The First Tank......

It was going to happen sooner or later, though when it did happen, I was pleasantly surprised.....




No, not that you perverts, I painted the first vehicle for my German force, a StuH 42. Probably my favourite of the German tank designs, yes the gun is in a low hull mount but the whole thing looks stubby and brutal.

StuH 42

One of the things keeping me from starting them was being unsure about how to apply a decent scheme without an airbrush, though that was soon solved by using a trick I found on youtube - firstly stippling the stripes on using a 50/50 mix of the stripe colour and the main colour, then using the stripe colour over the top to give a soft edged finish.

StuH 42

I've not added any weathering to this one for now as I wanted to get the paint recipe right before I start flinging mud and chipped paint everywhere. I think a bit of mud in the guts of the tracks and flicked up the side skirts should do the trick, while I'll probably keep any chips to heavy wear areas.

StuH 42

One of the things I'm pleased with and disgusted at in equal measure is the comment from my wife that it look like a shop bought paintjob, and in some respects she's right. I mean, everyone paints German armour and it all looks the same for the most part. What I need to do is work out how to make it mine. I think a few bits of stowage would help, as would taking panels out of the skirts. The rest of the tanks I've got built are all straight from the box jobs so I'll be going back over those in turn.

StuH 42

The next tank I've got on the desk is the StuH's up gunned daddy, the StuG Ausf H. I think I'll start on that while I've got the enthusiasm for armour going.

German Field Guns.....

A jump back to World War 2 tonight as I finally decided it was time to get a few decent photos of my recently finished Waffen SS field guns.

75mm Pak 40, Anti Tank Gun

These 3 gun teams took me about a year to get round to for a couple of reason. Firstly, I wanted to get the bulk of the infantry done first and secondly, Warlord's field guns have a reputation for being a pig to build. I'll be honest, they weren't fun but a few pins and some liberal application of super glue means they shouldn't be coming apart any time soon.

10.5cm LeFH 18/40 Medium Howitzer

The crew are in a mix of field grey and SS camo (which I'll be glad to see the back of!) while the guns themselves were used as a test for a dunkelgelb coloured spray from Flames of War (I think it may have been changed since I picked the can up). It's made by Army Painter (who's sprays I tend to avoid) but it worked a treat. A quick wash/drybrush combo with some sponge chipping for weathering and that was that.

Nebelwerfer Multiple Rocket Launcher

One thing of note is the bases. I was originally going to use some of the large oval bases by Renedra but found they were a bit too big for what I wanted. I remembered I had a bunch of ovals by Games Workshop and eyeballed the fit, between a couple of sizes for the different gun sizes I was onto a winner. They were used as templates to carve flat bases out of 3mm plasticard.

I've got an officer on my plate next for Bolt Action and the dunkelgelb spray I mentioned earlier may have been used to get something tank shaped prepared for the table......

Yet more Chaos.....

It always happens. Come back to something with a bit of enthusiasm and then you can't do it for a while. That's why I didn't post anything the last week or so or get back to comments (apologies!), A couple of days after I last posted it was time to leave the paints and desk behind for a while and take some much needed time away with the wife.

We spent a week in Cornwall, right next to the sea. Loads of awesome stuff to see including a couple of castles, one of which gave me some awesome ideas for building some Dark Ages terrain but that's for another time.

Before we left though I did start on another character for my AoS Chaos force in the shape of a Sorcerer Lord. Again went with the chipped black and gold with a dark grey robe and some red as a spot colour. A couple of hours and some basing when we got back and he was good to go.

Still not sure what/if im going to use on the base with regards to grass or other elements so i'll leave that for now.


When we got back from our break I took delivery of a copy of Warhammer Quest: Silver Tower, at some stage that will get broken into for playing and adding the Tzeentch elements to the force. I may even pick up a few more of the monsters to expand the units.

One thing that it did get me doing first was looking at other heroes, particularly ones that could do double duty in my force. I've had a half painted Lord of Plagues (or the plastic Nurgle Lord given that when I started painting it, it had a square base!) sat waiting for finishing for a while so off the square base it came with a round in its place.

The flesh is going to go a bit lighter then bruised up with some glazing while the armour im in two minds about - go with the chipped black and gold of the rest of the characters or a more traditional Nurgle green?

