Easy Riders of Hann

Dodge's Current Blood Angel Force

2011-12-14T13:48:00.000Z

A photo of "most" of my Blood Angel stuff lined up parade style. Missing is Mephiston (being repainted for the 4th time I think now), Corbulo ( about to start his 3rd paint scheme) and a few other bits and pieces that are in the process of being redone or finished.

Light tent on its way!

2011-11-30T12:09:00.000Z

After looking back through some of my photos I have decided that my photography really isn't doing the final results justice. I had intended to make my own light tent but time and effort amongst so many projects on the bench has mean't that I have never really progressed forward with it. The tents I had seen online where all way over the budget I had to invest in one. However after a chat at my FLGS last night, one of the players http://ianjwood.com/ pointed me towards amazon where I could get one for a tenner! Don't know why I never looked there before to be honest, anyway thanks to amazon free delivery it should be here early next week and I can start taking some decent pictures.

Watch this space!

Trollblood Earthborn Dire Troll

2011-11-28T10:06:00.000Z

I have decided to dip my toe into the warmahordes scene at my LFGS. In that spirit and based on no other criteria other than I love the models I have decided to play Trollbloods.

Here is a WIP of my Trollblood Earthbron Dire Troll

Two days annual leave - lots on the list of things to do!

2011-11-23T11:44:00.000Z

Well using up some of my annual leave that I have outstanding. 2 days off and a list of things to do. Here is the list, their current state and the desired state at the end of the two days

Forgeworld Warhound Titan (Commission)
Currently - 90% done
Objective - Complete

Forgeworld IronClad Dread in Dark Angels scheme (Commission)
Currently - 95% done
Objective - Complete

Forgeworld Dark Angels Venerable Dread (Commission)
Currently - BNIB
Objective - Prepped, primed and main colour down

2 x Dark Angels Vindicators (Commission)
Currently - painted by client
Objective - Stripped, primed and main colour down

2 x Baal Preds (Something for me!! :) )
Currently - in Simple Green being stripped
Objective - Primed and main colour down

Build one light box for photgraphy! (Finally!)

Wow it is going to be a busy couple of days!!

Quick Deathwing Land Raider piccy

2011-11-11T12:29:00.000Z

Stoopid iPhone didn't want to focus very well. Only a couple of layers of weathering to go on. About 10 minutes worth of work and they are done.

Forgeworld Warhound Titan and Deathwing Land Raider

2011-11-04T08:56:00.000Z

A mate at my FLGS http://www.ironhavengames.co.uk/ asked me to do the ground work on his Forgeworld Warhound Titan. The request was to prime the model and get the main colour down and the rest sprayed boltgun metal so he can finish it off. Firstly I love this model, been a fan of Forge World for ages and this is the first titan I have managed to get my hands on. Anyway here is the pic of it pretty much finished in terms of the amount of work I have been asked to do on it. There are a few spots in the finish I need to redo where the primer hasn't bonded with the resin and has lifted.

Next up is the second of the two land raiders I have been working on for another friend.It has been varnished and given a sepia wash in the recesses. Just need to figure out the best way of assembling it so it can be swapped between a crusader and redeemer. Oh and it needs to be weathered as well. Hopefully shouldn't take too long.

Deathwing LandRaiders

2011-10-20T09:16:00.000+01:00

A mate of mine has commissioned me to do a couple of Deathwing Land Raiders. Here are some WiP pics taken with my shiny new iPhone 4S (camera is definitely improved but the flash ain't great as you can see.)

The main colour and panel highlighting has gone down as well as some green area effect at the front which has also been panel filled. I've done this as I think an all bone coloured Land Raider risks looking a little bit flat. I have taken a couple of bits of Dark Angel iconography from the Ravenwing box set upgrade sprues and am painting that up separately to go on some of the doors. Then the deathwing decals will go on from the Space Marine Vehicle decal set. Then the whole thing sealed with satin varnish and then weathered in the panel lines and around the rivets etc with a sepia-ish wash. Then some light weathering and she will be done. I fear too much weathering on it will look too brown given the model colour so I will probably go quite lightly on it.

Airbrushed Blood Angels Vindicator - Done + few updates

2011-10-13T08:19:00.000+01:00

Bit of a large update today.

In between prepping a couple of Land Raiders and Dreadnoughts for a commission I have managed to finish of a couple of Blood Angel vehicles that were sat on my bench.

1st up is a vindicator. It was painted using the same technique described in my previous razorback post. Very happy with the way it has turned out. I think I will go back and add some more weathering to the tracks at some stage but for the moment it is ready to go.

Overall I am extremely happy with the way it has come out and look forward to shooting foo's with it :)

2nd up is the razorback seen in previous posts. Just needed a few finishing touches to get it over the line and ready to game. The assault cannons will probably be redone with the airbrush at some point as well as again some more track weathering but again good to go on the tabletop.

Last up is the beginning of work on a dreadnought Plasma cannon and close combat weapon as part of the commission I am working on. Only the very beginning but getting some of the blended airbrush work done so I can mask it off and work the rest of the areas.

Apologies for the photo quality of the last two snaps, they were taken with no setup at dark o'clock in the morning.

Blood Angels Razorback - 2nd tank painted with airbrush

2011-09-23T08:29:00.000+01:00

After pretty much finishing my blood angels Rhino I am keen to keep up the momentum and strip and redo all my Blood Angels tanks using the airbrush. Next up is my TLAC Razorback.

The model has been stripped using fairy power spray. The result was pretty good.

Next up the hull was primed using Vallejo Air Grey Primer. This was sprayed at about 30psi in wide sweeping passes with the airbrush constantly moving so no paint could build up.

Next up the model was preshaded using Vallejo Game Colour Dark Fleshtone. This was thinned down quite a lot as my batch seems to be rather thick and gloopy and sprayed at a fairly low psi (about 15) so I could get in nice and close. I am thinning using the Vallejo Acrylic Thinner.

After this I gave the model several passes with VGC Bloody Red again at about 30psi.

Then I panel filled the large areas with a 50/50 VGC Bloody Red/Hot Orange mix thinned down at about 15 psi.

After that I made a few passes over the bottom half with a 50/50 VGC Dark Fleshtone/Bloody Red mix and then used that same mix to emphasis some of the shading around the chimney stacks and armour plates.

