MINI WARGAMING: "28mm Pirate Ship Coming Together" (26 December 2007)

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TOP: Master Necromancer Maksimok's shipyards.

Hi Everyone,

One of the projects I have been enjoying the most lately has been a 28mm pirate ship.

I was browsing E-bay one day and found it for considerably under a C-spot ($100.00 USD) and decided to lowball the bid and miraculously I WON! So, the next thing I know, the pirate ship arrives and my work bench is covered in the undead, which effectively meant that the pirate ship project was forced to wait.

TOP: A dark PIRATE SHIP appears out of the foggy night!

So then a work colleague and friend, Cheri, calls me and, knowing I speak Spanish, asks me to tutor her daughter, Keri, in Spanish language studies so I came and started working with her. After a tutoring lesson one day, Keri chats me up a bit and asks how I liked the most recent "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. I mentioned that I enjoyed it and was even building a pirate ship model. This intrigued them and Cheri offered to lend me her corner table so I could build it with them... so I did. The next thing I know I started assembling a pirate ship at my friend's apartment with a teenage assistant who wanted to learn the craft. I started learning the parts of the ship, teaching my assistant nautical terminology, and, at the same time, teaching hobby skills.

And it's slowly coming together...

TOP: The aft castle has adornment made out of cheap jewelry charms.
TOP: Shaping the fore castle railing took some work...

The white tubes sticking up are mountings for masts.

The ship itself is an out-of-production 28mm model from Merrimack Miniatures / Old Glory called the adventure galley. I have slowly been cleaning it up and customizing it. I plan to use it with the excellent Pirates! rule set from my friends at Flagship Games, so I've built the masts to be removable. The masts are made from 3/8" dowels that fit snugly into 7/16" hollow plastic tubing.

TOP: The ship is coming together as seen from the side.
Both the fore and aft castles are removable...
With cabins accessible underneath them.
TOP: From this angle, you can see...
The cabin under the fore castle...
Has a custom bulkhead installed.

There is also custom railing, a hand-made front bulkhead and more.

I haven't decided what sort of crew to populate her from yet... I have three in mind:

1. A traditional, historical human pirate crew.

2. A demi-human, mostly Orc pirate crew.

3. A skeleton & zombie undead pirate crew.

Keri likes the undead crew best. I'm of a mind to keep the ship flexible and allow all three crews on board... just not at the same time!

Here are some 28mm pirate links for you:

Flagship Games link:

http://www.flagshipgames.com/

Old Glory Miniatures link:

http://www.oldgloryminiatures.com/

Pirate Wargames Yahoo discussion E-group:

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/PirateWargames/

The rest of my 28mm pirate ship photos at my Photobucket image gallery:

http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Maksim-Smelchak/28mm_Pirates/

Have a root'in toot'in great Wednesday!
And happy holidays!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (...if it is indeed an infringement).

COOL STUFF: "Imagining The Undead" (30 November 2007)

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TOP: The undead hordes cover the land in darkness...

Hi All,

All gamers have quirks, and among the gaming masses, two groups have particularly fertile, perhaps over-fertile, imaginations: RPG gamers & miniatures wargamers. We get caught up on a theme and just go bonkers with it. My buddy Nils does. My Junkworld buddy Mark does. Cacique Caribe from TMP does. And I certainly do! I've been stuck on the undead for some time now...

TOP: "Liber Necris: The Book Of Death In the Old World"

And I finally got ahold of a copy of the Black Library Publication "Liber Necris: The Book Of Death In the Old World," which has been a fun read. Essentially the Liber Necris, is a compilation of all the wonderful background on the undead from the Warhammer Fantasy Battles setting. And the story after almost two decades of short stories and fiction is a rich one... from the rise of the first Necromancer Nagash to the the depredations of the Von Carstein Vampire lineage... However, what really got my imagination going was a discussion of the components of the undead as discussed from a quasi-alchemical, wizardly perspective:

The Seven Prime
Physio-aethyric Components of the Undead:

Kha
The physical or mortal shell. The body. Corpse.

Ka
Ego, reason, and abstract thought.

Ba
The subconscious self and emotion.

Ab
The conscious or ethical awareness.
Also thought to be the freedom of choice.

Sekhem
Life force itself; soul-fire or aethyric energy.

Ren
One’s true name.
The notion or idea of a particular individual.

Khaibit
The shadow. Proof of mortality.

