Iron Skull Painting Tournament

Good-natured shilling

For those who follow my blog who like painting all fancy like, there's a new painting competition that Siege Studios / Artis Opus are running. It's going to be in London on 29 February 2020.

For disclosure, I'm at least a passing acquaintance with one of the people running it, who has hit me up to mention it to people - but it does look pretty cool and worth a look.

The tickets are for sale now, and it's already gone well enough that they've had to upgrade their venue.

You will need a ticket either to enter or to go and look at all the entries.

All the fancy categories, rules and stuff are up on the IronSkull website.

I'm not sure if I'll be making it yet, as I'm hoping to be in Mallorca for the Infinity EIC tournament the weekend before, so I may have declared myself legally dead for napping reasons.

They also have a Facebook event set up if that's your thing. Facebook continues to be something I grudgingly tolerate due to it's pervasiveness. I don't have to like it.

So. IronSkull Painting Competition. It's a thing. It will be a cool thing if it's your sort of thing.

New Year, New Me

To the left of my obviously immaculate and well organised paint desk, lies a small pile of miniatures I simply dropped onto my desk because I thought they would be a "quick win". I'm aware some of them have been there since the start of last year, at least, so perhaps it was time to start pushing through them in the New Year.

I'm aware that the "Tale of Gamers" challenge has nominally finished, and I have missed the deadline, but as far as hobby goes (if not in my work life) I will quote Douglas Adams: "I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they go by."

I'm going to continue on with the project, but at a slightly more (!!!) erratic pace than before, taking a leaf from my co-conspirator's approach and having a little break by painting or assembling whatever takes my fancy.

So, first up on the desk as a result of the "Just get something done! Anything!" policy are these scavengers from EM4 Miniatures I was part way through assembling at the end of 2015, and put to one side as I had too much work in progress at the time.

I've filed down all the flash and glued them to their bases. Just going to fill the basing gaps, add rocks and sand, so they're ready to undercoat. They'll then go on the "wait for the weather to improve" undercoating pile.

In the background, you can see that 3 of the 5 Forsaken are now done, and the last two are inching closer to being finished. There's also a Chaos Spawn with a head attached to a base that I don't recall if I've posted before or not.

One of the reasons that my painting is slowing down a little is that I've realised that clutter is not good for my productivity, so spending more of my free time tidying up around the house. This is the evidence as to why I need to do this more. I cleared the right hand side of my computer desk last weekend. At the bottom of this pile, I found these business cards and ticket stub, helpfully dated to show when the pile started.

Meanwhile, do you recall the blacksmith I did for the Chaos Villager challenge at the Oldhammer Forum? It turns out, I was the lucky winner, so have been sent an amazing collection of creativity and art. Most have not been based, to allow their owner to base them up to match their forces. I'll be getting that sorted some point in the next few months!

Oldhammer Forum Challenge - Chaos Villager - Complete!

So, with the deadline on the Oldhammer Forum Chaos Villager challenge fast approaching, I sat down to quickly finish off the Chaos Blacksmith you saw in my post the other week.

To finish up the base, I drybrushed various different light colours onto the paving slabs to add some contrast - there's a lilac, a green, a blue and a couple of different greys all there. The piece of paper got a Steel Legion Drab base coat and a quick bone drybrush. I then dabbed in some Typhus Corrosion, wiping off the worst with my finger, to bring the stone back down a bit.

The anvil got a nice simple grey stone base with a plain Nuln Oil wash. Nothing fancy.

And here he is all together. Pleased oto have gotten a model finished, and had fun playing around with a few new paints.

Background wise, I'm thinking that his drive for perfection attracted the attention of Slaanesh, and his gold mask is riveted to his skull, driving him mad with visions of techniques and secrets beyond mortal comprehension. He uses those secrets to craft fine swords for the champions who sometimes pass through the village.

I basically took this photo to show the piece of paper behind the anvil. No other reason.

As a reminder, this miniature is available from Anvil Industry, should you want one of your very own.

Inventive uses for dice tins...

Photo (and work) by Horza, used with permission

I'm having a bit of a slack hobby period, but I thought this might be of interest to some. You might recall I picked up a bag full of the dice tins done up as lasgun power packs at the Overlords Bring and Buy...

This is what they were for. This is a modded Nerf gun mocked up to use one of the tins as a clip. It's intended for use in the No Rest for the Wicked LARP. This is just a first pass, and I expect to see some prettier examples in time.

Bored over Christmas? Some help is at hand.

I'm home for Christmas this year, rather than visiting relatives. This does, at least, make it a little easier to get hobbying done, rather than some sort of portable solution being set up on the dining table...

Anyhow, in the interests of seasonal sharing and goodwill, I thought I'd give people a few ideas for things to do if they are bored at a family Christmas and can't get their modelling and painting stuff out. I mean, seriously, you don't see your family that often, and you should make a bit of an effort to spend some time with them, but there will come a point where you need a little "you" time, so here's a few suggestions for that.

Pretty miniature things to look at

The Ammobunker

Or, more specifically, the Ammobunker's Inq28 Painting and Modelling forum. This is one of the best collections of kit bashed inquisitorial goodness on the web, and one that is often overlooked. If you are missing your modelling and want to look at many pretty miniatures assembled in ways that the designers did not necessarily intend, this is the place for you.

Massive Voodoo

These folk are pretty well known already, but they are worth mentioning again. They have a lot of very pretty models on the blog, but also a lot of tutorials to help you get better. They are definitely worth some time, and you can really get lost browsing through their stuff.

Interesting things to read

The Gonzo History Project
This is a history blog, sure, but not of the sort that you'll have seen before. Its run by a friend of mine, who also paints, models and games - but this is all about the history. You might wonder why I'm linking this, but go look - his series on the archaeological themes in Skyrim, in particular, are worth a look.

