COVID Completions: Magore and Friends

It’s been a while since I have really struggled with a paint job, but getting Riptooth finished was a week long battle.  The lockdown was intensified and I have felt a bit flat mentally for the first time since the pandemic began.  I also happened to watch The Last Dance on Netflix, and I took some inspiration from Michael Jordan’s immense willpower to see things through.  Tremendously tenacious athlete and massive jerk really, but he got stuff done.  Riptooth isn’t an NBA title, but it’s a small win for me!

Riptooth progress shots

The miniature is a Marauder Flesh Hound from 1994 sculpted by Trish Carden (Morrison at the time) which I picked up off eBay.  It was pretty clean, but the body comes in two parts split down the spine which means that there’s a join right where you’d drill a hole to pin the head and tail.  I’m a pretty fanatical about strengthening joins on heavy metal minis but I trust the quality of Trish’s work, so I ended up gluing it all together and doing some gap filling with green stuff.

There’s a lot of different details on the mini that I couldn’t figure out how to render.  Textbook Flesh Hounds are vast amounts of red with a bit of black fur, there’s not much inspiration to be had on the internet, so I ended up following my nose.  I’m pretty happy with the result, the Wraithbone edging on the scales in particular.

I think I’ll move onto something a little bit clearer – probably plastic, before returning to lead for my next Underworlds war band.

 

Magore WIP

I’ve always got several million projects running at once, and minis are just one of them.  I’m currently sorting out all my ‘dead’ CCGs and building new decks, working out how to give an ancient sewing machine some maintenance, learning basic photography techniques along with a bit of home schooling thrown in.

That said, I’ve finished the painting of my first Fiend, Magore Redhand.  I didn’t end up going with the black in the end, but I still like the combination of scaly beast and grimy war engine that I ended up with.  Truly a fearsome tool of destruction – I really need some red dice for him!

It only recently occurred to me that for decades, DECADES that GW made minis that were far too big for their bases.  The number of minis I have with feet overhanging their 20mm or 25mm bases is ludicrous – if anyone can enlighten me as to why I’d love to hear it!

Of course, these guys fit really well onto 32mm bases.  I’ll do some green stuffing to put some texture on them once I’ve finished all the painting.

Oldhammer Underworlds: Genesis

So, I’m stuck at home.  What work there is has been taken care of.  Why not open the wardrobe and take a look at that old lead sitting in the drawer? “Huh, I forgot about these guys, maybe I’ll…”

I am not a painter of display pieces.  One day maybe, but not now.  I’m also a modern gamer that likes old minis (I really like new ones too) which seems to be an unusual combination.  I know that Axiom over at Magpie and Old Lead is plays the current iteration of Necromunda with old minis, but by and large Oldhammer players seem to go full grognard and play with the old rule sets.

Necromunda itself is a lovely game, but it’s a system that requires the sort of country- oval-cricket attitude where everyone is putting a lot into the hobby and playing for narrative.  My game group featured a Cawdor gang that used a Heroclix Thor Oakenshield in place of a Stigshambler.  That’s a buzzkill right there!  Besides, I’m a systems guy – and to me there’s only two GW games that are rock solid in the rules department: Blood Bowl and Warhammer Underworlds (WHU).

OK, lets get back on track – I found a bunch of miniatures that I think I might be able to re-purpose for my other favourite game.  This is very exciting, and no one else has done it as far as I can see.

There’s twenty-four war bands currently in circulation for WHU, and by my reckoning illustrated in the table below – there are many that are can be fashioned from the old stuff of yore.  Really, the only war bands that I think are a hard ‘No’ are those featuring Stormcast, which are relatively new IP.  The ‘Maybe’ outfits are those that have a limited selection and might need a fair bit of conversion; but certainly doable.

So, while Magore’s Fiends might be a little bit outdated insofar as they’re a pretty one-note war band (kill, kill, kill) they’re still pretty reasonable at it.  I also happen to have most of a reasonable facsimile for them – so they’re the first of my Oldhammer Underworlds warbands!

And here’s the range that I’ll be using for my own boys:

So here we are after a some cleaning and a session with the green stuff.  Ok, so where’s the Flesh Hound you might ask.  He’s coming!

Three Jes Goodwin Chaos Champions from 1988 will form the bipedal component of my war band. I took a scan from WD107 which has a lovely shot of SOME of the Chaos Champions that Mr Goodwin sculpted but unfortunately he was so prolific that two thirds of my war band didn’t get an official paint job.  Lovely work all the same.

Magore remains completely stock, however with Ghartok and Zharkus I’ve added a sharp shield boss to represent their ‘Gorefist’ ability.  It’s been so long since I’ve painted one of these old shields, I’m really looking forward to turning them into blanchitsu style demon noses.

In an odd reversal, the Zharkus mini came in a Blood Bowl auction years back with a  Human team minus the shield boss and axe.  I’ve re-created the chopper by recycling this guy Helmut Grosswürst‘s original weapon.  I’ll wait for Riptooth to show up and then commence the painting!