It's Undead time! 1994 GW Zombie Dragon with Lahmian Rider!

So, time for another commission job I've got finished recently, and I really enjoyed painting and converting this one! 

Loads more photos and info after the cut...

MB07 Marauder Giant finished!

 So, one of my favourite models of all time is the Marauder MB07 Giant, and I've finally been able to paint one. It's a commission job, as he's too expensive these days for me to warrant buying, but still, it was a lovely model to paint, proper bucket list stuff: 

Shorty the Halfsknechte thinks he might not quite be up to the job he was hired for...

More photos (and a video!) after the break: 

Altheim Part 10: Reinhald the Swordsmith's Forge

 Time to head back to Altheim and introduce another building and it's owner. This time it's Altheim's Premier Forge, and Reinhald Strohmann, Master Swordsmith. Oh, and his hapless apprentice, Matthias...

Reinhald and Matthias about to start a hard day's work. 

More photos and info after the cut...

Araby project: The Army of the Great Sultan (so far!)

 As well as the Mad Mullah's Death Commandos and the siege cannon, I've been working on a few other units for my Araby army project, so I thought I'd post a bit of an update if you're interested. 

Here's what I've got done so far:

More photos after the cut: 

RR6 - Mad Mullah Acklan'd's Death Commandos

  Time for another rare (for me!) jaunt into preslotta-land, this time it's one of the early Regiments of Renown, Mad Mullah Acklan'd's Death Commandos:

As one of the very few Arabyan units ever released by Citadel, I thought I had to have a regiment of them in my Araby army, and luckily 19 of them turned up on eBay recently that I got for a very reasonable price. 

Anyway, more photos and background after the cut...

The Will of the Sultan, an Araby Siege Cannon

If you follow my blog, you'll know I'm currently working on an Araby Army list for 3rd Edition WFB. I'm working from a mixture of the Warmaster Araby army list, and Mathias Eliasson's excellent fan-made Araby army book for 8th Edition (Which is available *here*, it's well worth a read!) Although I'm deviating from both lists a bit to make the army use more gunpowder weapons. In my canon this is due to extensive trade links with Cathay where the use of such weapons is commonplace. 

As part of the list, one of the options is for a huge siege engine called a Basilica Cannon, so I thought I'd build one:

More photos and descriptions after the break....

A Modern(ish) take on Ash Wastes Nomads...

This is yet another small project that got out of hand, this time I had an idea to make a model to represent an Ash Waste Nomad, but in the end I created a full warband for use in Port Imperiale or Necromunda: 

More background and photos after the break: 

Altheim Part 9: The Old Garden of Morr

Next up in the Altheim project is the old Garden of Morr:

More pics etc after the cut...

The Mystical Land of Araby, a guide to suitable models.

This post is a bit of a departure for me, as I really only use the blog to post up models I've painted and the associated scenery and fluff to go with it. 

However, after receiving an Araby wizard as a gift, (and finding some saracens in the leadpile I forgot I owned!) I recently decided to paint up a small Araby army.

Anyway, this is what I've got so far (as the Saracens are in the paint stripper at the moment):

It's not much, is it! Anyway, I've been searching out old models and new ranges that would suit such a force. Because it actually took quite a bit of work to find ranges of models that matched up with the old Citadel ranges, I thought I'd put up a guide to help anyone else who wanted to do the same, as well as a bit of background of Araby itself. 

All of that and more (lots, lots more. Believe me it's huge!), after the cut...

The Angry Brigade and their Spaceship, Bakunin

Time for another stupidly large spacehip! This time it's the 'Bakunin', and Port Imperiale's very own Anarchopunk Space Pirates, the Angry Brigade: 

More photos and details after the cut, as usual...

WFB3 Chaos Dwarf Ally Contingent - Finished!

Well, this is a bit of a diversion! I'd not planned to actually do this, but while working through my Chaos Warband project I realised I had (almost) enough Chaos Dwarves in the leadpile to make an official ally contingent for 3rd Edition WFB, and here it is: 

As usual, more photos after the cut...

Citadel C29 Plague Elemental

Another little (or not so little!) chaos-based palette cleanser in amongst all the Altheim work, this is a model I've had in the leadpile for about 20 years now! 

