Grinning Skull Miniatures new releases: Chukk warriors!

Heres today’s other release from Grinning Skull Miniatures over at Alternative Armies, the Chukk, mutant chicken (and Dodo of course) warriors of the League of Anthracks! Ever wished you could field an entire army of chicken men muties? Well, now you can, with this new release! Astound your opponents, crush your enemies and leave them with egg on their faces (as well as other intentional chicken related mirth!!) Here’s the Carnage Continuum fiction to inform you of just howthey fit into the strange universe of the Omega Gamma quadrant….

Chukk are the deadly brainwashed minions of the League of Anthracks. These mutant ground bird hybrids are psychotic shock troops that willingly sacrifice themselves in battle for the pleasure of their oggum masters. In the repertoire of the evil and twisted Okvan scientists of the League, as well as Treatment Y, there exists “Stimulant X”, the agent from which these creatures are made. 

It all begins when the scientists choose a suitable “eggmutha”. An Eggmutha is one of the largest and meanest of the native giant ground birds, fertile enough to produce hundreds of eggs in the process. the Eggmutha’s are then restrained and force fed specially formulated feed to make them lay rapidly. The eggs are incubated separately and during which, the developing embryos are administered stimulant X daily, until they hatch.

Once hatched, the process produces fully developed Chukk. they are then taken to a secret conditioning centre to begin the “training”. This involves many parts, from electric shock therapy, to weeks long narcotic based brainwashing programs, that will strip way any placidity and harden them for war. This makes them deadly in conflict, as wave after wave will serve as fodder for the real attack. Their absolute fearlessness isn’t the only thing that makes them feared, but rather the other attributes that come from their creation. If a chukk becomes too stimulated at any point, they will begin to mutate. Mutated chukk are known as Warp-chukk, this form makes them double or triple in size and mass and begin to break from the shackles of their mental programming. They will attack anything close, gathering in violent momentum culminating in the volatile gases within them exploding and causing carnage. However, a warp-chukk may continue to mutate, giving form to even deadlier forms such as the chukkasaurus rex and the mighty clukkatrix. Many sorts of birds are used in the experiments, inculding Turkeys, pheasants, grouse, ducks and geese, and even vultures in the mix. Not all of them work out as successfully as the standard chukk, but probably the most receptive genus used are the mutant Dodo stock, known as the Doodah. 

So successful in the process, they often keep some sembalance of sanity and mostly never break. They are often seen in elite units in numbers, or leading other types of chukk in battle or labour. Chukk do break the cycle, and go rogue often, so it is not uncommon to see mercenary units on any side. They usually have an axe to grind about the past masters and thirst for revenge against the League, and its heard that this can even happen in battle, swaying the tide of war in favour of the league’s enemies. All in all, the chukk are a foe not to be underestimated and are renown for sheer savagery by survivors of conflicts they were a part of….. 

 So, if you want your own warhost of mad chicken mutants, get over and visit Alternative armies, where you can find the kize, baahl, oggra, oggborg and the other Grinning Skull Miniatures range.

Keep an eye out for further releases coming soon from Grinning Skull Miniatures, like the tentacled alien invaders, the Zarglians, and the fearsome mutant Clukkatrix!!!

Related articles

• Grinning Skull releasing over twenty new miniatures during May!
• Oggum Oggra released by Grinning Skull
• DH4 High Dwarfs at Alternative Armies
• DH8 Dwarf Shield Wall at Alternative Armies
• DH6 Dwarf Missile Troops at Alternative Armies

Grinning skull Miniatures new Release: Baahl Auxillary troopers

Time for another of this months miniature releases from the Grinning Skull Miniatures range at Alternative Armies. The Baahl Auxillary troopers, available in singles or at a 10% discount if you buy a squad of 10 (Normally £10, now £9!) These little goatkin warriors are great for use in 15, 20, and 28mm, or whatever you’d like them for!

These bovid kin are another of the leftover experiments of the past. They are a stubborn and unpredictable lot, but fierce and hard headed in battle, features which put their kind in great demand as troops for hire. The baahl usually dwell in seclusion from other races on the homeworld, in primitive tribes that practice heathen ways. This leads others to suspicion and fear of them, as tales of sacrifice and devouring their enemies are abound. Indeed, they do worship demonic looking pagan gods and spirits, but feel a great affinity to their surroundings and nature. 

