The Radical Ordos Xenos Warband of Akexis Krahni - Part 1

I think it's interesting how some painting projects grow and develop over time. Some are planned with a military style precision with set objectives and sometimes even deadlines, some develop organically like a plant stalks and leaves develop and branching off from a set of roots.

 My inquisitorial warband project is one of the latter - I read the mini codex for 7th edition of 40K for Inquisitors and captured by the background I decided to build a small warband. The creative freedom afforded by these groups is immense as in principle an Inquisitor will rope into service anyone he or she thinks will get the job done.

The idea sat in the back of my brain for a while until I read the 'Oldhammer Salvation Army' thread at the Oldhammer forum (located here - http://forum.oldhammer.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=4488) where the idea was that peeps show off their unfinished models and another volunteer is sent that model on the proviso they finish it. Asslessman from that forum showed this model and I eagerly took it off his hands to paint it up to be my Inquisitor.

And this is the final result.

A little back of back story (as who doesn't like backstory?) ...

Akexis Kranhni is of the Ordo Xenos. Secretly he has no religious faith in the Imperial Creed or the corruption posed by the Xenos but perpetuates these ideologies as he believes they are useful tools for the defence of mankind and the threats it faces. The rod he holds was acquired after the purge of a diminutively populated alien race called the H'chanti. He claims it emits a manifestation of the Emperor's Divine Will reducing those under its gaze to docility until they regain themselves but it is a composite piece - the globe was retrieved from the ruins of the devastated alien civilisation. Some other inquisitors suspect his heresy and would like to see him struck from the order or worse.

The fella to his left has the moniker Greener Creed, and is a vicious and brutish bounty hunter who puts his knuckles before his ethics. Akexis encountered him on the hive world of Burnstein III after he traced a significant haul of Tau tailored weaponry being illegally distributed through the Imperium and tasked himself with tracing every item down. 

Not wishing to blow his cover he won a knife fashioned using the circuitry of a Tau equalizer from Greener in a card game. Greener then ambushed him outside attempting to pummel the Inquisitor to give it back. The fist fight lasted twenty long minutes and eventually Akexis bested Greener and gave him an ultimatum.  Either join him in paid work or spend the rest of his life in a labour camp for his crimes.

  The rest of the warband will follow soon..follow this blog to keep yourself posted!

NB. I owe a big thank you to JB who not only contributed my Inquisitor model but has also given me much photography and lighting advice! 

His very excellent blog is here - http://leadplague.blogspot.co.uk

Halloween Horror Painting Challenge

Over on Facebook I run a group dedicated to the appreciation of the classic Night Horror and Gothic Horrors produced by Citadel Miniatures in the late eighties and early nineties. It's Halloween soon and in the run up to that I'm running a painting challenge for the best painted miniature of one of those ranges.

Best of all there's a prize of old lead for the lucky winner!

To enter you need to be a member of the Facebook group - 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1611509909078469/

THE RULES

1. The mini must be newly painted and from one of the Citadel ranges Gothic Horrors or Night Horrors. Links to these ranges are referenced at the end of the post. ( from the Stuff of Legends website). If you're not sure check the links and as I'm not all-seeing and you have found a reference to these ranges I have missed then PM me.
2. Entrants should be submitted from the 4th September to 16th October 2015. A picture/picture(s) of the entry should be posted to the group clearly indicating it is a submission for the comp and the entrant should be a member of the group.
3. Once entries have been submitted the admin will set up an album of all entries and all members will be allowed to vote on one entry to win (members can't vote on their own entry)
4. Voting will finish at midnight 31st October.
5. The winner will be announced on the 1st November and the prize will be sent to them.

http://www.solegends.com/citc/c18nighthorrors.htm
http://www.solegends.com/citgothic/index.htm
http://www.solegends.com/citgames/mummy/index.htm
http://www.solegends.com/ci…/numbered/le03gumshoes/index.htm
http://www.solegends.com/citgoth/goth85/index.htm
http://www.solegends.com/citgoth/goth87/index.htm
http://www.solegends.com/citgothflyers/index.htm
http://www.solegends.com/citcat1989/cat1989p036-02.htm
http://www.solegends.com/ci…/cat1991bp310nighthorrors-02.htm
http://www.solegends.com/citca…/cat1991bp311ethereals-02.htm

(note: there is a large crossover between the Night Horrors and Ethereals range and because of this these minis are admissable)

Da Blood Bowl Orcs

I'd started painting and playing Blood Bowl just so I could get involved in the OldBowl tournament at BOYL this year. Unfortunately I did not plan my time well and only had most of the Orc team roughly base coloured by the time of the tournie, and after seeing the standard of the painting at BOYL I shamefacedly sank home at midday to finish them. Then public transport issues scuppered plans to return on the Sunday!
  However on a positive note, I then did proceed to finish off the paint jobs on my boyz. In my opinion the third edition orc plastic BB team are up there with some of the best of their plastic kits.

Da Black Orcs

  The second from the left is a modern plastic Orc warrior with the weapons lopped off. Fits right in my humble opinion.

The Lineman.

Both easy and a joy to paint.

Throwers

Blitzers. The middle guy is a second edition metal.

Star Player Varag Ghoul Chewer. A classic sculpt.

I've been playing BB on the iPad and am realising how useful a goblin can be so at some point I will add one and a troll to the lineup (I already have the minis) as well as the team's retinue including cheerleaders, assistant coaches, an apothecary etc etc. I'm thinking this BB suits my painting pace well as it's actually possible to finish a team despite my turtle speed!

Next up having been inspired by greenskins I'm working on an Ork Blood Axe Rogue Trader warband. Pics coming soon!