As usual, more photos after the cut...

Altheim Part 8: We are the Road Crew! (and the roads are finished!)

As I've spent the last few weeks on my own, working on the roads, I thought it'd be nice to have a bit of help, so with that in mind I've painted up a road crew to give me a hand:

The crew, preparing to dig up the market square. Unimpressed Watchman at left. 

More details after the cut, as usual...

Altheim Part 7: The House of the Rusty Halberd.

Another small and (relatively) humble building this time, one of the lower class houses that make up the majority of housing in Altheim:

Chaos outside the Widow's house, as the Watch stop an overladen cart!

It's known as the House of the Rusty Halberd, due to the polearm hung outside, as you can see, and is owned by the widow Anna Schwartzhelm.

More photos etc after the cut...

An aside: Conversions in the age of 'collectability'. And some Chaos Dwarves.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you'll probably be well aware I don't hold much of a 'reverence' towards the models I collect and paint. In my opinion they're just toy soldiers, and at the end of the day there are very few models that could actually be classed as 'rare', regardless of what the 'Buy It Now' twat resellers would have you believe on eBay.

Because of this attitude towards them, I'm perfectly happy to chop up old metal, much to the horror of some purists on the scene, and my current Chaos Dwarf project is such an example:

More photos and opinionated waffling after the break...

Altheim Part 6: Eolfric the Beggar, and his humble home.

Back to Altheim, and this time it's something a whole lot more humble. I recently painted up the 'Beggar' model from the Marauder MM62 range, and decided that even though he's down on his luck, he still needs somewhere to live:

More photos after the cut, as usual...

...And a slightly less quick Khornate Warband!

So, while I was working on the Slaanesh warband, I decided to do one for each of the 4 chaos powers in between working on the Altheim table, and I've managed to get the Khorne one well on it's way..

more photos, as usual, after the cut...

A Quick Slaaneshi Warband!

Well, I'm still slogging away at the Altheim table, but I'm taking regular breaks from it to stop myself getting bored and giving up! In my most recent break I managed to dig through the leadpile and paint up a quick Slaaneshi warband over the last day, as you can see here:

The gang prepare to defend their Chaos Temple

Dechala, surrounded by her followers.

These are really out of my comfort zone, colour-wise. If you're a regular reader you'll know that I tend to go with dark, dingy looking colours, but these are really quite bright, at least by my standards!

As usual there's a whole load more photos after the cut, if you're so inclined...

Altheim: Part 5 - The Watch House

Another day, another finished building! This time it's the home of the Altheim Watch:

The Altheim Watch House, with the Watch on parade outside.

As well as the house, I've also repurposed some old F4 Mercenaries a I painted up a long time ago to act as the Watch themselves.

If you want to see and know more, it's all after the cut...

Altheim: Part 4 - Bill Stickers Was Innocent!

As you may have seen from my previous builds, I like to use posters on my scenery to make it look a bit more 'real' and 'lived in'. So far I've been mainly using the old ones that came with in the 'Warhammer Townscape' book, but I didn't want to keep repeating them, so I've decided to make my own. If you want them, there's a link further down in this post, but here's a quick shot to show you what they look like:

More info (and the file) after the cut....

A Quick Tutorial: Books!

After my last post showing Leopold's bookshop, I've had a few people ask me how I made the books themselves. Rather than repeat myself, or post it somewhere very few people would see it, I thought I'd put up a quick tutorial as they're quick and easy to do, and I like to think they give a good result:

Leopold, with his private stash...

So, if you're interested, details are after the cut...

The City of Altheim: Part Three - Leopold's Rare Book Emporium

Veering back to Warhammer after my recent Saga-related excursions, I've managed to finish an Altheim character and his home for you to take a look at: This time it's Leopold Kochenheim, owner of Leopold Kochenheim's Rare Book Emporium.

Leopold, in front of his shop/home.

More photos and background after the cut...

