+++ SYSTEMS REBOOTING+++

Today I wandered into the GW store in Antwerp (why do I keep going to that accursed place), looking for The Empire armybook since I finally found a use for James Graham and his Royalist Scots and Irish when I found out that this summer they will be hosting a 650 point 40K tournament.
As we were talking about it I mentioned I still had a Necron army on shelfduty, the models were painted 8 years ago and to a good standard, they even won me best painted army once back in 2004.
I've thrown the metallic colourscheme out the window back then and went for a more Khemri-look, wich seemed to appeal to the store manager because he'd love to see them some time.
I'm a bit reluctant to field them again since the whole soul less image they had seemed gone by giving them named characters and such even though I like the new models.
Also the fact that it was 8 years ago since I painted my last Necron has always put me off into starting them again as it would be hard, not to say impossible, to reproduce the exact colourscheme.
In the end I left the store emptyhanded, the Empirebook was sold out again (I ordered a copy), and settled down in the local pub with a friend discussing different topics including a 650 point Necron army.
By the time I got home my resolve and reluctancy had buckled... The Nercons are returning..

These were painted 8 years ago, it was a fairly ambitious paintingproject and took me a rather long time to get them battleworthy.

This Destroyer Lord was painted today, it has roughly the same colours and was done in a fraction of the time it took me all those years ago.

I realise now that my paintingskills have grown, both in speed and techniques, and the fear I felt about the new models being out of cue with the rest of the army has vanished faster than a sausage in a room full of Halflings.
The next addition for the army will be an Annihilation Barge.
And the Codex ofcourse... oh dear....

The charge of Octavius

The idea for this miniature began about a year ago when I saw both Night at the museum films for the first time ( a third instalment is rumored to be underway btw ) and when Steve Coogan as Octavius riding a squirrel I looketh upon my tv-screen and thought it funny.
Last summer I was on vacation with the family in Germany and while the kids were browsing the Lego section in a departmentstore I was amelessly wandering around the shop, that's when I saw this Schleich display with a little squirrel sitting amongst the rest of the plastic animals.
An idea was born and so I quickly snatched the little bugger up and payed for him while the wife gave me her trusty 'what the hell is that git up to now' look.
It was a gamble wich payed of at Crisis, Warlord Games provided me with the Roman General I needed.
Since it is a display piece I wanted a nice cavalery base, I found what I wanted at Hasslefree Miniatures.

Now please note that the miniature is based upon the previous NatM character, I had to downscale the mount and the base for practical reasons.
I couldn't find a bigger squirrel, I briefly toyed with the idea of looking for a 15mm rider but dismissed it since I needed the general's horse as a mount for my Albion Chieftain.
Octavius in the film's a miniature himself so a monotonious base was out of the question too, or do you have a good idea for making a 25x50mm base look like a 250x250mm slab?

The whole thing was painted in 3 parts, starting with the base.
Next was the mount, it was prepainted so I undercoated it black and made it look more like a gray/brown American squirrel.
After glueing mount and base together it was time our Roman friend got the attention he deserved and despite I've never painted a Roman before in my life I tried to make him as historical correct as I could.
I hope you like him, it was a fun little thing to do and it had me grinning from ear to ear all through the paining and assembling, occationally I dashed of to missus like a happy kid showing my progress and getting comments like "you're nuts".

A Regiment a Month part 12: Burn baby, burn

And so a year has come and gone in nigh on 12 solid months of painting miniatures, I can't quite grasp it but it's true.
When I look back at april 2011 I remember embarking on the ARAM quest with some other likeminded fellows, I am the last one of my kind now.
Truth be told I wanted my 12th edition to be something special and go back to my roots but the thing I had planned proved harder to paint than I expected, it's not dead and gone but merely postponed so watch this space.
In stead I've painted something else: 6 classic Flamers from GW.
I picked them up at E-bay at a fair price, I prefer them over the failcast crappy ones.
At first I wanted to piant them white and with swirling colours but it just didn't work, twice I had to plunge them into breakfluid to strip the paint of!!!
I was taking this thing to far, "they're Flamers for crying out loud" I said to myself and so decided on painting them in a fiery colourscheme, all of them.
The hairs or flames on their heads were given other colours to reflect the mutating flames of Tzeentch and were achieved by working from a white basecoat to a black... highlighting..
The beaks were kept normal and seem to be the only solid thing on an otherwise ethereal and deamonic creature.
I'm very happy with how they turned out and I can proudly say that these are my best work to date but please judge for yourselves.

