Pre-planning and future shadowing from GW

Hi all,

I was flicking through the WFB rulebook last night and noticed this picture in the Dark Elves section of the fluff section.

Witch Elf!

It's the statue of Khaine in the background that caught my eye. WFB 8th editon was released in July 2010 and the following kit was released only last year. 

Cauldron of Blood

I think it's fairly obvious where the inspiration for the model came from, either the model designers were working on this kit while the book was in production or they took whole scale cues from the artwork in the the 8th edition rulebook.

Until next time,

Vinny 

Raising the Blog from the Dead

Hi all,

what an appropriate model to showcase for my first post on this blog in over a year. Suffice to say I've had a busy year with lots of changes in my life, but I'm back on the hobby horse now in a big way. 

As a Vampire Counts Warhammer player the release of an updated Nagash model really got me excited and the creative juices flowing. The majority of hobby websites have suggested to build this model in sections and this is exactly what I've done. The first section I started and completed was the base and the ghosts/cloak, the finished product you can see below.

Front showing the ghosts and base

The base was made slightly more interesting by a couple of Hirst pieces I had lying around, I like the effect it gives, like Nagash is floating through a ruined city or building, This is also the first time that I've tried to add puddles to my bases, something you can only really do in large bases like this and I am very pleased with how they turned out, considering they are only area's of the base left empty from the Vallejo Pumice I use to base pretty much everything, given a coat of wood glue and then when dry washed with Secret Weapon Baby Poop wash.

Rear of the model and base

Starting Nagash was fairly daunting and starting him on the largest and most intimidating of his sections even more so! Saying that I'm quite happy with how he's turned out so far.

Until next time,

Vinny

The wood for the trees

I recently bought four sets of the GW tree sets figuring even though I don't play much (or at all) they are pretty much a hobby investment y'know? Like cuff links for a guy or a little black dress for a girl, you are safe in the knowledge they're there to call on in an emergency.

So over the last couple of weeks I've been assembling and I'm currently in the removal of mould lines, only four more trees to go before I can start greenstuffing the cracks. I've found this kit does not fit together amazingly well. Some really large gaps are visible.

Current WiP

I have made a beginning on the first of the trees, starting with a green Basecoat, followed by a cream drybrush and a wash of secret weapon concrete wash. More specific colours will be in the next post.

The base is still to be finished but I'm not doing much more to the tree, it's gaming standard I'm aiming for.

Posted with Blogsy

Vampires, Airbrushes and Cygnar

Hi gang,

over the weekend I finished up the Vampire Countess I have been painting. I've been painting her over the last two weeks and it's a miniature that I really enjoyed painting.

Vampire Countess (Avatar of War)

I'm fairly happy with how she turned out, especially the reds and the skin. The pictures may be a bit dark and they are something I need to improve but I was also quite happy with the dark black armour, which I highlighted with Turquoise Blue to try and give it a steel look. I was really trying to achieve the classic, white skin/black hair/red cloak vampire look and I'm reasonably happy with how she turned out.

I also started work on the Cygnar Battlebox I purchased a month or two ago. I had the set already cleaned up and glued together but I broke out the airbrush and set to work with gusto. Firstly I primed white with Vallejo White Primer.

White Undercoat Cygnar Battlebox

I then used masking medium to block out the white areas I wanted to keep.

Blocked of masking medium

 I then used Vallejo Game Colour Enchanted Blue to give a good base colour to work from.

And that's where I left that battlegroup at the moment. The plan is to darken the blue up a little bit but at the same time have a very clean bright colour scheme. I don't normally undercoat my mini's white so it's going to be a learning curve for me.

Talk to you guys later.

40k Battle and Updated Vampire's

Two posts in two days! What the hell is going on?

Game of 40k:

Well my regular gaming buddy Phil, sent me on a couple of pictures of our game of 40k the weekend before last. A classic Ork vs Guard match up, 1500pts each. I was playing a boy heavy Ork army (90 slugga's) supported by 3 deffkopta's, an eight strong Nob mob with a painboy and a Weirdboy, a Big Mek with a Shokk Attack Gun and a looted wagon with Boom Gun. I can't remember exactly what Phil ran, but there were definitely 3 sentinels, some snipers, a couple of platoons, a veteran squad in a chimera, three autocannon teams, three heavy bolter teams an a Leman Russ of some sort.

