Work in Progress - Archenemy Guards

Another work in progress project - a squad of soldiers to guard the kind of dignitaries, clerics and scholars that are dedicated to the Pantheon of Chaos in the books of Dan Abnett.

I've had this particular conversion in mind for a good long while, after gathering together some interesting bits - in particular the Bretonnian Men-at-Arms bodies and Ramshackle Games turbaned gasmask heads. I found those particular parts again recently whilst having a tidy out, when I also rediscovered the Forgeworld Renegade Militia arms - I realised  that they'd all fit together nicely! With a couple of extra bits I'd come up with a squad to use in Inqmunda and other systems - I imagine them guarding some sort of target for the Alpha Legion Kill Team (posted a couple of days back) or searching a shanty town for a Throne Agent.

More on these when I've painted lots more stuff! Comments most welcome. 

2013 Round-Up (just 19 days late...)

Hi guys - I've been meaning to write this post for a couple of weeks now but I have only just gotten around to it! A quick recap of what I got upto in 2013 and my next post will cover my current projects and my plans going forward...

The most important part of 2013 (with regards to my blog) is that GAMES ARE BEING PLAYED! It's difficult to underestimate how good this is - I've been "back in the hobby" for 5 or so years now, but even before my break in wargaming, I rarely played (once or less a year, despite having multiple armies!). In the latter half of 2013 I played multiple games of Flying Lead and Songs of Blades and Heroes - I've been planning out games and settings for years and it was a great feeling to see my painted miniatures and terrain on the table! I even got a couple of my non-wargaming friends to start playing (my housemate and another of my best friends) and, most importantly, they kept asking for more battles!

I've actually gotten a really decent amount of figures completed this year for various different projects and I got stuck into my zomb-apoc stuff during October with Zomtober 2013 - here are a few examples of things completed this year:

Michonne and her two "camoflage" zombies - I'm very fond of her paintjob - she was a gift to myself when I'd finished half of my Studio Miniatures plastic zombie horde! Painted as part of Zomtober 2013

Chosen Space Marines of The Desolation - In The Emperor's Name

Goblins from The Hobbit - this was a lovely plastic kit! Lots of variety too. They're to be used as devolved humans in Necromunda/Space Hulk/post-apoc

Some Private Military Contractors from Empress Miniatures (sold as SAS, mine have a couple of headswaps) - these are for zomb-apoc

Wasteland Sniper - this guy is intended as a scout/herald for a new (Caesar's Legion-inspired) faction in my post-apoc. Warmachine/Hordes

Misc Studio Miniatures plastic zombies - I did enjoy painting the ones in the prison jumpsuits and the Drive-inspired one in the front! Painted as part of Zomtober 2013

A biker survivor (em4 Miniatures) and misc feral ghouls (Mantic Games plastic zombies). Painted as part of Zomtober 2013

Missing from the round-up are various different figures, an orc and goblin warband (Celtos miniatures, for my fantasy skirmish setting), 19 pirate scum (40k Chaos Cultists), 30 or so plaguebearers (plastics and kitbashes!), more zombies... A good painting year in general!

Fabius Bile

I know that I've been skimping on the painting updates recently - I've posted lots of work-in-progress conversions and the like - today is exactly the same! I'd planned on getting a few more hours of painting in but ended up cleaning up bits and pieces and putting together this guy...

Fabius Bile will be familiar to most Warhammer 40000 fans - he was the Chief Apothecary of the Emperors Children Legionne Astartes, who eventually betrayed the Emperor and swapped their allegiance to Slaanesh, the god of excess. Fabius is your general mad scientist-type character, attempting to unlock the secrets that the Emperor used in the creation of not only the Space Marines, but the Primarchs too. I've had the miniature, minus the Rod of Torment and one of the Chirurgeon (his medical-helper backpack) arms. I recently found the Rod of Torment cheap on eBay and replaced both arms with plastic parts from the Dark Eldar Talos kit. I love the way he's turned out - reminds me of an arachnid...

Fabius basically works as a freelancer in 40k, offering his skills to the highest bidder, getting paid in slavestock and geneseed. He'll fit nicely alongside my Chaos Renegades.

Dark Vengeance

Bloody brilliant! Dark Vengeance pictures have been online for a week or two now, and I have some favourites...

I'm gona need about 60 of the Chaos Cultists - I have a million and one ideas for their use buzzing about in my head...

