Looking for Mordheim Figures

 Been bitten by the Mordheim bug and have been painting up various warbands to run on my table (which is progressing).

I am very interested in picking up any old Mordheim figures so if you have any in your collections or bitz boxes please give me a shout at peter.dunnnz@gmail.com

Mordheim - Laying Down the Path

Once the structure of the board was built it was time to pave the open areas of the city.

For this I used the cobblestone wallpaper, cutting then gluing it to the polystyrene. For this I used PVA glue - I'm not sure whether it is the best or most economical choice but it did the job. 

Paving out all the flat areas really brought the table together. Having cobblestones everywhere allows for a much more flexible set up for terrain placement. It made me have a rethink about how many dedicated printed roads I would glue down.

The paving could be cut to put into the bridge supports and also the "island" section in the river. 

Next stage is to lay down the rubble and the roads. I am considering fixing some of the scatter terrain so that it can be integrated into the board at this stage. For instance, I have a set of gallows, some water troughs, barrels/baskets, sewer lids etc. I'll consider whether they are best being permanently positioned.

Mordheim - Proof of Concept/Initial Build

 So with most of the terrain printed or sourced, I ventured down to my local DIY store and purchased myself three 1200mm x 600m sheets of 9mm plywood (that's 4ft by 2ft in old money). The rationale was that they would be easier to transport and store than a single 6ft by 4ft board). It also allowed for some modularity if required.

I also purchased a 8' x 4' sheet of 2" polystyrene so that I could build the levels of the board in a lightweight way. My thinking was that a 2" level change best replicated what was required for 25/28mm figures.

My next step was to set everything up on a table and see how it looked.

I got out my store of printed and purchased (mostly Tabletop World) buildings and set them out in an approximation of what I wanted to achieve. 

Mordheim - Building Blocks (Cobblestone Wallpaper)

Having the necessary building blocks for my table is absolutely critical for me. I wanted a cobblestone base for my table and investigated all the different ways of going about achieving it.

I could go done the green stuff/modelling clay route but felt that would be prohibitive both in time and cost. Similarly, 3D printing or purchasing cobblestone streets was going to get old very quickly. Searching on YouTube Geek Gaming showed different methodologies for achieving what I wanted but all were very time consuming. 

My 6' x 4' board taking shape after all the cobbled areas were laid down. Total time to do so....<2 hours

My solution was in the Lybbans Minatures video. Fredrik had found and used an embossed wallpaper. I had used wallpaper in the past but had not kept the details. Importantly, he provided enough details for me to track down my own source.

In the photo above, you can get an idea of the texture of the paper - ideal both in form/size for a medieval town. As a bonus, Fredrik had already roadtested it and I knew it was fit for purpose. It could be stuck to polystyrene, it could be easily cut and shaped and it took primer.

The wallpaper is an Italian-made product called "Seriano". It appears to be manufactured by Belgravia Decor and the particular pattern is "Pietra". I have copied the labels so there is a record for others who may have an interest.

Mordheim - Enter the Print Farm

One of the things you learn with a project like this is that good things take time. You can see a wonderful plan - Lybbanns Miniatures Youtube - then you can see all sorts of fantastic terrain pieces to print, access the stls (please support creators) but being ready to build doesn't happen overnight.

The printing  of all the steps, walls, roads, ruins, buildings etc takes an enormous amount of time. Like a real long time. I purchased my printer in mid-July and I have been printing non-stop since then. By calculation, the printer has been utilised 80% of the intervening time since of switched it on. That is 19-20 hours per day for 70+ days. This is something worth thinking about when you plan your project. While the printing has taken 13+ kgs of PLA, it is the time to print that is your real constraint. When I built my 40k board purchasing GW kits was expensive but they were available in 1-2 days.

So get used to running a printing pipeline! This is the reason I am so please with my Creality machine. It has been a joy with little to no downtime. The issues I've had were related to filament replacement (solved by Youtube search), bed adhesion (solved by adding brim/raft where necessary/keeping the bed clean/using hairspray for very tall prints). Youtube, Google and the Creality CR-6 Facebook Group solved all my issues - fast and effectively. No real downtime...production keeps running.

