A Quick Test

Despite the recent flurry of Malifaux activity I have been painting some other stuff. This has mainly been miniatures for SAGA. As I said in my last post I really wanted to get my Viking band together. Well I have painted a test model or I should say finished a test model as this guy has been on the desk for a long while. I have no idea if I have enough models but I think I should have. The box I contained them all in is getting light but I should get by. I can just add loads of Huscarls into the band. What I am eager to get a hold of is some Berserkers that fit scale wise with the rest of the models. There are some terrible old gripping beast sculpts but I really would like something better. These guys don't have a fancy shield to hide behind so the quality of the model needs to be fairly decent.

I copied the shield design from Old Fogey's Saxon Warlord. Aalthough looking now his is much better. I will be doing higher quality shields across the band and so I have been looking everywhere for some inspiration. I have had a lot of problems with the quality of the Little Big Men studio shield transfers over time so I definitely don't want to use them. They may look fine now but give them a few years and they won't. It seems the only way to go is to freehand the designs. I wonder how long it will take before the enthusiasim for that will wear off.

Arise my thralls...

I finally got a Master finished. I had Nicodem put together and half done for a while. I sat down last night and fnished him off. He isn't the recipient of the most awesome paint job ever but he came out fine and I am glad to be able to put him into the cabinet alongside the other Malifaux miniatures. The sculpt is actually different from th one show on the package I bought. That shows a stiched together coat while this one was plain. Maybe the artist managed a convincing paintjob on the stiches. I kept it plain and experimented with a few brown colours. As my favourite Scorched Brown is down to a single pot in my collection and it can't be replaced I need to keep that for one or two future projects to maintain some consistency. I drybrushed the vulture as when it came to painting him I really wasn't up for the careful highlighting of the feathers. Carefully applied drybrushing can be just as good as painstaking blending, especially when viewed from across the table.

I wanted to add something to the base for ach of the Master models I will have. It took a while to come up exactly with what though. I think I shall add some tiny playing cards just like these in the picture. They are an absolute pain to paint and I guess nobody but I will ever notice them. Still for me, it differentiates the masters from the already characterful other miniatures. I will do it for the others I paint. I have picked up Seamus and Molly so I have a decent amount to get through. I seem to always do the same. Once I get enthusiastic about a project I dig into the backlog and make a decent amount of progress. Just as I am clearing them out I always end up ordering a few bits more. As soon as they arrive I end up moving onto something else...

I will be painting some more Dark Ages stuff over the Christmas break. There seems to be another few players for Saga and I want to get the last band I have here together. I have enough still from the Gripping Beast WAB deal I bought nearly ten years ago to make one more Viking Band and to bulk out the Saxons and Anglo Danes. The only thing I am a little short on is archer levy. I will have to pick up a pack or two of them. I have so much stuff painted that I am considering trying out a few games of WAB in the new year. I should have sufficent models painted to field a 2000 point army.

Another Mindless Zombie

Despite being incredibly busy I have managed to get another model finished. Work, mainly self created, has been hectic for the last few months and as a result my painting has suffered. I have plans to get back into it a bit more in the New Year but I won't be as prolific as before. There are only so many hours in the day and I definitely have too many projects running at once. At least I will soon have enough finished at least to play with a fully painted crew. These mindless zombies are fun to paint. The models are quite characterful despite the fact they are zombies and I am eager to see what the future ones might be like. I stuck with an autumnal scheme for this lady and it came out fine. The camera washes everything out but you can get some appreciation of what I was going for I hope. I have been painting the whole crew in a deliberately mixed colours. The models just feel too unique to really give them anything more than a token uniformity. The bases do decently well enough in my opinion.

Necrotic Machine

I picked up the Necrotic Machine from e-bay a few days ago and I was eager to get it painted. I had seen a really awesome example of sponged metal and I knew instantly I had to try it. I don't really get to paint many all metal models or at least predominantly metal models so I had to settle for experimenting with this guy. Basically the technique layers the metal and weathering coats alternatively on top of each other with a sponge giving a very strongly mottled effect. It was fairly simple to do though I think it would look better on a larger model with flatter surfaces. I think it could be great for me on something like metal rooves I do for some of my Warmachine, and possible upcoming Malifaux, terrain. It gives a really different effect when compared with the pigment based weathering.

I used Mithril Silver (GW) and Chainmail (GW). For the rust I used a Vajello paint whose name has worn off the bottle. I guess it is something akin to Vermin Fur. These were just repeatedly sponged randomly over each other with some torn blister package sponge. After that I washed them down a little to darken the effect. This is the result. I kept the skin really pale to contrast the dark metals. It really stands out now. Also I painted the syringe vials a yellow colour. I hate painting these sort of things. I can never get it to look right. These came out fine.

