AoS Shorts: Your Essential Guide to Age of Sigmar

Army Showcase: Veillotron’s Stormcast

Today I have another great Army Showcase to share: Veillotron’s award-winning Stormcast.  Veillotron’s Stormshadow Crusaders are an excellent example of seamless conversions matched with a strong theme and great painting.  The more you look at the models, the more you notice and appreciate the force.  It has such a great overall tabletop effect too.

Stormcast

For more great Age of Sigmar armies, check out the other showcase posts.  And remember that the site is now partnered with Dark Fantastic Mills, producers and purveyors of amazing 3D printed terrain and you can use the code “aos shorts” to get 10% off.  The terrain is super light so shipping worldwide is surprisingly cheap.  With that said, I’ll hand over to Veillotron to talk a little about his army.

Age of Sigmar


Stormshadow Crusaders

I got into Age of Sigmar two years ago. I had painted models between the ages of 10 and 15 but had not picked up a brush in 25 years. Spurred by my son who wanted to play the game, I decided to take on the challenge of painting a full army, something I had never done before.

I’ve always loved knights and mostly painted Bretonnian models when I was younger. As there are no chivalric factions in Age of Sigmar, Stormcast were the next logical choice; I also really liked their aesthetics.

The most important goal when designing my army was to make it as unique as possible, to make it my own. That meant coming up with a differentiated i) theme; ii) color scheme; and iii) conversions, which I had never done before.


Developing a Theme for the Stormshadow Crusaders

I wanted my army to have a battle-worn, realistic and gritty appearance. I wanted my warriors to look like they had gone through – and survived – hundreds of battles. I also wanted my Stormcasts to be menacing and dark, whilst remaining noble.

The Stormshadow Crusaders is a Stormhost formed exclusively of ex-Chaos worshipers (mostly adepts of Tzeentch) which have been ‘converted’ by Ghal Maraz. Continuously haunted by their past crimes, they are on a never-ending quest for redemption.

One of the reasons I love the battle-worn/weathered look so much is all the added details and textures which can be added to armour, boots and clothing.  I was inspired by many photos on Putty & Paint.


Converting the Stormcast

Converting models is the best way to make your army feel more unique. Since I had never done any conversion work before, I thought that doing simple headswaps would be the easiest way to learn about that part of the hobby.

I was also keen to give my Stormcast a more medieval and practical feel. Games Workshop has a tendency of making huge helms for leaders, and I wanted my heroes to look like they dressed for a battle, not a parade.

It took me a while – longer than I had originally though – to find Games Workshop helms that fitted the style that I was looking for [Editor: converters often look for official Games Workshop parts so that they can take part in events at Warhammer World]. The more recent Bretonnian sculpts all had those heraldic decorations which didn’t fit the theme of my army. I really liked the sculpts from the late 80s/early 90s, but given cost and availability, it didn’t make sense. In the end, I found a lot of the helms I am using through the ForgeWorld website.

Stormcast

I was pleasantly surprised at how much of an impact a headswap can have on the overall appearance of a model.


Picking the Color Scheme

My initial goal was to make the army as monochromatic as possible. I knew from the start that I wanted my army’s two main colours to be silver and white. But I wanted those two colors to be much darker in shade, to reflect my Stormcasts’s darker side

The only other color I was initially intending to use was brown – for belts, scabbards, boots, etc.
I quickly came to the realisation that those colors were too bland. I then decided to add to the palette a purplish maroon (similar to the Stormcast’s standard hilt color) and some gold, which worked well as a spot color, really bringing some life into the models.

Monsters and mounts are a good way to introduce another color into your army without disrupting the overall theme. With the idea of keeping the look of my army as monochromatic as possible, I painted my dracoths in the same purplish maroon I used for the weapon hilts and the primes’ manes. Unfortunately, that didn’t work out as I had hoped, the whole army looked a bit too dark and bland.

So I decided to try a new color scheme for my gryph-chargers, something lighter. And that’s when I decided to go for the grey-blue/white scheme, with some thunderhawk blue to add a bit more life.  I was really happy with the results on the test model and decided to paint all mounts and monsters in that color scheme.


Lord-Celestant on Aetherdrake

Stormcast

As the centerpiece of my army I wanted to build an Aetherdrake: a more nimble, fast-moving and wingless Stardrake (wingless was much more for practical reasons than an aesthetic choice: I wanted to be able to travel to the UK without the model breaking apart).

I found that, when tilted, the Carnosaur pose seems even more dynamic, as if he’s running at full speed. That is why I decided to use that model as the starting base for my Aetherdrake.