That'll be about it for today but with any luck I may have something else cooked up for the weekend.

Another go eh?

I know I say it every time but one day it'll stick - time to give the blog another go. Nearly a whole two years this time, possibly a new record!

I've not painted a huge amount of 40k of late, after 7th ed came out I lost all desire to play with a bloated, convoluted rule set and set about looking for alternatives. I've still got my 30k project ongoing (Calth era Word Bearers) and a possible new Space Wolf force, but my main gaining focus is Bolt Action at the moment. 

Since I've last posted the whirlwind that is Age of Sigmar has blown in and pissed a lot of people off and brought just as many people in. I've been on the sidelines and figured it was time to get involved so it was back to my Chaos forces with an Everchosen army. I've knocked up a test figure to get a rough idea of how I want them to look that I think works. 

That's about all the rambling for now, hopefully next time there may be a bit more structure. 

 

More Terminators??!!

Time for another post I think...

Had an eventful couple of weeks of late, i've ended up back at work for the first time since august, celebrated my 5th wedding anniversary and saw Nine Inch Nails for the 3rd time (spoiler, they fucking killed it).

That plus GW dropping 7th ed 40k makes for a pretty eventful few days. I'll leave the analysis of the rules to others better suited but with every edition I seem to be falling further out of love with 40k gaming, though i'll always come back to the figures and world. I've got too many army projects i'd like to see come to fruition to simply drop it right now. Most of my dice throwing comes from Bolt Action these days, and given that Warlord is working on Rick Priestley's new Sci-Fi game based on the Bolt Action mechanics, I can see that becoming one of my go to games in the future.

During that time I managed to finish up another 5 Death Guard Cataphractii and start working on the first HQ for the army, Typhon.

The Cataphractii are set up in a similar way to the previous unit (well, the first half of the unit as it's now 10 strong) with a plasma blaster, combi-plasma and a power fist in addition to the combi-bolters and power axes. Should make a mess of most things they come across.

Seeing as i've made it this far without adding a HQ to the force, I figured it was about time. I wanted to add a cheap Master of Signal to add to the armies overall firepower but didn't have the energy to convert one up.

I did however, have Typhon sat in his box since he was released so though now was as good a time as any to work on him. I did manage to make a monumental cock up in tearing off the pipes that run from the top of his armour - as I was test fitting the left arm I pressed a little too hard, causing my thumb to skip over the top of the figure, shearing off all 6 of the tiny pipes. Not impressed at all. I wracked my brain trying to work out how to replace them (all 6 were lost in the carnage) but didn't want to risk cocking up even more so decided to leave the tanks smooth. 

One last thing I did was to make up a new base for him, seeing as i'll be using him more as a gaming piece he'll be based in the same way as the rest of the force. More on that later.

Next on the workbench will be a trio of Primarchs - i've got Mortarion to do for myself, and Mortarion and Horus to do for a client. I'll be adding pictures of all 3 as I work on them so stay tuned for those.....

Once more into the Breach.....

It took me a bit longer than planned to get this post up, but here it is.

The Breacher unit, a project started back in august last year, is finally finished. About bloody time too as i've very nearly shelved them a couple of times during the build and painting, for 2 reasons -

• Game wise, Breachers are over pointed and not as useful as most other 30k squads. For example, my 10 man Breacher unit is 10 points more expensive than a 20 man Legion Tactical squad, and not quite as survivable, even with the shields.

• Secondly, i've never liked painting things with shields - they always have a tendency to get in the way if you glue them on before painting, or as I found with the Breachers, are a pain to glue on when you've finished painting them.

Don't get me wrong, now i've finished them I think they look ace, but can't see me using them that often.

I've got the second half of the big Cataphractii unit in front of me now begging for paint - they've had some basecoats and chipping applied, a few more basecoats then they'll be ready for washing. I'll look at getting a pic or two for the next post.

I've been Liebster'ed!

Be warned. No miniatures tonight, just a lot of text. Will have the Breachers done in the next couple of days, promise!

For those that have never seen it before, the Liebster is a great way of recognising blogs people enjoy, while promoting new and exciting ones. I've found plenty of great blogs in previous Liebster lists, hopefully I can pass a few more on today.

