40k - Ventrillian Nobles Recon

IMPERIAL GUARD SENTINELS...what awesome models in my opinion, apart from the legs which are a bitch to build...

Anyway, a new model has been added to my slow build guard army, and the Sentinel I completed before has had a little bit of a repaint.

My two armoured sentinels in all their glory here, happy with them, and how well they match up with each other paint wise considering they have been painted nearly 6 months apart...

The slight repaint:

 

Before the front panel and the left hand panel on the cab were GOLD, but I decided to make Black the Recon Section colour, and changed those panels accordingly. still completely useless as recon due to the rest of the bling, but this is 40k we are talking about...

 Section Leader Cavendish:

"The cultist's are charging again Sergeant" the vox rang out, "Well bloody well hold them back, we are Ventrillian's, we don't give ground to rabble like this!".

Section Leader Cavendish listened intently to the vox conversation over the rattling of his armoured sentinel as it strode at full pace towards the beleaguered infantry.

"Open fire as soon as you have targets" he voxed to his own squadron, a chorus of "Aye Leader" was the reply from his men.

Auto loaders chattering, the Sentinels opened fire with their Autocannons into the swarming press of heretics as they came into view along the road ahead of them, the Ventrillian infantry cheering even as they fought off the mass of bodies hurling themselves at the barricade.

Raking the hard pan with his cannon, Cavendish spotted a taller man clad in a ragged stormcoat shoving and barging his way through the press of bodies towards the new threat.

"BY THE DARK GODS, I WILL END YOU!" the man screamed, pointing a chainsword towards his machine.

"A duel! how very delightful, chap in the dark coat is mine" Cavendish voxed to his troop and wrenched the hatch above him open, clambering upwards out of his sentinel with a Cheshire cat grin beneath his beard.

 

This entire army was inspired by Warhammer TV's Chris Peach, who made the Ventrillians first for the 6th edition Apocalypse book, He has also had a Sentinel which had a crewman appearing out of the top, which I just had to copy as it is an awesome idea.
A baneblade commander is the main body of Section Leader Cavendish, Pistolier head and then Cadian arms as usual.

A close up of Cavendish.

This model was converted up and painted in less then a week, as our local Games Workshop are having a competition in-store this month, "Best Paint Vehicle/Monster Which Cannot Fly".

Here's my entry, hoping I do well as I am pleased with it to say I only had a week and a bit to get it done.


  Until next time...

 - Lewis

40k - Forge World Metalica army

So, with the Tech-Priest completed, I decided to drag everything which was finished so far out and grab some photos of it all together, probably my only chance to as I am visiting my friend over the weekend and giving him the finished stuff back, there are still some bits to go so I'll still have the cybernetic warriors to work on for a while, but this is the main bulk done:

Looks impressive all together so far. Here are a few close up photos:

Tech-Priest Dominus:

Skitarii Vanguard Squad:

Skitarii Rangers Squad:

Sicaran Infiltrators Squad:

 Sisters of Silence Vigilators Squad:

Knight Crusader Chemosh:

And a Combat Roster list:

One thing which got me thinking during this project is how much this stuff costs and would cost if the worst were to occur.
My friend over at A Cardboard Fortress linked me into this website: https://collectioncalculator.com/
After you make an account, you can plug into it's database all sorts of stuff about your various collections and it will give you a price for how much they are worth, they even link through to specialist insurers who cover "unique" collections such as our hobby throws up over time, with about fifteen minutes of work, I had this lot plugged into the database and the result is eye opening to say the least:

I don't think we really pay much attention to the value of what we are often taking in a case and throwing around the tables.
I am quite worried to find out what the total value of ALL my collection is worth as I finish things off, (you can put unfinished and unbuilt models in the database, but it's more fun to work towards finished stuff obviously).




So with that, until next time


 - Lewis

40k - Forge World Metalica, Tech-Priest Dominus

Tonight, the Tech-Priest which leads the Ad-Mech army was completed.

 He uses an inverted scheme to the rest of the army, not only because I thought it would look good once all the forces were arrayed together, but also to properly mark him out as a priest of the Machine God.

Unfortunately, when my friend gave me the model to finish for him, he was missing his secondary weapon arms, so I had to do a bit of converting.
A pistol came from the Sicaran Infiltrator sprues and the Plasma Caliver is a cut down Space Marine Plasmagun.

I even took the time when painting to make sure to pick out the main Adeptus Mechanicus symbols on him in the halved black and white scheme from ages past artwork.

Overall, I am very happy with how this model has turned out.

 Until next time

 - Lewis

40k - Chaos Cultists

Also alongside those Bloodwarriors, mentioned in my previous post, I painted these five Dark Vengeance Cultist's up, I call them "The Red Hood Cult".

