Skaven Doomwheelin' onto your PC soon...

DoooooM....WHEEEEEEEEEEL!

As much as I love Warhammer 40K, this blog was originally devoted to my Skaven army for Warhammer Fantasy Battle (mainly as a way to keep myself motivated to paint hundreds of the little rat-things...) so it with an evil skweel of delight that I watched the latest trailer for Total War Warhammer, featuring none other than the Skaven...

I've got close to 400 hours of gameplay logged in Steam for TW: Warhammer, mainly playing as Empire and Dwarves, so I am really looking forward to the new game later this year! ESPECIALLY as the "secret" fourth playable race in the game has been confirmed over the last few weeks and months as my favorite race of evil rat-men.

From the trailer above, and other limited-time play through videos, we can see that the all the units we know and love are there, fully animated and ready to take over the Old World...

• Doomwheels
• Queek Headtaker
• Warplock Engineers
• Weapons teams
• Stormvermin
• Rat Ogres
• Screaming Bell
• Hell Pit Abomination
• ...and more!

All of them look really nicely animated and quite fun to play with. Combine this with some in-game mechanics that are unique to the Skaven and it looks like an interesting challenge with some new twists that will keep gameplay fresh (hidden bases, extra units of clanrats tunneling up through the ground mid game).

Fire up those Doomwheels ladies and gentlemen!

p.s. I know a Guinea Pig (as in the opening image) isn't a rat, but it IS a rodent - and the image was just too cute to not use....

:-)

Hobby Update - More "Garden of the Damned" details

Yesterday I shared some work I'd done on a graveyard over the weekend, which I'm calling "The Garden of the Damned". This evening I did a little bit more to it, but with just a little work on some details I think it looks a lot better.
So what did I do?

1. Dry grass. A few tufts of dry grass effect, pushed into watered-down PVA glue. Simple but looks good! (In the example below, note that the glue isn't dry yet, but it will dry clear.)

Tufts of dry grass added to the tomb.

2. Horizontal rails added to the railings. The railings look a lot better and more authentic now compared to just having the posts. I haven't added rust to these yet, but they will blend in once I have.

Cross pieces added to railings (foreground)

3. "Freshly" laid graves. I sprinkled some dark brown flock with a little green onto some PVA glue painted in the shape of a grave in front of some of the headstones. This adds some visual interest due to the dark colour and also some "atmosphere" (I must remember to add a skeletal hand too!)

Freshly dug grave effect in front of headstone.

Earth effect in front of headstones adds some variation to the board.

Watered-down PVA glue before adding brown flock.

With these simple details I think the overall impact is much better! I hope you agree!

Cheers.

Scratch-built Treasure Markers

"My precious..."

I've recently been focused on trying to put together very low cost terrain for Frostgrave (or other skirmish games). Naturally, the focus has been on buildings because having lots of terrain seems essential to the experience, but you also need treasure markers. If you aren't familiar with Frostgrave, the premise is that each player has a small warband of up to 10 models, and you are fighting in an abandoned city to discover treasure, potions or other magical items.

Of course, a coin, or dice or anything else can be used to indicate where the treasure is on the gameboard, but wouldn't it be better to have something that looks like treasure (at least a little bit?)

With that in mind I headed over to one of my local dollar stores, and returned armed with a variety of supplies.

Supplies, supplies!

• shiny hologram paper (comes in various colours, but this pack comes with gold!)
• 6 pill boxes for keeping your meds in.
• Nail art ornaments. They look like pearls or gems.
• Pack of white beads.
• Diamond earrings (These didn't work in the end as I couldn't pry the diamonds out.)

This cost around US $9.00 (of which I ended up using about $6.00)

Making the Sarcophagi

The first thing I needed to do was make the containers, and in the end, I thought that these would be made of stone, rather than wood. The shape of the pill boxes lent themselves to looking like a tomb or sarcophagus.

1. Adding foam core.

1. Add foam core. 

I cut up some old red packing foam to match the shape of the pill boxes. This foam comes in model blister packs - always keep it! The gold paper will lie on top of this, so part of the trick is to cut the foam to the right depth. I wanted my sarcophagi to be almost full, so I made the foam about 5/6 the depth of the box.

