Arabian Knights: Vulture Knights

Arabian Knights project is up to speed and here I present you the Vulture Knights. Obviously pegasus knight substitutes, these guys were waiting on my desk for forever. Well, the vultures at least. After I posted about the vultures earlier, I got so many comments. Apparently, cactii don't grow in Arabian deserts (go figure...), so I had to remove them from the bases.

So, vulture bases fixed and riders done. The riders are from Black Tree Design again. I believe they are horse rider guys though, not camel riders. there are minor conversions on each of the riders. The musician guy's horn is from some old High Elf set (it was metal), the spear of the yellow dude is a Wargames Foundry pike, and finally, the lance with streamer is a bit from Reaper Miniatures, decorated with a streamer from High Elf plastic kit. I must say I am very glad that i didn't throw my gf's high elf bits. They have proven themselves invaluable until now and I think I can use more  of those bits.

When I was painting the riders, I wanted them to be different then each other but also I tried to achieve brighter colors on them. That's something I am not used to and need to learn. The result is not the best; but I can't say I'm unhappy to be honest. And of course, there is a minor freehand on the streamer again.

I kinda like how the army is coming together. Stay tuned for more and enjoy the photos...

Arabian Knights: Camelry

Project Arabian Knights is going on with four more riders. Since I want each knight to have a distinct look as much as possible, painting these guys seemed to take forever for me; but in the end, I am happy with how they look.

The riders and the camels are from Black Tree Design, where the bulk of my army is from. To my surprise, I found out that the riders have bows and quivers on their back. Of course that's unacceptable for such noble-borns to shoot arrows, so i had to trim the bow and arrows and hide the quivers by gluing shields on their back: Problem solved :) There are minor conversions on a couple of guys: One is the banner and the other is a simple weapon swap. The banner bit is from Reaper, and the weapon was from GW's High Elf spearmen kit. Oh, and the shields were from Mantic's Dwarf sets.

As I wrote in Damsels post, I am fairly comfortable with camels recipe right now. Applying different color schemes on each rider however, prevented me from going chinese on them. Moreover, I painted freehand desings on shields and the banner. Unless I find a better banner, he will be my BSB.

Here are some photos, hope you like them.

Arab Girls Riding

Experiment time... Most probably you have already noticed the kinky title of today's post, right? Last year, my good friend Mr. Lee posted about his dark elf commission work. Funny that 2 days from now it will be exactly one year since it was posted. Anyways, the name of the post was "Naked Girl Kneeling?!?!" and it was a huge success for his blog. As far as I know, it is still the post with the most hits. Makes you rethink about the wargaming community, huh? :) So, I wonder if this dirty road will help my blog gain hits too...

These gals are the wizards of my fledgling Arabian Knights army. Damsels and Prophetesses if you please. Let me first say that, it is very hard to find an Arabian female miniature riding a beast. The only one I could find was from Reaper Miniatures. It was Atifa from Nefsokar product line. This one, I could use with no conversion. The other however, I built it with parts form a couple of models: The lower body was from Jehanna and the upper part was from another sorceress, both from Reaper again. The camels are from Black Tree Design as usual.

The camels were mostly done by airbrush, working my way up from Leather Brown to Yellow Ochre. For the riders, since they are heroes, I wanted them to be easily distinguishable among the unit, so I painted them way brighter than I normally do. And also, I had some Ice Blue paint lying there and I thought, why not...? :)

Ok, I think that's all. I'll keep you updated about how the hits for this post will do from time to time ;) Enjoy...

Wrapping the Army Up: Magma Cannon

Don't you roll your eyes at the sight of yet another war machine. Come sit by the magma and let me tell you a story... :)

Today's miniature is Magma Cannon from Forge World. I must say that, after working on miniatures of many different manufacturers, I really enjoyed working on FW stuff. The quality is there, the detail levels are awesome; but you already know that.

Some of you might be surprised to see that although I have a sizeable CD army, this is my first magma cannon. In my opinion, it is the most powerful, if not broken choice in the Legion of Azgorh list. I can hear you scream "Destroyer!"; but believe me, I'd not make many friends if I fielded a couple of those fiery, clunking contraptions. And they would still cost less than a single destroyer.

