Nighthaunt slightly delayed by grandfather Nurgle

It has been way too quiet on my blog this past month and  I blame dear old grandfather Nurgle. He kindly blessed me with a bad case of the flue. As a self employed madman professional I had to switch to a slightly higher gear to catch up with unfinished work after that. Nurgle aside, I also spent way too much time testing out this newfangled Elite Dangerous game. I played this game rather fanatically in the eighties and now they seem to have added textured the wireframes (and added some other stuff*). Luckily Fallout 76 turns out to be a bits of wood and metal collection simulator, so I get to use my hobby time elsewhere**. That in turns mean I found the time to finish five Chainrasps. That makes the production of a new army official. Here's a group shot of the five with some other models that accidentally fall within the range (and mostly have nothing to do with the army I'm working on).

* a lot of other stuff...
** note to self: don't ever pre-order games again...

I had to re-glue the Spirit Hosts in the back (left) for the tenth or so time just to fit them into this picture. I don't think I'll be using them on a tabletop, it will cost me too much glue ;)

Trouble in Teufeltal session six, Steam Tank Rally

After fighting an Orc Shaman and freeing Otilla the group decided to take it up a notch. They planned to rescue the girls studying at DeBlanc's School for Ladies, recruit the wizard Dieter von Heinz and convince the knights at the White Wolf lodge to join the defense of Schluesselschloss.

Only now do I realize I missed a perfect chance to add some chariots to the spectacle.

Skaven Moulder Packmaster

As (hobby wise) I have been a bit pre-occupied with computer games lately, I did not get a chance to practice my painting skills. This weekend I suffered through the lousy ending of Kingdom Come: Deliverance and found myself with the time to start painting again, but where to start? A while back I was lucky enough to get some free left over miniatures from a friend at the local gaming club. One of them was this Skaven Packmaster from Clan Moulder.

That way!

Demonstrating wargaming at Spellenspektakel 2018

Eindhoven has a yearly recurring gaming convention called Spellenspektakel and this year we had a chance to attend with the Sword Brethren Eindhoven, our local wargaming club. As the audience sometimes wants to participate in games we split our gaming table, using one half for Warhammer 40K Kill Team and the other to play Age of Sigmar Skirmish. One of the wonderful moment was explaining the games to the smaller kids attending our table (with a few heart attacks along the way as the models got handled ;) ). In the end I think this look says it all: hooked for life.

Used with permission, (c) Judith Tielemans

A small update on lots of little projects

These past few weeks I've gotten a bit distracted by work and the ever dangerous time sinks called computer games. If you value your hobby time I suggest you skip The Long Dark and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. With Fallout 76 almost out I worry it'll be December before I get around to some serious painting again (probably not, I tend to get bored quickly and suddenly after too much screen hours). In the meantime I have found some idle moments to blast away with my airbrush, drop some superglue on unsuspecting models and take my brush to (ancient) metal. It's just that every time I start, there's a computer game calling my name...

I think painting dead(ish) skin is one of the most Zen experiences in the hobby.

Rebasing Skaven and Orcs for Age of Sigmar

For a game that was supposed to do away with bases, I seem te be rebasing very often since Age of Sigmar was released. To be honest it's mostly me, I just want my models to look right (and prefer round bases for that) and I don't mind trying out new things (like multiple models on a single base). The occasional rebasing is just part of the cost for this attitude. As it stands now, AoS plays better if each model has it's own little plastic bit of the world to stand on. Which brings me to my Skaven.

They may not have been expertly painted, but there's a lot of them with color on, so impressive enough for my tastes...

Orruk Boar Boyz arrive just in time for Orctober

For a second I was worried that I did not pay enough attention to orcs/orruks this Orctober (Orruktober?). But a quick scroll through the past month shows I need not have worried. I did complete Grom (honorary orc) and had some fun with orcs in Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th. Now all I needed to do to complete Orctober was to finish painting some actual Orruk/Orc/Ork (this is getting out of hand) models. Luckily two projects have been hiding on my painting station: Kaptin Badrukk and five Boarboys I picked up second hand a while back. This weekend I completed the Boarboys.

Oh what a day. What a lovely day! 

