I'm not dead!

...I've just been busy...

Busy enough that I've missed my traditional year in review posts, the blogs second anniversary, as well as a million and one other things. Despite the lack of posts for a couple of months, the blog seems to still have gotten some traffic, so thankyou and apologies to everyone who visited while I was away. But hey, let's play catch-up now!

Abridged 2012 in review - the tally ended up at 68 vs 171 = -103, so perhaps the less said the better (although it isn't as bad a position as the previous year, so hey, small victories). And yes, I still haven't finished painting a miniature since moving house. But that's not to say I haven't done anything hobby related, just not a great deal...

Projects:

As I'm getting married this year, there can be no new projects started, and I should probably focus on just painting miniatures that I already have. We'll see how that turns out, but it's good to get the intent down in writing surely?

And thus, the official list of projects is as such:


Path to Glory:

This is my Nurgle warband as it stands:

Pretty much ready to go with the exception of a Spawn. As previously mentioned in this post, my plan is to convert a Spawn inspired by one of my favourite old conversions, with the body of the original Beast of Nurgle. Handily, I recently managed to acquire this:

Which unfortunately takes the new tally down to 0 vs 1 = -1

So all I need now is a suitably old-school looking Chaos Warrior to hack in half and then I'll be ready to actually start painting them! I'm quite fond of the old Nurgle warrior with a horned helm and bulbous sword, but they don't seem to turn up on eBay when I want them... (hint, hint)

Admittedly, I did also roll up a Slaanesh warband, which I planned to convert from Dark Eldar miniatures (Lelith Hesperax conversion for champion, Wyches as the basis for warriors and Wracks as the basis for Chosen), but the price of that little warband would be be obscene (based mostly on having to buy a box of finecast Wracks) for the number of miniatures I'd actually use, so that one may have to go onto the backburner...

I've also been making some Chaos terrain to use for Path to Glory, but that's not finished yet, so I'll save that for another post...


Batman:

Knight Models Arkham City miniatures are lovely. Just lovely. So lovely that it spurred me to get round to playing Arkham Asylum. And now Arkham City. My lovely young lady ordered me a bunch of the miniatures for Christmas, which alas are still yet to arrive, so in the meantime I've been buying magazines to get batmobiles and stripping heroclix:

As lovely as the Knight Models miniatures are, I'll still be using heroclix for a number of characters, as a) I already have a bunch; and b) in some cases I prefer the comicbook character designs to the Arkham City ones (Scarecrow, for example - as kooky as the computer game design is, I think I'll stick with an oldschool look..)


Zombieslayer/Slayers:

I still plan on doing something along these lines, although the large themed Undead and Empire armies may have to wait in favour of painting a Slayer or two here and there in between other projects. I had a dig through my box of Slayers the other day to see which sculpts I was missing, and discovered that while there are a few varieties left to collect, I also have some that aren't listed in the 'Collecting Dwarfs' book:

For example, both the musician and the standard bearer are different to the one in the book, as well as a couple of Slayers looking like variations of the ones pictured (the ones next to the picture rather than on top of it)... And don't worry, I have more Slayers than this, these are just the basic Slayers (although if anyone has any I'm missing and fancies a trade, let me know!)

Gotrek and Felix may also get painted at some point, but then I'd have to paint some Skaven, and buy a copy of Warhammer quest for obscene amounts of money to get the dungeon tiles and cards...


Star Wars:

Although I'm still planning on getting round to painting enough figures from the classic trilogy for some skirmish gaming, I'm also quite taken with the idea of running a game recreating Grievous' kidnap of Palpatine - I've already got the Knight Models Grievous and Magnaguards, plus my Christmas Stocking had this:

I've got a WOTC Shaak Ti squirreled away somewhere, so all I'd need would be a Roron Corobb and a Foul Moudama and I'd be ready to go - and yes, to pre-empt any hardcore nerds asking where's Roth-Del Masona and B'ink Utrila, I'm basing it on the animated series canon directed by Genndy Tartakovsky, because I think it's cool. So Ner ;)

On the Star Wars front, I'm also now the proud owner of a copy of the Star Wars: X-Wing game, so I had a dig to see if I had any ships in a useable scale and came up with these:

Plus the obligatory Slave-I:

So I'm sure something can be done with all this...


