Painted: Adeptus Mechanicus Tech Priest Enginseer

Another recruit for the forces of the Adeptus Mechanicus. This time just a lowly Enginseer.

Ready to repair!

So, a small addition to my growing forces but a very important one as he will be my second HQ choice which unlocks a few more precious command points for me to spend on those devious Mechanicus stratagems.


On the tabletop he's pretty cheap and cheerful (especially since the points drops in Chapter Approved) clocking in at a miniscule 47 points! Not bad considering his ability to repair friendly vehicles. He's not going to achieve much in close combat and definitely not at range as he's only equipped with a laspistol! Still you can't have everything for less than 50 points.


The miniature itself is simply gorgeous, full of details that engage with the models place within the Warhammer 40000 universe. The heavily mechanized arms and legs look crude and cheap compared to the sophisticated augmentations of the Magos Dominus. Similarly, his axe is less elaborate, more akin to a workman's tool than a staff of office.


I'm delighted to have finished painting this model, it's one of my favourites in the range and I was fortunate to be given a copy for my Birthday back in September.

It's a bit over exposed, but the servo skull is a gorgeous thing.

I've also been messing around with some kitbashes this week. Tune in later to see what horrible abominations I've managed to create!

Finishing Squads - Kataphron Breachers and Sicarian Ruststalkers

It's about time I got some of these units finished! As part of an ongoing build 'n' paint campaign with a group of friends I have been trying to finish off the odd model here or there that will allow me to field complete units. I have a bad habit of painting 80% of a squad and then never finishing the last one or two models.

The last Breacher is finally finished!

With that in mind I have been working on my third Kataphron Breacher, a squad that I started painting back in April this year! I'm really happy to have finished these guys. Although I am pleased with how they turned out, they aren't my favourite models and finishing the squad really felt like an uphill struggle at times. Hopefully they will redeem themselves on the tabletop and gain some favour in my eyes.

Having said that, he does look pretty.

I've also finished painting a squad of Sicarian Ruststalkers. Now these guys do include one of my favourite models in the form of the Ruststalker Princeps. I love the dynamic posing of these models and the detailing. Like most of the Skitarii stuff they really are superb.

General Grievous? Never heard of her!

Anyway, all of those odd models brings my painted total up to 915 points. I feel like I've come a long way since I posted about completing 500 points back in September. It certainly puts me in a good place for playing 1000 point games with a fully painted army during December.

Chop chop!

As far as the Ruststalkers are concerned, they're probably the least competitive variant of the Sicarian kit under the current rules. They don't cause enough mortal wounds to be truly threatening because they don't have chordclaws. They also lack the ranged weapons and deepstriking abilities which make Infiltrators so useful. Nonetheless I'm determined to keep fielding them and I'm sure I will figure out how best to use them eventually.


Stay tuned to see what comes off of the painting block next!

Painting the Onager Dunecrawler - Dreadtober 2017 week 3

So, the end of the third week of Dreadtober looms, and how am I doing? Well, to put it bluntly, I've finished!




Oh yeah!

Ok, that's not quite true, as I did say I would paint the other weapon options and I have yet to do so. But even so, the Onager itself is complete along with the Eradication Beamer I showed off last time.

Time to Eradicate!

Painting the model in sub-assemblies really helped me to get it finished quickly and made the whole process a lot easier. It's much simpler to slap on a basecoat with a big brush when you don't have to worry about all  those pesky details!

Love the cog and skull motif.

I think this is the first time I've applied a transfer since I was about twelve years old. I must say, transfers have definitely improved in the decades since then! I also used some Micro-Sol to help blend the transfer into the paintwork which worked quite well.

How many lenses can you count?

In case you can't tell from the rampant photography, I really am delighted with how the Onager turned out. The pink and green scheme scaled up really well to a larger model and the brass details really set it off. The most fiddly part was probably painting and assembling the turret gunner; but when you can have a heavy stubber for only five points, I wasn't going to leave him off!

Feel free to count the rivets too!

So, thanks to Todd and all my fellow Dreadtober-teers! Once again, the threat of community humiliation has spurred me on to complete a model that would probably have languished in indefinite undercoat. As I mentioned in my first Dreadtober post, I'm also participating in a build-and-paint campaign at the moment so I have a few other models on my list for this month. Check in next week to see if I have a further Dreadtober update or something different entirely!


