At the start of the year me and my mates realised we were all keen on painting Titans, and March of the Titans was born – paint any Titan at any scale by the end of Mars’ month.  I fancied rewinding time to 1989 when Warhound Titans first appeared in the Warhammer 40,000 universe, and painting one in the seminal War Griffons colours.

The original advertisement for Codex Titanicus in White Dwarf 116.

I’ve been the proud owner of a secondhand 40K scale Armorcast Warhound Titan for years now, and it was the perfect excuse to repair and repaint him.  Here it is with the previous owner’s, frankly terrifying paintjob.

The Chaos Titan Sclera Morphiosa ready to stare down opponents.

Several baths in various chemicals melted away the thick paint, revealing the bare naked resin.  I prised away the putty embellishments like the Chaos Star forehead and the odd groin-face, thankful that these were additions made without damaging the original model.  Evenings were spent refilling casting bubbles, reshaping with car body resin, sanding and preparing the kit for a glorious War Griffons paintjob.  I bought greenstuff rollers and brass wire to do some extra greebling, and planned designs for the legio’s banners.

Reconsecrated for Imperial service.

Only now the March deadline was looming.  And I’d never painted a kit this size before – the biggest things I’d painted recently were a couple of small Blood Angels vehicles in 2015, and vehicles are not my strongpoint.  Excitement had turned to dread as the remaining timeframe meant the paintjob would have to be chronically rushed.

Fuuuuuuu…

And so I changed tack.  I paused the 40K scale Titan and painted an Epic scale one in the same scheme.  I could lie to you and say it was a deliberate move to practise the colour scheme and study the challenges of painting its 40K scale counterpart, and the matching weapon options back me up.  But it wasn’t.  It was a cop out.  A tactic to avoid getting bullied by the likes of Asslessman and Rochie who had already finished their March of the Titans offerings.

Introducing Improcerus Compromissum, with Vulcan Mega-Bolter and Turbo-Laser Destructor.

I spent a while squinting at the original Wayne England illustration, trying to work out what the dappled grey pattern on the carapace was.  Was it WW2 German dapple camoflague?  Was it an attempt to emulate the airbrushed textures of H. R. Giger?  Was it depicting a beaten metal texture as opposed to the trimming’s chrome?  Was it the artist trying to give a sense of immense scale?  Twitter consensus was that it was a dapple texture, so I painted and highlighted a series of blobs on the carapace.  I refined the technique as I worked around the Titan – you can see the inside of the Titan’s right leg in the photo above being different to the other areas.

I’m dead chuffed with the freehand Legio Gryphonics devices on the banner and the calf.

I interpreted the golden yellow areas as actual gold, rather than matt yellow (as Rochie has on his Legio Gryphonicus).  I’m unsure if this was the right decision, and I might switch it to yellow for the Armorcast one.  Yellow is much bolder than gold, and would give the Titan a much more toyriffic vibe that’s completely in keeping with the goofy anthropomorphised animal design.  Let me know what you think in the comments.

Improcerus Compromissum supported by the 2210^th Imperial Navy Fighter Wing and Dark Angel Space Marines.

Check out Asslessman’s Warlord here.  And you can check out Rochie’s Warlord here, which is accompanied by a Warhound from the War Gryphons just like mine.

Stay tuned to Ninjabread for the completion of the 40K scale Armorcast counterpart.

Move over Penn & Teller, move over Siegfried & Roy – a new magical double act is in town.  Coming all the way from the pyramids of the Old World are twin brothers Lapis & Lazuli  – fantastical Wizards of Light.

Masters of the mysterious and occasional caberet performers.

This magical duo are going to be the Kairic Adepts in my vintage Silver Tower project – where I replace all the 2016 boardgame pieces with Citadel Miniatures from about 20 years previous.  Like the Brimstone Horrors I painted previously, 1990s era Warhammer didn’t have Kairic Adepts, but did have Egyptian-flavoured magic users in the form of Light Wizards. And the 1990s Light Wizards also had Acolytes, which are perfect for Silver Tower Kairic Acolytes.

These Light Wizards turned traitor from the College of Light alongside their Patriarch – Egrimm van Horstmann.  They have found sanctuary from the Empire in a Silver Tower of Tzeentch in my personal Warhammer canon.  Egrimm himself will be big boss of the Silver Tower, as he was Tzeentch’s favoured servant in the 20 years before Gaunt Summoners were invented.

Lapis & Lazuli supported by Blue Horrors in their Silver Tower.

Games Workshop originally released the plastic Light Wizard (on the right in the photos) as the High Priest in the 1994 Talisman expansion Dungeon of Doom.  He later appeared as one of the eight free wizard miniatures on 1995’s White Dwarf 186.  Getting a Warhammer character miniature in plastic was an insane novelty in the 1990s, as plastic was normally reserved only for the massed ranks of mono-posed regiments.

Here’s Lazuli with the other classic 3rd edition Talisman miniatures I’ve painted to date.

Lazuli and Pazyryk Banefire in the ruins of a non-metallic tower.

Coming soon on Ninjabread: more vintage lead miniatures to populate my time-warped Silver Tower.

Arch-rivals from opposing sides of the Hundred Years’ War.  Each of them a talented medieval commander, but with a great respect for the other’s skills and abilities.  Presenting two classic Citadel Miniatures  – Sir John Chandos and Bertrand du Guesclin.

English commander Sir John Chandos and French commander Bertrand du Guesclin.

I like how different the miniatures are to each other.  Chandos is depicted as a classic knight in shining armour, with his “sharp pile gules” (a medieval way of saying “upside down red triangle”) heraldry sculpted onto both his tabard and shield.  His chainmail coif and fine moustache mark him out as a gentleman.  In contrast, du Guesclin with his black Breton eagle is a scruffy bugger with his bare head and loose-fitting straps.  Du Guesclin was a low-born brawler who started his career as a marauder, ambushing people in the forests of Brittany.  His equipment was reputedly in such poor condition he was sometimes mistaken for a common brigrand rather than a knight.  When the pair first met, Chandos lent du Guesclin his own armour and horse, as du Guesclin’s own kit wasn’t nice enough to be seen duelling in.

Bertand du Guesclin and his retainers surprising men-at-arms of Sir High Calverly on the road to Montmuran, Brittany, 1354.

The two men clashed on opposing sides of the Battle of Auray in 1364.  The French were defeated, and du Guesclin taken prisoner by Chandos.  France quickly paid his 40,000 florins ransom as they were keen for him to command an expedition to assist in the Castilian Civil War.  Guesclin invited Chandos along with him to Castile, a sign the two men had grown into friends, though Chandos declined.

Sir John Chandos is harassed by Moorish genitors in the army of Henry Castile at the battle of Nájera, northern Spain, 1367.

The pair also fought on opposing sides at the Battle of Nájera in 1367.  Again the French were defeated and again du Guesclin was taken prisoner by Chandos.  Again France were eager to have him back and paid a massive 100,000 francs.

Chandos and du Guesclin in the crumbling Burgundian ruins of Grenoble.

The walls of Grenoble in the picture above are from an upcoming Kickstarter from Fogou Models.  I’ve been gifted a set to paint ahead of the campaign, and they’ve been an absolute joy to drybrush and weather up.  Expect to see a lot more photographs of them in the future.

Left to right: Biscuit Dude, Alan Horseman, Bertand du Guesclin and Sir John Chandos.

That’s one third of the Blandford Warriors painted now!  I’m hoping to get all twelve finished for Bring out Your Lead in August – they were last year’s reissue and want to buy this year’s without any lead-guilt.  Next up,  we’ll be going in to the Hussite Wars.  Check out Alan Horseman here, and Biscuit Dude here.