I have been using Molly Squidpidge recently on Vassal and I really like her. I am still a complete beginner with regard to Malifaux but I think I picked the right faction. The summoning mechanics are well balanced allowing me now to feel like I can achieve some summoning. Before I always felt like it was a bit of a hit and miss as you basically had to have the right card in your hand. It is a lot more difficult to summon the bigger models now but that feels right for the game. I am hoping to get another game in on Tuesday. I am looking forward to it.

Mindless Zombie

I have been playing a lot of Malifaux recently and I decided it was about time to get my paintbrushes out and get some models painted again. Here is a quickly painted mindless zombie. I picked these up as they were 20% at the local game store and as I use Nicodem these are probably useful. I am hopeful that when the plastic versions come out they will be different and so I will have six variations on the model. I painted the skin up with some washes, mainly grey, green and red. I may have used purple also but I forget. The base colour was Elf Flesh (GW). On the hands I wanted to try the blood wash that Old Fogey has used on his ghouls recently. However his comes out a lot better than mine. I also tried to make a blood trail behind the model and on the bottom of the boots. That came out okay at least. I have never really gotten that realistic blood correct. Eventually I will. I am considering upgrading my camera. The quality of shots are fairly poor and even a half decent smart phone seems to take better photographs nowadays.

Painboy - revisited

I have recently been painting some Orks and I thought it high time to update some of the ones I had painted previously. First up were the Nobz and that meant getting the Painboy looking good.This basically involved getting a lot of cecked designs onto the model. I have been getting better at painting these while doing the orks and now it isnÄt so much hassle to get them painted even if they can be a little rough at times. Here is the previous plain painboy if you are interested in having a gander. I also took the chance to tidy up the model a little and add a few highlights where needed. The skin should have also received some attention but then I would have needed to redo the skin on the entire force and I don't want to do that. The updating of the models is really just something fun and quick to do! I will put up the Nobz soon as they are almost finished too. Once they are done I have to tackle one of the larger mobs. I am not looking forward to that!

Bramble Ale

In January I mentioned that I was starting a new hobby. Well here is one of the results. This is a really nice and simple IPA. It is the first beer where I got the bitterness levels perfect. I also improved the clarity a lot. The result of these two small improvements is about tenfold on the actual flavour! Sadly it is really warm here still and so I haven't managed to brew much since May. Hopefully the weather takes a turn for the worse so I can get busy in the brewhouse/mancave soon. I have invested in an all-grain set up and I haven't managed to use it yet. It was impressively expensive and so I am eager to get some small return on that. As soon as I can I have three brews planned and I can't wait.

Oh and these are the friends of the brew shown above. I have managed eight brews so far this year and while two of them were less than stellar I think I have begun to get some great results from the hobby. At least now it isn't only me who enjoys what I manage to produce. My stocks are running dangerously low at the moment so I have to start rationing all of these.

Red Kaya, whats up?

Red for me is a terrible colour! I can't seem to get a nice transition in any direction with it. I have been doing it a few different ways on individual models for my Hordes forces for a while hoping that eventually I would hit on the right formula. I still haven't. I painted this model a little while ago and for the cloak I started with Hull Red from Vajello's Panzer Aces series. It is a lovely deep dark red and it is the colour I use for the basecoat of all my reds now. I gave this a purple wash and then I shaded it with some Rhinox Hide(GW). It is really easy to shade and doesn't need much effort. For the inside of the cloak I just added back the hull red and then one more highlight and that was that. I wanted it to remain dark. In the picture you can definitely see the brown shading and a hint of the purple wash.

For the back of the cloak I wanted a much warmer and brighter colour. I ended up with a lighter colour and quite muted. I know why and I should have thought of it at the time. I used for the final few highlights Rotten Flesh(VJ) and as this has a green tint it muted the red considerably. I shaded the cloak the same as usual and built back the original colour quickly. From there I added Blood Red(GW) to brighten everything up. That went fine and I got more or less a colour I was happy with. For the final highlights I added the Rotten Flesh. As you can see here it quickly muted the red. It even seemed to kill the previous brighter colours somewhat. I am happy enough with the end result even if it isn't exactly what I intended. I think I will use this colour if I ever manage to return to the Blood Pack I bought. I just hate the PP plastic and I can't be bothered putting in the effort required to assemble the last half of that unit.

I must resist!

