Soul Grinder Reconstruction

I recently picked up a lot of Chaos Daemons from a local gamer. Included in the lot was a Soul Grinder that had seen better days. It looks like a small dog had won the fight an gnawed the power fist arm off at the shoulder. I wish I would have taken a couple before shop but i already had the milliput on before I thought about the camera.

I used a big piece of Milliput to fill the void left in the shoulder. I then pinned a piece of 2.5mm styrene rod so I would have an attach point for the arm. once the arm id finished i will come back later and use green stuff the sculpt on the shoulder.

The power claw arm patched and filled with some milliput.

Dry fit of the shoulder.

Longer shot, I think it will work

The key is using a piece of 5/32nd styrene tube to make a locking ring to keep the arm in place while I sculpt the shoulder over the joint.

The first round of green stuff to add some mechanical detail back to the arm.

The flip side of the arm with more green stuff detail. I will not be able to hide all the damage but it is a warped Daemon Engine of Chaos, a little battle damage adds character.

ColKG

Company B T26 tank for Disposable Heroes and Bolt Action

Thanks to Chuuckaroobob, Who is a River to His People, I now have a 1/56th scale T26 Soviet light tank from Company B. I had talked about getting one for awhile but haven't so Chuckaroo gifted me one for my birthday. I have wanted a T26 to back up my Warlord era Chinese army but it has many more uses in different war gaming eras. They were fielded during the Spanish Civil War, early war on the WWII Eastern front and by the Chinese against each other and then the Japanese.

Out of the box the Company B kit had very few flaws and little flash.

The second chance at magnetizing the turret. The first try I used too small of magnets but the second go round worked much better.

The most glaring problem was a bent resin gun tube. In the process of straightening the tube I broke it off. i had suspected this to happen so I replaced it with a piece of brass rod.

The only real detail missing was at he back of the tank on the exhaust. An air bubble had removed the end of the muffler.

I drilled it out a bit and then replaced it with some green stuff and a piece 1.6mm styrene rod. One it is painted nobody will be able to tell it is a repair.

The finished T26 ready for paint.

The base coated T26, next to a Bolt Action Soviet light machine gunner. I plan to add some more highlights but no unit ID marks to get the most playability out of the model across several different armies.

The challenge has already been issued to dispute Chuckaroobo's M3 Stuart title as the king of the battlefield from an earlier game against my Chinese. That game all I had was a Japanese Ha -Go tank that couldn't penetrate the armor of the M3 Stuart that will be different next time.

Las cannon and Twin linked Plasma gun Razorback turret conversion

I may be jumping the gun but I decided that I will probably want to field one or two of the fast Razorback tanks when I put the Fleshtearers back on the table. I acquired a couple Razorbacks a while back in a trade and one had a twin las cannon turret. The turret had been broken and glued back together so it didn't elevate. I popped off one las cannon and raided the styrene collection.

I trimmed down a piece of styrene sheet and glued it to the center pylon of the turret. I added the 1/4 inch piece of square styrene to be the center column of the twin linked plasmaguns. I trimmed down a regular plasma gun and drilled it for a pin in the back and in the bottom to add the greenstuff cable. I ran a wire out the back of the gun and used some greenstuff and a section of 1//8 inch styrene tube to be the connector arm. I drilled two holes in the square tube front for the pins to go in and two holes in the side for the cables to go in. I took a piece of 2.5mm styrene rod and drilled it out to use as the connector for the greenstuff cable.

The second plasma gun added on. I took a tip from another blogger and whenever i have left over green stuff I have started rolling it into thin cables to use for a project just like this.

The turret mounted up.

Razorback with old style dozer blade added. It was about this time that I realized that the cover on the turret was on backwards. I had yet to glue it on because I wanted to paint the styrene parts, so it worked out.

The second Razorback had a twin heavy bolter turret. I decided to leave it until I play a couple games. I did add an old style dozer blade and did a few touch ups on the paint to both of them. They don't really have a Fleshtearer paint scheme but they are good enough for the table. After I get a few games played and decide if the Razorback have a place in the Fleshtearers I will give them a more appropriate paint scheme.

