Contemplating 10th Edition

OK before I start, I need to confess that I've already gotten distracted from my Dark Elves. Hardly surprising to regular readers of this blog, but I do have a very good reason for it, which will hopefully become apparent over the course of this post. With Old World still a while off, I can weave my Druchii around other stuff I'm working on anyway, so it's not a complete disaster.

Moving on though, the upcoming release of 10th Edition has me a lot more excited about 40k than I've been for a long time. I think it's because I'm actually getting more chances to play than I have done in the last few years, thanks to being able to attend a gaming club more or less every week these days. I think I've played more 40k since the start of this year than the last four years combined!

Regular games have meant that I've been working on my Orks a hell of a lot more than I did previously, to the point where I can easily field a 2000 point fully painted army for the first time in ages.

That got me thinking that I want to carry on that momentum going into the new edition. With that in mind I've decided to give myself a self-imposed rule of only fielding fully painted stuff when I game. That should in theory give me the push to actually get things finished up if I want to use them.

With that in mind, I'm going to loop back to the reason I got distracted:

I kitbashed together a Mega Dread ready for when the points go up in the final few games of the 40k League the club has been running! I've wanted to use one for a while and had an old Redemptor Dreadnought laying about, so my Mek brain got to work. It was a lot of fun to do and I'm pretty psyched to start painting it in the next few days.

I also needed a second Deff Dread so I made one of those too, again from an old Marine Dread I had in a drawer:

I was a little shocked at how quickly and naturally this came together. It was only about an hour's work, including magnetising the arms. Hopefully I should get this done pretty quickly too

So yeah, I've been well and truly distracted, but in a good way. I'll let you know how I get on with them. 

Until next time, happy hobbying! 

Battle Companies and Fell Beast

"I should be back to posting regularly soon".

Those words always seem to come back to haunt me, To be fair, posting about once a month is more regular than I've been at certain times in the past, but it's not quite what I had in mind.

Part of the reason of the slight lapse in posts has been down to the fact that although I've been managing to sit down and do some hobby fairly regularly, I haven't really been making much progress on anything. I've been 'picking' at projects. A little here, a little there, but nothing solid in any one direction. Minor progress on various stuff really doesn't make for interesting posts.

I've finally managed to get something finished though. Me and a couple of mates are starting a Battle Companies campaign, so I was able to focus my attention on something and get my starting companies ready.

We each had to pick a good and evil company to take, so I chose Minas Morgul and Mirkwood Elves as my two:

The Elves made sense to me for my good force, as I'm already working on a Mirkwood force. It'll also eventually give me the option to convert up some fun stuff which I normally wouldn't be able to take, such as putting my Ranger on a horse or Palace Guard with Glaive.

That'll come later though, for now here's the basic warband, Aleth's Watchers:

I didn't really do anything special modelling-wise with the basic crew, but it gave me a great chance to lavish the kind of care and attention onto them which I gave to my event army a while back. I'm really happy with how they turned out, especially the armoured guys. I'm actually a little relieved tbh, as they looked pretty terrible whilst I was painting them, right up to the final stages. If I can keep up this kind of standard across the entire army though, I'll be very happy indeed.

For my evil company, I chose Minas Morgul. This was mostly down the fact that I wanted to collect a non-human faction, but also because I love the theme which the rules designers put into the Company List. A couple of Black Numenoreans, their Orc minions, plus the option to recruit spirits ands gribbly things later seemed too much fun to pass up. The fact that I want my main Mordor force to also be themed around Minas Morgul was just the icing on the cake!

I've decided to name the company Elandur's Marauders, named for the Black Numenorean Knight who leads them. 

They were great fun to build and paint, even though the plastic Orc sculpts are showing their age a bit now, with a lot of softer details, especially around their shoulders. I managed to disguise this a bit though by sculpting extra cloth wraps onto a lot of them. A lot of people also go for a mishmash of colours on Orcs, but I opted for the more ominous look of having them all in blacks and greys. 

I feel this really helps sell the idea of them hailing from Minas Morgul. I remembered that the Morgul host is described as being 'all in sable' in the books and I think it'll look really great when applied to a larger army, especially when lead by the Witch King.

