Biel Tan-tastic

So my son got some Eldar for Christmas, that seems ages ago now but this blog isn't always current. Anyway despite my request for advice and my son's initial desire for Iyanden and Nacretineï he decided on Biel Tan. Not sure why, his cousin has White Scars army so they'll look very similar. Now despite my instructions to 'not interfere' I thought I'd at least come up with some painting plans for him to follow so he could get a decent result. However, when I asked him if he wanted to start on some of my old Warhammer Fantasy Battle High Elves he said 'no, he'd rather go straight to the Guardians and Jetbike'. 

Of course I sat with him and painted these fellas whilst he did, ultimately wishing I hadn't because I found a better solution in my tests than the one I suggested based on this tutorial. I really liked Lloyd's guide and his Guardian looked cool but perhaps a beginner using Badab Black as a light wash for white isn't always going to be subtle. 

Anyhoo my test below from left to right is 

• Vallejo Stonewall grey basecoat with white drybrush [subtle]
  Black basecoat helmet with Sap Green craft acrylic [glossy]
• Vallejo Stonewall grey basecoat, Badab Black wash, with white drybrush [less subtle]
  Black basecoat helmet with Vallejo Dark Green [matt]
• Vallejo Stonewall grey basecoat, Badab Black wash, with white drybrush [less subtle]
  White basecoat helmet with Vallejo Dark Green [neon but kind of acts like a wash so built in highlights]
• Anita's Baby Blue craft acrylic basecoat, with white drybrush [so subtle, so pretty, soperfect]
  Black basecoat helmet with Sap Green craft acrylic [glossy]

The right one is what he should have done, less mess, easier to do and quicker as it's one less paint to add.

So here is my son's first Jetbike using the 'Vallejo Stonewall grey basecoat, Badab Black wash, with white drybrush [less subtle] and Black basecoat helmet with Vallejo Dark Green [matt] method.

And the Guardians...

To be honest I can't say I've learned enough from my Being a Pushy Dad post. I've still helped to much, there were tears and tantrums and really I should just leave him to it. On the plus side we had two sessions of painting to get to this stage and he did instigate the second session which is progress in my book and I think I left him to it more the second time. Inbetween all these Eldar I've got him painting a Genestealer and a base of Rippers but I've not photographed them.

'nids part 14. Trygon interlude

Now that you've seen how the Hive Fleet got it's colour scheme here's another example of a big gribbly. I'll put some bigger pics up at some point, he's had some highlights added to his talons since these were taken and I may add one final set of turquoise highlights, as I did with the Tervigon.

The hardest part about painting a Trygon in this way is the tail, that baby goes on forever! Loads of striping and dotting |||| .:.:.

Terrain is everything - 40k Hex Tower 1.

Having created the '40K outpost that got bigger 'I started to add more items using the same architectural asthetic. Here's the initial sketch, it was for a tall thin tower of a similar height to the 40kOTGB. It reminded me of the Tower of Orthanc from Lord of the Rings

The tower would mainly be used as a scout outpost. Not entirely sure how the lookout would get up there but a lift might allow them to get the top because a spiral staircase would struggle, but what the hey!
Lot's of issues with the buttresses twisting so it's not entirely plumb straight but this is the best angle. View it from another side and it's the leaning tower of Pizza.

Here is is, pretty much finished on a CD base. Still to colour the door and buttress supports. In game terms it's a bit of a 'red herring' trying to maintain unit coherency is a nightmare. I allow anyone in the lookout to be in coherency with the rest of the unit at the foot of the building. Presumably the enhance comms equipment inside allows this. However, it pretty much means your unit is static. Of course if you just have one las-cannon perched at the top this may be ideal, though in real terms, not so much...

.pdf templates are available here.

Epic Space Marines part 5. - Ultramarines part 1. Land Raiders

Here we go with the first of quite a few eked out posts on my Epic Ultramarines. First a 10 man squad of Land Raiders. Somehow I can't imagine the current version of the Land Raider looking quite so iconic in Epic scale. The paint style is overly exagerated, much like my firend Jay's Ultramarines from around that time. I removed the tiny door viewports so I could have a flat surface to add the number decals. Each unit of three with a separate identifying colour, white, yellow, green and black for the command tank.

More coming up!

New Blood Angels gubbins

Not that we didn't know this stuff was coming but I just saw GW announced this 40 minutes ago via their new facebook page and wondered if I could get the Youtube embed to work...