Other bits and bobs:

Halo, ROTPOTA and the zombies project aren't forgotten about, but I have no specific plans for them at this point in time. The Halo project is ready to go for PVP games, so I might start painting some Flood or Covenant if the mood takes me (aka when I get round to playing through Halo 3, ODST and Reach...). Blood Bowl is still on the cards, as I could finish my team with a single day of focus, but don't expect that to happen any time soon. Rob's painting Warmachine stuff at the minute, which whenever he tells me about it tempts me to dig out my unfinished Mercenaries... or my unpainted Cygnar... or my unbuilt Cryx... Tavo's threatening to run an RPG, so my attention could swing back round to the generic fantasy miniatures... Uncle Johnny's cleaning up a dozen or so epic titans at the minute, which is a pretty tempting prospect too... Talking of Uncle Johnny, we managed to get a game of Battle for Armageddon in a while back:

 Despite a number of tactical blunders on my part (going against canon with a misunderstanding of the rules led to my Gretchin being at the back - I assumed that I'd be able to punch a hole in the Imperial lines by throwing all my good stuff forward from the get-go, not realising how debilitating attrition would be...)

Starting to get my head round how the game worked I started pressing forward...

And forward, grinding through hives as I went...

At which point, despite a couple of stupid bold death or glory strikes that left me losing a couple of vital counters as they either smashed face first into John's defences or were cut off from supply...

I managed to pile enough counters around the last hive to topple it with a few choice dice rolls, winning me the game, and proving once again that whenever John and I play a game the stars seem to align to allow me the right combination of luck, skill, handsomeness, modesty, and sheer jamminess.

 Right, that's probably about three months worth of posting in a single post right there...

A Champion Rises!

Finally managed to get my hands on the Nurgle Champion I wanted to lead my Path to Glory warband thanks to eBay and a chap in New Zealand:

Which takes the tally to:

68 vs 171 = -103

All I need now is the Spawn and I'll have all the miniatures I need to make my warband, and there's an auction on eBay ending tomorrow with the bits that I need for that conversion...

Alas, no other progress has been made, as we're still unpacking, hence the 17" pile of White Dwarfs currently in the middle of the living room:

That's not all of them though, as there are still more to be found in boxes yet unpacked, and that's nothing compared to the 29" pile of rulebooks in the corner... Once everything's found, it'll get put on the correct shelf, and then I can start unpacking the boxes labelled 'tools & toys' that I've been saving as a reward for myself for unpacking every other single thing we own... Speaking of things found, I found this in my Space Marine Codex:

A colour scheme chart for a Space Marine army that still consists of a single half-painted miniature. And yes, although there are various online colourscheme editors available, I did trace this and colour it in with felt tip pens. That's just how I roll.

Mystery miniature

aka Uncle Johnny fights the tally...

An old rust monster (because I loves them. Also owlbears. And Myconids.); some Aliens (from Leading edge); a WEG Darth Vader (because we love the Wars) some zombie ogre looking chap (because a while back I mentioned that I was looking to make some sort of ogre unit filler for my eventual Zombieslayer project); a Warzone chap of some sort (because John gave me several baggies of them a while ago); an awesome mummy that I'd been after for a while (is it an old citadel one?); the chap from Heroquest that always gets painted up like skeletor; and a mystery monster because I like 'weird' miniatures:

Anyone have any ideas what he is or who made him?

This little care package takes the tally to:

68 vs 170 = -102

It's still doable!

In other news, I still have as of yet to make any progress on my Path to Glory warband, mostly because I've not yet been able to unpack my tools (I did open the box with my WIP conversions in, thinking I'd packed the basics in there, but it turns out I was too organised and actually packed all my tools away...)

[Brief diversion]: The one good thing about moving? Getting to read all the odd comments and comics that I'd previously written on various boxes whilst sick of packing:

They're like a gift from past me to future me (who is now present me).

(a picture as non-sequitur as that last sentence...)

However, Rob did drop in some Chaos Warrior heads for my planned Marauder conversions though, so as soon as I've got access to knives and glue again we're good to go!

Speaking of conversions, I'm sure I mentioned a while ago that I couldn't find any pictures of a couple of old chaos spawn conversions that I was thinking about recreating... Turns out that whilst they are not anywhere on the internet (well, they probably are, but nowhere I could find them), they were in fact in an old White Dwarf in Uncle Johnny's library:

Barbarian + wolf + spawn bits conversion I was originally considering...

