Gloom and Doom - Kingdom Death Desaturated Models: Hand, Ranger, Rogue

So, I feel like my Kingdom Death painting is mostly recognizable for my play with light. Here are a few I've been painting that show off the bleak side of the setting, and these paint jobs are more than a little influenced by Dark Souls (including my own practice with its board game adaptation).

Opening Salvo - Astral Claws Lieutenant and Tactical Squads; battle report

So, I have something to admit: I've actually only been on the sidelines for 8th edition, rebuilding my 40k collection for a while since I'd purged it maybe 15 years back. That means this is my first 40k fight to return to in a long time (I think I played two heavily proxied games in 7th when we were starting to test the GW waters).

New Rawhide Build - Kingdom Death Shirt Design

So, this started as a joke in my group, and I eventually found the time to actually play around with illustrating it, so now it's time to share my Rawhide T-shirt, available from Redbubble.

Did You Forget? It's your Birthday! - Wind Waker Link Conversion (Super Dungeon Explore)

One of the only things my sister-in-law and I had in common when we met was a fondness for the Legend of Zelda series.

Blood for the Blood... umm, wrong game. - Gloomhaven unlocked class

Obviously, some spoilers on this converted class, since, well, I can't very well show the class without showing it.

Getting into the Holiday Spirit - Modified Spidicules Expansion, and Scenery

So, I'd been considering modifying my Spidicules for ages but, before I'd become frustrated with its design, I already built and painted mine, so there wasn't much to do with that.

Black Operations part 8: Wyches

 Expanding the continuing Mandrake army, I've put together a couple new units.

Hunting Party - Kingdom Death Great Game Hunter, Rawhide, Butcher

 These were a pretty fun mix of kitbashes and conversions.

Black Operations part 7: Command

Rounding out the continuing Mandrake army with some command. Two pretty liberal interpretations of Dark Eldar command, they have roughly inverted colors.

Before & After - Kingdom Death First Story and Lion Armor Survivors

These were a pretty fun set to work with; rather than WYSIWYG, my client wanted to have a generally rougher look for them, so I played around with more narrative poses, gear, etc.

WYSIWYG - Hannah, Through the Breach / Kickstarter Edition

Honestly, I was pretty happy to get a chance to paint the Kickstarter edition of Hannah. I think the model has a decent pose, and think she's got just a great rules set (we'll see about next edition...), and basically the only issue I have with the model is she's huge.

Way more importantly, though, she's pretty cool looking and actually has the gear represented by her rules: It still mystifies me, why the standard edition doesn't even represent her weapon.

Black Operations part 6: Dark Eldar Ravagers

Honestly, the Raider/Ravager redesign some years back had me extremely sorely tempted to start an army for my personal collection. I think the vehicles are just fantastically well-designed, as a mix of the original design and an updated, more explicitly pirate-themed look that evokes classic sailing (mostly) without feeling out of scale.

These are, of course, painted for the Mandrake army I've been adding to for the last while; I was going for pretty much as sleek and stripped-down look as I could get, while letting that teal really pop. I repurposed the "squad" look, with helmeted captains/pilots (heads from misc. dark elf kits), and, with a little tweaking, got it so the sponsons are actually replaceable.

Gather 'Round for a Story - A Life Update (also, a pretty Kingdom Death Lion Knight)

Some of you readers may have noticed my posts have been a bit sparse, recently. So, this post will be a little different than usual, in that I'm stepping a little outside gaming, painting, or reviews, to say a little about myself.

The short version is, describing my life right now as "tumultuous" would be an understatement.

Fire/Support - Gloomhaven Tinkerer Guide

Note: the Tinkerer's summons are based on some of Wyrd's old Arcanist models.

I've learned, over the years, that I very often gravitate towards generalists that neither excel at one thing nor do they ever really lack a tool.

These classes and characters tend to be devalued, specifically because they're not very straightforward: They're not tough enough to be the tank; they're not strong enough to be a glass cannon; in this case, the Tinkerer doesn't even have enough support to be dedicated support.

In short, they're tricky and don't tend to be very spectacular, and are often even moderately flawed in their design, since even the designers need to go in without such an obvious direction and that can mean a class doesn't run well, or doesn't run well within the intended role. But, I find them immensely rewarding to play once I understand them, so I thought I'd share some thoughts on Gloomhaven's least-loved class.*

Sword 'n' Board - Gloomhaven Inox Brute

The Inox Brute's pose needed some attention...

Stampede! - Variations on Kingdom Death's Screaming Antelope

So, I've worked on a few Screaming Antelopes recently, with different approaches.

A Knife in the Dark - Gloomhaven Scoundrel

A quick one, today: my fairly standard take on the Gloomhaven Rogue Scoundrel.

This is the only of the starting classes my group hasn't played yet; it looks pretty neat (and better than the two overt fighters we currently have played), but not a lot to say past that... Also, this is the only model from the starter six that saw no modification; while a bit traditional, I thought the Scoundrel was a solid sculpt.

Mobile Command Convertible - Astral Claws Rhinos and Variants

So, until my Astral Claws graduate to larger scales of games, my footslogging characters will be riding around in this guy.

