Stormcast Terminators

 Where were you when you got your first sigmarine? Round about 2015, when Age of Sigmar replaced Warhammer Fantasy Battle, it seemed very hard to avoid the things. They were the poster children of AoS, and clearly designed to be the fantasy equivalent of Space Marines: heavily armoured, available in a range of colours, very solid in game terms and - most importantly - really really big. 

I've had a few of them knocking around from a couple of starter sets. They've never appealed to me: for one thing, they seem out of scale, and for another I just don't like the concept. They have many of the less interesting features of medieval knights, without the good stuff. For a while, I've considered converting them to be Space Marine terminators, where their excessive size would represent extra armour. (I'm also not that keen on the existing terminator models, anyway.)

First up was a Sigmarine that I'd started to convert ages ago and then forgotten about. I simply put a gun in his right hand (this was the storm bolter from an old Rhino), and substituted his shield hand for a power fist. His head, as with all the heads in this post, was from a Grey Knights terminator, and his backpack was a resin piece left over from some Forge World Heresy models. Unlike the others, this model didn't have a sculpted base, so I used cardboard, plasticard and bits of rock to give him something to stand on.

Here he is painted, in the bright heraldic colours I use for my marines.

Last week, I was in the local gaming shop and saw a sprue for an Adeptus Mechanicus Praetorian Servitor on the front of Exterminatus magazine. Like a lot of the Admech models, the Praetorian looks like a pretty good conversion rather than a finished model, somehow, and contains a lot of useful bits that I could cut off and stick to other things. I bought the sprue and got to work.

I cut one of the Sigmarines in half and replaced the torso with the Praetorian one. The gun also came from the Praetorian. It was surprisingly awkward, and a lot of green stuff was involved, which I'd usually prefer to avoid.

The gun looked rather weird in its original over-the-shoulder bazooka type position, so I turned it upside-down and stuck the barrel on the other end, so that it would hang under the shoulder mounting. I think this looks better. Some plasticard was needed to balance it out and fill up the gaps.

Then it was time for paint. I'm quite pleased with the bluing on his gun, and for once the blue plasma effect on the barrel doesn't look entirely awful:

The third terminator was made from another robed Sigmarine. It was a simpler conversion, requiring a new right arm and a power fist for the left. I do like the pose of this model. It's a bit "knitwear catalogue" but it's also quite dramatic.

And here are all three. I like them much better this way!

 

Farcical Aquatic Ceremony

 Sometimes, going back and improving an old conversion is just as satisfying as making a new one from scratch. A couple of years ago, I made a ghost for a Dark Age of Sigmar project that didn't really go anywhere. It was based on a West Wind vampire, with a swirly base from a High Elf mage. It was okay.

Bottom middle, unsurprisingly

I went back to the project and decided to turn her into the Lady of the Lake for no very good reason. There's an old bit of Brettonian artwork, where the lady is rising from the water, one hand out. Like this:

It's slightly crazy, and she does look as if she's surfing, but that's Warhammer for you. Anyhow, I gave the vampire a new head from Statuesque Miniatures, and a sword. I tried to do some more sculpting to get her to fit with the High Elf column of air (now water) part.

A while back I made some Chaos models using the upper and lower body parts of the Firebrand guy in the Chaos Cultists set. I was left with a twiddly piece that represents fire billowing out of his flamer. I'm not a big fan of sculpted "special effects" on miniatures, but I thought it could work as her hair, maybe turning solid as it forms from the water. So that went on. Here is the WIP:

The painting was tricky. I'd tried to sculpt some ripples in the water. I considered all sorts of methods for making the water work, but at the end of the day I ended up using paint and varnish. It worked, although perhaps it could have worked slightly better. 

I think the model could do with some more reeds. The camera has washed her out somewhat (ironically, given that she lives in a lake) but here she is, about to perform a farcical aquatic ceremony. Remember, comrades, true power derives from a mandate from the people.

She will be absolutely useless in any game I've got, but what the heck, it was an entertaining model to make.

