Howling Masses

For the annual LOTR tourny in January "Into The West" I've settled on taking  a Dunland army this time. As a project it sits as a cool contrast to my Rohan army from the previous years and I've been sat on the miniatures in the lead pile for a few years now.

Where my Rohan Army was bright mail and summer flowers, the Dunlanders are the complete opposite; dark greys, dirty metal and bitter winters really make these guys look like they have solid reason to pick a fight with Rohan over land disputes.

During early stages of list building, I found I needed a few extra models to fill the ranks, never knowingly passing a chance to do some customising, I converted some Ruffians into Wild Men. The army will have a few extra conversions before it's done, but this it for now.

The army I want to run is using the miniatures I have to hand with only a few bits specifically bought in to make up the points. As a result of this decision, the bulk of the army is going to be wild men rather than warriors. During early stages of list building, I found I needed a few extra models to fill the ranks, never knowingly passing a chance to do some customising, I converted some Ruffians into Wild Men. The army will have a few extra conversions before it's done, but this it for now. This at least should give me a numbers advantage if nothing else and gives me a solid reason to use the Wild man Oath Maker which is just a very cool character piece in my opinion. 

 That's what I have for now. More unwashed hairy blokes next time.

Hobgobs and Black Metal Shields

 

I Finished these guys off ages ago, but I was looking through old posts on here and realised I hadn't post finished pictures, particularly the Hobs who have had a fair bit of extra work done on them. 

The warband did brilliantly in the little Warcry campaign me and my friends played and I will revisit them another day to add some more conversions and to finish off the remaining Hobgrots. I've built about 15 in all, so it would be nice to see them done.

Retina Scarring

 I've fallen into a massive hobby binge lately. A good thing by all accounts, but naturally that means I spend more time painting and building and less time actually posting here. I put a couple of images up on Instagram, but you know what, I think it's good to talk about the process and this post was a long time coming.

I've had a few of these put up on Instagram, but they really do deserve their own post here. The Acid Punks was a project born of a set of Xmas presents from my family last year. The Escher was a gang that was something different for me to work on and a set of fluorescent paints off my Mam provided something I had never used before. The Gang has had a few small conversions, but I like the models enough to use them straight out the box.

The Gang Leader and Champions got the most customisation to get the weapon combos I wanted.

The Gangers and Juves were left pretty much as standard though I did go out of my way to get a flamer for my specialist. I love fire in Necromunda... probably a tad too much.

The astute among you will have noticed that I haven't used all the models from the box of 10 Gangers, and you are quite right. That's because I have long term plans. For those inclined to look at past posts, I ran a Gorkamorka Campaign some years ago to much success and enjoyment to all. The Ash Wastes rules provided me the opportunity to revisit that idea. That Wasteland vehicle carnage, the Big Truck heist and the rolling road hilarity was something I will one day get the Acid Punks out into the world. With that firmly set in mind I set a few models to one side with intentions to mount them on bikes or acting as vehicle crew.

As a teaser for more Necromunda, my buddy and I really latched onto the idea of the water crafts rules GW put on their website a while back. As a result we both picked up some affordable boats and piles of scrap and went to work. Watch this space, Pirates of the Sump in cinema soon.

For now though, I've got several other pet projects under way which I'll start posting a bit more frequently to try and keep my motivation up. Thanks

Unleash the Hogs of War

I'll be honest, not much to say about these Blood Axe Boar Boyz I just really wanted to use the "Hogs of War" as a title.

The Blood Axe army is in something of a limbo state right now. The current build for Orks in 40K right now is designed to play the more punch-in-the-face style of warfare specialized by Goffs and Snakebites. The Blood Axes don't play that way so I'll be working on them slowly in preparation for the Codex next year. Then it's time to get sneaky.

Shhhhh.... Waaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!

 

So...much...YELLOW!

 

Been a spell since my last post here. No excuses, just laziness on my part. That, said I haven't been idle. First up, here's a bit of an image dump showing the current state of my Imperial Fists. With the new 10th Ed Space Marine Codex up for release soon, I thought it time to plan the last few elements of the army before it all gets changed. At time of posting, everything shown here is still going to play with the new codex, but the Command Squad I have converted up will be going to legends. Arguably I'll be able to break up the squad as individual characters, but it's still annoying to finish a squad just in time to be made redundant.

Ah well, on the positive side, I'm still really enjoying 40K and the army is still fun to play with and I am incredibly pleased with the overall progress I've made up to now.

The Callidus Assassin was an odd ball addition to make up some points, but has since earned her place as a regular part of the army. Able to nerf enemy stratagems and threaten characters has forced a few opponents to rethink their targets just to see her off the board.

To round out the army, I'm going to add a couple of cheap units to fill gaps and I've a Redemptor Dreadnought on the bench that could use something to do. Probably get a scout unit to start the ball rolling though.

Next up a few images from a game I played last month. Really I just wanted to show off my friends absolutely insane converted Wardog. Long term, I'm told he's planning a Bloodbourne themed Chaos knight army, but if this beast is anything to go by, he could be a whils before we see anything else.

And that's all for now.

Dolphins, You Say?

 Something a bit different today. My colleagues over at Deadstar Publishing are come back to the Indy Comics world after a long hiatus. The Comics Convention community has been slow to rebuild near us these past few years after the world shut down, but Deadstar is back and very much alive.

Besides my own work with Deadstar, Danny J. Western (@teamjawa on Instagram) is ready the way for the third instalment of his comic series Dolphin Squad. 

The first two books are already available from Deadstar, but the new book is nearing completion and has gone live to Kickstarter this week to begin funding the printing costs. I'm a big fan of Danny's work and the first 2 volumes are an absolute riot of bright colours, delightful characters and fish puns... so MANY fish puns! Dolphin Squad really is a lot of fun, so if you're even just a little curious give Deadstar a look and if you like what you see, help get Dolphin Squad III printed and out into the world. 

God knows we need heroes more than ever, may as well use dolphins.

Dark Corridors and Neon Punks

 It has been a while, pure laziness on my part to upload photos, but I haven't been idle with painting. First up, finished proof of concept. I have been planning these for ages, and after a game of Necromunda the other week, I finally sat down and started work on the Acid Punks gang. 

The majority of the models are normal paints, but the bright colours are all fluorescent. They needed a few layers and a lot of patience, however I am incredibly pleased with the results. I'm finishing off some more marines to bring the army up to 10ED standards. Once they're out of the way, back to scarring my retinas. 

Going back to the afor mentioned Necromunda game. Gave me the chance to show off the sci-fi corridors I've been working on. This was a slow burn project that I'll be going back to every so often. I've only painted half the box so still plenty to get done, but what I have so far still makes for an interesting board.