painting

All posts tagged painting

The Expedition Soldiers On

Posted by Comrade on September 30, 2025
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I’ve spent some time lately returning to my fantasy dwarf heartbreaker army — The Expedition to Hearthspire. This army has been in existence, either in concept or on the actual tabletop, since the late 2000s, when I scraped together a handful of dwarves to play A Song of Blades & Heroes with my old game club back in Chicago.

Since then, my collection of dwarves has increased consistently. Models became units. Units became a small army, then a larger army. Now I’ve got a fairly vast collection of painted dwarves, ready to undertake the quest for the ancient city of Hearthspire. Here’s the latest family photo, taken last month when I mustered the whole group for a game of Hobgoblin with John.

After that game, I felt inspired to paint up some reinforcements to further bolster the dwarven throng. Hobgoblin is an old school rank-and-flank type of game that encourages large armies. So I assessed the current state of my dwarf army and identified the distinct need for some elite, heavily armored dwarven infantry to anchor the center of my battle line.

I found what I was looking for in a big box full of various units and figures from Scibor Monstrous Miniatures – one of my all-time favorite makers of chunky, characterful dwarf models. (Yes, it’s true, I have so many Scibor kits in my dragon hoard that they have their own dedicated box.)

These guys were a lot of fun to paint up. I’m not always fond of bare heads (something about my lack of precision and patience when painting faces) but these guys weren’t too difficult.

I painted these guys up over the summer, and they’ve yet to see the battlefield. I’m sure they’ll eventually take to the field in a game of Hobgoblin – I played a session earlier this year with John and got my butt kicked. (And I convinced myself the reason I lost is because I didn’t have a sufficient critical mass of armored dwarvess. Problem solved!!)

Stay tuned for more content in general from Comrade’s Wargames. After a long drought, I’m easing back into the saddle to share more quality hobby content with my tens of readers.

Once and Future Death Guard Heroes

Posted by Comrade on September 1, 2023
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I recently acquired and painted up several of the Space Marine Heroes Series 3: Death Guard – for the second time this decade! More on that later.

These models were originally released a number of years ago, primarily for the Japanese market, and they were only recently released earlier this year in the USA. They’re packaged and sold as individual blind boxes that contain 1 random miniature from the 8 models in the series.

I bought a couple of these guys and then traded for a few of the others. I ended up with a duplicate of the standard bearer guy, which gave me an opportunity to convert up the surplus model. He’s the guy on the left in the photo below.

But here’s the interesting (and slightly silly) backstory: I’ve actually owned these models before, back in 2020. When they were released for the Japanese market, they were commonly sold as a sealed case containing one of each of the models in the line, including the Malignant Plaguecaster that appeared less frequently and was sort of a chase rare. I bought my sealed case in December 2020 and then promptly lost interest in my Death Guard army for a while.

Over the next two years, the Death Guard Heroes set went out of print and started to command a premium price on the secondary market. I did a sober analysis of my still-sealed box – did I really need more Plague Marines? Would I truly get around to building and painting these guys? I wisely decided to “sell into the hype” and made a tidy little profit on my box.

I figured that was the end of the story, yet here we are – I’ve re-purchased those same models (for a much more reasonable, non-premium price, I must admit). BUT! I’ve also finished painting them, so I win in the end.

Anyway, it’s a silly little story that just goes to show how much I enjoy regular, run-of-the-mill Plague Marines as the backbone for my Death Guard army.

As a bonus, here’s one more Plague Marine that I painted up around the same time. He’s converted from one of the Chaos Space Marine Chosen from the Dark Vengeance boxed set, with some extra bits from my Putrid Blightkings leftovers.

Leviathan Tyranids: An Army For a Friend

Posted by Comrade on August 24, 2023
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Pull up a chair, dear reader, for a personal story from our local game group.

You may have read about our friend Paul, one of the founding members of our local game club (The Majestic Gamers). I met Paul shortly after moving to town about 7 years ago.

At that time, he was just starting out in 40k, and we got together for some games. Paul shared that he experienced periodic tremors in his hands, ranging from barely noticeable to more debilitating. In spite of this, he persevered with his newfound hobby and painted up three gorgeous 40k armies that have made regular appearances on Comrade’s Wargames over the years, as well as countless skirmish warbands for Warcry, Shadespire, and other games. Truly, it was an inspiring example of someone overcoming a physical impairment to achieve spectacular skill in a creative hobby.

Paul’s magnum opus is probably his Tyranids army, which featured heavily into our 40k narrative campaigns. Here’s a couple photos from our gigantic Apocalypse game back in 2018.