Many thanks to Jimmy Grill over at Voyage au Centre de l'enfer for adding me to his Liebster list.

Each nominee is asked to state eleven truths about themselves, answer eleven question set by the blogger that nominated them and then to set eleven questions they would like eleven other bloggers to answer. I've got no idea why eleven is the magic number, so here goes nothing.....


Eleven truths

1. I'm medically classed as a giant.
2. I don't read nearly enough. My current reading list is nearly as tall as I am.
3. I procrastinate far too much.
4. I'm a big fan of extreme metal, the nastier the better.....
5. ......but I'm also a Prince fan. Purple Rain is a work of genius.
6. My wife and I are coming up on our 5th wedding anniversary.
7. I'm a huge cat lover. We've currently got 3 - Tank, Lilith and Bryan.
8. I've got a very puerile, base sense of humour. Nothing is too crude in my eyes.
9. I'm the current chairman of my local gaming club, Ammobunker: South.
10. I love to cook.
11. I can unashamedly say I like the Alien Vs Predator movies.

Eleven questions to answer

1. If you could wish for one thing except for more wishes, what would it be?

Easy one this, health and happiness for my family. As long as I've got my wife, cats and the right people around me I don't need any wishes. Big stack of cash would be nice though ;)

2. What was the first miniature you painted?

I don't own it anymore but it was a RTB01 Space Marine that I painted as a Blood Angel.

3. What was the best miniature released last year?

There were loads of cool figures released last year, however, this was easy - Calas Typhon from Forge World.

4. What was the latest movie you watched in the cinema?

A showing of the Lamb of God documentary As the Palaces Burn.

5. Would you rather die now or live forever?

Wow, ok. Mmmmm, pros and cons to both I 'spose. Not sure I could make that call though.

6. Whom do you consider the worse geek, yourself or the hobbyists around you?

I'm a pretty big geek, but there is always one bigger depending on what exactly your geeking on.

7. The discontinued GW game you wish GW would bring back the most?

Probably Necromunda, im a big fan of small skirmish gaming. An up to date Necro would kick so much ass.

8. How many DVD's would the internet take up if you removed all the porn?

4. One for the cat pictures, one for the various miniature forums, one for fail videos and another for whats left.

9. In how many years will tabletop miniatures be 3d holograms?

Hopefully it won't happen. If it does i'll be looking for a new hobby.

10. If John Blanche and H.R.Giger had a child together, what would it look like?

Hmmm, well, it would certainly be overly phallic, probably with bionics, a big gun and puffy sleeves.

11. I accidentally the box. Is this bad?

Probably. Unless you wrecked the box in which case my cats won't play with it.

Eleven blogs to check out (in order of the last update)

Sublime Brushwork, superb blog by Stuart Thomas, member of the 'Eavy Metal team during my formative painting years.

Sprokets Small World, Slayer Sword winner David Soper. Great natural painting style.

A Galaxy In Flames What the Aussies lack in cheap toys they make up with awesome ones. Great Horus Heresy related blog.

MiniaTEXTures, the blog of Jacob Rune Nielsen. My personal painting hero.

Badab Rising A great Astral Claws/Badab War blog.

INQ28 One I've contributed painting work to, Molotov has been leading the charge with getting into the seedy underbelly of 40k with some great narrative gaming. Beware with this one, it's a pretty deep rabbit hole you're stepping in....

The Painting Bunker Another Aussie Heresy blog. Must be something in the water?

Sheep's Forlorn Hope the last Australian on the list, Sheep churns out pure hobby gold.

Mengel Miniatures Blog of Tyler Mengel, US Golden Demon winner. More beautiful Astral Claws.

Dylan Gould Some great old school figures and painting.

Razza Mini Painting Blog of Darren Latham, figure designer and ex 'Eavy Metal painter.

Eleven questions for the mentioned 11 blogs

1. Who is the painter/artist/sculptor thats made the biggest impact on your work?
2. Whats the one tool you couldn't live without?
3. Whats the last album you listened to?
4. Do you use a single particular brand of paint or do you mix ranges?
5. Whats your biggest inspiration away from miniatures/wargaming?
6. What else do you do for fun?
7. Whats the worst movie you've ever seen?
8. What initially brought you into the hobby?
9. Have GW entered their 'Golden Age' yet or is there even better to come?
10. When the apocalypse comes, what form will it be in?
11. How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Another short one?

