Painting Tyranids in lockdown

Sorry for the shortage of updates. Like everybody else I've been stuck at home, unfortunately for me that has meant a lack of internet connection. However I'm back online and have a bunch of newly painted stuff to show off. First up, the Tyranids I've been painting over the last few weeks.

A scythed Hierodule, kind of a classic model.

First up is this scythed Hierodule. I've always thought the Hierodule models were a bit old hat, but having one in hand I have to say that the sculpt has really held up to the test of time. She's a lovely thing and I'm pleased to have one as part of the swarm. I may even look at adding a barbed Hierodule at a later date.

Ok, she's a little goofy, but I still like her.

In terms of painting, all of these were done using the usual quick paint scheme for my Tyranids. I've been painting them this way for twelve years and although the scheme has undergone some refinement, it's still broadly the same.

Next up we have another classic Forgeworld sculpt, the Hive Tyrant.

Getting some 'Alien' vibes off this one.

It was really nice to get this one done as it's a bit of a classic. As you can see I changed out all the weapons, mostly because I thought it looked cooler with the Deathspitter/Bonesword loadout. It's not the most competitive thing on the planet, but rule of cool wins out every time.

Why stick with one Hive Tyrant when you can have two? I also painted myself a Swarmlord!

Bonesabres are cool.

I've said it before, I'm not really a fan of Tyranid special characters but as the swarm cruised past the 6000 point mark I thought it was about time I added The Swarmlord to the mix. It helps that I like the model but I doubt I will field him much.

Apparently I love painting Tyranid HQ choices, so I went and added a pair of Neurothropes too.

One of the two in question.

Then I felt bad, so I had to paint up a termagant brood.

Spiny spinegaunts!

I know spinegaunts are basically rubbish but I like the way they look and I had a bunch of them hanging about. I'm pleased with the finished brood and I predict they will see a lot of tabletop time, even if they spend most of it dying in droves.

Once I'd done all of that lot (and a few other bits) I got all giddy and decided to get the entire swarm out for some photos. Unfortunately they were a bit difficult to photograph but I think the overall impression is nice.

The Great Devourer hungers.

After this was taken I even added a handful of additional models which had come out of storage while I was rummaging.

Some of the zoomed in shots are a little better.

So it seems this lockdown business has been really good for bashing my painting backlog. I've also done some more Custodes which I hope to share soon.

College of Artisans - A week of painting at Warhammer World!

I've mentioned this a couple of times, but I figured I should do a post about it. In early August I was lucky enough to attend College of Artisans at Warhammer World!

How posh!

For those that are unaware, College of Artisans is a five day painting event held at Warhammer World for a small group of hobbyists. Basically, you bring a project (or two) with you and spend the week working on it alongside the Games Workshop studio painters and the 'Eavy Metal team.

Day 1: The painting area set up in the events hall.

I chose to bring my Acastus Knight Porphyrion to work on during the week. I didn't think I would get it finished, but I was determined to put in a good week's work. I also hoped to get a few painting tips from the 'Eavy Metal team.

I played around with some hazard stripes early on.

To my surprise, the event was sold out, with the maximum ten participants. Speaking with the team at Warhammer World, they hope to increase the capacity next year to allow more people to participate.

The new Primaris vs Chaos display in the exhibition.

Included in the ticket price is a guided tour of the Warhammer World exhibition with one of the curators and a member of the diorama building team. This was a really enjoyable experience and gave me the opportunity to ask questions about how the dioramas are made and what happens to them when they are retired. Horrifyingly, most of them end up in the trash compactor! I'm sure there must be a better home for these gorgeous dioramas once they reach the end of their lives.

Lunch was also included in the price. Yum!

I tried hard on these lenses after some advice from the studio team.

I progressed well with the Porphyrion over the week. I have to say though, painting for eight hours a day is quite challenging and I found myself pretty exhausted on a couple of evenings. Still, it was delightful to be able to carve out such a big slice of hobby time.

Bob Ross was always on hand to motivate me when things got tough.

Getting to meet the 'Eavy Metal team was a delight though. I got a few good tips as well as a couple of 'Eavy Metal brushes to take home with me. Now all I have to do is find a model worthy of being touched by one! It was interesting to handle some of the miniatures which grace the front of the boxes in person as well; you get a much better sense of the techniques used when seen with the naked eye.

A huge pile of Rhino halves ready for the weathering tutorial.

There was a painting tutorial on weathering and battle damage one evening which I hope to use to paint some terrain pieces to add to the base of my Porphyrion. We'll see how it comes out when she's done.

This was as far as I managed to get in the week.

All in all, College of Artisans was a brilliant event run by a team of enthusiastic staff. I was really happy with my progress during the week and it certainly gave a kick start to a huge miniature which might otherwise have been daunting. 

Life permitting, I will certainly want to attend next year.