With a Strontium Dogs game on the horizon from Warlord Games, my mind is all a-flutter with 2000AD miniatures.  Games Workshop had the licence in the 1980s and put out a sweet range of figures just before creating the seminal Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader, and this is the first release in that range – the iconic Judge Dredd.

“Taking photographs of a judge on a blue fade background – that’s five years in an isocube, creep.”

Fascinatingly a number of 2000AD figures were recycled into the nascent Warhammer 40,000 range.  Figures either had their parts cannibalised (like Traitor General‘s head reappearing as an Imperial Inquisitor’s), or were rereleased with new names (like Slaughter Margin “Mek” and Mega Hound becoming Imperial Assault Trooper and Robo-Dog).

“Rotating a judge on a blue fade background – that’s fifteen years in an isocube, creep.”

I went for blue and an NMM yellow on the uniform instead of black and gold to emphasise the comic book nature of Dredd.  The figure is an experiment but I’m really pleased with how he turned out and will happily roll the colour scheme out to the rest of my Justice Department miniatures.

Dredd guarding N₂0 canisters – bet that’s a … barrel of laughs.

The chemical barrels and wooden pallets are advance castings from the excellent Fogou Models – they should feature in a Kickstarter soon.  I’ve went utterly overboard with biohazard symbols and other freehand.

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only Warhol.

Friends Asslessman and axiom have also painted sets of barrels, and expertly steered me away from rusting up the blue barrels as  turns out they’re made (in real life) from high-density polyethylene and not metal.

As well as more judges, I fancy painting a gang of the classic 2000AD alien mercenarys – Kleggs – for a Necromunda campaign.  Or Rogue Stars games.  Watch this space!

I like to think of Light Wizards as jobbing professionals and their Acolytes as bumbling apprentices.  Here’s a bumble of Light Acolytes – one of the obscurest units in Warhammer of editions past.

Left to right: Donkor, Aswad, Llam-Cheops, Wiss Qeb, Khontar and Wankh.

Two poses of Acolyte were released in April 1993 alongside the Light Wizard on foot. Empire player could buy them in units of five at 25 points to accompany a Light Wizard.  Rules were that if you deployed the five Acolytes in a pyramid formation (Light Wizards being all Egpytian and therefore pyramid-themed) with the Light Wizard at the apex you got an extra Winds of Magic card.  Now, I read “deployed in pyramid formation” and think this:

NAILED IT.  One bonus Winds of Magic please.

But no, they didn’t mean human pyramid formation, they mean 2-D triangle formation, as you can see in the iconic Gathering of Might battle report photo below from White Dwarf 181 (1995).  This unit in this battle report puzzled child-Curis as Warhammer Armies: The Empire didn’t contain any rules for it – it’s only now in 2018 that I know they had to be conjured up from the pages of the Warhammer Battle Magic supplement.

Spot the pyramid.

The majority of my Light Acolytes had been rescued from someone that got halfway to converting them into Necromunda gangers or Warhammer 40,000 cultists – their hands and weapons had been hacked away and replaced with autopistols, stubguns and the like.  This meant there was no guilt at despoiling vintage miniatures for the sake of bringing their weaponry in line with the rules of the modern Warhammer game.

Lazuli spearheading the official and far less silly pyramid formation.

Yes!  Modern Warhammer!  (As if the 32mm rounds bases weren’t enough of a clue.)  These figures have been specifically modelled as Kairic Acolytes for Silver Tower: two with hand weapon and shield, two with double-handed weapons and two with pairs of hand weapons.

I originally restored the Acolytes back to Warhammer Fantasy with contemporaneous 1990s Citadel weaponry, but it looked bad.  There was no Egyptian weaponry (it wasn’t until 2003 that the Tomb Kings range appeared), and so I suspended my Citadel-components-only rule and bought some WarGods of Ægyptus bits from Crocodile Games.  This does annoy the Citadel purist in me, and to get back to sleep I tell myself Crocodile’s Chris Fitzpatrick did a stint sculpting for Games Workshop.

Silver Tower madness at Knavecon 2018.  Pat, Bruce, cheetor and yours truly looming over our various creations.

To get even more gaming use out of the figures I’d like to paint another three to make a full official Warscroll for Warhammer Age of Sigmar.  I’ve also got plans for them in a series of summer Mordheim games, where they’ll be fielded as Brethren in a Possessed Warband.  Watch this space!

If you’re into Czech action cinema you might already know Jan Žižka as the titular hero of the upcoming Jan Žižka film from director Petr Jákl – the man famous for films such as Pterodactyl and Born Into Shit.  If you’re not, lemme walk you through this trio of classic 1988 Citadel Miniatures.

Left to right: Taborite Infantryman, Jan Žižka and Teutonic Knight.

Who are these miniatures?  Welcome to my history lesson.  A wise man once said, “Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.”  And I don’t want you, dear reader, to be doomed to fighting in a series of 15th century Eastern European wars.

Teutonic Knight (1412)

The Teutonic Knight was, for many years, the Holy Grail for Blandford Warrior collectors.  Wargames Foundry had quietly reissued the other eleven Blandford Warriors across a couple of blister packs, making Teutonic Knight the one you had to hunt for as an original 1980s Citadel Minaitures release.  Luckily they brought him back in to production at Bring Out Your Lead 2017, so we johnny-come-latelies can be completists.

A literal white knight.

Teutonic knight attacked by Lithuanian horse-archers at the Battle of Tannenberg, 1410.

At the start of the 15th century the Teutonic Grand Order had turned its crusading ire on the Baltic peoples, and invaded Greater Poland.  Against these Catholic invaders the Kingdom of Poland allied with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and crushed them at the Battle of Tannenburg in 1410.  A certain man was (probably) at that battle, and (maybe) got his left eye stabbed out of his face by the knights.  This man was …

Jan Žižka

The cover star of the Medieval Warlords book.  The Medieval Warlord.  Angus McBride paints two colour pictures of him while medieval warlord Gaiseric, with his own whole chapter, gets none!  Jan Žižka is sculpted as he would have appeared in 1423, after he lost his right eye to an arrow while besieging the castle of Rábí, and holding the famous fist-shaped mace he used in battle despite being totally blind.

“No one’s ever really disabled so long as he has courage.” – Chip Chase

Jan Žižka enters Prague with his Orebite Warriors, 1421.

Jan Žižka was one of the greatest military leaders of all time.  He was never defeated in battle.  He invented the war wagon – the earliest form of tank warfare.  He stood against the power of the Catholic Church and served as an inspiration for the Reformation a century later.  After he died he asked to be flayed and have his skin used as a drum so he could continue to lead his followers into battle.  What more can a man achieve in his life?  (Fighting a Pterodactlyl?)

Who did Jan Žižka lead into battle?  It was people like…

Taborite Infantryman

The Pope as the antichrist, attended by a large number of whores.  The Pope celebrating mass, served by the devil, while an entourage of demons stand around the altar.  These vivid religiously-charged images were served up by the Taborites, unhappy with the corruption of the medieval Catholic church, and wanting to spread their ideas to the illiterate peasant masses.  For battle they decorated their shields similarly, like this tiny peasant behind earthworks squaring up to the Catholic knight – presumably evoking a David-and-Goliath narrative with the peasant’s sling and relative size of the combatants.

The shield design is based on the design of a surviving pavise at the National Museum of Prague.

Taborite war wagons await the attack of Sigismund’s Hungarian horsemen, outside Kutna Hora, 1421, Eastern Bohemia.