Slug body Spawn! As it's a Nurgle warband I'm making, I think this is the one I will use for inspiration. Unfortunately, this is the conversion that isn't included in the article, so if anyone has a copy of the 'Citadel Miniatures Modelling Guide' you could make me very happy...

Also, if anyone has the beast of nurgle that the slug body is from that you don't want anymore, let me know...

And lo, I return...

...post-move, post-Reading Festival, and post-birthday (not in that order). Nicole went all-out this year, and amongst the piles of other presents was an order confirmation for some Games Workshop goodies that I got to pick up yesterday:

Dark Vengeance (cultists woo!), as well as the Mordheim Frenzied Mob and an Undead warband, both of which made their way onto my birthday list as part of the long planned Zombieslayer project. Speaking of the birthday list, I emailed some bits and bobs to Nicole, including the 1989 Nurgle Champion with Halberd that I'm currently after, which a GW employee apparently claimed could be ordered... alas, he was wrong. Does anyone have one? I tried over on the LAF, but so far all quiet... This chap:

So, piles of miniatures: good for making me happy, not so good for the tally:

68 vs 161 = -93

Poop.

Post-move, we're partially unpacked, but all my toys are still locked away in their boxes, so no positive swings to the tally just yet. Path to Glory remains a priority though (as long as I don't get distracted by the shiny new push-fit Dark Vengeance plastics), with the Marauders at the top of the list.

Speaking of the move, whilst on a jolly up to Ikea to buy furniture (yes, and stock up on cork), we nipped into Bluewater where I was able to snap a couple of pics of the Ork Baneblade painted by John of John's Toy Soldiers:

Gorgeously modelled and painted, and worth having a nose at if you find yourself in the area!

A winner is me!

My prize from Lord Siwoc's recent competition, or should that be Lord S(iw)ock?

Wreck-age limited edition Kickstarter miniatures (including a baconbomb, a pig strapped with explosives!), a Lord Siwoc zombie survivor magnet (that hasn't gone up on the fridge yet, as I'm moving house in the next fortnight, but rest assured, it will be used in anger) and a pair of stripy socks, which cracked me up when I opened the envelope. Anyone reading this that hasn't yet visited Lord Siwoc's blog is advised to go and have a nose, I mean, he actually plays games with his zombies ... (one day gadget, when I finish (re)writing my ruleset...)

Boils and pustules and marks oh my...

Just a small amount of work done on the Marauders, as I still have as of yet to acquire any Warrior heads:

Some quick greenstuff work to add some of Nurgle's blessing to the Marauder bodies. Liquid greenstuff makes adding boils a pretty speedy job, and a minute or two with the end of a paperclip makes a couple of burst ones. The body on the far left is the only duplicate in the group (as I'm using a zombie body, in the background of the blurry pic above, on the sixth marauder), so I thought I'd pretty up his ostentatious belt buckle with a Mark of Nurgle. Off came the existing detail with a knife and files, and again Liguid greenstuff was used to paint on the three circles that make up the symbol. I ragged up the edges with a knife, and I'll come back tomorrow to do some more tidy up on anything that needs it.

In other news, why is it that sometimes the Nurgle symbol is one circle above two, and others it's flipped upside down? Truth be told, I looked it up in The Lost and the Damned, and went with that one...

Walking the Path to Glory...

So, I've had a hankering for some Warhammer recently...

(image taken out of context and stolen shamelessly from the awesome Non-Adventures of Wonderella)

So, looking into low model count games (that I'd be more likely to be able to finish miniatures for than battle scale games) I came across a PDF of the old rules for Games Workshop's Path to Glory. Admittedly, I could have found something that would use miniatures that I'd already painted rather than needing to paint some new stuff, but that would be too easy. And sensible. And I'd been reading PDFs of the old Realm of Chaos books, so I was in the mood for rolling on some tables... (yes, I could have just used the Realm of Chaos rules, but I'm too young for Oldhammer). 

So, knowing that I had some random Chaos miniatures in my bits box, I decided to roll up a warband. I chose Nurgle, because I knew I had some Pestigor models in my bits box, and also because Nurgle is cool.