Youtube

Beasts of War
I know that the Beasts of War crew aren't everyone's cup of tea, but you will definitely find some gems in there. I'm particularly fond of their Infinity series (so much so that I shamelessly stole the idea of an Infinity Week). They do run features on games I have no interest in whatsoever, like Dropzone Commander, DUST or Kings of War, but a selective browse will find you videos to while away the time before Christmas dinner.

Templars Crusade
If you are more interested in the painting and modelling side of things, then go have a look at Templars Crusade's channel. He's been particularly interested in Flames of War and Horus Heresy recently, but he does love him his Forge World as a general theme...

Terranscapes
This chap builds terrain. He does some pretty big projects, and its worth having a look at for inspiration and ideas.

Computer Games

And if you need something to keep you entertained on your computer?

Tiny Death Star (Android)
Tiny Death Star (iPad/iPhone)

A little tower building game that is horribly addictive, where you help fund the death star with shops, restaurants and toy shops...

Papers Please

Not one to play while you're feeling down, but a fascinating game where you play a border guard at an Eastern European border checkpoint in 1982. Incredibly depressing, but a real work of art that is worth playing over and over, as it gives you some real challenges, both mentally and emotionally.

And a couple of quick ones...

Public Service Announcement

Someone recently made the mistake of letting one of the guys who made Cards Against Humanity know their Youtube password . . . and this was the result.

Blogger won't let me embed this one, so you can go to Youtube. It is work safe...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARfg4p031os

Drinking White Wine in the Sun

And finally, here's a video of what has recently become one of my favourite songs about Christmas.

A late progress update report, and a massive challenge to myself

It is Wednesday already, and I haven't posted on my blog! In my defence, the season has meant a perfect storm of friends visiting, LARP events and work Christmas parties that have left me struggling to find time.

Despite that, I have some small progress. I've started base coating the Secret Weapon bases I bought for my Malifaux Collodi crew, I've repaired the Chainsword on the bodyguard who got broken fighting ClauseIV1918, and I finished another Wicked Doll, leaving only one left to complete!

Looking back, I think I've not done as much painting and modelling as I'd like, so I've decided to take on a nice big challenge to try and motivate me into getting a whole bunch of stuff finished. I've decided to try and take on The Independent Characters' Hobby Progress Challenge 2014.

The premise for this is that between some specific dates - in this case, between 1 February 2014 and 30 November 2014. The challenge this year is to complete a 1,000 point Zone Mortalis force by 30 June 2014, then expand it to a full 2,000 point force by the end of the challenge.

The realisation that I could easily do the challenge without buying a single model - and in fact had a wide choice of what to pick from my unpainted collection has spurred me to knuckle down and get some Guard painted up this year!

There's a bunch more rules about publishing army lists and trying to get a unit a month done, but you should head over to their forums for the full rules. So, it's becoming even more important for me to clear the decks of half finished projects so I can hit 2014 with a bang.

Getting Someone Else To Do Your Painting: Squidzilla Ink

After a couple of small "too good to miss" deals turned the "to do" column of my Kanban board to the red of shame, I decided that some of my hobby budget should go towards getting more models painted, instead of making the backlog even worse. This was made doubly important because I knew that the Eavy Metal painting classes I was about to go to would also give me a bunch more half painted miniatures.

Yes, I had decided to dip my toe into the world of paying someone else to paint some of my models - commission painting. It is worth noting that for the sake of marital harmony, I had talked to my wife about this first - given that she is also a commission painter and had not been in favour of such things in the past. However, given her current backlog, she agreed it was fine for me to commission some work outwards.

For the purposes of this experiment, I selected my second Storm Trooper squad. They were ideal for a number of reasons. They had a little bit of awkward base pinning to do that I really wasn't looking forward to. Half had been undercoated by a seller and half were not. Half had been bought from Lesley's Bits Box at Salute 2012, the other half from a variety of low ball bids on ebay.

In addition, as an elite unit, I'd planned on painting them up a bit differently from the Storm Trooper unit I already had painted, and it didn't matter if they looked a little different from the other units I have. In short, they were an excellent unit to try out a new painter on.

The willing guinea pig I selected for this experiment is the chap who runs Squidzilla Ink. He was new to the area, and I met him through Dark Sphere and playing Infinity (I still have a battle report with him to post up at some point). His website is still a work in progress as he's just getting set up, but having seen a few example models both on his site and in person, I decided I was comfortable with handing him some of my models. (He also has an ebay store which will sometimes have models passing through it - worth having a look every now and again!)

It was certainly an odd feeling to be handing someone models and money, rather than handing people models and receiving money! His prices were reasonable, but I will do the very British thing and not go into the detail of how much I paid. Like many painters, he ran to a system of paying a deposit up front, with the remainder being paid on completion of the work.

I gave him the models on a Friday evening, and picked them up the following Tuesday at Infinity night. This was because there was a gap in his schedule, but if you need models painted in a hurry, its entirely possible he'll be able to oblige! I have, sadly, been a little incompetent in my photo taking, and I really need to take the time to take a better photo of them. You may think that they are a little dark, but this was part of my brief, as my Guard army uses a pretty dark set of colours, and I wanted them to fit in.

All in all, I am very happy with both the results of the work, and the service provided. The proprietor of Squidzilla Ink is a craftsman and a gentleman, and I would most definitely recommend his services to others. I am already looking thoughtfully at my backlog trying to work out what else I'd like to get on the table quickly...

Weekly progress: Completed models, cool wallpapers and tinkering around with Kanban

Some of you may remember the ridiculous exclusive I achieved about Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon. (Beasts of War did manage to get some footage up the following month, but I broke the game-play picture scoop!) Well, while following back a referral from a lovely German forum over the weekend, I spotted some thumbnails of some more pictures. A quick search of the Slitherine website found a forum post with some pretty Armageddon Wallpapers. Get them while they're hot!

