Friday 24 July 2015

Last post pre Holidays

Things went pretty well. Although I know that I am not going to get any further painting done between now and when I fly out.

I got some work started on the next 4 models. The base coat, washing and grey lining is complete. So when I get back in a couple of weeks I will move onto painting the white proper and the rest of the models.


So that is it for now. Catch you all in a couple of weeks.

The painting will continue!

Wednesday 22 July 2015

3 days to departure

And the Tyranids are still being worked on.

 
4 more Genestealers are now complete and a lot of Lord of the Rings commentary tracks have been listened to in the last few days. Only onto The Two Towers, but with 4 commentary tracks per movie, it is taking me a while to get through them. I am finding that I am enjoying listening to the tracks though as I am not being distracted by wanting to look up at the movies too often.

Next up are some more Genestealers and the Broodlord for the unit. I will make a start on these, but don't think that I will get them done in my time remaining. Still have to pack, finalise my list of places to visit at Gencon and work out the last few little things before I go.

Hopefully will post again on Friday with some more progress but until then:

The Road to Apocalypse so far completed:
2 Tyranid Warriors
4 Genestealers

Cheers.

Monday 20 July 2015

Towards Apocalypse

Some good timing for me I think. My gaming group has decided to hold an Apocalypse game in November this year. Tyranids vs Marines. So as I have been painting some Tyranids, I thought that this would be an excellent time to try and power on through them to get them worthy of an Apocalypse game.

I am not going to try for anything too over the top with them, as I know myself and my painting speed. However I feel that if I can get to 1500pts or so, I will feel better with putting them down. Or failing that, get at least 3 formations complete to throw down with.

So as this was being discussed late last week I spent Saturday assembling and undercoating the first lot of models that I am going to paint for them. This was some Genestealers, the Broodlord from Deathstorm and a pair of close combat warriors to add to the one that I already have and use as my current Prime to make them a unit of 3.


Over the last two days I have painted quite a lot and have managed to complete the two warriors.

And here is the now complete full unit of three.


I hope to get at least a few of the Genestealers finished by the end of the week when I head out on my holidays. So in this week at home I will be trying to do as much painting on Tyranids as my packing and other things go so that I can head to America on Saturday.

So enough about that. I thought that I would keep a log at the bottom of each of my posts between now and the Apocalypse game to see what I can get completed and what formations they make up.

The Road to Apocalypse so far completed: 2 Tyranid Warriors

Cheers!

Sunday 12 July 2015

Still distracted - but got another game of 40k in

Well, I still have not gotten much painting done. Have done a very small amount on some of the Myth undead that I hadn't put brush to miniature to in a while. It didn't go too badly. But still have 5 models to finish in that set before I take some photos of them.

I also forgot to take my camera with me when I played the second game of my Eldar versus my Tyranids yesterday. I had the same opponent as the last game, except that we swapped roles, Eldar for Tyranids.

The board did have more terrain on it, but not a whole lot more, or at least not a whole lot more in the part of the board that we played on. The Eldar deployed in a line, and the Tyranids deployed in one large block, directly opposite some Dark Reapers and Jetbikes. The first turn was harsh on the Hormagaunts as they took the majority of the fire from the Eldar units and were reduced to a shadow their starting strength. They did make contact with the Dark Reapers eventually though in in two close combat phases took Dark Reapers out for a few more losses.

The Remainder of the Hormagaunts then joined with the Genestealers, who the previous turn were very lucky in that the Wraithguard only managed to kill 1 of them from their shooting, because, when you only fail to wound on a 1... 3 ones out of 4 hits later...

The Rending claws took two turns to take out all of the Wraithguard though as they were too tough for the Hormagaunts to make a dent in.

While this was happening, the Eldar guardins and Jetbikes were slowly retreating and trying to shoot up the remainder of the Tyranids. This didn't go so well for them. Well, the retreating part did, just not the shooting.

This following up of the retreating Eldar took up a few turns. The Genestealers were all shot up. So were the Hormagaunts. The Farseer took a wound, and the Tyranid Prime took 2. But by the end of the game, the Eldar were in a bind. Only the Farseer and one Jetbike were remaining at the end of turn 7.

