Compare and Contrast.

Hi folks.

Contrast Paints, initially promoted as a quick and easy way to get painted models on the table top but still looking good, is this the case?

I initially bought some of these when they came out to play with, so are they the miracle paint that everyone thought they would be? Simple answer is no, are they good paints? Undoubtedly yes. Let me explain.

The marketing from GW was basically slap one coat of this on something and it will shade/highlight and do everything you want, and yes, they do work like that and for some the results will be fine. Personally I don't like the look. It works for some stuff but not everything and I think that is the key - it's to find out how to use them to provide the best results. I don't use them as the miracle paint, I use them as another tool in my box. I also think to get the best results from them you have to use them in the right way, I don't think just slapping them on is the best way to get good results. Also some combinations work better on certain models than others and by combinations I mean the actual paint colour but also the undercoat you use as well.

So what they good for? I find the best use of them is on models with some texture, by this I mean a model that has detail, raised surfaces. For Armour I don't think they work well at all as the paint can tend to pool (although there is one exception to this that I have found so far - more on this later). I also find that they work better on regular sized models, things like regular infantry. With larger models you tend to get the pooling/streaking problem but again there are exceptions.

As well as the paints, GW released a specific Contrast Medium. Medium is basically the same stuff as the paint but without a pigment. It's used to thin the actual Contrast paint and I make use of it a lot, it helps to reduce the pooling issue I mentioned previously.

So lets have a look at some of the models I have used it on and how I used them. Firstly an army I started purely because Contrast Paints got released and one of the armies they work amazingly well on - Sylvaneth.

Sylvaneth models are covered in texture, they are essentially walking Trees and the surface of the models are all texture. They also use a fairly limited palette of colours which are Browns and Greens (well those are the colours I went with).. GW posted an article on the Community site with some examples of Sylvaneth models painted in Contrast and they looked simply amazing and were painted in a really short space of time. I have always wanted to do a Sylvaneth army and even bought and painted models before, but had a really hard time getting them to look the way I wanted and also to look consistent, here was the solution. The models are painted with just 4 Colours. I started from a Grey Undercoat, the one specifically designed to be used with Contrast paint. I then did the flesh tones first as they are a bit harder to get too. I tidied up any bits with the same Grey (but the pot version). I then did the Brown and then the Green whilst the Brown was still a little wet so it blended in. I did thin down the Contrast with just a little Medium. The Sword is just a Contrast Blue straight from the pot. The only thing I used a non-Contrast for was the Silver on the sword handle. That is all it took on these models, and the Treeman is a big centre piece model. Now I said earlier that it isn't good for large models, well this is one of the exceptions. Take, for example, the Giant model. I tried using the Contrast skin tone on this model, but as the areas of skin are actually pretty large and flat the Contrast doesn't work well. It gets a bit blotchy. For my Giant I did use the Contrast skin tone, but I mixed it with Medium and used it as more of a wash. I then went over the skin again with regular paint to get a more smooth finish. I think you'll agree that the Contrast on the Sylvaneth models works a treat.

The next set of models that Contrast is great for is another AoS army - Tzeentch. The main reason, is again, that the models have some texture to them, but also the colour palette that is available with Contrast. Tzeentch Colours are traditionally fairly bright and the Contrast range offers this. Again I had been struggling with things like Pink Horrors getting a consistent colour that I liked which was easy to achieve each time. With the Contrast Pink, one coat straight over and done. I did mix in a little Medium to get it to flow around the shape of the body better and to give is a slight translucence. I used the Wraithbone undercoat on these. The Exalted Flamers body uses a slightly different technique. I painted the model with the Blue Contrast, but when it was still wet I applied some Medium to areas where I wanted it to be lighter. You then have to keep an eye on it as it dries and guide it to where you do or don't want it. The flames are just straight Contrast Yellow and Red out of the pot, again applied at the same time, so when the paint it still wet, you can blend the Colours together where they meet. Same technique was used on the Screamers. I painted the Disc with regular paint.

Next up some Nighthaunt. These were done using a similar technique to the Tzeentch stuff above. I used the Wraithbone undercoat and then a 50/50 mix of the Blue Contrast with Medium. When that was done I then used just Medium to paint down the model whilst it was still wet so that the Contrast remained darker at the top and then went to virtually nothing at the bottom. Once dry I then used a Wraithbone paint as a dry brush at the bottom of the model so make the ends of the cloaks basically white. The Grey and metal were regular paints with a Black wash and a light Grey highlight. As they are simple models and using this method you can really get them done quickly whilst also getting a really nicely painted model.

Now on to some 40K. At the top of this post I said Contrast wasn't great on armour but there are some exceptions and this comes back to the combinations point. I tried the Yellow Contrast straight over the Wraithbone undercoat for painting some Imperial Fists, and whilst it works, I don't like the colour and it does get a bit blotchy. What Contrast does work well on is Iron Warriors and this comes down to using the Grey Contrast and a Leadbelcher Undercoat. As the two Colours are fairly similar this minimises the blotching affect and this also works on the vehicles too. In general Contrast on vehicles looks bad as it streaks, but this particular combination seems to work really well. The Iron Warrior infantry models below are just a Leadbelcher undercoat and a generous coat of the Grey Contrast. The rims and shoulder pads are painted with regular paint, but using this method gives you a great looking model in no time at all. The tank was done in the same way, but you have to make sure that you don't streak so brush those away if you see it happening, but you have to be careful, if you go over an area that has dried too much as it then leaves a blotch. So don't go over the same area too many times.

