Goal Achieved!

Okay it's a revised goal, with only 1 mini that needed painting, but it's still one of the goals for 2020 completed. There's a couple of things missing, one is the Nephilim jet fighter as that's in a separate box in another part of the house, along with the second squadron of Land Speeders.

The vast majority of the 2nd Company.

Talon Master, and Chaplain on bike Samiel on jet bike, Librarian on bike and Dark Talon

Land Speeder Squadron 1 hang on I think I've done more of these, they must be in the box with the Nephilim.

Squadron 1 and 2.

Squadron 4 and 6 it looks like I forgot I'd done an attack bike for squadron 6 already, but that's not a worry. Yes the numbering is odd, as the original plan was to do 2 squadrons of old bikes I have as squadron 3 and 5 which, with the new bikes coming out I'm looking at doing those as squadron 3 and 5 for now, to replace those 2 squadrons that have (now been) lost to the long struggle of what's called the Indomitus Crusade.

Okay yes one of the bike Sgt for those Primaris bikers will be getting posed like this.

Working On The Things I Don't Like

After my early morning start and status update on the 2nd Company I pulled the box of spare bikes out and and pulled up the attack bike to finish off the 2nd Company.

I also put some effort into the Repulsor, I really don't like think I'll be doing a second one, as it took me a great deal of effort to get this far.

9th Edition Rides Roughshod Over Yearly Vow Plans.

Like a lot of you out there I've been looking at 9th and thinking 9kay so how do I fold this into my yearly hobby plan, and this is my response so far, dependent on getting 2 boxes of course & expect updates as time progresses. I'm dropping the 2 old bike squads, so no worries at all, gone, if I thought I could sell them on ebay I would, and not loose a seconds sleep, need to check if I need at least one of the attack bikes to finish off the bikes I already have. And yes I am currently planning on making one of the sgts in this pose, because I am old and this is still cool.

As I can't be sure that the seperate boxes of bikes will be out this years I'm just going to concentrate on those 6 for now. The Assault Intercessors are going to replace 20 of the Intercessors I'd planned to do for the Lion's Blades, the Blade Veterans will be in 1st company colours following the visual guidelines already shown. The 20 Intercessors displaced will be going back to the Star Leopard box, for 2021. The officers bar 1 Judicious guy will be split half for the Lion's Blades and this years goal and half for the Star Leopards for now, and 2021. The only thing left after these is the 2nd squad of Incurrsors that I need to buy, which I'll do at the same time as the 2 Indomitus boxes. The one Judicial guy I've kept to one side is going to be converted like this one as I think it looks a e.

So I'll need an Ork and a squig... The last thing on the to do list is a 7th Nurgle dread, not firm on plans for this yet, not even decided on a base dread or donar Nurgle machine yet the drone or hauler, but I've hopefully got a couple of weeks to make up my mind before the big release. I do plan to keep one half of Necons with the plan to paint them in 2021, looks like the guard are getting rolled again, unsure if they'll be getting added to though.

The Lords of Old Troupe

As I'm currently awaiting magnets for the Spider Aelf, I've taken these home for now. After checking when I got home I had only 9, so for now I've added one of the old minis back into the squad, and I'm hunting some "Classic" 40k Dark Eldar minis, the one I'm most interested in is one of the Vect Incubi, which I've got a bid on. So far I've got the minis below, so I'll the Dire Avengers Exarch and Cru Ella Devile as well as 3 old metal minis with Harlequins kisses. I need to learn to count, obviously.

If you've been reading for a while you know I like dreads, and several projects have had dreads as a central theme, this gets a little rambling here so bare with me, I checked my bank on the way to work yesterday, and I have enough for a little treat. As is know, the sacred number of Nurgle is 7, and last year I did these 6.

So with my expendable income (yes I have donated a trolley full of shopping to my local food bank), do I get the Forge World Death Guard Dreadnought to finish this off or should I get a cheap box dread and a blight drone and see what I can do with it?

