Other Side of the Portal: Another Hellcannon

With my Infinity figures painted and my motivation for the Arabian Knights is rock bottom, I decided to do a project that I had in mind for quite some time now. Some of you might remember my other hellcannon, her sister actually (yes, it is a she, problem?). The monster is in fact a SPAWN action figure. It was in the form of siamese twins, both of which I used as the monster part of my hellcannons now.

The idea I had in mind was a scene of the summoning, with the monster is just about the step (stomp?) in from within the portal. I first started with the portal. The portal was done brick-by-brick with Pegasus Hobbies' bricks. Then I glues a cardboard between the brick frame and did the swirling portal effects with Vallejo's Oxid Paste. That stuff also helped closing the gaps here and there. Before it was completely dry, I buried some tiny skulls in the portal.

After the foundation of the portal was done, I had to decorate it with some bits. I started with a couple of torches. I think they were Ainsty Castings stuff; but since I had them forever, I really can't recall. I thought a couple of hooks and hanging skulls on the side were enough, all of which were GW's bits. Finally, I cut a Hashut symbol from balsa to go on the top of the portal.

As for the crew, I must say my bitzbox made me a very happy man. There's a metal hellcannon crew (guy that carries the chain) with his hand bits are from OOP dwarfs box. There's the other guy with the hook. His body is from Forgeworld's infernal guard, head from Mantic's abyssal dwarf and weapon from OOP dwarf box. And the last guy were made of FW torso-Mantic head again, and also his scepter was from Mantic's halfbreeds. The bit with the book on top should be from Ainsty Castings again.

Originally, my plan was to place the summoner guy on a higher ground, only accessible with spiral stairs; but since the monster occupied a huge portion of the base, I had to drop it. Baaad planning...

So, that's all for today. Here are some more photos, enjoy...

New Ways to Decimate the Enemy: Blunderbussers

I'm back with some more Chaos Dwarfs goodies, and a what a special bunch of minis they are. Blunderbussers are one of the iconic troops of Chaos Dwarfs, dating back to very the old days. They are named after the handgun they use: Hailshot Blunderbuss.

Blunderbuss is a short range rifle that shoots fiery sharapnels to the enemy to decimate them into a pile of ash. Develeped to deal with the greenskin rebellions, they are horribly effective against hordes. In the Legion of Azgorh army list, it is possible to hand blunderbusses to the infernal guards. Upgrading the troops with these costs the CD general and arm and leg pointswise with questionable benefits. Although generally they don't appear on many army lists, I had to have some. Because they are blunderbussers :)

So, what are the models? There are two different manufacturers' minis you see here: Mantic and Scibor, surely sound familiar right? Mantic's Decimators from the Abyssal Dwarfs line look more like the classic blunderbusser, except the lack of big hats. Scibor's Strielecs however, make up for the different rifle design with the big hats and braided beards. In my opinion, they are both decent substitutes for GW's OOP blunderbussers, which would cost you a small fortune to get these days.

Here are some photos of the mixed regiment and some comparison shots between Mantic and Scibor minis, enjoy...

Review: Abyssal Dwarf Halfbreeds from Mantic Games

The artwork on the box

Since I have been working on different manufacturers' products recently, I thought it is time for another review post. Today, I have Mantic's Abyssal Dwarf Halfbreeds under the spotlight. When they were announced, I was so excited that I went on and preordered not one but two boxes of these guys. That was the very first preorder I have ever placed. Yeah, I'm a n00b, so what...? :)

I will try to follow my review method here, with occasional comments in the last section.

Packaging:
The miniatures come in Mantic's usual hard plastic box. The artwork on the box is consistent with the rest of the product line and wrapped with cellophane. I find Mantic's packaging very good for all their products and there is no surprise here. The only thing that caught my eye is that the Mantic Point for this box is located on the backside of the box. Before, the Mantic Points were made as stickers and thrown into the box, now you have to tear the cellophane and cut the point from the artwork on the box.

Score: 9.5/10

Contents:

Unboxing...

Let's open the box and have a peek. Here are the contents:

• Two packs of bits (all plastic)
• Ten 25x50mm (cavalry) bases on sprues
• Four-page Mantic brochure
• Protective foams

As advertised on the box, each box has just enough bits to make 10 halfbreeds. There are no extra bits provided and that means there are no bits to build command troops. The surprising thing for me here was even the head bits are made of plastic. All the head bits except one are the same with the abyssal dwarfs infantries' heads and they were metal. I wonder if Mantic will change them to plastics too.