Another quick proof of life post this evening to show the current state of the Breachers. They've now had all the basecoats and chipping applied, now comes the oil wash and the clean up of said wash before detailing them.

To make up for the hideously short post (should I bother in future?), below are are a few pics of the Terminator squad I recently finished to accompany the Lord from the last post.

The first Terminator squad in the army was kitted out for 5th ed wound allocation shenanigans, with everyone having a different load out. The only constant of the squad was the combi melta for popping a tank on the turn they dropped in.

This squad have been kept tame in comparison, with the only extravagances being a single chainfist and a reaper autocannon.

As i've mentioned before i'll be going through the existing army at some point in the future and documenting the process of refurbishing them, this chaps and the Contemptor previously shown are the start of the project, as longs as I don't get bogged down on other things first.......

Well ok, just a small one......

A quick post tonight, for some reason felt inspired to throw something up.

I've been procrastinating as per usual the last day or so and in doing so, made mistakes. That'll be the Breacher's shields into the stripper then. I didn't let that stop me though, and got the transfers and armour basecoats done on them so I can now move onto the chipping.

WIP Death Guard Breachers

Also had a package of Cataphractii Terminators turn up today so i'll move onto those next, taking the squad to 10 strong. Might have to change some of the weapon fits around on the current squad, the idea of two Reaper Autocannons is quite appealing.....





Normally I wouldn't feel too bad about leaving it there but I feel the need to show off a figure I finished recently (well, over xmas) that im quite proud of.

I fancied doing a small project over the xmas period as I had the time off and thought a new lord for my post Heresy Death Guard would fit the bill, Typhus can't be everywhere after all. Wanted something cheep and cheerful to lead a Terminator unit so out cane the Burning Brand and a Power Axe.

Conversion wise he's quite involved, using parts from FW's Death Guard Terminator and Lugft Huron kits, a handful of parts from the Terminator Lord kit and a head from the recent recut Tactical Squad sprue. A few extra Nurgleish details and he was ready for the brush.

If i've got nothing worthwhile to say next time I post i'll throw up some pics of his Terminator buddies. Reminds me, I really should do a run of articles about the post Heresy Death Guard at some point....

For now, thanks for reading.

Rising, in a zombie like fashion.......

For some reason (well, after seeing my blog pop up on the small but perfectly formed blog roll of A Galaxy In Flames, cheers fellas) I decided it'd be worth a new post to show off a couple of things i've done recently that im particularly proud of.

First up is a freshly painted unit of Grave Wardens for my Heresy era Death Guard army, some of my favourite figures from Forge World's Horus Heresy range. They've been sitting in a box waiting for paint from release day but for various reasons only got a look in over the last couple of weeks.

Grave Wardens, Death Guard Legion Astartes

Chem Master

Heavy Flamer

Chain Fist wielding lunatic

Twin 1

Twin 2

Not the last of my trip back to 30K, or the Death Guard for that matter.....


The second thing I wanted to showcase was a project i've had on my mind for the last year or so, well, at least since I saw the Death Guard Legion Contemptor. I knew I needed to corrupt it to fit with my 40K Death Guard, I just needed to decide how.

Thematically I wanted to tie the Contemptor to the same look as the Death Guard Terminator kit by Forge World, primarily using the spikes on the top of the body, the broken pipe work and the boils.

I had a lot of fun putting it together, the next one will be in the white of the 30K Death Guard. I had though of keeping the weapon loadout the same on both pre and post Heresy machines but a Mortis with two assault cannons is too cool a weapon to pass up. I might have to play about with some magnets.......


Lastly today, a peek at what im working on next. Just before christmas I finished the first 5 figures for a Breacher squad, though it might be time to finish them off before moving onto something fun.

Command elements and special issue weapons, Death Guard Legion Astartes Breacher Squad

Thanks for reading, with any luck (and some appropriately placed pressure) I might try and keep the blog updated a little more regularly.

Brutes and Bronze Beasts.....

Firstly, the Brutes of the title, in the shape of the wip Death Guard Cataphractii. 

This is once all of the basecoats have gone on and the chipped paintwork done before oil washing. Probably some of my favourite Forge World figures to date, and certainly some that will grace my desk again at some stage.

