40k - Alfwar the Wolf Eye

Finishing up a few character models recently.

The first is Alfwar the Wolf Eye.

A converted Wolf Priest in Terminator armour for my long ago started (and never finished) Space Wolves army.

He uses a standard Space Wolf Terminator model, but with the addition of a Wolf Pack helmet and the arms from a regular Terminator Chaplain I had spare, along with a small icon for the top of his armour.

Other then naming him, I never came up with any backstory for this guy, I'll work on one soon as I refresh my Wolf Guard Terminators which always accompanied him into back.



Until next time



 - Lewis

Hobby - Dice Trays, part 1.

A conversation the other day sparked an idea which I have seen online several times and meant to get round to doing but never did.

Whilst gaming at our LGS, dice kept falling off of the table and rolling underneath it. Now we aren't big guys, but equally not the most athletic either, so this became a problem after a while...

 Today, whilst out with the family, I picked up some supplies to make a couple of Dice Trays.

Behold...

The core is an Ikea Ribba 23cm x 23cm picture frame. There is also some felt and some heavy duty spray glue (usually used for carpets).

To start with we have to disassemble the picture frame, flipping it over there are the usual little metal clips which simply fold out:

The black bits..

Once these are folded out, you can take the entire thing to pieces and you end up with this:

The main frame, the inner box frame, backing mdf board, two pieces of cardboard and a piece of clear plastic.
The only thing I haven't kept was the piece of cardboard with the writing on it, the square cut out carboard I have some vague notion of a plan for, maybe some sort of surround for a monument. Likewise with the clear plastic, that has been kept and put in the terrain supplies box as it would be perfect for simulating glass in windows without having to pay out for a proper modelling product, why spend when you can recycle?

The rest of the process to create these is very simple, as you simply cut the felt to the size of the mdf board and glue it on, then reassemble the picture frame, but without the plastic and such, giving you a box to roll your dice in and they wont go everywhere.

Here are the two which I made earlier tonight in about thirty minutes whilst the girlfriend was watching something on Netflix:

So for thirty minutes of my time and about £13 in total I have two dice trays to take with me when we go to the LGS.

You will note that this is "part 1" of this project, I plan on making a couple of paint masks and spraying the Imperial Aquilla in Black on the Grey Tray and the Twin-Tailed Comet of Sigmar in White on the Black tray, so I will have one for 40K and one for Age of Sigmar (and related games).

That's the plan anyway, it might take some time yet to make the masks properly.

Until next time...


 - Lewis

AoS - Defenders of Ancestor's Fyrd, part 1.

I like Age of Sigmar.

There I've said it...I like Age of Sigmar, not a popular opinion around here by any means, but it is my opinion. Age of Sigmar is a great game, it's fast, easy to pick up, has a lot more tactical depth then people give it credit for, and yet, my local gaming group have seemed to overlook it entirely.

I can understand this with 8th edition 40k being released recently, but still...

In spite of me trying many times to get momentum rolling for us all to play AoS, nothing has come of it.

I still like it though...


In one of my attempts to get a group going, I started to build some stuff for a Freeguild army, here is my first (mostly) finished miniatures for it and a bit of back story.

Warpriest Tordimir Nicoljasyn and the Urszdora, The Great Axes of Destiny, defenders of Ancestor's Fyrd.

I had finished painting these models a while ago, but only just finished adding the grass tufts to their bases, (and I really do need to add a motif or something to the banner).

In the background is a Great Eagle I got in a trade from a friend who was getting out of the hobby. It is one of the LotR Eagles, which are some of the best giant bird miniatures GW have ever produced, they even rank highly in my favourite miniatures ever produced by GW too.


The eponymous town of Ancestor's Fyrd came into being when GW put their City Generator Tool on the Warhammer Community web page as the Firestorm Campaign box was released, a few dice rolls later and the town of Ancestor's Fyrd was created.


"The town of Ancestor's Fyrd lies upon a heavily used crossroads deep in the Drakespine Mountains of Ghur.
Humans and Duardin are the most common residents here, but Sylvaneth from the great redwoods upon the mountainsides visit the town to acquire useful tools for their life giving rituals deep within the woodlands and the Stormcast Eternals maintain a small garrison here as a defence against the Orruk raids which periodically plague the area.

The local Duardin expertly craft weapons and armour for the forces stationed in the town using the Arcane Forge they created on a nexus of magical power they discovered within the town walls.

Ancestor's Fyrd was the site of a great battle in times long past and artifacts of the armies which fought can still be found in the surrounding lands to this day".

 
 I do love these sort of things from GW as it allows you to really create a sense of where your games are taking place, instead of just "in the infinite realms" etc.
They also lead you down different paths for hobby projects, for example given the background to the town I could spend a period building some ancient battlefield detritus, or a magical blacksmiths forge. I could add some redwood conifer forest bases and some Sylvaneth at the same time (the Treelord kit is lovely).

I also have a number of Beastmen lying around waiting to be completed, however these could be traded away for some Orcs to raid the township, the possibilities just keep growing.

