Chris' Miniature Woes

Poster no.4

2012-02-12T13:49:00.001Z

The other framed poster that can be found in my bathroom - Forbidden Planet. This features rather nicely with the retro King Kong poster.

Thought I'd pay homage to classic sci-fi (this) and classic pulp (King Kong).

Chaos Sorcerer - Work In Progress

2012-02-01T23:06:00.000Z

I converted this Chaos Sorcerer when I first started buying bits and pieces from eBay for my Chaos Warriors - this was the first miniature put together for the force.

The idea was for a sorcerer who had made a number of mistakes in his service to the Dark Gods - betrayed the patronage of God X for the patronage of God Y etc. and suffered the consequences. His form is distorted, one arm replaced with a hideous claw, his skull stripped of it's flesh and permanently aflame...

Sometime in the past few months, the conversion has lost his head... the flaming skull from the Empire Wizard kit. Thankfully, I've managed to find a generous fellow on one of the many forums I frequent, who has posted a spare on it's way to me! Phew...all of the bits sites were bereft of this lovely piece!

Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch - Command

2012-02-01T10:45:00.001Z

Edit - better picture of the warriors uploaded...

I've been off work ill for a couple of days this week - the dreaded cold/lurg-y. As such, I've had a bit of time to block out the colours on the front rank of the Chaos Warriors. This is a terrible picture I realise, but I am too shattered to consider going back and taking it again at the moment...

I also worked on the banner for the unit - previously I was just using the icon (from the Marauder Horsemen), but it was a little plain. I added the prayer streamers from the Ravenwing sprues, pinned to the bottom of the hanging skulls. Works rather well I think!

I have also been pondering unit fillers for these and for the Marauder unit I have WIP - I'm thinking trolls or ogres, mobile shrines etc. - not entirely sure!

Gift Poster

2012-01-31T23:56:00.000Z

Another of the posters I put together - this time, one for my flatmate, as a Christmas present. It's fair to say that I was massively tempted to keep this - I love the film and love this poster design!

Chaos Lord

2012-01-29T14:59:00.000Z

This is a conversion I've been planning for a while now - it's actually a very late Christmas gift for my flatmate's younger brother. The body is from Abaddon, a which I received without the rest of the parts in an eBay bits lot. The assault cannon is from the Dark Angels upgrade sprue - fluffwise, he'll of looted it from the corpse of a worthy opponent. The powerfist and head are from the Chaos Terminators and the torch on his back is from the Vampire Counts Corpse Cart. It obviously wouldn't represent a "legal" choice from the Chaos Space Marine codex, but he doesn't really play in the GW stores...

Lego Minifigs - Statue of Liberty

2012-01-28T08:00:00.001Z

I've ended up picking up a few figures from the last 3 or so Minifig releases - I'm consistently impressed by the selections in each release! I recently levelled-up whilst in the local supermarket - a my flatmate's brother-in-law wanted the Statue of Liberty, my flatmate wanted the robot for himself and the butcher for his (butcher/farmer/teacher) father and I wanted the minotaur...

Here is the first, the brilliant Statue of Liberty minifig!

Poster no.3

2012-01-27T17:00:00.000Z

Another poster from my bedroom - I love, nay, LOVE! this poster style! Absolutely epic, rather befitting a magnificent space opera!

Best birthday card ever?

2012-01-27T08:00:00.002Z

As I'm basically an overgrown child, I was browsing the brilliant children's birthday card section in a local supermarket the other day. I had to snap a photo of this one - how awesome is that?!

Poster no.2

2012-01-26T07:20:00.009Z

One of the posters that can be found in my bathroom.. Classic King Kong! I decided to keep things rather retro in the bathroom. Although, the rest of the posters in my room are fairly retro, but '70s/'80s retro instead...

Roger the Homunculus, Protector of the Book Pile

2012-01-25T07:45:00.001Z

I recently upgraded my mobile phone from the rather dated iPhone 3G to the iPhone 4S - one of the benefits being the ability to use apps without the phone having a meltdown. One of my new favourite apps is definitely Instagram - a sort of Polaroid-esque, micro/photo-blogging social network of sorts. It's a camera app, with various filters available.

This was the first picture I took, showing off my rather snazzy Mezco Roger the Homunculus - for those who may not be massive Mike Mignola fans, Roger is a homunculus (a humanoid made from various icky substances...) who ends up working alongside Hellboy and Abe Sapien in the BPRD (Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defence). He can be seen here guarding my current "to read" pile...

Expect more posts of this sort - I've primarily used this blog for my wargames projects - you can be assured that this regular viewing will not change, but may be supplemented with geeky installments such as this one. Especially when my painting/modelling is currently so slow!

Poster no.1

2012-01-24T18:19:00.000Z

I left the walls of my bedroom fairly bare after moving into my new place this time last year. I finally got around to putting my framed poster plan into action just before Christmas... Here's the first of 6 posters I put together for my own parts of the flat (bedroom and main bathroom).

Warriors of Apoc

2012-01-23T14:46:00.002Z

My friend linked me to this preview image of Avatars of War's new not-Chaos Warriors, the Warriors of Apoc. I'm very impressed with these, especially after being underwhelmed by the Slayers they put out (which, to me, were a little static for homicidal mohican-clad dwarves). I may just end up buying some of these. The resin/plastic mix "Warcast" sounds rather interesting too.

Hrm, probably about time to work on some Tzeenchian Warriors of Chaos...

Where I am with Space Hulk...

2012-01-22T22:48:00.000Z

I had planned on completing everything for Space Hulk as of New Years Eve 2011 - sadly, this did not come to pass. I did manage to get the vast majority of the miniatures in the boxed set completed, but I still have the Librarian and Broodlord to finish, plus the bases of the Genestealers to go back over and bring up to the level of muck and grime of the Terminators. To be honest, there's probably a million different things I could go back and alter. And I probably will.

Long-time readers of my blog may remember the magnetised bases I put together for all of the Terminators shortly after receiving the box as a Christmas gift from my parents - the bases are all now painted up nicely!

Although all of the integral bases on the Terminators are different shapes, it was still slightly awkward to pair the correct Astartes to the correct 40mm gaming base. A set of transfers kindly solved this issue for me! Each integral base bottom now has a corresponding number on it's particular base. Perfect!

Hopefully I'll be able to get the Broodlord and Librarian finished soon and put an end to the project - it's been a labour of love - time to start gaming with them!

A belated Goodbye to 2011...

2012-01-08T01:43:00.001Z

Time for a look back over 2011 and whether or not I've achieved my aims from the start of last year...

First, a recap - this post from January 2011 summed up what I had planned for the year.

In general, I had a few different real-life aims;

Move out of my parents house - done. I moved into an apartment with a friend at the start of 2011, so this one has worked out rather well!
Build some self-esteem/be more healthy - this has not really progressed over the past year. If anything, I have more access to rubbish food in the town I've moved to. Definitely one of my main aims for 2012. It's about time.
Get a social life - if I'm honest, I've just about maintained this from the previous year - I had thought that moving into my own place would mean that my friends could visit more often, for Xbox, films, food and drink, but this was not always the case. I'd moved for work, which meant I was slightly further away from my main group of friends. This has highlighted my desperate need for a car - a new aim for 2012. Being out of work for a few months of 2011 and changing jobs a total of 3 times in a year left me feeling slightly isolated (brought about by self-imposed hermitage...). Thankfully, this began to change in the last months of 2011.

Wargames-wise;

Play more games - this was dismal. That changes this year though, with my main Resolution of 2012 - PLAY MORE. Be it Xbox, Monopoly or Warhammer 40k, I want to play more, have more fun!
Plan armies before modelling - this is something I explored slightly in 2011 with the 500pts Imperial Guard list I built from the scrap Catachans. I quite enjoyed writing the list and converting figures with a sense of purpose - definitely the way forward in the new year.
Sell what I don't need - I did sell a few different things during the year - to be honest, I'll probably always be a hoarder (although, I bloody hate mess/clutter!) and my head is always brimming with ideas for multi-purposing miniatures, or recycling them into new gangs/warbands/forces. Definitely one of my favourite parts of the hobby!
With regards to painting, not a lot has changed. I do tend to use the wet palette that I picked up at the start of the year - that was interesting to work with. I can think of a few things to work on over the next 12 months...

So, overall? I'm fairly happy with that. I absolutely HAVE to finish learning to drive, pass my test and buy a car this year. It's an imperative. I just don't see my family (parents, sister and grandmother in particular) and friends ("The Scooby Gang") enough - I can also think of so many museums and interesting places I'd love to go once transport is better available! So, my main resolutions - PLAY MORE - LEARN TO DRIVE - SEE MORE.

Thanks to everyone who reads my blog - it's been a quiet couple of months, but the next few months will be more interesting! I'm actually planning on going to the local games club tomorrow, for the first time since moving to this town - should be rather interesting!

Not dead, just restin'

2011-12-13T22:48:00.000Z

Just a quick snapshot from my workbench from a couple of weeks ago, showing what will probably be shown next...

I've been busy with work as of late, but I will get some proper updates sorted soon!

Terrain Crusade - Games Mat

2011-12-04T17:15:00.000Z

Well, it's been quite a while since I've managed an update! The various terrain projects over the past couple of months wore me out somewhat, but I'm finally back! In the past few weeks I've finished a squad of 10 Imperial Guardsmen and a Commissar, 5 Dark Eldar Wyches, 3 fantasy sorcerers familliars, a zombie-huntin' granny, a Mordheim/Empire in Flames Halfling Thief and 3 Space Hulk Terminators - a few touch-ups here and there, some blood and gore on the Terminators and I'll have some tasty content-filled posts up!

For now though, I have my shiny new gaming mat! When I recently got my games board out to put together my board/terrain setup, I decided that it was a little large and unwieldy for my plans - I had thought it'd fit comfortably on the breakfast bar in my kitchen area, but sadly not! I've had my eye on a Zuzzy mat for a good while now, and finally got around to ordering one.

I went for their Wounded City mat - Zuzzy mats are made out of a thin latex rubber, textured rather nicely and readily accept paint. This one is 3ft by 3ft, supplied in a nice sturdy box along with a small sample piece for you to test your paint scheme on.

The Wounded City mat's theme is of a desolate ruined cityscape, with broken blacktop/tarmac, with bricks showing through here and there where they have been uncovered by whatever cataclysm has befallen the city.

I've started painting the mat by basecoating with acryllics that are approximately the same as the slightly-darkened Scorched Brown I use for my bases. I've then watered down some black and painted it into the cracks and exposed brickwork.

Following this, I used some sponge-y packing material from an eBay delivery to take off the excess paint and blend in the watered-down black.

