2014: That was the Year that Was

Right. So I'm starting to write this on boxing day. I have a couple of hours to spare before more family visitations go down and since I can't quite be bothered doing anything too creative I thought I would draft together a year in review type thing...

The Blog

Not really familiar with the Google stats tools, but here goes:

• Total Posts: 50
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Top Posts

So what can I make of all this? Well I'm pretty chuffed that I've managed an average of one post a week for a whole year, especially considering the summer break and nothingness. So thank you for reading this. Extra mega-thanks to my 4 followers. Hi 5s and brofists all round.

Looking at the top posts it appears that by far the one with the most hits is the paint station thingy that i put together in response to this post here over at cadian shock. I think that this shows the value of actually engaging with my fellow bloggers out there. I got to admit that I am more of a lurker than a commenter so i should probably do something about that. In fact this comment appear as my top traffic source. Can't really argue with those facts!

The Hobby

The Good

• I guess that it must the guard stuff. Finally making a dent in my haul of shame and turning then into a (nearly) reasonably completed army.
• Completing the Iron Warriors build phase. I even primed them!
• My assassins - really enjoyed building them.

The Bad

• Not even starting to paint my iron warriors. Very naughty of me.
• Only played a couple of games this year. Like maybe 2 tops? Going to try and get one in before the new year. We'll see.
• Not done any inquisition stuff. I have a bunch of ideas burning away for these but I'm trying to become more disciplined about my hobby.

The Ugly

• Orks not getting any attention. Hardly touched them this year. Really need to sort that out. They even had a new codex! I think it was this year that I primed my stompa and that is pretty much the only progress for these guys.
• Still not played Dystopian Wars. Will do one day.

Outside The Hobby

Stuff happens in real life too! Been at my job for a year and a bit now and i'm really enjoying it. On a personal level things have been developing too. I've started hiking loads this year and met some cool people doing so. 

On a down note I haven't been keeping up with various groups of friends as much as I would like. Visits to the Swan have dropped off, I mean who would have thought that doing healthy stuff, like hiking and running would mean that I find it harder to do the unhealthy liver punishing activities that are also fun. I've got friends spread all over the place (Bristol, York, London, Norwich, Auckland, USA) and I see some more than others and some not at all. Pretty sad really. I rarely see local people never mind those who live further afield.

This year I properly got into Powerwolf. They are truly excellent. Best gig was Battlebeast at Rockharz over the summer.

My favourite movie is either Guardians of the Galaxy or The Raid 2.Too close to call.

Best TV show is either Arrow or Flash, I love those two shows. Honourable mention to Extant which I thought was most excellent.

Thank you 2014

I have made new friiends, found new music, done some good hobby stuff. Overall this was a good year. 

Merchant Ships

So I also bought some bits and pieces from the spartan bits and pieces part of their store with a view to build some of my own merchant ships.

So I've had the bits of one of those ancient pontoon bridge army sets from when I was a nipper in my bits box for as long as I can remember, and these were the hulls of the ship.

So here is the first one..

This guy is a simple flat bed cargo hauler type ship. I also made some interesting looking cargo but then decided not to photograph those pieces. The textured plasticard fits the scale really nicely. The pieces fore and aft (how nautical am I?) are what I think are folded up cranes that are from the merchant fleet box.

I also discovered that the resin pieces look many times better if they are recessed into the top hull plate rather than plonked on top.

Thanks for looking!

Dystopic Islands

I had a minor brain wave to use some old dvds for bases for various islands and things. I was looking at the oil rigs and thinking that they looked a bit delicate...

In general I have used cur up sheets of cork and then cork pieces for the rock outcrops. The silver pieces are waves that I made from since foil and then glued down with pva. I'm going to add layer of some resin or other too, Then result looked ok on my larger board so we'll have to see whether they transfer over well to these smaller islands.

A simple island with some waves.

A slightly bigger rocky outcropping

Look carefully and you can see the oil rig legs there. I used waves to hide the hole in the middle of the disc

Slightly blurry oil rig legs straddling and island

Same again. legs and rocks

A simple lighthouse. Man I struggled attaching the central tower piece.

