A Fly on the wall.

Hi Folks

So I have been away from the keyboard for a while, in a strange twist of fate I have actually had a bit of a social life the last few weekends so blog posting time hasn't been so abundant, GTA5 may have a bit to do with it as well.

As I may have mentioned (once or twice) I recently moved house. During the time leading up to this myself and my Mrs had to have the "conversation", where was my painting setup going to go? Andrea wanted this to be a "grown-up house" and as I had my own Man-Cave all gaming related objects should be placed here. I then mentioned that I like to paint in the evenings so if the painting was to go in the Man-Cave we really wouldn't see each other that much. This kicked off a long process which I believe is known as - compromise. I suggested a writing desk style piece of furniture, a bureau. this allowed me all the space I needed, could be tucked away in a corner and also could be closed up to hide all the toys when our grown-up friends came round for dinner. So here is the current painting setup.

Everything you see in the rather messy state can be packed away within the bureau and be out of sight but it actually gives you a lot of storage and space to paint. As you can see I am in the middle of my second Soul Grinder for the Daemons and there are a couple of Khador bits waiting in the wings. It wasn't a cheap option at £200 but it should last a long time and its something I'll get a lot of use out of.

So onto hobby stuff, the main hobby related thing I have been doing over the last few weeks is buying stuff, this is both good and bad. How can this be bad you ask yourself? Well, I have spoken before about my tendencies to start projects and then get half way through and have another idea and then start something else, well this has lead to me having  a large collection of unopened boxes lying around. I had actually managed to get the pile down a bit but it does seem to be creeping back up again.

The reason for my splurge is that I managed to get to Dark Sphere in London, its a really cool shop that sells everything so I bought a few bits for Warmachine and some stuff for Flames of War, I am not a massive fan of ordering stuff from the Internet, I like to look at it, a rather old fashioned view I know. Game shops are also a dying breed and I like to support them when possible.

I have been keeping up with the plan to finish off my Daemon Nurgle army by completing the Plague Flies unit bringing it up to five strong including a banner. Next is the Soul Grinder (using the Forge World model). Once this is done it just leaves me a bunch more Plague Bearers and then it comes to the final few points. Originally I was going to go for a Daemon Prince but I am having second thoughts. I need some decent air defense so I am submitting to the beard in me and going with some Chaos Marine allies so I can get a Helldrake into the list. I am, however, going to do something different with the model so it fits in the rest of the army, its an ambitious conversion I have in mind but if it works out it should be stunning, i'll keep you posted.

Epic Sorcha

I have also been painting up a few Warmachine bits on the side. I have been playing a lot of Epic Sorcha lately but using the Prime model but during one of my recent trips to an indie model shop I managed to pick up the Epic version. She is a great caster and her feat is truly devastating when played at the right moment, in a recent game Beast09 managed to totally destroy one Menoth Heavy Jack and take three quarters of the boxes off another, brutal.

A while back I also picked up the starter set for the new Convergence of Cyriss, I quite liked the look of the models and the paint scheme is pretty easy, I haven't put a lot of time into the painting them, I am just looking to get them on the table asap. I am not really sure on tactics with these chaps yet but with the battle box caster and the faction in general its all about the Jacks (Vectors) which is pretty different to my Khador which is basically a one                                                                                             Jack army.

Convergence of Cyriss

Last but not least I painted up Durgen Madhammer, I have had a bunch of Rhulic models for several years but they have just sat in a box. Whilst not the most powerful army I loved the Dwarf models and with the release of the new Rhulic colossal I decided to dig them out and give them a bit of love, I can always use Rhulic units with my Khador army as well so they have a dual purpose. Durgen is a great model with a ridiculously large hammer and also a fairly substantial gun for such a little fella. His spell list is kinda cool and his feat can be brutal but you need to build a list with these specific spells in mind otherwise he won't do too well. I would like to get some Rhulic stuff done so will do the odd bit here and there when the mood strikes.

Durgen Madhammer

So what's next? I will carry on with the 40K Daemons, they are so close to being finished and it will be nice to have them done. Not sure what to do after that, I have a bunch of Khador bits to do and some Flames of War so will probably get those bits done. Although if rumor has it then 40K Knights are about to hit so that might be worth looking into. I have always loved the back story to the Mechanicum and have been eyeing up some of the Forge World models so will be interesting to see what that release brings. 