Phil's Deployment (with objective)

My Deployment, beginning my first turn (with objective)

We had a great game, despite the fact we were both fairly rusty with the rules having not played a game of 40k in a couple of months. I gave Phil a bit of a shock in the first couple of rounds with my Weirdboy warping the unit of Nobs up the board right into his lines. The painboy made the unit quite durable and they caused a lot of damage initially, but eventually weight of fire wore them down. By this stage two of my maxed units of boyz were almost on the Imperial Guard lines. But Phil stayed disciplined with his firing and eventually wiped out both boyz units. He eventually counter attacked in turn 5 with his veteran squad in the chimera for my objective. It would have been a drawn if the game finished on turn 6 but his chimera tank shocked the remaining boy unit to contest my objective in turn 7 and earned him a hard fought win.

I really enjoyed this game and about half way through thought I had a good chance to win it, but two mistakes really cost me. Firstly I just didn't have a enough anti-armour weapon's in my army. I had neglected to give any nobs power fists, and relied two heavily on the Shok Attack Gun and BoomGun to do the damage. While the Shok Attack Gun was decent (I managed to roll a str9 shot for 3 turns) and only rolled a double once, relying on the looted wagon with a BS of 2 to do a large amount of damage may not have been the best plan. Especially with the amount of terrain we had on the board. The second mistake was calling the Waaagh a turn too early, and not actually getting any of my ork units into CC. A rookie mistake made due to lack of game time with my boyz.

But a very enjoyable game over all and well done to Phil for staying the course and eking a win out of a hard fought game.

Vampire Counts:

So here is a quick update on the painting of my vampire counts. Firstly I did a quick basecoat and wash on the mounted vampires base. It was a basecoat of GW Khermi Brown followed by a heavy wash of Devlan Mud.

Inital work on the skelleton's

I have spent more time with the female vampire (stop snickering down the back!), focusing mainly on the reds. I have been experimenting with shading and highlighting with complementary colours.

Initial work on the red dress

Back

Currently the closest to finished part of the dress

So the recipe so far looks like this:

1. Undercoat Black

2. Basecoat Vallejo Gory Red

3. Shade 50:50 mix of Vallejo Gory Red and Dark Green

4. Darkest Shadows Vallejo Dark Green

5. First Highlight 50:50 mix of Vallejo Gory Red and Livery Green.

The use of complementary colours to shade and highlight is only something I have recently come across but I think it's a very interesting technique and something I would really like to get to grips with.

Until next time.

Vampire Counts Vampires

Hi,

so I've had a fairly productive hobby weekend. I built the Vampire Count Coven Throne and am now worried whether I should have painted it on the spruce rather that after the building. I have kept the 3 Vampire's off of the mini for painting though. I also converted the 3 banshee's in that kit for the Mortis Engine into normal banshee's which I hope to use place in units in the future.

My main work though was the cleaning up and undercoating of two of my Vampire models. The first of these was the female vampire from Avatars of War. A model that I really love.

Vampiress Count cleaned and given a black wash for detail

Link to this mini on the Avatars of War Store

The second vampire I was working on during the weekend is mounted and comes from the great German Gamezone Range.

Gamezone Mournful Knight 1

Link to this mini on the Gamezone Store

The base does not come with the mini, but I have taken it from the Harry the Hammer limited edition release GW produced a couple of years ago.

Base without the Knight

I'm delighted with this little bit of a conversion. (Does a base swap count as a conversion) because I really think it adds a sense of dynamic movement to the model. Like the Vampire is charging over the useless ranks of skeleton's to get at the enemy more quickly.

Coming in the next post: Basecoats of the the vampire miniatures. 

Current painted Vampire Counts Army

Hi gang,

A very quick blog today to show you guys (and keep a record for myself) of what I have completed for my Vampire Counts army as of the 20th of Jan 2012. I finished off my 60 zombies last night. These were painted and based last but I wanted to magnetise them and their movement tray and give them a coat of Matt Varnish. So I did this and took a couple of pictures of the finished unit with my Ghouls, Dire Wolves, Spirit Hosts, Wraiths, Necromancer and Banshee.

