January Motivational.

 

Until next time, have nice day...

Hobby Spending - January 2024.

 

The end of the first month of 2024 resets the counter for my hobby Spending, and allows me to keep track through the year again.

Wargaming is a constant pressure to spend money as in the meme above, as with Games Workshop's latest reveals from LVO, one of my purchases this month was very fitting.

Speaking of, let's get straight into it.

I picked up this 2004 Annual for £1 off eBay.

Slightly before my preferred 5th edition 40k (which was 2008 I believe), but it's a fun period and most of the stuff can be tweaked between editions without many problems*.

So in this book, referring to the reveals at LVO, is a full army list for Mercenary Kroot armies, as well as Feral Orks (lovely Idea and some of the newer AoS Brutes would work wonderfully.

I'm on the lookout for the older Chapter Approved and Annual books at reasonable prices now:

From the same seller for £1 was this practically pristine copy of the 5th Edition Eldar Codex.

I've never been too much of a fan of the space elves, but I figured it would be nice to complete the collection of 5th edition codices and replace a couple of mine (Tyranids, Chaos and Orks) which are showing their age and falling apart.

The fact that I need to add an Ulthwe force to the Eye of Terror project means that this book is actually useful:

Practical purchases next, and I picked up a spool of 80m of 1mm steel pinning wire in order to secure models together, along with a fresh batch of 10 1mm drill bits incase any break.

Pinning is a very useful technique, especially for heavier miniatures to make the glue joints more secure over the long term. This is very true in the case of the 3D printed Biovore/Exocrine I put together and will come in handy for when I get to the Warmachine Warjacks:

Finally, a purely selfish "because I want it" purchase was this copy of the old Celtos Rulebook by Ikore from 2002.

I remember looking at the Celtos minis and falling in love with the Celtic Stylings, but the proper sword and sorcery vibe given off.

Hefted weapons, Muscles galore, chainmail bikinis...proper Frank Frazetta stuff.

I believe the miniatures are now sold by Bridge Games UK, but I may dip my toe into 3D printing some stuff which fits the theming of the setting if incan find any suitable STLs in the future:

Number crunching time:

5th Edition Eldar Codex - £1.

2004 Games Workshop Annual - £1.

Pinning Wire & Drill bits - £8.

Celtos Rulebook - £5.

Total for January: £15.

Budget for January: £50.

Over/Under Yearly Budget: under budget by £35.

So starts the year, already quite a way under budget.

I'll keep my usual budget open for February, however I do have some Christmas monies I have been saving as we're visiting Element Games in the middle of the month, so may pick up a few more things then.

As always...

Until next time, have nice day...

*Hell the 3rd edition Ork and Dark Eldar codexes were that long lived they practically saw three editions each.

3rd until the very end of 4th for the Orks.

3rd until halfway through 5th for the Dark Eldar!

Infestation - part 8.

 

My local hobby supply shop closed down just at the very end of last year, it was mainly a fancy dress/costume shop, but they stocked quite a bit of Warhammer and Bolt Action stuff.

It was really convenient if I needed to restock on paints as it was a five minute walk to the store.

During the last couple of weeks, the store owner offered fifteen percent off of everything, in order to sell stock off.

Understandably a lot of the Wargaming stock disappeared very quickly, but I managed to grab this Neurolictor from there before it too disappeared:

It's a lovely, if fiddly kit to put together, constantly curving back over itself:

As now standard Tyranid Hive Fleet and Urban basing scheme's used, with the addition of the bright blue "Brain" area's for contrast.

I'm going to use this as a "Deathleaper" which is the character Lictor in the 5th edition codex for now, however as I do want a modern Deathleaper model, i may have to talk to Cardboard Fortress about us writing a few homebrew rules to retrofit the Psychic-Neurolictor into long forgotten 5th edition 40k.

Just as in my previous post, here's a scale photo with Lieutenant Albo:

And because this model is completed, here are the Brushrage painting stats from my ap:

One Hour and Eight Minutes isn't too bad for a character model of this sort, especially as I don't have to go too far in detailing it, as it's meant to blend in with the rest of the Hive Fleet, no purity seals or masses of medals to worry about here!

Lastly, not as small as a foot model, but not as big as the Biovore in the last post, I'm going to slot the Neurolictor into the "mounted model" category for the AHPC tracker, adding 10 further points to my total.

Hopefully I'll be able to add some "Hooves on the Ground" next and get some units finished.

Until next time, have nice day...

