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Yep, they work especially well, excellent work!

X-wing is really fun to play. And with a lot of ships you get a lot of replayability.

No pressure to paint, but be aware of the pressure to 'Pokemon' the range, collecting them all even if you don't particularly like a ship or plan to use it. If you get into playing even remotely competitively, you will probably want to get an expansion or two just for the cards. Just for ONE card usually. And that one card will cost on eBay *almost* as much as the ship it comes with so you may as well get the ship too.

Mistakes are very to easy to make and the slope is very slippery.

But it's a fun game and the models look sweet on the shelf

So I have had a very productive weekend. Poked around at the Club's X-Wing Tournament (didn't play as I only picked up my first ever ships today), but now that I am on the slippery X-Wing slope I intend to build my Most Wanted box into the most capable Smuggling Syndicate this side of Tatooine (yup I am a Star Wars nerd through and through).

But more importantly after a long Friday night session and a touch up Saturday night I managed to get this guy done.


He is my mounted Tomb Herald to go with my Skeletal Horsemen who hopefully will deliver him to give a killing blow to a character or two. I envisage him being a bit of a mid level character assassin what with some choice magic items and his innate killing blow ability. He used to be a standard bearer, but I changed that to a spear as it was more useful to him.

I also managed to get this guy done.


This chap is another Tomb Herald and will be the Army Standard Bearer as well as cruise around with the Tomb King to make sure he lasts just a little longer with his Bodyguard abilities.

But I have also been a busy boy and managed to also get this guy finished too.....


My Tomb King, ready and able to lead his undying Legions against the Old World (or world of Sigmar, or any other game he can fit into for all I care). I am pretty happy with him, my brushes quality really started to decline towards the end and I have been holding off changing them since May (as my Wife bought me about 15 brand new very high end brushes, didn't even know she knew where to look for them). But he is done and I think he fits the army very well.

But wait, whats that? Didn't I say the King and Army Standard are going to ride in Chariots? Drum roll please.





As you can see, I have them pinned to loose bases so they can be on foot or in their Horse drawn carts. I did this mainly as in 8th edition it was possible to have the chariot destroyed, but the character continue to fight on foot. So made this possibly redundant modeling choice, which has the nice effect of giving me a little versatility with these two.

But those canny readers may realize that these two models make a special event take place......the Bronze Host of Ka Sabar is now finished! Yay for progress another army down and I think as a unified force they are really effective. But you can make up your own mind.


The Lord's of the army, my Tomb King and High Liche Priest. Between these two my whole army lives and dies, literally, if I lose the Priest the army crumbles and if I lose the King my hitting power is badly reduced.


The supporting cast of Heroes, a back up Priest to help out raising the ranks of the undead and 2 Tomb Heralds to hopefully sort out any living troops.


The Core, which is basically the whole army. Except for the Tomb Guard and Characters. I do intend to one day do another Tomb Kings army and it is going to be all Ushabti and other constructs, honest.


The only Special or Rare unit in the army, my Tomb Guard who I hope will put serious doubts into the enemy with their killing blow.


And the Tomb Kings rode to war......the whole 2,000 points all together for the first time. A lot of bone and yellow, but I am really happy with the overall look. I am very happy to be finished with them and won't be looking to do any skeletons in the near future.

So there you have it. Seven down and I am now going to be moving onto High Elves, from Caledor, so be ready for Dragons and Dragon Princes galore. It will be small and hard hitting and probably absurdly unbalanced, but will be a very compact force. But first I need to look at the new Space Marine Codex and see how I can bring my Iron Hands into line with it. I am pretty certain I just need to add a Whirlwind which I just happen to have ready for some paint (coincidence? nup, I just looked at what models I had and how I could cheaply update the army and the Whirlwind will go well with the thunderfire cannon).

Thanks for reading.

Very nice! Congrats

Quite looking forward to your dragons and dragon princes!

Great work on the heroes, Archer. They definitely stand out when with the regular troops, without looking out of place.

