Ride The Lightning – Part 1

Yeah, to be honest I didn’t think I’d ever paint a Stormcast Eternal either but like Space Marines they seem to sprout organically in any collection of Games Workshop miniatures whether you want them to or not. I should add I don’t have anything against them, and there’s one or two like this lady that I actually quite like. She’s been sitting on the desk at least a year now after I started experimenting with colour schemes and then ran out of enthusiasm before I really got anywhere. Mind you, whoever it was at Games Workshop that decided she should be cast in gold plastic – surely the trickiest colour to get a decent basecoat over – deserves at least some of the blame there. Of course Fembruary once again proved to be the perfect moment to get her finished.

I’ve got a few other Stormcasts kicking around so now I’ve settled on a colour scheme sooner or later I’ll paint them up as well.

Severina Raine

One of my favourite female characters from Black Library fiction (and in fact, one of my favourite characters from Black Library fiction full stop) is Commissar Severina Raine. I bought the miniature of her at the same time as the novel Honourbound in which she stars but whereas I devoured the book in about 24 hours, the model took a little while to arrive. By the time it did I was busy with other things so although I started painting her there was never quite enough enthusiasm there to get her finished. Much like Yolanda Skorn who I showed last week I planned to get her painted in Fembruary 2020 but although I made a lot of progress she never quite made it to the finish line, and then ended up shoved to the back of the desk. However when I picked her out of the box of part-painted models in which she’d been residing for the last few months I realised she only needed another half-hour or so to see her completed. Thus inspired I decided there was no way I was going to let Fembruary 2021 pass without getting her painted at last.

The model is absolutely packed with cool little details lifted from the book, right down to the heirloom watch hanging from her belt. It’s been a couple of years since Honourbound and its accompanying short stories were released – it’s past time we got a sequel to continue the story of Raine and the Eleventh Antari Rifles.

Poxy Lady

Back in January of 2018 when I reviewed the newly released wave of models for the Nurgle Maggotkin I bemoaned the lack of originality of the Lord of Blights and listed a few alternatives that I thought they could have produced, rather than just rehashing the concept of the well-loved Nurgle Lord. I concluded by suggesting that;

“We could even have had a woman. Of course Nurgle isn’t all that interested in high heels and boob-armour but this is an age of equal opportunities and girls can worship an unglamorous god of disease and putrefaction just as well as boys.”

Well it seems that for once I was ahead of my time rather than wildly off target. A sorceress of Nurgle did indeed appear some time later, the hideous Fecula Flyblown, and Fembruary is the perfect time to paint her myself. 

The keen-eyed will have noticed that the cat which usually accompanies them model is missing but fear not, it’s not wandered far. I just felt it was too cool to be left as a base decoration so I moved it to a base of its own and when time allows I’ll get it painted up as well. 

There’s A Guy Works Down The Chipshop Swears He’s Elvish

I spent some of the weekend working on something a world away from the blood-thirsty savagery of the Daughters of Khaine, but still distinctly violent and elvish – my Elven Union Blood Bowl team. Readers may remember that back in December I dipped my toe into starting an elf team (after claiming I’d paint a human team to follow up my Orcs – something I’ve still done naff all about). I’d come up with the idea of putting heads from the Warhammer 40k Harlequins onto the bodies of Blood Bowl elves some time ago, and even built a few of them, but it wasn’t until December that I found a colour scheme I really liked. Here’s a reminder of how the two test models look.

I’ve been keen to get back to the rest of the team ever since so, when I started looking out models for Fembruary, I took the opportunity to dig through the elves I’d built and check if any of them were female (there’s probably a joke in there about it being hard to tell with elves…). Turns out three of them were so I started chipping away at them through January, whenever I felt like a change from working on the Tzeentchian cult that was preoccupying my mind at that time, and once Fembruary rolled around I knuckled down properly and got them all finished. Looking at them now I realise they actually show something of an evolution of the team concept (if that doesn’t sound too pretentious!). This one is built straight out of the box, with no converting whatsoever.

This one is a straightforward head-swap, much like the two boys I showed previously.

And this one is where things got a bit strange and scary, a reminder that elves don’t just waft around being poetic and melancholic, they also curdle milk and steal children. Getting that mask to fit was a right nightmare too I can tell you!

Anyway, with these ladies ready to take to the pitch the team is already almost half done.

Usually this is the point in a project where I’d starting thinking about focussing and trying to get the whole set completed, but at the moment there’s only a couple more that are built (and they’re both boys so won’t be getting touched this month). I’ll keep chipping away at them though, and we’ll see how it goes. For now though, it’s time to dig around in the pile of neglected models and see what I feel like tackling next.

God Of Murder – Part 2

Time to get properly started on my coven of Daughters of Khaine for Fembruary. When I first thought of putting the warband together (quite some time ago now) my plan was to base it around the Melusai and Khinerai and leave the old fashioned Witch Elves out of it. I like these bloody-handed killers well enough but the miniatures never quite interested me enough to consider buying them. However that was before Morgwaeth’s Blade-coven was released for Warhammer Underworlds.

