Legions of the Netherforge - Warstrider with Voltamaton

For now, this is the final addition to my Netherforge army, at least on new type units.

This is a new hero type unit, the Warstrider with Voltamaton, which is quite simply a Warstrider with a Voltamaton riding atop it, sort of a monster hero option for the Netherforge. I did some obvious modifications to the Warstrider by giving it some noticeable electric gadgets to facilitate the Voltamaton that's buffing it.

For now, I have no plans to print anything additional for this army, as I will be concentrating on getting a few more playtests in and finishing up the battletome, which is coming along really well.

Printing some AoS Terrain

I am now preparing some minis photos for my Netherforge battletome, so I needed some terrain for use at home. Then I realized "Hey! I have a 3D printer!"

I printed these designs because they make for quick prints that uses very little filament. Everything on the table there (except my Lord-Celestant of course) was printed on less than a single spool of $20 filament. I liked the original painting he did on his designs, and wanted to duplicate that, luckily good ol' Duncan did something similar.

However I did my painting a little different:

• Prime matte black
• heavy drybrush Kabalite Green
• drybrush Sybarite Green
• base Balthasar Gold on metal parts
• wash Agrax Earthshade on metal parts
• light drybrush allover with Screaming Skull
• finally wash and a wipe off with the watered down Mournfang brown method (see video)

Harvester of Souls finished display boards

I just realized I have yet to post images of the finished display boards my brother and I brought to the Harvester of Souls this September. So better late than never!

Jarom's turned out very well and was very popular among the tourney-goers. The reference to Mad Max was obvious to everyone, so mission accomplished. As you can see Jarom's army was unique in that it was all bikes and vehicles. Keep in mind, this was before the new codex and all the new vehicles. So you could say he was doing the Ork motorcade before it was cool.

This was my miniature display board. I brought my Verminlord Skrax army, and didn't want to bring the sewer board again. The only new stuff in my list was a small battalion detachment of Kabals, so I did a display board just for them, also as a teaser for next year's big project for my space pirates. Depicted is a dark portal and a massive kraken-like creature emerging from it (the big head and tentacles are all 3D printed). Also on the bottom is the name of the Kabal, similar to the process I used to make the Coven's name plate.

Legions of the Netherforge - 3D printed AoS army Part 2

I finished painting my Netherforge army. I got a pretty simple and easy painting method. Some of them were painted as per my previous post. I do like that there is little variety in painting, which makes sense for an army literally made on automated assembly lines.

Furnacelord Simulacrums

Bombardiers

Siegematon Director and Diggermines

Siegematon Tunneler

Netherforge Gunners

Warstrider

Siege Maul

Vaulthammer

Tunnel Caber

Great Horn

Brawlstriders

Also, I was able to get a game in with these guys against my brother's Destruction. It was a good thing because I have adjusted a lot of the rules I had written for these guys, as well as come up with some tenuous points values for matched play. I will try to get a couple more games in against a few more guys before I finalize the Battletome.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everybody!

How to make a display board in 7 days

Or alternate title:

How to not freak out when your brother asks you to make him a display board at the last week before the event!

As the alternate title suggests, my brother and I are getting ready for this weekend's Harvester of Souls 40k tournament in Spokane Valley, WA. I already have my display board and army prepared.  My brother, however, is running a little behind on getting his army ready. So about a week before the event, he calls me up and asks me to make him a display board, nothing too fancy, but something to center his army. I agreed because his birthday is coming up soon, and this can be part of it.

I thought about it a little. Jarom's ork army is pretty much 100% vehicles and bikes. Going for a Mad Max Fury Road theme. So I wanted to tribute a little to that movie (being one of my favorites), and rather than just doing a flat board with desert, I figured the mountain pass scene would be a cool scene to base it off of, especially since that scene employs bikes. I sketched it out and this is what I sent to him:

He liked the idea, so I began working on it. I had just recently watched this excellent video by one of my favorite YouTubers, and I was anxious to try the method out, so this gave me an excuse to do so. From here on out I pretty much just followed the video's instructions.

I start off by building up the layers using broken 1/4" insulation foam. It's thicker than the video, but it works for a board this size, which is about 18"x36". Much larger than I normally do a display board, but it makes sense considering the next step...

Before I continued, I wanted to make sure everything would fit on it, so he came over with his army and did a test fit. I found I had a little extra room to put some stuff on the ground level to break up the transition from the cliff to the ground. But this is a big army that needs a big board.

After adding some rock and debris, I sanded off the rough edges and blended the levels a little bit.

Next with a new tub of spackle, I got my hands dirty and filled in all the gaps, being sure to keep the striations visible in the rock face, but blend the top levels and rocks into the ground. This took a lot of spackle.

