CCLXIX. AoS28: Sunhold Ghosts

Today I have a whole bunch of ghostly figures to show off. Many of these waited for their turn since the time Soul Wars was released. The almost monochrome colour scheme I used is really simple to do. I can whip up a step-by-step tutorial if there's enough interest.

The Graveyard Spirit.
This model was built by @ingrimmson, and I liked it so much I bought it off him. 

The Executioner.
Lord Executioner from the Souls Wars box. I only removed the jaws from the ghostly skulls, the rest is out of the box.

The Jailor.
Spirit Torment from the Souls Wars box. I replaced the original head with a Flagellant head, and removed the chain and keys originally trailing behind the figure.

A group of Spectres.
Converted Chainrasps from the Souls Wars box and the Thorns of the Briar Queen WHU warband. I got rid of all their faces to make them more eerie and mysterious. An empty nothing is scarier than a screaming skull, looks like. There were also some hand swaps.

A bigger group of Spectres.

A few more Spectres.
These differ from the standard hooded head profile of the rest. They could be interesting from the narrative perspective. The models are originally from the Thorns of the Briar Queen set. I got rid of their weapons to make them look ambiguous in terms of their intentions - are they enemies or NPCs in need of help?

CCLXIII. Bone Gheist and Deadwalkers

A few more additions to the ranks of common enemies in the city of Sunhold.

Bone Gheists. These eerie levitating craniums were built using Alien Lab Miniatures large skulls, paperclips and PVA glue.

Added four more Deadwalkers vulgaris to the crowd, bringing their numbers up to nine. The newcomers were converted from a mix of Mantic Ghoul and Zombie parts.

Two more Deadwalker Crossbowmen. Converted from Perry HYW plastics, just like the original one.

Two more Deadwalker Footsoldiers. Same thing; converted from Perry medieval plastics.

And one more Deadwalker Knight, here with the earlier two.

CCLIV. AoS28: Deadwalker Paragons and Hounds

Deadwalker Paragons

 

Deadwalker Paragons are reanimated remains of great heroes from Sunhold's history.

The models are 40mm resin knights from V&V Miniatures. They're fantastic sculpts and casts; I will surely be purchasing more models from them in the future. In my usual fashion, I converted the minis: most notably replaced their original heads with death's head helmets sculpted from scratch. 

Paragons tower over lesser men.

Deadwalker Hounds

Warlord Games and North Star doggos. Drilled out their eye holes and gave them an appropriately filthy, dusty paintjob.

And here are their Fabula profiles:

Take care, everyone.

CCLIII. AoS28: Ogre Mercenaries and Deadwalker Knights

A few more models for AoS28 this week.

Ogre Mercenaries

Till and Kazmer, Ogre Mercenaries in Sunhold.

Till is a converted Gulgoch from the Beastgrave Wurmspat box (I love all three of those models), and Kazmer is a repurposed and reworked old mini of mine (a Lord of Blights conversion).

Size comparison with a human soldier.

These are downsized ogres, converted from Blightkings. I harbour a dislike towards Warhammer Ogor minis. Their proportions, especially the size ratio between their heads and bodies, makes them look less brutal and more goofy. The poses are stiff and wooden, and the models are a pain to convert into new poses. I used to have an Ogre army back when they first came out as a faction in WHFB, and I liked the artwork I found in the Armybook.  Always wished the minis would reflect that artwork better. I wanted to take a step in that direction with my new Ogre Mercs.

Cover of the first WHFB Ogre Kingdoms Armybook.

Deadwalker Knights

Expanding my Deadwalker roster with some stronger troops. These guys are hard to take down, but are painfully slow. Probably better avoided or distracted than engaged into melee. The models are once again Perry medieval knights with resculpted faces and shambling poses.

As with the last batch, Ivan and I made Fabula profiles for them right away:

CCLII. AoS28: Sunhold Deadwalkers and Netopyr

At last found a bit of time for my personal projects, so I made a few figures real quick. 

 Sunhold Deadwalkers

I'm trying to settle for a definitive look for my undead in the Sunhold setting. Reanimated denizens of the city's past will be a commonly encountered enemy. I want them based on partly skeletonised/partly mummified remains, like the ones in Sicilian Capuchin crypts. Converted both these Deadwalker soldiers using plastic historicals - same as for many of my living humans. These required a bit more work with the scalpel, drill and putty, though.

Deadwalker Footsoldier and Deadwalker Crossbowman.

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 Netopyr

 

These giant bats came from the Grymwatch kit. They were originally chained together, and I managed to cut them apart and base them separately. I changed their faces and feet as well, to make them look less cartoony. They will join the ranks of the feral Vampires and their ghoul servants.

While I was at it, they got Fabula profiles. Here they are:

That's it, back to work...

CCL. Fabula Rules System Playtest

Last Sunday we gathered a few friends and gave a test run to the rules we wrote for the Sunhold event.

If you want to try out the rules as they currently stand, you can download them on this link: FABULA. If enough people show interest, I'm considering opening a FB group for the Fabula rules system so folks can share their experiences, opinions, house rules and stats.

I also put two other documents up for download: the Sunhold mood board (LINK) and the brief intro to the setting (LINK), since I got a few queries about those.

This week we've seen more WIPs from other Sunhold participants:  @ingrimmson (LINK) @shavigrad (LINK),  @frigidus_sanguis (LINK) and @totally_not_panicking (LINK). 

Follow #aos28sunhold for future updates on the project. 

Now about our first playtest. Ivan and I were GMs, and we had three players: Luka, Goran and Patrik (who also took photos of the game). Luka was the only one with experience in tabletop miniature gaming. We set up the board using our ruins and graveyard scenery, populated it with traps, loot and visible and secret monsters (Deadwalkers, Skeletons, Harpies, Crypt Ghouls, Deranged Cultists), and let the players pick their warbands. Luka played the Iron Legs, Goran the Templars of the Twin-Tailed Comet, and Patrik had Avananta Stormsight with a single Templar henchman. Their main goal was to raid a particular crypt that contained a valuable artefact, but in order to get there they had to get through perilous ruins.

The players decided at some point to start viciously killing each other. That ended in all PCs being wiped out before they even passed into the second half of the map, where a boss was waiting for them, guarding their main objective. The guys didn't take the game seriously in the slightest, but since this was a playtest it didn't matter as much. We definitely confirmed that collaboration between warbands is highly beneficial for success in this game.

We did get a bunch of feedback from our playtesters, some of which we immediately implemented in the first tweak of the rulebook. We intend to do several more playtest games to get a better idea what works and what doesn't.

CCXLV. Arkbald the Accursed and Ghouls

My brother wanted a Wight King model for Icorax the Insomniac's undead warband, and here it finally is. 

Arkbald the Accursed

Arkbald was a king whose reign was marked by disaster. Crops failed, war ravaged his kingdom, and a plague decimated the population. Arkbald only exacerbated these problems by being a particularly cruel and selfish ruler. The histories do not remember how he died, but the turmoil left by his reign almost toppled his kingdom. Ichorax the Insomniac, a lich and collector of famous remains, couldn't resist adding the ill-fated king to his collection of morbid curiosities. Now animated by powerful necromancies, Arkbald has retained much of his vile personality in death, including his tendency to bring misery and ill fortune to all who cross his path.

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I received my package from Bad Squiddo Games this morning, and immediately got to work on the two minis that came inside. They're here to expand my Flesh-eater Courts pool of minis. Slightly converted to better blend in with the rest... These are rather disturbing, I gotta say. I don't think I'd ever painted dead infants before.