Rogue Pom

I'm melting...

2012-01-24T19:06:00.000+10:30

Note: this is not me - this is a man in Brazil - or Argentina - Google image vault wasn't very clear

Its hot, and its been hot for near on a fortnight and looks like being hot for the next fortnight - with a sprinkle of rain expected Saturday while its still hot, so then I will be hot and muggy. My air con isn't coping well as it is, and it tends to die when its muggy. Have I mentioned its hot. I'm literally sweating right now and all I'm doing is typing this post.

I don't do hot which is ridiculous seeing as I live in the hottest, driest state in the hottest, driest country in the world, but I still don't like the heat.

What my house felt like when I got home tonight

I'm not coping with this heat. My minds frazzled. I'm tired all the time. Painting in my stuffy painting room with inadequate air condtioning and hot wind blowing through the window does not appeal to me.

As such, the blog will be in some form of reverse hibernation - I don't know what that really is, whatever it is that animals do when they sleep for a long time in the summer - until its no longer hot.

I will try to do some painting later at night over the weekend - my work schedule kind of doesn't allow that easily during the week without me being more tired and grumpier than normal the next day. If I make much progress on my current batch of Orks and Grotz I might get another post in.

Happy hobby all and hoping its nice and cold where ever you may be, and not this incessant heat.

This one could be me in a few days - only my eyes are brown

Cheers,

Pom

In a break from the regulalry scheduled show....Poms first Finecast...

2012-01-13T07:00:00.000+10:30

While nattering at the lads in the City store on my lunch break yesterday the 'Whats New' stand caught my eye and I broke my no new mini's at Australian retail prices ban.

Very cool but bloody expensive - this is reserved for treats only

Marshall Helbrecht of the Black Templars had been released in Finecast. I've loved the mini for a while now and have been getting sniped far too often trying to get the old metal version on eBay. When I saw it had been released and I could see no discernible flaw through the packaging I figured I might treat myself and pick it up - I've been getting on well with the Orks so figured I could have something as a bit of a reward.

I'd seen some real horror storied about this Finecast experiment and would have tried my hardest not to pick up any of these types of minis, but nearly everything these days is being made in it so its going to be pretty hard to stay away from.

The other issue I have with it is that my preferred choice of retailer - the Internet kind - is kind of not an option for Finecast in my opinion - a) due to the Australian embargo, b) you can't see what you're getting before you get it and I don't fancy sending things back through third parties - seems like a bit of hassle.

Nothing suspect looking through the packaging

$33 (ouch - the metal was $28 from memory and that was steep in this humble bloggers opinion), some Black Primer ($26 ouch again - I was sure that used to be $22 - need to find an alternative - particularly given what follows) and a pot of Liquid Green Stuff (LGS) later I had the mini at home and ready for assembly.

Looks good - all the pieces are there at least

Out of the packet it looks pretty good. There are some very minor blemishes on the underside of some of the parts - not sure if that's the way the mini sits in the mold so that's where it fails to get too fully, but it was so minor I wasn't put off by it (ie, didn't feel the need to take it back - I had had such blemishes in metal minis before) and it gave me a chance to have a crack at using the LGS.

Some odd bits of flash but not really much worse than the old bits of metal hanging off a mini

Unfortunately this is where pictures cease for the time being as my camera went Kaput and the local Tech Priest (AKA the missus) is out of town for a week.

After cleaning up the mold lines and such, and giving it a quick wash, I opened the LGS and got stuck in. The LGS worked like its supposed too. Its quite thick in the pot but I'm not sure if this is normal or a result of the heat. I thinned it with water to a paint like consistency and layered it on - letting layers dry before reapplying. This filled the minor issues not a problem.

I then built and based the mini and took it outside to prime. Now this is where the fun starts. The first prime went off without a hitch, nice and smooth but there were some spots I missed on the underside of the mini. After letting the first coat dry fully, I hit it from the underneath with a second spray. Same (new) can, same ambient conditions, same shaking of the can, but this time the primer powdered on contact with the mini and then crackled as it dried leaving me with a smooth coat from the top down, but a crackled, powdery coating from the underneath.

Not really sure what that's all about as its never happened before - is it a bad can, or has something changed between first and second applications?. I have just given it a light wash with thinned down Chaos Black from a pot to see if that can smooth out the finish but if not - it might mean a stripping and re-prime (with another can). Anyone have any ideas how you strip Finecast - will Simple Green melt the resin?

So final thoughts on Finecast - expensive, and no real benefit in my mind. I don't see the 'crispness' they had Jervis banging on about - it looks pretty much the same as any other metal mini I have picked up over the years. Its about as 'crisp' as a FW mini - comparing it to my Hector Rex, there wasn't a huge difference in level of detail achieved. My stuff from Studio McVey is 'crisper'.

It has its flaws, but so did metal. Although this had minor flaws, some of the other stock I looked through had some real issues - the Dark Eldar Ur-Ghul with no shoulder, the Necron Overlord missing parts of its leg and tabbard.

Its light as buggery, I miss the heft of metal. Did I mention its expensive too (yep, I'm cheap and fondly remember entering the hobby with $12 character miniatures - now they're all $28+).

I don't know what to think really. I think at the end of the day I will try and away from Finecast where I can - eBay still has plenty of old metals available and I know how they react to stripping agents. The problem is future releases. With any luck GW get on top of QC before I feel the need to enter the Finecast market again.

Anyway, that's all for now - need to get back to the Orks, and then see how this primer is looking. Maybe a bit of Google research is in order to see if anyone else has tried stripping these yet.

Happy hobby all,

Pom

Update on the WIP Orks...

2012-01-11T18:56:00.005+10:30

I headed back to work this week so progress has been slow - work itself went straight back to being full on so no easy slide back into it, and then the dreaded man lurgy has reared its head meaning I'm pretty flat by the time I get home.

That aside, last night I was able to play around with some of the metallics and lay down some more base colours - notably the browns for the leather and the green for the skin.

Getting there slowly

Nothing too flash going on here, the browns are a mix of Scorched Brown and Snake Bite Leather followed by a liberal wash of Devlan Mud.

Not sure what colour to do that Squig - maybe a purpley-red??

And the green is simply foundation Orkhide Shade. Its a tad shiny in the pictures as I added some Reaper Drying Retarder to give the paint some life as I used it off the palette - although its been wet the last few nights, during the day it's been warming up and my painting room cops a lot of sun so the paint drying fast is proving a bit of an issue. The Retarder slows down the drying time but has some slightly satiny properties which until it fully dries out gives the model a sheen.

Still loving this guy

On the Nob I have added some checks to the top portion of the axe. It needed something to help break up all the red and metallics that I had going on. Normally the skin would do that for me but given this guy is packing a helmet and shoulder guards I was a little stuck on what else to do to add some variety. The haft of the axe should also add another spot colour to further break up the red - we'll have to wait and see I guess.

After work the missus took me down to the local to pick up my store order of Inquisitive and Thieving Grotz - although I think Snotling might have been a better term as these guys are runty in the extreme - but still very characterful.

I added a spare plastic Nob head as the metal ones were a bit pants

Bang!!!

These guys are a matching set - one has the helmet full of Teeth!!, and the other is naffing another

Squabbling over 'Shrooms

I added the bit from the Giant frame - fit perfectly with the little bugger walking off with his haul

Probably my favourite - squeezing one out while no ones watching

The pictures aren't doing much for them given their bare metal. I played around in Picasa a bit with the settings to try and show some of the detail. They are now based properly and partly primed. The heat wave last week seems to have sucked the life out of my spray (that or I had not a lot left after the last effort).

Either way, I am heading into the store again on Thursday for a chit chat so will pick some more up and get on with adding these guys to the queue. I'm likely to keep the Grot theme going for now as I'm enjoying throwing the paint on them.

And that's it for tonight - might as well have a crack at painting some more seeing as I have a bit of time before the missus gets in and teas all ready to go in the oven.

As always, happy hobby all,

Pom

Next batch - more WIP Orks...

2012-01-08T07:30:00.000+10:30

New WIP

Following on from my last post, I picked out to paint the rest of the Grotz I have on hand, the Runt Herd and probably my favourite Nob.

As a brief aside, the Nob box kit has got some awesome bits in it and gave me lots of great parts to build some really unique Nobs to flesh out my existing Black Reach collection - I even used some of the parts to customise the Black Reach Nobs somewhat but I will leave that to a future post to show off a bit more.

Nobs are awesome - this guys my favourite - a real 'I'll smack you in the face' look to him

Anyway, these guys are early WIP. I did the bases and metallics last night as these are always the messiest for me as I go at them roughly with a couple of beat up dry brushes.

I know I talked about my basing method last post but I actually forgot to record the recipe so I took a stab at it last night and am pretty happy with the result although it is slightly off from the last batch.

I have taken a picture of the colours used and their order for posterity purposes.

See - posterity

As for the metallics, they are simply Vallejo Game Colour Tinny Tin over the black base coat, followed by a heavy drybrush of Boltgun Metal and then a lighter drybrush of Chainmail. I'm not aiming for neatness or uniformity in application here - getting colours down is the important part.

I then bind it all together with a heavy wash of Devlan Mud - awesome product that - Arcadia Prime recently posted a cheeky blog musing on the potential profits to be had if it was sold by the gallon.

Following the wash I go in and add my armour colour - in this case red. I start with a mix of Scorched Brown and Mechrite Red which I splotch on haphazardly but covering most of the armour. I then layer on (again splotching) the same mix but with a bit of Blood Red, and then straight Blood Red - these last two I concentrate towards the centre of the original splotches - giving the suggestion that the armour is old and worn, with the paint faded/scratched out and flaking.

Finally, I apply a light Devlan Mud Wash to the painted sections to dull it down a bit and then selectively reapply the Blood Red.

Grotz and their Herder - the guy with the forage cap, and the Ammo Runt are cool

These Grotz are a bit more samey - that is, they all have similar poses to each other, or ones from the last batch but they still have unique characters. I'm thinking of adding a white star to the forage cap guy - maybe he has a bit of a revolutionary bent?

Any who, must keep cracking while the painting mojo is flowing.

Happy hobby all,

Pom

Finished Ork boyz and basing...

2012-01-06T15:00:00.000+10:30

I knocked out my four Boyz i had been working on this afternoon. All I really had left to do was tidy of the boots and add static grass to the bases.

The lads ready for their photo shoot.

I base my miniatures a lot like most other gamers, and the way I was taught at GW after I came back to the hobby after my first hiatus. When I first kicked off in the hobby, basing extended only to painting the bare plastic base in Dark Angels green and calling it a day. The base tops were slightly textured so what else was needed - these were the days when spray primer was not allowed in our house and everything was hand primed (badly) in Skull White.

When I got back into the hobby, I was a) older and wiser and had been collecting White Dwarf for a while so had a good back catalogue of hobby advice at hand, and more importantly, b) had a job and lived out of home so spray primer was in.

My collection now is all based by gluing the miniature down and using PVA/Wood Glue/White Adhesive/ Aquadere/??? to glue into place a mix of ballast - I use various grades of sand, crushed slate and broken plaster. I know there are proponents out there of gluing bits of plasticard under a miniatures feet to raise them out of the ground, but I figure a Marine or an Ork must weigh a fair bit, and are likely to have sunk slightly into the ground anyway.

As I mentioned in my last post, I paint my bases prior to painting the model itself so by the time I am done painting the miniature, nothing else needs doing but adding the static grass.

Ready for grass

There is no real method to my grass application - I basically lay down a bit of PVA glue where I want to have the grass - generally around feet is good as it hides any blemishes in that region or spots I inadvertently missed. The only time I have ever taken real care at this point was with my Warriors of Chaos as they all had to rank up and I wanted the grass/snow to match up across the movement tray.

My weapon of choice

I use GW brand static grass which I have mixed from their Glade Grass and Scorched Grass, although I also have some Dead Grass which I use occasionally. The mini is basically dunked in the tub of grass and I use the tweezers to place additional grass onto the model and tamp it down a little bit.

Been swimming in a pool of static grass

I flip the mini upside down and use the tweezers to tap the base. Then I gently blow on the mini from underneath. I was taught this little trick by an ex-GW staffer. What it does is help the static grass stand on end in the glue.

Ready for WAAAAGH!! - pending drying time

And that's it - the last two posts have been a bit outside the norm as they were mainly done in response to comments I had from fellow bloggers Musings of a Smurf and Col. Schofer about how I do different things.

These posts however have been good for me in that I now have a documented process on how I have done something which is something I never do. Now if I don't touch my Orks for a bit, I can always come back to them and get colours to match etc. Win all round in my book.

The finished lads and their Boss.

So whats next? I have plenty more Orks to do and have just ordered some more Grotz - the aptly named 'Thieving Grotz' and 'Inquisitive Grotz' bitz packs. I might bust out another Nob and the rest of the Grotz mob and Runt Herd to play with over the next couple of weeks.

In addition, I also picked up the FW book Tamurkhan - Throne of Chaos while I was in the local GW today. The book looks lovely, the quality is first rate. The cover is a faux leather type material, the paper is high quality/grade, and there is a nice ribbon place holder built into the spine. I might spend the next couple of nights reading through that - maybe it might inspire me to go back and paint some more of my Warhammer Fantasy stuff.

Also, a group of guys from the local GW Veterans night are getting together to do a monthly painting group where a mini is nominated and everyone paints it up over the month and then we get together and pass on how we did it. Sounds like good fun and there are a couple of Australian Golden Demon winners involved so hopefully I can pick up some good tips and tricks.

And that's it for today.

As always, happy hobby all.

Pom

How I paint an Ork Boyz skin...

2012-01-04T14:17:00.002+10:30

This is how I go about painting the skin on my Orks for the most part - the steps change for the Grotz and some of the bigger guys.

This is the colour range I use

I tend to do my skin tones last on Orks although there will always be other little things that need tidying after as I have a slightly shaky hand.

After sorting out all the other bits (metallics, pants, armour etc), over a black base coat I painted the Orkhide Shade foundation and then washed with Thraka Green.

The base coat and first wash

After letting the wash fully dry I layered on a mix of Dark Angels Green and Snot Green. This is at roughly 50:50 mix, with a bit of water and Reaper Drying Retarder added to thin it and keep it workable. We've had a bit of a heat wave the last couple of days (above 40 degrees Celsius) so keeping the paint fluid and workable is a must - particularly where I keep the last colour mixed and add to it for future layers.

The first layer - Dark Angels Green and Snot Green

To the last mix, I added a bit of Goblin Green. All I'm looking to do is change the colour gradually. Making sure the mix is still nice and wet/thin, I layer this over the previous layer, keeping the older layers visible in graduations in the recesses. Ron over at FtW did a nice article about layering with thin layers. By having nice thin layers, I was able to get cool transitions and not quite even layers. Skin is not uniform in colour so having slightly darker patches and lighter patches isn't a bad thing, unless the transition is way off.

The second layer - add some Goblin Green

For the next stage I added a touch of Bleached Bone to the last mix and did some streaks down the main muscles, and picked out raised nobs and edges on the face. I like the streaky look I get on the muscles as it suggests corded muscles, and the face is so characterful its easy to pick out parts (nose, bottom lip, eye brows, ears etc) to highlight. When I was finishing this up last night I realised that it looks a lot like a Watermelons skin with the streaks and patches.

At this stage I realised my final graduation had gone too far so washed it back with a thinned Thraka Green wash (sorry no picture of the before wash mini).

After a highlight and then wash back

The wash toned down all the previous layers. I now remixed the last highlight mix, getting a better mix which I again used to streak the muscles and highlight the key facial features.


Skin all finished with highlights and streaks made from previous mix and Bleached Bone

And that's basically it. This guy is ready (along with the other 3 I was working on to have the final bits done and then bases finished with some grass. Ron the other day posted about how he paints his bases last and I see a lot of other Bloggers do that too. My personal preference is to apply the basing material after I have built the miniature, prime all at the same time and then paint the bases first as it is generally rough and ready and dirty. The only thing I leave to last is the static grass but I'll talk about that in my next post.

All my Orks so far have been done like this, although the Grotz got a variation on the final highlight mix. They were highlighted after the first layer (Dark Angels and Snot Green) with some Bleached Bone added to that mix. The Orks get the additional layer with the Goblin Green mixed in before the Bone is added. Some of the character models have an extreme highlight applied as well plus a final wash to pull it back a bit - just depends on how I see it looking at the time.

And thats it. I hould get this lot done tonight with luck and have a nother post ready to go in the next day or so.

Happy hobby all.

Cheers,

Pom

More Grotz (Gretchin)...

2011-12-28T01:23:00.001+10:30

Group shot - the 5 Amigos

While waiting for tea to finish cooking today, I got in a bit more work on my Ork models from last post and finished up the Grotz.

I had the first lad done from last post, and knocked out the last four - they only really needed their skin finishing and a few bits and bobs tidied off.

You've seen this one before

The Gun Slinger

The one with the face wrap is my favourite by far

This one screams craziness

They come 10 to a box plus a Runt Herd so I have a few more to get on with, but before I get on to them I have the four Boyz to finish off.

A family snapshot with the Big Boss.

Popped down to the local just before Christmas and was talking to a couple of the lads - apparently I'm not the only one who's been in a funk recently but we all agreed we needed to bounce back and Cal uttered those most encouraging of words - 'an hour here, a half hour there' - that's all that's needed to progress things - no need for marathon painting sessions.

I've got another week and a bit on holiday so if I work in a couple of short painting sessions a day, or every other day, I should get the Boyz out and be able to start on the next couple of Grotz and maybe the Runt Herd.

And that's all she wrote tonight (or this morning - it seems to be 1.30am - where did my night go?).

Cheers all,

Pom

Merry Xmas bloggers...

2011-12-25T21:25:00.003+10:30

Image taken from the Google image vaults - creator unknown

I wish everyone who stops by my little corner of the interwebz a very merry Christmas, or whichever other holiday festivity you may partake at this time of year (even if its only a break from work/study), and a safe and happy 2012.

