Necromunda Goliath Gang - Painting in progress

For a while now, one of my hobby resolutions has been to make some progress painting my Goliath gang and to play some games of Necromunda. Over the last couple of weeks I've been making some progress towards that by painting up a few more gangers.

Welcome to the Underhive.

I have to say, I'm really pleased with the way these guys are turning out. I think they hit the vibe between fluorescent 90's punk and gritty underhive pretty well. It's also a lot of fun to paint with so many bright colours.

Check out that stubble.

I finished painting the chap above yesterday and I think he's the best of the bunch so far. I relished the opportunity to paint his shotgun red, just like all the miniatures from original Necromunda and second edition 40k.

Johnny Nitro. Probably my favourite ganger name.

As for this guy, having a juve armed with two stub guns is just too funny to pass up. He couldn't hit the broad side of a barn! But he's cheap and will probably eat plenty of bullets for my more useful gangers. His hazard stripes are a bit wonky, but I'm determined to keep trying and improving.

As for the gaming side of things, I'm currently working on a loose narrative campaign along with Tabletop Apocalypse. So stay tuned to see what we get up to. 

Hobby Update: Dominus Knight Valiant

Once again, things have been a bit quiet here on the blog. There are a number of contributing factors but rest assured I have been hobbying away quietly in the background. I'm working on a handful of small commissions alongside a Dominus Knight Valiant for my growing Knight household.

Knight Valiant! Most of the parts aren't glued on.

I was fortunate enough to receive the Knight Valiant as a Birthday gift (thanks Blazmo!) and have been excitedly working on it ever since. This is the first Imperial Knight kit I've had from new and it was a delight to build. The instructions are clear and luxurious and the design of the components is perfect. As is my preference when painting large models, I've built it in sub-assemblies which will be glued in place only once they are painted.

Looks a bit weird without the arms.

I've now made some headway with the painting. As with my previous knights I'm using a spreadsheet to track the progress and by my estimate I'm now 51% complete! Not bad if I do say so myself! I find tracking the progress of these models is essential so that I don't become disheartened and give up because it can feel like slow progress at times.

Stripy!

As you can see I've tried my hand at a bit of blingy hazard striping on the shoulders. I'm not 100% happy with it, but I think it will look ok as part of the finished model.

The legs are now virtually finished.

Once again, following the process of my previous knights, I'm painting from the ground up. The legs are now done and I've started working on the body armour. The next big step will be the arms and weapons.

Armour approaching completion.

I need to find time to polish off those commissions as it isn't fair to have paying customers waiting while I mess about with my own stuff. But for now, the Valiant has captured my interest. Wish me luck as I try to polish off this beast in the next couple of weeks!


Oh, and as an aside, I did consider entering this bad boy in Dreadtober but it would have been a very challenging model to complete in the month. It's a shame, as I love the community painting events but I felt like it would be too much pressure this time around.

Monster March - Cerastus Knight Castigator: Complete

Just in the nick of time! I'm pleased to announce that the Cerastus Knight Castigator is finished! (pause for rapturous applause, accept bouquet of flowers etc.)

Check out those decals!

This thing has definitely been a labour of love. There were times this month when I honestly didn't know if I would make the deadline and it even caused me a few sleepless nights! I'm really happy with the final result though and thrilled to be able to add such a spectacular centerpiece to my Adeptus Mechanicus forces.

Pretty happy with the head.

Half way through the challenge, I decided I would enter this in a local painting competition, which really forced me to up my game and try some new techniques. The blending on the sword blade (seen here) was particularly time consuming and pushed my painting skills to the max. I wasn't very happy with it at the time, but seeing it in the context of the finished model makes me feel much better.

The sword in question.

Transfers are fairly new territory for me as well and caused a few moments of doubt. I tried to plan them out carefully rather than just slapping them on haphazardly and I think the final result is ok. I used a mix of transfers from the Skitarii box and the new Knight Armiger kit. I have to say that Micro Sol and Micro Set were a godsend here, and I would recommend them to anybody looking to work with transfers.

Standing guard over a Mechanicus facility.