Saga Battle Report #2 - The Battle of Bestiatun Road

In my ongoing attempt to get more actual gaming done this year, myself and Gadge had another game of Saga a couple of days ago. As I'm trying to document everything game-related that I get up to this year, I thought I'd post another quick battle report for posterity. (It also helps us keep score, as we're both on fairly heavy medication these days...)

Saga, now with added monks! 

This time we went up to 8 points from the 6 points last time, and my forces included the following:

• 1 warlord
• 2 points of Hearthguard in one unit (8 models)
• 2 points of warriors in one unit (16 models)
• 2 points or warriors in one unit (16 models)
• 1 point of levy archers (12 models)
• 1 point of Angry Monks! (12 models)

Gadge's Normans composed of the following: 

• 1 Warlord
• 3 points of Mounted Hearthguard in two units of six models (12 models)
• 1 point of Warriors in one unit (8 models)
• 1 point of Warriors in one unit (8 models)
• 1 point of Warriors in one unit (8 models)
• 1 point of warriors with crossbows (8 models)
• 1 point of levy archers (12 models)

So, if you actually want to know how it all went, the report is after the break...

GW Artifacts, (An occasional series): Some unpublished artwork.

So, this is something I'm pretty certain no one has seen for thirty years. I recently found them whilst going through some old paperwork and thought you guys might be interested in seeing them.

When I started at GW I was in Mail Order up on Chewton Street in Eastwood, and at some point in my tenure it was decided that all of the Mail Order Trolls would get individual packing slips. As part of that, we were all shipped off to the studio to be drawn by one of the studio artists, and these are the results:

Top Row L-R:  Dan, Jon, ?. Bottom Row: ?, Mike?, Conrad, Dave?

I'm guessing by the style that they were drawn by Carl Critchlow, but it was that long ago I'm afraid my memory is rather fuzzy in that regard. Also, rather more unfortunately, my caricature was done later, and I can't for the life of me find the paperwork with mine on, so it may have been consigned to the dustbin of history long ago. These were my Mail order compatriots at the time, but also due to my imperfect memory I can no longer remember half of the names.

more info after the cut...

On the subject of Necromancers...

It seem I really do have a problem with Necromancers. I found yet another one lurking in the leadpile, and this time he's brought his friends...

More details after the break...

Saga Battle Report - The Defence of Mapingaham

Time for something a little different this time, as my good friend Gadge, (of the 'Tales from the Maelstrom' blog) came over today to teach me the new version of Saga, which I bought (and made a bunch of scenery for!) last year but haven't had chance to actually have a game yet.

Because of this, I speed-painted a six point Anglo Saxon warband over a day, yesterday, as you can see here:

Eorl Aethur's warband, the heroic defenders of Mapingaham. 

Whilst they're not hugely accurate as regards models and shield designs, they're not too bad to say a: I made the army from models I had in the leadpile, b: I didn't really have the time to research shield designs, and c: I painted them in just over a day. If you squint, they're not too bad.

Anyway, if you want to see and read more of the Eorl's defence of the village of Mapingaham, it's after the break...

How many Necromancers does it take to change a lightbulb?

Six! One to actually change the bulb, and five to stand around a pentagram, chanting into the darkness!

Those Necromancers sure do like pointing at things! 

Anyway, in between doing the Altheim project, I've decided to paint up a few of the 'homeless' models I've bought over the years that don't really fit into any particular projects, and the first bag I found was of some wizards, so I thought I'd get a few done to go with a couple I'd already got painted up. 

More photos and stuff after the break...

The City of Altheim: Part Two - the walls.

After the basic planning I did in part one, My next major job is to get the wall placement finalised so I can start scribing in and cutting out the paths for the roads. I'll be making the walls themselves removable for easier storage of the boards, but I need to have them lock into position on the board to stop them moving around during play. As well as this, I want to make the walls look a bit less 'uniform' than they currently do.

With that in mind, here's the river end of the wall:

More info and photo after the cut...

The City of Altheim: Part One - Plans and Machinations.

So, Altheim. As I wrote in my last post, I've decided to finally take on my biggest project ever, the City of Altheim. To that end, I've decided to go in depth with it and try to plan it out as best as I can.

Here, however, is an overview showing just how damn big it's going to be...

Anyway, on to the planning (after the cut!)