How did people find my "Infinity Week"? It was a bit of an experiment for me. Daily posting isn't something I'm going to be able to do that often, but I had enough material and blitzed everything over the weekend and scheduled it out. So, what have I been doing over the course of the week?

My darling wife had a bit of a word about my Kanban Board. I showed her the layout I'd been using and as an impartial observer, she prodded some holes in it. I'd upped my "Work in Progress" in the painting column to 6, with the intention of every two things moved out of it, I'd reduce the limit by one until it was back down at 3, which would keep things moving. She pointed out that would just slow down me dealing with the underlying problem. I also have two completed items in the assembly column waiting to move into painting, so it wouldn't really help move much along, just maintain an already too high work in progress limit. She also rightfully pointed out that preparation and assembly should probably be combined, which I did, causing yet another over limit column.

(I've also added a limit on my "to do" column, which is items I've bought, of the current items I've purchased but not started. I want to get this down from 136 to about 100, though I'm not sure how long this is going to take. That one I _am_ going to keep at the higher limit, and work a "2 out, 1 in" policy, otherwise I will be Very Sad. However, any new items should now be going right on the top of the column so I pick them up as my next thing to do, which should cut down my ridiculous habit of buying something to paint up at some point in the future.)

Anyway, on to things I've actually done!

There's now five of the corpse tokens finished, and I've decided to go with the method on the bottom left - a layer of water effect, washing over that layer, then once that's dried, another layer of water effect. So I have another five of those to complete.

The disk for my friend's Herald of Tzeentch is now done - just the Herald to get done now! I can see some pink in my future...

Three of the Marionettes are getting much closer to being done - just some last details to pick up, and they should be ready for basing.

However, Collodi himself and the other Marionette are both ready for basing! I'm incredibly pleased about this as they've been something I've been working on FOREVER.

Now, this leads on to an interesting observation. On my Kanban board, all that's happened is this:

Collodi has moved into the basing column - because the Marionettes aren't all painted, and the disk is done, but the Herald is not. There's a ton of work which isn't showing, because it isn't finished in the stage it's at.

Now, I'd show my normal spreadsheet at this point, but quite frankly, it looks like a flat line - that massive pile of incomplete work means that any day's work just doesn't have an opportunity to show up. So, I stripped down a copy of the sheet to only include items that I've started on the Kanban board.

So, each of the two systems has its own advantages. The spreadsheet shows that I've done something, but gives a false sense of progress in terms of getting things finished.

The spreadsheet also shows something else interesting - until last week, I tried to focus on doing a massive blitz each weekend - notice the complete and total lack of progress . . . I then changed to trying to do a little bit each day - for much better results. It broke down the barrier of me wanting to sit down at the painting desk, and even on days when I wasn't really in the mood for painting, some little bits and bobs got done. Given the success of "paint a little each day", I intend to continue with it wherever possible.

Enter the Citadel: Questions from the Bell of Lost Souls forums

At the weekend I attended Enter the Citadel at Warhammer World. It was excellent, and very much worth the trip. I'll be covering the individual Q&A sessions separately later this week, along with my personal experiences and opinions.

However, to start with, I'm going to cover the questions that the Bell of Lost Souls forums asked me to ask - well, the ones I thought could get an answer anyway.

Some of these questions came from a rushed conversation with Phil Kelly - it was hard to find time to speak with him on top of everyone else going on and without being rude and interrupting other people. As a result, I didn't have time to make my usual copious notes. We were also cut short as we talked right up to the wire of the end of the event. As such, I've taken the liberty of summarising some of the conversation. Hopefully, I have not lost his intent and focus on this. As such, should you talk with him yourself, you may get slightly different answers - both because my account is filtered through my perception of it, and because people's opinions can change over time!

Other questions were asked by other people in the seminars by people other than me, and some came up naturally without me needing to ask. Hopefully its useful and interesting to people!

"Do you feel that certain units such as banshees and genestealers should be changed to have grenades considering the impact of overwatch?"

and

"Is there a possibility we will see Howling Banshees fixed in an errata as currently they are comprehensively inferior to Striking Scorpions even with being cheaper. Lack of plasma grenades, reliant on unreliable buffs from a unit that can't join them to inflict wounds an inferior Mask and and inferior Acrobatic."

Context for those not obsessed with rules: Banshees don't have assault grenades, but wargear that penalises their opponent's initiative, to a minimum of one. While this will often mean they are then striking simultaneously when assaulting into cover, there is a risk of them being badly mauled by the counter strikes.

The discussion: Assault grenades and assault units are a difficult point. You can't just give absolutely every unit grenades, because at that point, why would you have a rule to penalise assaulting into cover? There needed to be distinctions between Howling Banshees and Striking Scorpions, otherwise everyone would be taking Banshees and the Scorpions would be being decried as useless. Phil does love Eldar and its a careful design line to not to make them The Best At Everything Ever. He still uses Banshees in his own army.

We also had a short conversation about making Banshees more effective. I couldn't recall if your initiative is still penalised if you're charging a unit that is already engaged with someone else (that may be a way to bypass the lack of grenades). The Dark Eldar also have a piece of wargear that bestows assault grenades onto the unit they've joined - while allying isn't to everyone's taste, a Dark Eldar independent character with this kit joining the Banshees could create an effective, punchy unit.

"Are they happy with the speed of releases for sixth edition?"

In short - not answered. Rather, they asked us our thoughts on it!

"Why did they not give the Hemlock Wraithfighter better armour or a better jink save considering it is only armour 10 and will die to even bolter fire, yet has to hang out at range 12 (bolter rapid fire range) in order to get any use out of its Mindshock pod?"