Talking of the Witch King, I picked up the plastic version of him on a Fell Beast from the Pelennor Fields box. I was going to wait a little while before grabbing him, but I had a Pokemon Regional cancelled on me due to Coronavirus-related reasons and I needed cheering up!

I've never liked the pose of the plastic Fell Beast, so I quickly set about creating something much nicer with the kit:

A fairly simple reposing, but it completely changes the feel of the model in my opinion, perching on a ruined pillar instead of balancing weirdly on a flying stand.

The trickiest part was cut and reposing the legs to sit naturally on the pillar, but it wasn't too hard. I also transplanted the armoured head into the dipping neck and took a hairdryer to the wings to give them a downward curve. All in all, I think the final result looks far more menacing that the original. 

All I have to do now is work out how to paint it (plus the two wraiths on top) and transport it to games! I'll work that out later though.

That's it for today though. I'm having a good go at clearing my backlog ready for some other projects atm, so I'll probably have some Nurgle-y stuff to show you next time. That's assuming I don't get distracted again. I wouldn't actually mind being forced into self-isolation right now, as it'll give me a chance to knock out some of my backlog!

Anyway, until next time, stay safe and happy gaming! 

Daily Painting 11/08/16 - Rescued Ebay Hydra

I've taken a couple of days off my hobby challenge this week - flu and stomach bugs are not conducive to good hobby progress. Now I'm feeling better though and I've been able to get back to it, I've decided to tackle my new Hydra next. This is partly due to needing it for a campaign game and not wanting to break my 'only game with painted models' rule, but also because it let me indulge in one of my favourite hobbies within the hobby: rescuing Ebay models.

This one arrived with me in a shocking state. Serious it was like it was painted by a five year old. The paint was a full 1mm thick, obscuring all detail. I really wish I'd taken a picture before I scrubbed it down, so you could see it in all it's terrible glory. Worse yet it was Finecast, turning my usual method of a long soak in Fairy Power Spray following by furious scrubbing into a dicey proposition at best. After a short think, I decided to risk it and it was unceremonious dumped in the stripping tub within 20 mins of it arriving in the post.

After much work, I got it as clean as it was going to go. The next step was obviously to rebuild it, undercoat and basecoat it, leaving me with this:

Not bad at all considering the amount of work it'd taken just to get it to this point. Next up was a liberal application of Nuln Oil, taking it to this:

Pretty nice looking if you ignore the base and the missing leg. These will be fixed shortly along with the addition of much more layering and highlighting.

The manacles you may be able to make out on two of the necks are plasticard hoops I've added to conceal the worst of the damage to the neck joints. I'll be adding modelling chain at some point to make it look like it's broken free and is on a rampage. I've also deliberately left a few moldlines showing, which will be painted to look like scars where it's regrown limbs.

So there you have it. It's not brilliant by a long shot and a long way from done, but it's good enough for gaming tomorrow night at least. It's weird to think that a few years ago, I would have considered this paint job to be the finished model. It really shows how far I've come!

I'll post updates as I have them.

Random Traitor WIP

Jsut a quick one today. I just wanted to show off the latest addition to my 30k forces. I had planned to make a Maloghurst the Twisted conversion when I sat down to build stuff last night, but somehow it evolved into this:

I'm not even sure what I'm going to use him as, but I love how the model turned out so I'll find a way to fit him in somewhere. I thinks he's got a distinct Cthonian or White Scars look about him, so I'm thinking of probably painting him up as a traitor member of the fifth legion who's now serving my Sons of Horus, maybe having him fluffed-out as being one of the rebel 'Scars who fled after the battle above Prospero.

Looks like I'm saving my Mal conversion for another day, once I can get hold of the Huron parts again. Oh well, at least I got a cool homebrew character out of it.

Pre-Heresy Fabius WIP

I haven't posted for a while. Between finishing uni and starting a new job where I'm on night shift four times a week, the entirety of my hobby time has been taken up with painting as and when I can. This obviously leaves me no time for blogging, despite the amount of progress I've been making on various stuff. I'll try and do a bit of catching and post up some of my projects, but knowing me this probably won't happen.

