Corabell from Terror of the Lichemaster

I recently acquired the miniature for Corabell from the Terror of the Lichemaster scenario (the flyer of which is pictured here - courtesy of Richard 'Orclord' Hale).

I had not particularly focused on this miniature to acquire it for it's history but because I am buying a small group of villagers for a scenario of my own and she definitely fitted what I had in mind. Like many figures of its time, it has floated between ranges and has also featured in Citadel's C46 Villagers range.

Let's admit it, it's not the best sculpted or prettiest of miniatures but it does have that indefinable but yet distinctive character that much of modern GW fare lacks.

What I didn't reckon on was how hard it would be to paint! It's not clear where some features start and some finish - part of her hair could be an earring or not, it's not clear where her top finishes and her hair begins and some parts of the sculpt are quite crude (for instance her outstretched hand). Using a wash only served to accentuate these imperfections in particular on her hair and so I had to repaint that part of her all over again.

All in all a miniature I was just glad to finish painting. Apologies for the lighting. Due to a recent hurried house move I don't have access to my normal daylight lamps. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Zombies!

A quartet of shuffling undead horrors for your perusal.

The first two are Necromunda plague zombies and despite having a sci-fi purpose they looking perfectly fine for fantasy. I mistook the pipes in their hands for bones but I figured some screwy necromancer or other weirdo has grafted metal banding to them then what the hell?

  The second is from Harlequin miniatures and the last is a classic Citadel miniature from the long gone but not forgotten Fiend Factory range. I think the first three scale well against each other even if the last one is a bit 'blobby' - still lots of Oldschool charm though!

Dead containers

Ah coffins and sarchopaguses. Ordinarily the domain of the recently departed but in the hands of the necromancer they can become a box of nasty shocks.

Hello handsome!

The miniature is very old Grenadier ('83 I think) - I like the cheeky chap inside.

Some more pics and angles...

In the spirit of some more dead containers, a couple of classics from the old Citadel Night Horrors range (my own personal obsession). The coffin can either hold an ordinary corpse or a mummy however you deem fit - now that's flexibility!

All of this is intended as scenery for a homebrew game for myself and my partner. More to follow on that....

Cyberman

This week we tried out first game of 7TV at our local gaming club with a Blake's 7 mashup with Doctor Who. Easy system to use with lots of inbuilt drama - it was fantastic fun!

This inspired me to paint up the Citadel Cyberman that has been sitting in the lead pile for about two years.

Not that happy with the shade I used - I think it dominates too much but at least he's done.

Here he is posing with best buddies the Doctor and Amy (arggh!).

Heroquest Evil Sorcerer and Skeleton Command group

Finished this evil sorcerer from Heroquest a couple of weeks ago. Yet to decide how to base him other than with a grey coat but thinking cracks and maybe some moss should be added. Loving the resemblance to that villain of my childhood Skeletor!

Also finished a skeleton drummer and standard bearer from '93. Models are pretty gawky but I think they have their awkward charm.

I'm fairly happy with my first attempt at hand painting a banner design.

Back from the Dead

Things have been very quiet on blogging front recently. Mainly this has been because I hit a painter's block through all of December. I've really missed the best time to post up one of those full 'Here's what I did in 2015, here's what I'm gonna do in 2016' posts so I'll keep it short and sweet.

  More painting, less buying, more focus and gaming with what I have rather than picking up the next best thing. I want to play more and better with what I have and not head off into the undergrowth like a hound after a rabbit when something shiny and sparkling new comes along.

  To that end I'm trying to combine projects where possible. I am lucky enough to have a fantastic charity shop bargain hunting fiance who found me Heroquest for the lovely sum of one pound fifty for Xmas.

If you're one of the Oldhammer crew you probably know of this game. For thirty somethings like me it what probably drew us into the fanasty mini painting and gaming hobby in the first place. It's a dungeon crawler with very simple rules, created by MB games and Games Workshop with many of the monsters and tropes that carried onto into the Warhammer World. 

   It's like a lite version of recently released Dungeon Saga from Mantic. (although Dungeon Saga was probably inspired by it and not the other way around)

   So in the spirit of keeping things simple I've decided to combine the project of getting these board games minis painted up with an Oldhammer event I'm going to in March run by Orlygg over at the Realm of Chaos 80s blog.

The mission is to take two units (one good, one evil) to the event and they must be of roughly equal sizes. For my unit the evil side will be taken up by Skeleton Grim Reapers. 

Yep the bases need more ornamentation and there's a named character, standard bearer and musician to come. The latter two will be rebased and make their way into my undead Warhammer horde after the event is done while the rest will go home to the board game.

See - nice and simple. 

Earth Golem

Earth Golem from the classic Citadel Night Horrors range. (Apologies I just realised the original post did not have the picture in it!)