It really is.
Until next time, have nice day...
Wednesday, 31 July 2024
Hobby Spending - July 2024.
With the rainy July now behind us and heading into August, hopefully summertime will arrive in Britain soon, it's time to catalogue what was spent on the hobby this month.
So halfway through the month I went over to Stockport to visit a friend and have another game of 10th edition 40k.
Whilst there we took a wobble down to Element Games and having resisted the released of Skaventide/AoS4, I was interested in the Spearhead game mode.
Games Workshop sell "starter collection" boxes for each faction, which have been renamed three of four times at this point and Spearhead is a mode of playing Age of Signal using just one of these boxes.
Having already picked up a couple of units of Fyreslayer Berzerkers when they were first released and not havibg done anything with them, I looked at their spearhead and then picked up the Warcry Vulkyn Flameseekers box for what i needed.
Now these modeks aren't the proper ones, but I can substitute in for the ones i need and i get more models for less money.
The other purchase was just a new set of brushes as I always grab a set to make sure I have several in stock, so they were picked up as well.
In total I purchased just these two items this month, the totals are as follows:
Vulkyn Flameseekers box - £31.45.
Army Painter Brush Set - £13.05.
Total for July: £44.50.
Budget for July: £50.
Over/Under Yearly Budget: under budget by £45.70.
Until next time, have nice day...
Wednesday, 17 July 2024
The Solar Watch - part 3.
Even in his exhaustion from the difficult route, Blade-Champion Pyodoris Hastaurian Desh was stealthily ghosting between the aged stones of the old Monetary, twisted trees clawed at the sky like broken fingers, splitting stone with their root systems. He unslung his Sword as he neared his goal, hearing a soft chanting coming from the ruins up ahead.
He glanced around between the foundations, Cultists wearing lurid emerald green robes swayed in time with the chanting as they stood in concentric circles. However it was the undulating sliver of unholy silver light that blazed in the center of the crowd and the figure which stood before it which drew his attention. The heretic-Astartes Sorcerer Asharr Herath.
Desh searched around and found a suitable gap in the crowd and began creeping towards it. He kept an eye trained on the Sorcerer, standing head and shoulders above the mortals around him. Great baroque spiked armour was crowned with a helmet which sported a pair of horns and four eye slots, all manner of Eldritch symbols glowed a sickly pink colour against his black power armour.
"You can come out, we know you're here oh Hidden One!" The sybilant voice purred as the Sorcerer turned his head and looked directly at Desh hidden behind a crumbling pillar.
Pyodoris Hastaurian Desh gripped his Sword tight and threw the beacon he was holding out into the gap, he then launched himself into the crowd, smashing cultists aside with his bulk and great sweeps of his sword as he ran. Behind his advance a brilliant golden light erupted, mist and steam flowed from the center and stones were torn from their placement as a thunderclap of displaced air reverberated around the ritual area.
Before where there was nothing, now stood three armoured giants. Off-white armour with gold filigree glinting in the candle light, the Allarus Terminators all took a thundering step forwards as one from their teleportation landing and began lashing out with their spears, inbuilt Boltguns blasting at Cultists and the wrist mounted grenade launchers spitting explosive death through the air.
They all knew they would only get one chance at preventing the daemonic summoning, they advanced through the throng, killing as they fought their way to the Sorcerer to stop this madness...
*****
The next unit finished for the Adeptus Custodes army is this unit (and a half) of Allarus Terminators. It's a unit and a half because my friend is going to use these in units of two models for more board coverage overall.
These models follow the established colour palette of off-white, gold and various reds with the blue gems.
The full selection of painted models so far is pictured below, they are starting to look great all together:
I have started work on another unit of Custodian Guard and a couple of other characters from the force.
The biggest section of work to come will definitely be the Venatari jump packs, I'm thinking i may have to invest in soke super glue accelerant in order to assemble those.
To do:
- Shield-Captain
- Sword-Champion
- Vexilla
- 9 Custodian Guard
- 3 Allarus Terminators
- 6 Venatari
Done:
- Sword-Champion
- 5 Custodian Guard
- 3 Allarus Terminators
Onwards with the project.
Until next time, have nice day...
Saturday, 6 July 2024
The Solar Watch - part 2.
The grey sky was dark and threatening, heavy rain falling from the sky and lightning cracked the bruised clouds. Behind him, Everest stood, a bright white peak stark against the sky, and on the other side of that, stood the center of the Imperium, the Imperial Palace.
The North-West Passage was a challenging route for a mortal man, for one such as Blade-Champion Pyodoris Hastaurian Desh it should have been an easy stroll. However, even with his gene-enhanced physique and near limitless endurance he felt the pull of fatigue as he pushed himself on, time was against him.
