A Lazy Combat Patrol Hack

I'm still not going out yet because I think everything is down to risk management and I'm not risking my life to play toy soldiers.

I've also not yet got a copy of the new Warhammer 40,000 because I have no interest in either a subscription app or a dead tree copy, and for some reason Games Workshop haven't released the e-book copy yet for civilised people.

But that doesn't stop me reading internet sites and writing an elegant and balanced game mod for Combat Patrol games to give the Inquisition a bit more flexibility.

Inquisitorial Clash

• Select a force using the Patrol Detachment as usual for a Combat Patrol game. Your Warlord must be an Inquisitor.

• Units with the SISTERS OF SILENCE Faction keyword can be included in a INQUISITION detachment, without preventing that detachment from being an INQUISITION detachment. Note that this does not prevent INQUISITION models in that detachment from gaining any detachment abilities, however SISTERS OF SILENCE units cannot themselves gain any detachment abilities. Similarly, those SISTERS OF SILENCE units are ignored for any rules that state all units from that Detachment must have at least one Faction keyword in common (e.g. in a matched play game) and when documenting your army's Faction.

• Units with the ASTRA MILITARUM Faction keyword can be included in a INQUISITION detachment, without preventing that detachment from being an INQUISITION detachment. Note that this does not prevent INQUISITION models in that detachment from gaining any detachment abilities, however ASTRA MILITARUM units cannot themselves gain any detachment abilities. Similarly, those ASTRA MILITARUM units are ignored for any rules that state all units from that Detachment must have at least one Faction keyword in common (e.g. in a matched play game) and when documenting your army's Faction.

• Units with the GREY KNIGHTS Faction keyword can be included in a ORDO MALLEUS detachment, without preventing that detachment from being an ORDO MALLEUS detachment. Note that this does not prevent ORDO MALLEUS models in that detachment from gaining any detachment abilities, however GREY KNIGHTS units cannot themselves gain any detachment abilities. Similarly, those GREY KNIGHTS units are ignored for any rules that state all units from that Detachment must have at least one Faction keyword in common (e.g. in a matched play game) and when documenting your army's Faction.

• Units with the ADEPTUS MINISTORUM Faction keyword can be included in ORDO HERETICUS detachment, without preventing that detachment from being an ORDO HERETICUS detachment. Note that this does not prevent INQUISITION models in that detachment from gaining any detachment abilities, however ADEPTUS MINISTORUM units cannot themselves gain any detachment abilities. Similarly, those ADEPTUS MINISTORUM units are ignored for any rules that state all units from that Detachment must have at least one Faction keyword in common (e.g. in a matched play game) and when documenting your army's Faction.

• Units with the DEATHWATCH Faction keyword can be included in ORDO XENOS detachment, without preventing that detachment from being an ORDO XENOS detachment. Note that this does not prevent ORDO XENOS models in that detachment from gaining any detachment abilities, however DEATHWATCH units cannot themselves gain any detachment abilities. Similarly, those DEATHWATCH units are ignored for any rules that state all units from that Detachment must have at least one Faction keyword in common (e.g. in a matched play game) and when documenting your army's Faction.

• Your Warlord does not count as an AGENT OF THE IMPERIUM for the purposes of limiting the number of AGENT OF THE IMPERIUM models you may take in your detachment. (This does not supercede the rule that only one Inquisitor may be taken in an Inquisition Detachment, but does mean that you could use an Assassin's AGENT OF THE IMPERIUM rule to add it to your Inquisition detachment.)

This "writing rules" lark isn't all that hard, is it? I haven't managed to get any games of 9th edition 40K in, sadly, so please do let me know if you decide to use my weird house rules, and how you got on?

Heresy Miniatures: More than a little awesome

 Last Sunday, I headed down to Dark Sphere, as they were having a day of assembly and painting - primarily for Age of Sigmar, but really for anything you fancied. They had staff on hand for beginners, but as I pretend to know what I'm doing, I got on with assembling the massive pile of stuff on my 'to do' pile at the moment.

In an effort to keep my stash under control, I've been giving Peachey Models some money to assemble some of my stuff. The latest batch they got was a bunch of figures from Heresy Miniatures.

I'd asked for the models not to be based, so I could be fussy and do my own thing with the basing. So, in between the other projects, I got all the basing on the Heresy stuff finished off and them all ready for undercoating.

With larger orders, you will sometimes get some extra figures. These zombies were free with this order - I've not quite worked out what I'm going to do with them yet, but they're really nice, so I'm sure I'll find a use for them.

Some of these models are going to find their way into my Chaos forces - these will probably serve as marauders or thugs, depending on which edition I'm playing at the time.

This delightful lady would not be out of place in many Frostgrave warbands.

I got her on the principle that you can never have too many wizards, and she can serve as a fantasy civilian just as easily as a spell caster in an army.