That's all for the moment. The wife is away on a hen do this weekend so expect a torrent of updates. Hoping to have this one finished, and my Vinidicator and a couple of Land Raiders for a friend in advanced stages by Sunday afternoon when my peace and quiet is shattered by her arrival back home :)

1st attempt with new airbrush - Blood Angels Rhino

2011-09-21T08:30:00.000+01:00

OK so a few weeks ago I picked up an Iwata HP-C from FleaBay and a compressor from www.everythingairbrush.com (recommend them by the way, arrived next day and gave great advise over the phone).

This is my first attempt at using it to paint a model. I started out by taking an old bit of plasticard I had lying around and spending about an hour, hour and a half just mucking about with the airbrush, trying different pressures through the compressor, trying different consistencies and finally felt comfortable enough to have a bash and painting an old Rhino I had stripped to experiment on.

Here is the result

For a first attempt I am really rather pleased about the way it came out. There are a few fingerprint marks on it so I need to learn to be more careful with my handling but otherwise I am rather chuffed. The finish is much smoother than I have been able to achieve with a brush, the gradient transition between shades is much smoother. Overall very happy. The Blood Angels logo was found on Google and then printed out, stuck with a glue stick onto Masking Tape and cut around to give me a template to work with. The hatch is having a few last bits and bobs done but otherwise she is finished.

Frozen water effect base WiP 3 - It all went a bit pear shaped

2011-09-05T19:29:00.000+01:00

Oh dear.......that didn't go quite according to plan! After the frantic correction after the first pour attempt went a bit wrong, the finish really hasn't come out how I would have liked. There is a lip of resin around the top and the front is very uneven and not flat at all.

I think I will need to revisit the technique I used. I smeared vaseline across the plastic I was using as the barrier at the front to prevent the resin from sticking but it doesn't appear to have been very successful. I think next time I will paint a thin veneer of PVA across it. Wait for it to dry then do the pour and the PVA should just then peel off. Oh well, now I need to decide whether to try and repair this attempt or start again........decisions decisions

Frozen water effect base WiP 2

2011-09-02T11:18:00.001+01:00

OK so I attempted the pour last night. Had a crack at sculpting a Nemo....hmm my sculpting skills need working on is all I have to say about that. Maybe next time. The resin was easy enough to mix and has a very long (24hour) curing time which it seems is both good and bad.

Good because I don't need to worry about rushing and getting air bubbles in the mix and pouring it all in 60 seconds.

Bad because as it turns out the 1st attempt at this I interpreted the "the resin will cure faster if left next to a gentle heat source" part of the instructions as "hey if I shine my hobby lamp with daylight bulb, that will do the trick!!". These bulbs generate a fair more bit of heat than I anticipated and consequently it softened the Plasticine I was using to keep the mold in place to the point where when I checked it 30 minutes after the pour, the mould was no longer flush and I was leaking resin. Queue the A-Team music and a rather panicky clear up, reset of the mould and repour. Consequently I have no idea how the second pour is going to turn out but I suspect it will not be the neatest of finishes. I will remove it later and post up a pic.

Frozen water effect base WiP

2011-09-01T10:01:00.002+01:00

For a while now I have been working on painting my Malifaux band. I loved the frozen pond effect on the Ice Golem and when I was pointed in the direction of a how to in Wyrd Miniatures newsletter I thought I would give it a crack. I am at the stage where most of the painting has been done. Next step is to shade the reeds to make them look more frozen and then do the resin pour.

Once the resin pour has finished and been given a good time to dry I will then dust some white over the surface and mount the golem and probably using some snow effect bring him into the base and try my hand at making some icicles to dangle on him.

I am also half thinking about trying my hand at sculpting a mini-nemo and freeze effecting him to go in the pond :)

THQ: Space Marine Demo

2011-08-30T11:14:00.000+01:00

Downloaded the demo this weekend and played both available levels. I have watched the build up to this game quite closely and have really wanted it to work. Thankfully my impression from the demo is that THQ have indeed created a good game. The ability to switch ranged weapons quickly I liked. I am not sure on the ability to carry four ranged weapons though. I would have preferred sticking to two for a bit of realism. The stun/execute combo to regain health is certainly interesting. I wait to see if there are other options such as apothecary packs or anything like that. If the stun/execute is the only way to regain health I can see that being somewhat limiting but may make for an interesting challenge. All in all this will still be a release day purchase for me. Will probably see BOps traded in to cover some of the cost.

Airbrush on its way

2011-08-28T22:01:00.000+01:00

Well I have taken the leap and bought an airbrush of eBay. See what it looks like when it turns up. Now if I can just find a compressor . . . .

Striking Scorps - Speed painted-ish

2011-08-02T12:49:00.000+01:00

OK in an attempt to get some projects off my shelf I have finished off 6 striking scorpions that I promised to do for a friend ages ago and have been very slack in doing. These have been, for me at least, speed painted or more properly an attempt to paint faster whilst still achieving a nice finish.

I am quite happy with the way they have turned out.

Once again apologies for crappy iPhone pics. I really REALLY need to sort out better photography.

Deathwing Banner.....done!

2011-05-30T13:46:00.000+01:00

Just a quick update this time. Finally got round to finishing the Deathwing banner for my mates Dark Angels army.

My hobby area

2011-05-16T10:46:00.000+01:00

Quick rather bad photo of my hobby area for anyone who is even vaguely interested. I have two lamps for light, one a hobby lamp with a lift up flap covering a magnifying lens for fine detail work. The other is a cheapy Argos lamp with a daylight bulb in it.

Sanguinary Guard, more WiP

2011-05-16T10:43:00.001+01:00

Spent a fair bit of time on these over the weekend. Here is a pic from early in to the session

And also a job lot of wings ready to be glued on. These will go on once the arms and shoulder pads are glued on. They still need some more white highlighting around the upper sections of the wings but I will do this once they are on the model and I can get a better idea of how light would hit them.

Sanguinary Guard wip

2011-05-03T08:34:00.001+01:00

Working some of my Sanguinary Guard at the moment. Got the real bug to play a few games after recently being entirely focused on the hobby side but I hate throwing down unpainted models. It is a real bug bear of mine. Anyways, the usual shaky iPhone photo for you

I did think about having an attempt and NMM on them however time is rather precious at the moment and I simply don't have enough of it to do such a technique justice at the moment. I have only tried it a couple of times and I certainly need to practise more with it when I have a decent amount of time to spend.

