Dracula's America - Shadow Empire Cultists

A weird one today. Three miniatures that went from being very low down the priority list to absolute must paint. Let me give you a little backstory.

Cheetor has been evangelising about Dracula's America: Shadow of the West for some time now. Set in 1875, Dracula is now president of the United States, and all manner of hell is breaking loose. Quite literally. It's essentially the weird wild West. So, what has this to do with the fellows above you might ask? Well, recently the first expansion, Hunting Grounds, was released, and in this is rules for the Shadow Dragon Tong, Chinese crime lords. This caused my ears to prick up.

I've been building a Chinese force for Dragon Rampant based on Big Trouble in Little China. The Arcanist from the Tong posse is literally the same model I'm using for LoPan. I had some Wing Kong gang members already. So these lads were, all of a sudden, bumped right to the front of the queue. I love that, when an unexpected game or whimsy causes long neglected minis to suddenly become rockstars that must be painted. For those of you who don't remember, the Wing Kong are these guys:

There was one more wrinkle though, our version of Dracula's America took place is the future. In space. So a little more thought was required. The cultists needed future tech. I considered LoPan coming across a trove of arcane weapons buried long ago by an advanced race. He might retro-engineer the technology to suit his purpose.

Or depending on the setting he could just be mates with an eldar trader with loose morals. In any case, here's the posse so far:

I have one more set of minis to add to the gang to complete it. You can see the little capsules on the cultist's belts? More eldar tech. It allows the wearer to control a wraith-machine with their mind. In ancient settings (like the Dragon Rampant army) this will be unfathomable arcane technology. In future settings like the Firefly-like one we are planning for Space Dracula's America, it'll be a remote control device that humans aren't really meant to use. Hence the unhealthy pallor of the Wing Kong cultists.

So what are they controlling? Well, to keep with the theme of the gang AND the theme of my Dragon Rampant army AND the Big Trouble in Little China thing I needed something pretty niche. But lo, the internet, it provides. High tech ancient Chinese robots? Here you go. What flavour sir?

I have three of these to do. This one is out of the box, bar some face-plate mangling. The others are getting some conversion work with dark eldar weaponry. Stay tuned for these shortly. I have a week to get them done in time for my first Dracula's America game.

Kickstarter - Bonefields

My good mate Chris from Macrocosm is currently running a kickstarter for his new game Bonefields. It's a skirmish game where all the factions are undead, starting with dwarves and goblins. As you can see from the image above, I've already gotten my paws on some of the miniatures from the game. The goblin vampire is pretty great, and also hilarious. There are some really nice miniatures coming down the line should the kickstarter do well such as the goblin poker and gobbers and the dwarf berserker king. It's a great project to be involved in.

The rules are being written by James Hewitt and Sophie Williams from  Needy Cat Games. James has previously designed such games as The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth, Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower and Gorechosen, Necromunda: Underhive and the upcoming Adeptus Titanicus.

So it looks like it could be a pretty fun game. You'll be able to progress the members of the warband, adding skills, picking up injuries and such. Models can be killed in game but don't leave play as they can be resurrected. There's a development blog for the rules here.

The project funded in two days and at the time of writing has already knocked down the first stretch goal, zombie dwarves. If you like your undead you'd be well served to take a look at what's on offer. Aside from the boxed game there are a lot of add on sets that can be used for pretty much any game, from undead pony and wolf riders to goblin catapults.

I love the character models. Look at that dwarf wight king. Isn't he... groovy? There are also several token, scenery and objective sets. The four you can see above are literally perfect for Legions of Nagash grave markers.

So there you go. Take a look, you can check it out here.

Shadespire - Petitioner 1

So, I've painted a model I bought only recently. What? Crazy! Surely the sky, surely it is falling. I've been quite enamoured by Shadespire, and I love the Sepulchral Guard set. They're amazing miniatures. This is the first model from the faction, a lowly petitioner. I used my tried and tested bone technique on him, and use my ages bronze recipe from my terracotta warriors on his shield and sword hilt. The hit of green from the bronze sits nicely with the orange/red rust and on his tattered, what? Loincloth? Shorts? Baggy trousers?

The base is already sculpted, so I just added a few old leaves.

Painting this guy has me wanting to get the rest of the set on the table. You gotta be careful assembling and cleaning though, this guy is quite fragile with all his thin parts. With Legions of Nagash out too, jeez, well, undead have always been a cherished faction of mine. Once the book arrives it'll be hard to resist getting a warband together. For now though, I'll paint this guy some mates for Shadespire.