Trouble in Teufeltal session five, Otilla and the orc

The latest session of my Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th campaign started with a quick rectification from the player's side. They were not in the war room, but had already left Schluesselschloss, once again stealing the (dead) baron's horses. This time the guards told them to stop and dismount, but the group decided to ignore the fat layabouts and just kept on riding. With the early day's sun coming out they set off towards the baron's winery.

Not appearing in this scenario: goblins, although at some point the orcs did drop a stone thrower from great height.

Grom the Paunch arrives in the Mortal Realms

The Made To Order service Games Workshop has been running for the past year is both insidious and incredible. On the one hand it eats cash I should've kept in my account on the other it gives access to models I've always wanted at prices below e-bay crazy. An example of this is Grom the Paunch, the model I just finished painting.

Grom the Paunch is one portly psychopath.

Trouble in Teufeltal session four, Closed River

At the end of our previous gaming session the group was sailing barge De Vreugde downstream on the Teufel carrying wine, coffee and refugees. Unfortunately another barge tied with chains and ropes was blockading the river. Trolls where seen in the reeds on the left and right bank and the tied up barge was in the process of being looted by goblins. What could the party do?

This part of the adventure was going to feature a lot of river trolls. Luckily for the players most of them are going to be standing in the background, looking intimidating.

Veerhuis completed (Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part six)

Yesterday I managed to complete the paintwork on my veerhuis (ferry house). As per usual with an overtly documented project like this, I forgot to take in-between pictures as I got carried away painting. Maybe during the next project I'll remember to snap photos as I paint. I have more MDF bases lined up, so I might continue with this village. To start with this house, here's the end result. (For people interested in the construction see post 1, post 2 and post 3).

Now there is a lived in house ready to be fought over. 

Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part five - Building one (veerhuis) detailing

Yesterday I picked up a bushel of balsa wood (yes, I've decided that's the correct turn of phrase for it). So last night I could go in and finish the last two doors on my ferry house (veerhuis). Lets start with a 'final product' shot first. Yes there it is, ready to be primed.

Next step on this building will involve painting and flocking the whole thing. I can't wait to get started.

Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part four - Building one (veerhuis) making doors and windows

I left off work on my veerhuis (ferry house) building with gaping holes where windows and doors should be. After a bit of head scratching and designing I rejected the idea of putting in windows made from balsa wood. With all the lattices it would take too much time to do it. Luckily I found a bag of HO scale industrial windows in my bits box. I think I added it to an online order to hit the free shipping limit. Lets see what I can do with these...

The things I find in my bits box often manage to surprise me.

Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part three - Building one (veerhuis)

I had a bit of full social weekend so not much time to work on the fantasy terrain set. Having said that, I did get to spend a lovely Friday night and a bit of my Saturday morning working on the main part of the terrain set: buildings. To start with the ending (as usual). This is how far along I am right now.

Step one: start at the finish. 

Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part two - Trees

I got a bit carried away building scatter terrain for my new fantasy village this weekend. Part of this building fugue consisted of assembling bases to hold a bunch of model railroad trees in an interesting way. Yesterday I painted and flocked the bases. So without further ado, here's the end result.

It's not the glow of the runestone that gets you, its the chanting cultist hiding in the wood with guns that does that...

Starting a fresh fantasy terrain set part one - scatter terrain

Recently I played in the Dutch Bloodstorm AoS event and won the Sportsmanship Award. Besides making me smile it came with a certificate and a brand new gaming mat. This last bit has to be celebrated! So this weekend I started building a brand new terrain set to go with it. The 'I have to start scratch building some fantasy stuff'-itch that has been flaring up lately helped a lot. So to start with the ending I went ahead and made a bunch of scatter terrain. Here are some completed project pictures. WIP and a lot of 'how I did it' rambling will follow lower in this post.

The good, the bad and the orky...

Three more Fellwater Troggoths join my Greenskins

Ever since painting the old metal River Trolls Fellwater Troggoths I've been meaning to paint some of the new plastic ones as well. I like the way GW has managed to keep the mix between comical and evil on the faces of the newer models. Besides, when you're on the battlefield, you can't go wrong with pot bellied monsters that puke all over the enemy. Last week I got my hands on three second hand Troggoths.

Warning, troubled stomachs ahead!