Hobby Update: Assorted models from 2018

For one reason or another, I've painted up a handful of different models from various factions this year, none of which have made it to the blog. So I present for your amusement, a bunch of odd photos of unrelated miniatures. First up:

WAAAAGH!

In a departure from my usual fare, I've painted an Ork Warboss in Mega Armour. Annoyingly I finished this chap just as Games Workshop decided to remove the option from the codex. Even more annoyingly, he is a gift for a friend, who I hope will still be able to get some use out of him.


As you can see, he's converted from the Age of Sigmar Orruk Megaboss. It's about time 40k Orks had a suitably gigantic leader and this guy fits the bill with a couple of weapon swaps and some extra gubbinz.

Could possibly also be used as Ghaz?

Next up is a commission piece for another friend of mine. Inquisitor Torquemada Coteaz. I was able to knock this guy out over a couple of days and he made a nice break from my Adeptus Mechanicus/Knights. Not only that, I earned a few quid into the bargain! He was fun to paint too, with all that gold armour and a funky blended hammer.

So moody.

As you can see I had a bit of a play with the photo backdrop when taking pictures of these guys. I grabbed some of my terrain and got a bit snap happy. It made a nice change though.

So shiny!

In a somewhat related note. If anyone is interested in having a single model commission, drop me a line and we can work something out. I always enjoy painting single models, especially if I don't have to find a home for them afterwards!

The happy couple.

I also painted up The Emperor's Champion which was a lovely gift from my lovely wife. He has sort of become the starting point for a small army of Black Templars that I have amassed. I didn't really mean for them to be an army, but I love Templars and once I had done the Emperor's Champion I really wanted to do a Supreme Command detachment of them.

Back in black!

So I bought a Terminator Chaplain and scrounged up a Primaris Lieutenant from my bits box (both of which still haven't been painted). Then came Conquest magazine and I just had to buy two copies of the first issue so I could have a squad of Black Templars Intercessors........they haven't been painted either, oh dear!



Turns out I like painting Inquisitors.

The final entry in this little parade of oddballs is none other than Inquisitor Eisenhorn. This was another commission piece which was a lot of fun to do. He even has a delightful sculpted base!




Winner of Inquisitor Rear of the Year.

So, there endeth the little summary of odds and ends which don't belong to one of my 'main' armies. Like many wargamers, I am an army painter first and foremost. But, little projects like these can really expand your painting repertoire and provide a break from the tedium of trying to paint the next unit/500 points/whatever. I'd encourage everyone to give it a go now and then.

2018/2019 Hobby Season - To do list

This is new territory for me. I have been vaguely aware of 40k Addict for some time and the annual setting of hobby goals for the season. Well, this time around I've decided to play too.


The concept here is to make a 'to do' list for the coming hobby season (August to August for some reason) and give yourself a big old tick in the form of a delightful stamp when you get something done.

Delightful

I've been tracking the progress of my Adeptus Mechanicus army over the past year or so using an Excel spreadsheet and I've found it enormously motivating. I'm going to continue with this and hopefully add in some miniatures from some other 40k armies and other game systems.


So without further ado, let's see what's going on the list:

1. Complete up to 3000 points of Adeptus Mechanicus/Imperial Knights.
• Paint another Onager Dunecrawler.
• Paint another five Skitarii Vanguard.
2. Complete up to 4000 points of Adeptus Mechanicus/Imperial Knights.
• Build and paint a Cerastus Knight Atropos.
• Build and paint a pair of Kastelan Robots.
• Build and paint a pair of Kastelan Robots.
3. Finish painting Tyranid Heirophant Bio-Titan.
4. Finish building and painting 300 points of Infinity Nomads.

I think that's a reasonable basis to start from. I'm going to consider these my core goals for the year and add some stretch goals below:

1. Make a spreadsheet to track the completion of my Tyranid collection.
2. Make some progress with the completion of said Tyranids. (Preferably paint more troops.)
3. Play some games of Infinity with fully painted forces.
4. Get a better grip on the rules for Infinity.
5. Paint my Forgeworld Mechanicum Thanatar Siege Automata.
6. Finish building and painting Mechanicum Vultarax Stratos Automata.
7. Paint my Necromunda Goliath gang.

These goals are a bit more wooly in places and will hopefully firm up if I make any progress towards them. Infinity is a game system that I've really enjoyed but haven't played very much. I'd like to remedy that and get a good few games in this year. Necromunda falls much in the same boat; I haven't played it much but it's a lot of fun.


The couple of Mechanicum bits I have are beautiful models but they currently have no official rules in 40k which kills the motivation somewhat. I still hope to paint them soon though.


So there you have it. A year's worth of hobby progress goals. I'm bound to get sidetracked along the way somewhere (which can have it's own rewards) but I'd be thrilled if I could get to the end of this little lot by next August. Only time, and this blog, will tell.

Hobby Update - What have I been up to this Summer?

