The Exiles Venture Out

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and all that jazz.

Took a while, but I finished project Bloodquest. Here they are, C&C always appreciated. I'm looking to get some games in after the New Year.

Captain Leonatos

Veteran Sergeant Tranio

Codicier Furion

Brother Cloten

Brother Palamon & Brother Valerius

Scout Lysander, Scout Proteus & Scout Menelius

I'll be sure to let you know how they do in their first outing in the new year.

Side Quest

So the Bloodquest Kill Team is still happening, but as I do a lot of painting in my breaks in work that hasn't been an option recently due to the ramp up in work through Xmas. (I work in the service industry, sometimes I just want to stare at the walls) That said they are coming along and I'm hoping to get a game out of them early in the new year.

I've been tinkering on my days off with a few building projects however. More out of gaming necessity than anything. My 40k Orks have developed a handycap in the anti-tank department of late. That is to say, with most of my opponents rock new space marine armies or bringing bigger tanks, the boyz just aren't able to do the job.... for now

 I have a problem with tanks, the logical answer is tankbustaz! These boyz should solve a few of my problems. I've also built a new Warboss, one suited to being Freebooter who spent all his ill gotten gains on the biggest gun around.

Quest Update

Just a quick painting update on the Bloodquest Kill Team. Everything is coming along nicely, but I have decided I REALLY don't like painting power armour. Thankfully, most of the work in that area is complete and what I have left is mostly detail and faces. Much more to my liking.

Learning Curve

I had a night off earlier this week and a buddy of mine had expressed an interest in learnig to play some 40K. He was big on the lore and I offered to teach him Kill team as it was something I had all the parts to and could be played in an evening. So with a few drinks, quick scribble of roster sheets and a hastily built board, we took to the table.

My Orks were all in storage so that left only my Guard and Night Lords available as usable teams, but this didn't phase us. Abe is a big fan of the 40K lore and no stranger to RPGs so I didn't have to give too much explanation to the stats and rules going in. This was very refreshing for me personally as long winded chats about the piece of paper with numbers and boxes tends to bore people quickly, regardless of how quick I try to make it or how relevant it may be sometimes. Abe bravely took the Imperial Guard whilst I took the Night Lords, we rolled up for the mission and Abe would be on the offensive, trying to capture an objective in my half of the board. This would be bloody.

 Plucky Guardsmen ready themselves for the advance. They have the numbers and the training, but will it pay off against the Night Lords' savagery?

 The Guard Sniper spent the entire game taking potshots at anyone who stuck their head out, but despite his "skills" he only killed was was stood right in front of him... on a bridge.... in the open..... and that took more luck than was called for.

 The plasma gunners, hear the rumble of heavy bolter fire around the corner and ready to return the favour.

 Across the way, the Comms team meets the Night Lords Zealot with predictable results.

The Cultist uses the Zealot's charge as a distraction to get past the Comms team.

 The Plasma Gunners rush the Night Lords only for the traitors to counter charge their efforts.

 Heroism finally come to bare as the surviving Plasma Gunner over charges his weapon to kill the Traitor Champion, leaving the Night Lords leaderless. He gives his life to complete the deed as the plasma cells explode.

 In an attempt to avenge his men and buy time for the others to complete the mission, Sgt. Capp charges the Astartes.

His survival is not assured.

 The grizzled veteran and the last of the Guardsmen, make it to within sight of the objective, but it's too late. cut off from reserves and all other team mates dead, only the veteran holds long enough to charge the objective.

 His efforts are for naught, as he is gunned down by the Traitors. The Guard Sniper, being the only survivor, witnesses the final act of bravery before making his escape. He reports a failed mission to his commanders.

Despite Abe horrific dice luck we still had fun and I think he's caught the bug for playing. I hope we'll get another chance to play at some point. Hopefully he'll have his own team, which will be cool to see.

A Bunch of Green

Just some painting at sculpting finished off this week. First up the finished lot of Zarbag's Gitz.

Sorry for the poor quality pictures, I didn't have much time to work with. They'll be filling out the ranks of my Warcry Gang on the run up to Xmas.

I also finished off a sculpt of Nigel Pegg, one of the main characters from my comic series, New Wasteland Fairy Tales.

Adorable li'l fella ain't he. I'm still working on his giant robot grand daughter.

Bloodquest: Prologue

Who remembers Bloodquest? Anyone? A few hands, good! I'm old enough to have read Bloodquest the first time around when it was published in Warhammer Monthly (God, I'm old) and it was great then and it hasn't dulled a bit. I was fortunate enough to grab a second hand copy late last year and that settled the idea in me for a future modeling project.

Fast forward to earlier this year and my FLG had a new box of the Space Marine Heroes pack, perfect. Dynamic models, no major chapter details to muck about with and I only need a handful of models to get the raw materials. I was sold, I was going to make a Bloodquest Kill Team. A handful of exiled marines and some scouts for fodder against the horrors of the 41st millennium, great plot for a narrative campaign to boot. One problem... I bought the packs over several weeks and ended up with 3, yes, THREE of the same posed marine! I already planned to convert everything, but this was going to irritate me to no end.

The project stalled a little after that set back and then all the stress at work through October left me unmotivated. Thankfully, the local bring&buy provided me with the solution. A buddy had just what I wanted, on sale and at a fraction of the cost, I sold off the duplicates I'd been saddled with and I was good to go. A few scouts off eBay and Leonatos and band of exiles were ready to be built.

As the core models already had such solid action poses I didn't alter the models too much beyond their equipment and head swaps. Most of the effort went into sculpting the hair and finding the right weapons. That said, Codifer Furion and Brother Cloten's Axe were the most involved conversions, as you can see:

Not Dead, Honest!

I'm back, after almost a month, I've been given the chance to sit back and write something up. It's been a fairly stressful time in work and gaming and hobby in general have taken a back seat for a spell. That said, now the Rugby World Cup is drawing to a close I can squeeze in some hobby time, before Christmas starts to ramp up.

A friend of mine has gotten himself hooked on Kings of War 3rd Ed, but his latest plan for an army required some real digging on his part for the right models. In the end he came to me for help. Here's what I've been up to...

The bodies are Warlord Games Zulu, a lovely little kit that I had from magazine. But what my friend wanted was archers for the kit. Having the right models on hand helped enormously with this project and it was great to get back into some sculpting. A few may have seen some more WIP shots appear on Twitter. Here are the finished arms, ready to go to the caster at the end of the month.

Whilst working on these I got hit with an idea for some personal components for my goblin army rebuild. I can't imagine using all of these when they're cast so odds are I'll sell my leftovers. If anyone is interested in a couple of sets of these, let me know.

I'll be sure to get some painted pictures of these done when the casts are finished next month probably.

I also used this as an opportunity to make a start on a project that I've been putting off for what seems like years. New models for Becky and Nigel (my characters from my indy comic). This is something I've just wanted to do for me, but I'll likely sell them through my publisher as a cool little extra when they're done. For now, here's a WIP for Nigel.

I'd love to make him a single piece cast, but cane is likely to be a separate piece for ease of casting. As for Becky, I'll be tackling her construction a little differently.

That's all for now, more soon.