A quick word about the equipment options: The weapons they carry are great weapons and there are no other weapon options nor any shields.

Another point worth noting is the base sizes. If you are planning to use these ones as bull centaurs for you Legion of Azgorh army, you'll need 50x75mm bases. Just keep that in mind.

Score: 7.5/10

Quality:

All the bits

Brace yourself Mantic, harsh criticisms coming... Even though I admire Mantic's work and advocate their products all the time, I have to say that they seem to have botched this time. The bits have horrible amounts of flash and they cannot be removed easily. The mold lines are awkward, because they go through areas which have details on them, which makes them harder to get rid of. Last, but not the least, you cannot just glue the parts together, due to the gaps between the bits. The size of those gaps are abnormally big for a plastic kit and I had to use stuffing to make them disappear. You can see the size of the gaps in the photos at the end of the post. They are huge!

After all these smack-down, I must say that they don't totally suck. Each miniature is built by using 5-6 parts and an occasional bit to place under the hoofs to make them stand still. There is a huge room for conversions for these guys. With a few bits lying around in your bitz box, you can turn them to whatever you want.

The detail level is the same Mantic level; but you have to free them from the mold lines first. Why Mantic, why...?

Score: 3/10

Price:

This box currently retails for £15.99 at Wayland Games, which I think is an awesome price. Games Workshop's old bull centaurs sell for almost an arm and a leg on eBay and at £1.60 per mini, these miniatures are a decent alternative here.

Score: 10/10

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OVERALL SCORE: 6.5/10 

The average of the scores tells 6.5 out of 10; but if you are too obsessed with details or don't want to deal with cleaning or stuffing your minis, this kit is definitely not for you. 

Maybe the most important factor that will influence your decision here though, is the scale of the miniatures. They are the same scale with the GW's old bull centaurs and Mantic's abyssal half breed lord as you can see from the photos. However, they are nowhere near Forge World's newly released bull centaurs. You will not be able to mix-match them with FW ones, for the FW ones will tower over them. But if you already have painted GW's or Mantic's minis like me, this kit will serve you well.

Here is a quick summary for your convenience:

+ Good price

+ Decent packaging 

+ Nice alternative for GW's old bull centaurs

- The scale (Forge World's bull centaurs completely dwarf them)

- No extra bits, no command bits, lack of 75x50mm bases

- Lack of equipment options

- Not the best quality miniatures, too much hassle to build

I have a couple of them on my workbench right now. I will post painted photos of them soon. Below are a couple of size comparison shots though. Enjoy...

 

Comparison with Mantic's Halfbreed lord

Comparison with GW's bull centaurs

Review: Orc Warband from Wargames Factory

For a change, today's article will be a review. Wargames Factory has a fledgling fantasy miniatures line called Myths and Legends. The box set I'll be writing about, Orc Warband, is one of them.

I came across with this product during my search for suitable hobgoblin miniatures for my Legion of Azgorh army. The most emphasized point for these plastic miniatures is that they have loads of weapon options and indeed they have. That was a very important factor for me since the hobgoblins in my army list can also be kitted with various weapon options.

The price is another strong selling point for them; but before I let this review to become a huge block of text, I'll try to introduce a review format here. Who knows, maybe it becomes a standard...

Packaging:

The miniatures come in a lightweight cardboard box with graphics at mediocre quality at best. The box itself is definitely not strong enough and in my opinion, even on the shelves the boxes will wear out quickly, let alone enduring the perils of postage. I bought them from both Wayland Games and Maelstrom Games and they sent those boxes in another heavy duty box.

Score: 5/10

Contents:

Eight identical, stackable plastic sprues, that's all. There are no leaflets, no booklets, no assembly instructions, no safety instructions, and NO BASES. Just 8 identical sprues from which you can build 24 orcs. On each sprue there are;

• 11 weapons (+1 quiver)
• 3 shields
• 7 heads
• 10 arms
• 3 lower body
• 3 torsos (reversible torsos they say, YAY?!)

Wow, pretty big tally... But have you noticed that there are no command bits? Yes, no standards, no instruments for musicians. I think they could have squeezed in some banners and instruments at the expense of the other bits, though.

Another point I have to mention is that you can't kit your entire unit with bows. There are just not enough bits to make it happen. There are only 8 bows (one in each sprue), so out of your 24 orcs, you can only equip 8 of them with bow. Weird I say...

