Warmachine Terrain: Throgmorton and Swift's, 'jack repairs while you wait!

So these last couple of weeks while I've been waiting for some more Cryx to turn up, I 've been planing and have started building some terrain to play Warmachine over.

I want to make a small company holdings, somewhere in the countryside, though I'm not sure where. I think it's going to be a labour 'jack repair shop and surrounding area. perfect place to skirmish over. so I've started the first of two or three buildings that will make up the property. Firstly, the living area/office building:

Just built from foam board, balsa and my cryx starter box, box :-P Not the highest quality I know, but hopefully it'll be game able. Just a test to see how difficult it is to make buildings.

After this, I knocked together some fences and a gateway for linear obstacles.

The fences are going to get plasticard metal sheeting over the top half of the front and some rivets for extra steam punk.

 Next is the framework to the workshop building. I'm aware of just making 3 big line of sight blocking chunks of terrain, so the workshop is going to have a wide open double door at each side to stop that effect. It will also have a removable roof so models will be able to get placed in and out easy enough. This will probably mean a degree of interior detail too.

This is all so far. Hopefully more to follow!

Gonders

The Nightmare Empire, Warmachine Cryx.

New project number 3... So it appears I just can't settle into a new painting project. Everything I start ends 3 models in and I've just not clicked with anything recently.

So this is, yet again, the start of something, probably quite small(I am going to get my copy of skyrim later today, after all), a cryx army for warmachine.

As a gaming group, we've not played warmachine for quite awhile. We used to play mark 1 when it was getting big a couple of years back, around escalation to superiority era, and we enjoyed it a lot. I was a cryx player then and it appears its dyed in the wool, I'm getting back to it. since then I've sold my army so, I'll just have to rebuild it now.

Over the last couple of weeks this little Deathripper has been painted and stripped about 6 times, as I've struggled to find a colour scheme for them. I feel with cryx you kind of have your hands tied a little bit with having to have green necrotite furnaces, so I think your colours have to match that a little.

So purple is the answer. I've painted this Deneghra much better than I did my last one, who looked a bit bit like a lady of the night... 

 
I've also has a bit of a experiment with this whole 'OSL' that everyone is on about now. My first attempt, but i think it works a bit.

Well, that's as far as I've got so far. I'll really try my best to keep it going this time, I promise!

Gonders

Warning! Hobby Stamina: Know your limits!

I'm sat here now, in front of my PC, on a night I had specifically put aside for painting, with my current project sat on my other desk, the paint mixture going dry. I had vowed to myself I was going to make progress tonight, yet I'm not doing.

The reason for this? My painting stamina has given up on me. I've realised, and I don't think i can be the only one, that my body can only take so much painting in one night. If this is an amount of time, or a certain amount of painting done, I don't yet know.

Perhaps how much you take depends on factors, such as tiredness, will to finish the model, etc etc. This evening I've been painting this wave serpent for my upcoming Eldar army:

This is exactly how the thing is still sat, the layer of highlighting, half finished(you'll notice the closer faring, nor the turret or the shield projectors are as light) in the other room. Before I put it down, my highlights were getting careless, fatter, not as neat, generally all over the place, as I realised I'd had enough.

I understand how much you can take in a sitting will vary from person to person(I know some peoples Hobby stamina runs out when their finger is removed from the spray can button), but treat this as a warning! Unless you want fat highlights on your curly tanks,

KNOW YOUR LIMITS!! 

Gonders

Dire Avengers. I could get used to this.

I've made it to the second set of models for my theorised Eldar army. An order with my first 500 points turned up Saturday so I got straight into it to kick start the project.

 The army i have planned is light on infantry. Mainly as it was always where i came unstuck painting several failed eldar armies in the past. So I'm going to paint infantry, then reward myself with a vehicle, or similar, and hope to keep motivated that way.

I'm fairly happy with how these guys turned out. Though they did take a long time to get like this. I discovered painting eldar eyes is a nightmare of a task. 

Also, my photography skills are found somewhat wanting I realise. I'll try my best to correct this!

Til next time,

Gonders

Eldar Farseer, doing yourself proud.

