Big Changes Coming In

Over the Bank Holiday weekend the Poxy Proxy Predator got dusted off and an old White Dwarf got dug out, the one with the Shadowsword and Storm Lord datasheets in. So far this is only the ruff blue tacked version of the model and I'm also reading through the article on the Games Workshop web site that talks about designing your own Data sheet as I type this( who said men can't multi-task?) and will download it and print it off over this week as I work out the best options I can have for this monster. Thinking of going along the lines of the Banehammer with it.

The back story for it is very basic and took 5 seconds to come up with. The tank itself is the scaved remanents of several Imperial Super Heavies that the Iron Warriors have claimed after various battles, with the aid of Hudson Gaden and his Mechanicus knowledge the various components have been welded back together and this monster is the result. For specila rules for it, regarding Gaden I'll go with the Space Wolf rule for Bjorn the Fell Handed and maybe throw the 'Gets Hot' rule for the main gun.

Embedded

This 1 works 2 ways, firstly I finished off Dan Abnett's Embedded this morning. Very good book, fast paced and well written. And I liked how it ended, well worth reading if you get the chance. Also ordered Dan's sword and alchame book through my local library. Use them or loose them folks.

Part 2 is the Iron Warriors, who are embedded in the XIX Chapter. Finished off my troop section today and started on the Havoc choices. As these where originally painted up with a Nurgul theme I'm giving them a basecoat of matt black, didn't read the label when I bought the pot, which is going to be topped off with a dry brush coat of boltgun metal. Both squads will be finished tomorrow during the Monoco GP. I think I'm going to start another project here and convert the P P P into a varient Baneblade.

Finecast Part 2

My normal Friday routine was a bot disrupted this morning, when I went to pay my bills at the shop, the guy that runs it informed that the new White Dwarf was out, so I picked that up, did a little bit of shopping then went back home and put the kettle on for a nice cup of coffee and a browse through my only month periodical.

First off is the amount of space given to the Finecast change. Got to say that the detail in the new Finecast does come across better in a photo than the metal used to do. Again I'm going to withhold judgement until I can see one side by side, but the Librarians head shot in the Editorial does show the detailing inside the hood better than the metal one I've got in my collection. The Azag model is rather good, the chain mail detailing is very high and overall the model looks great, but is this worth the price hike we will have to swallow to get our hands on these models? I can't say yes yet I will have to be able to look at 2 side by side, as I keep saying.

Mindless self indulgence

Okay this post has sod all to do with gaming. I'm playing around with my Nokia X2 and found I can actually get onto my blog and I'm seeing if I could post. What the hell while I'm here I've just started reading Embedded by Dan Abnett, which is his own book not a Black Library publication, not got too far but it is looking very good so far, especially like the idea that people can a chip implanted into their head so that they can't swear.

In Britian we have a radio show called Desert Island Disc where a famous person talks about the 8 records they take, the one book and a single luxuray item they can take with them into exile on a Desert Island, this is my Desert Island books instead.

1 I'm a huge Iain M Banks fan as well my favourite book of his so far is Against A Dark Background which tells the story of a woman who is being hunted by a crazy cult, her stalker cousin and his cronies and her own past. Very good story my copy of this book is very very battered I've read it that much.

2my next book is called Star Warts by Patrick Tilley, when I bought this book I read it in 72 hours and I made myself read it that slowly as it was the best book I'd read in a long time. I also get the sneaky feeling that Buffy and Angel creator Josh Weedon read it as well as some elements of the back story are very close to his amazing and brilliant show Firefly.

3 My next book is The Raw Shark Texts by Steven Hall, a tail of lost love and the hero's decent into madness, there's a video on youtube of Tilda Swinton reading an extract from the book.

4 would have to be Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith, really amazing story about a guy in a fantastical future trying to come to terms with his past.

5 is Good Omens by Terry Prattchet and Neil Gaiman about the end of the world and what happens next.

6 I'd have to say is The 2 George's by Richard Drayfus and Harry Turtledove set in an alternate America that stayed loyal to the British Crown, the story is about the seemingly unconnected crimes, the painting of The 2 George's and the shooting of Richard 'Tricky Dick' Nixon.

Next 2, and I'm bending the rules a little here, 7 would be a box set of Harry Turtledove's Great War Saga which tells the story of an, other, alternate America where the South won the American Civil War and allied itself with France and Britian and what happens when war is declared.