So what have I been working on? Well, I'm still focused almost completely on my Horus Heresy stuff, although my attention has shifted slightly away from my Sons of Horus 15th company and onto the Iron Warriors and Emperors Children. I've wanted a force of both of them ever since I read Angel Exterminatus a few years ago (and again recently during my 2am 'lunch breaks'), so I thought I'd give it a try.

Despite the source of my inspiration, I'm not likely to be fielding the two Legions together, due to me wanting to make use of the extra Heavy Support slot which the 'Hammer of Olympia' Rite of War brings, meaning that my Iron Warriors can't take allies from other Legions. They are quite likely to receive Imperial Army allies when the next FW book arrives though.

The Emperors Children are going to be a small allied detachment for my Sons of Horus, then maybe expanded to be a force in their own right. I'm really just using them as an excuse to do some interesting conversions though, so that might be a long time coming.

Anyway, here's a taste of what I've been up to whilst I've been away:

This is my Pre Heresy Version of Fabius, based on the GW model. I know at first glance it doesn't seem that different, but this was a much more involved conversion than it looks.

-First of all I had to remove his arms, saving the Xylos Needler for later (his cane's going into a different conversion).

-The next step was to gouge out the Mk7 legs which 40k model had for inexplicable reasons (this part was made easier by the fact that it was finecast), replacing them with Mk4 legs from Forge World, cut to shape to fit inside his flesh cloak.

- Then I transferred the Needler from his 40k arm to a Mk 4 one and gave him a pair of Mk 3 pads

- A Narthecium (a Deathwing one i think) acquired through a trade with a friend, plus a 40mm base completed the conversion

I'll let you judge the results for yourself, but I personally like how it's turned out, as far as the conversion goes at least. I'm going to be using him as a Primus Medicae until Forge World finally get round to specific rules for him.

His paint job's an experiment I'm running, trying to replicate the darker, grittier style which Forge World use for the EC's in their various publications. I'm not exactly sold on it so far, but that might be because I haven't done the gold on him yet, which may help alleviate the overall dullness of the model.

I'll let you know how I get on

Basilisk Part 2 and Ebay find

 Considering the awful state it arrived in, the Basilisk hasn't actually cleaned up too badly. It only took a few hours soak in Fairy Power Spray to get it to a nice workable state.

The next stage will be harder though, as it will involve carefully prising off all the 'improvements' the previous owner made without damaging the model beyond use. It could take a while.

In the meantime I've got another restoration project on the go:

I found this ancient Master of Signal whilst trawling through Ebay, caked in about half an inch of paint, meaning nobody was bidding on it. Never one to pass up a bargain, I bid a quid and forgot about it. Five days later I got an email from Ebay saying I'd won the auction. Result!

The paint came off with just half an hour in the Power Spray, leaving me with a rather nice classic miniature to add to my Sons of Horus. I'll be painting him up at some point, although I want to finish up my Reavers first.

Unexpected World Eater

I really need to stop getting distracted. I ordered some bits for my Sons of Horus, including some WoC Marauder arms for the axes, intending to finish up a squad this week, but after clipping the weapons off the arms I found myself left with some bare arms. One thing led to another and i built this:

It's World Eaters character of some description, thrown together from bits lying around my hobby desk. Once he was put together, i figured I may as well paint him up as well:

I think he looks great. The GW blood effects work really well on him. I'm not sure what I'm going to use him as yet. Had I planned a bit more, I could've given him a plasma pistol and used him as a pre-heresy version of Kharn, but I never really think these things through. I might expand him into a full squad to be used as a small World Eaters allied detachment, but I'm not sure yet.

Space Wolves commission WIP

 I've been working on a few commissions recently, my favourite of which has been a slow burn one I've been working on for a friend over at The First Expedition forums. If you're into Pre-Heresy stuff, check it out. It's a really great community.

Anyway, I digress. My client wanted a pair of Space Wolves characters converted up using the FW kits, including some sculpted bear pelts across their back. I thought I'd show you the stage I'm at with them atm.

Here's the terminator character finished, save for finding a head for him.

The fur took about 3 days to get right and it's still not fully finished. Luckily the client likes what I've done with it, as I really did feel up to having to do it again.