I really like the models in the set, so if I was ever going to paint a Witch Elf then these were the ones for me.

Whilst the first one was built straight out of the box this second one was tweaked slightly to give her a shield instead of a second dagger. No real reason for this beyond allowing us to use a variety of equipment in games of Warcry.

It can be easy to see the Witch Elves as falling into the “hormonal teenage fantasy” class of female miniatures, given that they spent their entire costume budget on boots and underwear. The savagery of their expressions gives the lie to that however, at least on these particular miniatures, and the end result looks – to my eye at least – more cruel  than sexy.

Finally I’d like to give a shout out to that well-known blogger and podcaster, all round top bloke and friend of this blog, the Imperial Rebel Ork. Despite his many virtues he persists in the belief that all elves are foppish, pretentious wimps, a patently ridiculous argument which he laid out in Episode 47 of his podcast. Hopefully these ladies will be sufficient to show him the error of his ways – if not the rest of the warband are on their way!

Yolanda Skorn

Mad, bad and extremely dangerous to know, Yolanda Skorn first appeared as a bounty hunter for Necromunda not long after the game was relaunched in 2017. Necromunda aficionados may be wondering if she’s the same Yolanda who sometimes goes by the name Outland Annie, but she isn’t – a planet the size of Necromunda playing host to numerous people with the same first name, even if that does make things damn confusing for the rest of us. Allegedly the two Yolandas are a result of honest human error, the team behind Necromunda forgetting that there was already a character named Yolanda until after they’d released the second one – which given the complexity of these games is an understandable mistake to make sooner or later.

Anyway, having taken a crack at killing her gang leader in a failed coup this Yolanda got kicked out of the Escher gang she’d been running with and sent off to make mayhem throughout the underhive.  Now she roams from place to place, taking on contracts as a bounty hunter and psychopath for hire, but never lingering long because there’s only so much brutal insanity even the most hardened downhive gang boss is willing to put up with in the long term.

Back in Fembuary 2020 I dug Yolanda out of the box, got her assembled and basecoated and was all ready to paint her up. As in so many ways however 2020 did not go as planned, and here we are a year later and she’s no further forward.  I’m riding a wave of enthusiasm right now though so I decided to just sit down, with no distractions, and get her painted.

Done! Next, some even more blood-thirsty individuals. If you thought Yolanda was a killer without a conscience these next ladies are even more vicious…

Blackstone Fortress: Amallyn Shadowguide

Despite being a painter of Games Workshop miniatures for many a long year, and despite the fact that they’re one of the most iconic of the 41st Millennium’s inhabitants, I’ve never actually painted a single Eldar. Time to balance the books, at least a little, in favour of the pointy-eared ones.

Today’s subject is none other than Amallyn Shadowguide, the Eldar ranger from the original Blackstone Fortress and the kind of arse-kicking woman who make a perfect candidate for Fembruary. Although she was one of the first Blackstone Fortress miniatures I started painting when I got the set for some reason she fell by the wayside and sat around part-painted ever since (regular readers will know that this is an all too familiar story!). 

Amallyn’s backstory has her hailing from the craftworld of Beil-Tan but I’ve never really found their colour scheme that appealing – for those unfamiliar with it, it’s a very stark white and green – so I tweaked it and toned it down a little.

I do have a few more Eldar which were given to me by a mate when he was clearing out his old collection, and which are currently lurking, either in the webway or in a box under the bed, waiting to spring out as soon as this Mon-Keigh makes some time to work on them.

God Of Murder – Part 1

Well here we are again, it’s Fembruary. For those not in the know Fembruary is an annual hobby event that’s been running for the past few years, kick-started and curated by Alex of the blog Lead Balloony. The aim of the exercise is to be a salute to women (and a bit of extra encouragement to get those unpainted models finished up into the bargain). Despite representing roughly 50% of the planet’s population women have traditionally made up a tiny proportion of miniatures available (bad news for all the straight male miniatures out there!). Of those female miniatures which are available a sizeable proportion seemed to be made up of space-strippers and the chainmail bikini brigade (slightly better news for those aforementioned straight male miniatures but damn distracting when one is only 28mm tall, made of plastic, anatomically ill equipped and trying to save the galaxy). Thankfully things are changing for the better, and a second X chromosome no longer prevents one from facing constant doom alongside the boys. 

Now as it turns out I have a lot of female miniatures in the ‘to paint’ pile. I did a bit of an inventory to try and choose what to paint this year and discovered I’ve got a monumental backlog (no surprises there eh!). So, this month is going to be all about doing something about that. My plan is to paint as many of them as I’m physically able to and make a dent in that backlog and so, if all goes according to plan, a whole host of adult human (not to mention elven and perhaps even xenos) females will be appearing here over the next few weeks.

