Back when I was a kid, you could broadly divide robots into two types – the Transformers toys you wanted, and the offbrand Transformers-type toys that were available to buy here in the United Kingdom. I loved both.

While we were awash in the stories of the Transformers UK comic, Transformers Ladybird books, Transformers VHS cassette – the toys themselves were difficult to buy. The UK toy aisles were, however, awash with other companies’ robo-offerings – Grandstand’s Convertors, Bandai’s Robo Machine, Tek Toys’ Robo-Kats, MC Toys’ Moto-Bots, Tomy’s Super Alternators and many more. They seldom had any accompanying in-universe fiction, and sometimes not even a name! My imagination went into overdrive trying to shoehorn these pretenders into the official Hasbro Transformers universe, creating my own contrived space operas that justifed a steam train fighting an aircraft carrier.

Now my play patterns have evolved beyond simply ragging toy vehicles around the floor shouting their names and making explosion sounds and into sophisticated adult wargaming, I thought I’d resurrect some of the netherspace of non-canonical robot warriors and sculpt a gawky 1980s robot chonk. Presenting Autoborg, Robot Warrior of the Far Future.

Okay, I may have missed the point by not engineering him to transform – or sculpting an accompanying vehicle mode. But I feel his Popeye style forearms and spindly strut thighs really evoke the spirit of a transforming robot toy. I was tempted to paint him in big slabs of bright primary colours to get across the toyetic vibe, but instead chose a striking camouflage scheme which is instantly undermined by big slabs of purple that really contrast against the sandy yellow colour of the base. Generation 2 Megatron eat your heart out.

If you’d like to fight science fiction wargames with your own Autoborg, he’s up on my Cults3D.

Ninjabread out!

I am that exact type of person that plans annual holidays using the Ordance Survey maps of Ancient and Roman Britain. I spend days hiking through the remote countryside in the rain with a napsack full of boiled eggs to find the spaces prehistoric people once lived and thrived.

Fancying myself as Lord of the Ringforts, Mr. Crabb at Fogou Models offered me the very first castings of his latest terrain project in return for photos of them painted nicely. And paint them I did.

This is the basic ringfort, built from seven wall sections and one gate section. All the pieces have an interlocking brickwork design on the outer face to disguise the component joins. I don’t know how Mr. Crabb got it all to line up so flawlessly, but I suspect dark Cornish sorcery.

If that understated rectangular doorway with its stone lintel are too low key for you, there’s also a fantasy style gateway with a pair of towers flanking a bronze goblin-faced gate sculpted by the Kev Adams. Now you can have much larger things get in and out the fort – like trolls, ogres and my reference library on prehistoric and Dark Age structures.

To accompany the ringfort, I also painted this pair of thatched buildings which can either go inside the fort as the defended structures, or act as standalone pieces. I’m going to pair the recentangular one with my Dark Age Church as a crofter’s dwelling.

But wait! There’s still more! There’s a nice pair of thatched stilted granaries, a pigsty, a well, firewood and pots that I’ve used to make a complete village.

I got a bit carried away painting freehand patterns onto some of the pots – I like to imagine them as vessels with histories of their own that come from the extensive trade networks. I also see them as a nice way of adding life to a scene, and they make for subtler representations of material wealth than the classic objective marker of a treasure chest full of gold coins.

There’s a desstroyed wall section you can use to represent a partially ruined fort, and even switch into your fort mid-game if you’re playing a siege.

Here’s a pile of Orcs pouring through it to fight the Fellowship of the Ring.

Stone buildings are pretty timeless, and with a bit of “set dressing” in the form of modern crates, here it is being used in the Napoleonic era.

Nicely, the doors are cross-compatible with the other Fogou offerings, so a quick switcheroo and this fort section is ready for science fiction wargames too. Thanks to everyone that’s pointed out the door looks like a Confederate flag.

Finally, my cat (who is coincidentally named after a ringfort) has also found a great use for the piece.

So thanks to Mr. Crabb for letting me be the first to get one! If you’d like your own, they’re currently over on Kickstarter and will be added to the Fogou Models site in the future.

Ninjabread out!

Tzeentch has many Silver Towers floating through the Mortal Realms, but the one I am building is full of throwbacks to a time when metal miniatures reigned supreme. Welcome back to my Silver Tower of lead.