2. Accessorize your sarcophagus

2. Accessorize your Sarcophagus.

Time to raid my Warhammer Fantasy and 40K bitz box! I managed to find some items that would spice up the pill box. Scrolls, a giant rat, taken from a Skaven Plague monk sprue, a helmet from an Empire knight, assorted skulls, chains, and swords etc. These were attached with super glue.

3. Undercoat.

I used grey, but I also then inserted the foam and used Chaos Black around the edges. This is to hide the red foam if I can't get the gold paper to fit exactly.

Marble with gloss varnish

Marble without varnish

4. Painting.

I had never tried to paint marble before, but I watched a few YouTube videos and had a go! You'll find plenty of advice about painting marble in different colours, and I thought it would be fun to try green marble as well as white/ grey. After painting, I applied GW gloss varnish to some of the models but realized that I actually preferred the matt look.

5. Fill with Treasure!

After painting was complete, I added the "treasure". This was done by cutting out the gold "hologram" paper to shape, then gluing it on top of the foam. Finally, I added various gems, necklaces and pearls from the nail art kits. These were glued in place using PVA glue, which then dried clear.

Voila!

Blackstone Buildings #1 Peasant Hovel

In a previous post, I introduced the village of Blackstone to the world, while noting that I would post a series on how I put it together. In the next few posts, I will look at the process for each building type in more detail, with some hints on how I made the item, and some lessons I learned the hard way! Before we start though, let me say that these aren't 100% finished, as I could add more interior detail and I know that in "real life" these couldn't possibly work as living spaces, but I reckon these are good enough for a wargaming table now!

The Hovel

First of all, let's look at the hovel, the standard abode of the common fantasy wargaming underling. I made x3 of these, with one tiled roof. I recommend a minimum of x3, as that gives you lots of options to combine them into different buildings, some of which you will see below. Your imagination is the limit. Add scatter terrain like barrels, bodies and skeletons for more atmosphere! If you want to go crazy, make 6, make 12. Here are some possible combinations using using x3 hovels.

Option 1: The hovel.
This run down  derelict living space suits a small family, usually has one door and 3- 4 walls. It might also have once had a simple roof, but no more...

Option 2: The Long House.
For your better class of town-folk, this combination makes for a nice long space...

...put a third unit in, and it becomes even more spacious, with doors connecting each unit.

Option 3: The Merchant's store.
Combine x3 hovels, using one of them as a second floor, and you can represent a two storey building with an alley, perhaps I lead to a central courtyard. Perhaps the lower units are the shopfront, and the family lives upstairs. This could also function as a town gate.

Option 4: The "Wealthy Bastard".
Put x2 or x3 hovels on top of each other, add a roof, and boom!, you lord it over your neighbours. They hate you, but you don't care - the air is (marginally) cleaner up here after all. The lower floor could be the reception area, 2nd floor a kitchen, and the top floor is for you and your family.

So, how to make a simple hovel? Pretty simple.

Making your hovel.

In my opening post, I mentioned materials, so now all you need is a ruler, pencil and desire to measure, cut and glue. I find a box cutter to be best, but exercise extreme caution when working with this.

++Before we start, an important public service message++

Please note that these buildings are not "true" scale or carefully designed to match the scale of GW or other 28mm games systems building. True to this being "quick and dirty terrain" I put them together by just literally "eyeballing" a 28mm model and taking it from there! They are going to look bigger and rougher!"

++Thanks for your attention++

Step 1: Marking out.

Each hovel is 10cm on each side, 6.5cm in height, and has a base. You need to:

• Gently score a rectangle 30cm x 6.0cm in your polystrene.
• Score a solid vertical line every 10cm, so the rectangle is divided into three.
• Mark out a doorspace on the center wall (3cm wide x 4cm tall - but think about making it less! 4 cm tall can look really big...)
• Mark out a window to right or left of the door. (Option: mark out other windows on the other walls.)
• Cut out a base, either to fit exactly under the walls, or that extends slightly beyond each wall.
• I don't add any kind of ceiling, as I want the inside to be accessible.

They say a picture paints a thousand words, so:

Tips:

1. Have a model from your army close by to check the scale of the building. As you mark it out, does it "feel" right to you? I realized later that I made the doors too big on most of my buildings!

