Painted Jarl Skuld, Devil of the Thornwood

Here is Jarl Skuld, Devil of the Thornwood. He’s a Warlock in my Trollbloods force for Hordes and as such is the lynchpin for the whole army. The main reason I chose Skuld as my first and main Warlock is because he carries a pair of rather long range pistols. Since getting your Warlock killed means a loss in Hordes, being able to contribute without getting stabbed too much in return is quite appealing (not that it helps me too much since I’m still awful at the game). His Feat allows some clouds to be placed in his Control Area, which at least in theory allows me to deliver my forces without having them shot too much on the way in. My favourite part of Skuld’s kit is the Magic Bullet spell, allowing him to gun down support solos and so on when they think that they’re safe.

I very much loved painting the Jarl, as he’s covered in nice bling. I felt that the deep red of the cloak was fitting for a leader of Trolls as it makes him stand out on the battlefield. The only part I was unsure on was the headband. In the end, I did it in white (maybe it’s more like a bandage) as all the other colours I tried ended up blending in too much with the skin or cloak, or were otherwise unsatisfactory.

Next on the painting table: Satyxis Blood Witches.

Painted Seishin

These are a full set of five Seishin for Malifaux. They’re part of the Resurrectionists faction and thematically linked with Kirai Ankoku. I understand that in the brave new world of Malifaux’s third edition that themes are going to be rather important so I guess that they might never see the table now without Kirai. In the past they’ve provided tiny support abilities to friendly models, usually at the cost of Sacrificing the Seishin. Luckily they tend to be summoned incidentally all over the place anyway so their sacrifice was not a big deal.

When I originally bought these, I had all sort of ideas for cool painting of these as various dragons and so on. Eventually they got put away in the case and forgotten about, and anyway as probably the cheapest models in the game they’re easy to justify overlooking. In the end I got a hankering to put some colour on the Seishin simply to clear them from my backlog and realised that, since they’re supposed to be some kind of ghosts, I could just paint them accordingly. Hence, they got the simplest of paint schemes: white, then a green wash, then more white over the top. Simples.

I dedicate this post to Azazel‘s Gender-Ambiguous Model Painting Challenge for March. These are clearly not specifically male or female so I consider them a perfect fit.

Since the miniatures themselves are not super-interesting (and anyway are all the same colour) I thought I’d share pictures of them on various different coloured backgrounds that came with my lightbox. I still prefer the white background though.

Next on the painting table: Jarl Skuld, Devil of the Thornwood.

Painted Runebearer

This is a (or possibly ‘the’) Runebearer, a caster attachment for my Hordes Trollbloods army. He is entirely about supporting your Warlock of choice and seems to bring something of value to all of them. The Runebearer increases the size of the Warlock’s Control Area which is pretty useful all the time, and can cast one of their spells for them. In terms of abilities, that is about it but I think that I’ve never really regretted taking him into a game with me. The Runebearer is also a solo which means that he can score flags and I’m generally quite happy to keep him back there out of harm’s way.

The Runebearer suffers rather from having a somewhat boring sculpt, but I suppose since he’s meant to be Moses this is to be expected. I went for a somewhat drab clothing colour as befits the Runebearer’s status as a support model, and I think it works pretty well for him. Once again I started off trying to do a glowing effect on the runes on the tablets but I was not happy with the results so I went over them as grey stone.

Next on the painting table: Seishin

Druze Bayram Security family photo

I finally finished painting all my (current batch of) miniatures for my Druze Bayram Security army in Infinity. Interest in the game has waned again among my group of friends so I don’t currently have any plans to get more. Of course, games go up and down in our desire to play them so Infinity is just one strong advocate away from returning to being a regular on the gaming table. In the meantime I enjoyed the process of painting this lot; they’re a rather different sculpting style than most of the miniatures I own.  In particular, I really like the way they look like a coherent force with their matching colours.

I don’t think that they add up to a very sensible army for gaming purposes, but in case anyone is interested, this is what they would be fielded as (with a minimum of messing with profiles).

