Death Guard - Some old school reinforcements and some new models.

While searching around for some Ogre bits a few weeks ago, I stumbled on a handful of old school Rhino-based vehicles. Some were missing parts after years of neglect, others had never seen paint (beyond their black primer coat), so I decided to resurrect them as reinforcements for my Heresy-era Death Guard. I little scraping here and flipping there and I'd managed to salvage the four you see above. The two blue vehicles were originally part of the Crimson Fist Space Marine army that I built in 1997, that graced the back cover of White Dwarf sometime in 1998 (I think). I had a few hatches handy, but hot enough exhausts to replace the damaged ones. I decided to replace all of the exhaust tops with plastic tubing to tie them in with the current Forgeworld homage to this old transport.

Since this photo, they've all been primed and are awaiting a session with the airbrush (which is in turn waiting for me to complete the assembly on my Spartan).

But enough of the old school stuff, here are a few photos of some shiny new models I've assembled using some of the great new parts from Victoria Miniatures!

First up is a trooper using a head, arms, and legs from the Arcadian kit, and the all new Cloaked torso from the Borderworld Rangers kit. Despite being planned for a different set of legs, this particular cloak falls wonderfully over this set of advancing legs. This guy would make a great stand-in for a Vervunhive recruit to Gaunt's Ghosts!

I love breaching shields like this (I currently have 20 for my Death Guard!). Although there aren't any immediately obvious analogs for the shields in my Imperial Guard collection, I thought it would look cool on the arm of of this Scion. For close-quarters action I switched out his laspistol for the great compact stub-pistol. I love it!

And finally, I have decided to use my already-painted Vostroyans to represent a Solar Auxilia force. I have pulled out the models armed with lasguns to form three different 20-man lasrifle sections. This has left a few heavy weapons teams awaiting an indication from Forgeworld on how they'll fit into the new list. A search for spare Vostroyan models, coupled with the arrival of the package from Victoria Miniatures, lead to this lascannon team. I'm excited to get my hands on some more : )

Cheers
Dave

Oldhammer Weekend approaches!

Very soon (Oct 25-26), Dropzone Games will travel back in time to the late 1980s.

Oldhammer was founded by a handful of old grognards, bitten by the nostalgia bug (and possibly not too happy about the direction GW's flagship games were heading), and has become an international "wargaming movement", with hundreds, if not thousands, of hobbyists collecting old school Citadel and Marauder miniatures and playing games of 3rd Edition Warhammer and 1st Edition 40K (Rogue Trader). After a successful Oldhammer day held in the gaming space of The Foundry in Nottingham (owned by Bryan Ansell, former owner of Citadel Miniatures), the Oldhammer enthusiasts in the New World decided to put on a weekend of their own. Blake Shrode and Andrew Dyer are the guys behind this event (and the painting competition, which they have invited me to judge).

You can check out all the details about the event at Blake's blog HERE.

You can read about my involvement for the weekend HERE.

UPDATED: The basic rules for the painting comp can be found HERE (scroll down about halfway through the page).

If you live in the Mid-Atlantic area and have a passion for all things Oldhammer, I hope you can make it along. Please bring along some models for the painting competition too!

Cheers
Dave

Project Alchemy - An Oldhammer & Collecting Citadel Miniatures charity project : )

I was recently asked by my friend James Craig to help promote a project he has been involved with recently - Project Alchemy. This combines three things I like - good friends, charity activity, and a nostalgic look at old Citadel minis : ) These rest of this post is from James himself. Please read and click on the links to check out this great effort. The project runs from now until November 9th!

Project Alchemy

Jon Boyce, Tony Mansfield, Steve Casey, James Craig and others have been working over the last six months on a charity fundraiser. We've collated a fantastic pool of 30 prizes, including unreleased figures, original artwork, studio resins and signed books.

Donors to the project automatically get entered into the prize draw, with £1 = 1 ticket.

All you need to do is check out the website and donate some cash and you could win some pretty amazing stuff: Project Alchemy - An Oldhammer & Collecting Citadel miniatures charity project

http://www.project-alchemy.weebly.com 

Here is some information straight from the site:

What is Project Alchemy?The aim of this project is quite simple - to raise money for the charity UNICEF through a shared love of old-school tabletop wargaming.

Project Alchemy is a virtual raffle of some fantastic and unique prizes - if you fancy winning a piece of original Games Workshop artwork, classic signed rulebooks or unreleased models, then this is the charity project to donate to!

Each £1 pledged through our JustGiving website enables you to qualify for a virtual raffle ticket. If you would like to be entered into the draw for the prizes on offer, you must tick the box that allows Project Alchemy (Jon Boyce) to contact you.

Project Alchemy is being co-ordinated by a team of people from the Oldhammer forums, Oldhammer Facebook group and the Collecting Citadel Miniatures Yahoo group.

The charity project is not affiliated with and does not represent any of the companies whose products are being offered as prizes, and no challenge to their legal rights is intended.

Why UNICEF?Project Alchemy will (we hope!) draw donations from around the world. We have selected UNICEF as the charity to support as it meets our key criteria of both being an internationally active charity and of its high external ratings for the effective management and use of its funds; the money gets spent where it should be! UNICEF was also selected simply because it helps kids...and who better to benefit from a charity project centred on toys?!

What is JustGiving?JustGiving is a widely used online donation platform, specifically created to support charitable fundraising. For details on how JustGiving operates, visit theJustGiving homepage.
The Project Alchemy team have selected JustGiving as the platform for processing donations as it is secure and transparent. Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.