8 is the box set of The Horus Heresy series.

For my luxuray item I'd like to take a boat with crew

failing that a life times supply of Tequila.
And we all know Tequila does this

And of course a girl friday to keep me company on all those long sunny days, Jennifer Connely would be nice.

Finecast

Okay I'm looking at the email that arrived yesterday from Citadel about the Finecast and so far I like the look of them, of course I'm not happy about the price rise that will be brought about because of this switch, but I understand the reason as to why it's been done. Metal is an expensive option and looking at these on screen they do look better, sorry better isn't the right word more detailed, than then metal I've seen. I'll with hold judgement till I can compare 2 side by side, so that means I'll have to buy either another Librian in Terminator armour or
Cypher, I think I'll go with the Cypher personally. I'm not against new for newness sake, but I feel that this could of been handled better by GW than it has been, less of look at our shiny new range and more this is the reason we are doing this, but that may of brought cost into it and we all know GW aren't going to tell us that this is a cheaper option

Old School

I have an 18 year old daughter who has been in my life less time than this Citadel Classic(read seriously old) Assassin. This was a late 80's early 90's cast in lead. Again camera detail is a bit blurry but I'm still working on these issues. (May just get that crap Sony Ericson Spiro back and use it as my miniture camera.) The rifle on in the second photo is a conversion of a Warhammer Empire Musket with a Lasgun muzzle and power pack added the grip was from a boltgun and the site came from the Space Marine box set.

On other news over the weekend I finished my 2nd Raptor squad, chaos now so they are Raptors, and started on the Iron Warrior section of my army. While doing this I pulled out some models from the XIX and swopped them with some I'd put aside for the Iron Warriors, namely what were the Sternguard and command models whioch I'd made with Knight and Chaos Warrior legs and now plan on using these as my Aspiring Champions in the Iron Warrior troop squads. And hell fire are these guys easy to paint! I think it helps that the main colour of my army is black, but the dry brushing is such a cool effect on them and IT'S SO DAMN EASY! I wish I'd done Iron Warriors in the first place.

Assault Marines

This is my 5th day of posting ths week! these are 2 pics of 1 squad of my Assault Marines. Top photo is again a bit blurry, still ironing out my issues with my new camera phone, but the 2nd photo is much clearer. Multi tude of weapons and mostly bolt pistols used with 2 flamers. At the momment the jump packs are blue tacked on, will go to magnets when I get some more money.

Counts As Gabriel Seth

Okay this is my self built version of Gabriel Seth, I know it's blurry, but this was taken with my new phone and I'm still trying to work it out( as well as missing the auto focus off my old phone's camera). 2 Chaos chainswords went into making the Blood Reavor along with the heft off something, I don't remember what it was now. Body & legs are basic Khorne Berzerkers with Khorne symbols filed off, standard bolt pistol assault marine arm, to match the altered chainsword arm on the other side. Head is a Mk7 helmet with some green stuff on to give it the Knightly look, as I couldn't find any like it anywhere. Had to kill 4 or 5 standard helmets and couple of the Corvus style helmets to get this one to look right. Okay updated this one too, loving the blogger app, this photo shows him as I have him now and painted up for The Lions Blades Assault Company, for now I'm on pause with this project as I'm thinking of re-doing this army as Carchodons after reading the updates and Chapter Tactics, and I already have a Terminator I can use as the Chapter Master, but would like to do Knights Of Blood as well... Come the Blood Angel Codex I'll decide for sure but for now I'm painting them ss Knights but will run them as counts as Carchodons

3rd Edit! I have gone back and redone this guy again last year and these are the updated photots, legs are from a knight from fantasy, shield is from an Elf kit, not sure where the head came fron and the power pack is the big one from the Khorne Berzerker set, I'm guessing that the flur de lias is from amother fantasy kit. The last photo is of Jacob Kell in Terminator Armour in the counts as Tybeross The Red Wake. ;

Other Stuff

Okay so I've been a busy little this week posting photos of what I've done over the years now on here, still a few more to come, so keep your eyes open!

But for once this week I want to talk about some of my other gaming past times.