The mat was shipped from the USA and worked out at around £30 including shipping. If I'd had more space in the flat I'd have gone for a larger mat, but this is just about perfect for my needs - it is currently drying awaiting the various washes and drybrushes...

Skull Champion

2011-11-08T17:30:00.013Z

I've been in a bit of an assemblin' mood as of late - one of the first bodies I pulled out of the many Chaotic bitz boxes I've accumulated was a battered Kharn the Betrayer that I literally couldn't give away...

With a head that fit the pose perfectly coming from the Space Wolves kits, a Blood Angel Death Company power fist and a chained chainsword from the Black Templar kits, this guy is a real mashup of the lovely Marine kits available!

He's the Skull Champion of my first Beserker squad for my Chaos Renegades, soon to lead a squad of 15 or so deranged maniacs, built from various different Chaos and Imperial kits for the ragtag-psycho look!

Terrain Crusade: Wasteland Setup

2011-11-08T13:04:00.000Z

Thought I'd give my followers a look at my wasteland/post-apocalyptic terrain setup for my 200th post! I recently topped 100 followers, so thank you to everyone who has took the time to follow my blog and comment on my posts!

I decided to setup the board after I'd finished the various pieces of terrain recently - it's heavily Fallout-inspired, with a lot more ideas buzzing around my head to add to it...

I also recently ordered a Zuzzy Ruined City gaming mat which should fit the overall theme perfectly! It should also make setting up for smaller games even quicker - it's 3ft by 3ft and will fit perfectly onto the breakfast bar in my living space!

I'll also be building more ruins, with ladders and walkways to place where needed...

Again - thanks for reading my blog, and feel free to comment!

Terrain Crusade: Jungle Setup

2011-11-05T14:54:00.000Z

I also finally got my games board out last night, and tried out a couple of setups...

Here is a picture of my Jungle Wastes setup - a couple of other stands of jungle foliage are elsewhere on the board, but on the whole... I realllly need more jungle! I have all of the materials to hand, so this will probably be the next portion of my Terrain Crusade. Probably will some overgrown ruins and some small hillocks/stone piles included...

Terrain Crusade - Dinosaur Skeletons

2011-11-05T13:29:00.000Z

I managed to finish this lot last night - I'm going to take a slight break from the terrain to paint some miniatures, but more ruins and jungles will be incoming!

The Boneyard Grows

2011-10-26T22:21:00.000+01:00

The Boneyard has grown - the Triceratops in the middle is certainly my favourite of the bunch - Triceratops was always one of my favourite dinosaurs as a child (I had a young Triceratops toy from Jurassic Park as a child - brilliant!) and I feel rather sorry for this one!

They'll all be getting undercoated this evening for painting later in the week - I predict lots of drybrushing with these! I may add some aquarium plants to blend them into my jungle terrain, but I'll have to see - I will be carving out some new bases for the next lot of jungle foliage shortly. Another 6 bases should give me a densely covered board!

The Boneyard

2011-10-25T14:00:00.000+01:00

This weekend I managed to get a few more dino skeleton bases worked on - I feel like a taxidermist, taking apart the legs and stringing them back together with wire in order to get a decent pose on the bases.

In the above picture you can see where I have pinned the leg so I can modify it to be attached to the base, as well as the areas in which I've used offcuts of foamboard and a stone to lend some support to the skeleton, so it has landed in a natural pose when it has died. I'll be using the green model filler to hide any joins and adding plenty of gravel and sand! I have another few bases planned and that's it for the dinosaurs - when matched with the jungle terrain I have (which will be expanded) they should be enough to cover a 4ft by 4ft board perfectly!

All of last weekend's terrain...

2011-10-24T12:00:00.000+01:00

Everything I managed to get finished last weekend - pretty darn happy with this lot! Time to make some more ruins and plan some games (finally!)!

Crate Pile Three: Complete

2011-10-24T09:00:00.000+01:00

The third and final crate pile, with one of my new guardsmen for scale.

All three crates complete. Well worth the £21.99 including shipping - I would highly recommend these!

Ruined Again!

2011-10-23T14:30:00.001+01:00

The second of my ruins complete. This is probably my current favourite - a brilliant vantage point for snipers!

I still have another 4 or five similar-sized ruins planned - I'm itching to get a game set up!

Crate Pile Two: Complete

2011-10-23T09:00:00.000+01:00

Another of the crate piles completed last weekend - I stuck with a blue, olive green and yellow ochre for the crates, suitably dulled down with various washes and drybrushed muck. I didn't want to have too many different colours as I figured it'd be a bit jarring - as it stands, they will fit perfectly with my other post-apoc/starport junkyard terrain!

I Love Poundshops!

2011-10-23T00:09:00.001+01:00

The spoils of my recent trip to Poundland in my local town;

Two more dinosaur skeletons - this time a carnosaur of some sort, perhaps even a T-Rex. Needless to say, my dino boneyard is growing. Over the past two days I have another 3 bases of dinosaur skeletons, with another 3 skeletons left to loot.
A bendy bus (that unfortunately does not bend...) - this will be burnt out once I've smashed it up and repainted.
A Fire Engine - I have already done some work to this one, a surprisingly nice toy. Unfortunately, it is rather un-detailed in parts (although the ladder actually extends, which is nice!). I've cut out the windows at the front (they were just the red plastic as with the rest of the truck, but with stickers for detail) and cut down the wheels to appear as if they have exploded when the truck will have burnt out. Yes, it's going to be burnt to a crisp once I've finished with it!

I always pop into the couple of pound shops in my town, as I am on the prowl for standard vehicles to trash. This was one of the better hauls!

Crate Pile One: Complete

2011-10-22T16:45:00.000+01:00

Another terrain piece from last weekend - the first of my crate piles...

Palleted Crates

2011-10-22T12:30:00.001+01:00

More that I managed to finish last weekend - the crates and pallets as shown previously on the blog. Very simple to do, rather fast as well - I actually used a hairdryer to speed up the process! I added markings to them, that are meant to be fairly generic from a distance, but up close they're sort of arabesque squiggles...

Alongside the other crate/fuel drum piles, I think I have enough for my board now...

Ruined!

2011-10-21T23:50:00.000+01:00

I managed to get a nice chunk of terrain painted last weekend - I took some pictures during the week, this is the first of my ruins - I have around about 6 of similar size planned...

Dead as a Dino...

2011-10-19T23:25:00.000+01:00

Another terrain piece, this time the skeleton of a triceratops. This piece is planned as a multi-genre piece, with uses in various different settings. Inspired by various pieces of similar terrain, an availability of the actual dino skeleton (in a £ shop no less!) and a random little piece of brain/memory fluff that has always stuck with me...

When I was a child (well, a smaller child), my sister had a Lion King "story book". It was basically a bunch of background/backdrops, to which you had 2-dimensional card characters that you moved around of it in a sort of theatre-ish role to act out scenes from the movie. The one that stuck with me was The Elephant Graveyard - quite a spooky and haunting idea from a Disney film! Anyway, this is my slight homage to that particular scene, although more inspired by my lovely sister's story/theatre-book-thing!

I used MDF as a base, de-moldlined the skeleton and modified some parts, filling the gaps here and there with some model filler. The skelly is glued to the base with hot glue, foamboard offcuts were used here and there to bulk up the gravel, then kitty litter and sand were applied.

I have another full triceratops, the rest of the pieces of this one and a smaller tyrannosaur/carnosaur of some sort left to put together on some bases. I'll be adding some jungle foliage to these too!

In the post-apocalyptic world they'll be the skeletons of scientific experiments run amok, in the 40k arena they'd be native fauna, they'd be perfect for Lost World-ish pulp games etc. - lots of uses I think! I've also got a lot of terrain painted over the weekend, so there shall be pictures of that soon!

More Starport Terrain...

2011-10-13T18:21:00.000+01:00

Expanding my post-apoc/starport terrain even further - I bought a bag of SIKU pallets from eBay and two packs of crates. The pallets were a little small, so I glued them side by side...

Battle Ready!

2011-10-09T18:18:00.000+01:00

This is a conversion I've had in mind for a while now - a Friar Tuck-inspired Preacher/Battle Priest for my Imperial Guard. I'm happy with the way he is turning out - I may swap the plasma pistol for something a bit different (a stub pistol perhaps?) but otherwise, most of the parts for the conversion are there...

Crate Piles Undercoated...

2011-10-03T07:21:00.000+01:00

A while back I managed to get a bunch of different cans of Plasti-kote spraypaint at a DIY store for something like 20p each - I've reaped these rewards and used a mid-orange as the basis for these crate piles. I began with the orange, coating almost everything (they come undercoated in a light grey). After that I added some black undercoat in most of the places where sand can be found, finally finishing up with another hit of the orange in places that had been a bit too covered up.

Hopefully this will be a very decent start to my actual painting!

Crate Piles

2011-10-02T23:04:00.000+01:00

I received these in the post during the week - I'm extremely impressed with them! They're crate/barrel piles from Microart Studios - released alongside their Infinity terrain line, I thought they would be perfect for my Spaceport board. My painting-in-progress Guard have cameo-d for scale purposes...

I bought these on eBay at the price of £21.99 including delivery - they're almost the 40k equivalent of the classic stepped-hills commonly seen in Warhammer Fantasy. They're made out of a light, dense expandable foam, which can be chopped and sanded rather easily. They seem quite sturdy - the way they're produced means that there is some filling of air bubbles. I've done this with polyfilla (spackle for US viewers!), green stuff and gone back over most of the sand with PVA and more sand (if that makes sense). I'm going to be painting these up shortly and I also have a few other bits and pieces on the way for this terrain collection - stay tuned!

Space Hulk Termie

2011-10-01T00:50:00.000+01:00

The picture showed a few things I'll be altering, and he still needs some rust adding to the base, but another Terminator down, 6 and the Broodlord left to go!

I never seem to have any energy for painting at the moment - I am planning a lazy day on Sunday when I'll be attempting to finish off a bunch of different almost-complete miniatures that I currently have on my desk!

New Job - Again! Huzzah!

2011-09-21T22:14:00.000+01:00

Well, bit of news in my real life! I have ANOTHER new job! But one I actually enjoy! I'm very pleased about this - I had an interview last Tuesday, was given the job on the same day and started on Monday! I am now the Customer Service Manager of a local printing company, with a pay bump and less distance to travel each day...

I am over-the-moon!

Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch: Next four done!

2011-09-12T11:12:00.000+01:00

Next four Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch complete! Another bunch of minis that have been sat on the desk for what feels like ages - four more to complete and this regiment is done!

Hunters!

2011-09-11T23:05:00.000+01:00

Finally got around to finishing these two not-Hunters on Friday evening - they've been about 80% painted for months now, just sitting there annoying me...

