The Turncoat Navy. The Thunderbolt Fighter that couldn't make it's mind up.

So for a few years now, I've had a forgeworld thunderbolt fighter hanging around, me not really having an imperial army for it to go with.

Last year, when I started building my chaos apocalypse army, I slapped some chaos stars across it's wings, just so I could throw it on the table...

Which looked alright, but if I'm honest, kinda ruined its clean imperial paint job. 

The other day, whilst browsing some well known nerd forums, I found a thread in a wanted section posted by a guy looking for imperial fliers to buy. I offered him the t'bolt, but he wanted it without the chaos stars. Kinda wish I'd used transfers now.

So this morning I set about trying to remember how I painted those clean panels all those years ago. 

This is the result after an hour or two. I don't think its quite as clean as the first time round, but I don't think anyone would notice when its on the table. 

So maybe he'll finally find the right battlefield to strafe in a new home. I think the years I've had it sat in a cupboard, it won't happen with me. 

Gonders

The Last March of the Trollbloods.

This Weekend just gone, I played a Warmachine tournament with my trolls I've been posting about. This was to be a special tournament for the trolls for several reasons.

Firstly, It was the last in a trilogy of lighthearted events I've taken part in over the summer, hosted at the Scythe and Teacup gamer's Cafe in Liverpool. All three days were great fun, with some worthy opponents to test my mettle against.

Secondly, as I posted about earlier, I'd placed 4th in the first event, and come home with the 1st place trophy in the second event. This was enough to put my top of the leader board at the start of play yesterday.

The final reason it was special, more for Jarl Skuld than me(I'm sure he was welling up in the last game), is that I've had the army up for sale for the last couple of weeks, and I've now found a buyer, so the army is sold. This was to be my last chance to go out with a bang and show I've learnt something starting trollbloods in the first place.

Would I come home with a prize for the plucky blue highwayman?  

This photo was taken by the event organiser, Mark Berkley. This was the most gruelling game of the day, against a cygnar player I knew only as stuey. Jarl and EHayley danced each other's shots and spells, pushing into the objective zone with their armies.  

The game continued almost up till time, with neither caster able to find a weakness to exploit. Several cygnar jack pushed forward only to be slammed back back troll impalers, while a mauler hammered up the right flank, chewing his way through Thorn, to shear down hayley's reach.

In the end, jarl and a single impaler remained to claim a control point to carry me home in an unconvincing manner.

A few games later and Jarl's very last shot claimed Servath Reznik's last hit point to seal the last game for me. 

In the end, I finished the day with 3 wins and a loss, the loss being to Phil winstanley's skorne in round one. Phil went on to win all of his games throughout the day, and came home with the first place trophy. Very well done to him.

I landed fourth again. My total tournament points for the whole trilogy, however, put me just above Phil, who came second. 

So i came home with another trophy, this time the IKRPG alexia, and a pack of free objective markers for coming top over all.

I also managed to win myself 6 free paints by winning the best painted model competition with my dire troll mauler.

With this, the day was done. I big thank you to mark for organising the event, and the the gamers at the scythe for providing some cracking games over the summer. No doubt we'll meet again!!

How to build a Trollkin Warwagon.

 

 

To continue the articles about the Horde Troll army I built and painted for the WPS Club Challenge this year, here is a guide to how I assembled the largest and most impressive model, so I could practise with it one the table at the same time as painting all the details. I Knew I was on limited time, so had to make the whole thing able to be disassembled to paint it, and reassembled to game with. Here comes a lot of pinning...

Firstly I cleaned up and built the chassis. no problems there, I just made sure there was a pin I could put the buffalo on through the yoke, and a pin for the deck and gun mount to slide over later on. Easy. 

Next came adding the buffalo. They each had a hoof pinned to the base, but not glued, and I just slide them on to the yoke pin from step one.

Next up, I built the deck, and drilled to pins to keep the gun mount straight and true. I didn't glue the deck yet, so I could get at the chassis later on for painting. I also pinned the driver in, but again, with no glue.

After I'd assembled the gun mount, the rest of the crew were pinned in place. I used only the minimum amount of glue through the whole job, and long pins so I could slide the whole thing to bits to get the painting done. 

The completed wagon, after painting. I glued everything I could after this to make sure it would survive the table top. The only part that remained unglued, was the gun mount, so it would fit into my case to carry it. 

This model(finally!) sees the end of the great white trollblood challenge. I've learnt a lot whilst painting the from a white undercoat. While it is a pain in the bum to do, you can certainly come up with some bright clean results, which I feel fit the trolls perfectly. 

