Amontekh the Arboralist

These past two months I have been playing in a game of Rogue Trader where the GM allowed us to play whatever we wanted. I decided that the only logical option for me would be a Necron Botanist, because there aren't enough nice gardens in the 41st millennium. Thus far we've spent more time harassing NPCs than actually getting on with any plot but we've certainly been having a good time!

Though we aren't using miniatures in our campaign, I couldn't resist putting one together for my character. I managed to get the Necron Overlord from the Command Barge really cheap on eBay and then it was just a simple matter of reposing him and adding some robes and a seed bag in green stuff. Though the miniature has a war scythe and a resurrection orb, I didn't think it would be too much of a stretch of the imagination for these to be a staff of light and an aetheroscope which is what my character is equipped with. 

Many millennia ago, Amontekh served at the court of the Nihilakh Dynasty as Lord-Gardner of the Grand Arboreum. Gifted in the botanical sciences he gladly accepted the bio-transference offered by the C'Tan so that he might live to see his work spread across the star and the gardens he planted grow to full maturity. His masterpiece was the so-called Grand Arboreum; an entire moon converted into a monstrous greenhouse for the cultivation of the rarest and most impressive of specimens the Necrontyr could gather. 

However, during the War in Heaven, the ancestors of the Eldar burned the Grand Arboreum to the ground, causing the extinction of many rare and wonderful plants that Amontekh had spent several lifetimes cultivating. With the destruction of his great greenhouses, Amontekh's rage was immense, yet even after the Necron victory over the Old Ones he felt only hollowness rather than the joy of vengeance. 

Nothing could replace the grandeur of the Grand Arboreum, and clad now in bodies fo necrodermis, his brethren cared little for the Lord-Gerdner's talents. He existed a while as a strange oddity at the Nihilakh court, the lords he served having no interest in the raising of new, verdant palace grounds. Depressed and despondent, instead of entering the Great Sleep with the rest of his species, Amontekh decided to wander the galaxy carrying little more than his ceremonial staff of office and a bag of seeds. Hoping that somewhere he might find a renewed meaning to his existence. 

Not even Amontkh can remember all the places he has been. Innumerable worlds have been blessed with his arts and there are many planets with unusual megaflora he has doubtlessly passed. Over the years he has reintroduced a great many different plants long thought lost to the universe as well as experimenting with new breeds which he will release into an environment to see if it takes hold in a cold and uncaring universe. 

Ever since the rise of humanity, Amontekh has lived among them, blending in amongst the masses either within stolen skin or pretending to be a loyal servitor. He finds humans fascinating and much reminiscent of the ancient Necrontyr, able to appreciate the beauty of nature when such miracles are presented to them. Known across the Imperium as the myth of 'The Green Man', or the 'Silent Gardner', Amontekh has recently attracted the attention of the Inquisitors attempting to ascertain the true nature of this mysterious wandering botanist. Not wishing to find himself on the wrong end of a boltgun the Necron has begun travelling with exploratory fleets and Rogue Traders on the edge of known space in order to keep his anonymity while searching out new life to add to his seed collection. 

Though often given to melancholy and the occasional desire to wipe out all organic lifeforms for their ignorance when presented with true beauty, Amontekh generally humours the younger races of the galaxy as he believes that one day they may be the only ones able to appreciate his talents once he feels the time is right to raise the Grand Arboreum once more...

Autumn Workbench - Malifaux, Monsters, and More

I have been incredibly busy over the past few months but I have managed to get quite a few hobby things done in my spare time (i.e. procrastinating between more important things!). While I haven't managed to work on my Flesh-Eater Court or my Witch-Hunters, I have managed to do plenty of work on side projects. 

One of my main projects for this year, though smaller than my main army projects, is an experimental Lich Warband which I'm not putting together for any particular reason than wanting to try out some random painting/modelling ideas. The core of the war band are some small groups of skeletal warriors which are nearly done, just the basing and final details to do now.

