Sons of Horus 30k Legion Project (with a free painting tutorial)

Sons of Horus Tactical Combat Squad 1: Completed 29DEC14

UPDATE: better photo here:

Santa's 40k Apocalypse!

As it was nearing the festive season my mates and I decided that the best way to celebrate this homely time of year was with vicious butchery on a massive scale, namely in the form of a game of 40k apocalypse! Now these games are an epic experience but they do take a lot of time and effort to put together...and as such this was our first Apocalypse game since 2008! Firstly we had to make sure we were all off work at the same time and so leave had to be booked and rest days swapped...next we needed a venue that could accommodate a twelve foot by six foot battle field....

Luckily one member of the group was able to acquire access to a disused basement room in a relatives house which we were quick to exploit and transform into a blasted area on the outskirts of an Imperial city where the dull grey of urban industry turned to the rich green of farmland.

Warhammer World Birthday Weekend Part II

Here is the second part of my warhammer themed birthday report....

Day two of the weekend started early with my girlfriend and I returning to GWs flagship building to get another game in. We skipped breakfast at the hotel so that we could eat at Bugman's! I have to say the GW breakfast was excellent and absolutely massive...I don't think I've ever seen a fry up so big... To be fair by the end of it I wanted to go back to bed just to sleep off the feast!!

Nonetheless I overcame the urge to sleep and we went next door to the gaming hall and quickly found our allocated games table. After yesterday's massive battlefield today was a bit of a down sizing to a more conservative 6x4 table. The table we were allocated was actually bedecked with Warhammer scenery, but instead of scouting around for 40k terrain I found I actually quite liked the medieval atmosphere and so decided to use it to represent a feudal world on the outskirts of Imperial space.

Warhammer World Birthday Weekend - Pt 1

My awesome girlfriend took me to Warhammer World for my birthday so that I could play against her on the fabulous scenery located there! It was the best present she could have given me and I thoroughly enjoyed myself in the bespoke gaming hall.

There was however a slight mishap early on as I dropped a full tray of fifty of my Rogue Trader Salamanders onto the stone floor (seriously who makes a gaming room floor out of fucking stone... I don't know why they just didn't make the floor out of molten lava to ensure maximum damage)! Sadly all the marines incurred damage, the plastic RTB01 models lost a fair proportion of their limbs whilst the soft lead of the metal beakies dented easily. Initially I was in absolute shock; I just stood their staring at the travesty with my mouth open...

Rogue Trader RTB01 Salamander Space Marines

I recently decided after adding a load of tanks to my Rogue Trader Army that the time had come to expand the Space Marine Infantry once again. In light of this I dug out some bits from the original plastic RTB01 box set and prepped them for painting....

They were also accompanied by a lone metal flamer marine. As I've said previously I'm gearing this army for use with the recent Forge World Horus Heresy Rules and as such I am adjusting my squad layouts for this format. In a Space Marine Legion Army one difference is that Tactical Squads can only have bolters (no special or heavy weapons) but the pay off for this is that you can also take Tactical Support Squads where every trooper has a special weapon. In light of this I'm going to be doing a full squad of flamers.... Burn baby burn... Even nastier when you consider Salamanders add +1 strength to flame weapons.

Salamanders vs Crimson Fists Space Marines....Battle Report

Over the weekend my girlfriend kindly agreed to endure another game of 40k with me so that I could get some lead on the table! Again we used the new seventh edition rules and the game confirmed what I had found initially in my inaugural battle report...these rules are pretty good and capture a happy medium somewhere between second edition and sixth....it's fluid to play but diverse enough to allow a bit of RPG character back into the system!

Again my girlfriend commanded the stoic Crimson Fists led by the beautiful inquisitor Athena, whilst I fielded my Rogue Trader Salamander force (complete with my new [old] whirlwind). The Salamanders were also led by an Inquisitor who in this case was represented by a suitably retro 1980s Imperial Army Commissar. The forces were evenly balanced with a lot of armour on each side (1 Land Raider, 2 Predators, 1 Whirlwind & 2 Rhinos each to be precise).