Bonefields - Goblin Undead

Today we have another tasty pair of goblinoid skeletons from the upcoming Bonefields Kickstarter from Macrocosm, a heavy infantryman and a fanatic. Well, I assume he's a fanatic on account of the nasty looking ball he's wielding. He looks like he means to do woeful harm with it anyhow.

There are several goblin heavy infantry sculpts as far as I know. They'd make a great bodyguard unit for the goblin vampire.

Macrocosm's Bonefields kickstarter begins Feb 23rd.

Bonefields - Dwarf and Goblin Warbands

I've just finished off the latest dead lads for the dwarf and goblin warbands for Bonefields, two more slayers and three goblin spearmen. As has been pointed out, the way I've painted the slayer's loincloth makes it look like saggy soiled underpants, which after I finished laughing about I decided only added to the undead horror. Truly a fate worse than death.

The painting has reached a point where they can now be called warbands. The goblin vampire above commands four archers, four spearmen, two swordsmen, one goblin hero and one heavy infantryman with halberd. I can also let slip what you get in the Bonefields starter set for the goblins.You get the lads here below:

So it's four spearmen, four archers and the goblin vampire. There is an insane amount of units you can add to this starting warband. I hear tell of undead Squi- ah, I mean rotund cave dwelling monsters, cavalry, command models and even war machines. The sculptors Alessio Cisbani and Darren Edwards are doing mighty work indeed, along with the indefatigable Chris Nicholls, owner of Macrocosm and creator of Bonefields.

As to the dwarves, here's the warband as it stands. The dwarf necromancer controls a dwarf hero, two dwarf wights, four slayers, (two with greatweapons and two with two axes) and four warriors with sword and shield.

For the dwarf side of the starter set you get four warriors, four slayers and the dwarf Necromancer. All told the set contains eighteen miniatures at the time of writing.

The dwarves are likewise set to receive a load of models to expand the warband. Cavalry, zombies, crossbowmen, command and even artillery.

I have two more undead on the table at the moment which I'll be using to build a painting tutorial for techniques used on the models seen above. One is another goblin heavy infantryman for rusted and worn armour and the other, the bone tutorial, is fanatical about his ball and chain.

The Bonefields Kickstarter kicks off on the 23rd of February.

Bonefields - Characters

Following on from my earlier post on Macrocosm's upcoming Bonefields release, I've been beavering away on some more of the new range. First up is this fantastic goblin vampire. I don't recall ever seeing a goblin vampire before (gobpire? Vamplin?) but Alessio Cisbani has done a fantastic job on this evil wee spud. I'd love to see him do other types of goblin vampires.

I moved away from the traditional goblinoid green for his flesh to up the vampireosity, just adding some green glazes to his eyes and other facial recesses. I painted him in fancy lacquered red armour, but, as he IS a goblin after all, it's dirty and knackered looking. Two rusty swords complete to look for this diminutive blood-drinking nutter.

I've also completed two more goblin undead, a spearman and one of the goblin heavy infantry. As with the other goblin skeletons they paint up nice and easy. I have some of the more exotic goblin undead on the table at the moment, but that's for another post.

Next up we have the wizened little dwarf Necromancer. He's all feet and head this lad, and has a scuttling sneaky pose that's distinctly un-dwarfy.

Flanking our creepy wee necromancer we have two of the new undead dwarf slayers/berserkers. They still have their golden arm clasps, but those luxurious beards are gone forever. Truly a fate worse than death for a dwarf. They must be mad as hell.

I have another batch of Bonefields minis on the painting table at the moment. Once they are done it'll be time for some warband photos. There are some truly hilarious models in the pipeline, I can't wait to get to some of the more unusual undead, they'll be a lot of fun to get on the gaming table.

2017 - The MrSaturday Hot Take

It's that time of year again, time to glance back over the last 12 months and see what I've done in the hobby. It's been an extraordinarily intermittent year, veering between hot hobby flushes with wondrous gooey mojo in abundance to nihilistic hobby desolation where brushes sat untouched and unloved for weeks on end. You ready? Let's kick off so.

I started off the year with three Chinese Yaoguai for my Shadow Empire army for Dragon Rampant. I'm super happy with these guys. I chose quite saturated colours to make them stand out against the rather monotone terracotta warriors. One thing I was quite chuffed with was how adding metallic silver to the sash highlights gave them a pleasant sheen that mimicked silk rather nicely.

This guy was probably my favourite mini of the year, the lost and found again brother Victor. Rescued from a terrible fate, stripped, whittled, repaired and rebuilt, he was a fun project. This was also the first model I used weathering powder on. He looks hilariously tiny now, compared to the Primaris marines (Which I like too ) though the scale discrepancy bothers me not so much.  I wonder when someone will convert a squad of beakies to ride primaris into battle?

