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Greetings all. I want to start by saying that the amount of talent here is unbelievable. I wasn't going to start this blog as I was a bit intimidated by all the amazing work already here but I shall continue through the sniggers and giggles with blinding dedication... probably.

So, I'm just getting back into the hobby but I've been thinking of what I wanted to do for a while. Painting always bored me, I was just never good at it but I'm gonna try work on that by going to the local GW on some nights during the week, and playing was fun but it was never really as fun as making the models and doing some crazy kitbashing. I don't have any of my old models but my favourite project before was a squad of possessed marines and a chaos spawn made from left over bits and a soldering iron(I hadn't heard of green stuff at this stage mind you!). I'm making this blog to document my building and converting, I'm also hoping that making this public will light a little fire under my ass and actually get me to stick with this on a regular basis!

So I've no plan for a long term army. I bought some Tau, crisis and stealth suits that I wanted to spice up but to be honest my skills aren't good enough. Too many clean lines and straight armour. My skills are no where near that so... Orks!!! I can go mad with converting these gits and I don't know why I never tried them before. The reason which made me settle on this idea was when going through my granddads attic I found my Dad's and his brother's old airfix models, about 30+ give or take. No one wants them so I plan to break them down into bitz, gubbinz and wotzits for the WWAAAGGGHHHH! I still haven't taken down all the models because there's loads and I'm terribly allergic to dust but here's the first batch:



Some of them are quite big so my mind is going crazy with possibilities! I also found an unmade airfix helicopter belvedere 72(which ebay tells me is from the 60s and can sell up for up to 40 squids..... but the WAAAGGGHHH needs whirlys!) which has enough propellers for two Deffkoptas. I was thinking of cutting off the "head" of the biggest one on the far right and using that as a body/face for a Deff Dread or Killa Khan, or the fuselage from the long silver plane could be cut up into Killa Khan bodies also. And obviously a Dakkajet, the first of which shall be such:



Gretchin for scale. On the fluff side of things, I was thinking something like an old old trash pile that humans ejected from earth tens of thousands of years ago has been floating through the endless black ever since and recently crash landed on a planet close to Tribe NAME-NOT-DECIDED-YET! Said trash pile was the remains of old ancient war machines(and other myriad bitz yet to be uncovered) which the orks took as a blessing from Mork to begin some good fights.

I have my green stuff and glue, I need to get a little hacksaw for cutting up the planes but firstly I need plasticard, and was hoping the brilliant community here could direct me on which one to get I will be ordering online so don't know which sizes would be suitable, also pipes and other bits like that, any advice is welcome! Also, ork stuff! Any suggestions on good ork bodies, heads and guns that work well with conversions would be a great help

Thanks! I'm more excited in seeing your finished work. I was just looking at your Deadly Love Spud in the conversion thread the other day.

I'm ordering plasticard tomorrow and buying some second hand Ork stuff on Wednesday(bits, unused sprues, body parts etc.) so plan to get started this weekend.

Was also working from home today so was able to clear out more from the attic. Found a gak load more planes, lots of bits including some needed wheels so definitely be doing a trukk(maybe a battlewagon?) and a pretty nifty looking APC toy:

So I have not fully started yet as tomorrow I'm heading into town to get plasticard and green stuff tools but I couldn't help(after some liquid encouragement) to get started on ideas. Firstly, this week was about tool and parts procurement. I picked myself up 3 x-acto knives, a 6" hacksaw(mainly for cutting up the airfix models) and a thin nose pliers. I also managed to grab a second hand Battle of Black Reach box set for 30 yoyos(euros) which has all the bits and about 80% of it is still on sprues! Bargain, I know! I'm pretty much ready to start this mother!

So, my quandary. The plane I'm using as a DakkaJet has these foldable wings. I shall be adding adding jets to these wings but should they be extended or folded up? Mind you, if folded up I plan on adding girders or some such, maybe with a grot hanging out of them for flavour. No matter what the case I'd like some input on pretty much the main cosmetic part of this first project! Thanks in advance.