And that prompted me to create a table of the undead components, which I haven't figured out how to port over to Blogger yet.

And that got me to start thinking of all the types of undead I could recall... from fairy tales, legends, miniatures games, board games, novels, short stories, RPGs, etc. ...which led me to the below list:

CHARACTERS:
- Demiliche (wizard)
- Dracoliche (dragon + wizard)
- Liche (wizard)
- Liche Master (wizard)
- Master Necromancer (wizard)
- Mummy Lord (warrior + wizard)
- Necromancer (wizard)
- Vampire: Blood Dragon (Traditional Eastern European Drakul Warrior Type)
- Vampire: Eastern Cathay (Mastermind / Sorcerer / Scholar Type)
- Vampire: Lahmian (Seductress Type)
- Vampire: Necrarch (Necromancer Type)
- Vampire: Southern (Earth Beast Vampire Type)
- Vampire: Strigoi (Wild Beast Vampire Type)
- Vampire: Von Carstein (Traditional Gothic Horror Dracula Type)
- Vampire Count (warrior)
- Vampire Lord (warrior)
- Vampire Thrall (warrior)
- Werewolf (beast + warrior)
- Wight Lord (warrior)
- Wraith Lord (warrior)

CORE-UNDEAD:
- Baneguard
- Carrion Flyer
- Corpseguard
- Deadites
- Direguard
- Grave Guard
- Leiberian Skeleton
- Skeletal or Zombie Beasts
- Skeletal or Zombie Wolves
- Skeletons
- Wights
- Zombies

CORE-MUNDANE:
- Bats (beast)
- Ghast (beast + man)
- Ghoul (beast + man)
- Gypsies (man)
- Peasants (man)
- Rats (beast)
- Villagers (man)
- Vultures (beast)
- Wolves (beast)

SPECIAL-CORPOREAL:
- Black Knights
- Chupacabra
- Corpse Gatherer (Animated Graveyard)
- Death knights
- Frankenstein
- Golem
- Grim Reaper
- Horseman Of the Apocalypse
- Mummies
- Nephilim
- Nightshade
- Revenant
- Skeletal Centaurs
- Skeletal Ogre, Troll, etc.
- Undead Chariot
- Undead Elite
- Zombie Ogre, Troll, etc.

SPECIAL-INCORPOREAL:
- Banshee
- Barrow Wight
- Ghost
- Nightmare
- Phantom
- Poltergeist
- Ringwraith
- Shade
- Shadow
- Spectre
- Spirit Host
- Will O' the Wisp
- Wraith

RARE:
- The Black Coach
- Bog or Fen Beast
- Skeletal Dragon or Wyrme
- Zombie Dragon or Wyrme

Hope you enjoyed my convoluted thought patterns!

Have a great Friday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

MINI WARGAMING: "Maksim's Workbench: Undead Today!" (25 November 2007)

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TOP: Some of the vast undead hordes of Maksimok the Mirthless!

Hi All,

Well, I needed to prove that I'm still working on models so these two photos are getting some blog time. The both came from the 20 October 2007 MWS meet, and only one of from me, but they still show how much progress I've made on my 28mm undead army, the undead hordes of Master Necromancer Maksimok the Mirthless. I now have at least 2,000 points painted by WHFB standards, of undead that I can field as a Vampire Counts army. That's been my big project this year... and I've really been enjoying the heck out of it.

You can see more of the minis from my collection here:
http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Maksim-Smelchak/

TOP: Joe painted this 10mm Warmaster Tomb Kings army.

If you've never seen my buddy, Joe Riddle AKA Sukhmet's work, then you're really missing out. He's an incredibly talented miniatures artist. I'm a painter... he's an ARTISTE! At any rate, one of Joe's latest triumphs has been this 10mm Warmaster Tomb Kings army that he's painted on commission. Joe's also a great guy to game with, except if you put him in charge of the zombies... he lets out a "Bwwwaaaaiiinnns" that's downright spooky... maybe creepy is a better word.