Death Guard Cataphractii Terminators, wip

Secondly, the Bronze Beasts, or more specifically, Space Marines from the Minotaurs chapter. I've been threatening some 'Taurs for a while now and with the new Codex on the horizon I'll be adding a few units to my current force. I'll be using the Forge World books for much of my reference moving forward, Imperial Armour's 10 (Badab War) and 12 (Fall of Orpheus). Fingers crossed that we get an update of the Siege Assault list from IA10 as that's the list I generally run with them. 

For now though, a look back at a few of the Tactical Marines that make up the army.

Minotaurs Tactical Combat Squad

Next time I should have the Cataphractii finished, potentially something Contemptor shaped and the next stage in the evolution of the Minotaurs.

Astartes Anonymous?

Been a bit quiet of late sadly, I'd been gearing up for a second round of spinal surgery for a while only to be told that the op had been cancelled and moved to a different hospital. Shame they told me that while I'd already been sat in a waiting room for 4 hours already.

On a brighter note, I finally managed to finish up the first full 20 strong Legion Tactical Squad for my Heresy-era Death Guard army. Bit of procrastination to get there but I'm very happy with how they turned out.

Death Guard Legion Tactical Squad

The Sergeant is my favourite figure in the squad, probably as it's the only figure that isn't holding a bolter across it's chest! Still, a squad this size will make a mess when it finally gets onto a table.

Next up for the Death Guard will be a squad of Terminators, all in Cataphractii armour, probably my favourite of the Terminator armour designs. Went plasma heavy with this squad as my local meta is heavy on MEQ's.

Death Guard Cataphractii Terminators wip

Lastly, the behemoth that is a new Space Marine codex is on the horizon. Personally I can't wait, having played Marines since I got into 40k close to 20 years ago. I'm going to put my hands up and admit I was tempted to paint a new Ultramarines army with this release, but good sense over ruled, coupled with a desire to see the Centurions in a Minotaurs scheme. Speaking of which i'll come back in the week with an update on the Cataphractii and a glimpse into what i've already done with the Minotaurs.

Of Lizards And Men.....

As I mentioned in my last post I'm looking at putting together a Lizardman army, using my good lady wife's cast off figures. It was mainly down to needing an excuse to paint the new monster kits, the Carnosaur in particular, which I think is one of the best looking big kits GW have released.

I've always had a fascination with dinosaurs so I struggled to pick a scheme - should I stick with the 'traditional' blue or go with something else? I thought of using a more natural scheme on the basic troops but came to realise that they'd end up blurring into the base. Back to the blue then. It does mean I can go with a more natural scheme on the big fellas.

With the blue in mind, I set about painting a test figure. I went with the Lizardman themed blues from GW, basecoating with thinned Sotek Green, then shading the scales with thinned Stegadon Scale Blue. With the two colours I thinned them with glaze medium to keep the colour vivid but also allowing it to flow in a closer manner to a wash. Characters will get more detail but for a rank and file figure I think it does the job.

I'll knock up a tutorial in time but for now I'll leave you with the test figure.

More clutter and some scales.......

Been a little bit quieter than I'd like the last few days, had a few days away with the wife for a bit of R&R before it all gets crazy again.

I've got a few ideas for posts lined up, but for now I'll open a little window to the state of my desk -

What a mess.......

Excuse the mess if you can and I'll talk you through what's there.

More marines for my Heresy Era project
Grey Knight Terminators
Plaguebearers
and the interesting one - the brown box and tubs are the remains of my wife's Lizardmen army - she picked them up around the time the current plastic Saurus and Skinks were released, oddly enough around the time we got together - nearly 10 years ago.

I'm going to have a look at stripping a couple of the Saurus back to bare plastic and have a go at a couple of test schemes - one in the 'traditional' blue and a more natural scheme. More on those later though, for now, I've got a desk to clean......

Finished Germans and untouched Astartes..........

The posts keep coming, much to my shock I can tell you, particularly given how infrequent they used to be!

I've finished up the Germans I was working on finally, glad to see the back of them to be honest, they've been sat on the desk for a while half finished and now they are done I can move onto something else.

German Infantry Squad for Bolt Action by Warlord Games. Click the pic for a better look!