As usual, you can read my Dreadtober story here, here and here.

Painting the Onager Dunecrawler - Dreadtober 2017 week 2

Welcome to Dreadtober week 2! So, how's it going? Well, it's going pretty great, thanks for asking.

Finally glued to the base!

It's been a solid week of progress for me. I've finished painting a lot of the smaller parts that will be glued in place once the main hull is complete. Not only that, but I've finished painting the lower half and stuck it on the base!


Following in the footsteps of the rest of my Skitarii, I'm trying to keep things simple with the paint scheme. Not getting bogged down in too much of the detail (because these things have tons of it!)

Eradication Beamer! Such a cool weapon.

I'm delighted with how the scheme is turning out. I'm always worried about transferring a colour scheme to a larger model, but so far it seems to be working well.


As far as assembly goes, the legs were a bit of a bitch as I hadn't realized that you can't just slide the funny snowshoe type things around the feet once they're fixed down. This led to much cursing as I had to rip the legs off the base and then reconnect them with the 'snowshoes' in place. However, it doesn't seem to have damaged the finished product.

Other assorted gubbins. All WIP.

Still, so far, progress is good and I'm well on the way to finishing the model by the end of the month. You can check out my previous progress here and here. Also be sure to stop by the main Dreadtober blog to see how the other participants are getting on.


Tune in next time for another batch of hot, steaming progress!

Painting the Onager Dunecrawler - Dreadtober 2017 week 1

Well the first week of Dreadtober is finished and things are going ok for me. I've decided to build the Onager as a series of sub-assemblies for painting and have made a start on painting most of the bits. I've even managed to finish painting a couple of the smaller parts!

So many parts!

As with most modern plastic kits, the Onager is a joy to build. The components fit together nicely and there are very few mould lines. You may just be able to see from the picture above that I've built both the neutron laser and the eradication beamer as weapon options. I have drilled and inserted magnets behind the weapon housing so that I can pick and choose. If I get the chance I will also magnetise the heavy phosphor blaster, but realistically I would probably always use the eradication beamer instead so it seems a little redundant!


I've noticed that a lot of people tend to magnetise the weapon barrels instead of the whole gun chassis. In my experience this tends to make things a bit wobbly on the tabletop and if you aren't super careful it can lead to some very wonky gun barrels.

Nice legs! Just test fitting the armour panels.

For the colour scheme I'll be using my usual Skitarii scheme which you may have seen here. It's an attractive (if I do say so myself) combination of deep green and bright pink; with plenty of metallic thrown in for good measure. They are armoured cyborgs after all!

Complete! Turret gunner and....whatever that thing is.

Mostly, I'm just delighted to have finished some of the bits (even if they are tiny!) Hopefully finishing a part at a time will give me the motivation to push through and get this thing finished.


Check in next week to find out if I've rocketed ahead with the painting or if it's slow going. Right now the motivation is high and I feel like I'm on a roll. Oh, and if you're interested, you can check out my intro post for Dreadtober here.

Painting Skitarii - 500 points complete

I reached an important milestone this weekend with my Adeptus Mechanicus army. Painting a 500 point army to completion.

Sorry for the glare....and the curtains.

I guess thirteen models doesn't seem much to write home about (especially as I completed the bulk of these models this year during Squaduary and Monster March.) But it's very significant for me. Having a fully painted army of a certain value is quite a rare event in my hobby life, so it's definitely one worth documenting.

The final model.

Some of you may recall that when I took part in Squaduary I had painted the rather inadvisable combination of an arc rifle and a plasma caliver for my squad of Skitarii Vanguard. As it turned out, the lack of a second identical weapon really damages the focus of a squad on the tabletop, so I felt I needed a second plasma caliver before I could honestly call the army complete. I painted up the guy above and added him to the vanguard squad for a double dose of hot plasma death!


I'm also taking part in a campaign over the next few months run by my buddy Lewis over at Canis Aureus. The concept is to increase the army size by 250 points per month and play a series of games over a system map of the Charadon Sector. Hopefully this will push me on to complete 750 points by the end of October, which ties in nicely with Dreadtober as I will be painting an Onager Dunecrawler to add to the force.


Stay tuned for more updates on Dreadtober and, with any luck, a fully painted 750 point force in a month's time!

