Hobby Epithany

As well as finishing up Damokai (see last post) I've also been working on my Breacher Squad for him to hunker down in.

I think this squad may actually win a prize for time spent between start and completion. I started them not long after Age of Sigmar came out. I looked at the Stormcast shields and thought 'those would look really cool on some Thousand Sons Breachers', so I ordered some from a bits website and started painting them up, intending to buy the models to go with them not long after.

Then unemployment after uni began to sting, followed by various craziness happening in my life which resulted in them being shelved. I returned to the idea last year when the Burning of Prospero box made the nesessary conversions really easy. I got the unit pretty much finished, then I hit my biggest snag: the transfers.

I've always hated doing transfers. They're fiddly and I'm ridiculously cack-handed at using them, so I normally don't bother with them. The problem is that I had a vision for my Breachers which involved arcane symbols and Legion icons all over them. My freehanding skills are about as good as my skill with transfers, so I lost my motivation to press on with the project and the squad were shelved again.

Until now!

Have you ever tried a hobby product and thought 'where have you been all my life'? That was my recent experience with Micro Sol and Micro Set.

I was talking to a friend at my local club about my twice-abandoned project and he recomended I give these a try. A quick trip to Amazon later and I decided to give them a go. I figured it couldn't do any harm to at least try them out.

My god the results were amazing. They make applying transfers a dream and produces a 'painted on' effect beyond anything I could have imagined. I really can't speak highly enough of these products. I'd definitely recommend them to anyone who has trouble with applying transfers. I managed to get those four models done in just under an hour. That includes the time spent watching various Youtube tutorials to learn how to use them properly!

So yeah as you've probably gathered, I'm a very happy gamer right now. I can finally crack on and finish the unit which started the idea for my Thousand Sons army in the first place. Expect to see a picture of the finished unit very soon. I want to get them done in time for the big campaign game which my local club has planned for next monday. Hopefully I can finid the time this weekend to get them finished.

And just like that, my plans are blown... New Ahriman and Kharn

It's been quite a day of revelation in the GW rumour mill, one which is almost certainly going to make my wallet and painting point tally weep.

First of all we had the leak of a new plastic model for what appears to be Ahriman. It matches his Visions of Heresy artwork at least.

This is almost certainly part of the long-rumoured Thousand Sons vs Space Wolves sequel to the Betrayal at Calth box.  It looks great, although the closet Elitist in me is quite disappointed that it's not in resin from FW. I'm looking forward to getting this for my Thousand Sons, although I'm only likely to be using him in larger games, due to my 55th Company's background of not getting along particularly well with the Chief Librarian.

The amazing part of this leak though was the response from GW. Within hours Warhammer TV posted up a video not only confirming the validity of the leak, but also basically saying "Think that's cool, we have Kharn!"

Not only does this come as an astonishing departure from form for GW in terms of releasing previews and sneak peeks, the model is pretty damn good too. I need to see a few more angles of him before I can form my opinion 100%, but this seems a pretty nice reworking of a true GW classic.

Hopefully this will tie into a new CSM codex, but we'll have to wait until September 3rd to find out. If this is a new book, then between todays leaks and Death Masque, I might as well say goodbye to any more hobby purchases between now and next year if I want to stand a hope of ever getting into positive figures on my painting points.

Talking of painting points, I'll start showing my daily painting progress from next the new pst. Obviously I've gotten a little distracted by the rumour mill today.

What do you think of the new models? Also, do you think GW will start giving more previews now, or was this a one off?

Sons of Horus Techmarine WIP

 I've been looking over all the options in the FW Legion list and I found a hidden gem: Techmarines!

I realised that Techmarines in a Legion list can take Rad Grenades and can be fielded in groups of 1-3 Techmarines as a single unit choice. That's not too shabby when you consider that they're also cheap enough to allow you to take one for every squad in your army without too much of a dent in your points. I decided I had to try it, so converted one up and gave him a go in my assault orientated Reaver squad. This what I came up with just from my bits box:

It's nothing too fancy. The most complicated part of the conversion was making the Graviton Gun (which I gave him to stop him just being a grenade caddy) from a Necron Gauss Flayer and a spare vehicle accessory (I don't even know where it's from tbh), and meshing together Space Marine and Necron legs to make his bionics. After his performance in-game though, I'd say he's earned himself a decent paint job and a general upgrade. Facing a CSM list, the Reaver squad he was attached to managed to kill Typhus and his entire Terminator bodyguard without even breaking a sweat, thanks to the -1 toughness from the Rad Grenades. I can't wait to see how he does against regular marines!

Quest for a new Hobby Area

OK, before my big plans for a fresh start come the new year (see last post) can flourish, I need a new hobby area.

I figure instead of simply carting my woefully inadequate hobby desk into the new space, it's a great opportunity to revamp my working area.

So I've drawn up a list of everything I've ever wanted or needed from my hobby desk, which I'm going to incorporate into my new area.

1. Obviously I need a surface to work on

2. A place to tidy away my paints, brushes, glues, etc, away from marauding kittens and little hands (my first kid is due in march, so this is especially important)

3. Shelves to display finished projects and store current WIP's

4. Storage for my many bitz boxes (I have nearly ten years worth of these, which number in the dozens), or at least a way to categorise the bitz for easy access

5. A decent lighting set up

6. Noticeboard to store ideas, army lists, sketches and painting recipes

7. Space for my laptop (i need music, videos and access to the blogosphere when i work), but far enough from the working area to avoid splashes and spillages

8. (although optional, due to space restraints) A light box for photographing models

9. Storage for all my old projects that I've thought I'd abandoned but could switch back to at a moments notice


It's fairly basic stuff, but every bit of it's important for me, seeing as i only have about half this list in my current kitten-infested set up and if I'm going to make this change, I'm going to do this properly.

