Ok, so I'm weak...

My self control crumbled and I bought Death Masque. I know I'm meant to be painting more than I buy and I know this pushes my total massivvely more into the red than I was already, but it was a moment of weakness. I just got paid for my first month in a new job and I wanted to treat myself. I have no regrets.

I have to say, the box is an amazingly good deal. You get an impressive amount of plastic in there for the price, plus a mini-rulebook, finally giving me a copy of the 7th edition book to use. The character sprues are beautifully done and really show off what they can do with plastic these days. The only bad note is that the background included in the booklet is somewhat questionable, considering the implications for the Eldar race as a whole, but it's really no worse than GW's standard fare. All in all, the box is a pretty sweet deal, considering I plan on making use of everything which comes in the box, except for perhaps Eldrad.

I probably also shouldn't mention the Dark Elf Hydra I also bought off Ebay, which veers me even further from my goal. It was at a price I couldn't refuse and I needed it for my Fantasy campaign forces anyway. Also my order for magnets arrived, but those have no bearing on my painting points total, apart from allowing my to work on updating my Dark Elves.

I suppose the moral of this post is that impulse purchases are bad for painting discipline. Here's the breakdown on the hit my points total took, as far as I can work out:

12 Harlequins: -12 points
Eldrad + Death Jester: -2 points
2 Skyweavers: -4 points
Void Weaver: -5 points
10 Deathwatch Marines: -10 points
Artemis: -1 point
Dreadnought: -10 points
Hydra: -10 points
Existing points -30 points

Total: -79 points

Ouch! It basically means that I won't be buying any more models for at least the rest of this year (unless the rumoured 1k Sons vs SW box tempts me!). Although it looks quite terrible for now, it's not the disaster I thought it'd be at first. With the arrival of the magents, I should be able to chip quite a bit off this total in short order, by working on my Dark Elves. Fantasy armies have a lot of models and are fairly easy to paint. The extra Deathwatch pads which come in Death Masque also let me finish up my existing Deathwatch units very easily.

I suppose I'd best get cracking.

Tub of Heresy

Having gone through my vast horde of GW bits, I decided to seperate out any and all bits which were usable in my heresy conversions. Needless to say, I ended up with rather a lot so now I've got a big tub of heresy parts to be used or stripped down, plus two small craft boxes of the rarer or more prized pieces I found.

By my reckoning there's enough parts in there for 20-30 marines of varying descriptions. Add those what I've already got built/painted and I reckon I'll be hitting 8000 points on my Sons of Horus and Thousand Sons within a few months, once I've had a sort through and build of what's in there.

Sods law says I'll still end up spending hours looking for that one bit I need for projects though!

Oh and annoyingly I've run out of the wash I need for my Sons of Horus, bringing progress on repainting them grinding to a halt (again). Hopefully I'll be able to finish off my first Inquisitorial Henchman Squad done  though.

Thoughts on the new codex

With pre-orders going up last night, then the chaos of trying to access the site today, my mind's been firmly focused on the new Space Marine codex today and how I'm going to make use of it. I thought I'd post up my thoughts.

Ok so far, I've got three forces planned, all of which I've been had in the works on and off for years now:

1. Soul Drinkers

These guys are going to be my main SM force and my go-to army if I want a game using the codex. In keeping with the background laid out in the novels, I'm not including any vehicles in there save for maybe a counts-as Stormraven to represent the shuttles they use to get around in.

It'll be a very fast moving, rapid strike force, albeit using Imperial Fists rules (it's only fitting, considering their origins), probably led by a Tigerius counts-as to represent Sarpedon.That's subject to change though when I read the full rules for him. If the rules don't match up to what I want, I may end up using him as a Chapter Master or allying in some BA allies in order to gain access to Fear of the Darkness to properly represent Sarpedons psychic power: 'The Hell'

Model-wise I'm stripping, rebuilding and repainting my old force to match my current painting skills (my old scheme looks awful by my current standards). On my painting list atm are:

Sarpedon's Force Axe
Chaplain (Iktinos) - probably the new Chaplain with conversion work done
Terminator Captain
Lightning Claw Captain (Luko)
2 x Librarians
10 x Marines to represent Iktinos' "Flock" (to be used as Assault Marines on foot)
20 x Tactical Marines
10 x Assault Marines, including a Tellos conversion
10 x Vanguard Veterans
9 x Scouts
8 x Sternguard

I'm aiming to get these guys done by early next year at the latest.