I'd like to think I've done an alright job on the army. It goes to show, that the 3 tournaments I've taken it to, I've got 28/30 painting score, and 2 best painted awards to show off.  Would I do it again? Not for a long time... I can hear the grim darkness calling to me from the underhive...

Trollbloods. Lots of trollbloods.

So here's the thing. Before the WPS tournament I reported a couple of blogs(and by now, months ago) I hammered my painting to get the troll bloods painted in time to play the Challenge. Because I was painting most nights for a few weeks, I barely got chance to blog about the army.

Now I've finally got a bit of time to play catch up. So here we go.  This i going to be a whistle stop tour of the last units in the army.

There was stonetide, you've got to have her for the trolls. This was the last model I painted, and as it happens, probably the worst.  

Another auto-include, the fell caller solo. 

I took a full unit if fennblades with UA. They we a slog to paint. At the time I was up against it. I'm not going to post the whole unit unless someone really wants me too.  

My second dire troll, after the mauler, was this bomber. The good old metal version. :-)

I also took a full unit of champions, with skaldi bonehammer. They starred in a couple of games in WPS, despite every other troll player ever favouring a unit of longriders.

There should be a couple more of these posts to go before the whole lot of them are up here and I can reveal my next project!

Gonders

A new start, Necromunda, and a win in the new place.

So, this is more of a life update than in actual modelling or hobby one.

The big news is that me and my brilliant girlfriend have bought our first house together. I've been working toward this for about 4 years now, and we've finally taken the opportunity and found our place. I'm not going to bore everyone with the details, but its been fair to say, its been a busy few weeks making the move.

Its also not looking like its going to get any easier over the summer. The place needs work doing on it, and that's my job.  Like sorting this out.

I have my job to do. And games to play. This doesn't leave a huge amount of time to paint, but I'm going to try my best.  

So what else has happened over the last few weeks since my last post? Well 2 major hobby bits of news to report.

Firstly, my trolls have had some success. Last weekend I played in a 25 point warmachine/hordes one day tournament in the Scythe and Teacup gaming cafe in Liverpool. After a 5 round day, which is utterly tiring, I managed to come out on top of the heap, with 4 wins and 1 loss throughout the day. Which means I earn this!

The trophy is ace, and I got a £10 voucher to spend in the shop, and as I have a star wars thing going on at the minute...

Here it a during game shot from mark, the tourny organiser. This was game 3, against my mate tom's skorne. Me leaning in like that meant it was a thinker. I also won this game by the skin o' me teeth.

This was actually the second in a trilogy of events, the 1st one I came 4th, and the final round is in august, so I'll have to stay on my game to defend the title!

The second bit of hobby news, is that down at the lost boys(my regular Tuesday night club), we're starting a necromunda campaign. I've never played necromunda with these guys before, but I've heard stories from their last one, and it sounds like its going to be a blast. I picked up a squad of snow troopers from the phalanx trade show in st Helen's a couple of weeks back, to turn into these guys.

They're from a company I'd never heard of before, called 4 A miniatures. I knew I was looking for a gang, and ran into the their stall and was sold. Check out some of their stuff here. So, lord knows when I'll get to paint them, but at least they'll be in one piece for the start next week!

Till next time,

Gonders

The WPS Club challenge 2012, Tournament report Part 2

As a continuation from yesterday's post, the report from the WPS challenge conclusion.

At the start of the day, the current rankings were read out. We weren't last a a club, which was a surprise in itself. nor 7th, nor in fact 6th. We had landed 5th by the start of day 2. We were all pleasantly surprised.

I went into day 2 with one clear goal, and that was to end up with at least a 50-50 Win loss ratio. As this was my first proper tournament, I figured if I could end up with that, I'd be happy that I'd shown at least a bit of skill. As I'd only won one on the first day, this would prove to be a challenge, as I'd really have to win both of my games on day two. With a mild hangover, I approached the round four match ups to find out I had placed against...

Game 4: Cygnar: Mark Coultas.