Dreadtober 2017 - Skitarii Onager Dunecrawler

It's that time of the year again! The nights are drawing in and there's no better way to spend your evening than slaving over a hot Dreadnought (or approximate equivalent).




Spooky!

In my usual fashion I will be trying to stretch the category of Dreadnought to its limits by building and painting an Onager Dunecrawler for my growing Skitarii force.


For those that don't know, Dreadtober is a participation project within the hobby community. The primary aim is to get a Dreadnought (or Dreadnoughts!) built and painted to completion within the month of October. Participants post weekly updates on their various blogs (all collated at the main Dreadtober blog) and with any luck, we all end up with a shiny new Dread at the end of the month!


Having participated in these community events in the past I find them immensely motivating and hopefully this Dreadtober will prove no exception!


Stay tuned for weekly updates all throughout October.

New Necromunda Goliath Gang - The build

Another completely out of sequence post here, this time with my work in progress Goliath gangers!

Sadly, I think I went too small with the axe.

Like a lot of people, I'm really excited for the release of the new Necromunda in November. So much so that I asked Blazmo over at Tabletop Apocalypse if he wanted to split the box set for Christmas. The answer was a resounding yes and, after some discussion, we decided that he would take the Escher gangers and I would be left with the burly Goliaths. Just kidding, there's nothing I like better than a muscular guy, festooned with piercings and slathered in baby oil...........but maybe that's a discussion for another time.


At any rate, I figured it would be nice to get a quick game or two in on Christmas day rather than just sitting and building miniatures. So I hatched a plan to build and paint a small gang before Christmas so that we would be ready for our first games on the day. These guys are the result of that plan.

The beginnings of a gang - you only need 3 models!

Obviously they are based on the Age of Sigmar, Khorne Blood Reavers but with various bits and pieces added. In terms of weaponry I am left in a bit of a quandary, I don't want to build anything that will be illegal under the new rules but that leaves me with limited options. The miniatures that have been leaked so far seem to be armed with peculiar things that didn't exist under the old ruleset. The one thing we know for sure is that a plasma pistol will be legal, so I've used one for my leader (even though it's illegal under the old rules!)


I've also gone for a ganger with a massive chainaxe (with pistol back up) and a juve with a stub pistol and axe (and maybe some frag grenades). I'm playing it pretty safe (and pretty short ranged) but I don't want to end up with miniatures that I can't use. After all, that would defeat the object entirely.

The leader, as yet unnamed.

Rear of the year!

I'm pretty pleased with how they've come together so far. They look more like a group of Unity era techno-barbarians than gangers but maybe those are one and the same thing?


I'm determined to paint them in bright, clashing colours in honour of the classic 90s style of the original game. That's going to be a challenge for me as I'm much more comfortable with GW's modern 'grimdark' style. Stay tuned to see if I build any more and if I get around to actually painting them!

BERSERKERBLADE - Now on Instagram!

The post title pretty much says it all. That's right, you can now keep up with my seemingly random hobby exploits on Instagram. Isn't technology wonderful?? Seriously, that's not rhetorical, go answer in the comments....

That plasma cannon also includes a camera.

In an increasingly busy life, it's becoming more difficult to keep posting quality content to this blog. So if you want to see some more of my exploits, click the link! https://www.instagram.com/carnage_x_scissors/

Hobby Butterfly - Horus Heresy Night Lords Legion Praetor

As some of you may have realized by now, I am a bit of a hobby butterfly. Despite my commitment to building and painting Tyranids for 8th edition I have gone somewhat off piste and started fiddling with my Night Lords again. What can I say? Sometimes a project just calls to you and I am always too weak to resist.

Ahriman?? Never heard of her!

I've had the Ahriman miniature from Burning of Prospero hanging around for a long time (since the release day in fact!). I had a few ideas of what to do with him but nothing that ever materialized into a plan. However, on a whim, I started cutting the parts off the sprue and before you know it, the terrifying vision above was born! The tricky part is that, unlike the other miniatures from the Burning of Prospero, this guy screams 'Thousand Sons'. The miniature is absolutely covered with scarabs, runes, scrolls and other sorcerous paraphernalia. Perfect for the planet of the Sorcerers, but not very fitting for a son of the Eighth Legion! This led to a great deal of cutting and scraping with the hobby knife to remove the symbols from his shoulder guards and chest. I also removed the scarabs from his staff and replaced them with a couple of skulls. Thank you polystyrene cement!!


