A bit of a hectic 2 weeks for me, hence my absents from making any sort of blog entry.

However I have still managed to get a lot of painting done, and the first week of the month saw me make this little  objective marker. Its got to be my favorite ones so far and I am looking forward to painting him up.

I have almost completed all my boyz, with the final 9 on the painting table. Then its onto the 14 tank bustas, 3 squig bombs, 5 megna nobs, the truckofex, 3 objective markers and the mad doc. I think 3 months is just about enough time to get this all done.

Mega looking orks!

A little bit of a delay since my last blog entry, mainly due to me being busy with other stuff. But I have made some good progress on the Orks, so a post is overdue.

Before I post about my Orks, I want to mention the new Warhammer 40K boxed set. After some negotiations with my better half, Oliver and I have purchased the boxed set from Triple Helix Games, for a mere £52 (that’s 20% off). Oliver is not sure what models he actually wants yet, although I get the Chaos Marines and the Hell Brute. It looks like a really good set and I cant wait for it to arrive.

Now back to the Orks. I think I have spent the last few weeks creating my Cyber Mega Nobs. I wanted all 5 to be done by the end of August for the Heresy Online Conversion Challenge. I managed it with a couple of days to spare. Actually I didn't because I wanted 5 models, and I didn’t have enough parts so had to settle for 4 completed models. I need to get a few more nid parts and a power claw to complete the 5th figure. But I entered the 4 completed models anyway.

As you can see my picture taking has improved. A different lighting set allows me to get some great detail, although I have found that the light is slightly too bright. My mate Rash has directed me to a sort of lamp diffuser for less than a pound on ebay which I will pickup. Then my pictures should be much better.

Painting wise I am maybe 2 days behind my schedule as I was distracted by another conversion project, but more on that in the next entry. I hope to finish of the orks in the next day so I can use them on Tuesday night. I also need to get busy and make the spare 10 ork heads to replace my Mexican heads from puppet wars. I'm still confident I can get this army completed before the end of the year.

Megaorks strike again!

Painting of my boyz is progressing at a reasonable pace. I have managed to get all the skin done and will move on to the clothing tonight. I have also made some great progress on the meganobz. I need to complete some 'wiring' on each model but this should not take too long. The biggest issue is making a combi scortcha. I have found several old style flamers that I think are from a chaos vehicle of some sort. These have been cut down and placed on standard shootas. To get the positioning correct I used took the shootas off the standard arm and placed on slugga arms.

These now look rather good and have overcome what was going to be the most difficult part of the model. My test model now has some back plating. I have had to cut down several nid plates to get this to work, and there needs to be some green stuff added to get the right effect, but overall the models are almost complete. Just need to maybe add a sombrero or 2 to the squad to tie in the look with the other units in the army.

Speaking of Meganobz, I had another game of 40k last night at the Sad muppet society. This was part of their ongoing 40k campaign which will be running till the end of the year. The game was a 750 point game with pre selected scenario of Purge the Alien. For those who don't know this is a victory point game so killing enemy units is the name of the game.

I took my standard Big Mek with Shockk attack gun, a squad of gretchin, 2 squads of 25 boys with a power clawed bob. My final unit was 5 megaorks. The few games I have used these in had confirmed my belief that these are the single most destructive hand to hand unit in the ork army. I armed this unit with combi rockit launchers as I had very little anti tank/flyer weapons so needed something to boost my chance of taking anything like this down.

Opponents were selected randomly and I got to play against Gavin, who I played 2 weeks ago. He had a space marine force (Crimson Fists). He force was a scout squad with a heavy bolter and bolters, tactical squad in a rhino with missile launcher and melta, librarian in terminator armour and force staff, 5 terminators with a power sword wielding sergeant and an assault cannon backed up by 3 scout bikers with 2 grenade launchers.

The game was pretty quick, taking around an hour and 15 minutes. A hugh fortress of redemption took up the centre of the board. A couple of quick kills against my gretchin was all could manage initially, whilst I wiped out the scouts. With the bikes and terminators in the lead, the rest of his force tried to sweep round the outside of the fortress. I sent in my meganobz backed up by what was left of a slightly shot up choppa boy unit.

I must still admit to being surprised at how good megnobz actually are. They easily wiped out the bikes on the charge. The return fire from the tactical squad, terminators and rhino killed one nobz and injured another. This was even after the librarian had cast the ability that reduces their toughness and strength by 1 (the name of it escapes me at the moment).

The terminators then charged. The librarian and sergeant with the power sword failed to kill any orks. The power claws (now strength 6) and power fists smashed each unit to pieces. I lost all my nobz, but reduced the librarian to a single wound and left only the assault cannon marine alive.

This single combat won me the game.  I had lost only a single victory point but I had already gained 3 by getting first blood and wiping out 2 complete units. My choppa boyz charged the remaining terminator and librarian. Losing a couple of orks to the librarian, the rest of the boyz finished off both models without the need for the nob to use his power claw.