2. Thousand Sons


Due to the fact that the Sons of Magnus don't have their own rules from FW yet, I thinking of using these guys as a Sternguard-heavy force (to represent their powers), backed up by another Tigerius count-as and maybe some counts-as Centurions to represent Mechanicum support. This is of course, in games where I can't use FW rules. Most of the time, they'll be fielded using the FW Legion list

Having been building them very slowly for over 2 years now, I've got bits and pieces done for this force, but nothing fieldable yet. On my painting list for these guys are:

Ahriman conversion, made from the new Librarian model
2 other Librarians
18 x Scarab Occult Veterans
15 x Spireguard Support (scouts)
6 x Terminators
1 x Land Speeder (FW Javelin - still to buy)
1 x Contemptor (still to buy)

The fact that GW is releasing a Mephiston Red spray will considerably speed up progress on these guys. Even so, I'm putting a longer time scale on these guys. I'm hoping to get them done by summer next year

3. Ragtag RenegadesThe idea for this army came partially from 'Dead Sky, Black Sun' by Graham McNeil and also from the fact that from time to time I like just painting up random marines that don't match my main armies, just to keep things fresh.

The idea behind the army is that renegade and outcast marines from various different chapters have banded together for mutual protection and survival. They aren't chaos yet, but they're renegades who straddle the edge of 'good', surviving in the harshest areas of the galaxy. They still fight the emperors wars, just not as part of their parent chapters any more, stealing and raiding to survive.

It basically allows me to paint single or small groups of models whatever chapters I like and still have the chance to use them in-game. I used to play this force years ago, but the marines got siphoned off for other projects. It was the first army I played with the 5th Edition codex, so I felt it was only right and good that I resurrect it for the 6th Edition book. I'll probably use them as either allies from other codices for my Soul Drinkers, or as a stand alone army using whichever traits I feel like trying out at the time.

Owing to the way I'm building this force, I don't have a set painting list for these guys, aside from a few bits and pieces I already have tucked away in the depths of my hobby cupboard. The following are definitely going to be in there:

5 x Black Templar Sword Brethren (I picked up a box on ebay just in case they went OOP with the merger)
1 x Imperial Fist Sergeant
13 x Tactical Marines of various chapters (to be decided on later)
1 x Dreadnought of indeterminate origin (at the moment)
1 x either Blood Angels or Blood Raven Librarian

With a bit of luck, this should put a crimp in my 'new army itch' as well, saving me money and sanity. I'll only be painting up models I already own, save for a few particularly nice bits and pieces I might pick up through trades or on Ebay (the Iron Hands Sergeant in metal for a start)

So as you can see, I've got big plans for this codex, but it's mainly making use of what I already have and setting myself goals to get it all painted.

I'll still be working on my Sons of Horus and Hochland force alongside these (plus another side-project which I'll reveal soon), but I won't be making any major purchases model-wise for a while,. Obviously I need to keep up with current rules, so the new SM codex and the FW 'Massacre' book are on my 'to buy' list, but those are separate and justified really.

Hopefully I'll get on well with this new plan. We'll see though...

Streamlining my hobby?

Ok, I've accepted that I'm not going to get the list of stuff which I posted a while back done in time for Games Day. Real life's just getting in the way too much.

On the other hand, i've decided to set myself a simpler goal: Streamline my hobby.

I think it's safe to say that I've got too many projects on the go. So many in fact that I'm never likely to finish them all. Therefore It's time to have a serious think and work out what ones are most important to me. The ones that aren't so important are either going to be sold or given to gaming friends who would appreciate them more.

Once my project collection is back down to a reasonable level, I can then complete the remaining ones and start thinking ahead to new ones. Sounds simple, right? We'll see, I suppose. I need to do something though and soon, otherwise my model/project collection going to reach a kind of critical mass and implode on itself.

Anyone got any thoughts or suggestions?

A mighty hobby quest

I should know better than to venture into GW in the run up to Uni deadlines. I always end up with far too many ideas for projects that i have nowhere near enough time for.

But, in a feat of incredible self-control, I've decided that those can wait until New Year, when i have a six week break and my student loan. In the meantime, I'm going to focus my hobby efforts on getting my current projects done and dusted.


Here's my 'To Do' list to lead me nicely to the 1st of January. You'll notice most of it's stuff that's been featured on The Wandering Mind over the course of 2011 and never seen again.

- Build my new hobby area (more on this next post)

- Finish up my Dark Elf Corsair and Witch Elf units

- Paint my Dark Eldar Kabalite unit that's been sitting on my desk for the last 4 months

- Finish painting my Hochland Empire force

- Finish building and painting my first Grey Hunter unit

- Finish painting my Soul Drinker Tactical and Assault Squads

- Finish my Thunderwolves, including my Lord

- Finish Bjorn

- Paint my Rune Priest

- Paint Trazyn the Infinite

- Finish building and painting my Zombie Dragon Bloodthirster/ Shard of the Void Dragon

- Paint at least 50 (out of 350)of my Zombies

- Strip down my previous failed attempt at Deathwing ready to start anew in the new year

- Build my Throgg the Troll King conversion, ready to lead my Ogre Kingdoms/ Warriors of Chaos monster force

As you can see, it's a fairly substantial list, but one I feel i can manage. The theory is, if i get all this done, I can start the new year without an huge backlog of stuff, allowing me to focus on my new projects.

