Carnival of Chaos -=- WIP -=- Part 2

Carnival Warband Update!

I have made some progress assembling the group. First here is one of the Brethren. Spear, knife and a quiver of arrows on his back.


Brute strongman with a big a$$ hammer. I replaced the head of the hammer that he came with with a larger one that I built. I think I may still add a few metal straps wrapping around the head of the hammer, it seems alittle plain.


Watch out for the Nurgling hoard! Here they come. I am going to be painting up the white cylinder up to be like a little platform they use in the circus. These are great little monsters!


Plague Bearer now with big claws!


I am trying to tie the models together with their basing. It will mostly be dirt with some wood planking that will tie into the plague cart. Big thanks to CB for the pair of horses to start that cart off with. Later.

Carnival of Chaos -=- WIP -=- Part 1

The next project on my table is create a new warband for Mordheim. For those who haven't tried it, give it a shot. It's a fun skirmish game that plays well with a small model count and terrain heavy boards. Although it's not very well supported by Games Workshop, there are a few active communities online, and the game itself has been very enjoyable to me. Our gaming group is big fans of Necromunda, and this is it's Fantasy based cousin that gets a lot of play too.

I already have a Lizardmen warband that has a number of games under their belt, and it is developing nicely. But I wanted another warband to add some variety. After alot of research I landed on Carnival of Chaos (CoC). The main reason is that it isn't played very much, so it has that uniqueness that I appreciate, and the modeling aspect look really fun. There are some complaints online of it being overpowered, particularly with a Nurgle Rot. So I decided to avoid using it in my band.



It is my first venture into the Nurgle/Chaos realms of the Warhammer universe, so I am looking forward to it. Below are some images of the miniatures that I will be forming the band with. I will update as it develops.

The Carnival of Chaos box set comes with 8 models: 1 Ringmaster, 1 Brute, 1 Plaguebearer, 1 Tainted One, and 4 Brethran. Plus weapons and bases.



Nurglings are up next. I got a blister of the current models and a set of the older ones (no picture yet). 10 Nurglings in a blister with four 40mm bases (two round, two square; depending if your using them for 40k or fantasy). CoC allows these in groups of up to 5. And at a low 15cr each, they could be great for cheap swarm units.



Another Plague Bearer that I will be customizing some. I will replace the sword with a set of claws.


For the second Tainted One that will have the Nurgle Blessing of Bloated Foulness, here I found a Sorcerer model that I will be converting a bit.



The warband is allowed two Brutes, notably the most fearsome melee fighter. GW does make a second Brute sculpt, but good luck finding it. I did see one on eBay, but it went for a high price. So I decided to make one using other parts. Here are some Chaos Marauder bodies that I plan on using.


Misc claws and bits to use.


Models enjoying a soaking in some Purple Power industrial strength degreaser. I've found it works well to remove paint/primer. Take care when using it though, I doubt it's very good for the skin.


Up next should be some assembled minis.


Some interesting Mordheim

• Tom's Boring Mordheim Forum
• Tabletop Geeks Online Warband Builder
• The Mordheimer's Information Center
  
• Model Collector's Guide to all Mordheim models made **Very Cool**
  

Warmachine: Newest Rumors

New hotness from Privateer Press...

• 2012 will see book releases for both Warmachine & Hordes (including version 3 of Asphyxious and Lylyth)
• Iron Kingdom RPG will be released for GenCon 2012 using it's own system
• Another Bodgers game called Heap to be released. You are bodgers creating vehicles from scrap.
• PP announced a new [setting/game] called Level 7. No info, but the community is speculating it will be a sci-fi game. Apparently the name Level 7 refers to a nuclear warning level.
  

Here are some photos for fun.

A Skorne heavy warbeast of sorts





Skorne Battle Engine


Trolls Battle Engine


Circle Battle Engine


Cygnar warjack called Avenger



And the mysterious Level 7 ?!?


Sourced from: Lost Hemisphere

Product Review: Secret Weapon Bases

Next up for review is two sets of bases from Secret Weapon Miniatures. I just received this in yesterday and wanted to do a quick overview.



I ordered two sets of the Secret Weapon Miniatures 25mm beveled base sets: Flight Deck & Steel Plating.



What's in the Box? (or bag):

They came bagged up together, and shipped rather quickly. Here is a shot of them side by side. Each set included 10 bases that are pressure cast resin bases.



The casting quality is very good. Very detailed metal appearance, with small little details. As you can see there is some cleanup to be done. Most of them will need some minor flashing trimmed off along the bottom lip of the base.



A picture showing the bottom of the bases. I wanted to at least share this because of other issues I've read regarding resin casts out there. As you can see there are very few castings bubbles, and each base has a very smooth bottom. Only minimal cleanup really needed. So SW gets high marks on quality!



A shot of the Flight Deck set. More subtle and sci-fi looking details.



A size comparison shot between the Secret Weapon 25mm and bases from Privateer Press and Games Workshop.



Overall Impressions:

My plan when I ordered them was to use these bases for a Necromunda gang. Now looking at them I think they should work wonderfully. I paid $10 for each 10 base set. I think a dollar a base is a pretty fair price, and would recommend. They offer many other sizes and styles. I would also recommend checking out the washes and pigments that Secret Weapon has just released.