Saturday, August 1, 2015

an oldie...

Found this picture (I still have the model boxed away).







From the original box set, using one of the "official" paint schemes from the WD poster.

Friday, June 26, 2015

OFCC Team tourney - Pt1 - Knight.

A few of you may recall me talking about this event previously.

The OFCC (Ordo Fanaticus Club Challenge) tourney is one of the PNW's premier events.
I've attended a number of times (I've actually lost count!), and had a really good time each one. I've also had some success there, being on one Overall Champion team, and one team that won the Best Sportsmanship award (which is named after, and dedicated to the to the memory of, one of the event founders  - Marshall Johnson).

This year the event has been sweetened by the inclusion on the ITC list for 2015.

The organizers have also added an Open event, and a few Friday mini-tourneys. Sadly I can't attend these on Friday as I'll be returning from France a couple of days beforehand, and will be relying on my other Club's team Captain, Chris Jones, to drive me down to Vancouver, WA.

Whilst the 40K team event is well populated this year (21 teams of 4), it looks like the uncertainty around 9th edition Fantasy, and the mess that End Times made, that the WHFB side will be a little sparse this year - 9 teams last time I looked.
40K has not been without its controversies; the Head of Gaming (HoG) has removed all formal composition this year, so unbound armies, experimental rules, and multiple formations are allowed. The only caveat being that the army, an team's armies as a whole, need to be in the spirit of the event.

Sitting on whats' known as the "list Review Committee" has been quite educational about different region's perspectives on army builds; and I have a whole new respect for the HoG - I've not run a tourney since 5e!

My team does not have a theme this year (it was "death" last year), but as we are all taking Knights, from one source or another (including GK Dreadknights), I'm going with "Knights; F**k Yeah!"

I'm running the World Eaters that I took to AdeptiCon (they are almost finished...), with the addition of.... a Knight!

This is the Questoris Knight Styrix; probably the crappiest of the Knights!







It is not quite complete... but FW does not yet do decals for its Knightly Houses, and I don't have enough time to get custom ones done.

When I build out the Ad Mech side of my collection I'll add them.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Throwback Thursday... coz all the kids are doing it!

Well, yes they are, but I'm taking pictures of all my armies... all week long... for many weeks!

These are from my first 40k army. Bought from the Third Edition box set, which I bought on advance order from GW Canada, back in later 1998...
Ultimately they were my first tournament army, playing them at the Seattle GT in 1999.




I've has a long time affinity with the Marines Errant, always thinking of them as a "knightly" Chapter with parallels to Arthurian legend.

In the first picture is a RT era Chaplain... yep it is old, and it is original - I still have the blister with the rest of them in (at one time GW sold them in packs of THREE!). The Command Squad uses old Dark Angel Veteran cloaked models - again metal.

The Chapter Icons are hand painted... all of them...

The pictures were taken on a photo-backdrop from Hangar 18; I obviously chose one to contrast. These are fantastic vinyl printed sheets, which come in a variety of colours, and are very tolerant to handling. You can find them here; they are an excellent investment.

The bases are quite dated (not just in size) so they are going to be upgraded shorty across the whole army.
I'm using the Dragon Forge Design Ancient Ruins II bases that I got in their recent Kickstarter campaign.


Sunday, March 15, 2015

Road to AdeptiCon 2015 - Part 5 - Bases.

One of the joys of putting the army together was the bases.

Old gaming friend and talented hobbyist Alex Akers made some custom bases for my army. I talked about these in a previous blog post.

At the time of sculpting the largest base GW had in production was a 60mm, and the flying base came out as Alex was finishing the project. He did sculpt some, but I'm not sure what happened to the master model.

So with a flyer in my army I needed to get creative!

Some cork, some plasticard, some skulls (Secret Weapon Miniatures), pumice from Vallejo, metal from one of GW's basing sets, some mouse bones (yes, really) and about 20 minutes of work....
(The masking tape is there for the flight stand. Peels off nicely when all is dry.)

