The Beginnings of a Cauldron (adventures in Plasticard)

Well. I have another criteria for this project. Besides trying to get it done before Christmas I am also trying very hard not to spend any more money buying new miniatures for it. In some cases this will lead to adventures in bitz diving in others... We will have to see.

Anyway. I took a sheet of checkered pattern plasticard...



And I created a box with inlaid check pattern tiles. I then took an old avatar of Khaine model I had floating around and stuck him on the back. You might not be able to see but I gave him platform heels made out of plasticard so would be level with the edges of the platform and would stand flat. If that makes sense...



In other news... You can see my progress on my dark riders... I know they don;t look like much now but I have high hopes.

The Crossbowmen VS The Spacemen

Today's installment looks at my two units of ten repeater crossbow troops. One is rather boring and is straight from the box. The other is a kitbash using the new wyches, old dark eldar warriors, corsairs and actually repeater crossbow wielding warriors. They look a little strange right now but I am going to add a variety of pouches and other fantasy gear to make them far less "space man."





As always I am open to suggestions to make them less spacey...

The Next Thing From Land Of Misfit Toys (DE)

That is right kids I am cranking out another brand new army before Christmas. I don;t want to even see how much time that leaves me... Anyway... The idea is to make a Dark Elf army that looks a little different from the rest.

Step one ditch the witch elf models... I hates them like Golum hates the taters... I have a mostly assembled old wyche cult army for 40K and I adore these models... They are on rounds now but that is about to change. I am slightly concerned about ranks but I have long bases so I can cheat alittle bit on spacing. Here are some work in progress models... They are not done yet.




Next up basic warriors... Now I attended a GW store sale alittle while back and picked up a badly assembled dark elf army (most of one missing lots of bitz) for $75. It had warriors, crossbowmen, cold one knights, corsairs (only ten) and a pile of mismatched crap. From that mess I have created these... Most of the warriors are stock standard but I ran out of spear arms and I wanted to mix up the heads... Hence the guys in the back... They will eventually be mixed in the unit to give some variety...




Some of you might recognise that the almost finished wyches are not my usual painting style. Well I can crank out models if I only have to base coat and wash them. I can even crank out the 1st level of highlights but I have never quite mastered the technique of extreme highlighting. For this I have enlisted the help of my buddy Chris. He cranks out extreme highlighting like nobodies business. This entire project will be assembled, base coated, washed and highlighted by me. Chris will supply the final highlight to make the elves “pop.” Despite his Australian and English heritage he was a member of the Kiwi ETC team this year and is generally a fantasy battle bad ass. Stay tuned for more of Chris’s stuff.

And for the folks back home.... HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Small But Exciting GW Releases!

Though they have received little net and publication fanfare I am very excited about the TWO new GW Order of the Blazing Sun bitz packs. Some have pooh poohed the release as GW's attempts to polish a turd referring to the very dated empire knights that currently grace our shelves. Others are amazed that the truely ancient horses those knights ride have not turned to petrified rock out of pure age. While it is true I am not a huge fan of the knight models and more specifically the horses, I do own close to 60 of the little buggers.

Long ago when I worked at GW (years ago), when damaged product came back and could not be repaired the company would hold infrequent damaged goods sale. I picked up 50 knights there NIB for a song. There were a few broken bitz but I got a good price so I was happy. Fast forward to today. Time to use my knights. I am going to do some kitbashing with bretonnian knights to get some varied poses (and horses). Variety is what I am shooting for. The opportunity these bitz packs offer for me to further mix up my models is not to be missed (by me anyway)... Without further ado... The new packs...





Also popping up on the net this week is next year's Gamesday Figure. Skaven Warlord. I like him. Sure I will convert his helmet a little BUT I like the look of the little guy. Now... How to get one here in Australia...



For those who care... I have decided which project will be my "vomit an army out before Christmas." Dark Elves mixing in some of the new Dark Eldar bitz.

Piccies to come...

A Bretonnian Tourney Report (Guest Post)

Toady we have a guest poster. My good buddy Drew whose ogres have been seen here on a number of occasions took Bretonnians to a one dayer on the weekend. Here is what he had to write about the weekend.

So I'm pretty settled in 8th ed, and I've given the ogres a fair shake of late so decided to shelve them for a bit. I gave the deamons a whirl, onyl to remember that everyone plays daemons, and they were quickly re-shelved. The greekskins didn't have the numbers to play 8th yet, which left me with Brets.

I used to play a bit of a deathstar in 6th, but that quickly didn't work and I haven't used them again since early 7th. They've had some good use from my club-mates, which was great. I dusted them off and looked at what I could put together.