Cheers all,

Pom

WIP Orks and Hobby Cribs...

2011-12-06T20:46:00.001+10:30

In my two months absence I managed to knock out the grand total of one Grot.

Shifty little bugger

I had planned on finishing of this lot back in September, but various things got in the way and I only managed to snatch 30 minutes here, and an hour there to actually work on them.

My WIP Ork Boyz and Grotz - 3 more of the Grotz are just waiting on the final applicatio of skin highlights

I actually only finished this guy up tonight after resolving to sit at my desk and get someting done.


The grand total of nearly 3 months effort - need to lift my game

I'm still enjoying painting these guys and hope to get stucj into another couple tomorrow night. I took note of Ron's layering article and tried thinning my paint sufficiently to build up layers in a positive way reather than my usual method of sharp, noticeable jumps in hue. It worked to a point but I think I will stick with my usual way as I like the streaky effect I end up with in the musculature.

So finally I leave you with a shot of my workspace as it stands tonight.


My jammed paint station - now with proper light!

I picked up a couple of adjustable arm lamps from Ikea and put in some daylight bulbs so now I have proper light to paint by - much better than squinting with the old yellow tint bulbs I had in my last lamp.

My little brother is a carpenter by trade and is knocking me together a rack to stand at the back to store my paints, powders and other odds and sods which will then give me more free space so I am not painting on the cramped front setion only.

Aside from my Orks I have a couple of WIP terrain pieces which must have sat there for over a year as well as some Dreadnaught weapon arms I was messing about with and some Marine pieces which I need to base coat with the air brush.

And thats it for tonight - hopefully another post will go up in a couple of days to show the next couple of finished models.

Happy hobby all,

Pom

Ork WIP...

2011-09-19T19:51:00.000+09:30

I finished off the Nob on the weekend (the one at the front with Power Klaw and Pistol) - he came up well and fits in with the rest (although looking at the pic none of the base are the same shade). I went back over the other lads and added the 'worn' red armour which was achieved by dabbing - that's the technical term - a Mechrite Red/Scorched Brown mix over most of the armour, and then successively smaller layers of Mechrite Red and then Blood Red to achieve a worn from the inside out look - with the bare edges etc staying dirty metal (ie Boltgun over Tin Bitz with a Devlan wash) or alternatively a Chain Mail edge highlight. Simple but effective and quick to do and it unifies the whole mob.

And these are my current WIP - the 4 Black Reach Boyz, and a couple of Gretchin. They are getting exactly the same treatment. The next step is to tidy of the metallics and then move onto skin and details (clothing, teeth etc).

Lots of fun and a nice mixed pallette of colours. I only have a small collection of Orks so if I can knock a couple of these guys out in a week I should get the whole lot done in a little bit. The biggest models are the Black Reach Death Kopters which I am leaving until last.

And that's it - quick and easy like.

Happy hobby all.

Cheers,

Pom

Orks, Orks, Orks, Orks...

2011-09-14T18:16:00.001+09:30

So after all my enthusiasm the other day about Space Marines, I sat at my painting desk and started painting Orks - WAAAAGH!!!!

I pulled down five Gretchin, 4 Black Reach Orks and a Nob. I think all the yelling of WAAAGH!! in the game, and the fact I've had Snikrot (last seen here) sat next to my computer for the last couple of months has subconciously seeped into my mind.

Currently all but the Nob at are base and wash stages with the Nob a bit further along, just needing some detail work to finish.

Sorry, but no WIP pics at the mo as the camera has called kaput! and we're having difficulty locating the missus'.

What I will leave you with though is an interesting little tid bit from some old skool fluff, Codex Imperialis page 51 for those of you playing along at home.

"Probably not even the Orks know where squigs come from, but they are vital to Orks in many ways...The smaller squigs have many specialist uses, but one of the strangest is the Hair Squig, a parasitic creature with tiny jaws and flowing hair-like gills. Orks fasten Hair Squigs to their skin, having no hair of their own, to create colourful beards, scalp locks and so forth."

Huh - who knew?

Borrowed without permssion from the Google image vaults - artist unknown

Until next time folks.

Cheers,

Pom

Old is new again - Whats in a bitz box...

2011-09-09T22:32:00.003+09:30

Colonel Shofer deserves the kudos for pulling me out of my blogging funk. It was a random comment he made on my last post that got me realising its been 2 months between drinks. That's a bit sad, and enough of a kicker for me to dust of the camera, charge some batteries, take some poor quality photos of some minis and get back on the blogging horse - so cheers Colonel.

Early WIP Warhound Titan Tech Priest

Painting wise I've been dragging my heels, puttering along on a couple of different things but not really getting far on anything. My mojo for the hobby is still simmering at low heat, although I have had a couple of games with my non gamer buddy Jay, and I have been thinking up more ideas than are healthy for my wallet as i read different blogs, novels and old codices.

I have however been hotly anticipating the new Space Marine game for the Xbox and I haven't been let down after picking it up yesterday and having a couple of hours to play it tonight after work - its a stomping good game - Thunder Hammer and Melta Gun all the way baby!!!!

It is everything I have imagined a 40K console game should be - the game designers deserve serious kudos for remaining true (within 90% - they deserve some creative license) to the fluff and the universe that has been crafted over the last 25 odd years. Walking through Manufactorum, and Inquisition Laboratories, with cries of WAAAAGH!!! presaging the arrival of the next round of foes, the meaty thunk of the Boltgun, mass reactive rounds exploding heads. Totally impressed with it.

So whats this post about then - a game review - nope. Its about my miniatures of course. With all the excitement that's been building about the game, I went on a bit of an eBay Space Marine binge over the last month or so and picked up a load of bits and pieces, single minis, half army cast offs, random sets etc - me being a stingy bugger, the majority of it was dirt cheap so that was excuse enough to buy it.

Old is new again - some OOP character models with a mix of bitz added on

I've always thought I was close to having everything I could have wanted in my Marine army, and then I started to trawl through eBay one afternoon on the bus trip home and started seeing some cool OOP Marine minis. In the space of two weeks I must have purchased over a dozen different pieces which are slowly winging there way to me from around the globe - I've half joked to the missus that its my aim to get a postage stamp/customs form from every country in the world - and this past fortnight I've put a fair dent in the list - plus we've gotten to know the local area parcel delivery girl well - even the dog's stopped barking at her car.

The picture above is some OOP Chaplain, Librarian and Techmarine models, which after a rummage through my bitz box, I was able to finish off ready to join the ranks of the Silent Guard (my home brew Marine Chapter).

And that's the meat of my post right there - my bitz box. I've had it since I started in the hobby 15 odd years ago. It used to be a tin I would put my spare bitz into because that's what the guys that worked at my local GW told me to do - but I never really thought about what I would do with all those pieces I collected - there never seemed to be much point to them. Now I have nearly a dozen labelled tubs courtesy of the missus full of assorted bits from a range of different kits.

These past few weeks have really proven the bitz boxes worth. For example the Chaplain in the picture above has extra pieces from three other kits on him - the Plasma Pistol and arm are from the Chaos Marine Squad (more on them in a future post) box set. I used that as the pistol is a bit more archaic and characterful, while the arm is enclosed in a glove matching the one on the right hand holding the Crozius. The shoulder pad is from the Space Marine Command Squad Champion, the back pack decoration is from the Dark Angel Veteran upgrade sprue, and he has a little decoration hanging of his belt on the back from the Empire Flagellant kit.

A bitz box amalgam Veteran

The guy above is perhaps my favourite build out of my recent lot. Rummaging through my box I found I had enough parts from prior builds and as a result of the eBay binge to be able to cobble together a couple of extra Tactical Marines (giving me 6 fully equipped squads now), as well as some Veterans to pad out a Vanguard Squad (sans jump packs). This guy has parts from the Tactical Squad box, Iron Hands bitz pack, the old Space Wolves upgrade frame, a Forge World Mark IV chest plate, Chaos Marine head, and the old metal Devastator Sergeant pointing arm, with the hand replaced with a Plasma Pistol.

A bitz box Terminator

The same goes for this Terminator. I had previously built a squad of Assault Terminators in a 2/3 Thunder Hammer/Lightning Claw combo. After looking at them multiple times I realised I wish I had built a third Thunder Hammer. The kit comes with plenty of extra bits, and after diving into my bitz box and coming out with some Chaos Terminator, Death Wing and Black Reach pieces, I was able to cobble together the Terminator above with only minimal cutting, repositioning and shaving of parts.

I had previously undervalued my bitz box, but this past month has really shown me how invaluable it is to keep all this spare bits and pieces you get on your sprue. You never know when you might need a certain piece, or want to add that little extra to one of your minis - or even share your bits with your mates to help them with a build. I know I've given parts to mates, and had parts given to me, over the years to save having to buy whole kits just for one bit.

And that's enough rambling tonight. I encourage anyone reading to go look at your own bitz box and see what treasures it holds - you never know what inspiration might strike and where that might take you.

Hopefully I'll get back to some sort of regular posting schedule in the next week or so - ideally I would like to post twice a week but if other things take over so be it - with luck though the Internet shouldn't need to wait anther two months to be graced with my presence.

Happy hobby all.

Cheers,

Pom

Blogging on hold...

2011-07-02T16:02:00.003+09:30

I'm going to put the old blog on hold for a couple of months or so while I work through some things in the real world.

I am staying in the hobby in as much as I am still collecting and painting so if the mood takes me there might be an odd post or two to show off some bits and pieces - namely the Warhound Titan as I finish it up.

I will also continue to lurk quietly in the back of my favourite blogs.

Happy hobby all.

Pom

Warhound Titan armour...

2011-06-19T20:22:00.012+09:30

Sitting around watching the dog chase rabbits in his sleep is funny and all, but I figured there were better ways to spend my time so with my cup of tea ready I've settled down to write this blog post.

I've been working on the loose pieces of Warhound Titan armour in between episodes of Doctor Who. The missus, who is as far from a sci-fi lover you can get, actually started watching the new season and harangued me into getting the earlier seasons - we've been watching them together all week which is massively odd but I'll take whatever 'quality' time she wants to spend with us whenever I can hey.

Apologies for the crummy pics - needed to use the flash as it's night and I have crappy indoor lighting - its washed out a bit of the blue - its a couple of shades darker than shown here.

Its only the four panels shown that I have been working on - the main body armour remains untouched for now. I finally settled on a couple of metallic mixes I like so barring a final wash around the rivets, and a light wash over the Eagles, that's pretty much done. I was considering taking the Eagles on all the armour plates up to a pure gold but think that would clash too much with the rest of the metallics.

The blue is at the first base coat - Necron Abyss foundation which is the darkest I could get in the GW range without mixing with black. I am planning a 50/50 Necron/Regal Blue mid layer and then a light Regal final highlight/layer. The helm armour already has that bit done as well as the first layers of the yellow.

I'm in two minds over the yellow. I've been thinking of carrying that over to the shoulder armour but Adz has pointed out that it might make it look a bit 'Harlequin' which I don't want. Maybe some banding or something on the larger plates - too much blue might be a bit much as well - not a lot of experience with the bigger kits so any comments/suggestions are welcome.

I've also been working on the metallics for pistons and such on the legs. Boltgun base and washed with Badab/Chaos black so far. Looks half decent as is and I'm tempted to leave it be in case re-highlighting makes it look rubbish which I am wont to do when I try to be too clever. I might crack on with the integral armour panels on the leg and see how they look as a whole before revisiting that bit.

And that's that for this weekend. Looks like the little dog caught his rabbit - he's watching me through the window with the sad puppy eyes he gives me when he wants to be played with - guess I better go find his ball then.

Cheers all,

Pom

More Warhound Titan Action...

2011-06-07T20:10:00.008+09:30

Over the weekend, rather than working on my Badab stuff, I actually painted the interior of the Warhound Titan and glued it together. In hindsight, I should have taken pictures of the two halves separately as I can't get a decent shot of it now its stuck as one piece - lessons learned hey.

Its a pretty basic job, lots of drybrushed metal with a few washes and the details picked out but still highly effective. One thing I am kicking myself about is I have missed one whole devotional shrine section in the middle chamber - its the shrine to the Machine God which has a little cog symbol and some Aquila's, candles etc. I picked out all the prayer ribbons but not the actual shrine and now its too hard to get too - Damn. I think I missed it as I was leaving it to last anyway before gluing given the difficulty it posed in reaching - it should really have been painted while it was a separate piece before putting the interior together - another lesson learned.

I was faffing about last night having a bit of a clean up and decided to get some of the messy work out of the way namely the base.

While waiting for paint to dry I also took a stab at the crewmen for the cockpit. There was enough drying time between each piece I was working on that I managed to finish of the biggest part of the base (just a few spot details and the 2 Servo Skulls to go) and the crewmen finished.

I deliberately have kept it nice and simple as I knew if I tried adding too many colours and picking out every last wire I would have cluttered the space and it would be a mess. Simple is better in my view.

Looking through some pictures on the web, I realise now that two of the smaller resin parts which I have not used as I couldn't figure out where they go are actually intended for the sides of the cockpit wall next to the Princeps - again lessons learned - research early on can help to avoid these mistakes.

As the earlier picture shows I also started on the external carapace by having a crack at the head armour. This is early days yet - just the first layer of Regal Blue (its the darkest blue I have - need to go peruse the colour range and see if there are better options as I don't want later layers being too light) with the metal drybrushed layers of tine bits, dwarf bronze and shining gold with a smidge of chain mail mixed in and various washes (Devlan, Ogryn and Gryphonne) as a bit of an experiment.

I had considered painting each metal layer on free hand rather than drybrush but realistically there is a lot of metal banding on the mini and the drybrush/wash effect is coming up alright for now. I might try a simple freehand edge highlight with my last layer to see if that helps tie it all together. This piece is as much a practice piece as anything as I am still not 100% on the final colours - I want a nice deep dark blue which the Regal isn't really giving. Need to ponder this one before I tackle larger pieces.

For a couple hours work I am happy enough with what I have achieved and it is keeping me motivated to crack on with it - hopefully I can turn this around quicker than the Baneblade (6 months).

As always, comments and suggestions appreciated.

Cheers all,

Pom

This ones for Adz...

2011-06-01T18:41:00.008+09:30

1st June - where did the year go. My mate Adz has just pointed out I haven't blogged in a while. I've been lurking on blogs in my roll, commenting on the occasional post, but my own blog has languished.

Causes - a mix of apathy and loss of appetite for the hobby following GW's recent decisions and product offerings; and preferring to spend my free time with my family and the dog (he ate his kennel - such a stupid dog).

It's mainly the GW issues though. My personal view is they have royally shafted us here in Oz (and the rest of the non-European world) and the Finecast thing is a bit of a fizzer.

I openly admit I am a user of both Maelstrom and Waylands. My disposable income needs to be spread across a number of interests and I like to maximise my spending dollar - I'm not silly enough to knowingly pay twice what I need to for the same item.

That said, I like to support my local GW as I don't want to see it close - where else can I go and hang out and talk to my hobby peeps. I buy the odd kit full price (Oz Retail) , particularly when I want something now rather than in 2 weeks, and buy all my paints and hobby supplies locally, but the bulk of army purchases are from old blighty - Maelstrom built me my Empire army and Waylands my Guard.

Now though, following the inital announcement and the official response to fan outrage (of which I took part - venting my inner nerd on the internet is preferable to listening to it in stereo according to the missus) I'm on the boycott band wagon. GW chose to restrict my choice of purchase point - and then raised prices locally following the Finecast launch - not a company I wish to support.

My missus pointed out that I have a sufficient pile of minis to see me through the next decade without needing to buy more. I did make use of Waylands free shipping offer to pick up the last little pieces I've always wanted but never bought before the cut off and now that's it - No more GW purchases for me unless it comes from eBay, FW (unless they suddenly go all region based pricing structure on me) or Waylands really figure out how to get around the embargo.

Now onto some actual hobby content. Since my last post I have based and primed my Warhound Titan and busted out the airbrush to lay down the base metal colours - Boltgun and Tin Bitz. The pictures are pretty average. Being the tight arse that I am I have yet to replace my camera but tax time is coming up soon and I should be in a refund position so maybe a replacement isn't that far off.

I have used cork sheeting on the base to add some height and a step which you can just about make out if you close one eye and squint at the pictures.

My airbrush skills are non existant - I aim and spray and wave the gun around some until the desired area is covered

I really should crack on and finish of the interior so I can join the two halves together. There's not been much action since these pictures were taken but that was always going to be the case. My Baneblade took me six months of on and off work to finish.

On the Badab front, I have built, primed and base coated a command squad and then painted the weapon casings, pads and helmets, as well as the weapons on my first Tactical Squad. I've also applied a verdigris to each unit.

I was stuck on what colour to paint the eye lenses and tested yellow, red and green. I've settled on green as on my Veterans they will be having red helmets and the yellow lenses look pants and the red ones don't show up - I didn't want a mix and match.

I may have been a bit liberal with the verdigris

I've finished up one Tactical Marine - one. The rest languish on my paint table although I have every intention of finishing them by Friday. I have Friday off to take the dog to be de-sexed (poor little bugger), and once that is done and I have tidied off some external storm water issues I have the day for painting.

That's enough rambling for today. Hopefully I can get my hobby mojo going again and get some movement towards finishing some of this army off and posting more regularly again.

My non-gamer mate Jay is keen for another game soon - he wants an apocalypse battle to test the Titan in - so that should be good as games with Jay are always a laugh.

Happy hobby all.

Cheers,

Pom

Finished - no not really...

2011-04-29T22:22:00.008+09:30

A test fit of all the final parts

While the missus is out and about, and nothing but Royal wedding is on the tele, I decided to crack on with the Warhound Titan build and got it to the point where I need to paint things before I can glue further.