One of my favourite miniatures GW has ever produced is Krell and I decided earlier this year to buy him on a whim, adding him to this project as leader of my skeletons. I even largely painted him like the GW scheme but with minor variations to fit the rest of the war band.

Perhaps my favourite conversion for this project thus far is this random Vampire Priest I cobbled together from spare parts. I wanted him to look like a non-combat orientated character, but more shamanistic than wizardly which I like to think I have achieved. 

With the Skeletal core of the army almost finished, I have started work on a Command Squad of wights as heavier hitters. This little unit is led by a character I'm currently just calling Lord Famine that I mounted upon a slightly-converted cow from the Giant kit, a piece that I've been wanting to use for ages now. This weird squad is probably most representative of the design philosophy of this project; that being pure creativity and experimentation. 

I've also managed to get a fair bit done on this Corsair war band for Age of Sigmar which I converted over the summer. It has been quite fun doing something a little different, even if it has admittedly distracted me from more important projects. I've used these miniatures as a test for using Tamiya Clear Red, as I'm currently considering a Horus Heresy project which I might use this colour for. 

I've also made a load of progress on the Malifaux stuff I ordered over the summer. I still have quite a way to go with these miniatures but I'm quite pleased with them thus far. I'm hoping that over the Christmas period I will be able to get my hands on The Jury for this crew as well as get in some of my first games of Malifaux.

Looking back at my hobby plans for the year, I realise that I have had mixed results thus far to say the least. I'm hoping that by the end of the year I will have managed to finish off the three projects mentioned above as well as get some other stuff done as well. After buying the Malifaux stuff in September I decided not to buy anymore miniatures until I had gotten more of my unpainted stuff done as I seem to have entered a never-ending cycle of starting new projects without finishing old ones while continuing to ignore my Tomb Kings. At the start of next year I shall do a 'year-in-review' post and we shall see how successful I have been! 

Starting Malifaux - The Guild's Judgement

With all of my Warmachine stuff painted I felt like I could justify starting a new, non-GW project and I finally managed to convince my brother to get into Malifaux with me. I've fancied getting some of Malifaux's miniatures for years as I think their plastics are simply gorgeous. Though they lack the customisability of GW I do think Wyrd's miniatures are of a similar quality as the level of detail and the crispness of the sculpts are top-notch. The style of sculpt is certainly different, incorporating much more flat space than GW and being more in line with true-scaling than heroic scaling, but I have encountered this kind of thing before with Kingdom Death miniatures and I look forward to the challenge.

For my first crew I have decided to go with 'The Guild's Justice' crew because they are ghost-rider-esque cowboys who are led by a blind ninja lady who is literally called Lady Justice. It doesn't really get much cooler than that in my opinion! As a fan of Westerns I think it is quite likely that as I expand into Malifaux further I will probably stick with the Guild as my main faction and I have already bought the Brutal Effigy to support any Guild crews I build.

As this is such a small model count game I plan on painting each miniature individually in order to try and paint them to the best of my ability. While I do like the colour scheme presented in the art, I would like to try and incorporate more of the Guild's signature colour of red into my miniatures though I'm not yet sure how I'm going to do this. I'd also like to give NMM a try but I've had mixed results with this in the past and may abandon it if I can't get the metallics quite right.

Once I have painted up this crew I think I will pick up a few more general Guild enforcers and minions that can run well with most masters before picking up Perdita Ortega or Sonnia Criid's crew box so I have another master to play with. I'd also love to get the Brutal Emissary as the miniature is simply badass and I'd love to see it stomp across the board terrifying my brother! He has started off with Seamus's crew but has no intention of staying within a given faction and is likely to pick up a range of different crews. As we are going to be away from home for the next few months at university we probably won't have chance for a game until near Christmas, but when we do I will make sure to post my thoughts on the blog.

Menoth Completed!

After a few weeks of working on my Menites on and off I have finally managed to finish my Warmachine army to a standard I am happy with.

