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!

061 - Year In Review

2016 has been a pretty good year for my painting hobby. I have painted over 100 models, completed an army and feel that my painting has really improved.
At the start if the year I made some New Year Resolutions which you can read here. Completing two out of three resolutions wasn't bad. However I failed one miserably.
The first one was document what I have achieved.

So I created a ghetto Kaban board which was quite simple but let me know how I was progressing with projects. I stuck to a maximum of five active projects at one time which helped me commit to completing projects.
With regards to the second resolution I failed the stick to a budget quite quickly. I need to definitely reign in my spending with this hobby as I have full armies that aren't painted. I am going to have a more realistic budget this year and spread it out monthly rather than have a pool for the whole year.
The third resolution was quite a success. I joined the Independent Characters Hobby Progress Challenge which I completed with my Word Bearers army. You can see a post about the army here.

I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge but unfortunately there wont be a IC's HPC next year. There are plenty of other challenges on Facebook groups and the like so I just have to have a hunt around to find them.
So what are the plans for 2017?
I am going to concentrate on my two new armies. The first being my Iron Warriors 30k army which will mainly consist of Terminators and Perturabo. Here is a picture of my test Master of Signals to try out the colour scheme.

  

I am going to go for a battered industrial feel for the weapons. I have quite a few models to paint but this scheme is quite quick and simple which really suits me.

The second army is my Minotaurs army. It will be more of a High Lords of Terra task force with a core of marines and some fruitier stuff like the Custodes and Inquisitors.

These guys are also quite simple but I can add alot of variety of fluffy units just by using the Codex: Agents Of The Imperium.
Resolution wise I will probably stick to the ones I made last year but be a bit more realistic about the money I spend on this hobby. It is a really expensive hobby but I will definatly try to reign it in.
I am really looking forward to the this year and I can't wait to get some Iron Warriors painted!

060 - My Favorite Minature

After getting all excited about Codex: Imperial Agents I dug out a load of my old Inquisition miniatures. Among them was my favourite Games Workshop miniature of all time. This guy:

This model is a savant from the Daemon Hunters from 3rd edition. I love the way he is hunched over and quite grumpy looking. He is such an evocative model with tonnes of personality.
I should have really finished the base though!

059 - Inquisition Excitment

So Codex: Imperial Agents is out soon and boy am I excited. I have always loved the Inquisition from back when I first got into the universe of Warhammer 40,000. I remember reading the stories featuring them in White Dwarf and being really intrigued. The thing that made me fall in love with them was this page from the Codex Imperialis from the 2nd edition game.

The Inquisitors were really exciting and I had a metal Inquisitor in Terminator armour that I used in my 2nd edition games. Unfortunately he was lost in a house move somewhere.
Fast forward a few years and the Inquisitor game came out. It had loads of background and really highlighted the political infighting between the factions of the Inquisition. At this time the Eisenhorn novels came out in support of the game. Dan Abnett  wrote a trilogy which is one of the best stories I have ever read. It gave me such a interest in the universe after a bit of a slow patch. I would recommend these books to anyone who hasn't read them.
As the codex was coming out I decided to dust off some of my old models. Here are some of my Inquisition warband members

This guy is converted from a Mordhiem Witch Hunters Warrior Priest.

This used to be a Necromunda Redemptionist however I think he is definitely a WIP.

I really liked using the Redemptionists as henchmen. I think they really look the part.

This is a metal Space Marine scout with a green stuff fur cape and a enlarged shoulder pad.

Finally this assassin was the original Rogue Trader assassin that came out before the assassins were revamped in the mid 90s.
So that is a few of my Inquisition models. I am really excited about the new codex as I rarely get to field such an eclectic range of models in a cohesive force.

058 - My Favorite Iron Warriors Units

As the new Iron Warriors are being created I think it is time to consign the old models to storage to make way for the new guys. I have painted up quite nearly 150 models for this army with painting ranging from "okay" to "my first paint job". But before they go into a KR case here are my three favourite units from the army.

