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.

Miscellaneous

A few days ago I stumbled upon the Bolter & Chainsword’s Dornian Heresy pdf. Wow!

I highly recommend any Heresy fans go download it right now. It is a presentation of an alternate timeline where things at the time of the Heresy worked out differently and how history has played out over the ten thousand years since. Presented as part 1 of 2 it is in the format of White Dwarf’s old Index Astartes articles (back in 2000ish, when I myself was fortunate enough to work on White Dwarf). The whole thing is brilliantly written and supported with great artwork and I find myself wishing I had time to devout to converting Nurgle infected vampiric Blood Angels, or Tzeentchian shape shifting Raven Guard. I personally can’t wait to be able to read part 2.

If you haven’t seen it yet check it out here: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com

Inspiration and Ideas Bolter & Chainswword, Dornian Heresy

Well this one’s been waiting a while but I managed to finish my Grey Knight Chaplain tonight. Even when the model was finished I still didn’t feel I’d done justice to the image in my mind of how it should have looked. However, now that it is painted, I’ve got to say this has become one of my favourite conversions so far (of mine that is). It’s really fired me up to get a move on with the Grey Knights project… so 2 down, god knows how many to go

He could probably do with a few small touches here and there to finish the paintjob properly and he needs a coat of Dullcote to remove the glossy look he’s got going on, but I’m pretty pleased with the result.

As a bit of fluff for him I’ve given him the title of Guardian of Names. He carries and protects one of the Grey Knights sacred tomes, a book that records the name of each and every Grey Knight to have died protecting mankind. If that’s not a role for a Chaplain I don’t know what is.

On the subject of Grey Knights, there’s now some chatter on the old interweb of a new Codex and new miniatures, hopefully this year. Personally I’m hoping for a surprise August release. This does mean that I’ll probably put some conversions on hold until I can see what new models I can use for converting my own Actual Scale Grey Knights and also what is potentially in the Codex. Whilst searching for rumours about this I came across one mention of Grey Knights getting Jetbikes, and I have to say I really like this idea. I hate the notion of giving them Jump Packs, but for some reason Jet Bikes sort of seems very appropriate to me as a Fast Attack selection. I’m sure we’ll see Stormravens and I’m hoping for Storm Troopers and GK Chaplains (for obvious reasons).

Completed Project Actual Scale, Durendin, Grey Knight, Grey Knight Chaplain, Thunder Hammer

Today I put the final touches to 2 more Red Scorpions Captains. Not a great deal to say regarding the paintjob, but I have to say the one on foot has really grown on me since I started painting it. I’m not a great fan of the stock (brick shaped) bikes, so this conversion is an improvement in my eyes. It’s late… and I can’t think right now of anything else I need to say about these two. I’ll edit if anything comes to mind tomorrow.

Completed Project Red Scorpions

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

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.

Miscellaneous Kill Teams

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  

Miscellaneous New Scifi Game

Hey all,

So it’s about time I posted some evidence of progress, so here goes… the heading towards finished Grey Knight Chaplain.

Whilst painting him I decided I wasn’t totally happy with the positioning of the shield arm, mostly because the direction the attached purity seal was hanging looked odd. So I rebuilt the arm with the shield in a slightly more dynamic pose and the seal hanging more naturally downwards. Whilst doing this I realised I’d missed an opportunity to take the rather awesome Iron Haloed Skull and repeat the design on his own shield. So before continuing with painting I’ve sculpted the Iron Halo design onto his Storm Shield.

Originally I’d wanted to have all of his power armour black (as described in the novels) with just a few gold details and a silver skull helm, however, the all black armour just didn’t really look that good, so in the end I opted to paint both shoulder pads the same silver as his helm. It certainly requires a lot more attention on the painting side of things, but you can certainly imagine how the finished model will look now.

I’ve also managed to gather bits together for more members of a Grey Knight squad. All the legs are quite obviously from GK Terminators, the torsos from MK8 armour and a Black Templar plastic bit and the heads come from Black Templars, a metal veteran model, a company champion and a AoBR marine.

Work in Progress Actual Scale, Grey Knight Chaplain, Grey Knights

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.

Miscellaneous

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?

