Wednesday, 27 March 2024

Dark Angels - Deathwing Knights and Terminators - Final highlights

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #PaintingWarhammer on my Deathwing. This is the final set of highlights, just lots of details, lenses, glows, banners - basically all the cool stuff. Now there's some weird vibrancy issues with the pics, so that Blessed Verdigris seems a little caustic.


But they're almost done, so I'm super chuffed. 


That Deathwing Banner is going to take some effort and I'm still debating the power weapon choice. Not silver, obviously. But lava, or red crystal? So many choices. 


I need to do the silver Deathwatch arm, 2nd from the left. It's been a while since I did my Kill Team Cassius, hopefully I can still get the recipe right.


My heavy weapons, Champion and Apothecary. Just in time for some of these to no longer be in the Codex. To be fair I was never going to buy/play them so no loss really. But it is disheartening to finally get these [almost] finished and the model is redundant.


I think the Champion might be safe, but I believe the Apothecary has gone and folk are using it as a chainfist terminator.


At least they're coming together, even if no reason other than I finally painted them.


Lastly, my metal Lightning Claw Terminator. I think I originally paused this no later than 1992 - 32 year's 'in progress'. 75% of it remains the original paint. Just the bronze areas, claws, shoulder pads and base. I don't think I'll ever beat it 


I mean there was this Citadel Samurai from 1984, but that's the age of the model. I stripped it down and repainted it. It wasn't a case of taking the original paint job and finishing it off. So maybe the Lightning Claws will take the WiP longevity prize...


TO DONE! next. 

Monday, 25 March 2024

#Turnip28 first unit BIG BUILD TO DONE!

Afternoon, I've finally got around to starting my Turnip28 army. I say finally, that's not true, I actually built these in October! I've just finally got around to blogging about them. 


Now, I'd say these are exactly as I originally imagined I'd do a Turnip28 squad, back when I first saw Turnip28. But, I've since seen some much weirder and interesting conversions. So, although I'm really pleased with my results I'm also slightly disappointed. But, I know if I was to try to achieve the more esoteric I wouldn't have even got this far. 


Anyway, these are Perry Napoleonics, mixed with some War of the Roses or Medieval Command squad. 


I've also used some elements from my Kurnoth Hunters to make Hermit Crab like backpacks, that I could fill with flock and various twigs from my old 'witches broom'


I made these twin to use as a toff, with some green stuff for a weird root vegetable type snout. Is it a mutation? A plague doctors mask? An elongated armoured visor? Who knows.


For now we have another Bloody Great Big Bloody BIG BUILD Stamp of Bloody BUILD Approval


I've since undercoated them. Bone for the unit, black for the Toff.


I'm thinking a Hallowe'en them, with oranges and black. Now I always intended them to have black tar bases, like my Death Guard. But I somehow like the Red Planet BASE and there is a picture in the Turnip28 rulebook that is very red, so I think I can make it work. 


That way I can make use of the movement trays I found useless for 40k


Now I've since added orange jackets, and brown straps, bags and weapons. In the process I've discovered they're fiddly to paint if I try to capture the detail and that was never supposed to be the plan.


So that's why they've sat untouched for months. But at least it urged me to get back on the Deathwing...

Saturday, 23 March 2024

Battle Report - Middle Earth Isengard Vs the Mighty Ents #MESBG

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been a bit busy recently with things so it's been about 3 weeks since I last rocked up at Otty's shed for some game time. After some suggestions that a change in venue is forthcoming it would seem like he's started, but more on that at the end. In the mean time Liam from Blue Warp Studios is continuing his unofficial one man challenge of painting every Middle Earth faction! I mean he's also muscling in on my Dark Angel territory, but they're not the only children of the forest he's been working on - he has Ents! A couple of the characters and kitbashes and then a week or two slap-chopping and flocking them and here were are. He and Ben teamed up with the trees while Otty and I went Isengard. Don't ask me what mission, I wasn't paying attention! But half your army is within a 6" strip on one side of the centre, the other half is in the 6" strip on your board edge and vice versa. This is partway through turn 1 where I'd deployed my orc scouts and crossbows thinking Liam might split his force and not get a turn 2 charge on the Ballista - my tree-killing 'ace in the hole'. It turns out he didn't split his force, or even bother with the Ballista - just went from my scouts.


The Ballista managed to hit, avoid the inbetween and actually hit Treebeard, rather than scatter onto the other character Beechbone. Ultimately I had to use the Ballista captain's Might point to get the wound off. But then the trees just started stomping on Orcs.


The other three surged up the battlefield, thanks to Quickbeam calling a March. He's 'fast' with an 8" move but he was moving 11", with the two other trees marching 9". They'd be in my lines next turn. 


And as you can see there's a lot less there now. It didn't help that Merry and Pippin actually killed an Orc throwing stones at them. Otty is his bringing his force into the mix, but the Ballista couldn't hit a barn door after it's initial promise. W got lucky and won a duel against Treebeard, who was trapped and we started to do damage, but by using all his fate and might he was still alive on 1 wound.


Our casualties started to pile up, made even worse by the amended Demolition Charge rules. It transpires you can only set it off, if you're in range of two enemy models. Otty just couldn't position them in such a way to set it off without putting the team in danger of being charged before they could. It was mightily underwhelming, almost as bad as the Ballista. 


But we pressed on and thanks to repeatedly trapping the trees some crossbow and scout orcs managed to fell Beechbone "TIMBER!" Yes, they then neatly stacked him into a woodpile. 