As I have been playing Medieval II: Total War recently I have been getting into the mood to play some early medieval games. While SAGA covers that I have been looking at a more continental based system. Then I learned that the next supplement will cover the Crusades or the Reconquista. With my curiosity piqued I looked up some minatures that would be appropriate and I found these from Fireforge Games. Not only are they excellent for almost any army of the period they are perfect for an Empire army in Warhammer. I already have one of those but it is purely cavalry and I am really tempted to bulk it out somewhat with some of these infantry. Anyway I will endeavour to await more news on the fothcoming supplement. Once I know what is coming I will more than likely pick these up and make a nice force from them.

More Orks

It took me a little longer than I had anticipated but here is a second formation for Epic Armageddon. This time some ork infantry. I definitely have s econd formation and I intend to paint it over the coming days. I doubt though if I added up all that I have here in Germany that I would manage to field an effective army. The nobz took the longest time to paint as I did a checked design on the back banners. The are noticably taller than the boyz and I guess of a slightly larger scale. The boyz are detailed well enough for a 5mm miniature. Just enough detail that you have to pick it out even if, like I, you skip the highlighting of each individual piece. The grtchin are also well detailed and more or less the same size as the boyz reinforcing the fact that the models are of a very slightly different scale.

Battle at the Ruins

I don't often think of taking photographs of battles I am playing, mainly as my camera is a brick and it is easier to leave it at home. The recent popularity of iPhones however means that getting decent ingame shots is pretty easy. I played a great game of SAGA at the local gamestore last Thursday and my opponent, Steve, grabbed these shots. It was a six point battle between the Anglo-Danes and the Normans. I hadn't played against cavalry before and it was quite intimidating to see three units of them lined up against me.

The scenario was 'A Clash of Wwarlords' pretty much the default scenario. I had to weather a hail of missile fire from the Normans as I closed. Their Flemish Mercenaries held the centre as I advanced. In the end it was a bloodbath but the speed of the Norman cavalry allowed them to encircle me and I just couldn't keep my Warlord safe. He bravely charged the Norman cavalry himself but the counter charge the next turn killed him. So victory to the Normans! The more I play Saga the more I come to like it. It is relatively simple but well balanced. I have seen some complaints that there can be mismatches between the armies but so far I haven't come across any. There has been talk of a campaign in the local gamestore here in Hamburg so hopefully that gets off the ground. More likely however is the prospect of a four player team game with the Aanglo-danes comprising one team and the other yet to be decided! I am looking forwar to that.

Gunwagonz incoming!

I sadly wasn't able to get my game of Epic:Armageddon in last night so instead I scoured around in my bits box for something related to paint. I found my first formation of Gunwagonz.I actually have a few formations worth of stuff hidden away so maybe I will get to painting them. There are at least two infantry mobs and probably a few extras I hope. The main bulk of this army is in Ireland. Like my SAGA stuff I will have to wait to get this project really rolling. It is no matter as it isn't like I am getting that many offers for games here. Hamburg is an Epic:Armageddon desert.

I wnet for a Bad Moon scheme to match what I am painting for my 40k army. I once had a dream of somehow linking the two systems. Who knows it may come to pass and it is best to be prepared! I also added a good few black and white checks in places to break up the yellow and I think it worked out well considering the scale! I thought it would be really hard to do but actually I can do this pattern decently well in no time at all. It looks regular enough until you get up really close! I will see if I can get one of the infatry formations together tomorrow and paint it up. I don't envisage it taking too long.

Maelock is awake!

I have far more armies for Warmachine and Hordes than I will ever need. I am not 100% sure why I started another only a while back. It was probably related to some deal where I thoght I could get the guts of the army cheap enough that it wasn't too much of an investment. Here is my first painted Warlock for the Gators. Maelock is a fairly complicated model with a lot of textures concentrated into small areas. I had to refer fairly often to the Privateer Press website to see a full rotation of the model so I could work out what exactly everything is. I think I got everything correct! I didn't go for too much blood as I felt that was more likely to result in me screwing up what I had already painted. I know I should add some here and there but really I am too lazy. The model is done and I am happy with it!

I can now finally play with my Gators army which will be fun. I would like to get some of my Bog Trogs finished first. I think I have eight of them somewhere completed and two awaiting paint. Once they are done I have most if not all of the releases for the army complete so I can get more or less anything to the table in short order. I always try to keep up with the latest releases for this army and my Circle one but Medieval II total war has been distracting me from painting quite a lot over the last week and a half. Lets hope I can break the addiction.

Plasticard and Looted Wagons

I have been looking around for the last while for some cheap sources of Plasticard. I have a nearby architects store. It is quite bizarrely stocked but it does have a3 sheets of 1mm plasticard for about €10 which seems reasonable. I am eager to get another Looted Wagon made. I really enjoyed making the last one and it needs company. While checking through the Imperial Armour Vol.8 there are some technical drawings for some of the Ork vehicles. They don't look to hard to make it is just a question of scaling up what I have done before.This Gun Wagon would definitely be something I would like to try but the Skullhamma would also be really tempting. According to the Forgeworld website they aren't much bigger than a Battlewagon. I looked around for some other inspiration and I found these Looted Wagons. They are really great looking and some of the ideas I might have to steal.

