St. Jowen´s Rifles (for now)

I’ve thrown everything out the window again and will now go ahead with the project using the original Cadian heads after all.

I had reworked the heads again so they’d look exactly like the original Steel Legion heads, but I still wasn’t entirely convinced. I’d rather put a little money aside and get the originals someday when I find a good deal.

I will stick with the color scheme, though. I haven’t quite figured out the background yet—maybe it could be an infantry regiment from St. Jowen’s Dock (perhaps the “St. Jowen’s Rifles” or something like that? Sounds pretty good).

Anyway, with the first test miniatures, I tried to recreate a few poses from the original Steel Legion figures, with varying degrees of success. This project is also really well-suited for practicing a bit more hand sculpting, so in that regard, it’s already been worth it!

I decorated some of the bases with homemade barbed wire and Ork skulls from the GW Skull Set, and a small modification depicts a poor Imperial soldier who also didn’t make it. 

 

Gotrek and Felix ready for painting

Here they are, the biggest heroes of the Empire:

Gotrek and Felix!

I finally manged to do the bases for these two, and print print them at a decent quality. I did a lot of changes to Felix a few weeks ago, like making the sword thicker, and some improvements on the cloth as well. 

Now they will sit at the back of my painting table and will only be painted once I have finished my Austrian army :D I hope this motivation works...

Of course I had to add some skulls to the bases... It's Warhammer after all!

Really looking forward to painting them, so I better start working on the last two Austrian units.

 

All the best

Lucas  

 

And even more Steel Legion!

Yes, I should not have painted them, I know... The Austrians are looking very angry at me from the back of my painting table. But I could not help myself!

I did change quite a lot of things on these models. First of all, the new conversions of course (see my latest post). Painting wise I painted the armour with a mix of 1:1 of black and "Bronzed Green" by Vallejo, that gave enough difference to the lasgun, that's still pure black. But the weapon got a highlight with a dark grey, and the armour the metal flakes as before (but less of it!). 

Also, I painted some freehand Steel Legion emblems on the shoulder armour. 

 

Now I don't have an option but to continue painting the Austrians, as I ran out of models... But more are on the way :D Damn. 

 

All the best

Lucas  

More Steel Legion conversions!

Hey guys, here's a quick update on this project! 

Not too much time right now, but I managed to do some sculpting on these three figures over this week. Pretty rough, but I am pretty happy how they turned out!

I probably should have sculpted the heads myself, as they are not looking 100% steel legion yet... But I am not sure that I should change them now that I have three ready :D

I decided to sculpt the coat a bit longer, now they definitly look different enough from the original cadians. Also, the higher collars help a lot I think.

I also think that I will alter the painting scheme a bit: mixing some green in the black for the armour parts will make it a little different from the weapon, and I also should do less of the metal chips visible... Maybe it was a bit too much on the last figure.

Well that's it for today's update, now back to sculpting more Napoleonic figures!

 

 

Another distraction: Steel Legion

Hey guys!

Well, I’m sure a lot of you can relate: there are just too many different project ideas swirling around in your head, inspired by pretty much everything around you, and as always, you just have limited time.
Right now, Warhammer Fantasy, Star Wars (I’m playing Star Wars Outlaws again… what a fantastic game), Samurai, and of course my 18mm Austrians are all fighting for my attention. 
And what do I do? I start a totally stupid Warhammer 40K project.  

Against my better judgment, I’m actually pretty hyped about the latest Armageddon trailer that Games Workshop recently released.
I’ve always thought the Steel Legion was cool, so I was, like most of the online fanbase, pretty disappointed not to see them in the trailer.
I should mention that I know practically nothing about 40K; I just find the setting really interesting and pretty cool.  

I think the old metal figures for the Steel Legion are beautiful, but I don’t feel like spending hundreds of euros on used miniatures on eBay... So I dug out a few leftover pieces from my Cadia army from 2015 (which I’d already sold) and started doing a bit of converting.

