Reign in Hell – A tale of dice and demons

I don’t think I threw in enough contrasting colours to define the different leather straps etc. Maybe next time, but having a low contrast scheme might work for demons in hell. Though I would like to get them table ready rather than dwell on all the details available to their absolute fullest. Comments welcome on that one.

The Flesh-tearer Contrast Red helped tint the black primed areas and unite them with the red zenith areas. I might go for darker fur next time with have a more interesting accent colour on the elements.

I managed to add my Earthbound brand on his tit and the horns turned out OK.

My devout (for cabal number 2) is all done. Cabal number 1 with mostly previously painted minis was fun for delving into some lore ideas, but cabal number 2 is probably going to be more fun hobby wise.

I got some 4Ground Black Rocks added to make the hell scape base more interesting.

The NorthStar metal wings give the mini a bit more heft and look great. Same zenith of Halfords red over the black primer looks fine and with a Flesh-tearer Contrast Paint over the top to blend it all together. I like the finished look. Bit of Mephiston Red highlighting and a tidy up on the armour above the wings and she’s good to go… Probably to go do bad. ?

Same basing top up for my Leader and they make quite the fearsome team.

I went back and added the symbol I started on the succubus to Hitlore my leader Minotaur demon. I think I will try to include this on all my Earthbound minis somewhere to help tie them all together.

WiP Succubus for Reign In Hell. She doesn’t need to be so seductive in Hell, so she looks more devilish. The only reason she is still WiP is because she is awaiting her wings. Then the pose on the base makes more sense I hope.

I liked the freehand on the shoulders. The “Earthbound” RiH symbol is a skull with an inverted Latin cross on its forehead. Rather than attempt this fully I made it a touch more abstract. The two dots left and right at the bottom of the cross and the triangle beneath are hints at the symbol’s eyes and nose of the skull.

The whip is a heated and bent piece of sprue. I know it looks slightly unnatural, but I can believe it is on a forward swing from over her left shoulder.

I am going to get the Frostgrave Demons wings from NorthStar as I couldn’t think of an easy way to do them myself and I think I would benefit from some when I get around to playing The Red King Expansion.

The head and arms are from a NorthStar Frostgrave Soldiers 2 female sprue. The arms have had the fur trim cut away. The body is from the NorthStar Frostgrave Demons box. The knife is cut from a right hand knife hand on the Soldiers 2 sprue.

The metal armour is Leadbelcher, Agrax Earthshade wash and Runestone Silver drybrush. The skin is Flesh-tearer Contrast Red over the Halfords red primer and highlighted with a Mephiston Red and Flesh-tearer Contrast mix.

Myroar seemed like corruption enough of Myra, continuing the evil persons in history theme. Myra Hindley being convicted for her crimes against kids in the 60’s seems to fit the bill.

Hitlore the Earthbound demon. Thinking of giving this cabal all daft corruptions of evil people’s names from Earth history. Muscleini (Mussolini), Koba The Red (Stalin nickname), Temujin (Genghis Khan’s real name)… Any suggestions?

This mini was given to me built incorrectly, but I think that’s forgivable because they were gifted to me and I think they had been assembled by the guy when he was a child. The demons right hand was glued in place, but the left hand was built into the haft of the axe and was a whole cm past his left wrist, just floating. So I used some greenstuff and shortened the axe haft between the hands. It’s not perfect, but it’s more believable now. I also had plenty of sprue gate pieces and mold lines to mess with, but in the end decided that if some bits were left over I would just paint them as battle damage and accept it as part of the piece.

The basing was just leaving the after effects of the zenith painting as it was and just adding black flower soft. It’s a hell scape of sorts and I am happy with it. Might add some grey ash type flock I have to a mix on some of the other bases.

The zenith did most of the work. Dry brush of Zandri Dust over the fur and then a Darkoath Flesh Contrast Paint over the top after. The blackest parts got a coat of Flesheater Red Contrast Paint and all the flesh got a Mephiston Red dry brush. Most of the leather is Mornfang Brown and Rhinox Hide on the loin cloth.

Though the pics might not catch it quite right, I love this red Halfords zenith over a TTCombat Spectre Black primer. I am seriously considering just getting my first game in against myself and feeling out the rules. I don’t usually play with unpainted minis, but with this zenith and maybe my leader being painted I would happily play with them as they are for the time being.

I have my dice. I need to point up my first forces and get my Earthbound leader and devout named and set up and we’re nearly there. Can’t wait.

I get the feeling that there’s scope to make up your own rules for a Revenant Remnants warband of humans. A handful of the suicide army commited to destroying the portal that against all the odds have survived. They are desperately trying to keep their souls and continue tactical guerilla missions, causing decent and fueling hatred between the demon schools of philosophy to keep Hell broken. The trouble is… Some of them know how they broke the portal and thus… Could give the Earthbound some clues on how to reopen it.

The warband could be easily set up like the Cabals are created but reflect somehow that they are squishier than their demon enemy. The army clearly were skilled enough in martial disciplines and dedicated enough to beat the directorate and smash the portal, so we can believe that this particular set of killer commandos could still fight a cabal of demons and survive. Maybe Samurai with Templars and warrior bishops and barbarians. You might even be able to tie in a touch of ranged attack to keep them out of the risk of destruction in hand to hand combat with twenty foot demons? They could still be collecting souls of the damned like the Cabals to fuel the runes in their demon smiting blades. They need not be nice people at this stage. The horrors of Hell and trauma of battle could have warped them to not feel any compassion when it comes to reaping human souls to keep their magical weapons honed. This could all be awkward to balance and keep plausible and there is plenty to learn about the game without putting in all the work required to add The Last of the Humans expansion yourself, but it certainly sounds like a fun concept to me.

Oh, what I meant to say was… I got my dice and started priming my opposing cabal.

There are 6 classes of demon but I only feel my minis tick the boxes for Armoured demons and Slaughter Fiends at the moment.

For my second warband I might be able to stretch and kitbash some Spined demons to try out those rules too, but maybe having less rules to learn in game one, won’t be such a bad thing.

They have the chance to evolve and improve their stats without changing weapons or armour level etc. Having to get more minis or change the ones you have to get through a campaign would probably cause ructions, but they made it clear that wysiwyg worries shouldn’t be a bugbear when the combat is slightly abstract and deliberately avoided grittiness in that regard.