Gallery: Darklands Norse - Gurrir, Troll Warrior

Gurrir, Troll Warrior has the honour of being the first model I started painting for my Norse collection. The skin and belly areas were the key points I wanted to get right before applying to the rest of the troll unit, as they are the most dominant parts of the minaiture. Although Gurrir was the first troll to be started, I actually only finished very recently, after finally coming up with a weapon colour scheme I liked - courtesy of Vortun. It is also with this figure that I experimented with purple washes to add more depth to the skin - elbows, knees ares of soreness etc While I am happy with it, there are some areas which are rough looking when compared to the later painted trolls.

I think the fierce snarling face makes Gurrir one of my favourite trolls of the set, and it is a fine example of just how detailed the miniatures are. The snout is a lot more pink than the rest of the unit, as this was still a testing stage for colours. Instead of changing it, I opted to leave it for variety and example of different colours working/or not as the case may be. I was a little surprised that the shield colours actually worked, I honestly thought the turquoise shield would have clashed, but in my opinion it seems to fit the troll nicely, especially with the battle damage and rusted cleavers.

Gallery: Darklands Norse - Birna, Dottir Of Hrafnen By DiStudios

Birna Dottir Of Hrafnen is a Warchief (Minor Hero) character for Mierce Miniature's Norse range, and the first miniature with substantial skin tones for me to paint in quite some time. Some of the key things I wanted to do with this figure was tie in a loose uniform that represented the Hrafnen Clan and of course the Sea Faring nature of the Norse archetype. After a bit of research, I decided that various shades of green, blue/black and raven motifs would be the unifying factor for this paint scheme, which could then be applied to the rest of the collection.

Gallery: Kingdom Death Sunstalker By Sven

 **This is Kingdom Death NSFW!**

The Sunstalker is Kingdom Death’s biggest and most expensive model to date. Masterfully sculpted by Allan Carrasco and with the raw resin apparently costing 70 Dollars it is also their most expensive release yet. Just like the King the Sunstalker was first introduced via the Kickstarter project and later saw regular release in its resin collectors version. I’ve worked on this model and the Sunstalker Infant simultaneously and basically applied the same techniques just on a bigger scale.

Monday Previews!

Greetings, I hope you are enjoying the Bank Holiday (UK) and nice weather that has seemed to come with it! Being Monday, it's time to have a look at what the respective writers of Send The Eighth! are up to. I am also taking this opportunity to welcome Lorna back to the writing team, it seems the lure of Mierce Miniatures has been enough to coax her back to the hobby!

Chris/DiStudios

This weekend I decided to take a break from painting green skinned Trolls. So instead I worked on one of the many humanoid characters in my collection - Birna Dottir Of Hrafnen. For those who have not handled Mierce Miniatures, the infantry figure are incredibly delicate and stacked with details. With most standing at 30mm tall, each piece is a fine sculpt that painters can really go to town on.

 

I have deviated from the stock paint job, opting to go for a distressed leather cuirass, instead of a metal breast plate, I felt this would be more 'Viking Age' with the absence of a mail shirt. The greens help tie Birna to the Hrafnen house and will feature on all the Hrafnen infantry in some form. Just visible you can also see I added a leather strap connecting the sword scabbard to her waist, as a small extra detail.

The idea is to spend today finishing her off and hopefully creating a gallery photo set for Friday!

To see more of my work, visit my Gallery 

Sven

Sadly not a lot of progress from my side this week, but I think you can already see where I'm heading with my Kingsmen. The cloak follows the same pattern as that of my King and I'm sure it will look great in contrast with a shiny metal armour.

 

The cloak isn't finished yet and the turquoise side still needs a wash to dull it down, while the red side is just the base layer.

To see more of Sven's work, visit his Gallery

Lorna

After seeing Chris’s salutes haul this year I admit I have been converted to Mierce Minatures. It took me a while to decide what army to pick as each one had something I liked and I was initially tempted by the Fomoraic, especially when I saw the figure of Kraan on his white bear, it reminded me of something from the computer game Warcraft. However in the end I decided to go for The Ysians, I liked the idea of having a group of fierce looking axe men but it was mainly the Maniticora that did it for me.

 

I eagerly ordered enough to have some starter games. Apart from the great designs of the actual figures I really like the scale of them, which to me is not dissimilar to the warmachine scale, a game which I previously collected.

As well as being aesthetically pleasing I am hoping the army will fare well against Chris’s own Norse army, it has been a while since I beat him at any miniature game, our last confrontation ended up in my army of 40k Space Orks being swiftly disintegrated by his Dark angels.