2. Do you prefer to have the hovel with walls all the way around? I kept mine open on one side to allow easy access for models and movement options in addition to always using the front door. In you want 4 walls, don't forget to factor that in!
3. Keep those off-cuts, they will come in later! e.g. When you cut out a door, keep it! Then, using your box-cutter, score some lines down the front to look like wood planks. Finally you can glue that to the floor inside your hovel, so it looks like someone busted down the door.

Step 2: Details.

You probably now have a beautiful hovel with smooth walls and unblemished surfaces, but what I want is a run-down, at best shabby or at worst abandoned vibe! The way to get this is detailing and adding some wear and tear. Detailing really adds a lot of character to the overall look. The good news is all you need is a craft knife and some PVA.
Here are some detailing options that I think add a lot to the model.

• Bricks. Add decorative bricks around the tops of the door. Using your craft knife, cut out 5mm x5mm x10 cm pieces of foam strips, then cut these down to small bricks. Using PVA, glue these stategically over the doors, and in the gaps between the walls.
• Window details. Add window sills, definitely outside, but also on the inside of the window if you have time.
• Wall damage: Using your craft knife, cut out wall damage, carving out uneven chunks of the wall from the ceiling to the floor. You can be as aggressive as you want, depending on your goals. You can see here that one of my huts is missing whole sections of wall. This not only looks better (IMHO) but it gives models more tactical options (FLEE through the nearest gap!)
• Missing plaster. First things first - to do this, you will never cut right through the board! To make missing plaster, first use your blade to outline an area, making sure you can access it from one of the edges. Cut NO deeper than halfway into the board. Then, slide your cutter into the board from the wall edge, slowly slicing through the board where the plaster will be missing. Finally, lift away the top half of the board. You should not have an area that looks like it was under the plaster.
• Cracks. Using your craft knife, starting from any wall, score some cracks into the wall.

You can see that I like my hovels to look abandoned!

That's it! Quite simple, but a good place to start. Let me know if you have any questions.
:-)

In part #2, we will look at a larger building - the village pub!

Cheers!

High Elf beat down!

Awesome!

Simply the only word to describe the High Elf v. High Elf rumble that happened the other week. We had arranged to fight with 2,000 points of "whatever you want to bring" and guess who turned up?

Some other traitorous High Elf faction!

This was my second time out with my "Purple Sons" army. Here is my list:

The Purple Sons of Xereus (1,999pts)

+ Lords (545pts) +

x1 Archmage (285pts) [Lore of Shadow, Level 4,  Book of Hoeth, Golden Crown of Atrazar]

x1 Prince (260pts) [Light Armour, Shield, Ithilmar Barded Elven Steed, Armour of Destiny, BRB - Ogre Blade]

+ Heroes (289pts) +

Mage (135pts) [High Magic, Wizard Level 1, Khaine's Ring of Fury, Dispel Scroll]

Noble (154pts) [Battle Standard Bearer, Great Weapon, Heavy Armour, Lion cloak, Shield, Talisman of Preservation]

+ Core (672pts) +

x18 Archers (208pts) [Musician, Light Armour]

x5 Ellyrian Reavers (125pts) [Full command, Bows and Spears]

x5 Ellyrian Reavers (125pts) [Full command, Bows and Spears]

x8 Silver Helms (214pts) [Full command with Shields]

+ Special (353pts) +

x21 White Lions of Chrace (353pts) [Full command +Banner of the World Dragon]

+ Rare (140pts) +

x1 Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower (70pts)

x1 Eagle Claw Bolt Thrower (70pts)

Magic was Shadow on the level 4:
Melkoth's mystifying Miasma
Penumbral
Okham's Mindrazor
Withering

...and Lore of Light on the level 1:
Fiery convocation.

