Ebay sales you won't regret* - a Frakkin 40k Warlord Titan!!! Holy Omnissiah!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/40K-Warlord-Titan-Scratch-built-3ft-tall-/251453520684?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a8bcc3b2c

* When I say you won't regret buying my mate Liam's scratchbuilt Warlord Titan, you may do when you're otherwise mild mannered hobby widow see's it turn - up there is no hiding this 3 foot tall behemoth, as evidenced in the pictures from our Apocalypse WOW battle: Prelude | Turn 1 | Turn 2 | Turn 3 | Turns 4, 5 and 6 |

There have been quite a few legendary scratchbuilds of the Warlord Titan but I think this is one of the most Epic I've ever seen. In some respects it's actually bigger than a Warlord should be, scale wise, and approaches Imperator scale! Anyone who's ever wanted one and has the finances needs to check it out right now. Starting price is £300 but that is less than a Warhound Titan including it's arms and considerably less than a Reaver Titan [body only] and this thing is HUGE, check it out next to Liam's son! Not to mention his scratchbuilt Warhound, which is I believe actually a little bit bigger than the Forgeworld version!

Seriously this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get an amazing model and with the way GW is going we'll be seeing a 40k scale version of Adeptus Titanicus any week now, rules in White Dwarf ;) If you want to see more pictures and the Work in Progress shots head over to Liam's Blog at Blue Warp Studios for more. Even if you're not interested in the Titan yourself, and have a blog please share it or re-blog it on your own blog or forums that you frequent, there are only 9 days left in the auction. This is an amazing piece, deserves a good home and we want to see Liam get a decent price for all the effort, blood, sweat and tears so please let as many folk know as you can. Whatever he gets will be invested back into the hobby so whatever final price it is rest assured there will be all kinds of crazy cool awesomness coming out of Blue Warp Studios thanks to the lucky winners contribution to Liam's hobby fund. Incidentally I believe he'll be getting rid of his Fortress or Redemption too, so keep your eyes peeled to his ebay listing should the Warlord be too rich for your blood.

More of Liam's Tau

Now it seems the ebay post for my mate Liam, he of the scratch built Warhound and Warlord fame, regarding his Tau was very popular, can't think why, Tau haven't been given any love by GW for years so no one likes them, right? Anyway these are some more pics he's sent over, I'm not sure if they're all going on ebay or just some of them but best keep an eye on his auctions if the Greater Good is your bag.

These pics are as-is so they're quite big when you click on them so enjoy.

ebay sales YOU won't regret! Liam's Tau...

My mate Liam, he of the scratch built Warhound and Warlord fame, is  having a clear out of old TAU figures on ebay NOW! He's hoping to offload these Tau so he can go out and buy NEW Tau. He apologetically described these as 'speed painted' but Liam's speed painting can be considered well above your average table-top quality but more importantly is the selection of unique and scratch built models. Check 'em out there are still five days to go.

40k Tau Remora Drone controlled Stealth Fighter Scratch

40k Tau 4 x Kroot Great Knarloc Herd Scratch Built

40k 3 x Converted Tau XV88 Broadside Battlesuits OOP

40k Tau 3 x Kroot Great Knarloc Bolt Thrower ScratchBlt

40k 11 x Tau Empire Vespid Stingwings METAL

40k 3 x Tau XV88 Broadside Battlesuits OOP

40k Forge World Tau XV-9-04 with Phased Ion Guns

'nids part 62 - Oh did I not show you these n'all

Back when I was making the Tyranid Warrior - Hive Guard conversions, primarily out of a mixed goody bag of 'nid bits I needed a couple more Termagant heads and in true fashion won another mix of Hormagaunts and Termagants auction on ebay. Not sure how much this was in the end but it was probably better value than the five Termagants in a box you can get. Despite my love of Hormagaunts and their unwillingness to do anything other than get shot and fail to live up to their potential I decided to convert them to leaping Termagants. With two Tervigons now I need more spawnage, just in case. So with my extra fleshborers I knocked them up and also added Adrenal Glands so that they stand out even more as a unit. I've really started to notice how difficult it is to keep track of spawned units in 6th, so some ease of identification is helpful.

Of course Hormagaunts are some of THE most unstable miniatures ever created and if you place a gun in their hands, well lets say gravity takes an even greater interest in their face! I'm really going to have to start putting some weight on the back of these.

