The year in review

Well now, that was a hell of a ride wasn't it? Happy new year everyone, I've blown the cobwebs off this place in order to dump another massive pile of pics on you, I may have been too lazy to blog, but I've been painting my bollocks off with various projects over the year including a great collaboration with Ned over at The Work of Shaitan on some chaos warbands and a fimir for the Scale Creep Heroquest project. The commission work reached a level that nearly burned me out. But that's another story for another post, you're here to see pics, aren't you? I'll let the images do the talking in this one, and just say thanks for looking!

Well hello there!

Howya folks, long time no see! Sorry about that but I've been sick as fuck the past while so my heads really not been in it, but I'm almost back to full health so I thought I'd share what I've been picking away at.

When I was a youngfella, one of my all time favourite series in White Dwarf was the Tale of Four Gamers, where Paul Sawyer and three other gw staffers collected an army over the space of a few months with a budget of £25 a month, with it all culminating in a four way battle report once the time limit had been reached. Now I could go on for ages about how £25 wouldn't get you the steam off a trolls piss these days, but I'm not stepping up on that particular soapbox today. 

Anyway, while chatting to a few like minded gentlechaps (I'm being polite, they're fucking animals) on Facebook, I casually mentioned how it might be a good idea to maybe run something similar at some point in the future on the Herohammer International Facebook page, given that its 4th/5th ed warhammer focus is very much of the time of the original series. The next thing I know, that fucking kangaroo worrier Captain Crooks had announced it with all due pomp and ceremony on the page, and the sign up thread was open; participants have to paint 250 points per month between June and December, which will leave us with a new 1500 point army for Christmas. Piece of piss!

Well, seeing as it was probably my fault, I duly put my name down, the question now was which army? Well, once I had a think, given the period covered I could only choose the army I'd always wanted back then, and factor in that I'm a fucking glutton for punishment, I chose orcs and goblins. 

Anyway, having submitted 280 points for June, I'm now into my next 250 point commitment, so I thought I'd show off what's been done so far:

So that's where the army stands right now, I'm really happy with how it's developing, hopefully I can keep hitting the targets!

And there you go for this latest nipple hardening installment on the blog, thanks for looking folks! And don't worry, my next post will be back to the warbands project with Ned, I haven't forgotten about it! 

Chaos warband meets a "familiar" face!

Well hello there! Between having the family visiting, being a bit under the weather and both mine and the nippers birthdays in the same week, I'm falling behind on things again, but if anyone is seriously aggrieved by the situation I am available to fight it out in a range of car parks throughout the East Riding of Yorkshire, so just let me know!
Anyway, over on the Emporium of Rogue Dreams on Facebook, we've had a competition on to convert and paint our interpretation of the infamous Abdul Goldberg, a recurring character in the scenario section of the original Rogue Trader rulebook. I won't go into too much detail here, but there have been extensive posts on many fine blogs about the man himself lately, in fact I'm pretty sure you can click in any blog that I'm following and you'll find something about him. Anyway, as usual I completely disregarded all the other stuff I should be doing and pledged an entry, to be fair I couldn't resist once it was announced that none other than Rick Priestly himself would be judging the entries! Anyway, this is my entry into the competition;

Abdul Goldberg; mercenary, scumbag and general arsehole. Not that he's a bad person as such, just definitely not a good one. Goldberg pulls the strings on countless rackets throughout the sector, from his Spook trafficking enterprise with the scavvy king known as "the Immortan" on (the now strangely quiet) Primus Hive all the way to his dealings in "sentient commodities" with the reprehensible "Funboy Three", Goldberg has so many fingers in different pies that it's easier just to assume that he has a hand in every shady endeavour across the sector.