This sloppy mess:



After an overnight dry, and a drop of paint...




Making bases for large pieces is something I really enjoy, and I think it will be what pulls be towards military modelling a lot more.

Road to AdeptiCon 2015 - Part 4 - Marines

World Eaters Paint Scheme

I was wanting to keep this simple, ala the Forgeworld scheme.

Primer - Krylon White:


First wash with Vallejo Grey Wash:


Zenithal airbrush to smooth out the wash - Vallejo Model Air White:
(no picture).

FW Wash "recipe":

 

Three coats of Vallejo Model Air White, at about a 45 degree angle:


GW Boltgun metal:


Flat back wash:


Backpack added:



Shoulder pads:

 
 


Based:



Final Squad picture:


I've not had enough time to do full weathering on the units, but I will be adding chipping to everything, and some significant paint damage to the vehicles.


The army has been a absolute blast to paint; less than 3 months from start to finish (nothing like having a hard deadline). I learned a lot about both modelling with resin, which surprised me considering how many years I've been doing it, and how to airbrush. Airbrushing is now my new "hobby" passion - it is such a powerful tool to have in your kit.
I'll be adding to the HH force with units from other Legions, aiming to use signature units such as a Breacher Squad in Sons of Horus colours, and heavy weapons as Iron Warriors. The World Eaters will get a Contemptor Dreadnought at some point, only because there is a cool one in the first HH book, and I have a slot for one in my Battle Foam tray..

More pictures to follow, some shots from AdeptiCon I'm sure.
If you are there, come by the Friendly on Friday - that's where this army will be playing!


Road to AdeptiCon 2015 - Part 3

With travel only a few days away, many AdeptiCon attendees, myself included, are in the final push to get armies painted, Crystal Brush entries perfected and probably clothes packed.

I'll post my World Eaters WIP page once I've headed south (and then east).

Looking forward to catching up with old friends, making new ones, and 4 days of silliness!

Thursday, January 8, 2015

an interlude.

Whilst I write drafts of my AdeptiCon progress... whilst actually preping for the event... I've been playing in a couple of events.

On January 1st we had a tourney at our local store, titled "No Rest for the Weary". Yes, some people were hung over, but as a) I have kids, and b) I'm old, I was not one of them - I was in bed by 11pm!
It was a fun event with no soft scores, but some limitations on composition (no SH, LoW, smaller fortifications only...).
Some how I managed to go 3-0, and lost out on overall by one point (I tied my secondary objective in the final game and got zero battle points for it.... grrr..).
It was a really good event, and the turn out bodes well of a revitalization of year round, small, tourney events in the Metro Vancouver area.

Next up is Vancouver's first Highlander event, for which I suggested the name of "Toss Yer Caber" (it is being run by a Scot..) which stuck.

I have a hankering to play my Space Wolves - for the first time with the new codex.

Since 7e came out I've been somewhat skeptical about the psychic phase, hell I've historically avoided magic in Warhammer for many years. But with the Wolves I had an idea.

The HH books, in particular the Prospero arc, have hinted at the Wolves' belief that their powers are not warp driven but is "earth magic" from Fenris. This I can embrace. To this end I have been toying with the idea of the Malefic Powers, specifically the summoning of daemons; or in the case of Space Wolves "Spirits of Fenris".
The whole project took about 5 hours.

Here is my "Greater Daemon of Fenris". Built from a WE Treeman (obviously!). I'll run it as a Bloodthirster.


Pretty basic paint-job, using Minitaire paints, airbrushed and layered on. A wash of Army Painter strong tone added depth.


Snow, which is melting - done with Secret Weapon Miniatures product, represents the recent arrival from Fenris. The Snowy Owl... well, he is the psychic link!


And of course, where the big guy goes, little ones will too.


Hopefully I'll get to use these next month - but not against loyal space marines...
I'll post how it went.