The Inexorable Engine - Chaos in the Old Wolrd

Tzeentch will have his due...

I have had a long and troubled relationship with the forces of Chaos. This was never an army I really planned on having; most of it being a gift from a friend. Rather than selling it over the years I have done various things with it and previously the army looked like this: Part 1 and Part 2. However this year I decided that in tribute to the Old World I would paint this army up and finish it properly for display.

I decided to give it a major re-theme, re-paint and added a few new things like Chaos Dwarves while cutting any filler and rubbish. After being busy with uni for a year I settled down for a month of intensive painting and finally got this army where it is now.

An Army of the End Times: The House of Shattered Tears

My army of the End Times; my tribute to the Elves of Warhammer Fantasy using models both old and new to create an eclectic mix of elves that represent that noble yet cursed race who have ever been at the forefront of the Warhammer World. I have had a lot of fun with this project and though I doubt this army will see much time on the battlefield it will at least be a fond reminder of the Old World and the cursed elves of Ulthuan who helped me down the road of the hobby.

House of Shattered Tears:  Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3

An army of the End Times: The House of Shattered Tears Part 3

Here is the final part of my End Times army project, soon to be followed by a post showing a few army shots.

House of Shattered Tears: Part 1, Part 2

The Salt-Blood Reavers

The Salt-Blood Reavers crewed the ship that brought Dazmir to the Tower of Infinite Woe. These corsairs are captained by Dresla Salt-Blood, a cruel maiden of the seas who belongs to a lesser corsair house pledged to House Victarian. Taking a lover from amongst the high elf house-guard, a grim elf named Althrithar, Dresla marches with the House of Shattered Tears hoping to earn the patronage of Dazmir - the Hand of Doom.

The Blades of the Tower

The Blades of the Tower are an old order sworn to the House of Shattered Tears. Many a soldier or servant of the Tower go mad from the strange magics that surround the Seers, those thus afflicted come to wear ceremonial torture helmets that keep the unfortunate elf lucid enough for mind control. Most continue to descend into further insanity; the helms rendering them little more than automatons. Some however ascend to a new level of consciousness as they are able to gain some understanding of the visions of the Seer. These elves are deemed stable yet expendable enough to wield cursed swords; becoming powerful shock troops with no sanity to hold them in check. The Blades have long been considered an abomination by the other great houses of Caledor and for the past few thousand years mad elves that would usually qualify have instead been ritually executed to end their suffering. With the arrival of Dazmir and the House of Shattered Tear's alliance with Doombringer however, Prince Astalaton has reformed the order to serve in the bodyguard of the Hand of Doom; directed into battle by three of Dazmir's personal retainers.

Tyrek Tallhelm the Scarred was a childhood friend of Prince Astalaton, his sworn-sword and loyal companion in many a campaign. Carrying the ancient banner of the Tower of Infinite Woe he has proudly served the Prince for hundreds of years. The mind-bending magics of the Seers have taken their toll on him though and in recent years Astalaton has watched his friend fall to insanity, eventually placing the ceremonial torture helm on Tyrek himself. Rumours abound that it was this event that caused the rift between the Prince and his seer sister, Tyrek Tallhelm now little more than a screaming automata who continues to carry the standard of the Tower into battle completely heedless and unaware of any danger around him.

An army of the End Times: The House of Shattered Tears Part 2

Part 1: The House of Shattered Tears

I have now added the Island of Blood set to this army to help  pad it out a bit more and bring it up to around 2000 points. I have also managed to cobble together a few more units out of spare pieces which you can probably see lurking in the background of a few of the pictures.

Prince Astalaton

Prince Astalaton is pretty much straight out of the box barring a head swap and an axe replacing his lance. A sombre and stern man who, like his forebears, has been deeply effected by the curse of his house and the strange magics of the Tower of Infinite Woe. He is renown across Caledor as a man of uncompromising principles, his honour bound code of conduct earning him the title of Lord-Justicier of the Doomspire Fleet and a place on Doombringer's High Council upon his alliance with the Dreadlord.