A shambling pile of stones

I finally finished Megalith. I have wanted the model for ages and even though I bought him in March I only got around to painting him the other day. I haven't varnished him yet or finished the base. Still he is looking fine and eventually I may get him onto the table top! I have tried to play him a little on VASSAL in Baldur 2's tier list. I haven't met with much success but that is down to my own uncompetitive level of gameplay combined with a somewhat sub-par list. I think it can be good but needs a higher calibre player than I. I haven't tried out Baldur 1's tier list. I haven't even tried him out of tier with Baldur yet. At least he toughens up my stable of Circle models.

I don't like the stock pose of Megalith and so I converted him. It wasn't the most excellent conversion work but it came out fine. The only problem I really have is that his shoulder things are pitched really far back where they should sit more squarely on the model. I also accidently repositioned the legs I think. To me thats how they went together but looking afterwards at the studio model they are really different. I think I captured Megalith taking a stroll! I added an armour plate to the base just for a little variety, I sculpted it up to see how it might look and stiking it on the base is about as good a use as I can think of. Sculpting this wasn't too difficult and I may get a little more ambitious in the future.

Zombie Invasion

Thanfully I have a good backlog of things to show as my painting has been uncharacteristically slow of late. I have been mainly painting Orks but I am trying to mix it up a little so that I can make progress on a few small projects at once. Here is one of the models from a side project, my Malifaux Punk Zombie.The model was annoying to put together as the connection points are tiny. I think I still pinned him but as to how effectual this may prove I have no idea. I haven't had to transport him as yet and so there haven't been many chances of accidents. I wenr for the same pale skin as I did with the Rotten Belles but as I said when I painted them it is still probably too warm a tone. I tried to add a little green and purple to the shadows on the skin but it is very subtle and I don't think the camera can pick it up.

At least the cobblestones came out as I expected them. Each time I have done them I can changed the technique. It is difficult to get the right texture. In my mind cobbles are usually roughly shaped but smoothly textured. When I tried to do that it looked weird. Now I just go for a brick style and that seems to work best, at least to my eyes.

Angry Half-wolf

As I painted Epic Morvahna recently I also was obliged to paint her best friend the Warpborn Alpha.. I would love to complain about how hard this model is to actually assemble but I won't as I am thankful that it simply is not made in Privateer Press plastic. That stuff is the bane of my painting career. So far the Alpha has withstood the rigours of transport so it seems I did a decent enough job of pinning him everywhere I could. He is an impressively heavy model almost the equal of soime of my heavy Warbeasts. He definitely needs a lot of attention during assembly if you want him to stay that way. On the table he is a revelation. He has performed excellently in every game I have used him in and he tunes the rest of the unit right up. With Epic Morvahna this is multiplied via her feat. Bringing back nearly the entire unit is as good as it was hyped up to be.

I of course painted him to blend in wit the rest of the unit. His model is impressive enough to stand out without too much effort. I am slowly running out of my stockpiles of standard colours I used on these so I will soon have to look for equivalents. I don't relish that. I have enough of everything to finish my last two Tharn units but once they are done I am going to have to play with the vajello game colour to see if I can get what I need there. I noticed Rob Hawkings complaining about the range recently so maybe I should look further afield. He used them on his awe inspiring Sedition Wars display boards. I haven't had a problem with them but then again I don't think I was paying that much attention to how they dried.

The Last Lady

Although I haven't been playing Malifaux much in the recent past I am still working away on my intrepid band of rotted followers. This is the third and last of the Rotten Belles. If you remember the last ones I showed here you will see I have completed the traffic light set. Each of them accidently ended up in a colour of the traffic lights which at least provides a good identification for them all. As I had greenstuff when I started this lady I did the base first. I wanted a simple enough cobble effect and I think it came out fine. I just have to go back and do it on the other models I have done. I went with a traditional brick colour as a contrast to the models and it came out good too. I find that a grey colour on the bases is always dull and boring or maybe just the way I do it is dull and boring! With the next few bases I will try to be a little bit more adventurous and add a few decorative pieces like sewer grates and kerbstones.

I am still struggling with reds. I just can't get the contrasts I want. My colour theory is weak it seems. Next time I am going to work from a dark purple towards a bold primary red to see what the effect is like. Hopefully it will be good and less muted than I tend to achieve. I have a few other models I will be showing here soon that I painted recently in an effort to get a better handle on red. However while they came out fine I didn't manage to really get amazing results. So back to the drawing board for me!