The next model is a Thousand Sons Marine. I have only done one of these so far, I did it mainly to see if Contrast would work. I thought long and hard about either using a Gold or Silver undercoat but in the end I stuck to the Wraithbone. For this model I actually used two coats. The first coat was a 50/50 Contrast Blue and Medium. The second coat was 2 parts Medium to 1 part Contrast Blue. This gave the armour a translucent effect that I was after. I then did the Gold trim with regular paint. You have to be really careful here because if you get any Gold on the armour you don't really have anything to cover it up with. So if you do get some on there get it off with some water quickly.

So that's it, my guide to using Contrast paints. To conclude they are really useful and an excellent addition to the paint range. If you want to just slap it on and get some models on the table it works, but the effects aren't great. If you are an experienced painter that wants to try and get some different techniques into your painting they are awesome too. They really do have some benefits in terms of getting some great affects with little effort, but not for everything. It's worth while doing a little experimentation on some old models if you can because, as I have said loads, its all about certain combinations. Certain paints and undercoats look better than others. So go ahead and give them a try, I think you'll find the results surprising.

Until next time…

Small large things.

Hi All.

Adeptus Titanicus.... a blast from the past. I remember playing this in my mates bedroom, with our plastic Warlord Titans roaming around the polystyrene city. I suspect we got plenty of rules wrong but we had a great time.

I was really excited when this came out, but then I saw the price of the first starter set, honestly it put me off which is ironic because I have probably spent way more on it now than the start set cost. But when you don't know if you are going to enjoy it or if you are going to have a big enough player base, then the initial price tag was too high. Having said all that the models were amazing.....

But then a few weeks ago GW launched a new starter set that was an absolute steal, two Reavers, two Warhounds and a couple of Knights for £90 - even better was that some online retailers were doing it for £70. I really didn't have an option. Plus several other guys at the club were going in, so we had a decent group of players all starting out.

I ripped open the set and got a couple of Titans painted up in short order and then managed to get my first game in and I have to say that it's a cracking game. We just ran through the basic rules and it was great, I haven't even got into the Legio specific stuff yet. Unfortunately the Coronavirus crisis has shut the club down for a month or so (or longer) which means getting another game in is going to have to wait a bit but it has given me time to get a decent number of Titans painted. I also got hold of a couple of the campaign books so have been pouring over the fluff and picking out my Legio and Maniples.

I have to say the models are some of the best kits GW have done, given that they aren't large models, the number of parts and the detail is astounding. I even managed to get over my fear of magnets and have magnetised all the weapon options to give me plenty of tactical choice. I pretty much have all the models I own painted, there are a couple of Knights and a Warlord waiting to be unpacked but I have a large enough number of Titans painted for a decent game.

So on to the models......

Warbringer

Warhounds

Combat Reaver

Shooty Reaver

Knight Lancers

Knights

Warhound

Until next time...

A new start.

Hey Folks.....

Yes, it has been a long time since I did any hobby blogging, I could roll off a big list of reasons why - let's just say - real life can get really busy.

Loads of stuff has been happening in the GW world since my last post, they seem to be smashing it out of the park in terms of releases at the moment. I have a ton of different projects on the go (as usual) simply because of the amazing models and releases GW are putting out at the moment.

One of the best games they have released in a while has kept me pretty busy - Warcry. What an absolute cracker of a game. With Warcry I think GW hit the sweet spot, it's simple to learn the rules but it really does have hidden depth in terms of how you play the game and that comes from some really clever game mechanics. Its also a skirmish game so, like me, if you have tendency to switch between a lot of army projects this allows you to build up several different Warbands as the model count is pretty low. As I have loads of half finished armies lying around it really offered me an opportunity to utilise some of those models that never ended up being a complete 2KAoS army.

There are tons of options when it comes to Warbands, there are the new Warcry specific Warbands but also Warbands for pretty much every AoS army. We are running a campaign at the club at the moment and I am using Disciples of Tzeentch. I picked them because I am in the process of building a Tzeentch AoS army so this gave me the opportunity to use some of the models I had already finished but I also really like the way they play.

After playing lots when I picked the game up I found that winning is all about the scenario. Beating everything to death doesn't always help although there are certain scenarios where it does. Also the game length varies from 3 to 4 turns so you need to get things done quickly. The Disciples Warband is not tough, they die to a stiff breeze but what they do have is some decent ranged attacks, some speed and a couple of models that hit hard. So the key to winning is to utilise each of these in the right place at the right time.

Your basic Acolyte has some decent ranged attacks, they don't do massive damage but if you can club together two or three of them you can take out a few of the opposition models or do some decent damage to the tougher models so that when they get to me my own damage dealers can finish them off, that is the Tzaangors job. I also have a couple of guys on Discs, these guys are quick and they also hit hard but they cost a lot of points so they need to be used wisely, these go after the objectives.

What I have found is if my opponent targets the Disc riders, my shooting really does damage, if they go after the shooters the Discs can grab the objectives unmolested and then help with tidying up, they are a Warband with a lot of options.