The game was over at this point. I was 6 points up with Gavin having to wipe out my entire army to equal my point count. This was not going to be possible with just 2 turns to go and 3 of my units being behind the fortress of redemption. The final score was 6 points to me and 2 to Gavin. It was a fun game although it is the second game in a row against Gavin that my Megaorks have decimated his terminators.

I really need to get these models finished and painted. Such an awesome squad needs to been seen in all its glory!

Moderated collision!

I have been meaning to meet up with some of my fellow moderators at Heresy Online for some time. After a little bit of arranging I managed to persuade 'Dave T Hobbit' and 'Tim/Steve' or Dave and Tim to meet me at Triple Helix. It was the most central point and has great rates for hiring a table (£2 for 4 hours).

So on Saturday 11th, and had a 2 vs 1 game of 40k. It was a 1500 point game with my Orks and Dave’s Thousand Sons playing Tim's Imperial Guard. It was a great game, and more details can be found with the excellent battle report written up by Tim that can be found here.

Other than the battle it was good to put names to faces and I suggested we should have another meet at some point with more of the UK moderators, maybe at Warhammer World.

On the figure front I have been helping to strip down so old marines for Oliver. He has a new colour scheme and a complete removal of the old layers of paint will give him a good base to start from. I on the other hand have been very slow with my painting and really need to knuckle down and get some boyz painted up. So I will be putting the PS3 controller to one side and seeing if I can get to he next 10 shootas done by the end of August. The 9 remaining choppas will need to be done by mid September if I plan to get everything done by the end of the year.

But still there is nothing like a tight painting schedule to get me going on an army.

Poor picture problems

I have to say no matter how hard I try I cannot seem to take decent pictures of my minatures. They just seem to come out either too dark or too yellow or not quite in focus. I have read numerous guides on miniature photography and it doesn't help. I suspect this is more to do with my lack of equipment than anything else.

My camera is pretty good as a point a click but anything more complicated and it just doesn't work very well. I also have no lighting equipment so I either rely on the flash or direct sunlight, neither of which give satisfying results. I suppose I will have to look into getting a lighting setup as this is going to be cheaper than buying a new camera, which I certainly cannot justify.

Poor pictures lead me onto my next point. I don't have any I am happy to post up of my latest completed miniatures. Both squads of Gretchin are done, but they look very poor once I get them in front of he camera.

Other than my lack picture taking skills I have had a successful few days of painting. I have primed and base painted the Administratum building. I have done about 25% of the detail work, so it will hopefully be done in the next few days. The stormboys are well on their way to being completed with just some tidying up to be done this afternoon. My second objective marker is also completed so I need to get on and build the third one.

Tonight is going to be a first outing for the stormboyz as a completed unit. I have a 1000 point game at Sad Muppets against Gavin. He is also bringing along the Realm of Battle boards for me to buy. So I am hoping for another game tomorrow on these against Oliver.

I am not sure what else to put in my army against Gavin other than the stormboyz and my shootas and choppa boyz.

Finally I’m off too see ‘Dark Knight Rises’ this afternoon with Oliver, so that should be good. All in all a busy day.

Summer Holidays and the painting commences!

After a hectic 2 days at work, I am having a week and a half off. As well as spending some time with the family this is an ideal opportunity to get some painting done. To this end I did some priming last week in the garage and I have some boyz to get painted. This should add another 6 models to my squad of choppa boyz plus another 4 models to complete my shootas boyz. I will still have another 9 boyz to paint for my troop choices but that will be a big step in the right direction.

Incidentally here is my spray and pray area. It doubles as a workshop for DIY as well as a ventilated dry area for any air bursh, priming or varnishing I need to do.

I still have a few things I need to finish off before I start the boyz. So the last few days have been spent completing some bases on both of the Gretchin squads I had already completed painting, plus I have completed the majority of the paint jobs on my last 5 storm boyz. I have a problem with these though. This is due to Games Workshop decision to change their paints. I have been using snakebyte leather and mine ran out. There is no direct replacement so I am now trying to mix a duplicate colour for the wing webbing on the gargoyles. I think I have it figured out but the colour does look a little different to the other 10 models in the squad. Grrrrr!

There is also the fact I want to get as much of the army done before the 11th August as I am due to go to a 3000 point a side game and I want as many models as possible completed from my 1500 point list. I should have some pictures of my completed Stormboyz and Gretchin by next entry, but we will see how it goes.

Not much painting going to be done tomorrow as we are going for a day trip to Bournemouth. It should be good fun at the seaside having some chips and ice cream (not at the same time).

Oh and I cannot wait for the stupid Olympics to end. I am totally fed up with the whole thing.