This fierce cheiftan will be leading a warband of non GW figures in my Chaos forces.

Whereas here, we have a ragged, undercover member of the Ordo Chronos. The xenotech he's holding is probably dangerous. Filthy radicals!

And another cool female wizard figure. Looking forward to painting her up in time.

Plodding along

 I took advantage of the Bank Holiday weekend over here to get a bit of painting and modelling done. I finished prepping and assembling a couple of goblins and got them undercoated, but didn't take a photo of that.

I completely swear by Vallejo Coarse Pumice and Sandy Paste for my basing, but I've noticed James Wappel really likes the Oxid Paste. So, I picked up a small jar of it to give it a go.

I used it around the edge of the base of the radical Inquisitor that Whiskey Priest sent me. Before it dried, it was hard to see what the texture was going to be.

I then painted it up with some Rhinox Hide, then a wash, and finally a light drybrushing of some other mid tone brown I had lying around. XV-88, maybe?

Once the wash was dry, I dropped in the last few details, and ticked the box on having at least finished something this weekend. An easy win, to be sure, but I'll take an easy win over nothing. ;)

Myth, my Tiefling, had his trousers re-coloured and the yellow slashes dropped in on his sleeves. I also added another layer to the yellow fastenings on his coat, as the first coat hadn't really properly covered things.

I also start blocking in colours on my last Malifaux Changeling proxy. (SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE: BUY STUFF FROM HERESY MINIATURES.) When this chap is done, I'll have a full 50 Soulstone list fully painted, and I'll move on to assembling and painting the rest of the models my current crew can use to start give me some flexibility in list building.

Finally, one of the Arco-Flagellants I was given for Christmas has been fully assembled. I fitted the trailing arm first, and pinned it, but the leading arm was then fine to forgo a pin. Happy to get him done, just a couple more to go!

Getting back on the horse, and a surprise guest

So, threatening myself with a complete lack of potential content, I finally knuckled down this weekend and broke the painting block, finishing off the second Heresy familiar I'm using as a Changeling in Malifaux. Sure, there's things I'd touch up, but he's a gaming piece, he's finished, and I have more to do!

There is pretty constant assembly going on at the moment - but scraping mould lines and pinning to bases and assembling multi-part plastic kits isn't hugely good blog reading. Hopefully now the pace will pick up and I'll retain some consistency.

I am glad I can't see the future. I got home today to this gorgeous chap waiting for me on the mat. He's an Inquisitor kitbash by Whiskey Priest from The Leadpile. I won a competition a while ago, and, as a fellow sufferer of hobby block, there was a bit of a delay before I got him. Solidarity!

This wretched fellow just needs a little basing love, and then he'll be ready for the table. I'm not sure when I'll be able to get a game, but if I can get him done soon, I'm tempted to try and sort out a game of some sort down at the Overlords in May some time and get some nice photos for a battle report on the blog. I've had a few commissions come back that haven't fired a shot in anger yet, so they'll need their bad luck draining off from their paint.

Still, positivity abounds, and you all have two nicely painted miniatures to see on my blog. Onwards!

Redemptionist Leader from The Lost and the Very Damned

Photo (and painting) by Stuart Bannister

I'm a terrible person! Stuart from The Lost and the Very Damned painted one of my figures for me because I won a competition, and I haven't blogged about it.

I gave Stuart carte blanche to paint the chap, and he's ended up rather pink! I feel the need to come up with some sort of background for him - are his robes due to his odd cult, a cultural relic of his planet, or just that they were white once and there was an accident with the laundry?

A blog post was made when this glorious scion of the Emperor was painted, and please do go and check out (and follow) the Lost and the Very Damned. It's an excellent blog!

What I've been up to recently

 Mostly, I've been involved in other hobbies, like LARPing. I had a big run of events with the painting class and trip to Warhammer World, followed up by some LARP - and while I've had a little free time of late, I've usually been too frazzled for painting. Still, I've started getting some stuff underway and I feel like I'm all queued up ready to go. While I've still got a couple of "trip" posts to write up, I thought I'd let people see what I've been working on!

I've come up with a scheme I like for my Malifaux Scheme Markers. It's relatively simple to do, but requires a couple of coats of wash, so can't just be knocked out in an evening - there's a lot of drying time and faffy steps involved. Still, I feel like I'm about halfway or so, and that I should be able to get them finished up pretty soon.

 I dug out these two old mutants and just finished up a little detailing on them. Still need to get their cousins done.

And I'm trying to get my D&D character painted up. The character is a Tiefling Bard - we're nearly to third level now, so he'll invariably die horribly the moment I've finished his paint scheme! I seem to be doing a lot of blue at the moment - I think whatever I do next will be different, colour wise.