I have a few territories at the moment so am able to use 1200pts to pick my Warband, this is my favourite build presently.

• Acolyte Leader. 
• Acolyte with Scroll. 
• 2*Acolyte with Shield.
• 2*Tzaangor Mutants. 
• Tzaangor with 2 Handed Weapon. 
• 2*Tzaangor Enlightened on Disc. 

The Acolyte with Scroll is one of my favourite models. He costs a few points but is very flimsy but he has a boosted shooting attack, more shots with a higher strength and he really gets some work done. 

Until next time....... 

Road to the doubles.

Hey Folks.

At the end of October my friend Paul and I will be attending the Age of Sigmar doubles event up at Warhammer World. My little gaming group has done a lot of the Doubles events but this is the first time that Paul and I will be teaming up. Paul plays a lot of Tzeentch and, to my shame, I have never beaten his Tzeentch with my Nurgle army, I have come close a few times but have never managed it. So what better than teaming up with my arch enemy?

Now for you fluff bunnies out there I know that it isn’t totally a match made in heaven, and being more of a fluff player I totally get that, but Tzeentch is always scheming, so what can you do?

The Armies.
On paper it’s actually a pretty good combination. When I play Nurgle against Tzeentch one of the main issues I face is that my magic gets shut down and I don’t have any shooting. One of the weaknesses of Tzeentch is that if an army gets to you and starts hitting you its pretty much over so the Nurgle/Tzeentch combo works well as one army makes up for the weakness in the other.

Tzeentch.
Paul is going with: -
Lord of Change.
Ogroid Thaumaturge.
10 Acolytes.
10 Acolytes.
3 Enlightened on Discs.
Witchfire Coven Battalion.

Nurgle. 
Gutrot Spume.
Festus the Leechllord.
10 Blightkings.
5 Blightkings.
5 Blightkings.
Chronomatic Cogs.
Soulsnare Shackles.

The Tzeentch half gives us a good magic phase, and hopefully the ability to stop the opponents phase. We have a couple of objective camping units in the Acolytes that can also shoot twice a turn (thanks to the Battalion) and a couple of fast moving hitters. The Enlightened are pretty good at taking out certain types of unit and are fast, the Ogriod can also do a ton of damage.

The Nurgle half is less complicated, point it at something you want to destroy and smash it. I love Blightkings, in combat they are total monsters. Festus will follow behind the unit of 10 and keep them healed, he can also cast Blades of Putrefaction which is an amazing spell. Gutrot can bring a unit on from any table edge, so depending on the scenario or if the opponent has some shooting at the back we don’t like, then that ability will come in useful. We don’t need to use it every game, it will very much depend on what we are facing. Chronometic Cogs will give everyone +2 move, if we can get this out first turn and combined with a Nurgle Tree we have a big threat in a turn 1 charge, next turn switch it to give the Tzeentch wizards some extra spell casting. I had 20pts left in the Nurgle half which is why the Shackles are there, potentially useful in certain situations.

So that’s the list at the moment. We’ll be trying it out over the next few weeks to see how it performs. I can’t really see us changing it much as 1000pts doesn’t give you much wiggle room. I am really looking forward to trying this out, I normally take horde style armies so taking a more elite army will be new for me.

As far as models go all I needed to do was paint up ten more Blightkings and that wouldn’t take long. I have a style for Nurgle stuff pretty much pinned down and I can crack out the models at a pretty good rate, plus there is plenty of time before the tournament.

I’ll post up info on the practise games and models as we go.

Until next time…

First Tournament for the Nurgle

Hey Folks.

I recently took my Nurgle army to a local AoS tournament. There were 20 players and my hopes were high for the new Nurgle book. I had played a few games with the new book, enough to know roughly what I wanted to take. I was also limited a little with the models that I have. I have bought a bunch of the new models but just haven't had time to paint them yet. So the list: -

Great Unclean One (GUO) with Bell/Flail.
Scrivener.
Daemon Prince.
Rotbringer Sorcerer.

30 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Blightkings.
6 Plaguedrones.

General plan was for the two 10's of Plaguebearers to hang back on home objectives. Everything else forward and smash stuff. Nurgle has a surprising amount of speed now, with certain buffs, spells and the tree a 1st turn charge is feasible and was significant in one of the games. My main strategies were to make sure any unit I wanted to charge were in range of the tree in turn one. The Daemon Prince would tag along with the flies to give them +1A. The Rotbringer would put his spell on whoever looked like they were going to see combat first, this would give that a unit an additional mortal wound on a hit roll of 6. The GUO would also give his Command Ability +1A on the same unit.

Game1. Sylvaneth.
This was the Duality of Death scenario. This is a good one for me. I charge the Prince to one objective with the Flies and then the GUO goes to the other one. If I go first it's pretty much a win. Even if the Prince goes down I am up on points and the GUO with all the Plaguebearers is just impossible to get off the other objective. This is exactly what happened in this game. Most of the army got over the half way line and the Sylvaneth could not come back. I scored very highly so was in 1st place at the end of game 1.

