I’ve been working on building out a Witch Hunter warband for fantasy skirmish games, and with the Captain done, it was time to move on to the Warrior Priest.
The Warrior Priest I fielded in Mordheim 25 years ago was a big bruiser with a two-handed warhammer. Going through the Hexbane’s Hunters warband from Warhammer Underworlds, I realized the big hunter with the mega axe could be converted without too much fuss.
I took a two handed hammer off of a Chaos Raider, then worked out the haft so that it fit the arms of the hunter. It was a pretty simple conversion and really brings back the way my old Warrior Priest, at least in spirit!
I kept to the same tones as the Captain, then put on an oil wash for this guy. After that was settled, I went back in for some highlights, then drew an “S” on his forehead. You know, for Squidward.
Continuing to work on my Disciples warband for Fallout: Factions! I’m adding another base mook and a leader model this time around.
First up is a basic raider with a gun, grenades, and knife. I didn’t mess around too much with it and just did base colors with an oil wash on it.
The kneeling figure is Dixie, one of the lieutenants of the Disciples group. She’s particularly blood-thirsty, and has a ton of hacked up corpses just hanging around her barracks. Sadly, the resin on the base got hacked pretty good when I was trying to trim the pour gate, but I don’t think it ruins the figure.
I’ll be using Dixie in Fallout: Factions as a random leader or fill-in trooper, depending on the situation. Here’s the group so far!
Getting back to the Empire Riot Control Squad fromAtomic Mass Games, we’re taking on the energy mace troopers today! Once again, I’m a huge fan of this entire box set.
These dudes remind me a lot of the electro mace trooper from The Force Awakens, so having two of them for this squad is pretty cool.
Painting them up wasn’t too bad, either. I went with a straight white undercoat, then used an oil wash to add the shading. The oil wash was two parts Payne’s Grey to one part burnt umber, then a liberal amount of white spirits to dilute.
Energy effects were a blue speed paint over silver, then general white highlights over the whole model after picking out the eyes and helmet rim in black. Some light damage effects on the shields, and I think I’ll call them done!
When I was in my early teens, Walt Simonson was working on the Thor comics for Marvel. He went really hard into the whole Cosmic Fantasy aspect of the character, and somehow managed to stay incredibly close to the design aesthetic established by Jack Kirby. As a comics smitten kid with a penchant for doodling, I was smitten.
Somewhere along the line, Thor did something dumb, and Odin, being Odin, decided that Meow-meow needed to go to someone else, someone more worthy. So, the hammer made its way to Beta Ray Bill, a Korbonite warrior who was, as it turned out, pretty worthy. Look at this cover… it’s still metal as hell four decades later!
Atomic Mass Games released Beta Ray Bill for their Marvel Crisis Protocol game a couple of years back, and the box has been sitting neglected by me since then. I did paint up Ulik recently, and Bill was my reward for being a good boy and posting consistently through January and February.
Gaze upon the freaking MAJESTY of this sculpt! When you have something this amazing to work with, the miniature pretty much paints itself.
I still sometimes forget that this miniature line is part of a game and not a series of DIY collectible figurines. I guess it’s all in your mindset, right? Nightcrawler from the X-Men is up next!
I wish I had been a Fallout fan earlier. My oldest kid was way into it, and I remember listening as she played the hell out of Fallout 3, New Vegas, and Fallout 4. I’m a huge Skyrim fan, so you would think I would have played sooner. Really, it took the new series to get me to look at it again, and now I really can’t look back.
I love the Atom-Punk vibe of the whole thing. Alternate histories are a hell of a thing, too, and the games and show have strung together a pretty fascinating look at a future that looks a lot like our past had a baby with an old Flash Gordon serial.
I had the Welcome to Nuka-World starter for Fallout Factions, and sold it, thinking I wouldn’t get back to it anytime soon. I still had the Disciples set, and decided I would paint them up before making up my mind on more minis from the franchise.
I think I want more minis from the franchise. Modiphius has made some pretty cool minis, and the hard plastic kit for the Disciples is pretty keen. I was thrown at first because they’re a true-scale 32mm, so the features, hands, and feet are smaller than I’ve grown used to. But they’re fun to paint, take an oil wash well, and look pretty good once all is said and done.
I ordered the character command minis for this group, I should have one of them done for the next update!
I have to be honest here, I hardly remember Ulik from the Thorcomics. Sure, he was there as hammer bait a lot if I remember correctly, but under normal circumstances I’m not sure I would have picked up this model.
But he came with Beta Ray Bill…
Also, the model is just plain bad-ass. Yeah, he’s a giant beat-stick looking for a good solid smack, but isn’t that what trolls are for? He looks amazing!
I am really happy with the metalic green armor scales, I used diluted green ink over silver and it did exactly what I was hoping! This was a really fun model to paint!
