Adeptus Mechanicus Pteraxii Sterylizors and Serberys Raiders DONE!

Hello!

Back to some 40k, and this time it's some bang up to date new toys, the Adeptus Mechanicus Pteraxii Sterylizors and Serberys Raiders aka Flappy dudes and Horsey boys. (Spell checker absolutely hated that sentence - and yes I know the Pteraxii don't really flap and the Serberys are more akin to dogs than horses, and that skitarii probably don't have much in the way of a concept of gender.)

Firstly, I have to say I love these new models and the strange anachronistic design choices. I've always been a fan of the weirdness of the AdMech, and this lot really pushes in that direction. Even though I love the look I wasn't sure if I was going to get some, until I found out that the mixed up pseudo-historical aesthetic annoyed SorcererDave, so I knew that I had to have some and bring them on his channel!

Anyway, first up, lets look at the Raiders:

These were quite fun to paint, I got to do a few different metal effects, some dirt and grime, some glowy bits and some beat up brown coats. I reasoned being outriders they might not be wearing bright orange, so opted for a slightly toned down look for them. It was an interesting technique to try, darker leathery look with some much lighter but inconsistent highlighting to represent the scuffing up and fraying of the material on the fold lines and edges. I've seen it done much, much better elsewhere, but I'm pretty happy with my attempts. Overall I'm pleased with the result, and it didn't require much repainting or tidying up, surprisingly.

The Pteraxii however...

These were a bit more of a tricky prospect. For a start they are fairly fragile and I lost a few bits during drybrushing. I was pretty happy with the black rubbery suit look for them and the splash of orange for the armour panels, but it took me some time to be satisfied with the wings. I initially tried going much lighter to almost white with a stippled/drybrushed cloud effect, but it just looked a bit rubbish. After that I washed the whole thing with layers of blue, which was better but still too messy. I finally just painted over it with a few layers of a gradually lightening sky blue, before adding some specks and splashes of black to represent dirt and damage and provide contrast. The transfers on the back of the wings also helped to break up the blue. Finally they got attached to the bases with the frequently bemoaned new flight stand things. I was considering magnetising but got lazy and just glued them in place. I told myself when they all break off and prove they need them, they can have magnets!

And there we go. DONE! That's the end of that. Except it's not because having now updated my AdMech force, I decided it was time for some new, better group photos, so that's what's coming to the blog next time...

D&D Minis

Hello!

When I was getting the minis out for photos of the wife's Tyranids and our Daemons, I decided I might as well take some photos of our mini collection we use for D&D. We've got a mix of miniatures from GW, Reaper, Hasslefree and others, painted by the wife and I, and some others donated from friends. Should be easy, we don't have that many I thought. Turns out we had enough that I had to split them into two to fit the space I'd cleared...

Firstly, lets look at the 'characters' - all the human and human-like minis we'd generally use as player characters, NPCs, guards, bandits etc.

Some notable characters up front, including Basil Goodbread, my LARP halfling alchemist. Some of the other minis represent characters played by me, the wife and some close friends and family.

This is the 'spellcaster corner', where a lot of people in robes are standing with their familiars. Also seen here are the Mighty Nein from Critical Role painted in slightly generic style so they don't stand out too much. We've also got Vox Machina to paint, which might be another post on here someday. 

Here is 'NPC corner' with a bunch of fairly generic looking bandits, guards and soldiers, along with some non-combatant types. Although being D&D it's a fair bet if they have a mini they are a doppelganger, a vampire or some kind of secret badass.

So the second batch is all the 'monsters' - minis generally used as the bad guys to be killed in battle. (Though of course, there is nothing wrong with good guy Orcs or goblins!)

A decent amount of the monsters, such as the Beholder and the Lemures (the blobfish-like things at the front) were donated by John, the semi-regular opponent who sacrificed his soul to the dark powers for greenstuff sculpting ability.

So, there we have it, quite a lot of minis it turns out! As it happens we have been playing quite a lot of D&D during lockdown, but over discord and without these minis. Hope you enjoyed this little look at our collection beyond the 40k battlefield, and I hope you're all staying safe out there.

Eight Days on Reuvengrad part 1 - Narrative campaign with SorcererDave

Hello!

Those of you who have been reading for a while may remember back at the start of the year I posted about a narrative campaign that SorcererDave and I had been planning and had started filming - about the Inquisition investigating heresy on the planet of Reuvengrad. Well, due to obvious reasons, we've been unable to film any battle reports recently, so the two we had done were waiting for things to go back to 'normal' before being put on the internet. The intention being to not have a big delay between episodes. However with 9th edition 40k on the horizon, the decision was made to start releasing them now while we are still in 8th edition.

That said, this campaign is Narrative play, with a capital N. There are a lot of 8th edition rules that we modified or outright ignored for narrative purposes. It's not balanced, it's not competitive, it's not even got proper armies. This campaign is very much driven by the story. It's got action, it's got drama, it's got RPG elements and a mad Sorcerer acting as a 'Dungeon Master'. It's inspired by Dan Abnett books and Dark Heresy campaigns and the old Inquisitor battle reports from White Dwarf. If all that sounds cool to you, please go and give it a watch:

I really hope you enjoy this one, I know I did. And I really hope we can film more before too long. Stay safe out there everyone!