Game 2. Mixed Order.
We were playing Scorched Earth which is one of my favs. The order army looked scary. There was Alarielle on her big beetle, a Stormcast chap on a massive Dragon and then a few other bits. I wasn't sure how I was going to deal with two massive monsters. What I did notice was that on his two outside objectives were just a couple of units of ten skinks. I got first turn and pounced, the flies and the Daemon Prince taking advantage of all the move buffs charged over and got a first turn charge on one of the skink units. I destroyed them and then burned his objective before the rest of his army could come down on me. I scored 2 points from his but I scored all 3 of mine as well. So I was 5 up in turn 1 and he was unable to score the one I destroyed from this point on. Now it was just a case of defending that lead. It was a close thing in the end, he was very aggressive with his monsters and they did some damage but I managed to carry on steadily scoring. I also managed an awseome turn 2 charge to destroy one of his other objectives and he just could not come back. End of game 2 I was still in 1st place.

Game 3. Tzeentch.
We were playing Starstrike. My opponent was a good friend of mine, from the club I go to and also someone I had never beaten with his Tzeentch. This was the first time I had played them with the new Nurgle book and I knew how his army played. He uses an unusual list but it is still very powerful. When the objectives started falling they fell in good positions for Paul, he had two on his strongest side, really close together and I didn't have much over there. I also made a mistake on my side where I chased a unit to kill them which meant a fast unit of Pauls could score on my objective. I didn't need to go after that unit, without that mistake I might have been able to score a draw, if the objectives had dropped a bit more favourably, I might have been able to win but his army is so good that I don't know. Paul really knows his army and how to play it, so it was always going to be difficult for me.

So in the end I finished 4th. I was really pleased with this, it's a new book and I was really happy to do so well with it.

Here are some pictures of my army from the day.

Until next time...

Christmas Project

Hey Folks...

As I write this it is Christmas Eve 2017. I have a few weeks off over the holiday period and I have decided to put everything I have been working on aside and concentrate on finishing one big project - my Warhound Titan. I have had this bad boy for a few months and to be honest I was actually a bit intimidated by it. Even though it's the smallest of the Titans it is a big kit with a ton of parts and not great instructions and I have been putting it off. But I thought - no more. Its an expensive kit and it is just sitting there so Christmas break was the time to get it done.

So I cleaned my desk, put all the other projects aside, made a nice clean area and brought the box downstairs. I unpacked all the bits onto a tray and then divided them up into related groups. To make it a bit more manageable I decided that I was going to do this thing in sections - divide and conquer.  Do the feet, do the legs etc. I decided to build and paint the legs and then move onto the top half.

I have heard that the feet are one of the worse bits, so I did as above, got all the bits together, cleaned them up and then glued them together. I put some thought into the pose I wanted for the whole model so I knew what I needed the feet to look like. Actually it wasn't that bad, it did take and hour or two mind, for a two feet.

Once the feet were done I moved on to the legs. Same principle, sorted all the leg pieces, cleaned them up and built them, along with the hip. At this point I also put the base together as I didn't get the legs aligned perfectly so had to put a rock outcrop on the base to get one of the legs to the right hieght.



So now the legs were assembled I began to paint them Boltgun metal undercoat with my traditional rusty look on the legs. The armour plates are a combination of Black, White and Red which are the colours of the Legio Mortis to which this Titan belongs.

I also finished off the base and stuck the legs down. So at this point the legs are done apart from one of the plates which is nearly done. There are stripes on the left leg plate which you can't totally see in the pic.

Despite my initial fear of this model I have actually really enjoyed it and it wasn't as bad as I first thought it would be. The trick is to plan, organise and make sure you have all the bits. Dry fit everything before you stick and bob is your uncle.

I will have a bit of a break over Christmas and then crack on.

Happy Christmas - until next time...

Tournament AoS.

Hey Folks...

I recently attended a tournament put on by some good friends of mine. My main reason for going was, basically just to play some games and roll some dice. I have been working abroad for a long time which has reduced my play time. I used to be a regular player at GW tournaments in Nottingham but I found that they got really competitive and, as I have mentioned before, I am not really that kind of gammer. I like to use the models I like and I am just not that into spending massive amounts of time working out the best way to smash people up. Thats not to say I don't like to win, of course I do, I just don't like playing when all my opponent cares about is winning.

Well this wasn't one of those, it was a fairly small laid back affair and I had a really great time. Unfortunately there aren't really any pictures in this report, as I didn't take any, but you can see them on the Facebook page of the 'Greetings from Sigma' group.

This is more a report on the army and units and how they performed rather than of game tactics.

My list: -
The Glotkin.
Morbidex Twiceborn.
30 Plaguebearers.
30 Plaguebearers.
5 Blightkings.
3 Nurglings.
3 Nurglings.
10 Nurgle Chaos Warriors.
5 Nurgle Chaos Knights.
1 Nurgle Chaos Chariot.

There wasn't really an overall plan. I have found in the few practise games I play that I tend to win by scenario in a long drawn out slugfest. I tend to be able to manage Alpha Strikes well and can endure them to take it out in the long game.

