at all. 

They regarded their leader expectantly. Vortag did not give the expectation time to fester into recrimination.

'My brothers. Let us see what has become of both ship and crew in our absence. Let us see what gifts Inquisitor Balthazar Malum has left us.'

For now, Vortag leads a mob of the Odysseys mortal crew, but I do have some of his legionnaires in the painting pipeline.

Stargrave 2 - Mutants and Murderers

 

Two more for the blood God. My band grows just a teeny bit today with the addition of another pair of absolute bastards. May I introduce Gerhart Voke and Abelard Dake.

Abelard Dake is another Diehard miniature, and a particularly crazy mutant. He's wonderfully nuts, and makes a great companion to Conrad Freig, who is also from Diehard. They both function as Ravaged Troopers in my Stargrave warband.

Abelard lost his life in service to Khorne as Conrad did, and was similarly revived by Khorne (after a fashion) to continue his ravages as a berserker. Life with a knee-face is probably pretty terrible, but that giant chainsword probably makes up for some of the practical setbacks. He keeps his hair looking sharp too. Somehow.

Gerhart Voke. This guy. This guy looks like he is just the WORST. Look at that face. I mean, he must just love his job. Gerhart hails from The Blooded Killteam box, which is just cracker, and contains the long lost and now found again chaos ogryn and corrupted commissar. Some of the new 40k chaos kits are just magic. The Accursed Mutants and new Jakhals kits are delicious. 

Gerhart is, as you'd expect, a heretic Astra Militarum trooper. Many such wretches serve Vortag, though few with the zeal and delight Gerhart displays. A total psychopath, he finds the service of Khorne a kind of murderous paradise, and indulges his brutal impulses with frenzied abandon. His continued existence, given his lack of caution in the face of enemy fire, is statistically almost zero, which has piqued Vortag's interest. Perhaps Khorne has plans for Gerhart.

Next up, the man himself, Aesir Vortag.

Stargrave 1 - Beginnings of the Murderband

A change of direction here at the Mumblings this day. A grand meeting of my compatriots is planned in a few month's time for some Stargrave action. This meeting is a follow up to last year's very enjoyable Ghost Archipelago meet-up where I took the crew of The Kraken on to greater glory and had a very fun time doing it.

This year it's all sci-fi flavoured, and I'm using it as an opportunity to paint up a group I've long wanted to see on the table, namely Vortag's Murderband, Vortag is a character from my very earliest days of gaming, a World Eater Captain fallen far from his glorious origins as a brother of the XII legion. With just a scant few of his brethren left in his company, he has been forced to recruit warriors of lesser provenance in order to bolster his ragged command.

But despite his predicament, his ambitions are lofty indeed. 

One of these lesser warriors is Conrad Freig, beloved of Khorne. A mortal berserker, Conrad's devotion to the creed of gore is total. So pure was his faith that on his death, Khorne, though taking Conrad's skull as his due, breathed new life into his torn corpse. Conrad rose again, altered, but filled with almost unbearable zeal, ecstatic in the knowledge that his own skull had been deemed worthy. He, and others like him now serve as devastating line-breakers for Vortag's warbands.

Conrad is a Diehard mini, and I used a combination of contrast and standard paint techniques on him. Contrast paints are settling into my painting armoury nicely now. I love making glazes with them, and I've taken to using Wraithbone primer as standard now.

Hopefully I'll have another couple of murderous nutters finished shortly.