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.

063 - Iron warriors Mk2

This hobby of ours has many different facets. Some folk are in it to play the games where some like the modelling and painting sides and some believe it or not even like both. I always loved building models however I found painting them more of a chore than anything so I never really got a whole army painted before.
Getting back into the Warhammer hobby has been brilliant and as a fully grown human I can concentrate and push through slightly boring tasks to achieve a good end result. So now I have three fully painted decent sized armies on my shelf and well a quite alot of other smaller forces and individual models.
My first army when I got back into the hobby was the Iron Warriors. The main itch that I wanted to scratch when starting the project was getting an army painted. I used Army Painter products and kind of rushed it out. The painting standard was quite poor but you could charitably call it tabletop standard.
I then did the 30k Space Wolves which were better painted and I feel that I improved again with my Word Bearers.
So now the idea is to go back and redo my Iron Warriors and do a decent paint job on them. I had alot of Heresy marks of armour from the Calth and Prospero boxes so It will be a 30k force. Heresy is really scratching my hobby itch at the moment. I have bought Perturabo and want to have an army worthy of their Primarch. I did a post about him here. The old army was okay but now I want to do much better. I saw a really well painted Iron Warriors army in my local Games Workshop which was a bit of an inspiration for me.
My first test model was a Master of Signals. He is based on Ennox Sorrlock but I gave him an Iron Warriors feel.

There will be definitely be some Dreadnoughts as well because I love Contemptors. I have bought up a load of Terminators and intend to have this as a real elite force. I built my first half of a squad. They were really easy to put together and I can't wait to get some paint on them

So I am going to add models in as I take a like to them as I feel this is the best way to motivate myself to paint my models. I am so excited about this army as I feel I can get a really nice force. There is alot to do but I can take my time and get some really good results.

062 - Primarch... More Like PrimACHE!

So I just finished Perturabo. First up I am not a very good painter. I have a basic grasp of basic techniques but any kind of fine detail is a bit of a fluke if I get it right.
However I really struggled with the assembly of Perturabo. The resin took ages to clean and I couldn't get him to stick together very well. I think we have been spoilt by plastic models being so easy to assemble.
He is a big complicated model which would be hard to paint as a whole so I did him in sub assemblies. I popped him together and hoped he stuck, which thankfully he did.
So here he is:

When I finished him I felt someone else could do better but I am pretty much at the limit of my painting ability. I don't think I will be doing another Primarch any time soon and I think I will stick to plastic as well because the resin was a nightmare for me. More experienced, and to be honest better modellers have no problems but unfortunately that wasn't the case for me.
I feel I have a good centre piece model but for the time being I will be taking a break from resin. It was hard work and definitely not for beginners. However looking at the model on my display shelf he looks great and certainly that makes it worthwhile.

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.