The power armour guy is taking longer, mainly due to the fact that I have to sculpt the fur around his backpack, but I'll post him up soon. I also need to find myself the bear pelt from the Space Wolves Terminator kit to add a bear head to the terminator dude, but that's proving difficult, as most bits websites charge a small fortune for them. If anyone's got the bit going spare and are willing to part with it, let me know and I'll do you a good deal.

Jaime Lannister

Continuing with my Song of Ice and Fire project, I've made a Jaime Lannister model.

It was a really simple conversion to do. All I did was put the head from GW's Amon Hen Aragorn onto Isildur's body.

I think it works really well, capturing the look and feel of the character really nicely. I'm really looking forward to painting him up, along with his brother Tyrion when the parts arrive for him. Both Jaime and Tyrion are going to have the same head, to mark them as brothers. If my planned conversion pans out then it'll be interesting to see how two models using the same bit can have two totally different looks and character to them.

A Game of Ice and Fire

After some discussion with some people down at Peterborough Gaming Club a few weeks ago, I had the idea to build some models for a skirmish game based within the world of George RR Martins Song of Ice and Fire series.

Having given it some thought and scoured the internet for suitable models and rulesets, I've decided to use a modified version  of GW's Return of the King ruleset, as it's a very nice, yet vastly underused skirmish system.

I've decided to convert the bulk of the troops from the LOTR model range as well, although certain characters and troop types will come from other ranges. With the right conversions, I reckon the Rohirrim and Gondor ranges would make brilliant base models for converting Stark and Lannister troops respectively.

With this in mind, I bought myself a box of Rohan Warriors make some test models. After a little sculpting work, I've come up with this for Stark soldiers:

They're very basic conversions, but I think they're quite effective.. I've sculpted some fur around their shoulders and turned their shields around to hide the horse motifs. Obviously they'll be painted into the grey and white of House Stark, which will help sell the conversion further still.

What do you think of them? Is there anything I should add or change about them?

Huzzah! Airship progress!

 After a lot of work, I've finally managed to make some progress on the airship.

I know it's not the clearest of pictures (Ill try and get some better ones tomorrow), but as you can see, the prow of the ship is finished and the sides are pretty much done as well.

This means that the hull is nearly complete now, allowing me to to get to work on the detailing and the gas balloon.

I have to say, even getting to this stage is making me very happy indeed. This thing's been sitting half finished on my shelf for nearly two years now and seeing the progress I'm now making is a good feeling.

Hopefully I'll actually get it finished this time

New Dark Mechanicum Candidates

Ok so the new Necron models are full of disappointment. With the exception of possibly the Tomb Blades, they look more like they belong in a Dark Eldar army rather than amongst the simplicty of a Necron force. Many Necron players around my local GW agree with me too.

However the new models look like great candidates for Dark Mechanicum conversions. As soon as I've got the money, I'm adding a contingent of twisted warmachines to my Blood Pact and Chaos Space Marines based off these beauties.

Bloodthirster nearly done

Here's my Cygor-based Bloodthrister nearly built, minus a few minor armour and weapon details



The 'fun' bit's going to be trying to paint this beast

Bloodthirster progress

Ok, so the Zombie plan didn't quite pay off. As I've said before, I'm moving flat in the next couple of days, so the need to pack kind of overtook me.

However, I did manage to get a little progress done on the Bloodthirster. Not much, admittedly, but at least it's something



Hopefully by the weekend I'll have my new hobby area ready, complete with proper lighting set up, so there'll be both progress on all my projects and proper picture to show you.

Zombies arise!

With the new Vampire Counts book now up for pre-order, I felt it was time to tackle the Zombie part of my check list.

Over the next couple days I'll be painting up this lot:



I've wanted an all-zombie horde for years and with the new book, what better chance will I have?

I also want to pick up some of the gorgeous new models that are on the way, namely the Mortis Engine/Coven Throne and Vargheists, but I'm staying strong and not buying any more models until my checklist is done.

So this afternoon I will tackle all those Zombies, as well as the Necromancer, as I've been hearing rumours of a Lord-level Necromancer option making a comeback. Hopefully I won't have to buy Kemmler to access that option, but only time and having the book in my hands will tell.