This was by far my biggest conversion work, although it was mostly kit-bashing and required very little green-stuffing.  I had a lot of fun kit-bashing this hero. I used bits from the Carnosaur, Stardrake, Archaon, Lord-Aquilor, Vanguard-Palladors, Celestant-Prime, Gavriel Sureheart, Sequitors, Liberators and Ruins of Osgiliath kits.  The helm is from ForgeWorld’s Infernal Guards Fireglaives. Oh, and a few Bonesplitters arrows!


Celestant-Prime

Stormcast

For practical reasons, I decided to do the Prime without his wings. I also wasn’t too keen on the shape of the Prime’s wings, they reminded me a bit too much of traditional religious paintings. It also made him look a bit less angelic and slightly more menacing. Now that my army has been magnetized and easily fits into my case, I have been thinking of adding a pair of wings. If I do, I will be using the wings of the Knight-Azyros.

Stormcast


Cyan Aetherblade, Lord-Aquilor

Stormcast

This is actually my favourite model, despite it not my best paint job (I’ve done a better job painting the gryph-charger fur of most of my Palladors…). He is also my only named model, I need to come up with names for all my other dudes…

I really love the model because of i) that helmet, my all-time favorite sculpt (comes from a knight model I bought in the late 80s); ii) I love the regal pose of the gryph-charger; and iii) I love the skull chalice he’s holding in his left hand – that is a nod to both his background lore and to my personal Grail, the Warhammer World Grand Tournament trophy which I will never win…


Lord-Castellant

Stormcast

This was my first attempt at OSL. Might have gone a bit too heavy on the blue highlights, but it was a fun experience. The helm is from ForgeWorld’s Infernal Guard Standard Bearer.

 


Knight Incantor

Stormcast

This is the latest hero that I’ve painted. It is still a work in progress, as I need to tidy-up some elements, work further on the magical blue items, and scratches on the pauldrons, amongst others. But this level was good enough for me to put him on my Armies on Parade board.

The head is used is from a Warhammer 40,000 Wrack; initially it looked too small compared to the body; by adding a Liberator ‘steel halo’, the proportions work better.

Stormcast


Vanguard-Palladors

Stormcast

The Vanguard-Palladors are in my humble view some of Games Workshop’s best models, I just love their dynamic poses.

I tried to paint the gryph-charger’s fur to look like the one of a panther, which was a lot of fun. I do find that painting texture on larger areas does help make it more interesting.

The helms are from the Freeguild Greatswords kit and the Demigryph knights.


Liberators

Stormcast

This is the first unit of my army which I painted.  I initially painted them with the Stormcast facemasks, as I had not been able to find a proper helm for them. I recently opted for the helms of the 30k World Eaters kit from ForgeWorld.

Stormcast

To match the look of my Stardrake I also added a few arrows to the unit – some hitting shields and a few hitting their targets.


What’s Next for Veillotron’s Stormcast?

I doubt that anybody was as excited as I was about the release of the Sacrosanct chamber. I had been dreaming about Stormcast in robes for the last 2 years. I tried – and failed – to convert many Ahriman and Dark Angels models into Stormcast models; with his chalice and spell book, my Lord-Aquilor was somewhat of a Lord-Arcanum before the models were released.

So now that those Sacrosanct models are out, I have a lot of units to add to my army – as many, if not more, than the current number of models I currently have. And so I probably have another 12-18 months of painting before I can say that I’m happy with my Stormcast army.

But I might take a small break and paint something for a change. My pile of grey plastic has grown much faster than the number of painted models, and I have enough to build 4 additional armies. I want to paint a Chaos army based in some frozen land, but I think that I’ll start with a destruction army, led by the lovely Troll Hag.

Stormcast

Army Showcase: The Living City

Today I have another great army showcase to share with you:  Adam Cunis‘ Living City army.  Full of amazing conversions – from dragons, to griffons, to a unique Treelord Ancient.  It is definitely worth checking out Adam’s award-winning army.  Adam was also kind enough to share his thoughts on how the army came together and developed over time.  Thanks Adam!

For more great Age of Sigmar armies, check out the other showcase posts.  And remember that the site is now partnered with Dark Fantastic Mills, producers and purveyors of amazing 3D printed terrain and you can use the code “aos shorts” to get 10% off.  The terrain is super light so shipping worldwide is surprisingly cheap.  With that said, I’ll hand over to Oscar to talk a little about his army.

