Second To Nun - More Sisters of Sigmar

 Here are some more Sisters of Sigmar for Mordheim. They will be joining the augur that I made last week. These models are all from the defunct game Wrath of Kings, slightly converted so that they're all carrying hammers. This basically involved swapping some hands around.

I used cork for the bases, and added skulls and bits of foliage to make them more interesting. I chose a blue colour scheme because I'm a bit tired of painting off-white (ie brown faded up to bone). 

Unfortunately, the models are made of some crappy resin-plastic sort of stuff, which attracts mould lines like poo gathers flies. I found it quite hard to work with. It also doesn't hold detail as well as the plastic that North Star or Games Workshop use, so it was very difficult to dot in the eyes on some of the sisters.

That said, I'm pleased with the result. They're probably not filthy and mad enough for Mordheim, but they do have some comically large weapons. 

Scinari Cathallar to Mordheim Augur

 This week I've had a change from the endless Stargrave explorers. A while ago, the local gaming shop (affectionately known as Notgames Workshop) had a sale of various models and games they couldn't shift. One of the boxes was a squad of "House Teknes Warsmiths" for the now-defunct game Wrath of Kings. 

I know nothing about this game, really. It seems to have had four or five rather weird armies, and the style of the models reminds me of both manga and Rackham's models for the old game Confrontation. The basic idea of these models seems to be that they're women in armour and robes, carrying big hammers. They also seem to have odd bits of machinery strapped to them: breathing apparatus, perhaps.

I thought they could be quite good to represent a Sisters of Sigmar warband in Mordheim. The Sisters were an order of martial nuns, who lived in a castle/monastery in the centre of the ruined city. They were the closest thing Mordheim had to an objectively good faction, and spent a lot of time smiting evil with hammers. More of them later.

I also bought an Age of Sigmar elf model called a Scinari Cathallar. Leaving aside the fact that this sounds like a painful medical implement, the Cathallar seems to be some kind of maudlin wizard. I thought that, when converted, she could make a good augur for the Sisters. The augur is a blind seer who wears a nightie-type gown and goes into battle barefoot and unarmoured.

This is a really lovely model weighed down with a load of useless detail. I cut off a lot of the fiddly bits, gave her a new head from Statuesque Miniatures, and replaced her bowl of smoking stuff with a mace. I mounted her on a ruined stone head scavenged from a Stormcast miniature.

I think taking off the extra bits and bobs really stresses the elegance of the miniature. 

I made a base from hacked-up bits of cork mat. This is a new technique for me, and I was interested to see whether it could be made to work. I stuck her on a lipped plastic base. I generally don't like these, but what the heck.

I wanted to use quite soft colours rather than the bright designs on other Mordheim models, and I was tired of painting things in shades of brown and beige. So I went for a soft blue. Here she is.

I'm really pleased with this one.

And Now With Backdrops

 A very quick post here. A friend of mine backed a Kickstarter for two books by the artist Jon Hodgson and gave them both to me (thanks Ruth!). They're sets of backgrounds for photographing fantasy and science fiction miniatures.

I had a go at using the backgrounds to photograph some models. They're slightly rubbish photos but I think the backdrops look really nice. I can even put little captions on the pictures, White Dwarf style!

The Red Coated League claims another minor planet

High up on a gantry, an android patrol is surprised by a desperate bandit

Deep in the hive city, a psyker warns the militia not to touch his bike

Cool, eh? Here is a fantasy version.

Wild woodlanders raid the decadent city.

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If you'd like a copy of these books, you can get them HERE.

Yet Again, Stargrave People

 And now it's time for - you've guessed it - more Stargrave people! I really do think that I could do this almost forever: clipping people out of random sprues and mixing/matching them to make various sci-fi oddballs. I really like the way that you can have an idea for a character and then assemble them from bits and bobs.

Anyhow, here they are.

The chap on the far left is a Bolt Action British commando body with arms, head and extra gear from the Stargrave Scavengers box. I like how he looks like a hiker who decided to bring a rocket launcher in case rabid bears show up.

The older chap in the blue overalls has another commando body and a Bolt Action head. His arms come from the Frostgrave Soldiers box. They're slight big and clunky, but I like the way that he's carrying a bag of who-knows-what (probably roadkill) over his shoulder after a hard day's chopping with his axe.

Space lady in the centre has a Scavenger body with Trooper arms and gun. Her head is a metal head from Statuesque Miniatures. Any resemblance to any magic nanny is entirely coincidental.

The lady in red has a Perry Miniatures body: it's an Afghan tribesman. Her arms are Stargrave and her head comes from the Frostgrave female wizards set. I thought they combined to give her a slightly exotic, formal look. I reckon she's an elite palace guard from some strange feudal planet, wearing her dress uniform and carrying her fanciest (but still deadly) gun.

And finally, the bloke on the far right has a Scavengers body, Mercenary arms and a head from the Perry Afghans sprue. I painted him to vaguely go with the bandit-type guys I've been making: he seems to be the unit sniper.

What shall I paint next? More of these guys? Probably!

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If you like Mordheim or Assassin's Creed, check out my Dark Renaissance novels HERE

A Spaceship and Two Sandworms

 I've managed to do something other than just paint more Stargrave people this week. Instead, I had a go at sprucing up a Mantic spaceship that I bought ages ago in a sale. It's not an incredibly detailed model, but it does pretty much what it's meant to do. It was originally sprayed white over grey plastic. A lot of the painting was weathering and dirtying the thing.

Perhaps photographing it against a white background wasn't a brilliant idea...

I also painted two sandworm-like creatures that I got in a couple of sales. They're identical miniatures, made by Privateer Press for Warmachine (or possibly Hordes). I thought they'd make good big alien beasts for Stargrave (assuming that I ever stop painting for long enough to play it). I painted them bright red, as they fit in quite well with the visual style of the retro tyranids that I've been making.

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If you like Mordheim or Assassin's Creed, check out my Dark Renaissance novels HERE