Feralgeist

Enthused with painting motivation I tackled this Feralgeist: an undead mini for Hordes and Warmachine that has sat part-painted for far, far too long (looking back the model was part-painted as long ago as April this year!). I am not sure why it took me so long to get it finished, but whatever the cause, something did cause procrastination.

So definitely not a Zombie (more like some ghostly 'thing'), but finishing this was entirely down to a desire to clear something from the backlog while motivation lasted.

The Feralgeist adds another point to my Circle Orboros force, not much, but every little helps! Since my gaming buddy Rob has a few painted Khador minis, maybe next year we can try a game or two?

Since I started tracking my monthly, quarterly and annual painting output, this has been the most successful month of all, so even finishing a simple mini like this is nice for me just to make a dent in the dread lead mountain.

Woldwatcher

After a recent focus on building terrain, and before that readying a painted playable BMG crew, I have recently returned to some 'other painting' after a lay-off of a couple of weeks from the hairy sticks.

I started this Circle Orboros Hordes Woldwatcher mini a few weeks ago, before I dove into getting that recent terrain done, and started it again in the last few days.

With this force, I have gone for a slightly simpler painting approach, which helps with speeding up painting. That said, the ropes on the Woldwatcher, and before it the Woldwyrd, have been a bit of a pain as I have found them quite fiddly to do.

Like the Woldwyrd, this Woldwatcher is a Light Warbeast, and each clocks in at 5 points. With the Shifting Stones that takes me to 12 points of painted minis so far. If I take my planned Baldur Stonesoul as my Warlock, then I need to paint another 8 points or so of stuff. I could drop out the Shifting Stones to allow room for a Heavy Warbeast, which would require a 1 point addition, such as a Feralgeist which I have part-painted. I shall see how I progress. This will probably be a bit of a slow-burn project, but that progress may also depend on how my gaming buddy Rob gets on with his Khador stuff. If he adds more, that will spur me on, no doubt.

Shifting Stones

My next Circle Orboros minis are finished (after the Woldwyrd), and although they are super simple, I am glad they are done as they have helped me get some momentum both toward 2015's painting total as well as my Circle Orboros force. I am hoping to paint at least 4 minis per month this year, so I am on target in month one!
  In game terms the Shifting Stones allow the player to move their force around with greater freedom, and from doing some reading have a little bit of a learning curve to get the best out of them.
   The reason for tackling some easy pieces so early was simply to allow me to 'get stuff done' so that painting to a small 15 point force (as a start) would not feel too daunting. With the Shifting Stones and Woldwyrd, I am roughly one third of the way there as my first planned Warlock adds 5 points to the force. So basically I need to paint up more 13 points from the stuff listed below.

Coming up I have:

• Baldur the Stonesoul (Warlock; +5 pts)
• Stone Keeper (druid add-on for the Shifting Stones; 1 pt; under-coated)
• Woldwatcher (Light Warbeast; 5 pts)
• Woldwarden (Heavy Warbeast; 9 pts)
• Wold Guardian (Heavy Warbeast; 9 pts)
• Megalith (Character Heavy Warbeast; 11 pts)
• Totem Hunter (Minion Character Solo; under-coated and a model I have had a few years but has not been used for anything; 3 pts)
• Feralgeist (Minion Solo; under-coated and another model I have had a few years but had not been used for anything; 1 pt)

The likely combinations to tackle first then are either Baldur, Woldwarden, Totem Hunter and Feralgeist, or Baldur, Megalith, Stone Keeper and Feralgeist. 

Woldwyrd

And so begins a new 'project'!

After years of contemplation, I have decided to enter the gaming worlds of Hordes and Warmachine. Over the years I had acquired a few Privateer Press minis for other projects that never came to anything. So late last year I decide the time was nigh, mainly as it should be easy to get Warmachine/Hordes games within my local area, and wanting to get more gaming in.

I quickly settled on two factions I would like to build gaming forces for, Circle Orboros and Cryx. Of the two, I figured it would be quicker and easier to get started on the Circle, so the decision made itself.

After seeing the Bradigus (Warlock) mini that set me on a course of wanting to do a Wold themed force. The Circle are druids in the WM/H world, dedicated to the Devourer Wurm, the primordial god of chaos and the wild, destructive aspects of nature. Among the resources that the druids of Orboros can call on are the various Wold Constructs, entities of stone and wood infused with magic. I love the aesthetic, so decided that was the way to go rather than the animal beasts like wolves and griffins that are also available.

This piece - the Woldwyrd - was chosen as my first model for the force instead of one of the more humanoid Wolds because I felt it would give me the basic template for how I would be able to approach the various non-druid models in the force (incorporating the recurring textures of stone, wood, rope and gem), and it would be fairly quick to turnaround, which thankfully it was. I changed my painting style a little in so much as I went a little more basic since I am really aiming for a tabletop gaming force to be completed pretty quickly.

While painting the Woldwyrd, I finished my first unit too, so watch for that in the next few days. I hope to get a small gaming force of 15, then 25 or 35 points finished bit by bit over the next few months.