Mark: Belial

I started a Belial conversion shortly before the rumours about an upcoming DA release started gaining credibility, and with a rumoured release of a miniature I decided to put him aside and wait to see what was came out. Looking at GW's terminator armoured characters like Calgar, Lysander, and the Terminator Chaplain, I had high hopes and while I won't go as far as saying that the miniature is bad, it needs a little movement, he looks a little like he's squeezing his cheeks trying to hold in a wet one.

Since starting this guy my confidence with green stuff has increased, so he will be loosing the cape from the Chaos Terminator Lord which will be replaced with a shiny new monastic robe. 

Until next time .......

Mark

DA Company Master Finished (Finally)

In between building and converting miniatures for my new Chaos army, I've been working on some of my projects that have been on the bench for a while now. So I finally have this guy done, I'm reasonably happy with the way he has come out, I may in time go back and paint the cloak a different colour to the robes to add a little contrast.

I admit I'm a little short on content today so I'll throw in a sneak peak at my Traitor Guard allies for the CSM.

Until next time .......

Mark

Mark: Project Ultramarines #1

Okay I know this isn't Saturday but I had some unforeseen technical issues and wasn't able to get the post done last night. In the past week I've managed to scrape together a Tactical Squad and sculpt the Ultramarines icon onto their shoulders. Midway throught he process I switched from GW to Kneadatite green stuff which has different properties, and in the photo's I could see a gouple of mistakes I made with the first couple I did with the Kneadatite. So I'm aiming to get them fixed up and ready to start painting on Monday.

After getting my head around using the Kneadatite I found that it was a great deal easier to work with on a smaller scale than GW's, so I decided to start experimenting.

Other than a couple of comments regarding my sanity or perhaps lack there of, the response from the clubs members has been positive and they've gotten behind the project. A couple members have offered to donate miniatures to the cause and I'm looking forward to seeing what they will add to the project. 

Until next time .......

Mark

Mark: A Little Progress

I haven't done a great deal of work on the hobby front as both time and motivation have been in short supply. I have put some high lights onto the Dark Angles Company Master that I started a while ago, and I've started building/converting another Librarian for the Dark Angles.

Truth be told I was going to use this guy as a Mephison counts as, but it just felt wrong using my Dark Angles as Blood Angles. I'd like a Blood Angles Army but I think I'll wait until I get my head around the 6th edition rules, and build them from the ground up for the new edition.

Until next time .......

Mark

Travis: (Insert Witty Pirate Pun)

Greetings all, for those who undertake/undertook further education can probably understand when i say i haven't had much time for painting this week. My education demands have become quite heavy and i didn't get much painting done.

Since i started the blog, i vowed i would paint at least 1 LoTR model a week, and knowing i would be busy i did just that.
The Fallen Realms book allow you to take 50% bows in the Harad and Umbar list as long as your warriors are limited to the Harad stuff. The rule is called "The Scorpion Sting". Here is my first Haradrim raider painted in the Greens of my "Scorpion Sting Army".

Got Spear, Go Fight

I decided im going to keep all their horses dark and when i paint Suladan he will have a white horse. So people know who to shoot at.

Following my first game of Mordheim using Pirates i thought i would share the models that i used to undertake this game. Unfortunately due to unreliable shooting the Marienburgsmen (or Marienburgers) overwhelmed my scurvy blighters and the Pirates fled at the loss of their Captain.

Here are the shots of my "Noble" pirate crew, who sail under the Jolly Roger of Captain Luigi Vampa, a Smuggler and a Thief. The Captain himself, armed with. Pistols, a Cutlass, Buckler, Peg Leg and Parrot. He commands the crew with his swords edge and promise of gold.

"Ever considered a life of Piracy?"

 This is Fareon, Luigi's First Mate, he knows where to look for valuables. Responsible for navigating the Black Shard. A decent shot with a Crossbow and carries a pair of Hammers.

My Compass indicates we're nowhere near water"

Satara, a fiercely powerful and loyal man. Washed upon the banks of the river Reik. Not sure of his heritage he encounters Luigi and his crew and has been a Pirate ever since. Not much of a talker or thinker, but very handy with a heavy object.