All in all the game was quite enjoyable. The tally now stands at one win a piece for the Tyranids and the Eldar. Now I just need to get back to painting some Dire Avengers. This doesn't seem too likely to be happening this week though, as I have fallen into a computing pit called Marvel Heroes and I am finding it difficult to get out of.

Cheers.

Monday 29 June 2015

Distracted...

So, I have not been painting lately. The Dire Avengers sit on my painting tray, mocking me on a daily basis. But so far I am ignoring them. This probably won't last forever, as there is only so much insult I am prepared to receive from barely painted plastic figures, but still...

So what have I been doing?

Playing computer games and reading mostly. I have gone back to playing some more Eve Online, some Dead Rising 3 with friends and also some other games that I had from previous Steam sales. This sale I think that I did fairly well and only picked up a few items. One of those was the Lego Marvel Heroes game. I am doing pretty well with it and I am finding it quite amusing. I am very, very bad at it, but I am managing to slowly get through the levels.

In reading, I have almost finished a horde of books that I picked up at the last 2nd hand book fair that was held here. I think that this was from February. So a couple of solid months of reading there.

Oh, and some Lego assembly. I picked up an Imperial shuttle from Star Wars to assemble which I liked. However it came with a rebel crew, so I assembled the shuttle but ditched the crew into my lego parts box. The shuttle is quite tall, so I am unable to sit it next to my Lego Emperor being escorted by his Imperial Guards. Not sure if that is what they are called, but they are the red robed troops anyway.

Will I get back to the painting? Yep. Three weeks until one of the longest holidays I have had since leaving school - 6 weeks off coming up. Looking forward to going to Gencon for the first (possibly only) time and have been planning out my shopping schedule on the map of places to visit.

If only I wasn't limited by luggage it would be better, however I guess that means that I will have to shop smarter, not more excessively... That is going to be difficult.

Cheers!

Wednesday 17 June 2015

Back in Blue

It is time to make a start on the Dire Avengers.


I am keeping the squad pretty standard. No exarch at this stage, just 5 Eldar with their Avenger weapons. The arms and the guns are again kept off at this stage, as is the head. I am working on the arms and guns at the same time, just was lazy and didn't move them to my light booth when taking the photos.

Still pretty early here, as I have not finished the base blue. After a couple more coats of this, I am going to try painting this blue in a similar way to the white that I use for the other models. Which will be giving the models a couple of coats of a darker paint really thinned down, then back to this mid coat then the highlighting.

I hope that it should work out. It may not be much different from a base coat, shade, highlight scheme, but it is a small change so I will see how it goes.

Cheers.

Sunday 14 June 2015

Post battle painting

I have now completed the Carnifex and the Rippers.


I went with a fairly bare bones Carnifex. Just added the crushing claws so that it becomes strength 10. It does drop it's speed in combat, but it was pretty much going last against most things anyway, so it doesn't feel like that big a loss to me. Also strength 10 will I hope allow it to flip vehicles a little easier and allow it to get to the soft squishiness within. Not that there are any vehicles in the forces that I am currently using, but that may not always be the case.

With the rippers, that properly completes the first box battle force box that I purchased a while ago. This is good as it is the first group of that size I have completed in a while. Length of time to paint not withstanding, that is a good milestone for me to have reached.

Yes, there are quite a few boxes to go for my Tyranids (of which there is only one more battle force box), which I will be working through in a little while.

With the completion of the Carnifex, that brings my Tyranid force to 680 points. As they now out point my Eldar, I am returning to the Eldar next to bring them up to the same number of points.

So that means that next up are some Dire Avengers. Also hopefully a return to updating a couple of times a week.

Cheers.

Sunday 7 June 2015

And now to the Fighting!

It was still dark as the forces became aware of each other. Reacting to the presence, both deployed into their battle lines

 
 Setting their lines predawn, the armies began their movements.

As dawn broke, the Tyranids had suffered very light casualties, the horde continuing to roll forward. The Eldar had suffered no wounds as of yet.

On their left flank, the Tyranid force ran into a heavy weight of fire and were vastly reduced, but the did manage to pin the jet bikes and remove one of them, a strange organism growing into the engine, causing it to explode underneath it's pilot.

