The Silly Season

Wow, five weeks. That went quick. I've been busy at work and, of course, we've had Christmas in that time so there hasn't been as much hobby as I would have liked but here is what I've been up too. 

The four points of SAGA Normans are all done and awaiting a game in January. 

I'm happy with the way the turned out given the very little effort that I put into them. They are just base colours with Army Painter over the whole lot and highlighted back. Easy!

I picked up William the Bastard too. Not sure I'll ever use him in a game, depends on how seriously we play it I guess. 

Right now I'm working on a new 8x4 games table that I can fold to 4x4 and pack away under the house. All my old high school wood work classes have finally come in handy. 

 Yeah, that carpet has to go. And soon. It also smells. The joys of buying a house to renovate...

Oh, and I got a new desk lamp after the old one died. 

That's about it. Not sure what is next. Maybe Epic again or those Inq28 cultists, though to be honest I'm intimidated by them. I see the amazing stuff in Warhammer: Visions or on the Ammo

Bunker forums and think "holy heck, I can't do that". I did start this stuff with the idea of pushing my painting in new directions so perhaps I should just get on with it! 

Deus Aie!

Just a quick update. I've got the Norman knights done for SAGA. The shields are transfers from Little Big Men Studios and make some fairly ordinary models good. 

The banner is a transfer too. 

Now I have to grind through twenty infantry models. 

PAXAus 2014

PAXAus is kinda big deal here now. I'm not a computer game guy and I didn't go last year but after last week I will be going next year. I don't want to play the "poor Australia" card but there are times when I feel like I live a very long way from the center of all things that are cool. PAX changes that. Even if only for a weekend. That's very special.

                                   

So, my day. I went on the Saturday. After a bit of an issue with my ticket I had a quick spin around the main hall. Lots of big stands and flashy company run demos here. Nothing really grabed me here but, as I said, I'm not into electronic gaming. I like all the pretty pictures and all but have any desire to spend time on them. I was confused and bemused by League Of Legends and World Of Tanks and their eSports stands and hype. The line to get into the Cards Against Humanity was just about the longest in the whole place. Weird. Sounds like a cool game but it was impossibly popular for what it is.

                              

After my quick I caught a panel on producing miniatures. It was interesting to see some representation the local "industry" but strange to see people that I'd had contact with over the years up on stage. There was nobody from any major or international company. 

After the panel I caught up with a couple of friends and it was game time! We played:

           •Magic The Gathering. A very impressive and well run stand. These guys know how to promote their game. The fellow that ran us through a game asked if we'd played before and I said "not since 1995". He gave me a deer caught in the headlights stare and said "that was the year after I was born". With a grin I then asked if it had changed much since then. He just gave me a look like his head was about to explode. It did not. I lost this game.

       •D&D. The new edition. Another big stand and with LARP but not very busy. There were more people nearby playing first edition and AD&D. We won this game. It was ok. The thing about RPG is not the rules but the campaigns and the skill of the GM. Very nice books though. 

                                   

      •X-wing. This is a much hyped game. I thought that it was a bit meh. It may have been the person taking me through the game but nothing really grabbed me with this one. There was no sparkle for me. Maybe a few more games would help. I lost.

       •Dust. Very nicely painted Germans v Soviets. Again nothing grabbed me with this game either. Playing on a gridded mat felt like too much of a restriction. Maybe Dust:Tactics would be better. The mechs and gorillas with powerfists were cool. I lost.

After a good morning and afternoon of gaming it was time for a late lunch. We popped over the road from the convention centre and had some very nice burgers and beers at the Merrywell. 

Back on the games floor next was;

         •SAGA. Now this is a game I've been interested in since it came out. So interested that I already had the rules and a Norman warband. I sat this game out while the others slugged it out but I was still impressed. It's just such an elegant system with so much tactical depth and pure nail-biting fun. Dean and his Anglo-Danes won this game.

                                

The great thing about PAX is that it's about playing games, not buying or being sold stuff. About half the space was given over to free gaming with hundreds of games machines set up ready just to play. 

                                 

There is also a big area for tabletop games and a library of board games. 

                                       

                                    

         •Cave Troll.We borrowed it from the library. It was just a little region control game that was like a cross between Risk and Descent. It was fun. It was simple. It was a draw!



         •Krosmaster Arena was the last game we played. It was late in the day and confusing. Very confusing. It was beautifully presented with special three-up 3D printed and hand painted game peices. I won. I think.








 There was a few other things that I would have loved to have played. A great looking All Quiet On The Martian Front game and a re-creation of the attack on La Haye Sainte at Waterloo using the Song Of Drums And Shakos rules. I'm sad I missed that last one; it seemed to be a blast.

All in all it was a great day and I'll be back next year. There is talk of the Mire boys running a table (we spent half the day muttering about how we could do a better job) or maybe just some Inq28 on the Saturday night. Anybody interested?

 Oh, and this is a direct result of PAX. Four points of Normans cleaned and ready for undercoat.

The End Times. A WoC log.

Greetings all.

With the apparent end of The Old world fast approaching, my mind has happily flung my attentions back to the glory that is "The Beautiful Game" and has had me finally stop flirting with my true love.

Chaos.