Trouble in Teufeltal session three, Battlefield

We ended the last session with a group meeting on the battlements of Schluesselschloss. Smoke and fire filled the horizon, coming from the direction of Tallerhof. Wasn't that the direction the baron and his army took? Micky, Barnard, Gorgor and Kylael stood shoulder to shoulder, watching the flames. A fifth person joined them, but it took a while before he was noticed.

I am not saying orcs in chariots are on their way, but orcs in chariots are on their way...

Age of Sigmar Campaign - The quest for the Starforge (part three)

It took a bit long to get the report from battle two out of three done, but I think I more than make up for it with this one. Last Wednesday I fought the final battle between me Legion of Blood army and the Seraphon. Having lost the previous one I was the defender of a ruined castle and all I had to do was hold out until reinforcements arrived. You can see what happened next below, or click here to download a PDF version if you prefer.

Age of Sigmar Campaign - The quest for the Starforge (part two)

With all the holidays coming to a close I had a chance to play the second part of my three part Age of Sigmar campaign. The scenario for this one was The Barrowfields from Malign Sorcery (p. 54). My Legion of Blood had to perform as many rituals as possible to discover the location of a hidden Seraphon base. A risky endeavor as failure would point the Seraphon straight at my own home base. It was a nice clash, that due to time constraints had to be decided with a role-off...You can read how it all went down (more or less) in the comic below, also available as a PDF here.

Trouble in Teufeltal session two, Spiders everywhere!

We ended the previous Warhammer Fourth session with Tallerhof's priest Siegfried looking in shock at the extra-curricular activities of his initiate Barnard. To offer a distraction, Barnard quickly leapt up and started praying for the critically wounded halfling Micky. Sighing in disgust, the senior priest pushed aside his apprentice to show how a true man of faith asks Shallya for help. The halfling gasped as his ribs mended and his health returned instantly. Siegfried fell over, too tired to continue berating his apprentice.

I think the village of Tallerhof will have looked similar to this after the goblin raid.

Start of my freeguild: Demigryph Wolf Knights and an Ironweld Canon

For as long as I've played Warhammer I've wanted to have my very own army of fragile fools humans. The amount of painted models required, an incapability to paint skin tone and no idea where to start always stopped me. Well the skin tone bit got solved years ago by painting lots of skin tones. My output is rather high, so I don't feel too daunted by the prospect of painting a lot of miniatures. So all that stopped me is where to start. Well I solved that creatively. Here's a shot of part of the solution.

Now these are serious Knights of the (Summer) Wolf.

A classic Verminlord joins my pantheon

This has been a productive weekend as far as painting is concerned. First off I picked another project from the dead-pile and brought it to life. In this case it was my Verminlord. I bought, painted and fielded this model when it was brand new. A few months back I decided to strip and rebuild it. I located the old White Dwarf that had a paint scheme for him and planned to follow that. You never know what new skills you pick up along the way. Now I got around to it and here is the result.

Old shool daemon with a brand spanking new paint job.

Operation Dead-Pile in progress, Necromancer and Grave Guard finished

As far as I know every hobbyist has his own lead-pile or plastic heap: the collection of cool models that just had to be bought, but haven't been painted yet. Recently I started noticing a related phenomenon. I have an ever growing collection of models halfway through a paintjob that subsequently never got finished. Now the lead-pile will be there (and grow) forever, but I think this dead-pile can be rectified (and if not, I'll have a bunch more models painted so its one of those win-win type situations). I've called this new activity Operation Dead-Pile, mostly because I was really stumped for a title to this post (ssssh don't tell anyone). Between my regular painting (currently enjoying old Empire Freeguild models) I'll just grab a unit or model that is languishing with a basecoat and some colors blocked in and finish the thing of (quality be damned!)

The trick to finishing toy soldiers is occasionally just forcing yourself to sit down and do the work. Oh no, forced fun, life is hard ;)

Go for the eyes Boo! (and some ramblings about Warhammer Fest)

This Sunday I visited Warhammer Fest in Düsseldorf. I know, I should try to visit Games Day UK proper (or even better yet: BOYL), but Düsseldorf, Germany is just slightly over an hours' drive away and I think the UK is hidden somewhere in the mists of Avalon (hopefully this sounds slightly better then 'I'm too cheap to buy a plane ticket'). For those of you wondering what Warhammer Fest is all about: at its core it is a great excuse to gang up with some fellow hobbyists and spend a day shopping at the ultimate Games Workshop store.

