Thursday 26 December 2013

227: 2013 in review

So, how have your 2013's been?

As has become a tradition for me, I'm going to look back over the past year for my hobby to see where I was and where I've got to.  So in 2013 I managed:
  • 36 Blog posts, passing the 200 mark for total number of posts
  • One Force has progressed well, and now stands at 1500 points
    • I'm especially proud of the conversion I did for the Storm Raven, I think it looks a lot better now.
  • I went to two tournaments this year
    • I came back from the March Throne of Skulls with the Best Necron certificate (in part thanks to also getting a Best Sports certificate)
    • I made at least one of Blog Wars this year, and only just managed to avoid the wooden spoon
  • Painting wise I managed to total up 70 painting points, not what I'd hoped, but not as bad as I'd thought it would be.
As well as all of that, I've also completely changed career, having to go back to school part time to do so, completed my first triathlon, and renovated about half of the place we live in, so I've been pretty busy.


I also started this year with a series of New Years resolutions, so lets see how I managed to hold up to them this year:
  • Maintain 1 post minimum per week - FAILED: Although this worked for me in 2012, this year life and everything else kind of got in the way.
  • Attend more tournaments/gaming weekends - COMPLETE: As well as the two tournaments I went to, I also got in a gaming trip to Warhammer World with some local guys. 
  • Sell my spare stuff - PASS: I did sell of a lot of stuff, but there's still more to go, so not totally complete yet (but then it may never really be complete). 
  • Complete my Skaven (at least all the models I own, and anything I buy) - FAIL: Nothing painted for the skaven, but thankfully only a Warp Lightning Cannon bought, and I hope to make a little progress in the new year. 
  • Beat last years painting points score - FAIL: I came closer to equalling it than I expected, but just didn't have the time. 
  • Bring One Force to a playable 1750 points force minimum - FAIL: I managed to get to 1500 points, and didn't buy anything new, so I'm almost through with all the models I currently own for the army.
So out of 6 resolutions, I managed to complete one, and pass one, but failed the other 4 which just goes to show that I was just a little too ambitious last year, or that I wasn't as dedicated as I could have been this year. Either way, I'm going to have to reconsider how I'm going to go about hobby next year.

So that's how my hobby year has gone, if any of you out there are doing something similar, I'd love to hear about it just in case I don't already follow your blogs. I'm away over the Christmas/New Year period, so won't be able to reply straight away to comments, but will be checking in as I now have internets abroad!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all.
- Andrew

Monday 2 December 2013

226: Necrons vs. Space Marines

Game played!

Brief batrep from the game I played a week or so ago against the new marines.  I've included a very brief battle report below, but due to the shop closing, we could only get in 2 turns so its pretty short.

Marines:
            Chapter Master with Honour Guard
            Librarian
            3 x Tac squads with Meltaguns and Lascannon
            5 Scouts (Bolters and Heavy Bolter with Hellfire)
            10 Sternguard
            Dreadnought with Lascannon and Missiles
            10 Assault marines
            10 Devestators – 2 Missile Launchers, 2 Lascannon
            Predator Destructor
            Autocannon Hunter/Stalker variant

My Necrons
            Trazyn the infinite
            2 Destruction Crypteks
            1 veil Cryptek
            1 Lord
            2 x 9 Warriors in Arks
            8 Warriors
            10 Immortals with Gauss
            2 x 3 Heavy Destroyers
            3 x Annihilation Barges


Game was Dawn of War (long table edges) and Purge the Alien (kill points) so about as straight forward as possible.

The Marines went first, their setup, from left to right (my point of view):
Stalker/hunter, Devestators, Tac squad, Dreadnought, Assault Marines, Chapter Master, Tac squad, gap for a building, Tac squad, Predator.  The scouts infiltrated forward in front of the predator, and the Sternguard and Librarian were waiting in the Drop Pod.