I also posted the above background and picture on the Warhammer Age of Sigmar page on Facebook in their monthly competition which finishes tomorrow. Probably wont have a chance of winning, but why not enter?


well, until next time...

 - Lewis

Hobby - Portable Hobby Kits

As we all know, wargaming isn't a small hobby. Yes it is portable when we want to go to the LGS and play a game with our opponents. Carry cases have been part of the hobby for a VERY long time, not quite as long as the miniatures themselves.

A good carry case is essential in this modern age of the hobby, as thanks to the Internet, we have access to more opponents and places to play then ever. That is all well and good, but what about when you want to do some painting or such whilst away from your hobby space at home?

Well, Youtube to the rescue, with Tabletop Minions host Atom Smasher, providing a video about this almost four and a half years ago now (where does time go?)

Portable Nerding Kits - Tabletop Minions

He makes some valid points, about going to someone else's house or the LGS for a hobby night rather then a gaming night. Having your gear ready to "grab and go" rather then have to search for everything off of the desk is mightily convenient.


With this in mind, I decided to make myself a portable hobby kit as I am going to be having a few days away with my son, its something I can put in the back of the car and relax with once we have been out and about all day.

I know Atom recommends the local "sporting goods" shop, but here in Yorkshire, it's easier to go to a B&M or Home Bargins type shop.
The above toolbox was bought from the local B&M shop for £3.99. Not a bad price for what it is.
Roughly 18 inches by 12 inches by 2 inches deep and with removable/reposition-able partitions, it is perfect for the use I have planned.

The orange is a little in your face inside, but that doesn't matter as this wont be seen by many people.

And what can you get inside?

All loaded up and ready to go.

• Knife.
• Glue.
• Selection of Paint Brushes.
• Selection of Files.
• 32 Pots of Citadel Paint, including Shades with their bigger pots.
• Miniatures I am working on, including:
• Fyreslayer Berzerkers.
• Black Legion Chaos Marines.
• White Scars Tactical Marines.
• Samurai.
• Warrior Monks.
• Masked Men Ashigaru. 

That's quite impressive for a £3.99 box bought on a whim.

The only this I haven't included in mine is a water pot, simply because I don't have a suitable pot to put in here yet, when I do get one, it will either live with the brushes and such, or I will sacrifice a miniatures section to put it in.

Personally I think this is a great idea for when you want to hobby, but might be away from your desk, on holiday or business trips, etc.
I am going to use mine around the house actually, so I can sit with the missus and we can watch a DVD whilst I fettle some miniatures for a while, or I can indulge in my hobby whilst the boy is playing in the front room after school. I am taking this to my mothers house where we are staying for a few nights soon, as long as I don't spill one of the shade pots over anything (an all too common occurrence according to FB groups) things should be fine and I may even get the Samurai or Warrior Monks finished off entirely!

The point is, I can still hobby wherever and whenever I wish, at home or out and about.


Until next time...


 - Lewis

40k - A Word in your Ear!

So I have had this Callidus Assassin sitting half painted on my desk for a while now.
I bought her when the Assassin models were released separately after the Execution Force game was released a few years ago.

Having my ToH Warrior Monks in that strange period of painting where small bits get started but not finished until later on, I decided to pick something up which I could finish and get clear of the table to feel good about slogging through the other stuff.

Here she is:

A very standard paint scheme which is quite close to the GW one, no point in making her brightly coloured when it isn't needed on this model.

I enjoyed painting her and as my regular 40k opponent said the other day, I should think about investing in a Culexus Assassin as my planned Imperial Guard (none of that silly Astra Militarum please) doesn't really have any defence against psychic attacks, the poor fool, obviously doesn't know what the assassin does to enemy psykers.


well, until next time...

 - Lewis

Thoughts - 20 Years of Sporadic Wargaming with Games Workshop.

So, I had one of those epiphany moments the other day as I realised it was October 2017. Normally October is highlighted by Halloween and my girlfriends birthday, this year however marks another anniversary, one particular to me.

This year marks 20 years since I walked into Games Workshop and bought my first boxed set of miniatures.

This was back in the days of 2nd Edition 40k, 5th Edition of Warhammer Fantasy and a host of Specialist Games*.

My first miniatures were a box of Lizardmen Saurus and Skink warriors, waaaaay back for 5th edition Fantasy.

(This is not my miniatures, just a picture of one i pulled off Google for this post).

These were duly taken home and painted (badly, but everyone has to start somewhere), but the seed had been planted.

I remember getting the 5th edition fantasy starter box and a Lizardman Stegadon that year for Christmas, and by new year the dining table was ringing to Bretonnian Knights and Lizardmen warriors locked in mortal combat with each other (that's how i imagined it anyway, in reality it was probably flipping of pages of a book and dice rattling).

All was well and I was happy enough fighting battles in the Old World, but one rainy Saturday afternoon in the local Games Workshop, the manager brought out this:

And into the murky world of Warhammer 40k I delved, giving up on fantasy nearly completely.