Rainbow Sparkle Power Friends Reunion Part 6

Rainbow Sparkle Power Friends Reunion Part 6

had a bit of a rework after I changed some stuff in part 4

After lunch was finished and repeated request to go to the toilet had been made by Kat, she got the flip phone out and opened it up, she looked at the crystals, and then at her daughters, "one of you hold my free hand, one of hold my arm. I'm going to put my thumb on the lower crystal, which is the one that triggers the transition, okay? Last time of asking, as if you need the toilet there it's not designed for your butt's and bits." "how do you mean?" Thea asked "well when I slept there, the beds were all longer, Amy, remember when Thea had a step up to the toilet and could swing her legs around?" Amy nodded and smiled at the memory, "well I was able to do it, the bath was great though, deep and long, showers were to big and the wrong angle." Thea still looked confused. "It was like the whole place was a built for someone 8 feet tall." "ahh, okay" "hold on. 3, 2, 1." Kat touched the crystal and the fimilliar feeling of being transitioned went through her, the black stone room and grey white light of the Tomb replaced the bright California sunshine and white walls of her home, Amy let go of her hand, Thea get go of her arm. "This is not what I expected," Amy said looking around the Tomb. "I know," Kat turned and addressed the tube," I'd like to know if there is any information on the weapons we have, something like an action video, and also last time none of us really did anything about closing the rifts as Morven... Sapphire was the one who had the most talent for that, we're hoping there's something you can do to train us to close the rifts. " " and the young ones? " the Intelligence from before the dawn of humanity asked " child care issues, and they wanted to look around. " " I have several visual captures of the Defenders against the Nephilim that you can view," on the wall next to the tube the grey white light formed a circle then expanded to a square, an image formed, showing 4 tall figures in red gold armour advancing on several white stone towers the defenders outnumbered the warriors in red gold by 4 to 1, but the sling shot and few bows did no damage, the view moved around, and a blast shot out from the same angle as the point of view, one of the white stone towers had a section near the base blown out and it tumbled, the rubble buried one of the bow man and a sling shot armed defender, the red gold warriors advanced into the confusion, one had a shield and spear this warrior lead the advance, the others followed close behind, a beam lanced out from the spear, it struck another sling shot armed defender who fell, the hand turned to bloody mist, at the moment, several lightning bolts struck the ground outside of the stone towers, and 10, human sized warriors in red gold armour appeared, instantly one of the warriors swung their weapon upwards, a cloud of light descended from the weapon and 4 more warriors stepped out of the cloud and they all ran in several directions, another of the new arrivals faced the defender's of the village and talked to them, another beam lanced out from the point of view at the new arrivals, one of the warriors took the blast on their shield, and, it absorbed the energy, this warrior brought up a spear and fired a beam back at them, it hit somewhere out of view, but the image jumped and slipped from a level view, it also gained altitude. The villagers had fallen back in between the buildings leaving the fighting to the new arrivals. 2 of the human Defenders advanced behind a 3rd with a shield, beams from 2 directions hit the shield, and were again absorbed, the returning blasts, knocked the Nephilim down leaving the armour dented and the attacker unmoving, a second beam from a high angle hit the ground near the front group of the Defenders, the view point skewed around and in the distance a fimilliar shape was flying towards the action, Amy and Thea looked at it and both said at the same time "that's a Chinese dragon" 2 smaller, red gold things detached from this second vehicle, and flew towards the attackers , the view point slewed around again and and 2 more beams struck 2 more towers, one fell, the second stayed standing, the damage not enough to bring it down. The warriors on the ground moved slower now, as they had reached the rubble, closing back up to stand close to each other, one of them looked at the point of view and gestured for it to go around, the view shifted again as the craft moved around the towers, some of the defenders had prepared an ambush, a beam struck them, killing them all. In the distance, both of the smaller craft had landed behind the original warriors, 4 warriors got out of each and they advanced onto the village, the craft took off. "okay enough." kat called out. The image faded. "can you show us a map of the world?" The intelligence shifted in its tube, the gas moved, the viewer changed and showed the continents, Australia looked out of place, being much lower on the map, India and Africa looked bigger, America looked more or less the same, Florida looked wider, but the biggest difference was that Britain and Ireland were still connected to Europe. Amy took her phone out and took a few photos. "Really?" Kat asked "we're studying the ice age this year, that might be useful..." she tried, Kat weighed up her options on this. "we get home you're to hand draw that, and delete them from your phone and the cloud back up, and pass it off as speculation based on evidence okay?" Amy looked crestfallen but agreed "how would you explain the picture anyway? And no more photos okay?" there was the expected chorus of "aww mom" but they both agreed, Kat got her phone out and looked up at the