2010: Time to Get Things Happening!

Hi there fellow bloggers and blog followers!

Firstly let me apologise for the extended break between posts. This was obviously not my intention and all the same old excuses get recycled and reused with LifeTM being the main perpetrator. The end of 2009 was crazy for me as it was with many of those in the limbo known as student life and retail work with a few other unexpected issues unfortunately my hobby and blog suffered. For the last almost 2.5 weeks I have been taking a bit of time out of it all in W.A. with my girlfriend and her family for a holiday. Whilst there I was cut off from civilisation in that there was no 3G coverage for my iPhone and so the internet was just a dream for me!

Now I'm back and rearing to go and looking forward to a great year of hobby progress. I'm taking a lighter year at uni with just some casual work in there to keep myself alive and away from the debt collectors and so hope to pump out a fair bit of hobby. Well a fair bit for me at least.

I'm currently not at home so I can't post you any new pictures yet but in the new few days I'll make sure to grab some photos I've tried to post a few times and just force them onto the web.

I need to figure out a visual display for my hobby progress, goals, achievements and future projects so if anyone has any ideas shout out or leave me a comment or link so I can get myself sorted.

Since I'm still on W.A. time I'm having trouble readjusting my sleeping patterns so I'm sure there will be a few extra posts and a fair bit more reading up of all those great blog posts I've missed from those that I follow and come across. Seem familiar?

Anyway to kick off 2010 here are 85 marines built by two of my friends whilst at our local Gw today. I couldn't resist getting a snap of this almost company of marines to show to you guys.

2010 Games Day Miniature

Wow!! I think this might be my new favourite model!!!
The face is amazing. I need this model!! I'll just have to wait until next October though.....

Finished Skaven Clanrats

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the delay in posts but due to computer issues and final assessments for university I haven't been able to post for some time. To keep you all interested here are some images of the Skaven Clanrats that myself and some other customers were able to paint for our local Gw.



























These models are so easy to put together and almost no consideration needs to be taken about how they will rank up as they do so very easily now they have their tails included and raised upwards. They are so detailed that we only needed to give the models a basecoat with foundation colours and a wash, then we picked out a few details like the teeth and eyes and they were done! The colour of the photos are a bit off as the grasses we used on the bases were dead grass, burnt grass with a little of the standard grass on just the movement tray.



























I was really excited to get to paint these models as practise for my own army and for just the fun of making a cool looking unit whilst having a few laughs with mates instore!
When I get a chance to take some individual photos of some of the rats I painted I will put up their colour recipe.

Skaven Screaming Bell and Plague Furnace

Hey Bloggers,

Check out what the Games Workshop Newsletter just dropped into my email inbox!!
How insanely nice are these models?? I LOVE the characters and crew of these models! It has to be one of the best miniatures Gw has ever made!!

Teamwork: A Hobbyist's Best Friend!

Hey Guys and Girls,

Since I have been having troubles uploading images these past few days I haven't yet put up my scouts but in the mean time, what do you guys think of teamwork??














Little Max and I are embarking on a joint hobby project: to complete 1000pts of Space Marines and to play a game on the 1st of February.

He is working on his Imperial Fists and I am building my 4th Company Ultramarines and so far I have found myself to be much more motivated hobbying with him (rather than alone/in-store) and really wanting to complete my 1000pts. To most people I'm sure this seems like an easy task but neither Little Max nor I have completed an army to date, being more like magpies in our hobby than good little bower birds (they would play Ultramarines too!).

We both finish uni at the end of October and start jobs which I am sure will become very hectic during the holidays and then I am planning to go away during early January to relax from a very stressful and draining year. Which means we will have November and December in between work and family commitments and then just two weeks of January to finish up my army!! I still have to buy a Razorback and a few other assorted goodies (like Forgeworld items) as well as do the green-stuffing so all my marines have some lovely Ultramarine and Tactical raised icons on their shoulder pads.

The few times I have met up with him in the last few weeks of term we have gotten quite a lot of hobby done in the time available and had a few laughs together.
So my question is this: do you find yourself being more productive in matters of hobby when working with a friend as a team? Or do you like to hobby alone at your place where everything is in easy reach?

Let me know what you think in the new poll or by leaving comments!