He felt his Klaimor Vaultsword banging against his back where he had slung it in order to be able to move quicker. The rumour had to be taken seriously, even in it had reached him via the back channels of information from the Lion's Gate.
There was some truth about this he thought as the air around him gave him a greasy, metallic taste in his mouth, as if he had bitten down on a Copper Credit. The wind buffeted him again against the rocks and loose screen tumbled away under his feet, as if the elements and the world were trying to prevent him from reaching his objective.
The rain was so thick visibility was reduced so much he was relying on the auto-reader HUD in his helmet to tell him where he was. As soon as he saw the first foundations of a ruined wall he knew he was close however. The ancient stones of the Rongbuk Monastery stood in their ageless lines ahead. It was legend that they had been placed sometime in second millennium, well before Old Night and the Madness that entailed.
He was snapped back to the task at hand as the whisperings of a multitude of gibbering voices filled his head, the whisperings of warp creatures pushing at reality. Their mindless thrashings sensing that the barriers between the warp and real space were weakened here.
Pyodoris stopped and blinked realising the gravity of what he had just thought, the grip of reality was weaker here and foul Warpspawn were on the verge of emerging...Here, on Terra!
He would have to hurry, find the source and cut off the head of the corruption.
*****
The next stage of the Solar Watch army is underway and I've finished the next model.
"One one model?" I hear you ask.
"So far", as the next biggest update(s) are well underway and will make a massive dent in painting the force, I just haven't had the time to finish them off yet.
Anyway, the finished miniature is a Blade-Champion of the Custodes.
Once again painted in the Solar Watch Legion scheme I detailed in my last post.
I like on this model how he has layers of cloth and leather, opposed to the regular Custodians who have their power armour and maybe half a toga or cloak as a different texture.
The clothing on this model is either Black Legion or Black Templar contrast paints and the leather boots are Aggaros Dunes and washed with EARTHSHADE.
In battle, a Blade Champion is a living weapon in the Emperor's hand. His role is to identify the greatest battlefield threat -- be that a mighty leader, a host of killers or a deadly war engine -- to ensure their swift and absolute destruction.
To this end they are given leeway to field the incredibly ancient and powerful Vault blade weapons, taken from the depths of the Imperial Palace and wielded with precision and deadliness which puts even the prodigious martial prowess of regular Custodians to shame.
The symbol on the cloak was an interesting painting challenge as it floods over itself and creases with the running motion of the miniature. Normally I dislike using metallic paints on clothing and cloaks as I personally don't think it looks right. However with the gilded nature of the Custodes in general, I figured that they would be mad enough to include actual Aurellian Gold in their cloaks to show their authority.
Finally, below is a photo taken into the magnetised storage box of the army in progress.
- A Shield Captain.
- Two Blade-Champions.
- A Vexilla.
- Six Allarus Terminators.
- Six Custodian Venatari.
- Fourteen Custodian Guard.
Once they're all fielded together I believe this makes a 2,000 point army for 10th edition 40k.
I'm certainly.enjoying the project thus far and definitely looking forward to them all being finished and fielded together on the table as a cohesive force.
Until next time, have nice day...
Sunday, 30 June 2024
The Solar Watch - part 1.
The light gleamed in the early morning sunrise, the clouds hanging around the uppermost peaks of the Himalayzian Mountains.
Here at the roof of Terra, the Emperor had built his Imperial Palace ten thousand years ago, the great Primarch Rogal Dorn turning it into the modern fortress during the dark days of the Horus Heresy.
Custodian Tybalus Castivar stood upon one of the patrol routes of the Palace and took in the vista before him.
Everything here was for the Imperium, and by extension for the Emperor himself.
The Lions Gate Spaceport sprawled over the flattened peak of a mountain, it's orbital dock elevators reaching upwards into the stratosphere.
He could see the flashing marker lights of a transport as it hung there, moored upon the docks, as a warship of Battle fleet Solar fired it's retro's and moved clear.
Turning there was the Palatine Wall and he could see the Eternity Gate which legendary Sanguinis had held single handedly against the traitorous forces which had besieged the palace all those years ago. Legend said that on quiet nights patrols could still hear the aftershocks of that conflict.
"Tybalus Castivar, what is the purpose of this halt?" Tristraen Gallimadean his superior by length of service asked.
"I was just taking in the view Tristraen, we leave Terra for a deep Solar Patrol soon and I just wanted to take it all in, I apologise".
"No need to apologise, Brothers, Sisters, take a look around at the Palace like Tybalus here, remember what we defend, the majesty of the Emperor" he said and gestured towards the Imperial Palace, just as the rising sun met the upper spires of the Astronomicon and glinted off of the gold sheathed dome. The light seeming to intensify it's brightness as if it mixed with the Emperor's Solar beacon.
