069 - Not giving 110%

Like most people in this hobby I have a massive back log of models to paint and I have decided I need to get through them. With this in mind for my Nurgle 40k force I am going cut as many corners as I can realistically get away with. I am not going to worry not about what the individual models look like but how they look in a unit.
So here are my Pox Walkers from the Dark Imperium boxed set.

I used mainly washes over a white undercoat and a few base colours. It was quick and fun to do an while individually they don't look all that great, as a shambling horde of mutated walking corpses they look fine.
These guys were an easy to paint unit which is what you want from a horde. I can't wait for a change of pace and I want to knock out some other units now!

068 - Grandfather Nurgle's Salutations

When I got my copy of Dark Imperium I loved the look of the Plague Marines in mk3 armour so I delved into my large collection of mk3 sprues I have accumulated I got to work.
Mixing in in elements of the chaos marine kit and the chaos warriors gave them a more medieval look on a few of the models. I gave them all chaos marine backpacks as I don't particularly like the mk3 backpacks from the Burning of Prospero They fitted quite well and suited because after all they are Chaos Marines!

For some heavy support I also added in a couple of Contemptor Dreadnoughts. One of which is slightly converted.

I went for really muddy bases which fit in with the Death Guard asthetic.

I plan to add a few more Nurgle units to my army. Instead of just pure Death Guard I may go for a broader Nurgle force. I think I will paint up the Nurgle half of the Dark Imperium box and with a couple of extra units I should have a around a 100 power level force which seems like a nice size. I am a bit of a hobby magpie so I may start a different force or maybe even a different god in the dark pantheon may call me. Who knows!

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067 - Hiatus Begone!

I was sadly robbed of all of my hobby momentum for the past couple of months. I haven't wanted to paint or model a great ammount. With 8th edition on the horizion and the ambiguity a whether Horus Heresy was going to follow or not didn't help my motivation at all. I had heard rumours of how the armies would work and few previews of the force orginasation charts but nothing concrete.
All this meant I got very little done!
I don't paint miniatures to game with but I love the fact I can collect an actual army that functions on the tabletop albeit not an optimised one. So all the half rumours flying around didn't help so the motivation dried up.
When 8th edition came out I was back on track. I like the new minis and feel like I have an actual chance to learn the rules for this edition. The army selection is brilliant as I can choose what I want from a faction keyword and add it to my force. These keywords along with the new force organisation charts means I have a massive amount of freedom. For example I can stick some Kastellan robots and a single squad of Imperial Guard into my Astartes army and it is still a battle forged army. There is not the taboo that unbound had in 7th edition and the index books make it much asier to pick and choose units.

So I have a few projects on the go which i will share (lucky you).

1. The Death Guard.
Back in the early 90s I had a Chaos army which was devoted to Nurgle and have always had a soft spot for it. Seeing the Dark Imperium box I thought I would take the plunge and get a new army. Luckily I have alot of Daemons and Chaos Marines I could use. I also have got loads of mkiii armour which I have picked up from Ebay so this will be the basis of the line troops. The back packs don't do it for me but I have got quite alot of Chaos back packs which fit Nicely on the models.
I love the painting style of my Death Guard. It's not Blanchitsu but it is my approximation of it. I am having real fun with a range of washes over plain base coats. It's a slightly dingy style that fits in with the Grimdark of 40k.

2. The Imperial Fists
I wanted to collect another 30k force but I wanted it to be one of the defenders of Terra during the siege. I wasn't quite sure which army to get then the inspiration hit me. I love Dreadnoughts and I loved the tenacity of the Imperial Fists so I would build a "Fury of the Ancients" list. I went for one of the alternative colour schemes for the Imperial Fists and I really like just painting up one slight;y larger unit at a time.

3.Blackshields
I love idea of the Blackshields in the Horus Heresy. Also they are space pirates.
I have alot of different parts of Space Marines from a great many projects and a Word Bearers army they I am never really going to use so I decided to make a new army out of it! Episode 14 of the Overlords podcasts was a great help to me as it is about creating a Heresy army relatively cheaply and from disparate bits which was perfect for my force. You can find it here.

I have done a few different conversions and cant wait to really get stuck in with these guys!

I have an eye on doing some models set in the period of the Unification Wars. I like the idea of techo-barbarians tearing around pre-unification Terra. But this will be a slow burner and I may well just do a small warband.
I am excited about the 8th edition of Warhammer 40,000 or as Games Workshop call it the New Warhammer 40,000. I have never played my copy of 7th edition because in all honesty it was too complicated. I much preferred the Horus Heresy for collecting so 40k has taken a backfoot really.
Now the new edition is out I have decided to get the boxed set and create an army out of the Death Guard models inside.
So the hiatus is over and I am definitely back on the hobby horse!

