Warhammer 40K Vox Arx Crusade - Operation 01: Iron Siren

Our little gaming group recently decided to give Warhammer 40K 10th edition another go. As most of us hadn't touched our 40K miniatures in the past year(s) it took a bit of speed reading to take in the rules again. We also decided to play with the Crusade rules from our almost mint (and by now out of print) Tyrannic War source books. This is a battle report of Operation Iron Siren, the first engagement in the Vox Arx Crusade.

Late is the hour in which these Eldar choose to appear.

Omni Toad and Hypnotoad join forces, Frogger will never be the same

Life is quite an exhausting undertaking, and when it comes to the hobby I'm overloaded....with enthusiasm and joy! I've been working on and off on about six projects at the same time and all of them are glorious. As a lot of them are either nearing completion or showing wonderful progress, I should update this blog more often (otherwise I'll end up typing one of those monster posts). Aside from that I'm still in my Rossian (Bob) 'Joy of Painting'-trip: “No pressure. Just relax and watch it happen.” For me that means slapping paint on random monsters from the queue around my station. This week I picked up an Omni Toad, relaxed and just started blasting paint on it. 

Leap for your life!

Titandeath

My happiness over having a 28mm scale Warhound titan was rather short lived. A few days back while drinking my morning coffee I heard a rather ominous crashing sound from the hobby room. As I walked over to investigate, I found my new titan in quite a lot of pieces, spread out over the floor. Insert your own graphic language here, pretend it is in Dutch and you'll have a reasonably accurate facsimile of my morning. Long story short, I have two pieces of awesome terrain :)

Titans do not make for great flyers. Who'd have thought.

Warhound Titan power up detected

Lets start with a very short observation: I love titans. I was awestruck seeing the iconic John Blanche artwork gracing the cover of White Dwarf 108 and that feeling hasn't subsided since. It inspired me to paint a whole bunch of (new) epic scale titans a few years back. Now, with a 3D-printer just begging for work (and lacking common sense), I went ahead and printed a 28mm version of a Warhound class Titan. I got so enthused, I managed to slap paint on it faster than the time it took to pull the parts out of the printer.

I really need to think up a properly menacing name for this thing. Suggestions are very welcome :)

My blog's fifth birthday is today

Unbelievable how fast time passes when you're having fun. Today marks the fifth year I've been blogging about my hobby. I'd been planning to start earlier, but I kept finding excuses to put it off. Chief was wanting to keep it all in my own hands. In other words: as long as I didn't take some time to build my own site, I wouldn't write. Well enough of that - I thought five years ago - you're a copywriter for #@$@'s sake. Just produce some content on blogger and take care of the rest some other time. This marks post number 286, but I'll move someday soon....sure I will ;) Anyway enough bla bla. I was planning all kinds of spectacular posts, but to be honest I've been to busy with work, life and unfinished projects. Instead lets just reminisce about my favorite projects. I'll start with 'Buddy'. 

Who's a good boy? Buddy is!!!

Adeptus Titanicus scenery tutorial

After building my Legio Ignatum titans I had to make some scenery for them. You can't have your poor titans stomping around an empty field after all. GW offers some pretty nifty kits to build scenery with. But (in my very humble opinion) you don't quite get enough scenery with just one kit. Also simply building ready-to-go plastic terrain doesn't quite scratch my hobby itch. So I went a bit wild with the Manufactorum Imperialis kit and made this.

Now we have something to fight over.

How to (speed-)paint Bloodletters properly red

How do you paint Bloodletters properly red as most highlights tend to turn them rather orange. It is quite tempting to say a quick apologetic prayer to the Blood God and just go for white or bone colored Bloodletters. It even has the added bonus of red showing up quite well on white. But I personally like my bloodcrazed maniacs looking red. So for those interested here's my technique. It's a very quick way to get these guys painted.

Do you have a minute to talk about our lord and saviour Khorne?

Imperial Flight Officer Lt. Varras gets a new coat (of paint)

A few years back I bought a couple of large lots of abandoned Warhammer collections. In hindsight I suspect weariness with older 40K editions and blind AoS rage where part of the reason the second hand market experienced a glut of badly photographed shipping boxes filled with random models. This Imperial Officer, Lieutenant Varras, was in one of them. I repainted him this weekend.

Don't rest just yet! You'd better strip and paint my crashed ship as well now!!!

Finishing my maniple with Warhound titans and Cerastus Knights

Now here's something that almost never happens. After this week I can safely state that I've painted
all models I bought! To be sure for Adeptus Titanicus. But still, quite an (unexpected) accomplishment. The last models I had on sprue were these two Warhound titans and two Cerastus Knights.

Two Warlord Class scout titans march onto the field.

Two Reaver Titans join my expanding maniple

Well there's one thing that really can't be argued: quarantine is an effective lead-/resin-/plastic-pile remedy. This weekend I sat down and finished two Reaver Titans to expand my Legion Ignatum maniple. Only two Warhounds and two Cerastus Knights left and my entire Adeptus Titanicus collection will have been painted (I'm ignoring five Ork flyers from Aeronautica Imperialis). Here's a shot of the two Reaver Titans.

Excuse me was that container yours? 