The force was painted in a non-traditional colour scheme (I'm fed up of painting red!) and I decided to really grunge-up my men and their machines to better reflect the steampunk nature of the setting. I always found the studio paint jobs for this game far too clean and while I may have overdone it on the rust and gore I am happy with the final results, especially as it contrasts so nicely with the glowing Menofixes.

Warcasters (counts-as Severious1, Feora1, Kreoss1)

Solos (Hierophant, Covenant, Vassal)

Visgoth Juviah Rhoven and Honour Guard

The glowing Menofixes were painted by washing Nihilakh Oxide over a grey base coat. Then painting everywhere except the recesses with Ulthuan Grey and then painting the centre of each part of the Menofix with Ceramite White. While not the most convincing glowing effect (for this I would recommend an airbrush or practicing OSL techniques which I'm not great at) it does the job quickly and efficiently.

Temple Guard

Choir of Menoth

Zealots

The bases were simply coated in a layer of sand (additional layers of sand added in the odd place to break it up a bit were done by simply putting a drop of glue on an area of base and dipping it in the sand again), then I glued some Mordheim Turf to the base and splattered on a bit of blood. I you have read either my Frostgrave Base Tutorial, or my Basing in the Realm of Death Tutorial, you will know I am a big fan of using Mordheim Turf as a simply way of breaking up the monotony of a base. While you can use other grasses and turfs I feel that for inhospitable landscapes like tundras, deserts, or the realm of death this stuff is simply perfect and looks great with some blood splattered on it.

Light Warjacks

Heavy Warjacks

While I'm happy with this force I think it will be a while before I return to Warmachine miniatures. It was a nice distraction from GW miniatures but I think there are other styles of sculpting that I'd like to try painting before I return to the Iron Kingdoms.

When you accidentally kit bash a new project...

I like to think we have all done it. You find yourself sat down idly gluing some miniatures together when you realise that you have a spare body left over, and wouldn't it look good with that head you had spare from the last box you stuck together? Oh and do you remember that cool sword you had left over from the hero you converted two months ago? Lets stick that on him. Mmmh, well he's looking pretty good now, lets add a bit of greenstuff, and don't I have another one of these bodies laying around somewhere as well? Might as well make him a friend or two and maybe I could buy a box of this or that to round it out to a little force...

I do it all the time. Many of these projects are aborted or recycled before they can see the light of day but I've recently started one I think might go somewhere. It has been my intention for a while now to do a few AoS28-inspired war bands. I've already started work on 'The Brides of Nagash' and 'The Reliquary of St. Leonis' which should hopefully materialise some point in the coming months alongside my Flesh-Eater Courts army. After reading City of Secrets, which was a fun little book I'd recommend that really fleshed out what non-Stormcast people get up to in the mortal realms, I couldn't help but be inspired to chop up a long neglected miniature of Crone Hellebron I've never used for anything and see what I could make of it.

Apologies in advance for the bad photography, I happen to have limited means of taking photos presently. 

Morvhana Chillwind: privateer and assassin-for-hire

The result was this charming lady who ended up looking more of an assassin than the Scourge Privateer Captain I had envisioned. I therefore decided to try making such a miniature and began raiding my Dark Elf bits box. Before long I found myself chopping up a few Black Ark Corsairs and I have ended up with a little war band of elven pirates with which to reave the seas of the mortal realms. I did have to cringe a little seeing the paint on these miniatures as I think these corsair pieces were done about ten years ago now. Hopefully I shall be giving them a new lease of life with a fresh lick of paint sometime soon.

Vallach Kildare the Sea-Snake, and the crew of The Revenger

I certainly had a lot of fun with these miniatures. The Corsairs were my first plastic Dark Elf miniatures and I really enjoyed building and customising them back in the day. Now that the corsairs no longer need to be ranked up I could have even more fun with their poses and weapons. This was merely my first endeavour in seeing how far I could push the Corsair kit and I'm really tempted to pick up another box to see what other dynamic poses I can pull off. 