Folded up(ork body underneath to stop it falling over)


And folded flat


Also, the steering apparatus at the front will be covered properly once I get my supplies tomorrow!

Welly welly well! Looks that that nearly ended before it began.

So just after starting again I kind've fell straight off the wagon. I've been doing a lot behind the scenes, but haven't made any progress on the Ork/airfix stuff. I think it's a mixture of life getting in the way(was a very busy year) and it just being too much for my unartistic and rusty mind to conquer straight off. I've been biding my time and collecting pretty much everything I need to start getting seriously back into the hobby. I've bought Space Marines, Tau, Orks, Eldar and Imperial Guard, as well as myriad different tools to help. So after an extended hiatus and making some simple minis to get started, I'm jumping back in!

So pretty much all the models I've bought have been second hand, either off local second hand trade websites or ebay. I got a great deal on 3 Crisis suits but they are in godawful condition. Mostly broken, glue all over then, every slot filled up, and some missing bits but feth it I love crisis suits. I also forgot how static the old suits are. I've been looking at the new ones and they are real nice compared to the chicken-like ones of old. So I looked up some posts and images online and tried to make mine a bit more dynamic. The first attempt I completely botched an arm but covered it up with a shield generator. Only other bits moved were the head and arms. The base came with feet glued on to it and it was hard to tell which model owned them(are these my feet? +1 internet for whoever gets the reference), all in all he looks a bit messy but presentable, and I think a lot more dynamic. Another thing I wanted to try my hand at was something that looks like the cyclic ion blaster from the new sprues, or at least one that would count as it. I don't plan on playing anytime soon so this is really just a test of what I can do. I think it worked out okay, I only noticed how wonky it looks on the inside after taking the pictures when it dried but screw it.

I actually got a good bit done yesterday(well by my standards anyway) since I was "working from home" First thing I started on my AoBR warboss. He's quite standard and static, and tbh my skills aren't good enough to really jazz him up but I did my best! Even a simple switch of heads makes him stand out much more I think. Besides that I also tried my hand at some green stuff for the first time in about 8 years so go easy! I used an imperial guard flamer to make a kombi-scorcha with some greenstuff as rope/straps to keep them together and then mixed to much so decided to give him a fur trim on the top. My warboss is very fashion forward. I botched the straps on one side but covered it with a plasticard skull. The connecting pipe is pretty bad and I intend to redo it once the green stuff dries properly but there he is! Added some skulls and an eldar head on top to add a bit more to him, might build up more later before I paint him, not decided yet:




The next model I was working on was another crisis suit I got off ebay. This was a separate pack from the others and I'm quite annoyed at this one had 3 right legs and one left leg. So I decided to pose him in the below stance to try and hide the fact, you can't really tell unless you look close, and it gives him the look of firing while jumping backwards which I quite like



And the last thing I started yesterday was what I'm planning will be my first Killa Kan. It's one of the larger airfix planes I found and when I seen it first I always knew I was going to use it. The way the windscreen is shaped its pretty cool. All I'm going to do is cut off the nose to cut down on size then just throw gubbins all over it. It's pretty much the right size as well. This is one I'm looking forward to

Cheers Camkierhi! Yeah I've found second hand is the way to go, I've got loads of stuff for half the normal price. One thing I only noticed recently was it's now much better for me to order things off the .co.uk ebay than the .ie with the pound being so weak to euro so next payday I'll be all over it.

Tonight I started to orkify the Killa Kan base I'm using. Removed the rest of the part I didn't need and the just started slapping on plasticard. It was actually harder than I thought with the curved frame of the plane but I went full ork on it, stopped thinking about it and started gluing like horses were going extinct. Threw in some guitar strings and quite liking them so going to do a lot more. I'm going to finish covering the windshield to get a feel for it then start on where the arms and legs will go. I've an AoBR dread I can use if I'm feeling lazy or uninspired but I'll try something else out first

Didn't get much done since it was my birthday over the weekend but I did get even more models Picked myself up a second hand Tau Battleforce very shoddily made, some second hand lootas on sprues and a brand new Tau Commander! I've already resigned myself to not converting much on Tau as the clean lines are too much for my skills at the moment. Bar the odd battlesuit reposition that is. I've also base coated some models for painting to see if I'm still as bad as I remember(1 crisis suit, stealth suit team, 2 termies, some cadian guardsmen and dire avengers) so that should be a barrel of... not laughs the opposite of that.