ColKG

New 13th SS Handschar from Brigade games

I have wanted to build a 13th SS Handschar force for a while. A while back I picked up a bunch of the Handschar heads from Bolt Action and planned to convert a platoon for Disposable Heroes.

So far this is the total of my force, one MG 42 heavy machine gun team. I used the Handschar heads on a Bolt Action German hmg team. I have picked up some other German models but haven't converted any of them up yet.

The big news is that Brigade Games has released two packs of 13th SS Handschar troops in their Ends of the Earth miniature line. The first pack German 13th Mountain Division-Handschar has two models with MP-40s, one model with a GEW-43 semi auto rifle and a two man machine gun team one with a Kar98k and a MG-34.

The second pack is German 13th Mountain Division-Handschar II . This is the squad builder pack that has five models equipped with Kar98k rifles.

Combining the packs should give you a good squad so a couple of both packs will give a good start to the platoon. To be accurate I will probably need to get a pack or two of regular SS Germans for the ethnic German officers and NCOs. One thing I want to add to the army but that may be ahistorical, is a squad of Handschar armed with MP43/StG44 assault rifles. I had an argument with a rivet counter that said there was no way the 13th Handschar on anti partisan duties would have been issued Mp43s and that I just wanted the Mp43s for a gaming firepower advantage. My counter was that the MP-43s were being issued from early 1943 and thousands of them were floating around the Eastern front although my best argument was that a bunch of Fez wearing guys with Stg 44s would just be too cool, didn't compute to him.

ColKG

More Oop Skeleton Archers for Oldhammer Undead

I have put more of the old style archer bits to use. I assembled a unit of skeleton archers awhile back using new skeleton bodies and twenty year old bits but now a couple more archers for the unit.

I ended up having to pin the arms on but I think it has a a more dymanic pose.

They only model from the last second chance lot that didn't need to the stripped or repaired. It originally was armed with an old style long spear in its off hand but I managed to remove it and replace it with the correct drawing bow arm.

After adding these two archers I will have twelve models in the unit. I am debating adding a musician and standard bearer to bring the unit up to fourteen models. The current plan is to build a second unit of archers for the 10k of Undead Oldhammer game but I am having to reorganize the army list and may end up with just one unit of archers.

ColKG

More Grim Reapers for the Oldhammer Undead

The latest batch of second chance skeletons included a selection of old bits from the original Skeleton army box. I built a unit of Grim Reapers awhile back to play against Chuckaroobob. I didn't have enough of the old style scythe bits so I ended up converting Scythes from zombie arms to round out the unit.

Thanks to the new scythe bits I have built five more Grim Reapers. This will let me field two units, one of fifteen models and one of ten models for Oldhammer games. For 8th edition games, they will round out my Grave guard unit to an even forty models.

Thanks for reading
ColKG

Oop Skeleton Horsemen for Oldhammer Undead

I won another auction for a batch of skeletons in very bad shape. The up side was it had ten complete skeleton horses in the lot and they were in decent shape. My planned 10k of Oldhammer Undead I want to have two units of undead cavalry. I already have a unit of the old school style skeleton cavalry and some mounted Wights I just needed some more Horsemen to fill out the unit and these fit the bill perfectly.

I assembled the ten skeleton horses easy enough but it took me awhile to clean up and reposition the riders.

I have a wight champion and musician for the unit but needed to add a standard bearer. The skeleton body is the last skeleton from my Skeleton army box I bought back in 1990. I had saved one skeleton to use as a crewman on the skeleton chariot but never did finish it. The model has been sitting in various bits boxes for over twenty years. The horse and armor came from the latest lot of second chance skeletons and the arm is a left handed tomb king sword arm.

The standard arm is from the old style skeleton command frame. The flag is the old style skeleton banner with all the skull and bone bits trimmed of the banner edge and them mounted to trimmed down pole on it side. I think it has more action than just using the standard draped down banner.

The lot also lacked a couple long spears but once again I had a few of them left over from back in the day. Two more twenty plus year old bits finally being put to good use.

A couple of the long spear arms had seen better days but I was able to pin them on and just need to add a little bit of greenstuff to finish them off.