You can see from the feet which face foward how I have twisted the body to the right slightly, swaying off the left foot which is lifting

The main body assembly is complete in two parts which the dry fits I have done show everything lines up as it should. I have also attached all the exterior decoration I plan on adding using the resin accessory bits provided in the kit.

Broken down into the major component parts

Splitting it down the middle like this allows me to get into both the rear engine bay and central stations for painting, and gives me a simple facing to pin and join the two halves together ( i have already pre-drilled all the pinning points. The rear engine sections come in 3 chunky parts, but with awkward contact areas which made pinning a challenge. In the end I managed to get 3 pins into each bit from varying sides and angles (one into each bit through the main engine bay which has left a nub of rod I couldn't cut flush - but it blends with the engineer stuff so hopefully painted it wont be obvious) so hopefully it all holds - it seems solid as a rock but I will still be careful about who touches it and where it goes.

You can just see the movement I managed in the left foot - lifting slightly off the ground ready for the next step - not too flashy but it doesn't unbalance the final model either

I was really worrried about the final balance of the model but the weighting has leveled off with the twst I put into the pose. I do wish that I had twisted the feet outwards though, and that I had gotten the weapon arms pointed downwards more than I managed - that was a result of the glue taking a while to form a firm bond and having to find a pose to hold it in while I waited for that to happen - judging by eye how it lined up with the body, and how that would eventually sit with the rear part of the model - hard to do before it is built and you only have two hands to try to hold multiple pieces together while you dry fit.

I have kept the cockpit pieces, an inner bulk head door, the shin plates, head and top carapaces and the cables loose for now and will paint them prior to putting them onto the final model.

Everything ready for attachment to a base and then priming

I will be building a base for it tomorrow hopefully and will probably pin it to that before priming (picked up a new can of spray last night) and then I can hopefully start the job of painting it. I need to work this in around my Badab stuff so figure if I get a Tactical Squad done first, then I can paint the interior detail and glue the body together, do another Tactical squad and then some more Titan and so on and so forth until everything is done.

Going on previous history of working on bigger projects like this and the Badab stuff, this won't work like I planned and I will either concentrate on one project over another, or jump onto something different. When I started painting my Baneblade, it took me nearly 6 months of stop start effort.

Happy hobby all, and best of luck to the newly weds.

Cheers,

Pom

We have legs...

2011-04-25T20:15:00.008+09:30

Happy Easter everyone - hope you're all having a lovely long weekend. I managed some time of work to go with our public holidays so managed a 6 day weekend - hooray. Today is day 5 and the first day I have had to do any hobby - lots of house work has been done and the family caught up with - it's not like I've been lazing around playing Mario Kart (much).

As the title aptly describes, I now have a pair of Warhound Titan legs - currently drying on my work bench rather than the kitchen table, or the back lounge room - part of that cleaning effort I mentioned before - the missus gets her way sometimes too it seems.

The bits laid out in the sun drying after another clean - bathed in Simple Green, then warm soapy water, then two baths in clean warm water with lots of scrubbing after each bath.

Following another extensive cleaning effort to remove some last stubborn mold release gunk, I got down to some actual building today.

The rear leg is lifted slightly as if taking the next step forward - that's why it is resting on that card. The whole thing will receive multiple pins to link it to the base when I get around to that stage.

I have been busy pinning and mixing two part resin epoxy glues most of the afternoon. I've pinned rods through the lower leg assembly through the feet, and again through the pelvis ball joins and hips. I have used a two part epoxy for the major joins as it is designed to offer a superior grip to normal glues. I have stuck with super glue for the pistons - they were lots of fun to fit. Lots of dry fitting, trimming a little bit more, then another dry fit - just to ensure that everything lined up, wasn't twisted and fit snuggly. I guess though when you're spending this much money on a model it pays to take the extra time to do it right.

This is about as much as I can currently do without rushing and cocking something up. Looking back at the pictures, I wish I had twisted the feet outward somewhat - it was hard to get a sense of how it was going together up until I started dry fitting the pelvic assembly - I was trying to ensure everything lined up flush and at the correct angle rather than have something too dynamic - if I ever have the nerve to build another (or maybe a Reaver Titan) then I will definitely apply the lessons learned here to improve the final pose.

Tomorrow I hope to get the final pistons on the hips, and get a start on the upper carapace. Although looking through the bits, this won't be attached to the body yet, and won't be built as one part until after bits of it (like the interior detail) have been painted as it will be too hard to do later on.

I don't have pictures, but I have also glued the loose bits on each of the weapon arms (Vulcan Mega Bolter and Plasma Blast Gun). There will be some green stuff work needed on moth guns to fill in air bubbles and gaps around the hose connections at the rear of each gun. I will also need to greenstuff some gaps I have found while dry fitting bits together to get an idea of how it will look in the end. It's a great piece of work - the designers have done a tremendous job.

In other news, I am continuing with my first Tactical Squad for my Minotaurs. They are coming together reasonably well - my next post should be a WIP or close to finished shot of the next batch.

Cheers all,

Pom

Badab War test mini...

2011-04-16T14:56:00.005+09:30

I've knocked out my first test mini for my Minotaurs. Its a Vet Sergeant for one of my Tactical Squads.

He hasn't come out too badly but there are some definite tweaks I will need to make to the way I paint these guys. I haven't had chance to replace my camera yet so the pics aren't that flash but they give an idea as to where the mini is going.

The verdigris is very bright in the pics and although not so bright in person, is still a bit much. What I tried selectively was a wash using the blue GW wash (I forget the name right now but its the blue one) which helped tone down the effect so I might stick to that in future.

Also, I need to try something else to highlight both the reds on the shoulder pads, and the metal. I've gone slightly away from the pictures shown in IA:10 by making the vents on the back pack red, as well I will carry the red shoulder pads through for all Marines - IA:10 seems to suggest only the veterans should have red shoulder pads, but I think if the whole mini was metallic it would be a bit much.

The red areas started out with a dark flesh base, then had a layer of dark flesh/scab red applied before a final scab red highlight. I think the final highlight may need some orange in there to brighten it up and make it more defined as it is a tad too subtle in person - the pics have hyper accentuated it.

The metals started with the tin bitz base, then a mix tin bots/dwarf bronze layer then the same mix with some Mithril. The verdigris mix was applied after the base coat so I could cut into and remove excess as I applied my second layer and highlight.

The highlight layer looked quite bright/silvery as I was painting it on, but has dried quite dark. The problem I have is I am not after a stark highlight with the Mithril as that would make the armour too golden - I want to keep it darker - more bronze than gold. Like I said, I need to have a bit more of a play with it I think.

I've stayed away from using much of the silver metal colours as it contrasts horribly with the main colour. With the hammer head I attempted a marble effect which worked in places and not others, so that will get a look into later as well.

I did a bit of basic free hand on the pads to add the tactical arrow and the chapter symbol which was fun to do - nice basic shapes, but it took me a while as I was trying to keep it neat but easy to reproduce on future models although looking at that last picture, the tactical arrow is crooked - lame. Its also quite bright as I did it in white. I might change it to an outline of the arrow only and fill in the centre, or maybe change to black/grey to match the colours used on the chapter symbol.

I'm posting this as my Warhound Titan takes a bath in some simple green to help with the removal of the mold release agent that was coating the mini. Thanks go to The Inner Geek for his tutorials/project logs he has posted first in relation to his Reaver Titan, and now in relation to his two Warhound Titans. Its really good to have this resource available to pick up little tips to make sure the model comes good.

Cheers all,

Pom

Badab War (Pic Heavy)...

2011-04-09T14:26:00.009+09:30

I have spent the past couple of weeks rummaging through my mini collection and bitz box, culling projects for spare parts, breaking down old minis and stripping old paint jobs for a new project - BADAB WAR.

Luke and Cal from my local GW are hell bent on realising a BADAB WAR campaign. With the release of the latest Imperial Armour books a group of us have agreed to start up new armies to replay this campaign, with each of us taking an army that was present during the conflict and running it against a set of rules encompassing all of the WH40K rule sets and supplements with a few restrictions - namely, we can only build a force that was present at the conflict, and as units are used, they are lost to our force organisation and future games.

I picked up both books and after much flicking back and forth settled on the Minotaurs chapter (the Raptors were a very close second).

I picked the Minotaurs for a couple of reasons. Namely, the colour scheme is awesome and should be pretty easy to knock out quickly; plus they had the whole chapter involved in the conflict, and fluff wise, have access to pretty much everything available to a Marine chapter, so I wouldn't be restricted in what to take.

I've decided that my main force will be drawn from the 3rd company which gives me access to most units I normally like to field anyway, but I will also take elements from 1st and 10th.

I have a wide body of Marines for my normal marines force - the Silent Guard chapter, many of which would probably not see paint for a long time, so I took to cannibalising these for my core force.

The pictures below show where I have gotten to so far, with priming and first base coat of the laid down where it will be needed (I used my airbrush for this step to speed it up and give me a nice smooth starting point.

My HQ section - I in store ordered the Chaplain with all the cool old armour marks as I liked the model, but realised afterwards I should have gotten the one with the power fist (although I don't like that minis pose) to use as the named special character from the books. I will be picking up a command squad and other elements once I am underway with the core force. Apologies at the outset for the photo quality - My camera is on its last legs after it suffered a tumble from the bench top. I also think the metallic nature of the colour scheme is not photographing well.

For my troops I can't go passed Tactical Squads. Every Marine force I play with has a minimum of two of these as there is nothing more Marine to me than a Tactical squad, and that gels nicely with the fluff nature of the campaign we are trying to build - Cal and Luke are very determined not to have it degenerate into Marine Killing spam (ie plasma/melta/power death) - they want to keep it fluffy and fun.

The observant among you will see that I have a mix of different bitz and bobs floating around these units. I have predominantly relied on the basic Tactical sprue, but have thrown in some Mk 3 and 5 FW bitz, FW weapons, and parts from the Iron Hands bitz pack to add some variety to the units. I originally had the FW stuff all on one or 2 Marines but it looked too much, and those Marines ended up shorter than the others. I broke them down and split the bitz amongst all the Marines and came out with better looking squads (IMHO).

I also have the start of a Scout squad using odds and sods scouts I had picked up over the years including a couple of older Space Wolf wolf scouts.

For my elites choices I currently have a Terminator squad made up of Black Reach spares and my FW Chaplain Dread which will sub as a Venerable Dread.

In my Fast attack slots I have some Bikes and an Attack Bike which I haven't used since I first came into the hobby over 12 years ago. I'm looking forward t using these guys again as I used to really love them. This is whats great about this campaign, I'm building my force around stuff that I have wanted to use for ages, but for one reason or another, have never put into my force.

Looking at some of the pictures out of the FW open day, I can see another order coming on for some of the early mark Assault Marines to add to my Fast Attack choices. I've also always wanted to run Typhoons so am looking at getting some of them eventually.

I don't have anything in the Heavy Support slot yet, but have written up a wish list of thing I want including a Thunderfire Cannon.

The campaign is scheduled to run over the rest of the year - so I have plenty of time to build what I want as it is needed. I am going to go back to my youth with my painting approach and only paint what I have available and not buy anything else until everything already built is painted. I have mixed up my second layer colour and planned the other colours needed so am ready to crack on.

The other part of my FW order I made was this little beauty - A Mars Pattern Warhound Titan.

Not shown the bag of a million (OK I exaggerate but there are a lot) pistons for the legs and feet)

Unfortunately its not going to be built for a little while yet as we aren't planning any Apocalypse games for a bit and I want to crank out some Marines. I laid out all the parts today just to double check everything was there and to dry fit some pieces to get an idea of the scale of it - man is it HUGE compared to my normal minis.

I only found one thing missing which was the etched steel inserts for the top carapace piece. I called FW and they are express shipping this and a Titan Engineer which was also missing from my order back to me - gotta love their customer service.

And thats that. The dog is getting bigger by the day. He is a great motivator in getting me and the missus up and about every day, taking him to the beach or on walks through the park areas. My missus remarked we never spent so much time together out doors before we got him.

And that's all for today. Happy hobby everyone.

Cheers,

Pom

Reaper goodness...

2011-03-14T17:59:00.005+10:30

I took a couple of days off in the last week to go over to Victoria for the Australian International airshow which was a real blast.

To coincide with the 90th anniversary of the RAAF our American cousins brought over a couple of B1-B's (both if which were broken on the day of attendance with hydraulic issues so know fly by), some F-22 Raptors (with so much security around them you could only get to within 10 meters) and some other cool bits and pieces including an F-16 demonstration team.

Got to see loads of cool kit and watch some awesome aerial displays which was fantastic. Watching the Super Hornets and Falcons fly around its hard to see them as machines - they move like leaves in the wind - crazy. And the sound was phenomenal.

I've been cracking on at some Reaper minis that came while I was away. When painting these I am sticking to my 4 colour with wash and highlight method which is letting me turn out table top quality minis in a reasonable amount of time. I knocked out Duke Gerard and Zombie Werewolf this weekend, and have started work on Mason Thornwarden.

These minis are top notch, and will work great as NPC's in our D'n'D campaign, and are a real blast to paint.

Group shot - My painted Reaper stuff - mostly Bobby Jackson's work.

I have a few more to paint yet, plus I need to finish my Deathguard Termies I started back a bit now.

Work is slowing down so I should be able to concentrate more time to hobby, although Astro our pup is also getting bigger and is now able to get out and about so he will be getting some of my extra spare time too.

Astro at 13 weeks

There is some talk of a Badab War campaign and I am considering doing a couple of units from on of the Secessionist chapters - waiting on IA10 at the minute before I decide to jump into it though.

That's it for now - Cheers all,

Pom

A quick afternoons work...

2011-02-27T17:39:00.004+10:30

The missus had a go at us today about the state of my side of the house which generally is code for my hobby room. Looking at it this morning she had a point so I set about having a general tidy up.

All my miniatures went away where they reside between games, White Dwarfs, Codices and other books were sorted and placed on their shelf and the paint station received a clean and reorganisation.

My newly organised and clean work space after I started painting - including a couple of projects I have started and should really finish

Having done all that, I figured I would do a spot of painting so I pulled out one of my Reaper miniatures from the shelves of shame (That is my pile - organised pile mind) and set to work. My goal was to produce a table top quality mini with a minims of fuss.

The shelves of Shame - even the missus thinks I have too much and had a dig about getting more painted

I picked out the Gavin, Warrior Thief mini by Bobby Jackson as I plan on using him in the D'n'D campaign which I am meant to be taking part in. Gaming wise I have been in a funk with a lot of the blame resting on my work committments and me generally being knackered when I get in, so many of the other gaming committments I had ie the instore 40K campaign, previous Death Watch campaign, potential intro to Malifaux etc all fell by the wayside. My mates that are organising this new D'n'D campaugn are cool for it to operate every second week which means I am more likely to have time to attend and maintain my gaming mojo.

Anyway, I knocked him out this arvo in a couple of stints at the table (still had to get some gardening and general house work in there). 4 colour base coats (red, brown, metal and flesh) followed by a mixed Devlan Mud/Thrakka Green wash and then highlights and he was done - nice and simple and to a standard I am happy with. (excuse the flock in his hair - I always find it after the photos have been taken). Was aiming for a lacquered leather armour look like the Samurai used to run with. I haven't hit him with a gloss varnish so the sheen on the mini in the pics is a bit odd - might be something to do with the way the picture was taken or the wash -?).

The Reaper range is really diverse, with loads of little gems hidden in there. I have another order with them now for some other minis that would be suitable for D'n'D as NPC or other PC's in the future.

So thats it - an afternoons work and a new mini painted - I should do this more often and try to get through some more of my paint queue.

Cheers all,

Pom

Progress on Nurgle Terminators...

2011-02-12T15:12:00.004+10:30

Work is continuing slowly on my Nurgle Terminators I previewed last post. For some reason my camera appears to have lost one of its settings and the pictures have come out with a yellow tint.

I decided after getting most of the basics down (metals/bone etc) that I would progress on a single mini at a time. I started on the Reaper Cannon as it was the closest to hand and gave now finished most of the armour. I am thinking a final edge highlight and leave it at that.

I have posed him next to Typhus who is a lot more 'stripey' in the paint style which I don't like as much so he will probably get a touch up at some point.

My current struggle is how to to paint the Reaper casing. Its currently blocked out black, but I don't want to leave it that way, or do more green on the model than what is necessary. Maybe a brown colour will work.

The Forge World bits are the best thing about these models with the texture on them making them really easy to layer and highlight. Quite enjoying this little side project but should really try to pull my finger out and get more done.

I went to Vets night again this week and took part in the first game of the narrative campaign which was an 8 way kill team challenge match played out on the Space Hulk board pieces. Each player had a certain challenge which was built around the fluff of the army chose or the make up of the army - mine was to kill x number of enemies with my Bolt Guns. I managed 2 kills with Bolt Guns and another 5 with various Plasma weapons or in combat but was utterly annihilated by the end of the game. 2 of the guys who were working as a team managed to complete their missions with the rest of us failing.

While in store I also picked up the first Badab book. Although they are expensive, Forge World have put out a quality product. There are also some boarding action rules in there which we will use in future campaign games to mix it up a bit.

That's about it for this update. In non-hobby news our puppy has settled in well. My missus thinks I am a big softy with him but she's just jealous that he has bonded to me better than her (or so I tell myself). We are starting him at puppy school in a week or so and then obedience classes. Its amazing watching him explore and learn, and we can definitely see the growth he has experienced in just the last week.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Cheers all,

Pom

Late updates - Nurgle and Dreads...

2011-02-03T18:54:00.010+10:30

The recent Queensland floods and tropical cyclone really caught us out at work and I have been doing some long days to aid in my departments response which has meant I cut back on my hobby time and as a result seen the blog go very quiet.

Over the last couple of weeks I have managed to get into my local GW and had a join in game of War of the Rings which I really enjoyed. It was a game that told a story, with Cal the store manager really building the narrative behind the confrontation (Harad/Easterlings v Gondor). Although I enjoyed the game and fought to a draw, the system is too far removed from my comfort zone (40K) and requires far too many miniatures to warrant much further interest from me for the time being.