Score: 7/10

Quality:

No flash and an acceptable amount of mold lines on the miniatures, perfect. The detail level is also higher than my expectations, considering the price range of the miniatures. The only part I did not like is the details on the hands. They lack the details on hands and fingers so badly. Thank god they are just hobgoblins :) There are also some people who are less than satisfied with the the way the hands look, arguing that the open hands make the minis look unfinished; but I don't get that feeling.

There are no off-scale bits that I could see; but at some points, the minis are very thin. Almost as thin as Mantic's elves, so they might be susceptible to being snapped off at those points. Time will tell I guess...

Score: 7.5/10

Price:

With £14,85 for 24 minis, this box is a steal. Since it is a chaff unit mostly, you will be needing lots of them in your army. With £0.62 per mini this box gets the job done. Period.

Score: 10/10

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OVERALL SCORE: 7.5/10 

Just don't expect too much for this price. You get way more than what you pay for. Here is a quick summary for your convenience:

+ Awesome price

+ Lots of weapon options

- No bases

- No command bits

- Lacking bows

- Poor packaging

The miniatures are on my workbench currently. I will share photos of painted minis soon.

Forgeworld Bull Centaurs at Games Day Barcelona 2012

Rumors were around that Forge World guys were working on bull centaur models for quite some time and finally they showed up at Games Day Barcelona it seems. The photos are not the best; but it can be seen that they are very bulky, yet dynamic looking models. I really liked them to be honest. The only criticism I can come up with is the ridiculously small looking shields and it is no biggie, no biggie at all...

BUT, and yes, there is always a but, well, they are BIG. I'm afraid they are so big that it will not be possible to mix-match them with GW's bull centaur models from 90s or Mantic's half-breeds, which are to be released by the end of July. Non-FW ones will just look so tiny beside them.

Another crucial point is that they seem to be on 75x50mm bases, which is the same with giants or demigryph knights of The Empire. Previously, an FW employee answered an e-mail of chaos-dwarfs.com community member, stating that the BCs will be on 50mm bases. The bull centaurs I have are on 50mm square bases and I will be very upset to see that they move it to 75x50mm. Not just because of the effort required to do it; but also my old BCs will really look tiny on those bases, basically rendering them unusable.

Oh well, already rambled more than enough. Below are the photos of the new bull centaurs, enjoy...

Painting on the Move

"More light!"

Real life issues suck, plain and simple. I have been doing lots of traveling for almost a month now due to work and trainings. As you can guess, it takes its toll from the time I spend in my workshop. Luckily, I was quick to invent ways to paint on the move, like my good friend Mr. Lee did. As you can see from the photo on the right, I sometimes went for the extreme...

During my travels, my destination is Istanbul. The biggest advantage I had was that my company has rented an apartment in Istanbul. It is easy to customize the apartment for my needs and there are no cleaning ladies waiting to toss your stuff into trash or stash them in someplaces. Big win! Hopefully I won't be traveling for some time now though. Fingers crossed...

So anyways, I have some stuff to show you. Since I have been living a roving life, the products are also different from each other. Firstly, I have a couple of bull centaurs: A standard bearer and a musician. My eBaying skills could not earn me any command guys, I had to convert my own ones. The base model is Mantic's Abyssal Half-Breed Lord for both of the conversions, with various bits from WoC boxes. I tried glow effects on the standing stone beside the standard bearer; but you will be the judge of that.

Next, some more infantries, 5 more to be precise. Nothing fancy here, except that I placed them on a regiment base. You know that I am suffering from ranking up issues and this might just be the way to solve it in style. Also, when gaming, they generally don't die or die in droves (damn I or die spells), so it won't be much of a problem in games. I am planning on doing more of them in the future. Oh, also, I have to mention that I finally gave in and went on to buy Vallejo's Black Lava and used them on the bases of the infantries and the bull centaurs. That stuff looks -and smells- like olive paste (a very low quality one that is). I used them to provide some texture on the lava parts of the base. From the photos you can see the difference between the bases of the wolf rider and the other bases. I think i will be using that stuff from now on.

Lastly, there's a test model for Hobgoblin Wolf Raiders. No conversions there, just the good old Wolf Riders of Games Workshop. The painting schema was originally from Mr. Lee; but I modified it a little to achieve the look I was looking for. Let me know what you think...

So that's pretty much it. For those who are interested in bull centaurs, I have to tell you that Mantic's Half-Breeds are in pre-order currently. Their pricing is a steal at 2GBP/model, so I advise you to check them.

Here be photos...

Kickstarters from Mantic Games and Avatars of War

Kickstarter?

