A detailed account of my various commission/hobby projects.
Age of Sigmar – I’m always excited to try out new lines of paint, the science behind it is always evolving and new formulas mean new techniques. Games Workshop’s latest creation is Contrast Paints, which are billed as the paint equivalent of Jesus rising from the grave. Magic in a bottle that will turn your cabinet of grey shame into a multi-hued collection of fully painted models. Glory, glory Hallelujah!
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Sisters of Battle will be here soon and you’ll most likely see a resurgence of this warrior-women. This batch in particular will be rolling with the Ultramarines I showed earlier this week.
Warhammer 40,000 – Shadow Spear introduced some pretty cool new units to the Primaris Space Marine range. This time around I’m painting they in the colors of Ultramar. These guys are destined to join up with the other Ultramarines I recently painted as part of an ever-expanding force.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Wow ten years ago when i started this site I was pretty done with Games Workshop products. Between edition changes invalidating my army lists and generally just taking up to much time to get through a single game; I was done. I sold off everything but my Space Marines and Slaanesh Daemon models and started looking at the glut of skirmish games that were pouring out of smaller companies looking to fill that void for players that felt the same as I did. I launched this site when Malifaux came out and heavily invested in that game as well as Helldorado, MERCs, Relic Knights and a ton of mini-based board games. And then much like the real estate market things peaked and started to crash. Edition changes and updates to those skirmish based systems fundamentally changed how the games played, rather than just cleaning up the rules the upstart companies completely changed everything every time they brought in a new designer or did a mass beta test. Around this time 40k launched some new editions and revitalized interest in the game locally and even though the cash grab and rules glut that was six/seventh edition frustrated EVERYONE the game was fun and established enough that you could always get a game. (Unlike investing in the new hotness only to have the company fold due to mismanagement or never be able to play because there’s zero interest in your area). With the success of Eight Edition and the relaunch of numerous older games it seems like Games Workshop can do now wrong, the perfect time to launch a new way to play … Kill Team.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I haven’t painted Eldar very often, in fact I can’t remember the last time I put paint to a pointy eared space elf. My most recent project is a fairly large Alaitoc force, you know the -1 to hit flavor of Eldar. Oddly enough this for contains zero rangers. I don’t understand how it is the sneaky faction wears bright yellow helmets but whatever I’ll chalk it up to alien shenanigans.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Death Watch don’t get access to any of the Phobos Pattern Space Marines from the latest boxset. Which of course bummed my Death Watch client out, luckily he also collects Dark Angels so rather than black this set of models is going to be green.
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Terrain – 3D printing continues to move forward leaps and bounds which means getting access to cool terrain and custom parts is easier than ever. Back in January Jose at funboardgames.etsy.com sent me a bunch of terrain to review. Sadly I’m just now finishing it up, my year has been pretty swamped and I’ve almost surpassed my total painted model count from last year (822) at the halfway point of this year (617).
Anyway this terrain is great and with minimal effort your can get you board populated with some cool stuff that fits multiple systems. The Gaslands and Star Wars themed crates fit in with most other systems to give a variety in shipping crate options. I used the same rust technique I’ve done with my other Necromunda themed pieces.
Warhammer 40,000 – This should be the last of the Hivefleet Levithan Genestealer Cult. (Well that is until my client here’s some other crazy list idea and decides to add to this one). These guys will be filling in the missing pieces from what I’ve already painted.
It of course includes the obligatory nine mortar teams that fills up the heavy support slot in a brigade, camps on objects and locks down your backfield. Besides the three guard infantry squads this is probably one of the most common units you see on 40k tables.
Also in this batch is a Patriarch (which is painted in the opposite colors as the Broodlord he runs in his Leviathan force), the Biophagist, Kellermorph and Sanctus.