There was a general comment during the Q&As that establishing newer units in Codexes was generally quite hard - people already know what a Fire Dragon does, and how it fits into the army and the background. Newer units, such as the fliers, need to be introduced and will take a while to bed in - the example was given that the Autarch is only just starting to really find his place in the army after a number of incarnations.

While chatting to Phil, his further comments were that it was a difficult line to walk. Fliers have a narrow run of armour between 12 and 10, with 12 being the established heavier fliers, and 11 being the mid range. Eldar are supposed to be lightly armoured and fragile, so 10 is the natural point for them. The subject of the jink save really wasn't covered - we were short on time and I was trying to cover as much as possible.

"Will we see a time when all units will have a model?"

They certainly hope so. A newly released Codex will have models for all its units one way or another from now on - this isn't even necessarily something caused by the Chapterhouse situation (while there were questions on this subject, the answers carefully avoided direct references). They were already getting a lot of feedback from people that codexes with gaps in the model ranges were frustrating for people. Its unlikely you'll see a Codex release missing models happening in future.

"I'd be keen to hear what his thoughts are on the rise of 3D printers and how he sees GW taking on that technology into the future."

There was a much longer answer from Jes Goodwin I'll cover in that seminar, but in store printing, custom designs, adding your own face to a character model and the ability to mix and match to order were all talked about as things that are not currently technically possible, but could be in the far future. The level of detail and affordability is just not there to see it being a danger or competitor as fast as the internet commentators would have you believe.

I also took the opportunity to ask about the Heavy D Scythe, which has been covered in a couple of blog posts (although ironically I can now only find the one). In short, the description doesn't really match the weapon profile.

This weapon did go through some iterations during play testing. The natural progression of a D Scythe would be to move from a Template weapon to a Torrent weapon. If people have concerns about the Helldrake's balance, two Torrent D weapons is not going to stay in line with the overall power curve. I asked if perhaps the blasts should have ignore cover and if that might be updated in the future, but this was part of a multi line conversation and this was one of the things that fell by the wayside...

Questions not asked

My original post on the forum had some guidelines:

"To save wasting anyone's time, the following topics won't be considered: - Any questions about what's coming in the future (they won't tell us)
- Any questions about pricing / material use (they're games designers, not marketing / production)
- Anything about Squats, because it's to the point of a running gag now
- Loaded questions set more as a statement followed by "do you agree?""

I therefore decided not to ask the following questions:

"With the advent of Terrain fortifications are we going to see faction specific terrain pieces, or just more archetypes with which each player can customize/convert the aesthetics of to fit their appropriate faction?"
"I'd like to know if they're planning to do more terrain and upgrade packs. Making a finecast pack of las/autogun wielding arms would be great for converting WHFB models to 40k :3 Maybe tie it in to a minor Necromunda rerelease?"
"Ooh, question for Jes Goodwin: Is it possible we might see future plastic kits represent a more equal gender breakdown in line with their background and the new Dark Eldar range?"
"When will Codex: Squat be released?"
"will be there even supplements for codex already out in the sixth edition?"
"Will all 16 current armies for WH40k get a codex in the new release cycle for 6th edition?"
Will the Imperial Guard show more Gender equality in their figures in the future?
Same question for Eldar."
(Sorry BoLS fans!)

I didn't manage to find the time to ask:

"Please could you ask Phil Kelley if he meant that the burning chariot couldn't move and fire, since its flame is a heavy weapon, and because its a template weapon, it cannot snap fire either. I'd be immensely grateful if you could clarify this specific question. Thanks!"

I also didn't ask:

"Why did they give the Hemlock Wraithfighter a spell it cannot use on the turn it enters the board?"

... as I thought the answer to this was covered in the general FAQ - but it seems that some people don't agree on this. I am going to be making a much longer post on that argument once I've finished researching it.

In the meantime, there should be some more posts from me on the Q&As and general experiences soon, as I have a lot of notes to write up. Check back soon!

Eden: Endings and Beginnings

I had originally planned on posting about my little excursion to Darksphere on Sunday to go to a painting day, where I met up again with Max von D and Marta from Platoon Britannica.

I planned on showing off my newly finished Imperial Beastman, who is finally done.

Then a package arrived from Europe today.

My stuff from the Eden Indiegogo Campaign had turned up.

So plans went out the window.

The original plan had been for much of what I got to be Sim's Christmas present. As it was, I got her a small thing then, and this now - although she now has Battle for Alabaster nearly here now.

This is all Sim's stuff - a box of scenery, three limited edition pieces of scenery, and two ISC robots.

I've now read the rules of those robots. I may regret getting them for her. They are going to eat my Jokers for breakfast.

The scenery box

Still, it wasn't entirely presents for Sim. I had bought myself things!

I have started a Joker's faction for Eden myself. My 100 point (standard sized) force consists of four models. Although one is a pair of tumbling acrobats which looks like a nightmare to put together.

There are also two Askari (another faction) which Sim or I will pick up at some point when we are in a mood to do so.

So, here's the cards for my faction - a pair of tumbling acrobats, a ringmaster, a mime and a clown with a vacuum cleaner.

What could possibly go wrong?

One of the cards was unintentionally in German, but I know from Taban's reputation that this will get sorted out with no problems.

I am enchanted by the book. It is mostly the world background and faction details as the rules are very simple, and the rules for each model comes with that model.

For those of you used to Games Workshop's slick production values, you will spot a few foibles. There is nothing wrong with any of the pictures or the layout. That's lovely. But it seems that Taban's translators have decided to stick with the unique style which Taban's self translated work carries.

Now, I'm being a bit tongue in cheek here. My French and German is shocking compared to the Taban crew's English, and that might be why I find the wording issues endearing rather than infuriating. No "Read as Written" Games Workshop player will tolerate the instruction to play on a 60 metre square board (not 60 centimetres). None of the important paragraphs have been left in the original French by mistake. And no, "Category" doesn't have an "h" in it, nor "Ireland" two "I"s.