There were ten extra Termagants in this set.

Of which four are based on Hormagaunt bodies with a fifth head on a Termagant, they really do break up the lines of the gant swarm, a little more vertical motion makes them look like they're jostling for position.

I also had another five vanilla Termagants to add to the previous five - 20 in total from these few ebay auctions.

I've run the maths though and I'm not sure I'll ever need them all though. Currently I can use the second set of Devgaunts as spawned gaunts to help wit hsquad differentiation and so on average I should have enough. Only in exceptional circumstances should both Tervigons continue to spawn after turn 3, which invariably they do not will it be an issure and that's not taking into account that often they die and I get to recycle them into new units anyway.

So, another 15 to paint, and they weren't even on my list, *sigh*!

'nids part 40 - Yet more ebay Warriors

During my recent ebay splurge, I say recent it's about three months back now. I got another 5 Warriors. I think the bargain price in the end was about £11 all in. It was two auctions and the seller kindly combined postage, which was nice considering they hadn't offered it and I got them all for such a steal. Anyway, the plan is to create another 2 Hive Guard and as you can see there are plenty of the required components attached to these to get me the result I need.

I've also got some of the remaining bits from my nieghbour and car-share buddy Mark. I was also looking to try and create a Tyrant guard with the remaining crushing claw components and some of the Mawloc Scything Talons, however initial dry fits are proving problematic in fitting the model on a 40mm base. There's just not enough room to fit everything in. I've seen one example on the internet of a Warrior-Tyrant guard conversion with the claws but I'm pretty sure it sits on a 60mm base which is ludicrous. I may look to see if I can get something a little bigger - 45 or 50mm wooden discs if they're available from my local craft shop. Otherwise some extra bits of slate my add more surface area whilst retaing the official base size. If this is no joy then I'll have to abandon the conversion.

Of course if I have the Hive Guard and Tyrant Guard I'm left with two Warriors, so no Shrike unit. I may definitely do another Deathspitter Warrior to join my existing unit, way we can have three Deathspitters, 2 and 1 Barbed Strangler or 3 and the Strangler. Options ar eextremely useful.

'nids part 38 - The ebay goodness just keeps on giving

With the Warrior/Hive Guard conversion frenzy and the five new Termagants I forgot to show off the second reason I bought my bitz pack [after the Hive Node objective markers] Ymgarl Genestealers. OK there's none of the Tendril faces but the extra carapace armour and Scything Talons should differentiate them or at least when the armour is blue you'll definitely see a difference.

Of course one issue is I only have 4, but perhaps another bitz purchase should solve that issue and who knows what else I'll benefit from because of it?

Don't forget my  Ymgarl Genestealers. Mutation counters

"I see beautiful things."

It was my brother's 40th Birthday on the 21st and it just so happened to coincide with the return of the Floral Hall Rock Night. We'd been looking forward to this since January. The Floral Hall Rock Nights were my first taste of debauchery when I was 16, grunge was just hitting and my first night I was involved in a three tier human pyramid to Slayer - what price such memories? Well the Floral Hall is a little more upmarket now but they started letting us old rockers back a year or two ago and this was our first 'reunion' [they were called Old Ba$tard Reunions back then]. I'd booked a hotel for the wife back in Jan and so I got it 'cheap' and it was kind of an anniversary present too.

But my back's gone, so no dancing and the drugs I'm on? No drinking and I was awoken on Saturday morning at 5:20 am to the dawn chorus of the wife vomiting her guts up! I had some irrational fear of pregnancy for a split second - that ain't happening but the culprit was decided as sweetcorn - sodding Jolly Green Giant. So she was not going anywhere and to top it all the mother-in-law was sick on some new tablets for a kidney infection. We're a right family of infection! So even if the wife got better we weren't going to ask her to look after the kids overnight. So I gifted the hotel room to my bro and his new girlfriend, it seems generous but in reality if the wife was well he was just getting the entrance fee to the rock night!

If you recall the post about my 'gaming crew' you may remember this picture of the guys, but they were also my Rock Club buddies, from our local venue in Ormskirk, to The Floral and Manhattans in Southport.