The Taborites were named after their fortified city in Bohemia, which was in turn named after the Mount Tabor of Biblical fame.  They were a radical sub-faction of the larger anti-Catholic movement, the medieval equivalent of anarcho-communists who wanted to share everything they had – to the point where they even practised free love.  Jan Žižka led them into battle numerous times against the Emperor Sigismund, but eventually found their theology (and perhaps their free love) too radical, and he parted ways to found the less hardline Oberite faction.

Pictured left to right:  Alan Horseman, Biscuit Dude, Taborite Infantryman, Jan Žižka, Teutonic Knight, Sir John Chandos and Bertrand du Guesclin.  Not pictured: Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Blog.

That’s seven of the twelve Blandford Warriors painted.  I almost included Vlad Dracula with this lot, as he was a member of the Ordo Draconis that Emperor Sigismund founded to stamp on people like Jan Žižka.   At times like this I love history; it’s like the Marvel Cinematic Universe – a shared reality with potential for crossover events.

Coming soon to Ninjabread – Big Trouble in Little Tang Dynasty.

Time to collect a new Space Marine force!  Crimson Fists – the Rogue Trader poster boys.  These Fists are hand-picked from the 1987–1989 Imperial Space Marine ranges sculpted by Bob Naismith, Aly Morrison and Mark Copplestone.  I have a real soft spot for this era of Mk6 design.  There’s a certain je ne sais quoi to the early Warhammer 40,000 aesthetic that was lost when the Mk7 Jes Goodwin designs were introduced in 1990.  There’s a joyful bulbousness to them that reflects the early days of Rogue Trader, before it settled down into the tightly-codified juggernaut that endures to this day.

Fist in, last out – Squad Onan.

Veteran Sergeant Onan’s casting had a damaged head, and has had a new one grafted on from a Golden Heroes Supervillain.  I added the bionic eye during painting to hide the incredibly long eyeball that continued round the side of his head.  The banner is tomato puree foil mounted on a brass rod pole.  The bladed bionic arm with its super-awkward pose is entirely original – if anyone know what he’s actually meant to be doing please leave a comment.

The backpacks and other elements were sculpted with a beautifully ham-fisted assymetry.

I’ve settled on the rule of left-hands-crimson on Battle Brothers, and both-hands-crimson on Veterans.  The Heavy Bolter Marine has Veteran status to justify him wearing a Power Glove.  I particularly love this model as his nonsensical wargear (that’s illegal in all future editions of Warhammer 40,000) places him firmly in Rogue Trader territory.

Freehand Fist Icons

My rendition of the Crimson Fist icon is based on the banner from the Rogue Trader cover, but I’ve experimented with simplifying the thumb/forefinger area between Marines.  Since their armour designs differ so much I’m not going to revisit and amend any designs once I’ve settled on the final iteration.

This hobby is called: The Freehand Fists Hobby.

I couldn’t resist adding the correct weaponry icons and armour graffiti too.  I’ve got to add a Medic to the force simply so I can scrawl “FIST AID” on his armour.  I also fancy a Marine with “FIST BUMP”.  In fact I’ve got a whole list of quickfire “FIST” and “HAND” phrases ready to deploy.

Crimson Fists Grand Plan

I’ve planned 1,000 points using the Whitescars army list from the Book of the Astronomican.  This era of army list is the sweet spot for me.  Space Marines have been rounded out from the single squad type presented in the Rogue Trader rulebook, but it’s before a lot of their iconic troop types have been dreamed up – no Terminators, no Scouts, no Rhinos, no Techmarines.  On one hand they’re recognisable enough to a modern Warhammer 40,000 player, but on the other hand there’s a smattering of ideas like “Cobra squad” and “Reconnaissance squad” that have since disappeared from the background.  I love this particular early incarnation of the Warhammer 40,000 universe where the concepts are still crystallising.

SQUAD ONAN

1 Marine Champion [9], Bionic Arm [30], Bionic Eye [30]
69 POINTS

3 Marines  [3*8], 3 Bolt Guns [3*2] and 3 Frag Grenades [3*1]
33 POINTS

1 Marine [8], Heavy Bolter [15], Power Glove [15], Targeter [5], 2 Suspensors [2*2]
47 POINTS

Basic Equipment (all models): Bolt Pistol [1.5], Knife [0], Powered Armour [6] (with Communicator [0.5], Respirator [0.5], Auto-senses[0.5])
45 POINTS

TOTAL: 194 POINTS

The full force (17 Marines on foot and a Dreadnought) is partially based on the seminal Rogue Trader Battle at the Farm scenario (which was Pedro Cantor plus fifteen Tactical Marines), but I’ve spiced up the weapon choices for the sake of variety and model availability.  Here’s the first squad defending make-shift farm barricades!

Bonus Ninjabread points if you can spot where Tech-priest Theodolitus is hiding.

Sho3box has very generously lent me Skabsquig’s Skallywags for these Battle at the Farm photos.  You can see more of them here and here.

Crimson Fists parading their farm candy.

This terrain I’m using as the iconic Rogue Trader farm is going to launch on Kickstarter imminently from the excellent Fogou Models.  Mr. Fogou sent me an advance casting in return for me taking photographs like this.

Coming soon – another Rogue Trader Crimson Fists squad and maybe a character!

A child-aged Curis attempted to paint the single Skaven Clanrat from 3rd edition Talisman.  The paintjob went so badly it’s taken over twenty years before an adult-aged Curis returned to painting Skaven miniatures.

Double Dragon Rat.

This is classic Jes Goodwin Deathmaster Snikch.  Twice.  The left-hand one is painted as a straight copy of the 1993 ‘Eavy Metal scheme; the right-hand one is painted in the 2009 ‘Eavy Metal scheme used on Seb Perbert’s redesigned Deathmaster.  Seb followed Jes’ original sculpt so closely that porting the new scheme onto the old miniature felt like being on auto-pilot.

‘Eavy Metal Deathmasters.

But why paint two of a unique special character?  Well, Snikch and Snikch are standing in as the Deathrunner and his illusory double in my Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower project where every model is replaced with a 1990s equivalent.  Snikch kept his exact location a secret to spread maximum fear – I’m imagining an illusory double as a manifestation of this Snikchitsu.  The rules for the Deathrunner mean he’s an absolute fiend, so it’s apt to represent him with this Herohammer icon rather than a standard 1990s Skaven Assassin miniature.

Ninja Skavens put the “rat” in karate.

The Snikchs took less than an evening each to paint, which I found surprising as they’re super-chunky miniatures and packed full of detail.  I think the damage and wear on the second-hand castings (particularly noticeable on the triangular shuriken) stopped me being overly fussy with highlights.  And the bulk of the miniature is a big black cloak – black being one of the quickest colours to paint.

The Ninja Chaos Thug trying to work out which of the Ninja Rats is real.

There’s twenty retro miniatures so far in the Silver Tower project!  Check out the 1990s Pink, Blue and Brimstone Horrors here.   Check out the 1990s Kairic Adepts here.  And check out the 1990s Kairic Acolytes here.  Coming soon – fur and gold.

If you’re into your medieval history you WILL NOT have heard of these models.  That’s cos they’re not medieval at all.  Welcome to my next two classic Citadel Miniatures from the range based on the 1987 Medieval Warlords book.

An Lushan and Imperial Guardsman on the lower reaches of the Yellow River.

