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 ...

Alaitoc Windriders to the Fore!

I finally got a pic up of my Alaitoc Windriders army last night. The Windriders are a much-chastised organization in Puritan Alaitoc, drawing their inspiration and lust for speed from such feral creeds like the Saim Hann. Indeed, instead of the mottle dark blue livery of the Alaitoc military, the Windriders sport stripes similar to the Saim Hann. And in keeping with their love of speed, the Windriders favour jetbikes and grav tanks over other forms weaponry.

At 1850 points, it’s largely made up of models I’ve had for years, supplanted by some new models I added in the past few weeks. I thought it would be interesting to list out the models that make up this army:

Farseer Lahnn – with jetbike and singing spear. This model was converted and painted in 2007. Chopped a jetbike in half and pinned it to the metal Farseer. Extended the Farseer’s cape and added gems and runes on the bike carapace with green stuff.

2 Warlocks – with jetbikes and singing spears. The first warlock was converted by chopping up a metal warlock and pinning it to plastic rider legs, adding the spear and wrapping legs and torso in tissue and glue, back in 2001. He actually played the role of Farseer on jetbike for some years before I finally made a proper Farseer model. The second warlock was converted very recently from plastic Guardian, Wood Elf and jetbike bits and is still WIP actually.

10 Dire Avengers – with Exarch. These are classic 2^nd ed metal models which I got in 2000 and finally painted in 2007. In fact, I must ashamedly admit that I still have to finish basing them, and fix 2 of the helmet combs which I painted in stripes. I added a plastic exarch’s shield to his arm and plastic flag on his back and made a cape out of green stuff. For a very short time in 2007 and 2008, he was my Autarch.

10 Guardian Defenders – with starcannon. These are very old metal Eldar, back when shuriken catapults came with a drum magazine, as well as musician and standard bearer. There are 2 plastic ones from 2^nd ed to make up the numbers. The starcannon platform is metal. All painted in 2000.

2 Wave Serpents – with twin-linked brightlances and holofields. These were converted and painted in 2000 using bits, plastic card and blueprints I downloaded from the Internet. I was supposed to refurbish them back in 2007 but never got around to it.

6 Jetbikes – with 2 shuriken cannons. The first 3 came with the very first 40k stuff I ever bought in 2000 – the 3^rd ed Eldar Battleforce. I added the rest between 2000 and 2007, the last one being the shuriken cannon bike with the large Alaitoc rune. The crew were all repainted in 2007. One of the shuriken cannons is the actual metal bit, the other one was converted from a plastic shuriken cannon.

6 jetbikes – with 2 shuriken cannons. These were done a few weeks ago in a single night of frenzied hobbying. Like the first squad, one of the shuriken cannons is plastic and the other is the actual metal bit – which was transplanted from one of my Vypers.

3 Vypers – with scatter lasers and shuriken cannons. I’ve had 4 Vypers since2000, the first came with the battleforce that got me into the hobby in the first place. For a long time the Vypers were armed with starcannon. In 2007, I reequipped the Vypers with scatter lasers and shuriken cannon, and updated the paint scheme for the crew and equipment.

Crimson Hunter – with Exarch. This was done a few weeks ago. Really like the model.

2 Fire Prisms – with holofield. Both Prisms were done in 2007.

Falcon – with pulse laser, scatter laser, shuriken cannon, holofield. This was the very first GW tank I ever painted back in 2000. It came with the battleforce. In 2007 I added the hull-mounted shuriken cannon and touched up the paint-work, removing any metal colors, updating the decals and repainting the crew. It’s still my favourite tank model.

The Windriders have been performing quite amazingly on the battlefield, having won all its battles until the Tau managed to beat them last night (the Windriders recovered and proceeded to beat the Tau in the next battle after that). What’s more important is that this army is loads of fun to play! The speed and ability to outmanouver just about any foe is truly addictive. Here’s looking forward to next hobby night!

Second Windrider squad ready for action!

It's been 13 years since I last painted an Eldar jetbike (not counting repainting the riders in 2007), and it was great to be able to finish this squad last night. In fact, I finished the whole squad from the box to finish in one seating. It's been awhile since I managed to find the time to do that.

I tried to keep to the original color scheme, but only managed a best match. The 6 original jetbikes in my collection, along with 4 Vypers, Falcon and 2 Wave Serpents, were all painted using the old OOP Citadel range (the ones with the cool flat white plastic caps, and used to last forever). Anyways, the colors match my Fire Prisms perfectly, so it's all good.

The finish on the bikes' carapace ended up to thick. I'm not used to the consistency of the new blue pot - definitely heavier pigmentation that the old Ultra Blue. So it kinda screwed it up for me. But after finishing the squad, I don't feel so bad.

In between allowing for coats and sprays to dry, I worked on kit-bashing a second Warlock on jetbike. The original plan was to emulate what I did with the first Warlock on jetbike that I already have (just realized that I did that conversion 12 years ago!), which was cutting up a metal Warlock, join the torso to a standard jetbike rider's legs, and GS the robes. But when I got the Warlock from Iqbal, it turned out that it was the only one that I've never had in my collection - I couldn't bring myself to cut the guy in two. So, he joins my now expanded Seer Council on foot.

I eventually kit-bashed the Warlock from the bits in my room. Legs and arms from the jetbike rider (right hand cut and repositioned for effect), torso and cloak from Wood Elf rider (arrows shaved out and patched w GS), head from Hemlock pilot. I'll be adding hair on his helm, and maybe more flowing cloak bits from the Wood Elf frame. Quite happy with how it's turning out so far.

Anyways, tonight it's back to AirCav!!!!

Finally got this baby painted for the table ...

... but I must say I could have done a much better job. Well, I suppose I needed to get it done after 4 weeks of sitting on the painting table.

It's a lovely model, and I should probably get another to do it real justice. My original plan was to adorn the aircraft with lots of green and amber gems. But I did get lazy. Especially after I lost the pilot's head - the thing rolled off my table and mysteriously disappeared (it's probably lying right next to my Forgeworld Imperial tank searchlight which disappeared under similar strange circumstances some 4 years ago). So now, a hapless random Guardian is walking around without his head, as some files, glue, bits and paint created a new exarch's helm for the pilot.

Anyways, it was painted up, some basic decals put on, spray varnished, dried, and went straight into battle vs some mon-keigh in blue armor. Happy to report that while I'm not entirely happy with the paint job, the aircraft did extremely well, with the exarch dancing in the skies and picking off mon-keigh at will.

Next up will be the final push to finish the AirCav.