I also attended the judging of the holiday painting comp that was run through January, picking up a first place in the open category with my Death Watch squad which I was chuffed with.

The pictures really enhance the edge highlights which aren't that thick in person.

I got a 40K Basing Kit for a prize which was nice and unexpected. The quality of the talent on show was phenomenal with some ex staff and golden demon winners etc taking part in the other categories. Some of the young bloods also show some real promise and I admire their skills at such an early age.

The local is also now stocking Imperial Armour books so I picked up the 2 Apocalypse books as they were the cheapest and offered the most relevant content (although I am sorely tempted by of the Vraks and Badab series').

I also received an order from Forge World I had placed over Christmas.

I have wanted this miniature for a long time, and is part of my plans to own a Chaplain model to accompany most units in my force.

Here he is with my other Dreadies which all have magnetised arms now so I can swap out load outs between the various kits. The Forge World parts don't always fit with the GW kits, and the Black Reach Dready is another scale altogether. One thing to be careful of if you go down this path is to make sure that you get a flush surface with all the joints. Some of my magnets got a bit cock eyed, needing some Green stuff to ensure they sat straight.

Since my last update in the middle of January I have undertaken only a little painting, only picking up the brush this last week. I am working on some Nurgle Terminators which I picked up cheap through eBay a while back.

They still have lots of work left to do and look quite messy which isn't unusual for the way I paint but are coming along nicely. I have already painted Typhus to go with them but he doesn't photograph well so I am leaving off showing him for now.

My plan for the rest of this half year (to June) is to work at my Marines as Cal has kicked off a 40K campaign for Vets night using standard armies, kill teams and Apocalypse. I really want to use this as a means to push myself to start getting through the mountain of minis I have to paint so once the Nurgle Termies are done I am cracking straight on with the Marines.

The blog is probably going to slow down a fair bit as I want to use what hobby time I do have to actually hobby, but I am still checking my blog roll every couple of days and lurking and commenting on all your blogs.

In non-hobby news, we are also picking up a German Shepherd puppy this weekend which will also eat into my available hobby time. I think the missus is secretly using this as an opportunity to assess my nurturing/'keeping things alive' skills in preparation for the big push to make the decision to have a little mini-pom sometime in the future.

Anyway, I hope you're all getting your hobby on.

Cheers all,

Pom

Gaming in 2011...

2011-01-14T17:22:00.005+10:30

I went to my local GW Vets night on Tuesday for an arranged game with one of the new lads who has started gaming there. I had met him the week before and watched his game at the time where he was using a classic Mordian Imperial Guard army supplemented with Forge World patterned tanks. It looked great to see someone gaming with such classic miniatures. We arranged a game and he said he may bring his Necrons or Guard.

Well I arrived on Tuesday to find he had brought his Necrons, and again it is 100% classic metal figures. He has the old Warriors, Lords (which he subs as Pariahs), Destroyers and Immortals. It was fantastic to see and I only wish I had had my camera on me to get some pictures.

We settled on a 1,500 point mission from the Battle Missions book and played the Necron Ambush game. I think the store is running a campaign which he is a part of which uses the Battle Missions scenarios.

I got to play the victim of the Ambush with my Marines, taking my standard list of:
-Chaplain
-2 Tactical squads (one Plasma and one Melta oriented)
-Assault Squad
-Las/Missile Dreadnought
-Vindicator
-Predator
-Bike Squad and Attack Bike
-Sternguard (5)

The Sternguard were a points filler and I didn't really want to play my scouts. And the bikes were a nostalgic twist as I haven't gamed with them since they sported Ultramarine colours back in the 90's - I had dug them out when I based all my remaining Marines.

The game was good fun and went to 6 turns. He had split his forces evenly and deployed against both flanks, bogging down most of my units in protracted assaults through to turn 5. I got the edge in the last 2 turns and had him down to 1 model away from phase out, but ended the game with a tie at 4 kill points each.

It was a nice fun game which we would like to do again next week if I can get away from work early enough. As you may have guessed, I'm back at work and straight into it developing measures to assist those caught up in the massive floods currently being experienced on the other side of the country. I have found myself stuck at work longer than I would usually be, meaning I missed out on Wednesday games night with the lads, and cutting into my painting time, although I can't complain too much considering how much some people have lost in this disaster.

The other thing I did while in store was drop off my Death Watch for the current painting comp they are running. Sadly, I forgot to take a picture of the finished product (including the highlights that were missing in the final WIP shots last time). I am working on Typhus (Death Guard) at the moment as my single miniature entry and like how he is coming together. I'm going to try to bust out my camera on the weekend and get some WIP shots of him and his boys (FW Deathguard Terminators) which I am also working on as my last project prior to jumping into my Marines.

Until then, happy hobby all.

Cheers,

Pom

Final Death Watch WIP...

2011-01-07T12:59:00.008+10:30

Just a quick post that should be the final WIP pic everyone is subjected too with my Death Watch..

The only part that needs doing now is the black armour. I was talking to the manager of my local GW last night who has a whole Death Watch army about how he does his black which is basically the same as what Ron over at FtW has done - fine edge highlight using grey (codex or fortress).

I'm going to adopt this method too, using the grey edge highlight rather than the shadow grey, as this made the models too blue. This was worsened by the way I had done the skulls etc which had worked up from a shadow grey base.

I am really happy with how these guys have come up, and by doing the different Chapters I have been able to use a broader colour range than I normally get too with my vanilla Marines. My favourite is definitely my Dark Angel. Its great what you can manage with a broad bitz box, and a bit of a think about what background each model is meant to represent.

On other news, I sat and base coated my remaining Marines the other day with my air brush. Normally I would hand paint the base coat of Adeptus Battle Grey on but figures I could do the whole lot with the air brush and save some time.

When I did it though, I got this result (the one on the right - the guy on the left is a fairly beat up test Marine). By spraying the paint the colour has settled much darker than the result I get if I hand paint it on. Same paint, same water mix (a bit more in the case of the air brush to help the flow) but different end result. It shouldn't effect the next two layers (I hope), but it was an odd result. Anyone know why this might have happened?

My Marines will be my next project as I would like to make a significant dent in the unpainted pile; however, my very next project will by some Nurgle Marines - more in this in a future post.

Cheers all, and thanks for stopping by.

Pom

More Death Watch WIP (pic heavy)...

2010-12-31T12:24:00.008+10:30

I had hoped to get these guys finished today (before the end of the year) but the temperature is currently at 44 degrees and our cooling isn't up to it so painting today has fallen by the wayside.

I have finished the chapter pads, weapons and metallics, and only need to do the parchments/purity seals, flesh/hair and then black highlights.

Quite happy with how they look, particularly the Blood Angel pad. The one that gave me the most bother is the Dark Angel. It was hard to figure out how to highlight the green without being too bright. The end result is really subtle and I'm not sure the camera picked it up.

I'm now planning a lazy new years eve at home with some movies. The missus came home from work early sick and is having a kip (she's a new years eve baby so now she is sick not only on new years eve, but also her birthday - lame).

Best wishes to you all and your families for the new year, and hopefully the dice gods smile upon you in 2011.

Cheers all for a fantastic 2010.

Pom

Washes can work wonders...

2010-12-20T17:14:00.006+10:30

I was feeling guilty about not doing much painting this last week so I had a crack at finishing of my first Death Watch marine last night.

Overall I am satisfied, but am still left scratching my head a bit when it comes to the black armour. I did repaint the black armour with a mix of Chaos Black and Regal Blue (tending more towards the black) so the base coat wasn't pure black. I then edge highlighted with a Chaos Black/Shadow Grey mix and then straight Shadow Grey.

I think the overall effect is very blue and the pictures only serve to over-emphasise that fact. I'm not bothered enough by it to try to redo it, and am just glad I don't have a whole army to do in this colour. Four more guys left and the little squad is done.

And the reason for the heading to this post? After I finished the Death Watch marine off, I turned my attention to my Nurgle marine.

I was a bit slap dash with the base coats (a mix of Knarloc and Gretchin Green foundation paints with metallics done in Tinny Tin game colour) and was thinking I would need to strip and start again as the miniature looked horrible, even at this very early stage. Instead I looked over my washes and picked out the Thraka Green and Devlan Mud. Two heavy washes later and I have this look.

I am happy enough with how this turned out (the washes actually worked like they are designed too) that I think I will tidy up a couple of the little details, maybe apply a slight verdigris look for the metal, a few highlights and will call him done.

So just a short post today, and now back to the paint table.

Cheers all,

Pom

Holidays...

2010-12-18T15:33:00.004+10:30

Just a quick post to say I haven't done any practical hobby over the last week as I have been madly trying to tidy things off at work ready to close down for the year. I started 3 weeks holidays today.

I have re-read a few Black Library books, and generated my player sheet for Death Watch, but no painting has gotten done on anything (apart for priming my Nurgle Marine).

I also get in 2 Kill Zone games against my non-gamer mate Jay, beating his Space Wolf force with both an Imperial Guard force and an Ork force, although both games were really close. We played a home brewed capture the flag style game with a mash of different rules from 4th, 5th, Necro and Kill Zone. They were fun little games and Jay is hungry for more (and a win).

I figured I would get all the house stuff out of the way today and tomorrow to try to maximise the time I have for hobby and other pursuits over my break.

Its just come in overcast outside so I guess I am finished in the garden for the day, plus my back is now telling me its had enough. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the last odd jobs done and then its all hobby (and Christmas).

Cheers all,

Pom

Death Watch night...

2010-12-10T17:39:00.010+10:30

Our group had our first RPG night on Wednesday, although only 3 of us could make it out. Luke our GM has a couple of cool ideas on how he wants to run the show.

The first is that we build artscale/truescale versions of our characters, the better to suggest the 'true' scale of a Marine compared to the NPC's. Originally I thought this was a bad idea, but Luke's enthusiasm has gotten the better of me and we agreed this is probably a goer which means the normal scale mini's I started painting probably won't get used (or at least not after the first couple of gatherings after we have built our true scale versions).

This is the stage I am currently at with the painting of my normal scale Death Watch. I'm quite happy how they are progressing, and mainly only have the black to sort out which I think I will use Ron's FTW tutorial for, as well as some smaller details and the Chapter symbol.

The second idea Luke had was to run the band as Chaos renegades as opposed to loyalist Death Watch. This idea ran into some doubts from myself and Phil (the other player who turned up). We think it might be hard enough to play the game as loyalists the first time out, and we don't think it a good idea to complicate the matter further by subbing in Chaos stories etc - it puts a lot of pressure on Luke as GM.

We did agree to design characters which we may use in the future, and may turn up as nemesis in game which I thought was a cool idea. The loyalist Marine I designed belongs to the Imperial Fists chapter (using the Storm Wardens Chapter traits) and will be a Tech Marine. Phil has gone with a Devastator Dark Angel. The Chaos renegade will be a Death guard (Nurgle) Assault specialist (again using the Storm Wardens Chapter Traits).

We haven't started the build process yet for the 'truescale' Marines, but Luke did give me a lesson on Green Stuff (GS). He is a bit of a master with the GS and his armies are full of all sorts of crazy conversions. Given the discussions regarding having a Chaos nemesis, and having ready access to Luke's enormous bitz box, I decided to try my hand at a kit bashed normal scale representation of my Chaos character, and had a crack at sculpting the fly symbol seen on Typhus' right shoulder pad on this kitbashed Marines pad. The results were passable, and showed me how easy GS work can be if you have the right tools, take your time, and break it down into simple steps.

I never realised how cool the Chaos Marine range was until I went through Luke's bitz box. Their basic troop sculpts have so much more going for them than a standard Tactical Marine. It was fun to mix and match bitz until I arrived at this guy. This guy uses bits from a normal trooper, Terminator, Land Raider driver and Possessed.

We will be getting together each week and either getting on with our Death Watch campaign or doing general hobby things (gaming, kibashing, sculpting, painting etc). I'm looking forward to having a dedicated hobby group to do things and bounce ideas off of.

And that's all folks, as always, happy gaming.

Cheers all,

Pom

Hazard suits final...

2010-12-03T21:17:00.006+10:30

I finished off the hazard suits from Hasslefree tonight. Overall experience was so so. Yellow is still a colour I need to work on.

I mentioned in my last post how I had fluffed it by applying a wash. I didn't bother stripping and starting again and have left the darkened recesses more because I'm lazy and this way I have a physical reminder not to do it again.

As a group they look OK, and will make useful, if irrelevant NPC's in any of our RPG games (which we still haven't started - maybe next week I hope).

Next on the desk are my 5 Death Watch Marines. I have started them but they are a bit too WIP to show just yet. Maybe if I get them progressed over the weekend I will aim for another post.

I have 3 weeks holidays coming to me over Christmas and new years and I have been talking with my mate Luke (one of the RPG/Vets night players) about holding some painting days. Ideally I would like to try to get some more terrain finished and maybe a vehicle (another Christmas Sentinel maybe like I managed last year) and a squad of something done.

Odd jobs around the house and my garden are taking a lot of my weekends though so I will need to wait and see what time I have.

Happy gaming all,

Pom

Follow up to Hazard Suits...

2010-11-22T16:53:00.004+10:30

In response to a comment by Pappa JJ, here is a group shot to show how the Hasslefree minis stack up to GW's.

Although they have similar height to a Guardsman or Empire Swordsman, they are definately a lot more in scale/proportion than the GW plastics. I would say they are on par scale wise with the LotR minis GW produces.

Cheers all,

Pom

Hazard suits...

2010-11-21T17:49:00.004+10:30

I've come in from the garden with slight sunburn and thoroughly knackered so no painting tonight but I figured I should get a post in to show some WIP shots of the Hasslefree hazard suits I picked up the other day.

Yellow is still proving a bit troublesome. I originally laid down a mix of Calthan Brown and Iyanden Darksun foundations, layering more Iyanden, and then Sunburst Yellow and finally Bleached Bone into successive mixes. The product I arrived at was a bit rough but looked good. I then muffed it by washing the minis with Gryphone Sepia. Bloody washes. I love them and use them for everything, but they aren't always necessary.

You can see in the pic the result of the wash on the front 3 models, and the effect provided once the layers/highlights are reapplied in the rear model. The underlying recessed shadows are exaggerated by the wash. I am tempted to mix a light glaze with my original foundation mix and start again to try to lighten the minis. Not sure yet.

The guy at the back is 90% done. I added some chipping to his pads, and want to add some more to his air tank, as well as a final highlight to the weapon before I call it done. The mini is basically a 3 colour affair - simple, quick and effective.

Once I have the set done I will post some better pictures.

Cheers all,

Pom

Giant finished...

2010-11-14T17:13:00.005+10:30

I finally managed to finish my Giant which I started what seems like a while ago.

I'm quite happy with how most of him turned out, particularly the flesh tones. He sits nicely with the rest of my WoC stuff.

I think I will tackle some of my Hasselfree stuff next and then dive back into my Marines.

Cheers all,

Pom

Shout out for Hasslefree Miniatures...

2010-11-02T19:28:00.009+10:30

I was stoked to come home tonight and find two parcels containing minis on my doorstep.

The first lot of minis I wanted to show are care of the sculptor Kev White of Hasslefree Miniatures. I have been eyeing of his sculpts for ages, originally intending to get some to represent NPC's in our Dark Heresy campaign. For whatever reason I never got around to it until the other week when browsing through my bookmarks I stumbled back across his page and finally caved in and submitted an order.

I picked up a lot of gear from the adventurer range, the majority armed with a G36 (auto gun in 41st millennium speak) or an Aliens inspired pulse rifle. The odd one out being a crazed man in a cape more for the oddity of it and it made me giggle when I first saw it. My favourites are the set of hazmat suited guys, and the mini reminiscent of 'Snake'. I've added a suppressor using brass rod to one of the models as the gun looked a tad odd without one.

Kev's stuff is first class, on par with the LotR scale stuff put out by GW, and is lovely and cheap meaning I picked up the lot for less than a $100 Australian which is a bargain in my book. These are probably going to fall into the painting queue behind the Deathwatch Marines that are waiting for a lick of paint after I finish my current WoC Giant project which is about half way done and almost ready for a bit of show and tell.

The second thing to arrive is also a Kev White sculpt, but put out by Studio Mcvey. Its the Lt. Kara sculpt which is again first class effort.

Aside from playing around with these minis and reading my Deathwatch book, I haven't gotten a lot of painting in and even less gaming. The Giant is progressing slowly, I should get some more done this week and hopefully have a finished model by next week.

Cheers all,

Pom

Deathwatch!!!...

2010-10-26T17:33:00.003+10:30

A real quick one for today.

I just got in from work and found a parcel on my doorstep containing this:

Massive shout out to Maelstrom Games for both the awesome pricing, and excellent packaging and service on this one.

Now to gather the old Dark Heresy crew together and let the D10/100 roll on.

Cheers all,

Pom

Statistics...

2010-10-22T22:29:00.004+10:30

A real quick one to mark an observation I stumbled across tonight. Like many bloggers, I run Google Analytics over the old blog to keep a track of some basic stats. Being a numbers man for work purposes, the idea of getting more numbers from this aspect of my hobby was enticing.

Now generally things are fairly steady with hit rates, unique views, sources, etc. but having made the Tuesday Top 10 on FTW this week (for which I am overwhelmingly chuffed - just ask my missus, I didn't stop mentioning it for about an hour after I found out), my page views have gone through the roof, completely skewing my lovely trends.

In the long run this isn't a problem as I expect my stats to return to trend over the next week. But what it does do is it shows how powerful a tool community assets like FTW become, enabling members of the community to showcase their hobby to a massive audience.

So I want to throw a quick shout out to Ryan of On the Painting Table for trawling the blogosphere and compiling the top 10 each week, and Ron at From the Warp for showcasing it, and the bloggers out there for making it happen by posting your awesomeness.

Cheers all,

Pom

Sneaky sneaky...