The armour is pretty much done on these. It just needs a final highlight of Burnished Gold/Mithril Silver mix and a light sepia glaze and it should be there. Then onto the detail.

Devastator Sergeant

2011-04-18T23:05:00.000+01:00

WIP shot of my Devastator Sergeant conversion. Well not much of a conversion really just a change in the left arm and hand to make the grasping of the signum look more realistic. Should be painted in a couple of days.

Blood Angels Razorback - Update

2011-03-28T10:39:00.000+01:00

OK the next week will see quite a bit of content update here hopefully. Work has progressed well on finishing of my Dark Angels for my mate Tellos. There will be photos up of all the work I have done. In the mean time here is a crappy iPhone teaser pic of the Blood Angels Razorback I have been working on

Upcoming updates

2011-02-24T10:19:00.000Z

Wow life has a funny way of taking over and dictating what you do. Work has been manic and on top of that my scenario paintball team is putting on a first of its kind game in the UK next month which I have been crazy busy preparing for. It's kind of put back 40k progress this week. Combined with the fact that I have got fed up trying to take a decent pic with my iPhone that does justice to the models I am working on. I have found instructions on the intertubz for building a simple lightbox so hopefully will be getting that set up this weekend/beginning of next week and then I can take some decent photos of what I have been working on.

There will be updates on the two Ravenwing squadrons I am finishing off, the Dark Angel robed veterans and the Deathwing squads as well.

Stay tuned!

More Belial and Deathwing Banner pics

2011-02-08T09:13:00.002Z

OK into the home stretch now. Belial has his arms. I ummed and ahhed over whether to put the lightening claws back on him thinking that with the new FAQ, a TH/SS combo makes him much more survivable however I still think given his lack lustre stats (doesn't even have the same WS as a codex SM Captain and he is supposed to be master of the deathwing!!) his best ability is to be able to deliver another attack at I5 in order to do the most damage.

These are iPhone pics so apologies for the quality. I am in the process of trying to sort out a light tent to get my SLR up and running taking decent pics.

And the Deathwing Banner. This is pretty much done now. There is some tidying up to do and I need to decorate the shield somehow and put some text on the drape around the skeletons body.

Deathwing Banner and Belial WiP Pics

2011-02-06T23:43:00.001Z

OK after stripping down my original Belial after deciding he wasn't up to scratch he is back with a re Milliputted cloak, banner and fresh lick of paint in progress.

Getting there slowly but surely. And next we have the Deathwing Banner from my previous post now with some paint in progress as well

Deathwing Banner

2011-02-03T09:23:00.003Z

Mostly finished the sword that the skeleton is holding with Milliput last night. Just need to smooth it down once it has set.

Back from the dead

2011-02-01T23:35:00.002Z

Boy have I been slack here recently. Basically I burnt out. I was painting an AWFUL lot and playing a fair amount too. Then after the wedding I really had no desire or compunction to play for quite a while.

So what am I doing now. Well about 2 years ago when I started playing 40k again my first army was Dark Angels. I ran several flavours including Greenwing, Deathwing, Ravenwing and Doublewing lists and became not completely incompetent with then which was a good start to playing again. I would even dare to say with the Doublewing I became actually reasonable with them :)

So why bring this up. Well I have probably 3000 points or so of Dark Angels sat around that I have not used for quite some time after picking up Eldar and then Blood Angels so the time has come to move them on to someone else. To that end I am finishing off painting them (finally after 2 years!) in preparation for the inevitable eBay auction. I have

2 x 5man shooty termie squads with AC's (+ an extra with a HF to allow for substitution if required)
1 x 5 man CC termie squad with cyclone (used as Belials command squad, one will have a banner by the time I am ready to sell them)
2 x Full Ravenwing squadrons (12 x Bikes, 2 x Attack Bikes, 2 x speeders)
7 x devastators (2xPC's, LC, ML, MM,2x HB)
11 x tactical marines
6 x Veterans (used as Sergeants)
Asmodai
Ezekial
Brother Bethor with hand painted banner
Azreal
Sammual on his jetbike
Belial with TLLC's
Belial with TH/SS (a LOT more viable post FAQ!)

So amounts to a fair bit so hoping to get a reasonable price for them. Never sold figures on eBay so will be interesting to see if the amount I get for them matches my expectations.

Over the next few days I will try and post up some pics of the work I have done. In the mean time here is a rough iPhone photo of the Deathwing banner I am currently converting to round out Belials command squad.

It was inspired by the suggested banner bearer from a GWOnline article I found quite a while ago. The figure is the Warhammer Empire Standard. I have chopped/hacked/filed/dremmeled off the hammer and using an old terminator power sword and some milliput started to build a sword to better represent the deathwing.

Next is Astorath for my Blood Angels. I am hoping to play a few tournaments this year to get back into playing again. Again poor quality iPhone photo until I can set up my decent camera, the model is extremely shiny as it has been hardcoated before I use the Army Builder Matt spray varnish for the final protective coat

Again will post up a better picture once he has been sprayed and I have my decent camera set up.

It's been a while.........

2010-11-25T22:00:00.000Z

Wow have I not posted here for a while! Life got pretty manic and to be perfectly honest I was somewhat burnt out from lots of painting and play and needed a break to find the love again.

So I am currently working on painting Astoroth the Grim. I love his fluff and the model pose is superb. I will hopefully post up some WiP pics this weekend if the light is good.

As an after thought, I am thinking about offering a painting service. I think I am of a reasonably good painting standard so thought it was worth a try. If you do wish to contact me about any possible commission work then drop me a mail and we can discuss prices.

Thanks,

Dodge

How to Magnetise the new GW Baal Predator kit

2010-04-29T00:40:00.000+01:00

Hi there,
Second attempt at posting this. The first one was on my old camcorder and the quality was shocking so hopefully this will be better. Its a walkthrough of the way I have magnetised the new GW Blood Angels Baal Predator kit so it can be used as both a Flamestorm Cannon and twin linked assault cannons. I had to make a couple of heavy handed cuts to get it inside YouTube's 10 minute cutoff so apologies for that.