Thursday 28 November 2013

225: 5 years old today


Amazingly, today marks 5 years since I started Iron Legion.  Can't quite believe its been that long.  Looking at the post number, it would seem that I've managed to average exactly 45 posts a year, a little under 1 post per week.  Not bad really, but that's not been all that consistent, with times when I've managed to keep a good run going, and other times like recently when a new job, going back to university, and renovating our house means that hobby ends up right at the bottom of the pile, I take a bit of a break.


I'll be back soon, and in the meantime, as a birthday present to you all, I found this out at a recent game and it was news to me:
Skyfire works not only against Flyers and Flying Monstrous Creatures, but against Skimmers too.  May not be all that important, but it opens up the flexibility of units like the Hydra, Hunter/Stalker and others that have the Skyfire rule without Interceptor.

See  you all soon.


Thursday 14 November 2013

224: Finecast is dead, and I'll be sorry to see it go


If you follow any of the rumour mills out there you'll have seen recent talk that GW is abandoning finecast in place of plastic and that forgeworld will be coming more "in-house". I'll probably be the only one to say this, but I'll be sad to see finecast go.

It's got problems, major problems, but if you step back from the rage for a moment, you'll see those problems have a lot more to do with the casting process than they do with finecast. Bubbles, flash, misaligned casts are all symptoms of casting resin and certainly not exclusive to GW or finecast. In fact I've seen the same people bitch and moan about all these things with finecast, but just put them down to par for the course for forgeworld because it is made from resin. Double standards much?
A lot of the problem comes from GW marketing finecast as the best thing since sliced bread.  A bold claim they couldn't back up with product, but get a problem with either their or forgeworld's respective products and they will replace them without question (at least in my experience, others may differ).  If only they'd taken some advice from forgeworld on casting techniques and problem solving, or had a decent quality control system (less of a problem with plastic, but I've still come across problems), I don't think they'd have had half the bad press they did.

I can only hope that we may see forgeworld start to use finecast so we can get their delicious detail without risking our health every time we try and clean and trim models. I also hope forgeworld getting closer to GW won't see their excellent customer engagement start to suffer, and that we might see a softening of GW's policies as they learn from those that are eternally loved.

Anyway, that's my 2 penny'th.

Andy

Friday 4 October 2013

223: Keeping the Hobby - Notes

So it's been a while, and there's always reasons.  I won't call them excuses because they are mostly conscious choices but they are there nonetheless. Over the last few months I've completed my first triathlon (in under 3 hours, and all the training that entailed), cracked the 2 hour mark for a half marathon, and started a completely new career. We're also about to embark on a significant remodel to the main room of our flat, which will entail further disruption.

I'm sure I'm not the only one out there that finds the other things in their lives get in the way of their hobby.  I thought I might do a few posts on how I manage to keep abreast of what is going on in the hobby-verse and to scratch that hobby itch during the times I can't get to the paints or the table.  I'm going to title these "Keeping the Hobby", hopefully some of you out there might find the odd titbit of interesting information in them.

Notes

This one might seem strange at first thought, but how often are you doing something else and all of a sudden a thought pops into your head for a conversion, a pose you'd like to use for one of your guys, maybe an idea for a new army or some background for your existing army.  I know for sure that this happens all the time for me, but the problem I tend to find is that by the time at back at my painting table I've forgotten all about it.
I've taken to carrying a notebook with me as much as possible, dedicated purely to my hobby.  I'll write down paint schemes, tips I read or hear about, bits of fluff ideas or anything else that pops into my head just as quickly as possible in it so I've got them to go back to whenever I need to.

I'll tell you, its amazing the number of times I've sat down at my painting table, and drawn a blank when trying to figure out what to tackle next.  I quick flick through my notes and that's always cured.



So that's it for the first post, simple, but probably the most effective of all the things you can do to keep going with your hobby when you don't have time/space/energy to paint.
What do you do to keep your hobby mojo going in the lean times?  Lets hear your suggestions in the comments below.

