High Elf Prince + Noble, plus OOP Collecting and Wargames Armies Book

   Today i went down to Caliver Books at Leigh-on-Sea. it's a wargaming shop that has now moved elsewhere, but the old Leigh store still exists for those that liked it, albiet being rather barren. Although it doesn't carry many products, it does have some boxes of old spare miniatures, which you can find some real gems in, plus, it offers good prices. It's only opposite from my bus stop, so I pop by without difficulty. Today i bought the plastic high Elf Prince mounted and foot kit, and an old GW book called 'Collecting and Painting Wargames Armies'. I got the lot for only £8! That's tonight's entertainment sussed! Below are some pics:

Codex: Sisters of battle in WD + New Vampire Counts Next Month

   i know it's been a while, and I'm working on Island of Blood High elves at the moment. I also did a few 28mm ww2 vehicles and US Ranger GIs. For this article, I though I'd spread the news out first. Next month, we will be getting new Vampire Counts models, with rules for new units included in next months White Dwarf. We'll also be getting a new Sisters of Battle Codex which will be published in WD next month! I know all this from the ltest white dwarf - here's the pics, scanned from the back page...

Also, there are some new oop finecast models coming back. That 'Lammasu' does look cool, albeit 100% daft! I love the way GW are making generic animals and monsters available for your armies with this 'Storm of magic'...

Savage Orc Boyz

   Sorry it's been a while - been busy. The american paras are nearly painted now, and I've been getting back into D&D again (since last September-October). I've also been real into the Orcs and Gobbos, with my O.G.Re project. I picked up a box of the new savage orc boyz and painted three of them up. I went to town on these bearing in mind that they were infantry, and I suppose the other 7 will hit hard! For the skin, I basecoated goblin green, washed them in watered down (and with a drop of washing up liquid to keep surface tension, allowing a more even coverage) dark angels green, and then layered on a 4:1 mix of goblin green to sunburst yellow. By the way, adding white to green simply pales it up, add yellow and then introduce white on the higher layers if you want a zany green! A great kit - and fun to paint - !

Project O.G.R.E. - Orcs and Goblins Revamp:

       Hey guys, so, it's project OGRe, which is going to be a venture into the revival of my Orcs and Gobbos army. I started it just over 3 years ago, and was my second army, after Lizardmen, if you consider me not taking the Skull Pass minis as an army, just a start into the hobby and game, which is how I saw it, having had them before my Lizardmen. Of course, this army had alot to be desired, for instance, not a single regiment of Orc Boyz, different bases, only some highlights with drybrushing, and not being able to paint a metal model without the paint chipping, nor getting bright colours bright enough. Not leaving my WW2 models being, i will be starting the revamping of this army. It will include adding extra highlights, washes, all bases the same, repainting some models, and some adding to this army...

            Which brings us to this orc boy project. I have had many orcs, which have been left to eat dust, in multiple pieces! Many second hand orc boyz (hell whoever owned them should never be allowed to keep his genitalia) and some from Black Reach (I never took to Orks), will be repainted/painted, fixed, and even converted from 40k to fantasy orcs (cut off the gun and add a shield for Choppa Boyz). I am making a start, and have 8 done:

Miniature Photography

      Got the problem fixed! Right, me and my cousin - Alex Evans/Marsiblu, took some shots of minis/wargaming related things, trying to get crisp shots (my camera can zoom into previously taken photos, uncovering otherwise invisible details without pixelising), and experimenting with close aperture (crisp, focused foreground, blurry background)...

An interesting dice shot, from Alex Evans

Sweet momma - crisp, with a great sense of direction, it looks very imposing, with a well performed close aperture effect, from my cousin

Just a practice shot on one of my gutter runners, taken by Alex

Simply a crisp-pic! Taken by me.

The same model, at a different angle - not taken by me.

Of similar effect as the warp lighting cannon pic, very interesting (off centered) - interesting background, but not too attention seeking, nice close aperture, taken by my cousin.

Similar, by cous

Close aperure narrative shot - by me

Similar, by me

Similar, by my cousin (or was it the first one like this that was by him??)

Warhammer Fantasy 5,500pt Tourney BatSum

     So I had the battle, and it was a good one, although the time ran out as it was just getting tasty, between round 3 and 4. There were many ways to score points, these including:
1pt for a hill captured
1pt for standard captured
3pts for general slain
5pts for army general slain

    Our team consisted of my 2,109pts of Skaven, James, another Skaven player (he loves hordes!), plus another two guys, some Vampire Counts and Ogres. That was 5,500pts. On the opposing side there was around 4,000pts of a stoic dwarven battle line, and another 1,500pts of Tomb Kings (that guys in for a treat in a few months!).
   Here's my force (two rat ogres are James', and my abomination-creation thing isn't here):

And all the units to enter later:

And the fully deployed battlefield:

And now for a cool butcher with a  sculpted chef's hat by Ed Gimble, the ogre player:

Here, Deathmaster Sniktch and his Gutter Runners infiltrate:

A Skaven Rat looks on at the mighty chapel, seeking a sight of it coming to ruin:

My 'Men of da Match' was certainly my Gutter Runners with Sniktch - Poisoned attacks, 2 attacks each, Snikcht at WS8, always striking first, and 6 attacks with weeping blades! It completely cut down the dwarven gun-line of 3 organ guns (which were very deadly) in scarcely 2 turns!

