Home Table WIP

Of all the distractions taking me away from painting my Eldar, my IG and other assorted models in queue, perhaps the most benevolent and excusable is the on-going Home Table project.

I live in a condo, so space is premium. The whole idea is to have a table that is portable, sets up fast and easy, and packs away just as quick and neat too. So after some mulling around, I built and acquired the materials for it. So this is what I have so far:

- 6'x4' board, cut into three 2'x4' pieces for easy handling and storage, from the local hardware store
- Double-sided battlemat from gamemat.eu
- 12 tall trees from Woodland Scenics
- 28 medium trees from Woodland Scenics
- 6 mounting boards (for the woods) from Art Friend
- 2 craggy hills from ye olde local pet store
- 2 low flat hills from Amera
- 1 four-stoery ruin from Amera
- 1 Fortress of Redemption from GW (I guess this can be broken down into 4 different structures)
- 2 three-storey ruins from HF
- 1 wrecked Rhino from HF
- 1 lookout tower from HF

The Amera kit is a simple vacuum-formed thing, but it works out really well. In fact I'm soooooooo tempted to get a couple more (the Admin Block and Factory look awesome), as well as the really nice-looking Gothic Ruins from Gamemat.eu. But I passed my LD test and did not click "Buy".

While in a pinch, I can already have games on the board (thanks to the awesome mat and bits of scatter terrain already in hand), there's still some work to do, in order of priority:

- Assemble the remaining 28 trees
- Base all 40 trees
- Cut out the mounting boards to mark out woods area terrain
- Paint all of the above
- Paint the Amera ruin
- Touch-up paint of the craggy hills
- Paint the low hills
- Touch-paint the old terrain from HF
- Assemble and paint the Fortress of Redemption

I'm stoked! But I do want to finish painting the 6 jetbikes this month too. Anyways, you know what they say about the best-laid plans ...

Will be having a game vs some Ultramarines this weekend - should be a blast!

Keep them dice rolling!

When a Few Armies Need to Move House ...

We've been spending the past couple of weeks packing and making ready for the big move, which will happen in the first week of January. And to make things worse, it's a 2-part move! The new house is not quite ready, but I've already sold my current one, and need to vacate soon. So I'm moving to the in-law's place for a couple of months, while most of my stuff goes into storage. Then, sometime in March, I move again to the new place.

Anyways, timing mishaps aside, it's really interesting to go through 10 years of stuff - books, music, wargames, clothes, junk, etc. I gave away/trashed a whole bunch of stuff, and got organized a lot too! My daughter's boyfriend is the proud recepient of 13 years worth of White Dwarf, including some really old '90s vintage ones (including the issue that announced the release of the Eldar Falcon tank - awesome issue), as well as stacks of '90s vintage Wargames Illustrated.

My long-delayed bitz organization exercise was forced into action, and I can now proudly boast a few stacks of nicely organized bitz boxes. It's amazing how much less space is need when you get organized!

Anyways, as the picture above shows, my wargames stuff is almost all ready to go. In fact, as of writing, I'm done packing my wargames stuff, except for the bulk of my Ravenwing which is still at Hobby Forge, and my BFG fleet which is at Wira Games.

Rulebooks for 40k, Fantasy, FoW, WAB, Grand Manner, Napoleon's Battles, NPOW, General d'Brigade and all kinds of other rules, plus codices, army books, Ospreys, unopened boxes, boxes of WIP projects, all kinds of other wargames-related kits, hobby materials, tools etc, all fit nicely into 3 large boxes.

Painted armies are packed in various army carrier bags and cases. For my frequent trips to and occassional games down south, I have 2 Eldar armies ready for action in a Sponge Bag + tool box. Another two Thousand Sons armies are also ready for action in another Sponge Bag + tool box combo, just in case I need a break from the Eldar cheese.