Tales of his origins are as varied as his business dealings, with theories ranging from an ex guard officer to the heady notion that he is the Emperors own bastard boy. Goldberg doesn't bother to either confirm or deny these claims, but the true story is unknown to all but him. Whatever his origins, none can deny there's something special about him, as inquisitior Annolumen was heard to say, "that one could talk the pants off of a sororitas". His gift of negotiation has seen him build a sector spanning network, and his willingness to get his hands dirty has helped him keep control of it. Unfortunately for Goldberg, he is currently experiencing a slight setback, a meeting with a Blood Axe warboss on the newly ork infested outer rim was interrupted by a howling space marine and a small band of imperial soldiers ambushing the meeting and butchering most of the participants.. 

Putting his formidable skills of self preservation into action, Goldberg managed to hurriedly negotiate a deal with the strangely soft spoken renegade; in return for his and his remaining minders lives, Goldberg would assist him in his search for the warp gate, between the (now traitor) guardsmens geographical knowledge and his knowledge of the ork enemy and ability to communicate with them, The Gentle should find his mission time cut in half.

Of course, as soon as Goldberg can secure off planet transport he is out of there, and damn that brightly painted lunatic and his "holy quest"

Abdul Goldberg, flanked by his "Door Knockers"

Argyle is actually an agent of "The Funboy Three", permanently attached to Goldbergs organisation. He is ostensibly a go between for Goldberg and the slavers but in recent months has started to lean more towards an enforcement role; obviously Abduls skill at manipulation has been put to good use..

Saul is a degenerate, drug fuelled whirlwind. Goldbergs favourite enforcer by far, this quivering mass of sinew and stimulant is a constant companion always ready to use shockingly excessive force to further his bosses ends. Rumour has it he was an arbites judge that looked a little too deeply into the affairs of the Immortan on Primus, and after being "disappeared" by the scavvy king and worked on by his chemists the one now known as Saul was presented as a gift to Goldberg, the Immortan judging his violent outbursts "too vulgar" for his sensibilities..

Aaand there yis go, my warband entry for this week is done! Thanks for reading folks, stay tuned to The Work of Shaitan for the next installment!

The Fakkhaven Two

Hello again you lucky bastards! I've been ploughing ahead this week on commission work I'd fallen behind on while I was ill, but also managed to get the next entry in my collaborative project with Ned over at The Work of Shaitan, and this weeks thrilling installment (shut up, you know you love it) is a pair of beastmen... Now, if you've been paying attention, you'll remember I rolled up a pair of orcs to join Cohaagens little gang, but as I'd already rolled four chaos goblins, it was becoming apparent that I was heading towards a very greenskin heavy warband. Now, ordinarily that would be absolutely no problem, I love me orcs and gobbos, but seeing as how it's looking like I'll be spending the rest of the year on my greenskin army (more on that at a later date), I fancied a bit of variety before I rolled up my sleeves and got stuck in. So after a bit of a natter with Ned to make sure it was ok, and it was cos he's sound, I made the change from a pair of orcs to a pair of beastmen, cos as Ned himself said, what's a warband without beastmen?

So here I present my next entry, a pair of Bob Olley crackers that were an absolute pleasure to work on:

While the followers of Nurgle are known to be unusually cheerful for servants of the dark gods, the beastmen Aargash and Gholic are a remarkably gregarious pair. Arriving in Fakkhaven as part of Father Wormtastes carnival, they wasted no time in moving among the human citizenry, their horrific appearance at complete odds with their good humour. 

They delight in playing jokes on the populace, their braying laughter resounding around the village every time someone falls victim to their antics. Unfortunately, games such as "surprise smash", where Aargash distracts the victim with a silly jape while Gholic sneaks up behind and smashes them in the head with his mace, aren't really appreciated by their victims, usually because they end the day as a broken heap of flesh.

But the chuckling beastmen care not a jot, and fill their days "milking" nurglings into the water supply along with a myriad of other horrible tricks. While the human population are extremely wary of the pair, both Father Wormtaste and Cohaagen delight in their antics and overlook the worst of their excesses, for when the rotting beastmen are eventually roused to anger, they are formidable defenders of the noisome settlement..

Now, if you're still awake, here's some pictures: 

Stay tuned here and over at The Work of Shaitan for the next thrilling installments, Neds got another cracker lined up too! 

