Karlina Von Carstein in the Old World

 

Karlina squared.

As the title says, this is Karlina Vin Carstein in the Old World. This was a limited edition model intended for Age Of Sigmar which I decided to convert for use with The Old World game. The conversion, if you can even call it that, was simply to stick the model onto a 25mm square base. A challenge since it was intended for a 40mm round base. There is a small skull with a dagger in it that was supposed to go in front of the model but I had to squeeze it into one the corners in the rear. Like Lady Annika, this model just spills off of it's base and  towers over the other foot models in this army. 

After a bit of back and forth on how to paint this model, I decided to go with the blood red look of the Blood Knights (yes, I got some, but I haven't gotten to them yet). After basecoating the miniature with Baal Red Contrast Paint I was quite pleased with the result even at this stage. 

Baal Red Contrast Paint

Black Templar was used on the cloak. I think this turned out surprisingly well also. 

After this I painted the rose on the blade using Volupus Pink for the bud and Moot Green on the stem. After that I washed most of the model with Nuln Oil. 

 After that I added a layer of Evil Sun Scarlet which was followed with a thin edge highlight of Fire Dragon Bright.  Now this armor is starting to look nice and vampy.

The cloak was done by painting Nocturne Green over the Black Templar which thought worked very well.  A thinned layer of Kabalite Green was put over that, mostly on the edges,  with a solid application of Kabalite Green  as the final highlight. 

Blood for the Blood God was added to the Golden chalice in a way to make it seem that what little blood was left in it is dripping out of it. 

After finishing the face off, the model was done! 

I am very happy with how this turned out. I must confess, this was sort of a test model to try out the Blood Knights scheme. Now that I feel that this was a success perhaps I need to build those Blood Knights! 

Screaming for Vengeance

 

Screamers of Tzeentch.

The first unit of my Chaos Daemons for the old world have been completed. 

Primed.

To get this scheme to work I had to take a watercolor approach and paint this from light to dark. 

Volupus Pink Contrast Paint. 

I started at the extremities (assuming these fiends truly have such a thing) and worked the color toward the center thinning the color as it goes. Volupus Pink was the color of choice foe this first step. 

Sigvald Burgundy 

Next Sigvald Burgundy was blended into the areas where I stopped the Volupus Pink and expanded into the unpainted area. 

Luxion Purple 

Luxuon Purple continued this blend but it was used more as a transitional step before I got to the dominant color of Asurmen Blue. 

Asurmen Blue (on the bottom).

Titillating Pink highlights (on the top). 

Yellow was used for their eyes. The yellow I used was Imperial Fist Contrast Paint, which is a great match for the classic Sunburst Yellow Citadel Color paint from the last century. I used a Micron for their pupils. 

A few final touch-ups, mostly highlighting the boney bits, and I was happy enough with them to call them done. 

And with that, they were done. The final step was to glue them to their flight stands. Note that the flight stands are NOT glued to their bases. The idea is that I can switch them out from these square bases (rectangular technically but you know what I mean) to round ones. 

Finished models.

And the first unit of Tzeentch daemons is done! What next? 

Daemon Prince Changer of Ways (Part 1)

 Here's a Tzeentch Bolt of Change out of the blue horror for you:  a miniature from the Realm of Chaos era of the late '80s: The original Greater Daemon of Tzeentch,  the Changer of Ways. This isn't the original packaging or a lead miniature, this version s the (circa 1995) GW US pewter casting and packaging. 

Packaging prison.

And before you guys all yell: 

...haha, no, it belongs on my modeling table. In fact it's been in the queue since the end of  Warhammer 40,000 7th edition when the plastic Lord of Change came out. That model definitely dwarfs this thing. 

Freedom!

But I thought it might be cheeky to take some of the plastic bitz from the LoC kit and outfit some of them onto this old model. It wasn't long after that the edition changed (WHFB had gone through the End Tmes not long beforehand) and this project was forgotten about. 

Until now.

But before I go into that, I do want to stress that there were a lot of versions of this model. In fact it had three bodies,  six heads (seven if you consider that one of those heads was double-headed) and two tails. There are lots of combinations possible with these bitz and it's possible you'll look at mine and swear you've seen a different model than this with the same name, and well, you're probably not wrong. 

So much variety.

So back to my model. I have always liked the head that appeared skeletal and wide eyed. I guess there was something dramatic about it that just appealed to me more than the parrot headed one. Anyway my plan with these plastic bits was to stick the sword on his side along with anything else that made sense. I was particularly fond of the scroll. The addition of a pair of brimstone horrors will help update and tie this fellow up to the newer range of Tzeentch models. 

Plastic LoC bitz 

My plan for this thing now is to model him up for The Old World but use him as a Daemon Prince. I think he'll be perfect in that role. Unlike the rest of my Tzeench Daemons, this model will be exclusive to the Old World. 