map, she looked at the tube, "your map is out of date, by a few thousand years," she waved her phone, "is there a way we can connect this to you?" she asked, something like a lecturn rose from the floor, "place the device on the interface, " the intelligence said. Kat placed her phone on the black stone surface, several black probing tendrils moved from the bottom edge, she guided them to the charge point, one reached the charger and the others followed, " what is this device? " it asked " a telephone, it let's me access nearly all human knowledge and potential talk to anyone on Earth that has one, all you need to know is the number to dial" Kat replied, she opened up Google Earth, "can you see what's on the screen now?" she asked "I'm struggling to understand this device, it is new to me," a whisp formed near her shoulders, "please manipulate it for me, I will observe." Kat flipped around on Google Earth, flicking the map around. "where on Earth are we?" she asked, a question about 20 years out of date. "we are located at a nexus of Earth Energy under the highest mountain range in the World." Thea and Amy both gasped, "we're in India?" Thea asked. Kat switched on GPS more in hope than expecting a signal to reach her phone. "what did you just do? I sense a signal trying to find something above the sky, you have devices going around the world?" "yes, that signal would locate the device by allowing it to talk to the satellites." "mom, can we have a look around while you teach the proto Boomer how to use a phone?" Amy asked, she looked at her daughter and stifled a laugh, biting her lips to stop the smile. "do you think you've can work out how to integrate one of these, not this one it's mine, to what you use?" she asked the Intelligence, not letting herself even start thinking of calling it Boomer. "if you leave it here while you go, it will help me to deduce what I need to allow a fuller interface." "okay," Kat wasn't sure but left her phone to be probed. "right you 2, this way," Kat strode towards an entrance way, and a few turns and she walked into the tunnel where she'd slept sometimes, she looked again at the chamber, assuming at the time it had been a barracks for some troops, looking again at the bed with a toilet in the corner of the room, a large communal shower room stood at the end of the row, there was 10 of the rooms in this tunnel, with 4 more tunnels like this one that she'd found back then. Looking at them again and after seeing the other tubes Kat began to realise these had been holding cells for the captured Nephilim, she shuddered at the thought as Thea went into her old room, "Pearl Jam, Nine Inch Nails, Smashing Pumpkins... That's not a surpr... Mine!" Kat walked in as Thea was kicking off her shoes and trying a pair of high topped Converse that she had no memory of, she looked around the room, dirty cloths piled up in one corner, next to an empty pack, the back pack full of what had been clean cloths, Amy flipped the top up and pulled out a coupe of shirts, then dug down. " We are taking this back with us, we could make a fortune selling these on the retro clothing markets" "there's probably another one in the dirty washing as well." Both girls looked at the pile then at their mom, Amy got it in first "you now have no room to tell us off about washing." Kat had been preparing her defense since she they'd both wanted to see this place. "1, don't forget how I left this place. 2, there isn't a washing a machine I could use here, I would spend a night or 2 at Claire's or Angel's or Morven's or my Aunts and get some washing done when one bag was full." home work and school books still sat on the IKEA desk she never enqueried about how it had got here, along with the alarm clock she'd never remembered to wind up, she picked it up and threw it into the open bag. She pulled her shirt up over her mouth and breathed in, holding her breath as she moved the dirty washing into the other bag, her top went in with the rest of the dirty stuff, she grabbed the top shirt in the other bag, and waved it a couple of times to shake free any dust and put it on. "Foo Fighters are that old?" Thea asked. "first album was released in 95, I think, oh hell 25 years ago now. Okay I'll give you that. Come on grab the clean bag Amy, Thea don't forget your shoes," Kat climbed on the bed and looked for it, unzipping the sleeping back, flipping the pillow and eventually found what she'd been looking for, she smiled to herself and picked up the thread bare stuffed toy cat, she kissed it and tucked it in her pocket, and climbed off the bed. She picked up the bag of dirty clothes and navigated back to the tomb, rather glad that she's never really grown out of wearing combat pants and all those pockets. She dropped the bag in the Tomb the whisp was still going over her phone, and addressed the tube, "those dragons in the video do you have any here? I'd like to see one up close." "there are 2 of the Vermana in the upper level, but they are inoperable, the key that activities them was not on any of the Nephilim we had taken prisoner." "that's probably a good thing really." Kat replied, "no, need to learn how to close the rifts first, okay so how do we go about that?" the Intelligence had a moment of thought, "the rifts have a negative effect on this world, the world itself wants to heal it, you just need to channel the Earth Energy into the rift and will close by itself. To channel the energy, focus on your stone, and pull the energy towards you." Kat sat on her bag, crossed her legs and focused on the wand's gem stone, she could feel the currents flowing into a pool where she currently sat, and flowing out, she tried to visualise the flows around her, the image she saw was like a deep ocean current map washing all over,