This is the second update in a week, surely a rarity for me nowadays! I'm trying to throw myself into getting an Eldar army on the table so I'm practising much as I can at the minute. So i have my latest offering:

I've spent longer on this guy than I normally would. I say normally, I think I'm to used to just hammering out guardsmen 10 in an evening, so I'm trying to re-learn taking my time abit. 

I think Eldar models benefit from the extra time spent on them(I think this is why I never manage to finish an army of 'em) more than most, especially HQ guys.

Just a few more shots. I think if I can get an Eldar army all finished in these colours it'd look the dogs dangleys, so I'm going to give it everything. Nothing like walking to your local gaming evening and having the army that turns the most heads. Doing yourself proud for me is more important than winning any game.

Gonders

Eldar Warlock

Apparently one side project just isn't enough for some people. I've taken my first finecast steps this weekend, and painted this eldar warlock. I think he's the start of a new army, but I always say that at the minute. 

So I'm on the search for a slightly move competitive army than I'd normally use, but I'm still a modeller first, and I just wasn't clicking with the word bearers in terms of painting. I found them very average, with no real drive behind me other than to get a new army painted.

If you've had a look at the rest of the blog, I've used a colour scheme I used for some dark eldar a few months back. Although i never finished that army, I thought i did do a decent job of painting it, do this time I'm going to try and get the job done. 

If I make it past the first models, only time will tell! 

Gonders

Word Bearers, a new project.

Well, we all know you can never have to many hobby project on the go at once, right? I've recently moved to a new place, and as such, my local GW Thursday night games night has moved too. I've been down to a couple of nights with my guard army, but its just not built to be competitive in terms of army list(its got a squadron of vanquishers for a start...) so I've decided to start a new army to take down and hopefully be abit more competitive. Step in the word bearers. I've had the idea of doing an army of these guys for a while, but never got round to it, so now seems like a good time.

I'll be able to add them to my apocalypse horde, if need be, or use keep 'em as a stand alone army. I'm going to start with a 1500 pt list and see how I go.

As you can see, my first purchase was a squad of terminators, which I'm halfway through building. I wanted to do something a bit none standard for the bases so I came up with the plasticard paving idea. I think it looks quite good. 

These are the three I've managed to build so far. I had planned on having one finished by now, but sat down to paint earlier and realised I need a trip to the shop to buy some new paint! :-(

As for the list, I'm looking at something like this:

HQ 130
Daemon Prince Wings

Elites 435 5 Chaos Terminators 4 Combi plasma, 1 Heavy Flamer, Powerfist Icon 195
Land Raider Extra Armour Dozerblade 240

Troops 675
8 Chaos Space Marines 1 Meltagun Champion w Combimelta, Powerfist Rhino 215
10 Chaos Space Marines 2 Plasma Guns Rhino 215
10 Chaos Space Marines 2 Meltaguns Champion w Powerfist Rhino 245

Heavy Support 260
Predator Autocannon Lascannon sponsons 130
5 Havocs 2 Meltaguns Rhino 130

Which came with some help from Papadoc on warseer, just in case he's watching this.
Keep an eye out for progress!

Gonders

Apocalypse Season continues.

Well, our second game of apocalypse has taken place.

The campaign is set on a key world in our our system, the thraxis system, which my and my gaming group have fought over for many a year now. Gath Shedammah is a duel continent planet, guardian of the only warp jump point in the thraxis system, and thus all important to the imperuim. Unfortunately, one on the continents has suffered a massive zombie plague outbreak, due to more subtle chaos forces. Now the continent has fallen and a massive chaos horde is ploughing across the channel to the unprepared imperial side.

So far Chaos horde pushed back the imperium over muddy sea bed(see earlier post), and have made a push for the Imperial capital of Gath Shedammah... exactly how prepared they are, time will tell...

 The horde gathers in preparation for the assault on imperial guard defenders.

The chaos infantry finds itself under sustained bombardments... 

...While rebel and loyal armour duke it out for the centre table.

Loyal Infantrymen face down Rebels, Daemons, Zombies and the Infernal Judge, a Baneblade forged of Dark Mechanicum origin! 

Blasted craters and Burning hulks remain at the end of the day.