Hope some of you find it helpful,

Cheers

Podcasts I listen too

2010-04-19T10:15:00.001+01:00

Just a quick post about a couple of podcasts I listen to, both are great for insight into the 40K game. Looking at tactics, unit synergy and ways to improve your game as well as general game/alpha nerd banter

Check out

http://dicelikethunder.com/ and
http://imperialvoxcast.squarespace.com/

Quick promo to a good blogsite

2010-04-14T13:05:00.003+01:00

Just found one of the guys at my local game group website. Check it out.

http://blog.domonet.co.uk

Mephiston Update

2010-04-14T08:36:00.000+01:00

Finally feels like I am getting there! Sword is done although I am not really happy with it and may go back and redo it. Most of the detail is done. I have fubar'd the lower section of his breastplate so that needs redoing. I reckon about another 10 hours worth of painting and he will be done.

Things left to do

1) His back pack

2) His armour

3) His personal banner from the new Codex

4) Attempt at a freehand design on the back of his cloak....eek

Hmm, I don't think I am going to complete my challenge

2010-03-31T09:12:00.004+01:00

OK so my Bolter and Chainsword Librarium Painting Challenge is due tonight.

My list to paint was

1x 5 man assault squad (90% done)
1x Furioso Dreadnaught (80% done)
1x Mephiston (70% done)
1 x drop pod (DONE!! \o/)

As you can see from the progress list I am probably not going to get all that done tonight :( Ooops

Oh well for your viewing pleasure here is my Mephiston WiP

More dread and assault squad updates

2010-03-22T11:03:00.001Z

Apologies for crappy iPhone pics

Dreadnaught started, starting to run out of time too!!

2010-03-18T08:40:00.002Z

Some paint down on the Furioso

Starting to think I may run out of time....13 days left of the challenge and an estimated 40 hours worth of painting to do.

Drop Pod with ramps open

2010-03-09T14:15:00.001Z

Oops completely forgot to post this. Noticed a couple of patches on the ramps which I have since corrected.

Drop pod finished!

2010-03-01T09:28:00.001Z

Drop pod finally done!!!

Forgot to take a photo with the ramps down so will do so tonight

Drop Pod IV - nearly there!

2010-02-26T09:39:00.000Z

OK did the last few fiddly bits on the upright struts and the drop ramps last night. Will hopefully have the base finished tonight and possibly assembled and done finally!!

Drop Pod III

2010-02-25T09:26:00.002Z

Yellow and black warning flashes down the side of the ramp now done.

Drop pod II

2010-02-24T09:56:00.000Z

Spent 2 1/2 hours last night painting the red strips down the side of the ramp for the drop pod. Eek. The iphone camera doesn't really do the blending any justice.

Drop pod update

2010-02-23T09:36:00.000Z

More work on the drop pod uprights. I have blocked out the large area on the outside of the strut in yellow (several thinned coats to give an even coverage). Still struggling to get the colour right in photos. I think I am going to try and build myself a little lightbox.

Finally some photos!!

2010-02-22T10:22:00.000Z

Finally I have started some meaningful work on my Bolter and Chainsword painting challenge. The official WiP thread for it can be found here.

Here are the first pictures of the drop pod

Last night I started the main white area on the upright struts putting some yellow down on it for hazardous warning chevrons and also painted the lower vent area as well. Pics to come later tonight on the update

Blood Angels on the way Part Two - The Revenge!!

2010-02-10T09:15:00.001Z

OK well there is a "leaked"codex out there and the forums are going nuts with the is it or isn't it real debate. For me it is quite gratifying as some of the stuff I have predicted appears to be in there (Dante special rule involving reserves....nailed it!)

I am still and I would encourage others to try and remain objective on this alleged leak. It certainly appears to be a wonky translational copy and confirms a lot of the rumours that are out there (inc the fast skimmer rumoured release). However to paraphrase the legendary Sir PTerry

---------

The difference between me and Neil in our attitude to .... projects is
that he doesn't believe they're going to happen until he's sitting in
his seat eating popcorn, and I don't believe they're going to happen.

-------

Until we have the codex in our hands, this really is all just internet hype and rumour gone mad. I get the feeling that when the codex comes out and it doesn't contain the uberepixawsoomautokill character for 35 points that there is going to be  a torrent of pent up fanboi backlash against GW that all this stuff isn't in the codex when most of the stuff they are hoping for is wishlisting gone mad.

Restraint please!!!

Bolter and Chainsword Librarium Painting Challenge

2010-01-15T15:05:00.002Z

Well in an effort to kick myself in the butt painting wise I have signed up to the Bolter and Chainsword Librarium Painting Challenge. I have vowed to have the following completed models ready by the end of March

1 x 5 man assault squad
1x Drop Pod
1x Furioso Dread (will be an ironclad with both DCCW arms)
Mephiston

Will post my progress on here as I get on.

New Blood Angels on the way

2010-01-13T10:27:00.000Z

Well aren't I excited now. The official e-mail has come out and the forums are going nuts, Blood Angels are on their way. The new codex being released in April time.

This is the first codex I can say I am genuinely excited about owning. Blood Angels where the first 40k miniatures I collected and I have recently made a return to them.

What has also struck me is how nuts the rumour machine has gone already and how some plain fantasy wish list posting is after two pages of random nonsense segwayed by the odd bit off common sense has these wishlists quoted as fact. Rumours of space marines flying bats, flying landraiders, Captain Tycho back in 17 varients each of which come with more ICANHAZMURKILLLZZ!!11! better than before.

I for one am trying to take the restrained path so I offer the 4 of you that read this my insight into what will come in the new codex and will revisit it in April to see how accurate my predictions were

Dante - Stat line to bring him up to date with other chapter masters so gets orbital bombardment, eternal warrior and I am expecting a special rule based on the fact he is the oldest living chapter master at 1,100 years old. So something along the lines of "ancient tactition" or something like that....probably effecting reserve rolls in some way.

Tycho - Updated rules to bring his stats in line with Sicarius and the option of pre and post Hissy Fit rules and points

Lemartes - new sculpt and updated rules.

The return of Moriar the dreadnought as a HQ choice possibly.

