All (too) Quiet in the Provinces: Army Parade and Review of Projects

I have been very quiet on the Warhammer front for some time, focusing on reducing my pile of lead and plastic.

The torrent of releases and my general avarice when it comes to models has resulted in quite a large pile accumulating. The quick succession of releases in the last 18 months has left our household reeling, and quite frankly, a bit swamped with Warhammer, and a strategic withdrawal subconsciously took place.

Maybe its also because the Lizardman and Ogre General in our house has discovered "Gurlz, Skateboardz, Music Concerts and Social life !" (No particular order) , and gaming has taken a backseat.

Also HOMEWORK has taken over a lot of his time... taking art, so quite a lot of hard grind needing to go into it. I must say though some amazing artwork coming out of those talented young hands!

Certainly the hobby brushes have not been taken up for a while for some of the inhabitants of our mancave...

And  I too  have been diverted from WHFB into FoW for the last few months,first building and then re-fighting D-Day, and then onto Operation Bagration:

See my other blog Wargames Obsession for detail. I have managed to make quite a dent in the pile of (non-Warhammer) models under the desk

Anyhow there are quite a few unbuilt models from out European haul in January still sitting on the shelf. 40K is history, and Luc's Tau are also still up for sale, anyhow, what's left of them (Unbuilt fire warriors, Kroot, etc)

I have resisted buying the New Dwarfs book, and may well sell off my Dwarven Throng, or can I really get myself to part with what really was my first GW Army ? Haven't played them for ages though...

So I have decided to at least make an effort, and parade my armies, as they currently stand over the next few weeks, and a quick update on unfinished projects:

I came across this useful item, that has Dark Ark written all over it, and also,  in small letters (dare I say it, SAGA...)

 

Out came the spray can, undercoat done. Here comes an item that can only lead to interesting gaming...

So I next reached for the camera and Army closest at hand (and mostly complete, ok, bar a hand full of models) No, not my Dark Elves, but my Daemons of Chaos:

Faction by faction, they poured from the Maelstrom across the Frozen Wastes

Khornish Nasties first:

Leapers of the Flame, pouring forth from:

\

Flaming Hounds

Alternate Karnak

Skulltaker

Juggers

Alternate Herald of Khorne

 (Grand Crane, of the -now defunct- Confrontation brand)

Alternate Skull Cannon, with another alternate Herald of Khorne

The Old Guard

All my Khornish Nasties together

Slaaneshi (Minus Seekers - not fully painted); and another unit of Daemonettes, not worth another pic, again with alternate herald and The Mask, more useful, I think in the pred Ed. rules. 

Tzeench Daemons

 

Papa Nurgle and his Garden of Delights

Herald and BSB (Pardon my poor photographic skills - still workin' on it)

Alternate Herald (Bit of a theme developing here? )

Filth Dogs

Epidemius and his offspring

Rotflies

Dark Elf Barque Progress and Sorceresses for Every Season

Progress Report WIP Dark Barque and revamp of my Druchii:

Good Progress being made with the Dark Barque. Getting to work on the woodwork.

Somehow I ended up with a surfeit of Sorceresses. 4 on foot, and 4 mounted, in fact. I can field one for every season, or lore of Magic, should I wish

Still busy transforming the Dark Eldar Wyches into (alt Sisters of Slaughter) what now can only be termed 

The Band of Brutality feat Miley Cyrus:

Have resisted adding wheels to my old skool Cauldron. 

Avatars of War sorceress becoming a crone or hag, up front. Apologies for my poor photographic skills. The Hawk Turquoise seems to really reflect the light in the photos, as do the skintone. Does not really do justice to the paint jobs.

The Old Death Hag and her entourage still form the core of my Witches

Also spoiled for choice with the characters. Line-up of masters and Dreadlords. Have consigned one as Tularis (Not in picture) He now resides permanently with the Black Guard (Not shown, Old Tularis model still the Tower Master in this shot) Mix of Old GW and alternative models

Dark Elf Barque (Or a Barque rather than an Ark)

Evolution of the Dark Elf Barque

The latest Druchii Army book makes a lot about the Maritime connection of the DE's. I find it sad that the Kharybdis is not a sea creature, I think it really should have that rule, seeing as that the original Carybdis is sea monster. Anyhow, I love the pirate aspect of the corsairs.

My workbench is littered with conversions and projects, many obtained at the swap meet. 

Eldar Whyches to Sisters of Slaughter, conversion of several Avatars of war figures (Sorceress into Hag, Dreadlord w sword to Dreadlord with Hand Xbow, several suitable Reaper (and other) figures into my DE Livery. On the left Warmachine Town Guard being recruited for the Empire City of Talabheim... I like their beefier look.

Anyhow, I have been thinking about building a Druchii  boat ever since Nick and I played a Dark Elf attack on an Empire Settlement (clicky to see the post) scenario.

The fluff around the Druchii make a lot of the sea-borne raiding parties. The one thing that stopped me from building a Dark Ark was the size and materials needed (and the time to construct such a vessel) and the poor quality of some attempts I saw on the web.

At the KWC's swap day I came across the answer: James was selling some of his Dark Eldar bits, amongst this some derelict space vessels, and bits that could pass as sails!