Due to the unsettling magics that surround the Tower of Infinite Woe and the curse of its lords, no dragons have every been pledged to the service of the House of Shattered Tears. Instead tradition has seen the princes of the tower ride upon the backs of Griffons which adorn their banners.

Morvarel the Seeker

Rather than have another regular wizard in this army I decided to convert the Island of Blood mage into a Loremaster of Hoeth. This was simple enough, I simply removed the head and arms, didn't attach the regular chest piece and added new bits before covering any gaps with greenstuff. I also positioned him at an angle on his base rather than face-on to emphasise his pointing arm. Morvarel the Seeker is an old friend of Prince Astalaton who has long studied the Tower of Infinite Woe, devoted to knowledge above all else he gladly became Dazmir's apprentice and has begun to embrace darker arts.

Lady Arianne the Seer

Lady Arianne is Prince Astalaton's sister and is the current Seer of the House of Shattered Tears. Gifted with powers of foresight and tormented with dire visions of the End Times she is a sombre soul, cursed by blood and righteous in wrath. She is accompanied at all times by her handmaidens who are drawn from the families of lesser noble houses sworn to the Tower of Infinite Woe. To serve the Seer in such a capacity is considered a great honour but a deadly one for the madness such proximity may entail. When a girl leaves to become handmaiden to a seer her family will throw a great celebration before performing a ritual funeral after she has gone.

Lady Arianne with her Handmaidens

I have always loved the Spellsinger model and this was the perfect excuse to buy one. The handmaidens are some of the old Handmaidens of the Everqueen that I picked up years and years ago and have never actually finished painting. At various times I have considered using them in several different armies but I have never fully committed to a particular role or colour scheme for them until now.

I thought I would just take a moment to speak about Instant-mould, which without I would not have been able to get very far on this project at all. I have used it for the face masks of Dazmir's bodyguard as well as for some shields, sea dragon cloaks and a few other little bits and bobs. It is fairly cheap, you can pick a packet up off of Amazon for about £12, and is reusable. You can use it to make very simple push-moulds that can be quite useful for replicating a part for use across an army. For example I can see this being used to create large amounts of custom shoulder pads for space marines and I already have a few ideas of using it to replicate some armour parts for my Dark Angels. I would recommend it for any hobbyist looking to try some modelling to add some extra unique touches to their army.

Thoughts on Age of Sigmar - Rage, Optimism and the Uncertain Future...

Well this has been an interesting few weeks. After the demise of the Old World we finally see what has come to take its place and the emergent Age of Sigmar has divided the community. Here I will attempt to gather some thoughts from across the internet as well as throw in a few of my own ramblings with regards the new release. More than anything this is for posterity's sake as I think it will be interesting to look back on the dawn of this new era of Warhammer in the months and years to come.

I will address the three core aspects of the game (as I see them): the models, the rules and the fluff followed by a lengthy conclusion. Throughout I will attempt to include both the positive and negative   though I forewarn you I shall probably tend towards the latter though I try to keep some optimism. 

The End Times: Archaon - Review

So the end has finally come. This is it, the final swan song of Warhammer as we know it. I realise it has taken me a long time to review this book since its release, this is partially due to exams and other commitments I have had, but it is also due to a profound sense of detachment. The world has ended, that is how this book ends and that is a very jarring phenomena for someone who has invested a lot in this setting. This book has not been an easy read.

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

If you haven't read my other End Times reviews yet you can read them here:

• The End Times: Nagash - Review
• The End Times: Glottkin - Review
• The End Times: Khaine - Review 
• The End Times: Thanquol - Review

The fifth End Times volume, as ever quality and presentation remain high. The first book is 264 pages and the second is  79 pages.

I will write this review much like the other four, discussing the background then the rules before moving onto whatever random musings and comments I can think of. 

