Sunday 7 October 2018

"Bloodletters Are Horrific Lesser Daemons Of Khorne..."

"...That specialise in close combat fighting."
These five plastic 6mm scale Bloodletters were made by "Games Workshop" for their tabletop wargame "Epic", and sadly are now long Out Of Production (OOP). However I was fortunate enough to purchase a small tub of second-hand lesser daemons of Khorne from a stall whilst perusing this year's "Colours" at Newbury, and resultantly hope to paint enough figures up to at least give me eight stands worth (250 points) to use with the "NetEpic Gold" free-to-play rule-set.

The tiny figures were initially all super-glued to a thin strip of wood, and primed using two coats of "Vallejo" Heavy Red. They were then washed using "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade and dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Red.
Some Undead models from "Dungeon Saga: The Dwarf King's Quest" by "Mantic Games"
I subsequently 'picked out' their loincloths and horns with some Black and applied a layer of Heavy Sienna to their Hellblades. Later I pigmented their hand-weapons using a combination of "Vallejo" Brass and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade, and finished the blades off with a delicate dry-brush of more "Vallejo" Brass.

Originally I had intended to permanently base my Bloodletters upon a circular lipped stand, as I've seen "Epic" Space Marines based this way before and really liked the look of them. However, having gloss varnished and cut the miniatures off their painting branch, found them far too fiddly to assemble together as a 'bunched up' fivesome. So in the end decided to go with a small "Flames Of War" rectangular stand by "Battlefront Miniatures".
"The Ion Age" WIP - The Adder Combat Lifter has been completely base-layered
In addition to finishing my "Epic" test-pieces, I have also managed to complete the second of the scythe-carrying Skeleton Warriors found inside the "Dungeon Saga: The Dwarf King`s Quest" boxed game by "Mantic Games". I've now finished re-basing all of my previously painted models for this boardgame onto the smaller Undead square stands used for "Kings Of War", and hope to add to their total over the next few weeks... 

Finally, I've made some significant in-roads on my latest resin vehicle by "The Ion Age". As the 15mm science fiction range has a real "Rogue Trader" feel to it, I've been painting up some Prydian Army models as Crimson Fist Space Marines, and felt their infantry would appreciate the additional firepower of an Adder Combat Lifter in their fight against the Xenomorphs XX121.

28 comments:

  1. I smell heresy.....good work all the same!

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    1. Ha Hah, thanks Fran. There's cute little critters imho :-)

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  2. Nice work on the Bloodletters and the undead. Great stuff mate. :)

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    1. Thank you kindly, Leon. Not sure I can face doing another thirty-five Bloodletters though to get the core unit finished...

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  3. If you are going to paint up the epic stuff five fig's at a time you'll be at it forever! Slap the other thirty five to a long piece of wood and batch paint the lot, that's my advice, I'd have to do it that way myself.

    The Saga min's look great, though I'm sick of the sight of mine at the moment, still only one more month to go (hooray ;-( ).

    Nice start to the Ion age adder too, keep going, nearly top ten time again.

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. I simply can't do batch-painting I'm afraid Roger, but reckon the odd five "Epic" minis every now and then will give me a welcome break from some of the larger scales I tend to focus on.

      I'm a lot happier with the "Kings Of War" bases for my "Dungeon Saga" stuff and actually found that its rekindled my enthusiasm for the range quite a bit. Certainly I've two more Skeleton Warriors currently on my painting table as a result.

      I've hopefully got a fair few more minis to post before the "Top Ten", just to keep you busy, and a fair few will doubtless be from "The Ion Age" range too :-)

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  4. Great looking bloodletters Simon, sadly the new Adeptus Titanicus is a totally different scale, so we won't be getting any models to use with the old epic.
    The undead are looking great for your dungeon saga.
    Know absolutely nothing about Ion age range, but great start on the painting

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    1. Thanks Dave. I too was disappointed by "Games Workshop" decision not to simply stick with their tried & etsted "Epic" scale; albeit I'd still have bought some of the new stuff if they'd have produced infantry for it. Not interested in it at all presently as it is.

      I'm far happier painting the "Dungeon Saga" stuff now I've re-based it, and have a lot of "The Ion Age" to showcase over the next few weeks too.

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  5. While I never played "epic!" I was (and remain) very interested in it!

    Nice to see them painted!

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    1. Cheers Clint. I've another base of "Epic" Bloodletters on the painting table just waiting for their wash to dry, so expect plenty more to come... and not just lesser daemons either :-)

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    2. Fingers crossed, you won't be disappointed ;-)

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  6. Cracking job on the Undead. The bloodletters bring back fond memories of Space Marine and huge battles.

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    1. Thanks Simon. I too fondly remember "Space Marine" and battling the Eldar.

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  7. Another interesting mini mix! Bloodletters are not cute! Even mini ones, although I like the detail you have achieved on the little fellas. As I am currently reading Horus Heresy novels I can't approve of painting The Great Enemy! I am firmly in The Imperial camp!! The group shot of Dungeon Saga looks very good. I also like the 40k take on the Ion Age stuff, nice job there. Very good read, especially as my painting mojo is low. Thanks for the inspiration.

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    1. LOL Undercoat. I'm currently hoping to get 500 points of Chaos stuff done and then turn towards some Space Marine minis so I can get a BatRep or two done. I'm rather "Rogue Trader" inspired myself hence the 'old skool' Imperial Guard flavour for my "The Ion Age" stuff.

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  8. Always a pleasure to see a variety of undead figures. More please!

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    1. Cheers Bryan. I’ve a few more Skeleton Warriors to finish for “Dungeon Saga” which should be posted up this month.

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  9. The Epic range was one of the better things out of the Evil Empire.
    Your undead from Daungeon Sage look great and I do like your take on the skellies (though Scythes are awful weapons to use in rl)
    I'm not sure whether I've heard of IOn Age or not, but it does look interesting.

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    1. Thanks Joe. Plenty more "Epic" stuff to come, and a few more "Dungeon Saga" minis too. The big push though will be "The Ion Age", so hopefully it'll maintain your interest - I've at least one tank finished, and a heavy weapons team partially completed already.

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  10. I've only gone and done it ... Watched an episode of Doctor Who and am now considering watching the subsequent episodes (unlike that Ch5 Model Railway program!) I tell you, first it was me watching the Seventh Doctor and now the Thirteenth! Warlord Games need to make a special commemorative figure just for me :P

    All hail the Yorkshire Doctor!
    (yes, technically there's been two Yorkshire Doctors. But only one full-time)

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    1. Well I suppose someone had to be watching it, Roy ;-)

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  11. More Undead? Yes please! Great additions :)

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  12. Interesting mix of scales, Simon, which should give a bit of variety to your paint queue...although, your paint queue does have an eclectic mix of subjects anyway, they just tend to be in a single scale.

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    1. Cheers Jez. All the same scale was one of the reasons I thought I'd turn back to the turn of a card to see what I'd be painting for the month :-)

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  13. The Chaos Epic minis were surprisingly good for their time. You've painted them really nicely. How many more to go?

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    1. Thanks Dai. I have a whole tub full of Khorne Chaos “Epic” to get through, but Bloodletters wise I probably want to do 500 points worth in total - that’s 16 bases so 80 of the dudes; with 5 down. However, once I’ve done the first 8 bases I’ll be painting some opposition (probably Ultramarines).

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