You're all going to burn!

Okay so it is back to the Orks. This time yet again a vehicle. I picked up the Wartrakk Skorcha with the buggy from last week. It took a lot less conversion thankfully.

This model is fairly old already, from Gorkamorka I think and I wonder when this model will be updated. I guess when the next book cycles through? Both this and the Wwarbuggy really could do with an update. This one is fine but the driver had to be changed. Again the bike driver fit perfectly fine and only a few adjustments were needed. A glyph on the front finishes the conversions. I didn't like the large flat plate there and why freehand a design when you can stick one on ready done!



Once the glue had set I painted it up as normal. It awaits weathering but again I need to base it. I have been looking for 5mm plasticard that doesn't cost the earth. Once I get that everything that is on wheels will have a base and then be weathered. I really wish GW would base their 40k vehicles. It would make everything a lot simpler. I am eager to get a squadron of these too but the models rarely come up on eBay and even then they fetch a decent sum. I have another Wartrakk somewhere in my collection from the original Gorkamorka set and maybe I can figure out a way to convert it into a Skorcha.

Epic Morvahna revealed!

Enough of the Orks for today at least. I bought Epic Morvahna when she came out first and painted her soon after. Here finally she is revealed: I didn't deviate from my standard scheme too much. I had been trying to get more contrast into my reds and this model was one of the first I really tried. I think I failed. The cloak is still very muted and while it goes from a deep red up to a fairly strong tone it never really pops. The colours on the goat worked well though and I am happy with them. I used English Uniform from Vajello. I love that colour despite the fact that it always comes out too green at the start. I have to shake the hell out of the bottle and after the first few drops it comes out in the nice brown colour. I have no idea what is up with the bottle but those first few drops are terrible. I have at least managed to get a few games in over the last few months with her and she is great. I finally feel like I have a top grade Warlock in my circle force and she will be very much prominent in my tournament lists for a while to come!

Looted Wagon, now this was a project and a half!

A project and a half and it still isn't finished! I was reading Vol.8 of the Imperial Armour Series, which is great by the way, when I got the idea to make a Grot Tank. I checked online and there are quite a few people who had the same idea. Using those as inspiration I started with some scrap pieces of plasticard from my last terrain project. I made the two track sections first in a scale I thought was fine. Once I added the body I realised I had made a monster. I guess it isn't that much bigger than the actual Grot Tank models but it is fairly close to a Rhino. I am estimating it is a little wider and about and inch shorter. So it has become a looted wagon instead!

I am not sure what made me take the design of this the direction I did but standing back and looking now I think it reminds me of a Leman Russ. The silhouette is very similar. I am already thinking what I should make next! Plasticard is impressively expensive though so I am unsure if I really want to invest. It is good fun and I think the results are good. However as I don't play with the army I don't need to go crazy building stuff for it. A solid weeks work went into making the Wagon and if I go for something bigger I know the time will multiply. I am tempted to make a KillKrusha though...

First up however is to wash this model, base it and then get to painting. I will do it fairly similar to the rest of the army, so yellow will predominate. I might get fancy and try to make some of the panels look like they came from an imperial tank. I do want to find a grot though to put somewhere on the back near the engine housing. So far I haven't had much luck.

Game one complete

I got my first game of Epic:Armageddon under my belt on Tuesday night and it was great fun. We played a small game only 1200pts and while I know we made a lot of mistakes we also got a good handle on the rules. The small size of the forces helped us get through everything despite having to read more or less the entire ruleset during play. The small size of the firces probably made the game a little less decisive than is usual. With a larger number of formation on the board I guess it is possible to combine them to have much more decisive resolution to the various conflicts. Next we if we manage to get an evening free we will be jumping feet first into a four game campaign as mentioned. We will set the points at 1500 for the first one. That allows at least one more formation and doesn't overwhelm us by jumping in at a more standard 3000pt level.

The first game will be an Ork attack on a small fortified position. The game will have only three objectives each of which is a bunker located on the imperial side of the table. Whoever holds the most by the end of turn four is the winner. The Orks should be a fast moving light force so I will be including a lot of Kommandos and Stormboyz. It will be fairly different from what I used before so I am eager to see how they preform!