I would build, not the not the large Dark ARK that deposits the main raiding force, but a smaller, more agile and easier to conceal vessel, the Druchii BARQUE

So, slowly but surely the Druchii Barque is now evolving...

Sails and rams

Space Hulk

Voila! The beginnings of a Druchii Barque

From Wiki:
"The word barque entered English via French, which in turn came from the Latin barca by way of Occitan, Spanish or Italian. The Latin barca may stem from Celtic "barc" (per Thurneysen) or Greek "baris" (per Diez), a term for an Egyptian boat. The Oxford English Dictionary however considers the latter improbable.

The word barc appears to have come from Celtic languages. The form adopted by English, perhaps from Irish, was bark, while that adopted by Latin as barca very early, which gave rise to the French barge and barque. In Latin, Spanish and Italian the term barca refers to a small boat, not a full-size ship. French influence in England led to the use in English of both words, although their meanings now are not the same.

Well before the 19th century a barge had become interpreted as a small vessel of coastal or inland waters. Somewhat later, a bark became a sailing vessel of a distinctive rig as detailed below. In Britain, by the mid-19th century, the spelling had taken on the French form of barque. Francis Bacon used this form of the word as early as 1605. Throughout the period of sail, the word was used also as a shortening of the barca-longa of the Mediterranean Sea.
The usual convention is that spelling barque refers to a ship and bark to tree hide, to distinguish the homophones.

In the 18th century, the British Royal Navy used the term bark for a nondescript vessel that did not fit any of its usual categories. Thus, when the British Admiralty purchased a collier for use by James Cook in his journey of exploration, she was registered as HM Bark Endeavour to distinguish her from another Endeavour, a sloop already in service at the time. She happened to be a ship-rigged sailing vessel with a plain bluff bow and a full stern with windows.

William Falconer's Dictionary of the Marine defined "bark", as "a general name given to small ships: it is however peculiarly appropriated by seamen to those which carry three masts without a mizen topsail. Our northern mariners, who are trained in the coal-trade, apply this distinction to a broad-sterned ship, which carries no ornamental figure on the stem or prow."

Avatars of War Dreadlord/Noble/Hero who has swopped his one sword for a Corsair Handbow. 

Another WIP on my benchtop.

Forgeworld Merwyrm

Forgeworld Merwyrm

When I first saw this model I thought Bleh! when I saw the first pics on the web.

I just saw this rendition on the Forgeworld website, (clicky) and the model looks a lot more appealing to me now. Available on pre-order.

Would look good with a retinue of River Trolls in a Storm of Magic Game. 

One for your Xmas list, (Pirate Greenskins) Nick?

Also like the Night Goblin Squig Gobba:

Drawback? The two together come to 102 UK Pounds, plus postage.

Nurgle Soulgrinder conversion

While everyone was away at Natcon, and doing very well, thank you very much...

I see Sam Campbell took out 3rd place (not bad after a decade or more's hiatus, and just NZTC under his belt) and Hamish also up there in the top 10; and just outside the top 5. Congrats Kapiti Wargames Club Members !
Great going Nick and Fern too, taking Orcs and Goblins up against the big cannons! Well done to Sam Whitt for winning. Druchii rule supreme!

Wish I could have been there! But some of us had to work...
Anyhow, got a few hours' work of converting and painting in.

Decided to finish a conversion of a 40K Chaos Defiler into a fantasy Soulgrinder I had started when the rule addendums and new models came out last year. I was planning to make it a Khorne Soulgrinder.
(Could go with the food theme again here, and call it a Khorne Grinder, but I will restrain.)

I have decided to finally get rid of all my 40K models, as 40K has never really grown on me.
Bang, bang, bang, and little strategy...just who has the biggest and most guns.

It's just like playing against Dwarfs all the time.  Anyhow, my Blood Angels have mostly gone, some SM Landraiders, CSM Nurgle Army etc still looking for a home.

With Nurgle showing to be ascendent in the game, I  decided to rather turn the model to the green side.

It had orginaly been painted as Chaos United SM (sounds like a football team, doesn't it?)
It had a definite  leaning to Khorne, in black, red and gold. But as you can see, no more!

Should actually have got a picture before I got stuck in, but its too late now:

One or two scoops of plague for you?

Prepare to receive the blessings of Father Nurgle!

So I ripped the right arm and cannons off, replaced it with a Plague Flail fashioned from a river troll hand and a scratch-built nurgle arm. I based this around the hind leg of a giant skeletal horse I once bought for $5, thinking it would eventually come in handy. So yesterday was the day it did. Really got stuck into my bitz box...

Banishing thoughts of Natcon from my mind; I got stuck in with Knead-it (as it would just have taken too much greenstuff - read $$) and created an insect-like abdomen.

Inspiration was from the shapes of the plague-drones I was painting in parallel.
Only problem with Knead-it is that you have to work bloody fast and accurately, as it sets very quickly (and rock-hard). Ork-hide shade basecoat (Yes, my paint station is still brimming with old GW paints) and away we go...

Those that are about to be rocked, we salute you! Splat! Here comes more! Splat!