It's so good to actually get a project that has been sat around for ages complete! It allows me to move onto other things that need completing - like some survivors to battle these guys!

Terrain Crusade - pt.3

2011-09-05T11:00:00.010+01:00

Over the past week I've made a good amount of progress with the next of the ruined buildings. This was another rather large build - slightly taller but thinner than the previous building.

I've now begun to run out of foamboard - the first two have taken up just over two 15" by 12" sheets. I happen to have another half a dozen sheets stockpiled at my parents house, but need to find the time to be able to go back and pick them up. I have another half a sheet and various offcuts to begin building another smaller ruin and a number of sections of lower walls or rubble - so, plenty to be working on, as usual!

Terrain Recap: The Playground

2011-09-04T13:20:00.000+01:00

I recently rediscovered this piece of terrain whilst going through my collection - inspired by the ghost town of Minefield in Fallout 3, I decided to create a post-apocalyptic playground with a bit of a bleak twist - landmines!

The equipment was all built from cheap materials I found in my box o' terrain junk - the fence is made from wooden coffee stirrers collected from Costa and Starbucks, the see-saw is built from offcuts of plasticard, the swings frame is bamboo kebab skewers and the roundabout is the lid from a pot of waxworms (purchased to feed my pet turtles). Paperclips and cheap chain added the details...

Finally, I added sand, clean kitty litter and the final finishing touch - land mines! They were made using some spare 1:48 tank wheels with circles of plasticard added to the top.

The piece was originally built for my Wasteland setting, but should work well in Necromunda-style shenanigans, 40k or zomb-apoc.

Terrain Crusade - pt.2

2011-09-01T22:40:00.002+01:00

I managed to get the first building undercoated on Monday night.

I mixed up a textured grey paint from a small pot of emulsion, a couple of tubes of acrylic paint, some water and some fine sand, which was then liberally applied to everything in order to seal the foam on the edges and undercoat it for the paintjob.

I also used some black spray to pre-shade the areas I want to have been particularly burned (I need to go back over the hole in the wall - I realised that there were some clumps of paint after I'd sprayed some black on...). I'm going to batch paint a few of these together, so I'll be starting the next few buildings before properly painting this one.

Nacht der Untoten! pt.2

2011-08-31T13:00:00.008+01:00

Like Dr. Frankenstein, I have pieced together the remains of these Nazi soldiers...

On Friday evening I removed all of the heads, drilled out the necks and reposed, whilst adding sand and gravel to their bases. Last night I undercoated all of them with black spray. These should be a nice little horde to paint!

Dear Me.

2011-08-30T22:24:00.000+01:00

Whoops.

Had a bit of an accident on the way home from work on Friday evening. It's still working and I have an insurance claim going through, but, sheesh - rather annoying!

Terrain Crusade

2011-08-29T22:16:00.000+01:00

And thus it begins...

I've finally managed to start my small terrain-building crusade I've had planned for about 6 months - above is the first of the 8 or so ruined buildings I'm planning on starting with. I'm keeping them very basic - no bullet holes or anything of that sort, just ruined, burned out buildings. My reasoning behind this is so I can use them with any of the genres I have games planned for - be it 40k, Mordheim, Weird WWII, Zomb-Apoc etc. - for each of these I will have terrain that is a bit more specific, but generic ruins should work nicely to begin with...

Nacht der Untoten!

2011-08-24T22:14:00.000+01:00

Because who doesn't love zombies? And Weird World War II? These arrived in the post yesterday, from a friend who didn't need them anymore - he'd bought them painted and in need of some tender loving care, so I rebased them all last night. They appeared to originally have been glued to their bases with PVA and the sand they'd been based with just fell off. Hopefully I'll be able to rescue them for my WWWII collection - I can see them fighting the repainted Hellboy 'clix I have too!

Odd Star Wars

2011-08-18T10:00:00.005+01:00

Spotted this whilst perusing a toy shop the other day...

Funny, I didn't remember Aurra Sing's aerial being quite that large. Oh yeah, it wasn't. I wonder if it's so it won't snap quite as easily?

Upir' Likhyi

2011-08-17T17:00:00.001+01:00

A rather rubbish photo, but most of the details should be visible - this is the start of my Undead warband for Mordheim - a vampiric nobleman. I picked up the figure rather cheap still-in-blister from eBay a few years back. The sword the original figure comes with is absolutely rubbish, a clunky piece of...well, it's just not good. I replaced it with a plastic sword and hand from the current Vampire Counts skeleton plastics. It's one of the fanciest ones from the kit, with a lovely bat-shaped pommel.

At the moment I have the plastic necromancer and the four zombies from from the corpse cart, a number of zombies converted and resculpted by my friend Si, a couple of Heresy ghouls - the ghoul hag (eating baby) and ghoul child plus various mixed plastics to turn into more zombies and dregs.

Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch - further progress

2011-08-17T14:00:00.000+01:00

Just thought I'd update with the next four Chaos Warriors - they look rather different whilst work in progress, yes? I do enjoy painting them on the long base - seems to work out a lot easier to batch paint them this way.

Window Sill

2011-08-16T23:25:00.000+01:00

Recently made a couple of additions to one of the window bottoms in my apartment - the gangster and viking-esque dwarf Lego minifigs and Captain Bucky O'Hare (the last was a "house gift" from my flatmate - a "house gift" being a random, yet awesome, addition to our apartment). Rather nice selection I think!

Return to Mordheim - Dwarf Pirate Slayer

2011-08-16T07:41:00.000+01:00

Meet Snorrison, the Slayer Pirate! Formerly of Long Drong's Slayer Pirates, Snorrison decided to return to land full-time and seek his fame...

This gentleman is one of the Storm of Chaos Dwarf Slayer army "Doomseekers" - he'd normally be swinging round two axes attached to his hands by chains, but I picked him up as part of an eBay lot minus a couple of pieces. My friend Si helped me out by sculpting the parrot and the hand clutching the pistol - the inspiration came from a lovely piece of concept art from the Warhammer MMORPRG. Next up is the halfling thief and the beginning of an Undead warband...

Return to Mordheim

2011-08-08T21:33:00.001+01:00

Finally managed to finish off this lovely classic miniature over the weekend - he's a rather old Games Workshop Chaos Warrior wearing a beastman skin. I love the armour and hammer!

I've had about three different shields on this gentleman before settling on an Orc plastic shield with one of the plastic building detailing parts from the original Mordheim box. I've always loved them and yet never really found a place to use any of them. I decided that it added a lovely slice of weird to an already quite strange miniature!

Another of my projects from over the weekend - assembling Lord Carver, BMMD, Esq. from the Hordes Thornfall Alliance - I can't decide between Thornfall Alliance (a force of boar-men - think beastmen but from wild boars...) and the Blindwater Congregation (crocodile/alligator-men with a US Deep South/swampdwelling yokel-theme, plus frogs and giant turtles - being a massive fan of reptiles and amphibians, I really like these guys...). Thoughts? This was one of the many miniatures I decided was a must-have when I first saw it - there's just so many different things to love, utter badass!

This chunky little fellow is a Mordheim Halfling Thief - a miniature I've liked for quite a while, yet never got around to picking up. I finally found him unpainted and cheap on eBay - £2.49, amongst a bunch of other auctions I couldn't refuse. So I got him, a great retro Chaos Sorcerer and 80% of a Chaos Knights plastic regiment for under £10. Fairly good!

Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch - first four painted!

2011-08-04T21:25:00.002+01:00

I finally managed to slap some paint on the first of the Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch last weekend, finishing a couple of bits and pieces on them over the last few evenings - as always, click the images for bigger pictures:

Very happy with the way these have turned out - I have a rather free weekend so I should be able to paint another third of the starting unit. I've also picked up a few more lovely cheap eBay buys to expand these guys and I also have some donations from a friend that should be arriving in the post soon...

Comments would be most welcome!

Storm of Magic: Wyvern and Fimir Balefiend

2011-07-27T21:49:00.000+01:00

Reading through Storm of Magic recently made me dig out a few random bits and pieces...

Classic Wyvern from the Orc special character Azhag the Slaughterer - I've had this a few years now - I originally purchased from a schoolfriend who had grown bored of the hobby. I thought it'd make a good end boss for a Mordheim campaign I was playing at the time. This is his second paintjob which I was rather happy with when I returned to the hobby, but he's become damaged whilst in storage between the various places I've lived over the years. He's been rebased, wings glued/pinned/greenstuffed back on and he'll get a new paintscheme!

Now, this gentleman is going to take a good bit more work - I have no idea what he actually is, but I'd assume an oldschool Troll of some sort? He arrived in a lovely random fantasy figure lot I picked up cheap on eBay - I based him up with the intention of having him as some kind of lesser Troll gamewise, perhaps in some sort of fantasy RPG. He hasn't got past that stage, and I've now decided to turn him into a Fimir Balefiend! The Fimir are a race recently re-introduced to the Warhammer Fantasy universe to the cheers of many older fans (or folks like myself, who love the more esoteric parts of the Fantasy 'verse). I'm going to attempt to resculpt his head, give him various trophys and fetishes and give him a tail of some sort.

I also very much want to pick up another Fenbeast, as well as both the Truthsayer and the Dark Emissary...

Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch

2011-07-24T17:17:00.000+01:00

I recently had a big tidy out of my lead mountain - with the start for my new job finally confirmed I decided to go through my various storage boxes around my flat, sort through my miscellaneous bits boxes and organise my next few projects in an attempt to stop needing to dig through numerous boxes to find particular miniatures!

Whilst doing this sorting I decided to keep all of the fantasy Chaos miniatures I'd stockpiled over the years to one side, to start putting together a force to learn how to play the game with. This was further influenced by the recent release of Storm of Magic, which left me yearning to build and paint the fantasy force I'd had planned for years...

Here's the start of my Warriors of Chaos army - 12 Chaos Warriors with the Mark of Tzeentch and a full command section. As always, click the photos for bigger pictures!

This is the standard bearer, Champion and musician. The Champ was one of those conversions that flowed together rather perfectly - blindfolded head from the old mutation sprue and a sword and shield from the plastic Chaos Knights. The sword is a bit different to the ones the rest of the unit use and the shield works perfectly with the blindfolded head!

Detail of the sword and head.

The rest of the Warrior unit - I've converted a number of weapons to make them look a bit more varied (including transplanting weapons from left hands onto right), removed any horns on their helmets and added them to the pelts at the top of their cloaks and added pieces of parchment nailed to their shields.

This unit seems to have taken quite a long time to get to this stage - once I go back over them all for missed moldlines and the like, plus add sand to bases where needed, I'll get them undercoated and ready for painting!

