Loathsome Snakemen Ssylth and Cultist based

Here is my Ssylth.. This beautifully sculpted evil space snakemen from GW is reason i stopped buying their finecast models for almost a year.. He was not a quality i would consider worth paying for ;( Thats double pity as i absolutely love this model.
I have to admit i have somewhat soft spot for both snake men and multi limbed humanoids.. What could go better than combining them both, and add aesthetics of new Dark Eldar - In my opinion best range GW made since original Jes Goodwin Eldar.. I love most in GW miniatures unique and non military types  they produce. Normally they are Imperial guys and priests, psykers, fanatics, liaison officers and such. I collect them and I gathered most of them. So Dark Eldar retinue of misfits, slaves, mercenaries and courtesans was part of the DE codex i liked the most. And miniatures do not failed to impress me with ideas and sculpting  (At the same time when I said was disappointed because of finecast quality ;().
Worst think was that most of the bad cast parts were invisible before painting, so I realized how bad some parts are in half work so I did not wanted to exchange him and risk better quality ( a mistake i wont made again). Funnier story was with my Urien Rakarth, which i realized is miscast when i looked at GW page after finishing mine..but he lacked parts of the weapon I could live without.. Ssylth miscast destroyed some of detailing ;(
But now I cooled and finished my beloved snake. I used pair of original hands and pair of Wych hands.

What makes Dark Eldar best though up range GW produces (outside of Space marines obviously, but I do not consider them interchangeable thought but plain same and boring :)  is how each metal/finecast miniatures share not only aesthetics but basic build methods, so each miniature could be crossed with parts from plastic models in the range. That gives a great number of opportunities. Here i exchanged butcher blade of standard Ssylth with silly looking weapon from Wych sprue, that do not looks that silly on larger Snake men!, and exchanged pistol arm with better posed vicious Wych knife arm.
I have plans for more of those snakes, that I will equip in special and heavy weapons. I would already have many more if they were cast in metal ;(

After working with My Wyches i decided to base them on winter bases finished with frozen grass in form of grass tuft. Its first time i used them, but they will be staple of my basing techniques in the future. They add much life to a base which in return make miniature four limbed snake man look alive :)

After some bloging brake but not hobby break Ive finished my DV cultist squad to tabletop level. I will return to add some finishing touches, especially to their leader (Hasselfresian himself - I have to admit that i stolen this idea from Warseer ), but i consider them table worthy now and what is most important based. Those are gorgeously made models, and acquired quite large number as base to conversions (I don't play 40K, but i have 2 full troop choices of them now and will get some more :)

I will post follow up on them when i finish Hasslefreesian Leader

Here is secretly made photo of Sinister Duchess dealing with loathsome snake man..

Who is she and why she is dealing with such blasphemous Xenos villain ?

Mordheim band semi finished

Ive managed to finish my Mordheim characters, and repaint grunt miniatures. Those are minis Ive got by accident so I don't have any real purpose or plans for them. When Ive been buying Necromunda terrain, seller asked if i wouldn't want to get his Mordheim terrain too, I wanted and i get them was a freebie (with skaven band both from starter set).

I decided to repaint (or paint in case of pistolier and fencer heroes) them just to paint something different. They are little candy for my tasted but i like them overall. Now i have to get some close combat guys to finish the band.

As with many of my miniatures they lack bases.. I completely don't have idea for them, so they will wait until I will get next warband and share base style with them..

And Ive almost finished my first group of cultist. I like the mini a lot so Ive decided to make first group of them 100% original minis, as given in DV set.
So next time there will be cult

Meanwhile on Bulanda 2

Some of you may remember my blog post from long ago about toys Ive bought to fuel my gaming. Well I managed to finish next two. So without many words behold two armored personal carriers of Procyon 24th.
As they are basically WAB 4x4  they will work in AK47 and few modern scenarios too.
Those two from the top :

Now they looks like that (sorry for dark photo but I wanted them to look natural so light is natural too):

First one is stock with only radio antenna added.

Second one has few stowage and lines added.

