Hobby Spending - May 2025.

Whilst it's been a drought hobby wise because of work, I have managed to do a little (updates incoming) and more importantly, I took the time to go out for the day and meet up with Dave and Fraser at Element Games for a gaming day.

I didn't bother to record the day as it was just a relaxing gaming meet up and I borrowed Fraser's Battle Sisters for the day and got thoroughly trounced thanks to a couple of lucky shots on the first turn.

As it usual whilst at Element though, hobby purchases were made...this time after a lot of thinking and planning in the week leading up to the visit, whilst strapping loads to wagons at work*.

Arbitor Ian gave me a Brain Itch with this series and the animated map in particular.

So much so, that I have decided to get a few bits and do a small Badab War project.

To this end, all the purchases were planned out, I'm going to use converted Primaris scaled marines (either Primaris, Kromlech Tortuga Bay or 3D printed) to make them all true scale, and whilst there will be a few vehicles, the majority will be infantry and dreadnoughts because the Badab War features a lot of boarding actions and void warfare.

So Space Marines get to be actual Marines!

The Lieutenant model, for example, will be used as a basis to make Executioners High Chaplain Thulsa Kane, it's a great starting point, with some converting and kitbashing I'll have a great unique model to lead one of my favourite chapters of marines in the war.

The Kromlech purchases, likewise, the Salamanders bodies, king of obvious as the chapter was involved, but I'm going to use them for HQs and unit leaders as they have lots of detail on them, so they'll stand out in the force.

The Heavy Shields will make great Breacher style shields, something useful for the close confined firefights of ship to ship combat.

And the modelling chain, a: because it was there and b: it was cheaper then I can get on eBay!

The numbers;

Purchases:

Space Marines Lieutenant: £20.39.

2* Kromlech Heavy Shields: £16.20.

Kromlech Salamander Marine bodies: £15.29.

Kromlech modelling chain: £3.15.

Total for May: £55.03

Budget for May: £50

Over/Under Yearly Budget: under budget by £90.97.

So there you have it for another month, work is still crazy as customers are blocking back to British Steel since the UK Government took over, this translates for us as a LOT more trains running and so we're busier then ever.

Hobby is being taken as and when, but things have slowed massively on this front.

Look out for some hobby updates over the next few days though as I have some finished stuff to post up, and also news about an old Hobby Community we are trying to rekindle again.

Until next time, have nice day...

*Strapping the loads to the wagons is mind numbing and you don't really have to think as it's the same thing over and over again, sometimes up to fifty times in a shift depending on the length of the train.

Hobby Spending - April 2025.

 

April has once again been a very busy month, with Easter, school and family holidays away and therefore not much time for hobby overall.

Whilst away though, out with the Mrs at a carboot* sale (as she likes trying to find interesting things people are selling off or seeing if she can complete some of her book collections), I found a bargain and a half.

The guy was selling the Kill team Hivestorm miniatures, dossier and counters (no terrain).

The models are already built and I have some cleaning up to do on them, but they're fairly decent.

Whilst looking over his stall and picking up the Hivestorm box he had, he pulled out the 10th edition Leviathan rulebook and all three crusade books which have currently been released** and offered to throw them in with the above models.

A little haggling and I walked away with the lot for £70!

Bargain of the year!

Purchases:

Car boot finds: £70.

Total for April: £70.

Budget for April: £50.

Over/Under Yearly Budget: under budget by £96.

So I'm still nearly £100 under my yearly budget so far, which is good going.

I just need to find the time to hobby!

Until next time, have nice day...

*For anyone not in the UK, a carboot sale is equivalent to a yard/garage sale, but done out of cars as everyone goes to a field which has been hired for the event.

**Crusade: Armageddon has been announced but not released yet as of time of writing.

The Lizardmen of Tlaxlan - part 1.

The Crimson Cohort, so named for their shields that were crafted from the hide of a rampaging feral Stegodon which threatened the sacred spawning pools of the Temple City of Tlaxlan.

They have fought together since they spawned from the pools and basked in the warmth of the sunlight for the first time. 