Next up another 5 Mk3 Astartes for my Heresy era Death Guard army to add to a Tactical Squad. For those not familiar with Forge World's excellent Betrayal book, Tactical Squads can be up to 20 Astartes strong - with the Death Guard's preference for infantry assaults a 20 strong squad was to me the best place to start the army. This will be 11-15 of the squad, with the command element to add last.

Mk3 Legion Astartes pre-paint

When I get a bit more time I'll be looking to do a tutorial for how I paint the Death Guard, anyone interested?

Germans and Questions.........

Been a quiet few days around here, the only real noise being made being the screaming as I get to grips with Windows 8, but more on that later.

Operation: Clean Desk is moving slowly forward, with the German Squad now having it's basecoats.....

.......and wash applied.

A few quick and dirt highlights and basing and these fellas will be done. Next up for work will be another 5 Astartes for my Heresy Era Death Guard army and possibly a start on my Blood Bowl team, but that's for another post.

Painting Black

A lot of the 40k rumours over the last few days have been pointing to a Black Legion supplement for the Chaos Marine Codex, something I'm very much looking forward to as a Black Legionnaire for many years.

I've painted black many different ways over the years and I think it my be time for a change for my new Black Legion force - what are your favourite methods for painting black? Feel free to throw a link up to pictures of your own examples or stuff you've found online.

Photo Editing

I had a sad feeling this would come. I recently updated my main PC and it came with Windows 8 as the standard operating system. I'm going to be fair to it and stick with it for a month or two before making the decision to keep it or replace it with Vista. My one problem is the way pictures are dealt with - my usual process is to do a basic white balance/crop job using Gimp but I feel it's lacking of late. What do you like to use for editing photos? Have you found anything useful online to help out?

I'll throw up a post later in the week hopefully with the finished German unit and a collection of the links you might throw up.

Until next time, may your end stay wet and pointy.......

Cleaning off the desk.......

Wow, 3 posts in a week? Don't get too excited, it probably won't get any better. Might even get worse.


The wonderful British weather has well and truly buggered me the last few days. I'm very sensitive to heat, and being a grumpy sort to begin with my fuse gets a bit shorter the hotter it is. It also means that trying to paint anything is an absolute nightmare as the paint decides to dry up before you get it on a brush, let alone on a figure.

I did however manage to finish off a unit of Forge World Tartaros Terminators to add to my growing Minotaurs Space Marine army (i'll show that off in another post). They were an impulse buy at the 2012 Forge World Open Day and hadn't been touched since. I had a look at the parts and made an immediate call to Forge World as the castings were disgusting to be frank. The replacements weren't that much better but workable.

I'll be the first to admit it's not my best paint job, I just wanted to get them finished and off my desk. I did however have a bit of a brainwave - none of the figures come with any kind of purity seals or scroll work sculpted on, something I didn't spot until they were practically finished. Enter the Grey Knight Terminator kit and a handful of long flappy purity seals later the unit was complete.

Minotaurs Chapter Tartaros Terminator squad

On the subject of cleaning off my desk, my next project presented itself - a 10 man Heer Infantry squad for my Bolt Action German army. Bit of a departure for the blog as normally I'm a 40k guy, but I was really captured by the mechanics of Bolt Action. Also lets me dip my toe into historical gaming.

Instead of the 'you go, I go' system that 40k uses, Bolt Action uses a container that holds a selection of counters for each player. A counter is drawn, and the player who's counter was drawn completes an action with one unit - whether it be move/shoot, run, overwatch, ambush or similar. Once that action is completed, another counter is drawn and the process followed again until there are no more counters in the container. At that point the turn is over and the counter is re-filled. Doesn't sound that exciting now I've gone back and re-read that but it's great in practise and well worth checking out if you fancy a break from 40k or other GW games.

German Heer Infantry Squad by Warlord Games

I've had the above squad sat on my desk in that state for at least 3 weeks now, think it might be time to get them finished. My Germans tend to get a pretty basic paint job as it's more a gaming army than anything else, though i'll  make sure the vehicles get a decent job with some weathering and other effects.

How my Germans look in the basic uniform. Very basic paint job but they look good on the table.

With any luck the next update should be some more work on the Germans, really does depend on the weather. Thinking the evenings will be the best bet.