Last year, Paul let us know that his tremors had become more pronounced, and the doctors had diagnosed a more advanced condition. He begrudgingly acknowledged that his painting days were likely over.

Around this time, the new Leviathan boxed set came out, and the rest of us in the Majestic Gamers had a brilliant idea – we would acquire the box set, divvy up the Tyranid models, and paint them up to fit in with Paul’s existing Tyranid army! His army would get a huge boost and we’d all get a chance to splash some paint on those cool new bugs. Daniel handled the purchase and distribution of the Leviathan box – thank you, Daniel!! Splitting up the painting amongst 5 people meant we all got a manageable numbers of models to paint up.

Here, then, are the fruits of our labors, which were delivered to Paul earlier this month. HUGE thanks to Rian, John, Parker, and Lawrence for lending their artistic skill and expertise to this project, and to Daniel for purchasing the box and handling logistics.

(Tip: If you click on the first photo, you’ll launch a fullscreen gallery where you can flip through each photo in sequence.)

Keep in mind, that’s five different people offering their own personal interpretation of Paul’s paint scheme. I think we did pretty good, all things considered! Shout-out to John for printing up those crystal pieces that we all used on the bases – that really pulled everything together in a cohesive manner.

But Wait, There’s More!

The story doesn’t end here! When we presented Paul with his newly painted Tyranid reinforcements in August, he shared with us some wonderful and heartening news: he is planning to have a procedure done that will help control his symptoms and hopefully get back some quality of life.

Yes, we immediately cracked jokes about Paul becoming a literal cyborg. Ah, the miracles of modern medicine. The procedure is planned for next month (September). So don’t throw away those paintbrushes, Paul – this hobby isn’t done with you yet!

Art Gallery Reception

Posted by Comrade on July 26, 2023
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Here’s another milestone for me – last month, I officially took part in a curated art gallery at my local community center! This was a gallery for folks who are affiliated with the center; I teach miniatures painting classes there, so I was eligible to participate.

I entered a diorama showcasing a band of dwarven warriors mounting a hasty defense on the perimeter of a small settlement. An undead vanguard was emerging from a nearby forest, so the stage was set for an epic battle! A couple of my beautiful resin village buildings from Tabletop World made an appearance. I wrote a few paragraphs of free-form narrative lore to help put viewers “in situ” in the diorama.

It was a plumb location, right in the main lobby near the public entrance! All models and terrain was built and painted by me. Astute readers will notice some familiar faces in the setup!

The most challenging part of this installation was finding a suitable pedestal with a protective plexiglass cover on top! I called around to a number of local art nonprofits, community theater, library, etc. before finally striking gold at my local historical society! They had a large, well built plinth in storage, and they were happy to lend it to me for the duration of this exhibit.

Anyway, I’m properly chuffed at the somewhat silly idea of finally taking my place among the pantheon of “real artists.” Of course, I know that there are no gatekeepers on what constitutes art, and that anyone with a lick of creativity can claim that mantle. Still, it’s fun and rewarding to display my stuff in public (for 2 months, wow!) and help people expand their notions of what exactly “art” is.

Heretics, Cultists, and the Damned

Posted by Comrade on July 10, 2023
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Regular readers might recall that I’ve been building a Dark Mechanicum themed warband for our grimdark narrative campaign (The Cauldron).

The warband (The Seekers of the Fractal Schematic) is a hodgepodge of models from many different manufacturers, all tied together by a loose theme and a simple & consistent paint scheme. For me, the warband fits the Inq28 / Blanchitsu creative aesthetic.

I’ve really enjoyed converting and painting up the basic cultist models that form the backbone of this warband. These figures come from a variety of sources — a few are from Necromunda, a few from other sources, but most are built from the various plastic Frostgrave infantry kits that were released a few years ago. They’re a fantastic starting point for all manner of sci-fi and fantasy soldier conversions.

The guys in the photo below, for example, started with Frostgrave torsos, plus various arms from Genestealer Cults and Adeptus Mechanicus kits, along with gas mask heads from Pig Iron Productions.

The vibe I’m going for includes flamethrowers, creepy cybernetics popping out of flesh, cult iconography, scavenged equipment, and rusted industrial wreckage for the bases. You know, typical Dark Mechanicum stuff.

Simple conversions, quick paint jobs using contrast paints and a bold purple color … that gets the job done.

I don’t mind mixing in Games Workshop models when they suit my theme. The four guys below are from Necromunda, with some heads swaps to make them fit the “tortured cyborg zealot” motif.

I’ve got plenty more bits — I accidentally dropped a bunch of money at Mindtaker’s bulk bits bin during a visit last month. Oops! So look for plenty more heretics, scavengers, cultists, and cyborgs in the future.