A look from the balcony at Warhammer Fest, in front downstairs the outer edge of the ultimate Games Workshop, the display cases in the back feature Golden Daemon entries.

An ancient Chaos Sorcerer returns to the fray

Even though I like a lot of the new stuff, nothing compares to the truly great classic models. The ones made when the sculptors/designers clearly where on a roll. For me that includes a number of Waaargh! Orks (space) orcs and a large number of original Realm of Chaos champions (and other models from this line). I recently got my hands on this classic Chaos Sorcerer. As I am over-obsessing about Warhammer Fantasy 4th, questing through the Silver Tower with my wife and trying to keep a grip on work, kids and life in general, my painting output has gone down a bit. Still I managed to slap some colors on this guy.

Nothing quite beats the classic GW Chaos Champions. The few I own are set up at the edge of my painting table, primed and ready to be painted when inspiration strikes. 

Trouble in Teufeltal, a Warhammer Fantasy Campaign, session one

In my previous post I talked a bit about the new Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay ruleset based on a preview PDF. Using these rules I’ve set-up a campaign to play through and gathered a group to play it with. Last Friday we had a chance to get started. It was a night short on story, as building the characters with the group took up most of the evening, but big on fun. In this post I’ll run through a very brief overview of the story I've planned, give a summary of the game and end up with some of the things I learned gamemastering. 

Every adventure begins with a proper map (in this case inspired by a map in WFRP 3rd).

Quick sidenote: If any of my players are reading this, please stop as I’ll stuff these posts so full of spoilers it’ll ruin the game for you :).

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 4th edition, first look

This weekend I had a chance to play around with Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay fourth edition. So let’s take a quick step away from wargaming and add some roleplaying to the mix.  Around the end of last year/start of this year I gamemastered a first edition Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay Campaign (with the Character Pack and fully random characters). I started with Night of Blood and followed up with Fire in the Mountains. Aside from first edition I’ve also played (and gamemastered several 2^nd and 3^rd edition campaigns.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay is back, this time with a starter set and a collector's edition.

Age of Sigmar background primer: Soul Wars

Between the final installment of the Realmgate wars books and the release of the new edition of the Age of Sigmar core rules a lot of background has been added to the Mortal Realms. As my last series of background primers was/is rather popular it seems an apt time to bring everybody who has not quite gotten around to reading all the background up to speed.

Undead play a rather large role in the latest part of the story.

Grot Rock Lobbers and Aelf Loremaster step up to the plate

My vacation started this week and before leaving for exotic Denmark (no plans to visit Yorick) I had some serious time to paint. I took part of this time to clean out my entire hobbyzone (King Augeas' stables had nothing on it). The rest was spent with the Silver Tower Tzaangor (mentioned here) and a lot of models and projects lounging around on the shelves. The first of these to be finished were an Aelf Loremaster and this battery of Goblin Grot Rock Lobbers.

Buying second hand models with missing pieces lowers the price, give you the chance to be creative and makes a dent in the old bits box.

Finished painting Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower...

To be sure, I finished the models from Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower, I've only played the first few missions of the game so far. I bought the game on the third of July in 2016 (so it only took two years ;)). I played The Silver Tower back in 2016 and had a lot of fun with it and I did actually finish most of the models around then, except for one familiar and five Tzaangor...man I hate the Tzaangor. First though, a colorful group shot.

My Warhammer Quest: The Silver Tower miniatures all sport a coat two thin coats of paint.

Painting Malign Sorcery AoS models

The new AoS edition promised to iron out some oddities in the original ruleset (suicidal archers ignoring the monsters in front of them to shoot at some target in the back). And that's nice. But the true fun starts with the expansion of the magic rules. A system geared towards cinematic moments and dramatic play needs some things that go boom with panache. After briefly considering scratch building, I finally caved and bought the box. To be quite honest I was planning to buy the Core Rule Book and the new General's Handbook and leave it there, but I caved so badly in the store, my wallet is still crying... Anyway between too many other projects I've started painting the Malign Sorcery models and here is the first batch.

Presenting some persistent spell effects that remind me of the classic 'vortex of chaos' that is just begging to be reintroduced now.

