Malign Portents: Sticking with Herzberg Irregulars

I was planning on switching back to my Renegades for the next couple of weeks but have instead cracked on with the Herzberg Irregulars. The main reason? Malign Portents! Since this campaign is running for a while I thought it made sense to get my new AOS army up and running as soon as possible so I can at least get a few games in. This will also hopefully speed up my building and painting backlog.. we shall see! I have started work on Forge World's excellent Elspeth Von Draken on Carmine Dragon kit and thought it best to magnetise the wings to make transporting this beastie a bit easier.

Carmine Dragon WIP #1 - Magnets added to wings

Carmine Dragon WIP #2 - Wings attached

Herzberg Irregulars Progress Report #1

Well these last 2 weeks have flown by! I have managed to get a fair chunk of my Herzberg Irregulars assembled and based. I'm so glad I pulled the trigger on the DragonForge Bases, these compliment the models perfectly. The next 2 weeks will be spent back on the Renegades but before that I thought I'd make a progress report. As always with my purchases from Forge World there were issues with some of the models. Both the Empire Command set and Manann's Blades Command had issues, dodgy shiny resin, soft detail and missing parts.. all the things that have unfortunately become the norm for Me when I order from Forge World. I have sent customer service an email with issues along with photos so hopefully when the hobby project rotates back to the Herzberg Irregulars I will have the replacement kits to work on. Anyway here is current progress:

20x Ironsides inc Command

Ironsides Closeup

Ironsides Command Closeup

10x Manann's Blades

Manann's Blades Closeup

Herzberg Irregulars and Painting Comp

As mentioned previously I have decided to split my hobby months into half AOS and the other 40k. Since we are in the first part of the month work has finally begun on the Herzberg Irregulars. So far I have managed to assemble a 10-man Ironsides unit, 3 Manann's Blades and a model that has been sitting in a box for the last 5 years: The Event Only Warrior Priest.

Ironsides

Manann's Blades & Warrior Priest

And lastly here is my entry for the painting comp I mentioned in my last post. I was one vote away from 3rd place. Was a bit of a rush job and took about an hour to paint, wish I had some lighter colours to make bits stand out. 

Aetheric Navigator

Hobby is Happening.. Honest!

Sorry for the radio silence. Life has been getting in the way but I've managed to get a few things done. First up is a Warboss on Giant Cave Squig from Forge World. This model is oozing character, he is the perfect transition between the old and new look Goblins Grots. I repainted the squig several times and in the end settled on the classic red colour scheme which I think compliments that dark robes of the moon clan perfectly.

I have also begun work on Grom the Paunch and his chariot. I am happy with how his paintjob is turning out but am having a surprisingly hard time with Niblet. For some reason I can't seem to get him right, I have tried twice now and keep screwing it up. He's currently sitting in a bath of paint stripper ready for another attempt... when I have the patience that is. Third times a charm right?

And last up something non-Grot related. I have begun construction on a Marienburg Landship! A great looking kit that I am assembling for my future Empire army. I have the army in boxes/FW packets and this will become my next project once the grots are done (...or at least nearing completion :p). More updates coming soon!



Progress on the Wheat Field

I managed to get in some hobby time in today and the Wheat Field is nearing completion I need to add some “Stirland Battlemire” to the sides of the doormat to hide the black rubber that is peeking out in a few spots and also finish off highlighting the trees. As a final step I will spray the base with some watered down PVA to help it survive in the world of tabletop gaming. Here are a couple more pictures including one that shows the "Wheat" sections removed so models can move through the field.

Next up I will continue work on the Merchants Cottage and also get some base colours down on an Arachnarok Spider for my Night Goblin army.

Progress, Progress, Progress!

I had a few days holiday from work and was surprisingly productive. I completed another 10 Night Goblins bringing the total to 20 so I now have the minimum unit size that can be fielded. As usual I had lots of fun painting these models, I mean look at them! Whats not to love?! This unit includes a few of the old "Netters" and "Clubbers" models and I plan on adding another 4 in a future update.

Next up is one of the old Squig-Herder teams. Unfortunately the light was crap when I took this photo so the colours have come out looking a little flat but they are painted in the same way as my other Goblins.

