Warhammer Underworlds VERSUS Time

“Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire features arguably the best range of miniatures that Games Workshop/Citadel has *ever* produced in its decades long history!” 

... proclaimed a slimmer, more vigorous and optimistic version of the author, upon the release of the hybrid board/card game in 2017...

“I will master this system and extract life affirmation from the process!”.

Time passes.  

Challenge of the Living Dead

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Frostgrave Wizard Battle (2 of 2)

Following on from last week’s batch of paired Frostgrave characters, five more contributors put these pairings together.  As per last time, the guidelines were:
PAINT A MAGIC USER AND THEIR APPRENTICE, APPROPRIATE FOR USE IN FROSTGRAVE.
(NB, if these two match the theme of your Mordheim Challenge, then you now have a playable Frostgrave force).
Once again, the goal was to have as many of us involved in an aligned project as possible, rather than get worked up about very strict criteria, and people came up with some fun characters.

Frostgrave Wizard Battle (1 of 2)

 

The Mordheim 5-a-Side project was a success, with several of us getting the core of a skirmish force finished and ready to hit the table.  With Frostgrave 2nd edition due to be released (and on sale by the time of writing), I thought that adding a pair of magic users to the five figs from the 5-a-Side project would be a fun and achievable goal, hopefully made all the more so by doing it in concert with a few others.  The guidelines were:

PAINT A MAGIC USER AND THEIR APPRENTICE, APPROPRIATE FOR USE IN FROSTGRAVE.

(NB, if these two match the theme of your Mordheim Challenge, then you now have a playable Frostgrave force).

The criteria were intended to be broad enough to allow people to paint figures to match a previous project, or head off on a tangent.  I liked the idea of the projects stacking on top of each other, breaking down the substantial task of painting a table worthy force into smaller chunks, but it was up to everyone involved to individually decide whether they wanted to take that approach.  The goal was to get as many of us involved and collaborating as possible, rather than get worked up about very strict guidelines.

Below is what five of us came up with, more to follow.

The Circus of Corruption - A Pustulent Comedy

The fine team over at Old School Miniatures are currently running an excellent Kickstarter for a hugely characterful Circus of Corruption set, comprising plague-ridden daemonic circus performers literally dripping with charm (and bile).

Go and check it out: The Circus of Corruption Kickstarter

The OSM team were kind enough to send a complete set of pre-release resin master casts of the Circus of Corruption to split amongst the Scale Creep crew. Here's what we did with them:

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Errol Phlegm by Axiom

Errol Phlegm is one of the Brethren from the set - I guess they're henchmen or lackeys perhaps. I panted Errol up with plenty of washes and drybrushing, paying particular attention to his rather nasty-looking swollen ankles!

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Frederick Looger, Manny Bokely and Tweedledump esq. by the Asslessman

I got five of the sculpts in the mailbox (I had he luck to pick which) so I was really eager to play with my brushes on them! I really like the completely insane vibe of them, they're like Ledger's Joker or Nicholson's Torrance with hygiene issues.  Don't ask me why I find that appealing but as a subject for miniatures I do find it pretty cool.

I kept the palette minimal on mine to enhance the grim look of them, I wanted a circus flavoured corruption rather than a corrupted circus if you see what I mean.

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Copriolanus, Gunter Firkenshart, King Smear and three Rotlings, by Cheetor

As a fan of Carnivàle, The League of Gentlemen and generally unpleasant miniatures, these models were right up my Cadbury alley.  I reckoned that the sculpting style would reward a rapid approach predominantly using washes and drybrushing, so that’s what I did.  Nothing very fancy.

I am planning to get the other eleven circus folk from the starting range painted to match the six above as soon as I possibly can.  With the straightforward paint job above I reckon that I can fire out the rest of the Circus pretty rapidly and have them ready to hit the table in a couple of weeks with a bit of luck.

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Bob, Larry, Jim, Little Bob and Emanualle Snicklethwayte-Chomdley Pierce III Junior by Whiskeypriest

I has painted somes stuff. It has all the luverly colours wot i likes and stuff. They looks all gooey and yukky like that they has a snotty nose and sneesy bums. I likes these funny little men wot i didied on my holidays. I really likes the one wiv the little rubber chicken. I did liek to paint the little funny mens cos i got to use my bestest brushes and make farty noises as i did it. I also like to taste the paints when i licks my brush.

 By whiskey Priest aged 42 (and one qaurters).