Rogue Trader Whirlwind - Salamanders

The latest addition to my Rogue Trader army has now rolled off the production line and is ready to deal death to the enemies of the Imperium from its multiple rocket launchers. This is an original whirlwind that was released in 1992, so just within the timeframe to fit in with Rogue Trader (second edition came out a year later in 1993).

I have painted it to fit in with the rest of my Salamanders armour with a lot of hand painted glyphs and some classic chevroning....

I love this classic variant on the original Rhino chassis and it will fit in nicely with my Predators and Land Raider and I have tried to paint it to fit in with this original theme.

Seventh Edition 40k ... A return to Oldhammer?

Hey all! 

Well the weekend has come around again so it's time for some more hobby related activity from my man cave.

Now as readers of this blog will know I am militantly in the camp of Oldhammer when it comes to my hobby activities, having lost my love of modern GW fayre with the steady increase in costs and decrease in customer service that has been the symptom of their changing business model in recent years.

That being said I do still purchase GW products and keep a wary eye on their developments as they do remain the primary stakeholder in our hobby. With the recent release of seventh edition 40k less than two years after sixth edition I was unable to hold my tongue any longer and so I compiled one of my famous email rants and fired it off to GW HQ. I pointed out that I had been a GW customer since the heady days of Rogue Trader and subsequently through every edition that has followed that fantastic publication, also citing my consumer loyalty for over twenty-five years of gaming. I went on to outline my concerns about their treatment of their established customer base, and my disappointment that such a recent rule set (that I had paid good money for) had already been rendered obsolete!

I was expecting to at best be fobbed off with a generic email or at worst be entirely ignored by whoever answered my correspondence. Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised when I got a rather conciliatory email from customer services saying that they had read my email and were now forwarding it to management to be dealt with directly. I was even more pleasantly surprised when GW offered me an e-version of their new rulebook free of charge as a sign of goodwill. I have to say I really wasn't expecting this and it has gone some way to restoring my faith in the GW brand. Now I know an electronic copy of the rulebook costs the company nothing... But it saves me over forty quid, so I'm well pleased with this outcome.

Given that I now have a free copy of the rulebook I thought it would be trite not to give it a whirl and see how it plays and more importantly how it compares to my beloved second edition. I had already heard some good things from my fellow Oldhammerers about seventh edition as they have told me that it does have a lot of similarities with mid-90s 40k, albeit more streamlined. This may not be a bad thing as even I can admit second edition could be a bit clunky in some areas.

My lovely girlfriend (the beautiful Inquisitor Athena) volunteered to play against me in this game...something for which I am extremely grateful. For this battle she commanded my modern Crimson Fists whilst I led my Rogue Trader Salamanders (including my many new Rhinos). 

For the third time in this post I was pleasantly surprised, the game played really well, only slowing down when I had to check the rules to work out differences between second (and even sixth) edition. The vehicle rules were intuitive and whilst they were noticeably more characterful than the last few editions of the game they weren't grindingly complicated like the datafaxes from second edition. Additionally with the challenge system close combat seems to have struck a happy balance between the individual orientation of second edition and the far-too simplified process from third edition onwards. Characters are still powerful and seem to have regained some of their 'oomph' after previous castrations; and the new missions system as added a lot more depth to gameplay. 

Overall it was a great experience and I really enjoyed the game...I'll still play second edition for low level skirmishes, but I reckon for mid to large scale conflicts I'll be giving seventh another go. 

It feels strange, I think this is the first time in a decade I've had something positive to say about GW... Let's hope they keep it up!

Rogue Trader Salamanders Tanks: Update

It's been nearly a month since my last post and I do apologise for the delay. It has been caused by a mixture of circumstances, initially I was away on exercise for a few weeks with the Army which obviously precluded any hobby activities on my part. However upon returning I have found my desire for the hobby somewhat diminished and simply motivating myself to do 'stuff' has been a struggle.

That said I have finally forced myself into my 'man-cave' in order to engage in some Oldhammer activities; as stated my muse has been lacking, and so instead of starting a new project I have pressed on with an existing one in order to bring it closer to completion... Namely my Rogue Trader Rhino Fleet for my Salamanders Space Marines.

