'Fellowship' from NickJ: Chaos Commander Concord

Once upon a Fellowship...

I think this particular Bonus Round was the first one I decided upon. One of the games that we as a group seem to enjoy is Warhammer: Underworlds. Sometimes referred to as Shadespire.

This is GW's competitive game set within the Age of Sigmar universe. Small Warbands of 3-8 figures battling it out across boards filled with hexagonal spaces. The game also has a deck building mechanic that adds further depth and each of the warbands plays a little differently.

Add on to this the fact that each warband has a points value for the main Age of Sigmar game so they can be fielded as elite units on large battlefields and you've got a win win.

For the Fellowship I decided that I wasn't going to do a warband as that would be too simple... note to self - next time don't listen to me... and instead I wanted to create a Fellowship of the 5 Chaos Warband Leaders... the actual warbands will follow...

I present, therefore, The Chaos Commander Concord - or Triple C as they like to call themselves!

From left-to-right
Vortemis the All-Seeing, Tzeentch
Garrek, Khorne Reavers
Theddra Skull-Scryer, Darkoath
Skritch Spiteclaw, Skaven
Magore Redhand, Khorne Warriors

Please note that Garrek was painted previously so will not count towards this year's Challenge! He's included as he is the founding member of the Concord... back when the Concord consisted of just him... can you have a Concord of One?

Anyway let's meet them shall we...

Vortemis, The All-Seeing
Tzeentch does like magic and this Wizard is no exception

I'm using the same green ghostly effect that I did on the Beastman Shaman to show magic!

Yes he does have a wing... no I don't know what he did to deserve 1 wing...

There's even a little pool of magic in his base.

Magore Redhand
Khorne. Blood for the Blood God. Skulls for the Skull God. etc etc. Should give you a flavour for what this warband is about!

He has teeth in his stomach. Which I think is a demon. Or just something bad he ate.

Lots of skulls. Obviously. Red Cloak as no Khorne follower can be seen without red. And I've stuck to my orange weapon blades for all my Khorne units.

There's even skulls in the base!


Skritch Spiteclaw
The rats from the underground. I decided to use a few more muted colours with this chap and to dirty them up a bit due to the living conditions the rats find themselves in.

One of my favourite models as he's been sculpted so dynamically.

The cloak started off as a reddish pink and was turned further red by using red washes. I drybrushed using a colour called Kindleflame which is orange/red.

From this angle you can see there's even a little bit of sewerage involved. Lovely!

Theddra Skull-Scryer
And so to the second of the magic users within this Concord. I'd also like to include her for Sarah's Choice.

Another really good pose from GW. And she has the best hair ever! The tunic took me a while to decide on colours. I tried 2 or 3 different combinations with the purple cloak but couldn't make it work.

The yellow has turned out nice and offers a good strong contrast with the rest of the model.

From the back you can see where cloak and tunic meet...! Again I've used the ghostly green to signify a magic user.

Now you're probably thinking that the colour scheme for Theddra is familiar, especially the red hair and purple cloak?

You'd be correct. You see she's Darkoath and I created a second Fellowship with my Family of Three that lead my Darkoath Faction.

Meet the Family

The Warqueen stands in the middle; she's the eldest sibling
The Chieftain stands on the left of the picture; he's the middle sibling
The Wizard stands on the right of the picture; she's the youngest sibling

Now I just need GW to release a whole army of Darkoath as I'm loving the barbarian look.

So there we are; Fellowship complete.

4x28mm figures = 20 points

Now to try and complete the 4 warbands by the end of the Challenge!

Thanks
Nick

'Water Feature: from NickJ: Gravetide the Wave

Once upon a Late to the Party but hopefully sneaking in under the wire...

It's been a busy old month and the last couple of weeks have been super fun at work as we build towards an IT ERP system go live in Singapore. As I'm based in the UK this has produced some interesting time zone challenges with meetings. And that in turn has left me with 30 minutes a day at most for painting!

Suffice to say I suspect my target is rapidly diminishing into the distance.

But before it vanishes completely here's my entry for the Water Feature bonus round - this is another of the GW Endless Spells and is called Suffocating Gravetide

Photos are by iPhone. Painting by me. Lighting provided by the Dark Zone.

