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In the early 2000's I planned out a chaos WFB army based on Moorecock's Pine warriors with converted giants/Great demons to be the Fhoi Myore.

Time-Money-Skill - Pick 2

There was a brief time in my life when I had the time and money - but the vision in my mind would have required converting and modelling skills I didn't posses.

Now I have 0 of those things. :p

Every now and then I think back to my old plans to create and paint a Pacific Rim themed Imperial Knights army with Shatterdrome display board.

Just a bit of encouragement to folks to not give up on things.

For many years I dreamed of 15mm scale Warhammer 40K using some variant of Squad Leader rules.

I had played ASL quite a lot and mostly Stalingrad battles. Gritty struggles among the ruins.

I had to wait until things lined up and that project is now mostly become a reality.

The availability of low cost resin printers and the release of Black Reach solved most of the problem.

The other big hurdle was that I was NEVER going to find anyone interested in playing.

Then I discovered solo gamers online and playing solo allowed me to enjoy the story telling and model building aspects.

I would say that this project has been my #1 forever. The final piece is to create lists for Guard troops because at the moment only Orks and Marines are available. I am worried the company may go under before they officially release these troops.



I also slot car race and there are no American companies producing the obscure cars I grew up with. So I am slowly working to create my own range of car bodies and working with a British supplier of running gear.


And lastly I have become re-interested in Oldhammer and have become motivated to produce my cheesy army of 3rd edition Amazon figures. No pics yet but I keep adjusting the thickness of my ladies to try to get that heroic look.

The main obstacle to most of our ideas is lack of motivation. It simply kills me. And I have to say that overcoming this is not easy. I rely very heavily on online forums and groups to inspire me and keep me going.

So thanks to everyone who shares their work online. It keeps me going.

phillv85 wrote:
I always wanted to do a full on diorama of Chaos Warriors attacking an Empire town with a full on castle and keep in the mix with Chaos fully into the town and pockets of resistance outside the keep, and the keep still being held. Alas, it'd be a lifes work, and the models aren't available.

That is the theme of my chaos army, Norscan marauders rampaging through an Ostermark city:



The centerpiece will be the FW war mammoth crashing through the city walls.

More units for those interested here: https://mandollies.com/tag/norscan-chaos/




Automatically Appended Next Post:
The 15mm 40k looks great kenofyork

Solo gaming is extra relevant in these days

kenofyork wrote:
For many years I dreamed of 15mm scale Warhammer 40K using some variant of Squad Leader rules.

Damn that 40k/ASL project is awesome!

I have some 15mm 40k stuff from Vanguard, but decided their 6-8mm stuff would probably better get me to where I want to go. After reading thru this thread I decided to finally start pursuing my grand scale 40k project, even though I will be violating my own rule of buying things piece meal. It's something I've been dreaming about for a year now, so I feel confident at this point that it is not just an impulse.

With this economic stimulus package on the horizon in the US, I got a feeling that a lot of these projects may actually come to life

Two more projects Ive always dreamed of.

1. A custom copy of hero quest. Fully painted with converted miniatures from the GW range to stand in for all existing HQ models. Custom made map, ect.., and even a fancy wooden box with a HQ logo burned into it.

2. A 15mm zombie survival game, where teams get to actually build their own bases throughout the turns, while they go through town scavenging for food, ammo, and gasoline.

I want to rebuild heroquest, using things i just find or can reproduce somehow, but it's almost definitely beyond my abilities

amazingturtles: Me too, absolutely. I have got some Fimir minis and stuff for it, but I have way too much on my plate right now!

I would love to have a BFG fleet for every faction. But it is just not practical with things costing the way they do and the models all OOP.

Another thing Is a helms deep and Minas tirith battle dioramas... Wicked idea.. don't have the follow through to complete.

 Rygnan wrote:
At this stage, a 30k Dark Angels army. Seeing more and more of the gorgeous sculpts coming out I want to dive in properly, but I don't feel like it'll ever go anywhere if I did and it's a huge investment for me that could be way better spent elsewhere

Adding to this cause I've been thinking about it a bit more. Most of these are things I want but are largely unrealistic from a time, money and storage point of view when I will almost certainly not be using them in games.

Titanicus force- Just a playable army, but with some of all classes of titans and knights
2500 point 30k Imperial Knight army
Warhound Titan
Buying back into a Skaven army to use in the upcoming Old World revival or just playing WFB
Buying back into Warmachine with just a list or 2 built around the set of casters I still own

Simply time? Writing a Rorke's Drift battle scenario for 6th Ed. WFB with recommendations for each army to be potential candidates for the scenario.