──────────────────────────────────────────────────

GROUP 1

BASHI BAZOUK Boarding Shotgun / Pistol, CC Weapon. (0 | 15)
VALERYA GROMOZ Hacker (Hacking Device UPGRADE: Expel) Combi Rifle + Pitcher / Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 21)
DRUZE HMG, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (1.5 | 29)
DRUZE (Fireteam: Haris, X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Viral Pistol, CCW. (1 | 25)
DRUZE (Fireteam: Haris, X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt, D.E.P. / Viral Pistol, CCW. (1 | 25)
DRUZE (X Visor) Combi Rifle + Light Grenade Launcher (E/M and Nimbus) / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 27)
DRUZE (X Visor) Shock Marksman Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 27)
DRUZE Hacker (Killer Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 25)
DRUZE Hacker (Assault Hacking Device) Combi Rifle + Pitcher, D-Charges / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0.5 | 28)
DRUZE Lieutenant (X Visor) Combi Rifle, Chain-colt / Viral Pistol, Knife. (0 | 23)

GROUP 2
CLIPPER DRONBOT Missile Launcher / Electric Pulse. (1.5 | 17)
FUGAZI DRONBOT Flash Pulse, Sniffer / Electric Pulse. (0 | 8)
PEACEMAKER Heavy Shotgun + AUXBOT_3 / Electric Pulse. (0 | 21)
AUXBOT_3 Heavy Flamethrower / Electric Pulse. (- | 4)
HUNZAKUT (Forward Observer, Deployable Repeater) Rifle + Light Shotgun, Antipersonnel Mines / Pistol, Knife. (0 | 18)

6.5 SWC | 309 Points

Open in Infinity Army

Painted Druze Shock Team with Chain Colt

So here, finally, is the last of my current batch of miniatures for my Druze Bayram Security force in Infinity. This is yet another Druze Shock Team and is toting a Chain Colt. In game terms, all Druze Shock Team profiles carry this as a side arm so I suppose that the idea is that this miniature can represent any equipment load-out.

I very much like the no-nonsense posing of this particular Druze Shock Team. Infinity has a lot of miniatures with rather outlandish poses and while I do certainly enjoy a dynamic miniature it is quite nice to have a rather more solid looking option on the table. The paint scheme, of course, is the same as the rest of this force.

Being the last Infinity miniature in the queue, I plan to take a family photo in the next few days and share the whole team at once.

Next on the painting table: Runebearer.

Painted Blood Stalkers

Here are a unit of Blood Stalkers for my nascent Daughters of Khaine force in Age of Sigmar. In game I’ve found them a little disappointing as they’re quite expensive for a very low number of not-very-exciting bow shots, and their melee presence has never been able to make up for this. My experience so far can be summarised that they move up, shoot a couple of arrows into something, then immediately get overrun. As usual, I think that this is likely to be player error; notably Blood Stalkers have great movement speed so probably I should make more of that.

I really love the miniatures though, so I can forgive their performance on the tabletop. They call out to the Ray Harryhausen fan in me, who has not really grown up since watching Jason and the Argonauts etc in the mid 80s. I had all sorts of ideas for varying the skin tone of the snake part, but realised that if I wanted them to look like a unit then I’d need to have something more to visually link them together than just the hair (and fairly skimpy armour). So in the end I painted a nice bright green and cream combination for the snake part and tried to match the general approach of the Witch Aelves for the rest of the miniature. I’m very pleased with the final results.

I dedicate this post to Alex from Leadballoony‘s Fembruary Challenge.

Next on the painting table: Druze Shock Team with Chain Colt.

Painted Troll Axer

This is a Troll Axer, the last of the plastic light Warbeasts in my painting queue for the Trollbloods (though not the last miniature in said queue). There are loads of Axers, Bouncers and Impalers around because they are part of the faction starter kit for Hordes. As a light Warbeast, the Axer provides a modest melee threat at fairly modest price point. For me, the main draw is the Rush Animus to speed up my other Warbeasts. Sadly this competes with the Rage Animus (from the Dire Troll Mauler) which I find is often needed to get the Warbeasts to actually do something when they finally arrive. As with so many other Hordes matters, this is probably more indicative of my skill at the game than it is of anything about the Axer itself.

