Leviathan (Part 3)

Hope everyones had a good christmas, I've been inactive the past few days eating far too much, drinking far too much and well you know how it goes!

But how with some time off it's time to crack on with the project again, the first result of that is some time spent on the Leviathan with a couple of extra panels added, some green-stuffing and plasti-card work, also turning my thoguhts towards the gun, just something to give an idea of the size I've got in mind.



I've also been working a little on my Blood Pact, and am working on the Malcador's weapons again. More updates soon.

Orks Drift

Orks Drift has been fought...

I only managed to grab a few pics, but a quick outline of the battle!

There were two zones of battle, Orks Drift itself and a clash of armour on another table, with Imperial reinforcemens trying to break through to the Drift. The Imperial Guard were in the center of a large board, with Orks able to come on from either side of them and upto about 12" from the guard deployment zone on the flanks.



The Imperial actually outnumbered the Orks significantly (lesson learnt we need more Ork players! Hopefully the new codex will help with this!), however it was'nt nearly so straight forward the Orks all benefitted from Without Number and Bodies Over Bullets as with the Apocolypse Tyranid Endless Swarm Datafax. For those not familiar with this it basicly means if an Ork unit was destroyed it came back in the following Ork turn, while when shooting at the Orks if a shooting unit rolled 5 or more 6's to hit, that shooting was discounted as the shooters run out of ammunition! Add to that numerous 'Waaaghhhs!' (and being a GW Store these were rather loud!)

The mission luckily was simple - have Guardsmen alive in the Drift defences 6 hours from the start of the game...

For the first couple of hours the Imperials held the Orks off well, keeping them from the barricades.



But not long after the brief lunch break they made it to the barricades engaging the Guard, somewhat weakened by shooting, in combat.



At this point, with a couple of hours to go the Imperial Armour successful on the other table broke through, giving the guard some much needed reinforcement - but by now the Orks aided by local Ork personalities the Waaggghh Team who revealed themselves in the middle of the Guard lines (engaging and killing Captain Caine and his Command Squad - disaster!) were well and truly pushing the Guard back.



And if that was'nt enough, with only one hour to go (a couple of turns to each side as it turned out), the GW Exeter Staff brought on nothing less then an Ork Stompa! (Okay you may look at the picture and scoff at it, but I take my hat off to the Manager Dan who knocked this thing together for around £10/$20, going from plastic bucket to operational monster in little under an hour - obviously he's a Mekboy!) It proceaded to make its presense felt (as did an Orky Baneblade as it ripped giant holes in what was left of the Imperial Guard lines.



However as the last turn finally came despite hideous losses (almost 300 Praetorians wiped out) including that of the Regimental Standard the Imperial Guard had held on as Men of Harlech played in the background (no really lol), small squad sized units, some Roughriders and even couple of tanks still fought on and with that came victory - even if we'd not have survived another turn!

Was an excellent day, an excellent game, and a real reminder how great it is to just let loose with a big themed game from time to time! If you've got the space, and the players do stop playing those 1500pt etc standard games now an again and just have a blast, it does'nt matter if its fair, as long as you have fun!

Finally just before I sign off for now - an actual project update to follow tommorrow - a quick thankyou to everyone who took part and the staff at GW Exeter, was a great game, whats next then!?!!

Orks Drift - The Poor Bloody Infantry

Ah finally, so where have I been? Stripping. Um Yeah.



I've spent the past week or so stripping all my old models and those which I bought second hand and hav'nt used before of which this is the bulk, I used Acetone free nail varnish remover which really did the job with only a 24hours soak and a quick scrub (or even wash in some cases!). Then cleaning em up, finding and getting rid of all those annoying mold lines etc and finally basing. I've also since textured the bases and am in the process of undercoating them all.

The reason is of course the previously mentioned Orks Drift game which is this Saturday (22nd December) at GW Exeter, it's an all day event starting 10:30 so if your local show your face! The basis will be fought over two tables, the first will be the Guard Infantry (with the Praetorians at the center, lead by one Captain Caine) trying to hold off the Orks all day - the Orks will have sustained assault! The second table will likely have Imperial Armour rushing to reinforce the main table, trying to break through. It should be a blast!

Tutorial - Praetorian Plasma Gunner

Just a quick and very simple tutorial this time, there are several methods of creating convincing Praetorian Plasma Guns, at it's most complex you can remove a models lasgun and replace it with a plastic or metal Plasma Gun, at its simplist you can as I do use a plasma pistol (I use Imperial as it's the one I have available, a Chaos version works too however).

This conversion can potentially be done with a Lasgun, however I prefer to work from a Meltagun, though it makes for a larger weapon I feel it's appropriate for such a piece of kit.



I firstly snip the barrel, then making a horizontal cut along the seem of the weapon to the point where the ridge on the upper surface begins before making the vertical cut.



Next I prepare the pistol, firstly snipping the hand away cutting at an angle from the base of the grip upwards on both sides with a pair of snippers, then removing the resulting prism - alternatively a sharp scapel can be used to slice the hand away neatly including the trigger but leaving the small flask and it's mounting. The small detail on the right rear of the pistol is then removed before snipping or slicing the rear portion of the pistol off neatly where the sloping surface reaches the top.



You should now find the two components will slot together fairly neatly and can be glued in placed, if however the surfaces are not level ensure they are, center the weapon as best you can (there is a slight overhang as the Plasma Pistol is a fraction larger) making sure when glued it dries upright and not at an angle.



Finally you'll probably need a little putty to fill gaps, smoothing them over and then probably trimming a little once dry, the picture below gives an idea as to where the putty will likely be needed though I must emphasise this has not yet been trimmed and tidied. Once that is done, your ready to undercoat and paint, job done!

Orks Drift - Father Witt (Part 1)

With Captain Caine complete comes the second of the two characters I'm creating (for now) for the Orks Drift scenario to be played out at GW Exeter on the 22nd of December.

Father Witt is the mad priest who in Zulu goes around boosting morale with heartu cries of 'Your all going to die!'... hmmm. I was'nt entirely sure how to model him at first, the classic pastor that the fellow actually was at Rourkes Drift, something closer to the portrayal in Zulu? Or perhaps a Imperial nut? Well in the end I'm going Imperial Nut, with a touch of the pastor in him so for example he'll be wearing largely black, it'll make for something not so exciting as Caine, but I'm hoping for a good result.

After a couple of experiments I've settled on using one of the new Empire Flagellants as a base (handy as I wanted some for another project soon to take off), not nearly as much work as Caine. For a weapon nothing is more suitable for a mad priest then an Eviscreator, a two handed chainsword with some serious stopping power, current models have always been a tad small for how I picture such a weapon - so how about a Catachan Sentinels close combat attachment? Oh yes. That'll do!

Orks Drift - Captain Caine