My opponent:

++ High Elves 8th Ed (Standard) (1998pts) ++

+ Lords (800pts) +

Archmage (310pts) [High Magic, Level 4, Book of Hoeth,  Ironcurse Icon, Talisman of Endurance]

Eltharion the Grim (490pts) [Heavy Armor, Longbow, Stormwing (and Lance), Talisman of Hoeth, The Fangsword of Eltharion, The Helm of Yvresse]

+ Core (500pts) +

x22 Archers (200pts) [Longbow],

x22 Archers (220pts) [Longbow]

x5 Ellyrian Reavers (80pts) [Elven Steed, Light Armor, Spear Only]

+ Special (698pts) +

x5 Dragon Princes of Caledor (145pts) [Dragon Armor, Elven Steed, Ithilmar Barding, Lance, Shield]

x5 Dragon Princes of Caledor (145pts) [Dragon Armor, Elven Steed, Ithilmar Barding, Lance, Shield]

x26 Sword Masters of Hoeth (408pts) [Great Weapon, Heavy Armor, Musician, Standard Bearer Banner of the World Dragon]

Magic: Lore of Life
Throne of Vines, Regrowth, and others!

What you will notice is that neither of us really bought a lot of High Elf "Toys" with us. Our group is quite casual, and so it is quite common for people to just use stuff that isn't very "popular" for a laugh.
Case in point when looking at the lists above:
1.) No Frostheart Phoenix in these lists.
2.) No super-hard characters. As you can see above, Eltharion isn't really tooled up too heavily.
(Yes, we both brought Banners of the World Dragon and Books of Hoeth but hey, who wouldn't these days! )

In my group, we are pretty casual players, so I was happy to play an opponent who has a lot more experience than me and is happy to share his wisdom (as this was my second time using High Elves). Of course, this also benefits him in the long run, as he will get a better game each time, but still, I appreciate it!

Key moments in the Battle:

Deployment:

The Purple Sons:

A couple of things helped me later in the game.

a.) I got the side of the board with the watchtower, allowing me to move my level 4 and archers into the building:

b.) I put my two bolt throwers on opposite sides, meaning he would either have to divert some forces to deal with the opposite flank, OR take some finely-crafted, character/ monster/ cavalry-killing bolts of Elven death throughout the game...

Opposing Deployment

NOTE: A level 4 Life wizard is nestled in those Swordmasters...

Lots of archers, and a big block of Sword Masters in the centre with a Level 4. At the bottom of the photo above, you can see the two blocks of cavalry that are hoping to make short work of my bolt thrower across the board.

Key moments in the game:

Reaver Redirection:
While learning to use my Reavers for the first time (hey, Skaven don't have fast cav right?) I managed to divert the incoming cavalry that would have toasted one of my Bolt Throwers. It took my opponent several turns to deal with that flank, diverting his forces from the main battle at the centre.

Swordmaster Slaughter:
In the centre, the first part of the battle turned on the Swordmaster v. Silver Helms and White Lions throw down. There was a ton of bloodshed, augmented by magic buffs on both sides, but in the end, the Swordmasters, despite their bravery, couldn't beat the White Lions and Heavy Cav.
Winning this netted me 718 points, because his Wizard was in this unit as well..

.
Eltharion takes a Tumble:
Previously mounted on Stormwing, the Elf Prince has to walk into battle after his trusty steed suffers some unlucky hits and dies. This severely limited his mobility on the right flank as he sought shelter in a block of archers, meaning my Bolt thrower was now threatened by only his Cav.

Eltharion, at centre, stands alone on the right flank.

Eltharion takes shelter in a
block of archers.

His Revenge
After losing his main block, my opponent gamely fought on, bringing his archers forward into combat and moving his remaining cavalry in en masse. My Silver Helms and Prince took care of the first block of archers, but then found themselves way in front of my White Lions when they chased the archers, and now faced by Eltharion, a full block of archers, and two (regenerated) blocks of Dragon Princes...

The Prince and Silver Helms quickly cut down the archers...

...but will soon find themselves flanked and surrounded...

Eltharion and his archers face the oncoming Silver Helms

The White Lions look on in horror, knowing they are too far away to help.

Without the White Lions, the Silver Helms quickly get cut down.

Finale
In the end though, the White Lions come up and finally, finally, Eltharion goes down. I can't remember if that was to the Silver Helms or the Lions, but he had survived (with a truly awe inspiring set of saving throws) massed bolt thrower fire (again and again and again), magic, and hand-to-hand combat!

Result? Victory to the Sons of Xereus!