2010-10-17T18:52:00.004+10:30

Just a very quick one today. I picked up my brushes for the first time in about two weeks and managed to finish off Snikrot with some dashing camo pants (if I do say so myself - cheers go out to Studio McVey Blog for their tutorial on camo here).

He hasn't turned out exactly like I had planned and the pictures as normal seem to highlight every minor flaw and brush stroke, but otherwise I am happy with him and he now sits proudly on the shelf with my other Orks - waiting for some more Kommandos to show up.

Cheers all,

Pom

Force organisation...

2010-10-11T18:50:00.006+10:30

After seeing Drax's and Hal'jins Force Org/Painting charts I figured I would jiffy one up for myself for my Marines.

I found doing this helped me visualise my end force that much better.

These things can be as details, or simple as you want them to be.

I'm going to have a crack at getting ones done for my Guard, Orks, WoC and Empire armies.

Unfortunately my Marine one seems to have lots of red/orange on it. Back to the paint pots then.

Cheers all,

Pom

Waaagh Orks...

2010-10-07T20:35:00.006+10:30

I popped down to the local last week for a look in and maybe a game. It was a fairly quiet Vets night but I did get a game in with Sam and his foot Guard at 750 points.

The long and short of it is that Sam is one canny player and totally owned me from turn 2 although it got close in turn 4 but for a failed invulnerable save.

I had a rather basic list consisting of 2 Tactical Squads, a shooty Terminator Squad and a Librarian (taken on a whim as I don't recall using one in game since I was a kid first starting in the hobby). Sam had an amalgamated platoon with command, 2 Vet squads, lots of plasma, Straken and some Rough Riders (I laughed a little when I saw the ponies as I have never seen them used before and thought the game would be a doddle - flash lights on horses). The Riders are really cool conversions using Bretonnian, Cadian and Pistollier bits - Sam has done a really good job with them.

I had turn one so advanced towards his line in combat squads figuring I would use terrain and my armour to weather whatever shooting he managed to throw my way. I wasn't counting on how quick the Riders would be, or how effective they are on the charge with Strakens bonuses. He massacred one Combat Squad with the Riders, and made another flee from Plasma after inflicting a ton of wounds (I only wish my Guard were half as effective at shooting as his were). Vets are a really cool unit (if expensive) for a Guard army and one I will definately be looking at.

I dodlled around in the middle of the game. I forgot we were playing for kill points and didn't finish units off when I should have done and then Straken walked over and ate my remaining squads. Brutal.

It was a really quick and dirty game where I learned a lot about how a Guard army can be played differently to my gun line theory. Sam's a cool kid to play with and we have another game scheduled for next week (1,500 points of Fantasy).

How is this anything related to Orks. Well after playing the game I was talking to Luke (one of the staff) and looking over his Tech Skaven conversions he has been working on for a while now. I pointed out some cool bits which he identified as from the Ork Nobs box. Now the box itself isn't trying its best to sell the kit as it pictures some basic Orks, not a whole lot better than the Black Reach Nobs. What you get inside is another story. This is one of the coolest GW kits around with a plethora (now theres a fancy word) of cool and Orky gubbins to customise your Nobs with. Not being an Ork player, but a fan of the cool models they have, I decided to pick one up.

I have slowly built the models up this last week whenever I had a spare half an hour and this is what I have ended up with. The first two pictured are my favourite.

I also used some of the spare bits to pimp some of my existing Black Reach Nobs (hence the bare plastic on some of the painted models).

When I was finished, and put them up with my other models, I realised that between the Black Reach set, these Nobs, a set of Gretchin I had picked up on a whim months back, and the odd random blister I had collcted, I had unintentionally built a nice little Ork Waagh. A couple of Kans/Dreads, maybe some bikes or a Truck and I will be done - a nice smallish raiding force. Paint wise, only my Black Reach Warboss, Nobs (mostly), Engineer and some Grotz are painted, but it gives me something to pratt about with in my off time between other projects.

On other news I have just pre-ordered my Dark Eldar Codex for the collection, as well as the Deathwatch RPG core rulebook (c/- Maelstrom). I got my hands on the frames for the new Warriors, Raider and Reavers today, as well as a good gander through the Codex. Wow Jes Goodwin - WOW. The new stuff is brilliant. From the colour pictures in the Codex its clear to see what is missing model wise from the miniature collection and what is likely to feature as second or future wave releases. Basically everything shown to date on the GW website looks to be what will be available at launch or shortly there after - no sign of a new Talos or some of the other flyers.

And on that bombshell I am off. Happy hobby all.

Cheers,

Pom

Big update (very Pic heavy)...

2010-09-24T14:06:00.013+09:30

I returned from my holidays to sunny Queensland with all my fingers and toes, settling back into home and work life well. The holiday was a good chance to get away from everything going on around here and relax, soak up some sun and have some fun.

The place is overrun with lizards of all descriptions from tiny gekkos to full blown croc's - the missus was not a fan. There is some beautiful scenery up there though, lots of colour inspiration to be found.

I managed to get to three of the five GW's up in Queensland including the pictured Maroochydore which is the tiniest store I have been to, the Carindale store and the Upper Mt Gravatt Battle Bunker which is the both the biggest in Australia and the hardest to locate. Big ups to staff at all the stores I got to for stopping to have a chat with us and showing me all the cool projects you had on the go. At each store I made sure to pick up something and came back to Adelaide with a Ven Dready, Sentinel, Snikrot and a dice cube.

Which segues nicely into what I have been painting for the last week or so.

I dropped by the Marion GW and got a spot of painting in last Friday. He is proving a bit of a contrast of love/hate. I love painting Ork models because they aren't Marines and are really cool mini's. I hate them because I don't do metallics very well, and with Snikrot, I seem to have forgotten everything from how I paint leather to skulls and Ork Skin. He is still very much WIP, and I am seriously tempted to rip of his backpack, simple green it and start it again. WASHES are the bane of this model - I just don't know where to stop. He has red boots after I read the short story Iron Inferno in the Fear the Alien anthology - even Commando Ork Kaptins know that red boots go faster.

I have also been plugging away in fits and starts at an Empire Captain Adz left us before he made of to Sydney.

He is a bit so-so at the moment, but I can see the finished product in my head so I will keep at him.

This chap is also eyeing me off every time I sit at my desk. I got him from my brothers for my Birthday a while back and I started him before I went away to be part of my WoC force. He is very much at the start of the painting process. What a great kit though - loads of options and bitz and gubbins for my box.

Just before I got away I finished up some more scatter terrain, and started on my next few pieces.

These provide a nice distraction from painting normal stuff, and look good on the table.

I've really slowed down with the hobby (at least the painting and playing side of it) the last couple of months. Not playing a lot means I don't have a lot of push to finish anything off so I spend more time flitting between single models or random things. While looking over my collection this morning, and reorganising my Marines, I realised that I was very close to having a full company.

The Command and First Company elements, with some really old gear lurking at the back (I have kept my first squad ever painted - from the old painting set - and some Termies and Calgar - 2nd version - in their original state for posterity purposes).

My main fighting forces - Troops, Fast Attack and my oft forgotten Devastator squad - cannibalised previously to fill out Tactical squads, and reintegrated with Missile Launchers.

And my motor pool and Techie department.

Now not a whole lot looks fully painted, but at my last Apoc game I mustered 3,000 points which seems like a lot. What remains shouldn't take that long to get finished if I could only harness some motivation like I used to have. To this end, I am going to start going back to store games at least once a week, work permitting. I am going to design a new army list, incorporating some of the things I haven't yet painted, with the aim to give me a purpose to paint again.

The observant amongst you will notice gaps on the shelf. I have plans to fill these gaps at a later date, which would see me have a full Battle Company (100 Tactical/Assault/Devastator Marines) with attached First Company and Heavy Support elements. Costing these missing things today sees an outlay of between $200-500 depending on if I took only what was necessary to fill the roster v taking what I would like to have in addition to the necessary roster.

Having just undertaken some Project Management training at work this last week, I looked at what I wanted to achieve, and placed some realistic milestones and accountability measures in place to help me stay on track in reaching my goal. I have two rewards planned if I can get this completed - 1. I have a fully painted, complete army. 2. The missus has said she is prepared to split the cost of a Titan with me. Rather than run out right now and get it, I have decided to delay the purchase until I have achieved some real results. Proper motivation.

Realistically there are some blockers to achieving my desired outcome. I have a short attention span and may just jump to a different project. I have other hobbies - xbox (not sure Halo/CoD is really a hobby), reading (currently reading the Brunner anthology - a better read than I thought - Well done Mister Werner), gardening (truly relaxing past time if the weather is right), the internet (got onto this little flash game courtesy of one of the other bloggers - its called mud and blood 2 - play at your own peril).

Anyway, I can only give it a try, and if it all fails miserably, try to learn from the experience.

There is some whispering amongst my old Dark Heresy group of starting Death Watch soon. Must get onto those minis too!!! Thinking of playing a Dark Angel character - always loved their flaw/secret shame.

That'll do for today. Lots to do, so little time to do it.

Happy hobby all.

Cheers,

Pom

Hey hey an update...

2010-08-25T21:12:00.007+09:30

It's been a while between posts but I've been there, lurking in everyone else' blogs thinking on how I should get back to painting something.

Prior to my recent bout of laziness I finished up a few pieces of my scatter terrain for my board.

I have 3 more on my paint bench nearing completion now.

I managed a couple of games over the past 3 weeks including a send off apocalypse match at the local for one of the store guys Adz. It was fairly eventful with 3 Eldar Titans bouncing around the place shooting up large chunks of army with their D Strength lances of doom. I take pleasure in knowing that my 3,000 point contribution was the only entirely painted force on the board, even if it still died just as quickly as a set of legs stuck to a base. Highlights of the game for me including watching my 'crack Marine's' inability to take down an Eldar flyer, only for said flyer to be swatted out of the air by a Guard missile team (my Guard never hit anything); and the finale to the game being my Termies assaulting the Titans after my 'Blade had spent a turn trying to kill one off (I took off both arm weapons and had it down to one structure point). Through judicious use of a re-roll I took another one out Apocalyptic style which also saw off the one with no arms and the majority of my remaining forces. I'll take that as a moral victory.

I also got a game in against my non-gamer mate Jay who now has a win-loss-draw record against me of 5-1-2, not bad for a supposed non-gamer. He used my vanilla Marines (I have stopped letting him sub them for Space Wolves or Blood Angels) and thumped my Guard 10-6 in kill points. It was all looking good until his reserves rolled up and ate most of my army in assault. We used the red barrells are explosive house rule and I lost half a heavy weapons team to some which I had deployed too close too. It does add a bit more realism to the game, and we have now decide that I will build some unexploded ordinance (can anyone say Death Strike) which will be harder to detonate, but have a much bigger effect if it does go off.

I'm currently painting up an old Empire Lord model for a painting comp and need to start a Nurgling base for another comp my local is running. I also have a Giant on my paint table which I picked up the other week with some gift cards I got for my birthday. He will go in my WoC army and I built him to represent a giant Marauder, but green stuffed some basic pustules on him to keep with the Nurgle theme.

I've also been base coating my Guard Armour using an airbrush/compressor setup I picked up on the cheap to help me lay down my base coats on my terrain, so I once again have a nice mix of projects underway that I can flick between.

Pappa JJ has got some inspiring terrain building going on at his blog diceRolla which is giving me plenty of ideas on how to add to my current board to give it a denser urban feel. I urge anyone with an interest in 40K terrain building to pop over and check out his stuff (he also has a cool idea for a Simpson themed Guard army).

On non-hobby news I will be going away with the missus this weekend to sunny Queensland for a two week holiday to get away from the crappy weather we have been having where I live. This means that I won't have access to the blog or any hobby gear, but will be making an effort to get into as many of the local GW's as I can while I am away (It is actually planned on the itinerary my missus has drawn up - how nerdy is that and how awesome is she for letting me do it).

Around the house I now have replanted parts of my garden and have a shiny new veranda although the contractors are due back to fix a leak that started with the heavy rain we have been having (better found now than later on). The veranda gives us some much needed under cover entertaning space and some shade for the rear rooms of the house. We still plan to replace all the fences when we get back from our holiday and then most of the out door stuff will be done.

With the veranda up I have been able to clear out the back shed and spread more of my hobby gear out in there. The missus picked up some cabinets from her work which are perfect for storing my terrain in when not in use (also useful for putting deceased units in while playing).

I think I will eventually move my armies out there as well for ease of use when we play (saves lugging them back and forth all the time). I still have plans to build a second story extension and deck out a man cave inside the house proper but that one is on the back burner for now.

And that's the state of the hobby at this time.

Keep those dice rolling,

Cheers all,

Pom

More Terrain...

2010-08-01T12:03:00.004+09:30

While the missus is of at the shops I thought I would get a cheeky post in of some more scatter terrain I knocked up last night.

I have again used some random bits from my bits box, left over bits from the CoD kits, some Tamiya WW2 kits and some plaster and basing sand.

A hastily erected barricade. My non-gamer gaming buddy Jay was excited with the last lot of barricades, in particular the mini fuel dump. He has asked that I paint the barrels red and we run some home brew house rules regarding the barrels being explosive like they are in most xbox games we play. I remember playing similar rules to this back when I first got into the hobby as a kid where me and my gaming mate had a floating random tree which we used to randomly move around the board using a scatter dice and if it contacted something it blew up like a Vindicator shell (S10 AP1 Large Blast). I reckon I might tone down the barrels to a basic flamer stat but keep the size of large blast template. Makes you think twice about pulling into cover and adds a bit of non-core rule excitement to the game.

Another mini scene, this one represents an arms cache and was built primarily from the Tamiya Allied and German Tank Supplies Set 1 kit. These Tamiya kits are great value at between $AUS 7-10 and give loads of random bits and bobs for use on terrain, and on Imperial Guard vehicles (ie stowage, tools, jerry cans etc).

Another fuel dump - I think I might work up a story to the board we play over. Maybe a minor Forge World, or fuel processing centre. I had thought about it being an old battle ground which the Imperium lost and is now coming back decades later to reclaim it (such are the vagaries of time in the Warp) which is why everything is ruined, and vegetation is making a come back (I plan on strategically applying patches of flock/moss to the pieces).

Another random barricade built from a Tamiya kit - the obviously named Sand Bag set - and some CoD.

And my least favourite - some tank traps. I have the bits to build another 3 but think they are a tad too big and they were a bit of a bugger to get lined up. I need to think on these ones - they may be better being placed singly on the board rather than grouped. I am looking around for a rust substitute that I have seen some of the other bloggers use which you paint on and it sets like rust.

The first group I made are currently drying after being primered, and I plan on painting them up this week. These little projects have cemented the 'hobby' side of the hobby as my favourite over painting and gaming. Building random stuff using nothing but bits and pieces and your imagination.

Anyway, the missus just pulled up and is yelling at me to help unload the car so I'm off.

Happy gaming all.

Cheers,

Pom

Terrain (Pic heavy)...

2010-07-25T20:27:00.011+09:30

This first part is non hobby related so you might want to skip down a bit.

I mentioned in my last post I had some real world things to do about the house which has kept me off the blog and away from my paint station. We are having a pergola put up out the back of our house to provide some much needed shaded areas coming into the summer which will be ideal for barbies and entertaining. We are also planning to replace all of our fencing as our old fences are currently falling in where the ground has shifted and some concrete poured by a neighbour has moved over against the uprights. Aside from the obvious aim of fixing the fallen in part of the fence line, we are also having the height of the fence increased which will allow for more privacy out the back, and was also a condition my missus set before we were allowed to get a dog. Part of the process involved removing some of my existing garden which would have impeded the fitting of a new fence, but also allows me to refresh what had become quite a tired backyard.

My mam and dad came round over the last 2 days and gave me a hand to rip out some of the old growth and mulch most of it down which has been returned to the compost bin and garden, and to take the remainder to the green waste dump for conversion into council mulch.

I now have some nice open space out the back. I will be partially paving a section of it in front of my tool shed, and planting another citrus tree in the other bit. My missus is currently tossing up between a mandarin or a tangerine tree. Dad got a bit carried away pruning the lemon tree (previously thought to be a lime tree) and I seem to have lost half a tree, but he assures me it will come good through the spring.

I still have a bit of work to do including pulling out another three bushes, and trimming down my Spitisporum hedge prior to the installation of the pergola. The bushes will need to wait until after September when I get back from some holidays, but I will be getting onto the Spitisporum on Friday. I also need to paint the gutters and eaves before the pergola is put in.

All this outdoor pruning, shaping and excavation got me in the mood for some terrain building for my games table.

I already have some cities of death (CoD) buildings and craters for the board, but there is a lot of open spaces about the board which I needed to fill with scatter terrain. Looking over Dice Rollas 'Sector 7G' and how tight and confined his board is looking, and flicking through the 'How to Make Wargames Terrain' (a really cool book which I encourage any terrain builders to have a flick through) I figured I would have a go at some smaller scatter pieces.

GW have put out some nice Ork and CoD ruined barricades, and many other companies have some nice resin pieces, but they all come in quite expensive. Adz had given me some MDF board, and I went through my bits boxes and looked at some gear I had lying around and figured I would just put stuff together and see what I got. I whipped out my dads jigsaw and had at it.

The first pieces I tried were a bit meh. The sandbags could have been another level higher, and the presence of the tank trap/lamp post doesn't make a lot of sense when you look at them as a piece (ie they don't tell a story), but they gave me a good starting point.

I knocked out a small fuel dump and a 'pumping' station complete with techies tool box (I imagine he was working at the station when the first shells landed and he had no time to collect up his tools before he legged it).

I have 2 stands of razor wire which were dead easy to knock up and I think I will make a few more of these.

I then made some rubble piles.

The first one has a dead Marine buried in it using a shoulder pad and helmet. Simple and effective. He will be painted up in my Chapter colours and might come in useful for objective games.