066 - Making Space Wolves Great Again

With my wolves renovation project in full swing I have several different group of Space Wolves.
First up is a slightly smaller than I'd hoped group of models which are 30k compatible.  They have the correct weapons and armour so I don't have to do  any work to them. This is my favorite group!
The second group consists of models which need a bit of a spruce up to fit in. There are a lot of bolters that need changing but I have used old rogue trader bolters to be able to fit in nicely. I have also used quite a few plastic mkiv legs to swap in for any mkvii legs that are floating about.
It's just been a case of taking four or five models at a time, repainting, repairing them and then getting another four or five and repeating the process. There were more that needed work than I initially thought but they are mostly weapon swaps and the like, rather than massive jobs.
The final group are models which sadly don't fit in at all. These were any metal models bar the  Dreadnoughts. This means my destroyers, Apothecary and Runepriest are being consigned to the reserves bench. I really liked the Runepriest as it was the old Nijai Stormcaller model. The apothacary was a conversion that I was really proud of but if it doesn't fit then it doesn't fit! Another small part of this group are my mkvi Seekers. I loved the Seekers and they were all in mkvi armour. However they were a little too wolf themed for my liking. The long wolf pelts were very 40k and they had Goodwyn pattern bolters which unfortunately aren't era appropriate.However the silver lining is that I can use the parts from this group to swap out parts that I need which will speed up the renovations to the second group.

The mkiii were an absolute joy to put together but I didn't like the backpacks. However I always seem to get a seam on the exhausts. The good thing with this project's theme is that I can use different backpacks from different marks of armour to get a mkv cobbled together look,
The army is now about 2500pts which is  a decent size for 30k gaming. When I have finished these few last models I can relax and move onto the next project.

065 - For The Wolftime...... Again?

This year was going to be the start of my second generation of Iron Warriors. However I couldn't get on with the colour scheme so I scrapped the project. I have done a more detailed post about it here.
So this left a gap in my hobby commitments and a box full of plastic waiting to be built. So I filled this metaphorical gap with the Vlka Fenryka. I originally kit bashed 40k plastic Space Wolves and resin MK4 marines to create my first 30k army. This was well before the Calth set came out so was hunting around for every last bit of Heresy era armour I could get my hands on.
The result is an eclectic mix of weapons and armour parts which was exactly the look I wanted for my Space Wolves. However the long awaited Inferno book has recently been released along with the Burning of Prospero boxed game.

I was inspired by the Inferno review on the Sons of Heresy podcast. A couple of years ago when he was on the Overlords podcast Jason Mullins infectious enthusiasm really cemented my choice of starting legion and now his excitement over the new book got me wanting to go back to the wolves. I have also been inspired by Big Jim on twitter. His kitbashed army and use of slightly older minis really gels with my own approach to the collection.

I decided I could re-purpose my Space Wolves as most of the models have the correct armour and equipment. It's a case of adding a few models here and there and possible bits. For example exchanging mk7 legs for mk4 legs. I had two Calth sets and a Prospero set so this mean a lot of bits to pick from.
I decided I would retire my metal models and add some more plastic troops. I am going to keep my big tanks and the dreadnoughts. The dreadnoughts might not quite fit being metal and have a few storm bolters here and there but I really like the models so I think I will keep them.
So here I am pulling apart models and trying to match arms with legs so I have to do as little painting as possible. This is a picture of my hobby desk at the moment.

I have now started this small (I hope) project. This won't be a full army. Just a refresh and a couple of new units here and there. After this I can turn my attention to a different Legion but I feel I can have fun with my space vikings for the time being.

064 - New Necromunda?

What's this new game that has been announced? A new Necromunda? Heck no!

Games Workshop's new skirmish game Shadow War: Armageddon has been announced on the Warhammer Community site here.
From the press release it seems to be set in Hive Acheron during the third war for Armageddon. Games Workshop says it is based on the old Necromunda ruleset however it looks very much like Kill Team to me. There seems to be alot of factions and squads you can use as "gangs". 

One of the potential factions is Imperial Guard. Luckily I have a few Cadians that I got off Ebay in a start collecting box.

A few are on sprue and some are assembled but I think I can have a go at a decent squad with bags of personality. 

Games Workshop wants a slice of the skirmish level pie but this new game looks quite cool and I can see myself having a go with it. Even if that means just building a couple of squads and maybe an INQ28 style warband. Either way this could be a small side project that will hopefully break up painting marines all the time!

063 - Giving Up At The First Hurdle

A few weeks ago I was really excited about the prospect of a new army with the start of my next generation of  Iron Warriors. I had been buying models for almost six months in preparation for this project. I wanted to come out of the gates strong so I started with I had this guy and got him all painted up nice.

It was all going right. I had a Primarch painted. I had a paint scheme on a test model I was happy with. I had a clear idea of the army composition to aim for.
Then it went wrong.
I started painting my first unit of terminators and I just wasn't feeling it. I fell out of love with the paint scheme. It was quite dull. I played around with it but it didn't do it for me. Also the Legion colour scheme being bare metal didn't give me any opportunities for weathering which I am quite partial to now so it all looked a bit flat. I am not a good enough painter to make a simple paint scheme look exciting. I was stumped.
I also felt the army composition was a bit off. I couldn't have it as vehicle heavy as I would like and it would be a lot of work to represent the extra armour on the vehicles you can get in the Hammer Of Olympia rite of war. I also feel unless Terminators are in a Land Raider or Spartan or deep striking through teleports they are not really viable. This meant that I had to run Perturabo or not have an effective army.
So with a heavy heart I decided to be honest with myself and had to pull the plug. It might seem a bit extreme but I don't want to be halfway through an army be really demotivated and then not want to finish it. I will just end up with a half completed army. This is a problem I have had before and i know that I will drag out the last half the models I want to finish if I finish them at all.  I don't feel I have wasted any time or effort as I have the models that I bought for the army which are not legion specific so can go into my next project and I have a shiny Primarch model which makes a great display piece. I will have a look at various ideas I have kicking around and see what I can do next. I haven't finished with the Legiones Astartes just yet, but I do need a new direction.