Vampire Counts Army-Jan 2012

So from the list and the picture you can see that this army is missing it's title character. My next project with this army is to add not one but two Vampire Counts. A male vampire on a nightmare and a female vampire on foot.

Expect an update in relation to these soon.

Vampire Count Dire Wolves

Hi guys!

just a quick update to show you the finished unit of Dire Wolves. Like the Ghoul unit before it I had the basecoat of the main colours done well before Christmas but they had been sitting in my 'to finish' pile for a couple of months.

So once again I gave them a good coating of Army Painter Quickshade followed by a spray of Matt Varnish once they were dry. I then added the snow to the base and called it a job.

Three large photo's when one could have done!

Once again I'm quite happy with how this unit has turned out. The Army Painter Quickshade really does take a lot of work out of getting these mini's finished and looks particularly well on browns I think. So that is the majority of the low hanging fruit painting wise finished this year. I don't think I'll be making such quick progress for the rest of the year but 31 finished miniatures before 2 weeks of 2012 is over is easily the record of productivity for me!

My next project is to go back and magnetise all 60 of my zombies and give one or two of them a repaint. As well as start on painting the first of my Vampires to lead this army.

Laters!
Vinny

Vampire Count Ghouls Finished

Hi gang,

over the Christmas break while I was at home (about 200km away from my paints and models) I really got the itch to paint. This feeling is always the same for me, If ever I go a couple of days without doing something hobby related I really start to feel a need to sit down and glue or paint something.

When I finally got back to my hobby desk I set about satisfying that itch with gusto. I got my secret Santa for 2011 finished and in the mail. (I will post finished pictures when the person who it's meant for confirms delivery) I then set about finishing a 20 strong unit of Ghouls for my Vampire Count army.

With the new army book being released at the end of this week I thought it was the ideal time to go back and revisit the two VC units I left in mid-paint, the first of these was the unit of Ghouls. Over Christmas I resolved to get more of this army painted but I needed to find a way to do this more quickly than what I was previously achieving. Eventually I remembered that I had done some previous experiments with The Army Painter Quick Shade range of products and that the browns of these shades would be perfect for a grotty falling apart Vampire Count Army.

So I broke out a used paint brush and gave each of the twenty models a fairly liberal coating. After leaving them dry for about 24 hours I then gave them a coat of Army Painter Matt Varnish. I finished the whole unit off by basing them with a couple patches of snow.

I have to say I am really pleased with how this unit turned out. It is not going to win a Golden Demon anytime soon but they are a good solid tabletop quality. So that hobby itch is being satisfied but it's not quite gone yet, but 21 finished models since the beginning of January is not a bad start to 2012.

Next unit on the painting table is my 10 man dog unit of Dire Wolves.

Until next time.

The New Year Plans

Hi everyone,

I hope you all had a very relaxing and peaceful Christmas with families and loved ones and are now fully refreshed for a new year of hobby action!

The big news over Christmas is of course the leaked pictures of the new Vampire Counts miniatures and army book on Christmas Eve. My initial thoughts from the blurry scans are very positive and as a vampire player I think I will definitely have to pick up at least the Coven Throne, Wight King and Black Knights.

Of course there is nothing like a new army book to refocus your thoughts on the unpainted models in your army. So with this in mind I have gotten out my half finished regiment of Ghouls and my old long forgotten tub of army painter dip. I have liberally applied the varnish with a brush and the ghouls are now sitting around drying. I think it should be a matter of a few spot highlights here and there, the basing and I can call them done. I also have a unit of five Dire Wolves which are going to get the same treatment.

From there it will be onto the units of Skeletons. I plan to use the army painter dip for all of this painting and really hope it will help me speed up the production of the 60 or so skeletons I have to get through.

So in this very soft and fuzzy outlined plan I'm setting out my new year hobby resolutions. So expect to see Vampire Counts stuff for the first six months of the year from me. (With maybe a little Warmachine stuff thrown in for good measure.

I hope you'll be able to follow me in the year ahead.  