Here they are with size comparison soldiers of Bulanda (Snakemen from CMG, GZG NI as Procyon 24th, Felid from Khurasan and Rebel Titan marine)

And Action shot:

Embroidered fabric first try in Mordheim

My first try in embroidered fabric look, I am not to happy with the result, but Ive got whole Mordheim mercenary group and I intend to try and develop it a little on rest of the heroes miniatures. (His boots are greenstuff obviously - Its 100% standard mini but i felt that he need better boots to go with such lavish  coat so they are added as an afterthought ) I will post rest of the band in different stages of repainting (Ive bought them painted as extras in terrain package)

DV Chosen

Ive finished (almost :) First model after 3 test cultist from great Dark Vengeance set. Those chosen are best plastic models Ive seen from GW. They are on par with classic 2 edition character model, and beat metal/finecast models in detail and execution (and of course they are plastic so they are convertable and non toxic :)

Without further writing:

Orange pad is waiting for personal icon, I am leaning to classic citadel tree design, but I haven't decided yet. Rest of the squad will have white stripes like on his power fist.

those are his first two colleagues still in WIP but in finishing stages, two more need more work.

here is he leading unit of suicide cultist.

Ive decided to paint heretic priest for my WIP unit of traitorous slaneshian unit [Here is example of WIP] - although he is still WIP i think that general styling wil stay the same I will only finish him and touch the details and pattern where its sloppy.
And realized that it could look much more interesting in cultist tartan pattern [visible above] but inverted (as cultist are much darker colour than my traitor guard unit).

So Ive decided to try and add pattern to them too and make it element that will spine whole chaos force.

And finally Slaeshian priest with DV cultists..

Cultist break and review - Dark Vengeance add on

As some people might be interested in how cultist are designed and what part we could scavenge from them, Ive decided to make report of how they all work component wise. And as pictures speak louder than words here there are..





First autogun Cultists

In this set we get 2 each of 4 posed autogunner cultists.
Each autogun is separete part, but with palms on the trigger and grip and parts of the arms with pins on the trigger arm and small hole on the supporting arm.
3 of them have supporting arm as part of the body without undercut,  but last one could be easily converted, as gun is placed on a pin on his body.
Nice touch is that there is equal spread of right and left handed guns.
 I think that first guy is my favorite cultist from the set. His face mask is not best, and would be quite difficult to remove without extra work with GS later, but his pose is just imposing and characterful. last one has greatest conversion potential but again his face mask is so so and will be pain to remove without ruining his hood.

 

Then come autopistol armed guys
Again 2 of each of 4 poses. As they don't have arms jointed with their bodies they will be easier to convert.
Autopistol are quite nice set. We have 2 mirror hands with different kinds of autopistol. And then 2 left handed, one on the body, and one with the head. Extra separate knife on half body of  bare chested guy is less interesting but worth mention.
I like most barechested guy with stiched lips. How cool is that. Signs of his allegiance to chaos will be easily removable too. Another two guys - Mr gasmask and bald guy, are mirrors of each other with different heads and weapons. That gives us mirror autopistol for some Desperado gunslinger !
last one due to separated head will be easiest to convert, His head is very Cawdor like really. He got Cawdor mask on. .

Then comes heavies.

 Very nice body with fat belly and very convertable and heavy stubber (almost identical in pose to classic Orlock stubber heavy and stubber alone is cross between Orlock and Goliath guns but in plastic !!)
Flamer is less exciting but could be is unique long barreled.
Heavies looks little butchery, i would love to make some executioners and butchers from  second set i am getting for sure..

 In comparison to the cultist leaders looks less interesting. They have cool components but as stand alone they are IMHO lacking. Great guy with coat have silly head not matching rest of the guys and is most disappointing from the set IMHO, I will change his head and pose for sure. Hooded guy is nicer and have unique pose but lacks any gun (his hand is very cool and will be seen in conversion).

Summarizing we got 8 autoguns, 8 autopistols, and very nice stubber !!! In my opinion thats enough to buy this set if you are Necromunda, Inq28 fan.
20 great bodies that could be base for any kind of conversion is almost a bonus to these guns :>
Go buy them while they are still warm :>


Update:
Ive been asked for alleged extra base elements in this set. There are 5 pieces that are meant to be placed on terminator bases (each base even hav a hole for the. One of them is great cultist head that could be very useful in making unique guys.

Doe - She is here

Fot. Dominika Karasek

Doe ! Sci Fi Mi 24 from Khurasan Miniatures we waited for years is upon us!

And as a bonus few photos my friend done recently in Afganistan.

Its best 15 mm Attack raft Ive seen and best transition of modern (well little Dated by today standard but still strong) into Sci fi genre, and just beautifully model of most interpreting chopper design of all time.
Here is part assembly sketch

You could get her here Doe Gunship on Khurasan shop

Fot. Dominika Karasek

Fot. Dominika Karasek