Looking at Mark's army lists I saw one way or the other he was going to try and blow me away from range. I was to either face siege brisbane or epic caine. My two lists being jarl's trickery gunfighter skills or the madrak brick, I figured the ammount of armour piercing this guy brought, madrak would have been taken down before I got anywhere. I knew I'd never catch caine with him, so I went for Jarl. Mark chose Caine, so it was indeed pistols at dawn. This also meant I wasn't locked into a caster for game 5 as it was divide and conquer. Unfortunately, I knew this would meant my warwagon getting blasted to bits on turn two. This is exactly what happened. on my second I responded by wreaking a hunter with my Bomber and engaging a second Hunter with my champions. Mark Hit back and tremored them with ol' rowdy before charging in with storm guard to cause some damage. Between my champion hero and Jarl I cleared the storm guard and managed to get a charge on caine with skaldi bonehammer, applying the pressure. He missed his attacks, but is force caine to make his move. Mark loaded him with focus from the squire, Flattened bonehammer with a storm guard and caine advanced just into range of Jarl. Unfortunately for mark, after he'd popped his feat for the those powerful damage shots, he missed his first shot. Jarl, having evasive, dodged back 2'', luckily for me, sparing the plucky highwayman from 7 focus of bullets, and leaving Caine exposed to my own guns. In my turn, my impaler used his animus on jarl, granting me the aiming bonus as the two gun fighter's both have the same range, and He puled the trigger. To on target shots Earned my my second win of the tournament. 

 

Firestorm Games' transport.

By this point, the sun was high again and it was getting hot. People's concentration was waning, But i knew I wanted the third win. This was going to be a tough. 

Game 5: Trollbloods: Alun Evans.  

As soon as I drew trolls, I knew I'd be in for a hard ride. I've never fought them before, and there's always a slog playing your own faction. Alun is a nice bloke, who knows exactly what he is doing with his trolls. I was feeling the pressure and heat, and made an absolute mess of my game plan. I don't know what I was thinking, but I pretty much gave it to him on a plate. I deployed most of my force to go and claim the control points, whilst leaving a Bomber and the fennblades to guard mine. What I forgot was the house between my divided force, and it was a simple matter for Alun to clear his objective with nyss hunters and watch me squirm as i realised I was going to lose the next turn. Jarl tried to bounce magic bullets of the opposing warwagon and into calandra, but they simply got transferred away and that was that. If i could go back in time and replay this game, I would. I knew exactly what I should've done and just didn't so I deserved what i got. I feel had I got this game first, it would have been equal to my game against Riche Paget, being more of a closer call, but it turns out, my lack of stamina is the real enemy. 

Conclusion 

So with the games finished, there was time for a quick beer before the results, then to the moment of truth. Well in short, individually, we got nothing. None of us placed, or got best painted, or won sportsmanship. 

But then, a surprise. In the club level standings, our 40k boys managed to scoop third. I've never seeing our club chairman, Rob, look so happy since I've known him. we even have the shield to prove it.

So the final standing we announced. It got to 5th and we hadn't been mentioned. Wow, we must've gained a place. Nor were we 4th. Some how, we'd managed to place. Although only third, we were all ecstatic! For a club that had barely tournamented before to turn up and land 3rd was amazing for us. 

Above us and deservedly so, were the Dragon Slayers, who seamed to be the best sportsmen of the whole weekend, and taking the crown for 2012, were the Terra Nova Gryphons.

Although I walked away with nothing but these charity dice, I had a great weekend, and I look forward to going back next year to play for a place once more. 

 

The WPS Club challenge 2012, Tournament report Part 1

Well, I wish I'd had more time to put into this blog before this post. If you've been following me over my last few posts, you'd know I've been working on a Trollblood army for the WPS club challenge tournament at the end of May.  I'd hoped to have blogged about me painting the whole army before the event, so I could've put this report at the end of a series of modelling and painting articles about the trolls, but as toward the end of the project I realised I had time against me. The blog had to take a back seat to my painting, otherwise I'd have never finished the army.

So, the army did indeed get finished, and there will be some full army shots later in this post to prove it. But by now, the dust has settled from the event, blood split and prizes claimed. So how did it go? 

Venue: Maelstrom Games, Mansfield UK. 

The weekend took place at Maelstrom game's eye of the storm gaming hall, a venue I'd never been to before. The place is a bit a Wargamers haven in the UK really. Many tournaments are held there, gamers travel from all over the place to play there, and with good reason. 

The place is built around an old barn/farm complex, from what I could tell. The Ground floor holds Maelstrom's shop, and a bar area. The upstairs Houses 2 separate gaming halls, with enough tables to have at least 100 players at once.  The weekend of the club challenge was the hottest of the year so far, and all windows and doors were thrown open to generate some cool breezes for us all.

The staff are all friendly, and organisation was superb throughout the whole weekend. Food was laid on for lunch on both days, and players could have bought a meal ticket for the evening, but we didn't go with this option. 

In short, its very much worth a trip for an event if you get the chance. 

The view down the larger hall with round 4 in full swing on the Sunday. 

Army lists

After 10 weeks of playing trolls, these are my 2 steamroller lists.

Army list One.

