Grave Guards: Legio Throwdown Special Entry

I've completed the first batch of my Grave Guard for the said entry. As similar to my Iron Warriors painting scheme, I maintaned that dark mood color scheme to reflect the Grave Guard's aging and rustic armor. The blue shimmering tones on the eyes to reflect the baleful energy within the wights and magical weaponary in which they can inflict killing blow on any enemy they encounter. I'm not too sure on the banner though since this is the first time I painted such details on a banner. Enjoy the pics below and appreciate your comments. See you guys in the next post.

Terrain Building: Ruined Temple

Hi all, I got side tracked a bit from my Legio Throwdown project by building a simple ruined temple. As mentioned in the previous post I'm kinda interested in building terrains again after reading the old but invaluable "How to make wargames terrain" book by Nigel Stillman. I've already started with the foundation in the last post and the end result as per the pics below. I laid in some ameoba shape tiles by using cardboards within the ruin and  flocked sands in the outer perimeter of the ruin with PVA glue. That's it! And the paint job did the rest.

It was easy to build, cost me almost nothing and yet the end result is amazing. All you need is some corrugated cardboards, slightly thick cardboards for the tiles, ready mixed filler, pva glue and sands for flocking. Most households have these items or you could just go and buy them, its dirt cheap.

I will post more on my terrain projects as I'm planning to build more soon. For now this will accompany my Crypt Ghouls in the Throwdown event this Friday. That's it for now, laters..

Crypt Ghouls 2nd Batch

Just finished these last night and I'm good for the first Legio Throwdown core entry. Pics per below.

I'm building a simple scenery which is a ruin temple to compliment all my VC entries. Any of you guys remember the "How to make Wargames Terrains" by Nigel Stillman way back in 1996? Well, I still have that book and reading it again revived my interest in building terrains. Maybe a wargame table. For now I'm starting slowly with the ruin temple per below.

The base and the ruin itself was made out of corrugated cardboard. The white residue you see on the terrain is actually water mixed plaster powder to cover the gaps of the cardboard. I'm going to get a ready made filler which is much simpler to use and less messy than the plaster powder. I will write more in the next post. Till then, laters...

Crypt Ghouls: Legio Throwdown Core Entry

 

Here's the first batch for my Vampire Counts Legio Throwdown Core entry. In actual, I already have a completely painted VC army but to my surprise, I still have many unpainted VC miniatures up to a point I can build another army. So for the Throwdown I'm fielding a 2000 points Ghoul themed army starting with the Ghouls in the pics below. The first batch is complete and I'm moving on to the second batch soon.

Normally, I would opted the easy way by painting flesh colors, and simply dip the minis in Minwax to get that instant wash effect. But this time I'm ditching the Minwax and went traditional. For the main Ghoul body, I started with Abadon Black as base, then Ungor Flesh for the second layer. Then a light drybrush of Ulthuan Grey and moved on to a heavy wash of Reikland Flesh Shade. After the wash dried up, a highlight of Ungor Flesh and further highlight of Screaming Skull to finish.

2nd batch

Seeing my limited hobby time nowadays, the quick painting scheme above does provide me ample time for me to finish the Ghouls quickly, hopefully. I've started the layering of Ungor Flesh on the second batch and aiming to finish by this week before the Force Recon tourney at Hobby Forge. I'm planning to throw in a scenery or terrain as well to compliment the Ghouls during the Throwdown if time permits. That's my update so far, I'll see you guys in the next post. Laters.....

Slowly creeping back to the hobby table..

Yup, as the title says, I'm slowly getting back to 'hobbying'. I've been really busy with the triplets and they really got me working! Imagine you have to feed them every 3 hours, everyday for the next 5 months, that doesn't leave me enough time to do anything let alone hobbying. But the good thing is I'm getting the hang of it, and trust me it does do you wonders if you organized things up. Here's my update so far;

Pre Heresy Vlka Fenryka

This is a continuation of my Vlka Fenrya project. As per the pics, this is Asgier Longspear's pack and part of 3rd Company. Nothing fancy, just the same method I used with the previous completed Space Wolves. 3 more models and I'm done with this pack.