Age of Sigmar Campaign - The quest for the Starforge (part one)

The release of a new edition of Age of Sigmar seemed like an excellent time to set-up a small scale campaign. After a bit of a chat at my local gaming club (Sword Brethren Eindhoven) I was warned to tone my ambitions down to make it work (excellent advice, I tend to get carried away). In the end I proposed running three linked scenario's one-on-one, leaving all the more complicated multiplayer campaign planning for some other time...

Oldhammer fun with the Nightmare Legion and metal zombies followed by a dash of heresy

With the influx of new old models I decided to shove all the other projects aside and have a little Oldhammer fun painting the Nightmare Legion. Now I remember the day my friends and I bought this box set (along with Ruglud's Armoured Orcs, Skarloc's Wood Elf Rangers and some other stuff) at the only store we knew that carried GW in quantity. It was about an hour's drive so visits where confined to birthdays and special occasions. After the others left Warhammer I took over their miniatures only to sell them on years later. Now they are back in my possession. I love this unit, particularly the helmet of the unit champion, and I've been dreaming about repainting them for quite a few years now. Here are the results.

Welcome back to my collection Nightmare Legion.

Quick paint stripping update

I don't think this'll be the most exciting post in the world, but it'll be short (so that's worth something (I hope)). At the start of this week I pulled a bunch of old metal models out of a week long soak in acetone and discovered the ancient paint job wouldn't budge. I ended up tossing the lot in Biostrip-20 (these guys should just get over it and start sponsoring this blog ;) ). That is the environmentally friendly (but don't let that fool you) and extremely efficient goop that safely strips paint of metal and plastic miniatures. This was the result of the acetone (warning re-used picture):

I don't know what paint was used on these models (I know some have very old (Coat d'Arms tub) GW paints). As you can see acetone did not make an impression on them.

Rebasing and painting Moonclan Grots

Of the many Warhammer Fantasy starter sets over the years I have to admit liking the Battle for Skull Pass (7th edition) the most. It featured an intersting Dwarf army including some fences and a cart for the miners. On the Goblin (Grot) side it had a tied up Trollslayer and a Shaman's hut. It had a lot of miniatures (32 Dwarves and a cannon and 73 Goblins). Nicest of all: it frequently appears on second hand sales for rather reasonable prices. I have at least two Battle for Skull Pass sets (and maybe three). When Age of Sigmar came along the Night Goblins turned into Moonclan Grots (and the Spider Riders became Spiderfang Grots) and basing was left up to the person with the paintbrush. To save time sticking models on the table I based my Moonclan Grots like this.

Multiple models on a base speeds up play, but turned out to become a nuisance around terrain.

Stormcast, Ministorum Priest and old lead or how to keep busy doing many things at once

Almost two weeks have come and gone without posting. Time flies when you're having fun. I've actually been kept rather busy with work by day and happily smearing paint on unsuspecting miniatures by night. I just regularly forget to take pictures. Well let's have a quick run-through of some of my projects right now.

Now this guy looks grim enough to fit in the distopia that is the grim darkness of Warhammer 40K.

My Imperial Knight Errant stomps onto the stage!

The part of Ferrous Maximus in my Crusaders for Knowledge army will be played by Remulus Ortyllis in his Knight Errant. I had to change the weaponry on my first Imperial Knight as going for cool trumps all considerations of following nice pictures in rulebooks (and rules). With the re-release of Renegade I got the chance to get a nice bit of scenery and two Imperial Knights at a splendid price. As I always wanted an Imperial Knight, getting two was too good a deal to skip. I have to admit I got a bit overexcited by having the kit and started building it between waiting for my Necromunda barricades to dry. Yesterday evening I put most of the finishing touches on the model (excepting a few small details I added this morning before breakfast (I may have gotten carried away by this project).

I know what you're thinking, did he fire at 100.000 gigawatts or 150.000 gigawatts. Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself.

