Mordheim 2019: Witch Hunter games

The grim figure of the Sigmarite Warrior Priest Vieuxpont goads his pack of blood-thirsty warhounds into battle, followed by two fanatics proclaiming prophecies of impending doom.

As a follow up to Eric’s post describing the endeavors of his undead at the Mordheim 2019 event, I wanted to write about my experience using the incredible Witch Hunter warband that Ana Polanšćak created! The first game was against Johan Egerkrans' Undead Warband, and the second was against Ana Polanšćak’s Cult of the Possessed and Mikko Luoma's Chaos Dwarves.

Thorn Moons Crusade: Spireguard of the Thorn Moons

On a midnight run.

As the month comes to a close, the Thorn Moons event is almost here! With the T-26 tank finished, all that was left was to paint some of the Imperial Guard that we converted as Spireguard. To fit alongside the tank, I chose a similar color scheme with drab greens and browns. Below are some pictures of the completed kill team and the background we wrote describing how they fit into the setting.

Thorn Moons Crusade: the Polysmith helps us create the first Spireguard

Our presence remakes the past.

Having made some molds, built some mock-ups, and written some background, we are thrilled to finally show everyone some completed Spireguard from the 73rd Thorn Moon! Even more exciting, however, we get to announce that the esteemed Polysmith (one of the nicest and most talented hobbyists you will ever find!) has collaborated with us to make them into a reality! An accomplished 3d designer and sculptor, he designed and printed a range of stunning female heads to help build our Thorn Moon defenders. After being disappointed with the scale of the new Necromunda Escher models, we needed to find a new source for supplying us with a large number of suitable heads for the models. The Polysmith quickly came to mind, due to his skill with 3d design and his imaginative conversions that take GW models and turn them into something completely unrecognizable (his work on Instagram speaks for itself). He graciously agreed to help us and created a series of remarkable sculpts. Below are pictures of the initial renders and some of the final models built with them!

Thorn Moons Crusade: The XXVIII Expeditionary fleet arrives at the Crataegus Fragmentum

The Shape of He to Come.

Over the past few months, we have been working on creating some Imperial Army/Guard to defend the Thorn Moons from a warpath of ravaging Space Wolves. Recently we started the process of creating some silicon molds to help expedite the process of building an army. For this post, we thought we would do something a little different and, rather than talk about our progress with the models, we would show the first of what we hope to be a few posts dealing with their background!

Thorn Moons Crusade: Making a mold for the Defenders of the 73rd Moon

It's understood, we'll do or die.

A few weeks ago, we showed our progress on our remnants of the Imperial Army defending the Thorn Moons. Since then, I have disassembled all of the models and built a few more weapons and sculpted some arms, preparing to create a silicone mold. I am pleased to say that I made the first mold for the guard, and it was quite successful! I wanted to show you a few pictures of the resulting mold and the resin casts it produces.

Thorn Moons Crusade: Defenders of the 73rd Moon

For a thousand years I spurned the flesh change
But I had lived as half a being
Until the celestial tides wrought our metagenesis.

Late last year, shortly after Iron Sleet announced their second Invitational, we began work on some Imperial Guard to defend the Thorn Moons, the remnants of the Imperial Army that originally explored the Crataegus Fragmentum during the Great Crusade. For the Guard, we wanted to create soldiers that were a little more grounded in reality than most of Games Workshop’s human warriors, eschewing bulky breastplates, rubberized mining suits, and heavily starched robes. To do this, I started to greatly modify Forge World Elysian Drop Troops. In the last few months, I have not had too much time to work on them, but am pleased to say I am now going to set my full attention on them again! I wanted to use this post to show my recent progress on them.

Thorn Moons Crusade: Invitational II WIP

"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places."
- H.P. Lovecraft

Over the last few months, Iron Sleet has slowly been revealing glimpses of their next collaborative Warhammer 40k project, the Thorn Moons Crusade. From the enigmatic Elder Ones, to the shadowy Alpha Legion, to the howling slayers of the Vlka Fenryka, forces are mobilizing to turn the Thorn Moons of the Crataegus Fragmentum into a warzone. During this time, we built Elder One Othalanga to help defend the Thorn Moons, but still had many other ideas swirling through our heads of other things to create for the project, primarily focusing on the human defenders of the Thorn Moons. Incidentally, a few weeks ago Iron Sleet announced their second Invitational, inviting people to join in on creating models and lore to accompany the Thorn Moons Crusade, specifically asking for people to build 5 human-sized models that would fight alongside the many factions looking to spill blood in the coming conflict. We decided to take this as a cue to put some of our ideas into model form, creating some elements of the Imperial Army that originally explored the Crataegus Fragmentum during the Great Crusade, and has spent the last 10,000 years cut off from the wider Imperium.

Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 31: The Thorn Moons Crusade and the Iron Sleet Invitational II

The Green Man Cometh!

This episode is focused on talking about Iron Sleet’s next project, following the Pilgrym event, called the Thorn Moons Crusade. We talk a little about the origins of the project, and the lore that surrounds it, talking at length about the Thorn Moons and the Elder Ones and Green Mechanicvm that inhabit them. We also discuss the Elder One that Adam built and painted over the last few months. Finally, we talk about the Invitational that Iron Sleet extended to the world, encouraging people to create a series of 5 models to explore the human elements of the Crusade.

Thorn Moons Crusade: Elder One Othalanga Painted

From Throne to Thorne.

Elder One Othalanga is complete! At times it seemed like he would never be done, with all the  sculpting, casting, and experimentation on the proportion of Space Marines, but after 8 long months, he is done. He was created for Iron Sleet’s upcoming Thorn Moons Crusade, a collaborative event where the Imperium, led by a horde of Vlka Fenryka, is attempting to the expunge the Green Mechanicvm from existance. The Elder Ones are a mysterious Space Marine chapter dating back from the time of the Great Crusade, who were separated from the wider Imperium until the late 41st millennium due to warp storms. Although few in number, each Elder One is a prodigious warrior that towers above most Astartes, fitting well with the gigantic marine I sculpted. All of the other Elder Ones were created by the esteemed FPOA (who is now a member of Iron Sleet), and painted mossy greens and browns, suggesting their ancient lives amongst trees and thorns. When painting Othalanga, I wanted to achieve a similar look to FPOA, so that he would fit along side his brethren. To do this, I experimented with a few different techniques, focusing on using stippling to create variation in color rather than traditional highlighting. Below I will talk a little about the paints I used and how I went about the entire process.

Thorn Moons Crusade: Elder One Othalanga

Elder One Othalanga

Song of Othalanga, Cerberin Brier

With a Thousand Sons I walked betwixt a profusion of petals

Until lymph and serum congealed sweet and thick

Until my marrow drained and flesh transmogrified

For a thousand years I spurned the flesh change

But I had lived as half a being

Until the celestial tides wrought our metagenesis.

I am an envenomed barb, a binary poison

Cerberin brier, a wordless hex

The heart arrests and vision fades

Wreathed in white, brass, and iron

I forge adamantium and steel with branch and bough

I shape a truth that had been sleeping

As the Thousandth Son I am reborn

I am a wanderer of moons, a changer of ways.

From Throne to Thorne.

I must live, I must die, and live again

I am the memory of all that came before,

I am the worlds soil, and the world anew.

Between the Bolter and Me: 2016, a year in review

2016 comes to a close!

With 2016 coming to a close, Between the Bolter and Me is now four years old! We began the year updating the look of the blog, changing our logo (maintaining the frog theme, however!) and color scheme, trying to reflect a continuing commitment to pushing ourselves forward in the hobby. We also started a podcast, called Dragged into Turbolasers, hoping to use it as an avenue to connect with a wider audience and meet new people in the hobby. Now that 2016 is over and we reflect on it, we are happy to say that we think it was our most productive and enjoyable year yet! Between two major collaborative projects, The Pilgrym and the Curse of the Alabaster, we met so many wonderful people, and spurred ourselves to create what I believe is our best work yet, painting an unprecedented 20 models (a major feat for us!). We even started to create our own background material and try our hands at writing some short stories. But enough of boring prose, join us below to see a picture recap of 2016!

