A belated update... almost all of 2023 in one post

So, it's been months and months and months since my last update. Sorry!

After Hammerhead things became busy. So many re-enactment events and so much drone flying. So many drones to repair and YouTube videos to edit. I completely forgot to post things on here even though I was still painting models, though not as many as previously. Plenty of games have been taking place at COGS.

Right now things have calmed down. With the snowy winter properly started I'm stuck inside and now can properly spend time modelling again. 

I've just finished the standing rigging on my latest and largest 3D printed ship for Blood and Plunder. This galleon has been stuck on the floor next to my desk half built for at least 18 months. Anyway it really is starting to take shape now. I've just got the sails to add to it and then I'll be ready for some completely crazy pirate battles.

I've also been painting some Spanish Infantry for Blood and Plunder from the new plastic sets and managed to get a game with those at COGS a few weeks ago.

I've also managed to extend my Plague army for use with Firefight and got a couple of games in. I'm playing again tomorrow night.

For Clash of Kings I built a overly complex display board with a video playing inside a gothic building and colour changing LED lit crystals.

And I managed to fly around the event with one of my drones! Is this the first drone video from a wargames tournament ever? (I didn't do so well in the tourney...)

That's enough for now, I have more projects in progress and will try to remember to post some more photos soon!

Kings of War - Succubi

It seems a very, very long time since I painted anything for my Kings of War Abyssals. These are the first batch of Succubi. I have about the same number again ready and primed. They've been that way for several years! 

It's also been quite a while since I used my photography display board and focus stacking software, but it seems I've not forgotten how to use it.

Kings of War Vanguard - City Game and Hellequins

When I first heard about the Vanguard I was thinking of playing it in my medieval city, even though it was intended to be played in more open countryside or a small village. Anyway, on Monday we decided to try it out on the city boards.

This was my second game and we made the city a little less dense than we usually do, also using buildings without internals so as not to complicate things. The game went a lot smoother than the first despite both me and Jeff arriving late to the club.

Anyway, we got the game finished this time and both agreed that the city worked just fine in Vanguard. I'll be taking it to the Cry Havoc tournament in the new year.

I had started the Hellequins for use in the game on Monday, but it wasn't to be. I just got them finished tonight...

Vanguard - Abyssals and Terrain - plus Blaine and Priest

A few weeks ago now the Kings of War Vanguard Kickstarter landed. A lot of it has been put away for Christmas, but I managed to keep the Abyssal Warband, rules and terrain to paint this month.

I've been busy at it and have completed quite a few items. These have already been seen with the photos of the Kings of War display at the Mantic Open Day, but I thought I'd get a few close-up snaps of them on my new display board.

There's also a couple of photos at the end of the new miniatures for my Kings of War Wars of the Roses army. Those being Blaine on dinosaur and an Perry Italian priest I'll be using as a wizard.

The Despoiler

Abyssal Guard

Flamebearers

All the models I have available for my Warband right now including some from Kings of War and Dungeon Saga

Ronnie the Bard

The Beacon.
(The flames can be removed)

Standing stones and road sign.

Blaine on dinosaur

Wizard... ;)

Kings of War Update

A few new models for Kings of War...

Bael for my Abyssals. I'll use him as the Lord of Lies.

Also some extra Efreets and an Abyssal Champion.

I did also paint an additional Lower Abyssal Horde, but that's much the same as the other one so I've not bothered to include it.

Also there's this chap. An Ogre Robin Hood from the ROBIN show in Nottingham this year. An excellent limited edition free resin model. I think I'll use him as a Boomer Sergeant. I think he fits in fine with the Mantic Ogres.

Big Dæmon, Little Dæmon...

... or as Father Ted might say. "This Dæmon is small. That Dæmon is far away."

It's odd how it's turned out this way, but the last bit for my Abyssal army for now are the smallest dæmons and largest dæmon in the army.