The banner proved tricky as well. Lining up the transfers was hard and the connection points were so fine that I had to reinforce them with green stuff; it's still not the best connection in the world, so I will be very wary when handling it.

The banner in question.

I'm pretty happy with the way the colour scheme scaled up to a larger model. Getting the beige right was a bit of a headache in the early stages but a bit of advice from Blazmo at Tabletop Apocalypse soon put me on the right path. The brass and green colours I was already fairly confident with because I had previously completed an Onager Dunecrawler in the same scheme.

An unusual angle.

I want to give huge thanks to Swordmaster at Path of an Outcast for running Monster March again this year. Without the motivation of Monster March, it's likely that I would have faltered somewhere along the way and this gigantic model would never have made it to completion. I also want to say thanks to my brother, Blazmo, at Tabletop Apocalypse. A well timed painting day and a heap of useful advice really turned this project around for me; without him, the Cerastus could well be languishing in the pile of shame.

The sword of the Imperium is ever vigilant.

Finally, I want to say thanks to all of those who took part in Monster March this year. Seeing your progress towards your ambitious projects really gave me a push to keep going to the finish line.


As always, you can check out the rest of my Monster March journey here, here, here and here. Phew! I think I need a lie down!

Necromunda - Painting and playing

I may have mentioned somewhere that I was lucky enough to receive the new Necromunda box set for Christmas and split it with my brother, Blazmo, of Tabletop Apocalypse. We've both been building and painting the gangs and managed to get our first games in last week. I have to say it was an absolute blast!

Hoyt Bennett of the Bennett Brothers

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get any of my gangers painted for their first outing on the tabletop. But the excitement of playing the game spurred me on to finish painting my first gang Champion; namely Hoyt 'Bulky' Bennett, pictured above.


For those who aren't familiar with the new Necromunda, a starting gang is made up of a gang leader and can include a number of gangers, juves and champions up to the value of 1000 credits (basically points). This usually gives a gang size between 6 and 10 models. Juves are basically wannabe gangers who are inexperienced and poorly armed but learn quickly and are cheap to hire; whereas Champions are experienced fighters with powerful skills and with access to better weaponry. Hoyt himself is armed with a mighty Renderizer (ok I know it's a converted chainaxe but it's close enough) and a stub gun; both of which he failed miserably to use on his first outing as he spent most of the game pinned and rolling about on the floor.

The semi-painted Goliath Champion menacing an Escher ganger

The game itself is very dynamic as gangers variously get hit, pinned, wounded and eventually taken out of action. As with the original Necromunda, there is a lot of laying your models face down/up to show the state of their various injuries. So long as you're careful though it doesn't seem to cause them any harm.


The boxed game includes a number of boards which can be used for zone mortalis style play. Something both Blazmo and myself thought we would avoid but which was surprisingly enjoyable to play. So much so that we will probably use this format for most of our games. The game also comes with a set of scenery (mostly bulkheads and barricades) which can be seen pictured above. Big thanks to Blazmo by the way for painting all the scenery in record time and making our games all the more immersive.

Peakaboo! I couldn't resist this photo.

If you've read much about the new Necromunda online (or N17 as it's often called) you may know that there are a number of rules errors in both of the source books (Underhive and Gang War). Games Workshop have advised that an faq is imminent but until it lands it is probably best to play the game with a series of gentleman's agreements in place (much like the original ruleset!) Still, it hasn't spoiled my enjoyment of the game any; if anything, I think it encourages people to play more in the spirit of the game.

Hoyt again.

Painting wise, I've really enjoyed breaking away from the grimdarkness and trying to paint some bright, cashing colours in more of a second edition style. With this in mind, I've gone for a nice lime green paired with a red spot colour and some hazard striping. I'm not totally happy with the hazard stripes but you only get better at these things by doing them! So I'm determined to put some on every member of the gang. The base was inspired by Blazmo's excellent terrain with a rust/verdigris style that works nicely for the underhive.

Also Hoyt.

As for the future? Well I'm working on painting my gang leader at the moment and I sincerely hope to get more games of Necromunda in soon. Check back soon for more updates.