I plan to add shields once I get the left arms on them. I have enjoyed getting these together but my increasing backlog of models is getting even larger.

ColKG

More Second Chance Skeletons for Oldhammer Undead

If you have been following for a while you know I like getting second hand models in bad shape and then rebuilding them. i picked up another lot of second chance skeletons and they were just about a lost cause. I mainly bought the lot because of a group of skeleton horses included but I could use the skeletons too. Them they showed up at the door. Some were covered in paint so it looked like a couple had just been dipped instead of brush painted. Some were caked in super glue and others hand been repaired with gobs of rubber cement. It did come with a bunch of the old style bow and scythe bits from the original Skeleton army box. I tried cleaning them a little and them just dumped the lot int the simple green.

After a couple weeks and a couple different scribblings I finally came up with these. They are still in bad shape but good enough for me to work with.

This was probably the worse model of the lot. It originally was covered with paper soaked in glue to make it into either a necromancer or wraith. It didn't have feet to begin with and the rest of the bit came off when I cut off the paper robes. I debated just dropping him in the bits box to use on a terrain piece. Instead I hunted up some new feet. I pinned both the legs and then found some feet I had cut off for a mounted wraith conversion I did years ago.

I call him "Died with his boots on" I just need to add a bit of green stuff and he will be ready to go.

After a bit of work the newly based mob. I came up short an old style head and had to use a newer one. I have since found the errant head but will leave it for a later time.

Of course once I started trying to put arms on them I would break the legs off of another skeleton. I repinned them but the join was still moving and it was a matter of time till they broke again. Then it hit me, in the immortal words of Johnny Cash "I got Chains, Chains around my Feet". So a little green stuff to make the shackles and a section of chain from and old chaos marauder flail. It will keep the legs from breaking and adds a bunch of character to the model.

Thanks for reading.
ColKG

Oop Carrion with Riders for Oldhammer Undead

After borrowing ChuckarooBobs oop Carrion for the last Oldhammer game we played I started looking out to get some oop Carrion for myself. It took me a little over year lurking on evil Bay but I picked up a group of six for US$28.

They were all in pieces and two of the riders have broken weapons. Even though broken apart all the parts were there and the two broken scythes are an easy fix. They are missing their flying bases but I have a bag of them I have saved up over the years. I may have enough of the old style hex shaped flying bases but I have to dig them out of the "Closet of Doom". The last choice to base them is to use brass rod and 40mm square bases like I did for my Fell Bats.
I have put them into the simple green to strip off the paint and will get started on them soon.

ColKG

Oop Citadel Mummy repaired

I acquired some Citadel Mummies rather cheaply a while back. One was missing a leg that I sculpted back on. The second damaged model was missing an arm.

I started with a wire armature but went back and pinned on a zombie arm to be the base. The spread fingers of the zombie arm would look much better than just the bandaged hand I planned with the wire armature.

The Mummy after several layers of greenstuff bandages wrapped on.

This gives me six oop Citadel Mummies so far. I want to get at least four more so I can field the max of ten Mummies in an Undead army for Oldhammer. If I can get four more Citadel Mummies cheaply I will, but I already have a WestWind Mummy that is close enough in scale and have looked a the Reaper Bones Mummy 3 pack to round ou the unit.

ColKG

Crossbow Armed skeleton Tutorial for Oldhammer Undead players

I have been building up my Undead army for a 3rd edition Warhammer fantasy game against Chuckaroobob. I ran into a problem with the Third edition Undead army list, it limits you to 100 skeleton warriors and only one unit can be armed with spears. I have maxed out the skeleton warriors by fielding a 30 model spearman unit, a 30 model hand weapon and shield unit and two units of 20 with hand weapons and shields. After adding in a unit of Mummies I still need to add in some more troops to make the percentages for the army. I have one unit of skeleton archers I finished last year and the list allows you to have forty of them. The list also allows forty skeletons with crossbows. I thought that some crossbow would add to the army so I went looking for some online. Except for some rather rare and/or pricey Ral Partha and Reaper  skeletons with crossbows there isn't much choice out there. I have plenty of skeletons so I just needed to convert some crossbows. After raiding the bits boxes i came up with a plan.

