Yellow Fish and Bluebirds

I was shocked to see that I haven't updated the blog in a quarter of a year. Unfortunately this is partly to do with not having done much hobby work during this time but I have got a couple of things done.

Most of my hobby time in November and December was dedicated to completing a Christmas present for my parents. They have a couple of pairs of Eastern Blue birds that nest at their house and always give me a report of what they are up to every time I call.

They were sculpted with polymer clay and I used a bit of branch to make the base. I like the way the wings came out but I need to work on some more techniques for making the tails.

To get back onto the painting wagon I also finished off one of the familiars for Silver Tower. This is the same one my wife painted a while ago and I really like the way she painted hers. I wanted the pair to compliment each other and I saw someone had painted one up as a goldfish which I thought worked pretty well. To fit him in with the rest of the Tzeentchian forces I used the same scheme I used for the magical fire.

More Cultists

I still think that there is something about worshipping chaos that causes abnormal muscle growth. Even Tzeentch cultists that you would think spend most of their time reading spellbooks and cackling maniacally are built like professional athletes. Followers of Khorne are probably just slabs of muscle on top of other muscles! I guess only Papa Nurgle has no interest in the Chaos gym scene.

I finished up the second group of cultists. I did a simple shield swap with a Tzanagor's shield for the one but tried to differentiate them by basically inverting the colors from the last group. I copied the skin tone from the Dark Elf hero I did previously and went with white for the fancy loincloth/skirts/shorts things they're wearing.

With these done I'd say we're  about 3 quarters done with the set. I'm saving some of my favorites for the end but next up will be another familiar and then the Skaven assassin.

Pug: Silver Tower Familiar

Quick update as I painted up another of the familiars from the set. I really like how he harkens back to the old metal familiar from many a year ago but updated to match Age of Sigmar. I decided to play up the motley in Tzeentch horror colors and of course gave him the classic yellow moon head.

His personal stylists working on his outfit.

Grot Scuttlings

With a box set as big as Silver Tower not every miniature can be a winner.  The grots happen to be the unfortunate recipients of that title.

I would have liked them  more if they had taken the spider mutations a bit further and avoided that rather awkward pose. 

I didn't spend  too much time on them keeping the colors muted and the painting pretty basic.

The grots are supposed to be goblins that have mutated to be part spider and now infest the Silver Tower like vermin. Chaos goblins are one of those classic Oldhammer concepts that could have been really cool but these figures just don't really live up to the potential.

My wife also finished the second pink horror. He's on the right.

Everything we have done so far. It's not looking good for the heroes right now.

Either way with these done we've passed the halfway mark on the set with 27 of the 51 complete.

Tenebrael Shard

The past few weeks have seen a lull in painting. I simply haven't had much desire to get the brushes out. However this past weekend the wife and I got in on another Age of Sigmar game down at the local gamestore. This has managed to rekindle some modelling spirit in both of us. She is working on assembling some ghouls for her Death force (rather in the spirit of the season) and I finished off the next character for Silver Tower.

So far this has been the most difficult figure to paint from the set. Partially due to not really having any inspiration on how to paint him but mostly because he's physical hard to paint. He has so many overlapping layers of trailing cloth, flying chains, pointy blades and poofy hair that navigating the brush through it was very frustrating.

I veered away from GW standard dark  elves and instead tried something more like D&D's drow with a darker skin tone. I stole the lavender for the pants and cloth from an anime we recently watched. It's definitely not one of my go to colors but I think it worked out for him.

I also assembled the Grot scuttlings. They seem pretty easy so I'm gonna try to get all 8 done in one go and push up the finished model count.

I need to get some more dwarves put together before they get overwhelmed by ghouls!

Silver Tower Familiar

Finally able to post up another completed figure for Silver Tower. He might not be big in stature but like all of the familiars he's full of character.

Both of our familiars painted so far. 

With a few friends to see that he's just a little guy. 

This one is Tweak who believes himself to be a Lord of Change and is constantly giving out advice and I imagine commentary on everyone else's failures. Since he's suppose to be a chatterbox I painted him in the same colors as our green cheek conure Yoshi, who similarly never seems to shut up.

Hoping to get back on track with painting the rest of the set but right now we're at 17 of 51 complete. The Tenebrael Shard is next on the painting table for me.

Brimstone Horrors

With the holiday weekend rolling by the Brimstone Horrors were added to the painted column. The basic paint scheme had already been worked out with the flames from the Blue Horrors earlier and I just tried to keep the overall humanoid shape visible through the flames.

Since they're made from living flame I decided to try to out some source lighting on the bases. After reading a couple of tutorials I dived in. I'll be honest I'm not entirely happy with the outcome but for a first try I guess it could have been worse. 

With 4 more models done for Silver Tower that brings us up to 16 of 51 models complete. The halfway point is coming into view!

The Brimstone Horror is a new addition to Tzeentch's daemon line up. Two combine to make a Blue Horror just as two Blue Horrors make a Pink. Of course in the game it usually happens the other way and you'll get a pair of Brimstones after destroying a Blue Horror.