Inspiration and Ideas, Miscellaneous Army List, Black Dragons, Blood Angels Codex, Dragon Claws

Just a bit of fun, I thought I’d compile my top 10 list of 40K armies that I’d like to put together. Most of these are Space Marine armies and I doubt I’ll ever get around to building most of them, but I’ve been thinking about them for way too many years. They are all themed and would all require a large amount of conversion, which for me is really the point – to have a cool themed army that really stands out as something special. All Space Marine armies in the list I would intend to have in Actual Scale (because I can’t collect regular scaled marines anymore :-p).

1. Blood Angels 3rd Company (Tycho’s Command)

• I look back on the first GW studio Space Marine army with overly fond nostalgia. I wanted an army just like that 20 years ago, and I still want it now. This is one project I actually plan to do properly, a full Battle Company led by the golden boy himself, Captain Tycho (thankfully we now have a proper Codex). This won’t be the first time I’ve attempted building a Blood Angels 3rd Company army, only this time I’m far more confident I can pull it off.

2. Inquisitorial Stormtroopers (Ordo Xenos)

• Probably based on the IG codex, I at least hope to build a small force of these. The Stormtroopers will be led by Inquisitors and backed up by a squad of Deathwatch Space Marines (counts as Grey Knight Terminators).

3. Grey Knight army (pure)

• Simple pure Grey Knight force but all in Actual Scale. I already have a squad of these in progress and the Chaplain you may have already seen. I’m expecting GW to release plastic Grey Knights within the next year, so much of this is on the back burner till then.

4. Lamenters (scout heavy, fluff heavy)

• I’m glad to see Lamenters mentioned in the new BA Codex, but I may still opt to use the SM Codex to represent them. I’d build the entire force on Scouts as the backbone of the army, with Veterans, Terminators and Dreads backing them up. I’d probably equip them specifically to combat Tyranids and just take my chances against other mechanized forces. Lots of bionics amongst the veterans and plenty of battle damage will make them a nice looking force. I also like the idea of a Scythes of the Emperor force around the same list but led by a Chaplain (purely for a Scythe wielding Chaplain with hood).

5. Black Dragons (Dragon Claws ftw!)

• I absolutely love the idea of the Dragon Claws units but have yet to see anyone make any decent representation of them in model form. I think the new BA Codex offers suitable rules for them in the form of Death Company or Saguinary Guard. Lot of potential in this, so I’d like to at very least try some test model conversions.

6. Thousand Sons (pre-heresy)

• Simply based on some of the cool artwork out there for the legion, and what a great colour scheme. I also think the Chaos Space Marine Codex can be used to represent them pretty well if you leave out the Chaos stuff and just take unaligned Marines, Sorcerers and Vehicles.

7. Tyranid (Arachnid force)

• I built a very cool Tyranid army years ago at the start of 3rd edition (that I’ve since sold). I’d really like to take a stab at rebuilding it with the newer models. For anyone with an old White Dwarf collection (UK, not sure about elsewhere)  you’ll find the original army in Issue 251. The basic premise was that the Hive Fleet had evolved an additional pair of limbs (so eight legs instead of six). Not sure if I’d do the same again with the current models or whether I’d make them Centauroid (standing on four legs instead of two, with two arms for weapons). Regardless, I do have a yearning to convert a Swarmlord from the Hive Tyrant model (scaling it up, yes I am obsessed).

8. Ork Speed Freekz (hot rod dakka heavy army)

• A trukk heavy force with all of them modeled with dragster and hot rod elements. Nuff said.

9. Adeptus Custodes

• No explanation needed, some of the coolest looking warriors in the 40k universe but no models. A favourite image of mine is this.

10. Ork Snakebite Horde (massed boarboyz)

• This is an unfinished project, but I have a lot of bits for it. The thing I like about the Snakebites Clan is their use of Boarboyz (models in need of sculpting without a doubt) and also the fact they are often mention as all displaying back banners (even the boyz), in fact the old 2nd edition models all had back banners. There aren’t many forces out there that can bring so many models to the table as an Ork horde and all of them equipped with back banners would certainly be an impressive sight.

11. Adeptus Mechanicus (ok so that’s 11)

• Only reason it’s at 11 is there’s no real Codex to use for it, but who could resist an army with robots in it.

12. Ork Genestealer Hybrids (yes, now it’s a top 12)

• Inspired by the models at Ninjabread. Take a look, it speaks for itself. I’ll never actually get around to doing any of these but I mention them because they are just so Freekin’ cool.

Miscellaneous Musings, Themes, Top 10