As mentioned I used to run a Vampire the Masquerade game for 6 years so I thought I'd go over some of the details of that long drawn out saga. We started this game because basically 2 of the players had a massive falling out and the Dark Ages Were Wolf game we where playing ground to a halt when one of the guys walked off in disgust and we chose to leave that game. As a change we went back to Vampire but did it as table top rather than Minds Eye this time. I'd borrowed the Transylvania Chronicles books and started to work out a story to get everyone together as one of the players could only think of doing a Roman Gladiator, while most of the others had at least some idea of what the time was like. The most annoying character was a Mongol Gangrel, as in Dark Ages Europe he stood out like a sour thumb, espically with the Outspoken Pagan Heretic flaw, we had to keep him away from the churchs. Next was a Ravnos who was actually played really well by Ronnie Morriss, one of the players that got married before the game ended after emergrating to Canada, the Galdiator was a La Sombra and we had an Assamite Assassin and my DPC who was a Mage, I borrowed the Mage The Ascension Book and the Dark Ages Mage book to get going with this guy, but to be honst I still think I wasn't playing him quite by the rules. Over time the story evolved from it's starting point into something bigger, much bigger. After the first book of the series I had the group approached by the Black Hand, as this seemed to be the easiest way to control them. And they had taken over the city that sat in the pass in Transilviana, and where asked to make it a neutral state for Vampires, neither Sabbat or Camerilla. This worked really well and had the advantage of giving me an in for new charactors and a bit of politics. Only a bit as most of the players where of the 'Hulk Smash Puny Human' mold.

These 2 are my fromerly Necron Pryiahs converted to counts as Terminators. The warscyth has been cut off and a sword blade added to what was left of the heft and a twin linked bolter and storm shield has been added to each model.

Gaden and Chosen

Top is my Forge World Titan Tech Priest, painted up in the Rouge Trader colours for the Mechanicus. Bottom is my Chaos Chosen of Slannesh, made from from Dark Eldar Wytches with some Space Marine weapons. The Champion is made from a Blood Bowl Amazon with a Lizard Man head, 2 blades to make Lightning Claws and a heavy flames Sisters on Battle back pack.

Top is my first 3 of 9 Chaos Terminators made from mk8 front bodies and tech marine body backs, the legs mostly came from Space Crusade box marines. The weapons are a mix of Chaos Warrior and Ork, apart from the Champion who has the sword from the Cypher conversion I've already posted.

Middle is 4 to 6 of 9 same as above really

Third is 7 to 9 of 9. 2 actually Terminators in this one.

Top is the minor conversion on an Iron Wolf Tech Priest. Axe head instead of hammer, plasma pistol added to the heft and a combi-weapon. Sharp eyed my notice that the flamer is on upside down and the nozzle has had to of been cut off and turned over.

Middle is my scratch built Tech Priest from a Scout Marine body and legs, Tau Firewarrior head, Tech priest back pack, misslie loader arm with a rhino misslie lanucher control pack and a twin chainsword.

Top is the 'new' wings on my Slanneshi Sorceress. This is the only change from the standard model.
Bottom is the rear view of my Mechanicus Lord that doesn't really show the quills, have to try this one again in better light. Any one any idea when this rain is going to stop?

Knight of Blood

Okay this is top photo is a character from way back when I was a kid. He first appeared in Transformers as a bounty hunter hired in the year 2020 to take out Rodamus Prime, he ended up in the 1980's, after a stint in the Tardis with Dr. Who, where he meet the Fantastic 4 who started to send him back to his own time, but he ended up going to far future where he was used to introduce a couple of new comics, his own title and Dragons Teeth I think it was. Anyway I always liked this guy and his head and while rooting through a bits box I found the head that now sits on my Knights of Blood Terminator Captain and thought to myself that that looks familiar, hence the paint job on the head. I'm not going out of my way to paint him up like this guy as he has to fit with the rest of my army.
As you can see from(hopefully) the bottom picture this model is assembled from many different parts, and some dodgy green stuff work on the shoulder pad. The legs have had a repaint since this was taken.

Terminator Captain For The Knights Of Blood

Okay here we (should) have my Terminator Captain for my renegade Knights of Blood. As you can see from the bottom photo various pastrs have been used in the assembly of this one. This is also what I would use as the Carchodons Chapter Master with the updates from Forge World.