I did put more bits on the Killa Kan body and it looks nice and orky now. Need to do a bit more on the nose area but not getting any inspiration... so I felt bored and started on a Big Mek with Shokk Attack Gun! This has been pretty fun. I had no clue what I was going to do with it but started breaking up the old airfix models and found some good bits. The metal parts are actually special screw things for bikes and the goldy wire out the back is the wire for brakes, it's a lot easier to manipulate than guitar string at short lengths. I'll keep switching between these two whilst building my Tau in between. I've promised myself no more models until I finish these but *shrug*

I just didn't like the nose

I thought it was too round for my orks and just wanted to cut it off. Still not 100% happy with it as it's very flat, was thinking of remove the plasticard at back and putting the ranged weapon there? Also the fluff behind this ork army is they came across the wreckage of all these old planes drifting in space or whatever and the mek got to thinking they'd be good for stompin' wif sum ickle alterations!

But tomorrow I will be buying pringles for research purposes. All the flavours... just in case...

What's poppin my homies? So been mostly just making my tau. Have one more battlesuit to make, then the commander and then I'm going to start painting them. Need to drop into GW to get some help with that as I shudder to think how bad I must be now.

Working from home again today so just made a blast at my Ork Big Mek in between bouts work things and nearly done with him! He's not the best but I'm very proud of what I was able to do with my first complete conversion. Still a bit to clean up but the was getting unstable so I'm going to let what's on him dry and set, then come back to him another day. So the model is a Nob from the AoBR set and everything else is non-GW stuff, except part of his backpack. What's left to do is; run wire from his handheld wind turbine to the intakes on the backpack(I noticed after taking the pic that the middle one is not straight so that's fixed now), jazz up his left arm a bit as it's still quite bare and jazz up his torso as well, definitely lacking gubbins there.

Been a while since I messed with my orks but I got a spurt of inspiration after looking through Kraut Scientist's eternal hunt blog, got the conversion goolies itching again. So haven't touched my Killa Kan in a while, mostly for fear of ruining what I thought was going well, but I dove into it today and here's what we have! He's nearly complete; the hardest part was the legs which I really thought I was going to feth up but I'm not too ashamed of them in the end. His rokkit "arm" is good to go and so is his buzzsaw. I'm waiting for everything to dry tonight and I'll put him together tomorrow, after that it'sd throw more spikey bits at him until he hurts to pick up.

rivets


I'm quite happy with the legs


all the limbs ready to go

Thanks EDC, and they're tau fusion blasters. I'll throw some spikes or tusks on them later to make em more orky

Been a busy few weeks in the hobby realm! Tomorrow I've actually got my first game in about 12 years so looking forward to it. A work colleague is over from Atlanta and brought 1000pts of marines so I've got my Tau ready to go! I also picked up a copy of the new Shadow Wars rules as we're starting a campaign in work(so I also had to buy more Chaos Space Marines! Couldn't use the old ones could I?) and as part of that we're all making some terrain to get it up and running. Hopefully will get some pics soon of games and such, and for my chaos squad who I plan to convert based on an awesome alpha legion squad I seen that uses the fantasy dark elf corsair cloaks.

But I also finished my Killa Kan! Well 95%. I've to fill some gaps with green stuff and add a bit of zazz to the buzz saw arm but it's pretty much done!



And I finally got around to building my commander for the game tomorrow. I have to say I love this model.



So with terrain, and games, and making promises to my SO that I will not buy any more models until I finish painting the ones I have, I'll be pretty busy on the hobby front! I also have to finish off that damn plane I started first, it's around here somewhere...

Cheers Novelist, I've got to get around to more orky conversions. I'm thinking a trukk next? Or I should probably finish the dakka jet.