Age of Sigmar


Living City

For the love of dragons

Like everything in Age of Sigmar it started with a dragon… #dragonmeta

I’d got to a point this year of disenchantment with Order Draconis, not because they aren’t awesome, but mostly because I’m not as awesome at playing AoS as the list could be. I was rereading Firestorm, looking for inspiration, and somewhere else to stick a bunch of dragons for more fun games down at Magic Madhouse (Angel Wargamers’ de facto headquarters these days).

After AoS2 dropped I played a lot of competitive games in a short space of time and burned out.

I’ve only comparatively recently become a matched gamer. Having been painting toys based on what I think is cool for 22 years (never did the break thing that you hear about anecdotally whilst people become students etc) and playing at tournaments since only 2013 (a couple of 40k events followed in 2014 by SCGT!).

Glade Lord on Forest Dragon

A couple years back, I built my pride and joy – a Glade Lord on Forest Dragon.  The aim was to run him as an ally for my Order Draconis.

Living City

He was 400 points, Wanderers were in the allies matrix and this was before the existence of the Doppelganger Cloak which has a similar effect to the soporific breath

Living City

However, the Wanderer keyword vanished when the warscrolls were updated. So, for a while Skarloc Swiftstride, Dragonrider (my old Realms at War wardancer narrative conversion) became a Dragonlord for Order Draconis instead… and it was glorious.

But dragons aren’t my only love in AoS.

Wanderers

When the world exploded and all our bases lost their corners I was painting twigs I’d found in the garden to look like fallen boughs of Wildwood trees… and sullen, green clad Wood Elves to stand on them. In fact the first models I painted for Age of Sigmar were wanderers. And under Mo Comp I did quite well with them. But then, as with all good things, the time of the Waywatchers came to pass and only the Lord option remained. Gone were my 3 man machine gun, 80 point battleline units.

Living City

The rise of Sylvaneth

Then came the Sylvaneth. I’d always run a few Dryads, a Branchwraith, three Treekin and a Treelord with my wanderers. But the battletome was my best bet at an army that felt like the play style of 8th Edition old world wood elves.

I had some limited success with the list and converted all my Kurnoth Hunters to match my Tree Revenants. I wanted elf spirits emerging from trees across the army.

Living City

All of which, unbeknownst to me, was leading me down the shadowy paths of Ghyran to the Jade Kingdom of Thyria and the city of the Everqueen herself, the first of the seeds of hope: The Living City.

The Living City

Living City

The initial thought behind building a Living City army from the Firestorm Allegiance was to include a Treelord Ancient, Glade Lord on Forest Dragon (Stardrake) and Orion (Celestant Prime) as Triumvirate leaders of an alliance of the peoples of Order.

The Treelord Ancient

Living City

The Treelord Ancient was built using finecast Belakor’s torso and a head from Inquisitor Scale Kal Jerico (he came with three). The staff top is an actual pine cone and the basis for the rest of the model is metal Treebeard from LotR and some actual pieces of wood!

I bought a larger base to transform Skarloc into a Stardrake rider, bought a larger base to transform Orion into a Celestant Prime (his Retribution on High ability easily explained by the Hidden in the Shadows allegiance ability).

As I played with lists I moved away from the Stardrake – he’s so expensive points wise, everything I wrote was very alpha strike/ combat orientated. Which is fine. But is exactly what I’d been playing already with Order Draconis.

A new direction – refugees and prospectors

So I thought what do I really want from the army, I thought about human refugees and prospectors, working alongside the aelves of Ghryan, I thought about having fewer Sylvaneth in the army itself as they would be within the forest, so the Branchwraith and summonable Dryads came in.

Living City

The Treelord ancient had to stay to put forests on the table for my ambush tactics and that just didn’t feel like a Stardrake or Prime build anymore.

I realised that I wanted to recreate that almost-but-not-quite synergy I’d had thematically with my Wanderers and Sylvaneth back at the beginning of AoS.

So battleline was to be filled out with ragtag human survivors, and thirty glade guard.

I realised that if I deploy off the table with the archers and ambush with them then I do not have the opportunity to use the Nomad Prince’s reroll 1s to hit command ability reliably (activated in the hero phase) so in came a Sylvaneth Knight Azyros.

Living City

Godric, Freeguild General on Griffon

I looked at the Free Peoples range and remembered about the General on Griffon, one of my all time favourite models, except for the static pose necessary for old monster base squares…

A narrative started to form in my head of the Lady Alarielle herself saving the life of Godric, Freeguild General, of no given land, a nomad, questing knight. He swore allegiance to the goddess of life and by extension swore to protect her city and the hope it represented to the forces of Order.

I wanted him to be a centrepiece towering above the footslogging aelves and men (at this point I have no dispossessed Duardin in the army, although a mining cart might be entertaining) so I took a hobby knife and clippers to the Griffon and its rider.