More about finances and time? Building a 10 man unit of Silver Helms on the White Lions from the Chariot boxed set. Too much time to chase down all the components for a permission only unit which will more than likely simply be my "counts as" Cold One Riders.

Also doing an all Minotaur army populated solely by the one pewter Doombull model I have and filled out with nothing but the Minotaurs from Talisman/Warhammer Quest. The problem is that the BINs on these models has been FAR higher than sanity would infer, so I wait for some auctions to bid on.

 Da Boss wrote:
amazingturtles: Me too, absolutely. I have got some Fimir minis and stuff for it, but I have way too much on my plate right now!

Strangely, I just had a dream last night that i found the dwarf figure! Perhaps it is a sign... that i need to get better sleep

 amazingturtles wrote:
I want to rebuild heroquest, using things i just find or can reproduce somehow, but it's almost definitely beyond my abilities

This is actually super easy to do ...I mean, time consuming, but easy;

You can hand-make a copy of the board, or...I saw somewhere, someone had a neoprene mouse-pad mat which was a copy of the classic Hero Quest board. The miniatures are easily available (not the actual Hero Quest miniatures, but loads of retro style miniatures to cover all your bases). All you would need is the cards, which can be easily photoshopped and printed via print-to-order places like Gamecrafter.

Even the dice can be custom ordered from Chessex or stickers-on-dice from Gamecrafter, etc. Some websites sell aftermarket Hero Quest dice as well.

I always dream of finishing a project before getting lost in another one.

The sad thing for me is that it is not a lack of funds/time. It is the lack of rules keeping me from progressing with my dream projects.

For a while I was planning on buying 30k Mechanicus models as there was a book planned to cross over the units into 40k. After the lead writer passed away, there really hasn't been any news on that front in the last few years.

I was also looking into putting together an inquisition force. Praetor as my inquisitor, solar auxilia as stormtroopers, etc. The rules just suck though and lack the awesome customization that was available back in 5th/6th edition.

I realized a few years ago that I love 40k universe and the potential the rule set has, but feel as though GW has consistently gone a direction that I hate (flyers, superheavies, allies, stripping customization, lower point costs, etc.)

So, consider writing your own rules- looking up alternate ones, or finding someone who's written some decent ones up for yourself? Find a skirmish game which meets your 40K criteria, etc?

 Elbows wrote:
So, consider writing your own rules- looking up alternate ones, or finding someone who's written some decent ones up for yourself? Find a skirmish game which meets your 40K criteria, etc?

That does not work depending on how your local scene is built.

Not Online!!! wrote:

 Elbows wrote:
So, consider writing your own rules- looking up alternate ones, or finding someone who's written some decent ones up for yourself? Find a skirmish game which meets your 40K criteria, etc?

That does not work depending on how your local scene is built.

That's entirely dependent on your motivation and finding one or two people interested in the concept. It's not some impossible obstacle in most cases.

 Elbows wrote:

 amazingturtles wrote:
I want to rebuild heroquest, using things i just find or can reproduce somehow, but it's almost definitely beyond my abilities

This is actually super easy to do ...I mean, time consuming, but easy;

You can hand-make a copy of the board, or...I saw somewhere, someone had a neoprene mouse-pad mat which was a copy of the classic Hero Quest board. The miniatures are easily available (not the actual Hero Quest miniatures, but loads of retro style miniatures to cover all your bases). All you would need is the cards, which can be easily photoshopped and printed via print-to-order places like Gamecrafter.

Even the dice can be custom ordered from Chessex or stickers-on-dice from Gamecrafter, etc. Some websites sell aftermarket Hero Quest dice as well.

That's fair! Maybe I should really give it a try.

The big obstacle though is that when i said things i can find and reproduce, i really meant that i don't intend to buy a single thing. The way things are, i really can't. I can print out a lot of things, but the dice seem like biggest challenge, for me at least.

Dice would be annoying, but you could always print out a simple "dice sheet", where you roll your D6s and place them on a simple little table...showing which dice face corresponds to which Hero Quest dice face.

Or, you can always convert any fancy dice into a X+ system.

If Heroes need a Shield, and there are two shields on the dice...that becomes Heroes saving on a roll of 5+, etc. But yeah, if you've zero budget that changes...everything, as it'd be far easier to buy some stuff.

A True-Scale space marine army. No longer really an issue with Primaris marines, but at one point back around 2005ish I REALLY wanted to do a full force of converted, biggified Space Marines that actually LOOKED like Space Marines compared to all the other miniatures. I did one test mini and it took so much effort converting that I noped the heck out of ever doing it at an armywide scale, but I always loved looking at other people's attempts at it

 Just Tony wrote:
Simply time? Writing a Rorke's Drift battle scenario for 6th Ed. WFB with recommendations for each army to be potential candidates for the scenario.