Maybe this is a good time to tell you how much I hate the new Cadian figures by GW. I’d really love to like them, because all the new building options, the tons of individual parts, and so on… That’s really great.
But I think the models are just incredibly ugly. Such weird proportions and facial expressions, strange poses… And did I mention the proportions? Just look at those tiny heads!

But whatever, you can still find plenty of the old ones on eBay. I’ve always thought those were cool, and to this day, they’re way better than the new ones. But back to my new conversion!

Of course, the heads had to be replaced first, and after a quick search online, I decided on the ones from Reptilian Overlord.

However, I made a few changes:

Of course, the Imperial Army’s skull-and-wings emblem belongs on the helmet. Besides, I didn’t really like the goggles—they were way too different from the original... Good thing I know my way around ZBrush, because the changes were done in half an hour, and after another two hours, I had a whole bunch of heads to work with. 

Other than that, I didn't change much. I just had to sculpt the gloves and a hose for the gas mask. And there you have it: a Steel Legionnaire! Good enough for me. The coat could and should be a little longer, but I think that will be way too time consuming... So I will leave it like it is for now. 

Maybe the head should be a little bigger, but I am not sure about that yet.  

Here's the finished conversion: 

 

 

And after that, and thanks to the quick drying time of Tamya Quick Type, I also managed to paint the figure today! 

I am quite pleased with it, and it was soo fast. Basically there are just four colours on this figure. Black, this warm beige, leather brown and grey trousers. Okay and some metal, but that's it! I used a lot of contrast paints though, not sure I will continue with this method. But it's even quicker, so maybe not too bad!

Sorry for the image quality, Lightroom does not work today... Not sure why.  

 

And with that I will go to sleep now! Not sure when or if I will continue to work on this project any time soon, but it was a LOT of fun :D And so fast! I think I still have a Leman Russ in a box somewhere... 

All the best

Lucas 

First colour scheme test for the next spearmen unit

It's been a while since my last update, but painting the remaining Ellyrian Reavers is pretty time consuming... And I had quite a lot of work related suff lately that kept me from painting more.

But next to the slow progress on the Ellyrian Reavers, I managed to do a first test for my next spearmen unit (or basically the first if you don't count the Lothern Seaguard).

I sculpted the shield in ZBrush, again copied from the Uniforms and Heraldry book, and also changed the heads to 3D sculpted ones that I did a few months prior. Also, I had to sculpt some hair at the back. 

I am not sure about the shield colour to be honest, but I will paint a few more to see them as a unit... Maybe it works better then. The colours are also from the Uniforms book, so it should work in theory.

But right now I have to increase my 18mm Austrian army quite a bit for our new campaign that will start veeeeery soon, so no time for Warhammer right now!

I will post about that topic soon I think :) 

All the best

Lucas  

First Ellyrian Reaver

Whoever at GW had the brilliant idea to sculpt 17 point figures more detailed than a regular champion or hero model of any other faction in Warhammer Fantasy... Good job! 

I managed to finish my first Ellyrian Reaver yesterday, and it only took me 2 full evenings and a few extra minutes here and there in the morning before work. I think in total this figure took me 6 and a half hours of painting. Madness!  

But yes, it's a beautiful sculpt, I think everyone can agree with me on that. 

Many many gems, coloured metal pieces around the horse armour, and even a decorative,  triangulated pattern on the straps that are hanging from the helmet. 

I painted the Ellyrian Reaver in almost the same colour scheme I used for a first Silver Helm test model in the past, I think it works pretty well for Cothique.

 

Only 4 to go now! As I said, madness. Not sure I can paint the probably most intimidating model of my Warhammer collection afterwards, the Prince on Griffon... But I really want to finish my Elven half of the Island of Blood box! Let's see.

Anyway, I hope you like my first cavalry model for the army! More to come soon, if Asuryan grants me the time and nerves :P

All the best

Lucas  

Lizardmen Colour Test

And now for something completely different!

Well, once again, the hobby squirrel with a attention span of only a few seconds has prevailed: I was distracted by a new, exciting topic :D
It's really bad at the moment.