Also, crazy bit of happenstance(your profile pic) I finally got my chaos marines to start my Alpha Legion squad for Shadow Wars. Have to say these tactical marine boxes are the business, last time I got a chaos squad was third edition and there's just so much extra on these sprues now. I've also got my termie lord but am thinking of holding back on making him until 8th hits. I know there's been updates to terminators to make them more useful but the updates on close combat weapons means I might rethink what I'm going to put on him. Or maybe I'll just put him together how I want and buy another when 8th hits? God I hate this hobby sometimes!

Been up to quite a bit the last few weeks. I played my first game in 12 years last week and I won(suck it Eric)! It took so much longer than we were expecting(I think it was 6-7 hours) with a lot of back and forth from different rule books, making guesses on what we remember certain rules being and we also had an impartial "adviser" there to make decisions for us and make sure we were plied with alcohol aplenty. Was great fun though! I managed to steal the initiative, and on my first turn wiped out Eric's 5 man bike squad with my team of 3 crisis suits and 6 missile drones, that was a very good feeling! It did get turned around when his drop pod plopped right behind them with his librarian and veteran squad but thank the greater good Eric had some of the worst rolls I've ever seen in my life suffering perils of the warp and being half dead by the time he got to charge me. I never expected the suits to win but through sheer luck they took down 3 marines, one was brought down by a drone in close combat, something that will never be lived down. He had another bike squad on the other flank which I managed to tie down with my kroot. The kroot actually performed so well I think I may include them more often in future, this time I was just filling points and it's all I had.

Also been making terrain for both the shadow wars campaign we're starting soon and the Lord of Extraordinary Riveters competition that's here on dakka.

Finally I started painting! I've been using my space marines I've collected by accident to test my skills and am quite happy with how they came out. I didn't trim these properly or clean mold lines as they are literally only being used to practice painting. I based them with army painter greenskin colour and then it's pretty much basic salamander colours and washed within an inch of their lives. I did go a bit heavy on the wash so will remember that but I've gotta say it makes them look so good with minimal effort, I love washes! The model with the bolter has been layered with warpstone green and the flamer is just the army painter base coat. It's not terribly noticeable but I prefer the warpstone green cover so will be doing that from now on. Then I'm not very good at edge highlighting but practice makes perfect I suppose?


The troubles of trying to take pictures with a cat

The majority of my weekend was spent either drunk or hungover so I didn't get much done but during bouts of the latter I managed to assemble my Shadow Wars Alpha Legion CSM warband! I've always liked the AL and after seeing this it was a no brainer. I already had 20 corsair cloaks I was going to use for my salamanders so away I went! There's a few other serpentine symbols and that in the corsairs box that fit nicely for the AL as well. The extra bits I got on ebay and were already primed black

All the lads


and again


And my terminator lord. He needs cleaning up and that but I like how he turned out. I went for a spear as a weapon since that seemed the alpha-est thing to do

Cheers Camkierhi! It was touch and go and I'm honestly surprised I didn't lose a finger using the x-acto knife. A night of Guinness on an empty stomach is not advised to anyone, the up stairs bathroom experienced it's own eye of terror that Saturday!

You know it Big H!

Didn't get much done last weekend other than buying stuff due to family birthdays and band practice. So first new thing is I splurged and bought some terrain from http://www.wargamestournaments.com/ for my groups shadow wars tournament and also just because it's badass for the price. I went for the 32 piece terrain and jesus is that a lot! Second I've held off pre-ordering 8th, since I don't need more models(as the terrain pic below of the copious amount of unpainted plastic will tell) but got the box of Gorechosen since it was finally back in stock in my FLGS and thought I needed some board games anyway. Have to say, I really wanted to convert those models too 40k style but they're just too nice to mess with... guess I'll have to buy another box...

