Silver Tower and all that jazz

I have some pictures of my latest Silver Tower Characters.

This is all the work I am doing on characters and I am moving on to the enemies next.I found these very rewarding to paint. They do need a coat of varnish but with the weather starting to get cold outside I will give that a miss till after the worst of the cold weather.

I have now started on my next unit in my Age of Sigmar Army. So here are a few WIP Stormcast Eternals

 

Time to revive the blog!

So much has happened in the last couple of years since my last entry.

I won a few painting comps here and there (with both my Orks and Deamons). But the main thing is that I've not moved house, This has really stopped me playing anywhere near as much as I would like. However the house is on the marktet so a move closer to work would give me more chances to go to my local gaming club and get some 40k action.

On the home front mini me is really getting into Age of Sigmar. I have started a Sotrmcast Eternal army to go up against his Tzeentch Chaos force. We are not quite ready to do any gaming as I only have 5 figures together.

Along side doing the Stormcast army I am working on a smallish Skittari army. Progess is slow as the models are quite intricate. I hope to make much better progress after the house move. I'll have a proper painting room again so can just sit down and paint.

Next there is Silver Tower. I really love these figures and I'm painting these as a joint project with mini me, so we can play a GW game with fully painted figures.

On the subject of GW games, I really want to complete a project with Space Hulk. Besides painting the actual models, I really would like to build a 3D resin set using casts you can get online. If I manage to get more romm in the next place this is defenitly something I intend to do.

OK, well thats enough for now. In the next blog I intend to talk more about the particular projects that I'm working on right now.

All change!

After 2 or 3 games I have abandoned the summoning deamon list. I am of the opinion that to get it to work you need to go all or nothing. So I have switched back to my previous list, but with a single change. I will be giving the Great Unclean One a balesword. Even without getting Iron arm the instant death rule will make him devastating in combat. This does make my deamons one of my weakest armies, but they are also the most rewarding to get a win with.

I am considering making an Armies on Parade board for the Deamons. As they are Nurgle Eldar I though having them in a portion of Nurgles Garden would be very characterful. I have even thought of some objective markers I could make to have them stand out. Once I have more on this I'll post it up.

And because I obviously have far to much on my hobby plate at the moment I thought it was time to change my Marine list. As much as I loved the Assault Terminator/Redeemer combo, I thought a bit of a shake up was in order. So dropping both units I will take a Storm Raven loaded with a 3 man Centurian Assault squad and Terminator Librarian. First go at using this unit proved less than successful, but I will persevere. I have high hopes they can help my Dreadnought tie up a large swathe of troops and demolish any vehicle foolish enough to get close to them.

But at almost £140 including a Thunderfire cannon, I need to make sure I like this choice before shelling out all that money. I think a few weeks of painting are in order to try and get this Deamon army complete before I can hopefully start building up my Dwarfs in the new year.

And finally, Merry Christmas to everyone! Hope you get all the toys you want.

Shiney new captain!

I decided to take a small break from my deamons to paint the limited edition web released Space Marine Captain I got earlier in the year. He does not have the greatest combination of kit, but I love the model and the pose, so I thought he could be the start of my new marine build (when I work out what I want in it).

Not the greatest of pictures, but here is the completed model. I used way more gold than I normally do to emphasis his 'artificer' armour. I have found that red works well with the plate colour so used this predominantly in the trim. This matches up with codex 3rd company, hence the III in the banner.

I have just bought a W&N Series 7 size 00 brush and I will use this at the weekend to put some text on the banner and purity seals. The base is a forge world creation I inherited from Smith the younger. It fits with the broken stone I have for my other marines and just requires a few additions to complete (grass clump and leaves).

On another subject I have come to a realisation that my deamon army is lacking something in the gaming front. Being Nurgle it is very slow (with the exception of my beasts) and I find I am pinned back in my deployment zone for much of the game. So far I have avoided making any of my Psykers use the Deamonolgy powers as a crutch for my army. After a dozen games it seems I may need a summoner to add something to an army that can be out manoeuvred and easily out gunned. I will probably use my level 1 psyker for this and keep my other Herald and Great Unclean One with biomancy powers. The only downside is I will now need to paint another 40 or 50 models to make sure I have enough reserves to summon every turn. I will have to give this a test run I think with an opponent who will let me bring some 'substitutes' to test out my theory.

A new project! 3D Space Hulk Scenery

Things have been a bit hectic in the Smith household as of late. What with a house to sell, and Smith the Younger starting college, things have been up in the air. Hence my absence from making any new blog posts.

