A Miscellany of Ingenious Scratchbuilds & Kitbashes:

[Gibby]

The guard unit came out perfect! They really look the part!

[WuZhuiQiu]

Yes!

I am in secret negotiations with Gibby of this very forum regarding the rules for the machine (the deadly danger of mere proximity to it and how it fires, etc). I am working with various rules in the Skaven book, so that there is some sort of precedent for each component of the new rules.

The other players will get a say in the rules, as I like to gain a consensus ... but they won't get that say until (and if) it is just about to be used. If they knew the details of its operation now that would give their player characters a clairvoyan/precognitive knowledge they cannot possibly have! It would meam they plan strategically for it when in the gameworld they know very little about it.

Campaigns like this can take the GM and the players to some funny places, with such tortuous factors to be considered!

I look forward to reading about it in a future account of a battle!

[Padrissimus]

This counts as a kitbash as I used old and new horses mixed to get more out of my recent purchases. I had 5 riders left over from a box I built hexwraiths out of, and so out them on the old horses ...

I have been forgetting to post in my threads!

Here are some skellie riders which I think came out ok.

The unit





One up close, to show the weird use of enamel metallic and non metallic paints mixed ...



Another close up ...



Strung out



I used 5 of the newer horses and 5 of the older models ...



In an actual game with the vampire duchess ...

[Elk101]

I really like those.

[Chimpfoot]

Nice choice of colours 👍🏼

[swiftnick]

Very nice, that reminds me I have some skellies to do myself.

[BZ]

Very nice!

[Little Odo]

The old and the new go well together. Nice work.

[Mason]

They make a lovely cohesive unit.
Gotta love the Vampire too!
 

[Padrissimus]

Just completed 12 more swamp zombies. Having de-rooted & de-branched the new GW ones, making 23 from the sprue with some other bits kitbashed in, I bought 12 of the Black Tree Designs (Zombies of the Sweltering Swamps) to mix it up a bit more. I was hoping they would scale well and ... I think ... they did.

I have now modeled them, lots of fiddly bits cut off the plastic GW ones and most of the polearm shafts replaced on the metal BTD ones as the originals were quite weak and bendy.

Here are two pairs, to show how (I think) they fit well together ...



Some of the metal polearms looked like they might survive handling ...



Whereas quite a few needed cutting off, the hands drilled and brass rods inserted. Just stick the original blades on the end and wa la!



I love the weird long polearms, some sort of swamp beast fighting gear?

I reckon that when painted (and rebased) they will mix and match quite convincingly ...





Just got 35 to spray, paint, dip, varnish and repaint (edit) re-base. I think the acrylic paints and dip technique I have been trying recently (after 35+ years of enamel black lining) should work well on these.

[WuZhuiQiu]

Nice work! Are you switching to round bases?

[Padrissimus]

Oops. 'repaint' was me attempting to type 're-base'.  All will be on squares. This is a WFB 8th ed campaign.

Once they are painted, I then have fun figuring out which ones I want to put on individual or bases and which ones to put on two, three or 4 figure multi bases. I cannot decide until I see how good or bad the paint jobs are!!!

[Seditiosus]

nice job. every time I ordered from BTD I was surprised by the quality of the miniatures, which on their website often look pretty odd and misshapen. haven't bought the swamp zombies though, looking forward to see yours painted for a judgement on the minis...

[Padrissimus]

Oops! I never put the pics of the finished figures here! I will rectify asap.

Meanwhile, I have recommenced my foray into modelling halflings. I already made a large regiment of halfling pike (see above somewhere) using Wargames Atlantic models. I am now adding missile troops (bows, crossbows, handguns(!) and some bolt throwers).

Here are the three crewmen I just bashed for the first of two Wizkids' Bolt throwers (two engines in a blister for £5, a bargain).



The bolt heads don't all look the same, but why should they? Different heads for different targets, possibly? Or just the lack of standardisation inherent in a pre-industrial society?

The engine's commander. I love this helmet on the sprue.



The other two crewmen have old, plastic, GW Bretonnian heads, for a bit of variety from the pike, archers and crossbow who all have the same kind of helmet on an 'official' head'.

[Padrissimus]

I have now found some later pictures of the zombies. I cannot work out why I forgot to put them here!

First I did a 'paint test run' for my new swamp zombies regiment. Having ditched enamels after 35 years, I went with acrylics and army painter dip (wash), then anti-shine. I had been experimenting for a year and I think I'm getting the technique about right now.



The first model is a Black Tree Designs metal figure, which I am glad to see fits in with the plastics well as I bought all of their swamp zombies. I replaced his thin, bendy, lead spear shaft with a brass rod. The middle one is one of the very new GW plastic zombies, but with all the roots/branches weirdness chopped off. The third has a new GW top half, and a Mantic skeleton's legs! This sort of kit-bash mish-mash is how I made 23 zombies from the sprues instead of the official 20!

I was convinced by this very simple technique - spray primer/base coat, block painting with acrylic base paints, washed with an Army Builder dip. I love them – so different to my old style.

Here they are done, apart from basing ....

The command are all Black Tree Designs swamp zombies. The standard came out much darker than I wanted but I will know next time …


Part of the front two ranks, Black Tree Design …


Another part of the front two ranks, Black Tree Design with lovely long spears (again, I replaced the bendy originals with brass rods) …


This is the rear of one of the guys. Those skulls, that chain – they are far more realistic than I ever achieved in 35 years of enamel ‘cartoon’ style. And I bloomin’ love it …


3rd rank, GW, de-rooted ...


4th rank, GW, de-rooted …


4th rank - the one ‘space filler’ I needed to make 35 into a 6x6 footprint! Stake still needed more work, obviously …


5th and 6th ranks, all GW, de-rooted!


I sorted the space filler - here she is based.


I have an idea for a story about her 'situation' that reveals something important about the marshlands! It will be part of the marsh-battle report prequel.