The hard to find bit is the small cross bow from the old Dark Elf warrior sprue. There was one bow for every four warriors on the sprue so anybody with a collection probably has several of them in their bit boxes.

Next is the skeleton spear with the studs. This spear was in the old skeleton box and is still available in the Tomb kings skeleton box.

Once you have the parts collected up, cut off the back of the crossbow leaving the rear sight. I used side cutter to get an even cut.

On the spear I cut in front of the hand a couple millimeters and about 5 or 6 millimeters behind the elbow.

The hard part of the conversion is using a small enough drill to drill into the very small cross section of the crossbow. I ended up drilling into the bolt groove on several but I can fix that with green stuff. Drilling a hole in the spear shaft is easy enough and then i took some fine wire and pinned the two pieces together. I used a larger drill bit in the spear shaft and that allowed me to move the crossbow into alignment with the spear shaft.
After the glue set I filed down the butt of the crossbow so it looked more square and less like a spear shaft.

The almost finished product glued on a skeleton. I still need to add a little bit of green stuff where the bow and spear shaft are joined.

Ten skeletons with crossbows ready for some paint.

I like how they came out and I am debating on whether to add some crossbow quivers to them.  The Third edition  Undead list also allows you to have one unit of crossbow upgraded to arquibuses so after these came out so well I am planning to convert a unit of empire handgunners to zombie handgunners. I thought about trying for the skeleton arquibuses but all the plans I came up with where going to be a lot of work. Instead I think a simple zombie head swap on some handgunners will be good enough and much quicker.

Beastman Skeletons for the Horde

The build up for the 10k point Vampire count Skeleton horde continues. The majority of my skeletons are of the older style variety. I have been adding to them slowly when I realized that they are the same skeletons as in the tomb king skeleton warrior box. So I picked up some Tomb King skeletons. The problem is I don't want to use the tomb king shields. So I have a bunch of skeletons and a lack of shields. I started convert some Skeletons to have chaos shields and I found my supply of beastmen shields left over from me building gors with two hand weapons.

The skeleton sprues came with a beast skull so shield problem solved.

I never used the beast skull heads but I saved all the bits. I will add the beast shields and a little more variety to the skeleton mix. Some of the skeletons are not going to have shields but the majority will and that's good enough for me and you never know if in the next Vampire count book there will be an option for skeletons with no shields.

I have almost finished twenty more skeleton spear men to add to my original twenty to form a horde of forty.

More skeletons with hand weapon and shield. The 10k point list I am working toward has a 40 skeleton with spears horde, two forty skeleton with hand weapon and shield and a thirty two skeleton with hand weapon and shield, for 152 skeletons. I have sixty four painted and ready to go so only eighty eight to finish.

ColKG

Oop Citadel Mummies for 10k of Undead

I have been challenged to another game of Warhammer fantasy battle third edition by Chuckaroobob. I have been building up my Vampire count army to be able to field a 10k point army for Warhammer fantasy battle 8th edition. While talking about the army build up to Chuckaroo he said if   I made it to 10k points for 8th edition he would play a 10k point game of  3rd edition Fantasy battle. Sounded like a good plan tome so challenge accepted. The big hurdle for the 8th ed army was assembling 2500 points of core troops and I just about have it now. In 3rd edition you need 50% of the army in troops so 5000 points. After crunching some numbers I needed to pick up some more points. One of the most expensive units are the Mummies at 80 points each and the list allows ten so to evil bay I went. I was shortly rewarded with an inexpensive lot of oop citadel mummies.

One is missing a foot and the other an arm but I did mention they went cheap. I decided to fix the missing foot first.

I added a piece of brass wire to form the armature for the new foot and them pinned the model to its base.

Later with the first round of greenstuff. Another few rounds of greenstuff and it should be ready to go.

I would actually like to get a total of twenty mummies but probably only four more of the citadel Mummies. I will probably pick up a few packs of the Reaper bones mummies and with twenty mummies coming in at 1600 points I will have the 5000 point mark of troops easily cleared.

ColKG