The second one went a bit bigger, and was built more like one of GW's barricades. I tried to get across the idea of a hurried Guard command post or rally point.

The final piece I made is still WIP. It is going to be a fountain when I find a suitable main feature. I will put in some water effect puddles and maybe a floating canteen or some sort of detritus of war.

I still want to do some pillars which I plan on putting my old second ed Marines (the ones holding their Bolters across their chests) on top which I will set up as a colonnade leading to the fountain, or the front of the church.

It's been fun building these little pieces up using nothing but the stuff I have lying around and which cost me nothing. The missus wasn't too please to find me spreading the build process outside of the allotted hobby space and she got that glazed eye look when I started explaining to her what i was doing.

I have been listening to Iron Maiden while building these pieces and their track 'Clansman' has me itching to paint up this Reaper mini.

I am going to try to find some time this week to get him started but work is starting to ramp up again following EoFY. It's tax time in Australia at the minute and there is a big push for increased productivity and output. The overseers are all cracking their whips demanding more widgets be counted so I have found myself stuck at work later than I usually like to be and am fair knackered when I get in. I will see how I get on. I also want to try to get a game or 2 in.

That's it then - that's where I've been and what I have been doing. Hope all your hobby time has been productive.

Cheers all,

Pom

Fantasy 8th ed is alright...

2010-07-11T20:01:00.005+09:30

That's a bit of an understatement.

I went into the store today and got a game of the new edition in against one of my Dark Heresy colleagues and his Orcs and Goblins. We played a 1,500 point game with the mission to capture the watch tower in the centre of the board.

He had 3 big blocks of Orcs, one of which was Black Orcs, and a horde of Goblins, with a Rock Thrower (a nice custom build) and a Spear Chucka, with a couple of Mages and a Warboss on a boar. I took my WoC, taking 2 units of 15 Warriors with hand weapon and shield (one with mark of Nurgle, the other with Khorne), another unit of 10 with 2 hand weapons and mark of Nurgle, 3 trolls, my Warhounds and Hell Cannon, with a Sorceror (Nurgle) and Exalted Hero (Khorne with Axe of Khorne).

I never played enough of the 7th ed to really get my head around it, but I do know that I much prefer this version after only one game. You get the pre-measuring goodness of LotR, with the randomness of unknown charge results and magic, and massive combats. Like Jervis has been harping on about for a while now - the game has become cinematic.

Stef, my opponent, has the same game philosophy as me - its about the fluff and the fun of the game. We had a couple of the other lads watching the game, and the overall vibe and atmosphere was really good. As a learning game, we had to stop a couple of times to check things, but this didn't really disrupt the flow of the game, more let us take a break to relive a certain action etc while we found the answer.

Stef started and had some bad animosity/squabble roll, but got straight onto the board with his magic and artillery. The magic now is really cool. He killed my Sorceror with his first spell roll. Bam, just like that, and then did nothing else magic wise until the end of the game. His rock lobber squashed a couple of my Warriors and I started thinking this was going to be hard.

I pushed straight forward for the objective - the best place to be in the game for WoC is combat - and managed to fail a charge with my Hounds, but was lucky enough to leave them out of range for a counter charge. I entered a copse of trees with my Trolls and my Khorne Warriors which caused them to test for stupidity while in the trees. In the shooting phase my Hell Cannon only managed to squash one Orc.

Stef claimed the tower in the second turn with his Black Orcs in the second turn, and caused my 10 man Nurgle unit to flee after failing their leadership test when they lost more guys to his rock lobber.

I managed to rally the fleeing Warriors, and get a successful charge with my Hounds at his Goblin Horde, and again with my Trolls against one of his blocks of Orcs, and my Khorne Warriors at the Tower. My Hounds killed 2 Gobbos, but were wiped out (10 wounds) in return - the Gobbos dished out 30+ attacks being a Horde. My Trolls were also wiped out after being caught while fleeing following and unsuccessful combat. My Warriors fared much better though. My Hero was in this unit and easily trounced his Champion in a challenge, causing 4 overkills. When you assault a building you can only fight with 10 guys in total, and only kills count for combat res. My 9 Warriors (10 - the attacks from the Hero) knocked off 12 Orcs, reducing the unit to 9 capable of fighting back. They killed only 2 Warriors and promptly fled. I held the Watch Tower.

The remaining turns consisted of Stef charging the Tower with his remaining units (one unit at a time). I always struck first in each combat (due to higher initiative), aside from the last combat when he successfully cast a spell on the unit to give it the 'strikes first' rule. In each combat I managed to cause enough damage to cause the unit to flee.

WoC are hard as nails, and now that you always fight with the front rank intact (assuming you haven't lost sufficient models to lose that rank too), I was able to dish out a horrendous number of quality attacks (although the cost of the basic warrior means I am always likely to be outnumbered).

The only other combat of note saw his Gobbos charge my Nurgle Warriors in the flank. I lost the resultant combat due to the size of the horde, the charge bonus, a hill bonus, ranks and banners etc, but held, giving me a free reform ensuring that in the next turn I would fight with the whole rank plus the second rank. The game had to end before I got to play out that turn as the store was closing, but I have no doubt I would have caused significant damage.

I won the game as I held the Tower. If we had continued, Stef had enough units to charge it a couple of more times. Although I was tearing through each unit, he would always rally the next turn, and he was slowly whittling away at my unit. I think though that I would have easily destroyed his Gobbos, and been able to reinforce the tower with a fresh unit.

It was a really cool learning game, and I am looking forward to playing more soon.

I also got a game of 40K in against Jay on Saturday. He took a Smurf Marine list relying on a load of heavy support options (which now I think about it he had too many for a force org chart), with minimal troops. We played annihilation and I had a similar Guard list to my previous outings.

The game went to 6 turns and I got him down to a Land Raider, Dreadnought and his Chapter Master, but he actually won on a kill point count back - lame. It was still a great game, and we went through each of his unit choices afterwards to see what performed well and what didn't (ie a Scout Squad which had no purpose and his Chapter Master which was a one trick pony - he bought it solely for the Orbital Bombardment which scattered right off target).

I have finished retouching my Marines t give them red trim on their shoulder pads. The army has a bit more 'pop' with the addition of that little bit of colour.

You can see that I still have quite a few primered models (shamefully collecting dust), as well as some models awaiting a repaint to bring them up to date with my current approach (ie layered from foundations to highlight rather than ink washing). These will get the red trim also. I am waiting on some Microscale Decal solution to aid with decal application and the whole force will get a treatment to bring coherency. Still tossing around doing something to highlight the Veterans - ie a helmet stripe etc.

I have gotten a couple more plebe Marines done and have one or two more to do before I switch to something else - probably some WoC seeing as how most of the guys I play against are making the switch back to Fantasy.

We are having an ad hoc RPG session on Wednesday to test the new Death Watch system. I have downloaded the free supplements and will have a read through prior to the game. Looking forward to playing one of the Emperors finest.

And that's the state of the hobby for the last week or so. Adz gave me some MDF to use as bases for some 40K barricades I want to make for the board so I might have a crack at that during the week. We are having some work done around the house which might eat into my hobby time for the next couple of weeks so I might slow down on the blog front for a bit, but will still lurk on everyonelses.

Hope you're all kicking ass and taking names with the new Fantasy.

Cheers all,

Pom

What do you think - Iron Snakes...

2010-06-28T20:05:00.004+09:30

I have just finished re-reading Dan Abnetts Brothers of the Snake - awesomeness in book form.

While reading it, I realised that the colour scheme for the chapter is similar to my own, but they have red trim whereas mine have black.

I am painting some plebe Marines so thought I would have a crack at the red trim and see what it looks like in min form with my grey scheme.

This is what I got.

The cover art also shows they have more gold but I stay away from metallics where I can so this is what I have.

What do you guys think. Should I apply it to a squad and see what it looks like en masse, or call it there, and revert back to the old scheme?

Cheers,

Pom

Finally a win...

2010-06-27T18:02:00.003+09:30

Its been quiet on the painting front this last week and a bit. I have progressed some plebe Marines but I have generally been doing stuff around the house. Many of the painting skills learned with mini's are fairly transferrable when you upscale to house sized projects. I have been helping my mate prep a house for sale. Its all about preparation and patience - something my mate lacks, but I make up for so we are a fairly good working team.

As the title of this post suggests, I have gotten some games in and actually scored a win. I am not ashamed to admit that my non-gamer mate Jay (although how many games does it take to make someone a gamer?) has a win loss ratio significantly in his favour - 3 wins, 2 draws and a loss. I have mentioned before how much I enjoy playing Jay for the uynique perspective he brings to the game. A relative noob, no prior contact with any aspect of the hobby, but utterly devouring the rule set and codices.

He brought over a Blood Angel list last weekend and dominated me with it. His list was a bit bloated in that he spent points where he didn't need to (Plasma Pistols for a Devastator Sergeant come to mind), but he owned me with it thanks to some quality tactical choices and his ability to make 'feel no pain' roles.

He brought around a new list on Friday night and we sat down and went through each unit, why he had chosen it and the wargear and what he wanted it to do. Aside from his excel skullduggery miscalculating and giving him a 115 point bonus, we managed to trim his list down a bit further, and bring in some new options.

We then gamed with this list with a minor addition on Saturday night. That minor addition was the introduction of the Baneblade to my list, bumping the game to 2,000 points (not optimal for Apoc but funny as all hell in games terms), and the provision of a Termie unitand Redeemer for him.

I had tweaked my Guard list to get in more tanks and my Valkyrie (held together with blue tac and rubber bands).

Game commenced and by the end of turn 1 I was regretting bringing the Baneblade as it loked like it was going to be quite one sided. But then the world turned on its head and hilarity ensued (with a little coaching and prodding from me and some truely terrible dice rolls).

Turns 2 and 3 were some of the best gaming I've had. My Blade was assaulted by his Termies and duely blown apart. I judiciously nudged a dice roll to bring on an Apocalyptical explosion which Jay managed to get to 16 inches, taking out a significant portion of both forces (more so mine). My Valkyrie rocked up, deployed my glory boys (Storm Troopers) who failed to wound a single Marine, and then proceded to kill half the Stormies with a back scattering multiple rocket strike. A lone Sergeant managed to rout a significant portion of my Infantry strength, stun a tank with a well placed Melta Bomb and then claim my objective - ducking and weaving passed around 50 rapid firing las weapons, plasma bursts and battle cannon shots.

The game ended at turn 5. Jay owned both objectives, and I was reduced to a turretless Russ surrounded by Anti tank units. We played out turn 6 to see if I could have rescued the game and secured a draw but with his first shot, Jay destroyed the tank - killing his last Sangy Guard (or squeal unit as he calls them as a result of their ability to own anything they so much as look at) in the process.

Happy times for all. It's games like this why I take part in this hobby. A couple of guys hanging out, having FUN. Simple as that.

We set up a second game using my AoBR Orks and a small Marine list and it was this game that gave me my win. I wasn't feeling so educational this time round so gun lined him to death. Inglorious? Yes. Satisfactory? Yes Yes. I finally got a run on the board.

I plan on sitting down and getting some painting in (mini's wise) this week so should have some pics up by next weekend.

Happy gaming all,

Cheers,

Pom

Whats on my desk right now...

2010-06-19T19:29:00.006+09:30

I survived my trip to the nations capital on work, although I felt mighty crappy last night when I got in and ended up sleeping for 15 hours straight last night so I was obviously fighting something off. Didn't manage to lift a brush today, although I did manage to glue my fingers together playing with some Harlequins which told me I probably wasn't in the right state to have a crack at painting anyway.

I did get a look in at the blogs on my blog roll. The work the guys are doing on the Storm Wardens is looking good, and I've done my bit and made a contribution.

I enjoyed Miks latest post showing his workstation and 'summer painting queue' and figured I could do that (albeit it will be my winter paint queue).

The majority of my current queue is 40K related, but there is a bit of Fantasy love in there, plus the usual odds and sods.

First up is some random Marines which I need to use as place holders when I swap out different load outs, plus my Chappie with Jump Pack to run around with my Assault Squad. Also in this low is my old, beat up Land Raider, which will be on its 4th paint job I think. I am thinking of picking up a crusader variant to run alongside this one, Termies in one, and Vets in the other.

My Death Watch which now have some nice bases courtesy of a trade I made with Adz.

Some LotR reinforcements for my Battle Company which should let me swap out my Orcs for something with a bit more hitting power (that is if I ever get some points to spend upgrading my war band).

My Barbarian which is still waiting on some finishing touches.

Some more random Reaper minis which I will fit in between core jobs as a bit of fun.

The aforementioned Harlequins which I am looking forward to tackling as something completely different - actual colours. I'm excited.

And finally my WoC Marauder Horsemen. While I am on a roll with my flesh technique I thought I might give these guys a look in. I also have a few standard Warriors that need revisiting after
being knocked about a bit after a run in with a hoover and someones foot.

And that's that. I have plenty to keep me busy over the next few months or so, and there is still plenty more on the shelves.

I got a '40K in 40 minutes' game in on Tuesday night against Luke and his all Gretchin army. Lots of the little buggers with a Mek and some artillery. He castled up on both objectives in the back corner and I advanced on him with a vanilla Tac squad with a flanking Assault squad. I lost some lads to his artillery crossing the field and he actually assaulted my Assault squad which caused a laugh, managing to hold them for a turn. But ultimately his force was too fragile (even with Squigs eating the odd Grot to instill some confidence) and I got the win with bonus points for capturing both objectives.

And that's enough prattle for today.

Happy gaming all,

Cheers,

Pom

Dude got owned the encore episode...

2010-06-13T20:06:00.005+09:30

Adz came over today for a game. The results were fairly devastating.

But before I get to that, here are some pics I took of my 'painted' Marine Army (sans a Chaplain and Librarian in Termie Armour). This represents the entirety of my Marine painting effort over the last 5 years since I came back to the hobby and which at first was a bit depressing:

I have a much larger force built and primered (and in some cases base coated), but this lot is completely painted - representing the needs of the basic 1 HQ and 2 troops rule, plus the other stuff that I either a) liked the model, or b) thought would be fun to play. En masse, it doesn't look like a lot, but I weigh that against what else I have completed and what else I have on in my 'real life'. I have a nice sized Warriors of Chaos force painted (with more built waiting their turn), and random Guard, Orcs and odds and sods. Still not a huge quantity, but a fair effort for the pace I work too. Real life intrudes more often than not on my hobby time, and at the end of the day its about balance. I have a career and home life to manage, friends and other social callings, plus other hobby pursuits. When I looked at it overall I can say I am proud of the force assembled in these pics.

Now the game. Adz got me back for the last few games. We again played a mission from the Battle Missions supplement, but rather than bring his Eldar which I had semi-tweaked my list for, he pulled out a cross discipline Chaos Marine list. It contained a couple of units of Emperors Children and a small Termie unit, some Thousand Sons with a Dready, some World Eaters and a Daemon Prince. I was a bit put off by the number of bodies I was looking at as he had gone for quantity rather than war gear approach (although he did have some naff war gear - doom sires are lame).

We played the second Chaos Marine mission 'Black Crusade' which is basically kill points with squad recycling when a unit is destroyed (not vehicles). All non-frenzy units got the stubborn special rule so we were fairly unlikely to fail moral checks. I failed to steal initiative and Adz started his advance - 2 squads in Rhinos, everything else on foot.

My first turns looked promising as I took out his Termies, Daemon Prince and Thousand Sons after he failed armour and invulnerable saves across the board, but it turned pretty quickly. My Deep Striking behind enemy lines Dready with newly painted anti vehicle load out (too expensive for future games for the benefit you get from it) failed its shots at rear armour of a Rhino and then spent 4 turns in combat with his Dready.

I failed entirely to wipe out his Emperors Children coming down my right flank. I got both units down to 2 men but they refused to die. I got them down to 1 man in the last turn. This denied me much needed kill points and meant I was wasting squad after squad/vehicle shooting at them to try to get the point. In return they slowly whittled down everything on that side of the board (damn doom siren).

His World Eaters successfully ate the same scout and combat squad twice and refused to take a single wound - hiding in their Rhino which I was also unable to pop. The Termies, Thousand Sons and Daemon Prince recycled onto the board and added to the tally on his side. I called it at turn 5 when he was up 10 - 4. We 'theoretically' played out my last turn and managed to pop the World Eater Rhino and the last Emperors Children who had doggedly hung out but it would have bee far too little much too late.

For all that it was still a great game, against a force I haven't often played (especially with that mix of units). I read a lot on the interwebz how crappy the Chaos Marine Codex is but I think they are pretty cool. A bit more expensive than a standard Marine, but unit for unit, far better than a codex Tactical Squad. We talked about how the Space Wolf and Blood Angel codex's are better on paper than the Smurf list, but at the end of the day I have played this same army in some iteration since I first came to the hobby and wouldn't swap it, or substitute another codex list.

We then set up for a LotR Battle Company game which saw Adz advancing on my position to recapture his Captain that I had taken last game. This was a straight up massacre. I went in with 10 models and lost them all. End of game round up saw 3 of the killed, and 3 of them missing the next game. I need some tougher models.

As far as painting goes I have nearly finished my Barbarian (will post Tuesday after I have been to the local for some dead static grass) and finished the aforementioned Dreadnought Twin Las and Missile Launcher. I used my Jump Pack Chappy today which is currently unpainted so that might move up the paint queue, and I am still thinking my Land Raider needs some love. Add in some LotR Uruks and my desk is starting to look full again. Adz traded me some bases for my Death Watch to stand on. They are the city ruins line from Dragon Forge. I traded him some of my spare tech Deck bases and markers (also from Dragon Forge).

I have also started looking at my bits box for some help and inspiration to build some barricades for my board. I have seen some nice resin barricades from GW, FW, Dark Arts and Maxi Mini, but it doesn't look like it should be that hard to build my own out of common bits and bobs around the house so I will be giving that a crack over the next week or so.