Game 1. Lizards. 
I was worried in this game as I have never really played Lizards before and I know they can be pretty powerful. They have lots of tricks and my opponent explained them all to me - I remembered nothing of this conversation. I basically thought - well I will see what happens. As stated my expectations of this tournament were to learn a few things and play some games. Well turn 1 he teleported is Stegosaurus over, shot and charged The Glotkin and took a huge chuck out of him, at this point I was thinking that this game was going to be over pretty soon. But I remained focussed on the scenario and objectives and moved my army to start scoring as soon as possible. The one thing I was surprised about was how big my army seemed to be compared to everyone else's and this really paid off in the end. I managed to start taking away some of his models, the Blightkings came in to their first combat with a massive hit and wiped out a 20 man Skink unit in one go. For each 6 they roll to hit it causes D6 hits, in this combat from 15 attacks I rolled six 6's. The Nurglings were also doing a sterling job holding up the other flank and in-fact were increasing the size of their unit thanks to Morbidex's ability to generate new bases each turn. In the end my numbers took their toll and each turn I was scoring and at the end of turn 5 I had a convincing victory. I was really chuffed.

Game 2. Khorne. 
This was a full on Khorne rush army. Two units of Jugger Cav and then a ton of infantry. There wasn't really anything I could do about getting charged so I stuck a big unit of Plaguebearers and the Nurglings in front of the Cav and then everything else went after his Infantry. I was hoping that the Plaguebearers could hold one flank whilst the rest of my army could take out his army and then swing round to help. This was one of the scenarios where the objectives dropped during the game. As it turned out they dropped in my favour. The Plaguebearers did hold the flank and my other units did take out his army. Now this is the controversial bit - I lost on objectives points scored. However we only got to turn 3 (there was a long phone call involved). If we had played turn 4 I would have claimed three objectives and taken a massive lead. He did not have enough left of his army to win on turn 5 either. So whilst it went down on the scorecard as a loss I am counting it as a victory. I was a little annoyed but then I remembered my intention to go and have fun and learn some stuff so I took it on the chin and let it go.

Game 3. Ghosts.
This was an interesting army. The scenario was the basic capture the flag. Defend one objective and take another. My opponents army was basically made up of spirit hosts and I had no idea how to play them. They ignored all "Rend" and had a multitude of saves. I made mistakes in this game through lack of knowledge, I charged The Glotkin into the Ghost units when I should have charged my bigger Infantry units etc. Well in the end it was a draw on objectives but I lost on points. My opponent took out the Glotkin and Morbidex Twiceborn which scored him a ton of points, lots of his units licked out Mortal wounds and the Glotkin can't do anything about those. This was a good learning game and the next time I play this type of army I will feel better equipped.

Conclusions. 
So a win and two loses, I'll take that. But the best thing over the weekend was winning the Best Painted army award. This was voted for by the players so I feel really cool that they picked mine. I think this is one of the highest honours you can get from other players. I won by 1 vote from a beautiful Sylvaneth army and this was the army I actually voted for myself.

I was really pleased with the way my army performed and I took a lot away from just those three games. The way I play certain units, what units are good at, what they aren't etc. Stars of the show were probably the Plaguebearers. They held up really well, took out a ton of stuff and were virtually impossible to move. With the +1A form the Glotkin they are absolute monsters. Without the +1A from the Glotkin they aren't as good but they are still tough nuts to crack. The Blightkings were awesome as well, they can kick out some real damage and even without the +D6 they are still pretty dangerous, they also suck a lot of attention as well which can be a benefit. The Glotkin was good, its hard to ascertain his total benefit as its the buff that does the damage more than The Glotkin himself. He still has some great attacks and spells. Mortbidex was ok, I am not sure I fully utilised his abilities but the Nurgle generating ability is great and the Nurglings really caused some issues. No units really performed badly at all. I would like to bump the Blightkings from 5 to 10 which will cause a bit of jiggling around, I would also like to try out some other units to see how they play but I think the backbone of this army is pretty solid and I wont move away from The Glotkin and Plaguebearers for a while.

Until next time...

General update and some random stuff.

Hey Folks....

Hobby time has been completely minimal for the last couple of months, I have been working away again and spending the vast majority of the last three months working in Brazil (its not as cool as it sounds).

Chaos Dwarves

From my other posts you may have seen that I am currently getting into AoS in a big way, well I did manage to get some other bits and pieces done in the mean time. The release of the new version of Bloodbowl has been a great incentive to get some models done. I managed to paint up my Chaos Dwarf team that has been sitting in the case for some time. It was nice to paint some metal models again. I have always been a fan of playing the "underdog" teams like the Halflings and Goblins, well a brand new Goblin team is about to be released and those have been ordered, but I also picked up a Halfling team from a different manufacturer. Its not often I use non GW models for GW Games but the sculpts on these things were really cool.

Chaos Dwarf Team - Hobgoblins

I got them from Salute which happened recently. One of the Treemen is painted already and I will start on a couple of the Halflings soon. To go along with this team I also have the mystical Grak and Crumbleberry which is an Ogre and Halfling star player combo. You can only get these from Warhammer World and Shows and they have been going for a fortune on E-Bay. Well fortunately I don't live that far from Warhammer World so managed to pick them up on a recent trip. I have painted Crumbleberry already and plan to add Grak really soon.

Chaos Dwarf Team - Bull Centaurs

Crumbleberry - Star Player

Halfling Treeman

Kalistra 12mm Orcs

Some other bits I picked up at Salute were from Kalistra, they are a 12mm Fantasy range. I didn't really buy them for any other reason than I thought they looked cool. Kalistra do their own rules for the models, I haven't read them so not sure what the game is like but I really liked the look of them. So I'll paint them up just to paint.

