Warhammer Underworlds Beastgrave Scenery Pack

My regular readers will have been spotting different pieces of this scenery pack for Underworlds in the background of various other work in progress shots of my painting table, but after more time than I can remember, they're all finished!

The paint job is a simple one - zenithal undercoat, then contrast, then a drybrush of Karak Stone. This has kept them relatively consistent colours and looking like part of the same landscape.

With a couple of Stormcast Underworlds warbands that have been painted up by Squiggle's Studio as part of my wider Stormcast army commission, as soon as I dig out the cards, I should be able to get some games in...

St Albans Smackdown IX

 

Last weekend I was up in St Albans for the Smackdown Infinity Tournament. It was a three round tournament and I took my Shasvastii. The first mission was Power Pack, which I took one list for, and the other list was to cover the other two missions - Quadrant Control and Firefight.

First up, I was drawn against Murkage who was running vanilla Yu Jing. He won the priority roll and chose Deployment, forcing me to deploy first. While Power Pack rewards going second I felt I couldn't risk deploying first and going second against such a good player, so took the first turn and hoped to cause enough damage to swing the game.

I got a solid first turn in, clearing off two significant big guns with my Speculo, and using a Taigha to clear the Motorised Bounty Hunter. I felt like it was a good first turn, and my opponent was definitely looking nervous.

Unfortunately, the remaining big gun was a Hac Tao and despite an early success Immobilising it, it was able to break out. I managed to push two of the three Antennaes, and we both got a classified objective. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough firepower to stop the Hac Tao from pushing onto the Console and winning the game. The final score was 5-3 to Murkage.

The second game was Quadrant Control, and I was playing littlespoon's vanilla Combined Army. Again, I lost the Lieutenant roll and was given the choice of turn again.

With my opponent aiming for a 17 on his WIP roll, I realised I was up against an Avatar and realised my plan mostly needed to be circling around it and controlling the wider board.

I managed to score well on the first turn, killing a lot of the order providing models. My Caliban Engineer managed to get into close combat with the Avatar and caused it two wounds before an unlucky roll meant its head got punched off.

At this point, the Avatar came for my Sphinx, and I had little chance of defeating it. He was able to score the second and third rounds, leaving the final score 7-4 to vanilla Combined over my Shasvastii.

For the third game, I was up against AndyGower's Invincible Army. The final mission was Firefight, and this time I was going second. Up against a large heavy infantry link team, the plan was to stall it and take out as much support as possible before working it pick it apart.

In the end, the plan came together, and I was able to use the tools of my list well to dismantle the challenge of my opponent's. In the end, it was a 7-2 win to me, letting me finish 12th out of 16 players in the tournament.

It was good to get out and play some games, and I'm feeling a bit more confident about being out and about in a managed fashion.

A few different things

 

I've been pottering along with the painting, getting started on these two geese watchmen from Northumbrian Tin Soldier. They're fun little models and not too complicated, so should get done soon.

I'm also nearly finished on the Beastgrave Scenery Pack, and you can also catch in the background that I'm getting much closer to done on three Nox Troopers and a Cadmus I've had half done for a while. I'm going to be glad when these ones are all finished, and its feeling like I'm into the home stretch.

I've also fitted in a practice game of Infinity for St Albans Smackdown, an Infinity tournament which you may be able to guess is held in St Albans. I also attended St Albans Smackdown, and will put a report of how I did up a little later.

All in all, it's been a good week. With a long weekend coming up next weekend I'm hoping to finish off a couple of painting projects to leave me in a good place as we enter into September and the autumn...

Product Review First Impressions - Gamers Grass Dry Bracken

 

I decided to try out the Gamer's Grass Dry Bracken on my Frostgrave Hyena model, as she has a pretty big base to work with. The bracket comes on these flat sheets that you need to push the bracken shape out of.

Fitting the bracken onto the base, I learn two things. Firstly, it's really quite big indeed and is probably too big even for this large creature base. It looks like it's only really going to see use on scenery pieces or huge monster bases. Secondly, the point where it connects to the base is not very realistic at all, and will need masking with more tufts. All the illustrative photos do this, so I should have worked it out, but I didn't realise quite how shoddy it would look without any masking...

So, with a flower tuft added to hide the base of the bracken, and another tuff added on the other side to balance the bracken a bit, we're done.

