Hobby Spending - November 2023.

 

Well, it's the final day of November, and with one more month to go 2023 will draw to a close.

This month has been a bit of a less mixed bag and definitely less spent then I thought on the hobby, maybe with the looking threat of Christmas I figured I'd better spend my money elsewhere...

I did pick up a few bargains, mainly in the Warmachine theme as these were as usual "too good to pass up"!

First up is this five model unit of Cryxian Bane Knights.

I'd seen the various 'Bane' miniatures before, but never the knights offered up for sale, maybe being a powerful (and eye watering £85+ unit) made people want to hold onto them.

But for the princely sum of just £9 I grabbed these when I saw them.

A dip in some stripper soon and I'll be ready to repaint:

From the same seller came the Epic Warcaster, Asphixious the Hellbringer and his upgraded Skarlock Thrall, Voiciferon.

This is the third incarnation of 'Gaspy' and I've never seen this pair of models up for grabs,.for.£5 I added them to the above order:

One of the biggest bargains of the month is this unit of the Mercenaries of Croe's Cutthroat's.

This is a unit which has been available since the rulebook Escalation, which was the first expansion book after Warmachine Prime (the first edition).

They've been a mainstay of the setting since, murdering their way from one end of the Iron Kingdoms to the other all for the promise of coin.

With no-one else showing any interest I low-balled the bid, and won them for £1:

With the above Croe's Cutthroat's, I also received this metal Cygnar Ironclad in the box which I later found out that the seller had thrown in the box because no-one was interested.

I plan of converting the hammer to one of the big swords which the Mercenary Warjacks wield and attaching it to their company as an older model which they've kept going:

A newer model Warjack is definitely this 'Character Warjack' model of Ol' Rowdy.

This is a newer model Ironclad which has developed something of a slight personality and is very aggressive for a Cygnaran Warjack.

Again this model will be stripped and repainted:

The last purchase this month was this rulebook which I punted on for £1.

I've always loved Greek Mythology so this was of interest straight away.

Added to the fact that it includes a full skirmish system and campaign system from the get go, I figured I'd take a look.

I am considering finding some STLs to 3D print some suitable models for this in the new year:

So the totals are as follows:

Cryx Bane Riders - £9.

Cryx Asphixious - £5.

Croe's Cutthroat's - £1.

Cygnar Ironclad - £0.

Cygnar Ol' Rowdy - £4.

Typhon Rulebook - £1.

Total for November: £.20

Budget for November: £50.

Over/Under Yearly Budget: under budget by £110.19

Well under budget for the year, I am thinking of investing in some MDF terrain, just a pain figuring out which ones I want to purchase as there is so much good stuff out there.

I am planning on looking at the Warmachine project next year, getting things paint stripped and starting to think about colour schemes which aren't the usual primary colours which Privateer Press started with.

Until next time, have nice day...

November Motivational.

 

Until next time, have nice day...

Infestation - part 5.

 

Hello, bit of a slim month but I pulled a small selection of Tyranids from the box and got them painted up, just to keep some momentum really*.

Another reason is that I want to try to clear some of the bigger 40k projects off of my desk as I would like to return to Test of Honour and try some new games next year I think.

These five Termagants are eBay rescues, and all armed with Devourer's, rather then the more usual Fleshborer, some of the eBay rescues are even modelled with Spinefists! 

I have enough (just) to make a ten Termagant squad, and then maybe thirty more Termagants to get painted yet.

These were done up in the same scheme as the previous force which I was painting furiously to face Cardboard Fortress's Guard army, I'm really happy that I managed to get them to match so closely together, in spite of not having done any Tyranids for nearly two months now.

This photo shows the difference between the older previous edition Termagant models and the newer ones released with the big Leviathan box.

As far as I can tell, the newer ones are a little sleeker, have mini spore chimneys and more angular, ridged head chitin.

I've made sure to mount the older models on 28.5mm bases like the Leviathan models so they all match, and I'm happy with how they fit together really well, no noticeable size changes or asthetic changes like other ranges have suffered.

It's only five models for the month, but a small win is still a win**.

Until next time, have nice day...

