Blood Bowl - Troll Big Build - TO DONE!

Although I have a metal Blood Bowl troll that my friend Pete [he who got me into Blood Bowl in the first place] gave me, he's really only going to fit with my old skool BB teams. If I want a Troll with my Ork team, as and when I paint them, then it has to be this gorgeous beast. And fittingly Pete was the one who gifted it to me for my birthday - he's such an enabler.

Once again I end up feeling you get a lot for your money in this model. When in actual fact is I'd ordinarily balk at the cost of this thing but compared to some of the other single HQ units it's comparatively good value.

Think he'll be my Tyranid turquoise with a pale belly [similar to the existing Troll/Troggoth approach I suppose]. Way down on my list of things to do but it was something to keep me occupied while I felt I couldn't do anything else...

And so I get my Big Build Big Galactic Stamp of Approval - yay!

Adeptus Titanics - Titans in Manufactorum - Big Build - TO DONE!

It seems like ages ago now when I visited Liam's to drop off his Adeptus Titanicus, we spent the evening building Titans and then I crashed my car on the way home. Here are the fruits of our labors. Liam was responsible for the Warhounds and Reavers...

I somehow only had to build the Cerastus Lancers. We're going to be sharing painting duty so we can get them done quicker, but he was also going to be magnetising all the weapons [which eventually took an entire day].

For the Knight I would paint I tried to emulate the pose of my own Lancer.

Funnily enough the legs are oppositely position to my full scale version but the pose is indeed similar - braced for impact.

He passed on the Reaver and Warhounds before lockdown so I got the base done, using Valejo Red Oxid paste for the majority of the basing material.

Some bits of slate and granny grating added some variety.

And some pipe work and the odd bit of gravel and these babies are already for priming.

And so I get my Big Build Big Galactic Stamp of Approval - yay!

Adeptus Titanicus unboxing

As we all face Covid-19 lockdown I thought I'd just post some stuff. Here's an unboxing of the new Adeptus Titanicus set that Liam bought.

Afternoon #warmongers there's been a lot of love online for #AdeptusTitanicus recently and that has lit a fire under my mate Liam to get into it. I had seen the Grand Master box for £162, but in a 25% sale for him, but when I went back the following week discovered the sale had finished that weekend!

Anyway, GW brought out the new starter set and I offered to pick one up for him from Element Games [don't forget my code: DAV910 for DOUBLE Element Crystals] as it's only a short train ride from work in my lunch. Adeptus Titanicus was possibly the 2nd boxed Games Workshop game I bought, in fact I still have the box and most of my original figures. If you go back to the start of my blog you can relive my history with this game.

I actually think this new box is great value, mainly in-part from Element's great discount - £72 all in. A Reaver titan is £35 on it's own and you get two so that's £70. For the other £2 you get two Warhounds £34, two Cerastus Knight Lancers £17, the accessory sprue £10 and the full game rules [which are more up-to-date than the Grand Master edition]. So at least £60 of savings, not including the cost of the rules and the dice etc.

Once inside you've got your sprues.

2 of each for the Reavers.

The Cerastus Sprue, that has all different faces to personalise your Knight. I don't think I've seen any other Cerastus weaponry elsewhere but I think there might be rules for them in the box.

The Warhound sprues and the weapon sprues, which I think are the 2 Reaverr weapon sprues that make up the more expensive 'Reaver battle titan] kit and the Warhound weaponry that gives you all the rest.

Accessory sprue. All the little cog shapes are trackers for your Titan Command Terminals. In the Grand Master edition they're printed on 2mm cardboard with holes punched for the little nubs on the back of the cogs to fit in. In this kit the terminal is a thinner card with no holes. This keeps prices down and means they supply them as standard in the Titan boxes now. It's a simpler solution but game-wise you may want to stick the cards to 2mm MDF or cardboard and drill/punch holes to except the marker nubs, otherwise they'll be skittering across the table with sadistic glee.

Hooray for blast templates, nice to see they found a use for these again.

The now customary art sheet, keeping the paper rules separate from the stabby sprues that might otherwise leave marks and dents in the new paper books and materials.

Some simple decals, rulebook, cards, terminals, stratagems and bases.

I'll be delivering the box to him, we're going to have a bit of a build session and much like Blackstone Fortress I'll be helping with the painting so we can get playing. A lot of this feels like we're entering into another game system but I think that's in part because 40k feels so complex and convoluted now. I think we're all after something a little simpler, with less rules upon rules. Although I see there a re 'detachment style' benefits to certain maniples of titan hopefully it's a stabler set of rules that aren;t ripe for abuse.

Covid-19 lockdown

You may recall I was taking a little break, both in the blog and the hobby. In some respects I don't really feel like blogging at the moment but I do feel I 'have' to blog, it's a subtle difference and not entirely healthy when scrutinised. It's one of the reasons I had taken a break but I think I reached a point where I had been painting/making and needed to write down my progress and with so many people in lockdown there's a need to keep people occupied, eve if it is just my toy soldiers.