Daemonic Distraction

Ok, I got a little sidetracked from my list, but I've been packing to move flat so I've been finding all sorts of old projects that have piqued my interest again, which I feel gives me a good excuse.

Whilst clearing out one of my many cupboards where i keep all my past projects, I found some old Daemon models that I meant to put up here earlier this year. Well, one thing led to another and I couldn't resist painting up a few that I didn't quite finish

For those of you that don't kmow, the whole idea behind my Deamons army is an Imperial world undergoing mass invasion/ possession, with Zombies and possessed Guardsmen forming the majoirty of the force.

First up I've been doing a bit more work on this guy:


I'll be the first to admit it's one of the stranger ones, intended to become an standard bearer when he's done and I can find a good icon to stick on the pole.


I've also started work on my second Deamon Prince, based off a Chaos Knight's horse and whatever I could find in my bitz box



Also, I unearthed the Dark Angels Veterans kit i bought ages ago and misplaced, so I could work on some more Pre-Heresy Thousand Sons...


I've almost got enough for a full squad now, so I really need to decide which codex I'm going to be using, as well as step up my level of production on them - the army's intended to be my entry for Armies on Parade this year. Only nine months left!

Let me know what you think and I'll post more up soon. Throgg's fully modelled and based now so I'll try and get him photographed for you before he gets packed

Throgg the Troll King WIP

I said Throgg is on the way and here he is...



So far I've take the Ogre Kingdoms Gorger, added GS scales to his back and extended his fangs.



He's nearly done. The only major bit left to do is I still need to extend his ears to troll proportions or give him horns. Not sure which I'll do yet, but I also need to add his crown and I like the idea of it pushing down on his ears, so I'm leaning in that direction.

All in all it's quite a simple conversion for a Hero choice (and a Special Character at that), but I like the savage cunning that oozes from the Gorger model and it's so beautifully detailed that there's very little I need to do.

Any thoughts or comments on him?

I Need Money! aka: Revised Project List

Wow, I really am keeping up the post count...

Last post I mentioned my project list has been revised due to money issues, so I thought I'd post up my new list to give you an idea of what I'm working on in the next few weeks

- Build my new hobby area (put on hold while finding a new place to live)

- Finish up my Dark Elf Corsair and Witch Elf units

- Finish painting my Hochland Empire force

- Paint up the bodies to my first five Scarab Occult

- Finish building and painting my first Grey Hunter unit

- Finish painting my Soul Drinker Tactical and Assault Squads

- Finish building Bjorn

- Paint my Rune Priest

- Finish building my Cygor-based Bloodthirster

- 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 not all that different to my previous project list and still gives me a lot to do. I just really wish I could do the projects that have been 'bumped off' but there's no point starting them if i don't have the cash to finish them.

Sigh...

Still, should be lots of lovely pics of progress for you to see coming soon. Currently on my table are the Bloodthirster and Throgg for their latest round of GS work, so you should be seeing more from them very soon...

Cygor Bloodthirster WIP

Ok, plans for new hobby area have been put on hold, due to the need to find a new flat, but in the meantime, I'm still working on clearing my backlog of projects for the new year.

First up is my Bloodthirster, converted from the Cygor/Ghorgon kit. I know I said in my original list that it was going to be made from a Zombie Dragon, but that was before I saw this kit. Right from the moment I saw it i knew I'd found the donor model for my plastic Bloodthrister. The Zombie Dragon pieces (minus the wings) have been put aside for another project.



As you can see it's closer to the original model than much of the rest of my Deamon army and still very WIP, but it's getting there.



So far I've started sculpting on the chest armour (to be finished over Christmas) and started adding the distinctive mane of hair that appears on the metal/finecast version. This is going to take the longest, i think, as i'm modelling each strand of hair individually

I'm also going to be scratch-building an axe and whip for him, as well as obviously adding the other wing.



He's obviously going to be quite a bit bigger than the GW version, but I've always thought that the current Bloodthirster is way too small and goofy looking for a walking demi-god of war anyway.

By the looks of things my one is going to end up sized about halfway between the GW and Forgeworld version, which means I should be able to use it as either.

More on this very soon, as well as the other projects...

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...