Hordes of the Things: The God of Undeath

I recently bought a batch of Warmachine and Hordes figures and bits from eBay - it was a really good deal and lots of the figures looked like they'd fit in my various skirmish warbands really well. Amongst the batch of miscellaneous figures was this Cryx Bane Thrall - I knew straight away when starting the Hordes of the Things project that he'd fit perfectly for as a "God" in the Undead force I was going to build! 

The first thing I did was get rid of the ridiculous shoulder pads, leaving the part that the pads mounted to as a smaller, more reasonably-sized shoulder pad. I also chopped off the crudely sculpted axe and replaced it with the nice plastic scythe from the GW zombie regiment.

There's still more to sort out - gaps to fill and some moldlines to finish smoothing, but I'm really happy with him! I added a couple of his undead servants to his base - an undead hero of some sort and a standard bearer. This will probably be the last miniature that I complete for the project!

Comments most welcome!

Hordes of the Things: General and Hero

Continuing the theme of a look at the build-up of my Hordes of the Things Undead army, we come to the start of my heroes for the force:

I was amazed to find these brilliant Warmaster figures amongst the various bits and pieces from the forces I've purchased - they're a Dark Emissary and a Truthsayer from the Dark Shadows/Albion campaign that Games Workshop ran! I actually really enjoyed that campaign/background and I loved these miniatures! I needed a Grand Necromancer for my Undead and the Dark Emissary fit the bill perfectly - the Truthsayer will be set aside to join the dwarves and elves when I get round to starting them! 

I also found a Tomb King Lord on throne amongst the odds and ends - his throne was atop this mound of skeletons and broken weapons. The pieces were glued, so I took them apart and cut away the base tab on the Dark Emissary - that was quite a fiddly job! I was very glad for the purchase of a new hobby saw! A bit of chopping here and there and he was added to the base, which I built up with some cork. Perfect lord for the army now! 

I discovered this chap yesterday in some bags of 10mm historicals that were part of the collection I've acquired - I'd guess that he's a priest of Sigmar or something like that, another Warmaster figure - I'm over the moon with him, such a lovely characterful sculpt! He'll be an apprentice Necromancer for a second Hero choice for my undead when used at 48pts!

Hordes of the Things: The Rise of the Undead

As mentioned in the last post, I have recently started to play Hordes of the Things with some friends - I've also acquired a bunch of different armies for it and a decent box of misc figures to use with the game. Eventually I will strip and repaint each of the armies I've bought, but to begin with I've decided to raid the box of spares and start an Undead force - here's how I've started:

Undead horsemen - these were what first led me to think of an undead force for the game. They're Warmaster figures. I've built bases for the army from plasticard.

All 5 bases of undead knights ranked up.

Spearmen - when I first saw these in the box, I thought they were Saxons or something along those lines - I actually think they're elves... My concept for these is that they were assigned to guard the barrow tomb of my Necromancer Lord upon his defeat. Upon his return to this plane of existence, he drained the souls from them and cast them into his servitude. His gaolers became his servants.

Once I'd finished the first base of them, I set about cleaning up the rest of them - they were originally on base strips of 5 men, but I think four to a base suits it well. I'm not sure where the figures are actually from - maybes Pendraken? 

Spearmen arrayed for battle! 

Swarms of giant bats! I think these might be Pendraken too, anyone know? Lovely figures - I built them some nice bases from cork and plasticard and pinned them for added support. Obviously these will be Flyers in game. 

Forces so far, with my leader in the middle - my favourite so far! More on him tomorrow...

Hordes of the Things!

Just a quick post to show some of the stuff I've been upto games-wise in 2014: Hordes of the Things! The first four pictures are from our introductory battle (with 48pt forces each, 2 players each side - Elves and Human alliance vs Beastmen and Sumerians (basically Chaos mortals!). It was great!

Opening Moves

My Aerial Hero in the rear ranks of the Beastmen

The Gyrocopter assault on the enemy Stronghold

My Aerial Hero having some nice pork chops

2nd Game - Gyrocopters attack the Elven Spearmen

The field clears up a bit with the loss of my Aerial Hero...bugger.

Loving this game so far - I'm currently working on an Undead army and I've bought elves, humans, dwarves and demons (mostly Warmaster figures - the elves and humans are massive armies and the dwarves will be the next project after the undead. I'm having fun raking through my lead mountain to find interesting things from my 28mm miniatures to add to them!) from a friend...so expect lots more HotT in 2014!

2013 Round-Up (just 19 days late...)

Hi guys - I've been meaning to write this post for a couple of weeks now but I have only just gotten around to it! A quick recap of what I got upto in 2013 and my next post will cover my current projects and my plans going forward...

The most important part of 2013 (with regards to my blog) is that GAMES ARE BEING PLAYED! It's difficult to underestimate how good this is - I've been "back in the hobby" for 5 or so years now, but even before my break in wargaming, I rarely played (once or less a year, despite having multiple armies!). In the latter half of 2013 I played multiple games of Flying Lead and Songs of Blades and Heroes - I've been planning out games and settings for years and it was a great feeling to see my painted miniatures and terrain on the table! I even got a couple of my non-wargaming friends to start playing (my housemate and another of my best friends) and, most importantly, they kept asking for more battles!

I've actually gotten a really decent amount of figures completed this year for various different projects and I got stuck into my zomb-apoc stuff during October with Zomtober 2013 - here are a few examples of things completed this year:

Michonne and her two "camoflage" zombies - I'm very fond of her paintjob - she was a gift to myself when I'd finished half of my Studio Miniatures plastic zombie horde! Painted as part of Zomtober 2013

Chosen Space Marines of The Desolation - In The Emperor's Name

Goblins from The Hobbit - this was a lovely plastic kit! Lots of variety too. They're to be used as devolved humans in Necromunda/Space Hulk/post-apoc

Some Private Military Contractors from Empress Miniatures (sold as SAS, mine have a couple of headswaps) - these are for zomb-apoc

Wasteland Sniper - this guy is intended as a scout/herald for a new (Caesar's Legion-inspired) faction in my post-apoc. Warmachine/Hordes

Misc Studio Miniatures plastic zombies - I did enjoy painting the ones in the prison jumpsuits and the Drive-inspired one in the front! Painted as part of Zomtober 2013

A biker survivor (em4 Miniatures) and misc feral ghouls (Mantic Games plastic zombies). Painted as part of Zomtober 2013

Missing from the round-up are various different figures, an orc and goblin warband (Celtos miniatures, for my fantasy skirmish setting), 19 pirate scum (40k Chaos Cultists), 30 or so plaguebearers (plastics and kitbashes!), more zombies... A good painting year in general!