An army of the End Times: The House of Shattered Tears Part 1

Whilst waiting for layers of paint to dry on Nagash I have been working on this side-project. In an attempt to empty Limbo (my aborted projects box) I have gathered together a range of elven miniatures in an effort to make a coherent army out of them and with the advent of the End Times I can do just that. Thus, far my efforts have been largely successful with several units assembled and a slew of lords and heroes converted to accompany them. I have also developed a colour scheme for them using some of the paints and techniques I have picked up from painting Nagash - essentially a Caledorian colour scheme of green and red but fairly unique in my opinion.

WARNING: END TIMES SPOILERS AHEAD!

If you want to re-familiarise yourself with the events of End Times Khaine you can read my summary and review of it here: End Times: Khaine - Review

As you can see much of this army is made from some rather random miniatures, some old and some new. In my efforts to empty Limbo I have managed to remove nearly all of the elf and dark elder spare bits and pressed them into service, and rather successfully thus far at that I think.

WIP House of Shattered Tears

The House of Shattered Tears is an ancient family of Caledor whose seat is the Tower of Infinite Woe, a grim pinnacle half-sunk beneath the waves and surrounded by blasted wastes from wars long past. The dynasty that controls this northern outpost of the dragon princes has long been gifted with the powers of foresight and prophecy, once seen as a blessing it has long been considered a curse. The sinister and distressing foretellings of their mages giving the family, and their abode, their names. This ancient house is led by the brooding Prince Astalaton and his sister Lady Arianna the Seer. It was her visions that convinced her brother to support Prince Imrik in his alliance with Malekith and to even go so far as to join themselves to a Dark Elf house: that of Doombringer...

Nagash - 2 months of work and 41 paint pots later...

This has got to be one of the most challenging models I have ever painted and I am really happy with the results. As soon as I saw the model I knew that I simply had to own it and I finally managed to get my hands on the Great Necromancer just after Christmas. It then took me two months to buy all the paints I needed for him and then paint him. 

I largely followed the painting guide you can buy and download. I would certainly recommend it if like myself you were worried about doing such an amazing model a disservice. The only major deviations I made was that I added a layer of xereus purple to the armour after naggaroth night and I painted the warpstone gems like the eyes with an added green glaze to give a glowing effect. 

This post is largely just a gallery of the finished model, for more pictures of my Undead Legions visit the Parade Grounds. Enjoy. 

Warriors of Order Sketchbook - Part 4

The End Times: Thanquol - Review

This End Times book managed to melt the GW webstore servers when it went up for pre-order, everyone evidently in a rush to grab one before they went out of stock like Glottkin and Khaine did after not even an hour. With hardback books not being sent to stores this meant that there was actually plenty for everyone and the book remained in stock in the UK for a few days afterwards before becoming available in soft back only. I was one of those who sat constantly refreshing for about an hour, crawling towards the checkout bit by bit between server timeouts. Whilst my efforts were ultimately a bit overzealous considering it didn't go out of stock in ten minutes, it was a very stressful evening and I was overjoyed when my order was confirmed. 

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

If you haven't read my other End Times reviews yet you can read them here:

• The End Times: Nagash - Review
• The End Times: Glottkin - Review
• The End Times: Khaine - Review 

The fourth End Times volume is slightly longer than the Glottkin and Khaine books and was the same price, as ever quality and presentation remain high. The first book is 233 pages and the second is  63 pages.

I will write this review much like the other three, discussing the background then the rules before moving onto whatever random musings and comments I can think of. 

Warriors of Order Sketchbook - Part 3

Nagash, Elven Hosts and Sauron - New year, new projects

This week I have finally begun my new projects for this year after settling back into university. My main project is going to be Nagash, whose model I have wanted ever since I first laid eyes upon it, and then as a secondary project I will be attempting to build an Elven Host from various unfinished endeavours. I would also like to try and do some more canvas pieces this year, the first of which I have started can be found nearer the bottom of the post, and I thought I might as well put some of this art on the blog. 