1. Frateris Militia - I have some gasmask heads with turbans from Ramshackle Games that would suit these figures well - I'd lop off their heads, replace them, remove any chaotic icons, add prayer script/purity seals/personal Imperial icons. They're basically cultists for the Imperial Church, so these fit well.
2. Redemptionists - similar conversion, with various different masked heads instead. 
3. Ash Waste/Desert Nomads - probably the least converting required - maybe more shawls and water bottles, everyone gets a gas mask/rebreather.
4. Imperial Workers Militia/Scratch Company - like the ones from Necropolis. Formed from loyalist Imperial civilians who have banded together to resist invasion from . I'd swap in some bare heads, maybes some Lasguns on a few of them.
5. Genestealer cultists - again, head swaps, new icons, pretty much done!
6. ...and so on! Anyone have other suggestions?

This guy may be my favourite of the lot. The gloves and tabard really make it. I'd love to see him with the masked head removed and a hairy flagellant head (with sculpted mask) added!

I absolutely love the Chaos side of this set - on the plus side for Dark Angels players, it's going to be amazingly easy to start up a new force - I can see eBay being flooded with that side of the box. It kind of sucks that today is payday and the pre-orders have gone online on every webstore! Must. Not. Purchase!

Realms of Chaos: The Lost and The Damned

I have a sudden urge to build traitors. Courtesy of this artwork. That's probably why I just ordered the new Plaguebearer plastic set. Bugger.


At least this isn't a new project out of the blue - I have various Chaotic forces for 40k, with a big batch of work-in-progress Plaguebearer conversions (kroot, gor and ungor bodies with skeleton, zombie and beastmen arms, various weapons and heads from the Heresy Miniatures not-Plaguebearers) - these plastics will mix in perfectly!


Oh, and the scan comes from the Gothic Punk tumblr. Lovely Blanchian goodness!

Chaos Lord

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...

Skull Champion

 

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!

Epic Lost and the Damned Force

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...

Black Crusade

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...

The Red Pox

The Red Pox is the tentative name for the Plague Cult attached to my Renegade Warband. This is the first of two  planned squads of ten - I realise that Papa Nurgle's favoured number is 7, but my preferred number is 10...


These are the last metal Plague Marines produced by Games Workshop, with one of the classic, albeit rather static, earlier metal versions (one of the ones with the flamer). They have arms from a number of different kits, added green stuff and backpacks from the plastic one-pose Plague Marines. I've had these planned for a while and they've been fun to build. Two more will be added soon.

Another unit I've had planned for a good long while now - kitbashed Plaguebearers (or Summoned Daemons). Put together from a bunch of different sources, such as:

• Kroot warriors
• Beastmen Gors and Ungors
• Heresy Miniatures Blight heads
• GW Zombie arms
• GW Ghoul arms
• GW Skeleton arms
• GW Dryad arms

I've been collecting pieces for these a while - I think I first ordered the Blight heads around about a year ago, so that's how long it's taken to get to this position...

Obviously they'll take a good amount of greenstuffing....

The Spoils of Wargaming

Bit of a new "feature" this, in the same way as the new "Conversion Corners" I've posted over the past couple days.


In these posts I'll be basically showing off my latest purchases. Which won't be a great amount at the moment, but here's the first - a bunch of ork bits from eBay. I'd been looking for the kan and dread weapons, but the spares from the nobz boxed set and the arms from the plastic stormboyz were going rather cheap - I liked a lot of the cool bits and pieces from the nobz set and the other arms will either be used with various conversions or donated to a friend.

The dread/kan arms, on the other hand, will be used for some kitbashed/scratchbuilt chaos engines - they'll be used as dreadnoughts in my renegade army - for which I've picked up numerous bits and pieces for over the last few months...

More 'stealery goodness...

Finished off a spot of painting on Saturday evening after a relatively busy day...

The next 4 Space Hulk Genestealers. Very happy with this scheme, seems to work rather well and it's also the Space Hulk classic :)

After being bullied into starting a force for Epic by various friends, these are my test miniatures, shown WIP earlier in the blog.

These are on their way for the force - old Mk1 Imperial Hellhounds, I think they fit the corrupted PDF/Renegade Forgeworld-built aesthetic of the "Leman Russes" (which are converted from the Ork battlewagons).

Next up for my 40k Chaos Marines - 5 Havocs. I'll probably add to their number with some bolter Marines for cannon fodder. These are aimed at taking on the Ork horde of my main gaming friend, I also have pretty much the same unit in my Imperial Marines.