However the true man of the match for our team had to be James' 'Helen' the Hell Pit Abomination, which killed 12 slayers, 12 long drong dwarven pirates, and 12 quarrelers!

Also at the tourney, me and my cous, Alex Evans - a.k.a. Marsiblu, ventured into the world of mini photography, and small aperture shots, more to come...

Skaven Army List - Preparing for a Tourney on Saturday

   Ready your weapons (or should I say - 'old thing's good enough to poke a hole in a 'humies' chest')! I have a large-scale Warhammer Fantasy tournament battle at my wargaming club on Saturday, so I'm gonna use my Skaven list. I will take some photos, and give you a brief rundown on what happened. I've just wrote this army list, which fully utilises my whole Skaven army, except some awesome abomination proxy, which now I find it's dwarfed by the new model (more on that later). It is not really that specialized, but I'm hoping to use the 'swarm,smash , then zzzzap' tactics in the latest white dwarf. So here's the list...

Rats of the Pusten Flay-Blade Army List:

Lords:

Warlord = 123pts

+ weeping blade – 30pts – armour piercing, multiplied to d3 wounds

+ shield – 3pts

Heroes:

Deathmaster Snikch = 270pts

Warlock Engineer = 175pts

+ lvl. 2 wizard - 85pts

+ warlock-augmented weapon – 45pts - +1 strength, +1 attack

+ doomrocket – 30pts – roll 4-10 to choose range, then place large template, strength 5, misfire on 3 or more rolls of ‘1’ (consult table), one use only

Core:

Clanrats x20 = 190pts

+ spears + shields – 20pts

+ full command – 20pts

+ warpfire thrower – 70pts – move or shoot, place flame template at end of artillery dice range, strength 5, d3 damage, save -2, can overshoot, autohits

Clanrats x20 = 110pts

+ shields – 10pts

+ full command – 20pts

Stormvermin x20 = 248pts

+ shields – 20pts

+ full command – 25pts

+ tail weapon – 8pts – strength 3 attack using user’s WS or initiative to hit

+ doomflayer – 55pts – 3+ save to self, artillery dice no. attacks, auto hit, strength 4, save -2

Giant Rats (30 rats, 3 packmasters) = 114pts

Special:

Gutter Runners x9 = 205pts

+ 9x poisoned attacks – 45pts – instant wound on a roll of ‘6’ to hit

+ death runner – 12pts

-          smoke bombs – 10pts – one use only, all pursuing units roll 1d6 less

-          weeping blade – 30pts – armour piercing, multiplied to d3 wounds

Rat Ogres (4 Rat ogres, 2 Packmasters) = 216pts

+ master bred rat ogre upgrade – 15pts

+ master moulder with shockprod – 50pts – 2h, armour piercing

Plague Monks x15 = 130pts

+ full command – 25pts

Plague Censer Bearers x5 = 93pts

+ plague chanter upgrade – 13pts

(NB: censers – flail, at start of a cc round, any models in base contact must take toughness test or suffer a wound, all Clan Pestilens units suffer a wound from this on a roll of a 6 only)

Poisoned Wind Globadiers x5 = 145pts

+ bombardier with death globe – 30pts – one use only, range 8”, scatter, small template, armour piercing, wounds on 4+, ignores to hit

+ poisoned wind mortar – 65pts – can use parent unit’s LOS, if target not in sight, scatter distance is doubled, small template, centre of template = 4+ for instant wound, other part of template = 5+ for instant  wound, armour piercing, range 6”-24”

(NB: poisoned wind globes have range of 8”, each globe that hits wounds on 4+, with no armour saves allowed, if you roll a ‘1’ to hit, then the globadier suffers a wound on a 5+)

Rare:

Warp Lightning Cannon = 90pts

(NB: it is destroyed if crew flee, range 48”, strength = artillery dice, small round template, under template or in its path suffer a hit at the strength rolled, each unsaved wound is multiplied into d6 wounds, armour piercing)

= In Total =

2,109 pts

The Power of the Wash!

     You've seen 'em, those gritty, pro looking minis. Even when the guy tells you he only slappped on a wash to a  'splodged-blodge' of a mini did it look great, you still aren't so convinced. But it was, here I've splodged on one coat of each colour, maybe two layers on some of the areas, but those don't really show up. Then I simply took the Citadel washes, and splashed them on my model as if it was water, give it go! it takes no experience or skill, just, not all my minis are painted this way (I can still paint, it's just hordes of skaven which I want to get done quickly).

Before

 After

Stormvermin Freehand Banner

    My Stormvermin are in progress, and here I have my free hand banner, but the other side is not complete. Undercoated with Dheneb Stone, highlight with Tamiya White - don't get it, too runny!

Golden Demon Bronze Skaven Clanrat

      So I claim to have a Golden Demon Bronze trophy, well, the first feature of my blog will be that very miniature. Here it is...

And here is the GW link:

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?pageMode=multi&categoryId=&pIndex=2&aId=13000009a&start=3

So check it out.

It was basically painted with 'many-layered' layering. It may appear to have blends, but these are just where there are so many layers that it appears to be blended. The metal was painted by a metallic orange-purple layered, with two washes, and then a 'rust scrape' of mithril silver. It suprisingly to a considerably short time to paint, around 6 hours, unlike my previous failed GD entry (more on that to come), which took around 10 hours, partially due to painstaking trial and error blending, which I clearly never continued in my next run!

If you want any tips, or have any questions, then the floor is open...