Bringing out Gorkamorka, that manager engaged the Sci-Fi gamer in me and turned me onto 40k, not only 40k, but Orks in particular In the 7 different editions of 40k I have played, the Greenskins have been a constant presence in my hobbying. I have built an Ork army for every edition apart from 6th and 7th (getting shot off the table in turn 1 of four different 6th edition games kind of soured the game a little.

On this note, numerous copies of Assault on Black Reach were bought when 5th edition came out, and I assembled a huge horde to do battle...but thanks to the badly organised rules and codex creep back then, very little happened with them (in fact I STILL have most of them in a box with the word eBay scrawled on the side of it, must get round to sorting that).

4th edition came and went with Imperial Guard at the helm as I was reading the Gaunts Ghosts novels as they were released one by one. Apocalypse also came out during this period and my gaming friends at the time got ourselves onto a war footing, one amusing memory from the first house I was renting at the time, was of my then girlfriend walking in on a room of four guys, nearly 200 freshly built miniatures on the table and the entire room stinking of plastic glue (we had forgotten to open a window).

5th edition and it was back to the Orks, but my gamer group drifted apart as we all got full time jobs, most of the time when we would get together on Saturdays to play in a friend's basement was when we were all in college together.
Life started to get in the way of the hobby and I drifted away for a while. The itch was always there, but things like Dawn of War on the PC, were much easier to get along with at that time as they didn't require scads of cash being spent.

6th and 7th editions of 40k were very poor and I didn't really do much during that period with GW games, I bought and built the odd model, but nothing like the whole swathes of armies I had had in the past. When my Space Wolves, who were phenomenal in 5th edition, were consistently beaten in every game I played, simply because I couldn't afford to buy all the latest toys, the writing was very nearly on the wall.

During this period I didn't touch Warhammer Fantasy, as that had expanded the army size and was ridiculous to buy into...we're talking nearly £400 before you could start playing  a standard points value game, not something I could do at the time.

Happily salvation was on the way...

 Coming full circle for 20 years of Games Workshop in my life, and we have 8th edition 40k,

When the pre-order for 8th edition was announced, I liked the rumours I had been reading online by Games Workshop themselves**, so I decided to drop some cash on the main rulebook, and the indexes for Marines and Orks.

For now I am building a White Scar army, but I have an Ork horde half built as well.

Some of my finished Orks in the display case against another friend's Ad-Mech forces.

 Fantasy never disappeared either, as for Age of Sigmar, I have part of a Beastman force (I just got some chariots from my friend Chris for it) and a Freeguild (humans) force I am working on.

 My converted "Varangian Guard" count-as Greatsword unit for Age of Sigmar, need to sort the motif for the banner (always something to do...).

 Hopefully with the new CEO making decent strides and all the changes at GW in the past couple of years**, I will be able to sit down in another 20 years and talk about the path taken again...


Until next time.

 - Lewis





*now a lot of people will moan about GW's practise's of cutting out specialist games, and their pricing model, but this isn't the time or place for that.

**starter box deals, Warhammer TV (it still boggles the mind that I can sit and watch GW games live on TwitchTV), convention appearances, actually responding to questions and comments on social media!

ToH - Sohei Warband.

First Steps:

Well, this is it folks, after going through the main core box, the Masked Men box and the Perry Miniatures Samurai models the other day, I spent a day off work assembling a full warband as I had a rare day with nothing at all to do.

Sohei - Buddist Warrior Monks - being one of my favourite parts of fuedal Japanese history had to feature somewhere near the beginning, I just wasn't expecting them to be the first warband to be built.

The fully built 18 point Warband.

Obviously, Masahiro is the leader, he is straight out of the Masked Men box, he is armed with a Bo (staff).

On the right is a Warrior Monk on his own, he will count as a Masked Man with Naginata (polearm).

One of the things I love about this game is that you are free to arm your models with whatever you wish, only Bows cost more points when given to Samurai (who may not field guns either).

Here we have a Banner Bearer I made by converting one of the Perry Miniatures monks to hold one of the banners from the Ashigaru sprues.
Alongside him is a group of 3 Warrior Monks in one of Warlord Games multibases. This allows easy movement of three figures together, when commoners are taken in groups they gain bonuses to their Honour and Perception stats until they start dying. Again the monks are going to count as Masked Men armed with Naginata.

Next we have the main core of the warband, two groups of Masked Men. the left is armed with Yari (spears) and the others are armed with Yumi (bows). These models are all made from the basic Ashigaru sprues with the metal Masked Men heads attached.

Finally we have a solo Masked Man armed with a bow. I converted this model using half of a pair of standing legs and half of a pair of kneeling legs and then added an ammunition backpack to the base for him to stand on. I wanted a more dynamic pose for him as I may count him as a"Sergeant of Archery" to add a bonus to the archer group when he is near those models.

I may use the last Warrior Monk model and convert him into being a Sergeant to give a free movement action to commoners when he is near them which would bring the warband to 20 points.
I am also thinking of adding a Ronin type character to them to get some more Samurai activations in the bag for the warband, but we will see.

Next Steps:
I am going to add sand to all the bases and get these guys primed white in the next couple of days so I can begin painting this weekend.

Until next time.

 - Lewis