While this seems simple enough, I also only have a small space to work in, so all this also needs to be quite compact.

I'm going shopping tomorrow to see what i can pick up and hopefully by the end of the weekend i should have something that's at least starting to resemble the idea I have in my head.

The Shadowblade

This new Mandrake model by GW is quite frankly amazing and as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to have to for my Dark Elves. In my mind that thing would make a perfect counts-as Shadowblade.


I've always said that Shadowblade has to have some form of magical abilities, given the fact that he's able to hide effortlessly amongstthe likes of Dwarfs and Undead without detection. Now it's ok for him to hide in the ranks of the likes for High Elves, Empire, Bretonnias, or any basically man-shaped force, but to remain undetected amongst most of the races out there, there has to be some magic at work.

Surely the Vampire controlling hordes of undead would notice there's a still-living mind sneaking about in his army?

Surely the Black Orcs notice that Gabnutz actually looks a bit skinny and pale?

Surely the Lizardmen notice that one of their number doesn't have scales?

Come to think of it, most DE Assassins don't make sense to me. For example, you can hide an Assassin in a Witch Elf unit. But you'd think the Brides of Khaine would notice that one of their sisters was actually a bloke and wore rather a lot of clothes, or at the very least the enemy would be able to see the black hooded and cloaked figure in the sea of pale elf flesh.

All this has always cemented in my mind the idea of magical concealment - it doesn't matter what the Assassin looks like physically, because it's magic that's really concealing them.

Which is why I feel Mandrakes would be perfect for representing them. I'll be watching rather closely to see what other Mandrake models they bring out, I may get a few, one for Shadowblade and a couple for 'mundane' assassins, but at the very least I'm getting this one for the Master Assassin himself. I can just picture how epic it'd look leaping up out of the enemy ranks, throwing off his magical disguise as he plunges his blade into the chest of the enemy general...

Just wish they'd hurry up and put it on pre-order already!

8th Edition Blues

8th edition is looming this saturday and I think I might have to sell a kidney to afford it. I've got very little money coming in and even more going out. I thought I'd put some money aside for it, but then another bill came along. *Sigh* Damn £45 price tag

So I've been doing some serious thinking and I might sell some of my many armies. I'm going to sort out what i've got (over 400 models at my last count), then post it up so people can make me some offers.

Watch this space

Tauros Venator

Forgeworld have just put this baby up for pre-order

In the words of Will Smith: I have gotta get me one of these!

The Stalk Tank ideas are being shelved for while, i want one of these to convert into my Hellhound. I might make some transport varients of it too.

And it happens to be my birthday next month, so guess what i'm asking my family to get me.

Must Have Units

Ron's asked for our 'must have' units and having thought about it, i came up with the following for each of my armies, both fantasy and 40k:


Space Marines - Vanguard Veterans with jump packs

It used to be librarian with Fear of the Darkness and a drop pod, but since the new codex it has to be vanguard veterans. Combined with Shrike's fleet ability and a locator beacon, you can pretty much count on being able to get these guys to where you need them before your opponent can react and do some *serious* damage when you get there. I typically have 7 men, one guy with TH/SS, three with power weapons and one with power fist, with the rest catching bullets. Any more than that and it's typically too high in cost to be worth it.


Guard - Guardsman Marbo

Ninja with explosives. Enough said


Orks - Flash Gitz

Thye may be expensive in points, They may not be the most effective or units, but god damn it, they're fun. Pirates in space never fail to amuse. Stick thme in a battlewagon and have fun with more Dakka than you'll ever need. And plus there's some sweet conversions to be done too, with tricorn hats and peg legs being the order of the day.

And don't get me started on Badrukk. He carries a plasma gun that fires 4 TIMES. Sure, he'll probably miss, but that's what ammo runts are for. He's the only ork model i rushed out and bought on the day of release. He's amazing in so many ways i could go on for hours, but i'll move on...



Eldar - Harlequins

I only play fluffy armies, rather than the latest shiny codex or power codex and the Harly background is the only eldar stuff that has really grabbed my attention for long enough to get me collecting an army of them. So for that reason alone, they're my must have eldar unit.


Chaos - Khorne Beserkers

Frothing chainaxe-wielding nutcases ftw!


Witch Hunters - Inquisitor Lord

I just love the cruel irony of my army being led by the very thing they're meant to hate.

I can imagine the confusion of his over-zealous followers "b-b-ut, who do we burn?!"


Tyranids - Carnifex

Well, one carnifex in particular. My carnifex: Binky.

He's cute, cuddly and just loves being tickled behind the ear after a hard day muching space marines. Game-wise he's a 300pt monstrosity who's only been killed twice in the dozens of games i've used him in, both times to the same librarian.

A fine must have in my opinion, just for the sheer terror he provokes


Dark Elves - Cauldron of Blood

Anything that gives my Cold One Knights a 5+ ward save is a must have in my book


Vampire Counts - Zombies

180 zombies and still growing, haha! Honestly, who could say no to creating your own zombie apocalypse?