And congrats on finishing another army! It is absolutely ridiculous the work you have done over the past year and a half. 7 armies?! You have done more in your updates than most threads I follow here on dakka.

I'm looking forward to the HE army. I think you will really enjoy painting such a small (and points expensive force). It's always hard when you finish a core troop and realize "welp, there's 5 or 6 points." But now when you finish one model (admittedly a much larger one, but still), you will be crossing off 20-30 or 200-300 points. It's why I have been working on my MCs rather than my little bugs. Though I know it will reach a point where all I have left is 300 little guys to slug through.

Keep up the great work, man. I can't wait to see what you do next.

Awesome work, Archer. Both in terms of finishing off all those characters, and chariots, but also the whole bloody army. I really am in awe of your speed and productivity, and the whole-army shot looks awesome!

Thanks guys, appreciate you stopping by. I figured out a lone Whirlwind will bring my army back to the 2,000 point benchmark, so it is next on the painting table before the High Elves get their turn. Hopefully be able to knock it out quickly as it is already undercoated black with a few details done.

Bloody Iron Hands. That means it's almost finished already!

Another one down!

They look great.

What's your model count for the year?

Cant wait to see the HEs!

Ah I am pretty sure my model count for the year is now 323 models. Those Gnoblars and Skeletons really help things add up. Not to mention the basic Eldar Guardian scheme.

Excellent work Archer your Tomb Kings army looks fantastic.

Looking forward to the High Elves and Whirlwind.

Well I have battled long and hard, but unfortunately succumbed to the flu that has struck my Wife and most of her immediate family down and I took yesterday off work in what I hope is a valiant plan to rest up and not allow it to get any worse. Plus, it had the added benefit (please don't tell me beautiful, intelligent wife) that I could get in and get some quality modelling time in between my eye's attempting to melt out of my head and bouts of coughing that I think I was trying to bring up a lung.

So enough melodrama, I managed to get the Whirlwind finished off tonight and there was even enough space in my Iron Hands carry case to cut a slot out for it. So enough rambling (fever induced I am sure):


Here it is alongside one of the Rhino's. I was a little concerned by my choice of white on the turret, but since the weapon casing on all of the other Iron Hands I had to go with it. I did however, dress it up with my dodgy attempt at a geometrical pattern.


Overall though I am pretty happy and I am really hoping that between the Whirlwind and the Thunderfire Cannon I will be able to knock a hole in any horde army that comes at me and free up the Dreadnoughts to do some damage up close.


I did modify the army to utilize the Clan Raukaan supplement as it allows me to take Techmarines as free HQ meaning that the army is still considered a combined arms detachment.


I am really happy with how the warning badge came out and I added more than a few cheeky kill marks in the hope it will translate to some good luck with the scatter dice.....

So I also managed to get all but the dragons assembled for the High Elves, so will be commencing them shortly, probably start with the Silverhelms (oh and my next post I will throw up the army list for this High Elf army.

Thanks for reading.

I like it.

I have been a little negligent on keeping readers abreast of my progress. But to be honest it has unfortunately been lacking. But I think I needed a break from the brushes before I kick into gear again. I have made serious progress on a Flamespyre Phoenix however and hope to have some pics up by the weekend.

But first I have realized I haven't added an army list for the High Elf army so people can see just how ludicrous the army is......

The Dragon Riders of Caledor

Prince Ageman of Caledor - Sun Dragon, Star Lance, Dragon Armour, Shield

Gruyere the Rash - Dragon Mage of Caledor with The Gem of Sunfire, Dragon Armour

The Proving - High Helm Nemsor, Standard Bearer, Musician, 7 Silver Helms, Shields
Noble Sons - High Helm Hairn, Standard Bearer, Musician, 7 Silver Helms

Legends of Caledor - Drakemaster Kirev, Standard Bearer, Musician, 4 Dragon Princes of Caledor
Pride of Caledor - Drakemaster Mitov, Standard Bearer, Musician, 4 Dragon Princes of Caledor

The Fires over Caledor - Flamespyre Phoenix

Total List = 1,999 Points - 36 Mounted, 3 Monsters

As you can see it is TINY! Obviously this is a list based on Warhammer 8th edition as AoS lists are redundant and I don't know Kings of War well enough to do a different list. It may have serious short comings on the battle field, but has the amazing benefit of only having 37 models to paint to finish it off.

