Harry Potter Minis

So, my wife is a massive fan of the Harry Potter franchise. It's a weird thing. She's only one school year younger than me but Harry Potter passed me by completely until the films came out. Seminal book series that informed my growing up were Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy and Lord of the rings.

And yet, as films, I think the Harry potter films are in many way better than the film versions of LotR. Although I do struggle with the manifest lack of world building. Inasmuch as the wizarding world is superficially part of the real world now. Which just doesn't really work. There are all these wizards around doing quite visible stuff and the military never takes an interest? MI5 doesn't notice all the people flushing themselves down toilets in central London and take a vague interest? No wizard ever thinks well, these death eaters have powerful magical abilities, but there anathema to muggle tech means they won't see my M134 Minigun coming?

These are nerdish hangups for nerds, but I think if you do the 'my setting is a hidden part of the real world' you have to address what happens when the real world and the fictional world come into some sort of conflict. Even if it is just to point out that your monsters are immune to bullets.

Anyway, models:

Snape

Kill Team Terrain

View from above

A little while ago now my wife and I finished painting the terrain for our kill team table. This was a really interesting project and I want to show off a few pictures and also talk a little bit about the philosophy in play here.

Dark Eldar Kill Team

I decided to make a second kill team, this time Dark Eldar. Partly I was frustrated by the Tau's total inability to kill things in close combat which is a requirement of one of the four core matched play missions for kill team. However mostly I was inspired by the addition of Dark Eldar to the Inquisitor: Martyr video game. (If you want my 5 second review of that game: It's a beautiful narrative experience for fans of Warhammer 40,000 with excellent art assets and voice acting, which is let down by repetitive game play) I decided to paint them in the very traditional Dark Eldar black-green with red accents. Also they are all girls without helmets, because it just so happens that in a Wyches box you can build six girls (out of then) and in a warrior box you can build four girls (out of ten).

I actually finished these a little while ago, as any of you who follow my instagram will know but I had to finish my dissertation, and deal with a small mountain of new school year work agro, and my back is playing up and some other annoying personal stuff. However I have finally carved out some time now so enjoy.

Alt Barbaros

Alt Barbaros

Painted Alt Barbaros. A fairly basic paint job. I like the way the metal came out though. Made the choice not to put any rust or grime on it because I think Malifaux lends itself to a slightly more comic book appearance. I've said this before but Malifaux models are always such a quick paint job compared to Games Workshop stuff because there is less detail crowding out every surface.

Tau Killteam

Stealthy

I am super hyped for the release of Warhammer 40,000 Kill team this Saturday. So much so that I managed to put together enough in the way of rules from blurry photographs and youtube videos to put together a Tau Kill team.

Nagash, Supreme Lord of the Undead

Nagash

Why stop at painting one large centerpiece unit when you have the Supreme Lord of all the undead sitting in your painting pile. Another miniature just crying out for the new technical paints.

Coven Throne

Coven Throne

Now that the new technical paints have come out, I can progress through my backlog of things with spirits and such on which were vaguely on hold since the two new paints I talked about in my last update were announced. First up is the coven throne.

Nighthaunt Gloom

Myrmourn Banshees

So as you probably know the new edition of Age of Sigmar launched this weekend. I had the good fortune to be up at Games Workshop HQ for the Age of Sigmar open day. One product that may have been overlooked is the two new technical paints. Nighthaunt Gloom and Hexwraith Flame. The following is my attempt at a review of those paints.

Imperial Knights

Knight Lancer

So with the new Imperial Knight stuff I realised that I could fit one of the new Armigers into a 2000 point list. I painted one up recently (he is down the bottom) but I also decided to photograph and upload my other four older knights. I should point out that the alternate head on the lancer here is also a recent paint job, which is why it looks so much better then the rest of the knight.

Ironskull’s Boyz

Ironskull's Boyz

I don't really like Orks. Orcs. Orruks. Green bald barbarian men. However, I had these guys knocking around due to wanting the shadespire cards, and I wanted something different to paint to refresh the creative particles. I decided to paint them in a slightly more realistic style rather then the comic book yellow style that Games Workshop use for their own Ironjaw's. I think it looks quite good, although I suppose the weapons do blend into the armour. I could have used some random black or gold or bronze or something to break it up, but there is always that tension between what colours would look good, and what colours things feel like they "should" be. This time common sense won out.