Lord
Barded Warhorse
Virtue of Heorism (Heroic Killing Blow- GOLD!!!!!!!!)
Gromril Great Helm (+1 save, re-rollable)
Beserker Sword (Gain frenzy, never lose it)
Dragonbane Gem (2+ war against fire)
Potion of Quicknes (OuO, +3 initiative)

Prophetess
Barded Warhorse
Dispell Scroll
Ruby Chalice (After the phase in which she or her unit first take a wound, the unit can't be wounded on better than a 3+ from non-magical sources)

Battle Standard Bearer
Barded Warhorse
Virtue of Duty (+1 CR)
Banner of the Lady of The Lake (Enemies in B2B don't get rank bonus)

Damsel
Barded Warhorse
Chalice of Malfleur (At the start of each enemy magic phase, roll a D6. 1 Take a wound, no saves. 2-6 gain an extra dispell dice)

Knights of the Realm "The Star"
15 Knights
Full Command
Flaming attacks

Knights of the Realm
6 Knights
Champ, Muso

Knights of the Realm
6 Knights
Champ, Muso

Bowmen
16 Bowmen
Full Command
Braizers (Flamig Arrows)

Mounted Squires
5 Squires
Standard, Muso

Mounted Squires
5 Squires
Standard, Muso

Pegasus Knights
6 Knights
Full Command

The original lineup had the lord decked out to re-roll in challenges, but was persuaded to go for HKB, now that you can use it with a magical weapon. The berserk Sword was probably more of a liability than the 5 points it saved me on the sword of battle, but there was only one situation that I would have been better off not persuing in, and at the time I thought it would work.

In case it's not clear, ALL 4 characters would be joining The Star, bumping them up to 19 models (and 6 ranks to boot- hooray lance!)

Game 1
Opponent: Eric W (Sorry, can't remember what W was)
Army: High Elves
Scenario: Meeting engagement
I had played with my army once before, against high elves. Both times my opponent seemed not to want to take eagles, which I was quite happy to go with. Eric deployed on the line, and I opposite, a little back to keep my options open. Eric had lots of hard-hitting stuff (2x10 Swordmasters, 2*6 Dragon Princes, A lvl 4, lvl 2 and a bunch of shooting), so I didn't want to get overcommitted with the star.

I rashly decided to hit his spearmen in the building, hoping to assassinate the BSB and lvl 4 hiding with them. Trowing caution to the wind, as well as not reading the building rules properly (or not remebering them anyway), The Star hit the building. Firstly, I lost my lances (sad), and secondly, the lvl 4 didn't have to fight. Woops. However, the BSB stepped up and took aim with my HKB. Warded. Darn. My unit bounced and the elves expectedly held. I was now surrounded by a SM unit, DP unit and lion chariot.

They hit me, but I'd managed to get flesh to stone off last turn so I wasn't too upset. I lost abotu 1 knight to the charge, and managed to win combat due to my static CR of 6.

I countered with 6 knights in the chariot's flank, and that sealed the deal.
Meanwhile, the peg knights (who had started off-board), came on at my narrow flank and landed right next to the bolt-thrower battery. Not much else needs to be said there (:.

Game ended with a 20-0 my way, and I was quite pleased with how The Star had done. Even after a stupid mistake, they'd come good. Great game Eric, look forward to another!

Game 2
Opponent: Mark "The Skilled Man" Skilton
Army: Dark Elves
Scenario: Battle Line
Mark is a club-mate and I have played him on numerous occasions. The outcome can usually be determined by what army he is using. If it's something soft (like Dogs of War, or Beastmen) I will win. If it is something hard (like Dark Elves) I will lose. My army, and our skills are irrelevant. Mark took Dark Elves today. Sigh.

The army boasted 8 levels of maic (4,2,2), a slightly combat BSB, 10 xbows, 16 xbows, three bolt throwers, 2x5 shades, 6 harpies, 5 dark riders and a hydra. Oh, and he had some shooting too.

Mark did in deed concentrate all fire power on The Star, and had it limping my turn 2. A lucky magic phase on that turn allowed it to limp a little further than it should have really. His A-Wing came in the form of a hydra, who did manage to destroy The Star, but was blown up the process (on the receiving end of a HKB). My right flank managed to advance on him and get through, eating some bolt throwers and killing a mage with a throw-away spell. The peg knights hit his Lvl 4's power dice bunker square in the front, and managed to eat their way through it. The Lvl 4 had the pendant, but ran with the rest of the spearmen once I was through with them.

One rules issue cropped up (Discussion here) that resulted in the demise of my prophetess. The game is over and I don't care about the result, but I would like to know for future reference! Outside of that, the game resulted in a draw, which I was more than happy with considering the line-up!

Game 3
Opponent: Big Dave Durie
Army: Wood Elves
Scenario: Blood and Glory
I met David at Axemaster, and have always found games against him to be a pleasure. He didn't look happy at the prospect trying to stop my bus (which he would have to do if he was going to win the scenario). My army had lots of expendable peasant-banners, so I had a fortitude (?) level of 8. 4 of those were in The Star. David had 6, spread out over 3 units of glade guard and a BSB.

His army was an unkillable lord on eagle, BSB with HoD, Lvl 4 with scroll, three units of GG (one scouting), 2x10 dryads, 6 treekin, an eagle and a treeman.