Be back soon.  Andy - bG

Thursday 3 October 2013

222: for 2

There may be some of you out there that get the joke, for the rest, if you are a fan of cricket go and check out the twelfth man, I promise you'll enjoy it.

Warning - very bad language and terrible humour.


Proper posts to follow, I promise.

Thursday 22 August 2013

221: One Force at 1500pts

I can't quite believe it myself, but I've got One Force almost all the way to 1500pts.  In their most basic setup, without any unnecessary extras, the force is up to 1420pts, so I'm sure if I tart a few of them up with some extras I could get it to 1500pts if I wanted for a game.  It seemed only appropriate to take some shots of the whole force as it stands now.


Thursday 15 August 2013

220: Completed Vindicator

Ooops!
In my excitement last week at finishing the Storm Raven, I blundered on ahead and posted shots of it completed, referring to this Vindicator and how much fun it has been painting vehicles, but had forgotten to post up the pictures of the completed Vindicator.  Anyway, here they are to make ammends.


Friday 9 August 2013

219: Painted One Force Storm Raven

I'd forgotten just how much fun it is to paint vehicles.  After the Vindicator I showed a couple of weeks ago, I was pretty keen to paint something else.  Seeing as I hadn't quite cast enough shoulder pads to finish my Mk IV demi-squad (thanks for the cool term Zzzzzz), I just "had" to paint up the Storm Raven.


Friday 2 August 2013

218: My Painting Table

I'm almost finished my current job, and in fact it'll signal the end of an entire career for me, and the end of a journey that started when I was 8 years old in a hospital bed, but that's probably a story for another time.  On the upside, I'm going to have the month of August off work, so should be able to make some good progress.  It's not all gravy for my hobby though as I imagine I'll also be a little busy, with a 10 day trip to my wife's family retreat in Northern Sweden, replacing the kitchen in our flat, a lot of training and finally my first OD triathlon on the 25th August and a half marathon in September.

On that note, last year my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer, she's OK now, but to celebrate this fact, my family are all running the Great North Run (biggest half marathon in the world) to raise money for Cancer Research UK, if any of the readers would care to make a little donation, it would be greatly appreciated, my justgiving page is:  http://www.justgiving.com/a-gosling

Anyway, that's enough unloading from me, onto the modelly goodness:


Thursday 25 July 2013

217: One Force pie plate support

One thing so far lacking for my fledgling One Force is any kind of heavy support or significant heavy firepower.  I do have my Rifleman Contemptor but as the sole source of anti-anything more than a marine, its definitely in need of some help.  What could be better than a lovely old Vindicator lobbing those S10 AP1 pie plates all over the battlefield.   I had left one of my old Space Wolves Rhinos part glued so that I could swap out the front plate and top hatch to a Vindicator, so decided to make the conversion complete.  You can see it as I was starting to block in some colours below.

Starting to change the colours
You can see some experimental work on the scheme on the dozer blade.

Thursday 18 July 2013

216: One Force Squad II now with 10 men

Despite not having posted up much hobby recently, I've actually been achieving quite a lot.  We've taken it upon ourselves to slowly get up earlier (5 mins every week) and this means that I can get in 20 mins or half an hour of modelling/painting each morning and its showing results.

I've almost finished the second 5 men for "Squad II" for One Force.  You can see them below both with and without their jump packs



Monday 8 July 2013

215: Blog Wars 5 - Game 3

Game 3, Emperor's Will, Dawn of War deployment

Robert Gorst:  Space Wolves

Logan with 5 wolf guard in Terminator Armour all in a Crusader
2 Rune Priests, one with Jaws and Lightning, the other with rulebook powers (Prescience I think)
Wolf Priest
2 units of 10 Grey Hunters
6 Long Fangs with missile launchers
Vindicator

We set up objectives opposite corners, mine in the bottom right, his in the top left from my point of view.  I was mostly castled around my own objective, with the Immortals out on the other flank somewhat as bait, he spread evenly across his side of the board, with Logan and co. in Land Raider opposite my objective, and the vindicator central.  I stole the initiative thanks to Imotekh, and first order of business was to get rid of the Vindicator, which I was able to do with a number of glances from Warriors in a Barge.  