The initial spark that led me on a four-year quest to reconstruct the Silver Tower game with 1990s lead miniatures was two of the tiny familiar miniatures – instantly recognisable as reimaginings of Citadel classics from days of yore. I’ve painted a complete set of modern plastic versions, and a complete set composed of 1980s/1990s analogues.

The CH5 Lune Familiar is an adorable moon-headed mook who was reborn in plastic complete with his original moon on a stick, tintinabulous jester shoes and scowling moonface.

The CH5 Walking Book Familiar was a perennial favourite of Warhammer players, popping up as a wizard’s helper in Chaos and non-Chaos armies for years. I’ve not thought of anything high concept enough to paint freehand on the pages of the plastic version, so I’ve left them blank for now. Maybe I will leave it blank forever and claim it’s an unwritten journal.

The small Lord of Change (Lord of Small Change?) was probably originally sculpted as a 6mm Epic Greater Demon miniature, but rolled into the CH5 Chaos Familiar range for the 1991 Citadel Catalogue Section 2. I’ve painted mine in orange and turquoise to match my 28mm Greater Demon. The new plastic version takes the mini Greater Demon vibe even further, having been written up in the background as a mischievous sprite with the delusion he’s an actual Lord of Change.

The fourth and final Silver Tower familiar, Slop, is a subtly different kettle of fish to the others – inspired not by a CH5 Chaos Familiar miniature but by Mordheim’s leitmotif of mutant fish artwork or old Ian Miller illustrations. I’ve painted the plastic Slop’s the tail with a Rainbow fade to match Blot.

That’s another adversary group ready for Silver Tower. You can see Brimstone Horrors here, Light Wizards here, Light Acolytes here. Tzaangor here and Deathrunners here. Time to start work on the next of the nineties nasties.

Ninjabread out!

Space Marine Chapter founders love a good animal name. Mythical beasts of terror (Howling Griffons, Minotaurs, Silver Drakes…), apex predators (Space Wolves, Celestial Lions, White Panthers…), birds of prey (Hawk Lords, Necropolis Hawks, Raven Guard…), venomous reptiles (Iron Snakes, Viper Legion, Salamanders…). But I’ve just painted these Deathwatch, the Chapter named after tiny insects that burrow into your wooden furniture.

They’ve come to destroy the xeno-filth of the galaxy just like the beetles destroy your antique furniture. I suppose they’re not the only Space Marine chapter named after insects – there’s Mantis Warriors. But Mantises are cool insects that do decapitation and look like samurai. Maybe my problem with the Deathwatch name is just me, growing up binging on episodes of Antiques Roadshow and Lovejoy, and Joe Public just thinks it’s kewl as it starts with “Death” and death is kewl.

The Primaris Aggressors’ poses are entirely fixed, so the closest thing you get to choice is slicing the tag off the heads so you slightly twist them, though not too much as they’ll just end up staring at the inside of their armoured hoods. Fixed poses aren’t a bad thing, if they’re dramatic, but all three are “video game character selection screen” poses. It would have been cool to them pointing their guns not at the ground, and have the Sergeant pointing dramatically. But attempting any of that requires a filthy amount of modelling work, re-engineering all the pipes and ammo feeds.

So, with no reposing potential, I stamped these Deathwatch as “mine” with a big freehand banner on the Sergeant. It’s taken from the Ironclad Dreadnought kit – just like my Nemesis Chapter Intercessor Sergeant. The design is a combination of the Deathwatch and Ultramarines chapter icons, bordered with black and white checks. I was super-keen to get Ultramarines icongraphy front and centre since both the Sergeant’s shoulder pads are taken up with sculpted details.

I picked out the Deathwatch skull in red with a white stripe (along with the skulls on the fist, leg and shoulder), echoing the Codex Astartes veteran sergeant helmet markings. He’s named Amorgaudium as it’s High Gothic for Lovejoy – a rascally antiques dealer who understands how terrifying Deathwatch Beetles are.

I’ve photographed and written up a masterclass tutorial with all the steps, paint mixes and theory for the black on these Deathwatch. If you’d like access, it’s over on the Ninjabread Patreon page, along with over a dozen other masterclasses.