To quote from the GW Spell Card:
"With a whispered curse, the ground, and the dead buried within it, rises up in a destructive tidal wave"

So it's a wave. Which is a feature of water. Right?

The skulls are a lovely touch... not creepy in any which way...

Rolling, rolling, rolling, Gravetide!

I opted for a variety of greys and brown washes for this one based on the fact all my bases are grey ash. At least this way it fits on the battlefield!

Broken floor/wall which I painted with blue/silver, washed in yellow and then darkened with a brown wash to show that it has been caught in the earthy tidal wave.

Unlike the flaming bull from earlier in the Challenge this spell can be cast by any wizard in the game rather than a single faction

In terms of size:
L = 160mm
H = 40mm (at it's highest point)
D = 85mm

or in old money
L = 6.5"
H = 1.5"
D = 3.5"

Now back to a Singapore project review... awesome!

Cheers
NickJ

'Mercenary' from NickJ: Barbarian for Hire

Once upon a time when money will buy you the nastiest Chaos can offer...

After the problems of trying to find something to fit the Sport Bonus Round I have to admit to being buried under choices for this Mercenary Bonus Round. Chaos AoS offers a multitude of nefarious characters that fit the description of mercenary to a T.

In the end I opted to go with the second in my Darkoath Triumverate; The Chieftain

 I have painted him in the same style as my first entry for Challenge IX - The Warqueen.

I also have a new lightbox after 3 years of entering the Challenge. It arrived 30 minutes before I took the photos so lots of learning still to be done.

For the photo above and the 3 that follow I opted to put the lights on the same side so it looks like he's standing in the sun/moon light.

In keeping with the theme of the Challenge I'm building a Fellowship for the Darkoath Faction which is led by a Family of 3 siblings.

The Warqueen is the eldest, The Chieftain is the middle child, The Wizard is the youngest sister - she will be along before the end of the Challenge. Fingers crossed.

Is he truly a mercenary? The Darkoath are effectively Chaos Undivided so are not aligned with any of the Gods directly. They will, however, hire themselves out to whichever God is paying the highest today.

At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it. So there! Ahem.

I do like the pose with the head slightly bowed. The fact he has 2 weapons and no shield should tell you a lot about his preferred battle tactics!

He's a standard 28mm scale GW figure; so a nice 5 points + bonus!

I'm impressed I've managed 3 Bonus Rounds now. See if I can keep it going.

Cheers
Nick

'Sport' from NickJ: Robot Referee

Once upon a whistle blowing...

Sports eh? As a Newcastle United FC fan you'd think I'd be cured of all things sport and yet here I am! To be honest this bonus round was something of a major challenge as we don't generally do sports games in our group.

After much scratching of head I remembered my box of Dreadball stuff from years ago where we played our 1 and only season of the game. Good fun but evidently it didn't keep our attention with all the other games waiting to be played.

A rummage through the depths of the box produced a referee figure that I'd base coated but then failed to follow up. Perfect. A quick undercoat and away I went.

Simple paint scheme as she's purely a points grab to be honest!

I do like the pose with the whole "get over here now; time for a good talking too" vibe.

And yes she really does have eyes in the back of her head and roller-blades for feet.

The only issue with this figure is how spoiled I've been by GW over the last few years. The detail they put into their figures make them a joy to paint. This one was very bland unfortunately but on the other hand that allowed for a very, very quick painting process!

As this is for a boardgame I decided not to paint the base beyond the basic black. She is a 28mm figure.

Cheers!

'Reconnaissance' from NickJ: Birds of a Feather

Once upon a wing and a prayer...

I have a sneaking suspicion that I'll be stretching the definition of the Bonus Rounds this year but then as I play Chaos it seems somewhat appropriate. Right? Who's with me?!

Anyway. One of the new "unit" types that came in recently with v2 of Age of Sigmar are Endless Spells. As the name suggests these are Spells cast once and then they roam the battlefield causing grief and hilarity... well ok maybe not the grief part based on my dice rolls but hey ho...

