First Steps to the Dark Side

So... I ordered me some Warmahordes stuff...


I feel kinda dirty, but in a good way! I still don't love the overall aesthetics, the very cartoony stuff is kinda hard to swallow when you're used to the GrimDark. That said, I really love the open attitude Privateer Press shows and they know that the customer and the thusly the community is king, instead of the quite puzzling attitude we have been getting from GW the last... 20 years?

I have only played one game thus far, but I like what I'm seeing. The Warmachine scene in my area exploded recently when the local game store decided to expand their stock with non-GW miniature stuff. Apparently my town had a whole bunch of closet warmahordes people, and now both my club and the FLGS is packed with disney monsters and hydrocephalic robots.

I feel good things coming from this step, If you asked me a year ago if I would start to play this, I would have given you a whole hearted "Fuck No!" I guess I was wrong.
Now if PP-Eu's distribution people would come back from vacation so I could get me my gators, I would be grateful...

Quick Review MaxMini Plague Beast

I recently visited the excellent gaming store Fantasia while on a family trip to Umeå. They had a wide selection of games and miniatures, mostly GW products as would be expected but also quite a few of the independent makers of resin and white metal figures, Maxmini, MAS and the like. thumbs up for that! I bought a MAS resin tracked servitor thingy which I gave away and a MaxMini Plague Beast for myself.

"Taken my arms, taken my legs, taken my soul, left me with life in hell!"

I am kinda dissappointed with it actually. It is quite odd to see such quality of sculpting combined with such terrible posing, something that is quite difficult to see when just looking at the blister.
The legs are posed in a way that makes it look like it's floating or balancing on it's tippy toes. The built in bases under the feet are not parallel to the ground, but bent inwards, forcing you to either convert the miniature, "hot bend" the feet or make som kind of custom base to fit the crooked miniature. This is not really obvious while looking at their websites pictures, but it is evident in the preview pictures that was released. I don't know if their master looks like this or if their mold is warped, but I see people around the forums having the same problem.

"WHAT'S IN THE BOOOX?"

On the upside, the parts fit together really well, with almost invisible seams, and the only miscasting was on the strap on the beast's chest, which I could ignore or easily fix with 401 or greenstuff. The details on the skin and face are very crisp, and if you are the converting sort you could easily just buy it for the torso, making your own Varghulf, Chaos Spawn or Daemon, Karanak or similar if you will.

Bubble on the center strap, wouldn't really show when assembled

I will try to bend the legs somewhat to repose and make the feet even before I assemble it, if not, I will probably cut it up for some future project.

Hopefully there will be more frequent updates from now on, me, and Pixel as well to some degree, have had some hobby burnout lately, with this whole GW Leadership fuckup-deal adding to that. Part of me want to boycott them, but I love the IP too much to really quit. I will not be doing the Nid-army that I had planned though, instead I'll save that money for when CSM get their new release in a few years. Fuck it, I have enough unpainted and unbuilt stuff for my army to tide me over.

ADD Strikes Again: Forgeworld Death Guard WIP

I have slipped into a very Nurgle-y mood lately, so I decided to begin painting my Death Guard. I found it surprisingly hard to pose them well. I don't know if it's just me, but I could not get the arms to fit properly without greenstuffing.

Pixelpusher was kind enough to airbrush the zenithals on them a while back, but they have been sitting in the foam since I got them back, just begging to be painted.

"Charlie in the trees!"

"PARTYIN' PARTYIN' FUN FUN FUN FUN"

"Let's put one of those beefy arms back on him for good measure."

I am very pleased with the colors, Vallejo has such great tones that feel very different from Citadel Paints. As always my painting skills detract from the great forgeworld sculpts, but I could not"not buy" them... So much character and detail, I hope the plastic Plague Marines will have a similar feel when they get updated.

[Editors update]

It's really nice to see these painted. As Boomo said I had them sent to me to do a quick zenital basecoat on them. Why? I take every chance I can to bring out the airbrush. Even doing just basecoats makes you more comfy with the airbrush which equals better paintjobs in the end. 

Zenital highlights is also one of the quickest ways to paint marines – unless you dip them of course – and the end result after a wash or two and quick line-highlights is remarkable. Especially considering that a squad of 10 takes about 3-4hrs in total. 

Don't ask me why I haven't painted my Ultramarines yet. I blame work and the orks!

Here's how they looked when they left my house. Still in the spray booth, which is highly recommended even though we just spray non-toxic acrylics.

A word of advice is to make them a little lighter during the zenital since any wash applied will darken the model. That is if you want to wash the entire figure instead of using spot washes. Both have their use. Plan ahead! :)

On The Table: Forgeworld Dreadnought

I have Painting ADD, I admit it, and I stand by it. I abandonded Zhufor and the Berzerkers for now and got to painting my Nurgle Dreadnought instead. I was quite scared of painting him, the incredible amount of detail is quite daunting, and I always doubt my painting ability.