Lessons:

1. Shadow magic is pretty good. Miasma and Ockham's mindrazor helped me at key stages in the battle, and the Withering really helps High Elves by weakening opponents.
2. It sucks to face Life magic. Regenerating Dragon Prince units anyone? This meant that I just couldn't kill enough of them to get them off the board and out of the way...need to stop these spells if I possibly can.
3. Reavers. Keep them cheap and specialized (Bows or spears) and use to redirect. I like my eagles (because I think they look great) but these guys could be my chaff of choice now.
4. Bolt Thrower placement. I only had two, so opposite ends of the board made my opponent face some difficult choices. No-one likes to be needled by bolts in your face every turn...
5. Silver Helms performed just as I had read online. Overall good performance, but after the first round of combat they get bogged-down and can't grind out a win.
6. Shooting with bows? Don't expect to do anything major in terms of wounds.

This was a fun battle, in which I learned a lot from the experience of just using the army and the opposing general. Next time, I have a feeling his list will be a little more...

...hard core!

:-)

Cheers!

Finished High Elf Noble

The ranks of the Purple Sons slowly continue to grow, this time with the addition of a Noble. 

Along with the recent addition of Prince Althran, that significantly ups the potential leadership in the army if I ever play at larger points games (I imagine at 1,500 points I probably wouldn't have more than one noble, which would be my existing battle standard bearer.)

I followed the usual approach of undercoat, basecoats, washes, layers and highlights. Like the Althran model, I had a go at the eyes (NOT my favorite part of painting, but practice makes perfect - or at least should make perfect...I've got a long way to go until I feel comfortable doing eyes).

Finally I added some scratches to the shield, although these didn't come out as well as I'd hoped (unlike the gem on his belt, which felt like a "small" victory.) 

More pictures below.

If you've got any suggestions for improvement, please let me know in the comments.

Cheers!

How to Paint a High Elf Mage

*Squeek*

What do them pointy-eared, long-lived, do-gooders do better than almost anyone else in the Warhammer World?
Magic.
So if you are going to have a High Elf army you are probably going to have several Mages of different kinds.

In this "How to" guide, I am going to be working with the famed "Rock Balancing Rainbow Purple People Eating Mage of Xereus". This was a model that I did as part of a gift army I painted up for my kids. It is a bit different from the standard one because the tip of the staff was broken.

As usual, no claim to greatness here. These are tabletop models (because I can't do anything else.) I hope that this will still be useful for somebody though, especially as the new High Elf Army Book is now out (I picked mine up at GW Jinbocho in Tokyo yesterday.) Please note that I make reference to the "old" Citadel Colours because that is what I used when I painted this, but you can find a conversion guide here, and if I can I will list up the nearest equivalent in the post. As many have noted on other blogs, new and old colours don't exactly correspond, so your experience may change from mine.

Paints used (Old/ New):

• Skull White (White Scar)
• Snakebite Leather (Balor Brown)
• Bleached Bone (Ushabti Bone)
• Chainmail (Iron Breaker)
• Mithril Silver (Runefang Steel)
• Dark Angels Green (Caliban Green)
• Snot Green (Warpstone Glow)
• Liche Purple (Xereus Purple)
• Warlock Purple (Screamer Pink)
• Calthan Brown (Mournfang Brown)
• Tallarn Flesh (Cadian Fleshtone)
• Dwarf Flesh (Ratskin Flesh)
• Elf Flesh (Kislev Flesh)
• Sunburst Yellow (Flash Gitz Yellow)
• Dwarf Bronze (Hashut Copper)
• Shining Gold (Gehenna's Gold)
• Codex Grey (Dawnstone)
• Fortress Grey (Administratum Grey)

Washes:

• Gryphonne Sepia (Seraphim Sepia)
• Ogryn Flesh (Reikland Fleshshade)
• Badab Black (Nuln Oil)

Step 1: Preparation.

Assemble models.

Use a craft knife or file away flash/ mould lines (carefully!)  Please make sure you pay attention to this on their robes and bows, as mould lines really show up later when painted if you don't get rid of them, especially when using white paint.

Step 2: First basing.

Sand down any flash or raised areas around the edge of the base. 