Living City

A paint scheme challenge

And then he got some paint, Andy Burton and I have been challenging each other to level up our painting recently and he reckoned that Purple, Green and Yellow would work well, but It’d be hard work. So I took on the challenge.

Driven by narrative

You’ll notice in the previous image that Godric has both his arms intact. Just before priming him I had a brainwave, if Lady Alarielle had blessed him with new life, something ought to show, out came the clippers, on came a Tree Revenant arm instead, blessings of the lady indeed! His head, for those interested is from the Van Saar warband in Necromunda and the Living City symbol on the Griffon’s chest armour is carefully cut from printer paper (I drew it with Green pen, its not green stuff it’s just what was lying around…) and affixed with PVA glue then sealed with ‘Ardcoat.

Living City

Demigryph Knights

The rest of the army came together pretty easily at this point from my existing collection of Wood Elves and Sylvaneth until… club mate Alex decided he was running Sylvaneth in 2019 at the two team events we’re signed up for so… I can’t have Kurnoth Hunters in my list. I racked my brains (and Andy’s and Matt Hinton’s on a long drive to London from York) and replaced them with Demigryph Knights, a much underused unit.

But the models are a bit gormless… back in 2014 I had a Demonic mount battle standard bearer in 8th edition for my Chaos army, he was riding a big old lion:

Living City

I thought I’d do the same conversion but for a whole unit!

Living City

The Living City list coalesces

The rest of the list shaped up like this for Angelcore which was a 2k tournament at Magic Madhouse London 6-7th October 2018.  You can check out coverage including streamed games here.  

Allegiance: The Living City
Mortal Realm: Ghyran
Leaders
Treelord Ancient (300)
Branchwraith (80)
Freeguild General On Griffon (260)
– General
– Shield & Greathammer
– Trait: Legendary Fighter
– Artefact: Ghyrstrike
Knight-Azyros (100)
Spellweaver (100)
– Heartwood Staff
Nomad Prince (80)
Battleline
10 x Freeguild Archers (100)
10 x Freeguild Guard (80)
– Halberds and Shields
30 x Glade Guard (360)
Units
3 x Demigryph Knights (140)
– Lance and Sword
20 x Wildwood Rangers (280)
Endless Spells
Chronomantic Cogs (60)
Total: 1940 / 2000

So there we have it, a bit long, a bit rambling, but that’s how my Living City army came to fruition this summer. I’ve really enjoyed playing something a bit more dynamic and active than throwing three dragons at people. I’m already planning an Alarielle conversion and writing lists that include elements from this one with more Sylvaneth too!

The full Living City army on display

Living City

Thanks for reading

Adam

@HadrielCaine

Army Showcase: Oscar’s Stormcast NMM

Today I have an absolute treat of another army showcase: Oscar Lars Knutsson’s beautiful non-metallic metal (NMM) Stormcast Eternals army.  NMM is a technique you see on display pieces but Oscar has applied it to an entire army!  Now if you are going to Gencon this weekend, you could be lucky enough to see Oscar’s army in the flesh, but if not, check out his websiteInstagram and Twitter feeds for all his amazing pictures and commission painting.   Oscar even did a handy tutorial video!

Stormcast

For more great Age of Sigmar armies, check out the other showcase posts.  And remember that the site is now partnered with Dark Fantastic Mills, producers and purveyors of amazing 3D printed terrain and you can use the code “aos shorts” to get 10% off.  The terrain is super light so shipping worldwide is surprisingly cheap.  With that said, I’ll hand over to Oscar to talk a little about his army.

Age of Sigmar


Oscar Lars Stormcast Eternals NMM

When Age of Sigmar first came out, I was not hot for the Stormcast Eternals. Warriors who saves the day with nothing more to them than a full servitude for Sigmar and hate for Chaos.   It felt lackluster to me, and I turned my attention elsewhere.  I started playing Ironjawz as their lore, style of play, and models were superior to any other faction I saw.

When GW began revitalizing their lore through the Malign Portents short stories I began seeing new light regarding the forces of Sigmar’s Finest.  They aren’t actually ‘good’, and they certainly had more depth now. The process of dying, being reforged, dying again, had a much greater cost than first anticipated. It truly filled a much needed void and a desire for such a force began to grow.

Another aspect of what drove me to Stormcast Eternals was their capability of displaying a clean and sharp aesthetic.  By this time I had just celebrated my first full decade as a commission painter and never really dipped my toe into Non Metallic Metal.  It is such a cool technique and as a recent graduate of a five year art degree, I decided the time was right.  Additionally, I am not a single model painter, but an army-painter, so the project had to be something bigger than I’d seen anybody do before. But I couldn’t paint each individual model to be a perfect ten as it would simply take too long.