Three FoW armies are neatly packed in the awesome FoW army bag. The giant GW figure case is now filled with all my painted IG infantry - Brandenberg, Catachan AirCav, Necromunda-based militia, Denerair Highlanders - my guess is about 250 figures. Also in the giant case are 11 Leman Russ, 7 Chimera, a Hydra 2 Hellhounds and a Devil Dog.

The large padded plastic bin that I normally use to transport the AirCav now contains the 6 AirCav flyers, 2 other flyers (Dark Eldar, Ravenwing), a Shadowsword, a Baneblade, 2 Basilisks, a Manticore, a Wyvern, 3 Leman Russ, 3 Vypers, 4 Land Speeders and other assorted stuff. Another large tool box carries 2 Baneblades, a Shadowsword and assorted Thousand Sons, IG and Eldar vehicles that didn't fit anywhere else.

That was tiring work, but it is fun to go thru your old toys once in awhile.

Keep them dice rolling. I'm trying ...

The Return of Lord Amun Seth and Lord Ka'Kaa.

Last night saw the return of Lord Amun Seth, Daemon Prince of Tzeentch. Little is known of the origins of Amun Seth. Some say he was a Thousand Sons Sorcerer. Others even dare suggest that he was once a Librarian of the Dark Angels. Still others profess that he was actually a xeno-sorcerer of the Eldar.

Still he returned to the fray. Along with the reappearance of His High Emminence Lord Ka'Kaa, the Lord of Change. Both had at one time or another led my Thousand Sons armies into battle, but last night was the first time that both Lords fought together. And it was pretty insane.

I built the list because I hadn't touched these models in ages, and also because I wanted to try a little daemonic theme in the army. So out goes the Predator and Land Raider, and in come the Defiler and Obliterators. And with the Heldrake flying around and the necessary pack of Horrors, the only non-daemons were the Thousand Sons Rubricae and Sorcerers.

Talking about Horrors, I've had them since the old Daemons codex, but didn't do anything with them. In fact, I had only assembled 9 of them (favored - ya, ol skool). Fortunately, I was able to find the sprues and assembled the 10th Horror necessary for the minimum unit size in the current codex. After hastily sanding their bases and spraying black undercoat, the Horrors got a super-fast 5-minute paint-job. It's by no means painted, but at least they look like something like Horrors in last night's game.

The Heldrake itself saw a lot of progress. I'm almost done cleaning up the basecoats. Next week I'll probably finish the model and hopefully the base too. And I'll set to work to finish the Horrors properly.

The game itself was pretty scary. With both the Lord Amun Seth and Lord Ka'Kaa being Mastery Level 3 Sorcerers and flying around causing havoc, I can see why a lot of people use multiple FMCs. All my flying creatures died by the end of the battle, but there really wasn't much left of the enemy too. And my Troops were hardly harmed. We'll give this another spin soon, hopefully fully-painted next time.

Keep rolling them dice!

That Was Some Healthy Hobbying!

Last Friday's Hobby Nite was some kind of awesome. It started off on the right foot with a great meal and beers, and by the time we arrived at the Forge, we were raring to go. I especially like the look of the hordes of Astartes that greeted us at the Forge. Nice.

I had a bit of trouble with focus, and took out 11 Black Knights and a couple of Land Speeders to add to my Ravenwing armory. I also took out my WIP Heldrake, but did not do any work with it. It's coming along yes.

Anyways, I took the last Land Speeder to assemble, and got that done, right before my first game with Hakim's deadly Eldar. Fielding my new Ravenwing list, I must say I had loads of fun with it. It's super-fast and hard-hitting. Salvo 4 twin-linked bolters on bikes are super-deadly! I think just one squad wiped out an entire Dire Avengers squad, mercilessly gunning them down. At any rate, I still got outgunned and lost the game. And had great fun too!

The next game was against Aiman's Balakor/Daemon Prince/Ahriman Thousand Sons army. This one was pretty one-sided as my bikes got torn apart really fast. Completely forgot a lot of special stuff like Preffered Enemy and the Skyfire on one of the objectives I held.