"A dark omen approaches" Custodian Hasturian Desmodages pointed looking westwards over the crest of Everest, the legendary peak, to where a black storm was rolling in.
Lightning could bee seen flashing against the darkness and an avalanche was sparked, rumbling away in the distance.
"Indeed, should be reconvene with the Shield -Company?" Custodian Pydorus Maxin asked.
"We complete our patrol cycle and then reconvene, we move" Tristraen ordered and the five Custodes set off, stringing out into a long line as they took their appointed positions and marches on.
*****
After a slow month of hobby due to work commitments I haven't managed to make much headway with projects.
The last time I was over at Element Games back in May my friend Fraser had finished building his Solar Watch force for tenth edition 40k.
This was right before the Codex was rewritten and made them a middling army.
After talking about it, and with the post I made about Female Custodes we both said that we really liked the Solar Watch colour scheme with their white/off-white armour and the red details which offset and contrast nicely.
They also make a really nice change to the usual Emperor's Talons GOLD scheme.
"I don't know how to do the off-white" he said, "take them with you and paint them".
"O...k..." I said.
So after a month I managed to sit down and paint this unit up:
The Gold detailing started as Retributor Armour and was lined with Agrax Earthshade before being stippled with Iron breaker for a highlight.
The gems and weapon blade were base coated with Ulthuan Grey and then given a coat of Tallasar Blue, the weapon was then drybrushed with Ironbreaker.
Finally the red details, and the Squad Leader shows this off the best.
The Scarlet areas, for the weapons, shoulder pads and plume started with a coat of Blood Angels Red, a wash with Agrax Earthshade and then a blocking-in/highlight with Evil Sunz Scarlet.
The Squad Leaders robe was a coat of Flesh Tearers Red and then a wash of Agrax Earthshade, with just an edge highlight with Mephiston Red for the upper edges of the folds.
Bases use cork for rocks and basic sand and were painted in my usual desert/rocky sand scheme.
I added Tufts from the collection I've gathered to add interest and chose from a selection of 2mm and 5mm tall tufts, cut in half to add around the edges of the rocks, where plants are normally found to grow in a desert.
The Custodes were a joy to paint with their detailing filigree and the varying colours used across. I also enjoyed using our favourite artwork from the whole "Custodes Controversy " as a guide/inspiration.
This squad of five models means that a sixth of the army is already finished, it being thirty models in total.
There is also a center piece model which will be a full project in itself, but I'm going to leave that until I've gotten the main army completed.
Until next time, have nice day...
Hobby Spending - June 2024.
With the news that Privateer Press has sold their Iron Kingdoms/Warmachine/Hordes IP to Steamforged Games, there has been a resurgence of interest in the setting, but more importantly (for me at least) there has been some.more good deals of miniatures on eBay.
I'm still not a fan of the Warmachine rules as such, so I am looking for a good generic platoon sized ruleset to use, but I'll keep on collecting figures for use.
I started the month with a full unit of Iron Fang Pikemen with Officer and Standard Bearer for a tenner.
I now have two full units of Iron Fangs to work on, I'm hoping to find a decently priced set of the Great Bears, who are the character unit of Iron Fangs and have them as a mini formation in the Khadoran army.
Daniera Madise, Cleric of Morrow, was picked up for £4 and was a spue of the moment purchase when I was easing an old Warhammer Fantasy campaign* and thinking how I could convert it to the Iron Kingdoms setting. It needs a warrior-priest, so who better then an actual Cleric to take the position.
I love these guys, werewolves with armour and robes, and big halberds to hit you with...as if they didn't have claws and teeth to tear you apart anyway.
These unbuilt guys were another tenner and as I have the beginnings of an Orboros Warband, they would add nicely to it.
I love the proper "no fucks given" pose of this guy. After a month of Warmachine purchases this seems a bit out of left field, but there is a good reason...one which will be revealed in good time.
So what did I spend this month:
12 man Iron Fang Pikemen unit - £10.
Daniera Madise, Cleric of Morrow
- £4.
3 man Warpborn Stalkers unit - £10.
Palatine Enforcer - £4.
Total for May: £28.
Budget for May: £50.
Over/Under Yearly Budget: under budget by £40.20
I'm on the lookout for some more Warmachine pieces, but I am actively trying to stay away from GW for a while whilst I paint up some of the stuff I have.
The difference being that GW is still producing models, whereas all the PP Warmachine stuff I want is now Out Of Production...
Until next time, have nice day...
*Ordinarily I would just go with Warhammer, but GW are being so fucking slow releasing the ranges for The Old World, that I do think they are actively trying to sabotage the setting.
And don't give me any "AoS4 is having it's big release" GW could have gotten ahead of production and actually supported TOW in the how many months they have had since a; they announced it and B; the rules were released...
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