Its not got any quieter, but I am sparing a little time for some more musings. Firstly I would like to say the Maelstrom of War missions in 7th edition 40k are brilliant. I was not sure at first as I was told you could win the game in turn 1 if you got the right objectives. But after playing several missions I have found it a great challenge. The fluidity of objectives means you have really think about what your doing with each unit. I have had several games where the person killing the most of the enemy is not the winner. Admittedly it can come down to how luck you are with your objectives, but as this is a game played with dice, this is just another random element that makes the game fun.

Onto another subject. Space hulk! I love this game, although I don't tend to play at all, due to the time needed to set up the missions. But I have always wanted to create a 3D board. Maybe this would facilitate playing more games with Smith the Younger! I also would like to have some 'Ship boarding action' style games of 40k so this scenery would be ideal.

So onto my new project, to build a Space Hulk board. After much investigation the best option is to use Hirst Arts moulds. I was reluctant to use these as they are £25 a mould and I would need 4 moulds to be able to get all the parts for the basic and advanced sets. An £100 outlay seems a bit more than I wanted to spend. But to get a really good looking hulk this appears to be the best option. I have now purchased the first of these and will start some test casts before I get the appropriate dental plaster.

The other reason for me for purchasing the moulds is that I can use them to build other 40k scenery. I do love GW's buildings but I think I can make things cheaper and more individual using the hirst moulds.

I have made progress on the Eldar Deamon army and will post up some images next time. Still another 29 models to paint, so only just half way through the project. I hope to be finished by the time we move house.

Warriors of the Fang are here!

So a new release of Codex Space Wolves is upon us. My household was awash with talk of these Viking Space marines last week, and my lad is going to be collecting them. Not sure how he fits so many armies into his wanted list with any hope of collecting them all.

I have seen a lot of talk online about the new Space Wolf sledge. Apparently he will be delivering Christmas presents this year. So not very many fans of this newly released model. I'm not 100% convinced about it, but will wait and see what it looks like up close and personal.

The new Space Flyers on the other hand, I love! They shout 'I am as aerodynamic as a brick!' as load as possible, but it doesn't matter in a game about toy soldiers. The idea of the monolithic slab sided vehicle using sheer brute force to keep aloft says everything about Space Wolf philosophy. Why look sleek and fast when you can look like a battering ram and act in exactly the same way.

I will probably not collect any wolves though. I have too many ideas for other armies and would not use them as much as I would want. But I look forward to facing them and can't wait for the lad to get his up and running.

Master Classes at Warhammer World

So I was going to show off some painted models, but due to not being at home in the evening for most of the week I have not finished them off yet. Instead I thought I would report on a great weekend the boy and I had up in Nottingham.

After getting a Realm of Battle a few years ago, I was determined to give this expensive piece of plastic a top notch paint job. Well as is normal for me it remained the grey plastic up until March. I then got some W&N acrylic paint with the intention of painting it a desert colour. I made a complete mess of this. After priming the effect I was left with was streaky yellow paint which looked terrible.

At this point I had given up on doing a decent job, but then spotted an up coming event at GW's Warhammer World. A Realm of Battle Master Class. You could either attend this and get a board or bring your own board for painting. You could even bring along a friend for an extra tenner. So after cleaning up the first board I painted with Fairy power spray, all the boards were primed and off we went to Games Workshop land, or Nottingham as everybody else calls it.

As a regular visitor to this paradise of gaming I was not sure how the day would progress or if this £80 or so trip was worth the cost. Well I can say without a shadow of doubt, this was money well spent. After setting up the board pieces on the table provided, we donned aprons and were given 18, yes 18 pots of GW paint. Along with a little paint roller tray we were advised to paint the whole board this colour with the 2" brushes. As we progressed through the day, the 2 'Masters' from the Warhammer world event team we brilliant in helping to get the best from the board and also how to fix mistakes. Lunch was great as normal, and special consideration for my sons quite particular vegetarian tastes were accommodated by the kitchen.

We finished sooner than most of the attendees as we had no flock to apply to the board (Red planet is barren apparently). Although we didn't need to flock our board I was impressed with the amount of flock that was provided to the people who did. More or less a whole box of the GW basing material per 2' panel. We even left with 2 pots of wash to apple to the skulls once we got home. This was because the wash would not be dry by the time we left and would ruin the work we had done.

Here a few pictures of the board once we got home and completed some of the skull 'pits'.

The skulls a bit closer up.

Some close up action.

I am really pleased with these boards and it was certainly worth the money. After my indecision about the base colour for my deamons, I am going with the red planet theme which should look striking and match the board. Next up will be to do the craters we have and also the forge world piece I have to match.

I asked if there would be a Ultima Quadrant Realm of Master Class, and the response was that it is being looked into. Well if they decide to do it, I will definitely attend. Besides loving the new board and wanting to get one beautifully painted, it is great to learn new skills from people who are masters of their craft.



Now, I best get back to that Dark Eldar squad.