*With the Mrs being ill recently and having to switch focus between her, work and my son, I've been a bit strapped for hobby time and in a bit of a low mood this month if I'm being honest. Not being able to relax and get stuff painted, or suffering from "project paralysis" for quite a bit of the month hasn't helped anything.

**And this is why the blog is important, keeping track of my "wins", it keeps me in a positive mood, and allows me to look back and say "I actually did something", a useful tool when I look at the pile of shame/potential.

Black Legion Commanders.

 

Lightning flashed in the dark clouds high above the embattled ruins of Kasr Krast. Static electric arced between anything metallic and the air was heavy with the threat of rain, a by product of an orbital assault due to dumping so many thousands of tonnes of equipment into a planet's atmosphere.

The flashes lit up a nightmare scene on the ground as they fully illuminated the chaos forces advanced, rather then just the flashes from muzzles of weapons.

Streaks of bright white lasfire flashed across the ruins as the dug in Cadians defended their homeworld desperately. Reinforcement tank squadron's were apparently on their way, but no sign of their arrival had been spotted yet.

The chaos Astartes stalked through the ruins and over the plaza towards the imperial line. Flashes from Boltgun muzzles strobing across their twisted armour.

Sergeant Sern barked out orders to his squad, "The Emperor is watching you, do your duty and hold the line!".

He was anxiously turning to reload when he heard an ominous hissing noise gradually rising in pitch, and the air became heated as the noise transformed into an angry roar.

Before he could shout a warning, trooper Kratz, head and shoulders above the parapet to fire his rifle, became a dried husk of a person as a blast from a melta-weapon evaporated all the moisture from his body, before disintegrating it into a cloud of ash flakes on the wind.

Sern angrily snatched at his bolt pistol where he had dropped it on the edge of the firing parapet.

A huge riveted boot crunched down on both weapon and wrist, shattering all the bones at once.

A black armoured figure leered down at the Cadian sergeant, fear suppressing the pain his body was feeling as the giant warrior growled a laugh through the vox emitters in its bionic face.

A slimy, horrid looking creature skipped and slithered its way around the warriors feet and with a start he realised that a cloak of sewn Hunan skin flowed in the air around the warrior.

At this point he finally cried out and lost control of his bowels looking up at a nightmare made manifest.

Having savoured the moment, the Chaos marine raised his bolter and fired on the stricken Sergeant, before turning the rest of the magazine on the other Cadians in the trench...

*****

After finishing off Dreadtober I decided to pick up a couple of models which I had nearly finished painting, just before I had to take some forced time off work due to being ill.

During that time I decided to paint up the Tyranid army, because they were new and shiny, but also I wanted to do something completely new and different to take my mind off of everything happening.

Cleaning my hobby desk about a week ago after Dreadtober, I came across two character models for the Black Legion I had been working on, and decided to get them finished off as they were about three-quarters done.

The first is Luthran, Aspiring Champion, Executioner and second in command of the warband:

The second is the Chaos lord himself, Gan Ashahl, The Eternal Claw:

I'm particularly happy with how Gan Ashahl turned out, being based off of a Huron Blackheart conversion I picked up second hand in March or April. I gave him a headswap for one from a Kataphron Destroyer, as well as a Chainsword from the Raptors kit. 

My favourite part of the kitbash though are the cloaks, which were made from chopped up Nighthaunt spares, to get the torn, flowing material look, which I then painted as flayed skin for a true early 2000s vibe to the models.

Both the leader models follow the same Black Legion scheme i was painting nearly a year ago now, with Corvus Black and Retributor Armour as the main colours and washed over entirely with Earthshade. I decided to mix things up a little and include a bit more red in areas on these models to vary up the colours. Something I may go back to do to the already painted members of the warband (maybe?).

The entire Warband as they stand at the moment. I am working on a few Marines to fill out the two units I started and have a couple of Terminators waiting to be built to fill out that unit, there are also a couple of Defiler's, hidden away in the cupboard of opportunity, but I have a slightly different plan for them...something involving Iron within and without...

This is just a quick victory getting the two characters finished off and cleared off the painting desk.

Until next time, have nice day...