Auxillary baahl troopers are the descendants of their more natural kin, the next generation of their race to grow up in a more civilised oggum society. As you know, the oggum have conquered vast tracts of their homeworld, which means many tribes were either destroyed, relocated or subdued as a result. Baahl stick together in large numbers even in large oggum settlements, but are segregated. Many of them will form large companies of willing fighters eager to earn a crust and get on with life, so this leads to them being used as hired soldiers on all sides of conflict. 

 Baahl are adept at war, and take to their new life as soldiers well, the problem is they can be a little quick to anger, especially if lead by oggum commanders other than their own, so each company will be lead by another baahl to avoid conflict within the ranks. Baahl are equally suited to both melee or gun fighting, they pick up new forms of combat and destruction very easily and are not prone to stupidity unlike the oggum, who for the most are a little more slower when it comes to organising themselves. Many Oggum warlords covert the thought of having a small company of baahl auxillaries in their warband as just the mention of facing a number of trained baahl soldiers would frighten the enemy sufficient to gain an edge in battle. 

You can find all the other new releases over at Alternative Armies, as well as the other codes in the Grinning Skull range, please go check them out and add some to your collection…

Related articles

• Customers Excellent Service from Alternative Armies
• KC1 Coblynau Lesser Goblins Released!
• DH8 Dwarf Shield Wall at Alternative Armies
• DH12 Dwarf Knight on Pig at Alternative Armies
• DH7 Dwarf Cavern Fighters at Alternative Armies

Grinning Skull Miniatures release: The Oggborg

Another week, another Grinning Skull release over at Alternative Armies! This time we’ve got the oggborg and oggbot, enhanced cybered up oggum war vets.

 Oggborgs (also known as Cybogs) are battle worn veterans of serious conflict. When an Oggum trooper survives greivous injury, they are sometimes fixed and augmented with crude cybernetic technology of Oggum design.
Although this surgery is mostly voluntary, it’s usually forced upon the wounded by their warlord’s unwillingness to let their favourite lackeys from leaving his retinue.
Once an Oggum undergoes such an experiment, most will experience severe psycological changes, even possibly suffering partial or full lobotomisation in the process. Usually these subjects are then reprogrammed soley for battle, wiping out their previous personality for good.
An Ogbot is such an oggborg who has undergone so much cybernetic enhancement that all remenants of their previous life has gone, and are now little more than a machine with a few organic parts, but it is not uncommon for ogbots to have full concious thought if a fresh undamaged brain was first transplanted into a suitable host machine.
Still, not all conversions serve so willingly, and many will resist against control software to enjoy a semi normal existence. Those who have become so mentally damaged may reject everything and turn to the life of a wanderer and all the trappings of freedom. These might find the employ of other warlords, pirates and mercenaries or other groups of outcasts, so an oggborg may be found anywhere in alliance with anyone.
This technology is widely used by most factions, such as the Santyr cult of the Iron legion, or the mighty Og-mech of the golden Imperialists. Even the Okvan scholars and scientists create their brainwashed minions using this tech. The Scrofa tend to shun such things as is not natural, but even oggborg renegades and converts can be found in their number.
Even with the erratic malfunctions and glitches inherent in oggum technology, these grizzled warriors are legendry in combat, and should be engaged in battle with great caution.

These little bleeders are fun minis, I’m sure there’s plenty of games they’ll fit into, if not just oggum! These figures are available now from Alternative Armies, as is the rest of the Grinning Skull Miniature range, along with this months other new releases, like the Kize and the Oggra!

Related articles

• Oggborg Squad released by Grinning Skull
• KC1 Coblynau Lesser Goblins Released!
• DH12 Dwarf Knight on Pig at Alternative Armies
• Oggum Oggra released by Grinning Skull
• DH7 Dwarf Cavern Fighters at Alternative Armies

Grinning Skull Miniatures release: Oggum Oggra

Just a post to tell you we have another Alternative Armies release this week, the mighty Oggum Oggra GRN34 (otherwise known as a Pig Ogre). Ideal if you want some porky goodness to your miniature collection, or add to your Grinning Skull collection.

These supersized oggum add some leverage to Og forces of all types, and indeed for many other uses. Don’t believe me? Just read the fluff!!

An Oggra is the biggest and meanest strain of the Oggum. Strong and dangerous, ideally suited to battle or hard labour, but low on IQ, which is generally exploited by their smaller cousins.

