And so the hobbying pendulum swings back a ways... my Abyssals started the summer with about 2500 points of stuff, but were a very top-heavy collection, with about 1,000 of the total points tied up in heroes. I didn't even have enough unlocks available to run everything! I've since hobbied up a bunch more things over the last month or so, emphasizing units. I still have some more Lower Abyssal minis to hobby up, but I'm not sure what I want to run them as yet. So, to wrap the army up for now... I decided to hobby up a few "build around me" kind of models, to help me with my list building.
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| The Abyssal Fiend. |
The first up is an Abyssal Fiend. The model is a Minotaur Labyrinth Guardian from the Pathfinder Battles line. It comes on a smaller base, something like a 50mm circle, but I thought the model would look fine on a 75 mm titan base. It mostly does. It's a little stocky, but bigger than everything else in the collection, and fills the dimensions of the base nicely with the cape and sword, so this works for me!
I am pleased with the sword. I went for the dark blue / light blue that the Abyssal Guard have, and had the cracks emit some of the Citadel "Hexwraith Flame" technical paint. The paint functions a bit like a shade or wash, but a little more viscous. I just went for a plain and simple white dry brush for it, and that works, but I think better painters could really get some good ghostly mileage out of this technical paint.
The Fiend just looks really versatile for the table. It Inspires, has Fireball, some decent combat stats and is still pretty cheap at 175 points. That seems pretty decent! This should slot in to just about any list, and are cheap enough I'm considering picking up a second one now... I think we'll see how good it is on the table before I buy another.
Next up is another exploration with the Hexwraith technical paint, a legendary Well of Souls! I was surprised to find that this was a real-world term and not a fantasy invention. I considered replicating this with a hole in the ground and a bit of a diorama.... but I am not competent enough to make that happen. I know Mantic has a model, but I didn't really like it and was feeling cheap, so I went with an alternative model.
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| The Well of Souls, from the front. |
This was purchased from Layers of Hell Printing, and comes from Mini Monster Mayhem. There were a lot of flaming and screaming skulls online, and several in this collection. I went with the 50mm centerpiece. It shipped with a solid, circular base, so after rinsing the model, I added some putty to the corners, and then some basing paste and finally some pebbles. I primed it all white. Then painted up the ground and skull, then touched up the spirit bits, and then got to work with the technical paint. Dry time for the rinse, putty, and paste, ate up the most hobby time for this miniature. The painting was very quick.
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| The more artistic view. It's a neat print for sure. |
It took some work and a few brushes to get the viscous technical paint everywhere, but it worked nicely. Again, I think a pro painter could have a lot of fun with the paint, but I finished it off with just a simple white dry brush. I probably could have even gone starker with it.
The Well seems neat on the table, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it yet without having played a game with it. It costs a lot, but is relatively maneuverable. It has the highest Lifeleech value I've ever seen at a staggering 5, and the special rule plays around with moving damage off of nearby units and onto itself. Those seem like some strong interactions, and this seems like a really cool and really unique unit. I think this will play a bit like the Kingdom of Men's General on Winged Beast, but with more intra-army interactions and considerations. I think this unit will have a pretty steep learning curve and take me a few games to figure out how to "properly" use, but seems cool and I am quite looking forward to it!
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| A decently creepy Chroneas. But admittedly feels a bit small. |
Last is the Chroneas, a model that has just confused me over the years. Having a small collection of Abyssals, I loosely followed updates to the army, even if I wasn't playing games with them, but the Chroneas broke my brain as it seemed to be overhauled every time I looked at it. I swore the official model was on a 75 mm, but it looks not to be, and currently the creature is just a monster on a normal 50 mm base.
The new Chroneas has the cool Cloak of Death special rule, for some area of effect damage, as well as a Temporal Fissures special rule, allowing for some damage manipulation in the melee phase. This time stuff reminded me a bit of the Shrike from the Hyperion novel by Dan Simmons, and from some old purchases, dug this model out. It lacks the spikes of the Shrike, but still evokes that weirdness I think.
I am still not quite sure how to quickly credit 3d prints. I picked this up via ebay, but this looks to be from the Crippled God Foundry, and was a stretch goal for their Curse of Hollow Hills Kickstarter. Like a lot of what I have worked on recently, he seems a little small, but I like it. Small is good, letting me transport things around.
...and with these, I am caught up on my Abyssal hobbying! There are still some odds and ends to do up if I want to, and the Fiend might get a doppelganger if it plays well, but over the last like, two months, I finished up nearly 2000 points for the army, and rounded out the collection by quite a good bit. Like the Kindgoms of Men, my Abyssals should have a pretty deep roster to draw upon now, allowing for a nice variety of builds and things to test. I am looking forward to seeing a bit more of what this army can do!
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