I had to create a style of Non Metallic Metal that was advanced enough to convey its concept, but quick enough to be able to paint an army in roughly six months.  It took me a significant amount of time to generate a process that I felt happy with.  The research process consisted of studying Ben Comets (Painting Buddah), Riccardo Frizzoni, and Alex Borodenkov, the later being very helpful responding to my questions on Instagram as well as generating a color palette that would be under 10 colors.  It really came down to taking a color here, one color there, a certain way of placing the light on certain objects, etc to create my own version of the technique.  I didn’t even keep my initial style of painting all the way through.  It developed during the project.  So if looking close, one can see a difference between my liberators and Paladins in comparison to the later models like the Judicators and Celestial Ballista. It is something that doesn’t really bother me, personally.

This is also what’s so fantastic about army painting; A tough beginning to push through means I will improve.  It’s such a rewarding process that shows clear progression.  It also helps to strengthen very important character traits such as discipline and patience.  The biggest reward is here now that I can finally put them on the table and play a full 2000pts game against some fun opponents.

My list for GenCon is a bit of a mixup.  It truly was a blessing and a curse they released the Sacrosanct Chamber when they did.  It’s awesome the models came out early enough for me to include some, but that also mean I could only have a handful of them ready for the conventions. It goes as follows:

Hammers of Sigmar Stormhost

Heroes:

Celestant Prime

Knight Incantor

Vandus Hammerhand

Gavriella Sureheart

Lord Relictor

Battleline:

X5 Liberators

X5 Liberators

X5 Judicators

Artillery:

Celestial Ballista

Other Units:

X5 Decimators

X5 Protectors

Endless Spells:

Everblazing Comet

Prismatic Palisade

X1 extra Command Point

So what is next? Well, I’ve had my eyes on Aventis Firestrike ever since he emerged on Twitter “leaks” from Games Day.  I’ll be sure to pick him up.  I may also get some Evocators riding the Celestial Dracolines.  Those models are just simply amazing. In addition, I already have Astreia Solbright primed and ready to go, and she would definitely lead the pack, either as herself or a regular Lord Arcanum on Celestial Dracoline. However, most exciting is my next army project that is already… “cooking…” But you have to wait a while to find out what it is.

Lastly, I’d like to thank everyone who’s supported me and this project on TGA, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.  A special thanks to Jonatan Englund and the Honest Wargamer crew (check out their podcast and live Twitter streams if you haven’t).

Celestant Prime

Stormcast

Knight Incantor

Stormcast

Vandus Hammerhand

Stormcast

Gavriella Sureheart

Stormcast

Lord Relictor

Stormcast

Liberators

Stormcast

Stormcast

Judicators

Stormcast

Celestial Ballista

Stormcast

Decimators

Stormcast

Protectors

Stormcast

Everblazing Comet

Stormcast

Prismatic Palisade

Stormcast

Army Showcase: Douglas Fazzani’s Deepkin

Today is the first in a quick run of army showcase posts, with some great Age of Sigmar armies popping up again at Throne of Skulls.  Throne of Skulls is traditionally an event which pulls some great looking armies and Douglas Fazzani (@dfazzani) received a best painted nomination for his fabulous Deepkin.  This army is a great demonstration of how a striking bold colour scheme, almost abstract in concept, with top quality basing produces an amazing overall army effect on the tabletop.

For more great Age of Sigmar armies, check out the other showcase posts.  But for now, I’ll hand over to Douglas to talk a little about his army.


Douglas Fazzani’s Deepkin

I like to take new armies to every tournament I go to and try and improve a bit of painting that I feel I’m lacking in for each one.

This time I wanted to improve my basing.  Normally I paint the army then panic and slap some texture paint on it, which looks ok but won’t win me any awards.  I was originally going to do a stormy sea crashing against rocks for the Daughters of Khaine (and went so far as to make some bases) but then the Deepkin were announced and it was obviously destined to be!

The majority of the painting is done with an airbrush (something I’m still learning to use).  The bases are made with 2 part epoxy resin using wooden base blanks and Overhead Projector paper to make a mould.

Deepkin


Deepkin Heroes

Eidolon of Mathlann

Deepkin

Volturnos

Deepkin

 

Tidecaster

Deepkin

Soulscryer

Deepkin

Soulrender

Deepkin

Akhelian Morsarr Guard

Deepkin

Namarti Thralls

Deepkin

Namarti Reavers

Deepkin

Leviadon!

