Monday 11 March 2013

Tell me why? I don't like Mondays


This morning my first ever Forge World postal order arrived: two Death Guard Marine upgrade sets, twenty wonderfully disgusting sets of bodies and shoulder pads. Just holding them I felt inspired with ideas for conversions, characters and background, I couldn't wait to get started on them.
Except I can't start until Wednesday because, as with many hobby centres these days, Reading GW closes on Mondays and Tuesdays. Oh well, lesson learned: next time buy the plastic kit at the first opportunity after ordering the conversion set. In the mean time it gives me time to think about what to do with the conversion sets.

The first fourteen will go on making two units of seven Plague Marines. One more will go towards making a Plague Lord along with the vicious-looking power sword out of the new Raptors kit. The final five will go on Possessed which will also have the benefit of giving me two more batwinged backpacks. I already have three of these parts in my bits box so I can use them (and some other Possessed parts) to make some seriously mutated Warp Talons.

I've also gained a second set of Dark Vengeance Chaos Marines. I don't much rate the Chaos Lord as a Death Guard character (quite apart from the fact I'm already making one) but the Hulbrute fits well enough. I didn't get any Cultists in the exchange but I haven't painted the ones from my first set so they can go into the Death Guard army, if I add a couple of the small box sets available in stores I can even make the units fourteen-strong. Come to think of, if I get the plastic Aspiring Champion I can add him to the Chosen to make another seven man unit.

I'm bursting with ideas for this army. I want to make it a real production number, the sort of army you see in White Dwarf's Army Of The Month feature: Chaos Space Marines, Traitor Guard, Daemons, the lot. Conversions galore, as well, I've been making things straight out of the box for too long. My very first army was The Lost And The Damned and ever since I've felt the need to tweak things to add a little extra character.

Now I just have to wait until Wednesday to get started.

Wednesday 6 March 2013

Work In Progress

So the next Angels Of Absolution project is a Vindicator. No, I'm not subconsciously avoiding my Dark Vengeance models but I am trying to avoid the usual pattern I suffer with Space Marine armies. Usually I paint a character and maybe a couple of small units before buying and constructing a few more just before I lose interest. This time I'm trying something new.

I hope if I paint a couple of big things to get me started instead of the traditional Captain - Tactical Squad - Terminators combo I'll lock into the project and really make a go of it.

This Marine army will have a distinct purpose. As I've said it isn't my first and I want to break away from my habit of gravitating back to Space Marines. If I can make a go of this army then whenever I get a yen for Imperial power armour I can just add a unit or two to my Angels Of Vengeance and then get back to other projects.

Plus I need to show myself the method I used on the Grand Master can work on a larger scale.
Meanwhile on the Tomb Kings side of the table we have the other half of the Skeleton Warriors regiment, just to get the last of the easy models out of the way. I'll need to work out a new army list, though, as it occurs to me that I went over my allowance for Heroes. Thus finishing this Skeleton unit won't constitute quite half of my army.

Sunday 3 March 2013

Tomb Kings Time Attack end of week 1

(Soundtrack to this week's hobby: Eddie Izzard: Dress To Kill DVD, Ronnie Barker's Lines From My Grandfather's Forehead, The Goon Show: Foiled By President Fred and Doctor Who: The Companion Chronicles: The Anachronauts.)

I didn't get as much hobby done this week as I intended to, due in the main to having to prepare my flat for a house inspection but I made a little progress. I've also managed to drag my best friend Matt into this hobby challenge business as he now intends to finish a 1,000 points Daemons Of Chaos army over the next month, just as soon as he decides between Tzeentch and Slaanesh. Dave might be getting in on the act, as well, with a Warriors Of Chaos army.
My test skeleton (front rank far right), finished oh so long ago, now has nine little friends to keep him company. Ten models takes me a quarter of the way to my 1,000 points target. Okay, so they're the easiest models in the army but just finishing some models gives me a nice buzz of satisfaction after spending so long faffing around and not really getting anything done.

I took some advice from a friend and used Lahmian Medium as a matt varnish for the most of the models and 'Ardcoat on the shields to make the black spring out at the viewer. It doesn't come out too well in the photographs but its a nice effect. The Lahmian Medium worked perfectly: I've always preferred the effect of matt varnish but as anyone who has used Purity Seal when there's even a single molecule of moisture in the air it fogs faster than the Thames waterfront. These models I varnished at 3am on the last day of February with the heating off and they came out fine.
Speaking of getting things done these two giant rats have been sitting on my paint station for over a year. Not really relevant to anything but it was nice to get them out of the way.
Another model I've been meaning to finish for a while was my Dark Vengeance Chaos Lord. As you can see I've steered away from the traditional Night Lords lightning bolts, it takes a far better painter than me to make those look good. I tried and it just looked cartoony no matter what I did. The model doesn't suffer from it, with all that fine detail it doesn't need the extra embellishment. I must say that Warplock Bronze goes on a treat in just one coat in marked contrast to the golds I was using on the Tomb Kings.
Yes, I've changed my mind again. This started out as my Guardians Of The Covenant test model but after a few layers I just got so bored of all that metal and resprayed the thing. I might not really be intending to use this army in game but there's no point painting something you're not going to enjoy. By contrast, I had great fun painting it as an Angel Of Absolution. I think the bone armour came out really well, though the highlighting on the cape could certainly use some work.