Category: Miscellaneous


Warhammer Awesome Edition

I first started playing Warhammer back in 3rd edition where I often fielded Skaven with Chaos allies (back when warriors and beastmen were one army). I also dabbled a bit with High Elves and Goblins but when the 3rd edition of 40K was released I devoted myself totally to it and pretty much dropped Warhammer. From my point of view 40K had become a vastly more engaging game and until now I’ve never really felt the compelled to return to Fantasy.

I had no intention of really paying much attention to the 8th edition release but something piqued my interest and after really delving into it I find my self yearning to to start playing with square bases again. I get the impression I’m not alone either as from what I can gather the gaming community as a whole seems to be showing a lot of renewed interest and I imagine a lot of 40K players will be venturing into fantasy for the first time.

The thing that impresses me most is that the game and its setting feels magical again, in the same way it did 20 years ago. On top of this the improvements to the rules are very impressive. On the whole I’m very impressed and I really want to start a new Fantasy army.

As I say this, I’m fully aware that I probably don’t really have the spare time or funds to start a new (probably large) army especially as the game system I’m developing is really going to need most of my time.

Anyhow, lets pretend I do have some extra spare time. What army should I collect and what am I going to do to make it cool and unique?

I’ve narrowed the choices down to Skaven, Warriors of Chaos, Daemons or Beastmen. Whilst there are appealing things in other armies these 4 have always been my favourites and I can’t see that ever changing. I’m not overly concerned about using the most competitive lists, strong themes and cool conversions are my priority.


    Skaven

One of the most compelling ideas for a Skaven army for me would be a pure Clan Moulder army with a large number of Rat Ogres. With the current Rat Ogre plastic kits I wouldn’t touch this army build with a very large stick but the Rat Ogres in the new Island of Blood box look phenomenal. Yes there’s only two but I reckon I can convert them well enough to create large enough variantion to field large units of them.


    Warriors of Chaos

Whilst I like the Warriors list I don’t find the models particularly impressive. However, this isn’t a bad thing because it provides the perfect reason for some major conversion/sculpting work. Add to this the fact I prefer find sculpting armour plating fairly straight forward now and that the imagery of the Raven Host from Warhammer Online (which I used to play a lot as a Chosen) is a perfect guideline and inspiration.


    Daemons

I only include Daemons in this list because I’m so impressed with the Slaanesh plastics especially the new riders. Other than Daemon Princes and Keepers of Secrets I can’t see much need for conversion work, and on the whole they would be a particularly unique collection of models to put down on the table. They would however allow me to field them in 40K too :)


    Beastmen

I gotta admit I really like the Beastmen plastics, well except for the Crap-otaurs. I guess they could be improved upon but I’d be tempted to not field Minotaurs at all, even though the new edition makes them pretty formidable on the table. I’d probably be inclined to field as many ambushing units as possible and a couple of strong Bestigors as the core of the army. I’d be tempted to convert the Bestigors to make them look a bit more mean looking, but otherwise I’m unsure how I’d proceed with the Beastmen.

These are my ideas and I hope I manage to try one of ‘em. What about you? Interested in the new edition? Planning a new army or some crazy conversion?

As a sidenote I’m hoping that GW’s October mystery box this year will be Warhammer Quest as it would tie in nicely with their increased support to the Fantasy range.

Painted Blood Raven Character

A long time back I made a “counts as” Vulkan He’stan for someones Blood Raven army. The conversion is mine but the paintjob is by the client and I think you’ll agree it’s top notch. I’ve had these pics for a while now, but I thought I’d share because the quality of the paint job really is fantastic, in fact I didn’t recognize the model as one of my own conversion at first.

You can see more of Roleplayer’s conversions and painting here, definitely worth a look, probably the best examples of painted Blood Ravens I’ve seen that aren’t just single display miniatures.

A Big Bug Blast From The Past

Earlier today I came across some photos I hadn’t seen in a long time from my university days. I was fortunate enough to have got a place on what was at the time the UK’s only Figurative Sculpture course. This is going back almost 15 years and my involvement in the GW hobby had already spanned about 5-6 years at that point, and I was what you would call a GW fanatic I guess (I worked weekends whilst at Uni in my FLGS to help support myself). Quite ironically I never pursued the idea of miniature sculpting while there but one of my bigger and more ambitious projects was to build a lifesize Genestealer.

Many of the pics I had, have been lost to the warp over the years, but you can get some idea of what the final thing looked like from the few crappy photos I have left. The final casts were never finished (ran out of time).