The Beasts of Chaos recently got a new army book as well so I now present to you the first of their 3 unique Endless Spells: Ravening Direflock

This first picture is from the front and presents them as a nice dark and brooding group shot. And you'd think that as they are crows and, according to the fluff, Harbingers of Dark Omens that they'd be a nice black or dark brown right?

Yeah...

Not sure if anyone will remember my Beastmen but if you do you may well remember that they have a purple skintone. Since these birds will be summoned by a Beastman Shaman I decided they should have the same base colour as the army. Lovely plumage ;-)

The beaks are blue since I did the army shields in blue. I've never been so colour co-ordinated; the Wife will be amazed!

Each of the bird flocks are stood on some part of a skeleton to help ram home the dark, brooding nature of these lovely birds.

So Recon then? Yes sort of. They are summoned in ahead of the army and cause enemy units to suffer negatives to their morale if they get within a certain distance - which I think qualifies as a recon unit of sorts!

Really liked doing these as they were relatively simple from a paint scheme perspective. Base paint is a Dark Pink, all over wash with a purple shade. Then all over dry brush with Lilac. Paint the wing tips with two shades of pink and then wash all over with the purple shade again. Beak then painted blue and washed blue. 

I aim to complete the other 2 Endless Spells as part of the Challenge together with the Shaman that I need to actually cast these! Minor detail that I've painted the spell ahead of the Shaman. Planning? I play Chaos. We don't do planning.

Scoring them eh? Well not sure to be honest so some size stats to help/hinder :-)

3 bases each with 6 birds = 18 birds in total.
Each bird has a wingspan of about 35mm and is about 10mm from beak to tail.
Each of the 3 bases stand 40mm tall

Now I need to get back to the large unit that was supposed to be ready last Thursday and is already in danger of not meeting next Thursday. Paint scheme decision making issues yet again...!

'Childhood' from NickJ: Il Buono

Once upon a Spaghetti Western...

Childhood eh? I blame my parents. Or more specifically my Dad. At some point in my childhood he introduced me to Spaghetti Westerns (or Italian Westerns made in Spain - which doesn't quite have the same ring to it).

I'm sure everyone here has heard of the Dollars Trilogy or Once Upon a Time in the West. If you don't know the films then you surely know the soundtracks! The first LP I ever bought was the Dollars Soundtrack by Ennio Morricone. To this day Morricone remains my favourite composer.

The Dollars Trilogy ends with Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo or for those who prefer the English title "The Good, The Bad, The Ugly". Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach, perfectly cast. As an aside this film introduced me to the American Civil War and to this day it's a period I am fascinated by (but that's a different story).

The final 3-way shootout in the Graveyard is a stunning piece of cinema. The music is phenomenal. The close ups are brilliantly done. And as it builds to a crescendo a single shot rings out!

I'll be back in a minute.... just popping on YouTube to watch that scene again...

Right. Where was I? Oh yes. Childhood.

Here then is my homage to my Childhood Icon: il buono.

I have absolutely no idea where the figure came from or the manufacturer. I must have picked it up at a Wargames Show at some point but I have no clue...

That said it was an easy choice for the Childhood Bonus when I found him lying at the bottom of a box!

I've applied some artistic license to the colours on the basis that I don't normally paint "historical" figures and thus I get easily confused when trying to follow a painting guide... although that might be my age.

I don't have a game in mind for him so for now he'll take pride of place in the display area. I'd say display cabinet but it's more of a shelf. And there's no door.

He stands 32mm high which was a surprise as I thought he'd be a lot shorter...

And yes he even has his signature cigar...!

So there we are. My trip down memory lane is complete. But allow me one final indulgence... if you fancy watching a Spaghetti Western then why not skip the Dollars and Once Upon a Time films and try something else on for size - perhaps a little bit of Sabata or Death Rides a Horse or Django or Bullet for the General or Fistful of Dynamite (Duck you Suckers) or My Name is Nobody. 

In the vast cornucopia of Spaghetti Westerns there are some real gems and some real clunkers. The fun is in finding them!

I'm hoping for 5 points plus the bonus round and if that all comes to pass then not only will I have painted my Icon he'll also be the figure that tips me over my Challenge Target of 500! Go Clint!

