Just a little distraction

I had converted up 20 marauders with great weapons awhile ago, and just a couple of weeks ago I decided to paint and dip them. The only model not finished is the champion because I forgot to finish his cloak. Next time I dip a batch of figs I'll finish him.


I also was bored one day and converted up this sorceror of Nurgle sorcerer. I am not too happy with his beard color, so any suggestions would be appreciated. I kept his hat red to match in with the rest of the army. He is not dipped, just inked and highlighted.


I am going to try and update this blog more next year, so I guess that means I need to start painting.

Sorry for the long wait...

It has been awhile since I have updated this blog. The last few months have been very busy and a newborn in the house really puts a damper on your modeling. I finally finished my Greatswords. They took me at least 5 months to do, but I barreled through and completed them.

The Greatswords were a joy to put together. They are the best Empire plastic regiment by far. The detail and all the odds and ends are "almost" worth their incredible high price. I kept with the Nordland theme, with a splash of red on all the swords to tie the regiment together. Then used Army Painter Strong Tone to "dip" them. I made the final 21st Greatsword out of state troops, Free Company and GS bitz. I got a freehand barracuda design off the net and tried to paint it on to keep a nautical theme.


I got the Isle of Blood set and decided to covert the griffin into an Empire General. The head is from the pistoliers kit, the body from the Knight kit, and the lance from the hero kit. I hope you like. The shield is positioned like that to cover up the left arm which doesn't quite match the rest of the rider.


The BSB I made using extra legs from the state troops, the head from the pistoliers (I love the pistolier heads), the sword from the knight kit, and the top of the standard from the wizard kit. Now I just need to paint him up.



Here is the movement tray I will be using for my empire archers. It is balsa wood with metal plates for the base magnets. The front ridge I had to put on for support.



I have some more things I need get on this blog, but I promise it won't be as long of a wait as this.

Finally I got a game of 8th in!

Sorry for the long lack of updates, but my wife and I had a beautiful baby girl about 2 months ago and my gaming and painting has taken a hit.

I was able to sneak out of the house and play a game with my Ogres vs a friends O&G army. My camera's battery died so I wasn't able to get any pics of the game, but I did learn a lot.

Not to rehash others thoughts on 8th, but this is what I came away with:

-Level 4's do a great job at not only casting, but dispelling as well.
-6 Ironguts with a tyrant and slaughtermaster in a 4x2 block buffed up (+2T,Regen,stubborn)can take some hits and then dish a tremendous amount of pain.
-I need to make markers to remind myself what each terrain piece does. I like the terrain rules and TLOS wasn't as bad as I thought.
-Everyone talks about magic, but when you roll 3 PD a turn, magic can be nonexistent in some turns.
-Moving and pre-measuring is vastly improved. It is fast, easy, and straightforward.
-Blocks of 25 orcs are too small.

It was a fun day, I hope to write more soon. I need to update this blog with pics of my Greatswords!

More troops for the slaughter!

Here are pics of the spearmen block. I am not too happy with the freehand trident banner, but it will have to do. I am hoping I don't need to enlarge this block of 25 for 8th Edition but only time will tell.

I also finished the first unit of knights. I think I will be expanding it to either 10 or 12 models. Right now I have 7, but in 8th the second rank gets 1 attack so I am leaning towards 12. The champion is a mix of the General and Knightly Orders kit. Basically all the bitz I didn't use for the Pegasus.

The pictures didn't come out as well this time, and I think they look much better in person. It was also a bit humid and my dull coate fogged up just a little bit. I should have waited for a better day, but I am impatient.

I also finished the Hellblaster. The one cool thing about this model is that you can use it either as a HB or as the rocket battery. I assembled 2 additional crew modeled as rocket reloaders but didn't take any pictures of them. I still need to paint up the rocket battery part. The crew chief is ace and can easily be used as an engineer.

In between painting troops I painted some character models: a Lore of Metal/Shadow wizard, another warrior priest, a captain, and an engineer. For the captain I attempted to make the raven look more like a seagull.

I also finished the handgunner regiment. This was going to be a detachment, but I think I will use crossbowmen instead so my marksmen can get a Hochland for some sniper action.

Here is a pic of what is painted so far.

I hope you enjoyed this update. Next up are Greatswords and Knights. The plastic greatswords are some of the best models I have seen, and even though they are expensive I think they will come in handy in 8th Ed. (I got them as part of 2 battalian boxes so they become a bit cheaper that way). I plan on using a unit 7x3 which would allow the maximum number of attacks against a 5 man frontal unit with another rank for soaking up casualties.

I will be in a 2250 pt hard core tournament this weekend. Here is the pic of my army on a magnetic bulletin board. Makes transport so much easier.

