Just Like Old Times

Well after bad weather stopped play yesterday, I spent the time clearing my backlog of painting that has been nagging at me for a while. I have done a deal with myself and I won't start my SotR or my new 40k army until this is done. So first up were 10 Ork Nobs with a variety of Power Klaws, 'Uge Choppas and bits and pieces. You can't see from the pic, but some of these are from Black Reach around, some metal and some from the ork boyz set. All are made with a variety of weapons and bits from different places. All very cool with their jeans and black t-shirt uniform. There is also a Big Mek with a KFF in there and a pain boy. This is a very old figure and comes I think from the Museum de la Freeth. You can really see the size differential in this pic!

After that came a more recent addition, which was a Soul Grinder. A lovely piece to paint, let's hope it lasts as long on the table as Nicks does.

more from the workbench.....

...Sanctioned Peykers this time!

Unit of 9 with an overseer. The psykers were made from High elf archer bodies (which had previously been meant to be flagellants and then bad guys in the DH RPG!) with heads from the flagellants sprue, a bretonnian archer and a zombie.

The staffs were made from various arms holding spears, etc and and the tops I thought were pretty important to define them as psykers, so I took two plastic Imperial Eagles from the Imperial vehicle sprue and stuck them back to back (to make the staffs double sided), filed them to make the join less notice-able and then used a very thin drill bit to drill into both the resulting eagle and the spear that the figure was holding! Pretty fiddly, but I'm pleased with the final result (and it meant I saved £24 on not having to buy GW psykers.....)

The overseer (who has come out a little blurry) is made from an imperial torso, legs from an Empire Free Company with long boots and the helmeted head from the Baneblade sprue. I used that head as it has some nice optical gear, which I reasoned was to help him spot the perils of the warp approaching!

The pointing arm is there as he is either warning a psyker, or pointing to one he's about to finish off. For their own good you understand....

Third post in a day - some kind of record?!?!?!?

Yep, like the proverbial London buses, none for ages then three come at once!

This one is a little one to show my WIP Penal Legion. i had intended to put the Guard away and work on something else now the tourney is done, but gish darn it, I just can't keep away from the little blighters.... So, over the next few weeks, expect to see some of the more esoteric choices from the codex coming to this webspace as I fill up on the choices that I don't currently have available.

Well, these boys are made from a mixture of Empire Flagellant bodies, heads & arms, catachan heads & arms, cadian arms and the Penal Custodian is made from the body of a Valkyrie door-gunner and arms from a cadian (head form the vehicle sprue). Expect to see them flinging themselves into danger in the hopes of earning the emperor's mercy on a tabletop near you once painted.

Second post in a day - Woo-Hoo!

No posts for 6 weeks, then three come along at once - what fun!

Ok, some piccies from the 2nd GOG tourney held in the Garage of Gaming. I'm sure one of you chaps with the official results can post them for posterity at some point, but I can add some nice pictures showing all the participants. Caption competition optional!

First post in six weeks!

As the title says, first post in 6 weeks!

So, what's it going to be about? Well, daemons. Slaanesh daemons. And saving money. Everyone's favourite two topics, I'm sure you'll agree!

Right, so what do I have here then? Fiends of Slaanesh. These bad boys set you back £12 each in the shops. And I wanted 2 units of 6. So before any kind of internet related discount, that would be £144. Ouch. So, in order to avoid bankrupting myself for 360 points of my army, I cannibalised some of the first ever fiends of Slaanesh from the Rogue Trader days that I had used for WFB as Centigors, added heads from some Dryads and claws from both the new daemonettes and ones made from curved spikes from Chaos Spawn sprues. I really rather like the effect on the first 6 and as I have another 6 sitting in blister waiting to be used (courtesy of Mr Freeth's carrier bags of holding!) I should be able to get my 12 together for the grand sum of about £20. Darned sight cheaper than GW anyway, which makes me a very happy bunny.

packs

Hobby Update

First pic and I admit an old one, is how my Daemons started out. Everytime I see this I think of the airfix figures.

On to the newer stuff and my Chaos Marine Vehicles. Simple paint scheme and simple wash = 4 vehicles in 2 hours. Awesome. Please note that the front windshield is still fully functional in the Jenkin setting.

So as you can see from this the terrain project is moving along nicely. I love the blue and gold effect and it makes a change from dry brushed silver/grey on the GW Cityfight terrain.

The piece I am probably the happiest with is the industry one. The tank is a garden feed container. I have gone for Blue and silver on this one as opposed to the blue and gold on the city buildings.

The fountain piece was purchased from Ebay for £9. For this I got a box load of Hirst art bricks made of dental plaster and a link to a website to see the model. I then did the Krypton factor to assemble the model. To finish the piece, I purchased some resin and plaster lions. These again from EBay, and are intended for Dolls Houses. The overall piece is great, although I still trying to find a decent colour for the black base. Here are the before and after piccies.

And after....