We were going for a second round when the Lord AK arrived. We had prebooked this game, so I unpacked my AirCav for a fight with his Raven Guard. It was pretty fun, and funny, and the AirCav managed to truimph in this one. He's written a batrep with pics and all, you can check it out at http://ak-skullthrone.blogspot.sg/2014/03/flight-of-valkyries-raven-guard-vs.html

Anyways, it was pretty late by the time we got done, and after the sumptuous meal, beers, hobbying and 3 games, I was beat, retired home and went to bed with a smile. All hobby nites should be this awesome.

Keep rolling them dice!

Favored Rubric Terminators - Finally!

After years and years of absolutely inspired expert procrastinating, my favored squad of Rubric Terminators finally got done last night. This was truly a long drawn out old project, with more stops than starts.

And just how old? Well, the squad was started when Thousand Sons Rubric Terminators had 2 wounds each, and the aspiring champion was actually an aspiring sorcerer, and when you buy them in squads of 9 (Tzeentch favored number), the aspiring sorcerer came free with the squad. This was back in the good ol' broken days of CSM Codex 3.5 when aspiring sorcerers were charging with powerfists with 5 attacks and 2 re-rolls!

The project is so old that the models are actually plastic Space Marine termies - simply because the Chaos ones weren't created yet! The crowns are metal Rubric Thousand Sons, which I cut and shaved off the entire front part of the power armor helmet. Then I cut the rear half of the Space Marine termie helmet and glued the two together. Tabards are metal Thousand Sons bits, and so are half of the combi-bolters (the ones with the bird heads), made by glueing two Thousand Sons bolters together.

The power swords, gauntlets and shoulder armor are from various bits - Chaos warriors, Space Marines, CSM, etc. Yes, this was wayyyyyyyy before power swords counted as only AP3! The Champion's chainfist is stock Space Marine termie chainfist. His shoulder armor are from a hapless Grey Knight, and the helmet is an old metal fantasy Chaos sorcerer's. The Icon of Tzeetch and spiky bits are from the CSM vehicle accessories frame.

There was a lot of shaving away of Imperial icons, eagles and purity seals. And a lot of glueing on of skulls and slightly more Chaotic symbols, as well as some battle damage. The combi-bolters that were not made of Thousand Sons bolters were a mix of CSM metal termie combi-bolters, DIY combi-bolters (2 CSM bolters glued together) and even an actual combi-bolter from a Rhino. I will be adding 4 melta-barrels to these guys when I get around to it - hopefully within the decade!

Anyways, now that the squad is done I'll probably be using more of the list that includes the full favored squad - which takes away the Rhinos from their power armored brethren! Next up - the Heldrake!

Keep rolling them dice!

2013 - Not a Bad Hobby Year After All.

With very limited time available for the hobby, it seemed at first that 2013 was going to be the worst year in a long time as far as my personal wargames hobby is concerned. Funny enough, it turns out that this is yet more proof that fact and perception are often-times at complete odds with each other.

The fact is, I actually did more painting and hobbying in 2013 compared to 2012 and 2011. I did play less games, and attended less events, but the personal hobbying was not too shabby at all.

I guess the highlight would be the completion (finally!) of II Catachan Rgt's Air Mobile Detachment (a.k.a. AirCav), an army that actually started with much fervor with the first Valkyrie completed in 2009, but got completely derailed as I finished off several other projects in between. But largely thanks to the first Throwdown earlier in the year, the project was given a huge kick and restarted with gusto! And now, version 1 is done! I've got version 2 on the cards, but I'll wait for the new codex before doing more work on them (it might turn out I'd have to use the army as a counts-as Elysian list if some of the rumors are true - but we'll see).

