Alpha Legion Progress

Hello again,

I have been making progress on my Alpha Legion force for Shadow War and Warhammer 40000 (well, 30000). I have found a metallic blue that matches near enough to my planned designs and have begun to apply it to an old Rhino, Marine and Terminator.

The Rhino

The Terminator, the one I'm happiest with so far.

Basic Marine Legionary

There is still more detail work and finishing touches to be done yet, as well as a lot more marines and vehicles. Stay tuned for more info....

Warhammer 40k/30k Restart for Me!

Hello folks, long time no post,

But anyhoo, I am looking with hope at the new Warhammer 40k 8th Edition rumours and playing in a campaign of Shadow War: Armageddon - an update of Warhammer 40000: Kill Team. 

I have got my hands on some new 40k models, which will go towards a force of Space Marines for both Shadow War and 8th Edition 40k. However, 40k technically is incorrect for these guys, as they fit more into the 30k/Horus Heresy era of the 40k fluff. They are Alpha Legion, with currently models being plastic Mk4 Maximus armour marines and some Tartarus Terminators.

Tartarus Terminator in pre-heresy Alpha Legion colours!

The above image shows a rough idea of what colour scheme that I intend to use on my own Alpha Legion, a mix of metallic blue, black and silver. I'm using the Forgeworld Horus Heresy books colour illustrations as shown above as inspiration. Here's some more:

Additionally, I have been given an Ork Kommando belonging to a friend that I have the chance to tidy up, base and paint as my Kill Team "captured" him in the campaign before he was eventually rescued. So I am painting him with a hydra tatoo of the Alpha Legion, more on that soon....

Some Recent Updates.

Well, it's been two weeks since I last updated, and so what has happened?

Well, I have been working on a miniature for Dice and Decks "secret santa" style swap. Which I cannot name or provide pictures for until after the 21st of December.
I have however, got pictures of a Sniper for Secrets of the Third Reich that I finished last week, I just need to varnish it and it's completely finished.

Front View

Back View

I used a Forge-World Warhammer 40k Horus Heresy Great Crusade Army list in a game against a fellow Dice and Decks gaming club member and lost, due to 6th Edition's killpoint system, but I did have the joy of deploying my Warhound Titan for the first time since I bought it nearly a year ago. It ended the game with some damage, but did cause mayhem amongst my opponents troops when it did get them, as it spent the first few turns sniping his tanks. He did try assaulting the Titan with his Chaos Lord and a squad of Chaos Marines, but they failed to do anything but hold it still for a turn or so...

The Titan with a squad of Chaos Marines attacking it.

The Chaos Lord tries to strike something important....

On Friday Square Orange Games once again honored Dice and Decks Club with it's presence, and I managed to get my hands on the box-set of Mantic Zombie Marines, which I have built a few of already, and have nearly managed to finish one of them;

One nearly-finished Zombie, ready to terrorise the table-top.

My birthday has passed, and one gift was a Dystopian Legions Kingdom of Brittania Infantry Section, which enabled me to have a proper look at the models for the first time. I am very impressed, the models are closer to 32mm Bushido models than they are 28mm models, and are highly detailed. There are 6 such models in the box, and I am highly anticipating this coming Friday when Square Orange once again visits to provide an order of the Firestorm Armada rulebook and a Dystopian Legions Kingdom of Brittania Starter Set and a set of Kingdom of Brittania Musicians.

The Dystopian Legions Kingdom of Brittania Infantry Section as it comes out of the box.

And for now this concludes my updates, but I imagine by the end of this coming weekend there will be more to post about, such as some 28mm Vietnam US Army Models I have finally got my hands on, but have not unboxed yet. Till next week readers....

Another 2 weeks of Painting updates...

Hello again readers, 
It's been another slow 2 weeks of painting due to other commitments, but here is the progress, which is minor in some cases, and quite decent in others.
So we start with some work on the UH-1 Black Hawk helicopter I'm building to go with a 28mm Force on Force Vietnam collection, as might be obvious, the helicopter is for the US, and more specifically, the US Army.
I've got the main body glued together, along with the main rotor assembly and the tail rotor:

Main body as of last weekend

Tail and rear rotor

The main rotor blades and the assembly for them

The cockpit has also been glued into position, but the chassis barely fits in around the cockpit and interior:

There is a seating bench that fits on the pipe and box shaped part of the rear of the interior. I just need to find where I put it on the painting table.....

The poor fitting bottom of the helicopter

Now we come to this weekend on this project, and I've started doing some painting, I've undercoated the main rotors, the engine for the same rotors, and I've painted the sliding doors that fit on the side of the helicopter's body, and additionally, I've part-painted the front nose of the copter. Finally, I've started attaching the clear plastic that represents the glass parts of the body.

Under-coated rotor blades

Painted nose, shown dry-fitted to the main body of the helicopter

Under-coated engine

Side-view of the helicopter so far

Other projects of the last two weeks, I've actually assembled and started to paint another Armoured Suit for the squad of them I have for my Secrets of the Third Reich British force:

Main coat is done, now for the flag on the left shoulder, and the weapons and metal areas of the suit before attaching the head and varnishing the model. Next to the WIP model is a previously completed suit for comparison.

