Gallery: Darklands Ysians - Seza, Death Abhorrent By Sven

 

**This is Sven (joking) but please note figure is potentially NSFW**

 

I can’t believe my last Ysian post was in September last year! I’m going to make up for it in the future and so I got one of my favourites for you today. Seza the Blade-Abhorrent was the first of the three-legged monstrous infantry that was released and embodies a pretty unique concept.

Monday Previews!

Good morning, hope you had a productive weekend! Since it's Monday, lets get rid of those blues and see just what the writers here at Send The Eighth! are up to...

Chris/DiStudios

Well last week I finally finished the last member of my unit of Trolls, so this week I am taking a change of pace and working on infantry. On the table we have the Hrafnen Crew from Mierce Miniatures, their take on the Viking archetype. I have decided to go with no defined uniform, in favour of keeping it fairly in line with history. So bright cloth palettes, beige and different coloured shields all round. Once complete I intend to use them as Chaos Marauders led by Wulfrik The Wanderer in Age Of Sigmar (represented by either Eirik or Knutr).

Also on the table is a medium sized Warzone Resurrection Cybertronic commission. This is merely the start of the client's army so expect more Cybertronic in the future. With attention being drawn back to Warzone, I myself am eyeing up a new faction for my own, the question being of course which one?...

To see more of my work, please visit my Gallery

Sven

Yes, a strange game without balancing rules really rekindled my love for my old Khemri army. Well, if I look at it from this perspective: I got free rules for my existing army that was collecting dust in the cupboard. Actually that was quite a nice move of GW, between all my painted stuff, I also found some unpainted pieces from the latest Khemri releases and as most of you might know: I love snakes ^^

I got three painted up already, but will now get some command models ready, as those are nice and free to have in Age Of Sigmar.

To see more or my work, please visit my Gallery

Hellstrom

This weeks photo is of Angrislaug, Draiggoch Of Eryri.  As you can see he's green stuffed and the base corked and sanded.

I am hoping to get some more Mierce miniatures in my hands soon

To see more of my work, please visit my Gallery

So, lots of fantasy and a little bit of sci-fi for good measure. There is scenery in the works too as plans are afoot for some fast and furious games of Age Of Sigmar, but more on that later, as we still need some Mierce Miniatures reinforcements to ship!

Thanks for reading,

DiStudios

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Product Review: Feldherr Full Size Storage Box M

A while ago, the kind people at Feldherr Figure Cases, sent us a Full Size Storage Box M to review and sadly, due to ill health, I hadn’t gotten around to it, so for the delay I wholeheartedly apologise.
 

First off, I am a great fan of cardboard storage boxes for figures.  They are a set size, they stack beautifully and you can fill them up in such a way that you can easily decide which bits of an army you want to bring to a game by just popping the correct box or boxes in your bag rather than sorting through multiple loose foam trays.

The full size M storage box fits 150mm of foam.  This is particularly useful for me at the moment as some of the larger Mierce models are on 120mm bases.  The tray size that Feldherr use is the old GW case dimensions, 345mm x 275mm (full size), and I am sure if you are like me that you have quite a few of those plastic shells with their red troop trays lying around. They also have half size trays if that is your preference. Just for space saving it wouldn’t be a bad idea to buy a bunch of the empty boxes and fill them with the old red foam, far easier to store.  If one wanted to find a fault, and it’s really a matter of taste, the cardboard used is not particularly thick, but that means that the boxes are not overly heavy and in all honesty they are only there to house the trays so I really like them.

I know I have mentioned the old school GW foam but I would replace it with Feldherrs own foam which is a far superior product in my opinion.  One of the trays I was supplied with is perfect for the new 32mm base size that 40k marines seem to now require (see above pic).  Looking on their website I believe this is FS0501048BO 50mm full size Figure Foam Tray with base and 48 quadratic slots.  Being 50mm (approx. 2 inches) you can fit 3 in a box.  It seems they were originally designed to hold paint pots but are a must for new style Space Marines.

Overall I think Feldherr produce a well thought out, high quality product which I highly recommend.  In fact I liked the product I was sent so much I went out and bought a few of their items myself, a backpack and a messenger bag, which I may well review in the future (spoiler, they are lovely).