The lion's share of work on these models has actually been done for some time but I have been pulled in different directions and so the finishing touches have not yet been applied...namely the remaining banners/flags; thus I have pulled out the graph paper and set about finishing these...

As you can see there are now flags for the remaining tactical squads vehicles (5&6) the assault squad rhino (8 only as seventh squad have jump packs) and the command vehicle.

Fallout Brotherhood of Steel Scribe

This is my last post for a few weeks as I'm off on exercise with the Army so there will sadly be no hobby time. 

However I decided that I wanted to finish my brotherhood scribe to add to my recent Fallout squad before I leave and so I have sat myself down and forced myself to assemble, paint and finish this dude as quickly as possible.

Again this is another excellent sculpt from Brother Vinni; this resin piece reall captures the scribe's look from the Fallout Video Games. I kept my colour scheme fairly simple and tried to adhere to the in-game characters as much as possible...

I'm really happy with how this fella has turned out (especially the blonde beard which I was a bit unsure about to start with). He has now joined his squad mates and is ready to help pacify the Wasteland!

The noble Asslessman requested I show this model alongside some RT stuff in order to compare sizes; so here is next to an RTB01 Beakie Marine... I hope this helps...

See you all in a few weeks! 

More Fallout ... Brotherhood of Steel Paladin with Gatling Laser

My new Fallout models arrived from Brother-Vinni and as expected they are top notch resin casts that perfectly emulate the characters from the aforementioned computer game. Given that these models came from Russia they arrived very quickly (under a week) which was quite an impressive feat.

I have decided to paint this legion of models in a piecemeal fashion dealing with one faction at a time in order to create small warbands for a bit of post apocalyptic gaming. With this in mind I quickly assembled and prepped a Brotherhood of Steel Paladin clad in T-45d Power Armour carrying a Gatling Laser to reinforce the BoS squad that I finished last week.

The paint scheme was easy as I simply repeated the one I used on my earlier Steel Knights and thus I was able to assemble and paint the whole model in less than eight hours...happy days...

Overall I'm really happy with this model and I think he fits nicely with the rest of the team!

What next? Well I might do a Brotherhood of Steel Scribe to join the squad, or possibly some baddies in the form of an Enclave Squad in Advanced Power Armour Mk I (aka Remnants Armour).... I can't wait!!

Battle for Armageddon... Remember this?

Another Great British bank holiday...and inevitably this means another rain storm! Luckily being a geek this is fine by me and so instead of bemoaning the weather I have cracked out some old school gaming to pass the time.

Due to the horrendous weather I couldn't be bothered to brave the rain to get to my gaming shed for my usual resources (I.e. Terrain) and so I thought I would try something a little different instead...

So after a little contemplation I cracked out 'Battle for Armageddon' ... This was one of a series of strategic level board games that were designed by Jervis Johnson and released by GW back in the early 1990s. 

Fallout - Brotherhood of Steel

It's been a week since BOYL 14 came and went and after having spent so long focused on mass producing 6mm Space Marines for that event's gargantuan EPIC battle I feel that I need something new and entirely different to focus my hobby attention on.

I've always been a Sci-Fi man at heart, but after seeing so many beautiful fantasy models at Oldhammer day (especially in the siege game) I was nearly persuaded to start a fantasy force...nearly...but not quite.

Instead I decided to focus on another Sci-Fi universe that is beloved to me...the post-apocalyptic wasteland of Fallout. Not the usual fayre for a wargamer, but an area I believe to be a rich backdrop for skirmish style settings.

BOYL 2014 and Massed Epic Warfare!!

It's been months in the preparation...countless hours have been spent churning out legions of toy soldiers in anticipation of blood shed on an epic scale...

And finally it has now been and gone with hordes of Oldhammer hobbyists descending on the Wargames Foundry in their new shop near Newark for this year's 'BRING OUT YOUR LEAD - OLDHAMMER DAY 2014!'

And what a day (well weekend actually) it was!  The venue was great and the Ansells and all the staff from the Foundry went out of their way to make us all feel welcome from the moment we arrived on site!  All visitors were given a free event miniature (a rather cool looking Jester-Goblin) and a free event button badge which was very nice and greatly appreciated. Additionally there was free tea and coffee available all day as well as reasonably priced snacks and beers which we consumed with gusto!

