GHOSTHAMMER PART II - HELLRAISERS

Boo! Seems like ghosts was what was needed for me to get out of my hobby slump!

I've been painting away the last couple of days and have managed to finish off five more chainrasps including the Dreadwarden champion, one reaper and the Spirit torment. Not speedpainting these guys either, though I do the chainrasps four at a time, so I think that's a pretty good haul for four days work.

Here's the chainrasps. Only a few more model needed for a minimum sized unit - I'm aiming for 15 to start with and keep the rest for conversions.

Here's what the Dreadwarden looks like just after he's recieved the undercoats.

There's three of them: I begin with a standard chaos black undercoat, then a lighter Zandri dust one on top of that that and finally a zenithal light white spray. After that I bring out the toothbrush and spatter the model with watered down mix of black and rhinox hide and then the washing and drybrushing commences.

And here's the first Grimghast Reaper:

Really pleased with how this one turned out. Its slightly converted by adding some spikes/nails hammered into his/its back, but apart from that its pretty much out of the box. These guys are just insane amounts of fun to paint.

Last but not least we have the Spirit Torment. Now this is one cool miniature but I felt there were a few things I wanted to adjust. To begin with I added a tombstone from the old zombie kit that connects with one of the tendrils of cloth to stabilise him somewhat. The original model only attaches to the base with one long thin strand of cloth which made the model sort of wobbly and springy. Any small movement made it vibrate which: A) makes it hard to paint and B) doesn't look very cool on the battlefield (I prefer my models static thank you very much). 

I also added some spikes and replaced the lock with some hooks from an old marauder.  I felt dragging victims screaming back to Hell using flesh-hooks was a tad grimmer than whacking them over the head with an oversized padlock. What I like about the Nighthaunt faction (apart from the miniatures) is that they're basically an army from Hell, so I want to play up the tormented cenobite angle whenever possible.

Then I painted it. It came out alright but there was something off...

I decided to repaint the carapace as I simply didn’t like the brass parts - rusty iron and steel seems to work best on these guys. Here's a crappy pic of what that looks like - I'm going to get some better pics of the final model.

Stay tuned! There's plenty more spooky stuff coming up!

SPECIAL GUEST STAR: PETER HUDSON

This morning an unexpected surprise was waiting for me when I went through my email. There, at the top of the inbox, was a message from my friend Peter Hudson (also known as PDH across the world wide internets, one of the pillars of the inq28 community and an all-around nice guy) with some images attached.
Peter has been working on a Deathwatch kill-team for quite a while and to my utter delight he had chosen to turn the fifth member of the squad into a Metatron marine.

In Peters own words:

Morning buddy! He is finished - meet Kran Seger, Kill Operative of the Deathwatch & The Metatron Chapter.

 I am so pleased with this one. He is based on the Primaris Ancient, from the start set. I bought it specifically for the banner arm for my librarian. I liked the foot pose so much I had to use the "leftovers" for a marine. What better than to use a Metatron as the pose was so imposing, like the chaps you brought along to Rhossum Secondus. I also remember you saying how much you liked the MK5 helmet so added that in and pawed over pics of your Metatron marines for iconography pointers. It was fun copying the shoulder pad and trying to get the colours right (and different from my Deathwatch red), though I think mine is a little more bone coloured than white like your chaps..

Heres Brother Kran Seger in all his glory:

If Pete's pleased that's nothing compared to how happy I was when these plopped down in my inbox. I'm just incredibly psyched over this homage. Peter's completely nailed the iconography and it's just so cool to see a hobbyist you truly admire have a go at one of your concepts, applying his particular aesthetic to it . (I also disagree with Peter regarding the bone colour on the pauldron - I think he nailed it...)

And here he is with the rest of Peter squad. Gotta love Cycnus, the badass stormbolter-toting sergeant...

Vicirian Cycnus, Watch Sergeant of the Deathwatch & Sons of Antaeus

Kran Seger. Kill-Operative of the Deathwatch & The Metatron Chapter 

Astor Vanto Tovak, Kill-Operative of the Deathwatch & Crescent Guard

Rocc Sigeis, Kill-Operative of the Deathwatch & Iron Knights

Lufht Molov, Kill-Operative of the Deathwatch & Castigators

A beautiful squad full of the subtle detailing that is emblematic of Peters work. Great stuff!

If you want to see more of Peters models check out his instagrams: pdh_neglected_fruits

All this makes me want to get back to making more Deathwatch marines... But at the moment there's ghosts to paint. Lots and lots and lots of ghosts...

GHOSTHAMMER

A few days ago I caved in and bought the new edition of AoS. Those new Nighthaunt models are just so ghoulishly delicious I couldn't resist.

It does seem Age of Sigmar has come of...well, age. In the three years it's been out there's been some really interesting armies released (apart from the constant barrage of rather uninspired stormcasts) and the new rule book itself is a hell of a lot sexier than the lacklustre first edition. 

There's still something off with the writing - its ponderous and humourless and just...off. Sometimes its almost as if they're using some sort of word generator that just throws out adjectives at random and there's so much aimless Michael Baystyle epic epicness about you start to skim the text after a while. Sometimes it's pretty good - it becomes pretty apparent after a while that there's many different writers involved. In any case the book is a lot better than the first outing and at least tries to create a setting of sorts. 

Like I said previously the Nighthaunt minis are, as many others have stated, absolutely stunning. GW knocked it out of the park with these guys and as for AoS in general it certainly seems like it's here to stay. If you want to take stroll down memory lane here's a pice I wrote about the new game and the death of the Old World just as AoS came out in the summer of 2015. Three years certainly is a long time in the hobby world - especially considering GWs current relentless release schedule...
http://convertorum.blogspot.com/2015/07/warhammer-is-dead-long-live-warhammer.html

So without further ado, here's my first two ghosties. The plan is to finish up a vanguard size army (1000pts) and then see what happens. I won't convert the spooks that much other than minor details. For instance I'll probably add some nails and spikes to the characters and wraiths to make theme even grimmer, taking some cues from my old mhorrigot stuff, and remove some of the wispy smoke effects where possible.