Thursday 4 July 2013

214: Blog Wars 5 - Game 2

Game 2, The scouring, Hammer and Anvil deployment
Daniel Lane:  Orks

Gazghul with 5 Nobs with all the trimmings in a Truck
10 Boys as standard in a Truck
Mekboy with KFF
2 units of 30 Boys
Looted-Wagon with Boomgun
2 units of 10 Lootas

Objectives were setup about as evenly as possible across the board, with 5 points in my deployment, 5 points around my opponents deployment, and 5 points in the middle.
Of course I couldn't steal the initiative against orks, and lost the roll to go first (only time in the weekend too), so was in trouble.  As expected, the two trucks were on my lines (despite deploying about as far back as I could) immediately.

Here they come...

Tuesday 2 July 2013

213: Blog Wars 5 - Game 1

Game 1, Purge the Alien, Vanguard deployment

Matt Greenwood: Grey Knights with Eldar allies

Coteaz
Strike Squad
2 Dreadknights
Spiritseer
2 Wraithguard units in Waveserpents
Wraithknight

OUCH!

Thursday 27 June 2013

212: Blog Wars 5, the aftermath and painting competition

Well, Blog Wars 5 has been and gone, and I'm "happy" to report that I managed a credible 3rd (from last :D).  Yep, from 10th in the first Blog Wars, to mid table at Blog Wars 4, to 3 from the bottom, I'm on a roll and I'm sure that wooden spoon will be mine in November at Blog Wars 6.  No matter though, as it was a great day, I had 3 fantastic opponents, and 3 great games.  Blog Wars has also moved to a new venue, the North West Gaming Centre, a part of Marauder Gaming, and in my opinion this is a great move.  Its easier to get to, a nicer room, had better and much more varied terrain, a better discount on product for attendees, and really great staff who were a pleasure to talk to and obviously very passionate about what they do and building a community of gamers in their area.  I hope that in future we'll be staying at the same location for Blog Wars.

I'll be posting up battle reports later on, but for now I'd like to show you some of the awesomely modelled and painted armies that were present on the day.  It was fantastic to see so many well painted armies on the tabletop, and some brilliantly creative forces too.
(where I was able, I've added links to the appropriate blogs, if I've missed yours let me know and I'll get it added in)

Matt Greenwood's gorgeous Eldar and Grey Knight force.
I was "lucky" enough to play these in my first game,
and see them up close, fantastic.

Thursday 20 June 2013

211: Off to Blog Wars 5

This weekend, I'll be attending Blog Wars 5, so I'm posting up my list for anyone who might be going to get a look at and be ready for.  Blog Wars is 1850pts, and a Special Character is required for your primary force.  Your special character counts as a scoring unit in the games, and gives up an extra Kill Point when he dies, so is pretty important.  I hadn't read those bits of the rules pack last time I went, so thought I was being really clever that time taking Trazyn the Infinite, as he counts as scoring.  Of course when I did read the pack, it made my choice a little less useful.

Thursday 13 June 2013

210: Contemptor complete

He's been done for quite a while now, but as anyone who checks regularly may have noticed, I've had little if any time for hobby or the blog, hence the lack of updates.  Finally was able to sit him down and take some photo's though, here they are:


Thursday 16 May 2013

209: Contemptor Dreadnought, tabletop ready

Amazingly, this model seems to be flying through the painting stages.  I'm not sure if its because I'm becoming more accustomed to the paintjob, or if it is because it is only a single model and so despite being a lot bigger, its a lot less to paint that lots of 5 guys.  Either way, I've amazingly managed to get him to ready for tabletop standard in just 2 or 3 painting sessions, which feels pretty great.