This was my first experience with any kind of mould making and one hell of a steep learning curve.

Bear in mind most of these photos are WiP shots (oh and please ignore the scratches on some of the colour photos, I was trying to define the object from the background at the time).

The armature made from scrap.

The roughed out shape.

The roughed out shape from the front. The head received three or four revisions after this version.

Detailing on the spine.

Me trying to get the mould open without breaking it!

Size Comparisons of Casts

Not posted for a while mostly because of the lack of a permanent computer. I could have made some sort of post with my phone but I really hate that.

Anyway, I have a small update to show of the casts. These are the first casts of the recent greens I made, there’s a few small air bubbles here and there, but most of them are because of all the rivets. Unfortunately the glossy white resin doesn’t photograph too well but I figured I’d show them with a couple of other minis to give a good idea of size comparisons.

I began with the Mark V variant because I already have projects in need of them, but once they’re done I’ll be tackling others.

The last week or so I’ve been trying to complete a set of six Valkyrie builds, all fully magnetized (50+ magnets in each) with all available options. This is the current state of my desk.

They’ll be finished later today, so I’ll be moving forward with more actual scale work very soon.

Actual Scale Blood Angels Squad For Sale

I’m adding my first Actual Scale conversions, the Blood Angels Tactical squad to the For Sale page.

This is more out of necessity than anything, as I need to raise some funds for a new computer to replace the steam powered one I’m currently making do with.

I’m pricing them at £250 which I feel is fair considering I would probably charge £300+ to convert and paint a squad of miniatures like these.

Frak!

OK, so it’s been a while since I’ve posted any kind of content. At first I was just procrastinating because the sculpts I’m working on have taken a lot of work to get right and I didn’t want to post pics of the crap sculpts. I almost have the first few sculpts of castable truescale components ready and will post pics asap.

However, last week my beloved iMac decided to blow its own brains out and died a rather sudden and unexpected death. Apart from the massive inconvenience of having no computer (posting this on a borrowed laptop), the thing is beyond repair, or at least beyond repair considering the cost of parts. Annoyingly this is the one Mac I’d decided I wasn’t going to trade in for a better model as I was so happy with its performance (normally I “upgrade” every two years).

Luckily I do have backups of all my data, but until I properly replace it I’m going to be struggling with a crappy laptop. It kinda like having a gold plated lascannon and then trading it in for a rusted stub gun that only fires rubber bullets.

Enough of my crying though. In order to help finance a replacement for my poor iMac I’ll be putting some more of my own mini collection up for sale. I hadn’t intended to, but needs must. First up will be my original Actual Scale conversions the Blood Angels squad, and also some Ork conversions. I’ll probably sell off some other stuff too, including Space Hulk (or at least the minis).

As soon as I finish these sculpts for casting of truescale components I’ll post the pics for all to see.

Kill Teams!

Wow, nothing for weeks and now 3 posts in a row :D

I just wanted to mention how cool the Battle Mission book for 40k is, more specifically the Kill Teams mission. This to me is the perfect chance to be able to make those cool characterful conversions that I can use in a game without having to build an entire army. Being able to create a Kill Team relatively quickly means I won’t get stuck on one project for too long. Many of the armies I mentioned in my Top 10 Armies I’d Like to Build I’d be quite happy to collect as small Kill Teams, better that than not build any of them due to time constraints.

So for those of you without the book, the force selection for the Kill Team mission is 200pts (0-1 Elite, 0-2 Troops, 0-1 Fast Attack). In addition 3 models may each have one of the Universal Special Rules from the main rulebook (must be three different selections). This small addition helps add flavour and character to the units you select. Here’s some examples of Kill Teams I’m considering putting together.

Lamenters – Sternguard Squad

Sergeant – chainsword – Preferred Enemy

Veteran – heavy flamer - Feel No Pain

Veteran – plasma cannon - Relentless

Veteran – combi melta

3 Veterans – bolters

Snakebite – Madboyz Mob

1 Madboss (Nob) – Big Choppa, Eavy Armour - with Feel No Pain

19 MadBoyz (Boyz)- Sluggas, Choppas, 1 Rokkit Launcha, 1 Big Shoota - one with Counter Attack

1 Runtherd – grot prod - Preferred Enemy

10 Grots

Imperial Guard – Inquisitorial Stormtroopers

Veteran Sergeant – Shotgun, Power Weapon – Furious Charge

7 Veterans – Shotguns

1 Veteran – Meltagun - Tank Hunter

1 Veteran – Sniper Rifle - Relentless

3 Scout Sentinels – Multi-lasers

It’s quite interesting to see what you can get for your measly 200 points. The Relentless rule is pretty much a must for a heavy weapon toting model. I’ve already got some Madboy conversions made, so for £8s worth of plastic Grots I can finish that Kill Team real easily.

