Friday 29 April 2011

Malifaux Commission Done & April Month end

So after blasting out the Epic marines earlier in the week I figured I should really finish off the Malifaux crew that I decided to take on and I have to say that I really enjoyed painting this lot, to the point where I spent quite a bit of time on them but it didn't feel like a chore!


So the complete crew














Lady Justice,  I might do the hair with a bit more brown in it but I'll see what the customer says on that one,  I went for the pistols with pearl handles rather than the normal brown ones for something a bit different


















The Judge, I was dreading doing the cloak on this model but ended up looking nice in the end


















And the rest you've already seen, pictures arn't as crisp as normal though need to faff around with my camera me thinks! 























So onto the "pledge"

Well I was expecting salute to blow it completely out of the water but I'm quite surprised how well I've done this month,

Bought          162

Painted          131

Difference      -31

ok so unless I can get 32 models painted in a day which isn't going to happen I fell just short but I'm still quite chuffed that I managed over a ton again!

So far I've managed to paint 435 models since January comparing that to this time last year when I'd managed 139 I've really stepped up the pace with regards to painting big units namely for Napoleon and the recent celts I've picked up for Hail Caesar, but I think the actual thing that keeps my mojo going is a bit of variety model scale and system wise as well as trying to keep the blog updated once a week with something new to put on it.

Wednesday 27 April 2011

Marines prepare to serve your emperor.... Or Just good old Epic!

Now I'm not talking about.....




















And BOOM like a blast from the past I caved in and decided to join in a local campaign that a couple of the guys from the club are going to be running,

So after a little digging about I found my marines from about 4 girlfriends ago, all I needed to do was finish off two forgeworld warhounds that I'd had for what seems like forever and as I was on the hunt for bits and bobs.
I stumbled across a box that I'd bought from a chap in the states with shag loads of various bits in it so decided to get those togeather and blast them out as I was waiting for the ink to dry on my emperors children dreadnought...

so the family shots...

The Firepower group














3 units of landraiders, 2 warhounds a warlord and two lots of landriders for transport















the front ones are the recently painted with the newish inks the rear ones are from back in the day














the easiest models to paint in the world! all dry brush and inks














More landraiders!

Support and AFV group














So two lots of whirlwinds, 2 lots of predators and some vinidicators














Anti-infantry predators














Vindicators














Old school whirlwinds

The infantry group














So 3 space marine units with transport one on foot, 1 devastator unit with rhinos and two that cruise around in landraiders
















The Specialist Group














4 units of assault marines, a thunderhawk, 2 units of termi's 4 dreadnoughts, attack bike unit and a landspeer tornado unit


















the good old thunderhawk... now only if GW did a plastic 40K for this rather than the 400 quid forgeworld one ;)


Command element with some old ones


And whats currently left to do...















The ship I'm planning on using as a strike cruiser for drop pod deployment, its from a company called ground zero games from there NSA faction range and was a bargin at 4 quid, I'm thinking of getting one to repersent a battlebarge, all I need to do is find some to use as a lander as I'm flatly refusing to pay 38 quid for the GW one!

Points wise...

well its rolling in just shy of 8,900

Thats without the 2 addational thunderhawks, scout unit, 2 warhound and 1 reaver (but no weapons?) that needs to be stripped and painted up in the guise of space wolves, get some of the old school whirlwinds to convert into hunters and that'll be all good as done!

quite a crazy week considering "oh I'll do a quick unit of terminators"

Friday 22 April 2011

Commision update... Malifaux gang

Well with the jungle terrain in a state of drying I decided to crack on with some more of the malifaux gang that I got the other week and managed to get the death marshalls, some woman with a hammer and the scales of justice done,

So the group shot of the death marshalls, Really nice models to paint loads of action with these poses














and some close ups





















Woman with hammer also known as Taelor from the outcasts range


















Scales of justice














so all I've got left to do with these is lady justice and the judge, do the bases and that'll be that lot done!

so next one the hit list will be some 40K bits for my chaos that I've been meaning to do for awhile in the form of the two nurgle dreadnoughts, finish doing the second nurgle rhino, emperors children dreadnought, abbaddon and a converted thousand sons terminator lord.

Tuesday 19 April 2011

Junglist Massive!

Now its not about hardcore dance music or Ali G.. 



















 its about a man on a mission!

Since myself and some of the other guys picked up Cutlass on Saturday at salute, Chris gives a good break down of how it works Clicky click! and with games being arranged and gangs being painted I figured I might as well don my terrain head and do some scatter scenery for the table that we're going to be using,

Now the actual game is played on a 4x4 so I've done enough for a 6x4!

The tents are from Renedra renedra.co.uk I ordered these on Monday and the arrived today!

The palm trees are from ebay and cost about a fiver for 150! so really cheap just nee to paint the trunks,

So armed with the trusty jig saw, a stanley knife and a hot glue gun I managed to get this far in a couple of hours, not bad all I need to do is put some sand on the bases and splash some paint on it and the jobs a good un!
















Close up of the 1st camp, figured it could be used as a HQ for one of the gangs














And another camp














Quite a long piece of line of sight blocking terrain














and all the bits that I managed to do, I've still got plenty of trees left and so if they go down well once there done I could do some more for a new table for the phat cats.

I've also got some plastic barrels from rendra to sue as scatter cover, and some bits and bobs coming from ainsty ainsty castings.co.uk now these guys were around for years and the original bloke sold it off due to health reasons then black crow bought it and not alot was done with the ranges and now someone else has snapped there range up.
I'm really pleased that they are back on the market as I picked up the abandoned school bus on my first trip to salute many many years ago.