But these little tweaks, which will undoubtedly really irritate Mohand, actually make me love this game even more. It makes me laugh, and nothing actually stops me playing the game or makes it harder. The book remains absolutely gorgeous, the miniatures are works of art, and I hope to have a lot of fun running around causing anarchy in this wonderfully dreamed up post apocalyptic world.

I also got a nice signed art print. Not the book cover as advertised, but a better one. I may share it later. That's totally me loving it so much I'm holding off on sharing, not that I forgot to take a photo of it. Honest.

Making the Papers: Games Workshop Half Year Financial Results

So, imagine my surprise as I browsed the business pages of the Evening Standard this evening to see a Space Marine looking back at me!

The article reads:

"Economists claim cash-strapped Brits are cutting back on fripperies to afford the necessities but Games Workshop still managed to flog £67.5 million worth of miniature soldiers, Lizardmen and tiny Orcs in only six months.
The chain, which calls itself “the largest and the most successful tabletop fantasy and futuristic battle-games company in the world”, saw revenues rise 8% in the half year to the start of December.
More adults and kids alike snapping up Games Workshop’s small Warhammer World, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit models helped pre-tax profit hit £11.1 million, from £9.5 million a year earlier. But that growth wasn’t enough to retain the interest of chief executive Mark Wells. The 50-year-old, who has spent five years in the top job and had a pay package worth £307,000 last year, is leaving, the retailer said, “on good terms and with our very best wishes”.
Games Workshop said its board will appoint a new chief executive “in due course” and that chairman Tom Kirby will be acting chief executive and chairman in the meantime.
Wells may be cheered to know shares in Games Workshop fell 2.5p to 657.5p on news of his departure."

An online copy of the article can be found here:
Fightback: Games Workshop on a winner as profits rise - Business News - Business - London Evening Standard

Of course, me being me . . . I'm more fascinated as to where they got the picture of the Space Marine in the picture - he's clearly a kitbash, and he doesn't show up near the top of most of the common google searches I can think of. Time for some detective work!

The Kitbasher's Cookbook

I have a guilty love for cooking shows. I remember an episode of Dinner Impossible where the Robert Irvine had some of his most vital ingredients taken away - things like oil and salt.

I love me my kit bashing, although I am still building up my 'stock' of bits as we speak, because a lot of the stuff I thought was cool and useful when I was a kid is practically no use to anyone.

I use a mix of ebay and specialist bits websites to get what I'm after, and I have learnt a few lessons which I'd like to share.

• Check the ebay description and the picture. If they don't match, don't bid
• Show patience. Set yourself budgets of what you're willing to pay and don't go after them. Parts come around, and impatience will have a cash premium.
• Shop around. I have one set of suppliers I use for one offs, single pieces and test runs, and another set I use for larger projects, as they sell batches of parts in one go.
• Keep a list of what you're after, and go for larger, planned orders, rather than lots of little impulse buys. You'll save on postage, and also stress with non gaming partners who may start querying why you're getting hundreds of little parcels. I am lucky in that the wife paints and models, so is more forgiving!

My final piece of advice is that some things are not worth buying as bits. For me, the core item is Guard infantry. I shouldn't pay a bits supplier premium when I will be using 90% of the parts in the boxes. I plan on saving up, buying a Battalion box, and working through until I need another.

There are also some items I'm seeing as pretty common in kit bashes on all those nice Inq28 blogs. As such, they're things I'm thinking about picking up as a full kit.

High Elf Archers

Robed legs, in large numbers. You won't get much more out of the kit, maybe a couple of the torsos, a nice pointing arm, some feathers, a cape or capes, and maybe a head with a Prince Valiant haircut.

Bretonnian Men at Arms

I am worried that kit bashing the bodies into Guardsmen will be a horrid, horrid experience, but I've picked one up to play around with. But there's lovely heads, odd little things people can be carrying, shields that can easily translate across to combat shields / storm shields . . . there's not much you won't use.

Vampire Count Ghouls

For awesome creepy mutant bodies, mis-shapen arms, and freakish heads, you can't go far wrong. The best conversions I see only use one or two bits from this kit in them - use too many and it's obvious what you're basing off - but most conversions will benefit from a freaky ghoul part.

Empire Militia

The heads, the long coat, the other torsos and some of the legs and arms - your good parts to rubbish is very high here. Its likely to be one of my first purchases.

Empire Flagellants

You should know this - everyone uses them. I think they are maybe a little overused now, but the robed bodies, odd heads, scrolls, parchment, books, bells, flaming torches . . . there's a crazy man with a flaming brazier on his head!

It seems most of the parts kitbashers are after, at least from a human point of view, is to introduce more of the gothic and grotesque into the ranges, by introducing yet more medieval elements into the 40K setting. We want the crazy stuff from Mr Blanche's drawings to be on our gaming tables or display cases!

There are certainly other things I want to experiment with - like using non human parts from Tau, Kroot, Eldar & Orks for human mutants and renegades, but I suspect the challenge will be to do so while disguising them sufficiently that it won't be obvious where they are from . . .

Taking stock

So, back to work, back to something approaching a normal daily schedule. I've not managed to get painting done every night, but I'm getting a little done most nights. Regular progress is really what I want to see.

I've not taken a photo of the Imperial Beastman, because reasons. Well, particularly because he's getting close to being finished, and now I kind of want to do a big reveal when he's done. I'm hoping he'll be done in time for next week's Monday post.

I have finished painting some of the corpse tokens now. The next stage is experimenting with water effects, but that won't be for a while yet - they'll be going into my Malifaux case for use when needed...

Would anyone be interested in a write up of how I painted them? I'm particularly pleased with the corpses, as they are suitably horrible...

