Summers over, time to get back in the hobby!

Hey guys and girls, me here again with a bit of an update as to what's going on in my little hobby world.

First up was the Forge world release of the Imperial Knight simply HAD to get myself one of these as I figure this was the reason my knight lancer was so rubbish in close combat - he had no pilot! 

Really really nice little model and it's actually possible to insert him into the pilot seat even if you've already constructed the Knights Cockpit. 

Next up is the Harlequin commission - that's progressing nicely, I'm still absolutely loving the models and each one is such a fun clean joy to paint it's refreshing from the imperial grime! 

Finally, some of you might recal I mentioned a special personal project I was undertaking? Well, after much procrastination about the models I wanted buy and the list I wanted to field I eventually got around to picking up a nice 1750 Krieg list for myself. These models have been on my wish list for years, ever since I returned to the hobby at the start of 6th edition. I didn't truly ever think I'd own one so I'm now attempting to do them justice and make this y own display army. 

I was talking with Doc a little about the armour and he asked if I intended to do heavy weathering on the Armourd division and at the time I said "not massively weathered, no". But then I got carried away playing with a few new techniques and such and ended up with a rather bashed up Vanquisher tank that I'm pretty proud of. 

I also had a quick start at the first infantry platoon this weekend. 

Anyhow, thats pretty much my little corner of the world right now - other than to say thanks to the guys that attended the Pork Chop event in Cheltenham with me, that was a very very fun day. 

I hope you guys are all well and the dice gods rolling in your favour!

Until next time :) 

Tom

Showcase; Thunderbolts Space Marines Jump Pack Captain.

Hi All

Bluddtoof here with another new addition to my Space Marine Chapter; The Thunderbolts.
This is my new Captain with Jump Pack, Shield Eternal and Teeth of Terra. He will be leading a demi company with auxiliary support as part of a Gladius Strike Force against a bunch of filthy heretics in the form of Docs Traitor Guard; in a game in a week or so. Beware Doc!
Here's some piccies....

The base model is an old metal one I had in my bits box; one of the old Masters of the Chapter models. He originally had an axe in his left hand I think, I chopped the head off and replaced it with the large chain blade from an old metal Vanguard Veteran; also from the extensive bits box. The jump pack is just a plastic one from the old assault marine sprue.
I'm really pleased on several fronts; firstly I painted this in less than 2 days, pretty impressive for me; my painting occurs at glacial speeds usually! Secondly I built him over 2 years ago and he's been sat in the "to paint" case all that time. Thirdly the white went on so much easier and smoother than I'm used to; only 3 coats as opposed to my usual 4 or 5. Win all round.
And hopefully Win against the renegade filth on the 28th!
For The Emperor!

Bluddtoof.

Swamp Thing! A new Terrain set for The Code 40k

Hi All

Bluddtoof here with my latest project (with help from Doc!).
For quite a while now the Code boys have been bemoaning the inevitable wear and tear on our scenery brought on by the quite heavy use it's been getting in recent years, what with running several events as well as our own regular games.
So we've started to invest in a few new sets, (hopefully there'll be many future posts about the other sets in progress), I'd suggested the idea of a tank graveyard and had originally envisioned it in a desert theme. However I couldn't decide on a way to easily make realistic sand dunes that would not only look good but also be hard wearing and usable; models would need to balance on them. So I went back to the drawing board and had the idea of a swamp theme; I've been wanting to have another go at water effects since my disastrous attempt on the Eldar Hornet base; see here .
The plan was to make a series of swampy pools with the wrecks of various tanks partially submerged and crashed in them, that way I could cut up whatever vehicles I ended up using and get multiple pieces from each kit.
Doc found the ideal solution to what vehicles to use in the form of a box full of broken old Space Marine tanks covered in lots of paint and with all their bits ripped off; all unusable as gaming miniatures even with the best will in the world. These came from Andy at Worcester Wargames, a big thanks to him!
So I set about stripping the years of paint from these bad boys; and what a task that was! One landraider had no less than 6 layers of different colour paint on it. Several bottles of Dettol and a very smelly house (Thankfully my better half is very understanding) later, I had 4 landraiders, 6 rhinos and 4 landspeeders ready for the hacksaw!!
I ended up with 12 pieces of terrain.....

