Altdorf...To Arms !

Having started an Empire Army several weeks ago, my successful ebay bid (the best part of 1250 points worth of assorted spearmen, knights and the like) turned up over the weekend so I can join in the fun..puff.. puff...must paint. Have to say a big shout out to Daniel Eatch. Not only was the army superbly put together and 'cleaned' but he threw in a whole load of 'spare sprues' of which there were so many, I thought the picture of a completed army on Ebay was a fake and I'd been sent an army to build (check the arrival picks)

This is going to be a tough order for me. If I'm honest, I'm probably the slowest painter of the group, on account of me being the least tidy and having to constantly touch areas up so this is going to be an insane challenge..not least of which is going to be due to the 1000 points choice list. Mind you, I also tend to lack discipline and pay more attention to interesting modelling ideas rather than the task in hand. There are a couple of pics of one completed and one work in progress to give you an idea as well as a snap of some completed Swordsmen to show the colour scheme. The new order "all hail the dip!" has helped a great deal and it really does save hours although you have to get your head around your models looking shocking before the liquid gold (brown) does it's stuff. Models in the pics are dipped so you'll get an idea of how it works on different colours.

Right...on with the 1000 point list:

Heroes

Captain with Kit - 89 pts

Battle Wizard (L2) with Kit - 135 pts

Core

15 Swordsmen with upgrades - 115 pts

15 Spearmen with upgrades - 91 pts

10 Handgunners - 80 pts

5 Knights with upgrades, steel standard - 175 pts

Special

10 Greatswords with upgrades - 130 pts

1 x Mortar - 75 pts

Rare

Hellblaster Volley Gun - 110 pts

Great list and bang on the 1000 points. Only problem is..thats 47 models to paint.....eek..

Pics.....

Hurrah for Zharr-Naggrund!

Here we go with my first ever post, and, as usual, I'm making a rod for my own back.

"Hello again", says I; "Tale of # gamers, eh? Can I join in? For old times' sake?". So far, so good. Yes, I'm a pretty slow painter, but surely I can manage £25 worth of models a month? Then the hammer falls. "I'll make up a Chaos Dwarf force!" Doh!

Still, let's give this a shot. The last known army list for Chaos Dwarves is in the Ravening Hordes booklet, which dates back around 10 years or so ago. Likewise, the original CD minis (with big hats) have not been updated in even longer. So, I guess I'm going to have to use the good old "counts as" process with the goodie-two-shoes Dwarven list, and convert all of the models from the current range.

So, I don't have the book just yet, but I intend for my force to include:

Chaos Dwarf Warriors (Dwarf Warriors)
Chaos Dwarf Blunderbusses (Dwarf Thunderers)
Leader (Thane/Runesmith)
Death Rocket (Not sure about the nearest equivalent here. Either a Bolt Thrower or Organ Gun)
Chaos Dwarf Immortals (Ironbreakers)

If points allow, I will try to squeeze in a few of the other distinctive Chaos Dwarf Units, such as Bull Centaurs and Hobgoblins using Dogs of War unit rules, but there's no point in worrying about them just yet...

Well, I guess I'd better feed the slaves in preparation for this momentous task.

Cheers,

Big Papa

5th Edition Marauders

With the 5th Edition of 40k only weeks away I have been giving some thought to my Marauder Chapter Marines. I have a reasonable selection of units to choose from and have always favoured Tactical squads so no immediate problem with taking 'Troop' choices to secure objectives.

However the new Marine Codex is being issued in October so I don't want to make any significant changes, in the form of new models and painting, until the rumours of the new book are confirmed or denied. So, with this in mind I have devised a 1500 point force to enable me to learn the 5th edition. I intend to play this force unchanged until the new Codex release.