Things have been a bit quiet around here lately; I think that's due to a variety of different factors. All the usual mundane stuff, work, home life etc etc. I've been trying to work towards a 3000 point army of combined Adeptus Mechanicus and Knights which has consumed all of my hobby time but has been a lot of fun. All of the knights have appeared on this blog and I've really enjoyed painting these amazing models. However, it has left a bit of an unhealthy bias in my army as I hardly have any painted infantry to stand alongside these leviathans!

Time to paint some infantry then!

In an effort to remedy this, I've added a handful of Skitarii to my 3000 point plan and have begun painting them. I completed the chap above sometime in July along with a few of his comrades but I still have another five to do to complete 'the plan'. I love the Skitarii models to bits, but there's something a little unsatisfying about finishing one and thinking 'well, that's another eight points in the list' when the last model you turned out was worth around 500! Still, I will persevere and get some meaningful blocks of troops on the table!


Speaking of on the table, I've managed to play a few games of 40k which continues to be a heck of a good time. Long live 8th edition! The photo below was taken at my FLGS when my Knight Errant took on 500 points of Orks just for a laugh.

I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew!

This was the situation after a massive mob of 40 Orks used 'da jump' to pounce on my poor unsuspecting knight. Not a situation I could really prevent but it certainly made me laugh. I actually went on to win the game in spite of being assaulted by these guys and a Shokk Attack Gun armed big Mek rolling two volleys with a strength of 10 or higher!


I also went up to Warhammer World for the Specialist Games open day with a bunch of the lads. It was my first visit to Warhammer World and I was certainly not disappointed! Meeting the designers was a lot of fun and I spent quite some time chatting to the guys working on designs for the Horus Heresy and Necromunda. I also got to meet Louise Sugden who is an incredible miniatures painter working for Forgeworld (go follow her instagram if you don't already).

Titan table at WHW.

I got a couple of games in at Warhammer World, one of which was on top of the amazing fallen Warlord Titan pictured above.


The exhibition at Warhammer World is not to be missed and I took hundreds of blurry photos of all the amazing displays which look surprisingly similar to other photos taken by nerds from around the globe. A couple below for your amusement.

Leviathan Dreadnought wrecking face in the Burning of Prospero

Lizardmen Diorama from back in the day.

A bunch of amazing Eldar.

Other than all of that? I've made a start painting the big boy of the Mechanicus himself - none other than Belisarius Cawl. He certainly is a daunting miniature with all his many arms and appendages but I'm making decent progress so far. A couple more photos below in case you don't believe me.

Half of  Big-Boy Belisarius

And most of the other half.

He's progressing pretty well in spite of the complexity of the miniature and I hope to have him finished off in a week or so.


Well there you have it, a brief roundup of my hobbying from the last month or so. Stay tuned for another update next week when I hope to have some proper completed photos of the Archmagos.

Salute 2018 is this Saturday!

It's that time of the year once again!

What time is it?

That's right! On Saturday 14th April London's Excel will be hosting Salute 2018. The 'largest wargames expo in Europe' is back and bound to be filled with bargains aplenty. Last year I bought my own bodyweight in mdf terrain and I'll be back on Saturday to see what other delights I can get my grubby little hands on.


I will also be taking part in the speed painting competition run by 'Eavier Metal. 25 minutes to paint an ugly model with colours that refuse to dry - what's not to love!


Give me a shout if you're coming down, it would be nice to meet up with some of the people from these here internets.

Warhammer 40000 Forgebane - Pricing

Just a quick post today as I wanted to discuss the price point of the new Forgebane box set that will be released soon.

I'm drooling already.

I'm pretty excited for the new knights in this set but I already have plenty of Skitarii and I don't need another Tech-Priest. Similarly, I don't collect Necrons and I don't intend to start an army of them so, unless I can find a willing soul to split the box with, they will have to find new homes on Ebay.


Warhammer Community has stated that the box set will be cheaper than the combined cost of all the models minus the two knights and the Cryptek. That should already tell you this is a fantastic deal but where does that leave the approximate pricing of the box? Well, a little digging on the GW website reveals the following:


Tech-priest Dominus - £22
Skitarii Rangers        - £23.50
Necron Immortals     - £20.50
Necron Lychguard     - £20.50
Canoptek Wraiths     - £28.50
TOTAL                      - £115


Now, as Games Workshop are already giving us a hefty discount on this set, I would say that the retail price will be £110. I honestly can't see the set going for less than that because it includes two of the new Knight Armigers which will be incredibly sought after. Still, even if you managed to sell the rest of the set for half of the RRP, you would still be buying two Armigers for £55 which is bound to be far cheaper than they will cost when they are eventually released as a separate set.


Honestly, I'll probably end up buying Forgebane even though I don't need any more models to work on at present. Curse you addictive plastic soldiers!!

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!

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 - 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.

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.