Sadly no gallery for Lorna, but perhaps in the future!

So again welcome back (again) to Lorna, we hope to see your army grow over and time and perhaps even a gallery set up here on the blog. Lots going on here and plenty of enthusiasm to play games, who knows we could have a Ysian vs Norse face off in the next couple of weeks!

Thanks for reading,

DiStudios

Send The Eighth!

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Gallery: Darklands Khthones Thoth Anax Of Ydrón By Sven

 

During their second Kickstarter Mierce Miniatures introduced the first digitally sculpted models to their range and today I’d like to show you my favourite of the lot. It’s Thoth, Anax of Ydrón a warlord for the Hydrar realm of the Khthones kindred.

 

 

Monday Previews!

Greetings, it's Monday, which means it's time to see what each of the respective writers of Send the Eighth Wargaming have on their desks. Onwards with the pics!

Chris/DiStudios

I have been very busy organising articles for the coming weeks, including a new carry case review. However I have not let this get in the way of my momentum, following completion of Mierce Miniatures Vortun.

A little less painting and a lot more building has resulted in the above, leaving only three figures to be built now for my Norse collection. This is great news, as it means I can really focus and get the lot painted from now on, as a whole bunch of new Norse will be shipping in the weeks ahead. Onwards to Valhalla!

To see more of my work, visit my Gallery

Sven

Even more Kingdom Death on my table this week. I've already built and primed the Kingsmen last year, but it sat on my shelf and waited for it's companion the King's Hand which was the last model I really missed from having a complete Kingdom Death collection.

I was hunting it for ages until a fellow Mierce fan managed to find one for me. So lots of metal work ahead to get my King a retinue.

To see more of Sven's work, visit his Gallery 

Hellstrom

No words from Hellstrom, just a picture, and once it again it looks like Dragons!

And that concludes another Monday! I have some random, yet interesting things arriving next week for a gaming board I am working on and Sven has some more awesome figures to showcase on Wednesday. So stay tuned in, we have lots more eye candy coming soon!

Thanks for reading,

DiStudios
Send The Eighth!

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Gallery: Darklands Norse - Vortun Troll Kappi By DiStudios

The first finished Norse Troll from my Salute 2015 haul, but not the first I have painted oddly enough! There are two more sitting on the table which technically I finished first, but Vortun is the first completed troll, that I am 100% happy with in terms of colours. With this model done, I can apply the colours set to the previous two, and in the future the rest of my Norse Troll collection...which is currently sitting at thirteen in total!

Below is the some of Mierce Miniatures background for the notorious Vortun, Troll Kappi. There are also more pictures after the jump, so be sure to read the whole post.

Vörtun is known as the gamall skjǫldr, the big shield, a shieldwall of his own, for before the crew of his skei attack he storms from the shore with his huscarls around him, bellowing his fury at the enemies of the Norse before breaking their shieldwall with brutal blows of his cleaver and the sheer bloody savagery of a Troll Jarl at war. With the enemy wall broken, Vörtun and his huscarls scatter the rest, laying into them left and right, the Norsemen mopping up the detritus of the enemy and scavenging their arms and armour, dispatching the wounded with bloodthirsty abandon whilst giving thanks to their steersman for recruiting such vicious warriors. Vörtun's reputation is now so great that other crews seek aid from the jǫtnar, seek their own Trolls to spear through shieldwalls and cut the threads of the enemy, for as the defences of their enemies grow stronger the Norse know they must be stronger still. 

Gallery: Kingdom Death Sunstalker Infant by Sven

 **This is Kingdom Death NSFW!**

Well, following the preview from last Monday, this should not come as any surprise. The Sunstalker Infant is one of Kingdom Death’s earlier monsters and quite a rarity on top. I’ve been lucky enough to get one a low numbered cast, quite early in my collecting career thanks to Chris/DiStudios and although I am really glad to have it in my collection I was also a little intimidated to begin painting it. For one it looked like a lot of work with all those girls around it and second I had no real idea for the colour scheme. Following the release of the adult version I gave some more thought and suddenly came up with a plan that I really liked and was excited to try out.

Monday Previews!

Greetings all, this morning it's time for our weekly previews, and I have to say a lot is getting done! The Mierce buzz has really caught on, with lots of things painted and even more things built. What this means in the long term, is that we will probably be having new battle reports up, as we close into summer gaming. Of course it has not all been Mierce dominated, there has been lots of lovely painting of Kingdom Death too, I really cannot wait to get those gallery shots out, they are simply fantastic pieces!

