Dropzone Commander: UCM (Raven Gunships - Part 4)

I'll start by apologising for the crappy photos. I'm no photographer, but I can normally take a snap I'm happy with. Not so this time.

Anyway - more Hawk Wargames resin models and again - I found these frustrating to work with. They just don't want to fit together very well.

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Saga: Vikings (Part 5a - Levies)

So, as many of you have no doubt already noticed, I'm "Subject to Stupidity".

In the last post I wrote for this project, I presented a unit of spear-wielding levies as being a unit for my Saga Vikings, only to have it pointed out that Vikings don't have spear-wielding levies in their army list.

So, this unit is a replacement for the previous one, who will get re-purposed into a Strathclyde Welsh army at some point.

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Heresy Death Guard: Contemptor Dreadnought (DreadTober 2017 - Part 5. Finished)

Hi all.

Here is the - somewhat belatedly - finished product for my contribution to DreadTober 2017.

Life went to hell in a handbasket a few weeks ago when a family member was hospitalised. We had to make significant changes to our home and schedules in order to provide care for her. Wargaming, painting and modelling had to take a back seat.

Whilst we're still mired in the situation, I did manage to find a few minutes yesterday to photograph some of the models I'd been working on at the time so that I can upload something new to the blog instead of re-sharing finished projects from days of yore (that said I've got a few more of those to share so I'll drop one in from time to time).

Anyway, here is the finished product:

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Dropzone Commander: UCM (Troops and Bears - Part 5)

The final set of troops and APCs for the UCM force I'm building.

Anyone who follows my blog will know that our family has had some upheaval due to illness recently and so what I'm sharing here are photos of models I actually finished a few weeks ago but never had time to photograph.

This set of Dropzone models is the final batch that I managed to complete before it all went wrong. I'll carry on and complete this army, but probably not until 2018. Stay tuned.

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Dropzone Commander: UCM (Troops and Bears - Part 3)

Here you will find the second of two sets of three posts regarding my Dropzone Commander UCM Troops and Bear APCs.

Each post shows two units (one Bear and two Troop stands being one unit. I think. Still ploughing through the rules).

The Hawk Wargames plastics are definitely easier to work with than their resin counterparts. These are 10mm scale models - it's a nice scale to work in. I'm enjoying it.

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Dropzone Commander: UCM (Kodiak - Part 2)

Here is the Kodiak Command Vehicle for my Dropzone Commander UCM force.

It's a bit odd: The main part of the model is basically identical to the Bear APC models, but with a "tow-bar" added. The Bear models are plastic, this is resin.

I can see no real reason they made this in resin - there's no additional detail on it and the foibles of resin casting have left this as a slightly deformed model that doesn't quite fit together properly.

Go figure.

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Dropzone Commander: UCM (Troops and Bears - Part 1)

I did it again. I started another project. I swore blind to myself that I wouldn't. I did though. I'm a liar.

A friend pointed out to me that Dropzone Commander 2nd edition was due for release soon and that a webstore I like was clearing its shelves of 1st Edition stuff at half price.

So I bought two starter sets and a handful of extra bits.

I determined that this was going to be a project where I broke out (and used!) my long-ignored airbrush. I've never really got fully to grips with it. It's a slippery beast and seems designed to frustrate by clogging, spitting and looking at me funny behind my back.

Anyway, we wrestled, scrapped and tussled for a bit and in the end I produced a set of models that I'm happy with. All have had their base colours & camouflage airbrushed on and details added with a regular brush.

I'm about half-way through painting the UCM forces from the boxed set - all  the Bear APCs and the Troops are complete, as are the extra bits & bobs I picked up. I've just got the tanks and carriers to go. And the Scourge.

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November: New Year's Resolution

At the present time, it is difficult for me to work on modelling projects due to family circumstances. Being slightly obsessive, such things are rarely far from my mind and I found myself having a nose through my blog and reviewing some things I've worked on in the past.

As often happens with me, I found myself feeling guilty about unfinished work and work that hadn't been completed to a standard that I now find is "up to scratch". This led me to two of my biggest modelling regrets (and there are others, I promise!)

2018 will be the 10th anniversary of two of the biggest scratch-build projects I have ever worked on. I was given a copy of the first edition of the "Apocalypse" rulebook by my friend Mike who also gave my son James (who at that point was still gaming) a Baneblade model. This, along with a challenge which James gave me to scratch-build a Titan - inspired us to do some modelling work and arrange an Apocalypse game!

The Baneblade was quickly assembled by James, but lay unpainted for a long time until I picked it up and completed it a while back.