The last hurrah for 5th edition

I took a weekend away from my busy figure painting schedule to attend a localish gaming tournament. It was run by a chap called Nick Jenkin who's torunaments go by the name of Von War. This particular event was held at Triple Helix Wargames in Westbury and was called 'Attrition'. As it was organised some time ago Nick decided to keep to 5th edition rules and so this was the last time I would likly play this version of the rules. Not such a bad thing as I already prefer the 6th edition rules even after just a few games.

So a joint down the A303 and A36 and I arrived bright and early to get stuck in. The format for Attrition was for 4 custom scenarios with an ever decreasing army list. You started with a 1500 point list, then had to loose 250 points a game, eventually going down to 750 points. You could only deduct from the origional list and could not add or swap wargear or units. I took my standard 1500 Point Vulcan Marine List. It is a reasonable flexible list but can struggle against horde armies.

My first opponent had a good looking Imperial Guard army, with medusa and a couple of cyclops (did I mention Attrition allowed Forge world units). The objvective in the first game was variable value loot counters. It was a blast of a game. My deep stiking Dreadnought and the assault terminators decimated his centre and left flank in a couple of turns. The Vulchure came on in time to decimate a comabt squad and also to reduce one squad to a single lascannon. The best moment of the game was when the last remaining cylops handler (now without a cyclops) shot a laspistol at lasccanon toting marine a killed him. This was after he had survived a round of exterminator fire, a round of vulcher fire and a shot from an off table earthshaker. I won the game convincingly but my opponent did go on to win most sporting opponent and also the wooden spoon.

The second game was against a very small Grey Knight army. The mission was to capture the opponents ambassador. I was up against it in this game due to the Grey Knight army having 2 dread knights which could jump straight to the amabassadors on turn 1. You got a point for each turn you held an ambassdor. I had big problems with this game especiall as Draigo and a squad of Paladins pounced on my own terminators and spent a few turns kicking them to death. Draigo used a force weapon to fell Vulcan and his Storm Raven spent the entire game not dying and destroying units. In fact I got tabled by 9 models without manageing to destroy a single unit. My most majestic failure!

After a lunch break consisting of a bowl of chilli, it was on with game 3. This was a kill point mission, with variable value kill points. I was up aginst Andy Driver from Sad Muppets with his Orky boys. This included Ghazghkull, a mob of 5 Meganorks in a battle wagon protected by a Kustom Force Field Big Mek. To add to my woes it was also night fight at the beginning of the game. Things did not go as badly as expected mainly due to Andy failing to get the charge in with Ghaz and his meganorcs. My charge with my dread, assault terminators and Vulcan wiped them out with whilst only loosing 3 terminators. The battle wagon was shot to bits and the big mek hacked to death by tactical. Another big victory as I won 10 - 0 on victory points.

The final game was also going to be against orks. The idea was to get to the centre of the board and get a point for each unitin the centre at the end of your turn. This was a hard game and my poor saving did not help. I came up against a mob of gretchin tanks which were pretty funny to play against. I was basically whittled down to nothing. A very tough game but fun none the less. EVen being wiped out did not mean a loss according tot eh scenario rules, so I managed to get a draw by the skin of my teeth. It was also a great looking Ork horde I played against.

4 great games, and I finished 10th out of 30 which is a result. My Space Marine force will now be taking a bit of a breather after a couple of years constant use. I will be now using Orks for a while until I have a chance to review my Marine force and swap it all around under the next codex.

In other news I managed to sell an old Imperial Guard army for £137 on ebay yesterday! So I will be picking up a Realm of Battle board from a friend who has a brand new one he no longer wants. Just something else to paint.

More painting than you can shake a squig at.

If you had not guessed from the title, over the next few months I will mostly be painting Orks. I have really put off painting a horde for many years. Even my Imperial Guard armies have been small affairs with no more than around 60 troops per army. But after much persuasion by the missus I decided to create a greenskin army. Now not being one to do anything the easy way I decided to go for a converted army. I spotted an cannifex that had been converted into an ork killer can or some such beast and that was my inspiration.

This is not the exact one that inspired me but its close enough. Now I have been doing this army for around 18 months and it is not as near ready as I would like. I currently have around 20 boys to paint, plus 12 tank bustas, 5 Megaorks to build and paint and a Truckofex to paint (more on that later).

I will post up some images of the work so far as I get them based and each squad is completed. I want them to be completed before January, and at my current rate of building/painting I will be cutting it fine.

There are also some extras I want to do to make the army really stand out at any trounaments I go to so a mini book is being prepared which is just another thing to add to the list of bits I need to complete along with custom objective markers. To add to that I am trying to build up some better terrain so my son and I can have some decent battlefields to play over as we both learn the rather fantastic new 40k 6th edition. Well I best go and pick up my brush. These Orks will not paint themselves.

In the beginning .....

Welcome to my blog. I can't promise anything world shattering but just thought it would be somewhere to display my weird and bizarre miniature conversions that I seem to come up with. I'll also have things about games I'm playing and armies I'm collecting.