And last but not least I decided to buy a lord of plagues model to start something. I've always liked the thought that each of the original legions had something specific about them and something that represented them as a legion or faction. I'm planning to make one model that represents each original loyalist and traitor legion, well at some stage... I've had notions about this ever since seeing KrautScientists Ruinous Powers thingy and also ChaosDad's legion bikers. Then thing though, that set me upon this path, was the extra sprue in the chaos space marine tactical squad set that had separate heads and shoulder pads for each of the different chaos gods. I was like "Ahh bejaysus, be the hokey! Sure couldn't I just be usin' the heads diddle dee dee!", or whatever we Irish people say when we're exited, the details are lost to time. So I decided to start with the lord of plagues conversion because of two reasons, 1) someone else who runs a blog here(also a fellow Irish man) by the name of nurgle5 inspired me to do this and I promised him I'd rob it and 2) you can be pretty messy with nurgle conversions and it will be okay, that suits my skills. So I started hacking and glueing and green stuffing and... I'm fairly happy with what's come out. The backpack was happenstance, I always mix too much greenstuff and I just decided to whack the stuff on instead of waste it. I tried to make some boils, pustules, and dropping, sagging welts, and I'm fairly happy with how terrible it looks.

Criticism welcome! In the right hand I'm obviously thinking a scythe and the backpack needs some exhausts, but if I've missed anything, holla at yo boy!

Terrain and gorechosen lads:


Base Lord of Plagues:


After a bit of greenstuff and bits:


And backpack:

Thanks Novelist, I try my best! Good is a stretch, I'd say "presentable" myself.

I'm thinking his chest is too bare but I'd be afraid I'd ruin him by trying to add more? Maybe the three nurgle circles or some such to break up the bareness

Howiya lads, how's she cuttin'? Been pretty busy lately with real life, seems like every day of the week I've got something to do, but got a little burst of hobbying in over the long weekend and today. I'm off work from today until the 19th but flat out lads. Got gigs to go tonight and tomorrow, Saturday will be recovering from a hangover(I do find I have some great ideas while hungover though, well mostly still drunk) and shopping to get ready for heading to Hamburg on Sunday. 5 day holiday there, me and the warden are heading over to see System of a Down(can't wait!) then back Thursday, going to see Clutch in Dublin that night then curl up and go through alcohol/fun withdrawals for 3 days before I'm due back in work. So hobbywise I've been doing thus like:

For the LoER #22 competition I've been dragging behind a good bit and have to get this fether done within the next few days. I started base coating it today but it literally stopped raining for about 5 minutes(gotta love these Irish summers) here so I didn't get to finish it. It's pretty much done though, few bits I have to go over with a brush but it'll do. I finished making the platform for the inside but didn't take a picture of that because it's gone hiding somewhere. Its not very good but I'm damn proud of this. First piece of terrain I've ever scratch built and I've definitely caught the bug. I'll fill the inside with a bit of rubble and such and then start painting. If anyone reading has any tips for painting this let me know. Was just going to give a heavy dry brush of grey then some highlight, could probably do with vines but it's too late for that so maybe some flock for moss etc.
Frontsies

Backsies


Sat down to do some more painting on the weekend too and got 4 more Salamanders done. They're not as good as the other ones as I was testing my batch painting method. I can tell after taking the pic there's a few places I've missed and need to touch up but again just a test so I'm happy with how they turned out. I also started on some Chaos models from the DV boxset but jesus they're too detailed for my failing eyes. A friend and I have invested in magnifying headsets w/ LEDs, was only 18 meow meows, so we'll see if that helps in future.


And lastly I worked a bit more on my Death Guard Aspiring Champion. Made the scythe and attached his other arm. It's a bit of a mess at the moment but it needs more greenstuffing and bile and puss and stuff. I was trying to do a leather wrap thing but it wouldn't work out so I just said "feth it" and left it like that. I'll come back to it as some boils and oozing in it and clean up the right hand. Also added a little exhaust on the backpack as that seemed very death guardy. Will add another one where the backpack vent was cut off or maybe a tube coming out and through some flesh, not sure yet
Front

Arm w/ scythe

Backpack

@BigH cheers, I'll make sure to lube up more before trying to insert my tools... In seriousness though thanks! I've been using water at the moment and it's not been great. Greenstuff for me at the moment is more of a chore than a fun extra thing to do so I will try to use some Vaseline and see how it goes. I'm very impatient so when gak gets stuck to my tools(Really?) I get bothered and annoyed so kind've give up and move on to something else. Hence the rough edges on literally everything you'll ever see from me

@Camkierhi thanks for the comps! I've no hot glue gun to try and make vines but I'll make sure to remember it does vines in future! Thanks for the sponging idea though, might give that a try. Also, I don't know if you can say "I am no expert", I'm half way through both your blogs and your work is amazing!