Thursday 9 May 2013

208: Squad 5 complete at last

Much more of a record keeping post today, just a picture of the finally finished squad 5, the 3rd 5-man squad completed for One Force.  These guys took part in the defence of Hive Okess as reported last week, dropping in towards the end of the battle to draw off some of the Tyranids letting my commander get to the Hive Tyrant and luckily slay him in single combat.
One thing that game taught me was these squads aren't the most effective in small numbers, so I'll be working to get another 5 painted as soon as possible so that I can start running two squads of 10, rather than 3 of 5 as I am at the moment.

5 painting points!

Thursday 2 May 2013

207: Hive Okess combat status report

+++ PLANETARY STATUS VERIFICATION +++
+++ STATUS:   AMBER +++
+++ SIGNAL PRIORITY: ALPHA +++
+++ TRANSMISSION DATE: 1 425 013 . M3 (FOUNDING) +++
+++ TRANSMISSION RECEIVED: 5 317 013 . M39 (TERRAN) +++
+++           MESSAGE SOURCE: XXXXXXXXXXX(censored)  +++

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY:The Emperor's mercy knows no limits.

BEGIN:

My Lords, it is my pleasure to be able to report that the xenos incursion previously reported has been driven into retreat.  The situation was not promising until the last 17 days (terran) when almost overnight the advance appeared to stall and has since been in continuous recession.

Astropathic communion has been suppressed until recent days, suspected due to the presence of a number of Tyranis Zoanthropus genus in the vicinity of Astrophathic Chorus base.  In addition, reports indicated the presence of Tyranis Tyrant and Carnifexis genus as well as numerous smaller specimens of the Hormagaunt, Termagant and Genestealer strains.

Explanation for the sudden change was difficult to ascertain although the following report may shed some light upon its cause.  As we have reclaimed sections of Hive Okess, cleansing them of the xeno's taint, we have been able to collect reports from various hive lurkers and pockets of isolated PDF that were holding out.  Of course, these individuals have also been cleansed of potential taint, welcoming the Emperors mercy.

It is my belief that the intervention of a previously unknown Astrates taskforce may have played a significant role in the repulsion of the Tyranid infestation.  I was unaware of the presence of any Astartes forces within the sub-sector, and your previous reports had suggested that reinforcements were not available.  I include excerpts and transcriptions of testimony obtained (some willingly) from witnesses.

We were outnumbered, there was nothing we could do to stem the tide, we just hoped we could hold out long enough to make a difference.  We'd been repulsing wave after wave of the smaller types, being forced into progressively smaller sub-sections of the hive block.  That was when Trooper Grath started to lose it.  Mumbling about them coming, raving, decrying our chances.  I guess he had something of the taint in him, must have been missed in the screening.  It was a warning although we didn't realise it. Eventually we had to end it for his and our benefit, but it was too late, I guess he'd acted like a beacon, they were coming.

This time it wasn't just the little ones, there were huge creatures, constructs of flesh and shell, like living tanks. Nothing we had could even touch them, let alone have a chance of doing any significant damage.  I rallied the men as best I could, but we knew that was the end.
        -- Sgt. R. Sancar, 4th 


The following are a collection of statements from various troopers, compiled and sorted to an approximation of chronological order:

It was as if they appeared from nowhere, one second we are facing a horde of approaching xeno filth, next second there are marines crashing to the ground all around us and you couldn't hear anything over the whine of the turbines in their jump pack.

They didn't appear like the Astartes you see in the picts and vids, something subtly wrong about them.  It was their armour I think, it just didn't look like the stuff you normally see, I mean, look at this pict I captured, it just looks strange.

Pict capture
(original source has been confiscated and consigned as per standard containment protocol)

There were at least two squads at the start, and some kind of commander, he was definitely directing things.  The all of a sudden, from up on high, thundering cannons from a giant form, much bigger than a standard sentinel.  I have no idea where they came from, they were like ghosts.