After the dust had settled, The Chaos Horde had been decimated by a well prepared defence, yet a Vital Object keeps them in the game. We called it a draw in terms of campaign narrative. The Horde has been held at bay, but they're not going anywhere! The city is now under siege, and the next game will probably see a column of re-enforcements coming to smash their way through the blockade. 

I'll keep the blog updated to let you know of Gath Shedamah's fate!  

Till next time

Gonders

What can Yu Mak with a Mumak?

Well, as I said in my last post, the gauntlet was thrown down, to convert a lord of the rings mumak model into something I could use some my chaos apocalypse army.

We saw some early WIP shots then. Now, I can bring you the finished product!

In the end, I did have to rush it abit. The howdah ended up nowhere near as detailed as I'd have liked, but the model was finished the day before an apocalypse game deadline. Due to moving house and work and such, I've not had as much time as I'd like to paint, model, and blog, unfortunately.

Anyway, here we go. 

I wanted the colour schemes to bring the various parts of the army together. I've got a load of chaos spawn in the pipeline, to go with the giant forgeworld one, so I painted the mumak's skin to match the tone I used.

I also wanted to bring in my weathered tank scheme on the howdah, to tie the armour in. 

And some imperial guard crew fitted the bill nicely. 

Finally, some weathering power up its legs finished the model off. 

In games, this thing is going to count as a large squiggoth, as it's about the closest thing to it in my opinion. I say 'This thing', it needed a name. I decided, rather than having some cheesy chaos name(the death crusher, blood killer, etc etc) I thought it'd be better to give it an Imperial nickname. Much like something you'd read in a gaunts ghost novel(remember flat crabs, stalk tanks and the like? So i decided the Imperials would refer to these things as 'Footprints', obviously in reference to what's left behind after a mumak raid!

Well, that's it for now. As ever, all comments and that are received gracefully. 

Thanks for looking.

Gonders

Chaos Reaver Titan, Painting complete, and Something new...

Well it's been a slog to get this far. I have, however deceived a little with the title of this post. The titan project is not over yet. The actual painting of the kit is though. I've finally weathered and machine and glued it into as many pieces as it will stay. So now its looking like this:

I've hit it with several forge world weathering powders. Namely the rust in patches dotted around, but also, the feet and lower legs has has a blast of mud, and the shell strikes and exhausts has been given a good go with soot.

Still on the to do list is:

Base. Needs the pavements rebuilding and some more texture adding around the Aquila.

Banner. Has been extended since you last saw it, but it needs paint and hanging permanently.

Pinning: The whole machine needs pinning to the base and gluing, to finish of 'The Wrath of the Deceived' as I've decided to name it. 

Enough rambling, here's some more shots of check out:

'You wanna make something of it?'

Close up rusting effects.

I need to borrow a decent camera at the end of this project, and I'll get some much better shots. 

But now on to something completely different...

Me and one of my good mates(and enemies, for the apocalypse campaign), Tom, have, for years now had a question burning at the back of our minds.

A good few years back, Games Workshop released a kit of... Epic potential. Now, no one we know actually plays the game system it was designed for, and for quite a while, games workshop had policies in place to withhold activities that would see this majestic kit used in any other game system.

Still, the question burned. 

The apocalypse expansion was released for 40k, but we were all to busy to search for answers. 

At the back of our minds, we hadn't forgotten.

Now, god knows how long after we first uttered the words, I have the time, the money, the drive, and the very chance to find out the answer to our question...

''What can Yu Mak with a Mumak?''

Born of the morning after a night before, a challenge was thrown down, to convert a large elephant, into something we'd like to see on a 40k gaming table. With my feral guardsmen launching a fresh assault across the thraxis system, backed up with a host of zombies, spawn, daemons and general hell, this must be the chance I've been after. 

Here's the progress. I'm going down the, 'big rusty howdah' line...

I'm going to be using this a squiggoth in games, so it kinda fits. 

I know its a bit small, but I'll have to get over it. The slot in the middle will have two big guns in, one above the other, and the sides will have machine gunners, to match the squiggoth's rules. 

As I'm running out of time to write this, I must leave it there, but you can be sure I'll be working hard on this thing soon. 

The final note, is that this Blog may go quiet for a couple of weeks after this. I'm moving house at the weekend, and will have to set up a new Internet connection. 