Here's some more detail of my favourite one!

I put it this way around on a whim
Or am I just too lazy to change it?

I did have a little bit of a daft moment on Saturday. I skipped out of my regular LARP day after the first game to head home early, but decided to pop into the John Lewis sale on the way home to pick up a painting lamp. I was fed up of painting in the very low light conditions in our dining room, and wanted to improve things.

However, having fought my way to Oxford Circus during the January sales, my wife called me to remind me that I already own a painting lamp. We bought one last year during the January sales. Once mentioned, I remembered this. My brain's logic had been that I'd been painting in a half lit room for several months, so why on earth would I be doing that if I owned a lamp?

I'm also now caught up on my creative writing in terms of battle reports. I hope to write up a bit more explanation of the circumstances and background of some of our major players. I've also been doing some basic sketching out of some Inquisitors and warbands for Inq28. My two existing metal models I own are now being set up as two rival Ordo Hereticus.

I had originally considered making the already named Inquisitor Bernard Ordo Xenos, as it seems no-one really does much with the poor under-loved fellows, but the weapon I'd pictured him using is only used in 40K by the Ordo Malleus, so he had a mild tweak to his background. I plan on kitbashing him in the future, once I've cleared a bit more of the backlog.

Wife got a new toy. Or rather, a couple of new toys. Her family and my family clubbed together to get her an airbrush and compressor.

It is very pretty, isn't it?

I picked up a couple of bits of Amera scenery for Sim to practice using the airbrush with so she didn't feel bad if she did something wrong with something expensive. I will say, I was quite impressed with the Amera stuff - it's super cheap, and helps bulk out your terrain collection quickly and cheaply. I'm planning on using Vallejo Pumice texture to make it look a bit less like vacuum formed bits of plastic - I'll let you know how that goes.

I did not take a picture of her work in progress and post it here, because doing so without asking might have resulted in my sudden and untimely death.

I did, however, while rummaging around the shelves at Dark Sphere, find an interesting thing, which only cost me £1.35.

Its a nice brick / cobble tiled piece of plastic, again by Amera. I intend to use this as a background for photographing models once Sim has finished playing with her airbrush on it, as I've not yet got a painted / textured gaming board. Hopefully this will improve my photos a little bit!

I also picked up a couple of nice bits in the Dark Sphere sale - an out of print Games Workshop terrain set of Landmines and Bombs (still a couple left when I last looked, so if you want one, get to their website pronto), and a set of the Under-Empire Basing Kit. I've had a nose, and they look quite fun - would people be interested in photos and a little unboxing review?

Given all the new shiny things, I've decided not to back the Kingdom Death Kickstarter. I would love to own the game at some point, but I can wait. I also want to try and paint some of the resins he does, but getting the backlog down before I try is pretty vital. I can buy some miniatures from him direct if and when I decide to do so. You have a few minutes left at time of writing - the co-operative survival horror mechanics look absolutely awesome, and the only reasons I'm not getting it are lack of money and time!

I am, however, in for the Malifaux Kickstarter. If you like Malifaux, go for it. The stuff I've seen about the concept and mechanics look really positive and solidly thought through. It hasn't exploded and taken off due to falling in an awkward spot between roleplayers and miniature gamers / painters. I would have loved to go for the Hanging Tree, and having my own little Wicked Doll, but again, the pesky limits of reality and money mean I'm only in at the basic level.

I've been maintaining a really good level of two posts a week - I'll be curious as to whether or not I can keep that up, although my bare minimum is one a week.

Thanks for reading.

Christmas Treats

So, with the intent of sharing some Christmas cheer and inspiration, I thought I'd share a few blogs and sites I've come across recently which have been impressing and inspiring me.

Do You Have a Flag? and Palladian Guard by Headologist and Colonel Scipio
I have mentioned these blogs in the past - they've been the inspiration for my creative writing (I hate the word 'fluff') around my army. I also see some awesome modelling and kitbashing going on, and even better, they're both Guard players!

Inquisitor 28
Legion of Plastic
Spiky Rat Pack
Tears of Istvaan
Oh my goodness.
Each of these four blogs turns me into a slightly embarrassing fan boy. This is the kit bashing I've always had in my head as to what I want to be working towards, but I've never seen it done so well or in such quantities. The fact that they're also playing Inquisitor in 28mm just adds to the mild hero worship I'm currently suffering from.
These four blogs are my absolute "best of the 'net" right now, and I think for good reason.

Indiegogo and Kickstarter Campaigns
If you were wondering what to spend your Christmas money on...
I already spent a bunch of money on the EDEN Indiegogo Campaign, which is going to make up Sim's slightly late Christmas present when it finally arrives...
My wife is a massive Eden fan girl, and the campaign reward doesn't just cover her Christmas present, but also my starting a faction. When this all arrives, expect some happy blog posts as I to through all the shiny things.

We then have the Kingdom Death Kickstarter, which is tempting me but I am trying to resist. All the miniatures are very pretty, and the game concept looks interesting. I'm not normally a fan of horror games but the idea of trying to build a community of survivors in a horror world is quite appealing. It's co-operative, it can be one player.

I totally failed to resist Through the Breach: A Malifaux Roleplaying Game, though. I'm holding off right now and trying to be good and not go too mad on what level I'm supporting. I think it really comes down to how much I can save and whether I get enough cash for Christmas to get me a higher level of Stuff. There's plenty of time left, though, so its not something that is worrying me too much yet.

And while on the subject of "It must be mine" craziness, I know it is only a matter of time before I buy Only War and as many of its supplements as my budget allows. I just accept it as a sad reality of life and move on. :)

And as a final note: I get most of my miniature release gaming news from Tabletop Fix, and all my GW rumours from Faiet 212. I don't really bother linking to them much, and definitely try not to repeat what they say - if you want the news with regards wargaming, go there.

