Gaslands Refuelled - Mayhem to the Max (and some Gaslands scenery building tips)

 After the first testgame of Gaslands my entire miniature hobby made a 'bootlegger's turn' and screeched into a 'mod your own Hot Wheels overdrive'. Luckily it had the same effect on my brother. This Saturday we went for another match. He made some of his own cars, I updated my scenery and even my wife joined in on the fun. Explosive fun as it turned out. 

I made a billboard by glueing some bits of plasticard together and adding a print from the Futurama's  favorite drink Slurm.

Gaslands test game - Wipe Out on the Kitchen Table

 Last year I got a bit carried away converting hot wheels size cars to the Dark Future/Mad Max aesthetic. After trying my hand at recreating the Dark Future road tiles (and a bit of looking around on the internet) I discovered Osprey Publishing had a much nicer looking ruleset called Gaslands. I picked up a copy of the book, bought some laser cut counters and rulers from a third party, and then promptly never got around to actually playing the game...until this weekend. Finally I had my first post apocalyptic demolition derby I dubbed: Wipe Out on the Kitchen Table.

I started my first game throwing a supercar into high gear, losing control and promptly wiping out in front of both enemy vehicles' front ranging guns.

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!

Gaslands (and Dark Future) cars finished

My Gaslands project (originally Dark Future) has escalated rather quickly from a couple of toy cars to a full invasion of my hobby space. What can I say: it is a joy to grab a random toy car, stick on some spare bits and plasticard on and get painting. On the other hand I have to admit I've gotten a bit burned out on the scale for now, and am transiting back to the trusty 28mm scale for my next project. It's the joy of the hobby: obsessing for a month and moving on to the next obsession. Here's my fleet of vehicles.

We are killing for guzzoline. 

I've seen the future (and its dark)

This weekend I went for another proverbial arm sweep over the hobby desk and got started on a long held ambition: getting back into Dark Future (or maybe getting into Gaslands). I may have dropped the occasional hint of liking Mad Max (style) movies. For those who missed it: I like Mad Max (style) movies. My favorite used to be Mad Max 2: the Road Warrior, but Fury Road has left that one eating dust. Weather beaten, heavily modified and gun toting cars chasing each other through the skeletons of society. All that needs is a soundtrack by Slayer, but I digress...On to the hobby part, here's my first converted car for the project.

Vroooom!!!!!

Skaven warlord on brood horror and some classic Plague Monks

I should've known the Gutter Runners where just a vanguard heralding more Skaven to come. That and the new Battle Tome. It restores the Skaven to their own backstabbing and conniving version of unity. I love it. I haven't had time to get a game in with my Skaven, but just seeing all the clans back together is a treat in itself. Over the course of this weekend I focused on finishing two units that had been getting some on and off again attention over the past few weeks. The first unit is a Skaven warlord on Brood Horror by Forge World and the second is a group of twenty classic Plague Monks. Lets start off with the Warlord, I should say Clawlord on Brood Horror (although Forge World hasn't updated the warscroll just yet).

Now there is someone I wouldn't want to invite over for dinner.

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.

I'm temporarily suspending the green tide to bring you this member of the Deathwatch

The local GW here in Eindhoven has sent out a request to all customers to build and paint a Deathwatch Space Marine before the end of November. I think it is actually a cooperation between a lot of European stores, but being very blonde and easily distracted I have to admit I forgot most of the details. I just remember: 'end of November', 'Deathwatch', 'Black rim on base' and 'Paint your own name on the rim'. So the relevant details (I hope ;) ). As I was planning to convert my Primaris marines to Deathwatch I already had some shoulder pads on hand. And here is my marine.

Eat your own medicine you Eldar scum!

Orctober has begun, and I already have a head start...

The season of 'named' painting months: Orctober, Nidvember and Deadcember has begun. Usually I get around to observing these by the time the months end, but this time I have a head start as I've already started working on my old Orruks in September. This Monday I finished the second chariot from my restoration project.

Don't know why, but I'm a big fan of this Orruks expression.