So, I have beef with An Lushan being classified as “Medieval” as it’s a specifically European term for a historical period, and China ain’t Europe.  Calling An Lushan a Medieval Warlord is like calling Richard the Lionheart an Imperial Chinese Warlord.  I imagine the publishers had a shortlist of even less suitable titles for the book.

“Okay, sod it, we’ll go with Medieval Warlords.”

With the historian’s pedantry out of the way, who are these two Medie… classic Citadel Miniatures?

An Lushan

An Lushan was possibly Mongol.  Possibly Turkish.  Possibly Liverpudlian (going off the model’s uncanny resemblence to Ringo Starr).  What we can definitely say is he wasn’t Han Chinese as he was allowed to rise to power as a regional military governor in 8th century China when policy was to keep these powerful posts away from the capital’s politicians to prevent rebellion.

“In the town where I was born, lived a man who sailed to sea.”

However, in 755, An Lushan’s previously amazing relationship with Tang Dynasty soured.  He marched on the heartland cities and declared himself emperor of his own brand new dynasty.  This was the An Lushan Rebellion, which was one of the bloodiest wars of all time – the Tang Empire was bigger than even the Roman Empire at its height, and the scale of slaughter as cities were toppled and populations massacred reached perhaps into the tens of millions.  Fascinatingly, the rebellion seems to have been sparked not by lofty political ideals, or a popular dissatisfaction with the ruling elite, but by a concern (or possibly paranoia) that the Tang Dynasty’s Chief Minister was personally out to get An Lushan.

An Lushan pursues a Khitan Mongol beyond the Great Wall on the north-east Chinese border, 735.

The Tang Emperor fled as the rebels stormed city after city.  But as An Lushan’s paranoia increased and his health worsened, he became a vulnerability and was assassinated by his own son (a surprisingly common fate in Imperial China).  The Tang Dynasty was severely weakened by the uprising, and it marked the beginning of the end for China’s golden age of civilisation.

But who had opposed An Lushan?  It was…

Imperial Guardsmen

By the time of the An Lushan Rebellion, the Tang military was split between militia on the Empire’s frontiers (which made up the bulk of An Lushan’s forces), and the Imperial Guard who were permanently garrisoned at the capital city and the Imperial palaces.  However, as with Ancient Rome’s Praetorian Guard, an elite fighting force concentrated at the seat of Imperial power could lead to violent coups.

Yang Guifei – the Emperor’s consort – and the Imperial Guard prepare to leave Ch’ang-an before the army of An Lushan, 756.

The Imperial Guard certainly proved wilful during Emperor Xuanzong’s time – as they escorted Yang Guifei (the Emperor’s favourite consort) away from the rebels’ pillaging of the capital city they blamed her personally for their military misfortunes and demanded her immediate death.  Needing to keep his elite guard on side, the Emperor consented and Yang Guifei was strangled.

Imperial Guard circa 736.

I’ve freehanded floral patterns onto the Imperial Guard’s decorated leather armour to match the Angus McBride colour plates from the book.  I enjoyed painting the stubble – all you’ve got to do for the five o’clock shadow look is shade and highlight the skin as normal then glaze the manly areas with a warm mid-grey (for example Skavenblight Dinge).

Blandford Warriors Assemble!

So that’s nine of the twelve Blandford Warriors painted.  I’m enjoying the tour around history and the opportunity to dabble with different periods without having to collect dozens upon dozens of figures for gaming.

Left to right: Jan Žižka, Bucellarius of Majorian, Betrand du Guesclin, Taborite Infantryman, An Lushan, Sir John Chandos, Imperial Guardsmen, Teutonic Knight and Alan Horseman.

I’m looking forward to working on the final trio of Blandford Warriors to complete this historical wargaming project!

At BOYL (Bring out Your Lead) it’s become a community tradition to create one-off figures to celebrate the three-day extravaganza of Oldhammery painting and gaming.  Here are three from 2017 painted up just in time to pick up 2018’s without any leadguilt.

Left to right: Helsreach Mayor, Grox Egg and Olivia Neutronbomb.

I really like event-exclusive miniatures as they’re tethered to a set of memories of friends, games, meals out, heavy drinking, stupid decisions and hangovers.  Lemme explain why these three minis came to be.

Olivia Neutronbomb

Olivia was the 2017 event’s commemorative figure, sculpted by John Pickford.  She’s a 28mm metal incarnation of the classic 1987 Rogue Trader illustration by Martin McKenna.

I painted Olivia to slot into my Rogue Trader Godbreak 84th Imperial Army.  Her animal-print trousers were repainted a few times as I wrestled with various animals’ colours clashing with the Godbreak’s grey-green and black.  Then I realised I needn’t be constrained by real animals in the distant alien future of Warhammer 40,000!  Hence the “Greyscale Giraffe” was born in my imagination.  (Geeez Curis, all that creative potential and possibility and all you come up with is a desaturated giraffe.)

Olivia leading the Godbreak 84th, showing her head for strategy.

Other people who’ve painted their Olivias are: asslessman, axiom, Dr Mathias, Grove,  Orlygg and Suber.  Check ’em out!

Grox Egg

Grox are the cattle of 41st Millennium.  They appeared as an illustration in the 1987 Rogue Trader rulebook, though they’ve never had a miniature incarnation.

That was until axiom commissioned John Pickford to sculpt this cheeky little hatching Grox.  Why?  Cos axiom was running a Grox-herding participation game and going several egg-stra miles to realise the world of grimdark ranching.

Mungo Beefhead lassoing a hatching Grox.  Find out more about this Space Cowboy here.

I painted the egg with green spots – obviously channelling Yoshi from Super Mario.  The shell fragments are cut-up plastic carton lid glued onto the base after drybrushing.  I planned on making a small nest diorama with several unhatched eggs (my sculpting ability just able to cope with unhatched eggs), but I ended up doing something more ambitious…

Mayor of Helsreach

Curtis at Ramshackle Games sculpted this miniature to celebrate his massive participation game at BOYL 2017, set in Helsreach – the iconic Rogue Trader townscape.  This miniature is really characterful and fun to paint, and on finishing it I immediately went and jumped some other Ramshackle bits to the front of the painting queue.  The game is running again at BOYL 2018, and I recommend stopping by to drink in all those square feet of his miniatures and terrain Curtis, Aidan and Danny have put together.

The Mayor touring the Cullentown Grox Incubation Facility.  His Techpriest tour guide is regarded as the Helsreach’s leading “egghead”.

The Grox incubation chamber is a cut-down cryo-stasis piece from Games Workshop’s Sector Imperialis Objectives. The transparent “glass” component needed great care to resize – the plastic is so brittle any stress on it will cause massive white cracks to shoot through the whole thing.  There were a few near-misses and lots of eggs-pletives.

BOYL 2018

This year’s BOYL is almost upon us – Friday 3rd August to Sunday 5th August at Wargames Foundry, Nottingham, England.  It’s my favourite three days in the gaming calendar.  Hopefully see you there!  Check out the site at for full details on  games and location: https://bringoutyourlead.co.uk/.

I’ve finished painting ALL the Shadespire Orruks! A whole plastic force, fully painted, with modern miniatures, for a current Games Workshop game. WHAT HAVE I BECOME?!?!  Gods of Oldhammer, I have forsaken thee!

Ironskull’s Ironjawz tearing up the Realm of Shadows.

Initially I planned to just copy the ‘Eavy Metal banana-yellow paint scheme, but I switched the Orruk fleshtone from green (which sits awfully with yellow) to a nicely contrasting purpley-brown.  I blocked out the basecoats, confident I could ignore Jean-Baptiste’s “never go full banana” advice.

Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring banana phone orc.