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Abaddon Scratch Build

These pictures are the wrong way round here, but these are my working of Abbadon. Yes I know the Talon of Horus is on his left hand, but the Latin for left is Sinusitis which sounds better. Ogre big sword, bolters again cut to fit the power fist, blades on the lightning claw are combat knife, power pack is actually a metal necron body with space Marine power pack bit glued onto it and the trophy racks from the Chaos Terminator Lord box. Mounted on the rocks from the Chaos Terminator Lord to give it some extra height. I've since added a top knot to the head and an ariel to the back pack. The middle picture was to judge which head was better. He is the overall commander of the Black Legion so I've given him a miked head that is shown on this one to represent the fact that he'd be directing troops. The bottom picture was an option head that I was thinking of using but in the end I put that helmet back in my bits box.

Rouge Mechanicus Lord, Now Needs A Re-work

This is the one I'm most proud of my Rouge Mechanicus Lord, treated as a Chaos Lord in the Codex, at the core of the model is the Blood Bowl Wraith, to this I've added a Necron Lord arm to give him 3 arms, spent ages looking for another arm I could use but in the end just gave up, 3 short curved blades and with the knuckle duster on the other hand that makes paired lightning claws, the twin linked bolter is an ork shooter that I've cut up, filed down and added 2 bloter mags to the top of and attached to the 3rd arm after removing the wrist. The hand i cut off and then mounted the wrist and forearm guard on the shoulder as a plasma pistol. I've since added some Kroot head quills to the back of the helmet.

Slannesh Sorceress

This is My Slannesh Sorceress, no conversion done at all on this one, just straight from the blister pack, a Senior Sister from a Serephim Squad. Although I have since added a pair of the old Dark Eldar Scourge wings. Look like a winged jump pack rather than the flutes on the Serephim model.

to the left you can see 1 of my Terminator conversions for my Corrupted Sisters of Battle. Going to run with them as Marines for as I have the Chaos Marines Codex. Terminator body and legs, from club bits box, Chaos Terminator Chainfist with the lower blade removed and switched with a meltagun. The model is armed with a combi bolter the idea for splitting the barrles came from a guy at the club who had done that with his Tech Marine and mounted the Infernus pistol onto the models jump pack. I've since gone on to make more of these, photo will follow soonish.

Cypher

This is one of my fav bits of work. This is a Cypher conversion I did last yesr to finish off my Chosen Marines for my XIX Chapter. Second pic is the parts that went into making the miniture, Khorne Berzerker Power Pack and Sword, one of the last of my old style bolt guns with the strap taken off a Scout Marine Bolt gun and Cyphers Bolt Pistol arm

First of the Knights Of Blood

Okay this is a conversion I did a couple of months ago when i first had the idea, it's made from Terminator legs, a tank tech marine body that I filed flat, a Khorne Berzerker power pack and Teminator arms with Ogre pit fighter punch dagger hands, after seeing how much damage a punch dagger could on Deadliest Warrior. The basic idea was to do a cheap terminator with spare parts I had and had scrounged from the club bits box.

The Rework

So between the bank holidays we've all enjoyed in this country and the amazing weather as well in this country( I'm putting some washing out on the line to dry when i get home, better than a rain dance) I spent an afternoon in the house with my collection and an agenda.
As mentioned before I'd made some Daemon Hunters and had some Chaos stuff that I wasn't using so I pulled all of those out, lined everything up on my coffee table and shuffled stuff around till I was happy(got some funny looks off the people walking by my living room window as well). Most of the standard bolter across the chest models, the Space Crusade and some Soul Drinkers I'd bought, will be going to make the Iron Warriors. Most of the Daemon Hunters have been put in with the XIX as more dynamic stance Chaos Marines, most of my troops where split when i still played them as loyal, and had half charging with either a bolter and bolt pistol or knife and bolter(personal preference there) and the other half more statically stood as if covering the Heavy Weapon guy. So most of the Marines I've pulled from the box and culled from my assault squads( my Assault Squad/Raptors are now all Dark Angel Veteran models with jump packs) are going to represent fallen The Knights of Blood in my massive army.

This has left me with some massive amounts of painting to be done and some more paint to be bought, need some bleached bone, sounds so much better than beige, and some more bolt gun metal, as for now the only things I can finish off are the Knights of Blood and of course I can make a start on the XIX's new recruits , just need teh beige to finish them off, oh yes and 5 more Dark Angel Vets and some jump packs from mail order. And then I can start to but the next round of tanks and transports and all the rest, and by then we should have the plastic Sisters of Battle for me to start the Corrupted Sisterhood.