with tributary streams welling up and flowing into larger and larger streams until they pooled in a few places, she could feel the one under her in Nepal, another was in the South West of England, one was in Central Australia, another was under North Africa, South America had a couple, somewhere in the Andies she could not work out where, and in North America there was one in what she worked out to be roughly New Orleans and another in the North, but struggled to pin the place down, she tried to draw a strand towards her, teasing at the pool that was beneath her, it was a thing that was felt in a sense she couldn't put into a words if she had to, later explaining it to Amy and Thea it was like moving a limb that had gone to sleep and was numb, and distant but as she pulled the feeling came back to her, but for now Kat allowed the filament of energy she'd been able to draw fall back into the pool, she gradually came back to the room, not really sure how long she'd been away. Both the girls had sat down and were watching a video on Amy's phone. Kat blinked a few times and slowly unfolded herself, standing up slowly and unsteadily. Amy saw her "oh your back, we had a wonder around, found those tubes you talked about and the other stuff, nothing 'sang' to us" she said, sadly. "I'm relieved to hear that, so how long was I absent?" kat asked "About an hour and a half," Amy said, checking the time on her phone, " we also found the dragon things upstairs in a garage hanger type of thing, there's 2 of them and 3 of the smaller ones, they look like a delivery van but fierce? If that makes sense."

"I think so" Kat said shaking some life back into her legs. "we done here for now?" both girls agreed they'd seen enough for today and wanted to go somewhere warm and with Internet, Kat disconnected her phone from the table, she addressed the tube, "I'll pick you up a phone you can pull apart and mess with tomorrow." she pulled the flip phone out, shrugged the back pack of dirty washing onto her back, Amy had the clean stuff, and reminded Thea about to get her shoes, Kat patted her pocket to make sure she still had Wun with her and her keys, Thea held her hand, Amy an arm and she touched the crystal and transitioned back to San Dimas, they all blinked in the sun light after the darkness of the Tomb, they went into the house, Kat looked at her washing machine and the dirty clothes and decided to take that bag to the laundrette for the first wash, they could have a second wash at home after, the clean bag got turned upside down and the kids spent 10 minutes going through it sorting it into piles of Amy's, Thea's and Kat gets a choice, while Kat got tea on. The washing machine was treated to its first load of the night.

The Warp Spider Exarch Conversions

Started this one a couple of weeks ago by rooting through the DE bits to find the blasters, head and arms I needed and scouring ebay for a Warp Spider Exarch and a cheap plastic Drazhar. I started off by sniping the skull from the trophy rack, a Blaster from it's arm and a couple of mandibular looking things from the talos body, those got green stuffed to the skull, and I left that alone to set. I glued the Blaster to a wytch arm as shown in the first pic. The drazhar body was filed down on the back to get the jump generator to fit better, and I started playing around with the various arms and head to get a decent looking pose. When I got back to work I made a start on painting it for my Harlequins army, and one of the Troupes specialises in playing the Lords of the old Aeldari race, I started with the ushabati bone base coat followed by a screaming skull coat, then a coat of deepkin flesh then finally white Scar, the weapons have had an agrax earthshade wash, just need to give them a screaming skull dry brush and then give this and everything else I got white tonight some purple bits, but as I have one more I need to paint white tomorrow I'm holding off on that till I get everything ready.

The Gouf Custom

Okay, the Gouf Custom is big, bigger than a Warlord Titan, which makes it bigger than an Imperial Knight...

This is a nice kit, the sprues are well spaced and uncluttered.

It's all push fit, and the vast majority of the joints are a great fit, the seams are much better than GW push fit kits.

It has a great range of articulation and posing options. I may be considering putting it on the table as a Knight, with the Gatling Cannon and sword. The only thing left to do is to magnetise the hands, so will be getting some 3mmx1mm ordered for that.