Movement Trays and Magnets

Hi gang,

so last week I have been focused on getting work done on the ghouls in my Vampire Counts army. I have nine of the 20 man unit done and I should be able to finish the unit off by the end of this week if all goes to plan. Also involved in getting this unit done was to make them a movement tray. So I purchased some plasticard and Pollyfilla (Spackle in the USA?) and set to work using the cut off from a sprue to make the edging.

Ghoul movement tray marked off for a tweny man unit.

So I wanted to magnitise this tray, mainly to stop the models beening knocked over and after much searching in hardware and picture stores I finally came across what I was looking for in my local €2 shop.

€2 for 2 sheets of A4 Magnetic Paper

 So by sticking this to the movement tray and to the bottom of the bases of the ghouls I now have a front rank that defy gravity!

Finished front rank just hanging out

The magnetic grip is relatively strong but I doubt it would do for heavy metal miniatures but for light plastic miniatures like this it's just the ticket.

An interesting thing I took a while to figure out was that if the magnetic paper I stuck on the base of the miniature does not align with the magnetic paper on the movement try it will not stick! I had problems with the ghast mini not sticking to movement try when facing forward in the front rank. But if I turned the mini 90 degrees to the left or right it would stick no problem. Obviously I had cut the magnetic square for the base out of the A4 sheet, but turned it sideways when sticking onto the base, therefore the magnetic fields couldn't 'click'. I can only imagine this is something to do with the creation of the magnetic sheet.  

Until next time!

Skaven Test Subject

Hi gang,

I have spend my hobby time in the last couple of days divided between painting my Vampire Counts Ghoul unit (as well as constructing their movement tray) and trying to perfect the the colours I want to paint my Skaven army.

Finished Test mini

 So this is the scheme I've come up with. I have added a new page to my blog, where I am going to keep a record of all my painting recipes. This is more for me in the future rather than for you guys but hopefully someone else might find it useful. This Clanrat is the first miniature to be added to the list. (Very unlike Skaven to be the first in anything, they would normally leave that to the more brave/foolhardy races, preferring to stab them in the back when they are not looking and take their rightful place in their stead.)

I always knew I wanted to go with a blue colour with this army as it's not a colour you see many skaven forces, but I really did struggle with the skin colour. I obviously wanted it to be a quick scheme to paint and I experimented with a lot of different browns, ranging from Vermin Brown to Calthan Brown, and Beastial Brown to Khemri Brown but found that they were all too dark. The combination of the dark metal, the dark cloth tunic and the dark skin just made the mini look like a blob of browns from a distance. I eventually went with the classic Tallarn Flesh washed with Orgyn Flesh. I found this brightened the miniature up and defined the different areas of the mini a lot more.

I  also like how the metal turned out, for a very simple method which can be done quickly. This fits the image in my head of a skaven horde with rusty weapons advancing under the whips of their betters. The basing is going to be simple with a grey gravel base with a couple of tufts of dead grass.

Until next time.........

Initial Skaven Thoughts

Drawn by Adrain Smith, coloured by MajesticChicken (DeviantArt)

Hi gang,

I got to play my two first games with Skaven yesterday and I wanted to give some inital thoughts on them. But firstly I want to say that I am in no way a regular WFB player and in fact these thoughts should be seen as being from someone who has just started playing the game. With that statement out of the way onto my thoughts about the army.

So both myself and my regular opponent Phil have been learning WFB with the same army, namely Vampire Counts. As you can imagine while having enjoyable games they have tended to be quite magic heavy with little to no shooting or psychology. The combats have also tended to be large grind fests with neither side breaking and each Vampire respawning any lost troops in the magic phase.

The get around this we decided to start another army each, so Phil decided on Wood Elves and from my previous posts you should know I have gone for Skaven. As I have said we played two games with these armies yesterday. The first was a 1000pts game and the second was a 750pts game.

The First Game:

I used all the mini's from the Island of Blood Box set along with a 15 man(rat) unit of Gutter Runners. I placed the Engineer (upgraded to a level 2 Wizard with Skitterleap and Warplightening) in the unit of Clanrat Spearmen with a Poisoned Wind Mortar, the chieftain was with the unit of handweapon Clanrats with a Warpfire Thrower and the Giant rats with a Master Moulder were on the right hand side of my flank. Phil had 2 ten man units of Glade Guard, 2 five man units of Scouts, an 8 man unit of Dyrads, 5 glade riders and a hero of some kind with a bow that shot four arrows a turn. He deployed the 2 units of scouts and the hero on my right flank. Everything else was deployed in front of me.