New Banner

I changed the banner up top to help motivate myself to get my Empire army done. I will post up some pics of the completed spearmen soon. Currently, I am working on some handgunners and the HB/Rocket Battery crew. They are almost basecoated and should be done by the end of the week. 8th Ed should not affect this army, in fact I am sort of building it around the rumors that are going around. I will just need to rethink my detachments and add some mortars.

I was hoping to have this army finished before next weekend's Hard "Core" Tournament, but just have to bring out the Chaos Warriors instead. I thought about using Ogres instead, but I tweeked the Chaos list, again, and need to try it out. With the baby due at the end of July, this might be the last tournament I play in for quite some time. Here is an old pic of some warriors.

Ahoy mateys!

I finished up the free company detachments last week. I am going to run them 3x3 which should allow 6 attacks to a 5 ranked deep unit. One of these 9 man Free Companies is going to be attached to the Swordsmen I have done already.
I still have to finish the movement tray for this detachment.
Here are a couple of closeups of two of my FCers. Front and rear shots. One detachment has all double handed weapons with two doggies and the other has the regular AHWs. I tried to make the FCs look like Navy marine reservists. Constripted in times of was, but basically retired after their servitude with the Emperor's Fleet.
I just started a new job so hopefully I can keep on schedule and get the 25 man Spearman unit finished this week. Enjoy!

Adventures in magnetizing bases

I finally bit the bullet and decided to magnetize some of my armies. The main reason is pure laziness. I hate removing and putting back my models into a figure case. When I travel I just like to place the army in the back of my SUV and be done with it.


I read a bunch of different techniques on how to do this. Some suggested using metal trays cut from metal roof flashing to having a machine shop cut the required pieces. I opted to try something else, magnetic paint! This took me awhile to find at Lowes because it was in a box. Who sells paint in a box when everything else around it are in cans? This can cost about $22 for a quart. I opted for the paint as I already have movement trays for every one of my armies and that way I should just need to put a few layers of this stuff on and be done with it.



Each coat takes about 30 minutes to dry, and even after 5 coats it barely held a plastic model on. Any shaking at all and the models would fall off. Metal figs just fell right off. The magnets I use are 1/4"x1/16" which I got 500 for $25 off ebay.



So I went and tried something else. I bought 3/16" washers which are about an 1" in diameter (same as a 25mm base). The only problem is that I never liked the gaps. So I used some normal household filler in all the gaps and just primed over it, painted, and flocked.



Now they hold even metal figs nice and secure. Even shaking won't knock these suckers off.

The troops are coming together.

In the last two weeks I have finished a unit of 25 swordsmen, my Empire general, a couple of cannons, and a few other models. Everything below was "dipped" using Army Painter strong tone, and was brushed on. I really like the "dip method" and the more I use it the more I like the way a model comes out. It just blends things in really well, and hides small blemishes. The great thing about AP is that afterwards you can always go back and paint on an additional highlight if you like. I still need to go back an do eyeballs for the front ranks and certain key figures.

The general is made from a Brettonian Pegasus with the head switched with that of the armored Empire horse head from the Empire General box. I tried to keep the yellow and blue theme going, and scraped off all the heretical Brettonian heraldry. The cloak didn't come out as well as I would have liked, but I went back and highlighted it as I felt it looked too "dirty" after the dip. The freehand vines were done with a green sharpie.

I envision my general being a significant noble of the region, hence the pegasus. I think I will name him Lord Neilson.

Warrior Priest - I kept his right eye pupil white as if an old scar blinded him many years earlier. I like the rugged look of the warrior priest sculpts, and may have to pick up the other models for them.
This here is Lucy, painted after my real life dog. She will be used in one of the Free Company detachments.

Swordsmen - Banner was freehand, which is not my strong suit. I made these uniforms into halves. Yellow on the left and blue on the right with blue shields. If I do another unit I will change it up. Every model also has a bit of red somewhere on it, either as a ribbon or something small.

Here is one of the swordsmen bravely leaving his unit to show what my standard RnF troop looks like. As you can see I don't bother with his eyes.

Cannons - Each crew has its own uniform. Very slight differences, but it will also help me decide which crew are teamed up.

I am not sure if my next large block of troops will be swordsmen or spearmen. I am waiting to hear some solid rumors on 8th edition before I commit. Until then I will be working on the detachments which right now will be Free Company and maybe another handgunenr unit. Once I have all the infantry done, I will start on the cavalry, hellblaster, and rocket battery.

I am waiting on some rare earth magnets to arrive by mail, and my next post will be magnetizing the army. I will also be using magnetized paint on the movement trays so stay tuned.