line them up and I'll knock 'em off

Only four days into the summer and look what I get done.

Why do I work again?

First up two SAGA Norman archers.

Which means the fellas below now become Norman mercenary archers. . . . .

The trouble with this is I now have to paint up eleven Viking Bondi to fill out my proposed six points of SAGA Vikings.

Just to add to the rain of arrows I also got eight Norman Crossbowmen finished.

I originally wanted them to have tan leather jerkins but it's on its last legs so they got 'boot strap' leather instead. Unfortunately it does not look as good as the tan when painted over large areas.

But they look ok (ish) when viewed from the back (which I mostly stare at).

With me being me, I had to knock out a couple of Orkz.

The above boyz sees me finish off enough Orks to play the Rouge Trader 'Battle of the Farm', which I hope to get to play this summer.

While I was painting, my boy come in and had a go at me for not painting up his orkz yet (something I had been promising since Christmas!).

This meant I had to paint at least one to appease him.

Considering it is an old Space Crusade plastic and I had to paint on most of the face detail it's looking ok. I have 5 more of these to do and I am tempted to really have a go to town on the faces and see if I can paint the faces to a good standard. Time will tell.

I had to laugh when I asked him what colours he wanted and he insisted on MC Hammer style gold trousers!

Maybe it's because it's from the 80's but it seems to work.

The good news is I have landed a new job which is going to be paying proper money so I should not be skint for much longer.

The bad news is my old job was an absolute doss, but you only get so much money for old rope!

This means I will be losing my evenings and weekends again. I want to keep the gaming up but I think my painting will really slow down.

I have made a hit list of stuff I want to get finished over the summer but I will see what I get finished.

Now the numbers

Miniatures painted / sold this year = 137
Miniatures bought this year = 20

512 miniatures to go!

Aliens Vs Predator (vs Colonial Marines) Genesis

First night of the Summer hols saw Damon, Macca, Ed and I sitting round a table trying to work out the rules for Aliens Vs Predators.

Despite being clueless we did manage to have fun.

"Get on the ready line, Marines, get some today!"

I was the first to turn up, so managed to get a good look at the figures supplied with the starter game. They are really nice but seem VERY slight compared to the 40K and Warmachine stuff I have been painting recently.

BUT I was having an internal conversation with myself about does this count towards my Lead Mountain IF their bought as part of a board game!

Schools out. . . . . At last!!!!!!

Boy is this me right now!!

The first day of the hols and . . . . .

All this lot were not painted today but I probably finished off 10 at least ten of them.

The kids have been packed off to their Nans for the next couple of days. The better half is working to the end of the week and I am off to play Aliens Vs Predators tonight.

Wa . . . . F*@*!^& . . . . . HOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Age of Sigmar, Stormcast Eternal finished . . . and other chips from the lead mountain.

'Natural'

So my Stormcast Eternal is finally based. To be honest it was finished last Sunday but the light has been kack for photos or I have been getting back from work too late to catch the decent light.

'With dramatic light effect' i.e. with flash.

Warmaporn; The finest steel has to go through the hottest fire.

For months I had had a secret. Despite all my big talk I had secretly bought myself a Cygnar Caster. It made sense as I love playing with Gun Mages and Long Gunners, so why not field a Caster where I can use both? I went with Caine because I liked the miniature and just like Ashlynn he is a squishy caster who has to be in the middle of the action.

How would he fair in his first battle?

Full house at the creative biscuit. Wargaming in South Woodford.

Another full house at the Creative biscuit.

We had . . . .

Cygnar Vs Farrow, Warmahordes action,

Star wars (something with space ships) game,

Skaven Vs Dwarves, Warhammer (8th edition) Fantasy action,

Menoth Vs Cryx Warmachine action (to be continued next meet).

Just wanted to thank Tim for hosting us despite being up to his eyeballs (literally) with work for the Walthamstow weekender.

WarmaPORN; The Farrow, happy as pigs in poo!

"I know you said 'Wait till you see the whites of their eyes', but this takes the piss!"

Lano my 'lazy, useless, student, mate' had only gone and got himself a job. What with this, the disappearance of Al, the Armoury gaming club being reduced to a once a month affair and Saturdays at Neils on a hiatus due to world events, my gaming output has dropped considerably recently.