Lastly then, my Plantary Empire tiles. Playing Chaos for this campaign drove me towards the barren and ashen wastes. Hence the black/grey scheme. I also picked out the terrain piece as volcanic and highlighted this up to yellow.

The Germans are coming!!!

Thanks to the fact that I've managed to finish a few other bits and bobs, I can now get cracking on my Germans for SotTR.

I've finished the zombies (I'll try and get some piccies up soon) and a Vampire. Three werewolves are nearly complete, they just need army dip and basing. Just need to get all the ground pounders done!

We built this city on rock and Rooollllll!!

Decided to blitz my PE tiles at the weekend having only just got them from VSM on Thursday.

The 'Hive City' is indeed three saucer sections from Star Trek Micromachine toys!

When you're feeling blue....

... and so here come the Orks. All dressed in yellow....

Mr.Nob with Power Klaw & Bosspole; the only figure in this first mob of 20 that didn't come out of the Assault on Black Reach set.

A mob shot...

Two of the lovely fellows; one showing off the fact that not all of them are wearing entirely yellow.

One of the two Big Shootas in the squad. These chaps wear a fetching orange jump suit; they are the Orange Jackets.

A slightly further out mob shot...

For those with an interest:
Skin = Mordian Blue with Azurmen Blue wash
Clothes = Iyanden Darksun (majority) + variety of other foundation paints + Gryphonne Sepia wash
Belts + Boots = Calthan Brown + Gryphonne Sepia wash
Armour, Guns, Weapons = Boltgun Metal + Badab Black wash
Base = Shadow Grey + Railway Flock that was bought years ago.

So this lot come in at 170 points. 2 more mobs just like this to do.

... Blue is the new Green don't you know!!

Panzers March

Well I have finally decided on a colour scheme for my Panzers, I have used the Desert Yellow Spray from Army PAinter and overbrushed with Middlestone, then washed with Army Painter Soft Tone....still a little "brown" for my liking, nut no doubt the finished product will get better the more I practice.

Here we have my first Tiger I

And some StuG G's emerging from the woodland.

Pz IV's Hanomags a Tiger II and soem much needed Panzer grenadiers next.

Here's the T-34s (see post below) as it wouldn't let me post 4 pictures in 1 post!

I'm baaaaaaaack!

Yep, here I am, ready and raring to post for the first time since... well, suffice it to say it was when the BFG was a nipper, so it's been some time ;)

So, What have I been up to? Glad you asked! In a few words, Russians & Daemons. Piccies attached! So, what are they? Well, the first one there is a truckload of Russian Infantry, and there are more Russian tanks than you can shake a stick at (14 T-34s of both the 76 and 85mm version), and 6 Katyushas (although I need 2 more to field all 6 as it's 2, 4 or 8) and there are also 27 daemonettes currently on the table o' painting - so more rending attacks than a pocket full of genestealers! I'm pleasantly surprised at how quick this posting malarkey is, so feel free to give me a poke and get me to do more if I don't do a post for a while!

What's up next? Well, it's time for the 40k Planetary Empires campaign to kick off, so I'm thinking either mobile IG (as I have Valks & Chimeras/hellhounds to paint) or Dark Eldar (as I have loads of them to paint and need to get them done for the 40k Doubles tournament in January - so watch this space and we'll see what appears!

GoG 2: The one after the first one

My word it's been a long time since I last posted anything.

.... and so it begins. GoG 2 is now under way. This time we've decided to keep it more fluid and we'll update with our own targets soon. Suffice to say we're aiming to have an outing to Nottingham in March so we might well have new stuff for then.

My own targets for the end of April 2010:
Space Wolves (cos they're cuddly) to 1750 points
Orks (cos they're not cuddly) to 1000 points minimum
Easterlings for WoTR to 500 points minimum
Uncharted Seas - 2 starter fleets painted

I do have some other little targets set up and I'll update on those as the year progresses.

Salamanders for a GoG auxiliary!

Well it's been a busy few weeks for me painting a new Marine force from scratch. A friend of mine Andy Powell asked me to paint him a Salamander force for use in a Tournament. He quite fancied the Salamanders as their Chapter Master Vulkan is pretty nasty and the benefits he bestows his army a re really second to none.

The army was listed with Vulkan (conversion from DH GK Hero Stern!)

3x 10 Tac Marines, utilising 2 Razorbacks and 1 Drop pod for transport. The Heavy wpns are 2 Lascannons and 2 Flamers a Multi melta and a melta.

1 x 5 Scouts in a storm Speeder.

1 x Landspeeder with Multi Melta and Hvy Flamer.

6 x Vanguard Marines including a TH and SS, along with 2 PS and 1 Pl Pist.

2 x Ironclad Dreads with Hvy Flamers and Meltas in dropods, both with Deathwind launchers and 1 with Locator Beacon.

All for 1,750 pts when the additions of a few Wargear bits and bobs.

The paint Job was relatively straightforward, thanks to the input from the SilverBack, who acquired me a tin of Army Painters "Color Primer Greenskin", this made shirt work of the undercoating, which massively reduced the time I would need to paint the whole lot.