One of the key things I’d like to do this month is paint up a warband of Daughters of Khaine for Warcry. I really liked these blood-thirsty elves back in Warhammer Fantasy, in fact the Dark Elves in general were always the one that got away in terms of WHFB armies – maybe someday eh! Worshippers of the cruel and merciless god Khaine (the so-called “God of Murder” referred to in the title) these she-elves are about as far from the snobbish, prissy, daisy-plucking, fairy-bothering flouncing fay-folk of elven cliché as it’s possible to get. I’ve enjoyed their evolution in Age of Sigmar and their dark queen Morathi remains not only one of the most entertaining Warhammer characters to read about but also one of the few who has made the transition from old Warhammer to AoS without feeling forced or out of place. 

My goal for the month then is to complete the warband and to paint as many of the other female miniatures in my collection as I can, focussing on neglected models as much as possible. At this stage I’ve no idea how many I’ll manage to complete but I’m certainly not short of enthusiasm so I’ll see what I can do. To set the ball rolling here’s the first of the Daughters of Khaine to be finished – a Blood Sister Gorgai who’ll be acting as the new warband’s leader. 

The rest of the warband will contain a mixture of these snake hybrids, the winged Khinerai and some of the more normal looking elves. Before that though I have another elf (of a kind) who’s been almost finished for longer than I can remember so tonight I’m going to sit down, concentrate and get her done. 

A Chew End Gene – Part 5

Work has been a bit on the busy side over the last few weeks so my progress on the cult of Tzeentch has slowed down but fear not gentle reader – the Changer of Ways still holds my heart in his constantly mutating palm!

The next thing I wanted to add to the warband was a Kairic Acolyte with vulcharc (that’s the weird looking bird familiar that accompanies the human cultists of Tzeentch). I already have a vulcharc that I painted up to serve as a Sheen Bird for my Cawdor gang in Necromunda so now it can do double duty and return to the role its creators originally intended for it amongst the Kairics.

Now I just needed a Kairic Acolyte to act as its owner/servant (I’ve no idea how this relationship works but I doubt being bound into the service of Tzeentch ever turns out well). This chap, who’s well on his way to mutating into some kind of chaos spawn – or perhaps if he’s lucky ascending into a Pink Horror – fit the bill nicely. He’s been heavily converted with a mixture of Pink Horror parts (mostly the head and arms) to create a fitting servant of the god of change and mutation.

Normally the vulcharc would be on the same base as its owner but I quite like having it based separately. The rules for Warcry state (and who ever imagined they’d see a discussion of game rules here eh!):

“Pick an enemy fighter within 20 inches of this fighter. Until the end of the battle round that fighter cannot make disengage actions”.

With the vulcharc on a base of its own I can pop it next to whichever poor so-and-so it’s giving a vicious pecking, which to my eye looks a lot more cinematic and engaging that using a token.

Alongside these mortal slaves I’ve also conjured up another pink horror, converted in much the same way as the previous two.

For now that’s all the pink horrors for the warband painted, although I may come back and make a few more at a later date.

And speaking of horrors I also painted up a couple more blue horrors.

As far as I’m aware that’s all the blue horrors I own painted now, although they’re sufficiently small (and I’m sufficiently disorganised!) that there might well be one or two more lurking in a box somewhere. Either way they’re certainly due a group shot!

Speaking of group shots I realised the other day that I never posted a group photo of the rainbow of brimstone horrors either, so – no time like the present and all that. Behold the skittles of doom!

I still have various models to be added to this warband but I’m going to be taking a little break from it so I can concentrate on all things related to the Fembruary challenge over the coming month. I promise I won’t leave the Changer of Ways hanging though, and will get back to his labyrinthine plots in March. In the meantime here’s the warband so far.

Of course it goes without saying that my Warcry addiction is as strong as ever so even though I’m not going to be working on this lot for the next few weeks I’ll still be  putting together a warband for the game.

The Chances Of Anything Coming From Mars… – Part 2

It’s been the best part of twenty years since I started banging on about wanting to paint an Adeptus Mechanicus army, almost six years since miniatures for them were released and nine months since I finally got a couple of Skitarii painted. For that matter it’s also been one week since you looked at me, cocked your head to the side and said, “We need to talk about Mars” and five days since you laughed at me saying “The Omnissiah demands you get your shit together and paint His legions!”. Anyway, at long last my two Skitarii have been joined by two more.

Really I should have painted another to round out a squad but the uncanny powers of Tzeentch with which I’ve been tampering over recent weeks have clearly addled what was left of my common sense.

I’m not going to pretend that more of these will follow straight away, I’ve got more Tzeentch and the Fembruary challenge lined up which I want to concentrate on, but I am determined that after that I’ll give the armies of Sacred Mars the love and attention they have been denied for so long.