291: Tomb Raiders

As I mothball my blog I'm taking stock of my hobby and armies as they stand.  

Here at the end of 2018, this is my whole Necron army.  What started off as a side project and a quick and easy army ended up being one of the most difficult as I had to customise every last model with electrical wire to replace the green rods in the original kit.

To my mind, a Necron army should always be about a horde of relentless, advancing warriors and I've tried to keep that in this army.  I've got over 40 warriors that I take as many of as reasonable every time I play.  In big units of ~20 they are amazingly resilient and it can be impressive to see almost half the unit return to life even if there's only one left on the battlefield.

290: 10th birthday, the end of an era

Terrifyingly enough, today marks 10 years since I began this blog.  I can't quite believe I've been back in the hobby for that long.

It can't escape the notice of any poor sod who's still checking that posting has pretty much ceased here.  This is down to various factors, a big part being my own changing personal circumstances, and how much (or rather little) time I can give to the hobby.  That which I have I am plowing 100% into actual hobby and so this place takes a back seat.

Considering its just hit such a milestone, I've taken the difficult decision that I'm going to mothball the blog.  I plan to do a couple of posts to wrap things up over the next few weeks, but that'll be it for the foreseeable future.  Should life ever return to a situation where I can support this again I may return but I offer no promises...

I won't be completely lost from the hobby blogosphere however, my very good friends and primary gaming group, The Beard Bunker, have agreed to allow me to join them as a contributor to their much more excellent site, so anyone who even remembers my ramblings and would like to see more are strongly recommended to head on over that way and add them to whatever site aggregator you use.

I'll be back in the not too distant future with those wrapping up posts.

In the meantime - toodle-pip and all that!

289: Pyrkol wound trackers for 40k

I just got a bunch of these wound tracker dials. I think they are a much nicer design than the dice from GW.

I already have magnets on the inside of the hull of my planes, from magnetising the stand on. Now I can stick a dial on. I will certainly be sticking magnets on the inside of the hull of future vehicles.

More info on how the flight stands are attached: http://iron-legion.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/250-magnetising-flying-stand.html

I found the tracker dials on www.ebay.co.uk. Search for "pyrkol wound".

288: Striking Scorpions of the Occulted Claw Shrine

I finished a group. Shrine of the occulted blade. 
There's a mix of 1990 lead models that I bought from Andrew and new (ahem) resin models. I plan to use them as 1 large or 2 small squads. I might try the claw exarch as a Karandras stand-in: I think the loadout is the same.

It's good to have more aspect warriors available to my Biel-Tan. The fluff grows stronger.

I have been planning for the new year. I have some Howling Banshees and Rangers underway. I also have an unassembled shame pile including a Wave Serpent and Dark Reapers. I think I might convert up some Shining Spears before assembling those: I need more fast attack to qualify for a battalion.

287: Hassiq's Log - part I

I'm not dead....

I've just had a somewhat busy year and after the flurry of posts leading up to the conflict at J'migan Bridge (reminder, I must write up the battle sometime)  I've not really had much of a chance to look in here.

I have however been taking part in a very fun Battlefleet Gothic based roleplay set in Scyrian Expanse the with some of the guys from the Beard Bunker.

I'm playing Hassiq Betancourt-Xing, a Rogue Trader who's not been having much luck (all thanks to my pesky family) who has set his sails (or perhaps that should be engines) for the edge of known space to see if he can't improve his lot.  We've got ourselves into a number of scrapes already, and much like Laius Ortano (or Jon as I sometimes call him), I'm going to be chronicling our adventures in the form of a journal (part 1 and part 2) in character.

3.142.999.M41

Hassiq’s log - entry 13

[++ Vox Recording and Transcription]

I really should try and keep this updated somewhat more.  Oh well, if wishes were Astartes...

Isn’t this just a turn-up for the books. After being constantly blocked by my so called “family”, jealous of how I’m doing, I might have just struck gold by finally getting out from under their overbearing presence. I’ve only gone and found myself on the edge of Imperial space, lining up with a Naval escort, and a whole series of repairs on the Imperium’s tab. I knew my luck would turn eventually.

I’m finally reaping my rewards. They just couldn’t stand the fact I’d married into BXK, had to work my way up through the ranks. I mean it was a whole decade before they allowed me command of one of their ships, disgraeful! Its not like the Zen is much of a ship either, its swallowed almost everything I’ve made just to keep her spaceworthy, no-one really understands just how much it costs to keep a ship in the sky, they all think its swanning around and doing whatever you want. Anyway, that’s not the point.

Xephone seems like an acceptable place. I wouldn’t want to spend too much time here, very provincial, and a bit of a mess after they let the Orkoid get out of hand. They say they’ve got things sorted now - I’ll believe it when I see it.

We popped over to the Intemperance for a welcome dinner. Its a little sparse on those naval vessels, but they did their best and put on a passable spread. There was plenty of ‘sec at least, although I might have to keep a tighter leash on Antono in future, he was getting far too chatty with one of their female captains. Captain Ortano… Captain, or was it Commodore, who knows? Anyway, Ortano seems a bit green, but apparently he was the one who sorted out the Orkoid, so he can’t be all that bad. Where was I. Oh yes, Ortano seems like an alright chap, some decent chat, I’m sure we’ll have plenty of success with him along.

Anyway, that’s me for the night. Might have had a little too much of that ‘sec myself. Must remember to show them a proper party sometime. We’re off exploring tomorrow. Venka said she’d have selected the most promising system in the local area by the morning.

P.S.: Must remember to keep Sifira away from the navy boys in future. I think she may have “left and impression” on that Gunnery Sergeant (Barnabus I think his name was), and not in that way mind you. I don’t doubt she probably gave away a bit too much about the true condition of the Zen, she was bending his ear pretty much the whole night, and spent far too much time pointing to that pad with our list of needs. She can be a bit too efficient at times.

[-- Vox Recording and Transcription]