He's allowed the anchor as long as he puts it back

 Young Frederick, a Cabin Boy aboard the ship. Luigi had an undecipherable (except to Luigi) treasure map pinned to his back. So that Luigi didn't need to carry it.

The Map Boy

This is Hugo, he escaped the noose because the Rope was an old fenced rope found in the markets. Hugo was being hung for womanising and murder. Once Luigi found him, he offered him a job. Hugo keeps the Noose as sign of good fortune.

The Womaniser Hugo, always good for a laugh

Aktara is the deadliest man on the Ship, he is the ships gunner and to be honest a little unhinged. Aktara carries a Swivel gun into combat and can often be seen climbing buildings to get a good vantage point.  The others steer clear of him because the Swivel gun attracts a lot of attention.

36" Strength 5 Armour Piercing Death

 Gerhart is an old soldier who took to drinking and rage, two qualities almost a necessity for a Pirate. Luigi loves a good drinker. It doesn't help his archery skills any, but claims he was once a Reikland Marksman so the crew let him try.

Rarrgh my bottle is empty!

The Valiant, Noble and Resplendent Crew of the Black Shard.

I still want to do some more work on my Pirates i need quite a few more models, but im trying to fill every member with a bit of character even the not so important ones. And once the crew is complete i may even make the Black Shard to display them in.

Apart from that i have started building a Shelob, working on a few more Pirates. And an Essay on Dysfunctional Conflict in the workplace...

Mark: AOBR Terminators #1

I'm going to be running a small Kill Team event in the near future for my local club and I need to play test some missions that I've put together for it but couldn't come up with anything out of the Dark Angles codex that fit to the 200pt limit, so I've decided to use the AOBR Terminator squad that's been kicking around my bits box for a while now. I've taken the opportunity to try my hand at sculpting a couple of extra details onto them because I found them a bit boring straight out of the box, and I've been looking for a canvas to learn how to sculpt onto that I don't have an emotional attachment to, so I'm not overly worried if the results come out a little sub-par. So the lords of all things vanilla sorry I mean Macragge will grace the table for a couple of practice rounds.

I haven't tried any sculpting up until now on any of my conversions, I've just found the idea a little bit daunting, but once I got started I found it a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. Each of the U's on the shoulder pads is a little different, that's due to the fact I was experimenting with a couple of different tools and methods. I'd like to give a shout out to Garfy at Tale of Painters for his tutorial on sculpting U's and Ron at From the Warp for his tutorial on how to sculpt scrollwork, they were a great help.

Beyond sculpting U's I've been busy putting together a mission pack for the club's Kill Team event and the players pack for this years Fantasy Tournament has been started. I've also had the opportunity to have a chat to our neighboring (only in Australia could we call 150km an neighborly distance) gaming clubs secretary about our clubs supporting each other, so we should have Kingaroy Wargamers and The Darling Downs Gamers Club Inc getting together for all things gamery (is that a real word) in the not too distant future. I also managed a couple of games of Mordheim last weekend and walked away with a pair of wins. The boys from Marienburg acquitted them selves nicely, they probably deserve a paint job now.

A nice little package came in today's mail, the power cable sample set and ammo belts I ordered from DragonForge a couple of weeks ago turned up. I'll just add that it's not DragonForge's fault for the long delivery time I just happen to live in Australia so it takes 21 to 28 days for packages to arrive from anywhere else in the world.



Until next time .......

Mark

LOTR SBG - Travis Smith

For those of you who know the above abbreviation, well done. The LotR is obvious but SBG? well its Strategy Battle Game. Its what the non-War of the Ring game is called the skirmish base one. The one with the good rules.

So I've really fallen head first into this new LotR stuff, i got the new sourcebooks and I've been furiously planning armies and scouring eBay for good deals. I have my sights set high i want huge armies focused on Pelennor Fields. Im looking at about 4500 points good and 4500 points evil. Although with the new rules Good vs Evil is not the only way to play the game. But this will give me a few 1500 point armies to pick from.

