Author Archives: terryshithole

Nurgly gribblies: The Wurmspat!

13 Monday Nov 2023

Posted by in Chaos, Finished Work

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Now, I am not a Warhammer Underworlds player, but I do know some lovely minis when I see them, so I picked these up a while back when they were about to go off sale, and have finally gotten around to painting them. I don’t know that I have any use for them, but I never play any games anyway and aren’t likely to until Firestorm Games puts in a HEPA filter (which is probably the same as never), so it doesn’t really matter. I enjoyed painting this lot, lots of detail, lots of gribble. One thing that I really liked with this set is something you can’t actually see – the witch has three boobs! Only one complaint… there is supposed to be a sort of nurgly pet animal with this set, but as I clipped it off the sprue it went ping and was never seen again! I’ve moved every bit of furniture, lifted the rug, but no sign. It is as if it has never existed! I bet this happens to us all sometimes… that said, my citadel clippers disappeared too. I had a set of the metal handled ones and they were amazing, so much better, sharper and cleaner cutting, than the normal cheap ones i use. Then one day they were gone, disappeared. Now, we are a two adults household, and we almost never have guests due to living in a permanent self-isolation due to my partner’s health issues, and the dogs aren’t interested in metal things. So it all just disappears into a tiny wormhole that floats around the art room and sucks up things occasionally. Anyway, enjoy the Wurmspat!

Brother Librarian Oconee Tempz conversion

05 Tuesday Sep 2023

Posted by in Finished Work, Space Marines

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Another one I recently finished, this is converted from a Stormguard Celestant-Prime. I don’t know what that does but I liked the mini and so when it was cheap on partwork I picked it up. A Librarian seemed like the obvious choice, though having just designated a Chief Librarian to the Steel Guard this chap is just a common or garden Space Marine psyker and doesn’t get a special hat with a button on even though his pose is way more epic. I ditched the swirly magic base and the pointy wings, replacing the wings with a standard marine backpack to emphasise that it was psychic flying. The arms took some work and this was the first time I had used model filler so its a bit of a mess under his armpits! I used lots of shade and contrast-as-glaze and I’m not really that impressed with my work but its all practise, next time will be a bit better.

Meanwhile I’ve recently started playing Skyrim (I know, but I just never got round to it before) and its a bit good isnt it? I’m a bit shit at computer games so I bought the game guide and its nearly 900 pages long! Repeat to myself: I must not sit up til 3am playing every night… I must not….

The dwarven pyramid

22 Tuesday Aug 2023

Posted by in Dwarfs, Finished Work

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In my parents’ generation it was apparently very common, at rock concerts and festivals and the like, for people to build human pyramids. A number of drunken individuals would attempt to clamber on top of each other and see how high it goes before everyone collapses in a pile of broken limbs. Fortunately my generation had far more access to drugs and so could entertain and injure themselves at festivals without resort to athletics. Perhaps this trifecta of dwarven heroes has taken influence from kids at a Warrant show?

Actually its probably more like Vitalstatistix from the Asterix comics…

Anyway, its the White Dwarf riding on a shield being carried by Gotrek and Bugman. In game terms, they were basically invincible!

Jungle Fever – Nick Davis’ Spawning Pond from White Dwarf 223

17 Thursday Aug 2023

Posted by in terrain

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So after the last project went well I thought I’d have a go at another piece of modelled scenery. A spawning pond seemed just what I needed. You might question the wisdom of this, seeing as I don’t have any Lizardman-Seraphon miniatures, or any jungly themed miniatures at all, but look at it like this – a Spawning Pond doesn’t need to be a pond for spawning lizardpeoples, it could be a swimming pool for chaos cultists, or an immersitarian for space marines, or even (despite the apparently clear water) a drops for orkses. Yes, a Spawning Pond is truly the ultimate in flexible terrain pieces and anyone who says that I was idly reading an old WD and fancied building something without having any actual need for it is a poopoohead.

I enjoyed this build and only variated from the script in one way, which was to use water effects rather than a layer of pva covered in gloss varnish for the water. This was because I had impulse bought some water effects a year or two back and wanted an excuse for using it. Because I was using water effects I put some old fashioned model railway foliage in the pond before pouring to look like water-weed. During this build I learnt a few things. Firstly I learned that water effects contract when they dry. This was a problem because I had painted the inside of the pond and the contracting resin caused cracks in the paint that i couldn’t reach to repair. Further layers of water effects repaired the cracks in the resin but you can still see the white of the foamcard base, we can dismiss it as sunlight reflections! Secondly I learned that sand-pva glue mix is a bugger to work with! You can’t just paint it on as Nick Davies implies. Fortunately the effect (tree trunk bark) came out ok. I am going to make more trees following the methods described in this article because I liked the effects but recognise that it is a skill! Thirdly I learned that beer bottle caps do not really look like big waterlily leaves. A paper leaf would have looked better I think.

The pictures are crap, sorry. I am mid-sort out and didn’t have a good place to take pics. I might retake these and change them at a later date. If that has happened you won;t be reading this!

Hope everyone is well and enjoying their hobby!

