Monthly Archives: February 2012

Another Priest of Mannan

I threw this guy together last weekend, I think.  I’m experimenting with a second Arch-Lector, so I needed another mini.

He’s the same as the last one: Greatsword torso, Flagellant legs, crazy Flagellant head (they come in not crazy?).  Instead of a boathook, I went with a (Free Company) cutlass.

The shield’s from the General kit: the bird will be painted as an albatross.  The giant KF was a no go, so I scraped it off and did another five-pointed crown of Mannan.  It’s a little small, though (that purity seal screws things up) so I filled the space with a goofy, Mignola-esque skull and stuff.  I’m not entirely happy with it: it’ll do, but I’m tempted to go back in and do a CGL on it.  (The club’s CGL, pronouced “seagull,” and there’s a sea gull right there; why not?)

Anyway, this guy will probably be my primary Arch-Lector (since I don’t expect to always run two), and he better fits my preferred Arch-Lector build.  I’m a huge fan of the challenge build:  Arch-Lector, Sword of Might, Shield of the Gorgon, Van Horstman’s Speculum.  He’s amazing at blunting a very dangerous character and, man, everyone hates it when I tell them what he does: that I avoid fielding insane combat characters makes that taste pretty sweet.

Four Things I’m Doing

I’m doing a few things with this Empire army that I haven’t really done with earlier armies.  I’ve been meaning to throw together a post about them for a while now.  Behold!  I’ve finally gotten around to it!

More Gap Filling

Obviously I’ve filled gaps in my minis previously… but with rank & file and on certain joins it’s unnecessary.  This time around, I’m using some thinned Liquid Green Stuff (LGS) to smooth over dang near any join where it’d be appropriate.

Platform Shoes

I’ve read before about why it’s important to put your models’ feet on some plasticard, so they appear to be standing on the terrain on your bases, rather than in the terrain.  I’m using 2mm thick plasticard.  For the most part, this hasn’t been a problem, though on a few models the contact points are small enough that doing this hasn’t helped much.  I’m hoping that basing will help with that.

Base Gap Filling

I’m a strong believer in gluing metal bits to your bases to give your models weight and stability, as well as making your movement trays less dangerous.  (I hate when I pick up a tray, something slips, and models go everywhere.)  I just glue the weight to the base.  This time around, I’m using LGS to smooth out any transition or gap between the base and the metal.  This should make the base look sharper.

Zenithal Highlighting

I absolutely get the theory behind it, though I expect that I slap enough paint on my models to Defeat The Purpose.  Still, it’s negligibly easy to do, and helps make details stand out…  and it’s entirely possible it does make some difference.

Bloodletter Battlefoam Tray

… or maybe I should call it BLOODLETTERFOAM.


I ordered a bunch of Battlefoam trays for the Khornate Daemons back at the end of November, just about all of it custom.  About the same time, Battlefoam ran a contest for new tray layouts.  I’d just put a lot of work together laying out trays (mostly because their existing tray designs were wholly inadequate for what I needed)… so I went ahead and submitted the Bloodletter tray layout.  Bloodletters have damned inconvenient shape and, man, I’m sure the layout will make someone’s life easier.

Well, the design was a semi-finalist so you, too, can order the same BLOODLETTERFOAM tray!  You’re welcome.

(I need to e-mail them about changing the text.  “These cut outs will not work for Bloodletters holding their Hellblades straight up or Bloodletters holding Icons” isn’t actually true: it holds every type of Bloodletter without complaint, save for the Icon bearers.)

Anyway, this was from a little while back… it’s just on my mind because The Gamer’s Workbench posted about his success in the contest and because my prize (the tray I laid out) just showed up.  Oh, and because I just ordered more desperately-needed foam for my Empire.

(So if anyone needs a tray for their Bloodletters, let me know. :) )

Painted Halberdiers (Finally)

I finally finished this dang batch of ten Halberdiers.  I could talk about how and why I’ll be tackling them in smaller batches, but I think that’s been covered to death.  Ultimately it took me something like a month to paint these suckers.

So, that’s them.  I’ll be knocking out more, soon.  Later today, I’ll be getting in my first real game with this army.

Konrad Longshank & Albrecht

I threw up some just-shy-of-done pictures of my D&D character last week.  Since then, I licked ’em with some varnish and stuck them in the lightbox for some higher quality pictures.

I tried doing some weathering on the shield.  Clearly, there’s some room for improvement here, but it’ll do.

While I had the light box out and my P.A.C.K. Mini (where I keep my RPG minis) handy, I took some more scenic/HDR photos.  I’ll throw them up in a day or so.

Painting Progress(?) – 20120207

Progress painting the Empire has been slow.  Despite taking a week off from work for a much-needed staycation (and even spending a morning camped out at GW Fair Oaks to force myself to focus on painting), I’ve somehow managed to remain too busy to paint.  And, when I’m not too busy, I’m running into the “bit off more than I could chew” wall that grinds progress to a halt.

It’s madness to think I’d originally considered tackling these bastards in batches of 15.  10, as with Skaven and Astartes, is too big of a batch for me.  When I finally wrap these guys up, I’ll go back to doing batches of 6-7, which seems to be my sweet spot between “as many as possible” and “quick accomplishment fix.”
These guys are close.  I need to do metallics (obviously), then red items, then base them and I’m done.  It’s totally doable.  I just need to do it.  Shut up and paint, bro!
Partly because the next session’s coming up and partly because I need to feel like I’ve accomplished something, I knocked out my D&D character.  He’s not done-done: he still needs some Dullcote before I can claim that, but that’s all.
He’ll get better lightbox pictures after that.  I’m happy enough with him.  He’s basically a Free Company dude (as uninspiring as those guys might be on the table, I love the minis) with a Greatsword head and a Swordsman shield.  The dog is from Warlord’s Unleash Hell; bases are from Dragonforge’s Sanctuary line.
Beyond that, I seem to still have a ton of assembly hobby work that needs doing: I need to assemble another Mortar, have to convert up a second Arch Lector of Manann, I’ve got a bunch of metal squares from Wargames Accessories that need filing down (so my Greatswords have heft), and, as soon as they show up, I’ll have to glue together some movement trays from Litko
(One final note: I need to give a huge shout out to Back 2 Base-ix: since placing my as-yet unreceived order with Litko, I’ve placed and received two orders from Back 2 Base-ix… and they’re shipping from Australia.  They’re amazing: I definitely plan to continue ordering from them.)