A simple experiment in basing

Historically, I suck at basing. Like, a ridiculous amount. I haven't really done any basing since the old "sand and goblin green" days, apart from just desperately gluing some sand onto my Tallarn for a tournament, and a disaster with some clan rats that I don't like to talk about.

So, I decided to experiment with some Stuff to see what I could do.

After a bit of digging around my wife's painting stash, I 'liberated' a pot of Games Workshop Astrogranite and a pot of Model Colour Sandy Paste.

The Sandy Paste smells funny.

For the purposes of my experiment, I chose my recently finished conscripts, on the grounds that I don't care particularly strongly about the cannon fodder...

It also meant they'd stop looking like they came from a very flat iceworld where there'd been some paint spillages!

As a first step, I painted a smooth coat of Iyanden Darksun onto the bases. The wife advises that this was completely unnecessary, but it gave me something smooth and neat to work on.

I then put a few daubs of Astrogranite onto each base, one or two per miniature. The idea here was that the Astrogranite texture is much thicker than the Sandy Paste, so it would break up the base a tiny amount without being obvious.

I then painted around the Astrogranite with the Sandy Paste.

Once this was done, I repainted them all with another coat of Iyanden Darksun.

After a quick comparison between a coat of Nuln Oil and a coat of Devlan Mud, I decided I liked the Devlan Mud option more, so then washed in that - and was done!

I'm quite pleased with how they've turned out. They aren't works of art, but they are functional. I'm still undecided about the "using different textured paints" thing - I should have made some with just one or the other to compare to - but I'm certainly getting over my fear and hatred of basing in the meantime!

Slow progress, step by step...

Back in one of my blog posts in September, I set myself some goals, with the expectation of utter failure. How well did I do?


"- Finish off Imperial Guard Conscript Squad"
They are now, surprisingly, completely painted. I'm working on the basing now. Once that's done, I may post some more pictures, but there's not enough yet to justify that since the last ones where they were unbased.

"- Finish preparation of a wizard for Sim"
Done and handed over. He's now on her painting desk!

"- Assemble Malifaux Crew"
Collodi still needs some work. Pinning his hands is slow, time consuming work I need to be awake for. All four Marionettes and all three Wicked Dolls are now assembled and undercoated. I plan to take them to Darksphere on Tuesday to start painting them.

"- Find some better backdrops for photographing models"
Nope, I got nothing. Its probably something to talk over with Sim.

I'm also progressing pretty well with sorting out my study. Its down to the last few pieces to go before its clear. I'm thinking of moving my computer around the corner, at Sim's suggestion. This should leave a bunch more space.

In my defence, the two cardboard boxes in the corner belong to my wife

So, what am I trying to get done this month?

Well, I set myself down the goal of progress in each of the "categories" I use on my tracking spreadsheet, which are; "Imperial Guard", "Malifaux", "Grey Knights", "Ad hoc projects" and "Scenery".

I'm also aiming to get the Malifaux Collodi crew painted, if not based, and my friend's Herald of Tzeentch at least undercoated and ready for paint.

So far, the Imperial Guard progress is looking good, with me hoping to have the conscripts basing finished soon. Malifaux is also going well. I've not done anything for the Grey Knights yet, but I will probably pick up the assembly of my Vindicare once I'm done assembling Collodi. I've not started on the Herald yet, but I have dug out the Sarissa Precision boxes so I can work out what to do with them.

I'm also looking really thoughtfully at the two kit bashing projects I have lined up as I would love to get them done and documented for the blog.

I aim to be down at Darksphere on Tuesday for the regular painting night. I also intend to go to the painting day they are holding on 21 October. Some of Platoon Britannica have also said they will be there, so between them and my darling wife there will be plenty of folk about who you can ask about techniques or other painting related questions.

Imperial Guard in 6th Edition: FAQ update - Core 1.0, Codex 1.1

So, there I was, thinking I was out of the speculation about how Guard would be playing in 6th edition, leaving it for the people who play test regularly to overtake my early meanderings - and then GW put out an FAQ which seriously overhauled how Guard play on the tabletop.

Thanks guys.


Please read my disclaimer.

For more in depth approach, I would recommend pottering over to 3++, where they are starting a far more comprehensive analysis.

Company Command Squad
The changes to "Look Out Sir!" probably down-power bodyguards a little bit - but only when considered in isolation. My initial suspicions are that the guaranteed move of wounds around is now better in comparison to how other people's "Look Out Sir!" has been affected. Feel free to Math-hammer this one to death, I don't have the will right now.

Ministorium Priests
The loss of the re-roll for allies heads off an assortment of shenanigans at the pass. Not much more to say, though!

Techpriest
The servo arm is, for now, confirmed as ignoring armour saves completely, making this a surprisingly scary anti-terminator close combat unit!

Psyker Battle Squad
Given that the leadership drain is not a Witchfire power, it looks like Psyker squads embarked in a Chimera are once more unable to target enemy models. This is a significant down-powering, and probably not an intentional one (but probably the right answer).

Commissars
No longer accidentally execute Space Marines who've joined the unit. Makes sense for fluff, doesn't change much for me - people planning clever ally combinations are probably a bit happier, though.

Heavy Weapon Squads
No Flakk missiles for me just yet. Its a shame, as some variation in my anti-air would be nice.

Valkyrie / Vendetta
All reserve armies are formally confirmed as automatically losing on the first turn for having no models on the table. Not really a concern for me as I never used them to that numbers, preferring not to be the "special snowflake" of the air mobile division.

However, the units transported not being part of the 50% limit on reserves does greatly increase your capacity to have a high proportion of your army being reserved, if you're willing to take the risk!