These were more of a speed paint project and a way to paint something else to keep momentum up.

Quick and dirty colour scheme to get them done quickly, but generic enough to fir with my friend's Black Legion forces or some possible Chaos Warband in the future maybe?

Until next time...

 - Lewis

Fantasy - Khorne Warriors

So, after the Stormhawks the other day, I took a break from the Stormcast to finish off this motley crew which has been sitting half painted on my hobby desk for the better part of a year now...I think, it's been that long.

Obviously with the re-newed interest and vigour for painting fantasy stuff, they got boosted to the top of the painting queue.

I present the first half of the "Skulltaker Tribe", a unit of 10 Bloodwarriors for the Chaos army.

Rather then the normal (and rather LOUD) all over red and brass colour scheme, I went for the dirty gunmetal armour look with the brass banding and a bit of red to add the Khornate flavour, not only are they less offensive to the eye then some of the colour schemes I have seen used, they will also fit my greater Chaos horde as stuff begins to get finished for that!

Until next time...

 - Lewis

Fantasy - Stormcast Eternals

I make no secret of the fact that I like the Stormcast Eternals range, they are great models which have some good presence on the field, I picture them being more of an avenging army rather then the whole garrison forces which GW have been doing recently with the newer fiction and the Malign Portents fiction pieces.

Anyway, I have completed this Aetherwings unit, which I am very pleased with.
They are a very nice kit to build and paint, even if they come as part of the Vanguard Crossbow Stormcast (the unit name escapes me).
I have named this unit as "The Stormhawks" on my unit roster (every unit has to have a name otherwise it's just a group of plastic models imo).

Also there is a Knight Vexillor for my Stormcast Eternals.

I have never been a fan of the GOLD official colour scheme put out by GW, so went for a silver look, along with a knightly heraldry type scheme for the spot colours to draw the eye.
Colours were chosen to relate more towards the storm end of things rather then stars/comets as my SCE are the Storm God's army in our setting.

I have his backpack to paint up and then he'll be finished.

Again I am very happy with how he is turning out so far, one of my friends suggested that he might be too much of one shade of silver, so I may try to get hold of a much lighter shade of silver to paint his trim in, but we'll see how it looks when I get the Retributors completed in this scheme.

Until next time...

 - Lewis

Fantasy - Models completed

This post is just a general look at some of the other models I have completed since the start of this year.

Some of my favourite models which GW has ever put out have been the Fyreslayers range and I have had a box of 10 Berzerkers sitting round since about a month after they were released. I finally found a scheme which I liked and went ahead and got these first 5 models finished.

Also on the agenda were some more Beastmen, bringing my unit up to 20 strong, this is a good thing in AoS where they gain some benefits, however, with my home brew rules it doesn't really matter, so they'll either be run as a unit of 20 or as two units of 10 each.

(Apologies for the flash washing the picture out, I'll get a better photo of them at some point).

Until next time...

 - Lewis

Terrain - Rough Ground

Finally, a finished project...

It may be a piece of terrain, but still, that's a major milestone for any hobbyist, and it keeps motivation up too.

This was just a quick piece to test how the terrain would look when finished together, just a simple rocky/rough ground piece made up of an MDF base, some rocks from the beach, a smashed slate from next doors shed roof, some interior filler and the usual basing materials and paints.

I am very pleased with how this ended up, just like the Ventrillians in the last post with the tree, I placed a few of my fantasy models on it, to see how it looked, and because I could.

Some of my converted Daneaxe Greatswords defend themselves against marauding Beastmen and Hounds.

I am looking forwards to getting this on the table ad seeing whether the enemy will run through the area terrain, thus loosing speed, but gaining defence against ranged attacks, or whether they will flow around it to keep charge speed up, we'll find out.

Until next time...

 -Lewis

Terrain - Woodlands

As mentioned before (and I really need to get round to doing something about) I am a fan of Warlord Games Test of Honour game.

Following the official Test of Honour group on Facebook, there was a post about making good looking, cheap woodlands for the game using ornamental bonsai trees, the kind of cheap plastic ones you get in offices in places.

So, a quick search on eBay found some which were duly purchased and then the month of waiting for them to turn up happened.

When they did however, my MDF bases were dug out of the hole they had disappeared into and work began.

 All laid out to show how much coverage you get from two of the trees, and with the different 40mm and 60mm bases removed so that troops can pass through the area terrain.

The first completed tree, with a couple of Ventrillians for scale and base comparison purposes. The bases on the troops are a little darker, because I skipped the wash step I normally use on the terrain...i'd go through gallons of the stuff, and GW paints 'aint cheap!*

I still have these to finish, but this is a project which is getting there.