Basha was the first Orruk I painted to completion – and he took bloody ages.  Yellow is notoriously translucent and takes a lot of layers to build to a strong colour.  Bright colours also show up the flaws in the shading and highlighting.  Pity anyone that’s doing an entire horde army of these buggers in yellow.  Although I was pleased with the brashness, I needed da boyz on the gaming table, and wanted to slash the time spent on them.

Basha and Gurzag Ironskull.

Gurzag and the other Orruks had their armour colours reversed.  The dark steel colour is simply drybrush, wash and a quick edge highlight in bright silver.  It takes a fraction of the time of the yellow as there’s no glazing of midtones to eat through time.

I spent a bit of the time saved putting flames on Gurzag’s cloak.

Reducing the amount of yellow makes the Orruks look far more menacing, and gives what yellow is there greater impact. Basha’s all-yellow scheme does push him towards looking like a kid’s toy, or a construction vehicle.  Which I quite like anyway.

Bonekutta and Hakka.

I had a lot of fun with Hakka, freehanding the flames onto his shoulderpads and jaw.  He’s my favourite miniature in the gang as the colour scheme draws your focus towards his head and cool mask.

I’ve really enjoyed painting these, and like that they’re instantly a finished project, ready to rumble against the likes of asslessman, Tears of Envy and Mr Saturday.

Lemme know which version of the yellow scheme you prefer in the comments!

It’s the end of the line for the Blandford Warriors!  All twelve in this limited series of classic 1988 Citadel Miniatures are now painted and standing alongside each other in the cabinet, jostling for position of most dramatic medieval warlord.

Left to right: Flavius Aetius, Owen of Wales and Vlad Dracula.

The final triumverate are spread across a thousand years of European history.  Let’s take a look at them each in turn.

Flavius Aetius

Chances are you’ve not heard of Aetius, but you’ll have heard of his most famous opponent – Attila the Hun.  Aetius and Attila clashed at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains in AD451 – one of the greatest bloodsheds as the Western Roman Empire crumbled under the weight of barbarian invaders.  Aetius was supreme commander of all military forces in the west, and crushed the Huns, stopping their advance into Gaul, and ultimately breaking Atilla’s tribal empire – earning him a place in history as the last of the great Romans.

Flavius Aetius and his supporting Blandford Warriors – Alan Horseman and Bucellarius of Majorian – leading the defence of the Empire.

I really enjoyed painting Aetius, and mounted him a small rocky outcrop so he cuts a commanding presence over my Late Imperial Roman.  The mini is at least 20 years older than his rank-and-file counterparts, so he needs the height along the more modern, bigger figures.

The Warlord Aetius and a Burgundian retainer attacked by a Hun at the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains, northwest France, AD451.

Aetius has the unique honour of being the titular star of both a wargame AND an opera by Handel.  The wargame is Aetius and Arthur (which must be 50% about him if you go off just the title).  The opera is Ezio (that’s Italian for “Aetius”), and sees our general returning home from defeating Attila, trying to disentangle himself and his future wife from a plot to assassinate the Emperor.  This is the only Citadel miniature I know of which has an opera about it, until my own work, Marneus Calgaro Maestro di Ultramarines, debuts this winter.

Owen of Wales

This miniature is Owen of Wales (“Owain Lawgoch” if you’re Welsh), who was a mercenary captain in the Hundred Years War (c. 1330 – 1378).  He hated the English so much he sided with their arch-nemesis, France, hoping his military service would ultimately help him claim the Prince of Wales title.  He was killed by a sheep (well, an English spy named “Johnny Lamb”).

Bertrand du Guesclin and Owen of Wales fighting together, united in their hatred of the English.

I had a load of fun painting all twelve of the lions rampant on his heraldry.  They are the arms of the royal house of Gwynedd – which Owen would have worn to cement his image as the rightful Prince of Wales.

“Oh I just can’t wait to be kin… prince!”

Now, let’s all take a moment to reflect on the name of the Swiss municipality in the caption below.

Owen of Wales is pursued by halberdiers from Berne at Buttisholz, Switzerland, 1375.

Now, there is a later Owen of Wales, (c. 1359 – c. 1415).  A contemporary chronicler claimed this Owen of Wales (“Owain Glyndŵr” if you’re Welsh) adopted the name as he was inspired by the earlier medieval warlord.  This is the Owen that instigated a rebellion against the English and got as far as establishing a proper Welsh parliament.  Nowadays the Welsh celebrate him as a symbol of nationalism with their statues, their ship names, their music awards and their Manic Street Preacher songs.  (Seriously, the Manics did the song 1404 all about this lad.)

Owain Glyndŵr and his Welsh followers are attacked by the English garrison at Caernarfon Castle, AD1401.

This later Owen pops ups in another Angus McBride illustration from Celtic Warriors that’s 83% more liontacular on account of that horse’s barding.  That looks like an fun challenge to paint.

Vlad Dracula

Vlad Dracula, rose to power as Prince of Wallachia by impaling all the leading nobility on stakes in a single night and replacing them with a new totally-loyal nobility raised from the peasantry.  He held on to power with the same impailment tactic – political enemies, suspected traitors, even whole armies of Turks found themselves with sharpened wooden stakes through their torsos.   His brutality and violent excesses saw him dubbed “Vlad the Impaler” within his lifetime, and his legend has grown since his death to the point of him being the most iconic vampire in the modern popular imagination.

A veteran Taborite Infantryman and Vlad Dracula fighting together on the Hungarian border

Vlad was a member of the Ordo Draconis, which was founded by the King of Hungary to stamp out the enemies of Christianity (including the likes of fellow Blandford Warrior Jan Žižka).  Though ostensibly Christian, Dracula never quite grasped the essence of the religion – attempting to demonstrate his faith to the King of Hungary with a gift of two bags of Turkish heads, ears and noses.  See how well that gift goes down with your vicar.

Dracula supervises the execution of prisoners after a raid on a German settlement in southern Transylvania, 1460.

The heraldry of the Ordo Draconis, in the Angus McBride plate above, is a dragon swooping down on some sort of serpentine monster.  Ordo Draconis is where Dracula’s father – Vlad II Dracul – got his name from, and “Dracula” is the diminuitive form – “little dragon”.

Dracula, looking every inch the cock of the town, though at 5′ 2″ it’s not many inches.

Vlad eventually died on the battlefield in AD1476, fighting the Ottoman Turks.  They cut his head off and sent it to their Sultan, who impaled it on a spike.  However, Vlad had converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism during his lifetime – something considered so heretical that Wallachian folklore claimed that on death, any such heretic would transform into… a vampire.

Project Complete

I enjoy grouping the figures from different chapters of Medieval Warlords together (like the Taborite Infantryman and Dracula) to make the figures cross over.  I can even draw a connection through a thousand years of time between Aetius (representing the earliest medieval warlord), and Dracula (the latest):  Aetius defeated Attila the Hun, and Bram Stoker’s Dracula character was a member of the Hungarian tribal group that claimed direct descent from those Huns.

Left to right: Alan Horseman, Sir John Chandos, Bucellarius of Majorian, Jan Žižka, An Lushan, Flavius Aetius, Imperial Guardsman, Vlad Dracula, Bertrand du Guesclin, Owen of Wales, Teutonic Knight and Taborite Infantryman.

That’s each and every Blandford Warrior painted.  The set is complete.  Project over.  Now I can give my historical wargaming energy to something else.  Reinforcements for my Normans?  Siege of Oxford?  Early Imperial Romans?  Late Imperial Romans?  I’m giddy with excitement, all I can say with certainty is that’s the end of my Blandford Warriors.