I've also been working on a few bits and pieces tonight, but nothing particularly solid enough to post updates for. I currently have 5 Sternguard (converted from the robed Dark Angel veterans) and a power armoured Librarian using the Dark Angels special character Ezekiel - I've always loved the model and managed to pick up the figure for pennies on eBay minus his sword. I've managed to convert him up a nice fiery force weapon, from the Empire Wizard kit sprue. More on these soon - I also have a couple of other robed characters and the next 5 Sternguard awaiting paint.

In non-wargaming news, I finally managed to get out into the garden to work in the greenhouse for a while. My parents recently turned what had been a storage outhouse for all kinds of junk into a storage outhouse for their budding business, meaning the greenhouse became a place to dump all the empty plant pots. I had a slight tidy out of these, got rid of the stuff that wasn't of use anymore and managed to get some seeds sown - jalapeno chillies, mixed salad greens and lettuce to begin with. The aforementioned Orkish gaming buddy shares my love of jalapenos (and is vegetarian...boo/hiss) so they should come in handy later on in the year! At the moment I'm pondering sowing more jalapenos, need to sow a hell of a lot more lettuce, sow radishes, chop back some herbs, sow more oregano, decide what to fill my outdoor vegetable beds with... The list goes on!

I also just started watching a new TV show - V (link). It's a good ol' "invasion by aliens" story, but it's really well done, very polished and filled with great actors. The first episode was quite a "ooh, what was she in again?"-type of episode, but none the less, it's tense, well written and really is worth a watch. There are only 6 episodes out so far, and only 8 in the first season as far as I can tell - give it a go!

Comments and critique would be great, if anyone out there is listening? :)

Wargames in an Epic scale...

Well, a few of my online-friends have recently been showing me some great blogs and plogs from around the internet featuring some fantastic Epic armies. I've never been a huge fan of the scale, despite the ability to field Titans (which I've always found to be rather great, totally imposing, since getting into the hobby) and other superheavy vehicles. Browsing eBay (which has some ridiculously priced Epic out-of-production stuff) I managed to find a cheap bunch of Lost and the Damned Chaos stuff to try out...

Mutants (Beastmen) - I think these are actually quite decent with a little work, I'll be replacing or pruning their blades here and there, adding rocks to their bases - things like that, just to keep them interesting. On the subject of basing, as shown, I'll be using pennies, as I really don't think the current Epic edition basing strips fit the aesthetic of a horde army.

Big Mutants (Minotaurs and Trolls) - Managed to get a decent amount of these in the auction, but the weapons are fairly horrible on the standard models - the troll looks like he has a chicken drumstick for a weapon, and the chunky axe on the minotaur was pants. I replaced them with the black plasticard as shown. They'll get new axes and other weapons to mix it up a bit.

Traitor Leman Russes - they're supposed to be something like the the cheaper knock-off tanks produced on the less well-equipped Forgeworlds, such as Urdesh from the Gaunt's Ghosts novels. They're Ork Battlewagons (of which I got around 14 in another cheap eBay auction), which are fairly plain apart from the cutty/choppy/rolly weapons they usually have where a dozer blade would be on an Imperial tank. I removed these and cleaned them up, modified their cannon a little to make them slightly more human. They're also mounted on coins, like the rest, as I always think it looks great in Epic.

I've always preferred the Lost and the Damned to Chaos Space Marines and I'm looking forward to adding more tanks, cultists, plague zombies and traitor guardsmen to the army!

In the past couple of weeks I've been gaming more than I have in the past few years, which feels great - it's nice to actually get around to doing something with the stuff I've painted and modelled for years now! My gaming buddy and I are talking about the possibility of a Necromunda/Inquisitor/BFG campaign in the making, as well as more Space Hulk (I'm working on getting all of the Genestealers painted - they're all basecoated now, which looks nicer on the board), Blood Bowl and 40k. It's very nice to be able to explore the gaming side of the hobby as well as the hobby side of things!

Comments most welcome :) I'll be expanding on the future gaming prospects soon!

...and looking forward...

Well, this is another post that I've been meaning to write for a few days now, with real-life intervening in various ways to delay the post - I actually started writing it a week ago now, but I'm always too tired to finish it off!

Happy New Year to anyone reading - it's been a bit turbulent in the Miniature Woes' household, with various family gatherings, neighbours having heart attacks etc. etc.