And now with added drama...

 After the surprising results of the black box photography for the turnip soldiers, I've been mucking about with the camera, trying to capture the same effect on other models. As my photography skills are pretty much non-existent, it's mainly been a process of trial and error. Here is the converted bounty hunter I made a few posts ago, in "dramavision":

That's, er, quite good really, for me at least. At any rate, it's the first time I've shaded something grey (her trousers, in this case) and they haven't looked grainy and stark. 

Flushed with success, I thought I'd have a try at using this style on the Warband of the Seasons I made a while back, which is one of the "darker" set of models I've made recently. Here are the members of the warband without the "auto adjust colours" option being applied, which I sometimes have to use to make pictures presentable.

They look quite cool, probably because you can't see all the godawful mistakes I've made in painting them. They've got a certain "painting in a house where you wouldn't want to stay overnight" quality. This is how they look with the "auto adjust colours" feature activated:

I'm not quite sure what to make of all this. I like the moody style, but it doesn't show the details terribly well and I think my own models are usually more cheerful than this type of lighting. I don't think I'd use it for the 1950s Tau, say. Anyhow, it's interesting, and I'm pleased with the results. On with the turnippers.

Warband of the Seasons

The Warband of the Seasons is finished! I completed the last warrior of the band a couple of days ago. She's based on a Stormcast Eternal, with a head from Hasslefree and the shield I made a couple of posts ago. The axe was made from a savage orc weapon: I think it fits the rusty concept.

So, here is the completed warband. I think they represent some kind of yokel cult, who celebrate the arrival of spring and summer with wild dancing and the like, and the things they summon. The two knights are probably semi-magical figures who wax and wane with the seasons. The dryad is a being of the deep forest, that ventures out to celebrate (and wreak havoc).

What shall I do with these guys? Well, I've got vague plans to try to "medievalise" the rules for Hardwired, in order to do a fantasy variant. That might be good fun, and this warband would make a good squad of champions for it. I'll have a think about it, but Hardewyred is definitely in the project list.

Two Rural Idiots For The Rural Idyll

This week, I've made two more loonies for the warband of season-worshipping loonies.

The first is an old metal dryad, from an incarnation of the wood elves from about 2000. He's more cartoony than the current models, but I really like the pose. Here's a rather pointless WIP shot:

And here's the finished article:

Second, we've got a maniac with a flute. The body and head for this model came from the Empire flagellants kit. The arms (and flute) were from some Empire soldiers, and the axe came from a sprue of Mantic undead that I hadn't turned into Romans yet (soon). Here's the WIP:

And here's the finished article. In making this warband, I've tried to ensure that, instead of a uniform, colours and styles are repeated on different models. So, this guy has the same green and brown as the knight and the dryad, and has an axe like the knight. Also, he has flowing robes and bare feet, like the priestess, and carries a chequered scrap of cloth to further tie him to the knight. I imagine that he leaps about and tootles madly on his flute to celebrate the arrival of spring (or combat).

Here's a group photo so far. Hopefully, they're all individuals, but they look right together.

The other thing I've painted this week is a shield for the fifth and last member of the warband. I was inspired by the wheel of life in the trailer for The Green Knight that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. The shield is quartered, each quarter representing a season, and using the same colour scheme as the warband. It's actually a Warlord Games base painted with thinned down GW paint.

If this blog ever needs a corporate logo, I might have just made it...

A Friend for the Knight of Seasons (and some goblins)

This week, I've done a few more models for Mordheim/Frostgrave.

First up is the second model in the "Green Knight" warband. Many years ago I bought a Mordheim Augur and cut her up to make a wizard. I stripped the model and started again. The head was gone, as was the knife she was raising, and so I added a new plastic Empire sword, gave her a Statuesque Miniatures bald head, and sculpted some hair on using green stuff.

I don't really like sculpting hair - I find it easy to do to a low quality, but hard to make convincing. The original model is throwing her head back and looking at the sky, but I turned this one's head, as if she's striking some fighting pose before attacking with her blades.