As for tools, a few years back I bought the citadel tools so have had their three thingy-bobs as GS tools. X-acto wise I have as such: https://www.amazon.com/Xacto-X5282-Basic-Knife-Set/dp/B00004Z2UB its good for cutting, as well as I know, and has done me well(which for wellness sake, is not in the least bit well). Other stuff, I have a nice tweezers I got from a little screwdriver set, and that's pretty much it! I know there's so many things I "should" have but if there's any absolutely, positively, extraordinary, items I should acquire... let them be hence!

Cheers Cleatus. Your comment has got me thinking I do need to root through the box I have them all stored in and see what to make next. I've ordered the new codex(index thingy?) so should be arriving this Wednesday, I'll give it as goo, see what makes sense and go from there.

As to hobby related things last weekend was spent finishing up the League of Extraordinary Riveters competition. The public vote can be found as such: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/729874.page Really enjoyed taking part. As I've said before, my favourite part of of this hobby is building and creating things rather than painting and playing, the latter coming a close second, but I've never dabbled in terrain, mainly because I haven't played many games so didn't see the point. BUUUUT! This has been eye opening, really enjoyed it and can't wait to make more. I've actually bought a few things to start making more terrain.

Let's see, other than that haven't done much during the week, Had that lethargic melancholic feeling one gets after being on holidays for two weeks then coming back to work. I'm on call this weekend so am house bound in the evenings but did get to go into GW Dublin to pick up some more paints I needed. Also popped in to Gamers World on Jervis Street and picked up some uniform grey primer spray from army painter to try something a bit lighter than chaos black and see how it works. I also finally has my first Shadow War game this week in work and my CSM squad got absolutely diddled by Peter's Skitarii squad. The team I'm running is here if anyone wants to add anything: https://shadow-war.zone/view-killteam/648/iron-fangs . From reading around you should do the whole "boys over toys" mantra but I've heard the toughness 5 of nurgle marines can make such a difference it's worth it... but not when your opponent has 3 models with sustained fire plasma it seems! It was a bad setup as well. It was an ambush game, I rolled and chose to be attacker, and the way terrain was set up the centre was just a massive high building so it was a snipers dream me trying to run up and thump them. Lesson learned!

I'll try paint some stuff tomorrow. Tonight is about finally finishing the Witcher 3(but I never want it to end!). But for now I'll leave a picture of the planks I painted for the LoER competition which I am really proud of. Peace.

Planks:

So The Witcher 3 and general steam sales are taking up most of my time but I have been doing bits and bobs. Yesterday had another Shadow Wars game against some orcs and fared a bit better than the Ad Mech, but lost due to a failed bottle check. I keep forgetting to take pictures of the board but it's looking pretty good now, just needs to be painted properly.

Other than that I've primed a lot of different types of models so as to not get bored and keep the painting interesting while I ease into it properly. This weekend will be a relaxing one at home gaming and painting!

Space Marines and Skaven(I know I know, drill the gun barrels)


And some Tau and Chaos, Shadow Wars squad I primed grey to see how it works, I'm going alpha legion!


And even though I wasn't supposed to buy any more models(don't tell the warden) I couldn't help but pick these guys up second hand, perfect and still on sprue!

Thanks Cam! I doubt I'll be winning this one but will of course be taking part. I really hope next competitions topic is either "hands" or "eggs", I have my reasons...