The Heldrake was the first big kit that I had to put together and man is it complicated. Its looks huge when it is finally completed. Just don't try and pick it up without using the flying stand!

The cultists get in here not just because of the natty paint scheme but because this is when I felt i had cracked batch painting and could churn out a decent amount of models at a good pace.

The Helbrute was one of the more complicated miniatures with alot of detail to paint but I feel I did model justice. The dynamic pose is pretty cool too!
Despite the Iron Warriors being a little rough round the edges I will always have a soft spot for this army due to it being the one that got me back into the hobby. However I feel it has had it's day and I now have to crack on with my 30k Iron Warriors and do the sons of Olympus justice!

057 - Iron Warriors Daemon Prince Conversion

After finishing my Daemon Prince I had quite alot of spare bits leftover. I wanted to use these in something but didn't have any success. Inspiration stuck however and I popped the arms and a head on a Dark Vengeance Helbrute and with a little bit of hobby magic here we are!

The idea behind this model was rooted in the rules for the Ferrum Infernus Dreadnought from Imperial Armour 13 where they can become a Daemon Prince or a spawn. Obviously this guy rolled the right number!
This was a fun little conversion that worked out nicely and shows that taking a risk and doing something that seems a little crazy can really pay off!

056 - Minotaurs Test Model

I finished my Minotaur test model which is a metal Space Marine Captain. I was quite happy with the finished paint job and it wasn't too difficult to complete. The bronze went on quite well and I can do the red easily as well.

I think this colour scheme is easy enough for me to complete a whole army with. I am going to do a tactical squad of old plastic marines next just to make sure the colour scheme is okay for a group of miniatures.
Overall I am quite happy with this test and can't wait to make a start on the rest of the army!

055 - Maybe Minotaurs?

I love Space Marines in 40k. Well what's not to love about an armour genetically enhanced super warrior? They are such a deeply developed faction with great power and horrendous flaws. As iconic factions go Space Marines are the poster boys of the universe. Stripped of their humanity they are the bulwark against the dark for all of the people of the Imperium.
As you probably know the Space Marines were organised into many different chapters after the events of the Horus Heresy. They all have different character depending on the chapter and are fairly autonomous however some are rigidly adherent to the Codex Astartes than others.
I chose my chapter from an existing one rather than create my own. I saw the Minotaurs in the Badab war books and was bowled over. The High Lords of Terra use them as their personal attack dogs and they put chapters which don't tow the line back unto place. They have the pick of equipment and fight as a whole chapter rather than break off which makes them a little different to normal chapters. The psycho-indoctrination process is more rigorous and this makes them ultra loyal to the High Lords.
So with this background floating around my head I cracked on with my first model. Here is a work in progress picture of the test model.

I wanted to do a test model as the main thing I look for when starting an army is if I like doing a colour scheme and find it fun to paint. I will do this guy and a small squad of plastic marines to see if I can stomach doing fifty or more of these guys.
Hopefully this will turn out well and lead to a whole new army.

038 - Deathwatch Marines

I was really excited when Deathwatch: Overkill came out. The game looked good but the thing that seemed to really catch people's eye was the miniatures. The Genestealer Cult is great. It is an update of iconic models and concepts which were a fundamental part of what defined Warhammer 40,000 when I first got into the hobby. However the thing that really got me was the Deathwatch!
The Deathwatch are a cool idea and the new models represent the diverse chapters working as different parts to become more effective as a whole. This mirrors how the original twenty legions were designed by the Emperor to work together and compliment the strengths and inherent abilities of each other.
One Deathwatch marine stood out for me was the Iron Hand Ennox Sorrlock. I wanted to use that model as the basis for a Heresy era Techmarine. The body fit in with the right armour but this left me two Deathwatch arms and and a combimelta which didn't fit in with the time period. So having a few marine spares I cobbled together a Deathwatch Iron Hands marine which I intended to be just a one off model for a bit of fun.
But Games Workshop brilliantly released rules for both factions in the board game. So armed with rules I began thinking I could make my own Deathwatch team with the same wargear and use the rules that have been released.
It may only be eleven models but I can stretch this out and do a few models at a time and use it as a bit of palette cleanser between bigger squads and vehicles for other projects. I won't feasibly be able to substitute certain models without putting in alot of work so the Salamander, Imperial Fist and White Scar will be bought off Ebay and converted somehow to make them look a little more individual.
So my first models that are going to get made is my version of squad Donatus.