Although the Guardians were successful in shooting all of the Hormagaunts, the Genestealers rolled into them and destroyed almost the whole unit. The casualties were too much for them and they fled, only to be cut down by the scything talons of the Genestealers.

The remaining Eldar destroyed the few remaining Tyranids, although the last several Genestealers ran and hid amongst the terrain.

Well, the first battle is was played yesterday. The Eldar came away with a win, although they did lose more than half their force in doing so. The table did not have enough terrain, so I will have to add in more for the next game. The size of the battle did show the quality of the Eldar troops, as they were very effective with their shooting. The Genestealers wiping out the whole guardian squad was the height of the game for the Tyranids, as they had quite an uphill battle running into the guns. Overall I am quite happy with the miniatures and they did do well. I was hoping that the forces were going to be a little more balanced, but it seems that I managed to pick a fairly strong Eldar force and only a moderate Tyranid force.

Another battle will be fought where the sides will be swapped while I paint up some more miniatures for both sides.

Overall the game went reasonably slowly as both my opponent were basically learning the game as we played. My experience with 7th edition is quite limited and it was their first game. It did feel a little like a return to 2nd edition though, as the Tyranids were a psyker-less force in a world of stomping psykers. I will have to do something about that when I increase them to 1000pts.

Cheers.

Wednesday 3 June 2015

And in the White and Green corner

Following from Monday's post,

Older than the bagged lunch in a High Schooler's locker. Throwing more shuriken than the average Ninja convention. Bringing some grace to the battlefields of the 41st Millenium.

I give you the ELDAR!


In the second appearance of a small force on the blue cloth, the completed 550 points of Eldar consist of:

  • 1 Farseer
  • 1 Warlock Council
  • 10 Guardian Defenders with Scatter Laser platform
  • 3 Guardian Jetbikes
  • 5 Wraithguard
  • 3 Dark Reapers.
Next up... FIGHT!

Cheers.

Monday 1 June 2015

In the White and Blue Corner

In preparation for a battle report, I am pleased to introduce:

From outside the known Galaxy, coming to consume it all. Small though the horde is, a horde it is still. Warriors to the left of me, termagaunts to my right...

I give you the TYRANIDS!



And the first showing of my new backdrop cloth for my light box. And yes, I do need to work on my photography for larger groups of models...

So what does my mighty 550pt horde consist of?

  • 1 Prime with Lash Whip and Bone Sword and Scything Talons
  • 8 Genestealers with Scything Talons and Rending Claws
  • 16 Termagaunts
  • 16 Hormagaunts
  • 3 Warriors - 2 with Deathspitters and 1 with Barbed Strangler.
Cheers

Thursday 28 May 2015

Largest miniature to date

Well, some good progress on the Carnifex so far.



I also decided to paint the ripper swarms that I assembled a while ago. So those will properly complete the first Tyranid battleforce box that I purchased.

My goal for the first expansion to the campaign is to increase both armies to 680 points. For the 'nids that is pretty easy - 1 Carnifex.

The Eldar will gain a few more models in their 130 point increase. I am thinking some Dire Avengers and 3 more jet bikes, 2 with Shuriken Cannon. That will bring that squad up to 6 bikes and give them some slightly higher strength guns.

Still on track to play the first game this weekend.

Next week I hope to have posts displaying both complete forces and also a small battle report.

Until then, enjoy the last day of the working week.

Cheers.

Monday 25 May 2015

A bunch of completed Eldar

A few good, really good, days of painting and I have quite a but of progress.

So with the Wraithguard complete;


And the Dark Reapers complete, that means that I have now finished 550 points of Eldar.


Tomorrow I will return to the carnifex assembly that I started a while ago.

With both 550 points of Eldar and Tyranids complete, I can start my small campaign.

Hopefully this coming weekend. But for now, with dreams of completed miniatures dancing in my head, I think that I will take the rest of the afternoon and evening off from all things miniature related.

Cheers.

Thursday 21 May 2015

A good start to a small holiday

With a good day of painting done, the wraithguard are looking pretty good.


Only the gems, silver bits and then heads to go. I did make a small diversion from the Wraithguard to prepare the last 3 models for the small force I am now almost finished.


A trio of Dark Reapers joins the painting line-up. Or at least they will once the few final details of the Wraithguard are completed. Which will hopefully be tomorrow.