Bad Moonz Warbuggy

I picked up this buggy and a Wartrak on eBay a while back. They were fairly cheap. I picked up the two of them for about €10 including the postage. I have seen them sell for a good deal more so I was happily surprised. I have been lurking on eBay for a while but finding a deal is a very rare occurence! About two weeks ago I started converting and painting. The orks it came with were of the last editions style and were tiny in comparison to what the orks are now. It was a difficult task to convert this as everything was put in place with polystyrene cement. Some digging and many curses got the driver out while I actually had to drill out the weapon mounting. In the process I broke the banner at the back but that wasn't so bad as I had intended changing it anyway



The driver was easy enough to replace in the end as the biker legs fit into place nicely. I added the arms from the bikes too as they fit to the remnants of the steering mechanism. It was a victim of the drivers removal but fortunately it fit together perfectly. I just changed their angle and rebuilt the shoulders to fit the torso. I added the platform on the back as with the bigger driver I had to give some height to the gunner. He is from the battlewagon as is the gun. I made the armour from some scrap pieces of plasticard. The gunner didn't fit perfectly but that is fine. One of his feet sits on the engine more than the platform but that is the only way he would go. I added the grot as I wanted to represent a rigger. I have no idea if they are useful in the rules but they sound good!

I added to the front another piece from the bike sprue and a few more armour plates to give the driver some armour. I cut the glyphs and plates from plasticard and added them liberally around. It breaks up what is a rather boring vehicle. I would love to get a full squadron of these so I can be a little more adventureous with the next ones. I haven't done any weathering with this one yet as I don't have a base. Once I do I intend adding mud and rust liberally. The effects should be similar to those on the Grotbot from earlier in the week and will really improve the overall look of the buggy.

1st Company Ultramarines

These are something new I painted yesterday. As I was playing Epic I wanted to paint some Epic stuff. So I dug around in the bits box and came up with two marine stands. This one and an assault stand. They are not much use on there own but at least they are fun to paint. Sadly the Space Marine detachments are really inflexible and one can only add vehicles to them. So spare bases of infantry are useless. Maybe I have somewhere the other ones to match them I don't know. I also didn't have a photo of the ones I painted before so I have no idea how I did them. I do remember though that I painted the Ultrmarines Chaper symbol on them and tried to follow the Codex Astartes scheme. I think I have the entire 3rd Company and half of the first as the main part of the force. Hopefully there is more but I don't remember.I have a vague idea that I made most of another company too.

I converted the sergeant here just for fun. I added a small backbanner, a powersword and a purity seal. All of them are made out of plasticard, with the seal made from an amazingly tiny piece of greenstuff. At least the various marine stands can be upgraded with commanders and so I can probably swap this guy in instead of the librarian I suspect I have in the previously painted batch. I don't know how ambitious I can get with conversions. These models are tiny and surprisingly detailed. I don't think I could do anything that would really be good. I would love to convert some of my Rhinos into Razorbacks as I don't want to buy the metal ones. I can't imagine it being too easy though. The problem for me is the guns. Making the barrels causes me massive headaches as I can't get them to look quite right. It is why I made the Grotbot

I tried out an experimental basing scheme on these as I want to do something desert like. All of my armies essentially feature the same basing scheme with some variations. The forest scheme I use for my Hordes armies is just a fancy version of what I use on everything. Even the orks have the same though I put scrap metal pieces and rubble on their bases. I went with Baneblade Brown as a basecoat. Yellow desert bases always looked wrong to me. I also only put sand in a few spots. I did make the mistake of 'cow-patching' it. Next time I will try to scatter some single bits around the base a little better so that the flatter areas blend somewhat with the patches of sand. It is hard to get a good basing material for 6mm miniatures. The standard stuff makes them look like they are buried almost to the ankles while the smaller sized stuff just doesn't paint up well. I am going to experiment with a plaster and sand mix to see how that comes out. I will put the result up here so you can see what I did and copy it if any of them turns out good.

The Harowing of Kastorel-Novem

Today I will be playing my first game of Epic:Aarmageddon and I am really looking forward to it. I have been playing since Space Marine when all that we used was counters made for the purpose from a sheet in White Dwarf. I have a vague idea that they were for the force organisation rather than playing with but they were the perfect size and we had no money. Tonight is a test game to see if we can complete one in two to three hours. I am playing with Owen from Farfaraway.org. We have limited gaming time and we want to make sure we can get a game complete of an evening. If so we will embark on a short camapign for which I have started to prepare a map:



I want to base the campaign on some background already somewhat explored by Forgeworld in their Imperial Armour Vol.8. That book covers an Imperial Raid on Kastorel-Novem a world recently conquered by the Orks. I wanted to play through the inital invasion. I am basing the games somewhat on Fall Gelb from World War Two. I haven't put too much work into it just yet, no point if we can't easily get through the games. I don't know how representative the scenarios will be on what actually took place but I will try! The evacuation of the planet will be Dunkirk for example. I will be taking control of the Orks while Owen commands the Imperium.

I have two armies for Epic:Armageddon; Orks and Ultramarines. Both are at home in Ireland so I won't be doing much with them in the near future. I do have some bits and pieces here for the Orks so I may begin to paint them and show them here. It would be nice to get them done. The Ultramarines are finished from what I remember but the Orks have nothing more than an undercoat.

