Moorcockian chaos horde 2

 Here's the second chaos horde element for HOTT/DBF. They're all kitbashes to some extent, barring the skeletal dog. 

The bits come from Oathmark, GW, Mantic, RDG, Shieldwolf and Wargames Atlantic sprues.

One of the things I like about the DBA/HOTT/DBF family of games is that you can include as many banners as you want - which helps to create a mass effect from relatively few figures. I've got at least one more banner among the kitbashes awaiting painting and will look to add a few more.

It's a little tricky to photograph these elements, given the variety of focal points ...

... but I'll aim to sharpen my skills in that regard as the series continues. There are still another ten elements to go, with two more nearing completion.

Moorcockian chaos horde 1

 

This is the first of many Moorcockian chaos horde elements for Hordes of the Things and DBF. I've kitbashed a dozen of these elements; this is the first one I've finished. 

Each of them has, typically, five beastmen, which gives me about 60 to paint for just half of a HOTT army. 

Very few of the beastmen aren't kitbashed (I think there may be about five among the five dozen that are straight builds or unconverted metal figures). So there won't be many other armies that look too similar. 

Orcs speed-painted with markers

 

Here are four Blades elements for Hordes of the Things and De Bellis Fantasiae. I did these mainly with paint markers - a mix of very cheap Funnasting brush pens and slighly more expensive AK Interactive markers.

The skin was done entirely with markers, barring a glaze of Athonian Camoshade at the end. The armour was done with AK gun metal and then washed in Dark Star Murky Mire (Agrax, basically) before highlights with a silver brushpen. Then the eyes, teeth and tongues were painted with a brush. 

These Mantic figures are quite soft on detail, and the teeth and eyes are very hard to paint. With hindsight, I'd have drybrushed silver over the metal after the brown wash - but no matter: they're done!

Sabot basing for De Bellis Fantasiae (DBF)

 

I recently picked up the new De Bellis Fantasiae (DBF) from Wargames Research Group. It essentially combines Hordes of the Things (HOTT) and De Bellis Antiquitatis (DBA) into a large-scale mass-battle game. 

As an HOTT enthusiast, the game's right up my street. It does need a lot of elements, though, so I decided to get some sabot bases so that I could use individually based figures in DBF battles. A custom order from the excellent Oshiro Models sorted me out with a range of sabots at a very reasonable cost, so I now have a a range of 60mm square bases that can hold two, three or four figures based on 25mm squares and two mounted figures or animals on 25 x 50mm bases.

Originally, I'd planned to use these either for Beast elements (wolves, wolf riders and the like) or Great Beasts (ogres, trolls, bugbears, gnolls, etc.). That lets me keep the largeish creatures on fairly small 25mm bases for RPGs and skirmishes. But I tried out some old Citadel orcs on the four-base sabots and thought they'd work nicely as 'fast' Blade units in DBF.

It's much quicker to paint up a sabot base than an individual figure, so I now have scope for vast armies with very little effort, given the numbers of painted humanoid monsters that I have to hand. I'm also working on some fixed element bases with multiple figures too, including some lively chaos hordes. The great paradox of HOTT and DBF is that Horde elements are the most fun to paint and the most time-consuming - but also very cheap in game points. So one needs to do lots of them ...

Works in progress ...

Atavist or ancestor?

 Here's a wee conversion I did a few years ago - just got round to finishing off the paintwork.

I'll probably make a few more of these: enough for a little skirmish band. 

But what are they? Primitive ancestor types? Or mysteriously devolved creatures of a familiar type?

Caravan guards

 My first completed miniatures of the new year - some sci-fi caravan guards for a desert scenario. Kitbashed from Victrix Napoleonics and Oathmark goblins and orcs.

The Cult of the Possessed returns!

 

My favourite gaming project of 2024 was my minimalist Cult of the Possessed for Mordheim (and other skirmish games). They're among the quickest miniatures I've ever painted, with speed achieved principally through a complete abandonment of realism. The figures are quickly drybrushed a couple of shades, then their heads are painted red and their weapons and eyes green. The final highlights are added in yellow and white acrylic ink. 

Around the time I put the first warband together, I started kitbashing and painting others - chiefly beastmen. My aim was to put together an allied warband of beastmen that could support the Cult in multiplayer games. Yesterday and today, I finished a few of those off. I also have another Possessed to add, who needs only his yellow-ink highlights. And I have more kitbashed beastmen and mutants to paint up in 2025, to which I'll add a minotaur and centaur.

Of the new lot, my favourite is the beastman chieftain, who's based on a RGD satyr. The RGD satyr kit is great apart from one thing: the satyrs - satyrs! - appear to lack any genitalia (not a mistake Tom Meier would ever have made at Ral Partha ...). With this fellow, I put that right by drawing on medieval and Renaissance depictions of demons, using a spare GW beastman head:

The shaman is a mix of parts from GW beastmen, Wargames Atlantic ogres and Frostgrave snakemen. Why are the severed heads red too? Just because ...

The third new beastman is a snakeman with a RGD satyr head. He's more unassuming than the other two, perhaps, but I rather like him.

Here are the three new boys:

Have a great Hogmanay and a very happy new year!