So how did it go for the ratmen? Awfully! I got completely destracted by the flanking force of the scouts and hero, and didn't know whether to stick or twist and in the end fell between both stools and ended up being pincushoned by the elves bow fire.

I used skitterleap in the first magic phase to move my engineer to behind the scouts units in the hope of killing them in my shooting phase only to realise I had forgotten to give my engineer a gun! (No doubt some rival engineer had switched the real gun with a wooden dummy!) He was quickly shot to death in Phil's turn, thereby giving up the clear magical advantage I had as Phil had no wizards in his army. From there on my force was really split in half with one unit of clanrats shot by the two units of Glade Guard and the Glade Riders and the reminder running away. The second unit of clanrats with spears and the Chieftain being beaten by 1 in close combat with the Dyrads and being run down and the Rat Ogres and Master Molder falling from the combined fire of the scouts and Wood Elf hero. The only high point was the Gutter runners coming on behind the Scouts and wiping out one unit with poisoned throwing stars and the other in close combat. But by the end of the fourth turn it was all over and a convincing victory for the Wood Elves.

What I learned: 

1. Skaven have really low leadership! Being used to playing Vampire Counts who never break in combat it was quite a shock to me how easily the Skaven broke. It was even more a shock how easily it is for the opposing player to run them down. If not in the turn which they broke but in the turn after. It really drove home to me the need for the extra ranks leadership boost the skaven have access to.
2. ALWAYS know what your characters are equipped with. While the plan to skitterleap the Engineer behind the scouts and hero was a bad idea in the first place as I was never going to be able to kill them all even if I had a gun, to not have a gun at all was idiotic! We did have a good laugh at my stupidity though.
3. Be focused. I really did get distracted by the flanking force and hesistated in my first turn. This allowed Phil to fire at me at will in his turn, as he didn't feel treatened by my units in any way. It was always an uphill struggle after the first turn.

The Second Game:

For this game we dropped the points down to 750pts. I removed the Chieftain from my list and coverted my Gutter Runners to Night Runners with slings. My Engineer Rolled Warp Lightening and Cracks Call (?) for his magic this game. Phil removed one unit of scouts, reduced the no of Dyrads and took away the command group from one of his Glade Guard. We left the table the same.

This time around I resolved not to get distracted by the flanking force (Phil used the exact same tactic) and instead marched both Clanrat units and the Rat Ogre Unit right up the middle of the board. The Night Runners scuttled up the side of the board. In the magic phase I got Warp Lightening off on the Dryads and rolled high for the number of hits and ended up killing 3. In Phil's turn he really had a hard time choosing what targets to shoot at but decided to shoot everything at the Rat Ogres. He succeeded in killing the Packmaster and one Rat Ogre. The final Ogre wandered into dangerous terrain 2 turns later due to stupidity and managed to kill himself. In my second turn I didn't move, but used Warp Lightening on one unit of Glade Guard who broke and ran off the table and hit the second unit with the Poisoned Wind Mortor, killing 8 of the ten, who also broke and ran off the table. The Night Runners on the flank targeted the Glade Riders with their slings and killed all five and finally the Warpfire Thrower killed 2 of the scouts on the right flank causing them to flee. From then on it was a mop up mission for the skaven, but not before my Engineer Clanrat unit passing a panic test on a roll of six when my leadership was a six. My other clanrat unit a turn later passed a leadership test on exactly the same score a turn later to stop them running of the table, only for their attached Warpfire Thrower to explode and wipe five of them off the face of the old world.

