Conversions for contest and fun

My miniatures arrived about a week ago for the Warlord diorama contest, and I'm partway through converting them for their intended purpose. Dahlbergh is basically the stock model, just with some slight arm reposing and subsequent repair work. The driller is a mortar crewman, with added winter clothes, and his artillery ladle converted into a drill. The other henchman is a plastic pikeman with WiP winter gear, a converted arm, and what will eventually be a measuring rod.

And here are a couple other miniatures that came with the command unit. The officer is "supposed" to be holding a flag or partizan, but I couldn't resist putting together a chalice out of sprue bits.

Pike and Shotte and Tentacles

aka Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Men

So I've recently finished watching a Bloodborne playthrough on youtube, and that really got me in the mood for some creepy pseudohistorical gothic weirdness. Since I have more Firelock Storming Party bodies than I know what to do with, I mixed a few (and a spare pikeman) with some scrap plastic for this band of gross mutants, who would work quite nicely for a Possessed warband in Mordheim.

And here are WiP shots, along with a random anachronistic kitbashed musketeer who's still being painted:

Playtesting my rules

Hey, remember that Pike & Shotte supplement I wrote, with lists for Cossacks, Tatars and Muscovites? The fine folks over at Wargame Amateur decided to give them a test run. And even though they only played a couple games so far, they answered one of the biggest questions I had: I was worried that the Gun Shy rule might be too debilitating for Tatars, but apparently that is not the case.

Thanks guys!

Winter Guard Uniform colors

The default scheme for this Khador mainstay unit is rather more garish than I would prefer, especially for mere conscripts in a nation that is only just beginning to industrialize. So I decided to come up with my own color scheme, but couldn't tell which imagined colors would work best. So I painted up some test models.

It's still pretty hard to decide, but I thiiiink may favorite is the one on the right.

Note that these are not finished models in any sense. The skin, weapons and leather bits were painted quickly and sloppily for now, because this is just a uniform test.

Khador starter set painted

Got my warcaster and two warjacks done.

I gotta admit, it's weird painting sci-fi/fantasy stuff after sticking to historicals for so long. The Khador infantry should feel more natural but these big stompy robots took some getting used to. I do feel that these paint jobs are a bit on the bland side, especially for how much surface area there is, I might need to add some weathering and maybe a bit more battle damage.

Also, in retrospect it's silly that I posed the shooty warjack to be charging, while the melee specialist is just standing. Oh well.

New Project for the New Year

Hey everyone, here's a birthday present I got. Or some of it, anyway. The other two warjacks I'm leaving partially unassembled for now, so I can magnetize their arms later on.

Even if you've never read a single word about Warmachine before in your life, you can maybe tell from the commander's hat that this is the fake-Russian faction. The warjacks (i.e. the robots) are very distinct and specific to this setting, but the rest of the miniatures might occasionally show up in my historical fantasy skirmish wargaming.

Merry Christmas!

...and happy holidays, and in case I don't post again this month, happy New Year's too!

I have two new projects for the winter. One is a diorama contest entry, and the other is still secret because I don't have any good pics for it yet.

The contest basically has just three rules: Warlord minis only, no more than 20 cm in any dimension, the theme is harsh/hostile environments.

I've started a thread on their forum to document my planning and execution. I've pretty much decided I'm going to model Erik Dahlbergh and his assistants on the Baltic ice during the Great Northern War, checking the thickness to see if Karl X's army can safely perform the March Across the Belts. I'm thinking Dahlbergh himself will be a metal infantry officer, the assistant(s) will be various gun crew models, and I'll also have the dragoon horse-holder minding their mounts, and if the base isn't too crowded by then, a couple reiters keeping watch.

Unfortunately, my card is having weird issues with foreign transactions, so I don't have the miniatures I want yet. But I've been playing around with a mock-up, and 20 cm isn't a whole lot of space. This will be interesting...