The model is from Hero Forge. It's a bit pricey for what you get - I went with the 'high detail' version. It's a little brittle - I wouldn't want to handle it roughly - but it's not impossible to work with. There is a bit of mottling and rough surfaces from the 3D printing process, but it's good enough what what I want. If you want something specific they can put out, they have pretty much cornered the market, but if you just want a generic human fighter or rogue, I would strongly recommend just going with Reaper or something similar. I had foolishly backed myself into a corner with a Tiefling Bard.

Inquisition: Progress with Pawns

An Inquisitorial Warband is growing, slowly. Here stands one of the inner circle of the band, a Lexmechanic - perhaps now a little isolated from his machine cult brethren, and more loyal to his master, who bears an ancient seal of authority.

I tried the new Balthasar Gold paint on his scroll case, and was very impressed. It was easy to use with good coverage - much better than previous Games Workshop gold paints.

Meanwhile, here is a work in progress - two mutants - called "twists" by some low born. These expendable unfortunates have been drawn to the Inquisitor's service. It is unlikely they will live long, but perhaps they will gain some solace from their service.

It is unlikely that they will.

Many Milestones: Fabulous prize to be won!

In quick succession, I've hit a series of milestones on the blog:

• 100,000 views
• 100 followers
• 300 posts

(This is the 300th post.)

I started this blog way back on 1 April 2012. I like to think that the quality of posts has improved since those dark days, if only because I now take pictures, and sometimes even take some half decent ones.

Many things have happened since I started this blog...

My wife decided that she wasn't just a painter, but was willing to play 40K sometimes...

I've gotten better at modelling and done some kit bashes I'm really proud of.

I've started tracking my painting and modelling much better, and am starting to get to the point where I'm happy with how I'm doing.

My painting has really improved, and I can now put out miniatures I'm happy with and match the picture in my head (at least sometimes).

I've played some awesome games, and sometimes even won some. (Not pictured: a game where I actually won.)

Model painted and photograph by
Golem Painting Studio

I've accepted I can't paint all my stuff and employed some awesome commission painters to get my backlog into some sort of manageable state.

Have I mentioned how pleased I am with how my painting is improving?

Competition

Given the number of milestones, I thought I'd run a small competition and give something away - especially as I've won two prizes on blogs I follow recently!

I had a bit of a think about what I could offer as a prize, and decided that I could part with a painted model. The other blogs offered to paint or even kitbash and paint a model for the winner - but I'd like the prize to go to someone this year...

The prize is my Arbitrator kit bash test build, which I have decided doesn't look Arbites enough. I'll be trying alternative builds in the future, but while I've used him a few times as a proxy in Infinity, he can make his way on to a good home.

To enter:

Be a follower of this blog, and comment in this post! Say what you like about the blog, what you'd like to see more of, or what you usually skip over. I'm afraid each person only gets one entry, even if you make multiple posts.

The closing date is midnight, 23 August 2015. I'll select a winner from the eligible entries with some random number generator or other.

Health Check: New Year's Resolutions, End of January

So, lets have a look at how I've done with my New Year's resolutions for painting and stuff.

The Main Goal

- Finish painting at least two things a month
SUCCESS

That's three things completed and sorted out.

Bonus Goals

- Finish more than two projects a month

Success!

- . . . and limit purchases the following month to whatever I beat the target by

Abject failure.

I picked up a Bob Olley Mechanicus off eBay when I finished the third model this month in a fit of enthusiasm, forgetting I was meant to wait until February. I then also didn't manage to get a fourth figure finished, because I desperately needed to buy a couple of Nomad Remotes for the Totally Crit Open at the end of February.

Preparing for Events

I didn't manage to get all my figures assembled for the Winter Challenge, which was very frustrating. Fortunately, it wasn't ITS, so I could use proxies, but I still feel bad about it.

I now really need to get sorted for the Totally Crit Open, because that is ITS and if I don't have the models assembled I'll be left begging people to borrow theirs, and that's just humiliating.

This does worry me a little regarding my "two a month" painting target - as I really can't afford to distract myself from assembly, and February is a short month. Still, I'm an adult and I can wear it. If I don't get two things painted this month, it's not the end of the work - I can always focus on trying to catch up in future months.

Pomodoro and Progress

So, following my review of last year and many ambitious commitments, I decided to start as I meant to go on, and be pretty productive.

I've been meaning to try out the Pomodoro Technique for a while now. For those of you not into clicking links, the short version is that you spend 25 minutes doing a thing, then take a five minute break. Then you do another 25 minutes, and 5 minute break, and so on, taking a longer (half hour to an hour) break every 4 Pomodori. They're named after the tomato shaped kitchen timer the chap who came up with the idea first used (Pomodoro being Italian for tomato).