Here is a list of some of the STL File creators that I have used. Again Lybbans did a lot of the work but there are a few I found myself:

 https://www.infinitedimensions.ca/ - Wightwood Abbey - walls, ruins, buildings

https://www.printablescenery.com/ - Medieval scenery, ships, buildings

https://gumroad.com/ministages - Roads 

https://www.3dlayeredscenery.com/product/leichheim-latepledge/ - Leichheim - Medieval City

https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-dark-realms-arkenfel-bridge-2-ruins-136279 - Dark Realms (particularly Arkenfel) - Buildings, bridges, towers, ruins

Here is a selection of buildings/terrain I have printed and which is is now incorporated in my build: 

Mordheim Board - The Inspiration and the Tools

My inspiration for building a Mordheim city board was the video by Fredrik Lybeck of Lybbans Miniatures. Here is that video.

 What was great from my point of view was that Fredrik had largely done all the planning for me. I shamelessly stole his concept, structural plan, materials etc. He also had provided links to the various items he had printed.

This really short-circuited the whole process for me. Armed with all his planning work, I acquired the necessary stls and fired up my one-machine print farm.

In the previous post I indicated that my new 3D FDM printer, a Creality CR-6 SE, had proved to be a "unicorn". What did I mean by that? Well from Day One I started printing successfully and have suffered virtually no failed prints or problems.

3D printing can be its own hobby and.....well, I didn't want another hobby....just a source of terrain pieces. I had previously had a Wanhao i-3 (purchased in 2016) and while it had served me okay for two years, it was a hobby in itself and eventually the effort to produce terrain outweighed its utility.

Not so with the Creality. The key feature for me is its auto bed-levelling. With the wanhao I was constantly struggling with the levelling of the print bed, manually adjusting corners, sliding in sheets of paper to measure the gap between bed and extruder etc. The Creality did all this for me and it really has been plug in and print.....exactly the type of 3D hobby I want.

I've have sourced PLA from a local supplier and started printing. Two and a half months and 13kgs of PLA later I've the necessary skeleton for my board.

Phoenix Rises - Mordheim

 After six months off the blog, the phoenix has risen again (or perhaps something stirs in the crypt)!

In March I went to Adepticon. It was a real refresh for me. After 2+ years of being locked down in New Zealand, it was a chance to get out and see the real world - outside our hermit kingdom. 

I had become very disenchanted with the bloat of 40k, the constant release of supplements, additional rules etc. all in a game that due to its underlying scoring structure was increasingly "same-y". Most of the content creators that I was following had turned into full-time shills for GW, pushing whatever was that week's release.

Adepticon changed a lot for me. Firstly, I got to go to the biggest tabletop miniatures convention in the world for the first time since 2019. There was a chance to mix with enthused hobbyists, visit vendor halls, eat burgers and drink margaritas. I didn't realise how much I had missed it! Secondly, I attended hobby classes again. Over the 4 days of the event I packed in 24 hours of classes - mostly airbrushing - but also some specific brush work classes on skin and faces. Thirdly, I got to see Golden Daemon. It was absolutely phenomenal and I was blown away by how talented people were.

When I arrived back in New Zealand late April I was enthused to get into the hobby again. What I needed was a project.

Over the previous 12 months I had been selling off my 22+ tables of 40k terrain. I had built up my own stock of terrain, mats and boards and post the 2021 Fields of Blood NZ Grand Tournament I no longer needed them. My previous project had been to build a 10' x 4' 40k Citifight board using SWM Urban Street tiles and GW Sector Imperialus buildings and I felt that 40 square feet would satisfy any future itch. This freed up a lot of space and while going through my "stuff" I found the Mordheim rulebook and a load of figures.

So I settled on my next project. Build a 6' x 4' Mordheim city board. I had a lot of Tabletop World buildings I could use but needed the right "base" on which to use them.

The first thing I did was search the Google and Youtube for possible examples and found myself a great set of videos by Fredrick Lybeck of Lybbans Miniatures. He had built a city board that was exactly what I aspired to......so out I went and bought a new tool.

The Creality CR-6 SE. Funded by Kickstarter in 2020. Problems ironed out by the community. Supported by a wonderful Facebook group. I didn't know it but I had found a "unicorn". Mid-July, I started printing and I haven't stopped since. In that time I have had less than a handful of failed prints and it has been running 24/7.