Hellstrom rating: 5/5

Thanks for reading,

Hellstrom

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Gallery: Darklands Norse - Gjoll, Troll Vane-Bearer By DiStudios

The fifth and final Norse Troll in my initial collection is Gjoll the unit standard bearer. He is a very detailed resin model and also the closest model to the scheme I originally envisioned. Being that this is the final member of my original purchase, a group shot will be added to my Gallery very soon. Below is Mierce Miniature's background for Gjoll, Troll vane-Bearer.

Gjöll, the Vane-Bearer, brings the power of Thor from his Jarl's dragonship, his skei, into battle; an honour that is not lost upon his crew nor upon the wretched victims of the Thurs, what the enemies of the Norse call Trolls. Himself a mighty warrior, already spoken of in the tales of Lindisfarena and of Ilkolmkill, Gjöll is known from the lands of the painted to the soft southern coasts as a murderer of woman and child and beast, a terrible creature of what once was legend filled with a fury that is terrible to behold - but which Vörtun's skalds record for their sagas reverently. Gjöll cares nothing for sagas, for poetry or verse, only the lust found in the kill and the favour of his Jarl, but mostly for the honour of bearing the lightning of Thor himself into battle; for the god of thunder and lightning and strength sees the Jötnar of Jötunheimr and especially the Thurs, who bear his name, as his children, and Gjöll knows that the favour of the gods - in these times of war and darkness - are everything.

Gallery: Kingdom Death The King's Man By Sven

 

For those of you who’re following the Mondays Previews this article won’t come as a surprise. Today I’d like to finally show you the finished King’s Man, a model that sat on my table for ages, as I never felt motivated to tackle all those metals. But when I finally got my hands on a King’s Hand, which I’ve been missing for a felt eternity and so was very keen to paint, I decided to work on them simultaneously.

 

 

The metals were once again done with the Vallejo true metals and as I’ve ranted about before, the contrast that can be achieved within the gold is rather subdued. Gladly the silver is so nice and shiny and allows the darkened gold to stand out. Nevertheless quite some dark lining was needed to get a distinct look and it took me several attempts to get the right balance between shaded and glossy gold.

 

 

The coat of course was meant to mirror the colours of my King but it seems due to the heavily folded fabric I highlighted it too much and the end result was way lighter than the coat of the King. It took me some effort and a lot of washing to get to a tone that fitted the original inspiration. I really like the look that the Vallejo washes create. That dull quality fits fabric very well in my opinion and it is a nice counterpoint to the shiny armour.

 

If you’re interested in some WIPs you can find some in the Monday Previews from the last months.

 

Thanks for reading,

 

Sven

Send The Eighth!

 

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Monday Previews!

Welcome to another Monday Previews! The Age Of Sigmar, has given us quite the excuse to get our models put together and lined up for painting. While on the one hand, the new rule set has been the perfect reason to stop collecting Games Workshop miniatures, it has also been the reason for us to get our alternative miniatures out for quick fun games. For example, both Lorna and I have been using our Mierce Miniatures figure range to represent forces from the Age Of Sigmar rules.

Chris/DiStudios

Over the weekend, I got the chance to play test the Age Of Sigmar rules with Lorna. We used our Mierce Miniatures and had a short but incredibly fun game which literally went down to the last model standing. Because of this, I am eagerly getting more of my Trolls painted and ready for next weekends follow up match.

Secondly I have found interest to start working on scenery again. I have had the Citadel Woods for quite some time and now is the perfect opportunity to get it ready and actually used in our upcoming games. I have decided to go for a creepy wood look, with the idea of mixing, a natural looking flowery forest, with barren trees, soaked in blood and adorned with the bones of the fallen.

The intention is to get at least one more wood and then make some Gaulish style huts for Lorna's Ysian force.

To see more of my work, please visit my Gallery

Sven

I never thought it would happen, but due to Age of Sigmar my Tomb Kings are suddenly considered a strong army. So I went in the cellar and dug my last remaining Warhammer army up. Sadly the Tomb Kings are far from my best painted WH army (that goes to my Chaos Dwarfs which I sold), but I did a nice conversion for a Hierotitan when the sphinxes were released and thought I'd share a pic with you in this place:

Unfortunately the Hierotitan was dropped in the warscrolls and now I have to think of a use for it in AoS as a simple bone giant is way too unspectacular.