With limitations on having enough spare time for build whole armies expect to see me building a few Kill Teams instead in future.

Creating New Worlds 2

My previous post Creating New Worlds in which I spoke vaguely about a new game I’m creating, stirred up quite a lot of interest, so I figured I’d expand on it a little.

First off I’ll explain why I’m not revealing the details of the game beyond it’s very basics. If I simply explain what the story is behind the game and what the models will look like etc, without actual images, I’ll be giving you all ideas based on your own preconceived notions. At the end of the day, I’ll reveal things to you when I feel they are of a high enough quality to share, rather than feed you ideas with nothing to back them up and work in progress models that don’t represent the finished product.

To everyone offering assistance with playtesting and design concepts, Thank You!

I will most certainly be asking to playtesters, and I also want to give the opportunity to those people who really like the final game to contribute to it. We’re all familiar with Warhammer 40,000 having various Space Marine Chapters, Craftworlds, IG Regiments, Hive Fleets, where the basic armies of each are much the same but have many subtle variations amongst them like colour schemes or variant rules (ie: Ultramarines and Blood Angels are both Space Marine chapters, but are still very different). I intend to include this sort of thing this within my own game.

Once the Beta version of the game is revealed in a few months, I’ll be opening up the chance for anyone interested to create their own variant group – with it’s own colour scheme, fluff, and modifications to the rules -  probably as part of a competition.

More to come in due time   :)

Creating New Worlds…

Progress has been slow as of late (ok, slower than my usual slow speed), and part of this is because I’m devoting time to the creation of my own game system. I’m purposely keeping this a bit vague until I have a few finished prototypes, as at the end of the day an image will say far more than words ever can. This project started out because I wanted an outlet to make my own models that weren’t limited by someone else’s IP. It never occurred to me at the start that I actually have the opportunity to create the tabletop game I’ve always wanted to be able to play.

So far I have a basic outline for the setting and background fiction for the game and all the basic rules mechanics to actually be able to play a game. There’s still a ton-load of work to do, but what I didn’t expect was just how much fun I’ve had working on developing these rules. It’s grown from something I need to do to support me selling some cool models into a game I really want to play. All I can reveal right now is that it’ll be a science fiction, skirmish game with a focus on developing of highly detailed characters in campaign style games.

Once I have a range of miniatures available I’ll be launching a new website with a Beta version of the rules. It’s early days but I have big plans for this.

Sorry I can’t say any more, but I thought I should say just why there haven’t been many real updates of late.

Dragon Claws

Continuing along the lines of the Top 10 (ok 12) armies I’d like to build, I came up with this very simple army list for a Black Dragons pure Dragon Claw strike force.

Sure it’s only 31 models for a 2000 point army, but it’ll look ace :p

  • Commander Dante
  • 5 Sanguinary Guard squads (5 models each) with death masks and 3 infernus pistols
  • 5 Sanguinary Priests with hand flamers, jump packs, lightning claws

So we have 5 squads of 5 Sanguinary Guard led by a Sanguinary Priest each with Dante added into one squad. The entire army is Fearless, has Furious Charge and Feel No Pain, has 2+ saves, has Jump Packs, re-rolls hits with power weapons (or have lightning claws), are scoring units, and fully half the army carry infernus pistols. Add to that the chance to reduce enemies WS to 1 with the Death Masks and Dante’s abilities. Being a small force should allow for concentration of force and Deep Striking is probably a decent option considering the Descent of Angels special rule and Dante’s Tactical Precision.

Considering the small size of this force I think I’ll be putting together this army afterall. My Blood Angels would never use a formation like this so it’ll be a nice way of trying out such an extreme list and will allow me to build the army in a more reasonable time (painted black after all :) )

Regarding the conversions, they will all be actual scale on 30mm bases, with long elongated forearm claws. I think having them all helmeted would be a nice touch, all with a sort of crest (sort of their own Death Mask). I guess some dragon skin pelts and cloaks would be fitting too.

Any thoughts on tactics for effective use of such a force?

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