Chaos Daemons Army

Hello!

More delving into the archives this time, looking at some old daemon models. As with the Tyranids last time, these were at one point my wife's army, but they differ in that various bits were painted by myself and added from other sources. They also differ in that they have been out of the box a few times over the years. They fairly frequently contribute to our D&D campaigns as various monsters, and some of them have appeared in a SorcererDave battle report.

Anyway, the army:

As you can see, it's quite a small army these days, and has a lot of old models. Apart from a few Bloodletters it's all metal. It's also pretty much all on the 'wrong' bases, but I've no desire to 'fix' that any time soon! It's also made up of a mix from daemons from all the Chaos gods, as was the fashion back in the day when there were no bonuses for fielding mono-faction daemons.

Right, let's start with the big red ones. The daemons of Khorne. The plastic Bloodletters here are pretty much the newest addition to the army, joining their metal hairy axe-wielding brothers. They are led by a Herald and a Bloodthirster, both converted by my brother who used to have a Khorne themed army. I've done a bit of touching up on the paintwork on them, but I couldn't replace the classic Black Templar marine held in the 'thirster's whip. He comes from a time when the Templars were annoyingly better in melee than Khorne Berserkers, so he is eternally held up there in his torment as punishment for GW's historically poor balancing.

Next is the Slaanesh contingent. A bunch of the NSFW Daemonettes and the Keeper of Secrets. These were all the wife's work, and that KoS is a bit of a highlight of the army with an 'inverse' paint job from the standard one. There are actually a chunk of daemonettes still to paint, and the metal Masque of Slaanesh, so they'll probably end up as a job for me sometime.

Tzeentch next. Quite a few of these, though no big chicken. There is a big blob of horrors, which in the old days were two units divided into pink and blue, when the rules were just 'horrors'. In there we have a purple robed figure made from a LotR Ringwrath, who has represented the Changeling. We also have nine Flamers, who are some of my favourite daemons and I got the chance to paint them. I decided to go for some pretty mad colours to divide them up into three units or just to mix them all into a mutli-coloured blob.

Lastly, we've got a little bit of Nurgle - some multicoloured Nurglings and a blob of Plaguebearers with a custom banner (these ones were painted by me), and then some 'undivided' units (though now of course they have to pick a side.) We've got some metal Furies, in all their fragile metal winged glory. Also a couple of Daemon Princes, one of which is really from my Alpha Legion, but I included here for completeness, and the other which is a Varghulf mini from Warhammer/AoS, intended to be the 'Alpha Fury'.

So there you go. As before, the nostalgia from getting them all on the table has me thinking about trying to play them in a game sometime. I don't think they would realistically make a usable 8th or 9th edition army on their own but they could certainly pop in as allies for the Fractured Truth somewhere down the line. So maybe you'll see them again at some point.

Hope you enjoyed this little slice of my nostalgia. Again, stay safe out there.

Hive Fleet Rosaceae

Hello!

I've not posted a lot of 40k content recently, as I've been working on Lizards and I've not played any games for obvious reasons (it's mid 2020 for anyone reading in the future). So I thought I'd fix that by digging through the old boxes and taking some photos. As you may know, the wife also paints toy soldiers, most notably the Sisters of Battle Order of the Azurine Heart. Back before then though, she started with Tyranids, the beautiful but deadly Hive Fleet Rosaceae...

Before we delve a bit closer, let's have a look at the case that the little bugs were hiding in, because it is quite unique:

As you can tell, a lot of work was put into making this army a bit different. It's not just a striking scheme, there are loads of little conversions and quirks in here.

We've got some Forgeworld Rippers in there, both swarms and the individuals, sadly many of which have lost their little arms over the years. Here seen bursting out of their eggs, made from pistachio nut shells. They also serve as objective markers for the army. 

Lots of Genestealers (this army was mostly put together back in 4th edition, which was about the last time before 8th edition when Genestealers were good) and lots of gaunts. Some fun little additions here like the Hormgaunt catching a Tau drone, a couple of Rogue Trader era Termagants, an albino 'gant and the original 'gimmi a hug' broodlord.

The monsters are similarly special, with the albino Carnifex, custom Wrecker-fex and Flying Tyrant, and the Screamer Killer standing tall to unleash his internal flesh hooks and display his, ahem, 'implant attack'. An impressive level of individuality, given only a few kits to work with.

More Forgeworld in the Shrikes (flying warriors) equipped with double devourer, as was the best (and legal) option at the time. Accompanied by 'Rocket Gaunts' - the gargoyle kitbash that was somewhat popular before the plastic kit was released. Behind them, a pair of Raveners (they could be taken as individuals) and some Lictors.

That's pretty much it. In the day it represented a sizable chunk of the Tyranid range, and significantly more than 2000 points. Now it's missing a lot of the nid options and has a few units that are either under strength or have illegal loadouts, but I have to admit, having gotten them out on the table for the first time in years, I'd quite like to see them back on the battlefield one day. Perhaps I'll borrow them for a game sometime as allies of Hive Fleet Goliath?

Anyway, that's the army. Hope you enjoyed my little nostalgia trip, and I hope everyone is staying safe out there. Next time I'll be looking at more models from our collection of Chaos Daemons.