The most sensible way to see how underpriced this war machine is to compare it to its dwarven counterpart: Flame Cannon. Their template is the same (S5 d3Wo) and both cause panic upon casualties. The most important advantage the MC has over FC is the range. While the FC follows the flame thrower rules, the MC has a range of a whopping 24", plus the arty dice of course. Moreover, the ability to reroll the arty dice when there's a daemonsmith within 3" is gold. The only thing that the MC is not as good as the FC is the crew guys. MC crew trade the stubbornness for heavy armor; but then again, if a WM is charged, most of the time they are gone so... Oh all of these, you can get for only 5pts higher than its dwarf counterpart. Sucks to be dwarfs... :)

With this magma cannon complete, I can call my CD army, Zharr Naggrund Gentlemen, finished. As you know, this has been my second army. I enjoyed looking for suitable minis, building the army and I learned lots while I was on it. Now, it is time for me to concentrate my efforts on my third army, the Arabian Knights... I think a full army picture is in order now.

Enjoy the photos...

Arabian Knights: Manjaniq

Project Arabian Knights is still on the table and today it's a manjaniq figure (obviously a trebuchet) what I'm presenting. I was planning to built the trebuchet models from scratch. There were many schematics online on how to build a -working- treb. But when I saw this figure on Round Table of Bretonnia forums, I changed my mind. Albeit considerable bigger than the original (reaching a towering 6" at the highest point), it looked decent enough, had no bret decorations and crew members so it was a good deal for me.

What a nice load of flash!

WRONG! The reason I went on and bought this one was saving time. You know, basic tradeoff between monies and time. Normally, I consider myself to have a knack for finding alternative models for my armies; but this time I botched... big time. The bits I received from the Lazy Forger did not make my life easier. Basically I received a bag of flash and carved my way into the actual bits. To add insult to the injury, some of the bits were cast badly, with many hollow points and cracks...

Oh well, you cannot just order something and don't build and paint it. For the crew guys, I used civilians from Perry Miniatures. Like my chaos dwarf army, I spent considerable amount of time making the bases. For the base, i use cork board over balsa. Using cork on top greatly helped when cutting the spots for the crew members. As always, I laid down magnetic paper inside the crew spots.

Another thing to mention here, this was the first time I used tufts. I must say they are a win. Although they stick to the surface themselves, I didn't want to take my chances and used some superglue in the process. 

I think my next update will be troopers, as I just learned that the package I've been waiting from Black Tree has been cleared from the customs. Yay...?

Probably the Most Expensive Paint Job Ever

Today's figure is yet another unorthodox one for me: Prince Apophas of Tomb Kings. This is the very first miniature i painted from that line of undead and it is for a friend again. The story of why it is probably the most expensive paint job ever and why I painted this is an interesting one though.

Some months ago, the computer in our local club died. That hit some of the club guys hard, as they were not able to prepare or print their army lists, listen to music or you know, do computer stuff. Then all of a sudden, one of the younglings rode in like the cavalry, with a high-end computer (i am talking about i8 CPU here) in his hands and gave it away. Yeah, just like that... Even though I don't use club PC, I was so impressed with his generosity, so I offered him to paint one of his miniatures to show my gratitude. That's how it ended up on my desk.

As you know, recently I'm becoming familiar with painting stuff that I am not familiar with. This one was no exception. Completely different palette, and with lots of bronze/gold shades with I suck at doing, hence hate to do :) In original studio paint, the scarabs are supposed to be in dark blue shades; but he wanted them green. So, for them I started with a dark green undercoat and worked my way up to veeery light greens where necessary. Pure drybrush, easy-peasy. For the gold parts, I started with a dark brown followed by bronze and finished with gold and gold+mithril highlights. The gems and the blade were a little more tricky where I tried some wet blending. Finally, I tried to imitate the blue glow in its forehead.

I'd have loved to do the basing too; but the owner of the mini is yet to decide how to base his army. Before wrapping this post up, let me once again say that i am not a fan of finecast. The blade was so thin and looked so fragile that I was afraid to touch it even with the brush. I can't see how it will handle heavy gaming. I find it very ridiculous as they are gaming miniatures and in my opinion, they should be more durable.

So, you just read about the "probably the most expensive paint job ever". Hope you liked it buddy. Enjoy...

Arabian Knights: Vultures Update

Recently, I managed to find time to finish all three of the vultures. Their riders are yet to arrive; but with the airbrush, I made short work of them. Actually, making the bases took more time than painting the miniatures, go figure :) As with the mounted musicians, I used a variety of basing materials from tufts to lichen and I think the way I'll do the bases for this army is pretty much decided now.

Enjoy...

Arabian Knights: Mounted Musicians

Today I have some mounted figures for you: Mounted musicians from Perry Miniatures from the Muslims Musicians set. While I still wait for the bulk of my army to arrive from Black Tree Design, I thought I can get them done in the meantime.

First things first: I am more of a Warhammer Fantasy player rather than a wargamer. I expected the scale of these miniatures would be smaller (being true 28mm that is); but man, they are small :) Not complaining though, just wanted to give you a heads up should you consider using Perry's miniatures in any of your projects.

