Khador Caster Challenge, March: The Butcher of Khardov

This month was the new League at my FLGS, through which I planned to play, and to play Khador. This is what the Khador Caster Challenge was laid down for, to get these guys on the table and play with them. I plan to play lots of eVlad, as I plan to win lots of games, however, I also want to take my time with him and paint him well, so for this month, I went back to touch up the paint job on pButcher, and sort his base out. A quick fix to get another caster completed and move on to other things. In the end, the league closes this week, and i got in a whole two matches, but that's still better than nothing.

The start of the month was taken up with the conversion and painting of my Manhunter hero for the league, so I wanted to get on with that rather than spend too long on the 'Caster this month. The Butcher was also the caster I played my second and last game of the league with. He won.

The Lady herself!

One down, two more challenges to get done for this month, with Colore ton Monde, and another, which I will reveal when all is done and dusted in a month or two.

That leaves the running total as follows:

Casters Painted: 5
The Old Witch and Scrapjack
Zerkova
pVlad (variant)
pButcher

Casters to Paint: 7
eButcher
pIrusk
eIrusk
pSorscha
eSorscha
Strakov
eVlad

Colore ton Monde: March, the Green Lady

I'm on a roll thi month, three minis done and posted, and more to follow. Here's my mini for this month's Colore ton monde painting challenge, which was to paint something green, for spring.

This is a Reaper mini, and was bought to act as a sorceress for my fledgling Bretonnian army. It is a beautiful Werner Klocke mini, and deserves a better paint job than this one, but it will do for now. I'd like to go over the eyes again, as the close up of the photography as always makes them look scrappy.

 

Traditional Oldhammer Goblin Green for the base, but with some very modern flowers, in-keeping with the spring theme.

Ulf the Finger-Eater

I had a particularly productive weekend in painting terms, finishing two minis!

This is the third manhunter mini I have painted, and second one completed (I'll get round to finishing the other soon, promise). This one is to represent "Ulf the Finger-Eater", my hero model for the current PP leauge at my FLGS. His name being taken from a children's book the girls love.

The first one I painted, in a more traditional brown scheme, can be found here. That one is also a good point of reference for the original axes.

The conversion on this guy is rather light. He has gained some bear traps, to represent his Bear Hunter ability, a medal, to represent Medal of Honour, and some new axes, to represent Hooked Blades.


New Axes

Bear trap

Medal

And then the painted version...

The axes are extras from the Devil Dog unit. The bear trap is from Yuri the Axe, and the medal is a decoration from the shaft of a GW Dwarven axe I bought as a possible conversion for the axes, but in the end didn't use.

The base is a scratch built, with wood chips and real lichen, which is a pain to paint, as it's so flexible. I may have to put a layer of varnish over its roots to fix it better in place.The arrows are just to show he's a hard-ass!

Another point for my league score, and once my hero buys the right advancements to go with his conversions, that'll be another 3 points. Onwards and upwards.

Gorman Di Wulfe, Rogue Alchemist

Another one of those minis that's been sitting around for a loooooong time with out more than an undercoat to keep them warm, Gorman is a very old mini for Warmachine. I think he's even one of the first wave of minis.

In a recent game versus Khador, I was re-initiated in the ways of Gorman, and the use of "Black Oil", one of his signature abilities. I fielded him in my forst league game, and he managed to pull ff the same ability for me, allowing me to get a caster kill (in concert with Eiryss, another first wave and still useful model, I think she'll be getting a coat of paint soon too).

Going back to my Khador, has also meant going back to a lot of the Mercs I bought to go with them, mainly becasuse they won't run with my Highborne army. So I have been rediscovering a whole other set of minis I haven't used in a long time, and more importantly, having fun with them.

So, that's 1 more point towards my score in the league.

Sir Terry Pratchett, 1948-2015

I think I was quite late along to the party, as I first picked up one of the Discworld novels when at University. "Faust Eric" was the first one I read I think, then I went back to the start and read all the Discworld novels, and continued to do so, as soon as a new one was available in paperback (hard back books take up so much space).

There are a lot of funny authors out there, but I can list on one finger the number who could so consistently make me snigger and laugh out loud when reading his books. He had such a great way of looking at the world, then mirroring it back to us in a way that made the mundane seems absurd. Add to this the fact that it was not unknown for me to shed a few tears when reading his work to, and we have the sign, IMHO, of a truly great author.

The fact that he was always a genre writer always worked against his credibility, especially at the start, but the sheer number of people who read his work, and the way in which he spoke on the subject did so much, more than any other author in my mind, to bring works of Fantasy and Science fiction to light in more serious literary circles. I contest the works of the gazillionaire J. K. Rowling would never have received the attention they did if Sir Terry hadn't already broken the ground for her.

I searched for a pithy quote to put here, but there are just so goddamn many of them out there that are so witty and perfect, it just goes to show what a sharp mind he was, which makes the manner of his passing all the more poignant.

I am happy to say there are a couple of his books I have yet to read, but I am extremely sad that when they are done, there will be no more. But to ask for more in some ways would be greedy, as he has left so much of such a high quality, it is just churlish to think otherwise.

All that is left now is to pass the books on to the girls, and hope they get as much pleasure from them as their mum and I have.

Colore ton monde

March's Colore ton monde painting challenge has been announced. Last month's entries are found on Facebook here, and more pictures of my entry are in this post. Looking at the other pictures on facebook, mine seems rather dark. I need to work on my photography setup!

This month's challenge is as follows:


* Un peu d'espoir, ou de bière ! *
Le printemps débute officiellement pendant le mois à venir. Avec lui devrait en théorie venir les premières pousses vertes. On sait bien que ça peut prendre un peu plus longtemps avec notre climat, mais la Saint-Patrick nous offrira notre touche de vert pour le mois, si jamais la neige ne part pas. Pour le mois de mars, nous vous invitons à peindre un modèle contenant du vert, signifiant le renouveau,... ou alors un modèle festif, un peu porté sur la boisson.
 
* A little hope, or beer! *

Spring officially begins in the month to come. With it should come first green shoots in theory. We know well that it may take a little longer with our climate, but St. Patrick's day give us our touch of green for the month, if the snow doesn't leave. In March, we invite you to paint a model containing green, signifying renewal, ... or a festive model, a little worn on the drink.

So, what to go with? I can't think of any minis I have that have a beer or drinking theme, so I'll go with green. I'm unlikely to get one of my casters to fit this scheme. There is a bit of green on the Butcher model I'm finishing off, but he was mostly painted a long time ago, so I'm not going to enter him here. I pulled out a couple of other minis that I had started in green, so maybe one of those will be finished off...