Joe's Photobucket account:
http://s203.photobucket.com/albums/aa136/Sukhmet/WM%20Tomb%20Kings/

Have a great Sunday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

MINI WARGAMING: "28mm Undead Roman Legions On the March!" (3 November 2007)

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TOP: Box art for Zvezda Set #8801 Cursed Legion

Hi All,

I've spent some time the last few days working on the 28mm Undead Hordes of Master Necromancer Maksimok. My strategy for building this army has been a little unorthodox... way back at the end of 2006, my buddy Nils invited me to join his gaming group's Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WHFB) camapign, and I decided to allow myself to do so bacuase I've always wanted to build a 28mm undead fantasy army. Back in the 1980s and early 1990s I used to salivate over all of the cool undead lines that companies like Ral Partha, Grenadier and others used to manufacture. Those figures were so inspiring. And roughly twenty years later, this was my chance.

But I digress, my strategy in building this army was to buy no more than 10% of it new... everything else would come from buying used collections. And I have. And the result of that has been a very gnarly mismatched collections of figures. And, at that, I've ended up with a vast variety of undead figure genres as well. I had originally only intended to build an undead Vampire Counts army with a Gothic Horror theme, but now I have much more. Here are the current plans of which armies to make out of my figure stocks:

1. A 28mm Undead Pirate army along the lines of "Pirates of the Caribbean." Most of the figures are Reaper from a discount bin. I'm not sure whether I should try to form them into a Lustrian army with Count Harkon & the Zombie Pirates or a more conventional Vampire Counts army. I'm going to let this army sit while I finish the Vampire Counts one first.

2. Despite trying to select used lots for a Gothic Horror army, I have a strong nucleus of a Tomb Kings army. I have a ton of chariots, mummies, undead giants, and other goodies with an undead Egyptian theme. I'm also going to let this army sit while I finish the Vampire Counts one.

3. My pride and joy is the nearly 2,000 points of Vampire Counts that I now have nearly 100% assembled AND painted. The current army is almost all skeletons and, as time permits, I'll be experimenting with the more exotic units on the Vampire Counts roster... I have an undead dragon, giant vampire bats, a Black Coach, and plenty of undead cavalry among other undead goodies.

And one of the other things I've been experimenting with is building themed undead units to function as infantry blocks. Each will be twenty to thirty figures strong when I'm done with them. They've all been built to suit the Gothic Horror theme and here's what I am working on:

A. A block of Halloween themed units comprised of pumpkin heads and scarecrows.

B. A block of Undead Asian Warriors: ninjas, Samurai, and plenty of lacquer-armored infantrymen.

C. A block of Wights or Ring Wraiths. All of them have robes and hand weapons.

D. A block of Strigoi Bestial Ghouls. I've mixed in some cheap bitz bin Orky figures that have been zom-bi-fied.

E. An extra-beefy Grave Guard block made with larger undead warrior miniatures based on 25mm squares. The old GW wights were too large to mount on conventional 20mm squares. They look far better on 25mm ones.

F. A block of Drakenhoff Crossbowmen, mostly zombies and skeletons to work with a Sylvanian list.

G. A block of Drakenhof Guard, all heavily-armored wights with polearms to work with a Sylvanian list.

H. An Undead Demi-human Infantry block modelled along the lines of GW's The Cursed Company.

I. A Female Lahmian Infantry block.

But my favorite unit is a block of undead Roman Legionnaires and they are the topic of this post.

Where does one find 28mm undead Roman Legionnaires?

Zvezda is the first source. There are five Zvezda undead sets currently available:

8801 Cursed Legion
8803 Necromancer

8807 Return of the Cursed Legion
8815 Artillery of the Cursed Legion
8822 Cursed Cavalry
8829 Zombies

Zvezda main site here (Site in Russian & English):

http://www.ringofrule.ru/main.php?lng=eng

The Zvezda zombie box looks very interesting, but I haven't been able to locate any photos of them yet Frothers had a set up, but they were taken down shortly after. The guys at TMP found some great links for the Cursed Legion set, but didn't have any for the zombie set either.

Here's the best Zvezda link I've found yet, a comparison of the GW 28mm plastic skeletons and the Zvezda ones:

http://www.dungeoncrawlers.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=65&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

TOP: Box art for Zvezda Set #8829 Zombies

And here are two links for some photo galleries of Zvezda 28mm fantasy figures:

Gallery with Zvezda 28mm Cursed Legion minis:

http://www.ringrule.narod.ru/galery/gal_clg.html

Gallery with Zvezda 28mm Cursed Cavalry minis among others:

http://www.ringrule.narod.ru/user_galery/gal_hovrashok.html

TOP: Box art for Zvezda Set #8807 Return of the Cursed Legion.