Hoshi Komi - oriental gaming fusion

When I first started gaming many of my Citadel Miniatures were Ninjas. I say 'my' but what I mean is my brothers. I said to him one day while walking home from school I'd quite like to try Dungeons and Dragons. I don't know where the idea came from. It just popped fully formed into my head, it may have been inspired by the Warlock of Firetop Mountain books I don't know.

He actually found someone in his year at school who was into role-playing and it was a Ninja based game. I was too young and he certainly didn't want me hanging around with his new mate so he went and played a game with him. I remember interrogating him ruthlessly on his return  about what it was like. So he bought a load of Ninjas and I still have many of them today, hey, I could dig them out and photograph them.

Anyhoo BloodBowl introduced it's Star Player's and one I had to have was Hoshi Komi, you can see him in all his toxic lead glory below.

Actually there's a french website with loads of info on him here and some painted shots too. This guy was cool, aside from Frank N'Stein, the coolest star player there was. But what was the coolest thing about him? His Ninja claws, his pose or his Ninja mask and armour? Well it ain't his Ninja mask because that isn't a Ninja mask, it's a Kendo helmet [known as a 'men'], it's a Kendo chest protector [known as a 'do] and part of a Kendo groin protector [known as a 'tare'].

Funny thing is over the course of my initial gaming affliction we went from GW battles to role-playing aand eventually Live Role Playing, something I actually did with my brothers Ninja-gaming friend. When I went to University I stumbled across a poster in the local Post Office window advertising a local Kendo club. I popped down the next Tuesday hoping to gain new skills to use in LARPing. Call it destiny, fate, whatever but it was their last night in that venue. From then on they'd be in a school a couple of miles away and if I hadn't have gone then I'd never have got a lift to future practices and probably never checked it out.

Over the course of the next four years I went regularly every Tuesday. I continued to paint my figures, made a chainmail vest for LARPing, by hand, from scratch but as time went on those hobbies lost traction. I had no one to game with and role playing wasn't real, Kendo was. When I came home from University without transport to the local Kendo club in Liverpool I stopped practicing. For nine years I gave it up, along with those other hobbies. Practical reasons - transport, children, cost and more pathetic reasons - laziness and fear stopped me from going. When I did return, in part due to threats from my wife to throw away my Kendo armour I realised those nine years were a complete and utter waste, what had I been missing?

Four years on I'm still going. I still love it but a number of persistent injuries impacted my enjoyment levels. Particularly last year when I took a few months off. At those times my 'addictive' aspects went looking for new obsessions and thats when 40k caught me at my weakest ;) Anyway I'm carrying on through the pain and there's big things coming up next year for our club which is why I mentioned pressures on my time. You may even have seen some of this if you checked out my Blogger profile and saw my other blog for the Liverpool Kendo Club. 

Suffice to say I see Kendo as some kind of weird gaming extension, I doubt anyone else will. But, it's the closest I'll get to being on a battlefield, actually that's not entirely true I went to the Gathering in Derby. 3,000 LARPers and I stood in the front of a massed rank of tower shields facing a huge opposing force, I quickly found a nice spot at the back of the formation! Kendo can be the physical embodiment of some of the battles we play out, just so long as you're not getting your dice and tape measure out in the middle of class! It's a total challenge, many aspects to master and a learning curve like no other, after eight years I can be as clueless as the day I started. At least I'm glad it's not the only hobby I brought back into my life.

Anyway Hoshi Komi's a cool figure, I have one 'cooking' in some Dettol, a purchase from my old friend BiG Pete, he's even got bits of Middenheim Marauder paint bonded to the lead still!

'nids part 13. More Prime!

It's a good few weeks back now that this guy arrived in the post after I won him on ebay. £2.49 including postage, bargain! So you can guess he's going to form another Tyranid Prime. As you may recall [well you will if you click on the link] I had plenty of original Tyranid Warrior torsos, but a severe lack of legs. So anyway when I decided a second Prime with Deathspitter, bonesword and lashwhip would be more effective for my Son's weaponised Warriors I had to get another one. The bonus, well I can actually document the conversion process for you, something I could only describe previously.

I may even get some more and convert them up on ebay for sale, they're easy enough to do, although I did stab my thumb with the scalpel, it's not like I was even doing anyting daft, still we'll learn. Further pics to follow, of the Prime, not my bleeding thumb!