Varangur War Machines

2 x Varangur War Machines. These 50x50mm bases are the Varangur version of a big Dwarf Gun or a a Trebuchet etc. That is...if they could shoot lightning bolts instead! Three evil demon worshiping wizards or shamen combine wizardry powers to blast the opposition with a brutal spell all the while not having to push a heavy war engine around. They do have to drag around the big staffs though.

The bodies of these miniatures are Gripping Beast plastic Arab infantry with some arms from other boxes including some from FireForge Mongols, heads and staff toppers from Games Workshop. 

These are painted to match the overall tone of metal and black for the rest of the army. The Photos I have taken on my iphone don't quite capture the shading on them. Looking at them now I think I could see my way to doing some more minor painting on them. A little more khaki dust and perhaps making the metal skulls a brass colour. 

Cheers from Brendon

Monstrous challenge

The final Theme challenge round in the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge in 2018 was... MONSTROUS. I went back to where I started and completed the brother/cousin/relative of the Demon I painted at the start. I also completed a MOM Miniatures Stone Golem for my Dwarf army. Both of these monsters are for my 'Kings of War' collections.

Painting these also ties in with the Monster March challenge.

These Monsters are both on 50mm square bases. Including the bases they are around 100mm high.

No Goblins to post this week but stand by for future additions to that army.

Cheers from Brendon

Big winged Demon number 1

This plastic Games Workshop Demon is one of two that will be 'Count as' units for my Kings of War Varangur Army. His skin is basically three colours with a little dark tone wash. Black Primed, German Grey, Luftwaffe Uniform (a very blueish grey colour) and London Grey (a light grey)...all Vallejo paints.

He sits on a 50mm square base with Rocks from my garden. Super gluing his feet to the stones was probably the most difficult aspect of this miniature but generally speaking painting this dude was probably quicker than some 28mm detailed infantry with more colours. Behind you can see the Varangur army starting to grow with the previously completed 'Sons of Korgan' units.
I submitted this big Winged Demon to Analogue Hobbies Paint Challenge bonus theme round 'Flight'.

Cheers from Brendon

Sons of Korgan for Kings of War

This is the second unit of Sons of Korgan for my Varangur Army for Kings of War. Just like the first unit these are old GW plastic Chaos Warriors. Some are from my very old Chaos Warhammer army and some are new purchases from Facebook. The unit tray is Mantic plastic with sand and some rocks from my yard. I should have enough to create another unit in the future but I may need to get some more Mantic unit trays into my hobby stocks. I managed to get these submitted to the Analogue Hobbies Paint challenge number 8 just prior to flying out to Bali for an amazing Holiday. Been back for a few days now but having typical back to work and routine adjustment problems. I am yet to pick up a brush! This is not a travel blog but I had a great time in Bali and went to some places I had not yet explored. If you want to see some of what I saw there I have an Instagram account (the_brendonius).

Cheers from Brendon

Sons of Korgan with two handed weapons

For my Varangur Kings of War Army here is a Regiment of old Games Workshop plastic Warhammer Chaos Warriors.
Some of these old miniatures have had a do-over while others are from a recent Facebook purchase so some had a total new paint job and build. The ones I painted a long time ago I wasn't that satisfied with them so it was good to have them revived back to life. I had to remove most from the singular basing as well to get them on one Multibase. The base is a Mantic plastic unit base.
My painting time on these was rather quick compared to historical miniatures. Detail can get lost among the unit and so can simple mistakes so less care is needed perhaps. The detail is fairly bold as well as the scale is Heroic.....large hands, large feet, small heads and super huge weapons.
I broke from tradition and placed the converted unit standard at the back of the unit. I completed another unit as well and will post that in the future.

Cheers from Brendon

Varangur Fallen Kings of War

Made further progress in completing this unit of Varangur Fallen. I should get this completed before the Painting Challenge begins in Dec 2017. I have also started prepping the old Chaos warriors in my collection. I managed to acquire some more via Facebook. These will be for Sons of Korgan units. The new acquisitions will be re-painted and the old ones need some attention as well. I painted many ofthem with a purple colour that I must have liked back in the day. I will get rid of this colour by painting it black or metal. This will not be a bright coloured army at all.