What I learned:

1. Skaven have really low leadership! The game could have been quite different if I had not luckily passed two different leadership tests on a six. It seems lots of ranks of rats is the only way forward.
2. Sometimes the dice gods are with you. See point 1 above. Also twice Phil rolled an inititive test to stop firstly his hero and then a dyrad falling into the crack from the Cracks Call spell, His inititive 7 models both rolled sixes.
3. When Skaven magic and shooting hit they are very powerful. The second game only emphasied how much I missed my Engineer in the magic phase in the first game. I never got a chance to use the weapon teams in the first game but in the second game they were deadly to both elves and skaven.
4. Stay focused. By giving Phil a lot of targets in the early stages of the game I forced him to make decisons. He wiped out my Ogres but that left the Engineer and the weapons teams to still cause a lot of damage. It was a lot better than dilly dallying in my deployment zone, which I did in the first game.

So two very enjoyable games with a lot learned about using skaven in WFB and I'm looking forward to using them again. I'm already planning on what to add to it and a Screaming Bell is really calling out to me! I also feel a Skaven Battalion with more clanrats/rat ogres and plague monks would be a good addition. Oh and an Assassin!

Until next time..............

Brains!!!!!!!!!!

Hi gang,

Finally it's done! I have painted all 60 zombies ready to be unleased upon a gaming board in a shambling hoarde of brain lust.

Full unit view

Close up

Close up 2!

Not much more to say really only thank God they are done! I'll not want to paint zombies for a while now! Next up for the VC army is a nice Necromancer to put some life in this horde and generally order them about. I like rewarding myself with a one off mini after grinding through a large unit.

Laters!

I'm Back!

Hello gang!

Yes I'm back, I apologise for the lack of hobby updates for the last three months, but I have a very good reason. I went on a trip. Myself and the girlfriend had just finished college, and we decided to head off for a couple of months. So after a trip through Russia, China, Australia and New Zealand, I'm back looking for a job, and doing hobby related stuff again.

While I was away I did pick up the new edition of WFB, (turns out the rulebook is more expensive in New Zealand than home) and got inspired to get cracking at some of the WFB models I have hanging around here. Maybe it was the long lay off from hobby related stuff but I've been working flat out on mini's for the last two days. 

The first thing I did though was move all my hobby gear out of my tiny bedroom at home and took over a spare room. I figured I might be home for a while so why should I be hunched over a fold up desk in my sleeping cupboard? Why not have a place with plenty of light and space, and somewhere to chill out and read and practice guitar?

  My new hobby desk/table with plenty of storage and display shelves

 Chill out/reading area

 A clean hobby table!

So the first thing I set eyes on yesterday when I sat at my new hobby table was the Lizardmen Battalion I had bought a couple of years ago but had done nothing with. So I broke out the clippers, superglue and hobby knife and got gluing.

 A couple of hours later........a full lizardman battalion + lord choice.

This morning I got up and spent an hour or two basing them in a nice little conveyor belt system I set up.

 The silver pot contains 50:50 mixture of PVA and water, which is brushed onto the base, then the model dunked into the sand, the lose sand removed and left to dry on the tissue. Once the whole battalion was based I went back and gave them all another coat of PVA to seal the deal so to speak.

I have a colour scheme worked out, which you can see in the second to last picture. Tomorrow I hope to get started on the painting.

Until the next update, stay painting,

Vinny

Painting a White Horse

Hi gang!

I am really sorry about the quantity of updates I'm putting up here. I did intent to have more posts, but it turns out you can only post to a hobby blog when you do hobby related stuff, or more accurately "interesting hobby related stuff". Browsing CMoN does not a hobby blog post make! As I've said before,I've  moved home, but I'm actually spending weeks at time at my girlfriends, hence only dribs and drabs of hobby content. 

So I've been very slowly working on the horse which I showed pictures of in my last blog, this included a couple of green ink washes on the barding and the inital basecoat for the gold detailing on the armour. The most serious work I have done though is on the horse's coat. This is only the second time I've ever made a serious attempt at painting a horse. The first worked out ok, not great, just ok (I'll post a picture some time, as I also have to finish that mini!). Painting this horse is cheating really though as he's mostly all legs and neck, none of that tricky stomach/arse area. 

I begin with a basecoat of GWF Astromican Grey. This was followed by several thin washes of Vallejo Cold Grey applied to the shadow area's (under the armour), inside the knee joints and the depths of the leg and neck muscles to build up the shadow. 