And here are some of the same folk back on home turf 20 years later! It was a great night, even sober and my back was fine until late on, I guess standing up was good for exercising the muscles in a non-impact way.

So what's this got to do with the price of fish? Well some of the guys still game, Ben [second from right] lives just down the road from my sister-in-law Otty [front and blurred] has even been to my local friendly neighbourhood gaming club as Rob the chairman teaches his kids at school. And of course who can forget Liam, he of the scratch built Warhound and Warlord [front and center]? So a lot of catching up and great fun, but...

as my bro was otherwise engaged that evening he asked me to drop his card off at my parents home the next day. So after chatting about this and that to my folks I finally did what I've been wanting to do since I started gaming again and that was to have another root in the loft. I did it many moons back but purely for bits to sell on ebay, this time I was after a few things:

• The Blood Bowl box with two thirds of the Astrogranite™ pitch
• Advanced Space Crusade
• Any original Tyranid torsos, legs etc. from the above
• Any of the Blood Bowl elves or treeman

The loft was where I spent many of my formative years painting figures, I've shared a lot of them here already. It's now a dumping ground [as most lofts are] there are at least 3 TV aerials up there, only one functioning, 6 or 7 suitcases, a crib, a full size workbench [no I've no idea how it got up there] an old empty water tank. Obviously these were not the things I was after and the treasures I did find may not have been all of what I was after but I think I may have found so much more and so I was reminded of Tutanhamun's Tomb, which we saw recreation of in Manchester

"I see beautiful things." Howard Carter on opening the tomb.

I have such treasure to share with you, on top of all the progress so far during my recuperation I wanted so much to take a picture of the haul but I'm having to bring it piecemeal into the house so as not to arouse suspicions of the good lady. As a taster though I found a stack of old White Dwarfs, I've checked out just six so far ranging from issue 139 to 157 and I've been able to date when I went to Golden Demon and when I went to Games Day from these alone. More importantly I actually have photographic evidence of the original inspiration for my battlefield Mars or Ferron Proxima as we now call it. There's a picture of

'The forces of Khorne and Slaanesh fight over the blasted Chaos terrain for the control of skull castle' 

and if you can get past the shell suits and greasy haired youths a'gaming you can appreciate why it still inspires me to this day.

So plenty to look forward to and considering I was up until 3:20 last night why am I writing this at 12:50am when I could be writing it any time when it's flippin' daylight, so much for these drugs making me drowsy!

Ebay goodness

Got a parcel in the post the other day, my latest ebay purchase. I'd been on the hunt for some more Tyranid Infestation Markers. I've got the big Hive Node and two or three of the triple nodes but none of the twins. I had a look on ebay and they had a Buy It Now of a twin and triple for £4ish including postage...

... but then I saw this 'bitz' auction that's got two twins and a triple, what looked like one or two warriors at least five Termagants and some Genestealers including the heads, which can sell for silly money on their own sometimes. So I bid and it came to £4.70 in the end.

Anyway, I was right in my estimation. There's also three halves of the basic Termagants, just missing their leg bits which isn't too bad as I may be able to use them as spawning termagants if I ever get a full size Tervigon(!). There are a couple of the spinefist rippers and there were enough bits to make 4 Ymgarl Genestealers, not the tentacle mouth heads but scything talons and armour plates. If I were to source another couple of bodies and only a few pairs of plates I should enough for a half a dozen Ymgarl's.

BUT, the big thing was the rest of the bits. The two Warriors were complete and there are two Monstrous Creature crushing claws, a Venom Cannon and some rending claws. I have enough, enough bits to finally attempt my Tyranid Warrior to Hive Guard conversion.I don't guarantee that the conversion will be cheaper than buying the proper model, BUT it is certainly going to be interesting if you have spare Venom Cannons [and who doesn't], Crushing Claws, Rending Claws and some Tyranid Warriors and their Flesh Hooks... so any bitz bag could be just the gold mine you're looking for. I think with another few quids worth of investment I could have around £50 worth of figures out of this one bag and the bitz I've already got which were currently doing nothing. So buckle up folks this is going to get really interesting.

Carry cases, my secret shame

With more than a few weeks under my belt now at my local friendly neighbourhood gaming club there is one aspect I'm still struggling with and one that even at this early stage is open to a little good natured banter from the guys. I've obviously put in a lot of work on my son's 'nids. Something that's not been lost on folk if the many admiring comments and praise are anything to go by.