Thanks for looking!

Warband project: A necessary evil

Hello there! Bit late with my next instalment due to one thing or another, but I'm here now with another addition to The Gentles retinue, 3 out of 6 humans..

Having made planetfall on the now Ork infested world, The Gentle and Shard wasted no time in looking for clues to ascertain the location of the warp gate. The demon within The Gentle, while able to track the psychic emanations coming from the portal, was unable to pinpoint the position due to the high levels of background psychic activity emanating from millions of blood maddened greenskins. Shard however, is a tracker with few mortal equals, and between his skill and the vague directions from the demon, they have managed to narrow down their search area to a manageable size.

On their journey, they came across the remnants of an imperial guard garrison, their remote posting causing them to be overlooked in the chaos of the evacuation. Out of a platoon of thirty men, only six remained, starvation, disease and attrition from the constant clashes with greenskin patrols taking a heavy toll. The Gentles demon saw the number of survivors as auspicious in the eyes of its God, and so "guided" the renegade marine to offer allegiance to the survivors, an offer they reluctantly accepted..... 

"Yes we're following this renegade and his creepy bastard friend, but what else are we to do? We were dumped in the shit and forgotten about while everyone else fucked off, left to defend ourselves against these green maniacs. No, fuck that, and fuck the emperor for betraying us like that. The renegade, in that silly voice of his, has promised us a way off world if we can show him the way to something he's looking for. Won't say what it is, but I don't give a grox shit either, this is our chance to get the hell out of here and ahead of the green storm that's coming. Maybe we can join up with The Bastards, those mercs know their job, and they're very well compensated for it. Or maybe just kick back on one of the fringe worlds and stay blind drunk until the inevitable happens and the orks burn the whole system to the ground. Not a hope in hell of rejoining the regiment anyway, those pricks left us for dead, so as far as they're concerned that's exactly what we are. Yeah, thinking about it, this could all work out very nicely.. These dreams I'm having lately are a bit weird though, the women are fantastic, even with those big glowing eyes and weird claws where their hands should be.. It's probably just combat stress, but I'll bring it up with the rest of the unit if it keeps happening, just to make sure I'm not going too mad..."

So, there's your lot for this installment folks, thanks for looking and be sure to hit up The Work of Shaitan to see what delights Ned has for us next!

A return to Fakkhaven

How do fuckers, hope all is well! Still battling the yearly hayfever offensive, but I've managed to soldier on and add the first set of followers to Mr. Cohaagens little gang. Seven humans are now ready to help spread the word of the Father throughout the empire and beyond

While many of Fakkhavens original inhabitants have not survived, either from the pestilential presence of Father Wormtastes carnival or Cohaagens fanatical zeal, the village still has quite a substantial population for its size. Some of the original inhabitants immediately took to the worship of chaos, people like "Old Yurt", the village rat catcher, whose deformities made him a subject of cruel ridicule from the rest of Fakkhaven now finds unconditional love and acceptance in the new order of things. Brigands from the woods, once driven off with bow fire and halberd, now dwell in the shacks left abandoned in the culls, most are unconcerned entirely with the horrors that walk among them, happy to coexist as long as their business isn't pried into. Indeed, some have made a business of the occupation, and teams of thugs armed with clubs and mancatchers have begun to waylay travelers on the woodland tracks, dragging them back to Fakkhaven to "participate" in the vile festivities. For this they are richly rewarded, both in coin and favour in the eyes of Wormtaste, whose generous rewards are starting to manifest themselves amongst them. However, , the spike in disappearances in the area is starting to draw attention from the local patrols and it's only a matter of time before there will be a reckoning, at which time the rabble of Fakkhaven are ready and willing to stand with Cohaagen in defence of the village. 

The foul heart of Fakkhaven: 

Thanks for looking folks, be sure to check out The Work of Shaitan for Neds next entry (which is gonna be a cracker), and then tune back in here as I go back to space to start in a band of reavers to follow The Gentle!