So, since we're not millionaires, I accepted James' challenge and embarked upon my first scratch-build project - a 28mm scale Warhound Titan.

Whilst I am still immensely proud of the achievement, I've always felt disappointed by the overall result; the paint-job is poor and there is not nearly enough detail on the model. Too many flat surfaces. The basing is uninspiring too. Don't even start me on the banners - awful. I'd like to think my painting skills have improved somewhat since I did this and it looks horrible to me now.

The "good guys" were sorted - a large force of Imperial Guard (played by me) with allied Ultramarines (supplied and played by a friend of James') were facing off against a force of Orks (played by James) with allied Necrons (played by Mike).

Conscious of the fact that the "baddies" were under-represented with larger models, I also scratch-built a Stompa for the Orks.

Neither the stompa nor the titan have progressed past this point. Enough is enough, so, I resolve for 2018 to get this Battle-Puppy  and metallic Bigfoot back out of their boxes and rework the finish. I may even build the two missing guns that I was originally going to create for the Titan, so that it can have interchangeable weapons. The Stompa needs its feet working on, a better head and the gatling cannon thingy is a bit naff too.

I also have in mind another "Lords of War" scale project - I might do it in 2018. Not decided yet. I picked up a second Baneblade model a while back with a view to using it as the basis for an Astra Militarum Gorgon troop carrier. I've always loved the Gorgon model but as I've already said "I'm not a millionaire".

Watch this space. Brace yourselves for lots of black-and-yellow hazard markings!

Vampire Counts: Zombies (Final - the Horde)

Well, it's Hallowe'en so I thought I'd share a post of (almost) all of my Zombies. I actually found another 20 in a drawer that I'd forgotten I'd painted after I took this photo.

Life has taken a swerve to the kerb over the past few days so I'm unlikely to get much painting and modelling done for a while, but I do have a few finished (or very near finished) projects that I may be able to get up to snuff to keep the blog ticking over.

I'm particularly annoyed not to have completed my Heresy Death Guard Dreadnought in time for the end of DreadTober 2017, but I will finish it as soon as I can and share it with you.

Happy Hallowe'en, everyone!

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Heresy Death Guard: Contemptor Dreadnought (DreadTober 2017 - Part 4)

Getting near the end now. In my last post I laid down all the flat base colours. The model still looked pretty ropey at that point (some may argue it still looks ropey now!).

Since last time, some washes have been applied, some drybrushing on the metallic bits, the lenses, buboes and Nurgle's Rot has been painted. A little drybrushing has been done on the base too. It's shaping up and the final form is becoming more obvious.

SO, I need to find somewhere to apply a decal (not easy on this model), apply some weathering and do some more work on the basing (there's a dead Marine down there somewhere, remember) to finish it off.

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Heresy Death Guard: Contemptor Dreadnought (DreadTober 2017 - Part 3)

It's DreadTober 2017 Week 3 and my aim for this week was to block in the model with colours - no shading or highlighting, just base colours so everything would at least suggest the final look of the model.

So, things definitely don't look too spectacular at this stage, but as I'm really just working out where each colour will fall I'm happy enough.

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Blood Bowl: Skaven - "Skavenblight Skumbags" (Part 6 - whole team)

For my final post on this project I present the whole Skavenblight Skumbags Blood Bowl team:

I am soooo glad to have completed these guys. 25 years of guilt flushed away.

Now all I have to do is finish everything else in my Cupboard of Shame and I will be a happy man.

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Heresy Death Guard: Contemptor Dreadnought (DreadTober 2017 - Part 2)

It's week 2 of DreadTober 2017 and things are going to schedule.

My collection of bits & pieces has now been assembled into a viable model. The model is intended to represent a dreadnought for the Death Guard Legion from the Horus Heresy so I have added a very few Nurgle-y embellishments (a few buboes on the top, a bit of Nurgle's Rot on the left foot and (just visible from the rear) a suspiciously fleshy-looking gash on the left hip.

As the old Rogue Trader dreadnoughts came with two different lengths of legs (yes - really. You can see one of the taller versions as part of my other Marine army here) and this is the shorter version of the two, I needed to boost it up a bit. Anyway, they were quite a bit smaller than a modern dreadnought model. So, I've used the builders' foam to build a rocky base to give the model a bit of loft.

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Heresy Death Guard: Contemptor Dreadnought (Dreadtober 2017 - Part 1)

Woohoo! It's Dreadtober time again!

I had a blast doing this last year and have been looking forward to it again since.

I'm only doing one model this time.