I'm currently in a really lucky position in that I can work from home and I've got plenty of animating to do to keep me busy. My wife had been into work at the local hospital but because the youngest had a sore throat at the weekend they've insisted she stay away for 2 weeks. Much like everyone else we've been staying in, although we had to nip for Oscar's latest MRI scan. Stable again, which was a relief but they have seen some other anomalies in his bone they want to check out with a different sort of scan in the next 2 weeks.

So all the motivation  I had to get back to blogging suddenly feels like it'll evaporate, or it might just be what I need I can't tell. The world is pretty grim and although I was having it easy in some respect I'm now facing something unknown again. Anyway,  there's nothing we can do until we've had the new scan so I'll just write some new posts and see where we're at when the dust settles.

I hope you all are keeping well, stay safe!

Old Stuff Day 2020

Afternoon #warmongers it's #OldStuffDay 2020. A few years ago now warhammer39999 wanted to join a movement to rediscover lost gems from the world of hobby blogs. To choose one of your own blogposts that your most proud of, or may not have got the attention it deserved or any thing that may warrant some necromantic blogpost bothering. On top of that you were to share blogposts from other bloggers which you thought deserved the same spotlight of attention before they were returned to their dark nightmare infested slumbers.

Here's some great posts from other bloggers [apologies to the many great bloggers out there I haven't included, you do sterling work too, these are just the ones I was reminded to remember over the last 12 months]:

Siph_Horridus is a huge support to 40kadddict and the blogging community, much like Greggles, constantly commenting on posts - I don't know how he reads so many blogs, I wish I could do the same. But he's also a blogger in his own right as part of the WeeMen collective. Their blog has been going for 12 years, you know a blog is old - when it has a From the Warp Blogger Group Badge. So, why not go back to the very beginning - 6th November 2008 and basing made easy:
https://weemen.blogspot.com/2008/11/basing-made-easy-10-steps-to-perfection.html
While you're there also check out what Siph did over the next 10 years with those Relictors:
https://weemen.blogspot.com/2018/11/relictors-space-marine-battle-company.html

Speaking of Greg from greggles tabletop, how about his amazing rust cart for the Nova Open 2017. There's amazing close-ups and more importantly the recipe, for how to do that weathered rusty yellow:
https://www.feedyournerd.com/greggles-tabletop/trust-in-rust-is-ready-for-nova-open-2017

I'm not entirely sure what specifically prompted me to include this link [I add posts throughout the year and then cobble together the Old Stuff Day post just before the date]. However, there is plenty to look at from tutorials to painting galleries, so just explore the blog.
https://figurepainters.com/

You know me, I love a good weathered bronze statue. Brian from A Gemtleman's Ones hasn't updated his blog since 2014 but he did this post on verdigris back in 2010
http://agentlemansones.blogspot.com/2010/11/my-way-weathered-statues.html
Now the weird thing is a month back, when thinking about what to add to the links for my Old Stuff Day post I recalled a series of posts about some amazing Kill Zone [one of the intermediate home-brew rules for Kill Team that existed before GW brought '40k in 40 minutes' back in from the cold]. I knew they had been for some big American event but I did a search and there were just too many Kill Team boards from recent events, not helped because I didn't know if it was Nova, LVO or Adepticon. Anyway, when I go back and research why I picked these posts to resurrect I have another look at the blogs and lo-and-behold Brian was the creator of the tables I was looking for. He made these amazing tables and if you click the link and go backwards through the posts you can see how they were built. There is so much more to see on his blog so go check it out:
http://agentlemansones.blogspot.com/2011/04/adepticon-tables-from-thursday-evening.html

I know this isn't quite 6 months old but this post by Andrew about the hobby, social media and self-imposed expectations on your efforts is an amazing read. He managed to encapsulate so much about the way we as hobbyists might aspire to the heights of social media notoriety that other hobbies/interest have, when in reality we should be content to pursue our hobby at our own pace and to our own goals
https://hobbyvices.org/2019/09/01/its-a-hobby-after-all/

David Soper is a 5 time Golden Demon Slayer Sword winner [among many other awards] his blog is fantastic if you want to see how the experts do it. I've shared links in the past, in particular his guides to stippling is well worth checking. What I wanted to share this time is two posts he made about 'building a better tank' I'm not sure if this ever got finished but you should look at it for the awesome kitbashing that goes on:
https://sproketsmallworld.blogspot.com/2017/12/project-p30-tank.html
https://sproketsmallworld.blogspot.com/2019/02/project-p30-building-better-tank.html

Another blog that sadly hasn't been updated since 2017, although that's what Old Stuff Day is about. But because it has gone into hibernation it may be unknown to many. That said the Painting Bunker has some awesome scenery posts. I recently saw someone questioning the parts used having just seen an image on google or some other image aggregation site and thought 'folk should see the rest of this stuff' - check 'em out.
https://thepaintingbunker.com/category/scenery/
https://thepaintingbunker.com/2013/03/03/forge-world-realm-of-battle-cityscape-6-x-4-board-complete/