Deepkin

 

 

Army Showcase: The Meatmen of Mitzmanheim

So today’s showcase is with a community favourite, Mark Mitzman, NEO (*Narrative Event Organiser) and co-host of the Mitzy and Jimbo Show, a great new Warhammer Age of Sigmar lifestyle show on YouTube.  Check out his show, give him a follow on Twitter and see all the great coverage leading up to Realms at War 2018 🙂

Mitzy has kindly set out his army narrative below and shared a number of really great pictures of his Destruction army.  Straight off the bat is Grazgrog and his mate Nucklez 😉

The Meatmen of Mitzmanheim: the lore

The name “The Meatmen of Mitzmanheim” is a name that harks back through centuries. It is a name passed down from one generation to the next. It is a name that is feared by all who speak of it, and for good reason. For the Meatmen of Mitzmanheim are a purely destructive force descended from an ancient ogre tribe.

The legend tells the tale of an Ogre Tyrant the mighty Marg Magrog and his wife Mo who ran the Colossal Collie Inn. The Inn was deep in the heart of Mitzmanheim and was world renowned for its fabulous meat pies. Mo Magrog was a fantastic cook and her meat pies (known as “Big Dogs”) were celebrated the world over.

The people of Mitzmanheim had a special bond with both the Ogres having formed an unusual alliance with Marg Magrog. Unlike other Ogre chieftains Marg had found an unusual way to build his wealth. He was waging war throughout the old world and clearing the battlefields of the corpses, these were transported back to Mitzmanheim where Mo Magrog butchered them and turned the meat into pies.

The pies were being sold far and wide and such were the quality of the goods that they fetched a hefty price. Little did the rich aristocracy of the mighty empire know that their table centrepieces were in fact full to the brim with the meat from their own kin!

Today the Meatmen of Mitzmanheim is made up of many units from across the Destructive factions. Lead by the toughest Orruk in the realm of Ghur, Margrog Meatzniffa.

Margrog has roamed the realm of Ghur for decades, in search of a of a fabled artefact. He longs to appease Gorkamorka and present his deity with a Big Dog pie, for in his mind the only way other than through war that his name will be passed down through generations is if he can find the long lost recipes of Mo Magrog!

Margrog insists that all units in his army fly the original Meatmen of Mitzmanheim flag, and the flamboyant colours of Marg and Mo Magrog (a vivid Turquoise and golden Yellow) can be seen for miles around as the Meatmen march to war. As they march the ground quakes, horns and drums sound and the cry “For Da Big Dog” is enough to drain the blood from the faces of all who are near!

Margrog Meatzniffa

Margrog, a grizzled warrior and leader of the Meatmen of Mitzmanheim has lived and breathed war for decades. He has slashed and ripped his way to the top of the pile and is rightly feared by all Meatmen. He searches tirelessly for the fabled “Big Dog” list and will continue to ravage all who stand in his way. His path has crossed that of many factions but none have tested his resolve more than the The Huntspinney of Sequoyya in particular the Crimsonwood Kurnoth Hunters who recently left him scarred as they showered the Meatmen with their arrows, they will pay in droves the next time that they meet!

Mark Mitzman

Hedrippaz Andyboyz

Hedrippa has lived among the Meatmen almost as long as Margrog. He has risen through the Brute ranks and through countless engagements has proven his worth. Kunning in nature he is adept at using speed of his kin to wreak havoc on any enemy foolish enough to be caught out by his speed. Hedrippa is Big Boss of the Meatmen Ironfist formation. He also tears heads from shoulders with his bare hands. The Andyboys fly Marg and Mo’s personal banner handed down over centuries.

Mark Mitzman

Tinka n da Troggiez

Tinka n da Troggiez come from a realm now lost, Tinka lived in the sewers of Mitzmanheim, coming out at night to prey on any citizen foolish to stagger home alone at night. One evening Marg was escorting the last of the punters out of the Colossal Collie Inn and caught sight of Tinka in the alley. Marg persuaded Tinka to seek out and find other Troggiez who would like to march with him in return for free meat. Tinka raised an army of Troggoths that became a reliable and devastating part of the Meatmen army. Marg and Mo presented Tinka with the flag that hung on the Inn as recognition of his skills. Tinka lives on to this day through the power of regeneration, and is the only living Meatman to meet the tribes great iconic leaders Marg and Mo. Margrog knows the history behind Tinka n da Troggies and Tinka is the only living soul that truly scares him…