On the homeworld, oggum scientists have learned to stimulate the Y chromosome in growing ogglets, using a chemical comound known as “treatment Y”, originating in the dark and secret labs of the Von Ok line in Okva. The Von Ok’s are allied to the League of Anthracks, and supply the Leagues troops with the main bulk of elite soldiers, chukk and warbeasts, who are direct results of their cruel and twisted experiments. Oggra created there are subjected to the usual mind control techniques and conditioning, before being shipped out to bolster League forces around the globe.
To combat these abominations, the Og Imperialists have used a refined version of the treatment on conscripted oggum adolescents (with varying results) so, it is not uncommon to find these creatures in the employ of the empire too.
Oggra can occur naturally, starting as any normal ogglet, only to swell to big proportions in a short time. These Oggra are rare, which is a good thing really, given the amount of precious resources they take up and consume each day, many settlements may struggle to support such a brute. Sometimes their births are seen as a curse, and are thrown out and left to fend for themselves. These Oggra can turn savage and prove to be problematic to local warlords if they reside near the warlords territory.
While they won’t win any medals for their intelligence, the make up for in battle and intimidation, and are a rare prize to any would be warlord for his retinue.

Keep a look out for more Grinning Skull releases soon, and if you want to get hold of an Oggra for yourself, get on over to our friends at Alternative Armies to order!

 

Related articles

• Oggum Oggra released by Grinning Skull
• Here’s how Batman’s suit will look in ‘Batman V Superman’
• Darth Vader Glow-In-The-Dark T-Shirt Reminds Us How Seductive the Dark Side Is
• Free Worldwide Shipping and Goody Bags until 1st May 2015
• 58007 Burrovian Casualty Packs for Flintloque Released!

Grinning Skull at the movies: Avengers: Age of Ultron

So while I am busy on the PC today, I thought I’d have a rant about the latest Marvel Cinematic Universe‘s latest entry to it’s continuity. Avengers: Age of Ultron.

If you ask if I’m a DC or Marvel comics fan, Marvel wins hands down. That’s why I was quite excited to get to see Avengers: Age of Ultron and see if it was living up to all the hype. Don’t worry, if you aint seen it, I won’t spoil it (much…)

The Avengers was never my first choice with the comics, although Thor, Cap, and Mr Stark’s separate adventures interested me, I always preferred the west coast avengers comic! Still, the way the MCU is going, any number of other characters could pop up for a cameo, so as a marvel fan, it’d be worth the watch.

This time, there was no need for any introductions or origins, straight into the action attacking a Hydra base, all guns blazing. Very impressive. It’s a shame that overall the story felt rushed, but I guess with all the information and characters to fit into it, some of it would suffer as a result.

It’s true the action scenes are second to none and I for one can’t fault it. There’s some mad comic book chaos which is welcomed, so if your a fan of pure comic calamity, its worth seeing just for that.

I’m going to pick out a few pro’s and con’s that niggled me during, without giving any major spoilers away.

Firstly, new characters. We’ll start with the main baddie, Ultron. Ultron had always been a fave of mine, and I think he was portrayed reasonably well. I had thought it would be cool to see him on the screen for decades, and they did not disapoint. James Spader was a good choice to voice the meglomanical menace.

Vision: Again, the vision is a pretty cool character, and as far as the look is concerned, they nailed it, however, his introduction seemed squeezed and more contrived than I’d like. Also nice to see him kicking ass.

The Maximoff Twins: Pretty much hated both the acting and portrayal. Didn’t feel anything like them. A better version of quicksilver exists in the recent X-Men: Days of future past. Their costumes and look were poor. I’m glad this version of quicksilver died (oops, sorry!)

Hawkeye: This time they spent a little more effort fleshing out a role for him, making him a bigger player. Still think he needs the mask to make him feel more “proper”

On a side note, it was good to see a few faces from the other movies, Falcon, Warmachine and other bit players that’ll pop up again in the MCU (Klaw in the new Black Panther movie perhaps?)

On to the Story. it was just OK, I suppose, not great. I guess if your looking for high brow and intellectual then this isn’t it (it’s the comics after all..) I’ve heard lots of people going on about how the plot is getting convoluted now, given all the crossovers and movies, and that it’s getting harder for the casual viewer to follow. I think not, rather the opposite, too basic and bare, Whedon focuses more on the relationships between the characters and not the ins and outs. Could have been better, but I understand the constraints with the whole jigsaw.

I guess, to sum up. It’s an OK movie, but it’s just that. Nothing more. Will I watch the next installents of the MCU? Fuck yeah!, of course! (but then, I would watch any old shite…)

3 Skulls out of 5.

 

Related articles

• Friday’s big release: Avengers: Age of Ultron
• ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’: James Spader builds an idiosyncratic villain
• Avengers: Age of Ultron – a Review
• The Vision is born in new clip from ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’
• See War Machine come to Iron Man’s rescue in Avengers: Age of Ultron