Liberté, égalité et fraternité

I think it was about a year ago when I purchased an untouched armydeal from Tomsche.
It were the French in 6mm for WWII games, at first I wasn't really interested but at the last I gave in anyway.
I have a tendency of starting French armies, not all of the time though but it happens and the reason is simple: I am of French origine.
Anyway, a year after I got the miniatures and the rulebook for Blitzkrieg Commander I finally mustered the courage to paint up  a small 1000 point force... next time I'll buy a Brittish tank army because painting 6mm uniforms more or less correctly is damn hard work espescially when you don't want to make them look like multicoloured blobs.
The horses I kept in a uniform grey and the tanks got a camouflagescheme based on actual tanks of that time and nation.

Now where are those bloody Germans when you need them?

In the name of change

A new Herald was added today to my ever expanding Deamon army, Tzeentch is well and truly entering the fray.
I'm convinced that this bugger will come in handy, he's standard a level 2 wizard at only 115 points. Bargain.
Pink Horrors, the normal footsoldiers, are wizards too and the urge to go out and get some so I can zap the opposition to smithereens is almost arse-paralysingly intens but I must wait for now lest The Missus finds me skulking around the house again holding another box or blister and goes flying into another berzerker rage that puts Khorne to shame.
The model itself is another GW classic, I'm getting quite fond of those lately (next post lads, next post), and originally came with a flying disc wich back then fitted on a 25 x 25 mm base and not the 50 x 50 you need now.
I ditched the whole golden sand/red grass thing used previously and instead painted the sand almost black, it brings out the colours of the Herald more.
I used a slightly brighter colourscheme but not to much, not that I don't dare to make it all vibrant and shiny but it's just not my style.
I had some fun on details like the horn knife and the scroll but apart from that I kept it simple, Tzeentch Deamons are already weird enough as it is.

I hope you like him and till next time
Next up: Flamers

Albion or Albi-not?

This friday evening I've fieldtested Albion for the first time in a 500 point battle against a friend.
I won the first battle in round 1 due to sheer bloody luck: David got the kick off and promptly suffered a miscast wich resulted in his necromancer losing a wound, next I pushed with a magical wind ( nasty beans) his unit of skeletons into his necromancer killing him outright.... my troops never even reached the first half of the table.
I won't go into all the details but the second battle was..... different, I got wiped big time.
1-1, seems fair to me.
My list consisted of:
1 magic level 2 Druid
1 30 strong warband with command unit and armed with optional spears
2 5 strong units of clansman cavalery with musician each, armed with optional javelins
1 unit of 3 hunters and 10 huntingdogs, hunters were given throwing axes as an extra
All in all it was a fun little list and I must say them buggers are nasty on the charge due to their Furor Celtica special rule.
BUT......
All their basic troops are... basic and even the special ones are more of the core with a bit of extra flavour and not really special at all apart from their pointscost that is.
Take the druid neophytes for instance: they only boost morale, I'd have made that unit a level 1 wizard.
Hearthguard: a Warband unit with a slightly better save.
Swordmaidens: Woadraiders with boobs and a bit meaner on the charge.
Only the Pixies and the Fir Bolg stand out from the crowd by a margin, thet former are flying garden pests and the latter is an undead unit.
So okay, I've made some tactical errors and I hadn't tried them before but I don't think they really work in small battles, I feel you really need those speacial and rare units if they want to stand a chance against all the other bullies in the playground.
Will I abandon them? Surely not, they are fun and can dish out a lot of hurt
Will I take them to the 500 point tournament? Surely not, it's meant to be a fun affair but only taking miniatures away just aint THAT fun.
I like to give them another go and they really ARE Celts but I think I'll just settle for my trusty deamons for now.
Still, lately I've been thinking on starting a new army but I'm not sure wich one.
Orcs and Goblins: my wife's ex-husband's a dedicated O&G player, I don't want to give her nasty memories.
Dark Elves: been there, no thanks
High Elves: defenetly out.
Lizardmen: never really liked them
Tomb Kings: see Lizardmen
Ogre Kingdoms: see Lizardmen
Skaven: to many models to paint
Brettonia: not really backed up by GW due to lack in popularity
Vampire Counts: those are allready all over the club, I'm not joining in too
Beastmen: I'm allergic to furry animals and owned a few previously, they're not really fun to paint.
Empire: I don't want to paint the same uniform over and over again
Chaos Dwarves: to expencive
Dwarves: I still have an army of them, pygmees actually, but they're not really my style
Wood Elves: my first 'love' and they brought me into the hobby, they may lure me into their clutches again someday.
Warriors of Chaos: I've got some Chaos Knights left and Avatars of War has some more than gorgeous Chaos Warriors and characters.
So wich will it be? Treehuggers? Or Deamonworshippers?