Climb aboard the Battle Train!!!

Mr. Lathan has been very busy indeed!  Not only has he been working very hard on his Adepticon work, he has been developing this incredible train set for us gamers :-)

As always, making sure there is maximum playability is a priority.  That means the ability to get at the inside of each car.

The exteriors are just as vital, and lots of testing and re-testing goes on here!

I think that we will be able to create many scenarios around this train!  Having this on the table with the train station from Burn in Designs will be epic!

Speaking of epic... here's the set as it has developed thus far!

Now THAT's going to be incredible.  I love those middle cars.

Fine tuning is in progress as this is written.  The prow of the train is being modified, which will likely end up in a more angled, traditional prow.  

However, knowing Mr. Lathan, he would figure out a way to make both prows work, and be interchangeable.  The creative genius at work!!!

Handy Hired Hands

Now that you have seen some close ups of the Lizardman army, it's time to get close up on the newest endeavor... the Lawmen of Wappelville!

I just added Warren Earp to the character list, but in this image we have Wyatt and Virgil Earp, along with Doc Holliday, Marshall Berenger, Pat Garrett, and the Hero of Wappelville, Carl Fredrickson.

This set of Bosses, Underbosses and Sidekicks help make the Lawmen even more lethal to all those wishing to conduct nefarious business in Wappelville.

But no posse is complete without some Hired Hands!  This is the basic set of ten hired hands.  Hopefully, I will be able to add some Rangers to this set!

The close combat hired hands have proved their worth on the mean streets of Wappelville more than once.

This part of the Lawmen posse has continued to grow... in fact, one more Interceptor light support is on the way!

This not only provides a lot of speed to a posse that tends to mosey along, but it really boosts the amount of template weapon and long range firepower that can reduce an entire town to rubble in no time at all!

I really look forward to my own version of the "Four Horsemen" when that last Interceptor is complete.  I think a pair of "fire teams" would be extremely deadly!

I was denied the chance to do some hanging with the Judgment in the first tussle with the Enlightened, but I think the next time around, and certain inventor needs to find his way into the mobile jail.  

He keeps playing that Vaudeville music far to loud... it's the Devil's calling card, to be sure!

When you see this coming towards you... it probably the last thing you're going to see!

It looks like I will be getting some more additions to this posse, courtesy of a few stretch goals that have now been reached in the Wild West Exodus 2 kickstarter!  Check them out, since mass amounts of hired hands have been added to higher level pledges for free!!

Upon closer examination...

We return to Lustria once more to get some close views of the Temple of Blood.

As I mentioned many times, this was more than just a display board.  It was meant to be a piece of playable terrain.  

This post shows the Temple in action:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/02/these-are-some-more-basic-shots-of-army.html

That battle was actually the first in a four part campaign, which concluded with an even larger battle for the Temple.  This series was based on the original story of the army:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/02/how-legend-of-stikki-wikkit-came-to.html

I have a number of articles on the scratch sculpted Engines of the Gods:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/06/before-they-were-finished-wip-images-of.html

My favorite units were my SKrox units... mixed skink and Kroxigors.  I called them my foot cavalry:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/02/images-of-few-skink-and-kroxigor-units.html

I also had a blast sculpting terradons from scratch:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2013/08/those-terrible-terradons.html

Mage Priest Babo and his guardians:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2013/02/babos-body-guard.html

And my Cold One Riders, who managed to fail 5 consecutive stupidity rolls.  Yes, leadership nine, three D6, pick the two lowest.  They ended up in some trees by the end of the game.

However, they did manage to win a Silver Demon, just one of numerous awards the army brought home!

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/03/saurus-cold-ones.html

I can't recall how many were won, but I know that Babo, the Kroxigor, and a number of my units all won Demons, Rogue Demons, and so on.

On the topic of painting for contests... seeing my Lizardman army was yet another reminder of why I don't do that.  What I enjoy is creating scenes like this.

The terrain, the movement trays, the bases, the conversions, even writing the army story.

This is so much more fun, and to me far more long lasting.  I enjoy looking at this (and even using it!) as much now as when it was first constructed years ago.

This is why I would rather paint an entire series of Wild West Exodus posses, and the terrain that goes with it.  We are having all kinds of fun playing the game, coming up with stories and scenarios for battles... and innovating along the way

All of my current techniques were forged in the cauldron of "How the heck am I going to make this vision for the army possible?".

The mother of invention is necessity, and there's nothing like the necessity of creating hundreds of miniatures, bases, trays and terrain boards for an event to spur the little gray cells!!!

Let me consult my Law Books

We introduce the ultimate authority in Wappelville, Judge Stern.  Not only is he ready to deal out Justice with his gavel, he is as learned as any in the field of Law.

His ancient tomes have been passed down through the ages, and now they fall to him.  They are essential for establishing the rule of law in the territory, which will pave the way to Statehood.

Once Wappelville is established as the seat of government in the new State of Wappellia, a new courthouse shall be constructed.  It will dominate the skyline of the city.  A veritable Temple of Justice.

Here we see the Lawbooks of Judge Stern.  They provide wisdom beyond comprehension.

Speaking of wisdom, it would be wise to give another look at the Wild West Exodus 2 kickstarter, as massive new stretch goals have been introduced!  It's pretty incredible.  I believe that a Town Marshall pledge might net you 100 minis by the time it's all said and done!!  Wow!

The last music man

One final musician for you!

Next up, the final group shots! :-)

Reading you your (last) rights...

This gun toting Law-BOT is ready to enforce some law in Wappelville.

He's glowing with RJ-1027 energy.  And he takes NO PRISONERS.

Time to go clear out some Outlaws!!!

An old favorite returns

After the massive reshoot of the Tomb Kings army using the new LED Daylight bulbs, the next army I wanted to try out was the Lizardmen, the very first Warhammer Fantasy army I ever painted.

I created this army display board for Adepticon years ago, and it still stands strong today!

Welcome to the Temple of Blood.

The army won numerous best painted and Player's Choice awards at Adepticon and elsewhere.

As I have mentioned in other posts, it was also a gaming piece, and we played a number of battles on it.

The crowning achievement for this work was winning the first North American Armies on Parade.  I had to construct the Temple to make sure that it would fit in the angled display cases that they were using at the time, which was no small feat of engineering!

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/02/white-dwarf-article-features-my.html

I wanted the board to look like a Temple, but it also had to be functional.  Some of the upper levels had to be changed quite a bit to accommodate movement trays and so on.

Here's a previous post on its construction:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/02/construction-of-great-temple-of-blood.html

The two Engines of the Gods that you see on this board are just a few of the scratch built miniatures that are scattered across the Temple.  Terradons and other creatures also had to be built from scratch , or heavily converted.

I will be creating a gallery of the finished miniatures on the Windy City Miniatures facebook page after Adepticon.  

This first massive army project was inspired by what I saw in the Adepticon tournament rooms our first few years at the convention.  I saw a room full of very well painted armies and ingenious display boards.  I felt that I must do the same!

There will be more posts coming that show closer in views of the Temple and its residents.  I will also have some links to battle reports that took place on this terrain piece turned display board.

Of course, Mage Priest Babo leads the way, his contemplations divining knowledge of all things.

This was the army that started it all... I have done two 40k armies in this style of display board/terrain piece, as well as a second Fantasy army, and even my Lord of the Rings armies.

Now Wild West Exodus posses join in on the fun!

There's nothing quite like painting armies!!!  Stay tuned for much more, and be sure to check out some of the original Lizardman blog posts, as they were the first I ever made!!!