Fell Bats Conversion

For a long time I have wanted to include Fell Bats in my undead forces and unfortunately the current GW miniatures are really old and unfit for purpose. So earlier this year I spent some time rifling through my bits boxes to see what I could come up with. These are the results of which I am rather proud. I forgot to take pictures of them without paint (I got excited and started painting right away so these are very WIP pics) but I think its fairly obvious what I've done here. These miniatures can be put together quite easily, and are made from pieces most Death players likely have lying around.

The base of this conversion is the spare pieces from assembling a unit of Crypt Horrors. If you assemble the Crypt Horrors you will be left with the wings, hairy back, and head of the Vargheists. I began by taking these pieces and gluing them together in a flying pose. The heads glue really easily onto the top of the hairy back piece and the wings can be glued to roughly where the shoulders should be with relative ease, though you may need to cut the joints a little for the best fit. 

For the claws I then took some spare Ghoul arms and glued them to the bottom of the back piece. This may require cutting down the shoulder joint of the arms a little. I also elected to go with arms that weren't holding any items and showed the bare claws. 

This leaves us with all of the bat except for the front of the torso. You could green-stuff in some muscles or something but I elected to glue a skeleton shield to the front of the body for ease. The round shields from the Skeleton Warriors kit cover this front area quite nicely and I thought it would provide a nice space to display the colours and heraldry of an army. After all, I like to think of these bats as a proud Vampire/Necromancer's pets that they would want to cover in their personal colours or sigils. As an extra detail I added some arrows poking out of the bat above to show where enemy archers had tried to bring it down. 

I then used some green stuff to fill in gaps, make small tails, and generally smooth any connections that didn't look quite right. Finally they were glued to a standard 40mm base by their wing-tips (I'm not a fan of using flying bases but they could work equally well) and where necessary I glued coins to the bottom of the base to make sure they wouldn't fall over. 

I believe these Fell Bats are a fair bit larger than the current Fell Bat miniatures but with a more dynamic pose and more modern pieces I think you'll agree they are much better. I also think they fit within the aesthetic of most undead armies better than using Tyranid bits, which seems to be the most common means of converting Fell Bats that I have seen previously. I'm sure that others will be able to refine this method further, but for now I rather pleased with my Fell Bats and I hope it inspires others to try rooting through their bits boxes to see what they can make! 

Hobby Goals 2017

Well 2016 wasn't a particularly productive year in the hobby for me (being an all-round bad year for many), though in the last few months of it some painting and modelling did get done in the form of some Warmachine miniatures and my Flesh-eaters, respectively. With the start of 2017 (after an incredibly busy January) I have decided to take stock of my current hobby situation and actually write down what I am doing, rather than just having a nebulous idea of what projects I am working on in my head. This is largely for posterity and I look forward to seeing how successful I have been at achieving these things by the end of the year!

Earl Grymtyde of Gravenport
Currently a permanent feature of my desk telling me to get on and do some painting

Current

These are my current main projects which I am working on and should hopefully feature most prominently on the blog if this year goes as planned. These are listed roughly in the order of priority I have given them though is subject to change:

- Flesh-eater Courts - This is my current lead project with loads still to do. The fact that practically everything is WIP right now is why they haven't appeared on the blog yet beyond my Mournghoul. I am hoping to visit them in the next few weeks and get some troops done to put on the blog.

- Witch-Hunters - My old force of Sisters of Battle and Inquisitorial stuff has undergone a few dozen different iterations over the years and with the release of Saint Celestine and rumours of plastic Battle Sisters on the horizon I have decided to re-paint and re-vamp this army. More on this coming soon.

Test scheme for my Battle Sisters

- Lich Warband - My brother and I are working on a skirmish project for which I am building a small force centred around a character who has appeared in several projects of mine. Originally being my first Dungeons and Dragons character: the Sun Elf necromancer Avrilar Amalith, self-proclaimed Lord of Corbalan and Dark-Lich, is finally getting a small army to boss around. This project is very WIP at the moment but is slowly going places.

- Menoth - I am continuing to work on my Menites whom I unfortunately didn't manage to finish before Christmas. In fact I have elected to take a small break from them and focus instead on the three projects listed above as I wont have the opportunity to battle with them until Easter anyway.

Ongoing

I also have a few ongoing projects which I am working on intermittently. These are admittedly projects I have started and not finished due to fatigue or getting sidetracked, mostly being army re-painting and other stuff that keeps getting put on the back burner. These aren't listed in any particular order.

- Tomb Kings - I am in the middle of re-painting this army for display purposes, other things however keep getting in the way of me moving beyond base colours. Painting the whole army in stages as well is exhausting. Painting all the gold on 100+ miniatures takes a long time and is quite an insane thing to undertake now that I think about it. 

- Imperial Guard - I am also in the middle of re-painting this army to sit alongside my Sisters of Battle. They are on hiatus for now while I work on my Witch-Hunters. I am currently entertaining notions of breaking this army up a bit and returning it to its roots as allies to my main Witch-Hunting force. Possibly converting some superfluous miniatures into a Necromunda war band if I ever get around to it. 

- Kingdom Death - I have a backlog of various KD models I have picked up over the past two years. I use these miniatures to experiment with different painting styles so I usually only work on them when I feel like breaking up batch painting. Something that hasn't happened a lot this past year as I haven't really been painting at all!

3 WIP minis I am working on at the moment

- Misc. Age of Sigmar stuff - I have some random Elves and some Sisters of Sigmar I would like to do something with, even if they just end up as small war bands that sit alongside my main Death Alliance stuff. Will just have to wait and see what happens with them.