A blurry lighthouse built out on  a rocky outrcop

Dystopic Adventures

Right. A bit of a change in direction. In order to do more Dystopian Wars stuff I decided, rather than to work on what I already have, I should get some more stuff and use that as a catalyst for injecting interest for myself in this games system. I've had some models for ages, and they featured in my haul of shame post from some time ago. So I decided to get the new rules and some new bits and to crack on with some building..

I bought the merchant fleet box and a couple of lighthouses and trays for the tiny fliers. Here they are unpacked and cleaned and ready to roll.

A Brawlin

I've saved my favourite assassin till last. For some reason the idea of a psychotic chemically deranged killing machine that can be unleashed at will is quite compelling. In my mind such warriors are almost tank like in their appearance and indeed their operation. Any way here are some pics...

 I gave him a squat and heavily armoured appearance. A chaos space marine body and I think some gorkamorka ork legs, ork shoulder pads (how 80s), a blood angel head with the spikey bits removed, a chaos cultist left arm and I dont know about the right. I then made a comedy gun from various bits. I think the drilled gun barrel is quite effective here. 

I then added a bunch of vials, canisters and fuel tanks from various sources. These represent the various chemical toxins that are injected into his system.

OK so the gun is far from perfect, but i'm really happy how this guy turned out.

Thanks for reading.

A Mind Meltin

OK. My take on the Culexus Assassin. Personally I don't really like the massive skull that the regular GW model has. I kept the idea but toned it down a bit. Once more a chaos cultist was the basis for the model.

I tried to achieve a surgically implanted type look for the animus speculum, and I also used a pointing hand as a nod to the original.

Thanks for looking

A Stabbin

Continuing my Assassin building I have a Callidus assassin. This based on a hasslefree miniture, some Lara Croft -esque type person. I added a massive sword and generally made her look more 40k ish. I was going to add a bunch of inquisition symbols and trinkets but I thought that it looked better without all those extra bits...

Quite a cool and elegant mini I think. She can also double up as a death cult assassin for that inquisitorial warband that I will get round to one day.

Although looking at her again I'm thinking that her gun needs to be beefed up.

Thanks for looking.

A Shootin

I decided to build a bunch of assassins. One of each flavour. I used chaos cultists as the main body then added some scion bits and pieces,

Here is my version of a vindicare assassin...

The initial build

I added a greenstuff hood / mask type thing

And a knife

Thanks for looking!

Stuttering Progress

So I've had what turned out to be a sinus infection which meant that I was feeling pretty grim for the last few weeks. 
Anyway enough moaning! I did some pretty serious airbrushing over that time and managed to basecoat most of those guardsmen from a few posts back.

Box of guard!

Still loads of detail to do, notably the red on the guns plus highlighting and the rest of the usual stuff, but you get the drift. I must admit that I am pretty intimidated about painting the character types! 

Also, a question to you airbrushers... 

During use I quite frequently get spurts of water out of the nozzle, which is incredibly frustrating since it messes up what i have been working on. Now my compressor does have a moisture trap on it, and I find that there is a load of condensation in there by the time I finish a session. So my question is how moist (fnar fnar) does yours get after and during use? I'm thinking this is the root of my problems. 

Any thoughts would be appreicated!

Thanks for reading,

Al

Plasma Cannon Servitors

I built a pair of plasma cannon servitors. Their plasma cannons are massive! Possibly a bit too big.

Here they are at first...

Quite like the cutting blade on the dude on hte left

 And then I got the greenstuff out and they ended up looking like...

Thanks for reading,

Al

Creed. But not Creed

I kit kitbashed a dude whos gonna be my Creed counts as. 

I used various Scion bits for this guy. I means that set is brilliant. I figured that Creed and Yarrick are models that cost best part of a tenner each so it made sense to buy a kit that had the potential to build tons of stuff. So I did!