The miniature is another very slight variation of the sculpt for the Bouncer and the Impaler; it does not take a close examination to spot the shared legs and similar pose overall. I quite like the way that this works for the Axer though as it looks like it is meanly advancing on its next victim. As for the other pair of light Warbeasts, I wanted to stick to mainly neutral colours… apart from the skin of course.

Like the Bouncer and Impaler, I dedicate this post to Azazel’s Neglected Models February Challenge. They’ve been sitting on my painting table half-finished for about a year and I’m very pleased to get these polished off. Here is a photo of the three siblings getting ready for a night out on the town.

Next on the painting table: Blood Stalkers.

Painted Blue Horrors

These are Blue Horrors, part of the Chaos Daemons faction I’m gradually working on for Warhammer 40K. I’m kind of doing these in the wrong order since one would normally start with Pink Horrors (which I don’t even own yet) then they split into two smaller, weaker Blue Horrors instead of dying. The Blues then split themselves into a pair of Brimstone Horrors upon their deaths. They can all be bought and fielded separately too so there is no need to always put Pink Horrors in the army list. I’m not really sure how best to use the Blue Horrors though. If I just want cheap body blockers and tarpits then Brimstones seem to be way to go, whereas Pink Horrors are the option if I actually want them to achieve anything.

Anyway, the Blue Horrors were pleasingly fast and simple to paint up to my satisfaction. The whole lot got painted blue all over (the clue is in the name, after all) then I picked out the weapons and jewellery in silver. I chose silver since it provided a nicer contrast to the skin than bronze. Finally I picked out the flames, tongues and teeth to brighten the lot of them up. I’m quite happy with the results, especially considering the amount of time expended on them.

Next on the painting table: Troll Axer.

Painted Druze Shock Team with Marksman Rifle

Here is another Druze Shock Team to take her place in my Druze Bayram Security army in Infinity. She brings some slightly longer range firepower to the team compared to the various Combi Rifles and I’ve found the Marksman Rifle profile really useful for spot removal in the active turn. Otherwise (of course) she is much like all the other Druze, being rather reliable and hard to winkle out of good cover; a true professional.

This Druze Shock Team received the same colours as the rest of her team mates as I think that the white and green provide a nice contrast to each other and also to the dark of the weapons and strapping. Like the Heavy Machine Gunner, she is wearing battle heels which I find very silly, but I’m not about to reculpt her legs and feet just to ensure that she can go into battle in sensible shoes.

I dedicate this post to Alex from Leadballoony‘s Fembruary Challenge; it is a worthy reason to dig out female miniatures as they’re very under-represented in our hobby.

Next on the painting table: Blue Horrors.

Painted Troll Impaler

Here is a Troll Impaler for my Hordes Trollbloods army. Being a light Warbeast, I will admit that he suffers from the same lack of motivation to paint as the Bouncer so I ended up painting them (and an Axer who is still in progress) more-or-less together. As light Warbeasts go, the Impaler is quite expensive but in a few test games I can’t get him to do anything very useful (though I’ll freely note that this is probably due to my lack of skill at the game); he just throws a couple of spears at people from down range until I’m forced to engage with him. Then he pokes uselessly at a few fools and dies quite easily. The Impaler does bring along the Far Strike Animus which is handy for letting ranged Warlocks like Jarl Skuld shoot from further away. On the other hand, the Dire Troll Bomber has the same Animus and has generally been far more amusing to play.

The paint scheme here is largely the same as the Bouncer, being a mix of browns for the clothes and metals for the armour and weapons. The Impaler is meant to have a quiver of spare javelins attached to his back but I couldn’t get it to look quite right and it kept falling off in transport so in the end I just left it.

Like the Bouncer, I dedicate this post to Azazel’s Neglected Models February Challenge; hopefully I’ll sort the Axer out in time too and just share a single photo of all three.

Next on the painting table: Druze Shock Team with Marksman Rifle