Imperial Knight Freeblade, some more WIP.

Hi All

Bluddtoof here after a bit of a break to plan and run Worcester War III, which I must say went really well! A big thanks to everyone who came and made it such a great day, Worcester War IV "The Assault on The Code" is now in the preliminary planning stage and will be held Spring 2015, more to come on that in future posts.

Now on to the Knight; I started this a couple of months ago, you can see the previous posts here, here, here and here.

I'm well on the way to finishing the torso and head now, the upper carapace will be painted as a separate sub assembly for ease.

Here's a couple of pics of the torso so far,

more to come soon.

Bluddtoof

Warhammer Fest

Hey guys and girls, Mike has kindly asked me to contribute to this blog so I thought I'd offer up a few words on what's been going on in my hobby world lately!

Firstly, let me introduce myself, my name is Tom Baker (no, not that one...) and I'm the guy behind the Battered Bristles Facebook page - although hopefully some of you know me better from the fabulous Worcester War tournaments I've attended the over the last couple of years. If I've had the fortune to play any of you in a game then that's excellent, if not, then hopefully I'll be able to throw some dice down with you at another tournament soon!

Anyway - what I want to say a few words about is Games Workshops newly repackaged Gamesday - now called Warhammer Fest - held this year at the Ricoh Arean in Coventry. (On a side note, I wonder if the event renaming has anything todo with the trialed renaming of 3 Games Workshop stores across the UK now being simply called Warhammer?) 

I confess it was with some trepidation I booked for this event as whilst I enjoyed last years, I was not blind to some of the (quite fairly) abuse levelled at it. I've not been back into the hobby for that long and the 2013 event was the first my friend and I had attended in a long long time and as such, it was with wide eyes and almost childlike awe we spent the first few hours walking around looking at all the pretty things! But then it dawned on us there wasn't actually much to do or see and with over half of the main floor given over to sales, the event quickly began to feel more like a giant sales pitch. 

Allow me to just intercede here for one moment to clarify a quick point - I love GW. I love the models they make and the game systems they create to push thier product. I'm also acutely aware that they are first and foremost a business and their prime directive is to sell products to stay profitable and remain in business feeding me lots of shiny toys. 

Anyhow. Fast forward to 2014 and wow. It almost appears that GW have been guilty of that Cardinal sin - they appear to have listened to their customers! Warhammer Fest sort of appeared out of the warp with very little fuss, quietly appearing as if from nowhere with everybody asking "what is this Warhammer Fest of wich you speak?". The event was completely unrecognisable to that of the previous year! Firstly - it's was calm, ther was space to move, sit and take a moment. With the event split over 3 floors, the first floor allowed you to enter the area, be gifted a program and ticket badge before heading to grab a coffe and a (nicely cooked, fairly priced) burger and grab a seat after driving for over an hour as my friend had done. Then - if you wished - you could enter the 'sales' part of the event. Behind doors, out of immediate sight, with no pressure to enter unless you wished there was a huge room dedicated to GW / the Black Library and Forge World. I snagged myself a nice limited print of Vulkan for my hobby room and even a (supposedly sold out) pack of limited edition data cards for the Dark Eldar for a friend. Hell, there were even about 5 or 6 gaming tablesset up, free for people to use if they so wished! 

The middle floor was given over to the guys and girls behind White Dwarf, showing fantastic artwork from upcoming books and magazines whilst also having many of the writers on hand with their armies more than happy to have a chat and talk through pretty much anything you cared to level at them. Again, no queuing per say, just people moving freely around taking their own time. Great. 

The top floor was however all about Forgeworld and boy did these guys steal the show. Fantastic dioramas showing the battle of Calth and a ship battle showing the Iron Hands batteling off Imperial Fist boarders really got the imagination running! There where staff on hand again all over the floor to talk about the new releases being previewed in the cabinets or holding demenstration pods to sit and explain how to do such things as 'weathering vehicles' or 'painting an army quickly'. Very quick, easy to watch videos with the actual forge world artists talking you through the steps in person. Beautifully done. 

Then there was the Golden Demon event itself. The standard this year was just phenomenal - I can only assume with no other Golden Demon events running in any other country (Warhammer Fest was a UK only show) that the best of the best from around the world must have all come together on the one day because the level of entries was just outstanding. I entered a couple of models myself but against the completion I came away completely empty handed - but with a burning fire inside to create something special for next year! 