Thursday 25 April 2013

206: A little more progress on Squad 5

I was hoping to bring you the completed squad today, but I'm just that little behind schedule.  I've still got squad markings, battle damage and weathering to apply, all very small amounts of paint, but take a heck of a long time.  As such, its a bit of a cheat post today, but all I have to give you is further progress with Squad 5 and the completed highlighting.


The full 5 man squad, with a mix of jump packs and regular packs.  I think the 2nd model from the right has probably my favourite pose so far.

Here you can see a comparison shot of one of the "completed" marines, and next to him is part of the second half of Squad 2 that has simply been base coated.  I picked these two as they have similar poses and weapons which make a good comparison.

Next post I promise to bring you the squad all finished.

I also have a bit of a question.  For a while now I've been thinking of little changes that I would love to trial in games of 40K.  A skirmish version, and some alterations to the allies chart, little variations a bit like the Wulfen I tried to invent before.  Would anyone out there be at all interested in seeing any of it?

Cheers - Andy

Thursday 18 April 2013

205: One Force Squad 5, 5 men almost done (5?)

Yep, that's all the 5's I could think of to fit into that post title.  Nice and apt that its post 205 to post up squad 5 (not the 5th squad as squad numbering is based on armour type), but anyway, 5!

Monday 15 April 2013

204: Going to Salute 2013

For the second year in a row, I'm off to Salute, the wargaming and miniatures tradeshow run by the South London Warlords.  Last years event was a real eye opener for me, seeing just how many different systems were out there, and discovering entire genres of gaming I hadn't known about until then.  In case you are interested, you can see some of the fantastic miniatures that were to be found in my posts from last year:  Salute1, Salute2 and Salute3.

Thursday 4 April 2013

203: Throne of Skulls - The Games

I'm afraid I got absolutely no pictures at Throne of Skulls the week before last, so I can't show you the games or my opponents armies.  I've tried to record brief summaries of the games more for my own records, and as an exercise in retrospection to see what I did right, wrong, and where I could have improved.

I want to start out by saying a very big thank you to all 5 of my opponents, each one was a fantastic person to play against, and I certainly enjoyed having them as opponents and I hope that they all enjoyed the games equally.  They were all very good players and every game was a good stretch for me and at no point was any of the games a walkover.

In the outlines below, all the description of placement is from the point of view of my table edge, I've done my best to give my opponents army lists, but any mistakes are mine from my memory, not from my opponents.  You can see my list in the post from last week.

Friday 29 March 2013

202: Throne of Skulls - Result!

Well last weekend I attended GW's Throne of Skulls up at Warhammer World with my Necrons, and I still can't quite believe it but I came away not only with a Sportsmanship Award (joint with 8 others all of whom had 3 of their 5 opponents vote them favourite opponent), but also managed to bring home Best Necron General (thanks to those same sportsmanship awards).


Thursday 21 March 2013

201: Throne of Skulls

This weekend I'm off to Throne of Skulls at Warhammer World.  This'll be my first Games Workshop run tournament, so it'll be a new experience if nothing else.  I've read all the hype and hate that goes along with this but I'm going to try and keep as open a mind as possible and just enjoy it for what it seems to be, an excuse to play 5 games over 2 days.

Thursday 14 March 2013

200!

Well, its my 200th post, can't quite believe it myself.

It's been not quite a year since I had my 100th post, and I've reached 200 so quickly thanks to resurrecting a lot of posts I lost from the past, and migrating posts over from an old blog I decided to retire.  

The total page views for my blog has smashed through 46,000, with Where's Wally getting picked up by Faeit 212 finally toppling the spike I got from attending the first Blog Wars tournament.  That page alone has almost 3000 views!



Items of note in terms of progress for me and my hobby since my 100th post include visiting Salute (1, 2, 3), the birth of One Force and that armies development, taking part in the TFP: Badab Competition and almost winning, finally managing to return for Blog Wars 4 and the subsequent fateful visit to WHW. 