This was my very first purchase from Perry Miniatures and I must say that I am very happy with my decision. The minis look cool and are priced decently, they ship quickly and their -international- postage rates are affordable. What more would you possibly want, right? WRONG! Some of you might remember me ranting about casting quality in my review-ish posts. Quick confession: It turned out that I had no idea what I was talking about before, coz these minis rock! The horse guy is cast in one piece, same for the camel guy, except for the drums. In spite of this fact, they are still very detailed. However, the thing that amazed me most was the strength of the miniatures. While I was cleaning some of the flash, I was fairly certain that I would make the delicate parts snap off, like the scabbards and similar parts. Guess what, I didn't. I think it should be the quality of the material they use. It just didn't break... Awesome! Did I say I like Perry Miniatures...?

Since I've never painted desert themed stuff before, I had to do a considerable amount of paint shopping. I'm going with Vallejo as it's the only paint line I can find locally. My current palette contains many shades of browns, yellows and bone-like colors. I had to do some shopping for the bases too. I found an interesting basing material called Reindeer Moss Lichen. It helped me greatly to respresent dead vegetation on the bases, don't you think? Other than that, i used Vallejo Red Oxid Paste for texture and some green tufts here and there. I also have some yellow straws at home and will be using it on bases too.

Enough rant already. Enjoy the photos. I also included some comparison shots to give you ideas.

 

Fire and Smoke Effects Scenery

Here is an interesting one. Recently, I was browsing through the Internet for scenery ideas to add to my Chaos Dwarf army and then I found these.

Basically, it is a battery operated circuit with a blinking yellow light, covered with layers of cotton, then sprayed black a little on the upsides to create the smoke effect. They are a little bigger than I expected honestly, but they still have their uses.

I'm planning to use them in the bases of the K'daai Destroyers and maybe the Bull Centaurs. They are too big to fit inside a regiment of K'daai Fireborns I'm afraid. Also, I can use them on my display board too, as you can see from the photos. Worst case, they make an awesome night lamp :)

I bought them from an eBay seller called xjacsx, and it was not expensive. If you are interested, I bet he has several more in his store to sell anytime.

Giant Vulture Sneak Peek

Most of the miniatures for my new army is yet to arrive and I was getting a little too impatient, so I decided to start working on what I have at hand. This vulture is actually a toy as you can probably tell from the photos. They are manufactured by Bullyland, a German company with a massive toy animal range. Luckily, I managed to find a local retailer, so this one is the very first piece of my new army to arrive.

I think the photos will not give you much info about the size of the toy, so I'd like to talk about it a little. Although the vulture is not much bigger than a Bretonnian pegasus in width and height, its wingspan is considerably bigger than a pegasus', extending to a massive 16cms (6,4"). Thank god I will not be bothered with ranking them up :)

The toy is made of plastic; but not of hard plastic like the "normal" wargaming figures are made of. The soft nature of the material made me struggle a lot when cleaning the mould lines and the writing marks. Thankfully, most of the parts I needed to clean are underneath the wings and feathers. It comes prepainted; but of course, I gave it a proper paint job. It took 15-20 mins for me to paint this one. A big thanks should go to my airbrush here.

So, that's a wrap. While this vulture keeps waiting for its rider to arrive, I'll get through the remaining couple of vultures waiting on my desk and probably will do their bases in the process. Enjoy the photos...

The Arabian Knights of Saladin - An Arabian Themed Bretonnian Army Project

As a part of my new year resolutions, I will be starting a new WHF army. I've been thinking on what will be the theme of this army for quite some time and came to a conclusion finally: An Arabian themed Brettonian army. I already placed many of my orders. They are yet to arrive but I'd like to share the fluff of my would-be army.

"Victory is changing the hearts of your opponents by gentleness and kindness."- Saladin.

The knights of Arabia are feared and respected throughout the world. Men of valour and honour, they are exceptional warriors and guardians of their land that was founded upon the most heroic of ideals. In the name of the Genie and for the glory of the Emirs and Sultans, they sweep aside evil on the field of battle, for none can stand against their glorious charge.

The Arabs are a powerful army formed around a core of brave knights supported by scores of low-born peasants. The knights range from the youngest Desert Knights, eager to prove their worth, through to the Oasis Knights, defenders of the land. Rarer still are the Sandstorm Knights, wandering warriors engaged in the quest for the Magic Lamp of the Genie, and the legendary Genie Knights themselves, who have succeeded in their quest and granted the vision of him. Some knights ride to battle borne upon the backs of giant vultures, flying high above the army to descend on their foes. When the Arabian Knights march to war, their Esirs march beside them, as do a levy of Fremen with their bows drafted into service.

