Blood Jakhals

   Jakhals are the World Eater version of regular Chaos Marines' Cultists, but jacked up on a weird blood based performance enhancing chemical as such I ignored the way GW painted their box art with black clothing and red details to make them look like the World Eater wannabies that they are. Ideally, I'd like to have a whole bunch of cultists between these guys and the regular ones that all look similar but also show where they come from.

   The real pity of this unit is they are a nightmare to build with lots of small wrist joints that don't make sense until you get them right and they are surprisingly busy and difficult to paint for a unit that is so cheap on the battlefield. I'd like to put 2 or 3 of these units on the board and be able to throw them away without caring but the motivation to paint that many would not be easy to find.

Thanks for reading

The Deluge - C17th Test Units

   I think I mentioned after Salute this year, that I came away not having spent much money at all. The one thing that did really tempt me was a game by a Polish games designer called By Fire and Sword, which had just released it's 2rnd edition. The set of rules focussed on the wars the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth found itself in during the 1600's, with various invasions by the Ottoman's and a couple by either the Swedish or the Holy Roman Empire. I managed to not buy the starter set but spent the next couple of weeks trying to decide if I regretted that choice or not.

   At the same time, someone on Bluesky was trying to encourage me to start a 10mm project as they have been saying its like 15mm, which I think look great on the table, but better and cheaper. I didn't want to double (or triple) up on any era, so I wasn't going to jump into any project. Then it dawned on me that I was interested in a new era and I had a scale I wanted to try, why didn't I dip my toes to test the theory?

   I plan to use Pikeman's Lament to play these - although, I'm keeping the basing vague enough that other rules can take over in the future - with two bases of any model being a unit*. I had looked at copying the By Fire and Sword starter set with The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth on one side and the Ottomans on the other, but realised if I looked at the eastern side of their realm about 20 years earlier I could do a cheaper intro game against the Swedish instead and, if I enjoyed the scale, I could work up to the Ottomans. The back of the book has units for such an engagement, so I'm copying that for my initial game - which is only 11 units between the two sides, still a lot of figures but more manageable than the Ottoman units.

*making half strength units easier to track and set up easier

   I bought a few test packs just to see if I enjoyed the painting side before I bought whole armies and this post is the first of those units - the Polish Winged Hussars and some Swedish Musketeers. 

The first unit of Polish Winged Lancers has come up a treat if I say so myself. They need to have some grass of some sort to break their bases up but otherwise, I'm really pleased with them

I then decided to test out infantry. The exact lists I want to try need 2 units of Commanded Shot - which are half sized musket units - but I wanted to see how the full sized units would look too, so I used a single pack to do a unit of each.

The Commanded Shot unit below

The regular unit of Musketeers

I'm working my way through some more Polish Winged Hussars as I type, but I am now fairly confident this project is doable. The pennants on the Hussar's lances might break me though.

Thanks for reading

Bound By Eight?

   I'm trying to focus on the figures from the World Eater combat patrol when I am painting this project but I had an unexpected bit of weekend painting time and wanted a project I could get the bulk of the way through before that time went away and I picked a 3 man unit, the Khorne Eightbound. These are effectively the World Eater version of regular Possessed Marines but with a bit more Khorne-y flavour.

   I have another box of these to build that were going to be their own unit, but I think I might use them to bulk this squad up instead.

Thanks for reading

The Blood Calls

   As always I have a few projects I'm working on and they vary day to day in which I think is the priority, but my World Eater project is one of the ones that keeps annoying me that it isn't further along. I really enjoy looking at these figures but the trim is trying to break my tired mind, so I'm having to take breaks between batches.

   This is the second squad of regular berserkers and the last of them that I own*. I painted them the same as the first unit but I gave them slightly more black on their armour just for a bit of variety and to break the vast amount of red.

*although I think I'd like at least one more squad at some point

Thanks for reading

The Spanish Arrive

   The next unit of Carthaginian troops from the Warlord Games epic sprue are the Spanish Scutarii. As these seem to be Celtic in origin, I tried to go for bright colours so that they stand apart from the North African infantry.

I need to find my spare sprue of bases to get much more done, but I'm enjoying how this project is starting to look.

Thanks for reading