The units leader Ar'Trax leads with the authority of one born to it, only deferring to Tlaxloq, the Star Legion's Sunblood, as the albino marked warrior has taken to joining them in battle more frequently of recent years.

Tlaxloq, Sunblood of the Star Legion is the premier defender of the temple city of Tlaxlan, commander of the Saurus legions, death to the hated Skaven. Any raiding forces which try to steal artefacts from the sacred halls find themselves hunted without mercy through the jungle as Tlaxloq organises the forces to recover any artefacts which have been stolen.

+++++

My first ever army were the Lizardmen, way back in Warhammer Fantasy 5th edition, yes I was a "Dinosaur Kid" and so the dinosaur people were the natural first start way back when.

Equally, I bought an entire Lizardman Army second hand for my birthday in 2022 and haven't done anything with it as yet.

That all changes now though...

We begin with a unit of 14 Saurus Warriors finished for the end of March, they've been sat part painted throughout the entire month and I've nibbled away at painting them for half hour here and there as I got the spare time.

Glad that they are finished, I have a second unit of spear armed Saurus to paint, and have already started on the leader who will join them.

I decided to go for a more natural grey/blue-green colour scheme with them to be. Little more subtle and contrast nicely with the gold and stone detailing.

Tlaxloq is the Sunblood* of the army, in Old World terms he is simply a Scar-Veteran with the Burning Blade, he comes from the Warhammer Underworlds "Jaws of Itzl" box which was a must have, and I received for Christmas last year.

Originally he was going to be for a game of The Old World which was cancelled due to a hospital appointment, the problems of being an adult.

He was very fun to paint, especially in the Albino scheme I chose and the other three models from the Jaws of Itzl box are currently on the painting table, whilst the rest of the army is being built

"But how can you play The Old World? They're mount d on round bases!".

Well yes, this is true, but you see there are things called 'movement trays' and you.can line your models up and move them as one entire block!

Sarcasm over...

Yes, I intend to purchase some movement trays to allow me to field this army in The Old World**, I can also field them in Midgard, Dragon Rampant, One Page Rules and a host of mother rulesets which require round bases...

Sounds like a win all round to me!

Onto the challenge points, OPC up first:

160 points added to my OPC total.

470/6,000.

The Hobby Bingo card now looks like this and adds a other 10 points to that total:

Overall it's been a rather slow start to the year, hopefully things will begin to settle down into the usual rhythm at work and I can get some decent hobby done over the next few months.

Until next time, have nice day...

*Sunblood is a term which used to be given to a Saurus character, back in old Warhammer fantasy. With GW not updating the Legacy Factions, we're stuck with the generic Old blood and Scar-Veteran stats for the Saurus leaders.

**Even though they will stay with legacy army rules and never likely to be updated in anyway...

Hobby Spending - March 2025.

 

I know, I'm running late and haven't posted anything through the month of March and we're already six days into the month of April.

It's been a busy old month going back, and April doesn't seem like slowing down.

So what was the purchase book looking like for March?

Honestly, a can of spray paint and a couple of paints/hobby items, that's it.

I picked up a pot of Berserker Bloodshade to follow along with a World Eaters paint guide as Fraser gave me some World Eaters due to him downsizing:

Whilst visiting him and at Element Games, I also picked up another pot of the Sand basing diorama paste:

And lastly I needed a can of grey primer to carry on painting stuff (if/when I get the chance recently):

Purchases:

Pot of Berserker Bloodshade: £4.

Pot of Diorama Paste: £8.

Can of Primer: £6.

Total for March: £18.

Budget for March: £50.

Over/Under Yearly Budget: under budget by £116.

Well under budget this year so far, simply because I haven't really had time to enjoy the hobby yet.

I've managed to get a few bits done, which needs posting soon, but other then that it's been busy at work and lots of overtime to cover. Couple that with things like birthdays and house/garden/car maintenance at the start of the year and I've quickly ran out of time...the perks of being an adult eh?