Grotbot... exterminate!

Time passes quickly. I can't believe it has been four months since I last posted. I have been painting albeit slowly. Here is something fun I finished recently, a Grotbot.I have been painting a lot of Ork stuff recently. As to why I am really not sure. I haven't played 40k since the start of the 3rd edition. I have been playing since Rogue Trader but fantasy took over and I have only rarely ventured back into the 41st millenium. I still love Orks though and I have a huge amount of them lying around in various stages of completion. Mainly I have been updating the units I painted before. They needed some tidying up and detail work. They still won't be winning any competitions but they are looking much better now.

I created the Grotbot firstly as a Stompa. I built the body and then realised that it was slightly out of scale. I then added some 40k shoots and a gretchin pilot. A little bit more work and this is what I ended up with. As to what it is exactly in game terms I have no idea. It is the result of leaving too much useful scrap around the grot tents maybe. I painted it up in the yellow scheme of most of my army. I added a moon symbol as I rarely use it even though I should. As this guy has a base I weathered him up. I haven't really done this with my vehicles as without a base I would just end up picking them up via the panelling and smudging the weathering. I think the rust effect works out well on the yellow but not so much on the blue.

I have a huge amount of work to put up from my break in posting so I intend doing that over the coming weeks. Hopefully I can get back into a positive blogging habit again! You can expect a lot of Orks and also some Circle or Orboros stuff to come.

Missing Marauders

I seemingly forgot to post these the week before last. I went from the first two directy to the last two. Anyway here are the missing Marauders from the Horsemen regiment. I don't have anymore of them to paint thankfully but their foot cousins seem to be a never ending tide encroaching on my painting table. I do want to get the Cultists finished to about twenty models soon. The only problem is the just started Macinations Warmachine League. It is offering points for painting miniatures and my focus therefore has to switch over to getting some models done for that. It also helps that there are a few new releases for Circle coming up this and next week!

Tharn Ravagers, what to do?

I just don't get them. I played in the Irish Masters last weekend and I used these in every list. Aa full unit with the attached chieftan. The package comes in at eleven points for the nine models. In most games I deployed them forward in front of my army and ran them forward to jam the objectives and zones. They also form a decent threat. In most games I was down to two or three models by the time I activated them again. The only thing I can think of is that I am using them in a completely bad role for them. Almost everything my opponent puts on their front line can deal easily with the Ravagers. With a standard defence stat they are easily hit and with an average armour they are easily damaged. Eight boxes help for sure but POW 12 weapons are easily able to remove them from the game. For what can I use my medium infantry?

The first thought is to place them out on a flank. It subjects them to less direct firepower in the early turns but allows them to threaten towards the centre. They are not so fast that they really become a threat out there but they can tie up and possibly defeat a lot of other flanking forces. These should leave a few models by the late game to effectively flank the opponent. However for eleven points, basically a fifth of your entire army you really want them to have some dominating prescence on the battlefield. I played a little yesterday and tested this. I found that the Ravagers are very effective against other medium to heavy infantry. These are also often deployed off centre and the advance deployment rule allows you to pick your match up in most cases. Having a MAT of nine when charging means even defence fourteen isn't too hard to hit and with a POW of 15 on the charge even armour twenty models need to be worried. Curse of Shadows gives them an effective POW boost of two meaning that even Khador 'Jacks will go down to a charge.

Having said that is there anything else I would use them for? I am tempted to use them as a second wave. I have no idea if this would be effective at all but it strikes me as a decent possibility. Having advance deployment always makes me think these guys should be up front and in the mix as often as possible. However that has rarely paid off! Putting them behind an annoying tarpit would ensure that the opponent has to commit something decent to remove the tarpit and allows me to countercharge in relative safety. Thinking a little further I am really tempted to use the Ravagers in conjunction with the Skinwalkers. They are a much more effective tarpit and removing them is no easy matter. Having them spread out allows for lanes where the Ravagers can charge into and deal with the engaging models aloowing the Skinwalkers to move up and repeat the tactic. It is expensive but I am really tempted to try it. Has anyone else tried this?

No rest for the Wicked!

This is a really old Jes Goodwin sculpt that I have had for many many years. I always loved this model and the other Chaos Sorceror models of the same era. I have another somewhere that I can't find for the life of me. I knew instantly that he would have to be the leader of the Cultists so I dug him out and painted him up to suit. I wanted him to be a bridge between the Warriors and the Cultists and so I painted the armour in the same way as I did the Warriors. This is the last model I have for the regiment and I need to pick up another box soon. I will be scouring eBay to get my hands on some hopefully at a respectable discount. I just need to figure out what they are called in german.