What have I got planned for the year ahead?


Possibly my favourite present from Christmas, I really can't gush enough about how fantastic this is. The whole format is rather opulent, with fantastic sculpts, great accessories, great art...the whole package. In this new year I intend to get everything from the box assembled and painted for gaming with a non-wargaming friend. He's already said that he'd like to try it out and I'm rather looking forward to it! I'd also like to play it with some of my other friends, who might want to use their own forces in it (I also like the idea of using it as a "dungeon" for Dark Heresy/Rogue Trader) and I will be putting together a few variant forces for it. Namely, a Chaos Space Marine force and a force of Marines in Power Armour. They should be rather fun to do, and will be mounted on plasticard bases instead of the normal GW round ones.

2010 is going to be the year of Chaos - I currently have 3 Chaos armies that are work-in-progress, in varying degrees of completion. My Fantasy Warriors of Chaos, for example, have barely been started, whilst my Chaos Marines and Chaos Daemons have sizeable portions completed.


Another of my main projects will be the Wasteland setting - a skirmish game with miniatures from various different companies. The plan for 2010 is to take the bits and pieces of background material I have noted down/is whizzing around my head and formulate a cohesive background for at least a portion of the game world. The best way I can think to explain it is that it's something like Fallout3 meets Firefly. It's a sci-fi Earth-like world that was racked by civil war, which left the world irradiated and humanity almost thrown back to the stone age. The rest of humanity, in the stars, blockaded the world, leaving the space around the planet mined and a small fleet to keep out the scavengers. The war did not rid the world of all it's humans - pockets survived in underground bunkers and in the wilderness, where the bombs did not fall, others were mutated or stripped of their humanity by the radiation. In the aftermath of the war, settlements arose, maps were re-written, leaders arose. From time to time, ships land, smuggling various items to the surface, taking refugees at exorbitant prices...
That's about it! I have ideas for a number of towns and characters, with 5 gangs and counting, with another 3 or 4 in work-in-progress form.
To begin with, the setting was created to fit into the GW background, but since then I've decided to keep it as it's own setting. Hopefully I'll be able to have some games over the next year!

Other projects will include completing the Space Marines I currently have work in progress, and eventually starting my Imperial Guard army properly and a selection of Battlefleet Gothic miniatures and other space ships.

On the gaming front, I'd just love to be able to game more often. I need to find a decent local wargames club, as well as getting in touch with some of my old gaming mates. I have forces for a number of different games now - it'd be awesome to have a little Blood Bowl tournament, or a Mordheim campaign. A 40k campaign could also be on the cards.

In real life, I want to use 2010 to sort my knees out. I've had problems with my right knee for 4 years now, and varying degrees of problems with the both of them over the past 10 years. It's about time I had something done about it and I would be more capable of living my life.

On that note, you have my regards if you've read through all of this!

Looking back...

Well, I have been meaning to write this since somewhere near Christmas day, in anticipation of the new year and obligatory "resolutions" post :)

This is a look back over some of my projects of the last year, all the miniatures and terrain shown are examples of the work I got finished in 2009 and should give some nice indicators as to the direction of my projects in 2010. Click any of the photos for higher resolution photos - if anyone wants to see any of the minis in more detail, ask in the comments section and I'll post up some nicer pictures...

These are my Imperial Space Marines, a custom Chapter - the Shadow Wraiths. These are my largest army - I currently have something near a Battle company of Marines for these and have a number of squads to finish off - the 15 Terminators shown earlier in my blog, a Tactical squad, an Assault squad, a Sternguard squad also shown work-in-progress earlier in the blog, various Chaplains and Librarians and plans for a dual Thunder Mace-wielding Chapter Master.


My Chaos forces are a project that started sometime in the past year or so - I've had a bunch of stuff work-in-progress for a while now. It's actually two armies - a mixed force of Chaos Daemons and an army of Chaos Renegades named the Vulture Legion, who are a piratical warband drawn from various Chaos Legions and Renegade Chapters, who ceremonially strip their power armour back to the ceramite in vats of chemicals, then repainting half blood red in dedication to the overlord of the Vulture Legion. They also take on Mercenaries and Cult Troops - for example, the Tzeentchian Vorpal Brotherhood shown in the picture. In the next year both armies will be gaining reinforcements, with a squad of Plaguemarines, a squad of Havocs and a large murder-squad of Beserkers on the way for the Marines, and Fiends, Beasts and more Flamers on the way for the daemons.