Hobby - Adepticon-bound

 With the opening of our borders and the removal of MIQ (finally), it looks like I will make Adepticon this year. I am scheduled to fly out to the USA on Tuesday evening and the first five days of my trip will be at Adepticon 2022 at Schaumberg, Chicago.

Two years ago, in March 2020, I was due to fly out to Adepticon the night New Zealand closed its borders and went into its first lockdown. That year Adepticon was canceled, as it was last year. But now it's back and thankfully it looks like I'll be there.

This year it is hosting the first US Golden Daemon in about eight years and I can't wait to see the entries. It is also bigger than before spread over two hotels linked by a shuttle. The event has attracted great support from vendors.

So I'm looking forward to "nerding out" for five days. I have 8-9 hobby classes lined up and plenty of time to frequent the vendor hall. I'm looking forward to seeing the great army displays the tournaments attract.

Can't wait! Hi World - I'm back!

Hobby - Metal Casting of Models

 Great little film showing the early years of the hobby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=lA6LCGONW1o&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR073hJkhPL0xJHVzDzpEk4Ay1MW8nrPeau-jkMcOm62d86pAwNM6jCs9ms

Still using lead rather than that new fangled pewter

Hobby - Finished War Mammoth

A couple of weeks ago I came across the CMON "A Song of Ice & Fire"  War Mammoths which appeared to be the ideal size to fit on a KOW Monster Chariot base of 50x100mm.

Over the weekend I painted and based one of the two that comes in the box. It is a very nice model with good crisp detail.

I'm looking forward to trying him out on the table in coming weeks.

Hobby - Ogre Mammoths and Lancastrian Longbow

 Over the last week I have been getting on with a few projects that I am keen to get done over the next few weeks.

The first is to add a Mammoth to my KoW Ogres. I have the two GW Ogre monsters but both are on scenic bases and both are far too large to use in KOW. So to that end I purchased a box of the CMON "A Song of Ice & Fire" War Mammoths. You get two in a box for the wonderful price of NZD 90 incl post from Amazon.

I've based mine on a Monster Chariot base - 50x100mm - and started to paint it. They are very detailed and sturdy resin models. If everything goes to plan then I'll get it finished in the next week or so.

The other thing I have been doing is painting some of the Perry Miniatures "War of the Roses Infantry". I purchased two boxes which has given me 66 Retinue Longbowmen. These are been split into three groups - 24/24/18 - and are now being painted.

The intention is that they will give me three Lancastrian retinues that I can base - 22 elements - as opponents for my WotR Yorkists. 

Twenty plus years ago, at the Warlords, we fought a number of refights of the major battles in the conflict. My intention is to organise another series of these refights for later in 2022. Given the price of Perry plastics it is very easy to buy and paint up the required figures. 

In this case I have painted them in the liveries of Somerset, Northumberland and Exeter and will look to buy/paint some more as needed.

KOW - Sisters of Sigmar Regiment (Foot Guard in Kingdoms of Men)

 The first Games Workshop figures I bought was the Sisters of Sigmar box released for Mordheim. That must be back in 2000 by my reckoning.

After 20+ years I finally got around to painting them!

Over the past couple of weeks I have built and painted enough Sisters to create a 20 woman regiment. These are truly lovely sculpts and an absolute joy to paint. Obviously they are all metal.

The unit is full of all the various sculpts that came with the Mordheim warband - all the Superiors, Novices, Sisters etc.

I've kept them on the 20mm bases to preserve the value of the figures, given they are bloody hard to get these days. Still have about 10 unpainted figures but most are characters rather than rank and file.

At the moment the intent is to use them as Foot Guard with 2 handed weapons in my growing Kingdom of Men army.

KOW - Ogres vs. Forces of the Abyss in Pillage

A couple of weeks ago I lent my WHFB Ogre Kingdoms army to a local player who was involved in an updated Warhammer Fantasy tournament. 

Citadel Maneaters repurposed as Siegebreakers

After getting it out I thought how easy would it be to port into KoW. So last week I racked up the models in movement trays and "voila" a new army to play.  

Lliam brought along his FotA (some small changes after his fight with my Varangur) and we rolled up "Pillage" with five objectives. Three of these were placed in the corners with two in the middle.