I have the basis for the models and the parts for the weapons in my bits box. I will have to buy the Deathwatch upgrade sprue for the shoulder pads but I am okay with that. as that will give me enough pads for all eleven and a few spares as well. 

Here is a quick work in progress picture of my Dark Angel, Space Wolves and Iron Hands marines.

I am quite excited about this small project and hopefully it will keep my creative juices flowing in the future. 

028 - Deamons In Another Day

Continuing on my Nurgle Deamon army I have finished some more of Papa Nurgle's minions. 

As before with the Plaguebearers I used the ghostly technique of a white undercoat, a wash of Nilhiakh Oxide then a drybrush of white.

The first guy up is 1980s Great Unclean One. In game terms I will use him as a Deamon Prince as he is a little small compared to the more modern Greater Deamons. I stuck a spare metal Nurgling on the base for flavour.

The guy with the scythe is actually an old Epic model of Mortarion the Death Guard Primarch. I got this guy in the early 90s and used him as a Nurgle Chaos Sorcerer. However nowadays he is a Herald of Nurgle.

I had an Ebay splurge at New Year and got this Nurgle Champion. I love the face on this guy. Again he is going to be used as a Herald of Nurgle.

These are my HQ choices. I may add more in the future but I think they look great. Now I have to do a load of little Nurglings. Go team Nurgle!

020 - 40k into 30k?

With all the excitement about Betrayal At Calth I'm expecting that there will be an explosion of interest and participation in Horus Heresy gaming. Now this has got me thinking. Can I use my 40k force in a 30k game? There are two ways to do this. The first is simply using a straight up 40k force. 30k forces and 40k forces use the same game system so are technically compatible. However it has been recommended by the Forge World team that you should use the Horus Heresy Force Organisation Chart with any 40k force that is being used against a 30k force. Quite a easy solution which works out well for Xenos armies.
However this might not be for some people because 30k and 40k are slightly differently balanced which is not a problem but in my mind it's not utilising the setting as well as it should.
So my second solution is to use a 40k models with a 30k army list. To keep things simple I'm sticking with marines.
You can take a Space Marine army and use the Legion Crusade Army List. Alot of the fancier toys like Centurions and Razorbacks aren't in the list so it will cut down on units you have available. A problem is the fact that Tactical Squads can only take bolters but if you take the rite of war "Pride Of The Legion" you can have Veteran Tactical Squads as troops which luckily have the similar loadouts to the current Tactical Squads. Pretty easy and quite nice if they are already painting in a first founding colour scheme already.
But I have an Iron Warriors army which I wanted to shoehorn in. The Chaos Space Marine list has some similar entries to the Legion Crusade Army List such as 20 man squads. Again the fruitier units are not in the list so the Heldrakes stay at home but I felt I had enough models to get a half decent force together.
So here is my painted 40k Iron Warriors army in all it's glory:

The collection is as follows:
Chaos Lord in Power Armour
Chaos Sorcerer in Terminator Armour
8 Chosen
3 Helbrutes
10 Cultists
10 Cultists
20 Chaos Space Marines
10 Chaos Space Marines
10 Havocs
10 Havocs
1 Rhino
1 Heldrake