I've got a few posts incoming, but more when they're posted.

Until next time, have nice day...

Old Stuff Day 2025.

 

Old Stuff Day 2025 has rolled around, and it's that time of the year to take a look at some older blog posts, ones your proud of, but may have been relegated to the dusty archive feature on the blog page.

My own contribution is:

Chaos Warhound Titan

I am really really proud of the fluff which I wrote here, a real high peak of writing for myself and something I hope to recreate.

From Xarfai Engle:

High Elves

The colours on those High Elves and Juvenile Dragons are sublime. The colours chosen really complement each other on the models.

From Rob Hawkins:

Undead Old World Army

Rob Hawkins projects are always inspirational, his Bat/Vampire Lord conversions are fantastic.

This is a showcase of his undead army, laid out in regiment form for The Old World, a game I'm getting into recently.

From Marc:

Iron Snake Contemptor

Marc, at Old School Gaming has a lot of great projects over the many, many years of blogging. This Iron Snakes Dreadnaught jumped out at me for several reasons.

The paint job and iconography are on point, I do like some ancient greek flavour to different settings and Brothers of the Snake is one of my favourite Black Library books ever, Dan Abnett really hit the nail hard with that book.

I hope you've seen something inspiring and enjoyable to read, with another Old Stuff Day finished, I'm hitting the paint table.

Until next time, have nice day...

Death Korps Riders 1st Squad.

 

"Recon the top of the next ridge and then swing South-West to complete our patrol" the Sergeant said and kicked his mount into action as the other members of his squad raised their lances in salute and followed.

The Death Riders rode their mounts through the rocky terrain up the ridge, the beasts clawed hooves finding purchase in even the worst conditions and loose scree.

In a loose line the five riders crested the ridge and came to a halt, looking over at the vista before them.

The Van Meersland wastes stretched in every direction they could see, and more importantly the defence lines of the Vraksian renegades were laid out in great detail as they observed.

Great diagonal zig-zag trenchlines spread in either direction, communication trenches and gun pits moving away from the front, but the skyward pointing barrels of the artillery pieces were clearly visible, silhouetted against the sky.

The Sergeant pulled a picter from his backpack and began taking picts for high command and army intelligence to look at.once he was finished, his men looked to him to set the pace as they began the long March South-West and back towards friendly territory.

*****

The next models of the 261st Siege Regiment have been completed and these are a mounted section and accompanying Commissar.

These models are 3D prints of STLs from the creator RedMakers on MyMiniFactory. I was taken by the more dynamic poses of the models as opposed to the more static poses of the Forge World models which used to be available.

These men follow the previously described paint scheme of the Grenadier's, as this is the uniform of my chosen regiment, and I must say I am more then happy with how they have turned out.

The Sergeant and a Lancer:

I wanted these to reflect a little differently then the standard line troops, so the white stripe down their shoulders was added as a flash detail, the red pennant was just a "what colour can I pick up without looking" choice.

Another Lancer and the Flamethrower:

In the normal rules for the Death Riders, they are not allowed to have a special weapon (Meltagun/Plasmagun/Flamer) but after seeing the STLs I decided to play loose and fast with them in order of Rule of Cool!

These are the first unit for a squadron of Death Riders, I have three five man squads printed and a five man command squad, I just need a fourth squad to complete the squadron in the future.

The Mounted Commissar:

This was the model which started this section of the army, as RedMakers were offering him as a free STL, very heroic posed model that he is.

The red scabbard on the sword was to tie in with the riders, the rest of him was painted as the other Commissars from the previous post.

His mount, like all the other Death Riders, is simply Reikland Fleshshade straight over a light grey undercoat.

I use a cheap grey primer I picked up from The Range, but Citadel Grey Seer would work just as well as a base for this.

The bases were finished in the way previously described, with sand, sawdust and AK diorama paste mixed together and then some modelling barbed wire added.

I am only claiming a Rank and File box on my Hobby Bingo card for this post, as I have better character models I want to paint, so I am keeping the boxes available for them in the future.