One of my (many) projects at the moment which is just getting underway is a Death Guard army to represent a Heresy-era Legion.

My intention is to (as far as possible) build this legion using models from the Rogue Trader period - First Edition Warhammer 40K stuff.

So, with that aim in mind, I've been digging out all my old RTB01 Marines and picking up bits and bobs from eBay.

For DreadTober, that manifests as a Contemptor Dreadnought, armed with what were (in the day) twin-linked bolters on each arm, but (using current rules) will count as a pair of close-combat fists with a storm bolter on each.

Here is the pile of bits I'm planning to use:

You can probably spot some RTB01 Marine parts and a chunk of
builders' foam in the pile. These will form some basing details.

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Epic Ultramarines: Warlord Titan 4

I almost forgot this guy!

I painted him months ago along with three other Warlords and a Reaver. For some reason he got overlooked when I photographed the other Titans. All the other Titans got put away, along with their interchangeable weapons.

When I realised I hadn't photographed this model, he ended up set to one side as all the weapons were put away.

Anyway - I stumbled across him a few days ago and decided to right that wrong.

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Vampire Counts: Zombies (Part 4)

You gotta love a Zombie.

Well, I guess it's not actually compulsory, but still...

This is the final batch of Zombies for my Undead/Vampire Counts army. These guys are presented here as a unit, but really form part of the first Horde I've ever painted.

I've never been too sure of the value of Hordes. When you consider the trade-off in the monetary expense of purchasing a large number of models, each of which is actually very weak on the table, combined with the large amount of effort in assembling and painting them all it's always left me dubious of making that sort of investment.

However, when you rank them all up (which I'll do in a later post) they do look impressive and very imposing!

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Vampire Counts: Zombies (Part 3)

Wow - I didn't realise it was March when I last produced anything for this army.

Anyway - in a mad burst of activity, I've blasted through all my remaining Zombies which I'll present in three posts; this one, the remaining models, and the whole lot as a horde.

I've loved working on these models, which was unexpected.

There were two things that put me off:

1. The sheer quantity of models required to build a Horde; I've not based these in the regular "one per 20mm base" method; I've included a lot of 40mm bases which have either two or three zombies plus a gravestone or two. This looks, I think, quite atmospheric and stretches the number of models out (in this last batch, I've based enough models to represent 47 Zombies using only 33 models).
2. Looking at the painted examples in the Vampire Counts rulebook, I've never been too taken with them. I always thought they looked a bit "Scooby-Doo", if that makes sense. Cartooney and sanitised for younger players.

So I wasn't really expecting to enjoy the process of churning out (all told) about enough bases to represent 100 models.

I was wrong - I loved it.

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Blood Bowl: Skaven - "Skavenblight Skumbags" (Part 5 - specialists)

The remaining four models pictured below complete the team.

A Blocker, a Stormvermin (a.k.a. a Blitzer) and two Throwers round out the squad nicely:

Stormvermin

Blocker

Throwers

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Blood Bowl: Skaven - "Skavenblight Skumbags" (Part 3 - Gutter Runners)

My Skaven Blood Bowl team continues to grow with the addition of four more models - this time it's a group of Gutter Runners (Catchers).

The team was bought as a boxed set many years ago and the team membership isn't necessarily ideal as it simply consists of what was in the box when they were bought. I haven't yet got the playing experience to determine the best balance of models but four catchers might be less than ideal.

Time will tell.

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Blood Bowl: Skaven - "Skavenblight Skumbags" (Part 4 - More linemen)

As I mentioned in my last post about these guys, the lineup of this team was entirely determined by what happened to be in the boxed set when I bought it. As a result of that I have a total of eight linemen, and these guys are the remainder of them.

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Nurgle Knight Titans - Part 14 (Maniple)

The Knights of Nurgle march forth - it's a good job you can only see them and that the internet doesn't yet (though I believe it's intended for the next release of the iPhone) carry smells!

Muahahahaha!

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Nurgle Knight Titans - Part 13 (Third Knight Finished)

The third and final knight for my Renegade Knight army is complete.

I've built this one once again from an eBay purchase and there were bits missing. The autocannon is missing its mount so is just glued in place and the shield is absent. 

The missile pod on the carapace was entirely built by me as a showcase for how poor my sculpting skills are. Still,  it does the job.

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Blood Bowl: Skaven - "Skavenblight Skumbags" (Part 2 - Some Linemen)

Finally! This monkey (well, rat) is off my back!

This team has been causing my guilt gland to seep for over 25 years.

I bought them and let them lie for years. When I did get started on them, I got part way through and then let them lie again. Then a few years later I did a bit more and then set them aside again.