So what can I use? Technically the two HQs can be used. I'd rather not use them as they are very Chaos looking but I'll se what options I have at the end before I discount them. The Chosen can used in one form or another. Two of the Helbrutes have compatible load outs so they are potentially in. The majority of the Chaos Space Marine squads can be used apart from the special weapons.This is a problem I have with the Havocs because all heavy and special weapons in the support quads have to be the same so they are out but I can use the non heavy weapon troopers as basic marines. The cultists are out unfortunately as is the Heldrake but the Rhino is in!
So here is the list I have come up with:
Centurion with a power sword and plasma pistol
5 Vets with a power fist for the sergeant and a meltagun
Rhino
5 Terminators with lightning claws
13 Tactical marines with a powerfist for the sergeant
10 Tactical Marines
Dreadnought with an autocannon and a powerfist

The list doesn't have a massive amount of heavy support. I could have scraped together a few support squads if I had spammed a few more heavy and special weapons in my Iron Warriors. There is also a lack of heavy transports especially in the form of something for the Terminators as  they cannot deep strike. However there is alot of boots on the ground and a couple of powerfists floating about. this would work well with an allied detachment with some heavy hitting stuff. This army could work quite fairly against the Betrayl At Calth army as they end up with rouglhy similar points totals. Swapping the Rhino out for a couple of Chaos Space Marines would make this army compatible for a Zone Mortalis force.
So there you go. A fully painted WYSIWYG Iron Warriors army. Maybe not completely Heresy looking but legal all the same. Bear in mind this is a solution to getting models to play and to get the full experience nothing beats an army of authentic Horus Heresy models. This is mainly an academic exercise in how to get a force to play with but hopefully this will give you a little inspiration to start playing Horus Heresy games. Until next time!

018 - Daemons In A Day

I've said it before and I'll say it again I am a really slow painter. I've been getting better and have been cracking though my Space Wolves at a decent pace. However I needed a little pallet cleanser.
I have quite a few metal Nurgle Daemons from the late 80s and early 90s. This was due to a combination of Ebay purchases and old models that I found in a box that I didn't open for a good 15 years. These guys were sitting on a shelf in the hobby room waiting to be painted as a Nurgle allies contingent for my Iron Warriors.
However I kind of knew that I would never get them painted. There was far too much power armour in the painting queue. I needed an easy method to get them done, Luckily I spoke to the manager of the local Games Workshop and he showed me a method of how he painted his Spirit Hosts for his Undead Warhammer army using Nilhiakh Oxide. Thus the idea for my Nurgle Daemons was born!

The method to painting these guys was very simple. Firstly I undercoated them white.

Then gave it a liberal wash of Nilhiakh Oxide.

Then a drybrush of white and based them to match the rest of my armies.

And they are done! 

These models are very different to the look of my other models but the basing is the same as my Iron Warriors and my Age of Sigmar Chaos army so they can slot into either. I like the idea of ghostly Daemons materialising from the warp in the middle of the battlefield.
I was very happy with how they turned out and I was very chuffed with completing a unit of twelve within a day. Normally it takes me a week to do five models!
Now I have had an easy win it's back to painting Space Wolves!

010 - Space Marine Predictions

A few months ago we all saw the pictures of new mkIV plastic sprue for the rumoured 30k boxed set (the link is here). They were plastic space marines apparently for 30k but seemed to have codex weapon options like the normal tactical squad rather than the more simplistic weapon load-outs of just bolters which would follow the the larger Legion army list. This seemed a little strange until I saw this news report here.
Putting two and two together (and possibly coming up with five) I asked myself what fits in with really old armour marks in a codex formation? Bingo! Mk4 Astartes fighting Orks in the 31st Millennium. This fits in the time line with the Space Marines following the Codex Astartes but having easy access to older marks of amour. Hopefully we do get the rumoured 30k boxed set but I think that that a 31st Millennium (31k?) boxed set might be a real possibility to support the new 2016 campaign.
As a disclaimer this is a super duper shot in the dark!

006 - When is an army completed?