I have some travel coming up for work this week and some job apps are due so hobby time this week will be reduced although I am looking to get into GW on Tuesday to trial the 40K in 40 minutes (combat patrol) rules with the lads, and maybe find someone else to flog me in LotR.

Cheers all,

Pom

Dude got owned...

2010-06-08T19:46:00.003+09:30

Popped into the local to throw some dice with Adz and they were busy. Lame. Got to sit around for a bit and even painted up part of a new table they are putting together (my part looked better in the half light but a full fluoro over head makes it look pants) and then belatedly got a game in.

We played one of the LotR Battle Company missions which required me as an attacker to push my force through a town and off the other side of the board. 33% of the force (or 4 models for me) needed to escape. No bottle checks, annihalation counted as a win for Adz. He got to deploy in the centre of the board.

As I was quite a bit down experience wise I got 1 free re-roll to use during the game (which I forgot until after the game and which then messed me up but more on that in a bit).

I got first turn and pushed most of my force to the left flank out of LOS of his archers, with a spoiling force and lone archer down the right flank.

The game got bogged down in combat at turn 3 with most of it going Adz's way until I got some decent rolls which looked to bring it back to me and then the fickle dice gods took away their favour and left me to hang. Adz annihalated my force, although I did take out one of his Captains. The closest I got to escaping was about halfway up the left board edge with 2 Orcs prior to being pin cushioned by his 3 Archers.

In the after game experience build I lost 2 of my 'dead' spearmen, with everyone else making a full recovery aside from my Uruk Captain. Initially I rolled a 'miss the next game' but then Adz reminded me that I hadn't used my re-roll. I looked over the likely results and decided to chance a re-roll which came up a 1, leaving my Uruk one armed meaning I lose my Shield and the +1 Defence it granted. Lame.

It was still a good game though, just full of terrible dice rolls (cursed store dice). We are having a rematch on Sunday as the Captain I killed and joked I was looting his shiny actually ended up being captured so he needs to mount a rescue in the next game to get him back.

Painting wise I have progressed my Barabarian although the following pictures don't necessarily flatter him.

I am probably going to leave his bronze armour alone for now as it has come up alright following an overbrush of brass/silver with a sepia wash (picture quality doesn't really show it well). I need to tighten up a few of the flesh highlights, and fix up some of the defined muscle groups where I had paint bleed over a crease. I will be putting a slight highlight over the axe head along its edges, and then need to do something with the fur - a reddy brown I think to keep to a similar colour group, and obviously need to finish off the base. As a random 4 colour mini I am really chuffed with how it is coming along. The flesh recipe I have settled on which Noeste provide a while back, but with a touch of bleached bone in it for the final highlights. I find this works better than a white as it ties back to alot of the other colours used which also benefit from a bleached mix.

He is inspiring me to look at my Marauders for my WoC which also have a lot of flesh to work on, although with them I might substitute the bleached bone with rotting flesh as they are likely to be given a Mark of Nurgle. Might look at my horsemen soon.

Anyway, thats it for today. I have Heresy tomorrow night and might see if I can get a snap of our group for the old archives, and then should be playing Adz on the weekend which turns out is a long one this weekend as its Old Lizzies birthday.

So on that note - God save the Queen.

Cheers all,

Pom

Get your blog on...

2010-06-06T14:58:00.007+09:30

Its time to get back in the hobby saddle I told myself this morning. The last few months have seen me cut right back on hobby time. I stopped painting (kept spending and building random crap though) and stopped gaming outside of my fortnightly Dark Heresy game.

Over the last 2 weeks I have made a real effort to get back on the bandwagon. Now I have a built table and some cool terrain (unpainted pending the procurement of the spray gun to speed up paint time) I have no excuse not to play at home.

I've played a couple of games against my non-gamer mate Jay and local GW lad Adz. The results were not what I was expecting. I played my unpainted (which I reckon was the primary cause of the result) guard against my Marines which Jay borrowed. He thumped me in both of his 'training' missions as well as a full blown 1,500 pointer. In the larger game I had the better of him for 3 turns during which I took out 90% of his deployed forces. Unfortunately his remaining 2 Assault Marines and some late Deep Striking Termies were enough to wipe out most of my scoring units (oh how I lament the sweeping advance rule) ensuring he scored a win. Good fun was had by all and Jay took home my rule books and codexes to 'have a flick through' and has come back with a well balanced Space Wolf list and various tactical ideas he wants to apply to our next match. We will sub my Marines for Wolves until I relent and pick up a few Pack boxes for him to have his hand at.

My 2 games against Adz on the other hand went better. We played the Eldar (Flank Attack) and Marine (all-round Defence) missions out of the Battle Missions supplement. In the first game (Eldar) I won by holding 2 of the obectives at the end of the game, having had some really lucky dice rolls and Adz making some really bad tactical choices with poor supporting dice rolls (Wraith Lord and Warlock and Guardian Jet Bikes at a Termie Squad spring to mind). His Path Finders with 2+ 'I'm Hiding in cover' ponciness are unbeatable but weren't enough to win the game. The second game was much closer with him making some right jammy cover/armour saves and me making some really bad ones. That mission involves the Marines setting up in the centre of the board on an objective and being assaulted 360 degrees by the enemy. Terrain setup failed me here with there only being a crater in the centre of the deployment zone and lots of high buildings overlooking it. It ended as a draw mainly because his 2 troop units were both out of position at game end. His Banshee Exarch and Scorpions were brutal in that game, tearing up Tactical squads, Terminators and Assault Marines with impunity.

Playing the game reminds how much I love the hobby, so this week I am planning to get in store for some dice rolling action. I'm off work Tuesday for some house stuff and am lining up some small 400 point games and some LotR Battle Companies for the afternoon/early evening. I have Heresy on Wednesday night, and Adz coming back for a rematch on Sunday.

Adz got me semi-hooked on Battle Companies the other week and I have built a small Mordor force. Although I love the metal LotR models for the detail they have on them, the plastics aren't up to the same level, or even the level of the Warhammer or 40K kits. I really didn't enjoy painting the minis and the quality of the finished product shows it - worst paint job since I got back into the hobby I would say (Note to self - Washes don't solve the worlds painting problems). I also wish I had used Uruk-Hai Scout models in place of the Mordor Orcs, so if anyone has a spare frame of Scouts they want to trade for a spare frame of Orcs let us know.

The appeal of this game is that it is small (ie quick to play) and plays like Necromunda which I really enjoyed. Plus it has advancement tables for each model meaning you actually grow an attachment to the little plastic buggers.

Heresy is moving along steadily. We are on a Hulk at the moment looking for a lost Daemon Hunter. Last session was full of confusion and not a single encounter aside from a quick dash from some Screamers that only 2 of the characters could see. Its still good fun to play and gives us a chance to catch up and talk hobby and other random crap for a couple of hours a fortnight outside of the store which is cool. We added a new player with this adventure who i have dubbed Scrub. He is playing an Arbites character and is our nominal leader at the order of our controlling Inquisitor. I don't expect us all to make it out of this Hulk given the amount of gear the Inquisitor allowed us to pack for free.

We are already taking about playing Death Watch when that is released so maybe we will work the two stories together some how so their is a transition from one system to the other. Which segues nicely to some of my random building I have been doing. I pulled apart my existing Death Watch Marines which I had as a bodyguard for my Xenos Inquisitor (I have a representative from each Ordos with a 5 man squad from each of the chambers militant - Grey Knights, Sisters and Death Watch - all unpainted of course). Although I liked my original concepts, looking at the fluff for Death Watch on the Fantasy Flights Games site made me realise I needed to make it model more chapter trait oriented. All I have done is theme each model a bit with a few bits and a rejig in the pose.

My Space Wolf model already looked the part with his axe and head swap, chest plate and shoulder pad, so I tried to do the same thing with the others.

I have a Dark Angel with a great sword head (with a skull cap) which looks more 'knightly' and how I imagine the Dark Angels to be, swapped out his plain shoulder pad with a chapter specific one, and made his pose more dynamic. He is still just shooting a bolter, but I think it is more precise now, as if it is something he has practiced doing all his life, again like a knight.

I have a Blood Angel who uses the screaming Death Watch head with his gun arm streched out firing, a chain sword and a new Blood Angels shoulder pad (cheers GW Marion for the bit). He now looks a bit more agressive, as if the thirst is upon him, but controlled - eg he is shooting his bolter and not charging like a blood frenzied looney.

I made up an Ultramarine but kept him as plebian as possible - ie Codex plebian. I gave him the Auspex and a Melta bomb and an Ultramarine pad, but a stock standard Death Watch helm, plain armour and stance. A by the book Marine.

My last is the Sergeant model so he got the Mark 8 armour with a Death Watch helmet, power sword and new pose. I ran out of chapter specific pads, so used a spare pad from the vehicle sprue which I will free hand a design on. I am thinking Imperial Fists and keep to first founding chapters.

I just need to base them but don't know what to use. My Heresy guys are on tech deck bases from Dragon Forge, but I think I have done tech deck to death. I want something a bit different that ties into the locations that a Death Watch team might operate over. I think maybe some of the goth-teck or concrete rubble range.

I picked up some Harlequins on the cheap at the last GW auction which I am looking forward to paint as a way to push my skills a bit.

On the painting front, things have been very slow. Aside from the painful experience of the Mordor Orcs, I have finished my kitbashed Sternguard. I have read that painting degrades through lack of practice and musce memory loss and understand what people mean when they say that now. I only had 3 Marines to paint but that was a real challenge, although it was one which got me back into the flow of things so it was a good way to hit the restart button.

I have been looking over my shelves for the last few days to see what I want to paint next. I am looking at my Land Raider and some more Termies or the rest of the Sternguard (the store bought ones this time). While I am deciding I started some small projects including the remaining weapon options for my Dreadnaught, and some Reaper minis.

Adz has told us about a 40K in 40minutes tournament being run at the local games club in Ausgust. I have never played in a Tourney before, but this looks interesting as it is only 400 point forces played using combat patrol (4th ed) rules and unit restrictions. I was toying around with doing a Tau raiding force using the battle force with some Kroot hounds but I think I will shelve this plan on cost grounds (the last thing I need is more mini's) and use my Marines. I should be getting some games on with Adz on Tuesday so we will see how I go at the small points level. Should be fun.

In other hobby news I have started to listen to podcasts while I am painting/building. I was following 40K radio, which even my non-gamer missus didn't mind on, and was disappointed with its recent closure. I have switched to an Aussie podcast by some lads out of WA - Worlds End Radio and the first couple of episodes I have listened too haven't been too bad.

I continue to burn through the various Black Library releases, Helsreach and a couple of the shorts out of Legends of the Space Marines are well worth a read. Finishing up Bloodborn now which is a bit so so.

So in all hobby life looks like its on the up, or at least the trend towards hobby hiatus (ala 2001 - 2005) seems to have been halted. I reckon the forth coming Fantasy 8th edition and a move back to more regular blogging might also get the old hobby rolling too.

Cheers all,

Pom

April 2010 roundup (pic heavy)...

2010-05-02T19:32:00.012+09:30

A mixed bag for April. I managed to fail my painting pledge of 5 Sternguard by only finishing one and a half - lame I know:

Still it is progress to a point.

I also got one of my Space Hulk Termies finished:

Now red is one bugger of a colour to paint and I learnt a lot with this guy that I will hopefully take to the next one.

I also finished up a Reaper mini that I had been eyeing off for a long while. I am going to use him as a substitute Dark Heresy mini eventually:

I was really aiming to hit the highlights better with this one which I think I achieved. I picked up a few minis from the Reaper website - mostly by the sculptor Bobby Jackson:

These are some really cool sculpts and will make for some nice display models and NPC characters for RPG. The guy on the end has been bitz boxed by having his standard sci-fi pistols swapped out for some laspistols I had spare. He is a future Arbites character.

I have my eye on a few more random models from both Heresy Miniatures and Hasselfree to sub in to our Dark Heresy games as NPCs, with some of the Heresy mini's making cool Necromunda substitutes as well.

My final completed model for the month was the Ork Flash Git Nob (I think that's what he is meant to be). The local store got one in their black box months ago and never got to paint it so I asked if I could and they said yes. I love painting Orks and would gladly collect more of them if I had more hobby time. I was meant to paint him to match the store army but cocked up by giving him worn blue armour instead of the stores yellow (not sure where I got blue from). I still think he came out OK and can now point to one of my paint jobs in the stores collection - Cal even let me place my mark on its base to show that I painted it and when it was done.

Also this month my little brother gave me a hand to knock up a gaming table top so I can run some games round my place in the back garage. The top measures in at 8 foot by 4 foot and sits over another little table I have. We were going to build legs on it but then I run into a storage issue as the missus doesn't want it set up all the time. This way I can just lift it off and store it against a wall when it's not being used. The thing ways an absolute ton as it has a support structure which the flat top screwed onto to help prevent warpage etc, and it is definitely a 2 person job to shift. It's currently bare and awaiting a sand treatment and then a lick of paint, but its not a bad job for the $15 it cost me in materials - my brother is a chippie and picked up most of the timber as off cuts from work.

To go with the table I picked up a Cities of Death Imperial City boxed set from one of my Dark Heresy gaming crew Dodd aka DecadentDabbling. I spent most of the last 4 days building the terrain and now my back hurts but I now have some terrain to go on my table. I also picked up a moonscape from GW.

My non-gamer (soon to be gamer) mate Jay came round today and we christened the table and terrain with a 1250 point Marine v Guard battle.

Jay is just getting into the whole hobby and seems to be enjoying the fluff and background to the hobby (based on the way he is devouring the various codices and rule books/expansions I have lent him). We played 2 practice games the other week on my kitchen table sans terrain and he floored me both times. What I have noticed is that as a noob coming into the hobby with fresh eyes, he is able to read and pick up the rules dead easy; whereas I find myself suffering from multiple-rules-itis. What I mean by this is I have read and thought I understood the rules for 40K since 3rd ed, the rules to Fantasy for the last 2 eds, the rules to Necro, the rules to Dark Heresy and some of the rules to LotR. What I have really done is overwritten what I read with what I think the rules are saying based on previous editions of the rules, or previous games played etc. Jay picked me up on 2 points in our games which is making me go back and look harder at the rules to make sure I really understand what they are saying.

As for the game today, what looked like an easy win at turn 4 for me turned into a draw by turn 7 with me being 2 inches too far away to hold my own objective in a capture and control mission, leaving both objectives unclaimed. It was a great game though and brings back a lot of the joy I had for the game when I used to play originally with my friends as a kid.

We wrapped up another mission in our Dark Heresy campaign in our last session and have been informed to prepare for a Space Hulk boarding for our next mission. We have been given access to a broader armoury to prepare our characters from so I have requested a new kit load out including access to Bolters and Incendiary Rounds to aid in dealing with the expected gribblies to be found on the Hulk.

My local GW has started up Battle Companies for LotR and Adam and Cal have probably sold me on it. Its basically a low model count Necromunda style of playing LotR. I love the mini's from that range, and the low model count means that it shouldn't be cost prohibitive to get into it. I have been trawling the GW website and think I have settled on a Mordor Orc/Uruk-Hai company but will probably need to talk more with the boys first and maybe have a trial game before I take the leap to buying more mini's. The missus already gave her opinion on the matter and it wasn't favourable.

And I think that concludes this months update. Getting a bit excited by the prospect of a new edition of Fantasy and also the release of the Deathwatch RPG. I quite like these smaller skirmish games over the bigger setpiece affairs - its a nice change of pace.

That'll be that I think.

Cheers all,

Pom

State of the Hobby - March 2010...

2010-04-02T13:04:00.007+10:30

March has drawn to a close and its time to round up whats what.

On the painting front I finished off the last little bits from the Unclean One. He now has 3 little Nurglings running around on his base:

They are a darker shade to him suggesting that as they grow and age they dry out a bit and crustify. In hindsight trying to work some more colour into his flesh to suggest patches of necrotisation etc would have been cool but meh - I now have a really cool but ultimately useless model (I don't play daemons) on my shelf - and learnt a bit more about metals and layering with metals so there you go.

I also knocked out my Dark Heresy PC and NPC followers - Xanthus Gallus and the Gallus Irregulars (he's the one with the sniper rifle hiding at the back):

I'm quite chuffed with them on both the building/modelling and the painting side. Got to use loads of random bits out of my boxes and paint colours I haven't usually touched. Adam gave me some pointers on how to improve on the highlights on the black armour and weapon casings which I will try to implement at some point. I plan to increase the squad size to 10 and use them as veterans with my Guard. I placed a red stripe down the front armour and on the helmets which ties them back to my regiment - same but different principle.

I have started work on some kitbashed Sternguard to move my Marines forward. Basically I took some spare Tactical Marine bits, added in some spare Death Watch bolters with some Stormbolter and Guard Pintle Mount drum mags slapped on and they were ready to go. There at an early stage now with the flesh bits done and the metals underway. I might diverge from my normal Marine scheme slightly to help identify them as 1st Company veterans. Looking at the Insignium Astartes book it might come down to something as simple as a yellow or blue stripe down their helmets a la Clone Trooper Commanders from Star Wars. If I take this route I will need to revisit my Termies and Dreadnaught to ensure continuity:

I also went out and picked up the official Sternguard kit to fill the squad up. For such a beautiful kit the models included were some of the worst metal casts I have ever had. They had some shocking mould lines and the whole mini in places is twisted and flattened. When I talked to the lads they suggested that the model might have been taken from the mould without being fully cooled leading to the warping. They still look good primered and put my poor kitbashed models to shame for level of detail:

This guy is my favourite and brings to mind that seminal picture of the Marine from the battle of the Emperors palace in his early mark armour striding forwards dealing death to the traitor - a really kick ass pose:

My poor WoC Knights haven't moved forward - again pushed down the painting queue.