Necromunda bulkheads finished (or: rusting plastic is amazing and therapeutic)

The announcement of a new Necromunda made me (almost) as giddy as the (still teased) return of Adeptus Titanicus. I pre-ordered the box and it arrived just in time for the december holidays. Unfortunately (aside from the hassle of moving) I find a curious handicap when it comes to Necromunda. I'm victim to a variant of the Paradox of Choice. Knowing I can do anything I find myself unable to choose. Last week I solved my Necromunda problem by dropping choice from the equation. I'm going assemble the boxed set exactly according to the suggestions in the manual. I can always pick up more models to start converting later. But, as with any other boxed game, I will follow my stern rule to paint scenery first and the models second. I find it reduces the risk of having pretty models running through a grey plastic world. For Necromunda this means painting a bunch of bulkhead doors (and some booby traps and consoles). Here are the bulkheads.

The sad thing about rusted terrain is that (if done properly) it tends to look like a zero effort job that belies the actual effort that went into it.

My hobbyzone is finally (more or less) finished

It took a bit longer then expected, mostly due to me learning how not to work with laser-cut MDF, but my hobbyzone is finally (more or less) finished. In the new house I have an en-suite room all to myself. Here is a shot of my hobbyzone.

The entry to my hobbyzone, with doors that close to keep the cat from drinking my paint water.

Tech-Priest Dominus Gregorius Dol added to my Admech strike force

While painting my Skitarii I also took steps to put the basic color blocks on a Tech-Priest Dominus. This one needed a bit more love and attention as it is a main character in the strike force I'm painting. I also had to take some hobby time out to run around the Mojave dessert. I am replaying Fallout New Vegas to find out why it gets so much more love then Fallout 4 (short answer so far I love both of these unpolished gems and I don't get it). Anyways this Sunday I took the time to finish the Tech-Priest Dominus. As I am feeling utterly uncreative I have been following along with the Crusaders for Knowledge strike force in the new Adeptus Mechanics Codex. That makes my life easier as I instantly get a name for this guy: Gregorius Dol.

"Aside from technical expertise I have a working knowledge of Word and Excel."

Miniature painting for toddlers

Recently I have given in to my son's continued pleas to paint one of 'daddy's figures'. I was in doubt when to start indoctrinating introducing him to the hobby. I thought I'd wait until he was around five. Then a good friend from the local hobby club told me his (almost) three year old daughter started her first foray into the hobby. I couldn't resist handing my son a (very cheap) brush, an abandoned Space Marine and a choice of colors. This is the result.

When to get started on the painting and gaming hobby? As soon as you're able to hold a brush!

Skitarii Rangers and Vanguard at the ready!

This week started with a Monday off. As I actually had time to take the day, I decided to do a (virtual) arm swipe over the painting table and start fresh.I already have an impulse buy of Belisarius Cawl on the plastic pile and with the Forgebane box getting split up by everybody I took the opportunity to pick up two units of Skitarii and two Tech-Priest Dominus models. I love the Tech-Priests. They manage to combine the character and horror of old school models with all the complexity that makes new-fangled plastic miniatures great (sorry I can't help being a heretic). To add to the challenge I decided to see how fast I could paint two full infantry units to a reasonable standard. Well Thursday morning before work I put the finishing touches on the bases (I globbed on crackle paint) and here is the result.

The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, he said.

Zzzzap! Finished Skaven Warp Lightning Cannon

I have to admit I'm behind on my blogging. Too much work and the strange need to see my family seem te be blocking my attempts to blather about my hobby online. I haven't even found the time to wax enthusiastic about the newly announced Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay edition (or the yet to be expanded upon announcement of the Age of Sigmar rpg). Then again, it will only arrive around August so there will be plenty of time for ranting and raving with an actual product in hand later. Around the last post I was preparing to paint a lot of different Skaven. As usual I did not finish them all (just yet). I did strip, repair and repaint this classic metal Warp Lightning Cannon.

Blast, blast, blast away my loyal chained up crew....as soon as I've moved to cover away from the machine...

Surprise, surprise manling! A Skaven Assassin jumps forward!

Busy, busy, busy and due to a small shipment error there is a slight delay in getting my workspace finished. In the meantime I finally found time to sit down and paint a bit. I was planning to get started on Necromunda so I took out some Skitarii sprues, put those aside, picked up my undead, dropped them again and looked at my Kharadron. To end this confusing story, I started work on a group of  (mostly) ancient Skaven. By going through my boxes (and friend's lead piles and the second hand market) I managed to acquire a nice collection of older Skaven to add to my horde. The first one to end up painted is this Skaven Assassin.