More about finances and time? Building a 10 man unit of Silver Helms on the White Lions from the Chariot boxed set. Too much time to chase down all the components for a permission only unit which will more than likely simply be my "counts as" Cold One Riders.

Also doing an all Minotaur army populated solely by the one pewter Doombull model I have and filled out with nothing but the Minotaurs from Talisman/Warhammer Quest. The problem is that the BINs on these models has been FAR higher than sanity would infer, so I wait for some auctions to bid on.

Adding to this:

Chasing down the swarm creature sprue from Talisman/Warhammer Quest to use the Spiders, Snotlings, Bats, and Rats to make Tomb Swarms, Snotling Swarms, Bat Swarms, and Rat Swarms respectively. Probably more effort than necessary, especially since I have to scour ebay for 40mm bases, but still one of my projects.

Oh, and now that I have the top part of the models I'd like some Wolves to turn some Gors into Centigors. Price along with finding auctions with JUST what I want is tedious at best. I suppose if I can find 2 boxes of Goblin Wolf Riders I can make a 20 man foot regiment, 10 Centigors, and 10 Dire Wolves that don't look like Chaos Hounds.

Do you want the old swarms just for nostalgias sake? Those minis were terrible...and generally there are better options available now from other sources to replicate most of those.

 Elbows wrote:
Do you want the old swarms just for nostalgias sake? Those minis were terrible...and generally there are better options available now from other sources to replicate most of those.

I like the looks of the bats and snots, the other two are confined to the sprue and I don't feel like paying the luxury tax of buying separate from the sprue. If my brother didn't already have the Jungle Swarms built, the spiders would go there. As it stands I wouldn't buy the sprues again unless they were pretty cheap. Those "toy box" kits from long long ago were damn near perfect as they also gave me Minotaurs for that OTHER project.

For everyone dreaming of making a really good heroquest set I thought I should mention Zealot Miniatures "Twisting Catacombs ".
They've currently got a kickstarter with a really nice set of resculpts of the heroquest set.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zealotminiatures/twisting-catacombs-litchmyre-dungeon

I’d like to make a display board for my Ultras. Polar fortress landing pad/mustering station. With the size I’m at, it would have to be most of a table. Even if I just make room for my company, it’s still a lot of space. I think my skills are where they need to be, but the budget is always tight, and I lack the physical space to work on something that large and to store it when done. I thought of making something sized as an insert for the china cabinet, but the minis are packed pretty tight in there to start. I’m working more on terrain these days, so might work up some 2x2 tiles eventually. Physical space is a major issue here.

Sometimes I look wistfully at FW for large centerpiece things. Eldar superheavy grav tanks specifically, but so many shiny things there.

And there are always other armies that pull at the corner of my mind. A table full of gribbly little nids, with a few monsters herding them. The song of Blood and Brass sometimes reaches up from the dark side of my soul. Set the galaxy on fire, scream “Blood for the Blood God!” and go claim some skulls. Even the filthy Tau. (although they are easier to resist, as my eldar scratch a similar itch. I just love grav tanks)

Armies are never “finished” but my Ultras are pretty well set. Lack of plastics are holding my Eldar back. Slowly working on Deathwatch as a tertiary project. So there is a chance of one of the other armies getting started.

I would build the whole Telemark Battalion from the Royal Norwegian Army and the Royal Guards. I would like to do it at 28mm scale. But I don't feel confident in my skills to do the project justice.

Besides that, I would not mind building an army of Swedes for the 30 Years War, Warlord miniatures have what I need for this. but after I did an army of Parliamentarians for the English civil war I am somewhat sceptical to begin a new horde of pike and shot.

I have this horde army of about 250 cadians with 36 missle launchers and some 33 grenade launchers.
I LOST about a hundred of them over christmas, and I never finished the last 30.

So yeah, even if I could get it up and painted, who the heck can I find what would sit patiently for me to play that horde? Still, it is to dream. "FIRE MISSLES!" screamed Lord Kommisar Generikus "ALL OF THEM!"

Napoleonics in 10mm, specifically Napoleon's invasion of Russia in 1812.

I also always wanted to give Warmaster a try.

Building a solar Auxillia army.
Love the models but resin infantry annoys me, I also would need a mortgage just to get a 1k army, let alone a full 2.5k army.

I would love to do the Irish War of Independence and Tan War in 28mm along with vehicles.

Kyromek has been calling me for years. I still think the miniature line is great.

Would love to do sci-fi in 6 or 10mm.

Eastern front WW2 as well. 28mm and 15mm.

Also want a load of Dark Ages stuff in 28mm.

That's only the tip of the list.

What I really need are a couple of extra lifetimes.