Imps and Archfied of the Abyss. Though I might have to use him as The Lord of Lies. I'm really torn between the two. Neither is the obvious choice, both subtly different and both the same points (when they both have wings).

Anyway, these will be last Abyssals for the time being... onto other things for a while. There's still plenty of Abyssals to add in later!

Gargoyles

Continuing with the Abyssal army, next up is two troops of Gargoyles.

These models from Mantic are normally balanced precariously on little pillars, which looks okay, if a little silly. I wanted to see what I could do to improve that.

Since I have been semi-embracing multi-basing with this army I thought since Gargoyles are a Gothic architecture thing perhaps I should have them flying over a Gothic ruin built from blocks from my Gothic Hirst Arts moulds.

I painted them on their little pillars in the same basic scheme used on all my above-ground Hirst Arts terrain and then cut them off the pillars before gluing them in place flying over the ruins of a church wall.

Although I normally dislike buildings and other large structures on movement trays, I think this works rather well.

Abyssal Champion, Efreet and Tortured Souls

The Abyssal Army grows again.

I've just completed the Abyssal Champion from Dungeon Saga and the metal Efreet from the Kings of War Abyssal Army.

The Tortured Souls that Mantic produce don't to me match the description in the rulebook. For some reason they are only the same height of a man and are throwing firebolts. In the rules they are large infantry with fly and can't do any ranged attacks.

I came up with an alternative solution. I had a pack of three Basilean Elohi which I bought some time ago. They're large infantry with wings and I think with the mods I've done fit the fluff quite well. With the addition of some chains, a head swap with some zombies and some damage to their armour I think they work quite well as fallen heroes or fallen angels.

The Forces of the Abyss grow

A few weeks ago I posted photos of the first unit of my Forces of the Abyss army for Kings of War.

Over Christmas and the new year I've been busy mostly working on items for my re-enacting hobby, a Boer War uniform and restoring a vintage bicycle. However I have found a bit of time inbetween all that to paint up 3 more units for the Abyssals.

The first unit was a regiment of Flame Bearers. These are based off the same sprue that the Lower Abyssals I painted last time and I've again put them on a base lit with flickering LEDs, see the video at the end of the post.

The second, which I actually painted at the same time is a Harbinger of the Abyss. I saw these as being the Abyssal army's equivalent to an Army Standard Bearer so I have built it up just as that. I decided to use some more flickering LEDs to make some rather precariously balanced fires at the top of the standard. I initially used conductive paint to get the electricity up the banner pole, but this proved to be very troublesome and in the end I used normal wire wound up around the pole. The pole itself being the return path.

Finally I just completed a troop of Hellhounds. I had three of these from the Dungeon Saga kickstarter and managed to obtain 2 more from elsewhere. I decided not to multibase these as I may need them for Dungeon Saga in the future however Dungeon Saga has a smaller base size from Kings of War for these models and so I based them up for Dungeon Saga and put some fillers in.

They're all the same model, but being relatively randomly placed I don't think that's a problem. If I ever get some of the Kings of War metal versions to supplement these I will be able to mix them together,

Lower Abyssal Horde

The army I chose in the Kings of War 2nd Edition Kickstarter was Abyssals. It was the Mega Army, so there's quite a big box of them. The box has been sat on the floor of my room for over a year now.

Finally I've got around to starting the army and I feel like I've started it well.

I painted up 38 Lower Abyssals for a horde base, which should officially take 40. I've actually only fit 26 on, as you can see they're fairly closely packed. The closeness is why this is my first ever proper multi-based unit. I am convinced that Mantic were a little confused and made the Lower Abyssals to fit on 25mm bases rather than the 20mm bases that are prescribed by the rules.

Anyway, I'm really happy with them, and also with the lighting effects thanks to Zinge Industries.

I now want to do a second horde of them as I have so many spare! Unfortunately I only bought one horde base so that will have to wait. There's plenty of other models to paint in the army in the mean time.

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