Until next time... 

Beast and the Beast 09

Hey Folks.

Have managed to get another couple of bits painted this week. Have pretty much finished setting up the Man Cave in the new house but after taking a couple of pictures I am not so happy with the camera setup. I used to use a desk lamp, in the new Man Cave I thought I would try with natural light but the pictures don't look so good, so bare with me whilst I work on getting a setup I like.

So nothing major in this blog post just a couple of updates.

I have made many references to my hobby butterfly tendencies and making lists and I have basically failed. So my resolution this year was to finish one 40K army (the Daemons). I have employed technology in the form of an app called Wunderlist and am noting down the models I am going to paint in order, ticking them off when complete. I am hoping the application of the technological list will help.

So first tick on the list was the Beasts of Nurgle. I am using three in the army and model wise I am going to use the Nurgle Plague Toads from Forge World. They are great models and full of Nurgle flavour, although a bit bigger than the standard model I am just going to use them anyway as they just look too awesome.

Beasts of Nurgle.

 Simple models but just so full of character.

This next model isn't on the list but I actually painted it some time ago but didn't get chance to take a picture. This is Beast09, a fantastic Khador Warjack. I am trying a couple of new casters one of them being Sorcha, this is her Jack. I like to use character Warjacks for the appropriate caster as it just adds a bit of fluff.

Beast 09

I tried him out for the first time last night and he was pretty awesome, he just walked up to a Menoth Heavy and toasted it in one go with a little help from Sorcha's feat. He is very much an all rounder, he can take infantry with Thresher, he charges for free, he can boost all his hits for the cost of one focus, has reach and with a boost from Sorcha has an effective threat range of 11 inches, whats not to love?














Until next time...

Return of the Nurgle

Hey Folks.... Its been a while since the last post, house moving is a pain and seems to take a lot longer than you think it will. I am still in the process of getting everything setup, I have a painting desk finally so have started to paint again after a long break. The man cave has been done, well the basics anyway. Only one casualty - one of my display cases door shattered on the way up the stairs, not sure what happened but it was roughly 5 minutes after I had said "I got these from Argos and they have lasted ages".

What I have done is made a decision - I need to finish off one of my semi completed 40K projects and the most advanced is my Nurgle Daemons. Its so close to completion that it won't take much to get it done. I have been playing with a few list ideas but for this army I am just going to go with what I like the look of, not going to pay too much attention to whats powerful or the latest net list.

Having looked at the net lists they seem to revolve around maxed out flying Daemon Princes with minimal troops and some allied Chaos Space Marines to allow access to a Helldrake. I would love a Helldrake in the army as the one thing my list is going to lack is the ability to deal with flyers but this is just something I am going to have to try and deal with. I will have a couple of Soul Grinders that can shoot flyers but not sure how affective they will be.

The reason I don't like the maxed out DP lists are they just look lope sided, why would an army have all the most power things but minimal troops? It just doesn't look right to me.

So this is the 1850 list I am going to start with, still a few points left as I need to decide on Icons and Gifts.

Ku'gath Plaguefather.
Daemon Prince (Wings).
Soul Grinder.
Soul Grinder.
5 or 6 Plague Drones.
3 Beasts of Nurgle.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
10 Plaguebearers.
7 Nurglings.

I am going for the Horde approach as thats what I think Daemons would do, open a rift and then pile through. I went for Ku'gath as I want to use the Forge World model and its suitably impressive that it could only be Ku'garth. Plus he also has a useful ranged attack as well as being rock hard.

The flying DP can zip around and take out those hard to reach targets as the rest of the army is slow, he can also help to deal with flyers.

The Soul Grinders also have a Skyfire attack so can help out on the flyer front, the Phlegm Cannon is also good against infantry and they are good at taking out hard targets in close combat.

The Flies can run up the pitch and help to get some accurate deep strikes with icons and are also pretty good in combat.

Then lots of troops in the form of Plaguebearers. These will go for objectives, the only concern is not running Heralds to give them Feel No Pain. As the PB's lack any real damage output and with there being so many I am thinking the points spent on Heralds could be used on other things.