So with the last three models now prepared and the previous 5 very close to completion, the end of this is in sight.

Then, hopefully in the next few weeks I can get the first game in with both armies. The potential date for the first game in my small escalation campaign is 31 May, but we will see what happens. I didn't think that I would be painting both forces in my small campaign when it was suggested three years or so ago. But that is not too bad I guess.

Yikes, three years... Guess that is what happens when you are an easily distracted slow painter...

Cheers.

Monday 18 May 2015

A little white wash...

Over the weekend left the Wraithguard in a more proper work in progress state than their first appearance.



Hmm, not much more to say really about the painting, but onwards towards the rest of the week and a few days off later in the week and early next week.

I also managed to submit my wishlist for the Gencon events that I want to go to this year. Although that did involve getting up at quarter to 2 this morning... I pressed the button as soon as it was green to let me register and I was number 2257 in line to have my wishlist processed. This took around an hour to count down until I could see what events I managed to successfully gain access to for Gencon.

Out of 8 events that I had on my wishlist I got into 7 of them. The only one I missed out on was the Angel Giraldez painting tutorial.

So I will be:
  • Attending a highlighting and shading painting tutorial
  • Playing some Ticket to Ride: Europe
  • Attending the Baen Books Fantasy Adventure Awards
  • Seeing if I can help develop Pathfinder
  • Doing yoga for gaming enthusiasts
  • Viewing the ENnies
  • Attending a 3DS streetpass meet up.
And spending a fair amount of money at vendors I am sure. There are a few other things that I might like to attend, but I will see how I go and / or feel like seeing them. Most of them relate to work, which might be interesting, but then again I will be on holidays, so avoiding all references to work as much as I can is probably a good thing.

Catch you next update...

Thursday 14 May 2015

Platform, Magnetise!

With the magnets now arrived from the depths of the internet, I have managed to try them out and not make too much of a hash of my first attempt at magnetising the platform. I read up a bit about how to do this and some of the tips were quite useful. Making a "magnet of truth" by gluing one into a bit of sprue was very helpful in making sure that my polarities were correct.


However I do have to work on my depth of drilling with them as most of the magnets are sitting slightly too high. But for a first go, I am very happy with the results.

I also managed to get the next lot of models assembled. So now to work on the 5 Wraithguard.


Yes, kind of cheating I guess to call bare plastic glued together a work in progress shot, but still.


I have also been reading a little about the current Eldar codex. I was surprised that they are being seen as quite good. Usually when I decide to pick up an army and paint them to use, it is the kiss of death for that race. Ahh, Tzeentch, why do you forever forsake me? But that is a question for another time...

I was speaking to a friend about this and he thinks that there are two codex that will forever be on the upper edge of the pile, which are Space Wolves and Eldar. Being the first two released for 2nd edition, they seem to enjoy a special place in the hearts of GW that other books don't. The other codex seem to wax and wane depending on the minds of the studio, however Space Wolves and Eldar always seem to be up there. Maybe not the "hardest" codex, but always right near the top.

Well, as I said a few posts ago, I am sticking with the current book that I have and not updating so it is pretty moot for me. But these are the sorts of things that I ponder while pushing the paint around on a miniature.

Cheers.

Monday 11 May 2015

My day off...

Was enjoyable and also spent a reasonable amount of time yesterday painting so some good progress was made.

 
The remaining 5 members of the guardian squad and the base of the support platform are now done.

Now to finish the weapons for the platform.

Saturday with my Myth painting was not as successful, but I still moved forward with that. The bone is now done on the last of the small skeletons and the spawn point.

I spent a fair amount of my painting time on these listening to some episodes from Decoder Ring Theatre. Mostly the Jack Justice episodes. I was quite enjoying the pulp detective stories while painting. Although I am only 11 episodes in, the production quality is good and the stories were gripping me. They also have a super hero drama, which I will get to next.


Thursday 7 May 2015

It's progress, Jim,

But not as we know it...

So in the course of 4 days I have managed to get the bone colouring done. Glad that is over with again.

 
Now to finish the rest of the detailing off on these 5. Then onto the support weapon platform.

I was going to magnetise the platform, but the local stores didn't have the right size magnets in. Off to the internet to find them and get some sent to me I guess.