But AoS has been a focus and I have managed to add to the painted models for my new Order army. I finished the unit of Stormcast and also the unit of Kurnoth Hunters. I have also purchased the rest of the models for the army so its all here and sitting in boxes ready to go. The plan now is to stick together and paint the Dwarf Gyrobombers and the Celestial Hurricanum as these are models that I can't really play with unless the are painted as I can't paint them stuck together. Once these are done I will stick together and rebase the rest of the models as then I can at least play with the army whilst I paint the rest of it up.

GW also released AoS Skirmish, this came out as a bit of a surprise but it is a really good game. You buy models on an individual basis and they all act separately on the table. There is a campaign in the book but also some Match Play scenarios. It is really good fun and armies can vary from 3 models, with 10 to 12 being common up to 25 for certain armies. It allows new players to get the idea of the game but it also allows veteran players to build smaller armies of a new race or try out something new. I have played a few games just using the Nurgle Daemons and some of the Order models without putting any real thought into tactics so I can't offer any advice on army building for Skirmish. Shooting was ok but didn't have as much of an effect as I thought it would. Quality over quantity seems to be a thing, again this is from a very limited amount of games but I played a friend with his Orcs (or Urrrks, whatever they are now), he only had four models - a Megaboss and three of the really hard boys, and the Megaboss just smashed face. He is so hard to take out and if you don't he will just wreck whatever it was you were trying to hit him with. But its fun, easy to get into and quick to play without diminishing the tactical element of the game.

Until next time...

Into the Age of Sigmar.

Hey Folks...

So I am really getting into Age of Sigmar (AoS). Mainly because there are more people getting into it at the club and, as mentioned in a previous post, an old friend from my school days wanted to play. It has come from the reading of the scrolls and some of the new models of course. What AoS allows is a really diverse set of armies. Now the tournament scene will migrate to set lists, it always does, given time it finds the best combinations and the models that are the most efficient - damage output per points cost etc.

As many of you will know I am all about the fluff/theme/cool. I have played a couple of games with my Nurgle Daemons and also the Ogors. Neither of these two armies really floated my boat, there isn't much variety in them and the tactics are fairly limited. I was pondering on which direction to go and have been leafing through the various battle tomes and it occurred to me that I have an Empire army from many years ago sitting unfinished in some figure cases upstairs. I proceeded to dig them out to see what I had. Well already painted I had two units of Hand Gunners, a unit of Pistoliers, a unit of Heavy Cav and a Steamtank, plus a Wizard. Unpainted I had a unit of Swordsman, some Archers and a couple of bits of Artillery. Well that is pretty much a 1500 army right there.

What I really wanted to do was a rag tag army of Azyer. Cobbled together from survivors of a Chaos Invasion or something. So an army using mainly Empire but with some Elves, Dwarves, Stormcast thrown in for good measure. This would allow me to built a versatile army that could do a bit of everything and I could change it at will. It also allowed me to buy the odd unit from time-to-time to mix it up, I would not be restricted by my list. So Mixed Order it is.....

I decided to start by just re-basing everything I already had painted. It might not be the best units but its painted so this would save me some time getting the army on the table. I then decided that I should really build a list so that I know for sure how may points I have plus what units to buy next.

So this is the list I ended up with and why: -

Leaders

Waywatcher.	I had the model already and this guy is pretty badass. He can fire six shots in the shooting phase. I also wanted to include some Sylvaneth units and I didn't want to include them without having a Wood Elf type hero to lead them.
Cogsmith.	Again, I had the model and I am including some Dwarf units, some of which are artillery so it seemed like a good idea to have this guy in there. Plus it is a really good model.
Celestial Hurricanum with a Battlemage	As you will notice on reading the list there are a fair amount of shooting units. This guy gives them a nice bonus of +1 to shoot, plus it is a wizard and again it’s a pretty awesome model to lead the army. This guy will be the General, I haven't decided on all the extras for him yet.

Battleline

Freeguild Handgunners	There will be two units of 10 of these, basically because I have the models and they are painted.
Freeguild Archers	There will be a unit of 10, I have the models already. Some of them are painted. Plus it’s a shooting unit which is kinda the theme.
Freeguild Guard	A unit of 20 with Swords and Shield. Again I had the models and I need a decent sized non shooting unit to screen my best units and to go grab objectives. Again I have the models already they just need painting.
Stormcast Liberators	I was initially going to start a Stormcast army until I realised I hand a bunch of Order units already so this was the first unit I bought for that army. So I will paint it up and put it in.

Other Units

Dwarf Cannon	A decent warmachine for taking out large targets or at least knocking off a few wounds to make them weaker.
Hellblaster Volley Gun	I had one already. Both the cannon and this will benefit from the Cogsmith.
Empire Knights	I had a unit of 5 already painted up and these guys are mobile and able to hunt down warmachines and go for objectives.
Freeguild Pistoliers	I had a unit of 5 of these already painted. I will use them to go after objectives but also to get behind the lines of the opponent and maybe go for their heros or wizards.
Gyrobombers	I will have 2 of these, mainly because they have guns and look cool.
Kurnoth Hunters	Thes guys look awseome and are badass. The models are just too cool so I had to put a unit of them in.