This. I have needed it so bad...

Everyone and their cat seems to do unboxing photos/videos on the internet so here is my relatively poor attempt at one. The box design is quite nice, something very clean and slick about it being white that really helps to show off the model. The outer box seems to be unusually robust and made of higher grade card than usual, there is then a regular card tray that pulls out containing the sprues. 

These are the two sprues, the base and the instruction manual which also contain his rules. Rules in the box are a pretty good idea, one that I have only seen positivity for from the community. I was quite amazed that they managed to fit such a complex miniature onto only two sprues and even as I built it I was blown away by the detail and overall ambition of the model. He is sitting on my project table now ready to be sprayed and I can't wait to get to work painting him.

You can read my review of the first End Times book featuring Nagash here where I also talk a bit about the accompanying model release: End Times: Nagash - Review.

This pile of seemingly random collection of plastic and metal is a selection of various elven miniatures that I have acquired throughout the years, many in a state of total disrepair or simply without a use. They have languished in Limbo for some time now and this year I have decided to make them into a coherent force to field alongside my Dark Elves. I will be using the rules from End Times: Khaine to make a Host of the Phoenix/Eternity King. Thus far all I have done is stick the dragon together and drawn up a few plans, over the next few months I will be posting updates on this project including the overall cost of restoring and rebuilding this army. 

This year I have decided I would like to do some more canvas pieces and actually finish them. After falling out with oil paints I have largely been painting with acrylics, however I am terrible for starting pieces and never finishing them after losing interest about halfway through. This time however I have plenty of curious flatmates wandering over to my room from time to time who expect to see some level of progress. I have started two pieces, the main one being this painting of the Eye of Sauron inspired by his appearance in the Hobbit films. This is about half done with lots of work still being needed on the pupil and edges of the eye. I am also going to try and paint the One Ring text around the eye as well which should nicely finish it off. The other painting you can see in the background of a few of these pictures and is a bit of an abstract/surreal piece I will be posting when it is finished with the accompanying short piece of text that inspired it. 

This is my project table at the moment, two paintings started and Nagash ready to be sprayed. I am yet to fully assemble the great necromancer as he would be near-impossible to paint as a single piece. I should hopefully be able to start painting and post some pictures of Nagash in a week or two time, no idea when I will be able to work on the Elves or the canvas pieces. I have been spending a lot of my leisure time reading at the moment as my reading list tripled in size over Christmas and neither my copy of End Times: Thanquol or several books on 20th century history have arrived yet which will need reading almost as soon as I get them. Nagash is also going to take quite a long time to paint on account of the fact that he will require a lot of paints I don't own and I have a limited budget so it will take a few months to even get hold of the paints I need for him. 

Right, that is pretty much everything I am up to at the moment. I probably ought to go back to researching the formation of nation-states now so I will see you again next week, hopefully with a review of the new End Times book if I can read it in time. 

Doombinger out.

Life at university - a 3 month hobby review

As you may have noticed from my occasional moaning about having no money or time and my posts on Glottkin in particular, I am a student. I started at the end of September and as I come to the end of my first semester I thought I would do a little review of what I have done in the hobby thus far.

If you haven't seen my rambling several weeks into the semester you can read them here: My Glottkin woes and hobby life as a student.

Much of this post will just be random thoughts I have had combined with the occasional self-promotion for things I have posted or will be posting in the new year. There is also a mini-review of the latest Hobbit film near the bottom which I might write up more fully when I have seen it more than just the once. As it was the Lord of the Rings films that got me into the entire fantasy genre, seeing the final film of the Middle-Earth saga was quite the roller coaster.

I still can't believe its all over...