With the release of the new Eldar jetbikes, I also picked up a couple of shuriken cannon to place on my next lot of three chopper jet-bikes. Just need to wait for them to arrive in the post. I will need to do some conversions on the jet-bikes to make them fit as they are not the orginal type that went on them. Which I think is probably for the best. Plastic weapons won't overbalance the models as much as the old metal ones did and I am not the worlds largest supporter of finecast overall. So glad that the new kits came with a few spares that people are selling off. Not really cheap, but much better than purchasing a whole box of the new models.

Which I may well do at some stage in the future. But for now, this is all hypothetical, as I haven't even finished the first 550 points so that my Eldar and Tyranid forces can fight.

Well, I have tomorrow off, so hopefully I will make some good progress on this plan.

Cheers.

Monday 4 May 2015

Slowly, slowly...

I move onwards with painting the Eldar.

A fairly good go for me,over the weekend, as I have completed all of the white. And although the white is the part that takes the most time when painting the models so far, I am now moving onto my least favourite part of them, painting the bone details and weapons.

Only photos of the bodies today, my ability to photograph their catapults was almost non-existent. They all came out quite poorly.


I sadly foresee little progress when next I post, as my copy of Chroma Squad arrived through steam from Kickstarter. I have played a little of it so far, but I am enjoying the TV Show management madness of the game.

Ahh, distractions. You make life so interesting...


Thursday 30 April 2015

5 Guardians done and some more 30k

Well, I did pretty well. Busy week so far, but got some time in and finished off the heads for the Eldar. Even decided to attach them to the bodies.

 
And in only a week as well. My hope to get them done within two weeks was blown away. First time for everything I guess.

Next thing to do is sit down and clean up and assemble the next 5 guardians. My plan is still to finish them and then move onto the suport platform. Which I might even try to magnetise. Crazy!

So here are the next bunch of pictures of my 30k Ultramarines.

 
The Terminator Assault Squad

 
Tactical Squad 2

 
Tactical Squad 3

 
The motor pool - Command, Tac squad 2 and Tac Squad 3's rides.
 
That is all that is painted at the moment. I am looking into having the next lot of parts assembled remotely. Just have to save some money before asking for a quote. That would be a Contemptor, a 5 man flamer terminator squad and 2 Land Raiders for the terminator squads to ride in. Hopefully also a Rhino for the devastators as well.

Cheers.



Monday 27 April 2015

Eldar - they don't need heads, do they?

I got the 5 bodies of the guardians done.


Next up are their helmets.


Not much more to say really. Hope to have the heads finished and mounted on the bodies by Thursday night. Will see how it goes. Then it would be onto the next 5 to finish off the squad. I will do the support platform after the next 5 are done. So that could be many weeks away. Don't want to get ahead of myself.

For my Saturday project the Myth Undead are still going well. I finished the third lot of them. So only 1 more week for the little guys, then a week on the captains, then a week on the boss before I reveal them.

Well, assuming everything runs to course. I am thinking that it will probably be more like 4 weeks until I get them all done.

I recently purchased a New 3DS... And the game Fantasy Life - where is my time going? Oh, so many hours working on tailoring and blacksmithing...

Oh well. At least I mostly play on the bus going to and from work so it is not impacting on my small painting time. Mostly...

Cheers.

Thursday 23 April 2015

A catch up post

Of the third jetbike that I finished quite a while ago. So the squad is now minimum sized, just in time to be done in by the new models that are being released.

I still have another three in this style to do up.

And I have been doing some work on the guardians - very much WIP as you can see. I am hoping to get this half of the squad done within a fortnight. Then under the current codex I will have a minimum sized legal army. Though from reading though the new White Dwarf, the Eldar get the option of a different force org structure in their new book.

 
Which I think brings me to something that I am talking myself into being comfortable with. Although I have a fair amount of Eldar (mostly all still unboxed I admit), at the moment I have decided to not purchase the new book. Except for Arc, I only occasionally play 40k, and I figure as long as everyone is playing from the same codex edition, things should remail fairly balanced. Where does this leave me for Tournament armies then? I think that I will only be updating two of my army list books from now on, Space Marines, because I have a sweet looking 30k Ultramarine force and my Howling Griffons. And Chaos Space Marines, because, well, Tzeentch.