Hello good people! Still haven't started painting any of the models but I've kept busy otherwise. Pic heavy this one

So this week we started in earnest our Shadow Wars campaign in work, after the previous test matches, and I don't know what happened but I finally won a match, and when it counted too! My CSM were playing against my friend Eliott's Tau and with my amazing strategical mind and intense luck, I managed to kill three of his squishy Tau which made him bottle out. It was an ambush game with myself on attack, I messed up the terrain setup last time when doing this so was sure to put something other than a massive tall building in the middle of the table. He was also playing very very defensively which didn't help too much. He was really worried about my CC guys storming up so kept pointing overwatch at the alley they had to come down, while my plasma specialist just blasted him away. Now for pics:

Eliott and myself:

They're a bit bare as this is the first time all 4 of us had a chance to be together so we do need more terrain. Looks great on just one board though!

Steve(Orks) + Peter(Skitarii):


Nextly I have thoroughly caught the terrain bug! I've been jonesing for the next LoER to start but until then I've turned to making some Shadow Wars Terrain. I've started making walkways for between buildings based on the ones Peter made, visible in the images above. I'm pretty happy with them so far. Just have to finish one more wall section then start painting. The plastic canvas I'm using as the grid arrived today but I think I'll paint first before gluing together. What do people think about the excessive battle damage? I like it myself but could be talked around. I'm not going for(skillful enough to achieve) the clean look, and was even thinking of adding spikes and gak like that to mark it as some territory my chaos gang has taken. CC welcome

Start:


Mid way:


Blown open:


Other than that I've acquired even more things. I got 11 marines for a tenner off ebay(bargain!) and while adding up my power levels for 8th edition realised I only needed one more sergeant to have 3 tac squads and 1 more heavy weapon to complete a devastator squad. I picked two willing volunteers and went at them with a knife:


And after! I've to fill up the sergeants hand with green stuff and also run some wires from the devastators handheld thingy to the backpack, then seal it with greenstuff also:


The last thing is I've managed to trade the High Elves I got in the Spire of Dawn starter set for some fantasy chaos models. There's some hefty old school dudes in this lot. Old Chaos Warriors and Knights. I wouldn't know the year but the ones with the hunched over shoulders like orcs. I can tell from looking at them the molds must be from the 90s, cool little things to have for kitbashing or whatever. The main thing I wanted from this trade was the new Slaughterpriest with Hackblade and Wrath-Hammer, to be used in Gorechosen and because he's bad ass, and it also included the Gorebeast out of the chaos chariot set(far right in picture). I'll have to check sizes because I think he might be a bit small for a Maulerfiend but I'm sure I can turn him into a counts-as hell brute or something similar. Maybe even a juggernaut for a new lord? Any ideas please throw them at me


Phew! Donezo!

Cheers Cam! On closer inspection the Gorebeast is much smaller than I thought so defo not a forgefiend or even a hellbrute, I'll have to sit on it.

I did finish the bridge late last night so that's something! I'm away most of the weekend so won't get to hobby again until Sunday night at least

One of these days I'll get around to painting, but it is not this day! I've seriously been bitten with the terrain bug lately, literally can't look at things without wanting to turn them into a piece of terrain.

So Sunday went to Aldi to do the shopping and picked up the steamer pots they had on offer. They had this weird cardboard holder(image below) and when I took it off and dropped it on the floor I had a "...huh" moment.


I thought that would be a perfect shadow wars platform! Bit big obviously so I'd trim down the legs. Then I started thinking about cardboard terrain and how to strengthen it etc. I know a lot of people here do it nut I know I'd it up. So it dawned on me, use the thing as a template!


Lo and behold! Took it to some plasticard for a first run and will mess around with it some more. Also cut out a grid shape from the plastic canvas I ordered


I'm thinking this would be a perfect bit of modular terrain. Will build some sort of box for the bottom to give it stability, then just cut more templates and have pillars in the middle of the platform to stack them. The 4 things at the edge can either be used for ladders, or to connect walkways etc. If anyone is looking here and has any good ideas for getting a nice clean seal with the grating I have and the canvas that would be much appreciated! Also, I've to think more on how to magnetize this stuff together. I'm thinking the base will have magnets then just have a bit of metal strip under the platform. but I'll have to think of something to put on top so maybe I'll have to trip down that grating so it doesn't cover anything. I think I need to invest in a compass...

Hello all!