Possible

These are ideas that I have had, but possess no current plans to pursue. I have written them down in rough order of how likely I am to actually do them though it is unlikely any of them will get done while I still have ongoing projects.

- Tzeentch - I have been thinking of re-basing my chaos army onto round bases and picking up some the new Arcanites. The new Lord of Change in particular is making it really hard not to want to, especially the Kairos Fateweaver configuration. My main problem is that my current AoS army is still in the works with several miniatures I still need to buy bases for.

I need this in my life!

- Adeptus Mechanicus - Always loved the miniatures and I will be getting Belisarius Cawl in the box with Saint Celestine so he may end up with some friends at some point depending on if I decide to re-visit Tzeentch or not.

- Space Marines - I have a small force of Dark Angels Space Marines I am not particularly happy with who might receive some attention. Have been thinking about repainting them as Blood Angels and adding some of the miniatures from that range I really like. Depends on how my other Imperial projects go. 

- Blood bowl - for a long while now I have contemplated putting together a team, most likely of Dark Elves. While this would be a relatively low-cost project I always seem to have other things going on.

- Infinity - I have been considering this for quite some time. I was going to pick up an ALEPH starter box a few years ago but got distracted by Warmachine instead. If my other projects are a success I might start nearer the end of this year.

- Sisters of Silence - I absolutely love the miniatures and I am not sure whether to just add a squad to my Witch Hunters or if I should actually start a small 30k force of them. I suppose it depends on if Forge World announce any plans to expand on them in a meaningful way like they are doing with Custodes.

If Forge World could make these that would be fantastic

- Busts/large scale figures - I have often fancied trying out painting resin busts or larger scale miniatures. Alas, the smaller stuff always seems to win my wallet.

- Historical - As a student of history and a miniature war gamer I probably ought to have done something that combines the two by now, even if it is just a handful of English Civil War regiments.

So those are my current thoughts on what I am doing and thinking of doing in the hobby this year. As ever projects I want to do or have abandoned in favour of shiny new stuff outweighs what I am actually working on at the moment. While this is the final year of my undergraduate degree I am on top of my work (in some places well ahead) and I hope this should free up some time to paint the ever-increasing stack of unpainted miniatures I own. 

Every hobbyist I have met has a habit of stacking up a lot of projects, unpainted miniatures, and unfulfilled ideas. I hope to burn through as many of mine as possible in 2017 which is already shaping up to be an interesting year in the world of miniature wargaming. 

This year I am hoping to try out some new things, improve my painting skills, and have a lot of fun with some unusual modelling projects. I plan on putting much of this on the blog to help motivate me and I hope those of you who are following enjoy what I put out. 

- Doombringer

How to: Basing in the Realm of Death

I haven't seen too many basing tutorials for Age of Sigmar and thought I would throw this one into the mix for people to enjoy. It is a variation on a few techniques and tutorials I have seen floating around the web to make lava or to create the impression of an energy impact.

The idea behind this base is that the malignant magics of the realm of death are seeping up and forcing their way through the earth as battle is joined on the plains of Shyish.

1.

1. Swirl your colours of death together. I elected to use several of the paints which I have used for spirits in this army: Xereus Purple, Baharroth Blue, Celestra Grey, Ulthuan Grey and Ceramite White

2.

2. The base is covered in a layer of clear PVA glue. This will help the Martian Ironearth crack more dramatically.

3.

3. When the PVA is dry put a good coating of Martian Ironearth over the base. On larger bases you will see it start to crack and separate mere seconds after application due to the PVA so make sure you work quickly. To help the effect I like to hold the drying Ironearth under a hairdryer for a few minutes as well; holding the hairdryer about 12 inches away from the base so as not to warp the plastic when on full heat.

4.

4. When the base is dry some abaddon black is lightly dry brushed over the top just to help darken the earth and create contrast with the magical colours beneath.

5.

5. The lip of the base is painted with Naggaroth Night mixed with a small amount of Xereus Purple (about 2:1). I then like to finish the base off with some Mordheim Turf and a little splatter of blood. When I come to stick together my Flesh-Eaters I will also paint up the odd skull and bits of bone to glue onto the base as well to help break it ups bit.

Below are some examples of this technique used on larger bases and also demonstrating how it can be done to make it appear as if spirits are rising out of the tortured earth.

Best of luck with your own basing in the Mortal Realms!

Contest of Night Winner!

The other day I entered the Contest of Night that author Josh Reynolds was holding on his website with his recent Realmgate Wars book: 'Mortarch of Night' as the prize. As I have decided to finally take the plunge into Age of Sigmar I thought I might as well enter and get myself a free signed book. 

I was therefore delighted to discover that Josh really liked my miniature and selected it as the winning entry for the contest! You can see the post announcing me as the winner here on his blog: Hunting Monsters. This was quite the nice surprise for me after a series of minor life mishaps and I really look forward to reading this book and delving deeper into the Age of Sigmar. 

Enthused by this win I hope to finally get around to finishing writing my review of 'Bladestorm' by Gav Thorpe and finally get a few photos of Age of Sigmar miniatures onto the blog. For now though I will leave you with a picture of my winning entry with some small commentaries on the model.

Agengrim One-Eye of Gravenport - Bishop of the Church of Nagash's Hand

Thoughts from my desk: Age of Sigmar, Purple Worms and batch painting

Having just gotten back into the blog I have quite a few thoughts and things swirling abut in my head that I felt like writing down. Since the end of my academic year I have hung around my university doing research for my dissertation and in my spare time doing bits of hobbying. While my desk is usually covered in odd bits of paper, books and post-it notes; it is currently swamped beneath paint pots and miniatures.

This is where we are at the moment with quite a few different things going on that provoked my train of thought...