Champion (with +1 ws) - need to get a miniature for this - ideally I'd like to get the 1989 Champion with halberd, purely because I like the fact that he has a little Nurgling buddy sat on his shoulder...

Chaos Spawn - huzzah for the conversion opportunities! I have the Spawn sprue somewhere, but I'm more a fan of the oldschool spawn conversions (like the one in an old White Dwarf that's half tiger, half barbarian, and has a snake for an arm). So yeah, we're going for an 80's style with these (or at least my nostalgic view of 80's Chaos as I saw it in the 90's...)

3 Beastmen - gives me a chance to use the Pestigor miniatures in my bits box! I've also got a random 80's Marauder Beastman that I picked up at Salute that I'd like to use at some point too...

Chaos Troll - again cause for celebration, as I have one in my bits box that I picked up at Games Day a couple of years ago! Plus, it being Chaos gives me a few opportunities for conversions...

6 Marauders - I've got some marauder sprues knocking around from when I decided to convert a Blood Pact themed Imperial Guard army (I did a dozen or so and stalled. One day...) I think I'll be going with flails on these bad boys, as although hand weapon and shield is more survivable (and looks pretty cool) if they can't crack chaos armour they'll end up just as dead...

which was my 35 Favour Points spent.

Enthused about my selections, I put out the call to see if anyone else fancied playing, and have at present three confirmations - Tavo (artist and raconteur extraordinaire, who rolled a Chaos Warrior heavy Undivided warband with a Daemon-weapon wielding Champion); Rob (who rolled a Warhound and Minotaur warband, with a Champion with the Mark of Tzeentch); and Uncle Johnny, who has been thus far tight-lipped about what he's rolled... (although he did mention finding most of a Daemon Prince and most of Orion...) Seeing the rewards people had rolled for their Champions I was suddenly less impressed with my +1 WS, and not looking forward to facing down blocks of Chaos Warriors or getting blasted from a distance with magic! 

At this point, Uncle Johnny text me to check which version of the rules we were using... Cue some hurried downloading as I hadn't realised there were more than one! Looking at the updated rules, I decided we'd stick to the original sets of followers tables, as I prefer the mashup nature of these warbands (with Beastmen and monsters and whatnot), rather than those from the later rules (which exclusively feature choices from the Warriors of Chaos Army Book). I did add the Forsaken as a choice though, as I think they could be quite fun to convert... We'll also use the equipment selection rules, Injury tables, and scenarios from the later rules, because (to a point) more tables means more fun!

So, I dug out some miniatures from my bits box:

(The blister at the top is full of random mutation-y bits. And yes, I found another blisters worth of tentacles, claws and whatnot the next time I had a dig).

Once I'd cleaned up my Pestigors and stuck them to their bases, I started thinking about my Troll. After rummaging through my bits, I decided that I wanted to give him a hand swap for a claw and a tail. Originally, I wanted to give him a tail with a snapping mouth, but the piece I had was so short that you wouldn't be able to see it if you looked at the miniature straight on! So instead he got a longer tail with a spiky club for a tip:

Pinning is key if you don't want things to fall apart further down the line!

Once it was all put together though, he looks like this:

See what I mean about the tail? It took some careful bending to get it positioned in a way that looked natural, whilst still leaving me enough space to get a brush around! Talking about his tail:

A little bit of Liquid Green Stuff was used to blend the added piece into the rest of the model.

With the first bit of fun done, it was time to move onto cleaning up plastic Marauders:

Annoyingly, I saw a picture of some Marauders converted to have Warrior helmets, and they looked so awesome I knew I'd never be able to settle for the standard heads... They just look cool with the horns shaved off, and I reckon sticking  plaguebearer style horn or one or two might be quite nice too... So onto the backburner they go until I can source some helmets.

And yes, there are a couple of old Sorcerors up in the corner, I thought I'd start cleaning them up on the offchance that I happen to roll one up after a couple of games. It was slightly surreal cleaning the mould lines off of a miniature that's older than I am... well, until I started thinking about the lead content. Then it was less surreal, more concentration. 

So, here's to hoping the birthday fairy brings me a Nurgle Champion miniature in a fortnight... Also, we're moving again, so it might be a little while until I get to slap some paint on these...