The End Times: Khaine - Review

Whilst it took considerable time and effort to obtain Glottkin, I managed to get hold of Khaine with relative ease. Continuously refreshing the GW website every few minutes in the early evening wasn't all that fun but my patience was rewarded. This was the book I most excited for as my first proper GW army was the Dark Elves and seeing whether their final attempt to fulfil their destiny would be successful or not could only ever be a roller coaster of heroism, betrayal and revelation...

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

If you haven't read my other End Times reviews yet you can read them here:

• The End Times: Nagash - Review
• The End Times: Glottkin - Review

The third End Times volume is roughly the same length as the Glottkin book and the same price, as ever quality and presentation remain high. The first book is 145 pages and the second is 56 pages.

I will write this review much like the other two, discussing the background then the rules before moving onto whatever random musings and comments I can think of. 

The End Times: Glottkin - Review

As you may have seen in a recent post I had some serious Glottkin woes at being unable to get hold of the most recent End Times book. However, after some digging and the help of Rob (one of our readers), I have managed to acquire a copy for what is a hard to justify but relatively reasonable price. I have seen copies of this book for around £200 pounds (just over $300 I think) on eBay but I did manage to get one at a slightly more reasonable price. It was still expensive enough that my meals will be interesting this month, very interesting indeed...

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD!

If you haven't read my review of the previous book you can read it here: Nagash - A Review

The second End Times book is a noticeably slimmer tome than its predecessor and new was £10 less expensive, the presentation though remains of the same high quality. The first book is around 130 pages and the second 65, significantly less than the 300 and 100 of Nagash respectively. 

I will review this book in much the same way as I did Nagash, starting with the fluff book before moving onto the rules and finishing with some random musings.

Warriors of Order Sketchbook - Part 2

My Glottkin woes and hobby life as a student.

For a while now the blog has been largely running on pre-prepared posts I have scheduled in advance due to the fact that I am now at university and do not have time during the week to do much hobby stuff. This will therefore be a slightly unusual post for me as it will largely just be ranting and random thoughts: a bit of a vague general update on my hobby life more than anything else. 

First I will rant a bit about Glottkin. Getting hold of this book has been an absolute nightmare and ultimately I have failed to procure myself a copy. As you may have seen a few months ago I bought the Nagash book and wrote a review of it; praising the design team for such an excellent product. I have no doubt that Glottkin is just as impressive but has been much harder to get a hold of. 

I managed to miss the book when it went up for Pre-Orders on the webstore due to being a student and actually having a Friday night social life. I was then unable to reserve any copies from any of the local suppliers and on the day of release the woefully few copies my local GW had were sold out in literal seconds. I even called in a range of favours people owed me, ringing friends across the UK and telling them to run to their local warhammer shop to buy me a book. None of them; from York to Oxford, Chesterfield to Aberystwyth, were able to get a copy for me. 

Nooooooooooooooo!

Warriors of Order Sketchbook - Part 1

The End Times: Nagash - Review

So the End Times have finally come.

It's a bold move from Games Workshop. Let's see if it pays off.

WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! 

PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK 

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

This has turned out a much longer post than I usually do and it rambles on a bit in places, in fact most of it rambles but I hope you enjoy this review anyway. I will start with some general comments, work may way through the two books and end on a bit of a conclusion.

Moving the story forward is certainly a great way to reinvigorate interest in the system and it was certainly enough to get me to buy a £50 book. It is in fact two books contained within a rather stylish slipcase: the first is a huge 300 pageish volume focused on fluff and the second is about 100 pages of various rules.

The entire thing is quite beautiful; it is not only well presented but is replete with new artwork and vast amounts of literary content. So much content in fact that it has taken me about two weeks to read and properly digest it all. This is a must have for any avid Warhammer collector and lovers of the background such as myself. I think this can only be a good thing for the game by allowing it to change and grow in new directions. Whilst I love the Warhammer world I am excited by the opportunities moving the story forwards entails and I can say now that it seems far better executed thus far than Storm of Chaos.