Preparing for Cancon

Well...  In the last 72 hours I packed everything I own from two different locations and then over the span of one day I moved it all in and bought furniture from IKEA...  Then I built it.  Then I unpacked...

Tomorrow is another long day getting to Canberra...

Sooooo as promised here is my list:

Lords:

Sorcerer Lord

Lvl 4, Mark Of Tzeentch

Infernal Puppet, Talisman of Protection

Heroes:

Exalted Hero with Charmed Shield who is a Bsb with the Book of Secrets - fire lore

Core:

25 Chaos Marauders, Tzeentch, Shields, musician

Standard Bearer, Chieftain

25 Chaos Marauders, Tzeentch, Shields, musician Standard Bearer, Chieftain

15 Chaos Warriors, Tzeentch, Razor Banner,

Shields, Musician, Standard Bearer

5 Marauder Horsemen,  Musician, Flails

5 Marauder Horsemen,  Musician, Flails

5 Chaos Hounds

5 Chaos Hounds

Special:

5 Chaos Knights, Musician

5 Chaos Knights, Musician

5 Chaos Knights, Musician Chaos Chariot

Chaos Chariot

Rare:

Warshrine, Mot As it is almost 1 AM I will skip the talk through and pictures of the army as both will come soon.  I tried to keep it relatively not awful as my last couple of fantasy tourney outings have resulted in terrible comp.  I avoided everything that is regular in WOC lists: Trolls, chosen, warriors with halberds, great weapon marauders, mark of khorne on everything.  Instead I went for what would a Tzeentch army have and worked off that (avoiding disc riders as I thought that would be a comp hit). I will try and update as the weekend progresses...

Friend's Necron Conversions and Exciting New Gear From a Variety of Sources

Sooo I dropped by my local GW today and saw some excellent necron love being perpetuated by my buddies Liam and Mo.

Let's start with Liam's stuff.  Lots of really cool conversions.  First of all he has kit based an entired squad of differently posed Crypteks.

Here are three:

from the front

from the back

I also really like his take on Wraiths.  He was mid build on these so I only got a few finished shots.  They use the legs of the tomb banshee and plasticard for the bladed hands.

And last but not least one of Liam's kick ass revamp of the old tomb spider model.

Now Mo came to the table with something else much larger and completely different... (Please keep in mind that Mo is still base coating this model.  I should have gotten a few shots of Mo's finished necrons because they are beautiful!

And while we are discussing Stalker models...  Still no word from GW as to what is coming out next month (the 25th Anniversary of 40K hitting shelves).  Will it be a 2nd wave of Necron stuff, will it be 6th ed, or there are even rumors of another wave of nid toys?  Which ever it is...  It is my birthday and I plan on dropping some coin.

In the meantime.  Blightwheel miniatures has created their own version of the Stalker model (or a Stalk tank from the Gaunt's Ghosts books).  The Mantis Walker will be released soon.

And last but not least. Avatars of War will be putting out their own version of Chaos Warriors soon.
Here is a sneak peek:

And last but not least... a shot of me drinking with a member of INXS who I ran into at my favourite local the other night. I am such an 80's fanboy!

Til next time gang!

The Death Guard Continue to Improve (Now with panel painting)

Sooo...  My lack of posting is almost at an end.  I finally move into more permanent housing after separating from my wife on Tuesday.  Once that happens, I go back to having the internet and most of my toy soldiers.  Sorry for the sorry few months.

I have been pounding out a WOC army for Cancon this weekend.  More on that tomorrow I hope.

In the meantime.  I have panel painted the 4 squads of plague marines.  I normally hate panel painting but I actually enjoyed doing these.  Weird.  They still need three additional layers of streak highlighting but compared to panel painting that is really fun and much faster.

This is were I am at: (as always click on the photo if you would like a closer look)

Til next time....

A Quick Look a Few of Dan Abnett's "Side Projects"

Well well well... 2012 is well and truly underway and I have been neglecting the old blog for too long. Where to begin?