Thankfully I did get a text this week from Lano saying he was free this week. Unfortunately he wanted to play Warmahordes!!!!

We agree a 30 point game and Lano sets out a beautifully (?) painted 30 points of piggy passion!

Age of Sigmar. Stormcast Eternal finished. . . . Well painted at least

"Raaaaaahhhh. Look at my dramatic light effect and tremble!"

With the picking up of my copies of White Dwarf Saturday I wanted to get paint on the Stormcast Eternal as soon as possible.

Say what you like about the game, the sculpts are GORGEOUS!!!!!! Just GORGEOUS!!!!!

Age of Sigmar. Slam your body down and wind it all around. Slam your body down Sig a Sig ah

Unlike most people on the web, I decided to wait until I had actually played a game of Sigmar before I passed Judgement.

This resulted in me revisiting Games Workshop Enfield to give my Empire Army a run out against the Sigmarites. 

Like everyone else I was confused by the whole "Just put what you want on the table, and I will do the same" way of balancing the game. Knowing the blokes I do (yes I am looking at you Ed and Russell), I can see this being abused in all sorts of ways. If you are out numbered by a third you can declare a 'Sudden death victory" but this just means your opponent will set up one less figure than you require to be able to claim this. Also how can plonking 3 bloody great Dragons on the table mean you are at a disadvantage if I field ten Spearmen?

Anyway I set up all my painted cavalry, Steve who runs the store and was kind enough to walk me through a game, fielded some Sigmarites from the starter box set.

A misreading of the rules meant we set up as follows,

What we should have done was split the table in two and then set up alternate units, more than 12" from enemy territory.

Steve was kind enough to print out all the Empire war scrolls for me to use. They are very, very simple.

And . . . breath

With the sound of thunder from last nights storms still ringing in my ears (portents of doom the gamers wail!), I waited outside a GW store this morning with a couple of other fellas for the shutters to roll up so I could buy my copy (or maybe two) of this weeks white dwarf. . . . or should that be White Steamhead Duardin!

And all I can say is, Keep calm and carry on.

I have to say my experience at the Games Workshop in Enfield was very positive, so much so I might be popping back tomorrow to give my Empire army (minus my proxies) a run out with the new rules.

My brother has moved to a house (literally a 3 minute drive) near the store and I popped in recently to buy some paints. I knew I would be alright when I spotted a Bloodbowl team in the miniature cabinet!

The fella running the place was sound and although he was running the "THIS IS ALL AWESOME!!!!!!!!" party line this morning, he is obviously a gamer and seemed genuinely interested as my 5 year old told him about his games of Lego Mordheim.

My Empire Army continues to be valid but is sort of considered the ancient version of the future Imperial Guard. Personally I am ok with this. This brings me on to another point. I to had to go through the whole 'oh no my army I spent bloody ages painting in now redundant. HOW BLOODY DARE THEY!!!! AAAARRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

But the truth is, half the games I play are no longer supported by GW and they no longer produce miniatures for them (anyone for a game of Mordheim or Bloodbowl?), AND they continue to be brilliant games to play! If anything once a game is let go by GW it seems to get a second wind and gets another growth spurt. Also smaller companies and fans are free to produce their own miniatures and rule updates without having to worry about threatening letters about IP infringments dropping through the letter box!!!!

How can we not all be winners?

"But the Dwarves are now called Steamhead Duardin and Orks are called Orruks! Thats just stupid!".

Mate I play Warmahordes where Dwarves are called Rhul and have no beards and Elves are called Ios or the Retribution of Scyrah. Who really gives a shit?

With that I will now climb off my soap box and go and glue together my Stormcast Eternal for painting.

Warmachine: Alexia and the Risen

With the finishing of the Thrall recently I had finally finished up another of my Warmachine units, Alexia and her Risen.

Polishing turds AKA painting Cygnar long gunners

It’s been a while since my last proper post and here are the culprits . . . . . .

Poxy Cygnar Long Gunners. These have been an absolute pig to paint.

If it was not for their utility and effectiveness on the battle field they would have found themselves on ebay long ago!

20,000 hits

Had a lovely surprise today when I got home from work to find out I had had 10,000 hits to the blog in under six months!

I am sure the Lego Mordheim was a big reason, but it blows my tiny little mind.

Thank you one and all.