Eureka Miniatures is the second source. Nic over at Eureka Miniatures in Australia also makes a fine undead Roman Legionnaire, which isn't listed in his catalogue yet, but if you make an inquiry, he can send a few to you. He also makes some fine undead Greek Warriors and the finest undead horses on the 28mm market.

Eureka web site here:

http://www.eurekamin.com.au/

I owe Nic many thanks for being kind enough to send me a sample of the 28mm undead Roman Legionnaire figure.

Thanks, Nic!

TOP: Box art for Zvezda Set #8815 Artillery of the Cursed Legion

And the third source is from assorted companies. Some other companies make a few figures that could pass for 28mm undead Roman Legionnaires, but they are few and far between. However, one company that makes a large number of figures with horsehead plumes on their helms, Lorica-type armor, and Roman-like weapons that could pass for undead Roman soldiers is RAFM.

RAFM link here:

http://www.rafm.com/

Update (4 November 2007 at roughly 7:30am):

My TMP reader Cornelius found a source that I neglected to mention: Ghastly & Company. Thanks, Cornelius!

Link here:

http://www.ghastlyco.com/

Update (4 November 2007 at roughly 8:00am):
An anonymous Frothers donor found yet another source that I neglected to mention: Alionis Miniatures. Thanks, Anonymous Donor!

Link here:
http://www.alionas.com/

Have a great Saturday!
And a Gut Shabbos to my Jewish readers!

Shabbat Shalom,

Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

FUN VIDEOS: "Maksimok Takes On The Argonauts" (19 October 2007)

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Hi All,

The above clip is one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite films of all time: "Jason and the Argonauts" made by one of the all-time great film directors of all time, Ray Harryhausen. "Jason" is a retelling of the classic Greek myth by the same name, a tale of adventure, heroes & monsters with what were at the time, the best special effects ever made. Ray Harryhausen, an amazing special effects guru, made stop-motion model animation famous. Here's a little bit about the technique:

Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) animation is a general term for an animation technique which makes a physically manipulated object appear to move. The object is moved by very small amounts between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Clay figures are often used in stop motion animations, known as claymation, for their ease of repositioning. Software applications such as Stop Motion Pro, istopmotion and monkeyjam have made the technique popular among young filmmakers.

And if you've never seen a Harryhausen film before, by all means, go out and rent one, or better yet, buy one of the Harryhausen DVD collections now available. From "Jason and the Argonauts," "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad," to "Clash of the Titans," there are some real film gems out there for someone never exposed to the wonders of Harryhausen.

And, by the way, my RPG / Miniatures game alter-ego, Master Necromancer Maksimok, would have done things the same as the necromancer in the above film clip, EXCEPT... Maksimok's skeleton underlings have a real thing for guys who wear skirts, from Greeks to Scots. I can't imagine the heroes doing so well against Maksimok's skeleton hordes. Booyah!

And a few links as is my wont:

Everything you ever wanted to know about the great Ray Harryhausen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harryhausen

Lots about "Jason and the Argonauts":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_and_the_Argonauts_%28film%29

More about the classic Greek myth of the Argonauts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argonauts

Have a great Friday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

MINI WARGAMING: 28mm Converted Zombies! (4 October 2007)

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TOP: Alakazaam alakazoo! ...from 25mm fantasy fig garbage to ZOMBIES!

Hi All,

One of the things I really love about the undead is how easy it is to convert them... Take an old figure, preferably a cheap used one, lop the head off, replace it with a skull or zombie head and:

VOILA! New undead troops swell the ranks!

I have been buying a whole bunch of walking corpse figures (...used figures that others had cannibalized for arms, heads, legs, weapons, etc.) at swap meets and they're now picking up new zombie or skull heads, arms, and legs from my bitz box... I converted half a dozen new zombies for my undead army yesterday and have a bunch of other lead miniature wrecks of 25mm to 28mm fantasy figures awaiting the zombification process... MUWAHAHAHAHAHAH!

TOP: They're a not-so-pretty bunch, ain't they, sonny?

TOP: I love this convert from a puny stub of a 25mm fantasy fig...

...missing an arm and with a big gouge in his former head...

...to a fine looking zombie swordsman!

And this wouldn't be a Maksim-Smelchak post if I didn't share a link or two as is my wont:

Fat Goblin's ultra-cool Modern Zombie Guide:

http://fgminis.blogspot.com/2006/10/modern-day-zombies.html

Shelldrake's zombie wargame blog:

http://zombiewargame.blogspot.com/

Matakishi-Paul's awesome zombie pages:

http://www.matakishi.com/zombieinvasion2005.htm

And...