Asgier Longspear pack

Wolf Guard, Asgier Longspear

Next, I wanted to finish a remaining Terminator Wolf Guard model then I'm good for 1000 points. I've been eyeing on that beautiful Contemptor dreadnought from FW. Was thinking of getting one, it will really compliment this pre heresy army.

Vampire Counts

With the newly released Vampire Counts Army book, is high time that I do something on my neglected Vampire Counts army. I got loads of free Warhammer stuffs from Austria not too long ago, courtesy of an Austrian friend who is living here in Bangkok. So I have this old Chaos Knight horse and have decided to use it as a Barded Nightmare for my Blood Knights. I kinda experimenting with Blood Knights and I came out with this color scheme. Basically is Red Gore washed with Badab Black and a dry brush of Boltgun Metal to have that aged and rustic look suitable for a VC army.

Next post I will include the Blood Knight himself, converted from an old Chaos Knight as well. Till then. laters..

Updates

Some updates here.

Vampire Counts

Not much progress so far, as usual blaming on work and study. I've only managed to paint a few zombies but I'm nearly finish. That's what happen when you have like 130+ models to paint. 20 Ghouls, 10 Grave Guards and 2 Vampire Heroes, then I'm all done. My VC project should be completed by end of December 2010, hopefully. (Why I got the feeling Jeff is going to outpace me with his Beastmen project..)



Also I had few games with my VC so far and I'm loving it. I think VC is still formidable in the 8th edition environment. Had a lengthy 2000 point game with Bobby's VC last weekend , a S&D regular, and it was a blast! I only managed a draw though, but all I can say 30 Grave Guards(Great Weapon, Banner of Barrows) with a Combat Vampire(BSB) and supported by a Corpse Cart (Miasma of Pestilence)bound with a Necromancer (Vanhels Danse Macabre) and Vampire Lord with Helm of Commandment, they basically rampaged throughout the game, killing 30 Grave Guards and almost 40 Crypt Ghouls with a Vampire Hero, and yet they survived till the end of the game! That's a stuff of legends right there.

Tournaments , Bangkok

As you can see in the ad above, Slice & Dice will be hosting a 40k Tournament in December, woohoooo!! I haven't been playing 40k for awhile, more like months, and this tournament will be a great refresher! Finally my Space Wolves can see some real action. And my good friend Nicky is returning to Bangkok with his new Dark Eldar army I presumed. My Frost blade hungers for some Dark Eldar blood! I'm really looking forward to this tournament. Check out this link for the tourney gory details, Slice & Dice 40k Winter Tournament.

Till then, laters...

Cometh the Undead - Progress of House Corvinus 2

Further updates from my VC's progress. Finally I finished up with the Grave Guards plus a combat vampire using Vlad's model.

Initially I had only 10 GGs but with a bit of imagination and extra sprues, managed to get 20 in the form of freshly resurrected GGs. This is temporary while waiting my shipment from Maelstrom but I think it looked decent and playable. Also I flocked the movement trays with grass to match their bases.




My combat vampire, Carugarul Corvinus the Bloody. Spent a few hours on this bloke but I think it turned out nicely. I just love the Vlad von Carstein model and honestly I think is the best looking vampire from Citadel. Mostly Chaos Black and Boltgun Metal for the armor with a wash of 1:1 Scorched Brown and Chaos Black. The highlights of Codex Grey on the black portion and Boltgun Metal on the the metals. For the spectral cape, base of Chaos Black and wash of Warlock purple. Continued with a light layer of Warlock purple. Then highlights of 1:1 Warlock Purple and Skull White and further highlight of Skull White on the spectral faces. And finally a light Minwax treament to bring out the face portion of the model.



Enjoy the pics and will post with more updates soon. Till then laters..