The larger bits of conversion are more obvious. I cut away the kopesh blade from the top of the staff and replaced it with a thunder edge pattern chainsword to make a massive Nostraman Chainglaive. The reaching hand was replaced with a bolt pistol and the head was replaced with one from the ancient GW Night Lords conversion kit.


I'm not quite finished with the build just yet. A few areas need a bit of green stuff and I want to add a few more grisly trophies. However, I am looking forward to getting some paint on him to really bring the model to life.


Stay tuned for the next installment where I will undoubtedly have gone off on another tangent and be kitbashing some other random miniature.

New 8th Edition Tyranids - The Red Terror

Continuing with my updates to the new Tyranid army I am creating for 8th edition, I proudly present The Red Terror!

So old, so metal!

It seems funny to have built and painted a classic model from third edition specially for eighth but I couldn't resist. Generally I don't care for the style of Tyranids from third edition, they were going through an awkward phase and most of them looked decidedly peculiar, even at the time. However, the Red Terror has found a special place in my heart, and my army.


I didn't buy this model intentionally, he just appeared in a bundle of cheap Tyranids I bought on Ebay. As with most Ebay purchases, it appeared he had had several previous owners and was caked in layers of 'interestingly applied' paint. However I must have seen something in the model as I soaked him in Dettol for a couple of months (probably unnecessary but I always forget to take things out of the Dettol.) After the paint was stripped and I had picked the plasticene out of the joints (why do people do that!?) it was a pretty simple job to rebuild and get on with the painting.

Love that tail.

As for the rebuild, I have recently acquired a set of sector Imperialis bases so it seemed criminal not to use one. Especially as the model is a bit big for the 40mm that it was originally supplied with. I was pretty pleased with the base, going for a brassy effect alongside my usual concrete rubble look.


As for the Terror himself, it's my standard scheme again. A dark red, some black wash, a light blue and a bit of scorpion green. So simple it should be illegal! But I'm happy with the result.

Rawr!

 In game terms, the Red Terror acts as a force multiplier for nearby Raveners allowing them to hit on 2+ with their close combat attacks. Although I have yet to field the Red Terror, I have found that this is a powerful ability for Tyranid Warriors and Primes as they can re-roll hit rolls of 1 with their scything talons. Basically ensuring that all your attacks hit all of the time!


The Red Terror also has a funny bonus ability called Swallow Whole. Essentially if you score four or more hits in melee then you can exchange all of those attacks to roll a single dice. If the result is equal or higher than the highest wounds characteristic of the target unit then one of them is killed instantly. This seems like a nice bonus ability that probably doesn't have too much of an application in game. You could probably use it to pick off heavily armoured two wound models (terminators, primaris marines etc.) but realistically it's never going to be a game changer.


The observant amongst you may notice that this model isn't part of my planned fifty power level list. Unfortunately I had started painting him before I figured out the list and it just seemed a shame to stop. Rest assured that my next post will be squarely back on Target as I'm working on some Tyrant Guard for the new army.


If you want to read my previous post you can catch up here.
  

Fugly miniature Friday - Amon of the Thousand Sons

I just got the Forgeworld newsletter including this guy.




Mah name amm Amomm!

Amon of the Thousand Sons, the latest effort in the Horus Heresy character series. Now, in my humble opinion, the Horus Heresy characters seem to run the gambit between very nice detailed models and very hideous detailed models. For me, this guy certainly falls towards the lower end of the spectrum. There's nothing really wrong with the pose or most of the miniature but seriously, that face! He looks like some sort of bio-engineered weasel man!! So much so, that it prompted me to use another recent Forgeworld release (who shall remain nameless) to make the following thing of beauty.

I think it's an improvement

Actually I think this looks so good that I might buy both models just so I can build the conversion.

New 8th Edition Tyranids - Stone Crusher Carnifex

As promised, I'm back with an update on my new Tyranids for 8th edition. Earlier this week I posted about my plans for a new list and got all giddy about the new edition of 40k, you can read all about it here. Things have gone well so far and I'm proud to present my finished Stone Crusher Carnifex.

So spiky!!

This has been my one concession to new miniatures within the new army. I was picking up Imperial Armour: Index Xenos from Forgeworld and I just totally caved. The next thing I know, I'm the proud owner of a Stone Crusher, but on the plus side, at least I managed to paint it!