This fellow however marks the last mini I would paint for some time.

But when I did come back to painting, this lad was waiting for me! Lo Pan, the leader of the Shadow Empire and a bucket list character I've wanted to paint for years. I completed him toward the end of March, finishing my command unit for Dragon Rampant. 

Still basking in the post finished unit glow, I took a sharp about face and headed North, into the wastes. Actually, that's not right, is it? Chaos doesn't live in the North anymore, does it? It's bloody everywhere in AoS. Under the bed: chaos. In the sports section: chaos Khorne team wins county cup. On the way to work: Nurgle salaryman lets one rip in packed tube with THAT smile on his face. Knock on the door: Two incredibly well dressed lads ask have you heard of lord Tzeentch? No? Excellent, that's because he's so sneaky. Welcome to the fold. Here's your suit. No sign of Slaanesh though. Maybe I should check under the bed again.

Well, anyhow, I was quite taken with Gorechosen, so I decided to paint up a gladiator, the not over the top at all slaughterpriest, Markus Scissorfist.

He's quite big, twice the height of a Realm of Chaos thug, but y'know, it's chaos, so feck it. I also swapped his head out for a UGE mutated helmet. I figure if I'm gonna go Khorne, I may as well go full Khorne. After this dainty flower was finished I headed back to the Shadow Empire.

We were in June now. These odd gents are guardians, as seen in Big Trouble in Little China. I figured Thousands of years ago Lo Pan might have has a few more, so I made a unit for the army. Fun little spuds to paint. This was my last addition to the army for the year, though I have many additions planned. Bronze cavalry ridden by terracotta warriors, the three storms, Chinese vampires, a war chariot, even undead snakemen, the sculptors of the warriors.

I spent the rest of the Summer slowly adding to my Khorne warband, which I enjoyed very much indeed. I was light on hobby for most of the Summer, but adding a model to the band here and there kept me in the game. I love the old thugs, and I hope to add quite a few more. Ultimately it would be nice to have a force to play larger games of AoS or Dragon Rampant with.

As we wore into Autumn I learned that Essex miniatures had a hearty trove of Bob Olley minis in their ranges, including undead. This guy was sent to me by a kindly soul on the proviso I paint him up post haste. Now, anyone who has painted an Olley and not just drybrushed the whole thing knows there are place an Olley sculpt can take you you may not return from. Folds within folds, time and space cease to follow the laws of the universe, everything you know is called into question.

This was most definitely the wrinkliest Olley I've painted. You'll never be the same, but damn they are satisfying models to paint.

Around this time I had a friend calling down once a week for games. It was a most welcome weekly event, as otherwise my gaming has been most poor in 2017. I tend to play in other places apart from at home, often on tables with spectacular terrain, so my home terrain set is starting to show some deficiencies. I took to touching up some of my terrain boards, and then my eye lit on this tower which has been sitting in a closet for a decade or more.

It took very little time to update this old Battlemasters tower, and it's a grand piece to have in the collection. Gawd bless Typhus Corrosion.

As Winter closed in I started working on some minis for Macrocosm's Bonefields project, starting with undead dwarves and goblins. It's very fun, and I've got another pile on the painting desk at this very moment. There's something very tongue in cheek about the range I really like, and I now want to see all sorts of fantasy stalwarts undeadified. The Kickstarter begins toward the end of February if I am correct.

As the year wound up I found myself in possesion of this fine fellow, sent on by Ross of Krakon Games. Conand here was part of the Wrath of Cichol Kickstarter, and as even the dogs in the street know, I'm very keen on the fimir, or in this case, fomorians.

It was very pleasant indeed to work on this guy, and gave me a grá to work on more fimir. I refined my fimir palette a little for him, and I'm liking the result. I have several other fimir-like minis on the painting desk at the moment, many from Bloodmoon Miniatures, which I should have finished months ago.

Finally, just before Christmas I cracked out this tiny fellow. He joins my chaos Santa, and over the years I'll add a few more Christmas themed minis. I already have evil elves and the Krampus lined up for next year. Who knows, in time I might have a Christmas warband.

So a fairly lean year, productivity wise, with less than forty minis painted. On the plus side, I already have the first ten minis or 2018 almost finished, which puts me well ahead of the curve on 2017. As always I have plenty of ideas for what I'd like to work on this year. A force or terminators from 2000AD's Nemesis is high on the agenda right now, as are several other ideas, so we'll see, you know how these things go.

 For the first while though it's all undead flavoured, with a light fimir seasoning.