Jarl Skuld, Devil of the Thornwood. +6

Dire Troll Bomber. 10
Troll Impaler. 5
Troll Bouncer. 5

10 Trollkin fennblades. 8
Fennblade officer and drummer. 2

5 Trollkin Champions. 10
Skaldi Bonehammer. 3

Trollkin Champion Hero. 3 

Swamp Gobber bellows crew. 1

Trollkin Warwagon. 9

56

Reinforcements.

Dire Troll Mauler. 9

Army List 2.

Madrak Ironhide, Thronwood Chieftain. +6
Runebearer. 2

Dire Troll Mauler. 9
Troll Bouncer. 5
Troll Axer. 5 

6 Krielstone bearer and stonescribes. 4
stone scribe Elder. 1

5 Trollkin Champions. 10
Trollkins Champion Hero. 3

Fell Caller Hero. 3
Janissa stonetide. 3 

10 Trollkin Fennblades. 8
Fennblade Officer and drummer. 2

56.

Reinforcements.

Dire Troll Bomber. 10 

Game 1: Circle, Richie Paget.

Going into this tournament, I knew I had one major weakness, The Circle Orboros. They're the only faction I've never played against in the mark 2 rules, and I thought if I run into them, I'd be toast by turn 3. After checking my round 1 match up, I wasn't at all surprised to find I was to play against them. Not only them, but well known Dragon Slayer, Richie Paget. Of my two lists, I choose to play Jarl over Madrak. Seeing Richie's lists, he didn't have many infantry models to maul through with Madrak's feat, so I thought a long range assassination might come from an unexpected quarter.

I've never played such a good opening game, it was without doubt the highlight of the weekend. Jarl and Kromac danced around the best we could throw at each other until both our armies were all but spent. The clinching turn saw jarl, with an impaler and bouncer left, staring down ghetorix's maw trying to snatch a victory. The Impler managed a jammy double 6 critical slam against DEF 19 Kromac, knocking him down and leaving him on 4 health. Jarl bolted from combat with Ghetorix to take the kill shot, but found his pistols unable to cause enough damage that the stricken circle caster couldn't simply transfer away. This left the highwayman exposed to Ghetorix, however, who promptly caught hold of the good jarl and bit his head off. Ouch. 

Richie is a top bloke though, He certainly got my sportsmanship vote, and quite rightly when home with the trophy for being such a nice chap. 

 

The Trolls line up for the best painted judging. 

Game 2: Cryx, Matt Ames.

My next game brought a hard lesson. Seeing Matt's 2 lists being full of warrior models, I thought Madrak would be a solid choice. So, turn 1 I power up the madrak brick and wade out into the middle of the field. 

Turn 2, and eDeny Runs in the the middle of the field, Arcs a hell mouth and swallows all my fennblades on the objective, pops his feat and claims a control point. this left me with an immobile brick, of trolls with 1 ranged weapon to clear a whole 8" Diameter circle of undead and 1 turn to do it. Ah. 

I wasn't completely out of options though. Madrak, whilst tapped in him own brick hadn't been caught with the feat. He could still move. I had to beat a couple of my own champion's head's in, but manged to get him a charge lane to a nyss hunter and his mates. I powered him up and let him loose with his feat. He go as far as 3 nyss and 2 bane thralls, and I realised my next strike with out of my 2" reach. The big guy floundered, and ended up sat, helpless in front of nightmare, who looked a little bit offended. Need I say more?   

Game 3:  Skorne, Nicholas Moore.

First off, Nicholas Moore is a bloody loony. In the best way possible, mind. A highly entertaining game. By this point on day 1, the heat had melted every nerd brain in the place, and no one could think anymore. Much like just in the wilds, Madrak's over heated troll brain lines up against the Skorne in the bloodstone marches. Nicholas sent Molik Karn belting up the centre to try and mash up my champions and generally cause mayhem. one the right, my fennblades came to a stalemate with a unit of nihilators. It looked square across the board. I couldn't find a way to clear a path for madrak to assassinate with karn in the way. I couldn't take much more of his punishment. The only option I could see involved madrak doing the job himself, which would leave him open. Powered up with a dire troll's animus, madrak charges the heavy and promptly cut him in half with Rothrak. Janassia stone tide advanced up behind close the gap and keep the big man safe. In the final turn, madrak cleaved his way though the back lines of pain givers and support to cut makeda down for good and secure my first win of the day.

The end of the day sees me 2 loses for 1 win. Not great, but I'd had a great time and met some top gamers.  

 So here ends part one. What will happen on day two? Tune in tomorrow to find out!