Like the Eldar though I plan on doing multiple High Elf armies, so I am not as fussed about the serious lack of models as I will be able to mix and match later on.

Any ideas on how 2 dragons and some serious elite cavalry will go on the tabletop?

On some other exciting news I have been convinced by my brother (who is a collector only, not a gamer) to paint him up the Primarch's from Forgeworld and took possession of the first two this week. Yes they will get in the way of the army plan and I am not sure I can do them the justice they deserve (anyone interesting in doing a spot of free commission work ;-)

Thanks for reading and hope to have some pictures up soon.

That's pretty awesome in theory. Dunno how it would work in game but it sounds neat

Good luck getting back into the groove (trying to do it myself, at the moment) and with the primarchs too.

So I have been very quiet on the painting front of late. Really can't put my finger on the lack of motivation. But probably something to do with that first world complaint of not having enough time. Which to wax philosophical, I have always found amusing because our 'lack' of time usually comes from us doing something else......I guess we are just too greedy.

Anyway, I have finally managed to kick off the first model in my latest army the High Elves. I picked him up very cheap from eBay (as so many of my models are). I think he has the proper base, but had no flying stand so I "borrowed" some rod from work to help me out. So without further waffle.........the Flamespyre Phoenix:


I am very happy with how he has turned out. He is a very simple paint job, simply blending from brown and dark red through to yellow and white. But I think the model is really spectacular, so I feel a basic paint job is excusable.


It was a bit of a pain to get the blending right, But I feel the stark difference between the feathers and the flames works pretty well.


Obviously I kept the bottom the same as the top, although I tried to darken the body a little bit. The feet and beak work really well as a contrast to the rest of the model and help draw the eye in and provide a form to the overall model.


I really like the eyes. Very simple green with a wash and then a single darker dot with a gloss varnish over the top. In fact I am pretty happy with the overall appearance of the head. Has a little personality.


I struggled a little with the color for the feet. But ended up going for the fairly generic brown, but kept the grey claws to match in with the beak.


I was having a little trouble coming up with what to do for the bases for my Caledor based High Elves and my Wife (bless her) decided it should be lush mountains with a touch of snow. I feel it fits quite well as I am sure Dragons and Phoenix like to live up mountains and they often have snow. I have attempted a sort of Spring thaw look as the snow adds interest rather than the main feature.

So there you have my first addition to the latest army. Thoughts and comments appreciated and thoughts on the base encouraged before I do doing them for the rest of the army/

Thanks for reading.

Damn. That's effective.

I really like it, and you're right about the eye, got some personality.

Thanks Grim. I quite enjoyed painting this guy. Not looking forward to getting stuck into the silverhelms though. Lots of work in saving them from the poor condition I picked them up in from eBay. But so, so cheap.

Wow! That eye is really good, mate. Nice job with the phoenix

The phoenix looks lovely Archer

Thanks guys. I really enjoyed this model. Trying hard to put one of the dragons down and knock out the silverhelms horses.

In a modelling note, I am running two dragons in this army and they are the latest GW plastic high elf ones, so obviously apart from the riders they are exactly the same. Any ideas on how I can change the models up a bit other than a paint scheme? Was thinking of trying to change the ruin that the dragon is leaping off.

That Phoenix is outstanding. Really, really nice, and the base is also a great job - really works well on that figure.

Are there any alternative heads or tails for those dragons? If so, maybe a bitz order from eBay or HoB or something? Or a graft with a Dark Elf dragon or something? Add some armour?