Gang painting - The Scale Creep Methods

When it comes to our painting it seems that the most common goal at the moment is a 'Gang Sized' project. Around 10 or so figures in a thematic group, whether it be a unit, a warband, a gang or some other kind of group, it's the kind of thing each of us will do a couple of in a year (at least).

But how do we do it? Each of tends to work in isolation, showing WIP's or finished items to group but we never have the opportunity to sit and watch how the others work through it. Occasionally WIP's will illicit responses such as, 'Why the fuck do you do it like that, you awkward sod?' or 'For the love of god will you tidy your painting desk!', occasionally 'Tell me you only keep your paints in a plastic bag to wind Paul up' can be heard over the tumult of 'Cut your fucking fingernails!'.

Artistic view of WIPsters group painting, actual process may differ

So we thought it might be educational to get each of the Scale Creeps that are willing, awake, sober and paying attention, to blether on a little bit about how that go about painting a gang of mini's (mostly so the rest of us can point and laugh).

Of course we all have our views and it's only natural we'd want to confront them in the most gentlemanly way. Here's our personal observations on each other's methods :

Assleman :JB
WP
Axiom
Captain Crooks 

How to count painted models ?

It's a common thing amongst painters to count the number of models painted over a given period to see or show how productive we are. While most of us get satisfaction from exceding the numbers from the previous period and frustration from not meeting them, one thing is far less common amongst us : the way to count painted models.

"How is that even a question ?" 

I've heard it in the back, don't lie. Well if you're asking the question, it probably means you do not paint enough models, or don't count them or even worse... you don't care.

Do you feel we should count bases, heads, models, profiles ?

Now we at Scale Creep® believe that fun is too serious a thing to mess with and if something is worth doing, then its worth doing right.

We're going to expose you to the multiple model counting techniques we've developped over time so that you can pick the right one (the Predator one).

The Kev Adams Vanity project

OK, so after a few of us got together at BOYL this summer (the Oldhammer event in Newark), many of us got a special model converted by no other than the Goblin master himself ! 

Kev Adams gives you the opportunity to customise a model for you for a small fee (given to charity).

And although you could ask plenty of things, the most easy and pleasant idea is usually to get your own face added onto a model of your choice.

We thought we'd just show you what 4 of us decided to do and paint the models for the occasion !

Shadow War: Armageddon Warbands

The Pyranids of Hive Splinter Penzance

Taking our full responsabilities of trend setters at Scale Creep Inc. we have decided this time to start a trend people would follow even before we set it.

Shadow Wars : Armageddon is one of the latest games GW has published and it's probably the kind many have been waiting for.

The First Annual Pro Painter Burger Brush Cup

On a quiet wednesday night/evening/afternoon/morning (depending on time zones), a few guys gathered on a video chat to do what they do best : talking non sense. And painting.

The idea though was motivated by the will to paint like PROS. Exclusively with their worst brush.

The HeroQuest Hero Quest: The Wizard

Last to the party, but still with monsters following behind him, comes The Wizard!

Fistion the Fabulous (The name given to him by his parents was Reginald, but seriously who's going to be in awe of 'The Mighty Reginald'!?!) jogged through the dimly lit corridors. A drip of something cold fell from the ceiling and ran down inside his tunic.

Buffdar the Buffoon (something that Reggie promised himself to say out loud one day) had gone into the next room and Fistion could hear the clash of steal. It was probably more orcs; Buffdumn always roared that way when fighting the greeskins.

Fristion heard a grunt from his cerebrally challenged companion and immediately reached into his pockets for his spell cards.  Looks like the big fellow was going to get the healing spell again. Fristion really hoped that the diminutive grumpy one managed to release Mydicyn... er..... Medicanyc...  er..... The Elf from the lat trap. He hated having to use his staff on orcs - it wasn't fair! They had more dice than him!!

I volunteered to paint the wizard almost straight away. I have long planned to paint my heroquest set and what better way to start than as part of a Creep project. I started him only shortly after Cheetor started his dwarf and almost immediately stalled. This has been the most difficult model that I have ever painted! He has no details other than the ripples on his cloak. I have been told to avoid free-handing a 28mm face and I now know why - it destroys your soul!

However, after getting an awesome Secret WIPster present of Mongrol, I set myself the restriction of not being allowed to paint anything else, until the wizard was done.

So, here he is (he's not perfect, but I'm reasonably pleased with how he came out):

I really hope we get the chance to put all these HQ models together for a game one day.