After the spackle dried, I went on to apply the sand, using a common construction sand. I did my usual procedure with this. First all purpose elmer's glue, then sand. Let it dry. Then did the coat of watered down glue over top to seal the sand in.

Now on to the coloring, because I am almost done. I am using cheap craft paints for this (Apple Barrel brand that you get at your common Walmart). I did the base coat in Burnt Umber which was tricky because the sand and rocks had a lot of nooks and crannies. I found the best way of doing it was taking a mug filled with the paint, add some water and some sort of flow aid (I just used a dishwasher rinse agent), this allowed the paint to flow easier into the tight spots the brushes have a hard time getting into while keeping most of the opacity of the paints. I was careful to not make a wash, though, I just wanted to thin the paint some and improve its flow.

Next I did a couple heavy drybrush coats of Golden Sunset. It took a few coats because I didn't want it to be too brown, but liked keeping the brown underneath and in all the cracks.

 

Finally I did a selective highlight drybrush of Lite Mocha to knock down some of the yellow and give it a final sandy look.

And that's it! A lot simpler and quicker than I feared, and I now love this construction method to make high cliffs. Today I'm prepping for the tourney this weekend so unfortunately I wont have a chance to show you the final board with Jarom's army on it until I take some photos at the event, so I look forward to that.

On another note, I realized I forgot to do a post on my army and display! So you will see that too at the event.

Legions of the Netherforge - 3D printed AoS army

The Netherforge burns eternally somewhere deep in Chamon. Machines making machines, all according to the designs of their long dead designer, progenitor, and creator. A duardin known only as the Furnacelord.

The Legions of the Netherforge is a homebrew Chaos army I am building for Age of Sigmar. I had found this collection of designs on Thingiverse by a very talented 3D modeler, Arian "Dutchmogul" Croft at Illgottengames. The entire range of models he designed captured my imagination. It was all low detail, designed for 3D printing, and I think actually looks very cool. I knew I had to make an army out of these guys.

So I downloaded the models, edited them a little in Tinkercad (mostly to prepare some alternate poses and weapon options, make their feet a little bigger, and removing their bases so I could do my own). I thought about what I could run this army as, but no ideas really satisfied me. So I am making their rules from the ground up. This way I can design some cool rules that I feel reflect the feel and style of the army. This also involves making a story for them (teased above) and changing the names of the models to fit the story.

The first 2 models are the Furnacelord Simulacrum, the leaders of the Netherforge armies. Built personally by the Furnacelord and gifted with more intelligent cogminds. They used some of the same parts as other models, but sized up about 20% to stand out in the army. The last model is a Bombardier, a minor hero that improves the range capabilities of the army.

These are the Siegematon units, those responsible for mapping and making the major tunnel systems the Legions use to get around the mortal realms. The 4 small ones are Diggermines, explosive little tunnelers. The next is the Siegematon Director, a commander of sorts for the Siegematon units, and last is the Siegematon Tunneler, a hero unit that brings other units on to the battlefield through tunneling, and is formidable in combat as well.

Here is where you see the paintjob I plan for the army. I wanted to go for the steampunk brass look which I think works well. these are the Warriors, just the most basic battleline troop unit for the army. There are 2 weapon variants: Axes and shields (left) and hammers and shields (right).

More elite troops, the Guardians (left) are tasked with protecting the leaders of the army and guarding the hidden entrance to the Netherforge, and the Berzerkers (right) are just a melee focused unit that can either dual wield axes, hammers, or digging claws (as shown).

The Gunners are a small unit with a mid-range and hard hitting firepower, using what we would know now as a radioactive material for their guns for an extra effect. They rest the heavy guns on shields with wheels for added protection and stability.

The first unit is the Tunnel Caber, a slow moving deathroller, and on the right is the Great Horn. A piece of terrain that has a beneficial effect for the army when used.

Now on to the war machines for the army. The first is the Vaulthammer, a heavy cannon that shoots a devastating radioactive cannonball. Then is the Siege Maul. I wanted to experiment with making rules for a melee focused war machine. We will see how it turns out. I love the look of the model though.

These are the Construct units. The story for them is after the passing of the Furnacelord, the Netherforge continued to innovate and create new additions to the legion. The Construct units are signs of that. The big one is the Warstrider, a big lumbering behemoth that has some unique rules for dealing with units inside fortifications. The smaller ones are the Brawlstriders, just a melee focused unit with a risk/reward system in combat.

Finally for an original unit of my own design (using some existing parts as base, of course). This is the Voltamaton. I noticed the army had a lack of pizzaz in the form of magic or supernatural. So I thought of a hero that utilized an electric generator in different ways, so I designed the parts to make a sort of priest rather than a wizard.

I'm looking forward to finish painting these guys and get some games in. I will show of the rules for them I have designed and some more lore in a later post, as well as the battletome when I get it finished.