Painting was quite easy: most of the model is her large dress, and that was just a mixture of fading up from dark brown to red. I used a rust effect on the swords, partly to tie her to the knight, but also as it looks natural and may have a ritual significance to these guys.

It's surprisingly difficult to come up with new ways of doing the whole "crazy medieval pagan" look for a warband. A lot of the imagery is already used by the wood elves, beastmen or the followers of Nurgle. I quite like the idea of having a group of loonies celebrating some change in the seasons with a (possibly) magical parade. Perhaps these guys are doing that. Or they're just re-enacting a Kate Bush video.

I also did a couple of goblins for the ever-growing goblin horde. They're much lighter in tone and more cartoony than the pagan revellers. The ball-and-chain man was originally lacking his ball, so I made one out of clay. The shotgunner is a 40k gretchin, but I think he works fine with some sort of musket.

I like these guys a lot. It's hard to see, but I'm very pleased with the painting on their faces.

A Knight For All Seasons

"Ar-thur!"

I think every old wargamer acquires a handful of Space Marines: whether intentionally or otherwise, they just sort of appear. Similarly, I suspect that every new wargamer ends up with a few Stormcast Eternals - or, to give them their usual name, Sigmarines.

So, I thought I'd have a go at one of my Sigmarines. Clearly, they're not human, as they're too big and the proportions are different (actually, they're probably more realistically-proportioned, but still). I happened to see this complete weirdness, which reminds me of some of the better stuff in the Blanchitsu/Aos28 style:

Some sort of wild Arthurian person seemed like a good idea. I replaced the strange blank-faced Sigmarine helmet with a mad-looking head from the Empire Flagellants set, and cut an axe down from a couple of Chaos weapons - a Nurgle champion provided the blade, and the haft came from a marauder.

Not-very-helpful WIP

The shield was a very old shield that I found knocking around, probably from 1995 or so. I originally wanted to give him a massive circular shield with a design quite like the wheel of fortune in the Green Knight trailer, but it covered up too much of the model. Also, the shield I've given him follows the line of his leg quite nicely and draws the eye towards his face (I hope).

The armour was painted to look rusty, and I went for a variety of natural colours on the robes, vaguely suggestive of the seasons. I'm not sure on the checks on the shield. It seems to be obligatory in the darker end of Warhammer, but I don't know if it really goes with the model. At any rate, they took ages to paint, so they're staying.

Actually, he looks a bit like Sir Launcelot at the end of the bonkers 1981 film Excalibur (which I suspect had quite an influence on Warhammer's chaos knights). I wonder if I could make a warband like this? Perhaps a priestess and a dryad, with some obligatory loonies? Hmm.

Meanwhile, at Ye Worlde of Disneye

Ghosts!

A while ago, I bought a starter set for Age of Sigmar - and then regretted it, as I don't play Age of Sigmar and I'm not sold on Sigmarines. On the other hand, it had a very nice dog with the head of an eagle and some ghosts.

The ghosts, which have another name I can't be arsed to look up, are really good models. The concept - hunched ghosts with polearms and horses' skulls for heads - is impressively odd, but the design is exceptional. The models fit together in a really clever way that simply wouldn't be possible with lead or weaker plastics.

Anyhow, what with new Sisters of Battle rules on the way, I needed to make some arco-flagellants. The existing models are pretty weak: they come from a slightly ropey period, they're not fantastic sculpts and the concept (maniac executioner/slave types with crude bionics and hidden faces) isn't terribly exciting.

So, I chopped up the ghosts. I gave them spare heads from Skitarri soldiers and some blades left over from some Necron models (thanks James). I've said before that I prefer the armour-and-stonework aspects of the Sisters to the half-naked fanatic types. I could imagine the various relics kept in the vaults of the Sisters' citadel spontaneously generating these things.

A couple of washes and some highlighting later. Apart from the spectral green, the colours match with the Sisters army. Although the Sisters are less rusty.

Obviously, these pictures were blank until I developed them...