Composer: Ennio Morricone
Tune: Ecstasy of Gold 
Film: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Composer: Ennio Morricone
Artist: Patricia Janeckova
Tune: Once Upon a Time in the West
Film of the Same Name

Actually any Ennio Morricone... :-)

YouTube has all you need! Enjoy.

'Music/Musician' from NickJ: Ratabello

Once upon a rat-a-tat-a-ding-dong!

I'm as amazed as you are that I'm here featuring in my second bonus round of this Challenge. This time I've gone small and the Challenge has done exactly what it says on the tin: namely got me painting units that have sat around for ages!

Ratabello is a ClanRat from the Skaven race and lives in the underground of the Age of Sigmar world. Clanrats are the basic troopers for Clan Verminus which is essentially all about war and smacking people over the head. Other clans like their fancy gadgets or rotten poisons but Verminus just like stabbing things.

Now all that said for some reason this particular rat decided to put away his blade and pick up a bell. With a little rat on it. You just can't predict what these rats are going to do...

So why did I choose this model then? To be honest I'm swimming in choices for musicians and was almost pulling straws as to which one would be painted. In the end I settled on this chap because I have 110 Clanrats that need painting and I've been procrastinating for far too long. All from starter sets as well. I have 3 starter sets. I know.

In the end this one serves two purposes; he's in the bonus round and he's a test figure to see if I could come up with a reasonably quick paint scheme that still looks effective at tabletop height. He took 2 hours from start to finish which involved a couple of changes to the paint scheme as I went.

I've kept the same purples and greys for the tunic/cowl but reversed them so now the purple is up top. I've then dirtied the grey as it has no doubt been trailing in the mud and frankly I can't see Skaven worrying about washing machines and tumble dryers...

The armour is an experiment with a new base colour (called Screaming Bell of all things) and then copper and bronze layers followed by a flesh shade wash.

I have no idea how the little rat stays on the bell when it's being rung but hey ho he looks cute!

Only another 109 to go. To be honest I've only built 20 of the little blighters so I'll get those other 19 done and then start building the next batch.

He's 28mm so a little old 5 pts + the bonus round. Coolio. Thanks Ratabello!

'Flight' from NickJ: AoS Chimera

Once Upon a.... That's not a bird is it?

I completely missed the bonus rounds in my first Challenge last year due to incredibly poor planning and therefore set myself a target of hitting at least 2 bonus rounds this year!

Fortunately, whilst painting the Ungors from my previous post, I was also able to crack on with this little old Chimera. I chose this because it has wings (thank you Cpt Obvious!) plus I think it's safe to say it fits snuggly into the Monster Theme of this Challenge.

It's also been sat on the shelf built and undercoated for close to 6 months... which is actually a pretty short time in my paint queue - I suspect it jumped the queue and there aren't many models that would argue with this wee beastie...

Having tried my hand at purple skin tones previously I decided to push the boat out and go for yellow! If he does nothing else he will at least stand out on the battlefield!

   

The Chimera has 3 heads: Dragon, Eagle and Lion. Each one gets unique attacks which means lots of special rules and incredulous looks on my opponents' faces as I skillfully roll a whole series of 1s. Pretty much guaranteed! And yes the Dragon head does indeed spit fire. In game. If he starts doing it for real then he's going to melt himself pretty darn quick.

  

The colours for the wings, scales, fur and feathers are from the warm end of the spectrum to complement the yellow skin tone. 

   

The basing is from a broken up Skaven Vehicle of some sort that I got in a swap deal some time in the past. Oh and I forgot - his tail also gets to attack and you can see the head in the pic above!! So yes technically he has 4 heads!

And here's a scale picture showing one of my recent 28mm Ungors standing quietly with something scary behind him. And the Chimera is quite an old model - he is by no means the largest monster that roams the worlds of AoS.

As for scoring I really have no idea! Helpful right?
Some facts to aid/hinder in the calculation:
He stands 101mm from base to top of his Dragon Head.
His wing span is 52mm
His length is 50mm

So, er, over to you Curt! :-)