If the rumours are true and there is a Tzeentch Daemonkin book coming out in the future, that may even replace the base Chaos Space Marine book for me. It may even allow me to get back to my original way of wanting to play the army - very small amount of models who then summon / are targets for deep strike for the rest of the force.

Will see how it all goes.

At least on the painting front, the Myth stuff is moving ahead. In another 4 or so weeks, I should have the Undead done and will post some images when they are all finished. Then it is the Rats, the elementals and the "remainders" which are mostly mini-bosses, bosses and the alternate heroes. If it keeps up, buy the time I finish my leave in September it may all be done.

And to finish with, some more Mantic undead that I have assembled and will get around to, hopefully sooner rather than later...

Cheers.

Monday 20 April 2015

And now for a blast from the past...

Well, only from the point of view of the current Warhammer 40k time line.

A project that started, took on a life of it's own and is now moving on to another stage.

Yes, finally some photos of the 323rd Ultramarine expeditionary force that I took to Arcanacon.

The command Squad
 
The Assault Squad
 
The Devastator Squad.

I will later post close ups of the Terminators, Tactical Squads and Rhino transports.

And here are some photos from their very first outing - as I had only played 1 small game of 40k prior to Arc, a friend volunteered to game with me the day before. We both used our Arcanacon armies.

Set up looks good.
 
Hmm, we detect life sighs - that's a lot of Tyranids.

The last stand of the command squad!

A valiant loss for the boys in blue transports, which sort of set the tone for the Arc weekend, now that I think about it. I came comfortably mid field though so that was great. 6 good games and an awesome event once again. Maybe next year I might try to field a force that does not score quite so close to 60 for army composition. Basically the closer you are to the full 60, the "softer" your army is in the eyes of the composition panel.

Then again, probably not. I play for me, not for the wins.

Cheers.




Thursday 16 April 2015

Some Mantic Undead

Well, while waiting for my Kings of War 2 stuff to arrive, I thought that I would have a go at painting some of the undead that I already have from their range.

I ordered a large amount in the Kings of War 1 kickstarter and gave most of it away. This time I am going to actually paint stuff. Heh, famous last words those...

 
I thought that I would post a couple of shots of these. One of them pre painting, one WIP which is just before the wash is applied and one finalised one after the wash and small cleaning up.


Given that there is going to be a large number of them, I didn't want to fall into the same flaw as with my Night Goblins, which although look good take quite a while to paint. Even though the night goblins are only three stage highlight.


Will they win any painting awards? Not likely. Or really any awards for good photography. :) However from a whole army point of view they should look pretty good and from across the other side of the table, or even from a Generals eye view they are good enough that I won't feel bad about putting them on the table.

Cheers.

Monday 13 April 2015

Almost three months and what do I have to show for it?

Quite a bit really.

I have been painting a reasonable amount. So far I have finished off the third of three Chaos Warriors, who I think look pretty cool. I was thinking of doing up a group of these for Armies on Parade this year (do they still hold this?), but I realised how long each miniature takes me to paint...


So not sure what I will do, or even if I will enter. If the Night Goblin painting mojo comes to me, I might get the second unit of 100 done and enter those. Over 400 Night Goblins on a 2x2 board should be worth some votes, right?

Other than that I have fully painted my base set of the Myth board game.


There are a few extra figs in there from my kickstarter edition, but I could not remember the actual base game break up. 6 of the small figs from each set, 2 of the mid sized ones and the Orc boss are extras.

 
I was trying out a style of painting that a friend is using on their Tyranids. Pretty simple base coat and wash method. I am pretty happy with the results. I am also trialing the Army Painter range of paints with these and so far I have no complaints.

 
I am trying these paints as the closest gaming store to my (Yay for new one opening less than 10 minutes drive away) stocks Army Painter, GW and P3 paints. I have tried GW and P3 and like both, but wanted to experiment with the Army painter ones. So far no complaints about the paints, but the brushes? I would leave them alone in future. Maybe I got some from a poor batch, but the didn't last very well at all.


I have a few more things to post as well, but why use up all of my pictures in one post when I can make them last over a couple.

Have a good one.