…

…

…

Or is it … ?

Stay tuned to Ninjabread for more minis.  If you fancy your own set of Blandford Warriors they’re available from the excellent Wargames Foundry.

The Crimson Fists are getting reinforcements, hand over fist.  My 1980s Rogue Trader Space Marine grows with the addition of another 5-man Tactical Squad composed of vintage metal and plastic Citadel Miniatures from another era.

Time to put the huert on – Squad Huerta.

To my amazement and envy, in the time taken to finish this second squad of Battle at the Farm Crimson Fists, Nico has painted every Crimson Fist for the scenario, plus he’s modelled an evocative scenic base, plus he’s painted all the Orks and – if that wasn’t enough – some Ork reinforcements.  I feel like Falcon running round the park and being lapped repeatedly in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

Freehand & Crimson Fist Icons

Again I had some fun adding freehand chapter icons and armour graffitti to the squad.  “THE TRUTH HUERTS” is just punning off the Sergeant’s name.  “INFINITE PLASMA” is a reference to the Battle at the Farm scenario, which Zhu points out gives the Space Marines unlimited Plasma Missiles (as they normally cost 1 point each, it technically means the Marines outclass the Orks by INFINITY POINTS).

I now need to paint a second Missile Launcher so I can reference Elton John’s Rocket Man.

“FOR NOW WE SEE BUT THRU A SCANNER DARKLY” on the Marine with scanner is a 1 Corinthians 13:12 / Philip K. Dick reference simply because he’s holding a scanner.  “FIST OR FAMINE” is from my handy stockpile of fist-based puns.  It’s a treat at the end of the painting process to choose some scrawly handwriting to give the battle-brothers an additional touch of the Rogue Trader era

Crimson Fists Grand Plan

To fit in to my planned 1,000 points (using the Whitescars army list from the Book of the Astronomican) the five Space Marines come out as:

SQUAD HUERTA

1 Marine Champion [9], Power Glove [15], Bolt Hun [2]
26 POINTS

3 Marines [3*8], 3 Bolt Guns [3*2] and 3 Frag Grenades [3*1]
33 POINTS

1 Marine [8], Missile Launcher [30], 12 Plasma Missiles [12] Targeter [5], 2 Suspensors [2*2]
59POINTS

Basic Equipment (all models): Bolt Pistol [1.5], Knife [0], Powered Armour [6] (with Communicator [0.5], Respirator [0.5], Auto-senses[0.5])
45 POINTS

TOTAL: 163 POINTS

Here are the two squads in action alongside each other, with a sneaky eleventh Citadel Miniature tucked away somewhere … can you spot it?

Squads Huerta and Onan fighting in the ruins of Blas in the Gallego system.

Crimson Fists Painting Tutorial

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about how I paint Crimson Fists, so I photographed a Marine inbetween each step of the blue power armour process.

If you want to see these steps broken down, wth the techniques and theory behind them spelt out the tutorial is available on Patreon.  The skills you’ll learn are transferable to all colours of power armour.

Coming soon – more vintage Crimson Fists to creep the army closer to game legal.

It’s Age of Sigmar time!  Here’s a nine-strong cluster of Grot Scuttlings from the modern (gasp!) Warhammer Quest Silver Tower game. There’s only eight in the box, but I painted a bonus one as PRAISE BE TO TZEENTCH.

Spider-Grots, Spider-Grots, manufactured in Notts.

Mashing together Night Goblins with sp-sp-spiders puzzles me – Forest Goblins were the spider-flavoured Goblins from Warhammer, so it’s confusing the themes.  Like mashing up High Elves with leafs.  Or Khorne Berserkers with sonic sex-weaponry.  It seems Gee-Dub haven’t continued the arachno-trend with the subsequent Night Goblin (or “Moonclan Grot” as they’re now called) releases, and these spider-hybrids (“sp-ybrids”?) are confined to Tzeentch’s Silver Tower.  Moonclan have found their feet, and it’s not eight-a-grot.

Spin a web any size, catch Orruks just like flies.

To emphasise the Tzeentchian nature of these Scuttlings I avoided the classic Night Goblin black-robes-green-skin scheme and went for pale blue flesh and vivid purple robes.  My Silver Tower 1990s project will feature Scuttlings converted from the classic Kev Adams Night Goblins, and they may borrow this scheme to reinforce how they’re not your standard Night Goblins.

Painting Tutorials

Thanks to everyone that’s backed the Ninjabread Patreon!  It’s going amazingly well and I’m thankful for all the comments and support.  Last month’s installment went in deep on how to get crisp highlights on Crimson Fists power armour.  This month’s will walk Patrons through another model, teaching you how to shape your miniatures with midtones, and it will also go into depth with tactics on line thickness.

Normal Oldhammer service will resume shortly with some charmingly vintage Bob Olley Tzaangor.  Have fun!

This miniature is a mystery – an unreleased Warhammer treasure from the vaults of Citadel Miniatures.  Who is he?  Why have I got (perhaps) the only casting in existence?

Could this be a dark horse on a dark horse?

This casting was a gift from Marcus Ansell of Wargames Foundry (thanks Marcus). The tab (“GENERAL” and “ ©  GW 1987″) shows its provenance as a piece of classic Warhammer – but beyond that everything else is a mystery.  Who sculpted it?  What range was it destined for?  Why was it not released?

“A horse, a horse, my Romano-Germanic kingdom for a horse.”

The vibe of the figure is more historical than fantastical – the moustache, crested helm and scalemail give it a very Romano-Germanic kingdom vibe.  It feels like an Alan or Michael Perry sculpt judging by this face and care put into the armour detailing.  In fact it’s a bit too historically accurate to fit in with Citadel’s F3 Barbarian or F6 Barbarian Raider ranges, or the ADD21 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons mounted barbarian.  The closest thing released by Citadel are the F7 Mounted Barbarian Raiders.

F7 Mounted Barbarian Raiders.  Image from solegends.

The Mounted Barbarian Raiders were released at a time when the line between historical and fantasy figures was blurred, with Warhammer’s Empire, Norse, Bretonnian and Dogs of War ranges doing double-service as various historical Europeans.  It’s conceivable that Citadel had plans for a Warhammer race with a strong Romano-Germanic design elements, and this General was a testpiece.

I gave my General one of the F7 horses as it’s coetaneous, and he deserves a bodyguard of these classics at a future point.  I modelled the horse forward on the raised base so that when the planned regiment ranks up he will ride slightly above and ahead.

Then as I was researching colours a thought struck me.  Is this mystery figure a … Blandford Warrior?  He fits beautifully with the released Blandford Warriors in terms of style and scale.

The 13th (Blandford) Warrior.

The Medieval Warlords book comprises seven chapters each detailing a different warlord, and Games Workshop released miniatures for only six of these characters.  The warlord that appears as a chapter but not a miniature was Genseric – general of one of the most famous Romano-Germanic kingdoms.  I think this figure could be him.

Genseric led the Vandals from the heartlands of the crumbling Roman Empire to Africa and around the Mediterranean region until they stormed Rome itself, looting its treaures. The incident stuck in the West’s poplar imagination, and ever since the word “vandal” has been a byword for destroying property.

Genseric sacked Rome until politely asked to stop it by Pope Leo I, AD455.

I used the Karl Briullov painting above as the basis for my miniature’s colour scheme.  I love the satanically-black horse implying he’s the Pope’s archnemesis – but the menace is rather undermined by the pink leggings and ruby red shoes.

