Shadows Over Hammerhal

Whew...it feels like I haven't finished a painting project in a long time. And when I look back, it's true. Well, finally off the painting table is the first batch of 10 figures from the new Warhammer Quest game, Shadows Over Hammerhal.

I started with the Bloodreavers. Here they are assembled and based on some resin inserts.

Hammerhead is different than Silver Tower, in that it uses a GM to run the game. Not sure how that will go down with the game group. Well, we'll see...in time...once all the damn figures are painted!

Assembled figures were primed white, as usual.

And then they got the floor wax treatment.

To speed things up, I sprayed on the skin tones, and some dark brown for the pants.

Then I worked on the skin for a bit. Basic wash, and some bruising around the scars.

Large areas of base colours went down next. Red and metal, mostly. Also worked on the bases at this point.

Then came all the detail and finishing work (including some highlight passes on the skin). Once everything was done, I dropped the resin base inserts into the base blanks (thanks Cool Mini Or Not). And the first enemies of the Hammerhal set are complete.

At the same time, I painted this Slaughterpriest figure that came with the relaunch issue of White Dwarf last September.

Pretty cool figure, actually, and you can use it in Silver Tower.

 Well, that's all for today.

'Til next time.

Exotic Adversaries for Silver Tower

Getting ready for our first game of Silver Tower at the club, I discovered that new adversaries could be added to the random encounter tables during play. These are called Exotic Adversary Groups. So I built a couple.

The first is this Exalted Flamer, which comes from the Burning Chariot kit for Chaos Demons.

It turned out to be the biggest model in the set so far. That's a 40mm base hiding under the entire floating disk structure.

From the same kit comes the Herald of Tzeentch. There are many, many optional parts to build this relatively small model. But, because he comes with an Arcane Tome in the adversary description in the game, I made sure to build him with a book.

Both these models were painted primarily with the airbrush.

Our first play experience in Silver Tower was fun...but the heroes ultimately lost, as enemies spawned faster than they could be dispatched. Looking forward to attempt number two.

Well, that's going to be it for Silver Tower models for a while. Time to turn to other projects.

'Til next time.

Heroes for Silver Tower

With all the Silver Tower adversaries painted, and a game coming up on Tuesday, it was time to get some heroes ready for the table. Four of these are from the boxed set, and one is an Age of Sigmar individual that has stats for the game.

The large 32mm format for these figures gives you lots of detail to paint. Really like these figures.

First up was the Exalted Deathbringer. I bought this figure separately as my own hero for Silver Tower. No reason other than it's a pretty cool looking miniature.

Then there is the Warpriest and Gryph-hound. Nothing quite like a dog crossed with a gryphon and painted like a tiger!

This is the magic user from the set, called a Mistweaver.

Tank = Knight-questor. Actually kind of fond of the standard Sig-marines paint scheme. That gold and blue looks good on the table.

Finally in this batch we have the Darkoath barbarian dude. Lots of nicely sculpted and sharply cast detail on this figure.

The Silver Tower boxed set does allow for adversary expansion, so I've started working on a Herald of Tzeentch. We'll see how he turns out.

'Til next time.

Ogroid Thaumaturge and Gaunt Summoner

Finally, the last two adversary models from Silver Tower...done. I was traveling for a week and then got sick as a dog for another week. These guys should have come off the table some time ago...but better done late than never.

The models are fairly large, and required a bit of effort to finish off. Can't say I'm a big fan of my final work on them, but it sure does feel good to be a huge step closer to playing the game.

Speaking of which, the only thing left to do now is paint up some heroes. Here are some members of the first batch on the table...a few partially painted at this point.

Hope to get a game of Silver Tower going next week at the club. Fingers crossed!

'Til next time.

More Silver Tower Denizens

Almost two months in, and I can see the end of the Silver Tower painting project...just not quite there yet. However, this week, I got a lot closer by finishing off the 8 Chaos Familiars and 2 Deathstalker models.

The Familiars are great little models; full of whimsey. There are the walking books, the fish, dragonettes and..."moon-headed guys"...whatever they are. I felt I had the freedom to really go to town on these guys and just make up all sorts of outrageous paint schemes. So, that's what happened.

The Deathrunner model was pretty cool. I had done some Skaven last year, so was familiar with how I'd approach doing this guy.

A simple paint scheme, but the model is strong enough to show off with just minimal paint attention.

Well, all that's left on the adversary side of the game is the Ogroid and Gaunt Summoner. They are next!

'Til next time.

Grot Scuttlings...And A Lot To Throw Away

The Silver Tower project continues. Today, the Grot Scuttlings came off the hobby table. Hmmm, really don't like these figures much. But now at least they're painted, and the whole project is more than half over. Next will be the Deathrunner, I think.

OK, Warmachine Mk3 is out. That means that all my Mk2 stuff is garbage. So I pulled out all my Mk2 unit cards.

Ouch...and this went into the garbage.

Oh well, that's the way of it. Had another Mk3 game this evening with Elliot and had a good time. Still pretty rusty with my rules so far...but playing to get better. Liking my new Thyra list.

'Til next time.

Horrors From the Silver Tower

Latest batch of figures from the Silver Tower set are the Horrors of Tzeentch.

The airbrush got a heavy workout on these guys, which made the project go very quick. Nice, articulated sculpts. A pleasure to paint. And now, more pieces done for the Silver Tower game. I figure I'm about half way through the set now.

On the Warmachine front, the Mk3 release is imminent. To prepare, I put together another Repenter. Lots of flamethrower goodness. Now if only Privateer would make some nice hard plastic models, instead of these crappy soft resiny-plastic 'jack figures.

Affection for the great Kings of War rule set continues. Last night Coltman came over for a 2000-point game. His Kingdoms of Men army is composed of Sassanid Persians. 

Next up...Grot Scuttlings for Silver Tower.

Tzaangors from Silver Tower

Next up from the Silver Tower set are the Tzaangors. OK...just a minute. Last week I painted up the Acolytes from that set. I did them first because they seemed pretty straight forward. I counted about 20 paint operations per figure. But these Tzaangors are off the charts. I'm estimating over a hundred paint operations per figure. Talk about complex!

But the results are nice, and worth it. They are excellent, if somewhat eccentric, figures.

I've also started back into Warmachine, with the release of the latest Mk3 rule set. This past week I played against Elliot and his Khador Man O' War brick...

...and Garnett, who trotted out a tough Scaverous list.

Mk3 plays a lot like the old Mk2, but just with less jankiness. Enjoyed both games, and I'll be playing more.

Next up from Silver Tower will be the Horrors.

'Til next time.

Starting Into Silver Tower

I recently picked up the new GW boxed game, Silver Tower. There's a pile of cool new miniatures in this set, and I immediately started into painting this 51-model project.

First up were the Kairic Acolytes. I started with them because they seemed to be the easiest pieces to tackle. Lots of skin. No faces to paint. Simple white loincloths and big-ass weapons. Check, check and check. I mounted them on some Secret Weapon resin bases.

Reports are that this game is quite good, and I'm looking forward to playing it. But first...more painting. Next up are the Tzaangors.

What's up with all the crazy-shitty new miniature names from GW? Anyway, the sculpts are great.

'Til next time.