On arrival we took the chance to peruse the large venue, looking at the fantastic and extensive selection of miniatures on sale; they were great (and well priced), my mate was so taken with them that he stocked up on a few classic Judge Dredd figures that he's planning as using as an arbites force in future games of 40k. 

Athena's Epic Armour

Well as discussed last week my better half; the beautiful inquisitor Athena will be accompanying me for some 6mm action at next weekends BOYL.

In light of this I have given her command of my Flesh Tearers Epic Space Marines for the weekend, where she will assist my Dark Angels Astartes in crushing all before xenos and traitors who stand before us!

In order to increase her chances of gaining victory and glory in the Emperor's name I have bolstered the sons of Sanguinius with a few more armoured detachments over the last week...

First up we have three rather lovely and very; very old Thunderhawk's from the early nineties. I love these models... They're just flying castles...brilliant!!!

Rise of the Titans!!!

Given that BOYL 2014 is now looming on the horizon I decided to pull my finger out and finish off my ongoing Production of six Epic Titans for the vast showdown between Chico, Thantsants, myself and assorted others that we have planned!

In light of this I have literally destroyed myself in my limited spare time in order to try and get these beasts done...and finally they are finished. 

I have given each of the Warlords (there's three of them) a hand painted banner...as you can see I was going for the early 90s colourful comic book style:

Happy First Birthday....oh and more tanks!!!!

Another busy week has gone by stuffed with work and rather annoyingly the flu! Yet despite this I have still managed to squeeze in a small amount of hobby progress!

First off... happy birthday.... This blog is now one year old!! Wahoo! What a year it's been, retro space marines; battle sisters; titans....we've had it all! Meanwhile the modern hobby has continued to spiral out of control with GW re-releasing 40k (again), prices being increased (again) and White Dwarf being raped and ruined....good times!!

Since this blog started it has had over 17,000 page visits and now has over 50 followers (hello all)! And I have managed to publish 41 posts and more importantly made some great new virtual friends with similar hobby interests!!

Tank Update!

Again my hobby time has been severely reduced over the last few weeks so output has not been huge... On the plus side this time I have been preoccupied by a rather wonderful holiday as opposed to work.

Anyway I have made some progress on my 80s Imperial Armour.... Three of the old model Rhinos are nearing completion in their Salamanders paint scheme...

Here they are together...as you can see I've gone for some classic yellow and black on the green Basecoat. For those of you who've seen my titans you'll see that the chevrons have made another appearance....

Imperial Armour...1987!

Hello all;

 

I must apologise for my extended absence for the last few weeks. I recently got promoted at work and so have been literally swamped in admin ever since. This doesn't look likely to cam down any time soon which sadly means my hobby time is greatly restricted; as is my availability for blogging!

However I try to squeeze in some painting when I get the chance so I thought I would update you with my progress.

Those of you who follow my blog will know I go through phases of large scale armour production for my armies; in 2012 it was 6 Rhinos; 3 Predators; 3 Razorbacks; 1 Land Raider and a whirlwind for my Crimson Fists; in 2013 it was 5 Rhinos; 1 Immolator and an Exorcist for my Battle Sisters and so far in 2014 it has been a retro Land Raider; 2 first edition predators and a Land Speeder for my Salamanders!

Well I have got bitten by the tank bug again and have decided to bring my Rogue Trader Salamanders up to full Battle Company strength in order to compete with my modern era Crimson Fists. So after much scouring and sniping on eBay I have finally been able to make a start on this project....behold....

What we have here are six 1987 Rhinos (bringing my total up to 8); one 1989 predator (giving me a squadron of 3) and a 1992 Whirlwind. 

For the eagle eyed amongst you you'll notice that some of these venerable old tanks have some panels missing; that's because these will be painted yellow and so have received a separate white undercoat!!

I will update you intermittently as the project progresses;

Legio

Fast Time Predator!

I couldn't face any more Titans today, but I still wanted to crack on and to do a bit of hobby work as it was the bank holiday; so I dug through my boxes and found a badly damaged 1989 predator I'd acquired on eBay a few years back. It was in a bad way so I decided to give it a bit of love and attention.