Aeronautica Imperialis fighters join my epic army

With the Coronavirus in full swing, and living in an epicenter, I have some extra reasons not to leave the house. Oh dear what to do with all my time (aside from keeping a cooped up 4 year old more or less entertained)? You guessed it, more painting! Aside from Adeptus Titanicus I also picked up the new Aeronautica Imperialis Wings of Vengeance set. I never really played this game, but as it might just be made compatible with Adeptus Titanicus I couldn't resist the starter box. This weekend I painted the Imperial Navy fighter wing that's in it.

Hojotoho! 

A second Warlord Titan and six Questoris Knights join Legio Ignatum

Did I ever mention my love of Epic and Adeptus Titanicus? I can't stop painting these models. But I'll have to for a bit as I've finished the contents of the Adeptus Titanicus Grand Master edition (except for a few buildings). A second Warlord Titan has joined my first, extra weapon options have been painted and I've finished the six Questoris knights in the box. I've also added transfers and some extra paint splotches to my first Warlord. All in all, I should get around to reading the rules now...

My two Legio Ignatum Warlords and their Knightly friends.

The earth rumbles as Warlord Titans of Legio Ignatum arrive

When news of the return of Adeptus Titanicus hit, I was overjoyed. I played a lot of Epic way back when the original Adeptus Titanicus and Space Marine boxes were new. And even though the rules were a bit hokey, it was a lot of fun. Then the box actually came out and I took a step back as it was about twice the price I had figured on. Also GW told me at Warhammer Fest no infantry was planned for the next five years. This helped me make my will power save versus buying the box for the next two years. I finally failed last month. And I have to say I've never been so happy to fail a saving throw in my life. Here's a shot of my first titan.

Stomp, stomp, stomp, said the Warlord Titan's feet.

Ork buggy finished

I finished my Ork Buggy this weekend. This vehicle started its life as an Ork Trukk for Gorkamorka. The wonderful combination of scale creep and improvements to model production made it too small to seriously represent a Trukk on a modern gaming table. It does - as far as I'm concerned at least - make for an excellent Ork Buggy, with plenty of dakka as required.

Now to find some suitable targets.

Orctober cometh and it brings...Gretchin?

With my Madboyz finished I've gotten off to a great start for Orctober. Lets see if I can keep that up. The pile of unpainted, half assembled and mostly wrecked orcs in my collection might provide proper fuel. This sad mess has come into existence through that unique combination of impulse purchases, half finished projects and too good not to scoop up second hand deals. Or as us hobbyist call it: the hobby. Time to turn the Orky bit of my hobby into something for the display case. I made a start by (re-)assembling my Killa Kans and adding a random Space Ork vehicle. Here's an end of the hobby day shot.

Quick someone go and get the WD-40!

In come the other Madboyz

Oh dear, I got so carried away with other things, I actually missed the deadline for the painting competition I entered. A day late I did however finish the other two ancient Ork Madboyz I pledged to paint. A day late, or thirty years late? You decide ;)

Who you tryin' ta mess with ese? Don't you know I'm loco?

First fukushima kami-crazy Madboy finished

Painting a miniature that has suffered a few decades of neglect always feels special. This classic Space Ork Madboy is the first of three I've entered into a competition and I'm quite satisfied with him.

I just had to add a modern oversized Space Ork shoota to this model. In case of Orks bigger is better. 

Painting Ork Madboyz step one: Warhammer 40K style Industrial basing for impatient people

My hobby painting got slightly delayed by a major real-life project. I had to build a 1:1 scale shed after a fire wrecked the previous one. Aside from that activity I've got a lot of half finished projects (including some playing around with contrast paints) crowding my painting station and no real inclination to finish anything. Time to end this lazy attitude! Luckily a painting competition was announced on the Oldhammer Community group on Facebook. The mission: to paint Bob Olley sculpts. In other words a call to start a small project with a tight deadline (for painting purposes). Now that sounds like a lot of fun.

Joining a painting competition on the Old Hammer Community is a bit foolhardy. The best painters not actively working as pro-painters tend to hang out here (in my very humbly opinion).

Airbrush workshop weekend: taking it up to 11

Over the course of this weekend I partook in an Airbrush Workshop organized by our local pro-painter Scar's Miniature Madness. The subject of the workshop was infantry and we were asked to bring three Primaris Space Marines, one preferably with a plasma gun. At last I had an excuse to apply glue to Imperial side of the Dark Imperium sprues, Me being me, I brought five Primaris Marines all holding a plasma gun. I also decided to go for a quick practice round at home, painting (basic layers on) five Bolter wielding Primaris marines.

After these modern art master pieces I packed up and went home, there was nothing left for me to learn...

Nurgle Plague Toads bring a greeting from grandpa

After a short hobby hiatus (work, birthday, family) I thought it was high time to pick up the (air-)brush again and get painting. Aside from the (not quite unimportant) fact that its a lot of fun, I have signed up for an airbrush workshop this weekend so I needed to get the proverbial rust of my painting hands before making a fool of myself there*. After completing a bunch of Gaslands cars I have started working on Skaven and the Blackstone Fortress set. With that in mind, and to keep my distraction levels optimal, I decided to root out these Plague Toads from the lead/plastic/resin pile.

* Now I can make a fool of myself with rust free hands! 

Look at those charming fellows hop!