The build was quite straight forward with only minimal gapfilling, I have heard that many have had problems with the ForgeWorld Venerables, but I think since this model is quite new, the old issues with the powerplant etc. have been corrected
It was surprisingly well cast, and everything fit without any hassle when the mandatory flash was cut off. The arms are magnetised for hotswapping and weapon destroyed results. The Waist is magnetised too but seems to have gotten stuck after the greenstuff got glued, I don't want to start bending it to much, it is resin after all..

This Far I am pretty pleased with the paint job. After about Six hours I have a lot left though, I have still to decide on how the metal should be done, and I need to go to the hobby store tomorrow to get some paint for the highlights etc.


I also got to working on an objective marker, already finished a "fuel" marker, so now I wanted a "more Dakka" marker

Hopes and Ideas for next CSM book

With the new Grey Knights codex being released in a few weeks, The heady smell of cheddar got me thinking about CSMs next codex. I feel pretty hopeful now that Cavatore has quit, Gav writes for Black Library and Jervis Johnson doesn't do much at all..

It's seems like GW has stepped away from the ultra slimmed codices that was released around 06-07 (DA, CSM, Orks) and they at least try to bring more flavour to the game, with some success, though it is kinda blunt sometimes (I'm looking at you, Mat Ward).
In terms of gameplay, the current codex is not horribly underpowered, but the power creep has left many players wanting. My gripe with the book, besides some points I will adress, is the extreme lack of flavour and options. I don't know if it's intentional or not, but all the daemons in the book are so "meh". It feels like they where trying to give the Chaos Daemons codex a boost by making them so bland here.

Tis scrap is ourz!!!

Ever since he found the bright yellow cloth he fashioned his pants of Skabbog had an extreme luck. This day was no different. He had managed to dodge the 'umies lasbolts countless of times. Even when a huge shell from one of the metal boxies exploded a couple of snotlings away from Skabbog the only injury was some hearing loss in the right ear. Which was alright to him. Now he could make sure to be on the right side of Big Mek Buzzgob (the Great and Tinkery, Esquire) when he barked orders! One lucky grot!

Scuttling along in Buzzgobs step he saw an aspiring loota scurry away from the fight. Something must be out of order. A loota not content shooting in the general direction of the enemy? Squinting his eyes Skabbog saw something blue and shiny glint in the setting sun. Surely this must have been what the loota saw since he was running frantically towards the blue object.

Skabbog started off in the same direction, lugging the heavy bosspole he had made for Buzzgob countless of waaaghs ago. His steps were swift and within just a few paces from the blue object he came up behind the loota and smashed his head in with the bosspole.

TIS SCRAP IS OURZ! he yelled as he stepped up on the pile of scrap. Declaring that whatever he found would belong to Buzzgob, and in return he would perhaps get a cog or two as thanks. Or at least not be yelled at for a few minutes. Skabbog was one lucky grot!

As always, click for Flickr

Today was a slow work-day, which meant I could finish painting the bosspole grot. So slow I even dreamt up a short little story about the figure. I know he/it has a name from Imperial Armour 8, but Skabbog felt appropriate.

I'm still debating if I should use pigments on the base to tie it together with Buzzgobs. I do like using paints instead. It's not as realistic, but gives a little more control. Let me know what you think in the comments.

"Game over man!"

Well, was intending to make a battle report for todays games, but I got pretty much raped by my own dice so, meh. Jocke fought a very solid game but I think my rolls f*cked me more than his tactics. The game came down to one wound in round seven, I was close to tying him with my last terminator but failed the last save in close combat.

I always try to learn something new with every game, but after this one I feel kinda confused.
I guess I need to finish my landraider or bench the LC-Terminators, because deep strike and reserve rolls is starting to really annoy me.
I messed up with the lesser daemons and forgot that they could come down on the DP which was contesting his objective.
The new oblit felt very lonely, and died before he could really accomplish anything, so he will probably be benched untill I can finish his friends.
Death Company are mean, and a Storm Raven loaded with a DC team, chaplain, and a DC-Dread, will tear you up if they get the charge, but that I kinda knew already...
I probably should stay away from reserved units altogether, CSM doesn't get enough for their points to survive that much focused firepower. Even with everything in cover, I lost way to many units just from shooting.

Overall I will have to retool my list for the rematch next week @ 1500pts, I just can't shake the feeling that CSM is kinda lacking versus other MEQ

Buzzgob, finally done!

Buzzgob! Click to go to Flickr.

I finally managed to get myself some time to finish Buzzgob! I wanted to do more with the metals but there's a time when you just have to say "Enough!" and finish it. It's still not meant for Golden Demon or something, it's painted to play with. Overall I'm pretty pleased with it anyhow. The OSL came out pretty darn OK and I really like the skintone I managed to get after a bunch of green washes.

The base was done almost completely with pigments. I'm still not too sure if I like it, but it does contrast well with the detailed figure.

Click the picture to go to Flickr and see more views and higher resolution. Any C&C is more than welcome!