So my original plan was to do something I had never really done before, a chaos army that stays away from the super fun that is small squads of elite troops, taken from every god and do a mono Khorne army.... That lasted about 34 seconds into my seeing the new BlightKings and as I am going on holiday to the wonderful U.S of A in a few weeks, you can bet I'll be coming home with a bag full of those! Seeing as they're damn near half price compared to what we pay here in Australia!

So here is the start of my Khorne contingent. My main block of warriors/Chosen.

I'm a massive fan of the mixed weapons and gear with chaos armies, I mean who in their right mind is going to tell an eight foot tall, three foot wide armor plated killing machine that his unit is supposed to have a sword and shield and he has to leave that ten foot pike at home? Not me! Plus, I feel that depending on how I want to equip them, I simply fill the front rank with the mini with the required equipment. EASY!

The idea behind this unit, is that they are champions who have fallen in battle against the enemies of Khorne, he claimed their souls, unleashing them upon his enemies when his champions needed the aid of the best he had. I plan on getting the B-E-A-UTIFUL Valkia model to kick some butt with these guys, but I'm not allowing myself to get her before I have painted these blokes.

Speaking of painting, here is a quick picture of how my color scheme and bases will look on these.

I want them to be marching towards battle down a cobblestoned road, could be in The Empire, could be outside Hag Graef, could be anywhere! (Though since a mate of mine has started Dark elves, methinks a few of their corpses on some of the larger models could point to where they really are.

Well that's enough for me for now. I will keep y'all posted on my progress.

And in theme with today's post....

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!

Elric, The Emperor Of Melnibone

This came in the post yesterday. 

It's short but beautiful. And feels like a faithful rendering of Moorcock's classic character - decadent, sardonic, bored and casually evil. 

With Moorcock's books (particularly the Elric and Hawkmoon novels) being the basis of so much in the 40k and WFB universes this is almost required reading. It in places feels like a different visual take on Commagrah or Naggarorh. 

I'll be getting the second volume when it's released in English in a few months. 

A Growing Coven

Two members does not a coven make, but it is getting there. My plan is to do four like these and then three or four more mutated members. 

Sometimes things just work and it feels like it's no effort to make something new and cool. Putting together this model was one of those times. I need to neaten up some sculpting around the head and he's done. 

And the first cultist is also all but done. 

Finally, both together with a friend. 

Cultists

A very quick mock up of a chaos cultist. Needs more ripped cloth and perhaps a different, cruder sword. I'll need to work out a way if giving a couple of them rifle-type weapons too.

What do you think? Too dark eldar?

And Done

This is finished now. I've more on the sprue and for the time being they will stay  there. Maybe one day the rest will get painted and joined by an old Rhino. Maybe.

 

So onto the chaos cult I guess. My idea is Rasputin in space. A chaos mystic who has set up a coven in an imperial governors household. I just have to start hunting up bits. First I'll start in some henchmen that I think I have all I need to do.

Back In The Swing Of Things

Right, I'm back to some hobby after moving house. 

First is the sorceress more or less finished. I've gone with a minimalist polished marble for the base. The sculpt is so elegant I wanted something that reflected that and I also wanted to experiment with gloss varnish as a contrast to the matt finish of the miniature. It works but doesn't really sing.  I always admired the Rackham studios plain black bases as a way to show off the model and the marble base does much the same. It stays for now but I may come back to it.

Since getting the hobby desk set up I've been doing a little on this old plastic guardsmen. I was given some new on the spruce a few weeks back and now seemed like a good time to add one to the painted collection. 

The next projects are still brewing in my mind but an Inq28 chaos cult is the front runner at the moment. 

Serious Stuff

Progress report. The Scorceress is moving along at a good pace. It has the "pale but not deathly" look that I was going for. The skin and boots are done and the soft fabric is getting there. I think it's still a little dark.

It's fun to be working through this slowly and making adjustments as I go. I think it's going to turn out great.

And I'm thinking the next project is going to be Inq28 related. Space Rasputin is too cool an idea to let go ;-)

--Richard

A Few Things

There are a a few things that I've been working on. Nothing astounding or unexpected. I've been a little caught up in real life. And buying a house!

This is almost done. I just need to do two flashy free hand banners and ad some more colour to some of the other weapons. I've magnetised the arms and carapace guns so there are a few to get through. It took me a while to work out the weapons needed something to lift them. It has sat on my desk giving me dirty looks for weeks. The chagrin of a god-machine is nothing to be ignored. 

The last couple of weeks I've been doing some serious competition quality painting for the first time in years. This is an Infinity line kazak. Yes, it is a "girly" model and yes, I am a little embarissed by it but she has been fun to paint. It was nice to work on some different skin tones -- using purple as a shade -- and to push the highlights further than I have in the past to make them pop. Not sure I've been all that successful.

This is next. 

More Epic-ness

Still going on the Epic stuff. I'm also starting to put together an eldar army. 

These are the newer Epic 40,000 marines that will make up a veteran company. 

Some HQs. I've put them on bases by themselves because they seemed a bit crowded with other marines on with them.

Who said you can't do conversions in 6mm?

Attack bikes.

Land speeders.

And a brick thunderhawk. 

Next walkers: dreadnoughts, robots and a warlord Titan.