And it worked pretty well. I managed 5 Pomodori on New Year's Day, getting all sorts of things sorted, from starting assembly and preparation on Zoe and Pi-Well, through to actually getting some more paint on the infamous Herald of Tzeentch.

I then ran into the problem with Pomodori, because I then didn't get anything done for two days. The Pomodoro technique is really useful for keeping on working once you've started - several times after fifteen minutes I'd finished a thing, and instead of slacking off and stopping, I went and did a little more on something else. It was super helpful with that. What it didn't do was help me get the willpower to start.

This is where I'd really recommend people think about spending an hour a day at their hobby and making it a habit. I heard about this on the Independent Characters podcast, and some wags have started calling it #tuttletime (currently doing OK on Facebook, not trending on twitter). Poor Carl. As he rightfully points out, he had the idea suggested to him by Paul Rudge, but "Paul Rudge Points" or "Rudge Recurrences" just don't have the same alliteration.

Still, the time was useful, and I did get some more painting in later in the week, as the renegade / cultist is finally done. I also bit the bullet and sent out the Exalted Slaanesh Daemon to Golem Painting Studio. I think after having something more than four years which is a present for something else is the point to admit you're probably taking too long doing it... I'm also super excited to see what they do with it.

So, how are my commitments looking one week in?

Projects a month: 1/2
Operation: Complete Other People's Stuff: 0/3
Hall of Shame: 0/5
Finishing the 2014 backlog: 1/20

My painting review of 2014

It looks like I've been a bit more productive this year!

Finished models

Wicked Dolls for Malifaux

Adeptus Arbites Kitbash

20 Guardsmen

Collodi for Malifaux

MkI Thunder Armour

Commissar Lord

Imperial Priest

Leman Russ Tank

Bloodletter

An angry Squat

Codename: Oberon by Mantic

A mildly tipsy Squat

Anvil Industry Werewolf

Bonus: Stuff other people painted for me!

Imperial Beastmen, painted by Simlauren

Imperial Guard Bombard, painted by Golem Painting Studio

How did I do?

Well, that's certainly better than I managed last year. But if you scroll down that post, you'll see I set myself some goals. How well did I do with those?

Not include models I'm selling in my tracking systems next year
Well, that was an easy one.

Take part in the Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge
Well, I took part - but I sort of intended to complete it! I didn't complete the challenge, but I certainly got a lot more models painted as a result.

Finish the blasted Collodi crew
Oh dear. I got halfway there, but there's still four Marionettes to finish basing.

500 point Warriors of Chaos Army
Not started.

All of Salute 2012's purchases painted
Nope. The Storm Troopers were done last year, but there's still a female Commissar, the show Mayan and all the Sarissa Precision stuff that's not finished yet.

No new systems (Infinity, this means you) until I've fully painted one of my other skirmish games up
Abject failure. You'll notice my posts about lovely Infinity stuff, and you will notice above no skirmish games completed...

Future Plans

I think that trying to plan a full year is a mistake. I have projects I want to progress, but I may get distracted by a different project. Y'all understand that, right? So, I'll separate out "what I'm interested in at the moment" and "what I'm committing to".

I've taken to listing my projects on a project page of the blog. It's not fully written out yet - I do it as and when, as I get inspired by different projects. The eternal project of the Imperial Guard is written up, as is the Cypher project.

My big drive at the moment is Infinity - I've found deadlines are good for me getting things done, so being booked onto two Infinity events (one in January, one in February) will help me get my Infinity stuff sorted.

Otherwise, I'd like to get some Guard stuff done, enough Inquisition done to field a small allied contingent, and get some Malifaux in.

Commitments

So, important things with commitments is to be realistic, so lets start by setting some realistic ground rules. Any Kickstarter projects, either arriving or backing, don't count to the wider restrictions, because, well, I just get sad otherwise. Presents (Christmas, Birthday, etc) don't count. Salute most definitely doesn't count.

I have just over 16 years of painting mountain if I keep painting and modelling at the rate I did last year. It'd be probably be better if I got it down to around a decade.

That really means that as a base minimum, I should be finishing two projects a month - 24 a year. That's going to be the basic rule. There's some "stretch goals" to work for too.

- Finish more than two projects in a month, and limit purchases the following month to however much I beat the target by

- Finish "Operation: Complete Other People's Stuff". (only 3 items left!)

- Clear the Hall of Shame of anything started before 2014. (5 items)

- Finish anything I started before the start of 2015. (20 items)

These ones are all aspirational - which means that unlike "finish 2 things in a month", I can aim for them if I'm doing well, but don't feel so bad if I miss them. I'm also very keen to focus a lot of effort on things I've been given as presents, because, you know, it's not cool to have things people gave you sitting in boxes. I don't just want to be resting on my mint plastic/resin/metal treasure like a geek Smaug. It's not comfy, for starters.