It's time to spread the world a little. Mantic Games and Avatars of War both have started kickstarter campaigns to fund their upcoming product lines. In geek community, this method is generally used by sculpters to fund for their initial costs or by some idealist who is trying to return something back to life which is OOP.

When they announced the kickstarters, the community responded with a mixture of ideas. The attitude is generally supportive until now; but there are some ideas that those companies are already well established (especially Mantic), hence they should be funding for their own products.

Mantic's kickstarter worked wonders for them. They were asking for only $5,000 where they had that amount in just 4 hours. That was quite unbelievable. They went on to introduce some more stretch goals afterwards and they were smashed in no time one after another. By the time I am writing this, they were at $46,113 from 290 backers. The only stretched goal remaining is the $50k mark unless they define new ones. There are 25 more days until this kickstarter ends; so it's just a matter of time that stretched goal is achieved. UN-FRIGGING-BELIEVABLE...

On the other hand however, there is Avatars of War's kickstarter, which is not doing that good. Their pledge amount is $20,000 and by the time this lines were written, they were at $3,480 from 31 funders. To be honest, they are doing alright too, by collecting that much of a money within 2 days. I think the success story of Mantic's overshadowed theirs. AoW also promise some cool stuff to be put in production if this pledge is achieved, including an army of undead werewolves! My English fails me there to define such a coolness... :)

So, that's pretty much it. See the kickstarter pages to see what they promise to do if they achieved their pedge and what is in it for you. Go on, support them and be a part of this. AoW guys need it more currently; but why not support both, right? Back to you Robin...

FW 101: Introduction to ForgeWorld

Recently, Forge World's siren song proved to be too strong for me and I went on to buy an infernal guards package. My plan was to use the Mantic guys as cores and the ForgeWorld ones as elites. This way, the cores and elites would look different from each other, yet have decent amount of character in them.

During painting, I used my usual recipe. The painting process was rather quick, due to the fact that they are armored to the teeth. I spent some time on the freehands on the shields though. I think the flame designs turned out to be quite OK; but it is up to you to decide.

There are two points that left a sour taste in my mouth. First, the ranking up issue. I generally took my time and plan ahead of time before placing the miniatures on their bases to avoid the ranking up problems. In this case, no amount of nudging, tweaking and moving around solved it unfortunately. Checked the stock photo after I gave up and I still can't see how it could be done. Maybe they used bigger bases, hmm...? :)

Another point which bothers me was the size of the minis. Don't get me wrong, their scale is correct; but they are small compared to the Mantic ones. The Mantic ones have decorations on their helmets and that's the main reason that they look bigger; but as are the old-skool GW chaos dwarfs. I don't see that the ForgeWorld guys will blend in with them nicely too to be honest. I have 10 of these guys now; but I think I won't be buying more of them.

You can see the photos below. I'd recommend you to check the size comparison shot with Mantic mini to get a better feeling about the size difference.

Thinking Big: K'daai Destroyer

K'daai Destroyer with
a summoning diorama

I must admit that this article is kind of embarrassing for me. I'm about to write about and show off a model which I commissioned out to Mr. Lee to build and paint for me. There are certain services, for which gentlemen must not pay money; but since I don't have an airbrush, I had no choice but to hand it over to him. Although I am perfectly aware that he will torment me every day and night for allowing him to paint for me, I am more than happy with the job he has done on it.

According to the ForgeWorld guys, K'daai Destroyers are supposed to be on 150x100mm bases. Currently, this is the biggest base size in WHFB and very few models, including the dreaded Arachnarok Spiders are mounted on those bases. The would-be K'daai model should be big, that's granted; but with such a big base, it was almost mandatory to populate the base with other miniatures, creating a diorama in the process.

So, what was used in this project? The base model for the destroyer is the Titan Overlord of Crocodile Games. This 4.5" long beast is completely metal and as heavy as a beached whale... almost... The summoner guy (which is removable) and the snail are from Scibor's Shaman and Mutant Snails set. As for the stones and menhirs, they are from Fenris Games, bought long ago for a reason that's long forgotten...

Since I was not the one who painted this, I can't give you recipes; but Mr. Lee has a project journal in which you can see the progress, the recipes and his whines. Make sure to check it out too.

Below you can see more photos of "DA BEAST". I don't want to drown the page with the images, so I added just a few of them here. You can see them all in this album. Oh, and also there is a size comparison shot with one of my Mantic infantry. Have I said that this thing is huge... :)

Battle Standard Bearer: Every Army Needs One

Here is one of my last ditch efforts to make it to the IzmirCon tournament: The BSB...