The conversion itself was pretty basic, I equipped him with a couple of pistols and used a different head. Maybe a space marine scout (I dunno I'm no headologist). I can't remember where I saw it down but I robbed another idea where the shoulder mounted tracker doo dad is actually tracking where one of the weapons is pointing.

Thanks for reading,

Al

A Game!

The other month I actually got a game of 7th edition in. The photos I took don't really warrant a battle report but here are a few thoughts..

I brought my fledgling Imperial Guard. A significant proportion were only undercoated, which is a bit of shame but I really wanted to use them in anger. I brought most of a platoon, some vets in chimera and  the leman russ variant with a plasma cannon (cunningly disguised as a demolisher though...)

Ste brought a mixture of Imperial Fists and Ultramarines with plenty of forgeworld bits thrown in. Man that guy can paint. 

So we rolled for missions and deployment  and the rest of it. Plus we were using tactical objectives and the like. Here is a picture of deployment...

Ready to roll! 

 Also take note of the awesome board! Ste's impressive handiwork once more. Got to say that those tiles weigh a surprising amount once a bunch of sand and paint is applied.

Also it was a proper game of floorhammer! last time I played like this would have been 20 years ago or something, and unfortunately my knees don't work that well any more.

The game progressed like this...

• Ste marched towards my position in a relentless manner
• I managed to take down his assault squad early on
• Most of my blobbed infantry squad squad got whittled away by that massive forgeo tank in the middle
• I popped the rhino early on meaning a long walk for the marines
• I spent ages shooting that iron clad dread without doing anything. It eventually marched forwards and took down the remains of the blob squad and my Leman Russ tank. Eventually my fortifications took it down 
• The heavy weapon squad was worn away before finally succumbing.
• One of my two psykers managed to hold up the tactical marines by doing some mad power stuff and charging in like a boss
• Terminators deep stuck in quite near the end (unlucky reserve rolls) and promptly took out my wyvern
• I used some order or something to allow my vets to come in in his rear and do some damage. What really happened is I disembarked them and they got torn to shreds.
• I brought on a plasma gun squad quite late to secure an objective in my deployment zone,

In the end it was quite close, I think Ste won by 2 points or there abouts. What did I learn:

• Psykers good
• Orders good
• Bring more tanks
• Don't get out of Chimera in front of rapiers and massive anti infantry tanks
• Find more cover (this table was very open I think)

All in all a great Sunday afternoon!

Post game carnage. My few survivors hiding in the corner!

Thanks for reading,

Al

Gamesday 2014

Made the Sunday morning trip to a very misty Coventry to check out this years Gamesday to indulge in hobby stuff. Overall a really good day was had.

The good...

• Bought some stuff
• Golden demon stuff was cool
• FW stuff was cool
• The two or three massive displays were brilliant. Very inspiring.
• Thought the venue was quite chilled out, maybe the move to two days means that it wasn't stupid busy all day.
• Free car parking!
• The demo pods worked well.

The bad..

• No Armies on Parade. Really missed this.
• Bought too much stuff. But saying that not everything was there to buy, I fancied the Ork codex and a box of wracks, but no dice.
• No where to sit off and chill
• Lack of bins meaning rubbish piling up on tables
• Hardly any classic stuff. Previous years had cabinets everywhere overflowing with cool old stuff, Not this year.
• My mate whining about his trousers. All day. Gees.
• Not many big displays.

Some crap photos of good stuff..

Love this boarding action stuff. They keep on adding more and it gets better each time I see it.

Only ended up taking a couple of photos of the new Calth board. Brilliant stuff. It has a train! I wish I knew what the containers were. I wonder if a bunch were cast for this project or something...

Industrial Ad Mech stuff. Great.

Pretty much the only old school thing that I thought was worth taking a snap of

Finally I took a bunch of photos of the my favourite Golden Demon entries...

Splosh

Brilliant.

Love the creepy thing in a tank

Heres Johnny

Brilliant track spin

Mad freehand stuff

Primaris Psyker With Bells On

Built another one! Also with a force stave...

Thanks for reading,

Al