Mephiston I am expecting big things for. With the inclusion of him in pre-lord of death guise in space hulk and the bump that Nigel got in the space pups dex I am expecting his stat line to remain the same but BAngles to get 6 phsyic powers to choose from the same as vanilla codex and puppies and for Mephiston to know all of them and cast 3 of them per turn. Not expecting an inv save for him though....he is T5 and 2+ as it is so only has to worry about doubling out from S10 and there isn't too much of that around. Rail guns and demolisher cannons he can hide in a squad from and any S10 hitting monsters or characters...well he has furious charge and S6 on the charge with a force weapon....I'd fancy his chances against Lysander (granted the force weapon doesn't help then but the volume of high S attacks does!) or a big bug.

I can see the DC coming back as an elite option to be paid for as normal squad, either that or as a command squad type unit for a chaplain. Ie do not use a force org slot but you need a chaplain to buy one. Not predicting any massive new rules for them though, just a jig in how they are bought which leads me to......

Reduced cost of most units. tac squads, assault squads, dev squads....anything that had a points bump to account for "Free" DC models. I am expecting these to brought down in line with the standard marines codex with assault squads getting the options for flamers as well.

Also expecting the old Black rage rule to come back in some form or other, either in the form of furious charge across the board or unlocked by buying a captain and it replaces Chapter tactics.

With regards to models I would expect a blood angels box set with the option to assemble the units as either DC or assault squads with upgrady bits for other models. Also expecting a new predator release with plastic Baal assault cannons.

There are rumours of another vehicle on the same stand as a valkyre.....that I have no idea about and am not going to speculate or listen to rumour for the time being on that one.

Tac and Assault squad pics

2009-11-09T10:54:00.001Z

Once again apologies for the pics. Taken with my iPhone. I have not worked out a good way of using my SLR and getting the lighting right yet. Sadly this way tends to wash out the highlights completely. I need to set up some sort of amateur light box.

Jump Pack Chaplain

2009-11-05T09:23:00.001Z

OK I will start to post up some photos of my Blood Angels over the next few days time permitting. Starting with a rather poor camera phone photo of the jump pack chaplain that I have mostly finished bar the fiddly bits.

Filler update

2009-10-22T15:59:00.000+01:00

Hello there my loyal 3 followers. Sorry for the lack of updates recently. I have actually done a fair amount of painting. I have one tac squad of Blood angels pretty much finished as well as a 5 man assault squad, two rhinos and a ball pred conversion. Will do my best to get some pics posted over the weekend of progress.

Dante WiP 2, pretty much complete

2009-09-07T10:10:00.001+01:00

After a fair bit of painting activity this weekend Dante is more or less done. Pics aren't that clear I am afraid. Still need to get a decent camera so relying on iPhone for snaps at the moment. Anyway, Dante almost done. A few bits and bobs need tidying up, the holster, pouches and grenades but the jump pack is done and varnished.

Corbulo WiP errr 4 I think....Dante WiP 1

2009-09-04T10:17:00.001+01:00

Getting to the end stages of Corbulo now. Started work on the med vials around his waist which should be finished tonight whilst the missus watches Big Brother (yay only one more year to endure the nightmare!) . Also started to get some base colour down on Dante. I am using Jawaballs Youtube vids as a guide with him as I have not had a lot of practise with metallics over a large area.

Corbulo WiP 3

2009-09-03T09:48:00.001+01:00

Feeling like I am entering the home stretches now. Finished the Narthecium last night (more or less, I want to do a little bit more fine detail). I have also made a start on the vials around his waist which will hopefully be finished tonight.

Corbulo WiP 2 redone

2009-09-01T09:51:00.000+01:00

Was looking at the chest eagle and really wasn't happy with the job I had done. Same with the eagles on the leg guards (gleaves?) so went back and redid them without a wash as I felt this left it looking too dirty. I did an undercoat of shadow grey, a first highlight of space wolf grey and then an extreme highlight of skull white (their vallejo equivalents, I forget the names at the moment)

I think it looks much better. Finished the grail chalice as well which I am quite happy with.

On a note I have noticed that the quality of the finish on my Corbulo mini seems pretty poor. A fair bit of the fine detail casting seems quite poor.

Corbulo WiP 2

2009-08-30T17:19:00.001+01:00

Bit more work done this afternoon. The main armour highlighting has been done but doesn't come out very well on my iPhone camera. I would have taken one on the regular camera but my lovely fiance decided to drop it. Done most of the grail cup and now working on the fine detail. Still need to redo the face but I am currently reading up on face painting techniques.

Corbulo WiP

2009-08-28T08:43:00.001+01:00

Really enthused about getting a blood angels list off the ground. Started and got a fair bit of the base layering and some detail done on Corbulo last night. Quite happy with the way the face has turned out although I imagine Blood Angels to be much paler skinned so I will probably try and tone it down a little. Bit. Not sure on the technique I would use for that so a bit of research is required. To be honest I have not had much practise painting face so am quite pleased with how this one is turning out at the moment.

OOO a painting update!!

2009-08-27T11:06:00.000+01:00

OK Well I have been quite busy painting this week. Finally made a decent start on my Howling Banshees. They are progressing on quite nicely. Using foundation paint undercoats with a wash on top and then filling with Vallejo game range.

I have also stripped down all of my Dark Angel tac squads and transports to convert them to a blood angels list. I found I was only using my Dark Angel Deathwing and Ravenwing so wanted something to make use of the rest of them. The Rhino has been undercoated white then several thinned coats of Vallejo Bloody Red. The edges where then sort of blend highlighted with Vallejo Hot Orange followed by a liberal wash of Baal Red. Then a fine edge highlight of Vallejo Orange Fire. I will use the same technique (big thanks to Jawaballs YouTube vids where I got this technique) for painting the tac squads up

Fresh start

2009-08-24T16:32:00.003+01:00

OK, as the three followers out there will have noticed I have dropped off the scene for updates for quite a while. The tale of four gamers fizzled out somewhat and my energies where diverted away from 40K after joining a paintball team (see http://duppypaintballer.blogspot.com/) for details.

I still have a keen interest in 40K and still game every tuesday at my local GCN club. So this blog will metamorphose into something more than my eldar. I will start to include the other armies I play and am working on and share the trials and tribulations of a decidedly below average gamer!

