There's a new sheriff in town

Hello all!

Haven't had much time for painting these last months, but tonight I managed to finish this guy. 

He's a member of my new band of mercenaries. I see this guy as an old gnarled enforcer from a backwater planet, dishing out his own brand of frontier justice. 

+updated with larger pics+

Mercs

I've been out of mojo for quite a while, but a look at PDHs new mercenaries gave me a much needed dose of inspiration. (They can be viewed here: http://s3.zetaboards.com/The_Ammobunker/topic/7506461/46/ )

I bought a box of the new 'stealer cultists and got going. Here's the first one: 

And here's a work in progress shot of the second one: 

Well see where this is going... nice being back to modelling at any rate!

The axe man cometh

Here's the finished axe man for my Outgard crew. In hindsight I should perhaps have reversed the colours of the cowl and his robes: black robes and red cowl. A darker character would have suited the setting better. On the other hand I'm rather pleased with how the red turned out. Oh well...

Calling this guy The Hound of Rotwang. 

Brushwielding

For the first time in months I managed to spend s lazy sunday at the hobby table. It felt great to break out the brushes and zone out in a good, old fashioned painting spree.  

Almost done with this guy - only the base left, and that should be finished this evening. Here's a black and white preview:

1.000.000 views!

It's been quiet here for a while... I've been up to my neck in job stuff - and when job stuff equals drawing dinosaurs you really don't feel the need to do anything else.

But today is a special day. Just a few hours ago this blog passed the one million views mark. 

I think huzzas are in order! 

To celebrate this momentous occassion here's a sneak peak at a new character for my outgard retinue. 

Pilgrym at Warhammer World

Good news everyone!

In what can only be described as the perfect culmination for all our Pilgrym efforts, Warhammer World in Nottingham have graciously decided to showcase all the models that took part in the game (including Lazaros and his cronies), along with the amazing board Migs built for the occasion. 

The minis will be on show December 3rd – February 26th 2017. Here´s what WW has to says about the display:


Some collections of miniatures stop you in your tracks. The special combination of attention to detail in conversion, technical ability in painting and overall concept all come together to create something admirable.
What makes The Pilgrym even more impressive, is that it was a seven month collaborative project undertaken by friends from around the world. These miniatures and 4×4 foot gaming board all embrace the Blanchitsu style, carry the touch of their individual creators, yet also pull into one cohesive display together. Miniatures by John Blanche will also be included in the display, so it’s a very unique chance to see this distinctive style.
The Pilgrym gaming board and miniatures will be on display in the Warhammer World Exhibition Centre so you can see for yourself the detail and character in each of these carefully crafted miniatures.

Warhammer World: Discover the Pilgrym - a stunning guest display

Spearman

I finally got time to finish the feeble spearman. Pretty pleased with how he turned out - there's just something so delightfully wonky and awkward about this bloke.

And here he is next to the swordsman:

These first two are more or less pure fantasy/medieval. Which is all fine and well, but I'll be mixing in a bit more dark futureness from now on.   

Pilgrym report #2

The Wier bros. have written an excellent report from the Pilgrym game. It's up on Iron Sleet, and is accompanied by lots of pretty pictures in glorious technicolor:

https://ironsleet.com/2016/08/19/an-exchange-of-hands-the-final-moments-of-the-daylight-wall-anomaly/

Nice place to visit - wouldn´t wanna live there

It really wasn´t planned but suddenly I found myself hunched over my wacom drawing a map for Outgard (or at least the northern part of it). Every fantasy world needs a map I guess - it´s almost like a law of nature.

Here you go. Clickable for a biggerized version for your convenience.

I´ve never really been that fond of drawing maps, not even during my days of roleplaying, but I got to admit I had a jolly good time creating this one.

Aesthetic of the Pathetic

Outgard mini two ready to be painted. 

Really went to town with the "aesthetic of the pathetic" on this poor spearman (a term John Blanche always uses to describe his preference for creating huddled wretches over more powerful characters). 

Not sure about the shield. He looks weaker without it - which is a good thing in this case...

Outgard

Outgard, a world locked in primordial superstition. A world bereft of the light of the Emperor. A world of wytches.

It is said a god and a goddess once walked the land with their nephilitic hosts. They united the world before returning to the heavens to wage war upon the falcon god. 

The guardians they had left behind withered and died as all flesh will. Their deeds soon became legends, and eventually even the legends were forgotten.

The aeon of the falcon changed the world and the wytches came forth and now Outgard is trapped in it's own violent dream.

There will be no new dawning, there will be no new hope, there will only be stagnation.

Pray sons of men and daughters of women. Pray for the dying light.

(text by Alexander W)

Outgard is a new collaborational project set on a medieval world somewhere in a remote corner of the 40k universe. Bands of fighters struggle in the ruins of a once great but now forgotten civilisation searching out loot, wytchtek and generally doing their best to survive in this hellish feudal world. 