Infestation - part 7.

 

We're at the end of January, and sadly because of work, I haven't been able to get to where I wanted to with the ongoing Tyranid project.

I have gotten a few things finished, but with just over two weeks to the game (weather permitting, judging by the forecasts) I don't think I'll be able to add that slew of extra gribblies to the army which I wanted.

On with what I have gotten painted though, and one of the benefits of playing at Element Games, is the fact that I can take 3D printed stuff, a blessing really, as we start with fifteen 3D Printed Spore Mines:

Terrifying squid bombs, which explode when they detect life signs nearby, showering their victims in acid...truly awful.

More terrifying is the fact that the Hive Fleet can scatter these in the atmosphere from orbit and just have them drift down to the ground on their own accord!

A closer look at the three types I got in the STL files:

Before I mentioned that they can be dumped into the upper atmosphere from orbit and left to their own accord drifting away.

Below are my plans for these things, they're going to be launched from Living Artillery!

The first Biovore has been printed and completed*, this will give me some long range firepower, something I noted I was sorely lacking in our last game.this came from the same STL pack as the Spore Mines above and it's a nice solid chunky print:

I've used the same Tyranid and Basing scheme with the  urban bases coming in useful here, as the only real variation you can do on this model is the leg positions.

So the flat layers of cork I use to represent broken concrete really plays into my favour here allowing me to get a decent amount of surface area to glue to, the fact that they are pinned at every joint and the base is a bonus as well.

Finally, here is a scale shot against Lieutenant Albo of the Deathwatch: 

I find it useful having a scale comparison, especially as everyone knows what the size of a Space Marine should be.

Points wise for the AHPC counter, the Biovore is a big model, easilynas big as a vehicle, so adds 20 points, and the 15 Spore Mines count as "foot models" for 5 points each, a total of 75 points together.

This adds 95 points onto my total from these models.

More to come in the next post.

Until next time, have nice day...

*Alright, I know "technically" it's an Exocrine model, not a Biovore.

But Exocrines didn't have rules in 5th edition 40k, and myself and Cardboard Fortress are not at the adding homebrew rules into the game yet when we have perfectly good rules to work with.

No plan survives first contact with the enemy.

 

The quote by Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke seems very apt for this post.  

So I started on the massive Feudal Japanese project and was plotting a few things out by placing printed miniatures on the big bases I'd bought for the project.

I was going to add a couple more Yari wielding Sohei to the front of the base, and then have multiple of these bases lined up to make BIG units.

When a friend visited the other day, discussion inevitably turned to Wargaming and Games Workshop.

He pointed out that I could very easily make a Cities of Sigmar army using the Japanese troops I already have printed, and would only need three more character models to complete a force.

However, it would mean that they would have to be individually based, rather then multi-based like the photo above, and the original plan.

DAMMIT!

Just as I had everything planned out...

So how to go about the project now then?

Initially I thought about creating drop in "sabot" type bases and scenicing the ovals around the circular bases i would be using, but this wouldn't give enough room around the edge to be sufficiently strong enough to withstand gaming.

MAGNETS would be the answer it seemed:

5mm * 1mm Rare Earth Magnets to be precise, I had a bunch of these which I recycled from an old eBay purchase, so gave it a whirl.

Fifteen minutes later and I was left with this:

Not a bad start, eleven Sohei all mounted on bases and magnetised to be removable.

This makes them more versatile in the long run which I think is better, as I can use the models for:

• Pike and Shotte
• Age of Sigmar
• Dragon Rampant
• Test of Honour
• And many more.

Then plan moving forward is to do this to every model in both armies, so I've ordered 250 magnets and another 40 bases from eBay, and that won't get me half way through everything I've gotten printed so far, but it's a start.

The added advantage of magnetising them to their base is that they are now more secure for transport when on the multibase:

So I'll crack on and get this base of Sohei finished, in-between various Tyranids, but I also have this printed off for the fantasy Japanese force:

A Japanese Water Dragon which I am looking forward to painting, but forcing myself to leave alone until I've gotten at least the bulk of the force done, kind of like a reward deal, same with a lot of the more fantasy elements as Kyoushuneko do a set of Armoured Sumo warriors which I really want.

Infestation - part 6.

Here we go then, my first completed model of 2024, I would have posted sooner, however work has been a pain for the start of the year, so I've only just managed to get a good block of hobby time to paint with.

To start with, let's have a introduction;

    This is the 'Doom of Malan'tai' a Zoanthrope special Character from 5th edition 40k.