The Nurglings are there because I think they look cool and why not use them.

So thats the list, I don't think its going to be mega competitive in the current game which is dominated by shooting but I think as an army it will look awesome. As I mentioned before I have pretty much got all the models already so there won't be much to buy and with the paint scheme I have it won't take a lot of work to get it to the table. With the other armies I was considering (Deathwing or Eldar) I would basically be starting from scratch.

P.S.

So work has begun, Christmas has just come and gone and Santa was kind. The Forgeworld Greater Daemon model, three Plague Toads and a Plague Drone were deposited in my stocking. Also got some vouchers which meant I could purchase the extra Plague Drones and Nurglings. So I think I have all the models I need.

I managed to finish the Greater Daemon over the Christmas holidays. Plague Toads (which I will be using as Beasts) are next.

Forgeworld Greater Daemon of Nurgle. 

Until next time...

FoW (zee Germans)

Hey Folks...

Just a quick one with a picture of my finished Flames of War Germans. I don't really have the photo setup right now to take decent close ups of 6mm so here is a large group shot. This is the contents of the Open Fire starter set, I will probably paint up the yanks at some point but I have this real thing for German tanks, I think they look loads better than the Allies.

I am not too familiar with the correct terms of FoW yet but the army is basically: -

1. A command group with rocket launcher support.
2. Two units of Rifle/Machine Gun teams.
3. Two PaK40's.
4. Three Stugs (Tank Hunter Tanks).

Pretty easy to paint allow the Infantry was a bit of a grind but I really like the way the look when finished. I have my first game lined up in a couple of weeks so will spend a bit of time flicking through the rule book, I have plans on how to expand this army so will see how the first game goes and then expand from there.

Until next time...

Centurions

Hey Folks

Trying to get as much Hobby in as possible at the moment. I should be moving house in a few weeks so I suspect my hobby time might get reduced for a while after the move. The bonus is that the house we are moving to is only 50ft way so moving should be fairly pain free, I also get my own man-cave too. I am hoping this will give me enough space to put in some kind of video setup so I can do some model 360 vids. But I need to fully plan out the room first.

So whats been going on? Well I have had my second and third games in the Warmachine tourney against Dave and his Cryx and Andrew and his Gators. Dave put his army on the table and my first thought was that I had no chance of winning. Dave had a couple of Units of Banes, Nyss and Goreshade ready to summon another Bane unit. He also had a couple of fast moving jacks and Tartar Sauce to get Banes back if I managed to kill any. I was using my more sensible army but looking at the sheer number of Weapon Master Banes I thought I was going to get smashed. But I always have a good game against Dave so I set about trying to do my best.

I got lucky early game, my Widowmakers shot up the Nyss and then they ran away. Dave's first charge against my Man-O-War failed to do much thanks to some bad dice rolls on Dave's part and a couple of passed Tough tests for me. The Man-O-War with a damage boost buff managed to dispatch most of the Banes in front of them and then the Winterguard hiding behind them managed to take out a few more. I feated which prevented Dave from charging and then my shooting managed to take out enough of the remaining Banes to reduce Dave's damage output to non-threat levels. It was a tense game but I played a lot better in this game, thinking about my own strengths and plan and not letting the other army freak me out into a change of plan. It worked and I also got a bit of luck. In the end it was a bit of a slaughter, I lost the Man-O-War and a couple of Winterguard, Dave was left with his caster.

I also managed to get a win against Andrews Gators winning on scenario. This was just a game of attrition, two armies grinding it out against each other and I came out ahead. The Gators are good but their model count was low and my Khador can take hits as well as dishing out the pain. The Gators were good and difficult to get rid of, but once they started falling each model lost was a real hit for the army.

Spiggan

Model wise I have put together a couple of new casters (pVald and pButcher) and made a start on the Warjack Drago. I also put together Gorman de Wolfe and Eyriss, I used them for the first time in a game in Brighton and really liked them, they may have to find a space in more of my Khador armies. After these guys I will probably leave the Khador for a while, I am still after a Behemoth and War Wagon so if I see those models around I will pick them up. I did manage to finish my Spriggan although he is yet to take the field in anger.