I have been dry brushing Leadbelcher Metal onto Chaos Space Marines for over a year now and it needs to stop. I have about 2000ish points worth of models in my Iron Warriors army and I'm asking myself, when is it competed?
"Never!" I hear you cry.
But bare with me. Some people will only ever collect one force whilst some people will collect army after army. the multiple armies are more of a trend now that allies are firmly entrenched in 40k. Unbound armies have the potential for people to collect more than one army due to buying just one unit for a new force and then another till lo and behold you have the skeleton of new army.
However there are many obstacles to having multiple forces. The main constraints being cost and time.
This is a really expensive hobby and starting a  new army does cost alot. A small legal force can still easily cost the thick end of a £100 for a HQ and a couple of troops. This goes almost double for Forgeworld models! A solution to this are second hand armies that can be a bargain on sites like Ebay and can sometimes be painted and a decent size for a lot less than if you have collected it yourself.
I'm a really, really slow painter. So the issue of time is a big thing for me. I am so jealous of people who can knock out a great army in a few months while it takes me over a year to get a scrappy looking one. The time issue also stops any chance of getting an army which is the hot new thing because by the time it is done a newer shiny army has come out!
People can finish an army for different reasons. It can be the end of the project, for example an army for a tournament or event. Some people have a list and when they have every model in the list the army is done and they only go back when they the codex is changed or refreshed.
Speaking of Codexes if an armies rules are completely out of date and non-competitive such as Sisters of Battle players stopping using their army. This can also happen when a Codex is new but not that good such as the recent Tyranid Codex and the Chaos Space Marine book. There is also the issue of armies being "squatted". This refers to the Squat army that was written out of the universe and hasn't had rules since 1993!
People can get bored with their armies and get their groove back by starting a new one. This can be when they have started with an army that doesn't lend itself to the player's play style. For example someone trying to sit back and shoot with an Ork army when maybe they should have started with Tau.
The reason I want to get another army is that I want my painting to get to the next level so the way I have done my Iron Warriors is very simple and I want to challenge myself.
I can always go back to my Iron Warriors, besides that Khorne Deamonkin Codex is looking quite tempting. Having a few Deamons squirming through Iron Warrior plate is quite appealing!

005 - Dreadnought Bargins

I'm a big fan of 40k Dreadnoughts. I have three painted  Helbrutes for my Iron Warriors and a couple to go. I also have  a standard Dreadnought to go with my Grey Knights contingent.
I have always liked the Rogue Trader Dreadnoughts which seemed mystical and come from a far off time when I started in the hobby. I remember the model in the second edition books being totally different to the standard one which we all know and love.
Hunting around on Ebay for a few months and my patience finally paid off. I got 5 metal beaky marines, a Rogue Trader attack bike, a few Terminators and a complete metal Dreadnought for just over £20. As the Rogue Trader Dreadnoughts go for more than that. I thought I had got a right bargin!
I had a look at some old scanned in White Dwarfs and these guys used to be £3.50 for a complete model when they came out! Not quite the same as £28 for a plastic kit now!
They do need a bloody good scrub but I feel like I did well out of this. Better get the Dettol out!

001 - Retro Model Rampage

I love the older style of 40k miniatures. Anything from the 1980s madness of Rogue Trader to the mid 90s trend of red weapons on everything!
I've had a good go on Ebay searching out for decent deals for older models. It pays to not "Buy it now" but to take your time and have a go on auctions. After all if you have waited 25 years to buy a model another couple of weeks won't hurt! I have slowly amassed a decent space marine army consisting of two squads of the second edition boxed set tactical marines, a squad of RTB01 style marines, a squad of 1989 Space Hulk terminators, a Rogue Trader metal dreadnought and one of favorite sculpts of all time, the Librarian in terminator armour.
These are the models I fell in love with when I was about 10 reading White Dwarf for the first time.
I saw some really good blogs on collecting retro marines and I am definitely going to get these guys painted up! Thanks to the ongoing popularity of space marines I can field a legal force that is still really characterful. Although I will have to paint them up now!
Stay tuned for updates.