All told a fantastic day and I'm very much excited by next years prospects!

But that's enough from me for now, if you've managed to read this far then I thank you for reading my first post in its entirety - I shall endeavour to brush up on my writing skills and post again in the near future with a sneak peek at something special I'm working on at the moment! 

Thanks again - until next time. 

Tom 

Midweek Snidbit - Objective Markers and Servo Skulls

Hi All,

Doc back with a little post to show my new objective markers for Maelstrom games of 40K.  These were inspired by Dales over on Realm of 40K here.

Nice and simple barrels numbered 1-6.  That should make the game easier.  Using dice never works somebody always picks one up!

The next thing I needed were some servo skull markers to go with my Inquisitor so I bashed these up out of the bits box and boshed them on code designs industrial bases.  Shameless plug time the bases can be purchased from Worcester Wargames.

Short and sweet that's all folks.  Next post Ill show off some of the armies from Worcester War 3.

Doc Out......

Worcester War 3 - Nearly Ready... The Characters: Inquisitor, Rune Priest, Thunderwolf Lord

Evening All,

Doc here...  Haven't been on here for a while and in my absence I have been quite busy preparing for Worcester War 3 and working on my pre heresy death guard.   Ill save the death guard for another day.  So today's post is about characters in my army for the upcoming Worcester War 3.

Originally I had intended to go with the Death Guard but white takes so long to paint and I realised I wasn't going to make it.  So I have reverted to my space wolves.  Although the army is far off my current standards (in terms of painting quality) I wanted to add some new elements to go in it along with the fact the codex is also quite new.

I have been working of my Thunderbear (alternative thunderwolf) Lord.  If you want to read more about him please go here and here.  He's not quite finished but has progressed and will be finished by the end of the week.  It has to be finished the event is next weekend!

I have also converted up a new Rune Priest using the Dark Angel librarian from Dark Vengeance. Essentially I:

•  cut off all the DA iconography
• swapped his arm out
• used a space wolf shoulder pad
• used a space wolf back pack
• added a space wolf knife
• added a wolf pelt to the right arm

He's painted to match the rest of the army and was bashed out quite quick but I'm happy he will match in with the other space wolves

Next up I decided to make use of the inquisitor codex for the first time and my fellow code player Red Mist hooked me up with this Inquisitor (Thanks buddy).  I've gone for the classic inquisitor colours of red and black.  Again painted quickly  but a good result for the amount of time and I wanted him on the table.

All this leaves me to be ready for next weekend is to finish the thunderbear and convert up 3 servo skull markers.  I may also make myself some 1-6 markers for maelstrom missions.  As always comments and constructive criticism is welcome.

Thats all folks

Doc out...

Chapter on its way to full strength

Another month has flown by but at least I have been painting.

Two important events have happened that should improve my blog posting regularity:

1. I have signed up to this years Tale of Painters on the Warseer forums
2. I have new phone which hopefully takes better pictures

the aim of the tale of painters is top paint about 2000pts over the course of 12 months. that is 200pts a month with 2 joker months in case you are a bit busy.

As ever I will be expanding my Marines towards Chapter strength along with a little bit of inquisition to keep an eye on them.

currently this month I have been painting:

Tactical Squad
Venerable Dreadnought
Landspeeder (9th one!)
3 servo skulls
Drop Pod


This month I am doing far more than the 200pts because next month I am in the States for over half of it and won't be getting much done and I don't want to use my jokers just yet.

Photos:

most have these have had their base coats done and most of their highlighting. I am currently working on the details and will be ready for the 1st months entry in the tale.

and finally some better pictures of the Inquisitor that will be keeping an eye on the Marines

August Annihilation - Worcester Wargames

Hi All,

Doc here to talk about an event I helped run for Worcester Wargames August Annihilation a 1500pt Swiss System 40k tournament.  This was the first event I had been involved in since 7th came in.  We decided to let everything in and follow the rules laid down by GW.  This meant we had knights, a titan and forgeworld galore.  Overall I think it worked on the whole.  I think the titan is a different matter and maybe still overpowered.  Most of knights across the tables seemed to be handled.

