24 Jan 2018

2018 so far.....

I’ve been pretty busy since Xmas but I’ve lacked any real focus. I just have too many fun projects that I want to work on. This does mean that I’ve got lots of progress but nothing getting finished.

I’ve wanted to do a siege game for Horus Heresy (HH) ever since I started collecting an army. I’ve decided to make this a reality, hopefully this year, and as such I’ve purchased some walls, gun emplacements and a TTCombat Gothic Garage which I think will make a good gatehouse. I’m planning to use this on my 3x5 dining room table so this should stretch across the narrow table side just fine. The plan is to have the attackers play up the length of the table.

The scenario will need some thinking about but, given the sterling work being done 30K Heresy Forum to create 8th Edition rules, I should be able to use the fortification rules from the back of the 8th edition 40K rulebook as basis for something fun.


The HH setting does inspire me and I want to vary the types of games we play. Several years ago I’d made some starship interiors scenery. Sort of my own take on a modular Space Hulk type thing. It got messed around with a few times but then stored in the loft. It struck me that it would be pretty good as a Zone Mortalis and this compelled me to bring it down from the loft.

I hadn’t varnished it at the time of making it, something that I regret now. My loft is pretty dry but I think the inherent moisture in the plaster it was made from was enough to let the mould creep in. Sadly some pieces were lost but most were recovered, repaired and giving two coats of Varnish. One Gloss and one Matt. Hopefully that will protect it in future. I also have a plan to add some larger boards to the ZM set so that it can fill an entire 6x4 table.



All this HH planning has also had the effect of galvanising me to get more stuff painted for it. I did the Iron Warriors(IW) infantry last year but they sorely need some reinforcements. Now I like the idea of dreadnoughts stomping down ZM corridors in support of the troops so the couple of dreads I had in need of stripping pushed their way to the front of the queue and got themselves a nice bath in Dettol. They came out pretty clean.




Sitting around for a while has been a tray of terminators for both the Iron Hands & Iron Warriors. These were kit bashed together from a bundle of Scibor bodies that I won on Ebay cheap, Anvil heads and Shoulder Pads all coupled with GW Termie arms and weapons. I like the notion that 30K was a time of innovation and invention giving rise to lots of variation to the weapons and armour that were used. 

So the IWs have received two coats of Gun Metal Grey so far. Onto stripes next for them. The IH Termies are started with a heavy dry brushing of Bronze and then a light dry brush of gold. This picks out the trims and lots of the details. Next comes the red colour for the main armour plates to represent the blood of Manus that these surviving IH refuse to wash off until the traitors have been wiped out we all know how well that goes!).
  




I was given, by a very kind soul, some GW scenery at Xmas. The lovely gothic machinery terrain. It is wonderfully characterful and was one of the first things I put together once the silliness of Xmas subsided. Love these models and I’m looking forward to using them with the ZM terrain.



My first wargame of the year was a cracking game with BFG and I using my Seraphon to thwart the machinations of The Silverback and Silverfox’s Chaos forces. Cracking game which I neglected to take any photos of. Still it was enough to spur me on with some additions to my Lizards.
A homemade Dread Saurian has been staring at me from the shelves of holding for some time now so he was treated to a lick of paint to get him started. I was also treated to some Seraphon Cavalry for Xmas by another kind soul and those have been constructed and undercoated. Painting 40 cavalry at once is a bit daunting so I need to get some things cleared before starting them.



My ongoing endeavours to put together a stonking urban cityscape is still also progressing with the additional of some street furniture from Blotz.



I picked up lots of additional bits for the city at Colours and Warfare and decided to get them under way. This is them all washed and they’ve been spray undercoated now as well. They should add lots of character.



Well I also need some people to populate this city so I’m working on getting the civvies and heroes finished as well so we can get on and have some games. I think some of the folks in this part of town may have dubious professions…..





One of the Hero (or Villian) figures I’ve had for a while was a suited hitman type of guy but I didn’t want to have him in a plain suit. Well….there was only one choice really wasn’t there. Let me introduce you to….

Mr Patriot!





It took the best part of two hours but it was worth it. It still needs neatening up with some white and the colours could do with another coat but he won’t take much to finish after that.

I seem to have entered one of my more productive phases again, which is great, but because I’ve not had my painting mojo for a while I have been concentrating on building. This has meant that the painting queue has grown considerably. I’m estimating that I have 300+ prepped and undercoated waiting to be done. I really should address that!

So goals for this year? Well last year I painted 366 figures. Great but I brought loads as well. Time for a new tactic. I’m going to track Net items painted. So a minus for a painted one and a plus for any new ones brought.

So the street furniture places me at -15…..but…..