Much to my surprise the whole day flew past (with a few cups of tea and sandwiches) and I managed to build it; paint it and complete it.... Even I was impressed with the speed of production on this one....

I even managed to crack out the graph paper and create a couple of flags for the turret....

So that makes 2 Predators; a Land Raider and a Land Speeder produced for my Rogue Trader Salamanders in the last few months... If I keep on at this rate of production these green armoured veterans could soon rival my Crimson Fists in army size....

Hmmmm what shall I paint next!!

Reaver Titan!

Greetings all,

I've been away for a bit so apologies for my lack of posts in the last few weeks. 

Sadly I've only had limited time for the hobby of late but I've tried to squeeze some paint work in as and when I've had the chance. In order to maximise efficiency I've predominantly focused this precious time on my ongoing Epic Titan project and as such I have finally managed to complete the Reaver....

I applied a hand painted Titan Legion symbol again; this time it is located on the main carapace just under the missile launcher....

As per my previous Warlords and Warhounds I used black/yellow chevrons to shake up some of the armour panels; and also went for an electrical blue on the plasma coils...

Overall I'm very happy with this latest addition to my growing Titan Legion...now for the final Warlord!!

More Titan Progress....

I haven't posted about the Titans that I'm painting for Oldhammer Day 2014 for a couple of weeks so I thought I would knock up a quick post in order to share their progress. 

The aforementioned progress has unfortunately been pretty slow of late due to other commitments so I've not done as much as would like... That being said I am happy with the results so far. Currently I have two Warlords complete (except for back banners) and two Warhounds ready to rock.

I didn't like the spare hole on the carapace of the Warlords and so I paid through the nose for some carapace mounted defence lasers from a trader on EBay. They look pretty cool; hide the unsightly gap and might be of some use in the game...so money well spent!!

Here is Warlord number one; with a vast assortment of anti-armour/anti-titan weapons bristling from every extremity. As you can see I've gone for classic 90s bright colours; and have tried to limit my palette to predominantly red, yellow and black.

This Warlord is a bit more anti-infantry in nature; he also has the Legio Titanicus symbol painted free hand on his left greave.

The first Warhound  is equipped with a turbo laser and Vulcan mega-bolter (note the spent shell casings littering the base). I also hand painted a titan symbol on his carapace....

The second warhound wields a glowing plasma blaster coupled with a turbo laser....

Again I gave him the Titanicus symbol; this time it is emblazoned proudly on the greave of his leg...

These are the only God-Engines that I've completed for now; so those of you who've been following my progress will notice that I'm still outstanding a Reaver and Warlord Titan. These models are still in progress and I'm hoping I'll finish them in the not too distant future.

Here is a final group shot to finish off for today...

Liebster Award (Belated Post)

A while back my fellow blogger Suber ( http://oldschoolworkshop.blogspot.co.uk ) awarded me a Liebster Award for my blog. This was a very proud moment for me, I take a lot of time on this blog and it's nice to know that people enjoy it; especially my fellow bloggers. 

I know we're a fairly niche online community but we're steadily growing in size so it's great to get a bit of recognition.

On award of a Liebster I as the recipient am required to do certain things, namely answer eleven questions asked by Suber; Give eleven truths about myself; and then nominate another eleven recipients. I initially wrote this post straight after my nomination, but my iPad deleted it after I had spent two hours writing it so I have had to re-write it today, so apologies for the delay!

New Opponents !!!!

I had a recent game of second edition 40k with two of my best mates as we were all free at the same time which makes a rare change! They are primarily fifth/sixth edition gamers but I am steadily grooming them into all things retro, and so we broke out the old codices and set about drumming up some nineties-style army lists.

They formed an allied army of Imperial Guard and Black Templars whilst I fielded my Crimson Fists...

Titan bodies complete...at last!!

Evening all... I realised that I had been neglecting you with my Titan updates recently; so here's a quick one on where they are at present....

At last the main bodies of all six Titans are complete (including that bloody gold banding); it's been a slog, but worth it....

Next I'll be moving onto the individual weapons for these mighty war machines...so if anyone knows some awesome combinations then please feel free to let me know. I'd be interested to hear anyone's guidance on what works well on these machines (with reference to second edition 1991 rules obviously)....