A turn later and Quickbeam also succumbed. Now you may get the impression we were turning the tide. and on paper perhaps we'd made a comeback. We were 1 point behind, and if we killed Treebeard, who only had 1 wound left, we'd be 2 in front. But the Orcs were broken, the Demolition Team dead and the hail Mary, of shooting the Ballista at Treebeard, which hit, but had an 'in the way' for the Demo Charge... but hoping it would set it off - wound 4+ and explode on a 6. We wounded the charge on a 6 and got a 5 to explode! No joy.


We continued on way past sensible o'clock, but it was such a great game. Our dice were shocking. Ben's rolling was obscene. Any time he needed a 6 he got one. Every duel I had with him if he rolled first he got max 5 and my roll would be max 5, meaning he would win the duel thanks to the Ents having a higher fight value. Even when Otty did win a duel we couldn't convert. The two dead Ents were anomalies rather strategic wins. But we had so much fun, I'd say it was a blast, but that brings up bad memories of the Demo Charge. I can't see that in Otty's lists in future. 


Here's a few more pics of Liam's Ents. There are a couple more to make the full list.




And lastly, Otty has been busy extending the decking around his summer house. The gaming shed is currently  up past the bush at the back and we're walking on his grass which can be a bit messy. The shed itself is having its roof removed to reuse the wood in a larger structure, with the current shed becoming Otty and his wife's workshop. It's all going to be mighty epic in the end.



Thursday, 14 March 2024

Imperial Knight - Armigers in manufactorum pt.2 - BIG BUILD TO DONE!

Afternoon #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity I've been #buildingWarhammer on my Imperial Knight Armigers. They've been built for a while now and had quite a lot of progress with the painting. So much so I've found it quite the challenge to fit in WiP pics.

Anyway, I love this pose so much. I even got round to adding some 2mm hemisphere gems to it's armour plates [not pictured]. This will give it the look of Heresy era marines, with their 'bonded stud' armour.


It's not the best implementation [when you see it] but it'll do for now and add some further uniqueness to the model. I obviously have to clean up some mould lines too! 😱


The second one is also done. Despite my excitement at achieving the running pose I'm not 100% convinced I got it right.


Also, it flexes a lot. I'm sure I pinned it in places but part of my thinks I should have pinned it more judiciously.


I'd also planned to add more embellishments. A terminator tilting shield, more leftover banners from my Wraithlord and some spare armour plates on the Chain Cleaver. 


Some close-ups of the reposed legs. They might be useful for those wishing to do the same.


And the clumsy but functional greenstuff on the hip joints again. Hopefully, obscured when I paint it black. But again it's useful to have a close-up for those that want to copy, or let's say 'improve'' 😉


And here we have another Bloody Great Big Bloody BIG BUILD Stamp of Bloody BUILD Approval



Saturday, 2 March 2024

Old stuff Day 2024


Morning #WarHamFam and #WarhammerCommunity it's #OldStuffDay 2024. Quite 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 you're 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 [or remembered from previous Old Stuff Days]:

From The Warp
As always, Ron From the Warp remains the inspiration for the blog. it may be 12 year's since he stepped away from blogging and we only shared the blogosphere for 18 months or so but you acknowledge those that came before and he did it so well. It might be slightly challenging to navigate now but there is so much great content here for those willing to explore - fill your boots.

How to sculpt greenstuff cloaks:
I love counter and markers, and Ron shows you how he made his
https://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2009/01/40k-counters-and-markers.html
Now this is not old but Ron has thrown his hat back in the blogging ring repeatedly, often about his love of Space Hulk. This is his latest blog with some interesting posts.
https://onehourhobby.blogspot.com/

Liam from Blue Warp Studios
We were still reeling from lockdown and Liam had a bad back but this was the tipping point for #MESBG one game and he was hooked. He probably has more warbands than all of us now.
Next up he did some great reposing for his chaos knight Armigers. I was referring to these when I was reposing my latest Armiger additions. Well worth consulting if you want to repose your diddy knights.

Marc at Old School Gaming
It's always nice to look back at that first post, the one that got you started in this often unremarkable world of blogging. Your first shout into the void, and Marc does a grand job of setting out his stall and sharing his passion for the hobby.

Weemen
A wealth of Titan Building posts on the Weemen blog. If you ever plan on building a Warlord titan, you should check out Siph's guide, there are plenty of links to WiPs to help get you through the biggest of hobby projects.

Les Kouzes
I love what these guys do, I've probably shared these posts many times before but they're undeniably worth visiting again.

Heresy and heroes
John at Heresy and heroes did a cool hobby desk photo essay back before he joined GW and stopped blogging. As he's returned to the blogosphere maybe we'll get an update. Show the post some love and we might help make that happen.

Painting Bunker
I think about this blog  quite often, because the scenery was exquisite. It hasn't had an update in 7 years, which is a shame as they were getting into Epic at the time and I suspect Legio Imperialis is right up their street now

Eye of Error
I've shared this before, but I still think the Mariner's Blight army was one of the best I've ever seen 

From the Fang
For so long my hobby efforts were intertwined with my tournament events. Alex organised the best tournaments at Element Games. They were always fun and this last doubles tournament was the only time we faced off. This was his battle report. I know it's out of date with current edition, but it's still a fun read, because 'dice tell stories'!

My blog
And my take on the same battle

I wrote this post about Hoshi Komi 13 year's ago. I mention how my brother met someone who was into role playing and miniatures. That person was in fact Otty, who continues to be a driving force in my hobby crew - encouraging us with MESBG, Turnip28 and Bolt Action. Maybe one day he'll get back into 40k!
https://www.40kaddict.uk/2011/01/hoshi-komi-oriental-gaming-fusion.html

Happy Old Stuff Day! I hope these Old Stuffs are of interest.