So that is the list I am going for, 2000 on the button. As mentioned I already own pretty much all of the army so I just need to get painting the few bits that are missing. I might actually put it on the table before I have finished painting it just because I am really into AoS at the moment and just want to get some games in. So keep an eye out for some reports on how it plays soon.

So here are some of the models that I have rebased, some of these models I must have painted 15 odd years ago and it shows, but they are in pretty good shape and with the new bases I think they look ok on the table top.

Until next time....

Age of Sigma, the butterfly strikes again.

Hey Folks....

O. M. G. (excuse the teenage expression) I have so much stuff to paint right now, its piling up on the desk in a massive mountain. I am also working abroad a lot at the moment which really isn't helping.

Myself and three of my old school friends recently got together at Warhammer world to play some Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower. We used to play a lot as kids but grown up life took us in different directions and spread us out over the country, and in one case New Zealand. But with the release of the new game and some international travel stars aligning we all managed to arrange a weekend at the Mecca of gaming to play. Well long story short we all really loved it and my friend Steve who had been contemplating getting back into some gaming decided to take the jump into AoS. So with his enthusiasm for a new system ringing in my ears I started looking at it more and then the creative juices started to roll.

I have a decent size Daemon army I can use for AoS but with the release of some really cool new Stormcast Eternal models I decided to take a tentative look into a new army. This involves the inevitable test model.

I have painted a couple of Stormcast for the WHQ game in the standard gold scheme but fancied doing something a little different. I am going through a bit of a White phase at the moment. White looks really good when done well, the trick is doing it well. I have pretty much mastered it with my 30K HH army and it is this scheme that I will be applying. Although the darling of GW Ben Curry has done a similar thing and got it pasted all over the Internet - I had the idea first.

Stormcast Test model.

So what to paint? I was toying with the idea of buying the AoS starter box but wasn't sure I wanted to put down that much money on it when ultimately I might not play it that much so I just purchased a box of Liberators. This is a unit that would be in the army pretty much every time if I decided that it was an army I wanted to play. I stuck together one model and sprayed it White before applying the HH Death Guard scheme. Given that I have a ton of actual HH models waiting to be painted i found this kinda ironic. Well as you can see I think they game out ok.

In other AoS news I made my way to Warhammer World to give Steve his first real game, and what a location to play your first AoS game. I took my Nurgle Daemons with me and managed to get painted the final model for the list just before we played. The army is all Nurgle Daemons and it only felt appropriate to be lead by Epideimus.

We played a really fun game which ended in a draw. It was the Comet Scenario where you score the number of points per objective equal to the game turn. I managed to score early whilst denying Steve and built up the points but then he managed to clear off his objective in turn 4. This left the score 9 to 4 in my favour with 5 points going per objective on the last turn. Well Steve managed to sweep around with his Orc Cav and contest my objective whilst controlling his own, I was unable to clear him out of the way and thus it ended with Steve scoring 5 and making it a draw. Its a really well thought out scenario and I had not really thought about the scoring being equal to the turn number until the end. I was way ahead in points and couldn't really see a way back for Steve so I didn't think about my positioning with regard to the scenario and this caught me out at the end. It goes to show that in AoS it really isn't over until the Fat Daemon sings.

I have managed to paint a few other bits since the last post. I have finished all the HH 30K models for my initial 2500 pt Death Guard list but there is so much more to paint. My initial list was built to get models on the table but it needs a lot of work to make it into the list I am happy with so there is more to paint there. I have also finished some Tzeentch Heralds on Discs for my 40K Daemon army. I think this is going to change into a whole list. I purchased the new Fateweaver model recently as it is just so awesomely good. I pretty much have all the models for Tzeentch army, just a case of getting them stuck together and painted (as always).

I also painted a Daemon Prince, there is a new formation that is three Daemon Princes and Magnus which could be good fun.

Death Guard Stormblade.

Herald

Tzeentch Daemon Prince

 Until next time....

I finished something!!!

Hey Folks...

Today is a glorious day - I finished an army. I know that an army is never finished but what is finished is my initial 1850 list. My current standard practise with a new army is to begin with a list, this is usually based on some theme I have in mind or just based around a few models I like the look of. Normally once I have this initial army painted up i'll play a few games with it and then decide that its not actually that good on the table and then change a bunch of bits.

This army is yet to hit the table but it is ready and waiting. So a brief history of this army - Many years ago GW did a world wide campaign, it was related to the release of the Eye of Terror book and one of the lists in that book was a Traitor Guard type list. It was really awesome, you could take Guard models and Chaos Space Marine units, mutants - was really cool. I built a fairly solid list from that book and modelled it using Guard and Zombie kits, but as with all things that list was phased out and the models went into storage.

But then Forge World released Imperial Armour 13 and back came the Heretics list and my dreams came true. Out came the box with all my zombie Guard models and I got right to work building a list. This time it was better, I got all the tank options, Super heavies etc. I looked over what I had and didn't need to paint anything in terms of Infantry apart from a Plague Zombie unit, these guys don't have weapons and all the models I had built had guns, no problem I just bought a box of zombies and that was it. Then I needed a bunch of tanks. A couple of Leman Russ, a couple of Hydras a couple of Chimera chaises and a Baneblade. Colour scheme wise I have just done them using the rust technique that I used on my Chaos Marine army as then I could play them together for bigger games. This wont take long at all...... well then GW release the Calth set and a few other things that distracted me, my wife and I also had a baby and so a couple of years later after finishing off that initial list I finally have a completed army.