The painting group I mentioned previously is kicking off this month and some of the lads have already set some extensive targets for themselves. Whereas they are aiming to progress a total army over the course of the group, I'm leaning more towards using it as a means to push myself to paint, and will continue to set achievable targets and jump from project to project as I see fit. For the coming month I would like to get my first 5 Sternguard done, and maybe one or two odds and sods models as well. I'm thinking of tackling one of the Space Hulk models as a display quality piece.

On the purchasing front, I still managed to spend over $200 in March, although aside from the Sternguard purchase, the rest of it was all books and a wash (and I actually outlaid more on xbox games and accessories). Month on month trends show my GW spending has decreased in each of the past 3 months. I have put this down to restraint on my behalf, as well as distractions outside the hobby (xbox and the missus spring to mind) which has seen my spending habits change.

I'm feeling good about spending for April as the only thing I want to buy right now is the new BA codex. I have already picked up the book releases planned for April from Black Library on pre-order in March. The only impediment to spending restraint is Adam who keeps sending links to random miniature websites he has found which have really cool sculpts which are very appealing as NPC randoms for our Heresy campaign.

And that segues nicely into the gaming results for the month. I don't think I payed a single core game all month which was a bit of a let down. This is mainly me being slack and not getting my Knights finished meaning I didn't play in the Fantasy campaign passed the 1,000 point limit as I didn't have enough mini's painted and didn't want to play unpainted. I also started a new position at work mid month and so between winding down the old role and starting the new I have been pretty flat out there leaving me little time or inclination to do much when I got home other than veg out on the settee with the TV or xbox on. I did have some more of the fortnightly Heresy sessions which are proving to be an interesting addition to my gaming repertoire. Still a bit unsure about the whole RPG thing but will persevere and see where it all leads. The idea and background of it all are cool, and the opportunities to build random models to flesh out the experience is very cool.

That concludes this update.

Cheers all,

Pom

Status of my Blog...

2010-03-13T19:47:00.002+10:30

I haven't touched a paintbrush or played a game of Fantasy or 40K since my last post but my hobby life is good. I have knocked off a number of books, looked critically at my collection and thought 'what do I need to complete this unit, or that army', have pawed through the new Blood Angels Codex and kits (beautiful work by the miniature designers), and trawled the blog sphere commenting on things that grabbed my eye.

Looking back at my last post, and in discussions with different people I have found a happy balance in my hobby. I started this blog in July last year as a way to document my hobby addiction, and to access the wider hobby community. The blog has achieved that, but I have gotten carried away with it some times, posting for the sake of posting etc. I have decided that I am going to limit my posting to end of month wrap ups from now on unless something amazing comes up - something on the scale of a plastic Thunderhawk, the release of the fabled WoC Daemon Prince, or the completion of an entire army. I will still read through my blog roll every day and comment when I think I can add something, or when something is deserving of a 'wow'.

I have also changed my painting focus. I currently have 3 different units on my table - my WoC Knights, my Space Marine kit bashed Sternguard, and my Guard/Dark Heresy Vet Squad. Having the 3 units on the go together means that I can swap out whenever I get bored, or lose motivation with one of the units. I intend to add another unit to the mix when one of the current ones is finished. The units picked will very much depend on where my interests lie at the time, influenced of course by the books I am reading, the games I am playing, and what I see out there in the blog-verse.

Adam from my Dark Heresy group has also suggested that we start a painting group with the aim of motivating each other to have a unit painted a month. I like this idea as I have found that I have produced some good work when I have had others to bounce ideas and suggestions off.

I have noticed that a couple of bloggeres have been listing some aspirational 3 - 5 year targets for where their hobby might be in that time so I'm going to finish this post with a look back at where I have come from, and where I want to end up.

I started out collecting miniatures with an Ultramarine army which I bought by saving my pocket money each week. Mini's were cheaper then but it still took me ages to build up a 1,500 point force. The beauty of this was that I would buy a kit, build it and paint it (the standard when I look back at the few which I haven't stripped is truely shocking but I was really proud of them at the time) before I bought the next one. These mini's were my pride and joy until I quit the hobby, and then they ended up boxed up under my bed until I was inexorably drawn back in 4 years ago. I stripped most of these miniatures and they now form the core of my current Marine army - the Silent Guard (chapter symbol pending). The advent of full time gainful employment and a generous partner meant that I can now pretty much buy most miniatures I want, when I want them which has seen my collection grow incredibly quickly leaving me with 2 and a half 40K armies, 2 fantasy armies and random odds and sods - 70% of which is built and primered abut otherwise unpainted.

My Marines and WoC are the most progressed forces (both paint wise and composition wise), being my primary playing forces for both systems. If I looked forward 3 years I would love to think that I had these forces fully painted, and fully fleshed out with the miniatures I like but have never bought because of price justification, or time.

If I pushed the horizon out to 5 years, I would hope that I had made a good sized dent into my secondary forces (my Empire and Guard), with most of my odds and sods out of the way too (Orks and Inquisition).

Every new codex and army book brings out a swathe of new miniatures, and I already see myself being tempted to add to or start new armies. I am considering picking up the new Space Wolf and Blood Angels kits to add to my Grand Army of the Imperium and run alongside my current Army - representing a joint Astartes task force. Long term this shouldn't pose a problem - I'm in this hobby for the long haul and time is my friend.

Thats enough of a ramble for now. Next post will be at the end of the month and hopefully I will have some pic's to share of somehting finished!!! That reminds me, I need to get my camera back as it is currently out on a loan.

Cheers all,

Pom

The penny finally drops and an update on WIP Unclean One...

2010-03-04T18:04:00.007+10:30

I have multiple reasons which I could roll out for being slow posting in recent days, but I won't, suffice to say I have been busy and blogging got dropped as a consequence.

Being busy aside, I have managed a bit of work on various miniatures including my Unclean One, the main reason for this post.

Before I post pictures, here is a bit of a ramble. This is a beautiful resin model, full of lovely detailing, and in my eyes, it is an adequate (and much more cost effective) substitute for the FW model.

When I saw the FW model I thought wow, that's beautiful (from a modelling perspective) but totally out of my price for a model that I would never use in games terms. Seeing this guy at Gamers Guild was a real boon.

I was talking to the lads the other night about the rise of hyper realistic painting, and the trend towards weathering powders and mediums, oil paints, airbrushing etc. These techniques and methods have probably been around for years, but at the moment, everywhere I turn, someone is producing gorgeously painted, hyper realistic looking models, which make the previous standard paint job from 2 or 3 years ago look as backwards as what GW's 90's era paint jobs look like to someone coming into the hobby today.

When I started this bad boy, I wanted to replicate this new trend with this model - styled on the FW version. When it came to putting this into practice I realised that I'm not really interested in spending hours and hours painting layers, varnishing, applying oil paints and fixers and powders, and more varnishes and sponging etc on a model that will really only ever sit there. Sure a display piece is worth that little bit extra, but for what I want and can achieve, I didn't need that hassle.

As it turns out, this model took about 5 basic colours to get finished- a green for the flesh, a bronze for the armour, a bone for the horns, a brown for the straps and some red for the facial features. Obviously there were different shades applied, but at its most basic that was it. No fancy techniques, no messing around with varnishes and fancy powders. And the results...disappointment.

When I took these pictures, I thought I was done. The more I looked at them (and pictures of miniatures are rarely flattering, magnifying every blemish and errant brush stroke - unless of course you're a pro painter), the more I thought I had ruined the model. So I decided not to post anything. And then I thought about it, and looked at the mini and thought what can I do to make myself like this model. So I applied some more paint, and fixed some obvious blemishes and bought some bits to finish of the base, and do you know what I found. The penny finally dropped and I found my mojo again. I liked the model, I realised I didn't need all that fancy crap, sure its nice to look at but for practical gaming you don't need it. This hobby is for me. It's my outlet away from work and the missus. Its about me and my miniatures, my painting style, my gaming style, my everything. I share with the community to show pride in my work, to record my achievements, to show me.

So here you go, my Unclean One prior to my touch ups:

And these are the little blighters I am working on at the moment to lurk about his base:

Looking at the model I am chuffed to bits with him. I still need to fix some things I thought off on the bus home tonight and then I will post him finished with his little mates in the next few days - I have a 4 day weekend so have some heavy painting time planned.

Also, I have made some progress on my Knights (or at least 1 of them):

Now these Knights are turning into the polar opposite. I hate them. I wish I could go back in time and slap past Rogue Pom around the head and say "Build these buggers properly you fool - clean of those mould lines - rank them up better - and give them standard S5 all the time magical weapons not those poncy 'only on the charge am I useful lances'". I also wish I had painted my whole force in Nurgle colours - Mark of Khorne is really cool and as a Noob to fantasy was the right choice. Now I realise that WoC are tough as nuts without it, and I love my Nurgle theme a whole load more. Who cares, I cant change the past so I am sticking to my original plans and pushing on. Hopefully I can get him and maybe another guy done too over this weekend. Just need to figure out how to paint the horses. My test model is brown, but I think I like the idea of black better.

And that's enough of a ramble for now. With any luck I will post again over the weekend.

Hope you guys are all enjoying the hobby for your own reasons like I am mine.

Cheers all,

Pom

PS.

I finished A Thousand Sons the new Horus Heresy book by Graham McNeill. What did I think - Stop reading this, go out to GW or any other half decent book seller and buy it and the est of the series - Damn fine book. Well done Mr McNeill.

Reading Cadian Blood by newcome Aaron Dembski-Bowden. So far it's awesome. The front cover art does the book no justice what so ever and I passed it over for a long time. If you're a Guard fan and liked BL God Mr Dan Abnett's Gaunt Ghosts then this book is for you.

Unclean One WIP...

2010-02-19T19:10:00.005+10:30

Just a quick one to show some progress I have made on my Ultra Forge Unclean One which I am painting between my Knights.

I need about 3 more layers on the skin to take it towards a more green/mustard/brown colour. Not sure how its going to look yet, or really what colour I ultimately wnat, but I am sure I will recognise it when I see it. The rest (straps, horns, bone, innards) is pretty much at a base coat plus wash stage - still a long way to go yet.

Love that face though - so evil.

As for my Knights, progress is slow. The problem is I started these so long ago I have already lost interest in them. Also, I have one already finished which is a re-do/touch up on an old paint job and its not all that flash. I will persist for now as I need them for the next escalation.

Thats all for this post.

Cheers all,

Pom

Trolls finished, Dark Heresy and a ramble...

2010-02-14T16:31:00.010+10:30

Just a quick update to show my finished Trolls and the extent of my painted WoC. The Trolls were fun to paint, although I am a tad disappointed as the colour tones don't match across the three ( a side effect of doing them separately rather than all at once), and the middle one (the plastic Troll from Skull Pass) has the worst detailing as a result of the moulding process I guess - the metal Trolls are so much sharper and more defined making it much easier to paint. Together though they look quite effective.

Pictured above is enough to build a 1,000 point list (sans magical items) which works out a treat as we are expanding our forces to 1,000 points for the coming weeks campaigning in the Fantasy campaign I am currently playing. We have been playing 500 point games which are quick and dirty and great fun, but there is only so much you can do with 2 units with no command and no special gear so I am looking forward to the escalation. The Khorne guys are probably going to get a slight re-paint/touch up to bring them up to my current painting style as currently they are a bit flat, but that can wait for now.

I also thought I would sow a WIP of my Dark Heresy character Xanthus Gallus:

He is the first mini I have ever 'successfully' (and I use that term loosely) managed to paint eyes on to. He (and the the 4 incarnations I have built or in progress) was built using parts from the Catachan Command frame, as well as SM Scout and Cadian bits, ad whacked on a Dragon Forge tech deck base. The others are built up around a similar core, but with alternate weapon load outs. I have built them in such a way that once the campaign is finished, they can be used in my regular Guard army as some Veterans (although quite an eclectic bunch with all the random gear they are carrying). He is meant to be a Merc Guardsman sort of character. In game, he has already been nicknamed 'Hero' and it is not a term of endearment - rather a sarcastic take on his leadership qualities (he fainted at the sight of a Plague Bearer) . We played our first mission the other night - RPG'ing might take a while to get my head around, but I am doing it with a cool bunch of guys, and the GM is making a good go of it, so with luck, I should pick it up/get used to it quickly and be able to have fun with it.

You might remember this from an earlier post - it's a deburring tool generally used by jewellers. I have been playing around with it as a substitute for my hobby knife when removing mould lines etc. I have tested it out on plastic, resin and metal and found it works just as well as my old knife, but doesn't show signs of dulling. As it has three sharpened sides to use, and is double headed, it effectively has 6 facings that would need to be worn down before replacing - which would be as simple as whacking it on a grindstone. I would say it is a tad more dexterous than the knife was given its shape and size relative to the handle and easier to get into smaller spaces. It's also not as dangerous as a knife. I used to always find myself cutting or flaying bits of my thumb of when using my knife to 'scrape' at some lines - I haven't had this problem with my tool. I am going to keep using it, reserving the knife for more common uses - ie cutting/scoring.

Quickly on the reading front - I have finished off the books Sons of Dorn (a Imperial Fists novel by Chris Roberson), Salamander (A Salamanders novel by Nick Kyme), Black Tide (a Blood Angels novel by James Swallow) and the short story collection Heroes of the Space Marines (funnily enough a book about Space Marines Loyal and not). Wasn't that impressed by Sons of Dorn or Black Tide (not a fan of books [outside of the Heresy and Time of Legends series] playing around so casually with established in game characters as if they are real people - ie Dante and Mephiston), but really enjoyed Salamander, although you kind of had to have read the accompanying short story in the Heroes of the Space Marines book to get your head around some of the characters. Some of the short stories were brilliant (The Skull Harvest by Graham Mcneill; Honour Among Fiends by Dylan Owen; Head Hunted by Steve Parker; And They Shall Know No Fear by Darren Cox; and One Hate by Aaron Dembski-Bowden), while others were a bit lack lustre (particularly Gav Thorpes - I think his writing style is set a bit in the past compared to what the current crop of BL writers follow which to me as a non literary sort of fellow seems to be sharper/tighter - most of Thorpes books to me would fit well back in the 90's - Like comparing modern day music and fashion to the 90's - if that makes any kind of sense to anyone). Some of the short story writers have some books coming out which I will be sure to get on the back of the material presented in this collection, with particular mention to Dembski-Bowden. He is writing one of the Heresy books at them moment and I was quite worried that this novice (as far as BL is concerned) should be let loose on the Heresy series, but after reading his short story, and some of his blog posts seen here, I have changed my mind, and think he will probably do a better job than some others have managed (ie Battle for the Abyss, both of the Angels books).

Alright then, back to modeling - I am currently building another 27 Warriors to make another regiment of 15 with hand weapon and shields (to be painted in Nurgle fashion), plus another 10 with 2 hand weapons (to be painted in Khorne colours), plus an extra 2 hand weapon and shield Warriors in Khorne colours to replace a damaged mini (some sort of side effect from a varnish application), and fill in a rank when not using a character. This will allow me to field core units of Warriors with hand weapon and shields (15 strong each), with 'detachments' of Warriors with 2 hand weapons (10 strong each) for both Nurgle and Khorne (50 Warriors in total). I have the Khorne Champion on foot, and the Games Day Champion (Nurgle) to go into each of the larger regiments when needed, and I currently whack a sorcerer into my 10 man unit. This should give me some strong units (backed by the powers conferred by the marks taken) to hold my centre line, and let me deploy cavalry (Knights, Marauder Horsemen, Hounds) and my Trolls (and maybe a Giant or Shaggoth) on the flanks as supporting units - plus I have the option to throw in a Hellcannon and some Marauders on foot when needed (plus loads of character models). My next project after building the Warriors is to finish my Knights which I will be adding into the next expansion (ie 1,500 points) for the campaign, so I basically have 2 weeks to get 4 guys done - piece of cake.

For those who read all the way to the bottom, well done you. Have fun guys,

Cheers,

Pom

Not much going on on the painting front...

2010-02-05T18:11:00.004+10:30

No pics today - Things have slowed down on the painting front as a result of distractions all over the place.

First, I have kind of gotten a bit too absorbed by the hobby to the detriment of my work and home life. I am barely managing standard days at work, and spend a great percentage of that time distracted with thoughts of hobby, and when I get home it continues - I didn't see my missus for 3 days this week either because I was at work, or down at GW or out playing with the boys.

Second, I got distracted from painting by actually playing a few games over the last week or so as part of the Fantasy campaign that we have just kicked off - Tunnels of Terror. Currently playing 500 point games, I am 3-1 having beaten some Orc, Goblin (with a bloody Giant) and Skaven forces, and then being trounced by some Wood Elves (everything skirmished - dirty Elves). Excellent fun games though as in all but the last one I was massively outnumbered, and there isn't a lot of tactical finesse required when you only have 2 smallish units of Warriors - march and march some more then hope for the charge - bam. Each game has only gone for about 15 minutes so they are quite snappy, but wicked fun.

The only painting I have done was a small sticker to represent my forces on the campaign map which I had to do twice as my first attempt was ridiculed as craptastic by Cal (there was some truth in his statements) but my second was an improvement. My poor Trolls are sitting in a pathetic half painted state - maybe on the weekend.

Third, I have been sucked in by Dark Heresy - had our first meet the other night. Simple character generation and then an intro scenario where we managed (after a bit of difficulty) to kill off some crazed mutant miners and a Plague Bearer (my character fainted when the daemon appeared earning me the nickname 'Hero'). I have made up a couple of mini's to represent my character using various Guard and Empire kits, and magnetised the arms on one of them to allow me to swap out options. My role playing skills are a bit pants but I'm a noob so who cares.

Fourth, I can't stop buying and reading BL books - I have pretty much everything currently available to buy (staying away from game tie ins) and am staying up to the wee hours reading when I should be sleeping - damn you BL authors for writing gripping (mostly) stories.

On the buying front, my whole cutting back on spending on the hobby is a farce. 36 days into the year and I have spent $400 on hobby related kit already - this addiction I have is ridiculous. I think I need some non-hobby time for a while.

Pom