CCXL. November

Tomorrow, on November 1st, Gardens of Hecate will be seven years old. Thank you all for your attention and feedback throughout the year! I celebrated by converting and painting some creatures of the night for my AoS28 collection.

A Vampire and a Mordant Courtier.

Both conversions are based on Chaos Furies from Warcry. I love those sculpts. The neck frills are from the big chaos chickens, also from Warcry. The vampire's face comes from The Grymwatch, the new Flesh-eater Courts warband for Warhammer Underworlds. The Mordant's face is from a Slaanesh Daemonette (with fangs and new ears). I have a bunch of new ghouls in the works; these guys need some loyal subjects.

That's all for tonight. Happy Halloween!

CCXXXIX. AoS28: Celestial Gheists and Templar

A few new models for Avananta Stormsight's retinue. Definitely wanted to make a some brand new models for the upcoming game, but a part of the warband will still be filled with existing Free People soldiers.

Celestial Gheists

Got Blasphemous recently as an early birthday present from my brother. These guys were directly inspired by certain creatures from the game, whose design is no doubt based on the more odd-looking biblical angels, such as the seraphim and the cherubim. The game is gorgeous, BTW. Definitely worth looking into for its aesthetics and world (the gameplay is also really well done, but it takes some practice to get the hang of it).  

The Celestial Gheist minis were built using Stormcast heads, with wings & tails I cut from Zombicide crow swarms. They aren't something that exists in the AoS lore, so this is me making things up again. The Stormcast seem to me like a mix of Judeo-Christian angels and the einherjar from Norse mythology (and likely more stuff that I'm not aware of). As I often do when I mess with Warhammer factions' aesthetics and lore, I'm going a step back from their finished designs and taking a different path from there. So, going along the perceived angelic nature of Stormcast Eternals, I've introduced this caste of non-combatant reforged spirits from Azyr that serve as messengers and helpers to the Stormcast. There will be more such changes and additions in the future, you know I can't help it.

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Templar of the Order of Ghal Maraz

This figure has the same rules profile as the two Templars from before, and simply belongs to a different knightly order - hence the slight difference in appearance. The mini was constructed out of Perry plastic bits.

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The game is scheduled for Saturday, and it will be a clash of three different factions: the forces of Order (played by myself), the corpse-puppets of a Lich (played by my brother Ivan) and the warband of a Vampire (played by our guest Vladimir ). There will be a report of this after the event.

 

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In other news: I was a guest in the latest episode of CryinMo's Tabletop Alchemy podcast. Check it out here: Episode 24.

CCXXXVIII. AoS28: Stormcast Sequitor Avananta Stormsight

Avananta Stormsight.

The line infantry of a Sacrosanct Chamber is comprised of its Sequitors, stern warriors who channel the tempest through the magical weaponry bequeathed to them by Sigmar. To be struck by such a warrior is to feel the energy of the storm discharging with thundercap force. Able to to channel magic into the armaments they carry, Sequitors specialise in switching swiftly between attack and defence, their mauls and maces capable of blasting apart gheists and daemons forever and their shields can turn aside even a Hexwraith’s ethereal scythe.  

games-workshop.com

This is one of the 'Easy to Build' Sequitors. A really cool model, love the pose. Just needed some trimming to tone her down. She's the leader of the warband I'll be using in a game next week.

As you can see in the background, I've painted the scenery as well. There's a bit more to do, and then I can make a photo shoot of the whole set. I'll be using this terrain (+ my old Garden of Morr set) for the aforementioned game.

CCXXXVII. Stormcast's Shell, Gaming Room Decor

The remains of Stormcast Liberator Dathalus, who led the first Free People reclamation expedition into the city of Suncastle. The entire expedition was lost, and my players will start the campaign by searching for Dathalus, along with his journal and reports. The city must be made safe once more in the name of Sigmar...

I dismembered a Stormcast and used my dremel on the parts in order to make it look like an empty suit of armour. I imagine that when a Stormcast dies their body is dematerialised - so they do not leave a corpse. I have no idea what the official fluff says on the matter, but I do see parts of Stormcast armour as trophies on Citadel miniatures - so I guess the armour at least does stay behind. 

The base for this piece came from Alien Lab Miniatures. I knew it would be cool as a base for an objective. I painted it very subtly, same colour over everything. This way the miniature doesn't get lost in it, but the large area of the base is still interesting to look at because of all the sculpted detail.

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I've cleaned up, assembled and primed my Warcry terrain set. Done a bit of brushing on some of it as well. I'll be needing it for a game in a few weeks...

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I have this small round table in my gaming room, which I use as a side table for keeping cards, dice, extra minis etc. while playing. The room is not really much to look at right now, but I want to gradually equip it with details that will improve the ambiance. It's part of the experience. So to that end, when I saw this super occult doily for sale I knew I had to have it:

 

It's lovely, and the packaging and presentation are just as delightful - fantastic job, Blial Cabal! I got some extras: stickers etc., one of which immediately ended up on my trusty brush case.