Epic Lost and the Damned Force

2011-07-10T16:25:00.000+01:00

I recently picked up a box of Epic 40k miniatures from my parents house - another side project that I've had on the go for a while. I orginally picked up a couple of different eBay auctions just over a year ago to start a Lost and the Damned force, inspired by various blogs and plogs.

I built a couple of test bases and I was rather happy with them, but the rest got sidelined - until this week...

Centre in the above picture is my Arch-Heretic and his retinue. The rest of the bases are bog standard beastmen/mutants. I've changed various shields here and there and modified weapons. The retinue is based on a two pence piece and the rest are on one pence pieces, to give an idea of size for those who haven't seen Epic figures before...

More bases of mutants.

Big mutants - these are minotaurs and trolls. I've swapped weapons around here quite a bit, or given them new ones from little pieces of scrap plasticard. I've also added the odd normal mutant to their bases here and there, to add to the horde feel.

The Arch-Heretic's transport, plus a couple of non-STC pattern transports originating from the beastmen's homeworld.

Non-STC standard Leman Russ equivalents.

Non-STC Leman Russ Demolisher equivalents - these are all plastic Ork battlewagons, with modified turrets and dozer blades added from various Imperial vehicles.

Hellhounds - these are brilliantly oldschool, I love the clunkiness! These are from an earlier version of Epic.

Not entirely sure what these would be used as - probably more non-STC standard Leman Russ equivalents.

Picked this up for pennies on eBay - an Ork Squiggoth. I'm going to use it in the force, I'm just not sure what as yet...

Bit of news...

2011-07-08T18:02:00.000+01:00

Nothing particularly special about this post, other than having a date to start my new job! Hurrah, huzzah and other such exclamations of happiness! I start Monday coming, working 9-5 for the next 6 weeks and then similar hours following that. I am overjoyed!

In other news, I'm currently having a big spring (summer, even) clean - I wanted to get my miniature horde in some semblance of order before starting the new job - wargames miniatures had taken over my wardrobe and I could never find the stuff I wanted! In doing so, I've kept all of my Warriors of Chaos stuff to one side - I'll be assembling these over the next few weeks, as Storm of Magic has rather intrigued me!

Black Crusade

2011-07-06T19:26:00.000+01:00

Built this miniature a few days ago thanks to some inspiration from the previews for Black Crusade - the new RPG from Fantasy Flight Games. One of the previews was for the Forsaken - basically a lone Chaos Space Marine renegade. To begin with the character starts with a shotgun, which I've rarely seen modelled on a Space Marine in power armour - I thought it'd be a nice quick project! I already had the perfect base miniature, which even had the arms attached - he was going to be a void-suited ship's armsman, but with some shoulder pads, a backpack and a headswap he's pretty much there! He'll be getting a patchwork paintjob to show that his allegiances change rather swiftly, with paint flaking off to reveal his previous employers...

Imperial Guard - Platoon Command Squad

2011-07-04T14:30:00.001+01:00

This is my Platoon Command Squad for my new Imperial Guard force - possibly the most fun I've had putting a squad together in years!

From left to right: flamer, standard bearer, platoon leader, the man with no name, heavy flamer.

This is the platoon commander - possibly the most basic miniature in the squad actually! I modified the legs to be striding forward purposefully, gave him a modified Cadian torso, changed the pose on the sword arm slightly and he has a great head from the plastic Warhammer flagellant sprues.

He received his pistol from the Void plastic sprues mentioned in my previous post. He'll be getting some equipment packs and grenades around his waist.

This is my rather basic standard bearer - included in the list because of the sort of union/miner theme and also as an excuse to use this lovely Catachan part! He got some modified legs and an arm from the most recent beastmen plastics - a great source of alternate arms once the hair is trimmed away!

This gentleman is actually my favourite from the squad, but he is supposed to be the most expendable!

In the list he's just an extra member of the squad armed with a laspistol and close-combat weapon, but the conversion took on a bit of a life of it's own after I visited a local museum and had a look at some trench axes...

He's made from an unmodified Catachan torso and legs, a Chaos Marauder arm with Empire/Mordheim axe and hand, Catachan arm and Forgeworld laspistol and various pouches and grenades. There's a certain amount of menace in the posing which I'm really very happy with!

This gentleman is the squad's heavy flamer trooper - I have a strong dislike for the half-arsed attempt at a heavy flamer on the Cadian and Catachan command squad sprues, so decided to make my own. The shine from the polycement in the images make it quite difficult to see, but it's based on a similar conversion I saw over on Warseer.

The heavy flamer is made using an extra flamer to bulk it up underneath, moving the igniter nozzles and adding some cable detailing. I've left the backpack unattached for painting purposes - it's tacked in the photos.

Last but not least, a standard flamer trooper for the squad - modelled to be fitting a replacement fuel container into his weapon.

As mentioned, this was a very nice squad to model, with some interesting conversions to put together. I sorted through my bits box and now have a big pile of equipment and pouches to add to the miniatures already assembled, to show that they're tooled up for a slightly extended conflict...

Once that's done, plus the minor filling needed here and there, my first 400pts are fully assembled and ready for undercoat! I'm very much looking forward to starting to paint this force!

Imperial Guard - Infantry Squad #2

2011-07-03T14:30:00.000+01:00

Finished the basic assembly and basing on the second infantry squad of the platoon for my new Guard force.

As you can see, there is a Sergeant, a flamer trooper, a Heavy Stubber team and a mix of lasguns and autoguns for the remaining six troopers.

In this picture you can see the Sergeant, with a pistol from the plastic Void troopers (I love the long magazine) and a chainsword from a Necromundan Van Saar leader - the rest of the leader can be found mangled on one of the Sentinel bases - waste-not, want-not! There's also a converted flametrooper (I much prefer the Cadian flamer, so this is a conversion that is halfway between the two) and a trooper with an autogun, inspired by a piece of Games Workshop art depicting some Imperial Guard attacking Orks in a jungle setting.

Detail on the chainsword - I thought it fit rather nicely! Note the modified legs.

Once I finish the platoon command squad, the first 400 points for the force will be complete! I have some filling to do here and there but this squad is almost ready to undercoat!

Commissar

2011-07-02T14:30:00.022+01:00

I dug this old Commissar out from the pile o' Guard that are waiting for some tender loving care...

I'd already replaced the gun hand and pinned a chainsword onto the pommel left over from the damaged axe I had removed, but whilst the figure was in the box I'd been transporting a bunch of miniatures from my parent's house to my current apartment he'd been separated from both of them. I decided to give him a different set of hands - I found the nice chunky little Scout chainsword arm and a bolt pistol arm, transplanting the hands and weapons onto the oldschool Commissar...

He'll be a generic Commissar for either my Catachan-based or Cadian-based forces.

Evil Mastermind's Brain in a jar!

2011-07-01T14:00:00.005+01:00

This is the "Brain in a Jar" robot from Black Cat Bases - nice little figure but it was not without it's problems. I may have gone slightly overboard on the murky wash on the jar itself - the brain is easier to see in real life, honest! The problem with the figure is probably due to the shape of the base/track unit - a lot of the moldlines obliterated any detail that was supposed to be there. Oh well! This would most likely be an objective marker in game - the bad guys want to capture it for nefarious purposes, the good guys want to deny their enemies this font of evil knowledge!

Imperial Guard/Post-Apoc Objective Markers - Completed

2011-06-30T20:00:00.000+01:00

Here are the first four objective markers for my Imperial Guard (with dual usage for my post-apoc setting) complete.

Stuck to a simple palette with these and I used some sponge to add the various scratches and weathering. They should fit rather nicely into my games!

Achtung centipedes!

2011-06-30T14:00:00.011+01:00

Finished these gribblies off recently - very simple paintjob over a black undercoat. They'll be popping up in my AE Bounty/Necromunda setting as fauna for the crews/gangs to hunt. They also may feature in my post-apoc setting.

As mentioned in an earlier post, these were 50p each from a forum member with free postage - rather nice I think! I love the Horrorclix line!

Halt, Inquisition!

2011-06-29T20:00:00.001+01:00

Did some more work on the Inquisitor recently - I decided to remove some of the disco collar he was sporting, as well as giving him a powerpack/backpack for the carapace armour and a sheathed sword. He's certainly getting closer to my intended target! He needs a rosette of office and possibly a brass =][= icon from Forgeworld...

Imperial Guard Scout Sentinels

2011-06-29T14:20:00.005+01:00

I've included a squadron of three Scout Sentinels in the armylist for my fledgling Imperial Guard army that I've been working on over the past month - I've put the three together and overcome a slight obstacle that was in the way...

With the earlier plastic Sentinel kit, there were "caps" on the sides of the legs in certain spots - for some reason, nearly all of the second-hand Sentinels I've bought have been missing these! They're a fiddly part, so I suppose a lot of people forget about them. I turned to one of my recent purchases - InstantMold - to make a couple of push molds of those particular parts, then pushed green stuff into the molds. Perfect! I've kept the molds for the next batch of Sentinels I'll be working on - I have parts for another 7...

This Sentinel is armed with a heavy flamer and will receive a hunter-killer missile. The theme for this particular walker is a homage to another Sentinel that I had in my original Guard army - religious zealot running around burning heretics and xenos. He has a crazy-haired head from the plastic Flagellant kit as well as the icon and book strapped to the front. I'm not entirely happy with the icon/book combo - this may see some changes...

Another shot of the zealot's Sentinel, showing the anti-personnel mine next to the stump that he's managed to avoid, as well as some spent artillery shells (from a .22 rifle I went hunting rabbits with a few weeks back). Note the feet - I gave the whole squadron the same feet from the plastic Ork Killa Kan to show that they're a slightly modified pattern. The "toes" on the feet are hooked to give them better purchase when climbing various terrain.

The second Sentinel of the squadron is armed with an Autocannon and is also awaiting a hunter-killer missile. I've managed to scrounge together 3 of the Marine version, which should look nice and different when compared to the latest Guard version, which will be used on Sentinels in my Cadian-based army. I've added a cut down comms-link on the side for their longer-range vox capabilities (and to hide the part where the ammo/charge packs would normally be, but are left off on an Autocannon-armed Sentinel...).

The driver of this Sentinel is well tooled up with plenty of spare ammo for those longer engagements, a shotgun for close defence in case of a breakdown and various rations. I broke out the bag of "interesting stuff for bases" for the squadron - this one received a dead Van Saar ganger with a gushing chest wound at the front of the base...

...as well as various tank track gubbinz, found towards the back of the base.

The last Sentinel is armed in the same way as the second and is also awaiting a hunter-killer missile. Base-wise I kept it quite plain with a tree stump and plenty of rubble. I need to add something nice and interesting to the equipment shelf on the side.