THE GENIE (The Lady of the Lake)

Since the ancient times, the Arabians have worshipped the "Genie" as their god, a figure of myth and legend, who guides the sultans and protects their land from harm. Worship of the Genie can be traced to the earliest days of the sultanate. It is said that he arose from a magic lamp before Saladin and his knightly companions on the dawn of the Great Victory of Hıttin.

Appearing as coming out of a magic lamp, the Genie will only appear to those who faced great peril and are pure of heart. Many knights, wishing to prove thier valour, declare that they will go on a Genie Quest and seek the magic lamp and become one of the legendary Genie Knights, warriors of unsurpassed skill who are incapable of malice and impure thought. Sacred oasises and areas of mystical power are his dwelling places, and the Genie Knights are his protectors devoting themselves to upholding his honour.

Throughout Arabia there are many Genie chapels built upon sites where the Genie is said to have been encountered. It is the sacred duty of the Genie Knights to protect these shrines and often such knights will devote the remainder of their lives to defending the Genie's shrine from defilement.

DEVOTED OF THE GENIE (Prophetesses and Damsels)

Sometimes, young children within the desert people are seen to have strange and mystical powers. A superstitious people as a whole, whether noble or low-born, the Arabs will generally be fearful of such gifted children. Before they reach puberty, almost all children with these strange talents will be visited by the Djinn, a myhtical creature and servant of the Genie. He takes them with him to Araf, and they are mourned by their parents as if they were no longer living. Nevertheless, it is a great honour to be taken by the Djinn, and it is believed they go on to a better place, where their powers are used to serve the blessed Genie himself. While nothing is ever seen of the boy-children again, sometimes the girl-children will return to Arabia years later as "Hatun"s and "Hanım"s.

The devotees of the Genie perform mystical rituals from time to time, known as "bellydance" to the common people. Dressed in the most provocative ways, these sacred ladies try to get the attention of the Genie on themselves. It is believed that the bellydance is the most favorite thing to watch for the Genie and he rewards a bellydance which is performed beautifully. Even though the Hanıms and Hatuns never get pregnant, the common belief says that for each bellydance performed to perfection, a future knight is put in a mother's womb somewhere in the desert lands as a blessing from the Genie.

DESERT KNIGHTS (Knights Errant)

All noble sons of the desert are committed to the path of knighthood from the moment they are born. Though birth into nobility guarantees his place within the circles of the knighthood, a young noble is not honoured until he has proven his worth. Some earn status through faithful service to their lords, others through powerful connections, but the most glorious and only true way for a young knight to fulfil his calling is to test himself against the foe on the field of battle. Those whose skill and bravery are proven will go on to become Oasis Knights.

OASIS KNIGHTS (Knights of the Realm)

Once a Desert Knight has proven himself worthy of his station, he is confirmed as an Oasis Knight. Upon his investiture, the knight is given the responsibility of administrating a domain - generally a few acres of land, a village and an oasis.

SANDSTORM KNIGHTS (Questing Knights)

Since the days of Saladin, the Magic Lamp of the Genie has been the ultimate symbol of Arabic chivalry, the ultimate goal of any true knight. A knight who begins the quest for the Magic Lamp relinquishes all his worldly possessions and all ties to his domain. Sandstorm Knights live a solitary existance, the Genie their only companion. Driven by the visions of the Magic Lamp and guided by the sandstorms, a knight may travel for countless leagues. The quest for the Magic Lamp knows no physical boundaries and it is common for a Sandstorm Knight to travel far beyond his domain and often beyond the realm of Arabia itself. The quest is always foremost in the knight's mind, daring to hope that one day his efforts will be rewarded with a sight of the Magic Lamp.

GENIE KNIGHTS (Grail Knights)

Only when a Sandstorm Knight has proven his valour and purity beyond all doubt does the Genie appear to him in a vision, rewarding him with the sight of the Magic . Those who experience this are changed forever, granted lifespans many times that of normal men, as well as other, stranger gifts. From that moment on the knight is irrevocably committed to the service of the Genie, a bond that can only be broken by death.

GENIE RELIC (Grail Reliquae)

Whereever the Genie Knights travel, they gather a trail of fanatical worshippers whose only goal in life is to bask in the reflected glory of these mighty individuals. To such zealots, most prized of all the possessions is a sculpture of the Genie and his Magic Lamp itself which they carry whereever they go. This sculpture is the ultimate icon of their devotion to both the Genie and his knights  - mobile shrines from which the chosen amongst them can preach their creed.

