Static Grass

I've been working on terrain pieces of late and I found this excellent article comparing static grasses from the various sources.  I've always loved the GW static grass but wished there was a cheaper alternative.  Turns out there is - Summer grass from Noch.


http://www.antenocitisworkshop.com/news/2010/10/static-grass-comparisons/

Army Painter Highland Tufts

I wanted to add a little something to my normally plain desert bases to spruce them up a bit.  I found and ordered a product from Army Painter called Highland Tufts XP.  It is essentially small clumps of grass that you stick to your base.  Just pick a clump of grass that is the right size you are looking for. Pull it off and stick it to the base.  Really simple and the results are fantastic.

Here is what the package looks like.  

Here is what it looks like on a Tomb Scorpion base.

It comes in several colors and you check out the website for more information. 

Army Painter Highland Tufts XP

Few more pix of the Heavy Cav Unit Champion

A few more pix of the unit champion.

Back to the Bone...

Interspersed with the High Elves and the Mantic VC I found a little time to finish up a few Tomb King models I had sitting around for a while.  As most of you know I have a fairly large TK army.  At this point I try to find interesting conversions to add some spice and color to an otherwise sea of bone.  First up is a Tomb Scorpion.  Just a real simple conversion that makes it look like it is coming out of the ground.  Really interesting to paint up because as I compared it to my original Tomb Scorpions from years ago and it was obvious my painting style has changed drastically.  Before was bone base coat - brown ink - highlight and cleanup with bone and white.  Now, I have 2 different methods.  For small, non important bone I base coat snakebite leather and layer bubonic brown followed by bleached bone.  Finally wash with devlan mud.  For prominent areas (like on the Tomb Scorpion) I paint a bone bone base coat, wash with Devlan Mud.  Then I build up the color using glazes of bone, white and Vallejo Medium.  It gives a really interesting depth of color that better replicates the non uniform look of real bone.  By the way, have I mentoniond how much I hate putting this model together?

Next up is a couple of conversions for Heavy Cavalry.  Horses are stock (yes I know they suck) and the riders are plastic Empire pistoleers converted to look dead.  All I did was add a skull, skeleton arms and a Tomb King shield. Came out pretty nice and look great in the front rank of a big block of heavy cavalry.

Raising the Undead...

I started to put together the Mantic Undead over the weekend.  I've got about half the plastics models put together so far.  I've assembled 1 Bale Fire Thrower, 20 Ghouls, 30 Zombies, 30 Revenants and 40 Skeletons.

Putting them together was pretty straight forward, though it would have been a little easier with some assembly instructions (especially for the Bale Fire Thrower).  One thing that really surprised me was that that there was some of the lack of variety and lot's of duplication of the same components multiple times on each sprue and between similar kits.  For example the ghoul sprue has 2 bodies and for the zombie sprue there are 3.  I didn't try it yet but the zombie and ghouls sprues are interchangeable to increase the variety. There are 10 leg assemblies per skeleton sprue, but there may only be 4 unique poses.  Both the skeleton and revenant (skellies in heavy armor) use the exact same leg assemblies and command options.   This probably reduces the cost of designing the models (less sculpting).  Fortunately I did not find it too limiting in terms of making models unique. While putting the zombies and ghouls together I had to pay close attention to how the models would rank up, especially for any models in a crouch or lurching forward pose.   I love some of the cool touches like zombies breaking out of the ground and snapped off spinal cords.  I was a little disappointed that the skeletons could not completely be equipped with spears since some of the torsos were molded with arm wielding hand weapons.  Though if you got enough models you could segregate them out and make a spear toting unit.  The Revenants are AMAZING.  There armor and helmets are really cool.  Plus their poses really make for a dynamic looking unit.  Just wish they had great weapons.

Looking forward to putting the rest of the plastics together this weekend.  I will let you know how it turns out.  BTW - if anyone wants to swap Undead for Dwarfs in the starter sets  let me know (I have two starter boxes).  Also, if anyone wants to swap some of my extra zombies for their extra ghouls let me know.  I have 30 extra zombies.

Kings of War

Big fan of Mantic Games.  Cheap models and free rules are pure win every time.  Looking forward to seeing what they do with the Khaos Dwarfs. 

Most the reinforcements have arrived for my Undead Kings of War army.  Just waiting for the revenant knights, wraiths and heroes from Maelstrom Games.  I think I'm going to pick up an Avatars of War Vampire to lead the army.  I'm going to try and setup the army up to play Warhammer or KoW.  I've got two starter boxes worth of Dwarves (Morgoth's Revenge).  If you know anyone that wants to swap them for their undead let me know. 

Two for the price of one...

The High Elf Army is starting to take shape.  I'm shooting for around 3K to give me some different options to play with at the 2500 point level.   As most of you know it's a themed army - sort of the HE version of a witch hunter army.  I've finished purchasing the bulk of the army and I've started to put the models together.  The Swordmasters and Lothern Seaguard units are assembled and magnetized.  For movement trays I'm going with 1 piece steel trays with rolled flanges from Shogun Miniatures.  My goal is to get all the models assembled and on the table by March.

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Been a while...

It's been almost a month since my last entry, but I promise that I've been very busy.  In between the hustle and bustle of the holidays, including a trip to Michigan, I've managed to get a few things finished.  The OnG army is nearly completed.  One unit of Gobbo archers, 3 spear chukkas and a pump wagon is all that remains.  Right now the army stands at 5K painted and I won't add to it until I see what's released in the spring.  Fingers crossed for plastic squigs!  Plus I'm interested to see what they do with the new army book.
As most of you know this army was painted fast using base colors, limited highlights and a Devlan Mud wash.

Pardon the pix, I'm not that great of a photographer. 

Now that army is almost done maybe I should actually play a game with them!