I've not yet done a concept army or monotone one as I've dreamed of yet. I may have been able to adopt a more painterly style that I think is enjoyable to do, looks good and doesn't actually require the smooth blending skills I now have neither the time, patience, motor skills or aptitude to achieve. But check out this amazing cel-shade Robotech model - I mean it's just flat colours. Maybe there is another way, I wonder what it's like on more organic forms?
http://www.40kaddict.uk/2013/11/cel-shade-robotech-awesomeness.html

And now for something completely different. Before I fell off the wagon and started the hobby again I was happy in my kendo world and I blogged about that too. One of those posts was on the Japanese concept of giri which I may very well have completely misunderstood. But, without kendo, without what I believed giri was, without that sense of belonging, duty and commitment, I would never have been able to adapt to losing my passion and rediscovering my old love for the hobby. Being able to play a game as a shared experience, instead of 'win at all costs', without kendo that would never have happened.
http://kendomusings.blogspot.com/2011/12/giri.html

Happy Old Stuff Day, I hope there are some gems in there that caused you some inspiration or motivation.

"Birthday beats"

Another year gone by. My birthday has mixed feelings for me with past events and recently I've had a number of things happen to put a dampener on things further. It's very tough but I keep thinking things are not as bad as they could be - the garden has flooded so wading in my wellies to the mancave for hobby time is disheartening, but my house isn't flooded like some folks have had to deal with.

Also I had a lovely evening with Blue Warp Studios Liam on Pancake Day, he made my tea and we chatted so long the only thing we got to do was build some Adeptus Titanicus Knights and Titans, we had planned to play Blood Bowl too but we had plenty of chat instead. It was a good night but as I left it had just started snowing and 3 minutes down the road the slush on a bend took me by surprise and I fishtailed into the verge hitting a holly tree. Thankfully I was uninjured and Liam came to my rescue, at not inconsiderable risk given the conditions and location, to pull me out. I thought the damage was superficial - bumper, bonnet, light and grill but there was significant damage inside the car too and it's a right-off. I've had it for 4.5 years now and although there were some niggles - the alloys are both cool and ludicrous I felt I'd managed to get it to a sustainable point where I knew it's idiosyncrasies. Now I have to do it again. I don't like change and although I keep reminding myself I could have been injured, hurt someone else or worse it's cold comfort.

So I feel pretty crappy at the moment and the hobby isn't really helping me feel better. Writing about it does a bit, hence this catharsis, but aside from my scheduled Old Stuff Day post I may take some time to rebuild my confidence and motivation. So, despite the nature of the post it's not a pity thing, it's more a cleansing. And particularly in the hobby there are many challenged with mental health issues and the first thing to do is to talk about them. My issues are surmountable, they're predominantly 'first world', but right now they feel too much, which is what I think most of us feel.

So I'm OK, but going to take some time for myself. Meanwhile, be good to each other, like you always are.

Dark Angels - Deathwing Land Raider Redeemer

Afternoon #warmongers and I am #paintingwarhammer Dark Angel Deathwing Land Raider Redeemer [what a mouthful]. I got this in a trade a few years back, I think it had been a Blood Angel ride but had been undercoated with the bone spray. It's been sat on the shelf for years [nearly 5] and it just started to annoy me

I decided to paint over the green doors, they may have fit with my Deathwing Knights eventually but for some reason I wanted to reduce the palette just with the bone and red.

Out of curiosity I spent 10 minutes playing around with my cheap Burnt Umber art acrylic - stippling on, watering down, just having fun. I know a lot of people do this sort of thing with oil paints but I'm amazed at the effect I can get with this paint. 

There's still questions about how further highights will look, or whether I should add the highlight first before I put the shading on. There's some Army Painter Strong Tone been added in the deepest recesses too.

I added some more metallics. This is actually Army Painter Worn Iron - a Warplock Bronze equivalent and I have to say it is great. Lukes Aps did a review and advice on Army Painter paints as they admit they put too much of the acrylic medium in to make them better. However, that makes them slightly difficult to use straight out of the bottle. That said, this Worn Iron didn't need any shaking and I still needed to thin it down so it would cover better - flow off the bristles and yet still be really opaque.

There are still some more bits to paint bronze, details, the heavy flamers, all of the track wheel end caps. Then I'll be at a stage where I'll be highlighting with Balthasar Gold. This will sync up with my Deathwing Knights - in a stroke of efficiency to do them both I've ended with the masochistic task of doing loads of brassy bronze metallics at once! However, I think the Knights will be the more laborious task. I am hoping that this will be quite a relaxed project - I have almost no expectation for the outcome, nothing has to be perfect - although I have added a few Dark Angel details since and some simple heraldry markings. But it's going to be quite grunge, maybe a little battle damaged but overall just play around and sod the results - it's very freeing.