Apply PVA glue to the top of the base, being careful not to get this on the boots of the model. (For variety, consider sprinkling a couple of pieces of crushed coral onto the PVA before the sand.)

Immediately dip the base into modelling sand.

TIP: Rub away any sand or glue that has dripped over onto the sides of the base now if you prefer a nice (clean-looking) base later.

Optional: Finish off the bases now (see Step 8, final basing).

Step 3: Undercoat.

Spray paint the model(s) using the undercoat of your choice. 
I use Citadel Chaos Black. Many people prefer a Skull White undercoat for brighter models like High Elves as the overall effect will be brighter and you will need far fewer layers of Skull White (White Scar) later on robes etc. 

However, I often use black as it hides mistakes and allows you to very easily leave shading in corners and crevices etc (especially in difficult to reach areas).

Step 4: Basecoats.

Codex Grey (Dawnstone): Rocks. 
Fortress Grey (Administratum Grey): Robes (this will be an undercoat for the Skull White (White Scar) later.

Chainmail (Ironbreaker) or Mithril Silver (Runefang Steel): Circlet, belt detail.

Bleached Bone (Ushabti Bone): Hair, parchment.

Snakebite Leather (Balor Brown): Belt, shoes.

Liche Purple (Xereus Purple): Robes

Dark Angels Green (Caliban Green): Gems

Tallarn Flesh (Cadian Fleshtone): Skin.

Calthan Brown (Mournfang Brown): Staff

Dwarf Bronze (Hashut Copper) or Shining Gold (Gehenna's Gold): Jewelry, details on belt.

TIP: I didn't do the Skull White robes until after washes (step 5 below) had been done.

Step 5: Washes.

Ogryn Flesh (Reikland Flesh Shade: Skin (face, hands etc.)

Devlan Mud (Agrax Earthshade) or Badab Black (Nuln Oil): Sleeves, belts, shoes, (leathers), rocks.

Gryphonne Sepia (Seraphim Sepia): Hair.

Looking back, I don't think I washed the cloak/ cape.

Step 6: Layers.

Skull White (White Scar): Robes (leave Codex Grey in the folds to provide some shading.) If using Skull White, be prepared to use many, many thin layers. 

TIP: Don't be tempted to do thick layers though, the end effect won't look very nice.
TIP: Ceramite White gives good coverage, so you should be able to get a nice smooth covering in fewer layers than the old paints. As above though, don't be tempted to put it on too thick.

Liche Purple (Xereus Purple)/ Warlock Purple (Screamer Pink) mix (50/50) on robe. Layer this up to a purer Warlock Purple (Xereus Purple) to provide highlights on the raised areas of the robe (30/70) 

Bleached Bone (Ushabti Bone): Staff, strands of hair

Tallarn Flesh (Cadian Fleshtone) / Dwarf Flesh (Ratskin Flesh) mix (50/50)

Dark Angels Green (Caliban Green)/ Snot Green (Warpstone Glow) mix: Gems. (70/30 mix, layering up to a 30/70 mix along the bottom edge of the gem)

Dwarf Bronze (Hashut Copper)/ Shining Gold (Gehenna's Gold) mix: (50/50) on Gold pieces.

TIP: To make your gems really stand out, consider adding a tiny dot of pure Skull White at the top and/ or bottom of the gem.

Step 7: Drybrushing.

Fortress Grey (Administratum Grey): Lightly drybrush rocks.

Step 8: Final basing.

Calthan Brown (Mournfang Brown): Overbrush across the sandy part of the base, being careful to avoid the boots/ legs of the model and flagstones

Snakebite Leather (Balor Brown): Drybrush across the base. Paint the base edges. I usually find 2 coats gives a nice smooth finish.

Codex Grey (Dawnstone): Drybrush lightly across the base, paint any crushed coral.

Fortress Grey (Administratum Grey): Drybrush any crushed coral rocks to add a natural highlight. 
Bleached Bone (Ushabti Bone): Flagstones (being careful not to go into the cracks between the flagstone. We want those to remain a darker colour)
Bleacher Bone (Ushabti Bone)/ Skull White (Scar White): 50/50 mix - apply as highlights around the edge of the flagstones.

Paint on PVA glue, and then sprinkle static grass onto the base.

Done! (I think!)

*Squeek*