I have used the Army Painter before with mixed results and have learned that in order to get a really good result you need to give the tin a really good shake for a 2 minute period then spray no closer than 10-12 inches from the figure. The results are excellent.

After this I over brushed with "Snot Green" then drybrushed with "Goblin Green" once this was dry I washed the figure with "Thraka Green" and then put the black and metals on! These were then washed with "Badab Black". I highlighted the black with "Codex Grey", then some "Fortress Grey". Lastly the eyes were picked out in "Dwarf Bronze".

The vehicles were a challenge for me, I haven't done too many large flat surfaces before now, (being an Ork and Tyranid player primarily, there are not too many even surfaces with this lot!)

I used the undercoat spray then went about drybrushing the edges with "Goblin Green", then I started applying the "Thraka Green" wash, this was put over all of it initially, however the fnish wasn't what I was looking for, so I adopted a style where I applied it in the joins of the plates and the recesses where I imagined light would portray a darker recess. This seemed to work well.

Andy needed a Vulkan character, he needed resuscitation when he realised one figure was £12, I told him that it was still worth it, as he did the job of a whole box set on his own....he wasn't to be convinced though ;-).

I had a few bits in my bits box, way back when you could purchase any parts from GW, so after fishing out my ol' Stern Character I set about givng him the Brother Captain arms, so he looks relatively different, due to time constraints I couldn't convert the Storm Bolter, something I hope to do later on.

Simple yet effective I hoped!

Last but not least, the basing is simply my mix of sharpp sand and "Budgie grit", I then washed this with Army Painter "Strong Tone" then dry brushed with "Bleached Bone". In the near future there will be tufts of dry grass put on to finish!

Hope you like the look! (Since taking the photos, I wasn't impressed with the very "flat" look of the green on the marines and have gone over these again! To a much more "shaded" look, much better!)

Carthage and the 1st Punic Wars next for me with a Roman Army just behind it! Still this is for another site I feel......Enjoy!

The BFG!

The Taking of Osgiliath, a change in scenery!

Well the wait is over and while this may be a little off kilter from the 40K subjects we GoGs have been putting up here, it is worthy of publication.

As you will all remember way back in the end of May beginning of June the GoGs had the culmination of all the army building that went on. We descended on Lenton and had a weekend mini-tournie in honour of The SilverBacks birthday!

The prizes were all donated by the participants and the choosing order for the prizes was done from the lowest in the listings to the winner. So to be fair...(as we GoGs always try to be!) The loser of the tournie would get the best of the prizes. These ranged from boxsets of 40K troops to ForgeWorld models so the choices were fab! There was one prize that I had my eye on though. Our friend Eddie Artillery had offered to make a custom piece of terrain for the chooser of his nominated prize....anything you wanted.....gulp! My mind was a blur of images from 40K defence positions to LotR set pieces! Then it hit me....what about this game we were just venturing in to....War of the Ring! Great!! A building to house troops in during battles! Faaaantastic!!

Well as was expected my Guard only managed one draw all weekend and got slaughtered in all the other games :-(. Oh well!!!! I get the first pick of prizes......without hesitation I chose the terrain feature.

The next week Eddie wanted to kno what I wanted....I was the proverbial kiddie in the sweet shop! So he offered some suggestions! One of which was the town of Osgiliath.....did I read that right! Osgiliath!! The whole town! Eddie said "Yeah of course!" "I have a great vision of the damaged bridge and the surrounding buildings!". OMFG!!! I thought!

Yes Please!

Now such is the dedication of the man, that he missed out on our gaming nights in order to complete the project.....and here are the results!

These are staged using my Isengard army, as unfortunately my Gondor army isn't ready yet! But you get the drift....these are beautiful models, the terrain features encompassed with the buildings is second to none!

Here is a lovely centrepiece of the tower and the ruined place of worship.

Orcs pour across the river..in the background can be seen one of the huge Mordor Trolls followed by a supporting phalanx of Uruk-Hai Pike!


A Mordor Troll rampages through one of the derelict gardens in the suburbs!

The Berserkers prepare to take the fight to the City!









Ugluk restores order with his scouts by taking another impudent head!

Bow armed scouts move through a once magnificent building, now just ruins!( Note the detail in the trailing ivy and the ornate gateway)

Here is a fine example of a two story building now reduced to ruin, through the onslaught of the forces of evil!

A view from one side of the ruined bridge.........and the other!

Eddie has put up a ramshackle planked bridge to cover the gap!

The river section covers a full 4 feet! The bridge being the centre piece for this! AWESOME!!

Here is a better shot of the bridge exspanse, complete with makeshift bridging, you can also see the ornamental statues on the support pillars!


A detailed ruin that will take at least three companies of troops!

Well I hope you enjoyed the tour, this has given me a great incentive to paint the rest of my troops for War of the Ring....however I don't have any Mordor or Gondor troops! Perhaps I need to remedy that!!! :-)

Till next time TTFN!