Necromunda - Coming Soon!

Ok, looks like we are finally (nearly) ready to kick off a Necromunda campaign.

I picked up some bits on eBay, including a decent amount of Cawdor, Ratskin and Original Box stuff, for not much £, and to complement that, a nice 4x4 city themed gaming mat.

I have to say, Cawdor wouldn't have been my first choice, but the minis were effectively free, and they will mix well with my Chaos cultists if i need to expand the gang later. (still need to base them up properly, but here's a sneak peak)

Rogue Traders - Heralds of Ruin

Finally put some paint down on my Genestealer cultists and got a test model ready.

Initially they'll be used as Armsmen in my Rogue Trader kill team for HoR - so i'll be painting up 4 with shotguns and a flamer for some close quarters boarding action!

After that they will be a Necromunda gang, either as cultists of 'count as' Van Saar or Delaque.

Anyhoo, here's the scheme - went for an Orange/Cream vibe to show they are some sort of ships crew/civilian workers rather than anything too military.

Hopefully they will add a bit more colour to my RT team and wean me off painting everything red!

Kill Team Assemble! - Heralds of ruin

In a bid to branch out, our little gaming group is looking at other games to play - ideally without having to invest too much time or money, using stuff we have laying around.

Necromunda is still on the cards for next year, but in the mean time 'Heralds of Ruin' the free, fan made 40k skirmish rule set has piqued our interest.

I've never played much 40k, but have picked up quite a few models along the way, so this is perfect for me. It gives me the chance to spruce up some of the stuff i have sitting in boxes, half-painted and isn't too daunting either.

I reckon i probably have enough models to run 7-8 factions, which is great as i don't need to spend (an additional) penny!

The games run at 200 points, which is generally about 5-20 models. My first foray (as i don't know what i'm doing) will be to take the ever dependable Space Marines, with a bit of each unit type thrown in to see how they work!

It uses a campaign system, so you can build your pool of models over time and i have plenty more guys in storage eager for a new lick of paint and a re-basing!

2 posts in a month! Like an unstoppable leviathan!

Not only 2 posts, but 2 completed minis!

I think I've finally found my 'style' for painting, and i'm pretty happy with it - who knows if this will change in time, as the way miniatures are painted definitely follow a fashion of sorts. I'm really enjoying the results of bold base colours, washing, then highlighting with strong edge highlights.
For one, it is pretty damn quick! the mini below had been sitting primed for a week before i found time to start painting. and it was all done and dusted in 1.5hrs, including drying and basing.
For two, i think it looks great on the table, at playing distance - making bold highlights is something i'd neglected in the past, but now i see why people do it. It can look a bit of mess close up, but from 2-3ft away it really 'pops'.

So this little war band i'm building (for no particular purpose) is now about 1/3rd complete. I'm enjoying the narrative too. This chap was a collection of bits in my box last week. The body of the famed Ultramarine Scout, whose name escapes me (edit: Telion). a Tau Pulse carbine and arm, a space marine hand and space marine Sgt. head.

But now!

He's a veteran scout who was abandoned on a Tau controlled planet, he hid for months evading them, and eventually surrendered to them, they learned to respect them, and when the planet was eventually invaded again (by... eh, i don't know, lets say the Imperium?) he took up arms and fought with the Tau, and helped lead them to victory. Only to be eventually captured by the Inquisition and given a choice to serve with them on a witch hunt that needed a good tracker, or face extermination.

Or some such nonsense! (borrowing heavily from dances with wolves of course)

Anyhoo - after these guys are done i'll be moving on to the New Neophyte Genestealer Hybrids, which i thought looked so good i actually bought 'new' models from GW, which i vowed i'd never do again.

Underhive Assasins - 28mm

Once again my painting has taken a back seat in place of playing, which i'm not going to make too many excuses for!

X-Wing has well and truly overtaken epic as our go-to game, probably simply due to the time it takes to play and to teach new people. Considering i only picked up the core set at Christmas last year its fair to say that Fantasy Flight Games have hooked me, and landed me, as there is now only a few models i don't own from the range, and i have doublers/triplets of some of my favourites!

Anyhoo, there is still talk of getting a Necromunda or maybe 40k Kill Team campaign going in the new year, so i'm practising my rather rusty 28mm painting skills with some old models in my collection.

I've also ordered up some of the new Genestealer Cult stuff as they will make a great Necromunda gang and look fantastic... So hopefully i'll blast though them when they get here and will have another update soon!

