The Ironfang Pirate Fleet - The Swordfyshes, part 8

I have talked about making these 5 models in a previous post so I won't go over it again, but in summary they are: a Brute Boss I built from a few eBay'd bits and some left-over parts; and the first 4 out of 10 Ardboys, converted from WH40K Ork Beast Snagga Boyz.

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I realised during painting that I have attached the Brute Boss's metal jaw too low, so you can see more of the inside of his mouth that you are supposed to be able to - including the fact he has no bottom teeth. This probably won't ever be noticeable to anyone else but it annoys the heck out of me.

Maybe I'll say he had the metal jaw fitted because all his jaw was hit and his teeth were smashed-in so badly they wouldn't regrow? Loosing teeth permanently would probably be terrible blow to an orruk Boss's social standing, if left un-repaired! Yeah, that's it.

Grapnul Gog

Lost a large proportion of his lower jaw when a Kharadron ship's cannon blasted the side of the face at close range. Survived against the odds and commissioned a metal jaw to replace his missing teef.

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The hardest part of painting the new Ardboys on the crew was deciding what colour to paint the animal skins they wear! They are a lovely weird mix of furs and reptilian scales and spikes, and I love the idea they all come from one type of beastie. Maybe even all from a single, very large, furry reptilian beastie!

Eventually I settled on a dark blue with a hint of green - Ultramarines Blue and Akhelian Green Contrast paints, mixed together at roughly a 6:1 ratio. I say roughly as I used a slightly different ratio for each model, probably ranging between 4:1 and 8:1, but I don't think you can tell from the photos!

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Wearing the iron-hard skins of the toughest beastie they ever fought, the Ardboys of the Swordfysh are just as heavily armoured as their landlubber cousins, but much more stylish.

Belay Bazod

A berserker by anyone's standards. The rest of the crew are happy to let him be the first to go over the gunwales in a boarding action. And they fully expect him not to survive each time, but somehow he has always seemed to do so.

Kazok Trunnel

Impetuous and quick to anger, Kazok gets into almost as many fights with his shipmates as he does with the enemy.

Orlop Durg

Says he lost an eye and part of his skull in a fight against a great beast, but he can't remember what the beast was. Often can’t remember what he was doing a few minutes ago.

Kragdag Stay

Considers himself quite the swashbuckling swordsman. Wildly overconfident.

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The new Ardboyz exploring some ruins with their Deck Boss, Docker Goff, who recruited them to the crew.

The Road to Warhammer Fest 2023 - part 3, planning the Gnarlwood Encampment mini display board

I have become a little hyper-focused on prep for the Warhammer Fest Warcry Rumble, as it is the only gaming I can be sure will happen between now and then! I'm hoping to sort out more gaming before then but at the moment I have nothing lined up.

In the mean-time I am still building, converting and painting models, and working on the "off board" accessories to take with me. With about two months to go, my to-do list is looking fairly healthy:

• Part 1, Themed box for counters, ruler, combat gauges, cards and dice.
• Part 2, Themed Warcry Dashboard
• Part 3, planning the Gnarlwood Encampment mini display board
• Part 4, building the Gnarlwood Encampment Mini display board
• Part 5, The Tangled Depths
• Part 6, The Warhammer Fest Warcry Rumble

The next thing on my list is the warband display board. The main options I am considering are:

• A piece of "mostly open ground" scenery, on a roughly A4 sized base, that could serve double-duty as a mini display board
• A 160mm round base with one or two small bits of scenery attached and open space for my warband (7 models on 40mm bases and 1 on a 32mm base)
• The Cleavermaw sky-ship
• The shipwreck Rogue Idol
• A small wooden picture frame with a scenic insert instead of the glass.

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The A4 scenery idea isn't really appealing as transporting it might be tricky, and it might just look like I brought some random bit of terrain and just plonked my models on it.

The 160mm round base idea isn't perfect as there is only just enough room for the whole warband of Ironjawz and a couple of scenery elements. Doesn't really sell the idea of an encampment. I still really like the look of a 160mm base warband display though, so I might make one anyway...

The Cleavermaw has been WIP for a long time - just over 3 years now - so using Warhammer Fest as motivation to actually finish it was pretty enticing. But neither the ship or the idol have space for my whole warband. They were not designed to display a warband to be fair, realistically both only have proper room for 3 or 4 models at most. The rest look a bit like they are about to fall off and some of them might get damaged as I add/remove them due to sticking-out bits.

It's a shame, as the Rogue Idol is already finished that would have been a really easy option - I would have loved to show it off too!

I hadn't really thought about using a small wooden picture frame because I had seen Matt (storm_of_chogoris on Instagram) made such a good one and I knew I couldn't hope to compete with that. But then my wife was about to get rid of one that was the perfect size and the perfect colour and suddenly it seems like it might be the best option!

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I think the problem I'm having is that I really want the display base to look like a pirate orruk Gnarlwood Encampment.

In my head that means it needs to include the remains of a wooden skyship wreck (a bit of deck, the "fractured ribs" of one side of a ship's hull with some planking still attached, some rigging, and a bit of broken mast), red-and-off-white striped canvas sailcloth awnings strung up with rigging ropes between the shipwreck timbers and/or the nearby trees, lots and lots of piratey detritus scattered all over (barrels, sea-chests, coiled and knotted ropes, empty bottles, sacks, floats/buoys, anchors, bill-hooks, muskets, pistols, cutlasses, hats, nets, hammocks, maps, lanterns, etc.).

This is all probably a bit too much for one small display board to include!!