Hunters/Hunted - Kingdom Death Core Quarries

Because the first portion of this set of blue guys got a few requests, I'm starting off with a photo of how they look on the table.

Heavy Hitters - Converting Aleguzzler Gargants

Or, "giants," in the non-trademarked vernacular.

Gloomhaven - Unlocked Sun class, and campaign part 3

Our group's first unlocked character!

Guess what? There'll be some tame spoilers, because I can't show a model without showing it!

One: You Lock the Target / Two: You Bait the Line... - Kingdom Death Manhunter Expansion Review

The Manhunter is I believe Kingdom Death's smallest expansion (not counting ones without monsters). Appropriately, this will be one of my shortest reviews.

Fire in the Belly - Kingdom Death Phoenix

Despite it being extremely frustrating to build, I think the phoenix just looks so cool when it's done.

I've played around with this model a lot over the years, and think that on this one I've hit a very nice balance of spectacle and darkness on this one. While the lighting is a bit artificial in how broadly it hits the model, I'm really happy with its core, and how the light accentuates the feather texture.

By the way, blending between teal and orange is... pretty rough. Don't try this at home, kids. It took a lot of tricks to make that one feel at all natural.

Black Operations part 5: Venoms and Starweavers

It would hardly be a Dark Eldar army without some vehicles, right?

Jazz Men - Kingdom Death core nemeses

Wait, no, another American genre.

So... I honestly didn't understand just how consistently blue my client meant when he asked for his monsters in blue.

I've already done a few blue Hands, but I was pleasantly surprised how dramatic and ghostly the King's Man and Butcher turned out. I think the Butcher's back was the biggest surprise, giving a completely different feel (IMHO) to the mode.

The Muck and the Mire (and some other places) - Cragheart, Mindthief, and Gloomhaven continued campaign (part 2)

Everyone's favorite character design was the Cragheart, but the model was a little lumpy and unspectacular, so I decided to do some radical surgery.

Societal Climbers - Kingdom Death early armor + starting survivors

In most survival-themed games, my conceptual and aesthetic favorite part is between the beginning and the first third or so.

Black Operations part 4: Mandrake Scourge Conversions

Another quick* post today, continuing the Mandrake force I've been working on, and wrapping up its infantry units.

Conceptually, these aren't much different than the previous Witch conversions, but I'm still very happy with how I got these wings to look.

* That would be short, not speedy subject matter.... and yeah, probably no one else saw that unintentional pun.

Happy Valentine's Day, y'all - Kingdom Death Intimacy minis

This project just happened to line up closely enough that today felt right for the happy couple from the land of gloom and doom.

Starting Your Career as a Paid Killer - Gloomhaven Tinkerer, Spellweaver, and Game Sessions

Trying a new game and a new aesthetic is always something of an experience.

Black Operations part 3: Mandrake Hellion Conversions

Continuing this dark and glowy army, next up are some Hellions, incorporating a fair amount of kneadatite and Doomfire Warlocks' heads and torsos.

Bringing a Gun to a Knife Fight - Kingdom Death Manhunter and Rawhide Armor

I haven't quite finished a proper Manhunter review, but the short version is that he's one of my favorite expansions.

A Squall in the Dark - Kingdom Death Homebrew scenario (also, First Story + Antelope + Butcher)

With the first set of Kingdom Death expansions on the horizon, this seemed like a nice time to try introducing the first of some rules I've been developing for them.

Tech (Battle-)Bros - Deathwatch Overkill Salamancers and Iron Hands

In many ways, the Deathwatch army conceptually has just about everything I want in Marines (not to mention its origins in Artemis, a character I've rambled about as a model with honest-to-goodness symbolism behind his construction). I haven't given my fledgeling collection enough love, so, here are a couple more of them.

Boris the Spider! (bwowww!) - Kingdom Death Spidicules expansion

I've gone back and forth a lot on the Spidicules expansion.

Last Light of Solthecius - Guild Ball Grace & Benediction

This was an interesting little project: I was trying to match my earlier work on the Union, which was in monochrome orange/natural light, but match that with trying to give Benediction (above) and Grace (below) the look of golden armor, in non-metallic metal.

Blue vs. Red - Kingdom Death Butcher and Hand

I've done a few Hand paint jobs, and done more than half of those in blue lighting, but I feel like the tuning I achieved on this one really improved it past slight technical improvement.

Black Operations, part 2: Mandrake army conversions

Continuing the Mandrake army, this is my take on Dark Eldar Warriors for my client's army, in what feels a lot more like a collaboration than many commissions I've done, as it's often a bit of bouncing ideas back and forth for these conversions. It's a little odd that they're segregated by sexes, but, with very similar color schemes, some more obvious visual cues should make an army of little dark pointy elves easier to tell apart. The purple ones are, again, the unit leaders, while the blue ones are special weapon troopers. I went out of my way to find shield and armor pieces for these ladies, to try to emphasize a slightly more defensive mode than the standard Mandrakes.

Unlike my preference for "Drukhari" over "Dark Eldar," I definitely don't prefer GW's switch to calling these base models "Witch Aelves," since, most naturally, that means that the entire race should be being pronounced "Eelves" which just sounds silly. The models are nice, though, and the freehand runes came more naturally than I expected.