Modelling Workshop: Rob Hooper’s Coaching Inn and Stables from White Dwarf 143

05 Wednesday Jul 2023

Posted by in Finished Work, terrain

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About eighteen months ago I read WD 143 and thought to myself how fun it would be to make the Coaching Inn, and so i did. And it took me the whole of the eighteen months! Admittedly I did a little bit here and a little bit there: some cutting one day, some glueing another. Little by little my Coaching Inn came together. I don’t know that Rob Hooper did any more of these Modelling Workshop articles, and I don’t know that the person who edited this article had any experience of writing or following modelling articles, because there were bits that were hard to follow. A lack of photos didn’t help. I mucked up a couple of bits by not having the right gear, and a couple of bits by being too slapdash in my measuring, and another bit by missing the instruction altogether. I learned a lot along the way, and have already started my next vintage WD modelling project. I really enjoyed this one and am proud of the outcome despite its imperfections. Next stop: Lustria!

The Threshing Touch: the warband of Inquisitor Gravet Rūm

25 Sunday Jun 2023

Posted by in Finished Work, Inquisitors

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Inquisitor Rūm is an all action, shiny-armoured death machine. She and her warband are a very visible reminder that the Emperor’s reach is long, and his grasp is crushing. As an Ordo Hereticus warband their role is seeking out heretics and rogue psykers within the Imperium. As such they are well equiped for fighting, for psychic battle, and for research. Rūm herself is a battle-psyker, and wields a force axe for getting up close and personal. Her team includes a number of powerful psykers: the pink-haired witch Yuromka who affects a wild and feral disposition but is really as disciplined and cultured as any Inquisitorial agent; the personable Gratbogs who is maternal and ordinary but sucks the secrets from your mind without you even realising; the Squat Chandra, an ancient abhuman from a dead planet; and Waul, an unassuming middle-aged man with a talent for prediction. But there are times when a less subtle strike is needed, and so Rūm has a team of military experts too: Aliki is an Astra Militarum captain who has been on secondment to Rūm for many years; Veza was one of the leaders of a counter-uprising against a cult who had taken control of his home planet and was recruited by Rūm following her investigation of the cult; Olaye’s crimes are not known by any in the warband, what is known is that seeks to atone. Then there is Enginseer Wittel, who is not actually an real enginseer but a tech-thrall gifted to Rūm by a grateful tech-priest and whose genius for adaptation has got the warband out of more fixes than they can count. With Wittel comes Sweetie, a felid-based warmachine he put together one afternoon. Finally is Rūm’s datasmith Korber and his ‘children’ Chang and Eng, a pair of servitors who assist the savant. Korber looks like an ancient tech-thrall but don’t be fooled, he’s a crack shot and his exo-unit contains a power-field generator strong enough to punch through a wall.

Waaagh! Nikkaz – Grot Bandits

14 Tuesday Mar 2023

Posted by in Finished Work, gobbos, Orks, Uncategorized

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Three posts already this year, not bad going. I don’t feel like I’m getting more leisure time than I was, I still feel overwhelmed and unable to cope, but I’ve clearly been able to do a bit of painting and modelling so that’s something. There are so many things I want to do, so many projects and protests and archives and DIY and learning and books to read and hobby ideas but no time to do any of it.

So Waaagh! Nikkaz. Nikkaz obviously has ambition, ten grots is hardly a waagh! These goblin pirate miniatures are lovely, proper oldhammer-esque. I’ve thrown in a few properly oldhammer grots too and another Makari as I seem to have Makaris out the wazzoo! No Ghazghulls, mind, just Makaris. A nice fun little project, and now I’ve only got four more squads left until I’ve painted every squad in Freebooterz.

Veteran Squad Moleab

25 Wednesday Jan 2023

Posted by in Finished Work, Space Marines

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I’m still alive, as busy or busier than ever but still getting to slowly grind out some finished miniatures. Here we have a Sternguard Veteran Squad, intended as a part of Chapter Master Melmoth’s honour guard. I used Contrast paints mostly, and the grey is much lighter. I think next time I am going to use the normal Mechanicus Standard Grey and use the Contrast paints to shade it. This is the Armour Through The Ages resin reprint of old lead miniatures and has recently been on Made To Order. This surprised me because I hadn’t realised it had been taken off sale in the first place. Its a bit sad when things you’ve bought have been removed from sale and them brough back again as classic one offs! Nice to get it painted finally. I really wanted to paint the Thunder Warrior, a mini I had when I was a lad. Its a proper 80s mini that should really have been painted in neon colours! I hope you are all staying Covid safe still. Its not over, and it might cause your immune system to go crazy and disable you, even if you’ve been vaccinated.

Genestealer Cult Land Train

28 Monday Nov 2022

Posted by in Finished Work, genestealer cults

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Oh my how busy I have been recently! Caring duties, union activities, an ongoing rat invasion that we just cannot seem to shift, buying and selling transformers on the internet to try and bring in some money, and of course firework season (in our house we call it canine nervous breakdown season). Eveything is fithy, many things are broken. The outside is moving inside via giant lurcher paws. What an Autumn! Instead of my usual three painting projects I am down to a single project, plus I am slowly working on the coaching inn from WD 143, and working through my giant tub of sprues to turn them into miniatures ready for painting or selling.

This is a land train that I picked up on Kickstarter a while back. It looked great on the internet but up close I wasn’t that impressed. The 3d printing grain was far too large, leading to smudged designs and a generally cheap look. The plastic didn’t stick properly with superglue, pva glue, plastic cement, or carpenter’s glue. Bits are always threatening to break off. In general I would not recommend it. But when I saw it I remembered a piece of art and some flash fiction from way back, about some raiders who attack a caravan and get a nasty chaos genestealer flavoured surprise. So I had to have it! Since this was made there is now an official Warhammer equivalent, the Cargo-8 Ridge Crawler. Though a Ridge Crawler and two carriages would be over 120 quid!