I'll post the stuff up here as I do them, so you can see how I get on and I'll do a follow-up post in the New Year, where hopefully I can congratulate myself on a job well done. Hopefully.

Here we go then...

Armies on Parade: Twelve Hour Mark

After a long hard slog, i'm finally there. The mind has been focussed for once!

While i don't have any images of the finished army right now, what with them laid out on my desk for final detailing, i can assure you i am bang on schedule to have them on display for 12 Noon today. Here's a shot of the board from earlier today.



I think i need to make the earth mounds look more scorched and war-torn, but that might just be the camera flash.

More images, including the whole finished product are coming in the next few hours, just before i pack them away for transport.

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!

Stuff I've painted this month

College has now finally finished, but that means i now have to find a job and start paying my way in life :(

On the other hand, i now have a ton of free time compared to before, so i've been painting. I've decided to work through the huge pile of random models that litter my desk, shelves, cupboard, army cases, etc. But me being me, i'm not working in a logical order, literally painting whatever the hell i feel like at the time. It's had mixed results. I'll leave it up to you to decide if it's good or not.


First up, i'm stripping down a load of (very) old models that have too many layers of paint on to even identify properly, let alone use. I'm using fairy power spray and it's working quite well on metal. Plastic's a slightly different story, as you'll see in a minute



Heres the first batch, freshly stripped. I know the top one (plastic scout in case you're wondering) isn't fully stripped, but as i said before, the power spray didn't work so well on plastic as metal. I think I might need repeated soakings to get it all off.




I've also been starting to work on the batch of scout bikes i got for my birthday back in February. I'm planning to eventually make a Salamanders Biker army. The low model count means i can take my time and paint them up really well (for me at least)




A batch of zombie Plaguebearers for my Deamons force



Possessed Dreadnought. Probably going to be used as a Lord of Change or Bloodthirster. Note that it's a Blood Angels Dread, the only chapter to get Librarian Dreadnoughts (the only thing easy to possess than a psyker is a nearly dead psyker!)



I'd nearly painted this guy when i decided he needed more flames and 'possession-y' stuff, so the final thing will look a lot more elaborate than this, complete with flaming wings coming out his back! I think it'll look awesome and it'll be good for WYSYWIG too.


The first of many Orcs



I also found a buch of random marine models whilst sorting through stuff, so i decided to paint some up, more as test models or experiments than with any consistent colour scheme in mind





I know it's random stuff, but what do people think of it all. Any requests on which stuff to paint up first? I've still got Blood Pact stuff in the works to show off too.

New Army for (almost) nothing

In honour of GW's announcement of a second wave of Daemons in August (only 2 years too late, but never mind), I've decided to finally start the army I've been promising myself since the codex was released.

Now, i have more bitz than I'll ever know what to do with, so i might as well make use of them and convert myself up a batch of daemons, rather than have them cluttering my desks, shelves, cupboard, floor.... you get the idea.

Anyway, onto the models I've made so far, heavily inspired by Dead Emperors project log on Warseer. ( here if you're interested).

Possessed dreadnought. The marine within is channelling the power of A Lord of Change. I'm going to modelling wings on him at some point and the hull's going to be painted up in the colours of one of my regular opponents




My first Horror squad

If the rumoured plastic Horrors come out, I'm going to be mix and matching parts from the Cadian and Horror boxed sets, if not, I'll just get hold of some of the awesome metal ones to mix into the squads, maybe as leaders - I just don't like the idea of an all-metal army.






This old-school rhino has been through many incarnations in its long life. It was the second GW model i ever owned (the first being one of those old snap-fit Khorne Berserkers). It's been a Rhino, a Vindicator, a Rhino again, an Iron Warriors artillery piece, an Ork Looted Wagon, Trukk, had a brief stint as a Battlewagon, before finally being consigned to the cupboard.



Fast forward to yesterday, as i dug it out looking for bitz to scavenge and came up with the idea of turning it into a Soul Grinder - a fitting end to such a long and varied career. A fitting thing is that in it's last game before disappearing into the depths of the cupboard it got zapped by a Tzeentch Sorcerer, so I'll stay it got taken into the warp as an offering for the Forge of Souls, only to reemerge to plague the mortal realm once more.