Chris/DiStudios

Troll fever continues to run high as I had a fairly large Norse arrive last week, including the armoured Trolls of Toheim. These are a conversion of the original Trolls, with the each model given extra armour plating and some very brutal looking hammers. 

To top it all off, I also received Thorir who is a Troll Warlord character, he comes with heavy armour and two hand weapons, a very mean and large troll, even by Mierce standards! 

I think this is pretty much all the trolls released up to this point, and I still have some very awesome looking Raven men to arrive in the near future...

To see more of my work, visit my Gallery

Sven

Having just finished another Kingdom Death piece I decided to use the momentum and the rest of my holiday to get some more done. As you can see in the picture I've prepared some of Kingdom Death' more recent sculpts for painting and untypically I have decided to work on the bases first.

Right now I'm still unsure about what colours to use on the above models, which means I am also not sure which model will be my next to paint, but you'll surely see it soon on the blog.

To see more of Sven's work, visit his Gallery 

Hellstrom

Surprise, surprise, I have been very busy with Mierce this week! I placed a few more orders for characters and monsters I am missing, as well as some of the rather interesting gaming aids - templates, dice etc. For the start of my  Brythoniaid warhost, I started building Aradar Mawr, who is essentially a dragon ogre Shaggoth. A excellent figure, in terms of build, I actually found that the model went together relatively easy, and did not have too much in the way of cast lines and excess resin, always a plus to keep me interested in a project

 

Due to the ease of building Aradae, I now have sufficient momentum and confidence to start building the rest of Warhost. While I am still not 100% about how to paint them, I am happy at the prospect of having a game ready force relatively soon!

So that's what the the team and I are up to! Again our tables are dominated by Mierce miniatures and and is inevitable, considering we only really need a handful of figures! Also as a bonus, my partner has taken the plunge and gotten herself a small Ysian Warhost, so lots of variety and lots of gaming coming soon!

Thanks for reading,

DiStudios

Send The Eighth!

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Gallery: Darklands Fomoraic Kaairioc-cro Sea Devil

I mentioned in my last article (The King), that I had not been idle during the past months absence and so today I would like to share some of my Mierce Miniatures works, as it has been a while since I have posted any. Due an increase in Darklands gaming I have added some more Mierce Miniatures lately, at the expense of my Angelcynn host who has been sold to a fellow Mierce fan. Meanwhile I have started a new kindred…but more on that another time!

Today I’d like to present some more of my Fomoraic in the form of Kaairioc-cro Sea Devil, and he is a big beastie!

Site News: Monday Previews!

Greetings all, don't let the lack of articles last week fool you, there is plenty of miniature goodness going around keeping the team busy. In order to keep all you awesome readers up to date each I have decided to hound the guys each Monday in an attempt to get sneak peeks of what our they are currently working on.

Chris/DiStudios

Vikings and trolls, that pretty much sums up what I am doing, I have been non stop building and painting the lovely Mierce Norse range, and quite frankly I can't wait to get some more! Of course trolls are not the only thing on the table, there are giant Raven men, Shamans and other weird beasties, all of which I am looking forward to putting paint to.

  

 

The above photo above shows just how big the models are, I actually have a couple painted and near completion, and those will be making an appearance very soon. Of course more previews of those can be seen via the Twitter link to the left.

To see more of my work, visit my Gallery

Sven

It's the Sunstalker Infant by Kingdom Death for me! I am currently in the final steps on the skin. I'm trying to emulate a glow from the centre and human skin on the hands and tentacles. 

 

 

For the skin I went with a brownish tone that I also used on my Ysians to get a better contrast compared to my regular, lighter skin tone. I guess in the end I'll add a highlight of Tallarn Flesh, as it ended a bit too brown for my liking. I then went back and forth using drybrushing with pale yellow and inking with yellow ink. Still a lot of work to do...

 

To see more of Sven's work, visit his Gallery

Hellstrom

Sadly no pics from me. I have included a stock photo of what I am working on though. Like DiStudios, things here have taken a very Mierce Miniatures theme as I work on my Brythoniaid host from Salute.

 

Since Salute, I have made more purchases for my host, fingers crossed I will have some more interesting pictures for next week. Maybe.

To see more of Hellstrom's work, visit his Gallery

So that's what the the team and I are up to! Exciting times as we all take a Fantasy dive on the lead up to summer!

Thanks for reading,

DiStudios

Send The Eighth!

To keep up to date with all our goings on, like and follow our Facebook, Google + & Twitter pages.