This coming Friday I have a Warhammer 40k game against a fellow Dice and Decks gaming club member, using Forgeworlds Space Marine Legion army list from the Horus Heresy boo, and I have a surprise involving some alterations on the force organisation chart....
Anyhoo, I've started to add some more yellow to the old Rogue Trader Land Raider, and a Veteran I started a while ago, but some problems have developed with the yellow paint being too low in pigment for an effective coat of paint, but I have some work in progress pictures anyway:

Old Rogue Trader Land Raider being souped up

One veteran, which by chance shows the size when compared to an Empress Miniatures 28mm SAS trooper

I have also done a bit towards my Dystopian Wars Land force, with work on the Landship and a base of small tanks being worked on:

The Landship so far

Very small tanks, which are very big in the fluff, and Dystopian Legions, where a concept render is available to view on Spartan Games, being equivalent to a Warhammer 40k Baneblade in size

Finally, as a end to the update, I have also begun work on one of three Cruisers for my Firestorm Armada Directorate fleet:

Just started on the basecoat

And that's another two weeks of progress, bar some work for Dice and Decks Christmas Miniatures swap, which I'm still unable to share any progress on as of yet, a few more weeks and I hope to show the finished progress once the person it's being painted for receives it.
I shall attempt to update this blog once a week as it used to be on a more regular basis again.
Until next week....

Greed.... and Horus Heresy

Above is a picture of the Primarch Angron, as sculpted and due for release by Forgeworld. 
This is not me praising, I am not a fan, and it's £50. Which even for Forgeworld, is too much money to spend on a single, infantry sized model. Hypocritically, slightly, given I own a Warhound Titan in my collection, but I think this isn't a price in order to make a profit, this price is pure greed in my eyes, the company knows Horus Heresy stuff will sell, and definately Primarchs. So they've made it a stupidly high price to get as much money as possible, which is what companies do, but this is too much. So no Forgeworld, I'm not buying it.....

However, the Forgeworld Horus Heresy stuff in general looks good, and is a part of the 40k background I have long liked, so GW models for it is a godsend.
Fellblades, jetbikes (hopefully other, better looking ones), old armour marks, crested command sets, new rules, and amazing looking books!  Looking forward to it, as long as prices aren't being set stupidly high just to scave money from hobbyists.

Update: Nice to see  freedom of speech, I wrote that the model was too expensive on the comments for the model and it's related video on the Forgeworld Facebook page and come back a few hours later to find it's gone.

Warhammer 40k Post - Tyranid Reinforcements

My long-standing, and equally long suffering Tyranid force; never before mentioned on this blog recently (as of 11 May) suffered what can only be described as a complete disaster of a tabletop battle - losing 9 killpoints to 0. 

So with that in mind, I have decided to make some alterations to the force in time for a rematch on the 1st June. This consisted of adding a Swarmlord, making my old Hive Tyrant winged, and adding a few Zoanthropes and my unfinished batch of Gargoyles.

Luckily my paint scheme is quite quick so I have no need to rush this in order for them to be ready.

Warhammer 40k's 25th - BBC mention

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17274186
This is a link to a newspaper article in which the BBC talks about Warhammer 40k and it's appeal. However; I feel that like a newspaper article in Greece, there is a negative overtone towards the hobby in the article (well, the negativity is the only real similarity - as the Greek article was a serious complaint against the hobby). The balance to me, just doesn't seem to be there...

Warhammer 40k post: Titan completed!

Over the weekend i have managed to complete the Warhound. I have deliberately left the cabling between the weapons, had and body off - so that the connecters for them can represent an advanced exhaust system for the experimental power supply the Titan is using - see Dice and Decks forum for the background.

I am very pleased with how this has turned out - even though the torso has had to be stuck to the hips due to the weapon arms unbalancing the top half of the model.

Anyway here are the pictures of the finished product:

Warhammer 40k Post: Titan Updates.

The Titan has been updated over the course of the week. I have finished painting the legs and associated details, along with the base and the squashed tank. After this was done, I have added the armour plates to the Titan's thighs and shins. The final tiny details on the base need to be finished and that just leaves the arms to be attached with their cabling.

Mixed Wargaming Post - Updates on existant projects - Romans and the Titan.

Right then, I've been busy this weekend. For Hail Caesar I've managed to repair the transfers on the completed Legionaries so they show up (thanks to a recommendation made to me on the Warlord games forum - using a white background). I've also started building the Praetorian Unit and the Veterans, as well as completing another Legionary and the Command section of the unit I completed assembled last weekend. Here's some pics:

The Unit before the shield repairs ( Command section completed).

Same as above from a different angle.

And again.

The Praetorian Unit (with the Aquilifier replacing the Signifier).

Auxilaries.

Unpainted and finished Auxilary, with a mid-way through painting Legionary.

Finished Auxilary with Finshed Legionary.

The first Auxilary.

Shield details.

Finished Legionary with Pila.

The shield transfers, showing in much brighter detail on a white background beneath it.

The finished front row of the first unit.

And in Warhammer 40000, I have finished the thigh armour plates and the base layers on the legs, which now just need details doing and they'll be ready for the armour to be attached. This then leaves just the weapons and their associated cables to attach.

The Titan as it currently stands.

The finished thigh armour plates.