It's basically a super Zoanthrope and Vampire mixed into one and really fun.

The creature never got an official model from Games Workshop*, so my model is a 3D printed one which I found on  Cults3D (or the 'Purple Site' as its known).

A good quality print, some cork, skulls and detonator wire and I was ready to get started;

It's tiny arms hadn't printed well, so I dived into my bits box and discovered a pair of scything talon arms, so they were quickly repurposed here, and I chopped up a set of flesh hooks and added them to the bottom-most stumps which again, didn't print correctly, not exactly arms, but it does the job**.

So, on with the painting and I followed the usual Tyranid scheme, and even tried following a tutorial for painting marble on the column which the creature is wrapped around:

I hadn't noticed until I flipped open my 5th edition Tyranid codex, but the 3D sculptor had really captured the old artwork of the beast:

I had originally thought that those "ribs" which enclose the BIG BRAIN of the bug were just their interpretation and to make it different from a regular GW Zoanthrope, but it turns out they were part of the image used, so I was happy to discover that.

Here is the model with an Imperial Preacher for scale, the Doom is mounted on a 70mm base and the Preacher on a 32mm base:

One thing I started to do was to keep track of how long it took me to paint, and thanks to Cardboard Fortress's recommendation, I started using an Ap on my phone called Brushrage.

This tracks how long you spend painting, gives you a daily reminder to paint, and allows you to add a pallete of paints to a project, so you can save time and just grab those ones when starting the painting session.

Here is the stats for Doom of Malantai:

2:44 hours in total, that doesn't include drying time between stages, I paint other things in-between. I don't think that's too bad for a big beastie like this and as we're gearing up for another Guard Vs Tyranids game in February, I should be able to add a swathe of units to the force in time***.

So this is now crossed off of my "To-Do" list, i can add some points to my AHPC counter.

As this is quite a large model and about the size of a Space Marine Dreadnaught in mass, I'm going to count it as a 28mm Vehicle for points and claim 20 points towards my total of 300.

Until next time, have nice day...

*a not uncommon feature back in the days before the chapter house saga way back when. This was a time when the rules writers could make something cool and not worry about the miniature being produced. Some would go on to later have miniatures, such as Thunderwolf Cavalry, a lot, especially character just wouldn't and you'd be expected to convert the character...fun times.

**I think this is one of the limitations of 3D printing in general, and why it won't actually replace plastic kits from the big sellers.

Whilst you can get some really crisp prints, most printers are nowhere near the detailed quality of plastic, unless you go in an change each setting, etc.

As a home printer, I don't think most people would do that, as we live in the age of "plug and play" mentality, and it should just work out of the box.

***Provided work doesn't get in the way like the previous two weeks!

Prioritising Painting Projects - 2024.

 

After taking part in the Great Wargaming Survey 2023 I looked around on the Wargames, Soldiers and Strategy page and came across this 

Article on the W,S&S blog.

It's an interesting premise and something which I liked the look of to organise projects going forward to keep on track for getting shit done.

Whilst the author of the article waxed on about Microsoft Excel, my own, rather low-tech* handwritten version is pictured below:

Instead of working on the original author's premise, I worked up my own.

Every project automatically starts with a "1" in each column as a control score.

Then for the Urgency column:

• Add 1 if the project is a core unit type, integral to the army composition.
• Add 1 if the project is needed for an upcoming event/game.

This gives a score of 1, 2 or 3.

For the Complexity column:

• Add 1 if the paint scheme is complex or time consuming (camo/weathering/etc).
• Add 1 if the basing scheme is awkward (urban ruins, jungle, etc).
• Add 1 if I need to purchase AND/OR build the unit in question.

This gives a score range of 1, 2, 3 or 4.

Then I multiplied the values together, giving a range from 1 (the lowest) up to 12 (the highest), which gives the projects priority on the paint queue.

As you can see, this has led to a slew of Tyranids clogging up the highest priority section of the table...this may have something to do with the fact that we've arranged another gaming day at Element Games, Stockport soon.

So I've got an appointment with a lot of extragalactic bugs, so...

Until next time, have nice day...

*The Mrs says I have reached "Grumpy Old Man" stage with technology, as I was arguing with Microsoft Publisher because the menus change just by clicking a different area of the page and not on the menu buttons at the top.

I know we're in the 21st century, but having no need to use computers day to day, I guess I'm moving backwards in time back to the 20th century instead!