These still require some work before I can go ahead and paint them, but I'm very happy with how they're coming along.

Jeremiah the Post-Apocalyptic Cyborg Vampire Hunter

2011-06-28T20:00:00.002+01:00

This figure had been on the painting table for ages - a western-themed vampire hunter that I was painting for the post-apoc setting I have. He was going to be an old preacher who had decided that the ghouls and muties of the wasteland were actually vampires and other creatures of Satan. There was one problem with the base miniature, and that was the head - it seemed very large, with quite a large hat on top of that, so I didn't have much enthusiasm for painting him. That was until inspiration struck whilst reading about Gamma World and the various characters that you can create. Having found a spare AE-WWII US Robot Trooper head in my bitz box, I knew it was perfect for an off-the-wall Gamma World-inspired creation! I removed the previous head, pinned on the new one and filled where needed with putty, re-undercoating the head and join.

He's now Jeremiah, the cyborg vampire (and misc creature of the night) destruction unit!

Imperial Guard/Post-Apoc Objective Markers

2011-06-28T14:20:00.000+01:00

Put these together the other night in a polycement-fuelled haze! They're for a Objective Marker competition over on The Ammobunker - it gave me the excuse I've been needing to put some together for my Guard and the Post-Apoc setting - imagine a scavenger gang finding even one of those, they'd be over the moon!

I plan on making another two objectives on 40mm bases and a couple on 60mm bases to round the collection off.

CL4P-TP General Purpose Robot

2011-06-27T21:23:00.001+01:00

I managed to finish off Claptrap - both the working and damaged varieties, for my post-apocalyptic/Necromunda setting.

Claptrap is a robot featured in the computer game Borderlands - a great game if you enjoy rather fun co-op post-apocalyptic dungeon crawls. Great scenics, plenty of inspiration for the sci-fi post-apoc genre - it's a game with a lot of replayability, especially with so many add-ons available. I got the Game of the Year edition from my sister for my birthday and have yet to have a go at the downloadable content, but it's certainly on my to-do list!

When I saw the not-Claptrap from Black Cat Bases I knew I finally had to give in and make an order. I ordered two and assembled them rather quickly - one as a functioning friendly Claptrap, the other as a damaged objective marker. In the game there are Claptraps in most sections, with a mission to fix up the broken robot being fairly common. I thought it'd make a nice objective for my post-apoc adventurers!

I have plans to buy another of the not-Claptraps from Black Cat Bases and turn him into this rather spiky "evil" version. That's something for the next order from BCB...

Zombies Ahead: To Be Continued!

2011-06-27T14:30:00.000+01:00

Here's my recently painted zombie horde - add these to the box of Wargames Factory zombies I painted last year and it's starting to get to a decent size!

Continuing the project I have this lovely bunch of survivors to work on - two are almost done, with the rest on their way. These will be the player characters as well as a couple of other figures I have already painted and a couple that are yet to be bought.

Two Hunters - a type of infected from Left 4 Dead that reacted differently to the virus, mutating to be able to jump and attack their victims. I'll be adding more special infected once these are all painted.

I also have a selection of humanoid Horrorclix figures that I'll be modifying with Mantic plastic zombie heads and various different hands. They should round off the horde rather nicely!

Draxii Kill-Group

2011-06-26T20:30:00.000+01:00

Introducing the Draxii Kill-Group Tarbosaur - a squad of vicious mercenaries renowned for their ruthlessness and endurance in combat scenarios. Hunting in packs, the Draxii are available to the highest bidder and are often employed in the Eastern Fringe by those seeking to strengthen their offensive capabilities.

Armed with pulse repeaters of xenos origin as well as a flamethower, the pictured Kill-Group are equipped for anti-infantry assaults, using the flame weapon to flush their enemies out of cover and the pulse repeaters to put them down.

Draxii armed with pulse repeater - note combat harness and warknife, standard equipment for every warrior.

Draxii armed with flamethrower with fuel reserve.

Draxii armed with pulse repeater - note fragmentation grenades of Draxii manufacture, as well as additional ammo for backup pistol.

These miniatures are from Khurasan Miniatures, who recently announced a temporary suspension. Very much a shame, as they have some fantastic miniatures, particularly the 15mm ranges - here's hoping they're back open properly come Fall '11 as mentioned on the site.

Zombies Ahead: Part Two

2011-06-26T14:30:00.000+01:00

I've managed to finish the next batch of zombies, bringing me up to 41 completed zeds - I have a few different Horrorclix left to convert into more generic zombies, as well as a group of survivors and a couple of hunters.

In the picture above there are two Studio Miniatures zombies, a Heroquest plastic zombie (again, as filler) and a Horrorclix zombie ventriloquist.

Here we have a Horrorclix zombie builder, french maid and another zombie cop as well as the final two Studio Miniatures zombies!

Superheroes Project - Ideas

2011-06-25T20:20:00.044+01:00

Superheroes
Now this is a project that I haven't spent a massive amount of time on, with only a couple of miniatures started and a few different ideas and themes buzzing around my head. The setting for my superheroes games will be a universe in which the archetypal "Batman/Bruce Wayne" character is basically a bad guy - actually, the main villain and practically the boss of all the other villains. Now, this is a theme that will be very familiar to comic book readers - just see stuff like Irredeemable (albeit a Superman-analogue rather than Batman, but a similar idea) and Nemesis (which features a Batman-esque villain committing various atrocities). On top of those examples, there's stuff like JLA: Earth 2, where there is a world which is the opposite to the standard DC universe, featuring a Crime League of America featuring all the big names or Wanted (the comic book series, not the terrible film based on it).

In my setting, the "Batman" controls the villains of the world, with the heroes being hunted and attacked at every opportunity. The heroes are fighting a guerrilla war and have been forced to do things that they would have never thought possible - fighting alongside the more vicious villains that refused to bend to the will of the not-Batman, cells being led by what were antiheroes and social pariahs amongst the heroes in the old world (Punisher-types). Expect to see homages to characters that I already enjoy as well as brand new heroes and villains!

If you have any ideas or anything you'd like to add on this subject, feel free to chime in!

Zombies Ahead!

2011-06-25T13:30:00.001+01:00

One of my current projects is ZombApoc - I'm aiming for a nice big horde of zombies (around about 50) plus specials (tanks, hunters, boomers etc. - Left 4 Dead being the main inspiration) and a small collection of survivors. I have bought a lot of the miniatures already, with around about half of the zombies having been painted last year - here's my next 8:

Above we have two Studio Miniatures zombies, a Horrorclix zombie cop and a Heroquest plastic zombie. The Heroquest figure is mainly in there as filler...

Here we have a Horrorclix zombie patient, two more Studio Miniatures zombies and a Horrorclix zombie lawyer.

I realise that the Horrorclix figures might be slightly too big, but when mixed into the larger groups the scale difference isn't quite as noticeable! I'm more than happy to put up with it for the value and variety that they provide.

Name that miniature!

2011-06-24T20:00:00.000+01:00

I based these figures up recently after receiving them last year in a lovely eBay mixed lot. I'm guessing they're a Mage and a Thief - does anyone know where they're from?

What I've been upto: Real Life Strikes!

2011-06-24T16:51:00.000+01:00

I've been rather busy over the past few weeks with the job-hunt - various appointments, preparation sessions and interviews, be they telephone or face-to-face, have left me with zero energy for blogging! I have actually managed to do a decent amount of painting with a nice chunk removed from the "undercoated and ready to paint" pile, which I'm going be posting up over the next week.

On the job front, I have actually been successful! Pending various admin bits and pieces, I should be starting training in the next couple of weeks for a customer service job on mortgages and loans for a well known bank. I literally couldn't be happier about this! Well, other than if it was a interesting job in a museum or somesuch...

So, basically, keep checking back for some interesting and more substantial updates!

Inquisitor Project

2011-06-08T15:00:00.000+01:00

I've always been a massive fan of the Inquisition - I love the vast scope of the various beliefs and sects within the overall organisation, the eclectic-look of the Inquisitor's themselves as well as their many varied followers and hired mercenaries. I love the idea that this one individual has such power and scope - the weaponry they wield, the troops they employ, the political clout they hold. I love the idea of narrative gaming - in fact, I've always preferred skirmish games for exactly that reason. I love seeing my characters develop and take on a life of their own.

When the Inquisitor rulebook first came out I snapped it up straight away. I bought one of the miniatures off a friend - a gunslinger with Inquisitor Eisenhorn's head. That was the end of my 54mm gaming, but not the end of Inquisitor - I've had multiple warbands at 28mm over the years since the release. A lot of those miniatures were sold or stripped and recycled into new warbands or Necromunda gangs and I end up building a new warband every year or so when I re-read the Eisenhorn trilogy!

That being said, here is the very start of my most recent warband for Inquisitor - again at 28mm, which has many benefits - my current terrain and miniatures collection is 99.5% 28mm, as are the miniature collections of my wargaming friends. I've been inspired by a good few things recently, but the work of Commissar Molotov over at Inq28 is definitely first and foremost. The quality of the characters and conversions are superb! As they say, imitation is the best form of flattery, and with that in mind I've started towards a new Inquisitor campaign with some friends!

I picked up this miniature from Black Hat Miniatures' Cobalt-1 range, which had been out of production for a while - I leaped at the chance to get it after seeing a similar conversion over on Tales from the Maelstrom. I remember seeing the Cobalt-1 range advertised in a few wargaming magazines back in the early 2000s - sadly, I was a poor college student then and could not afford any. Not much has changed on the finance front lately, but I still had to pick up a couple of miniatures from the range! This guy is my rough-and-ready Inquisitor. At the moment all I have is the conversion, but I'm thinking Ordo Xenos, slightly radical (will hire xeno warriors if needed). I'm not sure whether to keep the collar or not as of yet...

Another slight conversion of a Cobalt-1 miniature - this is a tribal swordsman character, taking inspiration from Arianhrod Esw Sweydyr, the Carthean swordswoman from the Eisenhorn trilogy. I liked the feel of the miniature - makes me think of John Carter of Mars. The original head on the figure had a high forehead, likely some kind of very-humanoid alien - I wanted a tall human from a sword-wielding culture, so I removed the head with a saw and drilled out a hole for the new head to sit in. I also used my clippers to make the feet a touch more human - they were previously very wide and flat.

As you can see from the above pictures, I'm torn on which head to use - to begin with I was very happy with the Space Wolf Scout head with trimmed mohawk in the first picture, but then discovered the Chaos Marauder horseman helmet in the second picture, which I'm leaning towards after discussing it with Daniel of Feralique. If you have any thoughts on this, or any other suggestions, please let me know in the comments! I've also added the pommel from a plastic Warhammer pistol to the gun hand. If you have any suggestions at all for the two miniatures, please comment!