Marine Captain – Bike – Combi Plasmagun
Terminator Squad 5 Terminators - Assault Cannon - Heavy Flamer
Tactical Squad 1 Vet Sgt - Power Fist, 9 marines - Heavy Bolter and Flamer - Rhino
Tactical Squad 2 Vet Sgt - Power Fist, 9 marines - Lascannon and Meltagun - Rhino
Tactical Squad 3 Sgt - 9 marines - Plasma Cannon and Plasmagun – Rhino
Bike Squadron 4 Bikes – Flamer
Assault Squad 5 Jump Pack Marines – Flamer
Predator Destructor

I still need to finish building and paint these figures but I've had plans to do these for a while. I'll add pictures of the new units and the complete force over the next couple of weeks.

Pleasure & Pain

With 5th edition not far away my Slaaneshi Marines are back on the painting table in preparation.

As ive finally finished my 2nd Rhino I thought it best to show where im up to so far.

Next on the agenda is 10 Possessed, 20 Daemonnettes and a Chaos Lord giving me 1500pts to get used to the new rules.

Updates on my progress on and off the battlefield to follow.

A Red Letter Day

A break in weather meant I could get a bit of cheeky spraying in!

Used the Army Painter "red" spray, its good!

Now if I could only get images of Blood Angel and Khorne Berzerker armies out of my head........

Introducing...

... Big Papa

A long lost member of the Lone Wolves who moved to pastures new has emerged from the history books to rejoin his comrades

Although living about 300 miles from the rest of the Wolves, he'll still be taking part in what now going to be the tale of 7 gamers and no doubt join us in the occasional battle when visiting.

Welcome back!

Adventures in Dipland

Today was going to be a day where I finally give "The Dip" a go and blog the process for all to see.
Unfortunately it looks like the weather and visitors are going to conspire to stop this!
I'll do what I can though, check photo of prepared Blood letters!
If it stops raining I may get a chance to spray them!

Khemri - Tale of .....

Despite me loving to surprise everyone with wargear and magic items in the spirit of club support i'll post my 1k list.
Heroes (No surprises here):
1 Tomb Prince in a chariot
1 Liche Priest on a steed
Core:
5 Skeleton Light Horse
5 Skeleton Light Horse
5 Skeleton Light Horse
Special:
1 Tomb Scorpion
3 Chariots
Rare:
1 Bone Giant

That's a poultry 22 models to paint. Do we really need 4 months? We sure do.

Chaplain

I've had twenty Terminators for my Marauder chapter of Adeptus Astartes built and painted for some time. All they needed to be finished are a Chaplain and a Librarian. Both of these figures have been built and undercoated for months and have been mocking me from the figure cabinet. All I needed was a bit of uninterrupted time and one of them was going to get done.

With an enforced holiday, a box of the new washes and an idea I wanted to steal I was ready to get the beardiest Marine heroes completed.

I'm happy with the result, the worn effect of the armour doesn't show very well in the photos and my over talented wife said "What are you going to do with the black bits?" but it's come out the way I wanted it to. Not at all "Oh? It looks like you've just caught your brush on black parts of the model" which was her response to my explanation...

Nobody, dips a Dwarf!

Well that's not entirely true, with the exception of a Lord and a Standard Bearer we've dipped all 4000 points of the the little blighters.

Here are the latest units of Slayers and Thunderers. It just goes to show what can be achieved in the name of WYSIWYG...and a rainy Saturday afternoon.

At Least I've got me Elf

The toil of 6 six gamers will see me having a go at the High Elves.
They've been low down the "to do" list for a long time but with the Zed man jumping on the Dark Kin I had to show him that light is right!

Don't have the book yet but the list will be a little like this:

Elves with spears
Elves with bows
Elves with horses
Elves with BIG bows
Elf Heroes with spears, bows and horses.

Oh and the much worried abour colour scheme will be turquoise and white, like a stormy tropical sea!

Rats!! Rats!! Rats!!

Just to keep you all happy I'm going to go with my Skaven for the Tale of X Gamers, with that in mind here's my quick army list. Comes to a total of 995 pts.


Cheiftan x 1

Warlock Engineer x 1

Clan Rats x 29

Stormvermin x 24

Clanrat Slaves x 30

Warplock Jezzails x 5

Eternal Hatred

Despite a whole number of more sensible options I have decided to paint 1000 points of Dark Elves for the 'Tale of Six Gamers'. As the Army Book isn't available until mid July we'll all have to wait and see what force is selected.

Oh in case you didn't know Dark Elves hate everyone...

Cold Blooded

With the tale of four gamers with six people a few weeks away I have decided to be the first member to submit their 1000pts
With the Lizardmen Army Book due for review in 2009, it seems a perfect chance to get my already large force painted in time for a few new models that the new book will undoubtedly bring with it.

So here follows my 1000pts for the upcoming competition

1 lvl 2 Skink Shamen 100pts
1 Saurus Scar Veteran 85pts
16 Temple Guard with full command 323pts
15 Skinks with a Brave 95pts
15 Skinks with a Brave 95pts
3 Terradons 105pts
3 Salamanders 195pts

Total = 998pts

No More Proxying

It’s inevitable that you have to proxy models at some point. You have an idea about a new unit or vehicle or hero you want to try. You want to give it a couple of goes before you part with your hard earned money or gamble on a lucky purchase on eBay. That’s all fine but when it becomes the norm that every game starts with “This Trebuchet is an Orc rock lobba” or “this Night Goblin without any arms or a head is a level four shaman” then you’ve taken things too far! And so have we!

To try and turn the tide of “Can you guess what my army is?” I have spent this rainy Saturday afternoon adding 16 more Troll Slayers and 38, yes that’s right, Thunderers to the Club Dwarf Army. These poor fellows have been abused by Big Jon over the last few weeks and none of us have any idea what we are fighting ;o). So these additional figures should cover Big Jon's obbession with Slayers, Thunderers and War Machines with out any further confusion

All I can say is thank heavens for dipping ...

Painting Challenge

If you ever see a great idea then steal it has always been an adage. Well round here it is…

So we decided to have our own Tale of Four Gamers except there would be six of us. Big Jon wouldn’t be joining in as he pays other people to paint his stuff. So starting in August we’ll all be producing a 1000 point army either Fantasy or 40k, buying and painting £25 worth of models in a month.

The reason for this challenge? Mostly for fun but also to encourage some of us to finish painting an army, in some cases any army.

Mighty Empires Campaign Ends Suddenly

We started a Warhammer Fantasy Campaign two months ago when Binx presented his 2000 points Vampire Counts Army. He'd built and painted it in less than a month, a magnificent achievement, and it looked lovely too.

The Campaign Armies were:

Zed - Knights of Bretonnia
Lordybloke - Talabecland Empire
Binx - Dirty Vampires
Cortez - Squabbling Orcs
Big Jon - Dwaves of many cannon
Tomarse - Extreme Chaos Mortals

The VC were an unknown quantity and a rather bent looking army list had us all concerned about how we would manage to defeat this new evil. Quite easily is the answer. Binx and the VC went on to suffer massacre after massacre result. With only the Cortez's Orcs able to manage the same level of defeat.

Last nights game against Lordy's Empire forces were a close run thing and a super speed vampire with an 18" charge destroying a Volley gun (it never misfires, no really it hasn't) and a mortar before joining a bitter fight against the Empire General and his knights looked as though he would deliver Binx's first victory. Alas the Vampire Lord died in the bitter struggle and the army collapsed in the last turn of the game.

This gave Lordybloke enough points to win the campaign even though some of us haven't managed to challenge everyone.

A two week lull in gaming ensues as we get some building and painting done for 5th edition 40k and maybe a painting challenge...

Good bye 40k...

Sunday the 15th of June we decided to take a break from our WFB campaign and see 40k, 4th edition, off in style with a game of Apocalypse. Recreating part of the battle for Armageddon with the Orks led by Ghazghkull and the Imperium by Yarrick.

For 7 hours in blazing sunshine we played and casualties were high on both sides. The demise of the imperial side came when the warhound titan detonated amongst the Guardsmen and Orks fighting at it's feet. Yarrick was killed by a scattering ball round from the Gargant. Not an honourable way to go...