Workbench Wednesday

Another week, bit different this time as I have returned to work today:

So yeah, although, it's fairly quiet as yet and motivation to finish projects is still running high, along with thoughts about new projects with the announcements regarding 9^th edition 40k.

To start with this past few days I have finished another slew of models.

"Da Sergeant Major asked me what my job was an' I said it was to, uh, do what I was told. He said I was a genius and gave me another medal. I likes da Imperial Guard!"

— Nork Deddog, Ogryn Bodyguard

One of the White Dwarf bonus materials for Blackstone Fortress has been the addition of retinue characters. You play out a mission in order to recruit an extra character to your adventuring party, complete the mission objectives and they are “unlocked” to be used by a player (although you can still only have four characters in an expedition).
One of the articles revolved around a pair of Ogryn brothers, and as they come in a box of three models, we decided to build the last one as the eponymous Nork Deddog, legend in his lifetime as the smartest and most loyal Ogryn bodyguard ever to walk the 41^st millennium.
A fairly simple and speedy paint job, Straken Green fatigues, with Black Templar contrast and Liberator Gold armour, all washed with Earthshade for depth.

Another Skitarii, this time with one of the Arquebus rifles has been added to the Mechanicus pile.

And the final Bloodreaver, the one which broke off his base last week.

Same colours as the rest of the unit, I have made some progress on the other half of the unit, but they took a back seat to the next guy. One of the leaders for the Bloodbound force, this is an Exalted Deathbringer, an old metal model I got off eBay and have painted up in the style of the Bloodwarriors I finished a while ago.

He has an impressive collection of skulls dotted about his person (including an Orruk skull), but I find it amusing that he is about the only Khorne model I own who is wielding a shield.

As they are starting to tally up, I decided to get a photo of the entire force so far:

Exalted Deathbringer in the fore, a unit of eight Bloodreavers and two units of five Bloodwarriors form the core of the army so far.
I'm interested to know if anyone has any ideas of any good monsters I could add to this forces, as I do not like the Khorgorath model GW put out.

Finally, I have finished the six Warrior Monks which I started in April for the “30 minutes for 30 days” challenge, before the world went crazy and I failed the challenge.

All finished, based with the same jungle herb basing as the first one which I finished. For the banner, I chose a simple geometric design I pulled from a historical reference from the internet.

This is a photo of my “Current To-Do” box.

Lots of Khorne stuff in there, as well as a Dunecrawler, Leman Russ, Celestine and a Mechanicum robot, I forget the name of it.
Things will be pulled out of this box to be finished before I move on to other bits.

The new project ideas I've been kicking around revolve around campaigns actually.

With 9^th edition announced, GW also announced the “Crusade” campaign system, in which your army gains character through rolling results after games, they can gain archeotech weapons, veteran skills, battle scars and wounds, new units, etc.
Sounds good, and so far I am thinking it will be my main purchase from the newly released things, as I have the indexes and bits I need to play my armies with the 8^th edition rules for now. Maybe invest in the big 9^th edition box later on in the year.

The other one is a Dragon Rampant campaign along the style of the Total War computer games. I love those big world strategy games and am spit-balling rules ideas to translate this onto the tabletop. I'll post notes and ideas up here when I can get the written legibly for other people to understand.
One thing I am considering with this style of campaign though, is to set it up over an instant messaging program and let “outside” players do the whole empire management part, and then play out the battles solo (or with occasional help from visiting friends) as and when they happen, then have the army commander report back to the empire ruler with the results and let them take the next step accordingly.

Well, that about sums this week's hobby, thoughts and progress up.

Until next time...

- Lewis