I painted the shield with an Arianist symbol – I’d like to stress this was the form of Christianity that took off in the Romano-Germanic kingdoms and was named after Arius and NOTHING TO DO WITH ARYANISM.  (After all those “arian symbol german” google searches I think I’ve been put on a list.)

Genseric and his bucellarius on the outskirts of Carthage.

Not Genseric.

Regardless of the figure’s true identity, it’s now definitely part of my Late Imperial Roman army and will get some outings in SAGA when I’ve painted enough for a 4-point warband … coming soon.

If you’ve got any theories or information on the figure, please please let me know in the comments.

British comics lost an icon this week with the death of Carlos Ezquerra – the creative genius behind Judge Dredd and Johnny Alpha. Carlos’s character designs and universes underpin a lot of subsequent science fiction – including Warhammer 40,000.  Two years before Games Workshop gave birth to Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader, they were dabbling with science fiction miniatures such as this trio of Strontium Dog characters.

Left to right: Wulf Sternhammer, Johnny Alpha, Gronk.

I’ve been painting this triumverate of bounty hunters with an eye on Warlord Games’ new Strontium Dog game.  Excitingly they can also be shoehorned into modern Necromunda with the recent bounty hunter rules.

The miniatures are from Citadel’s 2000AD range produced for the 1985 Judge Dredd: The Role-Playing Game.  Though technically Johnny Alpha and Judge Dredd inhabit separate universes, they have crossed over several times for reasons of awesome.

Johnny Alpha and Judge Dredd, Judgement Day, 2000AD #799.

The Rogue Trader universe borrows a lot of its overall look from Carlos Ezquerra’s artwork.  The amount of time and artwork the Rogue Trader rulebook spends on the (non-Chaotic) random mutations tables is testament to Strontium Dog’s influence.  There’s a lot of Strontium Dog wargear that pops up in the forty-first millennium too, such as gravchutes, stasis grenades and electro-mauls.

But wait – there’s more…

The Rogue Trader Mystery

There was a mystery for almost thirty years about the miniature that appears in a single murky black-and-white photograph on page 11 of the Rogue Trader rulebook.

The mystery figure, top left corner.

The figure never made it into production, appearing only in this photo.  Only in 2013 did details of the figure emerge thanks to Steve Casey’s Eldritch Epistles – it was a one of several Judge Dredd figures that had been converted and cast up in-house to playtest the upcoming Rogue Trader rules before actual miniatures had been made.

It was released a couple of years later by Wargames Foundry, so people like me and Rochie can paint and play with our own copies of this odd curio.

Inquisitor Ezquerra and Johnny Alpha.

I plumped for white and papal purple to spin the figure as an Imperial Inquisitor.  (It was tempting to paint him in green and yellow trousers, as if it’s Johnny improvising a disguise as an Imperial Inquisitor.)  He’s so wee. being from 1985 when sculptors tended to 25mm scale, that I built up his base to help him keep some sense of imposing Imperial authority over the rest of the Imperium’s servants.

More vintage Crimson Fists coming soon!

Albion Truthsayers: the most predictable opponents in “Truth or Dare”.

The Albion Truthsayer is a standing-stone-cold classic of a miniature from Warhammer’s Dark Shadows mini-supplement.  The 2001 campaign booklet featured rules for you army to be joined these warrior-wizards (or their arch-nemeses, the Dark Emissaries) while they fought their way across the mysterious island of Albion to thwart (or aid) Warhammer’s newest mega-villain: the Dark Master.

The Truthsayer, interfering with one of the many barrows on the Isle of Wights.

I had a lot of fun modelling the base to make it look like the boggy fenlands of Albion.  The owl (from a Wood Elf kit) is a reference the “Wings of Fate” spell that let the Truthsayer summon a flock of enchanted birds to peck at his foes.  The sculpt itself is packed full of Celtic-style details: a spiral skull carvings, gold neck torque; spiked barbarian hair; bronze triskele medallion.  As a geek of ancient trappings I get super excited about it appearing in Warhammer.

When it comes to prehistoric jewellery, Curis not only walks the walk, but torques the torque.

This miniature is one of my favourite Citadel Miniatures of all time – not least because if you clip off his basing tab and peek up the loincloth you can see the sculptor’s – Chris Fitzpatrick – signature.  I can’t think of any miniatures signed in this way since Citadel’s preslotta days.

Cheeky Albion Truthsayer upskirt shot.

Albion Skin Painting Tutorial

One of the popular requests on the Ninjabread Patreon is “how do you paint skin”?  I photographed the Truthsayer between steps so supporters can follow along and learn how to paint flesh in this style.

Become a supporter today and you’ll get access to this in depth masterclass tutorial, and not one BUT TWO guides on how to paint your power armoured Space Marines.

That’s it for today’s visit to Albion.  What’s next – perhaps the evil Truthsayer?  Or the Fenbeasts?  Or the Giants of Albion and their Druid?  Or maybe delving even further back into Albion’s past with the LE8 McDeath’s Crazed Caledonians?  Watch this space…

For two years now I’ve entered a turbo-niche Halloween painting competition where entrants have to paint one piece from Citadel Miniatures’ insanely characterful Night Horrors or Gothic Horror ranges – the two 1980s ranges designed to support Games Workshop’s Call of Cthulhu licence.  As last year I painted one half of the classic Citadel LE3 Gumshoe Detectives duo, Bogart, it seemed only right this year to paint his partner – Cagney.

Bogart and Cagney: 50% Bogart & Bacall, 50% Cagney & Lacey.

Bogart’s moody trenchcoat with upturned collar, one hand in pocket and nonchalant cigarette make him instantly recognisable as a noir detective.  However, Cagney was very much a a man in a plain suit (with a gun).  He could easily be a mistaken for wedding guest (with a gun), a 1970s newsreader (with a gun), or an estate agent (with a gun).  In order to align him with the contest’s theme of REAL ULTIMATE EVIL, I thought I’d plough some effort into the base.  (Actually, an estate agent is pretty close to REAL ULTIMATE EVIL, so maybe I should have gone in that direction.)

Newspapers are a shrinking industry.

The newspaper on the base is a rendition of the Sydney Morning Herald , with the he headline ALERT SUNK is a reference to the Call of Cthulhu story where Cthulhu gets his head rammed over by the steam yacht Alert.  (Thanks for coming up with that idea, Michal.)  I painted the headline as small as I could on a piece of thin card and then cut it out so I didn’t have to worry about the normal freehand space constraints.

With the newspaper done, I figured I’d model the base as Sydney harbourside.  The lapping waves effect were taken from sho3box’s Man O’War Nurgle fleet (thanks sho3y).  I added a Chaos Spawn tentacle to explain why Cagney’s drawn his gun.  With that done, I figure he’s firmly anchored in the lands of Call of Cthulhu investigator.

The dynamic duo at a harbourside warehouse rumoured to be focus of cult activity, while two totally normal stevedores go about their totally normal business.

The LE3 Gumshoe Detectives, while part of the Gothic Horror range, are also part of the numbered limited editions series that Citadel Miniatures pumped out in the late 1980s.  I’d like to paint up all twenty five of the codes, and am planning the LE1 Space Orc soon.

LE2 Space Marine and both LE3 Gumshoe Detectives.

Gotta think what to do for next year’s entry now. The Night Horrors range and Gothic Horrors are chockful of characterful one-off miniatures.  Both detectives were resculpted at least twice for rerelease later in the Gothic Horror range, so I’ll see if I can track down those.  I’m also obsessed by the Doctor Who miniatures that were slightly resculpted and released as Gothic Horror pieces too!  Roll on 2019’s competition!