As far as painting goes it's my standard Tyranids colour scheme. The scheme is horribly basic as it was my first 40k army and I needed it to be easy to paint. Essentially, all the fleshy parts are painted red and then washed with Nuln Oil. All the chitinous parts are painted white and the given a heavy wash with a pale blue (1:1 Ultramarines blue and white). From there, a few details are picked out in scorpion green and some in pink and it's done. Incredibly simple but it gives a nice result for the amount of time spent, it's an immensely rewarding colour scheme in that way.

I love the wrecker claws.

I've been painting Tyranids like this since 2008, shockingly that's almost ten years and I don't have nearly enough painted models to show for it. It does mean that next year is my Tyranniversary so I should probably plan something special for that!


As for the stone crusher itself, it looks good in the new edition. The paired wrecker claws allow it to re-roll hits and wounds against vehicles and with strength 12 and an AP of -3 it should be putting down some serious damage! Not only that, it's one power level cheaper than a standard Carnifex. I'm not sure if this is an error or if it works out cheaper because you can't change the weapon loadouts much.

Anybody remember these old paint pots?

As you can see I went for the paired wrecker claws instead of the bio-flail option. I hadn't seen the rules when I placed the order but I've always loved the look of the wreckers so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they're quite decent on the tabletop.


Unfortunately, the photography isn't that great. A couple of things contributed to this. Firstly, the miniature itself has awkward dimensions. The carapace rams and the large scythe tail make it incredibly long and so it was hard to find a focused perspective. Secondly, I've had some building work done at home and so my hobby area is in complete disarray. The photo set up was a bit rushed together.


Nonetheless, I hope you've enjoyed seeing my first efforts on the new swarm. Hopefully I will have something more to share in the next few days.

New 8th Edition Tyranids - A new edition, a new swarm

So the new edition has well and truly landed (and disembarked, guns blazing!) and I'm feeling truly reinvigorated. Seeing the new rules inspired me to drag out my old Tyranids and after a couple of games I'm well and truly hooked.

The Tervigon - back from the grave!

 So hooked in fact that I've decided to build and paint a new Tyranid army from scratch using my old colour scheme. Last week I've had a frenzied week of building using only old models I had lying around. I've put together a new Hive Tyrant, two Carnifexes, two Biovores, three Tyrant Guard and hauled a  swarm of Gaunts out of retirement. I've also begun painting in earnest, making good progress with my Stone Crusher Carnifex and the Red Terror.


The planned 50 Power list will look something like:


Tervigon
Hive Tyrant (Stranglethorn cannon and boneswords)
3 x Tyranid Warriors (Boneswords and devourers)
10 x Termagants
10 x Termagants
3 x Tyrant Guard (Rending claws and Scything Talons)
Stone Crusher Carnifex (2 x Wrecker Claws)
Biovore
Biovore


I'm not sure how effective that will be on the table, but given that I've enjoyed playing the Tyranids so much, I'm sure it will be a blast.

Also Tervigon

Stay tuned for more updates this month as I try to paint the swarm of freshly undercoated gribblies that have invaded my painting table.

Warhammer 40000 Primaris Space Marines - Editorial

They shall be my finest warriors, these men who give of themselves to me.

Like clay I shall mould them, and in the furnace of war forge them.

They will be of iron will and steely muscle.

In great armour shall I clad them and with the mightiest guns will they be armed.

They will be untouched by plague or disease, no sickness will blight them.

They shall be pure of heart and strong of body, untainted by doubt and unsullied by self-aggrandisement. They will have tactics, strategies and machines so that no foe can best them in battle.

They are my bulwark against the Terror.

They are the Defenders of Humanity.

They will be bright stars on the firmament of battle, Angels of Death whose shining wings bring swift annihilation to the enemies of Man.

So it shall be for a thousand times for a thousand years, unto the very end of eternity and the extinction of mortal flesh.

They are my Space Marines and they shall know no fear.

They are the last, best, hope for humanity.

Except, they aren't!?

Yes, you guessed it. It's the most Space-Mariney of Space Marines. The new, shiny, Primaris Space Marines!

Sigmar? Never heard of her!