Hi all, this is a very quick update to just check in and let people know I am still around, but have hit a very, very slow patch in the hobby world. Lots going on in life and is leaving me drained and far from in the mood to lift a paint brush. But the good news is I can feel the painting mojo returning and hope to soon be back to full speed.

@Azazel, sorry I didn't mean to ignore your thoughts on the Dragon, all are valid ideas, but I think I may be a little more ambitious and do something I haven't done in a very long time and crack out my sculpting skills and really give the dragon a different pose. Hopefully will have something to show in the near future, but first I want to knock all 20 of the Silverhelms off as they aren't inspiring me much. Then I can get into the Dragon Princes and two Dragons. I am close to having the Silverhelm horses finished and then just need to get stuck into the riders.

However, I have had another modelling distraction looking at me for a little while now and I need to get my act together because I intend them to be a gift to my Brother for Christmas. He is a collector, not a gamer and likes the Horus Heresy lore and I can think of no better present, so I have been a little overwhelmed by these two for a couple of weeks now......


The level of detail is really quite astounding and I am very, very impressed by them. But equally intimidated by the scope of the models. Have almost been frozen with trying to figure out where to start.


Obviously I have left them largely in pieces for better access with a brush and all that. I have managed to make a start on Robute Guilliman. Not sure why I started there, probably as I once upon a time painted probably two and a half companies of Ultramarines for a friend, largely due to how fast I can paint a model to an ok standard when I have my painting head switched on. So I have mounted all the bits on sticks for ease of handling and now I am looking for a decent suggestion for colours. I do want to stick fairly close (or as close as my skills will allow) to the official schemes.

So there you have where I have been hiding, I have been popping in to others blogs to keep me distracted and entertained so I hope I can get back to the productivity of the likes of Para and Azazel.

Thanks for reading.

Neat really looking forward to seeing where you go with this

My two favourite Primarch minis... this ought to be good! Pretty sure I was already subbed, but if not, subbed again!

Are you going for the black armour or white on Horus?

really haven't decided on Horus. Probably why I chose to do Guilliman first. Probably will stick with the black on Horus.

The FW primarch models look so good I just wish they weren't so expensive.

I look forward to seeing what you do with them.

They are going to be fun to paint, just make sure you take your time on them, its not everyday you get to paint a primarch let alone two.

It's taking my time that I will struggle with. I am usually wired to smash through models as this blog attests to. Just need to slow down a bit.

Looking forward to how these turn out...

Have managed some painting in the last little while and feel my motivation coming back. So really hope to hit a purple patch of productivity (got to love some alliteration).

So on the current army front I have now finished off the horses for the silverhelms and their movement trays. I have mounted the riders all on sticks for ease of painting and hope this coming week I will have both units completed. Some pretty pictures of riderless horses for you all:







Pretty standard High Elf colors of blue, white and silver. But I want to keep these guys separate from the other components of the army as I want them to appear as interlopers or ring ins to the realm of the Dragon Princes, so am quite happy for them to be "traditional".

I have also made some progress on my Primarch project and am pretty happy with the results thus far. It has been a steep learning curve and I am questioning the logic of me taking on these models. But enough procrastinating, let me know your thoughts on my slow progress.


The cape took a little while to get somewhere I was happy with and it certainly took a lot of very thin coats of very watery paint.


The base took me quite a while and as my first attempt at marble I am pretty happy with how it came out. Probably wasn't the model to attempt a new technique on, but it wasn't like I had another model that marble would have suited.






I don't think my Brother will actually ever game with these models. But I did leave them so if the need arose they could be pulled off their bases as is intended.



And finally for this update I have the head of the noble Primarch of the Ultramarines and yes I am aware of the morbid nature of putting a drill up his neck......
I have had a couple of goes at it now and think I have settled on something I am pretty happy with. I wanted a fairly pale complexion as it will hopefully stand out from his armor which is shaping up as a pretty drak blue.



Thanks for reading and your thoughts are appreciated.