ESIRS (Men-at-Arms)

Each midsummer, commoners flock to their lord's oasis to present their sons in the hope that they will be trained as Esirs, slave warriors. For a peasant to have a son accepted into the ranks of a knight's household is a great honour. All morning and afternoon the knight inspects the candidates.  By dusk, the luckiest and strongest are selected and are taken where they are given basic training and outfitted in the livery of their lord.

MOUNTED ESIRS (Mounted Yeomen)

As they hold such priviledges positions as head gaolers and militia sergeants, to become a mounted esir is the highest rank to which a peasant can aspire. Though no peasant may ride the camels of the Arabian lords, mounted esirs are permitted to ride to battle on horses. Such troops will often scout ahead of the main army and keep the knights informed of enemy movements - a dangerous task, and one which earns no honour, so it is a task that the nobility believe is best performed by peasants.

FREMEN (Peasant Bowman)

When the call to war comes, every peasant able to fight must serve in the armies of Arabia. Most are employed as levies of longbowmen who are expected to engage enemies unworthy of a knight's attention. Unlike the Esirs, Fremen are not equipped from the armouries of their lord and turn up to battle in all manner of garb.

VULTURE KNIGHTS (Pegasus Knights)

Most Vulture Knights hail from around the heart of the desert, where many of those noble mounts can be found, feasting on the corpses of the fugitives. Only the richest and most influential knights can boast of owning a battle trained giant vulture, for the creatures are difficult to capture and harder still to train.

ARABIAN WAR CAMELS

The Arabian Knights owe their success not only to their own valour and skill, but also to the endurance and temper of their steeds. So highly valued are these beasts that a royal decree of many centuries standing forbids the export of these magnificent animals. Naturally, only a noble is permitted to ride a war camel, though a few lucky and trusted peasants may be allowed to act as grooms and stablehands, and thus sleep in the same barn as one.

MANJANIQ (Field Trebuchet)

Manjaniqs are immense wooden-structured war machines recently introduced into the armies of the Arabs. Through a series of levers, cogs and winding mechanisms, the large arm of the manjaniq is drawn into a firing position, with immense masonry counterweights attached to the other end. A large sling is attached to the arm of the manjaniq that can hold rocks, masonry or even dead cattle. When the manjaniq is fired, the extra impetus that the sling adds to the firing arm means that it can fire further and with more power than a regular catapult. Although a knight would never stoop so low as to operate a missile weapon himself, let alone a war machine, that is not to say that he could not grudgingly see the strategic worth of it and allows his low-born servants to use them, for beign peasants they don't understand the concept of honour anyway!

Monster Madness Continues: Chaos Siege Giant

Monster Madness continues with yet another big boy. This time I have a Chaos Siege Giant.

Chaos Siege Giant is one of the new monsters advertised in Tamurkhan book. Placed in the rare slot, it is often overlooked among other choices like K'daai Destroyer and Hellcannon. I am yet to field this monster in a battle; but for the sake of completeness I had to have it :)

The model is a SPAWN action figure again, named Tormentor. The moment I saw it, I knew that this would make a great chaos giant model: It was huge, mutated and looked awesome. Since it is an action figure, it had moving parts. Once I got the figure, I fixed the positions of the joints with some glue and liquid green stuff, added the extra head and chose its weapons.

Painting this took a long time due to its huge size. First, I undercoated it all black and then basecoated the skin parts with Tallarn Flesh. These steps were done with airbrush. The rest, I painted with good old brushes, except the base where I used the airbrush extensively.

I can't give a step by step guide on how I painted this one; but I'd like to write some colors I used for a guideline. The leather parts are Vallejo's Red Leather, Brown Leather and Game Color Leather. For metallics, I used Vallejo's Natural Steel, highlighted with Mithril, then white. At first, I was a little worried that this color and the skins were too similar; but after the final highlights, I was happy with the results. I even tried a simple freehand on the back of the giant in the form of a tattoo. Probably the heads are arguing who will pay for that tattoo by now :)

After I finished painting, I checked the base size of Chaos Siege Giant. I was very surprised and worried when I saw that it is expected to be mounted on a 50x75mm base. So I went on and carved a rock formation out of foam to mount it on. I prepared it in a way that the higher the rocks, the larger the base, so I earned some more space on the base. Even now, it is expanding from the base as you can see from the photos.

Now, I need to read and learn the rules for it. I will also need a fallen giant template I guess. Enjoy the photos while I am busy with those. A comparison shot that will make you rub your eyes is included. The miniature in the comparison shot beside the giant is a Forgeworld's chaos dwarf infernal figure.