I was set-up for an unfavourable overrun by a giant eagle, and I went in way too quickly. I managed to aim the overrun up with the flank of the tree kin, but I didn't get up to check how far they were. Naturally, they were more than 12" away, which had sealed the game to me. I took dryads and treekin in one flank, treeman in the other. Miraculously, I took no wound of the treekin (two had to fight my lord), two from the dryads and a couple froum the treeman. I killed a treekin in return and because they lost their ranks, I got mine back and won the combat. Only the dryads broke. After one more round I shrugged off the treekin too.

I managed to get a small Knight unit to charge his BSB's unit, which got it to run toward the board edge. Then some squires made it run again and they were off.

My peg knights snuck along the flank, but in turn three took all thre glad gaurd units shooting and ran off the board. Cowards!

In the final turn, I managed to blow the treeman and that freed The Star up to go hunting glade guard. The day was mine, despite my hammering at the hands of tree-spirits.

17-0.


So two wins and a draw, not to mention favourable comp (7/10, 6/10 and 6/10 for each game), put me into my first ever podium place! I even had a draw overall with Ben Leopold (the overall winner), but he took the prize on countback. I spent my winnings on the spot, and bought myself a copy of Settlers of Catan (a great game if you're curious).

Great day was had by all, and I look forward to some of the other events the Battle Bunker Boys are going to run. The only complaint on the day was about byes (which the TO was fully aware of but unable to avoid). Annoying, but sometimes unavoidable. Didn't sour the day in my eyes, nor in the eyes of those affected that I spoke to.

Cheers again!

Back in the saddle!

Well,

The rough draft of my reports are in and my wife has stepped out of town for a few days... Another hobby project... YES PLEASE! :)

I have roughly 4-5 weeks til Christmas when I get the skaven army under the tree that I posted piccies of earlier. I'll have lots of play testing and hobby having to do with that then. Til then though... as my good buddy Adam puts it. I have time to vomit out another army at a distressing speed.

I really wanted to do a kit bash of empire and bretonnian knights to make an all knight list using Bret rules but with rumored Knight of the Blazing Sun conversion kits confirmed for next week I will wait to see if these are what I want to add to an already bit busy project.

Leaving Chaos Warriors and Dark Elves... Thoughts?

The DE would be witch elf heavy using the old 40K wyche models as I detest the witch elf models. I am a little worried that they won't rank up but I can get creative with milliput I think.

The WOC would be Marauder heavy...

Here are some WOC works in progress...

The Mustache I have fallen into.

Sorry I have fallen off the face of the earth recently guys (and gals). It is the time of year that all good teachers dread. Report writing time! I will come back up for air and hobby shortly but in the meantime let me share something that is on my face. My mustache! Huh? I know it sounds vain and weird to talk about one's facial hair but it is all for a good cause.


I am taking part in a fund raiser called Movember which is big down here in Australia and takes place in the month of November. During that month men shave their existing facial hair and grow the funkiest/ dirtiest mustaches imaginable to raise money to fight prostate cancer and depression in men of all ages. I am doing Movember this year with my coworkers at school although it is a charity that I contribute to and an event I regularly participate in. My father fought prostate cancer a few years ago and so it is easy to see why I care.

If you have a few minutes please check out my "Mo" space and see how the Mo is growing.

http://au.movember.com/mospace/716768/

Not to leave you in a total hobby lurch... Here is a picture of the large marine that used to live in Baltimore and his brother who lives outside of GW HQ in Nottingham...

The Sculpting Madness Continues

Well I am smack dab in the middle of my least favorite time of year. Report writing so for the next few weeks at least life will be a bit hairy. I try and give myself little treats as I go and this year I bought myself a few packets of green and grey stuff to muck around with.

At one point last year I have a slaanesh DOC army for fantasy that I got pounded with every time I played with it. It was embarrassing. That being said I loved having an army that was so fast and maneuverable. Now I will be honest I have been kicking around the idea of starting it up again but I detest the current rage of slaanesh models. I really don't like em. Soooo I thought I might take a crack at sculpting some. Now I have had requests to do progress shots as I create these wacky things sooo here is phase one.

I am going for a snake man kinda thing with the huge jaws I loved so much on my bloodletters. Here are the basic bodies... I have put a chaos warrior in for scale. I know they do not look like much at the moment but bear with me.

I will be adding arms to these models as well.. I am thinking goblin arms with chaos warrior gloves and weapons... Have to see if that fits... Anyway... progress...

Brad is sculpting again (Chaos Dwarf)

So here is a one off attempt at sculpting a helmeted chaos dwarf using a plastic dwarf miner, the head off an old chaos warrior hammer and some green stuff. I stuffed up a little of the back armour but I am pretty pleased with how he has come out. I own the bitz to do the whole army like this BUT I really want a proper army list to run off of. I suppose I could use dwarves... But... Meh...

Anyone have great dwarf ideas that could change my mind?

Sorry about the lighting... it was an experiment...