 I continue to work on the Flames of War starter set Germans and have completed the command section. I have also painted up a couple more Bolt Action models, again completing my German commander unit. I also put together my first infantry unit and they are on the paint station ready and waiting.

Bolt Action German Command

Centurions

GW released the new Space Marine codex this month, so I picked that up as well as a box of the new Centurions. I didn't like these when I first saw them but the real models are better than the pictures. It took a while for me to decide how to arm them, the Grav Cannons seem the obvious choice but I wasn't sure about them, but I think I will give them a go and see how they get on.

German - Conquest

Hey Folks...

The first game of our club Warmachine tourney happened this week and I managed to field my newly painted Conquest.  Needless to say that "newly painted model" syndrome hit and the big bugger didn't do anything.

Conquest

Having been off the hobby for a while with my shoulder injury I really felt rusty. I thought my 35pt Conquest list was a real winner but I played like a complete noob. I did have a chance to win the game as my Conquest had three chances to hit and kill the opposing Warcaster but he managed to miss with each swing.

Looking back at the game I don't think Irusk is the best caster to use with the Conquest, Fire For Effect is a good spell but Irusk cant really get anything else out of the big boy, I have a few candidates for my next caster which can utilise the Conquest so I have them ready to be painted up. I think the first one I will try with him is the Butcher, nice simple run and hit stuff. I think his buffs and feat will work better with the Conquest. Irusk is a finesse caster, the Butcher - not so much.

This month I also managed to paint up my IronFang Officer and Standard, the rest of the unit currently sitting in their box waiting to be assembled.

IronFang UA

As well as the Warmachine stuff I have been painting up some WW2 models of various scales. I have always had an interest in WW2 and have been reading up on it more and more over that last few years so I thought I would try out some WW2 gaming which I haven't ever really got into before.

German Infantry

A while ago I bought the new Flames of War (FOW) stater set, for the money its really good value. You get a bunch of models infantry and tanks for both the Germans and Americans plus some scenery, dice etc. Its a game I have looked at but never really liked the look of due to the infantry models, but the more I have looked at it the more I fancied having a go. I watched a few videos on YouTube and liked the look of it so I thought why not. The starter set isn't that expensive so if I don't like it, then I haven't wasted too much money. I painted up some of the tanks a while ago and now I have finished my first unit of Troops. This is one of the basic German infantry units, the beauty of 6mm is that you don't have to spend a massive amount of time on them to make them look good. I found that a basic paint scheme and then a wash with a basic highlight is enough to make them look pretty good. I also painted one of the big artillery pieces. I am looking forward to getting them on the table, one of the other guys at the club has the same set, so he is painting up the Americans so we can play our first game. I also picked up one of the "Army Books", these focus one one particular period or operation and give army lists for the forces that fought during that time. The first book I got was the one focusing on Operation Market Garden, there are two books, one looking at it from the German point of view and then the other from the Allies perspective. As well as the army lists there is a lot of interesting info on the history and people that were involved. They are well worth a read.

Pak 40

On the WW2 theme I have also picked up the rule book and some models for Bolt Action. This is a 28mm WW2 game and is very popular at the club I go to in Brighton. You don't need a massive amount of models for a decent game and the models do look very nice. I am in the middle of painting up my first German officer as a test piece before assembling the units and planning out my first 1000 points. Warlord actually have a 1000pt German Starter army that actually looks pretty cool so I might just invest in that.

So to finish off here are another couple of pictures of the Conquest. So whats next? Well I have a couple of new Khador casters to paint, also a couple of Warjacks in boxes namely a Spriggan and the character Jack Drago. I will also be aiming to finish off the rest of my Flames of War Germans so we can play our first game. The Bolt Action Germans will also get some attention purely because I really like the models.

Until next time...

One Warcaster and his dog (and a horse)

Hey folks,

Ok so yet again I am very late with another post, but this time I have a really good excuse. I am a very keen cyclist and about four weeks ago I got a bit too keen going down a hill and ended up having a bit of a crash which resulted in a broken collar bone. As you can appreciate this put a bit of a dampener on my hobby time. On the bright side once I got to be able to move my arm enough to get in the painting position I had enough time off work to actually get a lot done. What I had to do was get everything out with my good army, sit down and then with my good arm move my bad arm into position with the brush (after a bunch of painkillers). Then when I needed to dip or wash the brush I would take the brush out of my bad hand with the good hand, do what I needed and then put it back. This was slow, but I had plenty of time to kill.