With that in mind, it fills one box for 10 points and setting myself up for a line with the Elites box later on,:

For the OPC, there are six riders and six mounts, and at ten points each, gives my score a boost by 120 points!

This leaves me with 330 out of 6,000 points completed.

Until next time, have nice day...

Death Korps Grenadiers 1st Squad.

 

Morning rose on Vraks, the sunlight hazy through the dust kicked up by the artillery duels continuing day after day.

In the dull morning light, the Grenadiers of the 261st Siege Regiment finished their prayers and gathered their gear.

Weapons were slung over shoulders, ammunition packs counted and stocked up, along with any grenades needed. Metal rattled against metal as the armour plates they wore were checked for damage and securely fitted.

They moved along the trench towards their jumping off point from the orders circulated from higher command.

Other platoons of the regiment gave them salutes or nods as they passed, for these were the Grenadiers, the ones who had already made their peace with the Emperor and we're essentially 'Dead Men Walking'.

Ladders were finally pulled into place and each man took his assigned position. Ready to climb out of the security of their trench and charge across No-Mans Land, to glorious death, in service of the God-Emperor of mankind.

*****

With some time for hobby, I made a good start on my Krieg force. The models are 3D printed and whilst not direct scans of the out of production Forge World grenadiers, are close enough for my liking that I am comfortable printing a force of them all together.

I decided to start with a Grenadiers squad including a Heavy Flamer team (always loved the FW model, so when I found the STL it was a must have), and a couple of Commissar models I found at the same time.

My choice of regiment is the 261st Siege Regiment, because I preferred their old colour scheme in the Imperial Armour books:

I really liked these with the more British looking Khaki overcoats, as opposed to the more French Blue scheme I've been painting for Fraser.

I also liked the contrast of the dark grey body armour over the lighter khaki greatcoats.

So the full Grenadiers Squad look like this:

I took extra time on the bases, covering them with a mixture of AK Desert sand paste and sand with some sawdust thrown in as well, then as it was drying I added more sand on top and some coiled model barbed wire to add details.

Eventually I want to get some AK wet effect, and add some puddles into some of the dips on the bases for puddles and mud.

The squad sergeant and special weapons:

For a bit of a spot colour, I painted the power cables of the weapons in yellow and washed them with Earthshade to make it a dirty, weathered look, but still bright enough to draw the eye to details.

The Grenadiers with their Hellguns:

These will be the meat of the army, as they are the mainstay of the units.

To get the weathered effect on the armour, I started with a Basillcanum Grey base layer and washed with Earthshade. I then layered up the grey with Mechanicus Standard Grey leaving the darker patches as either dirt or camo as you choose to look at it.

Next I pulled a couple of Commissar STLs and printed those, here are the results:

The Commissar with the chest plate and the bolt pistol held out will join the higher command squad for the company, whilst the second man with the sword and the "Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer" held behind his back will join the platoon command squad keeping the men moving forward. 

As a size comparison, I wanted my 3D printed models to be scaled to match the proper GW models (in this case a FW one).

I wanted to scale them to match, as that way I can add my forces to Fraser's for a future big game if we choose to do one at Element Games.

Turning to the points for Hobby Bingo and the OPC this year.

Hobby Bingo, these models give me a "Rank and File" box and a "Leaders and Heroes" which adds 20 points to the total and ticks off another two boxes on the bingo card.

As for the OPC, at 10 points each, these models give me 120 points off of my 6,000 point total.

There are a lot more Death Korps coming, along with the renegade Vraksian forces as well. The first couple of battles for the campaign will have to be played out using counters as I haven't got the time at the moment to commit to finishing two full armies, but as things get finished expect to see more from Vraks.

Until next time, have nice day...

February fun.

 

A Valentine's Day message:

Until next time, have nice day...

The Siege of Vraks campaign.

