15,000 hits!!!!

Come home from work today to see I have had over 15,000 hits on my blog.

It blows my tiny little mind!

Hassle Free copper. HFA034 Riot cop Neil

Originally bought this for some crowd control of my Blood Bowl stadium, Truth is with all the other projects which have pushed their way to the fore it is unlikely the stadium will be finished this year (if at all).

This fella has been standing in amoung the 'Green streak ooligans' for nearly a year and it felt unfair him being one of the few unpainted minis in that cabinet.

It's not one of my best paint jobs but I decided to pull him out of the cabinet this afternoon and get him finished for tonight as a present for Neil our excellent host at 'Rom on the ford' for our brilliant Mordheim nights.

Once again a lovely, crisp scult from Hasslefree miniatures. Love this brand!

1 more down, 356 to go!

Gripping Beast SAGA. A proper 4 point Viking army list.

After their destruction of Al the other week I figured my SAGA Vikings deserved some attention with the paint brush and finally finished off four points with paint, basing and banners.

"Bring us all your riches and no one gets hurt!"

So here is my 4 point Viking army list for SAGA.

No poxy levy (whats the point!). 

The Warband consisits of;

 Warlord (free)

1 unit of Berserkers (1 point)

2 units of twelve Bondi (3 points of Bondi split into two units of twelve)

"Now wheres that church?"

Due to the sacrificial nature of certain Viking battle board abilities I feel it is best to take the Bondi units in as large a unit as possible to give them more durability and use abilities like Valhalla more then once.

This is why I have gone for two units of twelve rather then three units of eight.

I also find it allows the unit to keep generating SAGA dice for longer without having to hide at the back for part of the endgame.

I know in the updated rules banners have a purpose (I don't know what that is!) but I just like banners because it makes the unit (and for that fact the army) look more imposing and you can hide losses in the gap behind the banner which can fool an unobservant opponent into thinking the unit is bigger then it actually is.

This unit crashing into a unit or Warlord with full battle board boost can generate 24 attack die! Thats enough to get most jobs done, especially if you charge into an enemy unit flank and can keep half of the enemy unit out of the action.

Unit one ready to go!

The Berserkers are a compulsory unit for Vikings!

With Valhalla and other augments they generate 32 attack die! BUT they are a glass cannon and unless you keep them at the back you will always need a SAGA die on the 'Asgard' ability to save them from enemy missle fire. Even losing ONE of these fellas will really hurt their ability to cause carnage to the enemy!

They really are a one shot trick as they will almost definately be wiped out in the combat, but if those 32 attack die are against the enemy warlord who cares!

One warning I will give is against using them to clear an attack channel as they will always be massacred and this WILL generate a fatigue on any friendly units within 6 inches, which your opponent could exploit, especially to shorten the movement of the next charging unit which can stop the assassination run in its tracks.

The compulsory Berserkers but whats with the Mankinni!

The Warlord (Olaf the lucky) is a givern and in most scenarios his death results in your defeat. I try to keep my army in a 'flying brick' formation with as many units as possible within 6 inches of Olaf to allow the 'come with me' ability to get any unit moving.

This is especially true with this army list as the majority of the warband is Bondi and you can not always be garranteed the die to get all the units moving and make full use of the battle board boosts.

Remember just because you activate a unit with the Warlord he does not have to attack the unit with them. I usually just move him over to stand next to the other unit of Bondi while the unit he activated crash into any threats.

"Lucky by name. Tactical by nature!" "Shhhh don't tell anyone!"

I like to keep a large unit of Bondi around the Warlord as it always hurts to pawn hits off onto expensive and hard hitting Hirdguard (especially Berserkers!) when my Warlord gets attacked. Having the unit of twelve Bondi allows me to soak up a lot more hits and leave the Elite units free to do what they are best at - collecting skulls!

Also a unit of twelve Bondi with the Warlord in support can (with the right die) generate up to 34 ATTACK die. That is enough to put off any Warlord from making a run at your Warlord. Especially in the early stages of the game.

Unit two present and correct

As an aside I can now introduce Sven 'The Oak', half brother of Olaf 'The lucky'.

Sven was the result of a tryst between Skorri 'the adventutous' (Olaf's father) and Hilda the gigantic ginger milk maid!