Restoring Orc Boar Chariots, Pink Spiderfang Grots and more Orruks and Grots

Two weeks ago I decided to paint myself out of my painting slump by assembling, fancy basing and painting Skarbrand. With my painting mojo renewed, I went on to open my Orcs&Goblins...I mean Orruks and Grots project box to make a dent in that back-log. Having successfully taken over the dining room table with hobby I've been able to get quite a nice few painting and modeling hours in. To spice the hobby up a bit further I've also lifted my personal (semi-)ban on going for multiple units at the same time. Basically I'm chaos incarnate, doing whatever fancy dictates and having a blast while at it. First off I finished painting the ten remaining Spiderfang Grots that where languishing half-painted in the project box.

Spiders! Attack!!!

Painting myself out of my painting slump

As you may have seen by the lack of updates, I've hit a painting slump. Well, real life got a bit busy as well with a possible move in the near future and work, work, work (use Warcraft Peon voice here). I did finish the Genestealer part of my cult, but that was about it.

Sometimes you just lose the joy of working on a project. The best remedy (IMHO) is temporarily storing the models and moving on.

The rise of the Genestealer Cult (with some fancy basing work (in progress))

With only a few new snap-fit Death Guard on the horizon and the codex announced for somewhere later this year there is room to complete one of my other open projects....or I could just start a new one! Squirrel! I love Genestealer Cults. When they where first introduced (at least to me) in the back story of the original Space Hulk (Suicide Mission) they where intriguing. But what blew me (and many others if the Oldhammer Group is a guideline) away where the limousines introduced with a heavily converted (and part scratch built) Genestealer Cult that appeared in White Dwarf 124 (1991). Finding no decent pictures on the internet I took my copy out of storage to snap a quick (hopefully crisper) picture. More can be read on these models on the Eldritch Epistles blog here and a few snaps are available on the venerable Realm of Chaos 80s blog here.

The original (Khorne worshipping) Genestealer Cult that got me hooked to their background.

Basing your miniatures for Age of Sigmar and Warhammer 40K

A nice base makes your miniatures look cool and can be used to tie your army together visually. Now you can hop over to GW and get some texture paint (and that is fine), but I prefer to go a bit further. I do this for three reasons:

1. It looks cool.
2. It gives me a chance to practice modelling.
3. It gives purpose to excess bits.

Not featured: Lord Harkon (excepting his feet).

Quick quick send more Skryre and Moulder war machines will send many many warp tokens

While working on a project I tend to get distracted by the next one in line (lets talk about dwarves....oh no later after my Dark Elves...shut up now!). Age of Sigmar divides the forces in four alliances making distraction easier to deal with, after all Skaven are Chaos too so it does not really count as a full distraction ;)

Skaven Skryre war machines, Moulder Rat Oggors and an actual member of the council of thirteen. My army is growing in strength.

The Leper Messiahs join my Nurgle warbandI II

For me the trouble with Chaos is making decisions. I actually would like to have five armies, one dedicated to each of the major gods (with daemonic support of course) and a group of undivided Slaves to Darkness. As I also have ambitions to paint just about every other army in Age of Sigmar and 40K this will probably not happen for quite some time. For now though I have a group of ten warriors ready to fight for Grandfather Nurgle.

*wheeze* *wheeze* Plagues for the *cough* <damn flies> Plague God! (It's not easy being a Chaos Warrior).

Lord Slimegulp, Tyrant of the Wastes, Daemon Price of Nurgle (and some friends)

The second model for my Nurgle warband will be Lord Slimegulp the self-proclaimed Tyrant of the Wastes. He is a Daemon Price of Nurgle that I'm building out of bits and a second hand plastic daemon prince I bought as part of one of those 'I quit the hobby' lots. The front of the model has been build by cutting leftover bits from the cannibalized Maggot Lord set I used for the Nurgle Realmgate earlier this year.

Lord Simegulp always gets a close-up view of the meals he's chewing on. I bet they never mentioned that possibility in the Join a Merry Nurgle Warband recruitment flyers.

All praises to Nurgle, our grandfather of plagues, here are the Blight Kings

I have been meaning to build a chaos army for quite some time now. Having grown up with the Realm of Chaos books I know nothing offers quite as much opportunities for wild conversions and interesting riotous units.

What has delayed me for all this time was an inability to decide on my chosen power to worship. I have a few older metal models for Khorne, Slaanesh, Nurgle and Tzeentch. And as a temporary fix I painted up an old school pantheon a few years back:

The great four powers of Chaos band together to destroy La Maisontaal