Until next time...

 - Lewis

Fantasy - Spring Bank Holiday Battle

So, there we were, it was Spring Bank Holiday, we'd been out and about most of the day, come home to relax, my youngster had run out of "tech-time" and didn't know what to do...

He was looking in my display cabinet, turned and asked "Daddy, can we play a game of Warhammer?"

"Sure, give me five minutes to get set up".

Here we go...
We played using the One Page Fantasy rules, these are extremely easy to pick up and by the end of turn two he was telling me what he was rolling and what order things happen in a turn.
We played 500 points (roughly, I think I miscalculated with the Order side) a piece as a quick game.
Bloodbound vs a mixed Stormcast and Wood Elf force.

The face of the enemy, calming his noise familiar before battle!

Also the forces are deployed for battle.

He chose the Bloodbound force of:
Valkia the Bloody (Lord of Blood)
Bloodsecrator
10 Warriors
20 Reavers
3 Skullreapers
5 Chaos Hounds.

My own force was:
Naeve Blacktalon (Lord Celestant)
6 Liberators
Spellsinger (Druid)
10 Eternal Guard
10 Gladeguard, split into 2 units of 5

Movement at the end of turn 1

Lots of rushing towards the hill, where most of the battle would take place.

4 Bloodreavers were cut down by the Glade Guard on the left flank.

The Liberators and the Skullreapers tore into each other and didn't really hurt anything (1 wound got knocked off a Skullreaper) so they backed off from each other ready to attack again next turn.

The face of concentration, I wonder if Wellington ever looked like this?

Battle is joined in earnest on turn 2.

Naeve Blacktalon forces her way through the ranks of the Bloodreavers and over the bodies of the Eterna Guard which were just cut down, to engage Valkia the Bloody in personal combat.

After a fitful moment sparing with each other, the Gryph-Hound made the difference and felled the Daemonic Consort of Khorne.

End of turn 2.

The Bloodreavers accounted for the Eternal Guard unit, loosing half their number in the process.

On the right flank, the Liberators and the Skullreapers once again tore into each other, this time however, the Liberators felled the Warriors of Khorne, loosing half their numbers to the whirling blades of the blood maddened daemonic warriors.

The highlight was in the centre with the showdown between Naeve Blacktalon and Valkia the Bloody.
Blacktalon coming out on top and winning the duel, surviving on one wound, before the Spellsinger helpfully healed her a little.

The Bloodsecrator, maddened by the loss of Valkia, charges through the retreating horde of Bloodreavers in order to avenge the consort of the Blood God.

Unleashing a hail of attacks before Blacktalon could retaliate, he felled the noble Stormcast hero, bellowing praise to the Blood God.

End of turn 3.

The Glade Guard on the left flank sot up the Bloodreavers at the beginning of the turn, causing them to retreat back up the hill.

The Bloodsecrator barged through them in order to cut down Naeve Blacktalon in a martial display of rage maddened fury.

The Bloodwarriors, inspired by the Bloodsecrator, charged down the hill and cut down the Spellsinger, who waited too long to retreat.

They were in turn charged by the remaining Liberators, who tried to avenge Blacktalon and the Spellsinger, unfortunately the blade of the Bloodwarriors accounted for them, after loosing a single warrior.

Over on the right flank, the Hounds and the second unit of Glade Guard engaged in close combat, each loosing troops.

This was where we decided to call the game, as it was:

a; obvious that the Bloodbound had won, and,
b; dinner was ready.

THE VICTORIOUS GENERAL!

 This was an extremely enjoyable afternoon with the youngster, the One Page Rules are a blessing, and I am now using my own home brewed version of them to play games with him and my niece occasionally.

This battle is why my hobby time has been focused upon terrain and fantasy a lot recently, not only do I need more and varied terrain pieces in order to make a decent battlefield, but I actually need to finish some model off to field decent forces to keep interest.

Coupled with the fact that I have begun working on my own fantasy setting for the battles to take place in (no offence GW, but AoS is kind of stale background wise in places), plenty to be getting on with.

Until next time...

 - Lewis

40k - Forge World Metalica, an update.

 

Some of you may remember that a while back I was working on a friend's Ad-Mech army, I still am...

Some more progress has been made, but with life commitments, and other hobby projects going on in the confusion of the past couple of months, things got sidetracked..

Here is the full army so far:

 

Since the Knight was last added, I have managed to finish off a 5 man Squad of Infiltrators and a 5 (Wo)man squad of Greatsword Sisters of Silence, pictures of the units are below.

Keeping in theme with his Urban Base Scheme for his Warhound, the army is growing, albeit slowly.

Until next time

 - Lewis