Cometh the Undead - Grave Guards, Corpse Cart

Hi guys, finally I can do some hobbying after a month of assignments, projects, finals and blah blah..Seriously working and doing your Masters at the same time is beeeeaaatcchhh! Just got no time to hobby. Well I did some gaming at Slice & Dice and recently we had huge Warhammer game (i think it was like 15000 points per side..) but more on that later. I got a window of 1 week before my second term starts and frankly I have to finish my VC project, pronto! I think got to resort to a mini iron painter method to finish up. Well here's some of my recent progress from 2 days ago which are the Corpse Cart and some Grave Guards.

Grave guards are pretty easy with Bleached Bone, well on the bones, Boltgun Metals on the armor, some Dwarf Bronze on thier crests and helms, Blood Red on the cloths. Then the obvious Minwax dip with the matt spray after drying, finito!




For the Corpse Cart I have to put in a little effort on it. For the zombies first a basecoat of Bronze flesh, then heavy wash of Dark Flesh and highlights of Elf Flesh before dipping. This is to bring out some of that fleshy zombie vigour. Well I kinda like how it turned out. The wooden portion of the cart, base coat of Graveyard Earth and wash of Scorched Brown. Then the other obvious parts like the wheel and axle with Boltgun Metal and the dip will do the rest.






Thats my update so far. I think I will post some of the pictures of my gaming here in Bangkok in the next post. Good luck to you all participating on the Ghemeehal Legio Tourney, another great Legio event I can't attend, sigh..till then laters..

Cometh the Undead - Zombies

We all the new Fantasy BRB provided wealth of history, backgrounds and even painting and converting miniatures. If your flip the pages in the Fantasy BRB, you'll find the 'kit bashing' part in the converting your mini's section. That's what I did with my zombie unit. I maximized whatever sprues I have to make a unit of 40 zombies from a kit for 20. Take a peek below.

I started piling up all the sprues I can use such as tombstones, heads and hands, as if the Zombies were freshly animated or exhumes from their graves. I think its cost saving and it also add some drama to the zombie units.

Then I base painted everything before dipping. One think I hate about painting zombies because there are lots of colors that need to be use or the zombies will look dull. Well at least that's what I thought because I want my zombie unit to look vibrant but maintaining the dead image at the same time. Below are the dipped zombies before giving the matt finish.


Below some of the completed zombies for my VC. It's pretty simple and cost saving at the same time. I'm going back to Malaysia next week for Hari Raya, and will be paying Legio Malaysia a visit on 17th Sept. Hope some of you Legio regulars are there for a game or two. Hopefully I've enough space in my baggage to put at least one army for gaming. Probably I'll bring my Space Wolves, well I just don't know yet. Till then laters...

Cometh the Undead - Progress of House Corvinus

The House Corvinus will be the fluff for my Vampire Counts. Rather than stick to the von Carstein family tree I decided to branch out a bit, and it's actually based on the legends of Vlad III the Impaler. Progress for my VC army have been very slow due to work and pursuing my MBA at the same time. In addition to that, it is Ramadan now and I'm not really focused on hobbying too much in this holy month. I've set a timeline until 30th September to have a fully painted VC army but I doubt whether I can finish by the dateline. Nevertheless I did set a moderate timing for my hobbying and completed a small portion of my VC forces.




All painted models got the Minwax treatment, and some in need of matt finish to get rid of the gloss. Again all were painted base color and no shading, wash or highlight except for the Dire Wolves. The skin portion were painted Bronze Flesh and with a slightly heavy wash of Dark Flesh before dipping, to have that decayed skin effect.

As above, I'm good for 2000 points at the moment (Corpse Cart proxied as Black Coach). Yet I still need 10 Grave Guards, a Black Coach and Vargulf to have a nice 2250 point list. There will be a huge Fantasy game at Slice and Dice on 29th August to commomerate S&D first year anniversary. It will be a battle between 2 Generals which I have to pledge my forces to either one's banner. It's more of a Apoc Fantasy version and I'm sure it's going to be huge and awesome! Win from S&D actually built a castle from scratch for the battle and it looked amazing even at construction phase. A baptism of fire for House Corvinus should that day be the first day of shedding (and drinking) blood in the Warhammer realm. From Sylvania with love, laters..