For the next 100 posts, well I'm definitely looking forward to the seeming imminent release of Tau (I may even resurrect my Iron Man themed Tau (and the inspiration for the name of this blog) that were the first things I painted on my return to the hobby, who knows.

Thursday 7 March 2013

Leman Russ (an unboxing)

What a legend, only primarch to have a tank named after him - what better accolade could the imperium bestow upon someone???  As a die-hard Space Wolves player and collector of course I have a soft spot for the big hairy brute, and I'll tell you what, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing what Forgeworld do when they get around to the Sacking of Tizca.

For some, I'm sure the abiding image of Leman Russ is the one below from the cover of Prospero Burns:


For me however, I think I'll always first think of the (very) old Leman Russ model that once was available from GW:

Thursday 28 February 2013

Dooooooomsday cannon

Hobby is currently very slow at the moment.  With the exception of a visit to WHW last week (which I'll blog about once I've managed to sort through the pics), I've not got much done.  Currently working on the Necrons to get them ready for Throne of Skulls in March.  On the bench right now is the Doomsday Ark.  Currently got the main body colour done, working on the metallic colours, and then it'll just be the green glow to finish it off.  Pictures of the work in progress below:



Afraid that's all I have for now, hopefully I'll have something a little more substantial for you soon.

Cheers - Andy

Thursday 14 February 2013

One Force Squad II: 5 complete

Finally, after faffing around for far too long I managed to get around to completing these guys.  Its all those last little things that I just can never bring myself to do.  Anyway, here they are:

All ready to go!

Thursday 7 February 2013

Wulfen in 6th?

A development in the saga of the Space Wolves that I sadly missed whileout of the hobby was the Eye of Terror campaign that GW ran during 3rd edition, and the addition of Wulfen and the 13th Company army list.

How cool are Wulfen, seriously.  Space Wolves that have lost their rag, been subsumed by the wolf within and now exist in a semi-feral state, chasing the forces of Chaos over 10,000 years and throughout the Eye of Terror.  You just know that Chaos is fleeing terrified that these guys might one day catch up and give them a serious kicking.

It helps of course that the models are some of the nicest GW ever made.

Thursday 31 January 2013

A StormRaven that doesn't look too bad

At least that's what I think...
We've all seen the jip that the StormRaven gets on the internets, along with most of GWs new marine kits and for a lot of them I'd probably have to agree.  Most of what I've seen recently has the potential to be really great, but somehow GW has managed to mess things up (that chin gun on the StormTalon for instance).  Well despite all this, I've loved the StormRaven for a while and this Christmas found one brand new for £41 in HobbyCraft so just couldn't pass it by (I justify it as a Christmas Present to myself).  Once I had it in my clutches, I sat down with the sprues and spent a while trying to figure out how I would alter it to make it look at least like it might be able to fly.

I don't like these bits (image from GW, used without permission)

