Oldhammer: Hess Poison Breath

I have no regret. The clues are numerous, and it is reasonable that the truth should exist in proportion to their number. -Kōbō Abe

When building my Undead warband for Mordheim 2019, I got my hands on two ancient Citadel miniatures sculpted by the legendary Jes Goodwin. Both were Chaos Sorcerers from the mid 80s. While one, Sli’ith Ironlung, was converted slightly and turned into a dreg from the undead warband, the other, Hess Poison Breath, was left unused. A month or two ago, I started to paint some of fantasy miniatures we got from Ana Polanscak’s Kickstarter, and realized the model would fit nicely alongside of them as some manner of necromancer. With this in mind, put the model on a base and decided to paint him/her!

A look back: The miniatures of 2017

With 2017 coming to a close, we thought we would write our annual post looking back at the best Games Workshop models of the year. It has been an interesting year, filled with a lot of high profile releases, ones that many people people have eagerly anticipating for quite some time, such as reviving Necromunda and expanding the range of Death Guard models. Unfortunately nearly all of these releases were fraught with significant problems, which put a damper on our excitement for them. Longtime readers of the blog will know we can be very critical of the miniatures that Games Workshop releases, wishing to provide constructive criticism that will continue to push the company to being the best miniature company in the world. Towards this end, more than any of the blog’s previous years, we spent our efforts putting our critiques to action, converting and modifying many of the models that we had issues with. With this post we wanted to review the highlights of the models that Games Workshop released this year, and choose what we think is the best release of the year!

A look back: The miniatures of 2016

With 2016 coming to a close, we thought that it would be fun to take some time to consider what miniatures were released this year, and comment on our favorites. Anyone who has followed the site for awhile will know that we largely focus on Games Workshop models, though we have tried to give mention to quality releases from other ranges. This year, however, nearly all of our time was spent with Games Workshop models, with nothing beyond that spectrum really capturing our attention. Feel free to let us know in the comments what other companies we overlooked in 2016, however.

Execution Force: Eversor assassin conversion

The future belongs to the mad.

Somewhere between the Skitarii, Eldar, Imperial Knights, and Cult Mechanicus, Games Workshop released the stand alone game Execution Force to showcase new plastic versions of Jes Goodwin’s classic Imperial Assassin sculpts from the mid 90s. Although the metal models have held up really well over the years, I was still excited to hear that plastic versions were being released, as it would allow the designs to be updated a bit and put them in the more conversion-oriented plastic.

Putrid Blightkings: Impressions

Grandfather Nurgle is proud.

Since its release, Brian Nelson’s Nurgle Chaos lord has been a key component to countless imaginative conversions.  In particular, it has been championed by the Inq28 crowd to make everything from daemonhosts to weapon servators (JRN’s daemonhost and Migula’s weapon smith, are excellent examples).  It is not difficult to understand why the model has received so much attention, it is both hideous and majestic in its corpulent, rotting splendor, dripping with vile ichors and donned in corroding metal.  It was also one of the first plastic character models Games Workshop released that, while multi-part, was intended to be assembled in one way.  By restricting the the posing, they were able to produce models with astounding depth, with parts layering on top of another (Malifaux plastic miniatures excel in this, as well).  As such, I was very excited when the Putrid Blightkings, a whole unit of foetid servants of Nurgle, much like Nelson’s model, were unveiled.