Cheers from Brendon

Magus Conclave in progress

I enjoyed making one of these so much that I made another. These are two Magus Conclaves. They are a War Engine option for a Varangur army in the Kings of War fantasy mass battle system.

A trio of Evil Shaman channeling some demonic power to blast enemies from a distance.

 Theses are all ready to go for the Painting Challenge and I am looking forward to splashing paint on them. The bodies and most of the arms are Gripping Beast Arab infantry. Heads are from Games Workshop Chaos Warriors as are the Staff toppers. Some staffs are Spears with two diagonal cuts to transform them into wizardly staffs. I also nicked the old spears. Nothing complex about these creations but I really like them. 

So much Prep...so much..

Cheers from Brendon

Creating a unit of 'The Fallen' for Kings of War

This is a small project I had in mind a while back but have taken forever to get around to actually starting. It's been a while since I painted anything but I have been doing a fair bit of building miniatures and prep work recently.

Who are The Fallen? A unit option for a 'Kings of War' 'Varangur' army. Varangur are Evil demon/god worshipers. Kind of like Chaos in the world of Warhammer.
The options for this unit is as a Regiment or a Horde size. A Regiment is 3 miniatures and a Horde is 6. The rules allow to model less figures than 6 and even though I had 6 miniatures in mind I could keep one aside for a Hero option (Cursed Son). No product line exists that I am aware which is kinda cool as the imagination can cut loose on what to use.
Reading the paragraph of background fluff I get this......Blah Blah Blah deadly warriors...blah blah blah..loose formations....blah blah... hefty glaives.....
In the Stats they are Height 1 (Human height), and have a Speed of 8inches which makes them 3 inches faster than regular humans. Looking at the options my Varangur force is going to need some faster moving units.
I thought that these Warmachine Doom Reavers I painted a while back are a great fit for 'The Fallen'.
They have the movement, Giant Glaives, and a kind of crazy evil feel about them.The Stats have Defence at 5+ which is rock hard but I guess getting past a giant spinning sword is hard and also in a fantasy world magic can be used to explain anything. Even though Warmachine is 32mm scale (I think) the larger scale actually helps this unit of magic infused crazy lunatics.
Alternatively if the force was modeled from Historical Vikings a unit of Berserkers would look the part as well. Maybe I will do that in the future (another purchase).

 Above. I did briefly consider basing them on 40mm bases but decided nope opting for the single large base instead. 

Base cut down Mantic plastic unit tray. These bases come with a lip that actually makes them a little bigger than the Rule book base size so sliced them off. I had to trim and file down the lip in the middle zone. This tray was made for standard 20mm units at 5 across which is shorter than 3 x 40mm. Mantic make these at Large Infantry size now. Perhaps I should get some.

Removing the Miniatures from bases involved a strong pair of scissors to snip them one side of the slot. They came apart easy after that with no parts broken. As you can see one side of the Mantic trays has a nice texture.

Removing the slot plug from the feet did result in a sword snap off and also a leg at the knee but was easily super glued back together. I used blister pack packing foam to help avoid paint lose but it didn't save the breaks from my clumsiness. Most gamers would recommend pinning the feet to the base but the feet are actually fairly wide. I have placed them above to visualize final placement but the middle dude is glued to a rock.

Now they are all glued to the base. I have nudged some small rocks next to some feet to try and help them stay attached to the base.

Here they are after the sand has dried with the lone 'Cursed Son' on his 25mm x 25mm base. I may add even more rocks before painting the base. It is most likely that I will paint over the Red Armour as well with black. Red is the faction colour for Warmachine. I will also change the hair colour of the unmasked individual as well to black. The blond just does not contrast well against the skin tones.

Cheers for now
From Brendon