Steel and Doom....

Another weekend....another post!

After a heavy week of work on the Epic Titans last week I decided to go for a battle report this week. However this was a 28mm second edition 40k report as opposed to the 6mm variety.

In this battle my girlfriend and her miniature alter ego; 'Inquisitor Athena' was leading a noble force of Crimson Fists Space Marines on a mission to annihilate my force of Salamanders who were strolling through a nearby city block. The reason for this fight has been lost in the annals of Imperial history; but as these Salamanders were painted as normal humans rather than their recent modification into coal black burns victims it may be the case that GWs IP management had contacted the Inquisition directly in order to prevent them from damaging the current new background...who knows....

Anyway the forces were drawn from the Black Codex (from the original box set) and included a few tactical squads; some assault marines; devastators and terminators backed up by a rhino and predator each. The Fists were commanded directly by Athena; whilst the canon-challenging salamanders were led by a Mk I Space Marine Captain whose complexion was far too pale to fit in with current 40k fluff.

Band(ing) Aid!!!

Well not a long one today; it has been my last day of leave so I have invested a few hours in trying to get as much of these models done as possible. Currently I have finished the gold trim on the body of the two remaining Warlords and additionally one of the Warhounds; I've also done the eyes, cabling, etc of these models. I literally can't wait to field these beasts on the battlefield...

Gold Banding.....Aghhhhhh!!

I was wrong....the blacking out of armour trim is not the most tedious activity in the world...the subsequent re-trimming with multiple shades of gold is even worse. 

In light of that I've now reached the part of my titan project where instead of batch painting all six at once I will now proceed with one model at a time before moving onto the next. Otherwise having to do five layers of gold on the banding of six individual titans will probably induce suicide!!!

Anyway here is my progress today on one of the warlords....

For those of you who work on a budget you'll notice from the picture above that the average thumbnail does make a cheap, but remarkably 'handy' palette for mixing paints!!

Tedious Titans

One of the questions Suber asked as part of my Liebster award was what part of the hobby do I like the least (I may have para-phrased that). At the time my answer was going to be GWs aggressive pricing policy and hard sale tactics; but I've reconsidered....

I've found something even worse; something that prolonged exposure to will drive you mad...what is this horror? You ask....

I'll tell you; I have found the most tedious activity in the entirety of the hobby....trying to neatly black out the carapace trim on the armour of six 1980s Titans. It is horrendously dull; and the slightest tremble of the hand leads to hours of repair work being required (especially if this mistake occurs near any areas of yellow chevroning). This task is made even worse when blood starts trickling down your fingers from an open wound in your hand (see previous post for explanation).

Anyway I have done it at last and now my Titans are now one small step closer to destroying Chicos; Thantsants and Bugs forces at Old Hammer day ;-) ( just kidding lads!)

The Reaver was particularly hard to do with it's elaborate fleur-de-lys armour trim, the language that was emanating from my work station would have made a Commisar baulk! 

I'll update you with any further progress as it takes place!!

Legio

Critical Injury...and more Titans!!

Well today has been eventful. Whilst weight lifting I dropped a 20kg weight on my finger; this caused the nail to go black with excess blood.... So I broke out my amatuer apothecary kit; heated up a needle and paper clip and lanced them into my nail to release the pressure...the pain was excruciating and the amount of blood that poured out was really quite horrifying!! Unfortunately I had to push this burning hot metal into my smouldering flesh nine times to hit the full amount of swelling which was pretty emotional. Sadly this high tech medical procedure wasn't enough to deal with it and I had to go to Hospital for an X-Ray and to have another even larger hole drilled through the nail to expunge more blood....by the end of my visit I knew how a dying space marine feels when someone extracts his gene seed.

Anyway I still managed to fit in a little painting time; though it was hard to see clearly through the tears of agony!!!

I mainly focused on adding some yellow and black chevrons on different parts of the assorted titans carapaces! Simple; but time consuming due the amount of layers required to build up a solid base colour; the pigment in yellow paint is so translucent! 

Here are the results....

More to follow when my injuries heal!

Legio