Warhammer 40,000 – Since the release of the 8th Edition Genestealer Cult Codex I’m been trying to figure out a list that works for me. Initially I looked at doing the Tyranid, Guard and Cult force … but that’s not really where I wanted to go with my force. To me GSC is about hidden mutants and dissidents rising up to overthrow the Fascist Imperial Oppressors. The dark Cthulu-esque nature of a cult from beyond the stars is really where the GSC thrives narratively. For me unless it’s part of a campaign or the later part of an uprising allying with Tyranids doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. I’m sure there’s probably a good way to justify it as you can usually rationalize any story hook.
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Warhammer 40,000 - I’ve run out of Tau puns it seems, sometimes I have projects that are complete forces that are provided all at once and it takes a little longer to complete them but when I turn the models back over to my clients they have a complete force. Other times I get things piece meal as my clients ad new parts or are acquiring the force in small chunks. With these I can typically turn the models around fairly quickly based on my work load.
As with the other models for this client I start with a white primer and work my way up from Ulthuan Grey to White Scar with Agrax Earthshade applied to the lines.
Warhammer 40,000 – I’ve painted Hivefleet Leviathan and Black Legion for one of my clients who was clever enough to plan ahead and have me paint his “guardsmen” to work with both forces as cultists. Now that the Genestealer Cult book has dropped his forward thinking has a good portion of his force done.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 - The story in Vigilus Defiant is quite good, the idea of Raptors infesting the spires as a precursor to the Black Legion invasion is great. Haarkon Worldclaimer is an amazing model with pretty “MEH” rules, which were intially “FAQed” to make him significantly worse. A tragic tale that seems to repeat itself over and over with the Chaos factions in 8th Edition. That said the model is pretty amazing and was quite fun to paint.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I’m really happy to see Deathwatch lists popping up as part of the competitive scene, its one of those forces that has so much flavor but tends to get over-costed to make up for all the “extras” they get. With bolters now being more effective I feel you’ll see more of these Men in Black popping up in Imperial Soup armies if not as a stand alone force.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Orks have always held a spot in my heart, the second blister I ever bought had the Blood Axe Ork Character in it and to this day I wish I had held onto it. It was such a cool model. Anyway the point of the bit of nostalgia is that I like orks, even though I’ve never played them as a full army. Horde armies don’t really appeal to me from a mechanical not visual standpoint. Unless you’re willing to put in to extra time converting each miniature with a horde you’re going to have a bunch of the same model. So while it’s not for me I do like orks from a narrative standpoint, they bring a bit of comedy to a grimdark universe even though the very idea of a horde of green monsters looking for nothing more than to destroy everything in their path is terrifying.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Today I have a rare treat, my regular Old Hammer client brought me a sealed Legion of the Damned box from the early 90’s, these classic metal models came in the styrofoam tray inserted into the cardboard box. While not exactly carbon-footprint friendly this classic packaging did make it feel a little more special with each model in their own spot.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – Vigilus saw some pretty decent releases for Space Marines which of course means my Marine clients have new models to add to their forces. First up are the Ultramarines.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I think this grimy guy might be the final model for the Death Guard commission I’ve been working on over the last few months. Festooned with a variety of glassware he is a model unlike anything else in the range.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 - Each week I host a 40k night for my gaming group depending on the week I’ll usually have between 2-8 guys that make it out. Over the course of the year we’ll try and run a few campaigns in addition to just some standard pick-up games. This week we had an odd number of players so we played a 2v1 game. I had 1,000 points of Genestealer Cult which teamed up with two Imperial Knights to face off against 2,000 points of Grey Knights. Typically we’d try to forge a better narrative with the Imperials teaming up but the Grey Knight player just picked up the force and wanted to try playing his full list.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – To go along with the Tempestus Scions for I just wrapped up my client has a Knight Household detachment he wanted to match his existing Iron Hands Successor Chapter. Since the Knights could be fielded alongside either Imperial force they would share elements with both forces.
Read MoreWarhammer 40,000 – I’m really happy with how these Tempestus Scions turned out. I think the higher contrast snow camo makes them pop on the table while still fitting in with the “arctic camo” idea.
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