When I next looked at them in decided I liked the red and yellow colour scheme but wasn't satisfied with the work I'd done. So they went into the Dettol and there they sat.

But now I have at long last given them the attention they deserve and have taken them to the workbench long enough to actually finish them!

Woohoo!

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Blood Bowl: Skaven - "Skavenblight Skumbags" (Part 1 - Test model: Rat Ogre)

This Blood Bowl team has been hanging over my head like a (literal) lead weight for about 25 years. I bought them way back during the 2nd edition of the game (about 25-30 years ago I would guess) and made a small start on them, then got bored, dropped the entire hobby for a while and since getting back into Wargaming about a decade ago have been feeling guilty about not finishing them off.

Well, their time has come. I'm working my way through my cupboard of shame, bit-by-bit and now it's come around to these guys.

Oddly enough, I've chosen to start with the one model I added to the team most recently, which is a Rat Ogre. It's not even a Blood Bowl Rat Ogre, but a Warhammer Fantasy Battle model. Near enough, though.

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Saga: Vikings (Part 5 - Levies)

Hot (well, lukewarm) on the heels of my previous Viking unit for Saga comes this motley bunch - some Levies bringing my army up to four points!

I think Gripping Beast have done a great job with these minis. Dynamic poses, great faces and so inexpensive! If I was to make any negative comment at all it would be that some variation in the clothing would be good. Maybe a bit of fur or a leather jerkin here or there. As it is every model is basically wearing the same tunic.

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Saga: Vikings (Part 3 - more Hearthguard)

I made it to the dizzying heights of 2 points of troops! Woohoo!

Progress on the Saga Vikings has been a slow, steady affair due to my current thing for project-juggling instead of just knuckling down to complete one army. It's a very slow way of working but, if I'm honest, probably a more enjoyable one as I've not reached the point of burn-out on an army where I'm bored of looking at them.

I do go through fads where I do more than one unit for a particular force as I'm "in the groove", but then I feel guilty for ignoring something and switch tracks.

It's working for me so I'm going to stick with it for now. As such it might be a while before I get to point #3! Anyway, without further ado: Hirdmen!

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Orks: Nobz unit #2

"Ze Nobz! Ze Nobz! Ze flashing Nobz!"

For those of you that don't get the reference, it's from an old BBC TV show called "'Allo 'Allo!" which was based around a Cafe in WWII Occupied Paris.

Anyway - without further ado: Nobz

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Orks: Nobz unit #1

Back to the Orks! Waaaaaggghhh!

(ahem)

I'm trying to cycle through a bunch of unfinished projects and the Orks came back around on the rota. So, I've painted up a couple of small units of Nobz. Here's the first one:

And - yes - I know. There is a mixture of Goff and Evil Sunz markings on the armour. What can I say - I like them both so I used them both.

I intend these guys to be used as Evil Sunz, but by the same token the checkers are so iconic I don't want a checker-free army *and* I also have an old Ghazgkull model I'll be using too. If this offends anyone's sens of "fluff" I will say:

1. Sorry
2. Get over it - they're 2'' tall plastic soldiers to be used as playing pieces in a game. 

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Epic Ultramarines: Bike squad 1

It's been a long time coming, but a modicum of work has been picked up on my Epic-scale  Ultramarine force.

I have to say I dislike the Epic bike models - I've always avoided actually painting them. I've not put a huge amount of effort into these as I simply couldn't be bothered so they've been given a basic "tabletop standard" paintjob.

All that said, one of the models is slightly different than the others: the rightmost model  on the centre base is a metal bike. Back in the day, GW used to bundle a metal model in the blister of any model you bought (buy a Titan, get a randomly selected model (might be a Marine, Bike, Thudd gun etc.) for free).

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Nurgle Knight Titans - Part 12 (Second Knight Finished)

I have completed (almost - I think I'll have another go at the freehand on the banner at some point) my second Nurgle Knight! One more to go.

I have photographed these on my standard (and getting very tired now) backdrop. Some of my other recent models are visible - either ignore them or please let me know your favourite theories why these knights are fighting a battle with Mortarion (not too much of a stretch), a Death Guard Marine (again - easy peasy), some fantasy Zombies (erm - you could make that work), a Kharadron Overlord (creaking significantly) and some Vikings (Medic!).

Front

You'll notice from the photo above that this model is missing its shield and autocannon. That's not intentional - those parts were simply missing from the model when I picked it up second hand.

Left Flank

Rear

Right Flank

The Gruesome Twosome

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