And last up for my painting accomplishments is the White Dwarf Subscription Goblin Warboss. This guy was really fun to paint. I did a little work on him every night for a week and I think he ended up pretty good. As mentioned in a previous post the mushrooms are a mixture of the ones you get with the Mangler-Squigs and the ones I reviewed from TheBattleForge. I overdid it a bit with the weathering powder on the rocks and plan at some stage to tone this down. I also need to redo a few of the red and white "Fairy Tale" mushrooms to match the 2 realistic coloured ones but for now I'm calling this done! 

WIP project wise I threw together some simple LOS-blocking scatter terrain using some of the many resin accessories I have accumulated. I have also primed a few bits of terrain such as the Cottage and Wheat Field and pictures of these will follow once I have made some progress painting them.

And talking of the Wheat Field, I found this guy in my bitzbox and think he might come in handy for watching over the crops. He's an old Mordheim model from the "Frenzied Mob" set.

And lastly this Box O' Fun arrived. More details on this soon...

10 Night Goblins walk into a Wheat Field...

I kicked myself into gear and finally got to chuck some paint on 10 of my old metal Night Goblins. I have around 50 to get through so I thought it best to split them into chunks of 10. I started out with the goal of doing a quick paintjob that looks good from a metre away but up close is fairly basic. This didn't really go to plan and I spent far too long on each one although they turned out (I think) pretty good. Since taking this picture I noticed I forgot to paint the banner top, DOH! I will fix this and make a custom banner ASAP. I sooooo love the old metal Gobbo's. They are so full of character which is something I think the current range has lost. I mean, check this out:

That Guy in the middle, easily my favourite pose!

Work also began on one of my many terrain projects, a wheat field:

I took a bit of MDF and added sections of walls/fences from GW's excellent "Walls & Fences" kit. I then used some Polyfilla to mold these to the base and also build up some raised "bank" sections to help better hide the door matt rubber base. Next up will be the basing stage. At his rate I will have a small farm soon! I've got some annual leave from work coming up next week so I plan to continue on with these and other projects so expect some updates soon.

U.K. Subs - Down on the Farm

Forge World: Troggoth Hag, Merchants Cottage and Stone Bridge

A quick update to show you all what I'm working on at the moment. First up is Forge World's excellent Troggoth Hag. I have always loved this model and since I have got some Moonclan Grots on the go it gave me the perfect excuse to add Her to my army. Since taking this photo I have sorted out the moldline which annoyingly I didn't notice until after I had taken the picture. I need to do some work on her base and then I'm hoping to get Her primed and some base colours down when I'm next off work.

Next up is some progress on the Merchants Cottage. I used some polyfilla and milliput to level out the base and then added a mix of woodland scenics fine and medium ballast to the base. I need to prime this and then get the painting underway.

 polyfilla and milliput added to base

 

PVA and woodland scenics ballast added

And last up is one of my latest acquisitions. I managed to score a mint in box long OOP Forge World Stone Bridge for my ever-growing scenery collection. I really love the design of this and hope to pair it up with a Re-painted Pegasus Hobbies River Set. More on that soon.

Box Fresh!

Dragons-eye view

 

Troggoths-eye view



Ulver - Trollskogen

Forge World: Merchants Cottage WIP

In my ongoing quest to acquire OOP Forge World terrain I ended up with two of the Wood Cutters Cottages. One I purchased a year or so ago was still mint in box and I have built that stock. The other came poorly assembled by the previous owner complete with a fairly thick splash of paint and has been sat on a shelf awaiting some inspiration... and inspiration has struck! I have decided to turn this "spare" one into a Merchants Cottage. The main structure will remain as is but I have removed the wood pile and axe (as seen in the stock picture below) and attached the cottage to a beveled MDF base. I used a section of fence from GW's "Walls & Fences" kit and then selected some resin accessories to help change the look from "Wood Cutter" to "Merchant". A full product review for these bits and info on where you can purchase them will follow in a future article. Here is the current progress:

The Stock Cottage

First try. Looks ok I guess...

Bingo! We have a winner.

And as always, here is an appropriate song for this post:

Sellsword - Merchants of Menace

I see a bad moon a-rising

I see a bad moon a-rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today

The time has come to resurrect this much neglected blog in a bid to keep me on track with my newest project for Age of Sigmar: Moonclan Grots (Aka Night Goblins!). I will be chronicling my progress (I hope!) and if all goes to plan there will also be a few other authors joining the blog so we should get some actual content appearing at last! I have gone through and removed the majority of old posts as I want a fresh start. Thanks to everyone who followed and commented previously, I hope you enjoy the new direction!

Creedence Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising