Wednesday, 17 February 2010

Warlord Games ECW Parliamentarian Foote (Part 1)

And here we go, delving into the unknown!

I've now assembled the first sprue of my Parliamentarian Infantry from Warlord Games, the box set contains four sprues of models, one Command Sprue and three of infantry, as well as a further sprue of bases. They are advertised as allowing the modeller to create a 40 man regiment with a retail price of £18.00, which certainly makes them a good deal compaired too a comparable amount of GW plastics.

Each infantry sprue has 8 Muskteer and 5 Pike bodies with two basic pose variations for each (they are single piece Legs, Torso and Heads), the arms are for the most part seperate with three basic poses (Muskets giving fire, shouldered or at ease, Pikes charged, lowered or at ease), hats and helmets are seperate and there are a few other accessories such as feathers and swords. The result is that though you have plentiful troops there is comparatively little scope for variety in a unit.



The components are all nicely sculpted, and have a good amount of detail and go together well - the mold lines are fairly typical, but are with a few exceptions fairly easy to remove, only the feet provide any sort of headache.




The limited poses are acceptable for a regimented unit, my only real gripe is the headgear, there are too few of some examples (though Warlord do sell spares seperately), but more to the point some of them are simply too big and do not sit naturally on the head when you get close, it's a minor thing really, but it does bug me somewhat and detracts IMHO from what is otherwise a kit which is both nice in terms of quality and excellent value.

The question is how many models can you actually get from the kit, and how they look together as a whole, I'll find out soon as I'm about to start construction of the rest of the box, for now though, one sprue down.

Commission - Praetorian Officers & Sergeants (Part 1)

The Brief -

To convert some different Praetorian Officer and Sergeant models.

The Commission -

I've been asked to create a sample of alternative Praetorian Officers and Sergeants for a customer, with further work possible. This is to be a small batch, I've elected to do four seperate models - the customer may or may not want all of them, but I don't see this as a problem - I can always use them myself afterall!

I've selected a number of models/bits from my box of spares, one is starting to take shape already, the other three are roughly cut and ready to work upon. I've got a very clear idea of what I'm aiming for with each already which I'm pleased about as it's always nice to have an aim, so without further text, here are the victims of my snips thus far, sculpting will start shortly!

The first is already starting to take form.





And the other three, before...



and currently.

Monday, 15 February 2010

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 14)

Another quick update on the Praetorian Ogryns, I can't believe the number of post's I've made in the blog already this month - can't help but get the feeling next month will be quieter!

The Corporal is now finished bar his weapon.



Of the other two this one is furthest along, he'll be bare chested, which will present the greatest challenge once the arms arrive as I've very little experience in sculpting muscles and no background in anatomy - result I'm currently doing my research on the net.



Slightly further behind is the final Ogryn, he'll have a vest eventually, again I@m stuck until the guns arrive from the caster before much more progress can be made, I'm hoping to get as far as possible with both of these however.

Saturday, 13 February 2010

Commission - Vostroyan Nork Deddog (Part 6)

Well that's that, pending agreement by the customer the Vostroyan Nork Deddog is finished, and rather, okay very, pleased I am with him too!

I'll leave the pictures to do the talking, with first up a quick reminder of the original concept drawing.









Friday, 12 February 2010

Nurgle Obliterators (Part 2)

Just a litte update, with so many various project on now my Nurgle CSM force is a bit more on the back seat, however I have finished working on the torso's of the Obliterator's as far as sculpting goes, the pics are slightly better then before but I think it won't really become quite clear how the changes will blend in until I paint them - and I will finish the Plague Marines themselves first.





Thursday, 11 February 2010

Vulcan to the Sky

I would'nt normally post something like this, and it's probably of more interest to British readers but as a one off I figure it can't hurt and might just raise a bit of awareness about it - even if that draws in one more donation it'll be worth it.

I was fortunate enough to get to see this marvelous aircraft in action at the Dawlish Airshow in Devon last summer where it spent a good 20minutes circling the area at low level, including some formation flying with the RAF's Red Arrows display team, I can honestly say I've never seen quite such a spectacle.

It seem's however with the current economic downturn, that they as with many other charities are having trouble keeping funding comming in. There are of course many more worthy causes both humanitarian and for animals but the Avro Vulcan is a piece of national aviation heritidge and should they go into administration it's almost a given that it may not fly again and quite possible that the aircraft may well end up going abroad, something which would be a real shame IMHO.

Vulcan to the Sky Trust

And yet something else...

Alongside the English Civil War force - which will be replacing my Space Marines as is only right an proper my Warhammer Fantasy army is also moving to the fore.

As mentioned previously I did have a Fantasy Orc & Goblin army - which I quickly fell out of love with - instead it was sold and replaced with a motely collection of Warriors of Chaos. I quickly settled on doing an all mounted army as the idea appealed to me greatly, even more so when a list which was written for me by one of my club mates proved... somewhat nasty.

Here is the force in full at present, as you can see there are a few unassembled models, several assembled (mostly with whole tubes of glue), a few undercoated and some Knights in varying degrees of ... well something. I'm going to focus on one unit at a time for the moment, they won't be getting a really time consuming paint job, I'm hoping to do this mostly with washes as it's a functional army rather then a really nicely painted one.



The first unit which I'll be working on is this unit of Marauder Horsemen who will be equipped with a Musician, Light Armour, Spears and Throwing Spears - with the Mark of Slaanesh.

Sunday, 7 February 2010

And now for something completely different...

Event Report - PAW Day 2

And thats that for another month, home and fed from the second day of PAW having met a few more faces included the good Admiral Drax (hello!), next up the 40k GT Grand Final next month - but for now here's a round of today's games.

Game 1 - Pitched Battle - Annilations

vs. Tyranids (New Codex) inc. Hive Tyrant, 1x Termagants, 1x Hormaguants, 1xGargoyles, 2x Zoanthropes, 1x Genestealers with Broodlord, 1x Ymgarl Genestealers, Tervigon, The Parasite of Mortrex, Venomthrope, Trygon

My first encounter with the new Tyranids, on the face of it I was'nt too scared at first, pitched battle and annilation suited me just fine for this mission, especially when I took first turn. I deployed with a refused flank yet again with a layered defence with a leading screen of two merged infantry squads. His deployment saw the Tyranid, Zoanthropes and Hormaguants on my left, the rest on my right - including the Genestealers.

Turn one saw the Tyrant take a couple of wounds, and nearly all the Genestealers - he pushed forward, the Roughriders on my left were taken down by the Zoanthropes as I failed to get them into good cover, and the remaining Genestealers assaulted and wiped out an Infantry Squad screening my Leman Russ. I emptied a fair bit of firepower into the remaining Stealers, reducing the unit to just the Broodlord, I also began targetting the Gargoyles and wiped out the Termagants, the Roughriders on my right charged in only to be beaten off by the Parasite cleaving a lone Gargoyle still which promptly moved off out of sight.

The Broodlord badly damaged the Leman Russ while a newly created unit of Gaunts, supported by the Parasite and some Rippers created by the demise of the Roughriders pushed forward, enaging my screening infantry... cutting them down and creating yet more Rippers... my opponent actually ran out of models for them.

I was now facing down something like 20 swarms, the Ymgarl Genestealers, Gaunts, Parasite and well, it did'nt look good. The Veterans dismounted to try an tackle the Genestealers supported by my Command Squads, my depleated infantry and Demolisher took on the Rippers meanwhile dealing with a surprising number of them - of course the Parasite then managed to create more assault my rear most infantry though they finally brought it down in combat a turn later, the Russ with it's remaining funcitional Heavy Bolters finished off the Venomthrope - just as the Trygon arrived with it's mind set on the Leman Russ. Grabbed another kill point taking out the last Gargoyle which was hiding the other side of the board, the Mortars having been accounted for by the Broodlord.

At this point the game drew to an end due to running out of time with 12 Kills Points to my 6 it was a bit of a massacre, another turn and I'd probably only have had the Valkyrie left.

I've got to say it was a fantastic game though, one of the most enjoyable I've had in a while, a classic bloody encounter between 'nids and Guard. I've got a great deal of respect for the new list, it's nasty, but based on that encounter not as overpowered as many seem to speculate. It's also got some really cool things, he really played like much of the fiction reads in my mind for a cinematic game.

Result - Loss - 6KPs to 12KPs

Game 2 - Pitched Battle - Sieze Ground - 5 Objectives

vs. Tyranids (Old Codex) inc. Tyrant with 2 Tyrant Guard, 6 Warriors, 5 Carnifex, 3xTermagant units with without number, 3 Zoanthropes

Again I was lucky enough to get first turn, I deployed in full in my quarter, while my opponent elected to deploy nothing denying me two turns of shooting, though this did give me the opportunity to reorientate my line to face the fact that he'd now be comming from my left and to get infantry moved onto the central and far right objective giving me an early advantage.

In an early scare a Spore Mine Bombardment almost cost me my Russ, but poor reserve rolls left me facing the Zoanthropes and a pair of Gaunt units, in my turn I brought down a number of Gaunts breaking the screen he placed between the Zonthropes and a unit of a Roughriders which proceeded in to bring down one in combat, another fell to my guns and in an unparrelled display of accurate shooting my Mortar Squad account for all but one of the second unit having achieved very little so far in the weekend. The Gaunts of course came back, again and again, though throughout the game I managed to keep them at bay, the third unit going to ground on an objective in the far right corner. The Carnifex and Tyrant eventually arrived, advanced and began blowing holes in my line - albeit slowly thanks to plentiful cover. I brought the remaining Zoanthrope down and knocked two of the Carnifex down to a single wound before finishing one off in assault with my Veterans as they fought to gain a foothold on one objective in his deployment zone on my left. They were quickly brought down in return by two more Carnifex however. This still left me in a game winning position but for one final roll of the dice as the Tyrant held on shooting and ran into a contesting position on the central objective, resulting in a draw as the game came to an end.

I really could'nt call how the game might have progressed had it gone on - I'd definately not have been able to hold the central objective against the thus undamaged Tyrant and Guard, however I think I'd have been able to deny him of the left hand objective with another turn of firepower on the Gaunts which would have left me on two and him one, but who knows? It was a good game and a suitable fairwell to the old codex.

Result - Draw - Two Objectives to Two Objectives

Game 3 - Spearhead - Capture & Control

vs. Sister of Battle inc. Cannoness on Foot, Jump Pack Cannoess, 4x Battle Sister Squads in Rhino's, 2x Exorcist's, 1xSeraphim Squad

The finally game saw something a little unusual - I was playing my own army! One of my club mates is currently using my Sisters of Battle which I took to the 2008 UK GT, giving me a slight advantage in knowing the army well, on the other hand the terrain leant well to the Sisters, it was an urban zone with several large ruins which effectively blocked my lines of fire while the plentiful cover offered no protection from the Sisters large amount of Flamers. I deployed around a central ruin in my deployment zone the Veterans in the Valk outflanking, while the Sisters deployed with one unit on his base supported by it's Rhino and an Exorcist and the remaining sisters on my right - the Seraphim and Jump Canoness remained in reserve.

I was yet again lucky enough to get first turn though I was unable to draw line of sight to anything except a disemarked Sister unit on his base and their Rhino, these I started to plug at killing a couple of Sisters and Immobilising the Rhino, the Exorcist's returned fire but it was ineffectual as the remaining three Rhino rolled forwards popping smoke.

The arrival of the Veterans saw one of the Exorcist's explode, while Lascannon fire stripped the other of it's armament, I was unable to do more then shake any of the other Rhino's though managed to reduce the Sisters on his base to just one model. The Sisters now attacked, two squads annilating my front Infantry units with Flamer fire - I was able to counter these though, one squad was reduced to two sisters, with no Sister Superior and ran, the other was badly mauled and then sent running my a Roughrider charge though Spirit of the Martyr saved them from heavier casualties.

One Rhino and the weaponless Exorcist now began a Tankshocking spree, squad after squad was forced to move with more then a couple breaking and running off the table, the last intact sister squad meanwhile disembarked wiping out another squad while the newly arrived Seraphim chased the Valkyrie, dispite a severe lack of regular Infantry I was able to almost wipe out the newly arrived Sisters, Coloonel Gravis charging into combat alone and on a single wound cutting down the squad to just two before being knocked unconcious (no really he must have been!) by the nuns. At this point the two remaining Sisters were able to contest my objective while his was secure - a disaster on turn 5.

Thankfully the game went on though, I was able to take out the last two sisters by the skin of my teeth while my Veterans killed the last Sister on his base, the Rhino's then struck again, by now I must have immobilished them several times over but they kept kick starting! One now contested my objective running yet another unit off the board another breaking my Veterans - which is where the game ended. We both had units on his base, neither of them scoring, while mine was contested by a Rhino despite some daring close range shots with Battlecannon and Demolisher Cannon, immobilised, weaponless, but alive!

It was a great way to end the last game as we're old adversaries with many old war stories to tell, probably it was one of the best games we've had though!

Result - Draw - One Objective Contested

Almost the end!

I hope to add some pictures from the event later as Ben from 40k Online kindly offered to send me those he took (I'm told there are pictures from each of my games amongst them!).

I ended up placing 16th - which out of a field of just over 30 I've quite happy with and to top it off I picked up the best Army Award, well chuffed!

Saturday, 6 February 2010

Event Report - PAW Day 1

Just home from the first day of the PAW tournament, only two 40k Games in today with a further three to follow tommorrow using the Praetorian Imperial Guard list I posted previously.

Game 1 - Pitched Battle - Sieze Ground - 5 Objectives

vs. Eldar inc. Eldrad, Avatar, 3x Dire Avengers, 1x Banshee's, 1x Fire Dragons, 1x Striking Scorpians, 2x War Walkers, Wraith Lord.

Gaining first turn I elected to deploy almost in full, leaving a single Roughrightleft flank, with the Valkyie and Veterans and the Demolisher edging towards the left flank. The majority of the Eldar army deployed in the center in cover behind a bunker which blocked some line of site for my firebase, while Eldar, the Scorpians, Fire Dragons, Avatar and Wraithlord deployed to my left. This saw me holding two objectives to his one.

My initial salvo's were quite disappointing and the War Walkers took everything I coukd throw at them thanks to cover, however I did slowly begin to whittle down the central Dire Avengers and Banshee's sustaining little in the way of casulaties in return.

I then switched to targetting the Fire Dragons and Scorpians before they became a threat, the former were wiped out, the later reduced too just a handful of models. AT this point the Valkyrie was immobilised leaving it badly placed for shooting though helpfully for the Veterans too later disembark on the central objective. I used the demolisher to bait the Scorpians and Eldrad out of cover and into charge range og a newly arrived unit of Roughriders, they finished off the Scorpians leaving Eldrad - who chased them off in return. All the while a running gun battle ensued between the Dire Avengers and my advancing Infantry in the center which thanks to my numbers and the Command Squads timely arrival with Flamers I was able to win denying him the ability to hold more then one objective. The Avatar was finally brought down by weight of fire, but Eldrad nearly caused trouble in attempting to pull a unit off one of my deployment zone objectives with an assault, luckily he was just out of range as it ended up. So with troops on three objectives and only a single suriving Avenger on his the game ended is a solid vcitory.

Result - Win - Three Objectives to One Objective

Game 2 - Spearhead - Capture & Control

vs. Khorne Daemons inc. Herald on Bloodcrusher, 2x Bloodcrusher units, 3x Bloodletter units, 2x Soulgrinders

Again winning first turn I elected to play a full refused flank with Russ and Demolisher anchoring my flanks and a skirmish screen of a couple of squads to intercept any early assaulters - one Roughrider unit again went in reserve. In turn one two units of Bloodletters, one of the Bloodcrusher units with the Herald and a Soulgrinder arrived. One unit of Bloodletters dropped on his base, the rest arrived in threatening positions the Soulgrinder on my right the rest on my left. The Veterans promptly zipped up in the Valkyrie and blew the first Soulgrinder up, the rest of my firepower targetted the Bloodcrushers but only bringing 3 down leaving the Herald and two more, the Roughrider unit arrived from reserve this turn, but failed to bring down the remaining normal one though causing two welcome wounds on the Herald, they were wiped out in return. With no further demonic reinforcement the Bloodcrushers charged one of the skirmish units which was wiped out, but left them exposed while the Bloodletters advanced. In my turn I was able to finish off the Bloodcrushers, though again it took far more firepower then I'd expected leaving me unabel to quite finish off the Bloodletters who were in an excellent position to assault my stationary Leman Russ.

Reinforced by everything bar the remaining Soulgrinder this they did, but in an astonishing turn of luck managed to knock the battle cannon off and stun or shake it 7 times! At this point I finished off the first Bloodletter unit and let rip on the Bloodcrushers, but again failed badly bringing only half of them down, they were then able to assault and wipe out the Veterans who I had disembarked again to bring their meltaguns to bare - though I think this was still the right thing to do this decision to disemark may have cost me as it turned out. I was able to annilate the newly arrived Bloodcrushers and embarked a fresh infantry squad to take the fight to the daemon players objective, though I was now a turn behind where I would of liked in this respect - embarking them also opened up a corridor to my objective down which the last remaining Bloodcrusher charged, contesting my objective on turn 5 as the last Soulgrinder arrived right next to the battlecannonless Leman Russ annilating my Lascannon Heavy Weapons Squad.

Luckily the game went on, the Bloodcrusher finally went down to the last few shots I was able to muster into it, while the Soulgrinder proved inpervious, it was not in a position with which to contest my objective, there were still a good 6 or 7 Guard Squads in the way so it set about trying to bring them down, luckily my cover saves were good and it failed to do much harm in this or the following last turn. My Valkyrie and it's new squad made it too his objective in the last turn and managed to kill all but a few of the Bloodletters, but with no futher turns there was nothing I could do to finally shift them resulting in a draw.

I can't help but get the feeling had I not disembarked the Veterans and instead made a move for his objective then I would have been able to hold both objectives at the end of the game. Though looking back I still strangely think I made the right choice, getting the Bloodcrushers was more important as they could and but for one dice roll have won the game for my opponent in turn 5 as it turned out.

Result - Draw - One Objective each.

No pictures I'm afraid, forgot to get it out in the moment, though I'm hoping some will have been taken, I infact know some have as I had the pleasure of chatting to Aldramelech of BoLS and the Exmouth Imperials briefly and a few others who mentioned they follow the blog (hello!) - I missed out on the army photographing today also as the others were keen to head home and to be honest I'm pretty knacked (and hungry - that's probably something to do with the roast potatoes in the over though...nice smells!).

Friday, 5 February 2010

2010 Season Tourny List - 1500pts

4th Praetorian Foot 'The Lord Governor's Own'

HQ

Company Command Squad @85pts
inc. Power Weapon, Company Standard, Autocannon

TROOPS

Platoon Command Squad @55pts
inc. Autocannon, Plasma Gun
Infantry Squad @85pts
inc. Lascannon, Plasma Gun
Infantry Squad @85pts
inc. Lascannon, Plasma Gun
Infantry Squad @85pts
inc. Lascannon, Plasma Gun
Heavy Weapons Squad @105pts
inc. 3 Lascannon
Heavy Weapons Squad @60pts
inc. 3 Mortars

Platoon Command Squad @50pts
inc. 2 Flamers, Autocannon
Infantry Squad @65pts
inc. Grenade Launcher, Heavy Bolter
Infantry Squad @65pts
inc. Grenade Launcher, Heavy Bolter
Infantry Squad @65pts
inc. Grenade Launcher, Heavy Bolter

Veteran Squad @100pts
inc. 3 Meltaguns

FAST ATTACK

Valkyrie @130pts
inc. Multilaser, Missile Pods

Roughrider Squad @55pts
inc. 5 Roughriders

Roughrider Squad @55pts
inc. 5 Roughriders

HEAVY SUPPORT

Leman Russ @170pts
inc. Hull & Sponson Heavy Bolters

Leman Russ Demolisher @185pts
inc. Hull & Sponson Heavy Bolters

Total = 1500pts

Thursday, 4 February 2010

Colonel Gravis (Part 4)

Not got alot to say here really - except almost there!

I probably won't have time to post the finished model tommorrow with getting everything set for Saturday morning, so here is Colonel Gravis, just needs the base edged and some static grass.

And thinking about it some eye brows would'nt hurt either - opps!

Tuesday, 2 February 2010

Colonel Gravis (Part 3)

This weekend see's the PAW 2010 event taking place, this is the Plymouth Association of Wargamers annual event which includes many trade stands, demo games and of course tournaments.

For the first time I'm going along as part of the Exeter Inquisition team which is heading down there (look out for the shirts if your there!), and I'm using it as an excuse to role out the Praetorians again, possibly with a fun list which I'll be maybe taking to the GT final early next month.

There are some unique extra contest's within the tournament however including such acolades as Best Painted Army Commander ... that in mind I'm gonna try an roll out a new Army Command especially for PAW, and yes that means it's the return of Colonel Gravis!

I visited this character last year, basing it from the Forgeworld Death Korps of Krieg Commissaar drawing his sword. Originally it was going to be a simple headswap with the Cadian Sergeant model, I've however had a change of heart and while the conversion remains simple I'm using a different head selected from the WFB Empire Outriders. The head of course is slightly out of scale, but I really like it, and given the amount of time I've got to get this done I can't now be too choosey.



I'll be going with his Pith Helmet on the floor once I get to it, but first there is the minor matter of getting him painted within a week... ho hum.



I've started work on painting him, some of the base coating is done, but a long way to go. I've essentially got three evenings to finish the model, so it's a bit of a race against time - we'll see how it goes!

Monday, 1 February 2010

Commission - Praetorian Ogryn Squad (Part 13)

Yet another update on the Praetorian Ogryns.



Another one is finished bar his weapons, to add a bit more variety to the Squad I elected to give this one and one of the others as yet unfinished a Glengarry cap which proved rather simple to pull off, with his completion only the Corporal and the two Ogryns which will be holding their Ripper Guns two handed remain.



The Corporal just needs work finishing on his face to tidy the removal of the models normal facial hair and work on the Pith Helmet he's now gained, this means detailing the press moulded piece and the join where it meets the heads - I'm thinking he may gain Mutton Chops as well similarly to one of the earlier models.




The remaining two have the furthest to go, I'm rather stuck too do much to them until the Ripper Guns arrive from the caster, however I am making progress with them, the heads and headgear are my current target, one has a Pith Helmet the other a second Glengarry, once these are finished I'll finish up the trousers and boots.

Commission - Vostroyan Nork Deddog (Part 5)

Probably this will be the penultimate post charting the progress of the Vosytroyan Nork Deddog commission, as sculpting has to all intents an purposes been finished. I've added headgear and facial hair amongst other things.

The headgear was my own choice, without it the model is quite stocky, I think it improves the look overal - but it's a look which really needs the weapons to balance it out, a Khurki and a Ripper Gun. The Khurki is simmple a matter of shaping a new blade from plasti-card the Ripper Gun meanwhile is more challenging - after mucking around with bits I'm working around part of a plastic IG Autocannon - hopefully that'll be finsihed this week.

Hobby Fund (1st February)

The Hobby Fund is starting to come to life again, after a couple of months of near inactivity I've made a single sale and a couple of purchases this month, these being bits for my Nurgle CSM army (cost's reduced with the aid of my remaining voucher from Dark Sphere) and for casting services from TrooperPX for the Praetorian Ogryn Ripper Guns and some Praetorian Heads - news on these soon. I've also finally started paying off the Reaver Fund.

This month I've updated my For Sale list for the new year, and already this is starting to pay off with a number of transactions pending, this combined with the fact that completion of both the Praetorian Ogryns and the Vostroyan Nork Deddog being imminient will hopefully see the Reaver Fund paid off sooner then I'd expected - which leads me into breaking one of my New Years Hobby vows very shortly too - opps!

  • Starting Balance 1st January = £117.41

  • Sales in January = £12.00

  • Sales Fee's in January = -£0.61

  • Purchases in January = -£25.56

  • Misc Income/Outgoings = £0.00

  • Reaver Fund Repayment = -£60.00

  • Balance 1st February = £43.24


  • Reaver Fund Outstanding = £265.00