Anyway, when I'm not able to pursue my hobby, I always come up with new projects in my head and then buy miniatures for them rather than actually painting them... 

But this one could be truly epic!
All I can say is that the story and setting take place in the Southlands of the Warhammer world. 

And since there are lots of lizardmen there, I had to paint a few... I'll tell you much more about the project later, but here's a little teaser in the form of an even smaller skink.

I stole the colour scheme from Total War: Warhammer III, where the lizardmen of Tiktaq'to are coloured like this. I think I'll try to get to 1000 points here first, and then we'll see.
The army will consist of 90% Skinks, with only a small troop of Temple Guardians containing Saurus.

The painting hasn't turned out 100% well everywhere, as I unfortunately tried once again to find a quick solution with Contrast Paints... I just can't do it. So I painted over everything again normally.
I hope you like it anyway! 

All the best

Lucas  

First game with my High Elves

Dark clouds gathered in the sky. Calandril looked down over the hill into the valley, at the edge of which the dark shapes of Chaos followers were already gathering. No birds could be heard anymore; the dark aura of the creatures had put all life to flight.

In the middle of the valley, which was bordered by forests, rose a dark ruin that might once have been a temple of the old gods of this region - now only death and despair reigned here. The statue in its interior had strangely glowing eyes, as if it were staring at Calandril even from this great distance and warning him against approaching.

But the elf did not waver. They had not marched over so many hours of travel only to turn back now. Chaos had to be driven from these lands, whatever the cost. The winds of magic flowed through him once more, and the High Elf mage took new heart. He raised his staff, and the small army of elven warriors set itself in motion.

 

Last night, finally our first game of Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition took place!

After months of preparation and reading the rules book, my High Elves had their first test of battle against some blood thirsty Chaos warriors and a pretty brutal Chaos beast!

The battle started with both sides  rolling for reinforcements. My army deployed in its entirety on the battlefield from turn 1, the Chaos warriors had to wait for a turn.

 

 

My elves had the first turn, so I marched onwards to meet the foul creatures in battle.

Unfortunately, I completely forgot about the guardian in the temple. I moved the Lothern Seaguard on the right flank too near towards the temple, and 4 men got killed by yellow beams of light. I can still hear the cries of the poor souls... 

Nothing to shoot and nothing to cast, so the enemy turn began. He also moved forwards, but had no shooting attacks either. 

The Chaos hounds moved behind the wood, probably for a nasty attack from the rear.

Round two, and my elves moved nearer. Cold hatred for all things Chaos burned in the Seaguard, so they charged into combat with the Chaos warriors. Or at least they tried, as they rolled too low and stopped a few inches before the enemy unit. What a pity!

My mage had then the chance to cast a spell, but did not roll high enough either. My already struck unit of Lothern Seaguaard on the right changed direction and tried to counter the Chaos hounds. 

Then it was the enemys turn again, and they attacked with brutal charges. My big unit of Seaguard was attacked from two sides, and I could not do anything about it...  

 

The combat was pretty brutal, flank attacks are pretty nasty... But I managed to kill a few warriors as well. Very close in the end, but I lost the combat. Luckily I rolled very good on my leadership test and the unit stayed in combat and did not flee. 

Next turn, and my Swordmasters charged into battle, as did my other Seaguard unit. My mage tried to cast a spell on the now arriving Chaos warriors, but once again rolled too low... Not a good day for Calandril!

 

As you can see, I lost quite a few elves this turn... But I managed to kill the Chaos hounds, and also did a lot of damage to the enemy in general. 

I think I don't have anymore images of the battle, but it was very bloody. I guess it's Warhammer after all! My mage tried to cast once again on the Chaos warriors, rolled a double 6, lost control and became stupid and did not remember any spell... Oh well :D 

My swordmasters killed the Chaos demon, but also got killed by the big fresh unit of Chaos warriors. The champion of the big unit of Lothern Seaguard got killed in a duell with the Chaos champion, but the champion got killed by the many spears of the Seaguard... In the end, only my mage and the Chaos warriors were alive:

In the end it was a very close victory for the elves. But what could they do? Most of the army had been slaughtered, Calandril was a drooling idiot with no memory of his magical abilities... It was a disaster! 