Before I get onto the results I want to talk about the rules pack a little.  Over the years I have tried many different methods of getting a fair overall result.  In this event we used a simple scoring system of 10pts for a win, 3pts for a draw and 0 for a loss.  We then used the total sum of the vp's to decide ties.  As you will see in the results we had a couple of ties which the VP's sorted.  The element that really decided however, was the painting points....

Points	Requirement
0	No Models are painted within the army.
1	At least two units are fully painted to 3 colour minimum standard and based
2	The whole Army is painted to 3 colour minimum standard
3	As above, plus bases are themed. Units markings and transfers applied.
4	As above, painting standard includes clear shading and highlighting.  Includes at least one conversion
5	As above, Blows our mind.  Includes extra techniques such as freehand, weathering and Object Source Lighting

The table above shows the scoring system we used to decide painting points.  Myself and Andy scored every army based on the table above and agreed on every army except one.  An average of the two scores was then added to the players overall score.  This granted up to an extra 5 gamer points meaning players could then score between 0 - 35 pts and then Vp's would be used to decide ties.  I the end the painting points decided the event.  Player 1 and 2 both won all 3 games.  However player 1 scored a 5 for painting and player 2 a 3.  I'm not sure if I am comfortable with painting deciding the event.  It is after all a gaming event not Golden Demon.  On the other hand it is also a major part of the hobby.

Ok on to the final results:













A downloadable version is available here for those who would like to save it for prosperity.  Next I would like to ask some feedback questions and would ask people to comment below their responses?

1. Titans Yes or No?
2. Painting Points Yes or No?
3. Use Maelstrom Missions Yes or No?

The 40k event held in Worcester will be our own Worcester War 3 and this post wouldn't be complete without a shameless plug.  If you want to read all about it please go the announcement post here.  I am certainly looking forward to it as I come out from the organisers position to take part.

That's all from me folks please comment and help make future events better!

Cheers

DOC

Worcester War III, The Investigation of The Code. A 40k Campaign Day

Hi All

Bluddtoof here to invite one and all, (well 24 of you anyway) to join us for another instalment of Worcester War, our periodic 1 Day 40k event!
Some of you may have been to WW1 or WW2 over the last year and if so I hope you enjoyed it and will consider joining for our 3rd day. This one will be slightly different in that it's not a straight forward tournament; we're going to try starting a story line to hopefully, with your help, carry on into future events to create a living and changing plot line and history for our little sector of the war torn future.
Cue poster....

Imperial Knight Freeblade, Work in Progress.

Hi All

Time for another update on my progress with my Imperial Knight; I've finished the base and legs now apart from the final weathering which I'll be doing all in one go once the models complete so as to ensure I get a coherent and consistent finish.
Here's pics of it so far...

I'm pleased with the banner sculpt, I've not put the lightest highlights on the red and bone on it that you can see on the plating or the gloss finish, as the banner will  be a tattered piece of grubby cloth once the weathering is done, with the heraldry just showing through the dirt and grime of decades of war without the support of a knightly houses tech servants to repair it.
I've given all the gold trim another coat of Lamentors Yellow Glaze to bring it up a little more. The clenched fist is a transfer and the vines and thorns are all freehand.

Next step is to move onto the torso sub assembly, less plating on that so it should be a little quicker to paint.

More to come soon....

Bluddtoof.

Revenge for The Blood God - Khorne vs Space Wolves

Hi all,

Red Mist here again with the updates on my Khone army as promised.
Doc and myself have had many battle over the years, one such game was a confrontation betwwen my Khorne Berzerkers and Docs Space Wolves.

After a lot of hacking the Wolves were victorious, but not I, as he cares not from whence the blood flows.

So a rematch was in order, and rematch we had 5000 pts each played over a day and night.

We started at 4000pts a side but my mid afternoon there wasn't a lot left so added in another 1000pts to take the game into the evening.

So without further ado here are some pics, enjoy.

Charge..... blood for the blood God!!!!

 Crunch time... This bear rider was well 'ard.

Khorne loves a Blood Slaughterer... Wolves and Blood Claws do not... he ate them all!!!!

 See those puppies run... LOL

Doc and myself like to surprise each other, I had painted up a shiney new Chaos Land Raider for Kharn to ride in....