Til then. 

Gonders

Apocalypse season begins!

So this is an update long overdue(again). Unfortunately my posting has slowed down of late, and I'm not really sure why. I've been working on the army, but at a slower rate, and other bits of real life seem to getting in the way. 

Anyhow, I have some progress today. 

Firstly the first game of apocalypse summer happened last weekend.
I managed to get this shot off at the start off imperial turn 2, but after that got distracted with dice rolling to take any others!

You can see my chaos side at the bottom of the pic, with my plentiful guardsmen taking up minesweeper and cannon fodder duty. At this point, my allies's strike force of 50 rhino mounted chaos marines were still in reserve, which may be why we appear so out numbered.

This was the first game of the season, so we started small(ish), and this game was 6000 points a side. The next game is due in a couple of weeks, with an additional 2000 points bringing us up to 8k. I have a secret super heavy planned for this game, if it turns up and I can paint it in time.

Anyway, in terms of recent modelling, these 2 tanks finished off my first 3k army list. 

'Dead metal' the Punisher.

 I feel I'm learning more about weathering with each tank I do. It's a skill I very much want to nail. 

'Sledge' the vanquisher.

The chain around this converted vanquisher's barrel added some detail I think works well.

As i mentioned, Next up is a secret super heavy, and maybe a daemon or two!

Watch this space.

Gonders

Apoco-project thunders on.

 Remember back near the start of the year I set the apocalypse challenge of coming up with some sort of battle ready army from scratch by the summer? Well, In terms of points value, I'm about half the way to my target. So far, everything I've painted looks something like this:

I'm glad that the army is getting quite a bit of a horde feel about it now. I'm please with the carpet of infantry, it definitely adds to the scale of the titan. 

The first game of the campaign is scheduled for July the 9th. For this first game, we're starting with basics, a 6000 point bash, of which I'm providing 3000 points for the chaos side. In the picture is around about the army I'll take, without the Reaver. There's a few more tanks to add to this to add some punch. My ally is playing a fallen angel army, and is bringing the elite whilst I bring the numbers!

A few months back, I started advertising on forums and scanning ebay for cheap leman russ tanks. Having sunk rather to much cash into the titan, the rest of the army will have to be a bit cheap! So, some purchases later and I got this:

For just under £80. That's 8 leman russ, on average, £10 each. Bearing in mind they're £35 each now, it's a fine bargain. I'll be taking 3 of them in the first game, so time to get my repairing gear out...

Vanquisher first up. I'm going to make several variants, and I love the hit or miss nature of these machines. I'd love it to blast a loyal russ to pieces for the first shot of the campaign, but knowing guardsman of BS 3, I'm not holding my breath! 

Next, for sheer fun, I'm going with a punisher. Just because its a 20 shot bastard. I think that's enough said. Here I've given the tank it's first coat of catchan green. 

To finish off the trio, an exterminator. This was the first russ to arrive, so got the first paint job. Unfortunately, my camera phone is failing me, and it looks alot like a child painted this. It is due another coat of varnish here, but still, I'm not to happy, it does look better in real life, I promise! 

Once these 3 or finished, I should be able to concentrate on the next 1000 points or so.

Until then

Gonders

The Chaos Conclave. Leading the horde.

So there's been much excitement about the Reaver from me over the last few weeks I've almost forgotten the task in hand. However if you've been keeping up with this blog, you'll know I actually still have a holy hell load of chaos stuff to get ready for some apocalypse games this summer. As I've slogged through 100+ infantry, 30 hounds, more than a hand full of zombies and cracked on with the titan so far now, I've turned my attention too the leaders of the horde.

First up, a certain villain from the northwest of England makes his stompin' return... Further details are sketchy, but I hear they're showing them there grey knights how to do it properly...

Next up, I've got myself one of the latest deamon prince models. I've liked the look of this kit since it's release, so I had to get at least one. At least another will follow. This conversion is WIP, There's going to be a couple more layers of plate armour on the legs at least.

That's all for now. But there's surely more on the way. The mighty horde is rumoured to be lead by a conclave of the mightiest champions ever to walk the Thraxis system, beware, imperials...

Gonders