….those 20 mkiii marines I didn’t think I’d win on Ebay but did takes it back to +5.
So this year I must be productive and also resist buying too many figures.

Wish me luck.

TTFN


Eddie.

18 Jan 2018

Bow & Behemoth

The Challenge marches on and today I’d like to present a unit of Ungor Raiders representing the Beastmen Faction and a Chimera representing any Chaos Faction it wants!

First up the Ungor Raiders






20 of these lovely little bowmen!

To be honest I wasn’t planning on adding Ungors anytime soon. They’re the low caste of the Beastmen and the figures just weren’t doing it for me; just not up to the level of the Gors... and then I found out you could give them bows. Missile weapons? Oh yes please!

So now they’re my favourites 😀 they’ve had their first outing and did sterling work so they’ll be taking to the field of battle again. These 20 stout fellows come in at 200 points so that’s a nice old chunk towards the grand target!

And now for something a little bigger. One aspect of the Analogue Challenge that I failed to take part in last year is the Bonus Rounds. These happen every couple of weeks and are usually based around a single word.

This time the word was Flight so naturally I chose something gentle like a hummingbird...
He has three heads representing Lion, Eagle and Dragon. Each gets its own attack as does the tail. So lots of lovely special rules to remember... yeah right.... I'll be making it up as I go along then.

Very simple scheme for the skin with a yellow base spray from GW and then Cassandora Yellow shade which is quickly becoming my absolute favourite.

And an Ungor showing the scale of the Chimera.

Now whatever you do don't mention Andy the Ankylosaurus (sp?) who's terrible in combat... I don't even want to go there... just... nope....

The Chimera is worth a whopping 220 points so let's do maths...

Skaven Warlord 100
Ungor Raiders 200
Chimera 220
Total so far 520 / 3650 or 14% complete!!

Ahead of target so far...

12 Jan 2018

Great big Elf Dragon!

One of the cool things about the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge is that there are bonus rounds, which normally have a single word criteria, encouraging you to paint whatever you like that fits the theme.  I use it as a great way to get something I already own done as the deadline prompts me to get on with it!

When the "Flight" round was announced, my thoughts went immediately to the dragon I'd undercoated and done nothing with.  Once again the challenge worked it's magic in getting me to get something done!

Originally intended as a mount for a dark elf sorceress, I couldn't find all the bits I wanted to use for her so I went with an elven lord instead - I plan to use magnets and get the sorceress ready so I can use both with the same mount and get her done later.


Big old kit, nicely detailed and a nice use of a "tactical rock" to give the Dragon the illusion of flight.  I went for the cold blue colour as I do like the selection of paint colours from GW (The Incubi Darkness ones).
 
Really pleased with it and looking forward to getting it on the tabletop.

5 Jan 2018

Some Superheroes - Pulp City progress

This is my fourth time of taking the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, and once again it's prodded me into action on the painting and blogging front.  I've actually been painting fairly steadily, but as I have to put blog posts together for the Challenge, it's much easier to transfer them here too!



I decided to start with fours Supes for "Pulp City", a rather fun little superheroes game with it's own characters that I haven't played nearly enough.



This first chap will be "Father Oak", a Powerhouse in the terminology of the game who is a hero and aligned to the "Nature" faction in the game.  The figure is from Black Scorpion from the Bloodbowl/Fantasy football range and is brilliantly detailed.


He was originally going to be brown with green leaves, but the colour scheme sort of took on a life of it's own whilst I was painting and he ended up a little more green/grey in the trunk so I thought perhaps a red leaf would work better.

These next three are spandex clad superheroes, from the Reaper Bones Chronoscope range, which sadly appears to have been discontinued now Reaper are all about slightly wobbly plastic instead.  So for once it's a good thing that I bought them a while ago to sit in the lead mountain "Just in case they're discontinued"!  Having now succeeded once with that excuse, I shall feel justified in using it going forward more often.....
 
I believe a couple were sculpted by Patrick Keith of Bombshell miniatures fame - I do like his work having previously showcased some of his Counterblast figures and I hope to paint more of his sculpts during the challenge.


I've no real plans for which hero each will be, I just gave them a classic two tone scheme each and based them on street bases that I carve myself from plasticard and stick to lipped bases.  They may end up as heroes or villains, as every good comic book story needs generous helpings of both.



I went a little more extreme on the highlights than I normally do, but the joy of painting only a few figures instead of a regiment of forty allowed me to take my time a little more.




I've always liked superheroes (who hasn't?) and working in a comic shop during my holidays during University was without doubt one of the best jobs I ever had.  Spandex clad superheroes are the classics in my eyes and these three will be joining my other figures and will be taking to the streets of Pulp city hopefully very soon!