Piratical Scum

When Dark Vengeance hit the shelves I immediately invested in the Cultists from an eBay reseller - After pondering various uses for them, I finally decided that they would best suit the role as "generic 40k scum". The plan was to make them look a little less rag-tag (removing completely makeshift weaponry - the barbed wire-wrapped maces, the morning star-esque weapons and replacing them with swords and axes) and a little less Chaotic (replacing certain heads with too many lenses, removing the little cult symbols and brands). Above is how they look right now...

My favourite is the leader of the band of merry savages - I wanted to be able to use them as pirates playing on the Space Hulk tiles, or a marauding band of thieves on an Imperial planet. I've filled in the Chaotic symbols on the armour plates and replaced the sword blade. I kept the guard on the weapon and used an axe from an old Commissar. I also gave him a flintlock pistol to fit the piratical scheme and my favourite part - the bearded head from the Space Wolf sprue, originally meant for a Scout. It fit my vision for the miniature perfectly!

Finally, the flamer trooper - I wanted to put up another picture of this guy as the camera washed out all the detail on the head. Seemed to fit the miniature perfectly - I love the gloves on this miniature!

I'm pretty close to being able to base the squad and crack open the undercoat - I have a few more weapons to replace and a few heads to put together - I'm thinking more of the Thunder Warrior-esque helmet you can see above. I've always liked the classic design and I figure that it's quite different for this squad of marauders - I reckon they'd love to think of themselves as "as tough as the Thunder Warriors of legend!" - they might even call themselves that!

For those not familiar with the Thunder Warriors or Thunder pattern armour, see above - they were the proto-Space Marines, the first ones created by the Emperor to unite Terra before he created the Primarchs and Space Marine Legions. I've wanted to put the conversion together for a while but never had much reason - I finally found one!

Comments are most welcome - I should have a chance to work on these early in the new year!

Wound Markers

Despite my horrendous lack of posts recently, I have managed to get various bits and pieces finished. My wargames bench is now in working condition - there will be an update in the near future showing it off! I enlisted the help of my dad (who is a joiner by trade and is used to chopping up bits of wood and making them work as functional objects - just what I needed) and supplied the majority of the materials. There's still a little filling to do, but overall I'm extremely happy.

I'm yet to have a game of anything on it though - it's only been used as a Christmas gift wrapping station...

When I finally manage to have my first game, I wanted plenty of wound counters - I loved the tutorial for the above counters over at Anatoli's Game Room. Brilliant result, very simple, a nice little project that took hardly any time to finish. I used Tamiya Clear Red, my go-to source of fresh blood, mixed with a little of the old Citadel Brown Ink. Perfect.

Merry Christmas (and all that jazz)

Another quick post - I'm getting a bit rubbish at this blogging malarkey! I have about 40 completed miniatures and a load of work-in-progress stuff to post up, lots of draft posts and nothing posted for nearly 3 weeks - rubbish!

"I recognise my failing, and will be sure to correct it."

I just wanted to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all - whether you're celebrating the "reason for the season" (I'm not...) or just look upon it as a time to spend time with your family and eat lots of good food and receive a few nice presents (like me, the staunch atheist!), I hope you have a bloody good day!

As for presents, I'm reliably informed that my mam and dad have got me Dreadfleet, so painting that up will be a nice project over the course of 2013!

Happy Holidays faithful readers!

Spoils of Wargaming: Studio Miniatures Indiegogo Zombies!

Just a quick post - I'm sorry that these have been few and far between recently! I wanted to show this lovely addition to my zombie horde - the Studio Miniatures plastic zombies have arrived! For a grand total of £18.64 including postage within the UK, I received the above: 40 plastic zombies, a zombie George Romero, a zombie version of Shaun (of the Dead) and another zombie that I can't quite place...

Pretty darn good! I'm back at my parents house for the night, with these on a tray table next to me - the first dozen or so have arms and legs!

Regarding the new plastics - they're very nice, better than the Wargames Factory ones but very similar. They share similar issues - they're small, especially when compared to the metal Studio Miniatures zombies. The detail is crisper, which is definitely a plus, but they seem slight - they're definitely closer to standard 28mm rather than 28mm heroic. I'd have preferred them heroic-scale, but nevermind - they'll still fit brilliantly with the rest of my horde! This takes me up to around 80 zombies now...do I need more? Probably.

Actually...I also have another 26 WWWII German Zombies...