Sláine - Warriors of the Earth tribes

 

Hey all ! So I managed to finish the last project for 2023 out of nowhere ! Having tidied the desktop a bit because I was feeling overwhelmed, I took the opportunity to put some comitments back to the front and mongst those this Band of Erth tribe warriors for a gaming week end later in March ! I had first painted Sláine a while ago after playing the first 3 scenarii of the book and since we're going to Tir Nan Og for our reunion, I obviously picked the Erth tribes and more precisely the Sessair !

BOYL exclusive Merc and Necromunda Spyrer Matriarch

So I've started a lot of projects lately and obviously, before starting them I decided to start yet another ! Now in my defense, it was also to close another, which was painting all my BOYL exclusives ! Worth taking the time right ?
And the last model on the list was this fantastic space merc captain by none other than Bob Naismith. And it was in my top tier even before painting it! 

Now I knew from the start I didn't want this guy to be a stand alone and I had greater plans for him. He obviously has everything you want a space pirate to be so I thought I needed a model to be along him in a Captain/First mate relation for Stargrave. Then I saw that old Necromunda Spyrer matriarch and thought they were the perfect macth, both looking old, one burly and the other quite skinny, one sharp and the other blunt, they were perfect.

BOYL exclusive Navigator

Hey all ! Next in my quest to get all the BOYL exclusive models painted : The Navigator, this one is a bit special since it's the latest one (at the time of writing) from BOYL 2023 but it's a first in BOYL history since it 's the first multipart model !

This one has been sculpted by Time Prow and follows the pattern of switching from fantasy to sci-fi and the other way round every year.

BOYL exclusive Necromancer by Bob Olley

Hey all ! I'm in the middle of a stupid number of projects at the moment but I wanted to clear a few items rapidly lately. One of which is going through my BOYL exclusives and getting them all painted to show some gratitude ! Amongst the ones I hadn't painted, there was this Necromancer by the incredible Bob Olley from BOYL 2022 (iirc).

#dressawilly the painting challenge from TheStillTower !

Hey all ! With the end or Orctober, I wanted to take the opportunity to post these guys which have a bit of relevance with the topic. A while ago, thestilltower (check his Instagram HERE) launched a painting challenge around a dolly he made of Willy... which participants had to dress, hence #dressawilly, get it ?

Orktober : Snotlings and Warp energy !

 

Hey all ! Like every year this time it's ORKTOBER ! Like a way to soothe me from addin another earth rotation to the count, it's the occasion to get more greenskins done !

This year I knew exactly the kind of models I wanted, I still have plenty for the orks but I had a LOT of snotlings and a Shock Attack Gun so those would be entries for sure. Now since I was painting a shock attack gun, I HAD TO paint the pulsa Rocket too since it works on warp energy as well, which also meant I somehow had to paint runtbots, because I'm a nice runtherd who wants to protect his flock.

Turnip28 Battle reports from the Octogône

 

Hey all ! A couple of weeks ago, I had the chance to attend to The Octogône, a gaming con in Lyon (France) where I got to meet some pals amongst which the most excellent Jean Peinture ! 

I had brought a few models in case there was an opportunity to play some Forbidden psalm but I was especially eager to try Turnip28 after reading the rules (which you can find HERE)

From what I read, the rulesfelt simple, fast and most importantly FUN, with just enough random events and silly outcomes, strategic potential to stay interesting for a while with all the cult rules and scenarii, the kind of balance I'm after really.

Stargrave family party

 

Hey all ! So with summer over, painting can start again and I've finally managed to finish the first part of a challenge started at the beginning of summer with the whole family. I've been thinking about playing some games with modesl with my family (that's 4 kids and 2 adults) and when I received my Stargrave Scavenger set I immediately knew I had the perfect opportunity !

2nd edition Marine for the #90smarinechallenge

So if you're keeping track of what happens on  Instagram, you might have heard of Darren Latham's painting challenge #90smarinechallenge which requires participants to paint a plastic 2nd edition marine from the starter box.
I found this would be the perfect occasion to add yet another Scythe to the chapter so knowing full well I wasn't gonna paint the nicest, I had to at least pick THE BEST chapter there is : the Scythes of teh Emperor (no question).

Chaos Cultists (an unhealthy number of) - Blackstone Fortress and Dark Vengeance

Hey all ! I'm pretty sure we all have in common the fact that our desk has works in Progress that have been here for ages right ? Well for the past few months, I've tried to clear my desk from those projects by finishing one after the other to both clear the desk and my mind from those and I have to say it's been a very rewarding process !