Hobby - Flagellant Unit

 As noted here a couple of weeks ago, I have no real active projects I am working on at the moment. However felt like I should have something on the painting desk so dipped into various cases of shame and pulled out 20 old metal Flagellant figures. 

These were a unit I was going to add to my WHFB Empire army but then....you know...the Old World was destroyed. As a result the figures got chucked into a box.

Last week I started painting the figures and here is my finished unit:

There are a limited number of sculpts (about 6-7) so you get some repetition across the unit.

I was trying to achieve the "Mad Medieval German Zealot" look so they are painted in pretty drab colours - tans, beiges, browns and khakis.

They have been based on a pretty bland gravel and grass (Woodland Scenics Burnt Umbre Fine Turf). This matches what the rest of the army is on. I thought about multibasing but I'm hedging my bets on what happens with "The Old World" and these being tabbed metals.

The plan is that these will form the start of some kind of Brothermark/Kingdoms of Men forces.

Really happy with the unit given it is 3-4 evenings work.

KOW - Varangur vs. Forces of the Abyss in "Control"

On Saturday Lliam and I got to play our first KoW game against each other in 4-5 years. He had his Forces of the Abyss while I used my newly updated Varangur. 

Rolled up "Control" for the mission. Each of six sectors worth 1 point with the exception of your opponent's central sector which is worth 2 points.

The FotA started with US21 while the Varangar had 18. Lliam had 12 drops to my 11.

Fallen and Succubi Slog It Out

In terms of terrain I selected 10 varied pieces and then randomly placed them using die rolls. LLiam chose to go on the far side of the table.

FotA had two Gargoyle units on the base edge and the two regiments of Succubi up on the deployment line (between which is the Temptress) On the hill are a Lower Abyssal Horde, marshalled by a Efreet and a Chroneas at the base.

From the far end of the table you can see the rest of the FotA forces. Two small units of Tortured Souls, the Abyssal Horsemen Horde and the Well of Souls

So I went in with a plan for this army of it working in two mirror image battlegroups. And immediately threw it out the window the first time I deployed it 😊

Instead of what I had envisaged, I split the army into three groups - fast chaff wing on my right (2x Horse Raiders, 1x Snow Fox), an Infantry centre (2x Fallen Hordes, Lord on Frostfang, Magos) and cavalry wing on the left (Korgan Regiment, Frostfang Horde, Lord on Frostfang and Snow Foxes). 

My thinking was predicated once I saw where Lliam had put his Tortured Souls. I thought that these two units had the ability to remove any of my chaff units and I needed these to grab sectors. I also felt that my cavalry wing could win the left of the table.

My Cavalry wing sitting on the hill, Snow Foxes behind.

Fall in centre with Lord and Magos. Chaff on flank

Lliam won roll off and chose to go first. He pushed forward with everything staying outside my charge range. I countered by pushing my chaff forward in an attempt to outflank the FotA but managed to lose a unit of Horse Raiders to a flank charge by the Temptress.


With the rest of his second turn Lliam charged one unit of Fallen with Gargoyles and parked the second in front of the other Fallen. He also charged the Frostfang Cavalry with Tortured Souls while putting the other unit in front of my Korgan. 

To me this was the key moment in the battle. In my Turn 2 I was able to remove both Gargoyle units and both Tortured Souls. This then heavily swung the mobility advantage to the Varangur. It also equalised the US of the two armies at 17 each.

My central Lord charged the Chroneas inflicting some damage on it.

The following picture shows the centre at the end of Varangur Turn 2. Lord in combat with the Chroneas, Raiders and Fallen facing off against the Succubi Regiments. At the top you can see the Lower Abyssals have moved to shore up the FoTA right.

Varangur are feeling happy with the current battle state.

Hobby - Adepticon-bound (hopefully, anyway)

 Tickets for Adepticon 2022 went on sale today. In August last year I managed to book a hotel room at the Renaissance Schaumberg where it is being held and in December booked flights.

Today the tickets for each of the events went on sale and I scooped up 7 out of the 8 painting classes I wanted. Not bad given most were sold out in 3-4 minutes.

I've managed to get three airbrushing classes plus two on painting faces....so pretty stoked.