Papa Midnight's amazing Displaced Miniatures zombie galleries:

http://www.displacedminiatures.com/Pappa%20Midnight/images.html?galleryId=1388&from=Zombies

TOP: This is one of the few unconverted zombies I've recruited...

He's a classic Grenadier mini who was awaiting Master Necromancer Maksimok.

TOP: I love this pair...

They have that Fritz Leiber Fafhrd & Gray Mouser look!

...only zombie-style!

And two more links:

All about Fritz Leiber:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fritz_Leiber
And...
All about Fafhrd & Gray Mouser:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fafhrd_and_the_Gray_Mouser

And at this rate, my dream of recreating the "Army of Darkness" skeleton army siege scene in 28mm might just yet happen!

Long "live" the Deadites!

Have a great Thursday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
A special shout out to Kai AKA FAT GOBLIN! Howdy, mate!

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

MINI WARGAMING: 28mm Undead Return To My Workbench (3 October 2007)

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TOP: Another skeletal regiment ready for battle!

... except for a bit of texturing and painting of the bases!

Hi All,

I've been sick the last few days hence the paucity of posts, but I did take advantage of my sick day to do a little modelling... particularly on the 28mm undead army I've been working on. I'm rebasing all of my figs onto Litko bases from GW plastic ones. I like the look much better and, in the process, I'm adding metal bottoms so I can store my figures magnetically.

TOP: Skeletal crossbowmen, you can never have enough!

I have also been working on some conversions and have started experimenting with green stuff sculpting... the early experiments aren't very promising, but Rome wasn't built in a day either.

One of the things I really love about the undead is how easy it is to convert them... Take an old figure, preferably a cheap used one, lop the head off, replace it with a skull or zombie head and:

VOILA! New undead troops swell the ranks!

I have been buying a whole bunch of walking corpse figures (...used figures that others had cannibalized for arms, heads, legs, weapons, etc.) at swap meets and they're now picking up new zombie or skull heads, arms, and legs from my bitz box... I converted half a dozen new zombies for my undead army yesterday, but the piccies turned out like crud, so I'll have to share them later this week.

And at this rate, my lifelong dream of recreating "Army of Darkness" in 28mm just might yet happen! Long "live" the Deadites!

Have a great Wednesday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

MINI WARGAMING: The Undead Re-visit My Workbench (2 August 2007)

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TOP: My work bench is being overrun with the undead... and cactus!

Hi All,

My photo editing program finally went bad so I need to find a new one... if anyone has ideas which editing software is good or where I can find trial or free versions for downloading, please let me know! Many of these photos are overexposed, which is easily fixable with good editing software.

So, here goes with a few projects on my work bench:

TOP: I like these old Essex skeleton sculpts with over sized heads!

Mostly I've been working on my undead army, putting together new pieces, cleaning old ones, priming, base-texturing and the like. The above three undead fellows are Essex 28mm sculpts of which few photos exist. They are attractive sculpts although they have very oversize heads sort of like Adler figures in 6mm.

TOP: This is the "Gnarly Ancient Ones" undead company.

And I've made enough trade to have a really gnarly collection of very old 1970s and 1980s skeleton, zombie and assorted other undead sculpts (...vampires, ghouls, banshees, spirits, etc.) including some of the figures in the above photo. There are a few Grenadiers, an old Citadel or two, a Pewtercraft, some Ral Partha's, and several sculpts I can't seem to identify. I want to extend a special thanks to Matthew H. AKA Mr. Mysterioso from TMP who traded me several very cool old sculpts.

TOP: Some old Grendel Egyptian archaeological pieces along with a Reaper statue.

And the last project on my work bench is one for my mother... you see, she loves Egyptology and many years ago in the early 1990s, I bought her an Egyptian terrain set as a gift, which she recently re-discovered and would like to paint. The rub is she doesn't like gluing, pinning, or filling in gaps ...so I volunteered to get that done for her and then prime the pieces. Pretty cool stuff, almost tempting enough for me to want to get into the Egyptian theme... but I'll resist for now.

Have a great Thursday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

GAMING NEWS: Photos from 28mm WHFB Game With Nils Uploaded!

.ABOVE: Two Vampire Counts companies beat the heck out of Warlord Nils' line.