So I have been focusing on my Khador arm, there is a Steamroller tourney coming up at the club and I wanted to get the Khador army all painted, as I have mentioned I don't like playing with unpainted models and there is nothing like a tourney deadline to spur on the painting. I have been playing a few practise games and have come up with a list I like, this tourney actually allows two lists, so I am going to take one list that I know will work ok and then something a bit more risky.

Epic Irusk. 

My list is basically a Winterguard Deathstar and this will form the basis of both lists. Then the other bits can be interchanged.

My caster is Epic Irusk. He works really well with an infantry based army, he is not a combat caster
but a buff/support caster. He gives Tough to units and allows them to move through each other and ignore friendlies when determining Line Of Sight. He has a couple of great spells like Fire For Effect which is an upkeep that allows a unit to boost To Hit and Damage rolls for the first shooting attack they make. This is great with a Mortar or Conquest for example.

The main Deathstar is as follows: -

5 Man-O-War Shocktroopers. 
Full Winterguard + Command and Standard + (1 to3) Rocketeers. 
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich.

The tactic is that the Shocktroopers go first and use Shield Wall and the Winterguard follow behind them. The Command and Standard give DEF bonuses and allow the unit spray attacks as well as normal shooting. Jozef has some useful songs to sing boosting To Hit rolls. The unit also has combined shooting and melee abilities so can take Warjacks and Infantry alike. This unit can really lay down the hurt.

The rest of the army changes depending on my mood and what models I want to take, in the main list I suspect I will take the following: -

Juggernaut. (Irusk only needs one Jack and the Jugger is good enough for 7 points).
Widowmakers. (Good unit to knock off some Warjack boxes or to take out some Solos early game).
Man-O-War Drakhun (Able move down flanks, or go after units holding objects, adds a bit of speed and hitting power to the army that largely needs to move as one).
Winterguard Mortar Crew (Big gun with a long range and AOE, whats not to love?).

The Second list will be the main Deathstar but will feature something a bit more risky: -

Conquest (Hard hit, big and shooty, will benefit from Fire For Effect. Downside is that its a lot of points for a 35pt list. If the enemy takes it out thats 19pts from a 35pt list, thats a big hole).

So the full lists are: -

List 1.
Epic Irusk
Juggernaut
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Man-O-War Drakhun
Man-O-War Shocktroopers (full unit)
Winterguard (full unit) + Officer and Standard + 2 Rocketeers
Winterguard Mortar Crew
Widowmakers

List 2.
Epic Irusk
Conquest
Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich
Man-O-War Shocktroopers (full unit)
Winterguard (full unit) + Officer and Standard + 2 Rocketeers

I am really enjoying playing my Khador army as they are really different to the Cryx I have been playing for the best part of three years. They were very much "run forward and hit stuff", but the Khador army takes a bit more thinking about but also has more options on what it can do.

So painting wise I have got a whole bunch of stuff done whilst I have been off, it has taken longer to do but I didn't really have anything else to do and there is only so much Jeremy Kyle you can take.

The first thing I did was get the Winterguard finished, they are one of those units that you just have to grit your teeth and get done. Models are ok, nothing exciting but once they are done its done.

After this I finished off the trusty Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich to go with the Winterguard, this veteran runs along side the unit singing his tunes to boost their skills.

With the bulk of the army done it was time to get the Warcaster finished. I left him to the end mainly so I can get the rest of the armies colours and patterns sorted so that when I come to paint the main character I wont make any errors.

The army was actually very simple to paint, there a really three main colours (Red, Grey and Gold). Once these have been painted onto the model the areas are washed with black to add the battle grime effect, the areas are then highlighted up using the original colours. The details are then picked out to finish off the model.

So whats next? Well to totally complete the army I need to finish the Widowmakers so these will be next. After that I really want to get the Conquest done, I am looking forward to this. Then I have a unit of Iron Fang to paint and then my whole Khador collection will be painted. I think this might be the first time I have all the models for a specific collection painted. 

So now they are done I am looking forward to putting them on the table at the club tourney, i'll let you know how they get on. 

Until next time...