Obviously, the pachyderm in the room is our border situation. When the flights were booked (and as currently advised) they are slated to be open with MIQ self-isolation. However they have since delayed the opening of the border with Oz.

Hopefully, I'll be able to venture out of our cave. 

Easy Army - Nothing As Queer As Folks (KOW)

 Over on the KOW Fanatics FB group there is currently a post complaining that all the latest content from the Clash of Kings 2022 update hasn't been uploaded to the Easy Army list builder.

Some context. Easy Army is a list builder for Mantic Games maintained by a community volunteer. There is a free version available as well as a paid version ($2/month, $20/year) which gives extra features. One of those extra features is access to a version that is updated with new material sooner. Others include different save (and I believe share) options.

So you can use use the list builder free of charge and, in conjunction, with the free digital version of the rules, play the game for nothing, list build etc.

The debate at the moment is that this is not enough. There are sections of the community who believe that access to to all aspects of Easy Army should be free and that the volunteer who creates and maintains the service should not have any features behind a paywall.

To me, this is a choice issue. If you want the features - and think they add value - then you pay for the service. If you don't think they are worth the cost, you don't. But to expect them for free....well, let's say I don't share your world view.

In a game where you can easily drop $20 for a single figure, the annual cost for Easy Army seems a relative bargain. 

Hobby - Blank Slate

 For the first time in living memory I have a clean hobby desk.

By this I mean that I have no hobby projects backed up, staring at me accusingly. Sure, I have unpainted models......but a significant amount less than I had a year ago. Over the past year I've painted up accumulated armies - Death Guard, Yorkist WotR, Legio Vulpa - and added units to existing armies - Mongol Conquest, Patrician Roman, Norse Viking, Varangur, Ratkin, Dark Eldar - and that has seen the "pile of shame" dramatically diminish.

Not a Hobby Desk.....but a Clean Desk Nonetheless

The other major contributor to the reduction was a change in my buying habits. In 2021 I purchased a single 40k model....the Dark Eldar Sslyth. And he was painted immediately. Other than that the only other purchases from Games Workshop were the odd paint and the two boxed sets, Cursed City and WarCry. In a "Come to Jesus" moment in September/October I released I was never likely to paint them and sold them off to the local market...remarkably both held their original purchase value.

So what hobby in 2022?

There are 30 Poxwalkers I could paint for my Death Guard. I have the figures and bases and these could be an option. However, I have really lost interest in the current direction of 40k - recent upcoming rules releases from GW don't fill me with confidence that it will change - and so there is no pressing need.

For Xmas, I received 2L of resin for 3D prints from Jack. At present I'm perusing various creator libraries for a suitable project - there are some nice Crusader/Bretonnian/Medieval Knight figures available - that I could build into a KoW army if so inspired.

But for the moment nothing is jumping out as must do.....strange times indeed!

Hobby - KOW: Snow Foxes for Varangur

 The final addition I had to make to my Varangur to take them from v2 to v3 was to build a couple of units of Snow Foxes.

I had some leftover resin Fenrisian Wolves and decided that they would fit the bill.

Painting something up with such obvious white fur was quite stark (pun intended). I used a watered down blue wash to give some definition to the fur.

Based them using the same scheme as the rest of my army.

They are now ready to be mercilessly used as chaff to disrupt opponents' best laid plans. 

Hobby - Sam the Three-Toed Sloth (KoW)

 Continuing with getting my Varangur updated for the table, I have been working on my second Lord on Frostfang.

This, again, will be a proxy and for the Lord I am using the armoured three-toed sloth from Mierce. This was another of the stash I had in my box labelled "Maelstrom Demise".

The resin model is about 4" high with armoured pauldrons and mask. 

Tried to go with a blackened bone on all tusks and talons, while the metal have had a wash od AK's Streaking Grime.

He's mounted on a 50mm square base that uses bark chips as rock. Just waiting for the holidays to finish so I can pick up some tufts to round off the bases.

The last units I need for my Varangur are two regiments of Snow Foxes. For these I am using resin wolves I found surplus. They are currently about half way through being painted and have just been based so i can finish them off.

"Sam & the Snow Foxes"......it sounds like a really shit 90's boy band.