The squad’s now ready to join my Nemesis Chapter army as an Auxiliary Support Detachment. What next for the army? Maybe some Troops, maybe some HQ, (Death)watch this space!

Q. What do you get if you cross a Chaos Centaur of Tzeentch, and a zebra?
A. A “Tzebra”.

Presenting Tzebra Doomstripe, the latest monster to swell the ranks of my vintage Warhammer collection.

This tzoological monstrosity was my entry into the “Make a Trish” competition in the Oldhammer Community. Challengers had a month to model and paint a Trish Carden miniature, and the Mistress of Monsters herself would pick a favourite.

Tzebra is not one actually one Trish Carden monster, but two mashed together. The MM94/1 Chaos Centaur Lord was a metal human torso designed to be fitted to the standard plastic Warhammer horse torso (henceforth: “horso”). But the plastic horso had spindly legs that looked wrong with the human torso’s majestically beefy barbarian arms, so I decapitated Trish’s MM83 High Elf Unicorn and used it as a replacement horso. This new unicorn part is, importantly, also saddle-free – Tzebra is a Lord of Chaos and tolerates no riders upon his horso.

To nudge Tzebra into Tzeentch’s visual territory, I swapped his barbarian broadsword for a scratch-built khopesh. His helmet plume was switched for a plastic Ork topknot, whose flowing lines better matched the new unicorn tail. Historically, these helmet plumes were made from dyed horsehair, meaning Tzebra has made a hat decoration out of his own bodyhair.

The skin was painted light blue at first (using a modified version of the Ur-Ghul recipe Patreon backers have access to), and had dark blue strips added afterwards. I did a digital mockup of the colours to experiment with continuing the zebra strips onto the human elements, and also to work out if the blue and white stripes that worked in my imagination would look too “Bananas in Pyjamas” (thankfully not).

Tzebra didn’t win Trish’s competition, losing out to Jonathan Marshall’s atmospheric Albion Fenbeast. You can check out a gallery of all the entries here . Thanks to Asslessman for organising the competition, and Trish for judging and providing the prize.

More tzany Tzeentch creations coming soon!

I normally have a cooling off period before I buy new Games Workshop releases, as every miniature is turbo-exciting on first reveal and owning all of them is impossible. But the new Genestealer Cult Locus is such an instant classic he was not only pre-ordered but jumped to the front of the painting queue.

The sentinel-like pose, with him resting nonchalantly on his weapon in a set of long hooded robes, is one of Citadel Miniatures’ time-honoured sculpting tropes. Chaos Dwarf Khazek Doomlord, Human Wizard Pedregar the Green and one Champion of Tzeentch have also appeared with it. There’s a cheeky little Genestealer tail poking out under the robes’ hem which tells you he’s more than human, and when you get round the back there’s a set of carapace ridges that make you wonder about what generation of Hybrid he is.

The shoulderpads I painted with a little Cult icon and a W so when you look at the miniature from above it spells out “CW” – my initials.

Here he is on an advance casting of the Scrap Fort from Fogou Models, which is my ongoing major terrain project at the moment. I’ll be showing off the complete fort soon, and maybe using it as a rationale for growing the Genestealer Cult (can’t have just one Locus knocking about in such a large fort on his own).

Painting Purple Tutorial

As the Locus is 95% robes, he’s a great miniature for teaching the technique for painting cloth. The purple uses a “wet-blending” method that’s been photographed between stages from all angles and written up clearly and comprehensively, breaking down the theory, technique and colours used.

It’s my seventh instalment in the Patreon tutorial series that’s proved really popular. Big thanks to last month’s new patrons Craig, John, Steve, Ben, Jason, David, Toby, Jamie, Victor, Dimitrios, André, Alan, Brian, Alexander and Philipe.

The Genestealer Cult range is dripping with great models, from homages to the original Rogue Trader range (the Nexos), and new character types (like the Locus and the Kelermorph) which mean my Cult will inevitably grow. Though I might take an oldskool detour with the vintage 1980s Throned Patriarch and some Bob Olley Hybrids. Watch this space!

It’s Christmas time, so enthusiasm for the ultimate Christmas films – The Lord the Rings Trilogy – has enveloped Ninjabread towers.  While binging on DVDs and mince pies, I’ve painted a breakfast (that must be the collective noun) of vintage Games Workshop Hobbits.