The base is cut from 6mm Dutch Grey Board and the rim built up with the off cuts and plaster skim (a really useful ready mixed plaster designed for repairing plastered walls), the tank parts and random bodies and bits glued to the base. Then they were given a solid spray undercoat of grey (Tamiya).

Next step was a mega paint session with Doc in which we got all the pieces to a point where we were happy to just have the addition of weeds and plantlife and some extra weathering and detailing left, and of course the all important water effects.

So I set about this over the next couple of weeks, the plants are modelling Lichen, I put all these in place and then poured the water effects (Woodland Scenics Realistic Water). This took about 2 days to cure fully however there was some almost random reaction between the Lichen and the resin which left some areas slightly cloudy even after another day. I seem to be a little cursed with water effects! Unperturbed I decided to camouflage these areas with a muddy swampy effect, achieved by gluing green flock, washing with Athonian Camoshade, adding Nurgles Rot and a variety of rust effect liquids and powders whilst still wet and then once it was fully dry (with a very matte finish) applying a coat of gloss varnish to the areas to bring back the wet look.

Here's lots of piccies......

Overall I'm happy with the look, slightly annoyed with the clouding of the water effects, it was a brand new bottle. It hasn't come out as I'd originally intended or as I anticipated as it went along. It's definitely evolved as it's progressed. I'm pleased with how close the edges matche the cloth, we have a pre printed swamp mat on order for use with this set, so that should look even better.
Hope you all like this, as ever c and c are very welcome.
Do you think it's enough scenery for a game? How would you define the pools in a game?

Bluddtoof

Big Game report. Nids V Marines

It has been a while since I last posted here. My marines have slowly being expanding. Since the last time I have painted:

• Assault terminators (lightening claws)
• Void Shield generator (started)
• Tactical terminators (heavy flamer)
• 5 man close combat scout squad
• Played some games
• New kitchen

Now I am in the process of buying a house so more time being used up doing no geekery stuff.

Anyway last weekend my local mates and i played a large game. we had been discussing it for a while as with any large games things can get complicated, time consuming, unbalanced and all of the above!

First of all to try and keep it simple we said the marines would defend a fortress in the centre of the table. The nids would come in from both sides (like a mission in Horus Heresy Book 1). The marines would set up and the nids would have turn 1 in which the moved on from the board edge. This would save time in not having to set the nids up then move them. When we setting the board up we decided that it would be best not to have any terrain between the base and the table edge. While this would not give the nids cover it would also not slow them down getting to the marines. The nids aim was to wipe out the marines (not flyers).

We agreed on a time limit for moving and shooting of 30mins (timer paused for the psychic phase). We didn’t time assault as it was felt you could not do an assault for an advantage, so all would have to be done, where if you forgot to move or shoot it is generally to your own detriment. Rather than play APOC we just played a big game of 40K. APOC has even more rules and situations to remember and to be honest we just wanted to roll dice and play!

I’m not going to give a turn by turn report or anything like that, but overall the game played well with very little that needed changing. We ran out of time (as usual) but managed to complete 4 turns, which isn’t bad for 21k points on the board. The marines held out and had a little over 2k left… the nids still had a lot left! The nids did start with 25% more models and could respawn stuff each turn. Their entry point also crept closer to the base each turn. I think it was a balanced game, maybe swinging to the easier side for marines. I think we still would have held out for 1 more turn, after that not so sure!

Here are a few pictures of the game.

More can be seen in my photobucket account here:

http://s856.photobucket.com/user/toonboy78/library/Big%20Game%20Sept%2015

Lessons learned:

• Big games are hard to plan. This took the best part of 2 months of chat to get a rule set we all liked (or at least compromised on!)
• Time: no matter how much time you give you will always run out
• Space: hosting is hard and we needed space for an 8*6 table (no deployment zone for nids) and plenty of space to walk around and put models out of the way. We were lucky and could hire a local room that allowed us to be there until after 11pm.
• Game rules: it was a little one dimensional and as the marine player I didn’t have to think about too much, no choosing between a run for an objective or shoot the nearest enemy. Not this scenario needed it but other games I would like to have a 3 tiered set of objective, turn based (maelstrom), game based (eternal war), secret (special one made up for that specific game, like kill all HQ’s, or hold any 6 objectives at the end of the game). each one worth more than the other so it would be hard to know how is going to win

So that is now over I am cracking on with finishing off my first load of Centurions and I have started the storm raven. That should keep me busy until my house move is complete!