Cagney came first in the competition, meaning I defended my title from last year.  Congratulations to the other entrants who got their pieces finished to the deadline, and thanks to Ashley for organised the contest – why not join the group on Facebook yourself?

In related news, I won a statuette at Golden Demon this weekend, and I’ll be publishing the stage-by-stage tutorial on Patreon later this week.

Golden Demon!  Games Workshop’s prestigious painting competition I’ve dreamed about winning since I was an eleven year old boy.  Like the Oscars – there’s big statuettes.  Like the Nobel Prize – the winners are selected by internationally respected judges.  Like the Turner Prize – there’s a no contribution to the actual world of art.   It’s the ultimate battleground for miniature painters.  And these Sisters of Silence Prosecutors took home the bronze statuette at the Warhammer 40,000 Vigilus Open Day.

Silence is golden (demon).

I spent three weeks of hobby time getting these miniatures from sprue to plinth, sweeping all my ongoing projects aside to focus solely on these Sisters.  The pressure of an immovable deadline and the harsh scrutiny of the judges meant I pushed myself hard to make the squad’s copper Vratine armour truly shine.

Prosecutors in early November, broken into sub-assemblies and looking intimidatingly unfinished.

The Prosecutors are each designed with one fixed pose – your only real choice is the way you point their head. Assembled out of the box, all have their Boltguns held across their chest.  Reposing is a challenge, but with lot of cutting, putty and spare arms I opened up three of the poses to make the squad more action-packed.

Silent.  But deadly.

I was itching to introduce a bit of component variety into the squad, such as a heavy weapon, or a fancypants sword for the Sister Superior, but the Index Imperium wargear options forbade it.  To get the squad to (silently) scream “LOOK AT ME” I added a massive banner from Wood Elf Eternal Guard kit.  The original detail has been carved off and sanded away so I could paint on my own Adeptus Astra Telepathica designs on both sides.

“Exigua est virtus praestare silentia rebus, at contra gravis est culpa tacenda loqui.”

I wracked my brains for a phrase to freehand onto the banner.  I considered Latin versions of “Enjoy the Silence” and “Hello darkness my old friend” – but tongue-in-cheekiness didn’t suit these dour space nuns.  So I found two high-minded lines in Ovid’s Ars Amatoria which translate as “Slight is the merit on keeping silence on a matter, on the other hand, serious is the guilt of talking on things whereon we should be silent.”  I’ll save the Depeche Mode for some goofy Rogue Trader or Blood Bowl nonsense.

Patterns in the Ivy

The ivy on the banner was originally a Captain Crooks suggestion.  I used swirly ivy creepers on the breechcloths and cloak outsides, and angular ivy leafs on cloak insides.  In folklore, ivy is taken into the home to ward off evil spirits much like Sisters are taken in your Imperial force to ward off evil.  Aaaaand, ivy is mildly poisonous to humans, in the same way Sisters of Silence and their Pariah gene are psychically unsettling for humans to be around.  I’m so happy with the symbolism of the plant that I might spin it out to the iconography of the whole Sisterhood Vigil (equivalent to a Space Marine Chapter), if I do any more.  Call them “Crimson Ivy”?  Mmm, no, too burlesque.  “Ivy League”?  Mmm, also no.

The skullrific bases are from a Shadespire warband (Magore’s Fiends) with their footholes sculpted over.  To ground them in the Warhammer 40,000 universe I added a helmet from a Thousand Sons Scarab Occult Terminator.

Squad Philomela supporting the Nemesis Chapter battlelines.

Patreon Painting Tutorial

Last week the Patrons of Ninjabread got access to a detailed stage-by-stage write up of the paints and  techniques used to paint the copper armour.

If you become a supporter today and you’ll get access to this in depth masterclass tutorial, and also the back catalogue that also covers two varieties of Space Marines power armour, and human flesh.  Thanks to everyone’s that signed up to date, I’m really enjoying spending the time sharing the secrets.

Now the competition is over, and the intense focus has ended, I’m enjoying picking at preslotta odds and ends on the painting desk, toying with possible future competition entries.  I need to blast through some gaming level paintjobs for a bitand get back to my Space Marine armies over the Christmas break.  Watch this space!

It’s Christmas time, so enthusiasm for the ultimate Christmas films – The Lord the Rings Trilogy – has enveloped Ninjabread towers.  While binging on DVDs and mince pies, I’ve painted a breakfast (that must be the collective noun) of vintage Games Workshop Hobbits.

Left to right: BME1 Pippin, Frodo, Sam and Merry.

These are the four Halflings from the BME1 Fellowship of the Ring boxed set.  They’re wonderfully characterful – Frodo with a troubled expression, gazing towards Mordor, rings of his Mithril shirt peeping out from under his sleeves.  Sam looks very much the bimbler.  Merry and Pippin are the pint-sized action heroes jumping in to defend Frodo with their Barrow-blades.

Since 2001, Games Workshop’s highstreet stores have sold minis based on the movie trilogy – buuut these aren’t them.  In 1985 Games Workshop were selling minis to support Middle-Earth Role Playing (MERP) game.  It was a range of a few hundred figures which includes most of the major heroes, villains and troops.

ME-63 Witch-king of angmar leading a the ME-64 Black Riders.

I’ve also painted up a selection of Ringwraiths to chase those pesky Hobbits around the countryside.  I’ve gone for four repeats of the same pose so they look like they’re advancing in unison, performing a ritualised Hobbit-slaughter like the movie’s Brie and Weathertop scenes.  In my mind it works, but in photos they come across a bit dance troupe.  More Lord of the Dance than Lord of the Rings.  Oh well.

“I can’t believe you started the conga without me.” – Witch-king of Angmar

The lines between the Lord of the Rings and Warhammer ranges was blurred, with many Lord of the Rings figures appearing later as part of the Warhammer range after the license expired.  I was really excited to discover the Ringwraith miniatures were modified and rereleased as Warhammer Fantasy Empire Wizards.

Wrecycled Wraith Wizards in 1991’s Citadel Catalogue 2.

I’d like to find these figures and paint them as the Witch-king of Angmar and the sorcerers of the Second Age as they appeared before Sauron gave them their magic rings.  Or maybe as the ghostly forms Frodo sees when he puts on the One Ring.  Or maybe actual Warhammer wizards.

The Hobbits defend themselves from Ringwraiths in the ruins of Weathertop.

I’ve enough Ringwraiths and Hobbits for several scenarios from the first half of Fellowship of the Ring now, and will spend Christmas recreating the Hobbits getting repeatedly stabbed in various locales of Middle-Earth.

Patreon Painting Tutorial

These Ringwraiths are a great miniature to teach how to paint black cloth with, as it’s 98% of the miniature.  Over on Patreon right now is the detailed stage-by-stage write up of the paints, techniques, theory and secrets that you let you learn how to paint black cloth to this style and quality.

If you become a supporter today you’ll get access to this in-depth masterclass tutorial, and also the back catalogue, which covers last month’s Golden Demon winning entry, two varieties of Space Marines power armour, and human flesh.  Thanks to everyone that ha signed up so far this year.  Thanks to this month’s new patrons: Liam, Claudia, Daintist, Craig, Dan, Jason, Andrew, John and David.

I think next I’ll work on some more prey for the Ringwraiths based on the early chapters of the Fellowship – probably the ME-25 Rangers of Ithilien reimagined as the Dunedain secretly defending the Shire, or a Gildor once I’ve worked out a suitable vintage Warhammer Elf.  Watch this space!  Merry Christmas everbody!