 

So in 2013, I actually finished:
- 36 IG aircav infantry (almost all converted)
- 1 Col Straken
- 1 Uriah Jacobus preacher
- 1 Astropath
- 3 Vendetta
- 1 Valkyrie
- 1 Basilisk (happy with the simple conversion for this guy)
- 1 Crimson Hunter
- 6 Eldar Jet Bikes (in one (long) intense hobby session, I might add)

On top of that, I started (but obviously did not finish):
- 1 Eldar Warlock on jetbike (actually, this guy is almost done - maybe another hour or so)
- 1 Ilyic the super Pathfinder
- 1 Dark Reaper Exarch (converted from bits + OOP Eldar warrior)
- 1 Nephilim
- 1 Helbrute
- 1 Heldrake
- 6 Ravenwing Black Knights
- 5 Ravenwing Command Squad Black Knights
- 30 Deathwing Terminators (including command)
- 23 Dark Angels Space Marines (including command)
- 1 Officer of the Fleet

It's not too shabby, given the circumstances.

Now on to the lowlights. I guess the worst part of my hobby year was actually missing Legio's big move to its shiny new premises at Hobby Forge. That was a real bummer. The next one has to be the fact that this was the first year in a long time that I did not play in a tournament. And this was in a year with a bumper crop of tournaments! And I just realized that my proud 6th Brandenberg Imperial Guard never left the shelves all year! That is something that must be rectified this year!

Anyways, I'm not going to dwell in doldrums so early in the day. I am looking forward to 2014. The first project in mind is a quick revisit of Master Ahriman and the Thousand Sons. I'm looking to finish up my first ever Heldrake, the 1.5 models left to paint to complete the Favored Rubric Terminator squad, and the awesome Land Raider that's been WIP for 6 years (I think). After that, it's a bit more work with the Ravenwing - finish up the Black Knights and the Command Squad, and add 3 Land Speeders to the army.

We'll see how far that takes me. Here's hoping that I don't get TOO over-distracted (e.g. WW1 Brit-themed IG with steel helmets, fixed bayonets and tanks that look like Malcadors ... or a Thunderbolt (or two) ... or an expansion of the seedling of the Tzeentch daemons in my collection ... or a 28mm Napoleonic army ...)

Cheers to 2013! Cheers to 2014!
Happy New Year guys!
Keep them dice rolling ...

Finally Finished Something in 2011!

After much (much much) pestering from deathkorps, we've finally moved to Blogger! And many many thanks to Jeff for helping set this up and getting the banner done. Sweet!

I finally finished painting something in 2011. Not a very productive hobby year to date, with a few projects started off, but not much to show for it. This includes some pretty expensive stuff (FW pre-heresy Thousand Sons, some matching bits from various brands, Mk II Land Raider, etc, etc.)

In the end, the trusty Brandenburgers came to the rescue to break the duck. In preparation for the 40k League Season 4 which kicks off tomorrow, I painted these 4 guys to round out 1st and 2nd Platoon of the 6th Assault Grenadiers. The 6th is a pretty heavy force, with over 100 infantry in 1750 pts. To make it easier for myself to tell which platoon is which, I employed a simple method - use the figures! So, the infantry squad of 1st platoon is made up of RT-era (1st ed) models, 2nd platoon is made up of 2nd ed models, and 3rd platoon is made up of 3rd ed models.

Sergeant Hofner, in this pic sporting his trusty old power weapon and autopistol ("laspistols are for wimps"), is really really OOP. A veteran from the rural regions of Brandenburg, rumour has it that the sergeant was formerly a Captain, but was busted down to NCO because of some uncertain incident involving the regimental OC's wife. It is not known why Hofner chooses to don his NBC gear every time he goes into combat. Nevertheless, he is among the 6th's most solid NCOs whom the men treat with the utmost respect (and fear).

The other 3 guys are from 2nd platoon (OOP Cadians). I really like this old metal Cadian range, and have a couple more squads still unpainted. These figures will be among the last to be painted for the Brandenburg (as well as a squad of stormtroopers). After more than 10 years of building up the Brandenburg force to over 300+ infantry and 20+ vehicles, I feel that it is time for something different, as far as my IG armies are concerned. All future IG will be the Catachans, starting (or re-starting) with the AirCav.