Conceeding defeat :(

2009-07-01T09:38:00.002+01:00

Well it is the 1st of July and you will all (all 4 of you) have noticed that updates have been somewhat reticent this month. Due to business travelling and other stuff going on I have made little progress in my 500 points worth for this month. After speaking to one of the other TOTGers who is in a similar position we have decided to scrap the idea. I will paint the remaining 500 points and they will be my GT army if I can get tickets with the inquisition chaps.

Oh well. I will be posting pictures as I complete what is left to paint and will use this blog as a means of charting my success with eldar over the coming months so stay tuned (all 4 of you!)

Month 4 update

2009-06-10T09:12:00.006+01:00

OK well after last months stumble at the finishing line there are 500 points to paint this month to bring us up to 1500 points. At the moment my 1,000 list is roughly

Farseer + toys

5 Man seer council

2 x 6 Jetbike Squads

6 Fire Dragons mounted in Wave Serpent.

For 1,500 points I want something that should be competitive in tournaments so some careful thinking has been had and I have made a decision to drop the harlequins I was originally thinking about. In a mech list I just cannot find a way of making them work. The test games I have played with them they have been mown down before really having a chance to do anything even with a shadowseer. So after a rethink and some list bashing for my last 500 points I have come up with

10x Dire Avengers mounted in Wave serpent

8x Banshees mounted in wave serpent.

The Dire avengers give me that much needed 3rd troop choice and the banshees give me some nice close assault options. I ummed and ahhed between banshees and scorpions and settled on the banshees on the basis that I am playing necrons so combined with Doom hopefully they will go through those undead metal fiends like the proverbial hot knife through butter but we shall see.

In the mean time outside of my 1,500 point list I have started to paint my Eldrad model to fit the theme of my (as yet unnamed) craftworld.

Month 3 late points update

2009-06-03T12:55:00.003+01:00

Wave serpent is almost finished. Got the turrent painted (pictured with star cannons but I also have scatter lasers painted), just need to finish the highlighting. I have started on the leading fins but am not really happy with how they are looking so may go back and redo them tonight.

Month 3 failure :(

2009-06-01T13:03:00.002+01:00

Oh dear well due to some (really rather fun!!) social commitments I ran out of time for my month 3 painting deadline. Only had the highlighting and weapon turret on my wave serpent to do but instead I spent the weekend surfing, enjoying the sun and my best friend's 30th birthday so time better spent :)

Hopefully finish the wave serpent in the next couple of days to claim my late points.

Month 3 Update - No 4

2009-05-28T09:24:00.002+01:00

OK well the wave serpent saw a bit of action last night. The main hull is assembled and base coated with the gems picked out in Mechrite Red for the moment. The first two pictures are of my fire prism that I have been working sporadically on for the last couple of months. The second two are the wave serpent as she currently stands. Tonight hopefully I will get the panel seam highlighting done on her and hopefully the gems.

At this point I think I have to concede that I will be unlikely to make this months point deadline as tonight is my last available night of painting before I am away until Monday which will be the 1st. Never say never but I think it will take a painting miracle to get what I need to get done on the wave serpent tonight.

Month 3 Update

2009-05-27T09:25:00.002+01:00

OK I have been very reticent in updating recently so here are a few snaps of how my fire dragons are turning out. My 250 points for this month will be 6 fire dragons, with no exarch (I can't see him as a good use of points) mounted in a wave serpent. Here are the pretty much finished pics of the Fire Dragons. Just need to do a few bits of detail on them and they are done. I think they are table standard as it is and count for painting points but there are a few little bits I want to do on them. Their wave serpent has been partially assembled, undercoated and then the main blue colour layed down on the individual pieces. No pics yet but hopefully after tonight it will be all assembled and I will have started highlighting. I am assembling the wave serpent and painting it in sections to make things like the engines easier to drybrush.

Month 3 update - some painting has been done!

2009-05-14T12:08:00.004+01:00

OK I have pretty much decided on the Fire Dragons in a Wave Serpent as my points for the month. Here is the WiP shoot of the Fire Dragons.

Month 3 Update

2009-05-13T12:54:00.003+01:00

Well I should probably post another update given there has been nothing for 2 weeks.

I am currently umming and ahhing over my 250 points for month 3. My initial fancy is some Fire Dragons in a wave serpent. I can use these to whizz about and soften up monstrous creatures prior to any assaults or get round that pesky "we'll be back" rule. I can use the Wave Serpent to contest objectives at the end of games so seems like a good choice.

However I have also managed to get hold of some war walkers which I am assembling. I am wondering whether 3 war walkers with scatter lasers might be nice as well. That would be 24 S6 shots per turn coming out of them....hmm decisions decisions

Month 2 ....done!

2009-04-30T22:46:00.003+01:00

With slightly less rush to the midnight deadline here is month 2's list done

1 farseer

5 locks

2 x 6 Guardian jetbikes

I'm not very happy with the finish I have got on the warlocks. The yellow looks very dirty up close. They will do for the purposes of the painting deadline but I will probably strip and redo them with a different technique at some stage

Month 2, nearly there but there has been a small balls up!

2009-04-29T09:13:00.003+01:00

OK, as month 2 comes to an end my 4 locks are starting to come together, just need to paint the spears and swords I have pilfered from my High Elf spearmen which where resprayed this morning and should be done by tonight. Unfortunately I have made rather a balls up on something. To quote myself "my 4 locks are starting to come together"

Yes I needed 5 for my seer council.......oops

Thankfully I have a tester bike that I tried a few colour schemes out on. It is currently in some fair power spray so hopefully will be ready to strip and prime tonight then will have to nail the painting in one session tomorrow to finish on time.

Quick Update

2009-04-28T13:03:00.005+01:00

Quick update with the work done on the warlocks. These guys at the moment look like stock Iyanden guardians. The left arms will be taken off and replaced with spears and swords pilfered from my High Elves stuck in a box somewhere and I will try my hand at some hand painted runes on them to give them 'lock status. Hopefully they will come out reasonably well. With 2 full painting days left, yet again I am going right down to the wire!! Really must stop doing that!