I think it looks pretty good, a lot of the infantry models are over 10 years old so do show my painting skill at that time, but as they are diseased zombies I kinda got away with it. The vehicles look Ok, a good table top standard but I finally have the Traitor Guard army that I always wanted. I can't wait to get it on the table and see how it goes. It has a surprising amounted of firepower and also bodies, admittedly none of them are very good units so I am hoping that sheer weight of dice will come out in my favour.

The one model I am really pleased with is the Baneblade. This is the centre piece to the list. I will be writing some fluff up for this model which can be found in the IA13 page. The premise is that it's an old Baneblade that used to be in the service of the Death Guard before the Horus Heresy so it's the same rusted scheme as the other tanks but with some of the White/Green of the pre Heresy Death Guard. Another model that I have plans for is a Renegade Knight, with the release of the Traitors Hate book these are official models now. This Knight is going to be all rusted up and damaged. I am actually going to use the first Knight I painted up and hit it with a drill and repaint it. That Knight was originally going to be part of a Knight Tanaris house army that never really materialised so I am going to re-purpose the model. Again, the fluff for this can be found on the IA13 page.

So that's it, after a many years and several book versions the renegade army I envisioned so long ago will finally be on the table in all its glory. The other advantage of this army is that it will pair well with my Chaos Marines for larger games and if the rumours are true there will be some nice new rules for Chaos Marines coming soon. Look for more fluff on the IA13 page and hopefully some battle reports coming up soon.

Here are a few other pictures of some bits of the army.

Renegade Ogryn and Sgt.

Plague Zombies

Hydra Battery

This is the Renegade Knight that mentioned above. I managed to get it finished before I got the pictures for the post. As mentioned this was originally painted as a loyal Knight, I normally paint Knights with all the armour plates off but in this case I had to paint it all stuck together. I popped it off the base and then stuck on all the Chaos bits before hitting it with a Boltgun Metal spray and then setting to work with the brush.

I really like the way it turned out and look forward to writing some fluff up for him.

Until next time.....

Frostgrave is back.

Hey Folks.

My club are starting a Frostgrave campaign soon, I really like this game, I have played it a few times but not to any real depth so I am really looking forward to the campaign and getting a few solid games in.

I do have a Warband modelled up using some spare GW figures I had lying around but I wasn't totally happy with it. It was painted ok and the models were fine but it was a bit thrown together. So its a new campaign - time for a new Warband.

I was going to go with an all female Warband and I picked up a few suitable models but, truth be told, there isn't a vast range of female models but I kept looking. I recently went to a wargames show in Derby and stumbled across a few models that I instantly thought would make an excellent Frostgrave Warband so I kinda ditched the female idea although I will still use a couple of the models in the new Warband.

I wanted to stay away from GW models this time, this isn't a GW game and I wanted it to not look and feel like a GW game so I am using models from other manufacturers. There isn't a theme so much but there is a certain look about the Warband that makes them all fit in. The main wizard and some of the Warband like Barbarians etc will be Dwarf models. I also found some great Halfling models which I will use as Archers and Men at Arms and the Treasure Hunters will come from Frostgrave warriors box. My apprentice will be one of the female models I picked up. It has a very "fantasy/Lord of the Rings" feel to it as you have a mix of races, the GW models I was using were a bit "human". They are also slightly smaller than the GW stuff and I just think they have a nice look to them.

As its only a small campaign we are starting with 1000gps so I could go straight in with a fairly decent Warband. So my initial composition will be: -

Home Base - Inn (allows 11 total in the Warband).
Wizard.
Apprentice.
Ranger.
Barbarian.
Barbarian.
Treasure Hunter.
Treasure Hunter.
Man at Arms.
Man at Arms.
Archer.
Archer.

I think this build is pretty good. I have a solid firebase of three warriors with Bows. These guys can get into position with the help of a wizardly leap and shot a few people up. The Ranger also adds a little versatility. I was going to go with a third Archer instead of a second Treasure Hunter but I think its too much and leaves me short up the field.

The Barbarians will just get forward as fast as possible and try and hit stuff. The Treasure Hunters and Men at Arms will work as a pair, the Treasure Hunter getting forward the the Treasure with a Man at Arms bodyguard who will hang around and protect the retreating Treasure Hunter once the he has his stash.

The Ranger can also go for Treasure as well as he is fairly fast moving too.

At the time of writing I have finished a few models, one of the Archers, the Apprentice, the Ranger and one of the Treasure Hunters. I was hoping to get the whole group finished before the campaign started I am travelling to Argentina for a couple of weeks so I don't think I am going to finish.

So these are the models that I have finished so far.

From left to right. Treasure Hunter, Apprentice, Ranger, Archer.

The Treasure Hunter is a battle hardened man with worldly experience.
The Apprentice - the young girl with power making her way in the world.
The Ranger is agile, nimble (I know the model is a little un PC).
The Halfling Archer - not to be underestimated.

I really like all these models, they have a lot of character to them and work well together I think.

I'll post up progress on the Warband and how the games are going in the next few weeks.

Until next time.