Telemore the Wind-Rider

While looting some of my elf/eldar bits boxes I came across a spare sail from the Dark Eldar Raider kit and some kind of Eldar grav-platform I think is part of a Guardian heavy weapon thing. An idea took shape and now this thing exists. Not sure what to call it but I'm imagining it as some kind of magical wind board that flies along the currents of sorcerous energies that blow through the realms. 

I also found out some Lothern Sea Guard that currently don't have a home and I'm thinking of converting them with Corsair bits to make them into a little group of harbour guards that protect the on-land interests of the Scourge Privateers. A while ago I also kit bashed a Sorceress on Dark Pegasus, which I may add to this group for some magical support if I can find what I've done with her. 

With regards basing I think I might repeat the kind of basing I did on my Hobbit Collection, in order to simulate the planks of a ship. I think I might even have the mould I made for the Goblin Town scenery laying around somewhere, though I think I might paint the wood in a lighter brown than I did with the Hobbit stuff. As for painting I'm not really sure what I am going to do with them. I'm currently leaning towards a bit of a reinvention of my old Dark Elf Army scheme with reds and golds but far brighter to reflect the more mythic-fantasy setting of Age of Sigmar better. 

No idea if this project will actually develop anywhere at all and its likely to remain unpainted for a time, but it was fun to stick together and play around with for a bit. We shall see...

Witch Hunters on the Workbench

Things have continued to be hectic these past few months but I have managed to squeeze in some time for painting and modelling. I have principally been working on the miniatures of the Triumvirate of the Imperium box and some of their associated models as well as a few other odds and ends. 

This is my army of Battle Sisters and Ecclesiarchy units as it currently stands. I'm going for a darker and subtly metallic version of the Order of the Bloody Rose colour scheme while trying to capture an element of Blanch-ian grim-darkness that inspired me to begin 40k in the first place. After the summer I shall have to take some better photos of Saint Celestine herself who is currently giving me plenty of grief with her wings which I just can't seem to get quite right. 

In the background there are also some Kingdom Death miniatures and their art cards which I am using for reference. I am a big fan of the miniatures produced by Kingdom Death and I wish I had a greater level of skill with which to do them justice. While boutique nightmare horror with all manner of violent and sexual themes is not to everyone's taste (not to mention the issues surrounding pin-up miniatures), they are undoubtedly some of the most technically stunning and amazingly detailed miniatures on the market and I hope to get around to painting more of them.

I've also managed to do some work on Inquisitor Greyfax and my Inquisitorial Stormtroopers. I have all of the base colours on and a few highlights though I think there is a way to go with them yet. I really like Greyfax's miniature and I've thoroughly enjoyed painting her thus far. I managed to get some of the old metal Kasrkin minis cheap off of eBay (though they required some new backpacks and a little converting) which I thought would make the perfect bodyguards for her.

Belisarius Cawl has been a fun miniature to paint thus far even if he doesn't really fit with my Witch Hunters as a single Mechanicus miniature. Rather than going for a traditional red-robed look, I decided to go with scarlet armour plates and monochrome robes I will later adorn with the Mechanicus gear pattern. I have one or two ideas as to what exactly I'd ultimately like to do with him but we shall have to wait and see whether I ever manage to assemble the time or funds for any of my half-baked ideas. 

This past month or so has also seen me pick up my pencils again after a lengthy absence from sketching. This was the first thing I doodled to try and get used to a range of different pencils again and its likely that if I do any more hobby-related sketches they will turn up on the blog.

I currently have a bit of free time during which I hope to not only do some more work on my Witch Hunters but also on my Age of Sigmar projects which have been steadily developing in the background. Above is a bit of a teaser for my AoS project which I am currently titling: At the Court of the Silver King, which I am very excited about. I'm also planning on doing something with my guardsmen for Shadow War Armageddon as my brother has already assembled a Chaos Marine war band and is itching to kill anything that isn't wearing power armour. My Menites are sat waiting in the background as are my Tomb Kings which I'm re-painting, not to mention my Dark Angels who are in a sorry state so I think I've got a busy summer ahead of me!

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