What is problematic is that 'nids die, quickly and in droves and sometimes I think it's rude to spend time putting them back in the box when I should be paying attention to my opponents move etc. Anyway this is my largest gaming carry case. Originally from Trago Mills [if I recall correctly] this drill case was pretty cheap.

With some foam in place it's quite spacious and handy...

OMG [and you know I don't use that lightly] WTF [even less so]. If I were to say this was tidy you'd still be appalled, me too. I have some other small boxes that can take around 20-30 termagants at a time which are handy but it's all the Stealers and those sodding Gargoyles that just go all over the shop that really screw my 'filing' system up.

So I thought I'd look at some alternative solutions on ebay and came up with these ideas instead of a bespoke gaming storage system that may cost the earth and deliver pretty much the same result. I was quite surprised these two bargains I found.

£1.99 Delivered from Germany, with FREE Postage!
RECYCLED PLASTIC MULTIPLE SHIPPING BOX 420x305x110 mm NEW

5 Boxes for £4.29 with FREE Postage and built in handles!

5 x Women Plastic Stackable Shoe Storage Boxes Clear Transparent 30cm*18cm*10cm

And to pad it out just one of the many eggbox sales on offer

10 Sheets, £4.39 with postage

Egg Box Foam 8" x 6" Profile Foam x 10

However, when I was tidying out the loft so we could have some more insulation fitted I stumbled across an old 'portfolio' I had to keep all my magazine and software products I worked on over the years. I'm never going to use this for that purpose again so really I may as well find a way to repurpose this for my current gaming needs. Now I was sure these were quite expensive nowadays, I can't recall them being OTT back when I got it from Argos but a quick search on ebay reveals they're actually cheaper than I thought - £22.89 [with FREE Delivery]. Seems like a decent alternative if you're in the market and the other budget ideas above don't float your boat.

ebay sales YOU won't regret! Daemons, daemons, daemons!

My mate Liam, he of the scratch built Warhound and Warlord fame, is having another clear out of old figures on ebay NOW! Starting price 99p on everything. These things are really cool and well painted. I thin khe's looking to build a new Dark Eldar force so you'd be really helping him if you bought some of his chaos figures to feed his addiction. Remember the rumours say Chaos is going to feature BIG in the next 40k so why not get some cool gear early.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WH-40k-Chaos-Daemon-Prince-lot-121-/250894453864?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a6a798c68

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WH-40k-Chaos-Daemons-3-x-Fiend-Slaanesh-lot-129-/250894454610?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a6a798f52

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WH-40k-Chaos-Daemons-9-x-Flesh-Hounds-lot-130-/250894455157?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a6a799175

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WH-40k-Chaos-Daemons-10-x-Bloodletters-lot-131-/250894454180?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a6a798da4

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WH-40k-Chaos-Daemons-10-x-Bloodletters-lot-132-/250894454283?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a6a798e0b

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WH-40k-Chaos-Daemons-10-x-Daemonettes-lot-133-/250894454403?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a6a798e83

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WH-40k-Chaos-Daemons-3-x-Flamer-Tzeentch-lot-134-/250894454732?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a6a798fcc

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WH-40k-Chaos-Daemons-Skulltaker-conversion-lot-135-/250894455386?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a6a79925a

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WH-40k-Chaos-Daemons-Masque-Slaanesh-lot-136-/250894455534?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a6a7992ee

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WH-40k-Chaos-Daemons-5-x-Pink-Horrors-lot-137-/250894454996?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a6a7990d4

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WH-40k-Chaos-Daemons-10-x-Daemonettes-lot-138-/250894454487?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a6a798ed7

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WH-40k-Chaos-Daemons-5-x-Juggernaut-conv-OOP-lot139-/250894454875?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a6a79905b

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/WH-40k-Chaos-Daemon-Prince-lot-140-/250894454028?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a6a798d0c

Forgive the sales pitch but the figures are ally cool and even if you don't want to bid they're definitely worth looking at... I've a shot of his Dark Eldar Razorwing to add later on so you can see what he's working on for his upcoming Throne of Skulls competition but I think there's enough here to sate anyone's appetite, even the blood G.O.D.