So once I've got the final pieces I'll post a few pictures with it out on a table, all I need to do is get some mordhiem style houses built and we'll be rolling!

Monday 18 April 2011

Salute 2011 road trip....

Well its that time of year again to don the boots of walking and wander around a hall full of various weirdo's giving money to random people and getting plastic & metal crack in return!

Normally there a quite a few of us tend to go down, but this year was a poor turn out for the local guys and only four of us braved the daylight as we headed down at stupid o'clock in the morning all arranging to meet at Bank underground so that we could jump on the DLR and ride on in.. we did manage to get the wrong one though so some faffing about and we was back on track ;)

So as we wandered into the excell centre the final day of registration for the London marathon was in the same place and as usual the superfit people mingling in with the supergeek people did make for some interesting people watching!

As we got closer to the hall where it was last year I made the comment of "doesn't seem to be that much of a queue?" until I realised that the show was at the other end and as we loomed closed the sea of people was the queue!

So looking down towards the entrance,














and the other end that went round the corner and back down! 
 













Lee commented at this point how he didn't think we'd be getting the free mini this year and the chances of me getting my hands on a force on force bag was slim to none!

But after a while and being chatted up by Dr Who's assistant the queue started moving and we wandered in, This years theme was the American civil war, something that I've never been that fussed about but with my recent movement into "historical" gaming I was going to keep an eye out for and see if anything took my fancy,

Lee being the super organised person that he is had already mapped out my plan of attack to get to the osprey stand and I wandered over to the chaps and asked if they had any bags left? Low and behold they did!! I also decided to grab a copy of Force on Force at the same time,

Then it was over to warlord to get my pre-order of hail cesaer and spotted a celtic army starter box, now according to Lee these are rare as, so I grabbed one of those and the job was a good un, only my pre-order from raiden miniatures to get and I was good as done,

So with Nick eager to have a butch at the bring and buy I donned the elbows held my breath and went in... 














I spotted a few bits and bobs but nothing that I was desperate to get my hands on, some of the prices for stuff was stupid as always but that's always been the case.

So I decided to get some snaps of the various tables as most of the games were in full swing I wasn't able to get in too close but most of the pictures are really for inspiration for anyone who wants to do there own table and with a some time effort and raiding the local post office with a shotgun this could be easily achieved!

Dr Who Game














American civil war game














Close up of the lines, the renedra picket fencing was making alot of appearances on some of the tables!














Infinity game














Malifaux Game














Another Malifaux game














And yet another!














No idea but it was super sexy!! something to do with warlord games? 














Close ups















at this point I was just snapping away with no idea... 














Operation Squad














Hail Caesar














Another view of the same game














a view from the celt's lines














Really nice sci-fi board, which was for sale with "make us an offer" but I would have offered a couple of hundred quid and properly got laughed at ;) 














Another sci-fi game with some nice mech looking things?














Close up of one of the models, no idea on the manufacturer but very nice














Another American civil war table, but didn't spot any others after this one? 














Close up, interesting use of "smoke"


















6mm epic scale that could be easily used for GW epic, 














a spaceship game by the same guys














Nice looking fleet, models are great would be a bugger to store though!















Close up of the ground forces














Snap happy again! 














plastic door mats being used as corn fields, which is quite a novel idea, I've seen straw ones used before but not these... 














I liked the bold contrast of the corn fields compared to the lush green














Wings of war raid on a airfield, the smoke plumes add that little extra














Just snapping away... 














Warlands, I've been scratching my chin over this system for a while it looks good but the table made it look too industrial rather than mad max style? 














Now this is the table that myself and the rest of the guys spent the most time chatting to the guy, really nicely done and the actual factual history of the game based on a special forces raid in Serra Leone against the westside boys, 














getting back on the "bus"














Getting off the "bus"


















sweeping the village


















A Napoleonic game with some really nicely painted models














close up of my Nemesis a British rifle line


















and some nicely painted cannons














some kind of middle ages game? 














nice looking command stands














and a huge cannon unit!














 a modern game














at the other end














Italians beating up the Ethiopians 














another view, quite a pleasing table to look at














WW2 Russians up against Hungarian's so much details on the table its untrue!
 














you've gotta love tank riders!


















superb use of pipe cleaners!


















FJ coming in














Snapping away once more!
















Two fat lardies game, lots of hidden units which was a nice twist!














huge infantry & tanks!















on a equally huge board!

















quite a barren but nice board














precut mdf terrain very nice stuff


















secrets of the third reich, westwind miniatures


















warhammer with lots of samurai

























the infamous heresy dragon, its nice but is it £200+ nice?


















So I ended up wandering over to the forgeworld stand and gawping at the new shiney eldar titan that they had just released,


















now thats a flame thrower!














some chaos dwarves that they are doing














A nurgle looking chap on his mount


















Chaos giant?


















chaos dwarf gun carriage? 














Chris & Lee leading the way with bartering with black scorpion miniatures.. 














and these chaps ended up doing circuits, was this the ACW theme....

















and the final haul of goodies!















Over all it was a good show plenty of people there compared to the previous year and quite a few show releases, the privateer press stand was a tad weak with none of the new war engines being on show or any copies of wraith being available to have a look at?

I did my usual think of picking up a system and this year Lee wanted a pirate game, we'd got legends of the high seas a few years back and it was ok, but this time it was a choice between freebooters fate and cutlass after looking at the two we decided on cutlass more on the value for money on the models and what you an actually use, ok so the freebooter models are superb but very pricey!

So at some point when I've read the books and tried some games I'll post up some more first looks and see what I think of the new systems that we've picked up,