The Pilgrym: An Exchange of Hands - the final moments of the Daylight Wall Anomaly

Immediately after finishing the Pilgrym Game,  I knew that I want to write a short story describing the final events of game from the perspective from one of our main characters, Roland Arnesen.  He is one of our more interesting characters. a headless mercenary from the Ordo Machinum, who infiltrated the Church of the Red Athenaeum to help locate the Pilgrym.  What's more, he even has a cyber-owl companion named Bronwen!  Roland and his feathered friend played a small, but important part in the Pilgrym game, and I felt writing about it might help provide some additional context to event, and highlight one of the many plot lines threading through the game.

The story was posted earlier on Iron Sleet, but I wanted to post it here, as well. As an addition, the ever talented Aletheia Atzinger wrote some parts in Bronwen's perspective which have been added! I hope you like it! 

Dragged into Turbolasers Episode 9: The Pilgrym

The Pilgrym group assembles!

Eschewing the normal structure of our podcasts, this entire episode is focussed on recounting the events of the Pilgrym event held in Nottingham.  We describe the scope of the event, both in terms of the storyline, rules used, the people involved, as well as talk about the events leading up to the game, and Warhammer World in general.

The Pilgrym: Told in pictures

Secrets and Lies.

The dust has finally settled from the massive undertaking that was the Pilgrym event.  It is difficult to convey how awesome it all was, from playing the game to meeting all of the talented individuals that took part in it.  My brothers and I took a whole host of pictures during the event, and have endeavored to show a selection of them with descriptive captions to help convey the story of the event, and reveal the fate of the elusive Pilgrym!

The Pilgrym: Rules for the Church of the Red Athenæum

The Hunt begins.

After 7 furious months of work, the Pilgrym game has finally been played and we are back in the United States.  The event was a fantastic success, truly culminating everyone’s hard work and passion.  Over the next few weeks we are going to be creating a few posts detailing the event.  To start things off, we wanted to share the rules that we devised for our warband, the Church of the Red Athenæum.  The game was played using a modified version of the Necromunda ruleset, with a focus on narrative elements rather than strict adherence to any particular book.  For the Church, we wanted to take special effort to convey that most of its members are not fighters; they are civilians that are missing limbs and other body parts, further separating them from any sort of fighting elite.  They are, however, extremely devoted to their cause and due to their lives of suffering, able to withstand a lot of pain.  The only exception to this are the members of their military arm, the Order of the Crimson Hour, which are trained for combat and therefore have firearms, and Roland Arnesen, a sleeper agent of the Ordo Machinum.

The Pilgrym: Roland Arnesen Missionary of Church of the Red Athenaeum

Roland Arnesen and his vox-owl companion Bronwen.

Although I find it difficult to believe, after 6 months of tireless work, our warband for the Pilgrym Project is finished!  The very last model is finally painted, Roland Arnesen, missionary of the Church and sleeper agent of the Ordo Machinum.  He was the first model I built way back in January, and I am thrilled to finally have paint on him!  I hope you like him; he did quite well in the actual event, something we will detail in a future post, so check back soon!

The Pilgrym: Aseneth Levedescu, Cardinal of the Church of the Red Athenæum Finished!

The group is almost ready for Nottingham!

The penultimate model for the Church of the Red Athenæum is now finished!  As the largest model I created for the Church, Cardinal Aseneth Levedescu took considerably longer to paint than the others, but I am happy with the result.  And to go along with the pictures, my brothers and I wrote some background material for her, we hope you enjoy!

The Pilgrym: Kirill Blokhin finished!

The Red Hour is nigh.  The Church assembles.

Today I wanted to share the completed versions of Kirill Blokhin, the Church’s Acirgeon!

The Pilgrym: Vasili Abramovitch, Congregation member of the Church of the Red Athenæum

There will be blood.

In our continuing effort to showcase all of the members of our Pilgrym group, we wanted to show you the finished, painted form of the most obvious mutant that we created, Vasili Abramovitch!

The Pilgrym: Ehret Filipovic, Chief Bibliognost of the Church of the Red Athenæum

The Chief Bibliognost and the Chronicler of the Church of the Red Athenæum

With less than a month before the Pilgrym event, I wanted to start showing some of the final few members of the Church of the Red Athenæum that will be going to Nottingham.  Today, I will focus on the leader of the Church’s Librarian Guild, the organization within the Church that tends to all the scholarly pursuits of the Church and cares for all of its holy relics.  I present to you Ehret Filipovic, Chief Bibliognost.