Xenos Fauna

2011-06-07T17:18:00.000+01:00

I recently rebased these Horrorclix Centipedes recently, for use in some skirmish games as some alien beasties!

I managed to get three of the blighters for 50p each from a guy over on the Post Apoc Wargames forum.

Rebased them on 40mm GW bases befitting their size, they'll be getting a nice repaint in the near future!

Imperial Guard Stormtroopers

2011-06-06T12:20:00.000+01:00

Introducing the last five members of my first Stormtrooper squad - these were inspired by a post over on another blog, Kings Minis. The subject of the post was basically about getting those work-in-progress miniatures that have been sitting on your workbench for ages finished, restoring some modelling karma and getting on with some other projects!

These Stormtroopers were first built for a table at Games Day '08, in a warbands-vs-zombies 40k scenario I ran with The Ammobunker forum (where I'm a mod). The paint scheme then was very similar and I was happy with the way the conversions turned out. I've rebuilt the figures, adding more members to the squad and building another ten Stormtroopers to take me up to a total of ten now painted and ten awaiting undercoat.

The Sergeant of the squad, armed with a plasma pistol. He's supposed to be activating the commlink built into his helmet...

My personal favourite from this squad - I kept the pose pretty much exactly the same from the miniature used at Games Day but gave him a new head and backpack. Just looks so calm and professional, like a real special operator. That's what I get from it anyway! I love that Catachan head - it's from the older Catachan Sentinel sprue.

Flamer trooper - fairly basic, but had to replace the fuel hose in order for it to fit with those particular legs.

Grenade Launcher trooper - another basic one, I like the posing on this guy, like he's popping a couple of grenades over a wall pre-assault perhaps?

Last member of the squad - basic trooper.

For these there were a few elements I wanted to stick to - Scout legs, Cadian torsos and arms, heads from a number of sources but mainly the tank commander helmets, be they from the standard sprue or from the Baneblade kit. The pistol holsters that are part of the Scout legs are supposed to be empty, as Scouts are generally armed with their pistol - I wanted these guys to be packing back-up weapons so added gun butts to each and every holster with wire and green stuff. They also got extra pouches and backpacks from Maxmini.

Oh, and I removed all of the Guard symbols and Imperial Aquilas. I just don't like the idea of them being plastered all over the place. Especially on guys that are attempting to be low-key and stealthy. The no-symbol thing is something that has fed back onto my new Regiment and the Cadian-based regiment I'll be working on too - no chunky symbolic gestures for my gents!

Necromunda Ratskin Scout - Jangles

2011-06-04T14:35:00.000+01:00

The second completed repaint for my Necromunda Escher gang - in this case, a hired Ratskin Scout by the name of Jangles. Another pretty simple fix, with some chips repainted, skin and rat fur highlighted, this guy is now dullcoted and ready to go!

Special Weapons Squad - Sniper Rifles

2011-06-03T14:30:00.000+01:00

I got another pack of 20 Pig Iron heads in the post today, which allowed me to finish assembly on the second unit for my new Imperial Guard force - a Special Weapons squad armed with sniper rifles. The squad consists of three Guardsmen armed with sniper rifles, with three Guardsmen as spotters/ammo mules, armed with lasguns.

Necromunda Underhive Scummer - Overlode

2011-06-03T00:05:00.000+01:00

As I mentioned a little earlier in the blog, I'm slowly working my way through rejuvenating my Escher gang - here's the first completed figure, a Necromunda Underhive Scummer called Overlode, a thuggish gun for hire to he with the most spare creds.

Either that, or a bottle of wildsnake brew...

This is a classic Necromunda miniature that I got in a lucky job lot from eBay a few years ago. The cuts on his chest were there when I received it, and I've done the best to make them look like fairly recent but healed scars. He's been painted and considered finished for a while now but needed some little bits sorting out here and there. I added some spots of colour, particular the bandana tied around his neck, highlighted the skin some more, highlighted his hair and sorted out the plasma pistol's coils. I'm rather happy with the result! He's now been sprayed with dullcote to protect him from anymore knocks and is ready to game with.

Colonel Straken stand-in

2011-06-02T12:53:00.000+01:00

Here's my version of Colonel Iron Hand Straken from the Imperial Guard Codex - In this case, he's the leader of my regiment using the Straken rules. The body is from an older Catachan Officer I bought in a lot of battered Guard miniatures from eBay, the arms are from the Forgeworld Renegade Militia and the head is from the Forgeworld Elysian Drop Troops. I thought that the arms/weapons fit the equipment of Straken, that they make for a rather nice pose and fit the leader of a bunch of ex-Miner, ex-Gangster Imperial Guardsmen! The shoulderpads are nice and improvised, the maul is rather imposing - perfect! He's just tacked together at the moment, but he's pretty much where I want him to be.

Comments are most welcome!

New Imperial Guard Force

2011-06-02T03:17:00.001+01:00

Been working on a new Imperial Guard force of my own creation - I've yet to work on names and suchlike, but the concepts I'm wanting to combine are the Savlar Chem Dogs and the Armageddon Ork Hunters. In my case the regiment is recruited from a mining world basically run by these big mining guilds (read: unions/big gangs with semi-official backing). The vast majority of miners are kept on-world to do the job they're supposed to be doing, whilst the dregs, the criminals and guys who forget that they're supposed to be miners and become full-time gangsters get rounded up every couple of years, forced to work together and shipped off to fight the enemies of the Imperium of mankind!

My particular force have the added fluff bonus of having been used against a couple of roving greenskin warbands and whittled down into a veteran core. So, these guys will nick anything they need, will always be properly tooled up, sport gasmasks from their mining days. There'll be a bunch of tattoos as well, want to make these look quite interesting!

Another reason I went for this theme is that I had a bunch of Catachans with no real place to use them. Thought I'd write a small list and build to that, getting the Cats sorted before I start with the Cadians, which the main part of my Imperial Guard will comprise of (although, modified, plenty of added equipment, bit more realistically than standard Cadians anyway!) - I also had a pack of the Pig Iron heads (with another pack of 20 on the way!) and wanted to use them! Phew!

This is my first infantry squad for the platoon - any name ideas for the regiment would be most appreciated. I'm thinking grey fatigues on these guys, but that's open to opinion too. This squad is: Sarge w/ laspistol/chainsword, Heavy Bolter (Stubber modelwise) and Grenade Launcher.

They're mostly Catachan torso and legs with mostly Catachan arms, but with other arms from the fantasy Chaos Marauders and Beastmen, pouches and sheathed blades from all over the place. I wanted a good mix of lasrifles, so there's Cadian, Catachan and Elysian in the force, as well as Maxmini AK47s as autoguns.

As mentioned, I have more of the Pig Iron gasmask heads on their way in the post - I may end up replacing some of the bare heads with them to stick closer to the theme.

The squad's "Heavy Bolter" used an Imperial Guard accessory sprue Heavy Stubber, bipod from the Space Marine Scout plastics, and a handle on the top of the gun from the accessory sprue searchlight.

The rear of the Sarge showing his great Necromundan chainsword, equipment belt and bionic leg (borrowed from a plastic Necron).

Here's the current forcelist:

Imperial Guard - Armageddon Ork Hunters/Savlar Chem Dogs-esque regiment.

Troops

Infantry Platoon
Platoon Command Squad (5 men) @30pts
Platoon Commander - Power Sword @10pts
Platoon Standard @15pts
Heavy Flamer @20pts
Flamer @5pts
Squad Total - 80pts

Infantry Squad (10 men) @50pts
Heavy Bolter @10pts
Grenade Launcher @5pts
Squad Total - 65pts

Infantry Squad (10 men) @50pts
Heavy Bolter @10pts
Flamer @5pts
Power Sword @10pts
Squad Total - 75pts

Special Weapon Squad (6 men) @35pts
3 Sniper Rifles @15pts
Squad Total - 50pts

Fast Attack

Scout Sentinel Squadron (3 Sentinels) @105pts
Autocannon, Hunter Killer Missile @15pts
Autocannon, Hunter Killer Missile @15pts
Heavy Flamer @5pts
Squad Total - 140pts

Force Total - 410pts

This is my current list for them - for a mini-campaign against a mates Ork force. I'm planning on assembling everything for this force before undercoating - I have around about 12 models left to assemble, with approximately another 20 to expand the force with, with a current mock-up of my army's version of Colonel Iron Hand Straken. I'm very happy with that particular model and will be showing it shortly!

On The Workbench: Escher

2011-05-18T04:07:00.000+01:00

Another quick post here - just what I currently have on the workbench. The majority of these were finished, but I've since decided to go back and sort out various details, a couple of bits are chipped here and there and the bases weren't perfect. So I'll be sorting out faces and adding tattoos, sorting out any of the little paint chips they've gotten in transit, fixing their bases and giving them a good dullcote to make sure the chips don't happen again! I also have the leader to finish off, plus another half a dozen girlies for the gang kicking around the place. Quite a horde isn't it? This is generally how my Necromunda and Mordheim gangs turn out!

On The Workbench

2011-05-17T22:38:00.000+01:00

Just a quick post to show what I'm upto at the moment...

Shipping barrels - these are for the Starport and Necromunda games as scatter cover - I may end up making some kind of pallets to hold four or six of these, rather than having them all over the place. These blue ones have actually been done for a good while now and were probably the first thing completed for the Starport after seeing Ironworker do similar over on his blog. I've been saving bottle tops for the next batch for a while now...

The next batch of the shipping barrels - I picked up some spraypaint at a DIY centre on sale in a few interesting shades - these have now been washed with a mucky watery wash, then drybrushed with Charadon Granite from the GW Foundation paints range. All that is left is transfers and perhaps some graffiti! I also want to build or buy some shipping containers. Added to the loaded pallets, some fuel drums and some other bits and pieces, that should be enough scatter terrain for my board!

Spoils of Wargaming: New Stuff

2011-05-16T20:26:00.000+01:00

I recently bought a few bits and pieces online, thought I'd share them with the blogging community...

These are SAS Operators from Empress miniatures. Lovely sculpts, very well priced at £6.50 for the pack, I'm very much impressed! I bought them to use as Security Contractors in my zombie game - hired by the government in order to restore some stability in the post-zomb-apoc world, these guys were given pretty much a free reign to begin with. They'll be adversaries for my survivors in the latter stages of a campaign.