Front Rank

These will be the front ranking models for my Chaos Cultists. I put a few symbols on each of the models handily supplied by the Marauder Horsemen. They aren't quite chaos wheels but they are close enough. A few chaos symbols on the shredded remnants of parchement these guys carry also helps. I painted the fine text with ink rather than thinned paint and it proved much easier to achieve the fine lines I wanted. I will definitely do this again. I did notice that if I used a wash after doing the text I had some problems. The wash could lift some of the ink off. I need to confirm this by trying it again but if that is true it would be annoying!

I am theming the army somewhat towards the Storm of Chaos. The Cultists are part of this as they played a large role in the quick fall of the town in the north, according to the roleplaying game fluff. The name of the town on the sign, Kurst, is one of the towns that fell early to the slaanesh invasion. As for other elements of theme I have been going for regiments in multiples of six as far as possible. Otherwise I am finding it fairly hard to make more of the theme. It doesn't have such a specific imagery and so I am not sure what more to do!

More Back Rankers

I only have eleven models for this regiment so I am nearing completing these already. Again my MSU style seventh edition army needs more models. I will eventually pick up another box of flagellants to complete the regiment. Twenty five is the target number, hopefully I can source the four models I need on eBay. Getting some of the older models would great. I am not sure if they fit exactly with the new ones. I remember the older ones being a lot bulkier than the current ones.

Crazy Nutters

These will be some of the back ranking guys for the regiment. I made sure that those in front have a few more obvious chaos symbols on them. There really isn't a need for that in the back ranks. The empire flagellant models are really great and suit the cultist image excellently. The eyes are tiny and almost impossible to paint. I usually don't have a problem with painting eyes but really these guys are tough to do. I have scattered the heads around the rest of the army and they fit the marauders perfectly. I have also added them to the Chaos Mages I converted a long time ago. I am eager to paint the mages up but I need a little more greenstuff work on them before I can get started.

Chaos Cultists

I have had these models sitting around for ages in various degrees of completeion. Thankfully they were pretty much already basecoated so I didn't have to work to hard to get them done. I used the Empire Flagellant models and added a few chaos symbols in places to emphasise their allegiance. The model on the left has been shown before. He is my first attempt at OSL. It came out fine but I won't be doing it on other models at this stage. It takes too long and with the pale skin colour I went for it isn't that effective. I think it works out better on dark models. At least now the model is complete and these can be put into the painting cabinet.

The Last Ones

That is it, no more Marauder Horsemen to do. Okay I have a few more models unassembled in the bitz box but there they shall remain. I can't se myself using more than twelve of these guys anytime soon and if the models are unassembled I can pretend they don't exist! So that is two regiments complete for my Chaos army. Add that to two regiments of dogs done years agao and I have a fair start on the light elements of the army. The challenge as always is getting the blocks done. If this was sixth or seventh edition I would only have a few more models to paint to bring regiments up to twenty and then I would be done. Sadly everything has to be at least twenty five models now so I still have quite a way to go.

First Horsemen Finished

Here are the first finished Marauder Horsemen from the second regiment. These came out great and match exactly the first regiment. A few people have commented that the white horses don't fit in that well with the rest of the army but I think it is good. I wanted them to be obviously slaaneshi and I think the white horses helps with this. Although now with the changes in price for the Mark of Slaanesh I am less sure. It was also a little bit easier to paint the white as opposed to brown. I do still have to find some suitable shields for these guys. I have run out of the old beastman shields and the new ones come with army already attached sadly. Hopefully I will be able to source more as I need them for the foot sloggers also!

I armed these with flails as in seventh edition these were a great option. While I haven't as yet bought the eight edition book I am assuming that the flails upgrade is really expensive. There seems to have been a huge change to the marauders, both mounted and on foot. I can see myself having a really outdated army in terms of its composition! Once I get the army finalised I think I will go back through all the army books and make out the same army as best as possible and see what I come up with in each edition.

Base coat...

I seem to be only basecoating things at the moment. That stage often seems to take the longest time. Getting a clean even basecaot is in my opinion the most important part of painting a miniature. A lot of people painting try to do dirt and battle damage on miniatures and I find myself telling them that you need to learn to paint neatly before you can do those effects. While I won't have much time over the weekend I will get some of these finished I guess.

More Horsemen

I am slowly making some progress on my Chaos Army. These are my second regiment of Marauder Horsemen. I want to get these painted as I have the horses already done. I also think the models are great and as I sculpted the cloaks on these I don't want that effort to go to waste. I have enough Tallarn Flesh now so I can keep going with these guys. Hopefully they will be the next regiment finished.