I also found some unpainted stuff, so maybe I will paint some Warhammer in the closer future, just for the fun of it.

To see more of my work, please visit my Gallery

Lorna

So I finally got to test out my Mierce in the battlefield! Granted we did not use the Mierce rules because..well they haven't come out yet. Instead we used the Age of Sigmar rules, which worked well for me as being new to the hobby especially the gaming side I found these rule a lot easier to digest than some of the previous games I have tried in the past.

I used the Beastsmen rules as they seemed to fit my Ysians the best, I made my shaman Malagor The Dark Omen and enjoyed experimenting with his spells, especially Viletide. My Manticore died surprisingly quickly but this was due to Chris bombarding it with his troll gank squad. I did however get some small consolation from the fact that in the throes of death it managed to wound the trolls quite severley but alas those trolls proved very hard to kill as they kept regenerating, with Chris failing his regeneration roll only once in the game. I instead focused my attacks on his frost giant which Chris using as a Dragon Ogre Shaggoth and managed to down him with viletide. I did finally manage to kill the trolls with viletide  (I love that spell)  and it was just the two generals left to face off. It was not to be though as I had only 2 wounds left by the time the two generals met and since it was Chris's turn the meeting was short lived.

I really enjoyed the match though, a lot more than expected and hope that now I understand the rules and gained a bit of knowledge about my armies abilities I will be able to beat Chris next match. I am so eager that I have ordered some bow men to give me the edge in range and try to whittle chris' trolls down before they can get their grimy hands on me.

So the Age Of Sigmar has resulted in some major changes here, revitalising what was a near zero gaming atmosphere, with a nice and simple rule set. Because our Mierce Miniatures collections work seamlessly with the updated army books, there is also no need for us to buy any GW miniatures. This situation is ideal for us, as it gives us something to use as a primer for when Mierce Miniatures finalises it's own (and more in depth) rule set.

Thanks for reading,

DiStudios

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Gallery: Darklands Khthones - Sthena by Sven

Another of Mierces early miniatures is Sthena, Gorgor of Khthon. A lovely yet crazed snake-woman which I ordered during the very first Darklands kickstarter. Painted pictures of this model were rather rare and I never felt really inspired to paint her. It was more by chance that I had the idea to transfer the pattern of my rainbow boa Nero to one of my Khthones miniatures and Sthena, being a unique character and so in need of a red element like Ophios presented herself.

Monday Previews!

Greetings all, welcome to another Monday previews, where you get to see just what the writers of Send The Eighth! are up. one of the things I enjoy most about the Monday previews, is the sheer variety of miniatures the team works on. While for the most part we do love our  Games Workshop stuff, we are also fans of anything that in our minds look cool. So each week, you never quite know what the writers will be working on behind the scenes...

Chris/DiStudios

My Norse fever continues as I start work on the Malmord (mountain) Fell Troll by Mierce Miniatures. The Malmord is bigger and bulkier than the rest of the trolls and required a bit more work as you can see. There were a few gaps that needed filling and of course sanding down, before I can settle into the paint scheme.

I will be going a different direction with this figure, to (try) represent the different breed of troll. So purple/blues will be the main colours, with dark greys for the rocks imbedded in the skin. This will give me a great opportunity to mess around with various tones outside of the usual drab green of recent.

To see more of my work, please visit my Gallery

Sven

Despite the heat I managed to finish my two servants of the King last week, but the final pictures will be saved for the full articles. 

Nevertheless I got a little "nearly finished" preview of the King's Hand for you:

Apart from this I've of course been following the ongoing Mierce Kickstarter and had a look into the new Age of Sigmar rules, as I was interested whether I could find a "use" for my Tomb Kings army and it seems it's worth a try as I even found a nice balancing approach. Let's see how that turns out.

To see more of my work, please visit my Gallery

Hellstrom

After some painting last week I went back to constructing figures.  To be honest, the heat and humidity here in the UK are so bad that I am surprised I got anything done.