If you were hiding under a rock yesterday you might have missed the announcement from Games Workshop that they will be releasing the new Primaris Space Marines to coincide with the release of 8th edition. Unlike most of the daily tidbits thrown out by GW in recent weeks this seems to have caused a slightly more negative reaction from the vocal members of our community.

So what do we know so far? From a lore perspective the story is roughly this: Guilliman comes back from the dead and sees that the galaxy is in a sorry state. He realizes he needs some sort of super warriors to swing the tide in humanity's favour and apparently Space Marines just won't cut the mustard. Some shady dealings go on with Belisarius Cawl and the Adeptus Mechanicus and hey presto! Primaris Space Marines!

Ok, so far, so cheesy. But who exactly are these guys? Well, they're a little bigger than regular Space Marines (when did a Space Marine become regular?) If their stat line is anything to go by they're tougher and more aggressive than the usual breed. They have some enhanced equipment in the form of mark X armour and bolt rifles (thanks again Belisarius Cawl).

Now, what I want to discuss here is how the Primaris Marines could fit into the existing 40k lore. How this could be done poorly and how this could be handled brilliantly. The internet is full of people's (perfectly valid) concerns about how these guys will work on the tabletop. Will they invalidate the existing marines through power creep? Are they just a massive sales gimmick? But for me and, dare I say it, many members of the community the thing that keeps us coming back to 40k is the rich and detailed setting. It really is one of the most captivating sci-fi settings around and the iconic Space Marine is the most recognizable cornerstone of that setting.

For me, the Primaris marines represent the biggest change that GW has made so far in their Gathering Storm storyline. More than the destruction of Cadia and the resurrection of a Primarch, the Primaris marines tread on the toes of a huge wealth of existing source material, much of which could be marginalized or invalidated if this change is handled poorly.

So, Space Marines, they're big, tough and functionally immortal. They have eidetic memories and, in combat situations, their brains process far more effectively than a base line human. On the battlefield they are truly superhuman, able to withstand horrific wounds and keep on fighting. Able to shoot with pinpoint accuracy and tear their foes apart in hand to hand combat. Seemingly then, Space Marines are perfect, so much better than us (baseline humans) in every way. How boring!

The truth is that any fictional creature with superhuman characteristics doesn't really become interesting until we examine its flaws. In much of the existing fiction, Space Marines are magnificently flawed. For all their vaunted immortality and strength they pay a steep price indeed. Taken as children and morphed into living weapons their emotions are stunted almost to the point of autism. As such, many of them struggle to emapathise with normal humans and cannot relate to their emotions. Black Templars particularly seem to lack this emotional depth; only able to respond to another's distress with either rage or blank muteness.

In going beyond the abilities of a human being, the Astartes sacrifice a great deal of their emotional range. They are unable to feel fear, sexual desire or romantic love. Yet for all that, they are still able to feel bitterness, jealousy and shame. Would these emotions not come to the fore if a new and improved 'replacement' was created? The answer has to be yes, of course they would. Some marines are bound to feel resentful about the new saviours of humanity. After all, they've been defending the galaxy for 10000 years, who are these new guys to show up and claim they can do a better job?

The Primaris Space marines then must be as flawed as they are powerful. If they are simply invulnerable supermen that outclass the Adeptus Astartes then they will not make for interesting characters. Equally, if the Space Marines simply move over and make room for the new guys without some serious tension then this will not make for a believable fiction.

The replacement of humanity's finest is not unprecedented, the Adeptus Astartes themselves replaced the Emperor's Thunder Warriors at the beginning of the Great Crusade. Not much has been written about how the Thunder Warriors took this development but it seems there were more than a few murmurs of dissent. I would expect to see the same from the Space Marines of the 41st millennium. After all it is hard to believe that the Dark Angels, with all their secrets, would readily accept outsiders into their ranks.

The way I see it, there is an easy fix for a lot of the problems presented by the Primaris Space Marines. Are you ready? Here it comes.

Have some of them fall to Chaos.

It really is that simple. This could solve the issue of tabletop balance and give those whiney Chaos players something to be happy about for a change. Furthermore, it works well within the established canon. A new breed of marines could be susceptible to the touch of the warp in unforeseen ways. Some of them could feel rejected by their 'brother' Astartes and turn from the Imperium unaware of the full horror of Chaos. In playing up the new, young, naive angle the Primaris marines seem all the more believable. After all, they haven't had ten millennia to learn vigilance against the power of Chaos.