N.B sorry the photo is really over reflected from the flash so it drowns out most of the highlights. Will try and take a better one

Month 2 update

2009-04-23T12:42:00.003+01:00

OK after not a lot of activity recently here are some updates on this months work. Thankfully I only have 7 models to paint this month. 3 more jetbikes are done except for the gems. The yellow and blue jetbikes at the back of shot are going to be for my warlocks. Again the bikes are pretty much done except the gems, hopefully I will start the warlocks tonight.

Month 2 update

2009-04-20T12:25:00.002+01:00

Errr as some of you who follow this (all 4 of you!) might have noticed I have been somewhat slack on the updates this month. I would love to tell you that I am almost finished on this months quota of models and have merely forgot to take any progress photos but it would be a massive shamefaced lie!!

My girlfriend (should really get the hang of using the word fiancee) has had her Easter break (she is a teacher) so I have had some holiday and a chance to spend some time with her. Still back on the job now. I have the models for this month assembled except warlock conversions. I have started another 3 jetbikes to take me up to two six man squads and then I will get the seer council done. I have 4 jetbikes I have started conversions on with 10 days to finish them. This one is going to go right down to the wire.......again!

Month 1 Complete

2009-04-01T10:46:00.004+01:00

OK, month one finished on time....just.

Not arranged the month one games but so far everyone has full painting points. I will be facing 500 pts of nicely painted bugs and undead robots!

Month one pretty much done

2009-03-31T00:08:00.003+01:00

OK there hasn't been an update for a while. Anyway here is my farseer done. Just needs a base done for him and he is ready to rock. If I had had time then I was hoping to freehand something onto the hull but that will have to wait for a bit. He still counts for painting points (well once his base is done). Apologies for the bad photos. My point and click seems to have done a runner so this is a camera phone effort. Will re post once I have better pics.

Vyper, done!

2009-03-25T07:37:00.003Z

Latest update, the vyper is pretty much done. Some frantic gem painting late last night and finishing the starcannon. I still need to do the electronics panels on the chassis but they are 5 min jobs. I would also like to go back and paint a yellow stripe over the front in the same fashion as the guardian bikes but he counts (once his base is done!) for painting points so I am happy!

Vyper 75% done, Farseer started

2009-03-20T19:32:00.003Z

OK well with 11 days left to go now I thought I would share how the vyper is looking, I have been painting it unassembled for ease of access. I thought I hadn't made much progress on it but once I put together everything I had done I was surprised how much is done. The weapon is still only undercoated (I am going to paint up the starcannon and scatter laser for it) and the rear gunner just needs the yellow done for his helmet and the gems highlighting. I will prob add a yellow go faster stripe to is as well so it matches the bikes

Have finally started on the farseer conversion. At the moment it just stands as the Autarch from the Windrider host box I bought to start this off. He has been beheaded and I am trying to green stuff a farseer head out of a warhammer fantasy high elf mage head but it isn't going so well. I think I will end up buying a farseer and hacking him up for bits. Still time is of the essence so whatever I do I need to do it fast. I have started on his bike however. I wanted him to really stand out so have gone for about the hardest colour there is to paint....yellow. So far I have highlighted up in stages the bike so it is nearly done. I am then prob going to freehand some sort of design or detail onto the front but I need to sit down and do some sketches first. Anyway wip below of the highlighted yellow (again big shout out to all Imperial Fist players....yellow is not fun!)

Bikers done!

2009-03-19T17:24:00.005Z

1st squad of bikers done and dusted. Bases finished this morning. I will at some stage work out magnetising the bases for easy transport and less likely hood of breaking them but in terms of the challenge they are my 1st completed squad. The vyper is coming along nicely although no pics up for it yet. I am about to start my farseer conversion. With 12 days left for month one's painting points I am leaving him a little late!

Bikers nearly there

2009-03-16T07:36:00.003Z

OK, last night saw some frantic painting of gems. Each bike has 8 gems, 9 bikes = 73 gems!! God I am bored of painting them! Not very happy with the way they look either so I may have to go back and do them again....not looking forward to that! Also started the go faster stripes on the front body of the bike. I marked off a 4mm wide line with masking tape and used foundation Iyanden Darksun as a base coat because of its opacity over the blue. I have then put a couple of thinned down layers of Vallejo Sunblast Yellow. Tonight I will start highlighting up the top of the band with Vallejo Model Colour Deep Yellow and Light Yellow.

1st game - draw

2009-03-15T10:41:00.007Z

Well first game with my Eldar yesterday. A 500 pointer with the guy running nids for our TOTGer's.

My list

Farseer - jetbike, fortune, doom, sprit stones, runes of witnessing

9 guardian jetbikes - 3 shuriken cannons

1 vyper - star engines, scatter laster

His list

1 flex (can't remember the spec but not too tooled up iirc)

12 stealers

3 CC warriors

12 shooty gaunty

Won't post an in depth report as the details are a little vague from yesterday and my early morning. The result was an entertaining draw. Lots to learn about jetbike tactics but essentially I jumped forward shot and then jumped back in the assault phase. Memorable highlights include his flex with 2 wounds remaining charging my jetbikes and farseer who scored two wounds....his saving rolls...snake eyes. I had to chuckle a little bit.

Points I like. Fast move saves are very nice! As are 6's to hit in CC. Helped my Vyper stay alive contesting one if his objectives.

Points I don't like. Nids are scary! Lots of units to face, lots of them with fleet means you have to be very careful about where you leave yourself.

Bikers are nearly complete

2009-03-14T10:50:00.005Z

Well yellow is a horrible colour to paint! My instant and undivided respect to all you Imperial Fist generals out there! Here is an example of the bikers which are now pretty much finished. I am rather happy with the way they have turned out! The yellow was a complete nightmare. I used a tip from one of Jawaballs YouTube videos for the yellow. There is about 7-8 coats of yellow on there. I don't like the grills at the front. The sepia wash shading doesn't work for me so I will need to decide what I am going to do with that. Otherwise it is just the holsters and the eyes to go and they are finished.....then onto the Vyper. Nearly halfway through the month and I have yet to start my farseer conversion. I am not confident I will get full painting points this month!

