I finished painting my Chaos Navigator, and he will have dual use for me.
I imagine he started his career in the 3rd Legion, and stuck with them during the Horus Heresy, traveling along with the Emperor's Children, surviving throughout the war, fled with the legion during the scouring, and while the Legion Wars commenced within the Eye of Terror, he became spoils of war, and this is how his service eventually ended up with Zarthek.
Instead of painting gritty rust-punk I went with a scheme closer to my Emperor's Children as well as my Inquisitorial Warband (although I did not imitate their bases...), which means I won't paint my Chaos Warband just as gritty as my Rad-Raiders.
He will accompany my Emperor's Children when I play 30K, but his mainstay will be with Zarthek, looking for the mythical Chronos Oculus...
Having life catching up along with 30K events sure hinder me from painting these fellas, but I managed to finish one more today, and here he is.
It was fun to paint him, and I started painting skin in a new way using washes, like wet-blending, and I'm happy with the results.
Having another Narrative 30K event to attend to next weekend will give me very little time painting, but I have no rush finishing these guys, I'm going to take my time.
The first Rad-Raider is now finished, and I had fun painting him and trying out new ways to paint the skin, using really watered down washes, and multiple of them on different areas, kind of wet-blending them together.
I also used weathering powders in a way I haven't before, and I like the results actually, so I think I will be experimenting more with them in the future. I hope to get some time to paint more of these fellas, but as it is I have 2 commission jobs (my last ones, then I'll be free forever!) due November, as well as some 30K minis for myself to a 30K event.
A gang is slowly forming in my mind, and I'm planning to do the boss soon I think and a large mutated raider, more brawn than brain so to speak, growing in size from all the radiation he has been enduring, I hope I can visualise them within the sea of bitz at home.
I give my thanks to my younger brother who helped me make this!
As for my plans, I have been pondering on a INQ28 warband... in a 30K setting!
Before I start diving in to this project, I think I want to write a scenario setting which can be used to create warbands, as I was quite inspired by the Tor Megiddo setting.
Hopefully I can pull something off, but in the meantime I'll be trying to paint or finish build one of my other warbands.
When I made my Inquisitorial retinue, I had Shadow War Armageddon and Necromunda in mind, and wanted to be able to pitch them against my own Scavvies to have introduction games with friends, so I based them like I had based my Scavvies.
I like my grey bases on the Scavvies, but on the retinue? Not so much. So this morning I played around with the Servitor's base, and this is how it ended up, and I like it.
Soon I will be re-doing the bases on the rest, but first, work will have to intercept.
Today I am going to talk a bit about my outmost favourite game, Mordheim.
For those who don't know, Mordheim is a Fantasy Skirmish Game set in the Old World of Warhammer Fantasy Battles, the game was designed by Alessio Cavatore, Tuomas Pirinen and Rick Priestley, and published by Games Workshop. (Thank you guys for this AMAZING game!)
With this little intro video from the PC Game, Mordheim: City of the damned, I'm going into what the game means for me.
First of all, from a gaming perspective the game is challenging, because of the high-risk high-reward system. If your warriors are hurt in battle, they might get permanent injuries or worse, death. Mostly your warriors survive the skirmishes on the streets to fight another day, and gain experience after each game and grows stronger with skills and better statlines. The skill system is a great addition to the game, and gives you the chance to go more in depth with your characters. Is he a fencer? Then perhaps the skill expert swordsman would suit him! Is he quick and nimble? Then the sprint and acrobatics might be your thing. The freedom of picking skills in the skills lists are great if you want to add a little more oomph to your hero, or if you like me, want the hero to evolve throughout a story, pick something that works with the theme of the campaign, the recent events and the hero's background.
Mordheim, the city of the damned
The game is fantastic too when it comes to being able to tell a narrative. The narrative is like aliving thing in the game, it takes place on and off the gaming table, with your warbands as the stars. With all the various warbands in the city, you are bound to find one that suits you, or you just make up your own story, your own reason to be in the city other than treasure hunting and political games. Sticking to the spirit of the game is very important to me, and I try to send that message to everyone when we have a Mordheim campaign, but what is the spirit of the game? Well, to me and many other Mordheimers, it is not about winning and losing, it is the journey, the tales that are to be told afterwards. Instead of talking about good tactical choices and good rolls after the games, we talk about the events that took place for individuals in the game, their feelings in the heat of the battle, the stuff of legends! Seeing each game as a scene from a movie just makes it WAY better!
Cornered rats!
From a modelling perspective, this game is great too, as you can customize your warriors with weapons, armour and miscelanious gear. Equipment can tell a story about the character's past, but they can also give you great modelling opportunities! Every weapon have its own set of rules, and it gives variety to the game as well as the models that carry them.
This also opens up something I really like, kit-bashing. I love a good kit-bash, looting through my bitz box to find suiting things for my warbands when I build them. I can't say I plan my builds or my initial warbands, I let the minis do the talking.
A merry band of Marienburger merchants
What the game of Mordheim also give you, is the possibilities of beautiful terrain. My gaming table is something I cherish, and worth every penny I spent on it. There are cheaper ways to get your hands on terrain other than commission it, there are really good MDF ruins from companies nowadays, or model companies selling ruins made in resin. If you are handy, you can build your own terrain using various materials to reach your goal.
Even though I use the same set of ruins, each gaming table can look all different than from before, just shifting some building around or turning them in another way. Some even have modular tables
where you can change the directions of roads or add platforms to them.
The terrain also gives you a real 3D feel, as you can climb onto building and enter houses and ruins (depending on how they are modelled of course), so you can position your warriors with bows in elevated positions behind cover, giving covering fire to your advancing warriors, or you can skulk in the shadows, hiding behind rubble, boxes and barrels, waiting for the right opportunity to strike your enemy from behind.
A marksman aiming for cultists on the streets
I think I have been raving on enough for tonight, thanks for your time!