Left to right: BME1 Pippin, Frodo, Sam and Merry.

These are the four Halflings from the BME1 Fellowship of the Ring boxed set.  They’re wonderfully characterful – Frodo with a troubled expression, gazing towards Mordor, rings of his Mithril shirt peeping out from under his sleeves.  Sam looks very much the bimbler.  Merry and Pippin are the pint-sized action heroes jumping in to defend Frodo with their Barrow-blades.

Since 2001, Games Workshop’s highstreet stores have sold minis based on the movie trilogy – buuut these aren’t them.  In 1985 Games Workshop were selling minis to support Middle-Earth Role Playing (MERP) game.  It was a range of a few hundred figures which includes most of the major heroes, villains and troops.

ME-63 Witch-king of angmar leading a the ME-64 Black Riders.

I’ve also painted up a selection of Ringwraiths to chase those pesky Hobbits around the countryside.  I’ve gone for four repeats of the same pose so they look like they’re advancing in unison, performing a ritualised Hobbit-slaughter like the movie’s Brie and Weathertop scenes.  In my mind it works, but in photos they come across a bit dance troupe.  More Lord of the Dance than Lord of the Rings.  Oh well.

“I can’t believe you started the conga without me.” – Witch-king of Angmar

The lines between the Lord of the Rings and Warhammer ranges was blurred, with many Lord of the Rings figures appearing later as part of the Warhammer range after the license expired.  I was really excited to discover the Ringwraith miniatures were modified and rereleased as Warhammer Fantasy Empire Wizards.

Wrecycled Wraith Wizards in 1991’s Citadel Catalogue 2.

I’d like to find these figures and paint them as the Witch-king of Angmar and the sorcerers of the Second Age as they appeared before Sauron gave them their magic rings.  Or maybe as the ghostly forms Frodo sees when he puts on the One Ring.  Or maybe actual Warhammer wizards.

The Hobbits defend themselves from Ringwraiths in the ruins of Weathertop.

I’ve enough Ringwraiths and Hobbits for several scenarios from the first half of Fellowship of the Ring now, and will spend Christmas recreating the Hobbits getting repeatedly stabbed in various locales of Middle-Earth.

Patreon Painting Tutorial

These Ringwraiths are a great miniature to teach how to paint black cloth with, as it’s 98% of the miniature.  Over on Patreon right now is the detailed stage-by-stage write up of the paints, techniques, theory and secrets that you let you learn how to paint black cloth to this style and quality.

If you become a supporter today you’ll get access to this in-depth masterclass tutorial, and also the back catalogue, which covers last month’s Golden Demon winning entry, two varieties of Space Marines power armour, and human flesh.  Thanks to everyone that ha signed up so far this year.  Thanks to this month’s new patrons: Liam, Claudia, Daintist, Craig, Dan, Jason, Andrew, John and David.

I think next I’ll work on some more prey for the Ringwraiths based on the early chapters of the Fellowship – probably the ME-25 Rangers of Ithilien reimagined as the Dunedain secretly defending the Shire, or a Gildor once I’ve worked out a suitable vintage Warhammer Elf.  Watch this space!  Merry Christmas everbody!

Albion Truthsayers: the most predictable opponents in “Truth or Dare”.

The Albion Truthsayer is a standing-stone-cold classic of a miniature from Warhammer’s Dark Shadows mini-supplement.  The 2001 campaign booklet featured rules for you army to be joined these warrior-wizards (or their arch-nemeses, the Dark Emissaries) while they fought their way across the mysterious island of Albion to thwart (or aid) Warhammer’s newest mega-villain: the Dark Master.

The Truthsayer, interfering with one of the many barrows on the Isle of Wights.

I had a lot of fun modelling the base to make it look like the boggy fenlands of Albion.  The owl (from a Wood Elf kit) is a reference the “Wings of Fate” spell that let the Truthsayer summon a flock of enchanted birds to peck at his foes.  The sculpt itself is packed full of Celtic-style details: a spiral skull carvings, gold neck torque; spiked barbarian hair; bronze triskele medallion.  As a geek of ancient trappings I get super excited about it appearing in Warhammer.

When it comes to prehistoric jewellery, Curis not only walks the walk, but torques the torque.