 

"Herein follows an examination of the most lamentable Siege of Vraks, bastion and Armoury World of His Most Divine Emperor, of the plans of those treacherous and heretical rebels that led to its downfall and the glorious sacrifice of the Emperor's Imperial Guard among the grim and hardy regiments of Krieg, and those misguided Mortals who have unwittingly venerated the Powers of Chaos, at a terrible cost in blood, but worst still -- to the eternal damnation of their own souls".

+++Inquisition report on the Siege of Vraks+++

*****

Welcome to Vraks, a system in the far off Scarus Sector. We are making planet fall on Vraks Prime, armoury world of the Administratum and recently turned renegade by apostate preacher Xaphan.

So I'm a member of the FB group "Vets* of Vraks" and the creator of the group wanted to run a large scale campaign over the year following the course (or our course) of the Siege of Vraks.

Having a Krieg army I signed up, and started to print and paint stuff as fast as I can (not fast enough) in order to take part.

The Siege of Vraks was a series of books by Forge World around 2010-ish and the trilogy covered the war from its humble origins, as most wars generally start out in the 41st millennium, all the way up to the full on Chaos invasion and Daemonic assault of books two and three respectively.

They basically covered everything which Forge World had released for either the Imperium or Chaos at the time, minus a few things like the Elysians which had their book before.

These were also the books where the model range and look of the Death Korps of Krieg were solidified, as beforehand they had simply been an alternate paint scheme for the Armageddon Steel Legion.

So the organiser of the campaign drafted in a fair few of us from the group who wanted to take part and assigned us a place on the campaign map below:

This is the actual map from the books, as the fighting takes place in the trenches over the Van Meersland Wastes.

My assigned area is in the 30th Corps, as the 261st Siege regiment, famous in the books for being the first to force a breach in the first defensive line, we'll have to see if I can live up to that.

We're going to get given a mission each month and have three weeks to play the battle out and report back our results, either victory, minor victory, minor defeat or defeat.

We can use whatever set of rules we want, from the original books all the way up to current 10th edition 40k if we want.

For my part I'm going to stick with my tried and true 5th edition 40k and use the Imperial Guard codex for the Krieg and Renegade Guard lists, and when space marines show, I can use the Marines and Chaos codexes respectively.

I know this seems like a strange choice, but I don't want to dig out everything from storage in the loft to find the older books when I have this set on my bookshelf ready to go.

I'll be posting after action reports on here as the campaign progresses (hopefully).

So back onto painting...

Until next time, have nice day...

*Meaning Veterans not animal doctors!

Death Korps deployed to Vraks.

 

Until next time.

Vraks secedes from the Imperium!

Until next time...

Hobby Spending - January 2025.

 

A new year, means a new hobby budget to track and keep track of purchases going forward.

January has been a bit of a quiet month, mainly because everyone dropped sick at work and I was one of the last men left standing, so was pulling overtime shifts up to the maximum hours we could work* so I've not had much time for hobby or spending or much really.

One bargain I found though, was this physical copy of Sundered Isles and the Oracles book:

I already have a physical copy of Ironsworn, which was the first solo RPG book by Shawn Tomkin which is a dark age/medieval setting.

Sundered Isles is the nautical/pirate type and I've only ever seen it on DrivethruRPG for £18+ each for physical copies, so £13 for both was a bargain.

Unfortunately I cannot play this yet, as it turns out this one is an expansion setting for the sci-fi solo RPG - Starforged. So I'll have to keep looking for that one.

Next week have a simple dinner tray:

I picked two of these up for £1.50 each from Poundland as a way to organise projects going forwards. One big problem I have had is that I have to drag everything out piece by piece and then pack it all away again at the end of a hobby session.

The idea with these is that I have a project kept on the tray until it is finished, its easy to pull from the cabinet to work on and store.

So, in theory, should improve productivity...

In theory...

Purchases:

Sundered Isles and Oracles: £13.

2x Dinner Tray: £3.

Total for January: £16.

Budget for January: £50.

Over/Under Yearly Budget: under budget by £34.

*On the railway we have working time directives, which are put in place to protect staff from fatigue. So we can work so many days in a row, or so many hours over shifts per week and then we have enforced rest days, where work cannot contact you at all.