As you might already know, there are no BSB models for The Legion of Azgorh list yet. This is both a curse and a blessing as you need to convert your own mini, spending money and time in the process. But in the end it is worth it. Well, sometimes at least...

Before selecting the base model for my BSB, I considered a few options. Since the model is expected to carry a big fat banner, the most important factor here was the pose of the miniature. One of the alternatives I thought was Mantic's Abyssal Dwarf King model. Another one was Enigma Miniatures' Toktien model. For both of them, it would have been the same steps: Cut the weapon, give them the banner instead, done.

Instead I went for another miniature: Hasslefree Miniatures' Kain. With this model is the base, I went on with the same steps above for him first. Then, in an effort to "chaosify" him more, I added a couple of horns and a chaos shield from Games Workshop's bits. The banner itself is also a GW bit, of chaos knights' I believe.

I tried to to some freehand on the banner; but just couldn't make it, so left it like that. Maybe if I get a solid idea, I might get cracking and try it, who knows.

Below are some pictures, including a size comparison with Mantic's Abyssal Dwarf Immortal Guard miniature. Enjoy...

A Fistful of Infantries... and a Hero

Scibor Hero

İzmirCon is nigh... It is mainly an RPG event; but also hosts various wargaming activities. In the last two years, there were WHF tourneys. I only joined once because I was staff the other time; but generally, the tourneys in İzmirCon tend to be fun events.

This year, I plan to take my chaos dwarfs to the field; but it seems I'm still some way away from making it happen. With 25 days to go and only 30 or so infantry models are ready, I decided to turn my attention to infantries. I haven't prepared my list entirely yet; but either way this amount won't be enough for me to field a 2k force.

Long story short, I have 7 more infantry models ready. Mantic figures again, with some minor conversions here and there. Also, I painted a hero model from Scibor. This was also my very first resin model. I must say that I find it very interesting to work on resin. Since I had no idea about how to handle resin, like how to clean the mold lines, how to cut it even, I tried to work slowly with this model to prevent any damage. In the end, it turned out to be OK. It is light, even lighter then the plastics maybe; yet durable. But I think it needs to endure long years of gaming to fully earn it. I guess I will live and learn.

War Machines Rock!

All wargamer would know that, although painting infantries is fun at the start to try out new color schemes and stuff, it can quickly get boring after you manage to get a sizeable unit ready. Well, that's what's happened here on my side and I went for a change ::drumroll:: A WAR MACHINE!

Big surprise, eh? A dwarf army and a war machine... Well, let me just say that I have more under my sleeve and I'll share them with you soon; but for now, yes, it's a war machine.

This one is from Mantic Games again, the one which they call Katsuchan Rocket Launcher; but I'll be using it as a Deathshrieker Rocket Launcher in my Chaos Dwarf army. First, let me talk about the model a little.

Like all of Mantic's Abyssal Dwarfs line, these miniatures are also hybrid ones. So, you'll be doing conversion work again. The crew miniatures are built using the "normal" dwarf crew miniatures, with adding chaosy headwear to them. Also, there are only two crew miniatures per war machine, so I needed to use one of the infantries from the army box to make it three. But don't worry, apart from the body, there are enough bits to make a third crew miniature.

The war machine itself is a little more different in origin. The chassis is from the Balefire Catapult of Mantic's Undead line, with metal conversion bits again. This time I have no complaints though, since the bits really make the war machine look different than what it was and cool at the same time. Also, the bits fit very well to where they are supposed to go. Decent job Mantic, ::cough:: this time...

The painting stage of the miniatures was very easy. I used the very same color scheme with the rest of my army mostly. I kinda regret that there were wooden parts on the war machine though. I would have preferred to have an all-metal one which would be more fitting for a Chaos Dwarf force; but in the end, meh is all I can say.

When building the base, I wanted to have all the miniatures to be able to sit comfortably on it. Now when I look at it, I think I went extreme there, with the base is about 90mm square, oops... :) Not entirely happy with it and will definitely try and make it smaller when I build the second one.

Just for the sake of completeness, I'd like to make a note that there are also three more infantries finished, to increase the size of the infantries to 24. Decent size to be fielded in small games, so I have no complaints there either.

So, all and all, I have my very first war machine ready to serve Hashut's will. And it rocks, as in rock-it launcher. And yes, I can do word jokes in English too. Or so I think... Anyways, have some photos here: