So long 2023... and thanks for the fish!

Getting this in early as we are off out for the evening... although will most likely be home and asleep before midnight haha.

This year has been an odd one for hobbying, as can be seen by only 62 blog posts and 522 models painted... quite a bit less than last year! I've had many patches of time where there has been zero motivation to paint or build stuff, and others where its been all guns blazing; no constant hobby.

That said i have managed to get some cool stuff painted: A Dweghom army and a Nords army for Conquest, Sythopian Wars Starter Box, A Norman army for On Bloody Ground, Empire for Starwars Legion and Paraguayans for MWWBKs.

Older projects like the Baratheon's and Neutrals for ASOIAF have gone as the game evolved into something that wasn't for me, and Conquest has nicely taken its place this year!

As for next year i have two big projects in mind; Flesheater Courts for Age of Sigmar... and Warriors of Chaos for Warhammer Old World whoop! I've spent the last week building up a load of AoS Slaves to Darkness on square bases haha and its been glorious.

2024 is going to be glorious!

Conquest: Nords Stalkers

 Rounding out this project for now, and probably my last painted models for 2023 are this regiment of Stalkers for my Nords army:

Not as good as Bow Chosen but quite a few points cheaper, they are a reasonable shooting unit and skirmish line for my forces for now.

Conquest: Sea Jotnar!

 Finished up the other big lad for my forces with this Sea Jotnar:

Another fantastic model to paint up, really pleased how it came out in the end. This leaves me with just some Stalkers to complete for my 1500pts tourney force in three weeks, and just needing to buy some Bow Chosen and another Blooded to complete my 2000pt list for regular play.

Conquest: Mountain Jotnar!

 On to the big guys of the army of which here is the first, a Mountain Jotnar:

I snagged this resin Artisan Series Mountain Jotnar along with a Sea Jotnar in an ebay bargain... almost 50% off it was too good a deal to pass up!

He's been done proper grimy and grubby with patches of grass / mud / tree on him similar to the box art but changing a few colours to reflect my existing force and paint collection. 

Conquest: Nords Raiders!

 Man alive two posts in two days!

Here are a unit of Raiders to be a bunker for my Shaman Warlord to cast is spells and bring his excellent supremacy haha.

I've made the unit so it has a Captain as an Officer for extra resolve and the option of being a medium unit rather than a light unit... situationally handy!

Conquest: Nords Trolls finished!

 I've completed the second rank of the Troll regiment i posted last week:

Glad they are done but its an enjoyable quick scheme to do and should look great with the whole army on the board! 

Age of Sigmar and Mordheim: Royal Beastflayers

The club is starting up a Mordheim campaign in the new year and i wanted to use Undead.. In our last one maybe 15 years ago i also ran them and they are a lot of fun!

I picked up a box of the AoS / Warcry Royal Beastflayers from the Flesheater Courts range as i like the models and may have also bought a box or two of the new army box haha

Vampire (Royal Flaymaster)

Dire Wolves (Offal Hounds)

Necromancer (Beastflayer Baron)

Dregs (Ghoul Trackers)

Ghouls (Gore Squires)

Conquest: Nords Trolls

 Back with some Trolls for my growing Nords army:

This is only have my regiment but time was short and i wanted to get some stuff posted up, quite enjoyed painting these and they are much better in the flesh than the odd photos on Para Bellum.

Sythopian Wars: Heavies Spider

 Finally got this bad boy finished off having been sat half done for a few months!

Looking forward to getting some games in of this superb looking game ahead of the Kickstarter for the Host and expanding the existing Confederation and Asylumists! 

L'Art De La Guerre: Classical Indians

One of my mates who runs the Warmaster.Podcast and Blackgate Miniatures decided he wanted to get playing some 15mm Ancients, and having a look about about a few systems, has decided on L'art de la guerre (ADLG) due to rave reviews, ease of entry and only needing a 4x3 board and not giant armies!

I decided to get involved too, but I'd want to purchase a painted army that i could add bits to as i don't have the time for another big project at the moment:

So i purchased this entire painted army of Classical Indians (Around the time of Alexander), I redid the base rims but its a full 200pts force for a standard game of ADLG.. If i'm gonna play Ancients then i have to use elephants haha.

Having read through the rules and worked out what i had, i decided to pick up a couple more light cavalry units, a camp and some elite infantry in the form of Maiden Guard (All from Museum Miniatures), they fit perfectly as the existing army is also from Museum:

Painting is close enough that i'm happy with, basing will also do for now too. The best thing about this army is that i can just add a few specific units should i decide to change periods.. no full army required! 

Conquest: Nords Blooded and Shaman

 A couple of characters to lead my growing forces today; A Blooded and a Shaman:

Blooded

Shaman

The Blooded is an all rounder would can be equipped as a melee beater or a ranged machine gun haha, the Shaman is well, a wizard... not destructive like the Dweg ones but offering plenty of niche but effective support spells!

Conquest: Nords Ugr

 Next up are a regiment of Ugr, the ogre equivalent brutes for the Nords:

I'm a big fan of these models, they are a bit static but easy to build and paint quickly!

Conquest: Starting Nords and Fenr Beastpack

 Two posts in two days! What a time to be alive haha

I'm applying to be a Vanguard for Para-Bellum, so i need to have a second army available to run demos with and chose Nords because they play entirely different from the Dweghom and they look cool. I picked up the starter box and some of the Jotnar in an ebay bargain hehe:

I started with the easiest models to paint, the Fenr Beastpack, again using slap chop to follow the box art as best i can. These are a light cavalry equivalent in the force, next up will be the Ugr!

Conquest: Inferno Automata

Well a month off painting and hobby with some illness in the family and some incredibly busy work days left me proper drained!

Finally had a breather yesterday to get these completed:

Will certainly be nice to get some faster moving stuff on the board for my Dweghom haha. 

Conquest: Tempered Sorcerer!

No time for painting last week as i was mad busy following the LGT! Today I've finished this Tempered Sorcerer off that arrived a week or so ago:

He's had a bit of a nerf since i bought him but still fine to play... his unit of Automata should arrive in a few weeks then i can get him on the board as I start to build up my next army for the game with Nords!

Age of Sigmar: Freeguild Marshall and Alchemite Warforger

Todays painting has involved finishing the current selection of character models i have before starting to tackle the troops!

Freeguild Marshall & Relic Envoy

Alchemite Warforger

Like many others I've gone for the Greywater Fastness scheme for the contrast between the yellow and the blue/grey, and its relative ease of painting haha.

Hopefully i can get some time this week to start building the Steelhelms as i'm away the weekend at the LGT so will be all hands of deck doing housework on monday!

Age of Sigmar: Cities of Sigmar Battle Wizards!

The new Cities launch box was enough to get me back into AoS haha, almost 2yrs since i last played! and whilst i waited for the box to be delivered i browsed the models for other newer aesthetic stand ins for the older WFB kits and found these two:

  Cleona Zeitengale and Octren Glimscry from the Cursed City game will do nicely as Battle Wizards as they are very in-keeping with the new releases... i do not plan on using any of the older kits in this force so a very human-centric castle with plenty of the Steelhelms, Fusiliers and Cavaliers is the order of the day!

My box has arrived and i'm starting on the three character models first, there's no rush on getting the project ready for an event so i'm taking my time on the build and paint.

He-Man Miniatures Game: Vultak, Rattlor, Triclops and Plundor

Another round of minis added to my MoTU collection:

Triclops and Plundor (Evil Warriors)

Vultak (Evil Horde) and Rattlor (Evil Warriors / Snakemen)

Some interesting sculpts this time round; Triclops and Rattlor i knew from old but Vultak and Plundor i had to do some research into as i didn't remember them at all!

Sythopian Wars: Asylumist Horde

August was a bit of a wash out for painting with holidays and some really time consuming work projects but I have today spare to get through some of the backlog... starting with this squad of Horde for my Asylumist force:

Sythopian Wars: Death Sqaud

Now that the Conquest stuff is done i can get back to the Sythopian Wars Founders Set I bought a few months ago and get cracking on the Asylumist forces, starting with the Death Squad:

the heavy infantry unit for the Asylumists, packing versatile long range weaponry and stealth camouflage! Next up will be the Horde, the tarpit glass cannon unit... yes it fulfills both roles!

Conquest: Hellbringer Drake

 Take a while to get enough time to finish the beast but its done now:

Tempered Sorcerer on Hellbringer Drake to bring me back to fully painted for my Dweghom! Next month i plan to add a Sorcerer on foot and a unit of Inferno Automata to add to the one from the FB set... and get me ready for the LGT too whoop!

Conquest: Dweghom Initiates

 Rounding out the models from the First Blood set are the regiment of Initiates:

Armed with long spears and massive shields they will provide a cheap defensive block to park on an objective zone and just sit haha.

Thats all my current infantry painted, now to the Hellbringer!

Conquest: First Blood Dweghom

 Here's a few of the models from the First Blood Starter Box:

Ardent Kerawagh

Herald of Stone

Inferno Automata

Thankfully all the First Blood boxes come with the trays for the main game! I'll pick up a regiment box of Infernos at some point to make the one i have playable, and will next be working on a regiment of the big spear and shield guys.

On Bloody Ground: Battlefield Bystanders

 One last thing to finish off for my Normans; the Battlefield Bystanders:

These are an optional for in OBG, a mini diorama of camp followers or similar that you can deploy after setting up your characters... they cant move or be placed within six inches of terrain, and are worth 50VPs to you if they are still on the board at the end of the game - 100VPs to your opponent if they have captured them!

Sadly the models didn't arrive in time for use at our club event but are now at least done.

Conquest: Dweghom Steelforged!

 Continuing with the Conquest train is another new unit to my army; The Steelforged:

Sort of monkey dreadnoughts is the best way to describe these battle suits, not the easiest to put together but certainly quick and enjoyable to paint up!

A brute unit in the army that can change its weapons to have more attacks against lighter units or more armour penetration to get through tougher foes.

Conquest: Moar Dragonslayers

 Finishing those five stands of Thanes left me spares to make an additional stand of Dragonslayers:

These have been left unglued from the stand so they can be used in First Blood; a couple of the local guys have decided to get into this too now haha.

On Bloody Ground: Mounted Milities and done!

 Finished up the last unit for my Normans in On Bloody Ground:

A second regiment of Norman heavy cavalry to round out my force ready for our demo day on Saturday; Quite a few people are coming along and we should have 9/10 armies available to game with so it should be a cracking event.

Back to the Conquest stuff now haha

On Bloody Ground: Mounted Milities!

 Finally on to the Norman Knights, the Mounted Milities!

These are from Victrix same as the rest of the plastics so far, the next unit of them i have is from Conquest Games, they are a bit older but I've been a fan of the range for many years having faced them in saga a number of times haha.

On Bloody Ground: Moar Stippendari!

 This is the last of my current infantry blocks finished, 20 Stippendari mercenaries!

Time to start on all the Knights now, 24 of the buggers to do haha

Conquest: Hold Thanes!

Back to Ea for some reinforcements to my Dweghom army for Conquest! A large unit of Hold Thanes to accompany my Hold Raegh hero into battle:

I have a few other bits on order for the force and then will be rounding it out with that Hellbringer Drake and Sorcerer hehe.

Sythopian Wars: Recon Drones and Tin Men

 Finishing off my Confederation force today with the rest of the starter box:

Recon Drones

Tin Men

Recon Drones are fast but fragile objective grabbers and Tin Men are the heavy robotic infantry of the force!

Sythopian Wars: Convict Drones

 Back to the brushes after a much needed holiday!

Today I've painted some Convict Drones for a new sci fi wargame called Sythopian Wars, a large scale skirmish game played on a 4x4 with alternating activations and reactions.

The game has a simple points system called "Threat" where you agree at the start to play say a 5 Threat game for example, with units costing either 1 or 2 Threat to build your army with. The two forces in the Founders set are 4 Threat armies and make great forces for intro game... i suspect that the sweet spot will be 6-8 for a decent sized game of a couple of hours.

Convict Drones are the basic infantry unit for The Confederation faction, armed with long range guns and reasonable armour, the rest of the factions current line up is all mechanised troops.

The other released faction are The Asylumists, blood crazed insane cyborgs haha, and ill be getting on to painting them soon enough.  

On Bloody Ground: Norman Archers

 Quick unit of archers for my force before i go on holiday!

Three regiments to go now; two Norman Knights and one more Stippendari then the army is done for the games day we have planned on the 14th July!   

On Bloody Ground: Norman personalities and Crossbowmen

 Another week with reduced painting time sadly! Finally got these completed today after hitting bits over the last seven days:

Crossbow Serjeants

Duke

Bishop Odo

William the Conqueror

That's about half the army completed now; still have another 20 Stippendarii, 24 Milities and 10 Archers to go!