This really began as a side project this year - a skirmish game combining elements of Necromunda and Gorkamorka, with a distinctly post-apocalyptic feel. Yeah, I was playing a lot of Fallout3! I have a number of ideas for this buzzing around my head, with a Fallout-like not-Earth planet combined with a Firefly-esque universe. I think I'll have completed somewhere in the region of 100 miniatures for this project this year alone, with another 60 or so miniatures rebased to fit with it. At the moment I have 5 full gangs/warbands for this, with more planned. I also have the zombies shown above, then 40 "rad-ghouls" made from the GW Fantasy plastic ghouls. I recently added some scavengers to my collection from em4 Miniatures and Copplestone Castings, so these will be seen in the new year, as well as even more...

Wasteland Terrain! Note the landmines around the playground. I love this project, and it works just as nicely with Warhammer 40k as it does with the Wasteland games. In this next year I intend to add a scavenger fortress to this collection, as well as even more car wrecks, more barricades, roads and a collapsed overpass, maybes some dead giant beasts (just skeletons remaining), crashed ships, more piles of scrap - all sorts! More about this in the near future...

Thanks for reading!
Chris

Introduction

Hey folks!
Just your basic introduction here - who I am, what I game and what I plan to do with the blog...
Well, I'm Christopher, 23 year old, currently of no-fixed-occupation. A few weeks ago I had operation number 6 on my knees, this time my right knee. I've had trouble with them both for about 12 years now, which has led to me still being yet to complete my university degree, which utterly sucks - at the moment I'm unemployed and no longer a student, at least for the time being, until my knee is sorted out. It seems as though this operation has once again failed to fix the problem, but I have to give it some extra time before the consultant can re-evaluate it. Not exactly fun!

Annnyway, I'm interested in various things, including wargames, film, gardening, cooking and reading, and the primary aim of this blog is log my wargames miniature painting progress. It'll be a place where I can keep all of my projects together and plan what I'm going to tackle next. It'll also be somewhere for me to recap the projects I've already finished, with small amounts of fiction and background material. I also aim to eventually put up battle reports and the like, when I finally start to game on a regular basis - up until this point in my wargames hobby I've mainly been a modeller and painter, which I hope to change in the new year.

As for the games and forces I collect and play, they are the following:
- Warhammer 40k: Imperial Space Marines - Shadow Wraiths Chapter - these are my main 40k army, using the basic Space Marine Codex.
- Warhammer 40k: Chaos Space Marines - The Vulture Legion - a Chaos Renegade army in the vein of the Red Corsairs - a force of Renegades and Legionnaires banded together under a charismatic overlord, with support from various different factions.
- Warhammer 40k: Chaos Daemons - a side project, these are basically various minis I've accumulated in trades and eBay bulk-buys over the past few years. One of my favourite projects.
- Warhammer 40k: Imperial Guard - these are an army I've had a while, but are in a mightily busted-up condition. Numbering 150 or so Infantry, 3 Leman Russ and 8 or so Sentinels, these will be getting some love and attention in the new year. They will be urban-operations themed.
- Warhammer Fantasy: Warriors of Chaos - another army that's waiting for some attention. These are mostly still in pieces, and also eBay bulk-buys. They'll be getting some Knights in the new year.
- Warhammer Fantasy: Dwarfs - an army that was started and finished a few years back when I got back into the wargames hobby after a couple of years hiatus - these may be sold off to sustain the hobby...
- Necromunda: Escher - these are an almost-complete gang, on lovely resin bases. They also feature in my wasteland post-apoc setting.
- Necromunda: Orlocks - finished gang, for either Necro or the mentioned wasteland setting.
- Mordheim: Human Mercenary Warband - complete.
- Mordheim: Witch Hunter Warband - complete.
- Blood Bowl: Humans - complete.
- LotR: Evil force, mixed - so far, these are complete. Might sell them...

Wasteland setting: As mentioned above, I have a lot of miniatures for a post-apocalyptic wargames setting. This is one of my main focuses at the moment, with a number of factions that are currently finished or work in progress. Mechanics-wise it will be rather similar to Necromunda, with gang-on-gang scale conflicts. No real solid plans for this gameswise at the moment, but it's very fun for modelling purposes. My main sources of inspiration for this are Fallout3, Mad Max 2, various Zombie films and Firefly.

Well, that's enough of a ramble for now. There should be regular updates coming :)
Chris