The first highlight was achieved by mixing 3 drops of Vallejo Cold Grey to 1 brush load of Privateer Press White and 1 drop water and painting onto the definied muscles. When this was painted a second brush load of PP white was added to the paint mix along with a second drop of water to keep the consistency. This was layered onto the muscles. White paint and water in the same volumes were added a third time and once again layered onto the model. A final highlight of pure PP white was then applied. 

Ah! Thats about it for the update really. I would love to hear from anyone who might have a suggestion on how to improve the white. To date its probably the smoothest and nicest white I've managed to paint, but I'm always ready to hear tips on how to improve myself as a painter.

Horsey Bases!

One of the thing I've decided I need to work on is the basing of my mini's. Up until now they have been the standard PVA/flock combo, which does not really cut the mustard for the display mini's I hope to paint at some stage in my life. So I need to get practicing on improving my basing techniques. To that end I've attempted to make a start on the base of my Empire leader, which I showed pictures of when I first started this blog.

So these three pictures show what I've done. I'm trying to show a grassy overhang on a rocky slope. The rock was made out of some cork board, and the slope created from standard milluput, with a skull pushed into it. Hopefully by paint and the placement of flock will make this look a little more interesting than a normal base.

Skaven Awesome Sauce

Thats it, i'm done. Games workshop have left me a broken man. I cannot resist these models anymore. There was some grainy scan's before of the Screaming Bell and Plague Furnace, but GW have new clear ones on their blog today. These two mini's are the icing on the top of the skaven cake. The level of detail on these two mini's is amazing, but its the just general weirdness of them that appeal to me.

Skaven Seer riding a screaming bell hung from a door arch (and foundations!) , being rung by a Rat Orge sitting on top a giant platform? Check!

A giant censor, also hanging from a door arch, being swung by a tide of plague riddled and hooded man size rats? Check!

I see for us euro users, its priced at €45.50, which I think is a good price point. I for one can't wait.

On introduction miniatures and Plastic Doomwheels!

I don't know about you guys, but I can remember clearly the first mini I ever saw. It might not sound that important, but if you think about it, this mini is probably the most important model you'll ever see.

Now I would imagine for the vast majority of people the first miniature they would be introduced to is a Space marine. No problem there at all, and indeed a kick-ass space marine miniature, is probably  the 'perfect storm mini' to entice prepubescent/teenage males into the hobby. (No offence to prepubescent/teenage males intended I was one too!) Space marines are consisently the largest selling model range GW have, and this is down to a very strong imaginary, which is easy to explain and understand. Superhuman warrior monks in space sums their background up and its an image which appeals to pretty much everyone. God knows I've enough of them around to know that they appeal to me! 

But my first mini was completely different. It was not a superhuman soldier, it was not even a normalhuman soldier. In fact it was not human at all! You may have guessed by the title of the blog it was a humonid rat ontop of a giant wheel with spikes. This is a classic mini in my book, and one of the weirdest mini's in an army that always throws up weird mini's!

My friend brought this mini into to school unpainted. With heavy old metal mini in my hands, the weighty feel of it was perfect. The little details like all the rats running in the wheel to provide the power, the unusual seat on top, and the questionable ability of the seer to actually control the thing. It all sucked me in and I was hooked. Hooked on everything about mini's, and I fear now after 13 years I'm going to be hooked for ever. What it says about me that the doomwheel burst my mini cherry, I do not know.

Unfortuanately newer people to the hobby may have never even heard of this old classic. as it was not in the previous army book. Browsing the GW site this morning I see that they are releasing a plastic version of the doomwheel for the new army book!

 

Despite all my eulogising of the old school mini, I never actually owned a version. So here we go again, the old mini collectors guilt. Even though I have no intention of collecting skaven, (even though I do have soft spot for them) I intend to pick up a Doomwheel. Games Workshop reach into my pocket and take my money because of nostiliga. The worst thing? I love them for it.

So? Can you guys remember the first mini that you ever saw? What effect did it have on you?

Finished the gold.

It was basecoated with scorched brown, followed by a highlight with 50:50 scorched brown:burnished gold, followed by 50:50 burnished gold: mitril silver. The gold was then given a final wash of Leviathan Purple

The skin was given a basecoat of Vallejo Game Colour Dark Fleshtone.