Just my thoughts and we'll all see how this develops in the coming months. But one thing's for sure, the Primaris Space Marines will cause a massive upheaval in the hobby landscape. For good or ill, only time will tell.

Infinity Nomads Spektr - Showcase

Something I've been saying for a long time is how I want to play more games of Infinity. As with all hobby activities, the biggest obstacle is having the time. The second biggest (for me) is a lack of painted miniatures. This is particularly telling when it comes to Infinity as up until now I had painted a grand total of one miniature. So, I proudly present, a 100% increase in my previous painting total, namely a Spektr.

Badass!

For those that don't know the game, Infinity is a skirmish game set in the near future which is designed to simulate military special operations and stealth missions. With the various factions locked into a 'cold war' state outright war is something best avoided therefore combat takes place in shadowy infiltration missions or elite combat drops.


Having played around with the starter set a bit and with a shaky grasp of the rules I'm a newcomer to this system. But so far I really like what I see. The miniatures are top notch and have a distinctive style. The rules themselves are detailed and sometimes complex but allow for a great level of immersion. It really feels like a clash of elite special forces.


As for the Spektr, he's a stealth operative who's great strength lies in his anti-personnel mines. I'm not quite sure how he's best used on the table but forward infiltration and minelaying is bound to cause some headaches for my opponents right?




Love the dynamism!

I'm trying to keep my Nomads scheme simple so I can turn them out quickly. So far it seems to be working and I'm happy with the results. Hopefully I can show off some more miniatures soon and get a few games under my belt.

Salute 2017 - Aftermath

For those that missed it, last Saturday (22nd April) Salute 2017 was held at Excel London. Allegedly the biggest wargaming event in Europe, this massive expo is hosted annually by South London Warlords. I was fortunate enough to attend and spent the day shopping and painting with Blazmo from Tabletop Apocalypse. 

Warlords' Warlord!

We decided to drive down to the venue as I wanted to buy plenty of terrain and it was bound to be heavy. Despite the wallet crippling parking fee (still cheaper than the train!) they journey down was easy and we arrived just before the doors opened at 10am. Needless to say there was already a huge queue of eager gamers ahead of us ready to spend their hard earned cash!

So many nerds!

Despite the lengthy queue, it moved swiftly and we were soon inside the exhibition hall. As usual, the show included plenty of trade stands for all kinds of different games and wargaming products.

Nerdvana!

Having made a rough game plan beforehand, we headed straight for Troll Trader as we had found some excellent deals there in 2016. Once again we were not disappointed, quickly snatching up a copy of Red Veil for Infinity and a huge stack of TT Combat mdf terrain. We quickly realized our error as we had to carry around a massive block of wood for the rest of the day, how foolish!


Plenty more spending was to come as we grabbed more Infinity figures and templates from various stands (Micro Art Studios was one but there were too many to remember.) Every shop seemed to be offering discounts and freebees, I ended up with a small pile of different miniatures from random games systems. Always nice to have!


The other highlight of the day was the speed painting competition hosted by Eavier Metal. In a mere 25 minutes contestants were challenged to paint a model to completion, obviously no mean feat!

Blazmo and I, furiously painting!

This was my first experience of speed painting and I enjoyed it immensely. It was a great laugh as we manically splattered paint onto the miniatures. Even getting a basecoat on every area seemed like a challenge at first! It was also my first time using Army Painter products, which seemed strange at first but over the 25 minute period I came to actually quite like them. I will definitely consider Army Painter when I need paints in the future.

Such skills! Mine is the one on the left.

Another highlight was the massive 30k Horus Heresy display put on by the Warlords themselves. This seems to be a fixture which grows in scope every year. The obvious standout this year was the enormous (though definitely under scaled) Warlord titan. Despite my dislike of the model (because of the scale issues) I had to admit that it was an impressive piece which had been masterfully painted. The display itself was full of great details which were well worth taking the time to admire. One of my favourites was the three gore spattered World Eaters contemptors shown below.

So evocative!

Strangely, despite spending plenty of money, I didn't buy any 40k figures this year. There just didn't seem to be any stand out deals on the day. Still, with a pile of terrain and Infinity figures, I should be kept busy for some time yet. All in all the day was a blast and I look forward to heading down again next year.