Progress! (Epic, X-wing, and Necromunda)

Yeah, yeah... i know! Its meant to be a blog, and 2 updates in a year do not a blog make.

But in all honesty I've been playing more and painting less, so not completely dropped off the radar hopefully!

Here we go.

Epic - Iron Warriors;

Slowly working my way through a box of minis. Got the big guys (Leviathan, Warhounds) done, all the terminator infantry is painted, but not based, and i've made a start on the artillery.

The X-wing minis are great - and the paint jobs are really nice, but i couldn't resist a wee bit of tinkering, so here is my HWK-290 'Moldy Crow' interpretation

Nercomunda;

Finally managed to convince some folk to start a small necromunda campaign. 

I've got plenty of 40k stuff to proxy. so i'm going to paint up a fresh gang of Chaos Cultists to use as Cawdor.

The keen eye'd amongst you may have noticed my paint table has had an upgrade.
grabbed some Hemnes furniture from IKEA and it now is almost all hidden away in a nice bureau when not in use, which should save a few arguments in the future :)

Epic Distractions...

Just a quick update to show some limited progress on the Rogue Trader/Necromunda guys i've been working on, been away with work recently and going away on holiday for the next few weeks so can't see much happening blog-wise there.

I hate taking photos of my minis as it shows no mercy, and my painting/attention to detail is bad enough without the lens picking up the obvious things like the horrendous lack of mold-line cleaning up on the Ogre, they all look better in the flesh!

I think that's part of the attraction of 6mm/Epic for me, as it is a lot more forgiving as you aren't looking for extreme detail most of the time, just a representation of the unit.

Anyhoo - outwith these guys i've had a bit of a clear out and stuck some stuff on eBay, i've also picked up another SM2 boxed set to fill the gaps in the one i had from my childhood, my plan post-holiday is to at least finish off the Space Marine armies (so i know what excess stuff i can punt!)

It would also be good to get a wee game going, either of Necromunda or custom rules with our new space pirate rogues - got some scenery to build for this and some scenarios to come up with!

I've picked up some minis from the Reaper range and have an eye on some Hasslefree ones that the missus fancies for her gang so hopefully will have them up soon too!

Brainstorming - Rogue Trader, Hive Gangs, etc...

Having been inspired by the work of the guys on the Oldhammer forums putting together gangs for thier RT, Sensai, Necromunda and Gorkmorka games i've begun rummaging through my bits box...

This notion has also been inspired by watching Guardians of the Galaxy, Star Wars, Firefly etc, and reading some of the earlier RT era 40k fluff, and the idea of rag-tag misfit gangs of different races/backgrounds fighting and working together on the frontier appeals to me in a big way.

I don't want to spend any/much money on this project, and i shouldn't need to as I've got enough interesting 'bitz' to choke a rancor. 

So i'm thinking;

The weary warrior - an old space marine, in mismatched power armour that has seen some action, now a gun for hire, currently this fella is fully magnetised, so the options are endless!

The Muscle, a feral Ogre/Ogryn - found this guy in the box and reckon with a bit of work (more than me just sticking an Ork gun on him as present!) he could look pretty cool.

The fast one - a female Eldar pirate - got a few bodies/heads lying around as well as some nice eldar/dark eldar and wood elf accessories i could bodge.

The marksman - i think i'll replace the Catachan fella with either a squat, ratling or another race just to mix it up a bit (would love to do a Skaven conversion if only i had any to hand!)

The Scoundrel - Ork Kaptain, will probably keep him with the rest of his RT Ork cohorts for an enemy/ally force for the gang, i reckon he'll be replaced by a human, possibly guardsman conversion to form my Han Solo style swash buckler.... Maybe!

The idea then would be to use them in games of Necromunda, or in a custom PvP and Co-Op rule set i'm working on.

In terms of adversaries i've got;

An RT Ork gang of 10 or so (mentioned above)

More Imperial forces than i care to mention...

A bucket full of Genestealers, and small Tyranids 

The Orlock/Goliath gangs from the Necromunda box set

Chaos Cultists from the DV box

So there should be plenty of scope for some interesting scenarios out in the ash wastes, hive cities and alien worlds...

As a bonus this type of narrative driven game appeals to the missus (in a way that 40k/Epic etc doesn't!) so I've instantly got someone in the house to play with, hurrah!