Ultramarine 1000pt List Draft

Hey Guys,

Today Little Max and I did a bit of painting, he on his scouts and me on my tactical marine test mini. We were working out the green shoulder pad edging and how to pick out the other details. He did mention that the miniature in real life seems much lighter than it does in the photos so hopefully when I reshoot him once he's finished the colours will seem better. But I really like the combination of the green with the blue. It looks really cool.

So I had planned to put up some pictures of my Scouties but unfortunately the internet isn't allowing me to upload them but hopefully I can do it at uni in a few days. Little Max and I are building and painting our 1000pt Armies with a deadline of 1st of February. Since I am hopefully going away for half of January and Little Max also has some commitments this should be enough time for us to complete our armies. Since this is the case I plan to build and paint around 500pts extra but if this isn't completed then no big problem.















So in the mean time here is my 1000pt Army List for the Ultramarines.

135pts - Space Marine Chaplain in Terminator Armour and Melta Bombs

200pts - 5 man Terminator Assault Squad with Thunder Hammers and Storm Shields

75pts - 5 man Scout Squad: 3 Shotguns and 2 with Pistols and Close Combat Weapons

50pts - Land Speeder Storm

170pts - 10 man Tactical Squad

90pts - 5 man Tactical Squad

150pts - 5 man Devastator Squad with 4 Multi-meltas

40pts - Razorback

40pts - Razorback


So those of you astute enough will notice this list is only 950pts in total and leaves me with 50pts to play with. So any recommendations for what to do with those 50pts?

So far I'm toying with the ideas of:
Another terminator and 10pts on special and heavy weapons in the ten man tactical squad.
Power fist for the scout squad, power weapon for the tactical squad and special and heavy weapons.
An upgrade to 1 of the Razorback weapons and take the cheaper/free special and heavy weapons.

So any other ideas? Any jump out as the best idea?
Once the internet decides to work properly I'll put up my Scouts.

Edit:
Tweaking list as to comments

Ultramarine Assault Squad

Hey happy bloggers,
Awesome I made the Tuesday Top Ten listing at number 2!!
And just the week after little Max did so also! :D I sense a friendly competition coming on...

So as promised and as a reward here are some shots of my WiP Ultramarine Assault squad!

Firstly my Veteran Sergeant. He is of course my favourite and possibly one of my favourites in the entire army. His storm shield is taken from the Assault Terminators but with an assault marine arm chopped to fit and the lightning claw is taken from the MKII Veterans. The head is taken from the Ravenwing Sprue with the Dark Angels sword symbol filled in with green stuff.














It's a five man squad so far with the Veteran Sergeant equip with a lightning claw, storm shield and melta bombs and the unit contains one plasma pistol. I will fill them out eventually to a ten man squad and include a second plasma pistol. In my other squad (since I'm building a full company eventually) I will include two flamers and I'm not sure yet what to give my Veteran Sergeant...














My plasma pistol marine has obviously had an accident in the past and so his head is half replaced with bionics on his left side (as he's left handed!) and I have improved his armour up to a MK8 variant. Since there are no MK8's with jump pack straps I decided to make my own. I did this with some plastic card piping, chopped it into half and tapered the ends. I smoothed it down a little and all was good! I unfortunately forgot to take a photo before I under coated him so if anyone wants a tutorial let me know and I'll do another one and post him up!














All my marines are going to have their correct shoulder pad markings. The assault marines obviously have the assault and ultramarine shoulder pads. These work really well but I think they may be a bit small for the tactical squads so I think I will force myself to do a bit more green stuff practise and model up their symbols. Also it will be good practise for my Space Wolves and Salamanders. The Veteran Sergeant has the Plastic Veteran Ultramarine symbol from the Space Marine Commander and Space Marine Command Squad boxes and the right shoulder pad was attached to the lightning claw arm so I left it as was.














I have tried to make them all individual to some degree so have added grenades along their harness so it's in easy reach for them.














I tried to ensure all the assault marines were leaping from jutting rock to rock or sprinting into an assaulting position. I like how they seem to hover above their bases and some times they almost appear to be floating as your brain edits out their connection to the base when you see them in person.



