Chaos Dreadfiler

In the line of  models I've had half painted on my desk for way to long, this one was the biggest. I've started it in October 2022 and although the conversion process went fast and the painting start as well, I somehow stalled and moved onto several other projects like usual !
But I'm firmly keeping my pace on unfinished paintjobs and I had decided this one was next !

The conversion is based on a chaod Dreadnought resculpt by Drew Williams which was kindly donated to me. The model is supposed to be truescale with renegades making it considerably bigger than the original dreadnaughts I love.

Traitor Command - Blackstone Fortress

 

Hey all ! It's mid 2023 and of course I'm still on Blackstone Fortress ! I'm actually clearing the desk from any half painted models and this pair has been sittig on the desk since I moved house  last October ! I had this models up to the end of the "shit stage", you know, that dreadful stage where you just block colours in, it's taking ages and it ends up looking like playmobils ? The fun usuallt starts after that stage and for some reason I stopped there on these. Good thing though is that resuming work on them was a joy since all I had left were the fun bits and they're amazing models to begin with.

Spider Swarm - Endless Spell form the Gloomspite Gitz

 Extremely quick one today, I just found this Gloomspite Gitz endless spell in my stash a while ago after getting it second hand at the FLGS, don't ask me why I decided to paint it now but I just grabbed a can of spray, primed it and after a few drybrushes, washes and details, decided it was good. 
I'll make sure to have a scenario in a game featuring that wave of spiders as a threat for characters, or I can just make it a band member in Stargrave and why not a Xenos captain ? WHY NOT ?

Anyway, that's one in the bank, happy painting y'all !

Ratmen by Maraud Miniatures

 

Hey all ! After painting the Dark Goblins and the Troll by Maraud Miniatures, I've finally painted the evil ratmen ! Like for the other models, the sculpts are done by the excellent Alexandre Vallet with sketches from Sceptik le Sloucheur.

Return to Bogenhafen and road to the Giants' kingdom !

So following our last session in the Mines of Karak Ture, our warhammer RPG party has been hitting the road again after a well deserved rest.
The following events loosely follow some elements from the imperial campaign, the ennemy within and all, if those elements seems familiar, here's the reason, I have never played or read those scenarios though so spoiler alert !

The explorator by 28

 

Hey all you wonderful people ! A while back, some of you might have seen 28mag were announcing a future line of models named "Fist in the Eye" and teasing a very cool model. Well I was kindly offered to paint a version of my own and it's been both an honour and a pleasure to do it (although a long process with a house move in between) !

The Silver Bayonet - The French Unit

Hey all ! So you know how the hobby expands over several genres, settings and made up worlds right ? That's its biggest strength for me. It's a way to escape the real world and create one of your own to project how you'd want to change it. So bottom line, I'm not not historical gaming at all, I don't want to be reminded about atrocities that have existed before, the horrors of war and the vileness of human nature.
BUT, it turns out it only takes a couple of vampires, werewolves and ghouls in the mix to make it perfectly OK. That's where Silver Bayonet comes in. Having had a good dose of Stargrave lately, I'm very much into Joe McCullough's games at the moment and when my partners in crime started eying towards it I took the opportunity of a sale on my gaming shop's site to get a unit of french people because any chance I get to justify my poor accent in gaming is good for me.

Fogou Mud Brickstarter 2

Hey all ! If you've been reading this blog a few times, you might have noticed I'm a bit of a Fogoumaniac and well, Fogou just happen to be releasing their new Kickstarter at the moment ! YAY !

I had got the first Mud Brickstarter a while ago and I was eager to get the new ones to expand my setting a bit !

Ripper Jacks and Bug Maggots

 

Hey there, quick one today ! My recent Stargrave campaign has hugely motivated me to get some more terrain and critters painted and since its spring I'm also trying to clear the desk from all the models who've been sittig there for too long, amongst which some alien bugsi've had since I got the Stargrave rulebook..

Roboknop - Bounty Hunter

 

So a month ago, I was delighted to take part in an exciting campaign week end of Stargrave with great friends. Now to make this week-end even better, Mikko from Dawn of the lead had prepared a little surprise for us in the form of an event special miniature ! 

Fogou Stone Ruins

So I've been in quite a terrain mood lately (for a couple for months actually) but these things taking so much time, I usually putting them on the back burner and do the heavy lifting during holidays and then details pretty much when I can.

Now one of the last sets I've been working on is this set of stone ruinsfrom FOGOU from their latest (at the time of writing) Kickstarter LIFE IN RUINS.

At this points, if you're checking this space now and then you might know I'm a huge Fogou fan and I love their stuff, it paints itself, requires little to no prepartion (it's really paintable out of the box) and is modular enough to suit several settings, historical, fantasy, weird wars and sci-fi.