So for your enjoyment we have Gynroch ap Roch, Wocor of Powys.  This is a drake related to the 'skettis' faction (Powys) and is a really unusual design.  I particularly like the fact that he is clinging to a tree stump, which adds an extra dimension that I find particularly pleasing.  I do enjoy it when sculptors add some relevant scenery to their figures and Mierce certainly have some great sculptors working for them.

To see my work, please visit my Gallery

Dragons , knights and trolls! What more could you want? Joking aside, by now most people will have seen the pictures from Forge World's openday. needless to say, the arrival of Dark Angel's conversion bits, have me all kinds of excited, so it seems things make take a Horus Heresy turn in the months after summer...

Thanks for reading,

DiStudios

Send The Eighth!

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Darklands: The Metal Age Kickstarter!

Greetings all, there is a massive buzz here at the moment, as Mierce Miniatures is currently running it's Metal Age Kickstarter! This Kickstarter has already funded and is rising at a good rate. The project is offering infantry starter packs for various factions of their Darklands game in metal. Many people prefer metal over resin for gaming, due to durability and with the huge discounts that Mierce Miniatures provides during these Kickstarters - infantry roughly works out to £2 per figure, so now is the perfect time to buy in for the first time or add infantry blocks to an existing force. Naturally the entire team has backed...

Currently three of the four goals have been unlocked, one of which is for project exclusive drinking companions - only 100 of each and limited to 2 per backer. So if you are a collector, you will not want to wait as these lovely miniatures will vanished (I already secured myself two Boozing Rollos.

Is it trustworthy?

Now some people may still have doubts concerning Mierce Miniatures for various (understandable) reasons. So I will use my self as an example. Since Salute 2015 (April?) I have been purchasing and reliable getting all the figures that are in stock, figures that were not complete at the time, were sent very quickly once produced (The Corpse Takers a prime example). The quality and prices have been consistently amazing throughout, as has the customer service during replacement issues. This company has given me one of the most fluid and pleasant buying experiences I have ever had in a very long time.

What about a gaming system?

The gaming system is nearly complete, there is a hard copy rule book you can purchase, but the quick start rules and army lists (musters) are available for free via PDFs HERE. The rules are nearly ready for print and are on offer via the Metal Age, so another reason to back, there are also videos showing the game mechanics, which I recommend you check out. I personally think the game system is rather good, it is complex but overbearing and no one phase seems to dominate the other. In terms of infantry vs monstrous infantry, the rules are surprisingly balanced, so units of equal points (referred to as gold) will be balanced against each other.

Darklands The Metal Age is live now, so why not pay a visit and check out this fantastic Dark Fantasy miniatures game.

Thanks for reading,

DiStudios

Send The Eighth!

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Gallery: Darklands Atalantes - Talos, Colossus Of Bronze By Hellstrom

Presented here is my Mierce, Talos, Colossus of Bronze. Whether you are a fan of Jason and the Argonauts or the large statue outside the port of Bravos from Game of Thrones, the concept of a large metal guardian is one that excites the imagination. I hope you enjoy the finished model, I know I do. Below is Mierce Miniature's description for this excellent model.

The exact origins of Talos are lost even to the Atalantes, but it would be a foolhardy man who dismissed him as a verdigrised relic, a bronze anachronism that could be ignored in any confrontation with the Ilioses of Atalantia; for Talos still fulfils his ancient function, the reason for his existence, as guardian of Kriti herself - and by extension her people. A colossus in bronze, a mighty reminder of the power the Ilioses once took for granted, Talos is yet a match for any foe that he encounters, for he marries the brute strength and solidity of ancient metal with an intelligence born of the quicksilver within him and the skill of his creator. Like most of the artifices and engines of the Atalantes, none could now ever hope to replicate the automata, and so they are revered as the wonders they are and for the power they bring to the hard-pressed phalanxes that seek to defend their lands; but Talos... Talos is the most revered and the most powerful of them all, and the Ilioses - indeed, virtually all of the Atalantes, such is his renown - believe that with Talos beside them there is hope yet for Atalantia and its people.

Gallery: Kingdom Death Apotheosis By Sven

**This is Kingdom Death NSFW!** 

The Apotheosis’ are some of the rather recent sculpts of Kingdom Death and while I really love the royal appearance and their god-complex background, the miniatures apparently didn’t get much love from the fans though, as there are still over 200 pieces left of each.