This miniature is one of my favourite Citadel Miniatures of all time – not least because if you clip off his basing tab and peek up the loincloth you can see the sculptor’s – Chris Fitzpatrick – signature.  I can’t think of any miniatures signed in this way since Citadel’s preslotta days.

Cheeky Albion Truthsayer upskirt shot.

Albion Skin Painting Tutorial

One of the popular requests on the Ninjabread Patreon is “how do you paint skin”?  I photographed the Truthsayer between steps so supporters can follow along and learn how to paint flesh in this style.

Become a supporter today and you’ll get access to this in depth masterclass tutorial, and not one BUT TWO guides on how to paint your power armoured Space Marines.

That’s it for today’s visit to Albion.  What’s next – perhaps the evil Truthsayer?  Or the Fenbeasts?  Or the Giants of Albion and their Druid?  Or maybe delving even further back into Albion’s past with the LE8 McDeath’s Crazed Caledonians?  Watch this space…

This miniature is a mystery – an unreleased Warhammer treasure from the vaults of Citadel Miniatures.  Who is he?  Why have I got (perhaps) the only casting in existence?

Could this be a dark horse on a dark horse?

This casting was a gift from Marcus Ansell of Wargames Foundry (thanks Marcus). The tab (“GENERAL” and “ ©  GW 1987″) shows its provenance as a piece of classic Warhammer – but beyond that everything else is a mystery.  Who sculpted it?  What range was it destined for?  Why was it not released?

“A horse, a horse, my Romano-Germanic kingdom for a horse.”

The vibe of the figure is more historical than fantastical – the moustache, crested helm and scalemail give it a very Romano-Germanic kingdom vibe.  It feels like an Alan or Michael Perry sculpt judging by this face and care put into the armour detailing.  In fact it’s a bit too historically accurate to fit in with Citadel’s F3 Barbarian or F6 Barbarian Raider ranges, or the ADD21 Advanced Dungeons & Dragons mounted barbarian.  The closest thing released by Citadel are the F7 Mounted Barbarian Raiders.

F7 Mounted Barbarian Raiders.  Image from solegends.

The Mounted Barbarian Raiders were released at a time when the line between historical and fantasy figures was blurred, with Warhammer’s Empire, Norse, Bretonnian and Dogs of War ranges doing double-service as various historical Europeans.  It’s conceivable that Citadel had plans for a Warhammer race with a strong Romano-Germanic design elements, and this General was a testpiece.

I gave my General one of the F7 horses as it’s coetaneous, and he deserves a bodyguard of these classics at a future point.  I modelled the horse forward on the raised base so that when the planned regiment ranks up he will ride slightly above and ahead.

Then as I was researching colours a thought struck me.  Is this mystery figure a … Blandford Warrior?  He fits beautifully with the released Blandford Warriors in terms of style and scale.

The 13th (Blandford) Warrior.

The Medieval Warlords book comprises seven chapters each detailing a different warlord, and Games Workshop released miniatures for only six of these characters.  The warlord that appears as a chapter but not a miniature was Genseric – general of one of the most famous Romano-Germanic kingdoms.  I think this figure could be him.

Genseric led the Vandals from the heartlands of the crumbling Roman Empire to Africa and around the Mediterranean region until they stormed Rome itself, looting its treaures. The incident stuck in the West’s poplar imagination, and ever since the word “vandal” has been a byword for destroying property.

Genseric sacked Rome until politely asked to stop it by Pope Leo I, AD455.

I used the Karl Briullov painting above as the basis for my miniature’s colour scheme.  I love the satanically-black horse implying he’s the Pope’s archnemesis – but the menace is rather undermined by the pink leggings and ruby red shoes.

I painted the shield with an Arianist symbol – I’d like to stress this was the form of Christianity that took off in the Romano-Germanic kingdoms and was named after Arius and NOTHING TO DO WITH ARYANISM.  (After all those “arian symbol german” google searches I think I’ve been put on a list.)

Genseric and his bucellarius on the outskirts of Carthage.

Not Genseric.

Regardless of the figure’s true identity, it’s now definitely part of my Late Imperial Roman army and will get some outings in SAGA when I’ve painted enough for a 4-point warband … coming soon.

If you’ve got any theories or information on the figure, please please let me know in the comments.