Ramshackle Games bikes - had my eye on these for a little while, decided to order a few to turn into Imperial Guard outriders. I wanted to make these for a couple of reasons - I thought they'd look very cool, I've always liked them when they've been mentioned in various Black Library books (the Tanith series and bike-riding Inquisition agents in the Ravenor series) and they were also rather cheap at £2.50 each. These come without bases and took a lot of cleaning up - the whole space between the integral scenic rocky base and the bikes themselves was filled with resin, so I had to use clippers, knives and files to get them to this stage. There's still a good chunk of work left to do, with lots of holes to fill, parts to resculpt and more filing. On the plus side, I ordered three and received four, so that was pretty cool. The top bike in the picture is miscast - the front of the mudguard and part of the bike is missing, but I should be able to sort that out...

Maxmini Shoulder Pads - I've had another order with this Polish company on hold for a while now, but decided to order it a couple of weeks ago when it looked like I'd be getting a new job rather sharpish. Unfortunately, the job still hasn't come through, but now I have some cool bits to occupy myself with! These are planned for a couple of Terminator armoured characters or possibly to be used to refit my assault Terminators. I'll have to see which seems the cooler option when I get around to it! They're obviously done in a pre-Heresy, rather archaic style and are very cool - the casting is spot on, these are highly recommended!

Another part of the order from Maxmini - their not-SAW machine guns. Sadly, these are more of an Ork scale than the rest of the weapons available on their site that are based on real life current day armaments. I'm not sure what I can really do with these now, possibly mounted on some kind of terrain piece, as they're too big for the plans that I had.

Now these are much more like it - another Maxmini purchase, in this case their not-AK47s. I received 10 of these and the sculpts and casting are both great. One of these has already snuck onto the AA truck featured a couple of posts ago.

Now this big bugger is another addition to my terrain to-do list. It'll be repainted and I'll be working on some other accompanying pieces - this will show that the starport is having somewhat of a resurgence, with new buildings being built as it expands. It'd also fit into my post-zomb-apoc games too! I bought this at Wilkinsons in the UK, where it was reduced by a couple of quid to £2.97! Absolute bargain!

Starport - Local Garrison

2011-05-16T02:11:00.001+01:00

Just a quick post before I head off to bed - I've been working on a few bits and pieces over the past couple of days. These are the local garrison for my spaceport - a planetary defence force recruited from the planet itself as well as neighbouring worlds.

From left to right we have: sniper in half ghillie suit, NCO with pistol and reconditioned non-human power glove, officer wielding powerful pistol and bags of attitude, trooper with servo-arm assisted smartgun/heavy stubber.

L to R again: trooper with lasrifle with attached torch, NCO with machine pistol, comms trooper with hardround rifle, trooper with lasrifle and attached torch.

All of the above are sculpted by Mark Copplestone and are available from em4 miniatures. Some lovely sculpts - the pictures suck. But it's late, there's zero natural light and it's the best I'm going to get for now! When I expand them (I want another smartgunner and a bunch more standard troopers) I'll be sure to get better pictures. These are basically my not-NCR (New California Republic, from Fallout: New Vegas), to be used as Colonial Marine-types in my Predator Versus setting.

On the subject of expanding these guys, I did buy these a couple of years ago in a 50p eBay auction, recently rediscovered them whilst looking for parts for the security AA truck. I've decided to attach them to these guys, reminiscent of the troopers wearing power armour in New Vegas. I also have a Halo Warthog buggy that I'm going to paint up and attach to the force.

My thinking with these troopers is that they're basically not very well liked by the inhabitants of the starport - just as likely to tax them as to protect them from local bandits. The AA truck for example, is actually owned and maintained by the people that live directly in the starport, where you can find various militias who claim to be the one true force protecting the town. Think stormtroopers in Star Wars, or the Colonial troopers in Firefly.

Any suggestions for other additions I could make to these guys? I have a sci-fi tank that I could refit for these, just a plastic toy but could turn out quite nicely. Another note - I didn't lose any posts with the recent issues with blogger, but I did manage to lose a bunch of comments - so feel free to post again on the earlier blogposts!

Starport Terrain - Vehicles 3 - Air Security

2011-05-12T04:03:00.000+01:00

This is a project I've had in my head for ages - I bought both of the main components around about late spring/early summer last year, so it's taken approximately a year for fruition!

Presenting a rather work in progress Air Defence Technical! Bear in mind that it needs a whole lot of model filler, green stuff welds and rivets, but this is it pretty much there - a hideous hybrid of a Tamiya WWII German Flakvierling and a toy truck - both picked up second-hand, from a market and car boot sale respectively!

In this picture you can see the makeshift ladders fixed to the side - the idea being that for security reasons, you have to climb up those to actually get in to drive the damn thing. Not that it gets moved much - in the Starport it is rather stationary, providing an incentive for ships and lifters using the port's many services not to renege upon their docking tithes. Or to provide the first line of defence against any marauding pirates or space-savages!

This shot shows the workings of the AA guns - really nice kit! I managed to get it for around about £2 at a flea market that my parents sell antique furniture at. The truck itself was a toy, with a trailer occupying the spot that the flak cannon now finds itself. I plan on turning the trailer into a food stall of some kind - spacers have to eat!

The cannon is currently separate as I sort out various details, I may keep it this way for painting. The only issue with using scale kits in wargames pieces is it's relative flimsiness. I wanted the piece to look like it'd been used for years, albeit rarely - more of a deterrent than a constantly-used weapon of war.

Any suggestions would certainly be welcomed!

Starport Terrain - Vehicles 2 - Skeeta

2011-05-10T17:37:00.000+01:00

Introducing the Ramshackle Games Skeeta!

Picked this up a good few months ago, cleaned it up, undercoated and basecoated it, game it a rust wash and then...left it...

The Skeeta was purchased as a tester of the quality of the Ramshackle Games vehicles - at £5 it was rather cheap, but the quality of the cast isn't great - lots of little bits that needed tidying up and filling, with no detail at all on the bottom of the cast. Which isn't such a big deal to me personally, as no-one will be seeing the bottom of it, plus it's covered in mud and rust. The Skeeta was very easy to assemble, coming in five parts - the main body/chassis/cab and the wheels.

Here is a scale shot alongside the forklifts posted yesterday - small but still can fit two based 28mm miniatures in the back. Now I'm wondering whether I should get the pickup truck from Ramshackle as well...

Starport Terrain - Vehicles

2011-05-09T20:00:00.001+01:00

I've been collecting bits and pieces to expand my terrain collection for a while now, with a view to creating some Starport terrain - a couple of landing pads, various scrap piles, shipping containers, loaded pallets, various different vehicles, plus parts of the town that has sprung up around it, that will link into the rest of my post-apoc terrain. I also have plans to retrofit some of my post-apoc terrain, specifically the caravans - I want to change them from being supposedly abandoned into being shops and homes.

These are the first new pieces I've done for the Starport in a little while - forklift trucks for loading the ships.

This the the first completed - I wanted them to be dirty and rather rusty - the world they're being used on is a border planet, on the edges of civilisation, so the equipment would need to be very robust and able to withstand the rigours they'd be put through.

This here is the second forklift - similar, right? They were painted together, along with a third vehicle (see the next blogpost in a day or so) in order to make them look like they belong to the same company. I wanted them to look quite uniform amongst the piles of refuse and broken pallets.

This guy is here to give you an idea of scale - he's from the em4 Miniatures (Mark Copplestone-sculpted) range and is one of the basic Troopers from a squad of soldiers I'm putting together. Looks quite large, but it has been manufactured for use by humans and non-humans - booster seats are available...

This is what the forklifts looked like when I bought them - they were two for £3 from Wilkinsons.

Finally, this is what they looked like before they were undercoated - I took them apart (which was simply a matter of undoing two screws), sanded/shaved off any symbols and writing, removed any moldlines, keyed the surface of the whole vehicle so it would better take acrylic paint. Once this was done I put the vehicle back together, filling the screw holes with model filler, supergluing certain parts that were quite loose and adding filler to simulate areas in which rust had built up. I also ended up replacing the bar that joins the forks together, as it was quite flimsy.

Very happy with these and the other vehicle - I recently received some pallets in the post, so I will be modelling some crates and fuel cans to go on those. I also have plans for an anti-aircraft gun mounted on the back of a civillian truck as a sort of added security for the fledgling Starport...

Mere Tokens...

2011-05-09T14:40:00.000+01:00

Managed to get these few bits of busy-work done in the past few days, inbetween unsuccessful job interviews and listing things on eBay!

Emergence holes/sewer entrances/exits - these are sold by Hasslefree and made by Fenris Games as base-toppers for Warmachine-style lipped bases. I saw them and thought they'd make cool exits/entrances for my zombie and post-apoc games. They're mounted on metal washers with added sand. Two have the word "Salvation" written on them in bright green, which will be the name of a settlement in my post-apoc world.

Pain Tokens - these are for my Dark Eldar - bought some of the basing pieces from eBay as I thought they'd fit the role quite nicely, then saw them being used on the Games Workshop site for the same role! Pretty happy with these! I could have done the Marine helmets from my bits boxes, but I have limited Eldar bits - I liked the wraithbone pendants in this role!

Wound Markers - these were one of the first things I built when back in the hobby. They had been based in the old grey scheme I used, so I ended up removing any flock, adding sand again and removing the skeleton symbols and skulls to make them a bit more plain. Easy job!

Well now, this is rather flattering!

2011-04-30T13:33:00.000+01:00

Well, this was a bit out of the blue, and rather flattering! It certainly put a big grin on my face! I'm speaking of the "Stylish Blogger Award" from Mik, of Mik's Minis. I received an email from Mik on wednesday letting me know that this blog was one of the 15 he has chosen to present the award to. As a big fan of his blog and with it being one of the main influences of me starting Chris' Miniature Woes, this came as a welcome surprise!

So, what is the "Stylish Blogger Award" all about? As Mik says, it's basically a virtual pat on the back, given to a blogger as a sort of "Good job, mate! Keep up the great work!" - for this, you must do four things:

Thank and link back to the person giving you the award

Share seven things about yourself

Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award

Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award

So, thank you very much to Mik - his blog would certainly be one of the blogs I'd choose to give this award to - Mik's Minis was one of the first blogs I stumbled across when starting on Blogspot and it's remained a favourite - covering a number of different wargaming and roleplaying genres, Mik always has something new on the go - I can well empathise with this hobby ADD! Add to this a sprinkling of film, games and book reviews, general whimsy, life stuff - a fantastic multi-layed, multi-genre, delightful blog! Cheers again Mik!