Grav Chute insertion is now much more worthwhile - not having to slow to fast skimmer speeds makes the fliers much more survivable and capable of transporting units without committing suicide to let them out. I did kind of like the idea of it being dangerous to do an airborne landing under fire, though, so in some ways I hope I see some transport fliers at some point that do have to slow down to let people out. Its one of the staples of military true accounts and military fiction, and I think losing that is a bit of a shame.

And no, I didn't expect Scout to allow a Valk or Vendetta to deploy onto the board. Are you insane?

Rough Riders
The hunting lance clarification is no surprise - its pretty much exactly what I expected it to be, so no real surprises there.

Leman Russ Tanks
The move to "Heavy" does make things a little easier in terms of simplifying the rules, so I can see why it was done. But it leaves the Battle Tank and the Demolisher, the two Ordnance guns, at a serious disadvantage to the rest of the guns. I've barely _looked_ at which of the main guns has the Ordnance special rules before now.

Now, I've never been one for sponsons, and had a moment where I felt sad about the city fighting Demolisher with three heavy flamers no longer being able to use any of them . . . until I realised that if your target is within heavy flamer range, you shouldn't be using your main gun at all due to the risk of being hit by it! I never much liked plasma being overused anyway, so the plasma sponsons taking a hit is no great loss to me.

What this does do is move up interest in the other tanks with cheaper sponsons and the ability to put out a lot more mobile firepower. I'm not going to go into the various different combinations right now, because there's a lot to take in and its something I want a little more time to think about.

All in all, there are still lots of odd little combinations of turret and sponson I'm yet to try, so I'll be excited to give them all a go!

Hydra Flak Tank
I had a strange waking dream moment where I thought Games Workshop had lost all reason and given the Hydra Interceptor as well as Skyfire - to the point where I was actually confused to find it wasn't there while writing this blog post.

They remain good for their points, but not "insanely so good it is compulsory to buy them for everything ever".

Interesting observation: The Hydra's Heavy Bolter doesn't have Skyfire. This is the right thing, as it's intended for last ditch defence against ground based targets - but it does give it a tiny bit more flexibility than some realise.

Griffon & Colossus
No more minimum range at all is a wondrous thing. The Griffon I'm still up in the air about - we have plenty of generic anti infantry firepower already, and its competing for just plain excellent choices in the category. Its role as a "spotter gun" may still be valid, but I need to find out how unit barrages work now.
The Colossus is now a 'must test'. It is the Marine killer of choice.

Deathstrike Missile
I never expected that it would hit fliers, so that doesn't change anything really.

--

So, there you are. I hope this isn't too much restating what is actually there, and there's some actual commentary and thought here. As per the disclaimer - this is all about what to look at play-testing, not what is 'better'. No-one can tell you right now what's the truth in that!

Imperial Guard in 6th Edition: Heavy Support

(Delayed due to watching Olympics Opening Ceremony)

Please read my disclaimer.

For more in depth approach, I would recommend pottering over to 3++, where they are starting a far more comprehensive analysis.

Leman Russ Squadron
I currently have three Leman Russ - two Battle Tanks and one Demolisher. I've tended to favour the Demolisher for tournament & competitive play as I've found that the instant death on T5 and the AP2 are pretty much priceless.
In the world of hull points, I think the rear armour of 11 also has something to be said for it, giving just a tiny bit more survivability.
I had considered the Executioner with plasma side sponsons, but with plasma now getting hot, I'm not sure I'd like to spare the glancing hits...
On the subject of side sponsons, I think the new wound allocation rules and new vehicle movement may mean that I start breaking them out rather than my habits to date, which has been main gun plus lascannon.


In the tournament meta of all the power armour in the world, I'm really not convinced by the Eradicator, Exterminator or Punisher, but they should probably have at least one outing each for me to see how they fair - but they won't be my first choices.


Things to try:
- All the side sponsons
- Cheap and plentiful Leman Russ with no upgrades at all and see if all the AV14 makes people sadder.
- Vanquishers - including against 'nids, where they are a bit of a points waste, but I if I take them for a tournament list, I'm going to have to cope.
- Taking mixed squadrons now wound allocation rules aren't so punishing

Hydra Flak tank
Still worthwhile, despite not having Interceptor. I am constantly shocked by people wiffling on about how the lack of it has "ruined" the Hydra. At 75 points, it remains a good deal. Twin linked snap fire still has some chance on ground targets, and I expect to see a lot of fliers about.

Things to try:
- Singles or pairs? Squadrons or no?
- When facing flier free armies - are some upgrades worthwhile to give them something else to do? Stubber & Hunter-killer are springing to mind, but that does up the points cost

Ordnance Battery
Underused last edition, possibly criminally so. I seem to remember reading that minimum range is no longer as bad as it once was, which may up the value of some of them no end!

Things to try:
- Basilisk, for the sake of tradition
- Medusa single & paired, with and without bastion breachers, and paired; one with and one without. One of my top picks for meta changing approaches
- Colossus, for all your marine killing needs
- Griffon on its own, plus also the Griffon as a 'spotter' tank for the other ones now wound allocation works differently - but I need to check how the new battery fire rules work
- A pinning list, with Psyker Battle Squads and a lot of artillery

Manticore
Not quite as good as before, but still a firm and solid favourite on the field. It will put a lot of firepower down  range, and while it's not going to be getting so many "destroyed" results without AP2, it will still be getting reliable glancing hits all the way home. My current guess is that it will be less spectacular, but a more reliable performer.

Deathstrike
Still requires a lot of planning to use, but as good as it gets in terms of strength, AP and ignoring cover. The huge blast will put a serious hole in a lot of armies. Much better against static shooting lines than armies that are closing with you fast. Also needs some serious thinking about where you want to close or don't.

Things to try:
- 1 Deathstrike supported by other army elements
- Army focused around 2 or 3 deathstrikes.
- Not wiping out my own army with the blasted things