What do I think so far? Well, I really like the idea and like how it looks when used right, but there's a few flaws to it. It's only really usable on the largest of bases or scenery. It looks pretty fragile and I'm not sure how it's going to last with a lot of play. I'm still undecided on it myself. I was excited when it came out but I feel like it's limited uses will mean I'm not going to find much use for it all that often...

Work in Progress Wednesday: Assorted Combined Army

 

I've been pottering along getting a bunch of my Combined Army ready for the table, so here's a bit of a work in progress to update you on what I'm up to. First up is a Motorised Bounty Hunter and accompanying Bounty Hunter on foot for when they dismount.

Next up are the Libertos - I've got both the limited edition one and the production one so I've got both weapon load outs.

I've also got two named characters ready for paint. Ko Dali's MULTI Rifle profile is joined by the Nourkias, the Umbra special character who a lot of people are claiming is the new hotness for the Combined Army.

There's also a couple of Shasvastii to expand that force out a little bit - I'm still to use a Malignos, but the Hacker is going to be a serious contender when I do. And the Shrouded with Boarding Shotgun isn't my favourite profile, but again, is worth some consideration.

We then get a couple of Morats. The older Krakot Renegade, and the newer Tyrok Hunter. I'm not sure which are any good at the moment, but it will be interesting to find out when I get to playing Vanilla Combined or Morats.

And finally, the Avatar's detachable remote is ready to be painted alongside the Avatar when I get him done...

Getting into the painting headspace

I managed to get back to some painting and got some things finished! First up, I got these Anvil Industry Female Zombies done. They're not currently available, but I picked them up when they first came out. I then messed up the paint job on them and put them away for ages because I hated them.

A quick bit of finishing up base coating, some washes and dry brushing and they're table ready and good to go!

I also painted up this Frostgrave Hyena. It was a quick paint job and I tried out some new basing things which I will talk about separately in their own post.

Stormcast Eternals Riding Things With Scales

 

Here's a bunch more of my Stormcast back from Squiggle's Studio getting their time in the light box for photos before I put them away. First up, we have this Lord-Celestant on Dracoth. He's from the first starter set and doesn't seem hugely punchy for his size, but is a nice model and I'll certainly give him a go on the tabletop.

Next up is a Lord Arcanum on Dracoline, who seems to have some interesting abilities and will be fun trying out.

Finally we've got these Evocators on Dracolines. They come in units of three, but I've had seven painted so I've got options to either run them as two units of three or one unit of six.

There's plenty more to show off, and hopefully once LARP season is done I'll be able to schedule in a game to start learning Age of Sigmar...

Work in Progress Wednesday: Combined Army Avatar

 

Just a quick one, in that I've got the zenithal spray done on the Combined Army Avatar so he's now ready for paint. I'm not jumping straight into this one as I'm taking Shasvastii to the next tournament I'm attending, and that's only a couple of weeks away, so I need to focus on painting the Shasvastii models I'm going to need for that . . .

It was also announced last week that the Avatar's points are going up a teensy bit, along with a couple of the units commonly used to support it. This is broadly good news as it balances out the game with a light touch while still leaving it as a model people want to take.

Getting going again

 

Huzzah! I'm back from LARP, and had a lovely holiday before that. Not much hobby happened, but a few bits and pieces got done, so lets take stock.

First up, we've got these Novus Landing sci fi aliens I picked up at Salute from Tangent Miniatures. A simple Wraithbone undercoat means they're now ready to get painted in between projects.

More Salute purchases, this time a pair of orcs from Titan Wargames. They're based on resin bases by Cerberus Studios. These will be excellent characters for D&D and skirmish games, and I particularly love the monk, who I'm excited to get some paint on.

Last of the Salute purchases is this hag that Encounter Terrain had printed. It's a lovely sculpt with some interesting textures and should be great fun to get some paint on.

I've also got most of the prep done for my Horus Heresy Alpha Legion test paints. The plan is to use crackle texture on the bases and contrast on the models. There's a few spots the spray didn't catch on the models so I'll need to tidy that up before starting the paint jobs.

And, you know, finish the models I'm currently painting so there's room on the painting table.

Finally, a bunch more models for the Combined Army are ready for their zenithal spray. I really need the bike and the bounty hunter done in time for a tournament the weekend after next, so I need to get a shuffle on with getting those ones painted!