Seven Things About Me

I love Peep Show. It's a superb British comedy, with some unbearably cringe-worthy scenes. I often get internal monologues like the main characters. As a wargamer you have to absolutely love lines like "I'm cancelling you out of shame, like my subscription to White Dwarf!" - check it out!
I've had 6 operations on my knees. They're scarred to bits, but I do rather like my war wounds/Frankenknees...
I miss my greenhouse and garden very much in the lovely weather that we've been having recently.
I love cooking - especially cooking for my mates. I also like combining stuff that needs using out of the fridge and making great one-off meals that are impossible to recreate...
I studied Film Studies at university. Sadly, due to my knee problems, I never finished my degree. I should really get that finished...
I very much enjoy the outdoors, it's a shame I live in a large town - I love getting mucky, walking through rivers and climbing up rocks and the like.
I love decent cover songs. Even quite cheesy ones. I think I like it when something is taken and turned into something new. Probably the same reason I love awesome conversions!

Onto the blogs - what I will say, is that I'm not much of a commenter. It's definitely something I need to sort out and I do go through phases of posting quite a bit. To be honest, I've always been a bit of a lurker when it comes to forums and blogs - I realise that I should probably get a bit more involved! These are some of the blogs that I love and their creators are doing a great job:

Dropship Horizon - a lovely blog to read, Mark is one of the hardest working bloggers out there, usually posting multiple updates per day. This isn't his only blog either - this one is focused on near-future to sci-fi combat at 15mm, showcasing the fantastic selection of miniatures available at that scale. Mark is always updating with interesting concepts and ideas for games. Well worth a read.
Vampifan's World of the Undead - this blog is focused on zombies and vampires, with battle reports, reviews (miniatures, films, books) and examples of Vampifans excellent work. Vampifan seems to own just about every vampire and zombie miniature out there...
Warrant of Trade - as the name of the blog suggests, WoT revolves around the Rogue Trader RPG by Fantasy Flight Games. Witchfinder General gives us a blog that not only charts the course of the game he is currently GM-ing, but also gives great insight into the ways to run an immersive campaign that your players are truly a part of. This blog made me buy the Rogue Trader main rulebook - time to find a decent gaming group...
Tales from the Maelstrom and earlier, Jeriko's Reach - one of my favourite blogs, TftM showcases the kind of games I'd love to take part in - interesting, story-driven games in a backwater setting, somewhat away from the long reach of the Inquisition. Great miniatures, lovely terrain, interesting characters. I'd love a gaming group like this!
Feralique - my mate Daniel's blog - like myself, Daniel has modelling attention deficit disorder, always having something new on the go project-wise. Painting and concept-wise, the miniatures shown on Feralique are superb, with a style all of their own. Check out his recent Plague Marine conversions - brilliant!
Nathan "Ironworker" Miller's Miniature Games - another gamer whose setting, miniatures and terrain I'd love to emulate. Nathan uses that friend-of-the-gamer, junk, to build terrain that looks lived in and usable! Check out the blog for great battle reports.
Port Maw - a recently-started blog, I was subscribed to Torben's painting log over on the Eastern Fringe forum - I recently received an email from the forum to say that there had been additional posts there. Torben is carving out his own little niche in the 40k universe with the kind of gaming I love - narrative driven, conversions galore. The blog has only been running a couple of weeks, but given the painting log and the posts that are already up, it's shaping up to be a great one.
INQ28 - a fantastic blog, run by Commissar Molotov (of various forums) and focused on his gaming groups 28mm Inquisitor gaming (as opposed to the 54mm scale that GW used with this particular game). This is how I used to play Inquisitor back in the day and I've had several aborted efforts to get my mates involved in this type of gaming again. I'll succeed one day, but for now I'll have to live vicariously and keep reading Mol's INQ28 blog! Fantastic conversions and background with battle reports every now and then - go check it out!
Four Colour Super Minis - this blog was originally set up for the superhero genre, but gets sidetracked now and then, with A Very British Civil War, various historicals, cowboys...all sorts basically! Lovely painting, lovely bits of background - this is a blog that I'm always excited about updates from!
Four-Color Figures - another blog that seems to have started off aimed at the supers genre (with Scott, the creator, being responsible for creating SuperSystem) and branched out into all kinds of other genres, with Warmachine/Hordes, 40k, Heavy Gear, Songs of Blades and Heroes - all sorts really. This blog has led to me purchasing more than a few random miniatures.

Well, that's about it - I've spent a good part of my day writing this (inbetween distractions) and would advise that you go read these blogs!

A final thank you to Mik, and a thanks to Mol of the INQ28 blog mentioned above, who recently linked to my blog from his own. Cheers guys!

Genestealers completed!

2011-04-28T01:49:00.000+01:00

Finally finished all the Genestealers (apart from the Broodlord, who will be done seperately thanks to his size and special status) completed! I finished the final seven last night and managed to get all of the weathering powders applied to their bases this morning, followed by a couple of coats of Dullcote and finally, blood splatters! As always, click the pics for larger versions. This is something of a weight off the workload, as these were started well over a year ago - as mentioned many aeons ago on this blog, they were a Christmas gift and I had intended to get them finished before moving in with my flatmate. They're finished, at last, with the Broodlord and the last of the Terminators left to go! Everything required for the first mission is done now though!

Quantity has a quality all of it's own...

2011-04-27T15:48:00.002+01:00

All the Genestealers in the Space Hulk boxed set done (apart from bases, dullcote and blood, which I'm on with now). Hoorah! Broodlord will be done last of all.

'Stealers

2011-04-26T14:54:00.000+01:00

Next six Genestealers completed - I'm going to add weathering powders to their bases, dullcote them and add some Tamiya Clear Red blood to them once I've finished painting all of them...

Dark Eldar Wyches

2011-04-24T22:03:00.000+01:00

Finally settled on a scheme for my Dark Eldar army and completed the first five. Not much more to say other than that!

2011-04-18T20:30:00.000+01:00

Meet the Garn, from Khurasan Miniatures. Picked these up off eBay a while back for next to nothing, with thoughts of using them as "Klegg" in the Judge Dredd game - alien mercs hired by a renegade Chief Judge.

Now, I quite want to use them in Necromunda or somesuch - at least my version of it, which is more likely to be set on the fringes of the Imperium, where xenos mercs might be slightly more tolerated. Or might be raiding isolated towns on barren worlds and moons...

Nice miniatures, they go together well and have the option for the flamethrower as shown. I decided to leave the powerpacks off the weapons and add some bits of my own, as well as adding a new fuel line for the flamer and tanks from the Cadian sprue.

Un-bloody-employed.

2011-04-18T14:12:00.000+01:00

Well, I should be posting up here a tad more frequently - I received a call on Friday morning letting me know I no longer have a job. Bugger.

Oh well - in my (slightly-put-on) depression I've been working on a few different projects...

Space Hulk Genestealers - These have a bit more paint on them since the last time they were shown - namely, the metallic bases blocked out and the basecoat on the fleshy skin. Once I've finished all of these apart from the Broodlord, I'm going to go back and add blood, rust and various other interesting markings to the bases of the lot of them. I've also decided to include at least one other Marine Chapter on the bases - probably Lamenters, given their links with the Blood Angels and their scheme. Just to add another splash of (admittedly rusted to hell, grimy and generally mucky) colour.

Space Marine vehicles - I decided that my Marines were lacking in vehicular support and had the urge to rebuild some in-artfully assembled cheap eBay rescues. I've done a good amount of cleaning up on the Land Speeder, with another two soaking in paint stripper at the moment, whilst the Rhino (that will become either a Whirlwind or a Razorback - I'm leaning towards Razorback) was taking a bit more elbow grease. I'm going to keep the console out of the Rhino chassis and replace it with a slice of plasticard - the piece is too cool to be hidden away inside the tank.

Wych which scheme? This Wych scheme. Dodgy photo, but I'm sure you'll get the idea - pale pastel purple and mithril/chainmail armour with bone weapons. Very cold, splatters of blood here and there - I'm happy with the way this is going.

Once an Imperial Dreadnought, then converted into a Chaos Dreadnought, this poor guy is once again to be returned to Imperial glory! I'm thinking as an Ironclad...

That's about it really. I am looking for jobs rather diligently, but have quite a bit of time on my hands, hence the hundred different projects running at once. Oh, I also finally picked up my terrain building stuff at home, in the hopes of building some Necromunda-ish platform terrain, themed around Fallout, Borderlands and the kind of waste-worlds and border moons you would find on the Eastern Fringe in the Warhammer 40000 universe. Should be splendid, if I ever get to it!

AE Bounty: Spacers

2011-04-12T21:00:00.000+01:00

Meet the crew of the Indignant Sparrow - the meanest bunch of (oddly warmhearted) spacers this side of the galactic core.

Captain Tymon Halstrom - despite his cold exterior, this ex-Naval Captain truly cares for those who find themselves on his ship. Hardbitten and a crackshot with the naval pistol he can normally be found wielding, Halstrom is a spacer not to be messed with.

First Mate Solis - Ex-planetary security forces, Solis keeps it vague as to which planet and which security force in particular. Probably for the best in a galaxy so riven apart.

"Snake" aka Nikolai Basudev - pilot of the Indignant Sparrow, Snake can usually be found at the helm of the ship during runs, cursing in his mother tongue.

Mokhon - part of the "Public Relations" side of the Indignant Sparrow, Mokhon has recently joined the ship to add some much needed muscle. From a tribal warrior culture, it has taken him time to adjust to a mostly-human crew.

Fardji - a deft hand with ship engines, Fardji has requested that the crew refer to him as "Chief Engineer", with the only issue being that he is the only engineer to be found on the ship...

Postin - another member of the PR team and the ships weaponsmith, Postin has a knack for modifying weaponary of human and alien manufacture with some quite explosive results. Also the crews resident brewmaster.

Strudwick - a true giant of a man, rumours abound that Strudwick was previously a member of the Galactic Marshals, who undergo extensive gene-modding for them to be better able to combat the various threats to the sentient races of the galaxy. Since the collapse of the governments and organisations that generally funded the Marshals, a number of deserters have found their way onto crews throughout known space. A gentle giant, Strudwick is another member of the crews Public Relations team...

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Well, this update has been a long, long time coming! They've been finished for over a month now, but I've been trying to space out the blogposts rather than overloading folks with images. I'm very happy with these - I'll probably add another few to them along the way, as well as a couple of vehicles (from Ramshackle Games - I already have one undercoated and on it's way). Obviously heavily inspired by Firefly and the Star Wars franchise, I'm very happy with the way these have turned out!

I went for an orange theme, after struggling for quite a while to come up with something. It seems to fit quite nicely and contrasts well with the darker skintones. I also sort of had the idea in my head that the Captain chose the colour for his ship "to hide the rust". I had all of the background ideas buzzing around my head whilst painting them - just took a while to get them all put together. The names came from the little black book I now take to work. I note down interesting forenames and surnames in the back of it for the various different games I play - a perfect way of naming your characters...if you happen to work in a callcentre!