Quick, quick, kill, kill, and then run, run, I'm too valuable.

My 40K armies on parade

After unpacking my Age of Sigmar armies I've spent rather a lot of time creating my dream hobby space. A bit more on that later. In the meantime with the final Billy bookcase assembled I could start unpacking my 40K armies. While unpacking these I got a bit worried that it would be a lot less then my fantasy collection. I've always had a soft sport for fantasy. In the end it turned out to be a good thing I upgraded the living room table in the interim as you can see the troops getting squeezed closer together towards the end of the table (please ignore my irresponsible misuse of the space at the start of the table).

As I got to the back of the table, I discovered I had quite a few more troops then expected.

My fantasy armies on parade

The long awaited move has almost been completed and I'm in the process of building my own hobby Walhalla. While deciding on display cabinets, workspace, lights, decorations and paint racks I took the unpacking of my miniatures as a quick opportunity to show my painted armies on (a private) parade. First up is my Fantasy collection as my 40K turned out not to fit on the table at the same time. Seeing it all together makes me rather proud of my painting production and the quality is getting better all the time too. So to shorten down a long post. Here are a bunch of (badly lit) shots of my Fantasy armies.

The entire lot as they turned up out of their boxes including my two actual Armies on Parade wins (bronze and silver) of which I am (perhaps a bit too) proud. 

Making The Unquiet Dead markers for AoS

With the launch of Legions of Nagash Games Workshop has given Death a new lease on life (har har). It also brings us the best hint of what Slaanesh has been up to so far. Good times (maybe too good) are to be had by all. In Legions of Nagash the rather wonky Age of Sigmar summoning system is replaced with something more workable and fun. An ability called The Unquiet Dead is part of this. Every army that belongs to one of the Legions of Nagash has it. It gives the player four gravesite markers that help reinforce and regenerate certain units in his army. More important than game mechanics (as far as I'm concerned): it gives you an excuse to get creative with hobby materials. In short I made these for use in my games.

As a Legion of Nagash general I get to slam down my own graveyards on every battlefield.

Orruk Ardboys can proudly (and loudly) join my Greenskin horde

When I started unpacking my Greenskin project box in September last year (end of post) I expected to put most of it back in the box by the end of the month. Now I can happily state that this didn't happen. This weekend I've managed to finish a last serious bunch of Greenskins waiting for paint. The group on the trail end of my enthusiasm was a mob of twenty metal and plastic Black Orcs Orruk Ardboys. As a member of my local gaming club organised a painting day this weekend, I decided to bring this lot. I figured that getting stuck with these boyz and nothing else to do but chat and paint would work wonders. It did (although I had to finish them up on Sunday).

Two bands of Orruk 'Ardboyz stand ready to kill, maim and destroy.

The Knight of Shrouds joins my undead horde

You've got to love a long buildup. Just before Christmas GW started hinting at Malign Portents hitting the Mortal Realms in Age of Sigmar (if you're not up-to-date on the background, I've got a primer here). Now as prelude to a worldwide campaign a new book has hit the shelves including four new models (a general each for Order, Destruction, Death and Chaos). Being an easy mark a gaming enthusiast I pre-ordered the book, dice, cards and the general for Death because, well, I think the model look incredibly cool. I've skimmed the book and it looks interesting. As I've decided to take my hobby up to 11 this year, I'm going to attempt to fill every space on the Wargame Hobby Bingo card Rob Hawkins updated this year. I used this as an excuse to go full throttle on the Knight of Shrouds.

GW managed to combine the menace of a Ring Wraith quite nicely with the ghostly appearance required for Night Haunt models. 

Landing area terrain for 40K (and other sci-fi games) finished

I'm quite sure I'm not the only one starting out projects with an enormous amount of enthusiasm, only to find it all gone halfway through. This generic landing area is an extreme example of this kind of project. It started out with me wanting to make my own space ship like in this post at Warlord Games. I changed the tune slightly when I saw two discounted Star Wars toys while doing the December shopping for the family. Now, having spend some money on it, I was committed to making a small space port. Well long story short it is (more or less) finished.

A group of Space Wolves scouts checks out the new cargo ships. Where are all the inhabitants?