So I started with Rohan last week, made a warband with Merry and 12 Archers which turned out to be illegal so i had to make a new Hero to lead my Archers. I decided on a simple Rohan Captain on a Horse. He doesnt need to hang around the Outriders and as long as i deploy carefully can get him near Gamling quick enough.

It was going to be Hama but Hama is really crappy, So i'm just using the old Hama model as the Captain and converted a mounted version of him. (by cutting of an old Gamlings head).

I dont even have a name badge how an i going to survive?

My Rohan "Army"

And to follow the Blog along i have painted 2 more members of my Fellowship



"I made a promise, Mr Frodo. A promise"



"At least once more, Miss Swann, as always."

Last week i posted a picture of my Coat-of-Arms. I have converted and started with a model to bear such an honoured crest. Here are some shots of the Crest and the WIP of my Horse.

I call her Epona :)

Okay thats all for now, bye bye....

 

Mark: One of those weeks

I know, my fail; it's a cat pic

It's that place, we've all been there, it's painfully frustrating, but we find no reason to leave. It's De-motivation Central, you know that place where you look at the half painted miniatures on your desk and all you can think is "I don't want to". Well I'm there, I have a Dark Emissary that I need to get done before for an online painting challenge I have entered, and the category I put forward for the ANZ wargamers March challenge was selected so I'm guessing I should paint something for it. The suggestion was for something big, like a monster or tank. So I'll paint a tank for my Imperial Guard, I should be able to most of it with the airbrush so it should be a little fun.

Now on to something I have done, I'm still smitten with Mordheim and have managed 8 games this week across 2 different campaigns, with more planned in the next week. I'm finding that a lot of the warbands created after the initial release of Mordheim are a little stronger than the Human Mercenaries I'm running. Lizardmen, Norse Explorers and Beastmen Raiders are all quite a bit tougher, and although it was released with the game Clan Eshin are quite nasty as well. On the plus side after getting your teeth kicked in you quite often come out with an underdog bonus which can give you some stellar hero's and units.

Through the week I've also managed to put together some terrain, but I need some textured paint before I can finish them off. I've also started modeling a Possessed warband and started planing Clan Eshin, Dwarf Treasure Hunters and Shadow Warriors Warbands.

Possessed

Buildings Front

Building Back

Until next time .......

Mark

2012 Totals

Miniatures Purchased: 20

Miniatures Gift/Trade: 201

Miniatures Painted: 47

Wood Elf Points: 420

Dark Angels Points: 1245

Circle Points:18

Scary Things Stalk the Streets of 

Mordheim

Hello all Travis here again, this week ive started my studies, so i have had to get painting in where i could. But thats okay cause ive got some Lizards done, another LotR model and a few games to report.

Mark and i have been playing Mordheim lately and ive been tenderising his Marienburgers with my Lizards. We played a few games with some different objectives but the combination of the Skinks speed and the Saurus' power have made for some tough games for Mark. I did take some shots of the games but they didn't turn out very good I'll have to try harder next time so for now I'll just settle with showing off my Mordheim Lizards.

Moodnuoh Stormcaller, leader of this Expedition

Tetza Hexloq, Totem Warrior and Champion

Natabotl the Hidden Stalker, Skink Chief

Lokboq (Fierce Weapon), Skink Chief

Itzal, Skink Chief

Eninacra Beastmaster, Skink Brave Hero on Gargoloq

Skink Braves with Javelins

Skink Braves with Bows

Saurus Braves, 2 Halberds and a Spear

Narloq my Kroxigor

My warband after 8 games

Ive decided that im going to do at least 1 LotR model a week so here's this weeks

Meriadoc Brandybuck

Heres a WIP shot of something im working on

So thats a few models to keep you going, until next week, keep gaming
Travis

WIP Chaos Sorcerer

I started this guy a number of years ago with grand plans in mind, but lost momentum with the army and he was left sitting on the shelf gathering dust. After watching Tim's video tutorial on sculpting Barbaric Fur I felt inspired and picked up the sorcerer and sculpted a shag pile rug on his back. This is the first time I have done anything with green stuff other than filling gaps, and I don't think he has turned out too bad.