"Kiss my axe!"

The mini was originally a Grenadier model bought at Hamleys when I was about 14. Always LOVED Grenadier models but thankfully I realised I did not have the skills back then to paint it.

It has had to wait over 15 years for a paint job but I feel I have finally done it some justice

They are not painted to the best standard but they will do for an army / game that only makes an occassional appearance.

I gave Sven and the Berserkers a bit more time with the brush as they tend to end up in a lot of the pictures due to their decisive, game ending nature.

6 more down, 357 to go!

P.S. if you have any comments about my list feel free to comment as I am always willing to learn new tricks.

Warmachine. The Beckton insurrection

"Hang on! I thought the Risen were on our side!"

 

With the arrival of my Titan forge Ogres I know only one man I want painting the crocs. I give Lano the smiling assassin a call and 20 min later I am in the car on on the way to his place. With my victory over him the night before I have my Warmachine figures in the passenger seat just in case.

Lano takes one look at the crocs and he's in. Then the conversation turns to what I have planned for the rest of the day. The kettle goes on and 30 points of Warmachine is being set up. I caught him painting Khador at Neils the other night so I know I am probably facing Khador. Lano gives me a heads up and tells me to do myself a favour and take Eryss.

He then plonks Epic Vlad on the table. Yes I am definately going to need Eryss!

The Lords of resin giveth and taketh away!

Decided this week to clear some space in the house and a storage unit I have by shifting stuff via some bootsales. The volume of stuff is just too much for ebay etc at the moment as listing will take HOURS.

One of the things I did decide to move on is some of the Warmachine stuff I have bought which has been sitting in its boxes for far too long!

Was feeling really pleased with my self when I had managed to empty the majority of the car, including several boxes of Skorne and Mercenaries before 9am!

Was home less then 20 minutes when there was a knock on the door and the postie handed me this....

I am a little bewildered as it's from Titan forge miniatures and unless I have been sleep clicking on ebay I have not bought a single miniature this year AND it is addressed to my wife.

A quick call to the Misses and all is revealed..... 

This is my belated birthday present. She swore blind she ordered it over a month ago! The Titan forge web site had said 8 days delivery and she just figured she had been ripped off so bought me a small last minute present the day before my birthday.

I am given the OK and feveriously rip open the envelope and ......

Pure 28mm resin beauty is revealed!!!!!!!!

9 new miniatures to replace the 17 I had JUST sold!

I am trying to deplete the lead mountain...... HONEST!

8 more down, 363 to go!

Mordheim Game 12. Revenge is not a noble sentiment but it is a human one!

Shinobi Joe slipped back into the room and approached Eric. In his quiet voice he stated "They're following Crazy Bob. Thats why they let him go. He brought the Cultist straight to us!".

Eric snarled "Good. It's saves us the walk! Kill the lights and sober up Red. We make our stand here. We will ambush them from the gate House!".........

Hidden in the shadows of the Gate House Eric could hear the Beastman sniffing the ground desperately trying to reacquire Bob's scent.

Eric cocked his Blunderbuss, pulled down his mask then leaped from the shadows while squeezing the trigger. The Beastman disappeared behind the cloud of smoke and wadding. The discharge of the Blunderbuss shattered the silence of the night. It's firing the signal to spring the trap!

From out of the shadows the last of the Forsaken sprung forth to reap their bloody vengence......

Taking acrylic paints on a plane / overseas

Seems pertinent as it's the start of holiday season so though I would write a short post about my experiences taking acrylic paints abroad.

My view from the balcony window!

First things first prep. Any kind of glue, sprays or varnish are a no no! Even in hold. I would even give the army painter tones a miss.

Second, acrylic paints are absolutely no problem going into hold at all and I had a full batch of paints go through no problems both ends with no problems.

One thing I would do is seal the paints in zip lock bags as the pressure changes in the hold can cause the paint pots to pop open. This can even cause a bit of a pop with ink pipettes which can cover you in ink the first time you open it at the other end so be careful.

Should we be offended?

Landed back in Blighty last night and had to post this picture I took on holiday.

I guess this is the way for wheel chair users to the beach?

Made me smile but would it be considered offensive over here?