Bike Highlights

2009-03-12T07:44:00.002Z

OK not updated for a couple of days so here is the latest. Not a great deal of movement overall although I have finished the first stages of edge highlighting on each of my first squad of riders. I am going to give them a second minimal extreme highlight probably over the weekend. Last night I had a crack at highlighting the jetbike bodies. Well that was a challenge. I had played around on my tested with highlighting up from the bottom but it didn't really look right. Then after taking a photo which was posted in an earlier entry it was clear that it didn't really look right as that is not where light would naturally fall on a domed surface. Therefore I decided to highlight up through the middle of the bike itself. This required several shades of highlights with a rough attempt at blending them into each other. I am not entirely happy with the results but I have not really looked at them in proper light yet so I might change my mind. Anyway...photos here to see my efforts. You can hopefully pick out the colour transition up the middle of the front engine dome.

Highlights stage 1

2009-03-10T07:45:00.003Z

Started on the 1st stage of highlights in the bikers last night. Got a couple of them done. For the bike squads I am just going to do simple edge highlighting rather than any blending which I am hoping to have the time to do on the farseer when I get round to starting him!

Here he is mounted. This photo has actually turned out to be useful research. I needed to know how light falls on the domed areas of the bike frame for highlighting and this serves as a pretty useful illustration of the areas I need to highlight. I am not looking forward to it though as it promises to be a lot of work blending up layers for each bike. I might just chicken out and go for edge highlights.

At this point I want to let you know the address of a great blog on the web for painting tips. It is run by a guy in America who goes by the alt Jawaballs. His blog can be found here http://warhammer40kbloodangels.blogspot.com/

It's full of great painting tips and he does "how to paint.." videos that are available for purchase for most of the major armies which he is updating all the time. Def worth checking out. Both him and Fritz who I have mentioned below I have found a great help in better understanding 40K tactics and painting.

Latest update

2009-03-08T15:01:00.004Z

Well progress is being made in measurably small doses. The base coat of Citadel Foundation range Iyanden Darksun and a sepia wash has been done on the rider heads. This will need to be bought up to yellow with a series of highlights

The main bulk of base colour is now done on the bike frames and I have gone over all the jewels in white (not shown in this photo) in preparation for painting them. I still have to decide on a good complimentary colour. I drybrushed the blue mettalics with mithril silver and am happier with the way they look now.

2009-03-05T17:28:00.004Z

Last nights updates. OK the bikers themselves have been undercoated then basecoated with Vallejo Game Colour Electric Blue. Once dried they have been washed with Citadeal Asurmen Blue wash. Once that has dried I have gone back over and picked out all the raised detail in Electric Blue once again in preperation for the 1st level of highlighting to go on.

The bikes have had an basecoat of Citadel Chainmail in the engine parts and controls area and then a wash in Citadel Asurmen Blue and lef tto dry. This has come out slightly blue-er than I wanted so I am going to give it a light drybrush with Citadal Mithril to tone down the bluey-ness. The saddles have just had a basecoat of Citadel SnakeBite leather. I am going to tone down the leather several steps.

And they're off......err again!

2009-03-04T12:47:00.011Z

OK well I have finally made some progress and by progress I mean I have finally started! 10jetbikes assembled and a Vyper mostly almost half fully assembled.....ish.

I bought a tester jetbike to experiment with colour schemes before the challenge started and have settled on the Vallejo Game Colour Electric Blue as the main colour for my army. I'll try and list the colours I have used where I remember.

So I now have 9 bikes undercoated Army Builder spray can white and a Vyper half sort of fully sprayed white.

This morning whilst waiting for the electrician to arrive I finally managed to start getting some colour down. I have elected to keep the hulls to the jetbikes separate for the time being to allow easier painting of the bike frame and engine.

And they're off!!

2009-03-02T08:54:00.004Z

Well the challenge has well and truly started. Sunday the 1st of March I was allowed to open my shiny Eldar Windrider host and start assembling. So I can keenly report that the total number of models assembled so far is....drum roll please.......zero.

Oops, I like to think I have a reasonable excuse though. I got engaged yesterday and as such I think if I had attempted to do any modelling, a) quantity of champagne drunk would result in loss of fingers b) I would set a new world record for shortest engagement ever :)>

The Challenge

2009-02-26T11:43:00.001Z

The challenge: As with the White Dwarf article, our Tale of Three Gamers will be run over four months with the point’s value of models assembled increasing each month

Month 1: 500 points

Month 2: 750 points

Month 3: 1000 points

Month 4: 1500 points

There is also discussion of including bonus challenges with items such as object markers to be decided later.

This brings me to the hardest part of the challenge. The list!
I have an idea of what units I really want to include.

Farseer and Warlock squad on bikes loaded up with destructor
3 Jetbike Squads (need the troop choices for loot counter missions)
I really want some Harlequins in there. I love the fluff and they will be great fun to paint

The rest to be decided from the following:

Vypers
Fire Prism
Wave Serpent
Shining Spears

In the beginning there was....err the beginning

2009-02-25T16:04:00.001Z

So it started off a simple enough question from a friend "Hey do you fancy doing that?" after discussing the White Dwarf campaign "A Tale of Four Gamers". "Yeah sure, that would be a good laugh"

That was several months ago, before Christmas. There was discussion on when the best time to start it was and after some negotiation and discussion the beginning of March was decided as kick off with three of us agreed to participate.

Their choice of armies came quickly, I would be facing Tyranids and Necrons. Eek. Swarms of bugs and nasty resurrecting 'crons. I have had some experience of playing bugs with my Dark Angels although my track record has more ticks in the minus column than the plus (although to be fair that runs true for most armies I have played against) and have only had one game against Necrons in which I was horrified at their durability and that most cursed of creations the Monolith.

My choice of army has been long and laborious with several changes of mind, followed swiftly by several sentences starting with "I have definitely decided on x" where x is whatever had tickled my fancy for that particular day. For a long time I had settled on Dark Eldar. I had skirted around the idea of a second Space Marine chapter, Chaos Deamons and my own Waaaagh but something about the Dark Eldar appealed to me. I bought the codex for some research and it became very apparent very quickly that they would be a difficult army to master with my feeble skills. I read several blogs on the web and one of my favourite is Fritz's http://saimhann.blogspot.com I liked the style of play that jetbikes provide and I have always had a hankering for an eldar army with some of the fantastic aspect warriors they have. The only problem, one of my fellow TOTG'ers already has an eldar army. I decided I would still go with them but resolve to make my list as different from his as I could. He had no objection to this so the choice was made, Eldar Jetbike host!