The game was incredibly fun. For my first game of Warhammer Fantasy, I got into it pretty well. Of course, the many special rules take time to learn, but I think it will go faster next time.
I'm definitely excited and can't wait for the next game!

The Warhammer atmosphere was definitely incredibly cool. 
It definitely motivated me to paint the next units for the elves! Today I already primed the first riders, let's see when I'll finish them... If only they didn't take so long to paint! 

All the best

Lucas  

 

 

 

 

Haldir finally joins the ranks of the wood elves

After promising to paint him for a few months now, this week I finally finished Haldir. A lovely figure, although the casting was once again not the best.

Especially the face is pretty flat, but from the side you don't recognize it.  

I choose a slighty different colour scheme on him, a bit darker than the rest and with more grey. More similar to the movie outfit than the GW paintjob I think... But it was hard to get the colours right!

 

And here is the full warband for the Lothlorien scenario. And to be honest, they were so much fun... Maybe I will do a few more :D 

A little Lothlorien army would be nice. I also have tons of the classic armoured Galadhrim, but I guess they would be better for a future Two Towers project. There are enough iconic miniatures in the Lothlorien range, the Wood Elf Sentinels for example, or the fantastic banner bearer. 

 

 

 

I also painted a plastic wood elf a while back... I think these models are some of the most underrated in the whole Lord of the Rings range. Sure, the details are pretty blurred, the faces are not the best (but look at the metal ones), and they are tiny compared to the command sets and heroes. 

But there is something in this set for me I just can't explain properly. They are exactly what I imagined back when I was reading the Hobbit for the first time: 

"Behind the arrows a thousand or their spearmen leapt down and charged."

Well, maybe I will paint this box in 2026... Would love to have it completed. 
 

And yes, the face really is not the best, but maybe my paintjob was not the best either. 

I will try again when I have the full set. I once had it, or maybe my brother, I am not sure... But now it's incomplete, half painted in thick coats of yellow and red, and pretty much unusable. Maybe I can find a complete box soon on ebay or something.

 

Well that's it for today, I hope you like the new figure!

All the best

Lucas  

18mm Austrian farm

Good evening!

The last post was quite a while ago, unfortunately. As I mentioned, we were completely busy renovating our new house, planning and carrying out the move, and so on. A lot of work and even more work, with no time for the hobby. But it was worth it, I would say! And now, I am never, ever, ever moving again.

Although I don’t know exactly which moving boxes contain about 2/3 of my collection and tools, I decided to dedicate this weekend to the hobby again. It only worked out reasonably well, but hey! It’s a start.

What did get finished is an Austrian farmhouse, circa 1800. Since we are planning to start an 1809 campaign at our club soon, this was a perfect fit. And I realized that I didn't have any terrain for 18mm at all! Scandalous. Well, we are changing that immediately.

The great models are by my friend Jens Najewitz from 3D Print Terrain. I printed them in 18mm and resin (at about 50% size) and filled the edges a little bit.

This is what it looked like during the first fitting test:

I cut the base out of thin plastic card. After that, I moved on to filling the gaps, sculpting the mud on the ground, and adding a few small details:

Actually, I took some inspiration from an old White Dwarf article from 2009 and adopted some of the techniques. Empire Coaching Inn by Chad Mierzwa (?). I’m not sure if the last name is correct, as the article only says Chad... But it could well be.

 

Incredibly good, isn't it? Unbelievable. I think I will soon copy this one-to-one for my own Warhammer collection... So this was a good exercise, I think!

But back to the historical part, Warhammer will return soon enough ;)

After filling the gaps, I glued on some sand and primed it with Zandri Dust. By now this has really become my favorite primer for everything that isn't supposed to be pure white.

The first base coats are on! I dug out the stippling technique again. I had mainly used it for my Legions Imperialis tanks and planes (more on that soon, hopefully), and I found it incredibly fun and effective back then. And wow, the plaster worked better with it than expected!