Mark Mitzman

Sneaky Stikaz

Every Orruk tribe has its grots, they run amok fetchin and carryin fings for the big uns. The grots that run with the Meatmen are amongst the toughest and grizzled grots in the mortal realms. The Sneaky Stikaz are made up of Snotlings, Spiderfang Grots, Nasty Skulkers, common all garden Grots and are lead into battle by Tiny. Tiny is a snotling. Snotlings are not normally known for being the sharpest knife in the block, but Tiny is very much the boss. He has been lurking around the Meatmen for years and has a filthy reputation for getting what he wants, namely gold teeth. Tiny collects them and has been pulling them from heads since he was a fungus spore, he has a hammer, and it’s very good for taking teeth and breaking knees.Mark Mitzman

Grazgrug’s Gruntaz

Grazgrug cut his teeth brawling his way to the top of the brute pile, he has been on Margrogs’ right hand throughout his reign at the head of the Meatmen. Grazgrug was the first of the Meatmen to track, capture and tame a Gore Grunta. He spent months perfecting his riding skills and even longer teaching the craziest and most savage brutes to ride. The Gruntaz now form the fast attack, speed strike element of the Meatmen.

Mark Mitzman

Piggot’s Pigmen

Piggot yearns to be a Brute, moreso he longs to be riding a hulking Gore Grunta. He leads the Pigmen into battle time and time again trying to prove his worth. Piggot and his riders are fleet of foot and are often sent out to scout ahead and report back to Margrog on the advancing enemy.

Mark Mitzman

Reinforcements

Big Geoff Gutwrench – Giant

Rokko – Idol of GorkaMorka

The Clankerz – led by Gruzgler One Eye

Mark Mitzman

 

Mark Mitzman

Army Showcase: Brad Glover’s Skaven Army

Hi all, with all the news and releases coming out for Age of Sigmar Second Edition, I didn’t want to forget to post this Age of Sigmar army showcase on Brad Glover’s amazingly converted Skaven army.  Brad did rather well in the painting competition at the Games Workshop Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament Heat 3 (9/10 June 2018).

Skaven

As you can see, Brad’s army is full of amazing conversions and scratch-builds using parts from Kharadron Overlords, Clan Skryre and Freeguild.  The vehicles in particular are just absolutely crazy – exactly what you think of when you picture Skaven war machines.  Make sure not to overlook the work Brad has done on the foot-troops too.  Brad’s work shows that you are only really limited by your imagination 🙂

Skaven

You can find Brad on Twitter, more Army Showcases on this site, and more UK tournament hobby coverage over at ProPainted Podcast.  If you know an army that should be showcased and displayed for a wide audience, you can get in touch with my through this site, Facebook and Twitter.

 


What a stunning Skaven army


New additions since this showcase was first posted

Skaven

 

Skaven

Skaven

 

Army Showcase: Tim’s Daughters of Khaine

Hello, today is another Army Showcase post – a great opportunity to share a cool Age of Sigmar army with an excellent paint job and great conversions.  This post is on Tim Fisher’s Greco-Roman inspired Daughters of Khaine army which only recently (9/10 June 2018) received a painting nomination at Games Workshop’s Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament Heat 3.

Given how beautiful the army is, its hard to believe that Tim started building the army only in February.  Now, I’ve asked Tim a number of questions relating to the army, its background, his inspiration and his tools, which he was kind enough to answer below.  You can find Tim on Twitter as @timfisher22 – so give him a follow and check out his next awesome project.  You can also find me at @AoS_Shorts 🙂

For more Age of Sigmar painting and hobby content, check out the hobby section of the site, the Creator Class series, Mengel Minis, Vince Venturella’s hobby videos and the @ProPainted Podcast – check it out at their website and on iTunes.  If you are tempted by the Daughters of Khaine, you can also check out the Daughters of Khaine page on the site covering all the details from the release.


Tim’s Daughters of Khaine

Painting inspiration and background

AoS Shorts: Where did your inspiration for the army and the colour scheme come from?

The inspiration was implanted from the moment I saw the animated video that the GW Community Team released.  The nods to ancient Greco-Roman culture and the revelation that Morathi had survived being consumed by Slaanesh had me hooked from the get go!

AoS Shorts: Does the army have a background and story?

Morathi is up to her nefarious schemes again!  In this instance she’s leading a force of her Daughters across the realms to find ancient Khaine temples built by the aelves during the Age of Myth.  These temples were all ruined during the Age of Chaos but they are sacred to the Daughters and Morathi is basically stringing them along in a fool’s errand to search for fragments of Khaine on these holy sites.  Of course, there’s a great deal of enemies in such inhospitable areas so Morathi is in a win-win situation.  She keeps the aelves hoodwinked and has them believe she’s loyal to Khaine by searching for his fragments and in the process much blood and souls are spilled in the name of Morathi…..erm Khaine!