Unfortunately it ran into Docs new Knight... roll D-Weapon... Land Raider destroyed!!!

In charges Kharn, kill, maim, burn, no more Knight....

Kharn did fall but he will rise again!!!!

My army was joined by Lord Zhufor for the first time...

and he teleported into battle with his terminator bodyguard of Skulltakers ready to take skulls for the blood throne...

and lastly whats that over there, nnnnoooooo its a Baneblade! Result... dead Berzerkers.

Still in the end revenge was mine!!!

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD!!!!

Hope you enjoy and more to follow, when I can get Doc to release the piccys.

RED MIST out!!!

Red Mists Sexy Yellow Enforcers

Hi everyone

Red Mist here, I've been quiet for a while but I've not been idol. 

As well as adding to my Khorne chaos marines army (more of that on another post to follow), we in the code have fallen upon Mantics new Deadzone game and boy are we excited.

When asked what faction I would like to be, there was only one answer, Enforcers, bringing justice to the darkest corners of Nexus Psi.

What colour to paint them, well I've never painted anything yellow so why not start with these, so here we have my strike team, so far, with some reinforcements on route ;-).

Team Mist in all its yellow glory!!!

and a close up shot....

Simple paint scheme, yellow base with earthshade wash, then a drybrush highlight, and a final wash to blend the shading a bit.

Dark and moody, just how I like it.

Next on the list is the scout... hard as nails... more to follow.

Hope you like.

Red Mist Out.

Imperial Knight Freeblade Work In Progress

Hi All

A quick update on my progress with my Imperial Knight Freeblade. I've made quite good progress this week and the legs and base are almost complete.
Here's a few pics....

As you can see the base is now done, the rocks were painted in a dark grey base and washed black then dry brushed with a series of lighter greys up to a final very light brush of white. I've tried to create a few rivulets of frozen ice and water trickling between the rocks; these were initially painted in a pale blue and then highlighted right through to white, they were then gloss varnished.
The snowy areas were first painted white, quite roughly, just to give a good base of colour, I've found that putting snow flock on top of a non white base gives it a dirty grey look. The snow itself is bicarbonate of soda. This is the first time I've used it instead of white flock and I have to say I prefer it, I think it gives a more powdery look, it was simply sprinkled generously over a thinned coat of pva glue and left to dry. The excess was harder to get rid of than snow flock.
I wasn't happy at this point though with the icy trickles, they weren't shiny enough so I decided to use a little water effects on them......this was almost a terrible mistake as I hadn't taken into account the bicarb! It reacts with water (and other liquids) the base went a bit frothy as bubbles appeared all around the edges of the "water"! Thankfully they did dissipate with a little help, next time I'll use the water effects before the bicarb!

Here's a close up of the heraldry I've gone for....

As you can see it's a mix of transfers and freehand vines, I'm pleased though it's a shame about the quality of printing on some of the fist transfers. Each example of thee heraldry will be slightly different depending on the area of the model it appears on. The plates were given a gloss varnish before applying the transfers so as to give a better fix and reduce the noticeable shine common with transfers.

I'm leaving the weathering to the very end once it's all done and put together so I can weather the model as a whole. That will be a first for me too as I don't usually go in for weathering. I'll be experimenting with weathering powders so any hints or tips will be most welcome.

Hope you like it so far, feedback is as ever welcome. I'm currently working on the 2 shin guards and a tattered crotch banner I've made from green stuff (you can see them in the background of the first shot). More pics to come soon......

Bluddtoof

Imperial Knight Freeblade W.I.P.

Hi All

Bluddtoof here with more w.i.p. shots of my Imperial Knight Freeblade.
I've got the armoured plates done on the legs now so all I've got left to do on this section is the iconography some weathering and the base.
I'd hoped to be a little further along by now but the weathers been so hot here this week that I've struggled to paint as the paint has been drying much quicker, sometimes before I've even got it on to the model!
Here's a few pics, including close ups of the green cables as requested.....

Hope you like it so far, I'm thinking I might take the highlight a little further on the red, it shows more in the flesh than on these pics but it's still quite subtle, I'll give it some thought and let you know over the next few days.
As ever feedback is very welcome.

Bluddtoof