And then the buildings were already as good as finished. The roofs cost me some nerves; I think I repainted the roof of the living house three times... But now I am quite satisfied. After that, I moved on to a few small parts.

I believe all of them are from Tabletop World. I didn't know for the longest time that they also make STLs, unbelievable! Probably the most realistic fantasy models I have seen so far... But also very expensive, especially for STLs that you might only use once. But that's the quality! I could say a lot about the pricing model of STLs in general, but perhaps another time.

In any case, I also printed the items in resin and painted them very quickly:

After that, I moved on to the greenery, but I didn't take a picture of it. I recently ordered Coarse Turf and Green Blend from Woodland Scenics, and that actually worked out quite well! And this is what the finished piece looks like:

 

  

I must say, I am quite satisfied! I learned a lot and wrote everything down so that I can paint the next buildings in a similar way. 

A big thank you goes to Frank Becker from "Figuren und Geschichten," who gave me several tips for painting terrain like this.

Next, I would like to do a small chapel with a graveyard. We'll see! But I think it’s Warhammer again for now... The Citadel Wood is already primed!

All the best

Lucas

 

Gotrek and Felix

Over the last few months, I've delved deep into the world of Warhammer and listened to the first 13 Gotrek and Felix novels as audiobooks.

I didn't expect much at first, but the books truly captivated me, keeping my motivation for Warhammer at a very high level.

During this time, my good friend Marc and I considered creating a small Gotrek and Felix vs. Beastmen presentation for the Scenario Con 2026.

Since I couldn't get the books out of my head for months, I started 3D modeling the two titular heroes of the novels around the same time. The goal was to have relatively "modern" versions of the figures that would better match the current Beastmen models. I used the wonderful illustration by Johan Grenier as a template. His artwork adorned the first omnibus edition of the novels I bought. I did have to make a few small changes, though; the sword hilt and shoulder armor of Felix felt too far removed from the books for me.

I started with Gotrek months ago, but due to work and various other things, I couldn't dedicate much time to the figures each week, so the project took about 6 months in total. I was able to finish Felix a bit quicker, but I also dedicated an entire Saturday to him to speed things up.

The result is two figures that I am quite satisfied with! They're not truly perfect, and a lot could still be changed, but I think for the time I invested, they are good enough for now.

I will now print the two for testing and probably adjust the size and scaling a bit... Warhammer proportions are always quite difficult to nail down.

I hope you like them!

Calandril Stormsinger

Well, the last few weeks were a bit crazy, driving back and forth between my old home and the soon to be new one, trying to keep people engaged with the new Baden Kickstarter (I am pretty happy with the results!) and trying to find some time for Warhammer. Maybe a bit too much time, but next week the sculpting work will continue! In anyway, next year when the house is ready I think there will be once again a normal daily routine... At least I hope so!

 

But enough of this! I managed to finish my High Elven mage yesterday. The model drove me absolutely insane. So many details and hidden parts where I could not reach something with my brush, because of all the parts hanging before it... But in the end I managed to get something done. And I am quite pleased with the result! I studied a lot of old 'Eavy Metal Team articles and guides, which helped me a lot with things like the little glass flasks, the big stone in the staff and so on. 

Still, this period between 2008 and 2012 is my all time favourite hobby era, from model sculpts to painting or terrain... Definitly the best time for GW in my mind and I am trying to paint all of my new figures in this style as best as I can. 

Here's my Cothique mage, Calandril Stormsinger:  

 

What a fantastic sculpt!! I really really love everything that came with the 8th Edition box set... I just wish they had updated the spearmen and silver helms als well. 

 

I hope you like the mage! With the first unit I did last year, I am now standing at 700 points. Enough for a first test game I guess, although I really wanted to paint one or two oldschool GW woods before that. I am also trying to 3D scan them, so I can print as many of them as I want. Only for personal use of course! 

 

What will be next? Maybe I will finally paint my Haldir figure. Tonight we will continue with our Quest of the Ringbearer campaign, and in just two games the Lothlorien scenario will take place. So better hurry up!