Imitation of Life Bunker Doors

Hey all, quick one ths time, I was lucky to get one of those printed by a friend and finally took the opportunity to paint it !

Those are printed from STL's from the most excellent Imitation of Life you can follow on Facebook or even on Patreon. His stuff is amazing and makes me want to get a 3D printer even just for his stuff (matter of when rather than if). So amongst some cool prints I picked those two because I reckon I could knock them off pretty rapidly. 

Stargrave Campaign - The Unreal engine

 So last week , I was lucky to get the opportunity to meet up with some friends for a whole extended week end of gaming. I hadn't seen several of them since 2019 due to real world complications so it really wa s a tremendous pleasure to see them, push some lead, talk non sense, empty some pints and catch up.

The game we focused on this year is Joe McCullough's Stargrave, the sci-fi version of the famous Frostgrave and I was really happy be hapy to finally play a game I had been waiting for for years. There were 10 of us and 6 to 7 tables with a dedicated scenario each so plenty of opportunities to explore the game, level up the bands and experience the wonders of dice roll drama.

Colony87 Starport Ogre Crew

 

In the middle of preprations for a WE of Stargrave, I picked the opportunity o pick some Colony87 models to put on the table because frankly, who doesn't love NPC's ? I'm also all for taking any excuse to get models painted so when my friend Sho3box mentionned he was making a Starport table, I jumped on the opportunity.

Rogue Trader Mercenaries and Pirates

Hey all, so I have a Stargrave campaign coming so it was time to dust off the band I had designed for the game some time ago. Looking at the troop choices, I realised I didn't have much choice in terms of weapons so sinc everyone else was painting their bands, I felt compeled to painting some more. Since the whole crew was built on Rogue Trader classics, I had little choice but to exapand with other Rogue Trader classics. So I decided to scratch an old itch and get some mercenaries and pirates done, giving me more carbines and big guns to pick from (I'd still only be able to pick 10 anyway)

Troll by Maraud Miniatures

 Hey all, following the dark Goblins I last showed, I thought I ought to show you the troll I painted from the same range by Maraud Miniatures. This guy is quite a big boy, towering over classic troll even when he's seated !

Dark Goblins by Maraud Miniatures

 

Hey all, I'm quite chuffed to show you these now. A while ago, I was visiting my FLGS like usual when one of the owners took me aside and said he had stuff I might want to see. Now this is the kind of encounter I was taught to avoid but in a hobby store, all rules stay out at the door.

It turns out he was sculpting a new range of fantasy miniatures inspired and flavoured with all the nice references we love.
The models were built on concept art by  my mate Adrien AKA Jean Peinture (follow both his Instagram and amazing blog)

and sculpted by  the most excellent Alexandre Vallet, 2 hobby friends I have a huge fondness and respect for on top of being lovable human beings.

Stargrave Loot Tokens

 

Hey all ! Bit of a palette cleanser today. I have an upcoming Stargrave week-end with friends in april and though I have painted my Stargrave band a while ago, I still haven't used it for its intended purpose so here's the perfect occasion !

Now amongst the few things one needs to play Stargrave, there are of course a ruler/tape measurer/anything to give you distances on the tabletop, dice (of the 20 sided kind) AND because this game is like its fantasy big brother, a treasure hunt game, you need treasure tokens !

Goff Rockers - The Mörkley Krëw

So GW's recent release of the most excellent Goff rocker has seriously itched my ork and metalhead nerves, it's notthat easy you see a model without a weapon (if you leave the ammo belt and squig amp aside) just for the fun of it. On top of that, I always felt that my yet unpainted goff rockers were missing a 4th member  (even if there are several great examples of 3 heads bands). As often I usually seek any excuse to paint some models and this was the one, I had to paint the goff rockers !

Ork Boss on Giant Squig and unreleased ork casualty

 

Hey all ! You folks know there's never a bad time to paint orks right ? So I've decided that it was Orknuary and  I'd be painting orks. Actually, I was triggered by the release of the new Goff Rocker but more on that soon...

Giant servo-skull

Hey all ! I was looking at the Stargrave rulebook the other day, thinking of what specific encounters would suit each scenario until I figured out I needed a giant skull robot in my life to guard data vaults, terrorise adventurers or just pose and look cool. As you do.

Warcry Scions of the Flame

Happy new year everyone ! This one is starting ON FIRE ! Well I actually finished those on the the 31st of december but taking pictures and everything between too much food and beverages meant they're airing in 2023, at least I'll start soon enough with painted models !

Like often, I'm a bit (very) late on some trends so I'm only painting my first real band for Warcry now although I did get the models right when they were released.