Based and ready: Orruk Warboss on Wyvern

My decision to ignore all the hobby rules I made for myself over the years (and not just the one that says 'don't buy anything new until the old is painted') is starting to pay off. Yesterday I actually completed the Orruk Warboss on Wyvern that had been abandoned after a failed attempt at painting black dragons (sorry wyverns). I even have him on a rather nice fancy base.

Waaagh, and all that! Now come over here, I want to hit you with my axe!

Building Games Workshop's Shadow War: Armageddon terrain

Over Easter weekend I got to play around with the new Shadow War: Armageddon terrain that was released in the boxed set with the same name on April 8th. Insert some griping about lack of stock here and keep it at that. The terrain itself is wonderful stuff, highly detailed, completely modular and easy to integrate with other kits and your own scratch build terrain. GW has announced it will be releasing the contents of this box as separate kits soon and that we can expect more variant that add to this terrain as well (including apparently cranes). Also AoS terrain is to follow soon after. That sounds good, although I have to admit the current range of GW terrain is priced just above what I'm willing to spend. We'll have to wait and see if I'm going to invest in more of these terrain sets. On to the finished building first.

The new terrain will probably turn out to be very expensive as separate sets, but man it looks good.

Continuing with the Shadow Wars: Armageddon terrain

My hobby time slowed down a bit last week as regular life (and a quick digital visit to The Commonwealth wasteland) caught up with me. Also a bit of project fatigue is setting in, worsened by Games Workshop's botched launch of Shadow Wars: Armageddon. I was not aware it was going to be a limited edition game and its anemic supply sold out before I got a chance to order a copy. Luckily I managed to secure one through a friend. Apparently there is a rulebook in the works now that makes me wonder if I should've bought the box. That is not how I usually spend my hobby money. I will try to be more careful about getting hyped up on announced products before they show up (GW seems to be slightly off form this year, with the rather disappointing Shadows over Hammerhal (compared to Silver Tower) first and now this and to be honest what I've seen of Shadespire is not fueling my enthusiasm). I'm considering trying Test of Honour by Warlord Games because the rules look interesting and the game looks awesome (but it is also sold out, what's up with wargames manufacturing?).

But enough whining and on to hobby time. The second set of buildings has been built, including my first attempt at a polystyrene building with the new tools.

Another three rusty buildings are waiting a drybrush of metallic, a dab of grey and color (and a lot of Ryza rust) to be ready for use in Shadow Wars.

First set of four tiles for my Warhammer 40K modular space ship interior or industrial terrain (part 4)

Okay maybe I'm making slightly too many updates, but I have gotten carried away a bit here so why not... Using my patented quick and sloppy painting style I've decided to call the first four tiles for my modular space ship interior (or industrial) terrain set finished (for now). I'll probably add some more detail after expanding the set and painting more. Now for the big question, do I go for the fun of showing what I have, do I type an exciting tutorial on my own Typhus Corrosion mix or do I spend some words on salt weathering. Nah, finished terrain first, lots of words later (this week probably).

Watch out where the Space Wolves go, and don't you eat that yellow snow.

Rattlecan gun-fu on my Warhammer 40K modular space ship interior or industrial terrain (part 3)

Yesterday saw the start of Dutch spring with temperatures reaching a scorching 20 degrees (Celcius which equals 68 Fahrenheit. Yes, I'm not a summer person so don't get me started on 30C+ peaks in high summer! Anyway with a late-afternoon hour to waste I had a chance to do some rattlecan gun-fu in the garden instead of in the shed. Who can say no to an escape from poisonous fumes (although my paint filtering mask helps there (hint hint to everyone not owning one of these)). As an added bonus working outside adds a chance of unwanted sand and leaves falling on your terrain. A chance at some chaos! Nice! I went for it. For the curious here is the end result of an about an hour of spraying with rattlecans.

Forget the promise of progress and understanding, for in the grim dark future there is only rust.

More test buildings for my Warhammer 40K modular space ship interior or industrial terrain (part 2)

After a successful start on the first tile for my modular space ship interior for Warhammer 40K and most likely the upcoming game Shadow War: Armageddon I spent a large chunk of my Sunday filling more tiles bringing the total to four.

With a bit of imagination this is starting too look like something sci-fi.

Materials, plans and a test building to build a Warhammer 40K modular space ship interior or industrial terrain (part 1)

White Dwarf magazine had a beautiful bit of space ship terrain a few years back. A complete 28mm scale half-open Ork Kruiser for toy soldiers to fight over. At a glance I would guess it to be around 120cm x 60cm x 60cm big. I want to build something like that but, as my mansion is currently in the 'aspiring to one day maybe live in one'-stage, I don't have the room to store or display a model of that size (don't get me started on the storage of my vampire castle). So I have been planning to build the next best thing for quite some time now: modular space ship interior terrain.

Yes this modular bit of 40K terrain still needs some paint...

The Siege of Fictitia

To celebrate the fact that I finished my new siege towers, I placed my Realm of Battle board outside, took some old Morheim terrain and a city wall out of their storage containers and made a little display I dubbed 'the Siege of Fictitia'. The ragtag defenders serve as a reminder that I really should build a full Order army somewhere this year. Let's not waste to much words and just go for a bunch of pictures now.

Here is a birds eye view of the final assault on Fictitia by the Warband of Malagor the Malicious, sorcerer lord of Tzeentch.

Building buildings for Age of Sigmar Mighty Battles battleplans

As a rabid collector I couldn't resist buying the amazing hard cover Age of Sigmar books. Since then I've been toying with the idea of playing through all the missions from the books one by one, campaign style.

Big linked campaign battles are awesome, even when fighting against unpainted troops.

Mysterious door

What is behind this mysterious door? What was above it before war struck the building? No one knows, but it's there...

Finished the Warhammer 40K jungle ruins

I finished the last buildings of my jungle temple. To start with I completed the building with the balcony. I angled one of the top walls to give the impression that the building is slowly collapsing.

Finishing the second building of the jungle ruin

So I managed to finish the second building of the complex. I also had some big leaves left from the aquarium plants I bought. I put these together on a small base. This is the complex so far:

Testing paint schemes on the jungle ruin

As I left off last time, I had glued together my jungle temple but I had not based it and I had no idea what colors I was going to use.

Basing terrain is simple and fun. I opted for my standard Ikea-sand on PVA (lots of rough sand, at a low price (in the grim darkness of the future they still have flatpack furniture etc.). A bit of sprue rubble on the sides of the buildings gives the impression of collapse and takes away the strange look of a straight wall ending in nothing at the side of the base.

On the bases itself (I use 6mm MDF for basing of terrain) I added some plastic tiles to give the impression of a floor long since corroded. I cut the plastic tiles from the remnants of a modular movement tray set.

Building jungle ruins for Warhammer 40k

I intend to build a jungle temple like the one featured in quite a number of White Dwarf issues lately.

I have spend an inordinate amount looking at the scenery, which is based on the Arcane Ruins set and a lot of Imperial Sector tiles. The rather huge piece of scenery seems to be made of multiple medium and large bases so it can be put together in different ways.