For a lot of us middle-aged wardolly junkies, Mordheim was the Alpha and the Omega of wargaming when it hit in 1999. The art design defined what Grimdark meant without losing that whimsical edge that made it great. Playing with a dozen minis meant you could get a warband together in a good weekend of hobbying. It was also built off of (I think) Fourth Edition Warhammer Fantasy Rules, so it was easy enough to learn one if you knew the other.
Todd, a respectable demon lord, and his personal Valet, Timothy.
And then, like most great things, it disappeared, unloved and scorned by its creator, like the Creature when Victor decides to cast the wretch out to pursue other endeavors.
I’ve been chasing Mordheim now for over a quarter century. The rules set feels a little antiquated now, and while there are modern contenders to the game, I’m not smitten by any of them in the same way.
A desperate thug tries to sneak up on an unwary magician
Necromunda is pretty great in its modern incarnation, but I really don’t want to have to carry around half a library worth of books to get a game in. One Page Rules is fun, but a little too simple for what I want to sink my teeth in to. Frostgrave and Five Leagues from the Borderlands both come much closer to what I’m looking for, but I’m still struggling to find that Goldilocks system that works just right for me.
So, I think I’m just going to have to write it out myself. Something that bridges that gap between crunchiness and simplicity, allows some customization, and, most importantly, is miniature agnostic.
A group of barbarians in search of a hot bath…
I’ll be starting with a Witch Hunter warband, using the ideas I have in my head to get the classic warband on the table. I have plenty of figures to build out a good roster, and that’ll help me get more of my Paint What You Got challenge figures finished.
At first, I was a little daunted about base size, since I’ll be using some modern Warhammer minis in this warband, and they have larger bases. Then I realized that I’m not bound to those restraints, as I’m working my own forge now. So, the first step in setting myself free is setting those minis free. Goodbye, lovely decorative but overly large bases, and hello 25mm classics!
I’ll be mashing up some classic GW sprues with some modern classics from the Frostgrave range, which should allow me to have some fun with the warbands.
Next up, I’ll share some of the ideas I have for the mechanics, because why not? They’re not entirely mine, but after 40 years of gaming I have a billion game systems in my head that I am going to openly pillage.
Now we’ll see how long this conviction lasts, I could do almost all of this with the 5x from x system and be just as happy!
Looks like we’re having a double dip week for Marvel Crisis Protocol, as I have a huge backlog of these minis and we’ll probably see a lot more as the month progresses!
Ghost Spider is a great character, I really enjoy reading the comics and she’s one of the highlights of the Spiderverse movies that Sony put out.
MCP’s take on the character came pretty early on, which is great. The pose is still pretty good, but I would love to see a fresh take on the character now that the team at Atomic Mass Games has really hit their stride on the sculpts.
Ben Reilly, star of the much-aligned Clone Saga from the ’90s, is another great mini from the MCP crew, I especially enjoy the Reilly Drive signpost on the base!
Part of the joy of the “Paint What You Got” challenge has been forcing myself to dive in to the backlog and get the previously neglected miniatures from my collection painted up.
Captain Marvel is a great character, and I really like the sculpts in the “Earth’s Mightiest Boxset” collection. You get two versions of Carol, one in her normal togs, and another when she goes full Binary mode.
The transformation mechanic in Marvel Crisis Protocol is pretty neat, allowing you to change out your model for a different mode of that character if it fits the spirit of their powers. So, Ant-Man has a smaller version, Carol can go Binary, you name it!
The standard Captain Marvel figure is nice and dynamic, Carol is a bit of a brawler so this works for me.
The Binary form, though, takes the cake. This is premium Feral Carol, looking like she’s getting ready to punch Rogue into the stratosphere.
I’ve been continuing my obsessive build-out of my Warcrow Northern Tribes group, and the Evoker may end up being my favorite miniature of all time.
Just like the Alborc mini from earlier this month, the Evoker was given a purple and red underpainting, which you can see peeking out from the finished paint job.
It’s not just the details, which are plentiful. She has so many cool things on her kit, with fertility idols, vials, and other cool tools. She also looks mysterious and full of schemes.
She’s literally pulling a spell out of a skull’s eye sockets. That wasn’t something I noticed until I started painting, which was a happy discovery!
Also, the fact that the orcs just tromp around with giant tusks and bones strapped to them is amazing. I love it!
The little details on her kit are fun, as well as the idols and statues that she’s standing on. I would love Corvus Belli to release some simple terrain bits that match this!
I’ll have her favorite battle friend, a giant stone troll, ready soon. It’s a really fun model, and I can’t wait to show it off!
Teapot? Check. Fertility idol? Check. Skulls and a mammoth tusk? You bet your ass!
Grimmleigh's Lab 