Hobby Update: Winged Archfiend and Abyssal Guard

I got a lot of unexpected hobbying in recently, and made some more progress on my Abyssals. Up right now is the winged Archfiend and a bunch of Abyssal Guard!

Big bad Archfiend in a big bad pose.

The archfiend is from Hordes, and was previously my old Khorne Daemon Prince. A little more pink and some miscellaneous touchups here and there, and he's ready to hit the table for Kings of War! I haven't delved too deep into Abyssals tactics, but most of the lists I've seen run a winged fiend. It costs a lot, but the mobility, durability and potency it offers all add up to a solid inclusion in most lists. On paper, it seems like a very versatile threat, and can even pick up Lightning Bolt, if you want to get some magical pot-shots in while toying with charge distances and such.

Also ready for the table, are some converted GW Bloodletters, to be run as Abyssal Guard. I wanted to run them as multiple regiments, but they ended up as troops. I forgot how much I hated trying to rank these guys up until I tried to glue down and plan the units. Those swords are just ludicrous!

Look at that. Swords so big and unreasonably posed they can't even fit in an overhead shot.

Originally, they had pauldrons and green stuff kilts/cloaks, and were a "counts-as" unit of Khorne Chosen. My greenstuff work was even more atrocious back then, so I ended up stripping all the paint, removing the greenstuff and rebuilding the unit to get a largely "as you see on the box" look.

On paper, the look like they will function similar to my Kingdoms of Men Foot Guard... but better, due to these Abyssals having Fury and Regen. I think the troops here would prove surprisingly troublesome for an opponent, as they need to commit to taking them out, otherwise they'll either charge back or regenerate. Very cool.

That's it for now. The army is still lacking unlocks, but some Abyssal Flamebearers are up next. I'll get a legal list eventually.

Hobby Update: Abyssals

I’ve had a pretty slow start to hobbying this year, but I’ve already made some good progress on both the Herd and the Abyssals over the last few weeks. All of the Herd stuff is still WIP due to the more involved basing, but some Abyssals have made it over the finish line! First to be completed were some assorted heroes, which helped me figure out colors for the army. Instead of deep dark red, I went with a pinker base color. Hopefully when they are with the neon-blue Herd on the table, it will all look “rad.”

Ta-da. The first hobbying of 2018 for me.

I’m really pleased with the Efreets. I just love their menacing pose! The Champion and Temptress are adequate, though the latter is top heavy. The archfiends are both cool models too. I typically don’t name my models, but the winged one (still WIP, in the background) is Razzamatazz, and the wingless one if Jazzamatazz. The song popped into my head one day (no idea where I originally heard it) while working on Razzamatazz, and I decided to go with it. Jazzamatazz may need a little more work on the eye too, but it works for now.

With a ridiculous amount of hero points completed, I’ve now turned to hobbying on the units to unlock them. Originally, I intended to spend lavishly on a new Abyssals army, since Mantic makes a pretty decent line from what I’ve seen. However, given my lack of games, I decided to save my money, and take some old models out of the closet to hobby on.

The old models in question are 30+ each of WHFB Bloodletters, Daemonettes and Pink Horrors, which will eventually hit the table as Abyssal Guard, Succubi and Flamebearer. I also have a horde of Mantic Lower Abyssals I picked up last year, to serve as Lower Abyssals. This should cover all of the generic Abyssal infantry. Future purchases can get me fun things like Molochs and Gargoyles and the like.

My immediate goal with the Abyssals (and the Herd) is to get both up to 3000 points without any new purchases. Without getting games in, I just can’t justify spending money on new models. Based on my estimates these last few weeks, I should be able to get there!

And the first units are looking good.

The first actual units completed for the Abyssals are the Succubi Regiments! About 20 models had been painted previously (pink hair, black armor, purple claws, Slaanesh grey skin), so these were repainted pretty swiftly.

Most of these models came from a bits store, so I ended up lacked a lot of claw hands back in the day. Luckily, old Empire Flagellant arms were more or less the right size. The kitbashed unit fits in more with the KoW style, but will likely need to be the unit that receives any kind of magic item, in order to be more wysiwyg.

Ideally, I’d probably have done up a mix of unit sizes, but model count made that difficult. I wanted to use up these models and not buy any more, and regiments of 11 is how the numbers shook out.

I’m pretty pleased with how these turned out. I think their white hair is pretty striking, and am happy I was able to pull that effect off.

So... the first models of 2018 are finished. While not a legal list, 1300 plus points in Abyssals are now ready. More to come!

Hobby WIP: Evil Triumvirate

I've been on a bit of a hiatus. The end of 2017 saw the Halflings hit 2000 points. With winter in full swing, and nothing primed, I was hoping to transition more to gaming for Kings of War. That hasn't happened. I have half a dozen locals express interest, but apparently not enough to get things going. So life continued, and I occupied myself with other things.

The "spring" weather has been wild in Wisconsin, but I was lucky enough to have a decently warm day about a week ago, and I was able to prime some things. Hobbying for 2018 begins!

I've stated here before that I want to have a kind of "Evil Triumvirate" thing going with some of these evil army collections of mine, and incorporate some light faction calculus for flavor. The Varangur would be the elite powerhouse; the Herd the speedy glass-cannon swarm; and the Abyssals the more varied and balanced force.

Getting this triumvirate up and running is my hobby goal at the moment.

The Varangur

The Varangur are "there" already, with over 5,000 points of stuff painted up last year. Around 2000 more points of old Warriors of Chaos stuff is still sitting around, ready to be hobbied on as desired. I hope to get hobbing on some Fallen soon, but with so much else finished, there's no rush. Up now are just a few characters for the Varangur.

Three half-done amigos.

Nothing too special about this trio. The Skaald will be a cheap source of Inspiring (the big baddies lose a bit of their intimidation factor when they rout easily), and the Magi, particularly the mounted one, will give a little ranged damage to the collection, and versatility to smaller lists.

The Herd

The Herd got their start in 2017. They are quite short on their unlocks though, and despite having around 1000 points painted up for them, fielding an effective list is difficult at the moment, and they max out around 750 usable points.

It's not a blog post without a blurry pic! Clearly my dusty monitor stand was more important than the models...

Up right now is another Centaur Chieftain, and on deck is a monster repaint, which will probably end up as a Brutox. These... don't help my situation any, but it is a nice way to reacquaint myself with the colors I was using. Up soon are a bunch of Lycan units, which should solve my unlock problem.

The Abyssals

The Abyssals will need the most work in 2018. Since I haven't gotten any games in recently, I'm hesitant to really buy anything new right now, so I'm trying to work with what I have for the immediate future.

For units, I have a horde of Mantic Lower Abyssals purchased, and some GW Bloodletters and Daemonettes that I can repaint for Kings of War. Resale seems like a waste of time, and I think I can turn them into decent Abyssal Guards and Succubi units.

Lots of work to be done on the Abyssals....

I'm still noodling out model counts and unit sizes. For characters, I have a flying Archfiend, a walking Archfiend, 2 Efreets, a Champion and a Temptress... that's around 1000 points in heroes, so I think I should be set for my character needs for quite some time! The plan is to hobby these characters up soon, and settle on a color scheme before starting in earnest on the units.

More to come soon!