As you can see, I've cut it up and rebuilt it with the aid of Plasticard. When i get paid I'm going on a bitz website and grabbing the Soul Grinder torso (I'm not paying £30 if I'm not going to be using the legs), then use green stuff to build it up from there

Painting over Lunch

Between being an art student going into my final major product, the pressures of home life and having a girlfriend to keep happy, i often find that I've got very little free time to sit down and do hobby stuff.

However I've also said to myself that i won't buy any more models till i paint most of the ones I've already got, in an effort to clear my backlog

Unfortunately, i have all this and more to work through



So after much pondering, I've come up with a novel solution to my problem. It goes something like this:

I'm very lucky to live right next to where i study - five minutes walk each way

I get between 30-60 minutes of lunch break each day.

Take off walking time there and back and i can squeeze in between 20-50 minutes of hobby time into my otherwise jam-packed day, before returning to an afternoon of lectures

Sure, this time restraint means that i can't do anything too ambitious. It forces me to work in little steps. but also i find it's improving my painting skills by forcing me to think about things and plan them more thoroughly before i do them - something I've always had trouble with.

It's helped to set a task for myself for each session, like basecoat all my crossbowmen, or flock 20 bases, ensuring that slowly but surely, my armies are getting painted.

Here are some of my fruits of my labour so far


Dark Elf Crossbowmen



Space Hulk Terminator with Heavy Flamer. The flame was made from Green Stuff



Skull Pass Troll, painted over 2 lunch breaks, starting from a grey undercoat, then just using washes for the colours



A rather gruesome base for my Khaine-themed Dark Elves. This took the better part of a week to complete



WIP DE Manticore to be mounted on the base shown above. The other wing is being finished tomorrow


I'll post more up as they get done, but for now, what do you think?

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.

Back with a vengence

Finally got my internet sorted and my life back on track and here's the bumper post as promised.
It’s probably going to be several posts to be honest, as I tend to ramble somewhat

To kick things off I have to say, despite my resolution a month or so ago to finish paint everything I have before buying any more, I've been a bad boy.

Now, for once, it's not my fault (well, maybe a little...). First off, I can blame a certain family member (who shall go unnamed) for clearing out his sizable bitz box and letting me take my pick.
I got a load of Dark Angel parts, some old gobbos with bows and he also gave me two Obliterator models, which I love (used to have 3 of these babies, back in the days when they were still 0-1). For a while I was considering creating a Fallen Angels army, but then looked in Chaos Codex and remembered why I don't like it.

Then I can blame my local club, who’ve just announced an upcoming 40k league, starting in February. Now I always start a new army for new events, such as campaigns or leagues, as it gives me an excellent excuse to get stuff done that I normally find hard to focus on (like painting in general). With this in mind, my thoughts turned to new armies.

Regular readers of this blog will know of my fledgling Eldar Harlequin army from the summer. A big part of me wants to really get that off the ground, but at the same time, painting even a small amount of Harlequins is a time-consuming process and I’ve got my studies to think of in the new year. I'd rather keep the Harley's as a side piece that I can dip into whenever I like, rather than feel the need to finish them quickly.

Then I thought about Deamonhunters, with emphasis on the non-Grey Knights side of things, which seemed like fun to explore, but at the same time, I’ve never collected a proper imperial army in my life. My existing Guard are traitors and my Soul Drinkers are sort of a grey area which I won’t go into here

Then I read Blood Pact by Dan Abnett and hit on the idea of (you guessed it) Blood Pact. I've always liked these guys and used to have a small force of them, but they sort of got left at the wayside when I started Orks. But Mr Abnett has done his magic again and inspired my latest army. His insights into the inner workings of the Pact have sparked all sorts of ideas off in my mind. I particularly like the guy who's devoted his life to saying all the names of death and the 'Sister' in the black dress and will be finding ways to work them into my army.

Codex wise, I’m basing it off the IG codex, but on reflection, I suppose I could use Deamonhunters to portray some of the more crazy stuff that the 'Pact has at its disposal, along with IG allies to represent the bulk of the force/ Death Brigades. At this point in time I want to base the army around the Balhaut insertion team, although that’s liable to change and evolve as I go along.

With all this in mind, I dug out my old Blood Pact models that haven’t been absorbed into other armies and given them a lick of paint. Pictures will be up soon

I've also ordered a box of Cadians and a heavy weapon team to form the first of my squads. I'm also planning on including my new Obliterators, either as weapons teams or Ogryns. I like the idea of using Obliterators as unconventional weapons platforms, as it gives me a chance to use these great models, even though I no longer play Chaos Space Marines.

Well I’m getting tired of writing, so that’s part one of the bumper post. More soon. Hopefully tomorrow if I can steal a break from my studies