15mm Palate Cleanser

Been painting a lot of 28mm stuff; I needed something to cleanse the palate a bit. Last night I sat down and banged out one of Khurasan Miniatures' excellent Mantis Stalkers. Here are some pics:





And some comparison shots with Blue Moon's unreleased Arlock warriors:





I'll be painting some of Khurasan's Plutonians as well! Great stuff!

--Scott

Warhammer 40K: Kill team!

We're about to start a Kill Team campaign at Phantom of the Attic, in Pittsburgh. It's a distilled version of Warhammer 40,000--200 pts. from the following selections: 0-1 Elites, 0-2 Troops, 0-1 Fast Attack.

Kill Team is a great way to try something new for 40K, but in my case, I saw it as an opportunity to re-visit one of my favorite GW plastic kits, but this time lavish upon the models the attention they deserve. I am talking about the Ork Nob box. Ork Nobs are an Elites choice, and they come in a tremendous plastic boxed set with wonderful options. For my larger army I speed-painted the Nobs, but in this force I can take more time.

I am combining with them a box of plastic Gretchin and their Runtherd. The whole thing points out to 200 pts. exactly. Here's what I've done so far!





























More of the rest later this week as I finish them!

--Scott

Guardians of the Galaxy #25--The End?

Just a quick note of thanks to Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, and all of the great artists who made GotG possible. Issue #25 is indeed the last in this series, and there was some attempt to wrap things up as the characters flow into the upcoming Thanos 6-issue limited series.



With Nova finishing out as well at issue #36 this month, that leaves me collecting exactly zero Marvel ongoing titles. As I said, I will buy the Thanos limited, but I have no interest in any other Marvel "Bendisverse" titles. I know I am in the minority here, and sales of his stuff are great, but it's not what I am looking for in my comics.

--Scott

SBH Warband Challenge: Garden Party Done!

I got the basic 300 pts. for the Garden Party warband done last night! Here is the complete band:



And a closer shot:



And here are close-ups of the newcomers.

First, the Magic Mushroom:





Next, the Tanglewood Spirit (the replacement for the Goblin Hero):









Finally, the last two shrublings shown here with their fellows:



It's been fun! I really need to just play some games of SOBH to get a feel for these bands I've made. In the meantime, I may take a break from the backlog stuff to work on some WH 40K Kill Team stuff now. We shall see!

--Scott

SBH Warband Challenge: Garden Party II!

Got the first four minis done for the warband.



This Goblin "gardener" will be the leader:






I'm calling these little guys the Nepenthar Shrublings, and they will have a short ranged attack:









And here is the muscle of the crew, the Strangler Hulk, a fearless, burrowing monster:




I'll show off more members later this week; I had to drop the second goblin to fit under the building rule that allows only 1/3 of the pts. to be spent on personalities. I will instead include another plant-like monster!

--Scott

SBH Warband Challenge: Garden Party!

I had such a great time putting together my first backlog warband last week, I am going to give it another go this week! This time I rummaged around and decided on a plant-based theme with a bit of twist. I'll be using two Chronopia Swamp Goblins as my "gardeners", one will be made up using the Goblin Leader stats, and the other the Goblin Hero. The rest will be plantsof one sort or another.

Here's an unpainted group shot:




And the breakdown follows...

Goblin Leader and Hero using Chronopia Swamp Goblins. I will paint these guys using greens, browns (for flesh), and bone--no metallics (leader on the right, hero on the left):




Hydra Miniatures small plant-men as some kind of short-range shooters. I imagine them opening their maws and shooting some kind of poisonous quills or hairs:



A Ral Partha mushroom man as a Magic Mushroom--he'll be my magic user:



And my bruiser will be a D&D minis large plant man, a Storm Wracked Shambler, or something like that. I may experiment with some inks and highlights over his existing paint job. I'll be sure to give him large and burrowing, and maybe fearless. We'll see:




So that's it. I will have to stat up the plant men using the tools on SOBH Yahoo Group, as none of the existing plant men profiles really fit my ideas. I am confident I can get 300 pts. out of these guys.

--Scott

SBH Warband Challenge: Arabic Mariners Finished!

My first Song of Blades and Heroes backlog challenge warband is done!

Here is a shot of the starting band, seven models totaling about 300 pts.:


I actually painted 9 models in all, so here is a shot of the band with the extra archer and swordsman:



Now for some closer shots of the newest additions! First, the Wizard Barakah and Jasim, Genie of Ophir:




Next up, Farid the Sworsman and Rami the archer:





Finally, Musab the archer:





I may dig around for a few more minis to add to the band, but I think I am good with this group, already having two models in reserve in case we play a campaign and I manage to do well. My goal would be to create a mysterious island setting that draws adventuring bands in and gives them a reason to clash over its magical resources. I think I may do a second backlog band since this one was so much fun!



--Scott

SBH Warband Challenge: First Finished Figures

Got my Song of Blades and Heroes backlog warband off to a good start the last two days. Four down, five to go!
















I'll probably run that red color throughout the band to tie them together. Looking more closely at the SBH rules, I likely have more than 300 pts. with the nine total figures, but this could come in handy if we play a campaign and I do well, adding more value as I go.

Captain Siddiq says "Land, ho!" A mist enshrouded isle waits just over the horizon!



--Scott