Daughters of Khaine army selection

AoS Shorts: Did you start the project with a particular list in mind or did you pick the models you like?

After using Warherd earlier in the year (and getting beaten….a lot!) , I decided I’d go for whatever power build was doing the rounds early doors.

I’m a sucker for a quirky build though and one of my favourite things about Age of Sigmar is the flexibility you have when building your army. I’m a fan of big, stompy things and so…… I used all the big stuffs!

Making great bases for your Age of Sigmar models

AoS Shorts: You have some great bases in the army – can you share how you did them? Where did you source the parts from etc?

The colour scheme is a variant of Tyler Mengel’s desert base tutorial that he has on his blog

I used Seraphim Sepia to wash the whole base after the highlight was drybrushed on then added a further highlight. The columns/stone floor are P3 Hammefall Khaki, washed with Reikland Felshtone and highlighted with khaki + white.

In terms of the parts of the bases themselves:

  • For the stone flooring I used Will’s Paving plasticard. It’s a thick plasticard used in model railways. You can source it from eBay.
  • Elven columns are from Figone.
  • The jars and vases are from Fenris
  • The tufts are from Tajima1 –  they have the best range of tufts I’ve used.

Converting your Age of Sigmar models

AoS Shorts: There are also some cool conversions – can you talk us through your favourites?  Tell us how you did the amazing Avatars to start?

The Avatars are based on the Forgeworld Aeldhari Avatar for 40k. I shaved off all of the Aeldhari imagery and gemstones etc and removed the runesword. I then used the plastic Avatar from the Cauldron kit to donate parts such as the head, swords, forearms and assorted spikes. An expensive conversion, but worth it I feel!

AoS Shorts: While I didn’t ask Tim directly, his Death Hag and Cauldron of Blood have both been heavily converted drawing on Eldar and other Daughters of Khaine bits.

AoS Shorts: How did you do the blood effect on the Eidolon of Khaine?

I wanted the Eidolon to look like a part of the force rather than a random water borne ally.  The moment I saw the Deepkin vid that went online after Adepticon I thought it would look great as blood instead of water!  I also used another plastic Avatar head and some spikes to pimp him out a bit, as well as swapping his spear for one from a Bloodwrack Medusa.  I think the end result ties him in nicely with my force.

All of the blood effects and also the laquered paintwork on the Cauldron/Eidolon armour is painted on using Tamiya Clear Red (I get mine from Element Games – you can use my referral code TIM697 ;))

I painted the cloak a deep umber colour and highlighted the ‘splodges’ and cloak edges with a mid, then brighter red. I washed with Carroburg Crimson then painted on 3 coats of Tamiya straight from the pot allowing to dry overnight for each coat to cure fully.

Future plans – expanding the army

AoS Shorts: Any future plans for additions to the army or themed terrain?

After Heat 3 where I used the army for the very first time game 1 (having been up until 2:30am painting!) I realised that big, stompy stuff is a lot of fun to use, but it isn’t great at some scenarios as you lack the numbers.

I plan to add a unit of 10 Blood Sisters and 2 x 5 Khinerai Heartrenders. I’ll need to drop the Avatars and downgrade the Slaughter Queen on Cauldron to a Hag to fit this in. Looking further ahead I think I’ll need to make a decision to drop either the Eidolon ally or Morathi as both of them are almost half of the army…. I think Morathi will win that war but it’ll nice to use some other choices than Morathi now and then as I’d like to try out a Bloodwrack Shrine and also have some points for a battalion and maybe at some point more Witch Aelves (though I’m avoiding that as I didn’t enjoy painting them!)

Army Showcase: Danny Cashman’s Kharadron Overlords

As some of you may have seen, Danny Cashman’s Kharadron Overlords army swept the painting and sportsmanship awards at the Games Workshop Age of Sigmar Grand Tournament Heat 2 this last weekend.  In an absolutely amazing effort, Danny won every single painting category, except for “best unit”:

  • Best hero
  • Best behemoth
  • Best army nomination
  • Best army trophy
  • Favourite player
  • Favourite player trophy
  • Knight of the inner circle trophy

Its rare that an army has such an impact on an event, so I just had to try and get some pictures from him to share with everyone.

Kharadron Overlords

Now, the Warhammer Community team has taken some professional photos of Danny’s army, so look out for the article soon, but in the mean time.  Here are all the great pics Danny had to hand.

For more of Danny, check out his Instagram.  For more about Heat 2, check out the results and top lists in my coverage post.