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Friday, October 19, 2012

Here We Go Again.... (RANT)


It has been a big year of changes in my life with a divorce, a new job, a new place to live, a new love, etc etc etc...  As such my hobby has taken a bit of a hit and my desire to keep my life together has taken the front seat.  That said, life has been amazing the last six months or so and all is really good!  

To my point, as I have effectively had my head in the sand I feel like I have missed a few shifts in the ol war dolly scene down here in Melbourne/ Australia.  I also feel like some shifts that should have happened have not and I am shocked about what is going on.  

Case in point, Orktoberfest...  I attended Orkfest a few years back and (one personality clash aside) I had a blast.  It was early days into 8th and so the TO ran the event as a comp free event and while it was disappointing that a few rules changes were made to make 8th edition more like 7th, it was early days.  This morning I thought it might check the Orkfest pack (forgetting it was well into October.... Duh!) to see if I could sneak in a quick trip up to play again.  No such luck...  I missed it.  I also took a good look at the players pack to be honest... I was horrified.  No missions, significant changes to the rules (magic dice restrictions, unit size caps, victory point changes, infinite hills, etc...), no comp and 20 players...  This was not the event that I remember.  Or maybe it is...  True I only played once...  Maybe I just assumed it would get better over time.   I know it is just my opinion but I am pretty disappointed that people aren’t over the switch to 8th by now. 

Victorian events (cancon aside) have been the largest of their kind in recent years.  The Victorian scene is continuing to grow and evolve.  Over the years we have seen a variety of events that mix up 8th without actually changing the rules or how the game is played.  New players continue to come over from 40K and even occasionally from Warmachine, if they don’t come out of nowhere and start from scratch.  I believe this is largely do to Victoria being the only place to fully embrace 8th edition within Australia.

8th is balanced (or is at least far more so than 7th) with new army books that seem to generally avoid the GW obligatory power creep.    It works, it is being fully supported and it is evolving…  Sure it is not perfect but nothing ever is.  6th Ed of 40k seems to have missed this phenomenon but to be fair comp seems to have died in the process...  C'est La Vie...

Now…  Off to Axemaster…

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

THE DWELLERS BELOW (A NEW PODCAST "SENSATION")

I have been a part of an up and coming Warhammer Fantasy Themed Podcast called "The Dwellers Below" for a few months now (with some of the top ranked players in the country) and have been waiting til we had a few episodes under our belt before I posted what we have been up to.  I am in two of the five episodes (the first and most recent) and I have to say I am a huge fan of the crazy chat that goes on.  I especially like to listen to the stuff I am not in as I paint because it entertains me to no end.  It is vulgar, it is silly, BUT it is very tactically relevant and educational...  If you get the chance... It is free...  I hope you will check it out...

"The Dwellers Below are a Melbourne Australia based Warhammer Fantasy Podcast. As a group of regular tournament players we focus on the recent events, tactics, hobby and other shenanigans. We’ll put out a podcast every month or so and focus on the distinct aspects of the Australian scene."

The LINK

Please let us know what you think...

Monday, October 15, 2012

A Minor But Important Release From Scibor Miniatures

Scibor miniatures has been making incredible dwarf miniatures for years (and slowly over time I have been buying them for a dwarf army that I have not started yet.  I have enough models to make almost a complete army.  I was missing a few key items.  Scibor made a wide variety of dwarves you see.  But they did not make command group models.  Sure I can convert some and that is not the end of the work but as the models are generally one or two pieces I really didn't want to.  Looks like someone has been reading my mind, because:
Now if they would only do a group for their non-chaos dwarves I would have command models for all my units...

They were missing war machine crews until a few months back so I will be picking these dudes up at the same time.
And for those of you looking for good unit fillers... (I am definitely getting some of these ASAP)
Looks like my credit card is about to take another hit...


Saturday, October 13, 2012

My Axemaster List (Skaven)


I thought I would try ye old skaven again since they have not seen a tournament table since Empire In Flames 2010?  Or was it 11?  Either way, this is what I am having a go with.  Not sure it has the right toys to actually win games and my grey seer seems to love to blow himself up in turn 1 and 2 sooooo we will have to see how I go....

Lords
1 Grey Seer Lores of Plague & Ruin
Warp-energy Condensor
Talisman of Protection
Heroes
1 Chieftain
Armour of Destiny
Halberd
BSB
1 Plague Priest Lore of Plague
Flail
Dispel Scroll
Opal Amulet
Ironcurse Icon
1 Warlock Engineer with Doomrocket
1 Assassin Weeping Blades + Potion of Strength

Core
25 Clanrats with Shields
32 Stormvermin with Storm Banner
25 Clanrats with Shields
50 Skaven slaves
50 Skaven slaves

Special
42 Plague Monks with Full Command and Plague Banner
7 Gutter Runners with Slings and Poisoned Attacks
7 Gutter Runners with Slings and Poisoned Attacks

Rare
1 Warplightning Cannon
1 Plague Claw Catapult
1 Doom Wheel

Friday, October 12, 2012

Ninjas! (Inspiration from my childhood)



Soooo as I assemble and begin to paint two units of gutter runners and a brand new (oop) skaven assassin I can't help but think of my fondness of ninjas as a kid.  Sure this is partially due to my growing up in the 80's and my having grown up in Tokyo...  I was a huge fan of movies like Revenge of the Ninja (even though I would cringe to watch it now) and like lots of other boys my age, I had ninja t-shirts and other paraphernalia.  Hey it was the golden hay day of ninja coolness.

Is this why I play skaven..? Probably not.  Is it why I am considering adding more eshin units to my list at the risk of making my army weaker and possibly unplayable.  YUP!

Anyway, I found one of my favourite ninja themed possessions online the other day and I thought I would share it.  I was a massive fan of G.I.Joe as a younger lad, particularly the comic book.  I thought it was more serious and plausible than the silly cartoon on TV.  Anyway... Issue 21 was a "famous" comic in that it was "silent." It had no words other than the title.

Without further ado.... Here it is...  Hope you enjoy:






















Til soon gang...

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

WIP Nurgle Daemons

So I am back from my holiday in the states.  I am a little bit heavier and in far worse shape gym wise but otherwise I had a fantastic trip.  1 day in LA, 3 days in NYC and a week in Boston were just what the doctor ordered after a really intense end of term.

Now I have not done much with these since leaving but I realised on my trip that I had not actually posted pictures of my WIP Nurgle Daemons.

I decided to try the Army Painter product and I thought this would be the perfect project for what it claims to be able to do.  Now I had hoped to get the army done for Book Of Grudges but life and work got seriously in the way.

I sprayed the entire army the Army Painter bone colour and then painted all the metal items Red Gore. I then stippled the metal bits orange and cleaned up the skin with bleached bone.  I followed this up with the Army Painter Strong Tone.  Besides stinking and killing a brush (both of which I expected) the stuff worked the charm.  I applied the dip with a brush and waited 20 minutes before cleaning up pooled areas with the tip of a dry brush.

I then waited 24 hours and highlighted the metal bits with Mithreal Silver.  I think the rust has come out perfectly (or it will once I finish detailing and dull spray the whole army down).

Anyway...  Here are the photos....

One unit of Plague Bearers
Another Unit of Plague Bearers
From another angle... The command really needs extra work...
The Great Unclean One WIP
From a different angle

From behind

Nurglings

Herald
Very WIP BSB
Even More WIP Soul Grinder
From a different angle