This last marine holds a special place in my heart. Not only do I like him as one of the "lefties" and his leaning/running pose but I accidentally spilt some plastic glue on his chest so I covered it up with grenades which save the model in my eyes. To be fair it probably wasn't all that bad but I can be a bit anal with my hobby and like things to be perfect and now I think he looks even better!!














Ok so next for the marines I guess are the scouts. They need some green stuff work but I'll show you where they are so far up to. They are looking pretty good so far though. Nice and characterful!

So what do you all think of them?

New Skaven Character Models!!!

Warlord Queek Headtaker. He's back, he's bigger and he's badder than ever. This is a truely impressive and dynamic model. I like how they have based the new sculpt on the old one with the inclusion of the trophy rack and what I can only assume was a Rat Ogre! He seems to tower as a Vampire Lord might and means business. All the rats running around him only add to his coolness. A must have for me and will probably be the general of my army just cause of his cool model! Well him or Old Sickpaw the Blind Seer.














Our new character Packmaster Skweel Gnawtooth. I like the buck toothed nature of this master slaver with his cat-o'-nine-warpstone-tails! I wonder if he does something to your Rat Ogres, Giant Rats and Swarms??














Finally and possibly most important of all is the fan favourite Deathmaster Snitch! Again an amazing model! The huge flowing cloak adds so much to this model as does the felled greatswordsman underfoot with a rat crawling through his ribcage.

What is probably the coolest thing about the model is the subtle imagery of the three daggers creating the skaven triad symbol. Probably didn't see that at first glance did you? :D














I really like how these models have been based on their original counterparts and grown from there. The knife in the tail, the dripping poisons, the spiked ball on the back of the hood. Kinda like the evolution (or evilution) of the Headtaker model. I also dig the glowing warpstone charm on him and Queek, got to have a go at painting its lighting effects nice and subtle like they have here.

Any guesses what my next fantasy army might be? What do you think it should be?

New Skaven Models!!!

Hey guys!

I'm super excited since today Gw released images of the sexy new Skaven models!! They are so seriously awesome that I can't believe it! They are just like how the background and artwork describes them. These are all straight off of the New Releases and the sprues are from their blog.














Assorted Clanrat and Doomwheel sprues!! That's right! It's Back!!! I can't wait to see these guys in the flesh (or fur) and get cracking on them whether they are mine or not! :D I just hope the boys at Gw don't get a jump on them before I get there first!














The new clan rats we saw a peek of earlier in the year. They come 20 in a box rather than the current empire boxes of ten, I assume this is since Skaven armies require a horde army in the truest sense of the word.














The old school shields are back! These models are just wow! It's such a huge step up from the previous Skaven models and to me are what Skaven are all about; filthy, vicious warriors born in legions just to fight and bring down the empires and cities of man.....














New Stormvermin!! Again 20 in a box and they look awesome! I really like the head stretched into a drum skin and the Fangleader detail is really nice! These will really be a must have unit now!














The reinvented Doomwheel!!! You can't keep a good mad rat scientist down! The engineer is now riding the doomwheel from the inside and he has what looks like a technician riding on a rear platform. The banner is a pretty impressive piece of kit also.














The sprues are getting really impressive these days, especially the inner rings. Very steampunk in style.














I'll need one or two of these ramshackle contraptions rumbling along the battlefield blasting anything silly enough to come near it.

Alternative Fenrisian Wolves Conversion

Hey Guys,

Sorry the posts are a bit low currently but I'm in the last 3 weeks of Uni so as you can imagine it's pretty hectic but it will soon be all over!

In the mean time I present you with an alternative Fenrisian Wolf conversion by Franz! He said that it is a pretty time consuming conversion so he will probably only do two to accompany his wolf lord and any others will be like my ones to save on time and to also make the ones accompanying the Wolf Lord that much greater!














As you can see his conversion has the same basis as mine but he has replaced the head of the Chaos Warhound with that of the wolf from the Goblin wolf riders box. This is one of the best poses I think to show off the intimidating nature of the Fenris Wolves. Check him out about to rip the face off of a plague daemon!














And a size comparison next to a standard cadian guardsman.



























I love the way the body of the wolf maintains a twist as he leaps through the air. The model is currently only held down by blue-tac so he can be made to be leaping higher it's just the tac couldn't hold his weight up like that.

Coming next from me: Ultramarine Assault Marines!