Bring Out Your Lead 2015

Bring Out Your Lead is an annual event about all things Oldhammer. People play with with Citadel Miniatures from its heyday play editions of games that were once and now are not other than in the hearts and minds of Oldhammerites, meet the creators of those games and that universe and generally have a good time.
  Unluckily I only got to attend Day 1 but luckily my girlfriend got some great pics of the event. First up pics of JB's fun game 'Do Rogue Traders dream of Electric goats?' where an assortment of factions battle it out in an Blade Runner like atmosphere of paranoia trying to sift out who is who while trying to make sure they don't shoot their friends of protect their enemies.

Next up Warhammer Ahoy - the quality of the fantastical ships were just astounding. As you can see the one with the balloons was a fave of Irina's.

Sneaky pic of Oldhammer godfathers Ricky Priestley and Anthony Ackland.

Axiom checking out excellent Ackland art with the great man beside him.

'Cool man, wicked old lead........' Some random fool.

Papa's Pus Racer

At long last I have finished my entry for the venerable Captain Crooks' Death Race at this year's Bring Your Own Lead event. Ladies and Gents, I present you to Papa's Pus Racer:

On a planet far far away and 38,000 years in the future a trio of orphaned brothers ferreted a living scraping and collecting fungus on the Imperial Hive World Estalia IV. Puco, Chichi and Mingo would escape their terrible toil at the end of the day by sneaking off into the sand dunes after their shift and racing their precious Burninator Rodeo class convertible around the dunes, competing against the brat sons of the Hiveworld's upper class.

   All good fun but the brothers were dirt poor (literally .... sometimes it was their lunch) and they had little left after what they did have was spent on petrol. And their beloved vehicle started to fall apart - pistons were rusting, oil was eating through the bonnet and cogs had crumbled. 

The brothers despaired. What little hope they had was invested in this precious rust bucket and without it their life was nothing.

One day while they were chugging along what had started to be nicknamed 'The Shed', Chichi noticed a new bobblehead on the dashboard. It was damn ugly and fat with weird horns but it gave him a warm benevolent feeling inside. Mingo seeing his bro's confusion, reassured him : 'Aye, dontcha worry about that nuthin' bro. There were all these weird symbols and shit at the stall, but it's okay...'.  Chichi noticed the car was looking worse than ever..this weird fungus shit had started to grow in the joins and Mingo was smelling even worse than ever but hell, didn't this car work better?

  The brothers grew grosser and more decrepit over time - Puco went blind and his arms started to grow hard skin, Chichi started to grow webbing between his fingers. Some even seemed to be growing together and not only was Mingo losing his hair but he was shedding skin too. The car went the same way - the brothers won races just 'cos the other racers would swerve to avoid their shit bucket - but it ran like a dream and never faltered.

  At first the brother's were annoyed and confused when they lost their jobs and they were driven out of their shanties and into the underhive, but the more others hated them, the more warm paternal glow of the bobblehead gave them succour.

   Months later the great plague hulk Decayanius descended from the heavens and unleashed a toxic virus killing millions. But to the Espanto brothers it felt like they were going home...

_______________________________________________________________________________

Some more pictures for you all :

Talk about corrupting the innocent - this the poor child's toy I defiled to make this abomination.

Blast from the Past - Citadel Inks

  Citadel Inks were a formative influence on the rite of painting for me and any others of my generation who were into Games Workshop painting. Growing up I gamed very little but in our house out in the sticks of Cornwall I could often be found with brush in hand. Inks played a part in this adding luminosity and shades to models.

  Nowadays GW have 'washes' with various different permutations - Agrax Earthshade, Seraphim Sepia etc, generally not as bright and really intended for shades as the colours get stronger in the recesses. They have glazes for enhancing or blending colours. Back in the day inks were meant to serve both those purposes - I'm not commenting on how successfully compared to their modern day equivalents as I can't remember but they sure did make the colours bright and rich on my Fleshhound headed Champion of Khorne.

  These members of my Blood Bowl Undead team were painted with inks and indeed back at that time of my pubescence:

The pictures are crappy, my apologies but I know the bone was 'shaded' with orange ink - I'm pretty sure the purples were shaded too with inks too but I'm not sure which colour currently but noticeably the purple is very rich. Compare to skeletons painted in the 'modern' style of painting:

Less colourful, more realistic but maybe a bit more boring?

Anyway this ramble does have a point. After returning to the country after being away for some years I mentioned to my brother I was back painting fantasy miniatures. He mentioned in an offhand way 'Oh I think I still have the inks somewhere?'  I asked him to look, forgot about it, he then forgot about my birthday. Then three months later I got a cryptic Facebook message asking for my address. Dutifully I went to the collection office after receiving a 'we received a parcel too big for your mailbox' note and found wrapped up in a christmas light box, these bad boys...

The red, chestnut and brown are a bit light on the ground now but all the rest look serviceable. I've even rediscovered how hard these are too get out of clothes after bursting the bubble of ink residing in the blue pot. It's exciting - on the one hand I don't want to waste them but on the other hand I can't wait how to rediscover how to reintegrate these in my painting styles and probably use them better than my younger self.
 
(PS. If anyone knows which paint set they came from specifically please let me know. I had a look through Orlygg's excellent blog to try and find this out (http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/retro-painting-and-modelling-or.html ) but the packaging look different on these pots )
 

Plaguebearers completed

Well here are small group of plaguebearers all completed. They are brightly coloured which does not come across in the pictures but I'm happy with the outcome. My nurgle 40K army is with these guys now a notch potch of dreary washed out decay and bubonic brightly coloured and so somehow I'm going to have to find a happy medium.
  Using the Citadel Technical Paint Nurgle's rot as slime on a plague slug works out a treat!