Hi All,

A weekend or so ago my friend Nils and I headed off to our local gaming shop and played an enjoyable games of Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy Battles (WHFB). We have a mutual set of reinds and have been playing a campaign although, in reality, the campaign is more of an excuse to motivate us to build and paint our lead armies and get together to have a good time. Both Nils and I are "scavenger mini-gamers" meaning that neither of us are "brand-name miniatures purists" and both of our armies are largely "scavenged" from whatever miniature figure sources we could find.

This thread is mostly to introduce us and our armies as well as to show off the photos I took from out game. Nils wrote some great short fiction / battle reports, which I'll post here in the near future as I have the opportunity.

I have Nils' blog linked on the sidebar. He often goes by his nickname the Black Cavalier. His blog has photos from some zombie hunter games as well as some WHFB game fiction for the time being although Nils plays ANYTHING and EVERYTHING! He keeps trying to drag me into Warmaster, but I resist. I have enough crud already!

Just in case, here's a link to his blog:
http://blackcavalierswargaming.blogspot.com/

So without futher ado, here's Nils' army, a 28mm Beasts of Chaos army run with a Norse theme:

ABOVE: Warlord Nils Fahrvegnugen the Raging Rylehmeister.

ABOVE: Nils had these strange beasties stand in for minotaurs.

ABOVE: Most of Nils' units were Ungor bands disguised as Vikings.

ABOVE: And you can't have a Beasts of Chaos army without beasts, right?

And here's my gnarly 28mm Vampire Counts army:

ABOVE: Master Necromancer, Maksimok the Mirthless.

ABOVE: My general, a vampire thrall, led this skeleton unit.

ABOVE: A wight lord led the unit of Grave Guard.

ABOVE: A second vampire thrall led another unit of skeletons.

ABOVE: And these zombies were really skeletons - nifty magic, no?

If you'd like to see the rest of the photos, please follow this link:
http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Maksim-Smelchak/Gaming%202007/WHFB-Nils_6-30-2007/

Nils won the game, by the way. Mazel Tov, Nils!

Have a great Monday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).

GAMING NEWS: 28mm Undead Invade My Work Bench!

. The 28mm Undead invade my work bench! Aaahhhh!

Hi All,

I worked on miniatures this past weekend as well some other activities such as visiting the local Rennaissance Faire, which wasn't all that exciting this year. Lots of cleavage in tight bodices, overly fried foods guaranteed to give indigestion, lots of folks speaking with fake-o British accents and you pretty much have the Faire summed up.

My work bench.
Gamers Union #1031 insists that the "cluttered look" is the ONLY way to go!

I don't think I'll have any problems fielding 1,500 or even 2,000 WHFB points... and maybe more.

My flocking section along with files. And, yes, I love that huge rusty file!

The collection is pretty gnarly... you could say I resurrected the remains of all sorts of undead toss-outs, bargain bin specials, and the accumulated left-overs of about half a year's worth of looking and E-bay scavenging. I have all sorts of GW, Grenadier, Ral Partha, Broadsword, Essex, Magnificent Egos, D&D Chainmail lead, D&D plastic collectible figs, Rackham Confrontation, Pewtercraft and only the good Lord has any idea who manufactured some of the rest of the figs.

Posters are important. I have CAV, Serenity, Monster Island, and a map of the Middle East!

Quite a few were conversion casualties I found in bitz bins and healed back up to fighting trim with the application of spare parts AKA bitz and generous amounts of vigor-restoring superglue.

The skeleton archer on the far right came headless...
So I gave him a spare Reaper demonic skull...

Many thanks to Nils and others who have generously contributed to The Mighty Necromancer Maksimok's shambling hordes...

Oy! I have ghouls loose among my glue and ink... bloody blighters!

I took these few snapshots to share with the gang and my blog visitors. I'm really looking forward to hauling the army out to play with Nils, the DotD gamers, Harry & Terry, and the rest of the Sacramento WHFB scene as time and the local DotD campaign allows. We're playing a Lustria campaign... a day late and a Dollar short.

The dismembered undead awaiting the elixir of glue while being guarded by zombies...

Uuunnnhhhh... BRAINS!

There are quite a few gnarly characters here... BOO!

Have a great Monday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
Litko rocks! I'm using Litko cut wooden bases with all of my figs. I have thin steel sheet under them so I can store my figs magnetically.

Link here:
http://www.litkoaero.com/products.php