Have to say the summer is just flying by and the last few weeks have been so busy I've barely had time to pick up any plastic or paint. I'm off for two weeks from today and just bumming about at home with the warden so hopefully I'll get a full day here and there to catch up on some stuff.

So what have I done, well I bought more stuff I have been keeping to my budget off 100 a month(and last month most of that budget was on a set of bluetooth headphones since my headphone jack on the phone broke) but jumped on a great second hand deal once I seen it! Perfect condition chaos Land Raider and Forgefiend for 50 quid, including postage. Should be coming tomorrow and then I'll finally kick those filthy Tau right in the fish lips! Speaking of, played my first game of 8th last weekend and it was savage craic but unfortunately I lost to Eliott's Tau. Few lessons learned: 1) Cultists are literally the worst, 2) don't be stupid and set up your twin lascannon hellbrute in range of a ghostkeel, 3) ghostkeels can really bring the hurt and 4) drones are amazingly good/annoying. Stupid setup made me lose the hellbrute on my opponents first turn before I got to do anything and the rest of the game was spent hiding from it, had nothing else to really take it down. I ran 3 chaos lords which were great, and a squad of chosen with plasma guns really brought the hurt but it wasn't enough.

So anyway, today I was at home and terribly hungover/still drunk so start working on some things. I find most of my inspiration comes from being slightly tipsy So using the gorebeast and my left over bits, I went at making a Chaos Lord on Juggernaut of Khorne. The main parts are finished but he still needs the final touches like filing in gaps and finishing off the base. The spoils:


Howiya:


His lovely axe:


Junk in that trunk:


And a poor Space Wolf for the base:


I also did a tiny bit of painting to test the paint scheme for my alpha legion. Still very much a work in progress but I was testing out the cape colourings, and am thinking I shall go for the green cape with blue wash rather than the other way around. Might even make the cape a brighter green, C&C very welcome on this as I've no idea what I'm up to!

Cheers Skinflint! I need to get back into the airfix a bit more, just got taken over by other armies and gaming.

And both great episodes! "These are small, those are far away!"

Hello all. Just a small update today, I finally finished my first Alpha Legion lad with the colours and style I'm set on. I'm open to C&C as always but fairly set on this. So I'm not a good painter by any stretch but I'm happy with this guy. I do hate the fact the zoomed in picture with flash brings out all the imperfections but feth it, she'll do! So first off, I'm pretty proud of how the cape came off and how easy it was to do, it really ties the whole thing together and I'm happy I went for the brighter green. Secondly, I love Biel-Tan Green shade! There is no way a man of my skill could have pulled off the alpha legion blue/green fade with normal paints. I will say it's pretty heavy handed. I might try to do a bit less in future, or maybe two lighter layers but overall I think it works, again the zoom and flash makes it look a bit ugh but in real life it's fine.

Front:


Back:

@EDC thanks man!

@Cam thanks and I will try work on a proper way to take photos. The warden just bought a new lamp for the living room, unbeknownst to her though it shall be liberated for chaos!

I'm really going to push for finishing the SW squad by the end of the week and try do a proper photoshoot with them too

Pic heavy this one. Soooooooo I didn't finish painting the squad but I got very close! I said I wouldn't do another update but I got some inspiration and made somethings! So here we are...

Didn't get much done during the week, back to work after two weeks of holiday is very draining, and heading back to family this weekend so will be away. Mostly done though so I plan to get this squad finished during the week:
The lads


Right one finished:



Aaaaaand I finished of my three champions of the chaos gods, which I'm fairly happy with. Even had a game with the sorcerer but he's about as useful as a marzipan dildo.
Chaos Lord on Juggernaut of Khorne:



Sorcerer of Tzeentch:



Nurgle Lord of Contagion:



Slaanesh Exhalted Champion - Lord of Blades:



Let me know what you think. I used vaseline for greenstuffing this time and it's definitely different. I used way too much the first time but got it about right in the end. The Khorne lord still needs some more work with filling in the gaps of his saddle and I want to go over the gorget of the exhalted champion as I it looks like a blob and not armor. The strap on the backpack is a bit annoying but I'll live with it