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!

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.

Tyranid Hierophant Bio-titan - Painting progress

A few months ago (back in September I think!) the Hierophant Bio-titan I ordered finally arrived.

Cue rough progress photo

Just so we're clear, he didn't arrive in this state but was a brand new kit in need of much building. And what a task that turned out to be! Having read from several sources that these guys are notorious for bending/warping under their own weight I knew that I would have some work to do if I ever wanted to be able to use him on the battlefield.


To begin with, I had a look around online to see if there were any tutorials I could follow. As it turns out there are several, and, by cross referencing, I formulated a plan to construct my own Bio-titan. The main difficulty is the strength of the legs compared with the weight of the torso (a huge solid lump of resin); in an attempt to remedy this, I cut each leg into 3 pieces using a razor saw and then drilled and inserted 2mm steel pins. I also sawed the front claws in half and pinned them using paperclips.


After that was done (including bending one of the legs back into shape using a hairdryer) it became the usual task of building a resin model. All the usual cutting, bending, pinning etc. In the end, I went a bit pin happy with this thing, pinning all the limbs, the head, both mandibles and even some of the larger carapace spines!


Once the main build was complete I used plenty of green stuff and Apoxie Sculpt to fill the gaps and iron out any casting flaws and air bubbles. The Hierophant was surprisingly gappy when built (common with ball and socket joints) and I used up plenty of putty filling around the arms and legs.


After all of that it was time to build the base. For those that don't know, these models are too large to be supplied with a base so it is left to the intrepid hobbyist to make their own or go without. One look at the Hierophant should be enough to convince you that a base is very, very necessary. I have seen plenty of different examples online of people making large circular bases out of timber. Whilst this would work pretty well for a display piece, I was unconvinced of the ability to maneuver something like this on the battlefield. That and I'm not totally sure that the added weight of a hefty piece of mdf would do this model any favours. In the end I opted for two layers of thick plasticard, stuck together and cut to shape, this helped with the rigidity of the finished model and also allows it to maintain a reasonable footprint (for a titan!)


After the base was formed and the Hierophant was fixed down (cue more pins and glue) it was getting on for late October. Excessive amounts of Chaos Black spray were applied (Abaddon black?!) and then it was down to me and my big brush to get some colour on it. Unfortunately, at this point I encountered a minor snag. The recesses in the Hierophant's carapace are so deep and many that I found it virtually impossible to paint them with a normal brush. After a little trying and frustration, the project was shelved for a later date.


A couple of months later and in stepped the mighty Blazmo of Tabletop Apocalypse fame. Wielding his airbrush, he generously agreed to hit up the Hierophant with a coat of red paint (and as it turned out, a little white and some grey too!) So, on Christmas day we sat down in the bathroom with our respirators on and got down to business (now there's a sentence I never thought I'd write!)


Since then, I've carried on painting with great enthusiasm, finishing off the red basecoat by hand and then applying my usual black wash. At this point, I've almost finished the white basecoat to the chitinous areas which means that the model isn't too far from completion! Tune in for the next episode when I hope to be able to show off the finished article.

Tabletop Apocalypse: How to be a Better Painter - Basics

A great little painting article from Blazmo, busting some painting myths and giving some useful tips. Well worth a read.

I.......I can't even......

Tabletop Apocalypse: How to be a Better Painter - Basics: The road to success, or sometimes even decent results can be long and arduous. In this series of articles I'm going to share some tricks...

Tabletop Apocalypse!

Sometimes, when you're trawling the grey, ashen landscape of these here internets an image will jump out at you like a lush oasis (I think that metaphor has been tortured enough!) and you'll be like "woah!"


Well........

Woah!

This is just one of many creations by a horribly talented individual over at Tabletop Apocalypse. I can't get enough of staring at this model, putting aside the jaw-dropping paint job, the conversion alone is mind boggling. If you know your way around the Heldrake kit, then you begin to appreciate the sheer amount of additional extras built into this one.


I can't wait to see more from Blazmo over at Tabletop Apocalypse. Surely a sign of great things to come.