Assembled.

Somehow I have lost his tail. I know it's around here somewhere because I saw it recently, but I will be damned if I can't recall where I put it... *sigh*

Looks like a party hub?

Anyway, I hope to get this guy painted soon but it might be set aside for an upcoming winter project.  We'll see how things shake down... 

2025 Year in Review

Art vs. Artist 2025

Happy New Year! Yes, another year comes to a close. This year in my life wasn't as crappy as the last year. My health has been relatively stable and I have been much busier as a result. 

As far as this hobby is concerned, I have managed to complete a lot of units for The Old World armies I have. This is mostly thanks to my growing comfort, confidence and competence with using Contrast Paints,  which I think have radically sped up my ability to complete units. The Old World has dominated my hobby focus this year. I attribute this mostly due to some of my favorite 40k  players moving out of the area last year.  As a result I only finished only one 40k model this year and probably wouldn't have done that if it wasn't for Dreadtober  pushing me to do so. I have decided to change that this year and try to get some more Tyranids and Ultramarines painted in 2026. Saying that,  I'm still feeling very passionate about TOW and will continue to complete models for that game as well.  

Anyway, here are the models I finished in 2025 with links in the titles. There are definitely a lot more models that I have worked on but didn't finish, which,  hopefully, will be completed in the New Year. 

Spirit Hosts. 

Skull Pass Miner's Cart #1

Hail to the Queen

Wailing Banshee. 

Thunder struck. 

Bones with spears. 

Saving the Cygor. 

Hobgrots on squares. 

Black Coach. 

Armored Skeleton Warriors

Swordmasters Unit 1. 

Dwarf Cannon battery

Swordmaster Unit 2

Loremaster.

Eagles Claw Reapeater Boilt.hrower #1

Celestial Lions Boxnaught

Black Orcs

Hobgoblin Khan on wolf.

Black Orc Warboss

Dwarf Organ Gun

And that concludes the year. I don't think I have missed anything... but if I have they were likely "Battle Ready" units which I don't count as finished. There are definitely a lot of units nearing completion which I hope to finish soon.  I feel like this upcoming year will be one of change. Lots of change...

 See you in the New Year!!!

-Joel

The Yhetee Refurbishment Plan (Part 1)

 Can you get more seasonal than a ...snowman? 

While digging around in my fantasy bitz bin*,  I stumbled upon the icy club that I hacked off of an Ogre Kingdoms Yhetee miniature way back in the late oughties. This provoked a desire to find the rest of the miniature. After a bit of searching I found him inside the old box for the original metal Norse Blood Bowl team. At the time, Blood Bowl was out of print and the rules were being kept alive on one of GW's Specialist/Fanatic websites as a 'Living Rules' edition. Warfrog and I had started a BB league with our D&D group at the time and we had a day or two of games and for whatever reason now lost in time, we just didn't pick it back up. The rules at the time had a Yhetee option (Ice Troll specifically) for the Norse and I just had to model it up. l located a Yhetee model locally (they were sold in blisters for semi-sane prices back then). I picked this guy because that out stretched arm gave the impression that perhaps he was trying to intercept a flying ball. 

All bitz found and ready for reassembly.

This particular miniature has an extreme lean, which wasn't a problem on the 40mm square base he was packaged with, but on a 25mm round, that tbe Blood Bowl game was requiring in that edition, I just couldn't get the thing to balance.  So I had to use a 25mm square base with weights glued into the bottom of it (see top pic).  It wasn't a perfect fix but it helped a lot.

25mm square.

And that's as far as we got with the whole project and I haven't played BB since! Now, in the present, I want to restore this guy for use in The Old World game. I have a small assortment of Ogre Kingdoms models that I might be able to cobble together into a small army. The problem is that I need two more of these models to meet their minimum Unit Size. 

Expanded base. 

Meanwhile I have gone forward with updating this fellow to The Old World. I simply glued him onto a 40mm base; He was just too well attached to the 25mm one. Using my trusty old pinvise, I drilled and pinned the weapon back onto his hand.. Then I used green-stuff to distort the edges of the 25mm base. I added a few rocks and skulls also.  I am contemplating adding some snow to it's base to help sell the notion that this guy is from the Mountains of Mourn. But I won't make a decision on that until well after these things are painted. 

Expanded base with decor.

I added some grit and skulls and now he is ready to be primed. I also added three more Yhetees (I won them  in a sweet deal off of ebay!) Which now gives me a unit of four. These guys didn't require nearly the amount of work the first one did, so they too are now ready to be primed. I just need a warm day to make it happen. 

Don't lose your heads guys. 

*It isn't nearly as awesome as you might've  just imagined.