Thursday 24 January 2013

There's warpstone in them thar hills

Played another game of Warhammer the other day. My Skaven against Charlie's Empire, around about 1000pts and a very narrative style of gaming as its the style of gaming that Charlie and I prefer to play.  As we went for such a narrative game, I thought it would be unfair to not at least write it up as a bit of a story.  So below, is my pitiful attempt.  It is a little longer than it would be otherwise, but hopefully it won't be too painful to read, and might even be enjoyable, its certainly been a stretch to write it, who'd have thought writing fiction was so difficult ;)  I'll also point out that the point of
"Finished, finished, finished now it is. Yes, yes, very finished, see, lots of rats for power, lots of new mechs to make it go." 
"You say its finished, Rat-k, but you said the same last time and I lost a whole clan to this whirling contraption, and what did it do for me, nothing.  Yet you go by the name No-risk, I hardly think that's right now is it?" 
Skrakit wrinkled his snout at the stench that filled the cavern, the usual ozone tang of any skyre contraption, with the added mix of singed hair from Rat-k's engineering assistants that were too careless when installing the warpstone needed to power the newly repaired Doomwheel.  In fact, the whole assembly was physically shivering as little runnels of green warp-lightning ran along any metallic surface, regularly earthing themselves against the walls and floor of the cavern.   Skrakit leaned in to inspect the pilots seat and one of the emitters on the machine. 
"Not so close my Lord, no, not so close.  Very delicate mechs, not want Lord hurting himself, no no, not hurting self..." 
Rat-k scampered across the workshop, trying to pull his lord away, still fawning all the time;  Skrakit swatted him away, using the momentum of the blow to lean his body a little to the side.  The little trickle of green glow that had been working along the emitter mechanism reached the warpstone crystal at its tip and grounded itself into the wall behind Skrakit.  The accompanying shrill squeel and the pungent odor of singed fur and roasted meat told Skrakit the assassin that had been creeping up from amongst Rat-k's assistants had taken the full force of the discharge, just as he'd intended.   Turning, Skrakit prodded the smoking body with his toe, already lost in thought.  With one last venomous glance at the Warlock Engineer, he stalked from the cavern muttering something about them not even trying anymore.

After the few survivors from the hamlet of Bernwood stumbled out of the woods of the foothills, a small force of Hochlanders under the command of Oskar Brandt (also) accompanied by a Sorceress march through the foothills to retake the hamlet and the tower that it serves.  (PS:  before anyone asks, no, we weren't playing in a sauna).

Thursday 17 January 2013

One Force Mk IV almost complete

These guys have managed to slip through the net of blogging, they're almost complete and with the brief exception of a guest appearance, they haven't starred on the blog.  This is a big shame as the kit is gorgeous and has been a real pleasure to work with and build.  When I started One Force, I would have probably placed the Mk IV armour at the bottom of my list of favourite alternate marques, but after staring at them for a while, I'm totally converted.

As ever you can see them posed both with their regular backpacks and with the MaxMini jump-packs.


Friday 4 January 2013

My 2013 Resolution - what I hope to do

Well, here it is, my plans for 2013 which if history is anything to go by, is as good as saying these are definitely the things that I won't manage to do...

  • Maintain 1 post minimum per week
This worked fantastically for me in 2012 to keep me hobbying and keep the turnover on this blog.  If I hadn't had this resolution, I think I would have let the blog languish at times, but as it was the most achievable of my goals, I kept at it.
  • Attend more tournaments/gaming weekends
Blog Wars was brilliant yet again, and I'd really like to make it to 5 & 6 this year.  I've already signed up to the March 40K Throne of Skulls so I'll get in more than last year (and any other previous year), and may also be attending Nerd Thunder 4 with the guys from the Beard Bunker so this year looks to be a more gaming year.  I'd also love to try out one of the Tempus Fugitives events so I'll try and get to one of those too this year.
  • Sell my spare stuff
I made a half hearted effort with this earlier this year but did nothing since, I'm definitely going to get rid of more of my random stuff that is cluttering my flat.  I have a large plastic spares/bits box that I would like to be the only place I have spares/bits by the end of this year, it'll either be in that, or painted and playable!
  • Complete my Skaven (at least all the models I own, and anything I buy)
I have some idea's for a Vampire Counts army that I'd like to try out, but I won't be doing that till I've completed the Skaven I already have.  That means about 50 Clanrats, and a load of character like models that need to be painted.
  • Beat last years painting points score
Pretty self explanatory, this year ended up better that I thought it would, but I'd love to get in more time painting in future.
  • Bring One Force to a playable 1750 points force minimum
I'm loving these guys, and because I'm magnetising them, hopefully by this point they'll not only be 1750 points of Blood Angels for instance, but also 1750 of regular Marines, Space Wolves and maybe even whatever is the new flavour of the month.

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