Expect wytches, monsters, vampires and those brave, embittered souls who hunt them. Of course underneath it all is the ever present taint of chaos.

The raving madmen behind this endeavor are as follows:

• Alexander L aka Hrosshvalur. 
• Mikko and Kari from Iron Sleet
• Erik aka Nordic
• Alexander W aka Alexander / Alex

And me of course plus some guest stars to make surprise appearances.

Here´s my first conceptual mini - a humble wytchhunter hired sword. I tried to keep the palette very earthy and Brueghelesque similar to his painting of Dull Griet pictured above.

Stay tuned for more medieval madness! You can follow the progress of this project as a whole on the Ammobunker: http://s3.zetaboards.com/The_Ammobunker/topic/7901490/1/#new

Pilgrym: Battle report

The Pilgrym write-up is finally up on Iron Sleet!

 Migs has gathered tons of photos and notes from the sprawling game and have done a great job turning them into a comprehensible story. Head on over to Iron Sleet and give it a read. I think you get a pretty good picture of just how crazy and tumultous the game was...

Iron Sleet: The -P- game

Pilgrymmage

Wow. What a trip. 

I just got back from Nottingham and a Pilgrym event that can only be described as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

Formulating any coherent account, apart from superlative ridden tirades about how awesome everyone who contributed to this is, is completely beyond me at this time. In other words you'll have to wait for a true recap.

I can say that Lazaros and his cronies did rather well - as a matter of fact he managed to abscond with the pivotal Pilgrim. Not only did that grant me the "victory" (though I think everyone who played were winners) but as a price I recieved a rather nice gift...

Thank you John, Migs and Pete for making this happen.

Comtessa Sarastra of House Granicus

In just a few days the ambitious Pilgrym project will reach it´s conclusion in Nottingham after half a year of frantic planning and modelling in basements and workrooms scattered across the western hemisphere.

I´m leaving for England in about twelve hours and just finished the last member of my Black Arke crew - the navigator Comtessa Sarastra of house Granicus.

She really feels like the perfect mini to cap off my part of the project. Eldritch and otherwordly she towers over even Lazaros himself.

Here´s Lazaros and crew in a group shot. I´m quite pleased with how they look all together - the more limited black/red palette makes them a lot more unified than my retinues usually are. I´m sure there´s a lesson to be learned here somewhere...

And here´s my small contribution to Terras teeming masses of pilgrim NPCs. They´re just two but I think that they compensate that with an abundance of character...

Now I´d better start packing! I´ll be back with a report from the game itself soon.

Psykonaut II

 I decided the psykonaut needed a buddy! 

Painted in record time no less - about three episodes of "Salem" (45x3 minutes). Bam!

Now I only have to paint the navigatress and the crew's ready to take on Terra! 

She's the groups second "larger than life" character, standing even taller than Lazaros. I was kinda conflicted about using the techpriest legs as they've already been featured on several amazing pilgrym models, but they just suited the mini so well. I wanted her to look warped and otherworldly - a bit like my old space-vampiress - and the swooping techpriest legs were perfect for that. 

Nihilatron/Null-drone

The Nihilatron, or Null-drone, is made from the sacred remains of a martyred Sister of Silence and projects a small psychic null-zone. While not nearly as powerful as a true living null-maiden it's still a potent weapon against wyrds and daemons.

The Null-drone also retains a spark of the sisters essence making it semi-sentient. This allows it to operate much more independently than a standard servoskull.

 

Psykonaut

Here's the fourth member if Lazaros Black Ark crew - a highly expendable crewman armed with a las-carbine. 

Basic crew on the blackships are called Psykonauts. Bred partly using recovered genetic material from psychic nulls, subjected to heavy conditioning and brain surgery, they are unusually resistant to all forms of warpcraft.

Captain-Inquisitor Lazaros

"He shall have a great doom upon his brow, he shall be a witch of great power, he shall be altered in the physical form, he shall be able to talk and walk with the animals” 

Captain-Inquisitor Lazaros is the master of the Black-aarke Garm's Maw and one of the Ordo Opscuros most zealous members. Originally a hard line Thorian serving as a daemonhunter in the Ordo Malleus, he's become more and more radicalised since joining the Ordo Opscuros - a minor ordo monitoring the black ships, notorious for their incarnationist agenda. He is now for all intents and purposes a devout Horusian, plying the stars searching out wytches and psykers that could serve as a Divine Avatar. A vessel powerful enough to contain the Emperor reborn. 

Lazaros has served the Inquisition for over 300 years and at this point he's more machine than man, the few remaining organic body parts are encased in a towering exoskeleton.

Here he is next to Quartermaster Clavius and the pilot Eliakim.