Dan Abnett: I recently got to rereading Mr. Abnett's "Embedded." It is not a GW book in any way shape or form but unsurprisingly maintains the grit of many of the Gaunt's Ghosts books. I suppose it is not surprising that Dan was able to easily bridge the gap to non-warhammer based stories as he was a comic writer for years and his Black Library books often contain language and concepts that until he writes them do not exist in the nerd vernacular (vox casters for example). In this text he continues to invent terms and concepts that are original and yet are immediately recognisable with little to no explanation.

"Embedded" takes place in the near future on another planet. Without giving too much away it is the story of an older veteran reporter who is able to hitch a ride so to speak in the brain of a soldier going out into the field on the brink of all out war. Needless to say things go wrong and there are plot turns aplenty. I should probably stop as I really enjoy the book and don't want to give anything away. I initially avoided the book as after reading the blurb and thinking that the story of a reporter might be kind of dry. I should have known better as I had read a pile of Dan's other books. The action hits hard and comes aplenty. I highly recommend it for anyone that enjoys Dan's style as a writer.

As a side note I also started rereading "Triumph" another of his side books set in a magic heavy Victorian era. It is gag ridden on purpose and really has a very original tilt to the world but I just struggle to immerse myself in this book as I am constantly aware of the humour. Additionally, the universe in this text is different enough that I really have to think about the book as I read it. I read trashy Black Library and other science fiction/ fantasy for the escape and for inspiration. As I was aware of Triumph as a book throughout reading it, that escape was not possible so I didn't enjoy it as much. It is like random spurts of static through a movie you really want to see. Sure you can see and enjoy the movie but you are aware of the viewing medium throughout the viewing process.

This is also the first time that I will be writing this blog on my iPad. I have to say that corrective text and key pad are taking some getting used to. Does anyone know of a good app that will allow me to publish pictures from my ipad onto this blog? Blogger does not seem to want to let me publish pictures with my text. Sorry about that.

As a side note (and I know that this marks me as the 80's fanboy that I am) I ran into one of the members of INXS last night at my local pub (The Retreat) and had a drink. Very cool.

Soooo I have been feverishly painting plague marines (piccies soon), nurgle daemons and DG vehicles as well as a WOC army for Cancon (a large fantasy tourney coming up shortly).

Here is a quick peek at some of the stuff I have been working on:

I actually made this tank out of the side tracks of an old rhino, a chessex dice box, and assorted other gubbins from my bitz box.  Oh and the vent/ engine from a current Land Raider.

Rhino using Forge World Extra Armour and a Forge World Dozer Blade

Forge World Chaos Extra Armour Plating

Old Vindicator with extra bitz.

Different Forge World Extra Chaos Armour and a hole at the top where the Havoc Launcher goes.

Fatty the GUO continues to grow.  I added a few new sculpted parts before base coating the big guy.
Most notably he now has a tongue.  I have to say I like the effect.

More soon.

A Better look at my WIP Great Unclean One

Here are some much better WIP shots of my Great Unclean One.  As you can see I replaced his head with a giant eyeball made out of green stuff. 

 I also dremelled out his gut (took forever) and created a giant maw there.  This is a nod to the really old GUO model that GW made in the early 90's that had a massive mouth in its stomach.  

My version of this also has a different left hand as my model was missing his.  I replaced his hand with a plastic one from the most recent plastic troll kit.

I still need to resculpt his left toes (which I cut off) so that it looks like he his stepping down the stairs.

 I think I need to do something else with the base but besides adding nurglings...  

I am not sure what that is.

Anywhooo...  Back to work...

Deathguard "Washed" and Ready!

Well...  I am back.  Been feverishly base coating the rest of the infantry for my new Deathguard army.  I skipped updating the blog as they looked terrible until they got to this point.  Every model in four squads are base coated and washed with Devlin Mud.

Time to get highlighting!

Squad 1 has a power fist and two plasma guns.

 Squad 2 has a power fist and two melta guns.

 Squad 3 has a power sword and two meltaguns.

 Squad 4 has a power fist and two meltaguns. (You can see the test model is part of squad 4)

Got to work on the Great Unclean One today as well.  The Ol' Cyclops will make an appearance soon.
Back in 24 hours...