From ship to shore

My plans to build Osgiliath have altered slightly. Osgiliath will now be incorporated into a more ambitious project - a modular city. A city that includes intact and ruined Osgiliath, an imperial sector, and a harbour/dock section. My intention is to use this project as a battlefield source for a variety of games. Warmachine/Hordes, Warhammer, 40K, Necromunda, and Lord of the Rings/War of the Ring.

I've looked at starting this project several times since I got some tiles cut for it (63 so far), but had no clear idea of where to start. After providing a friend with the materials to build the Worldworks kit Maiden of the High Seas, and having visions of Necromunda Gangers running riot below decks I had the starting point. Sea tiles, and the dock for the maiden. Of course this also works well for Warmachine, with either Cryx or pirates raiding a port.

All tiles are 1 foot square for this undertaking, and I began with 8 of them. 4 were painted with a blue poster paint that I've used for water before, as it tends to run to slightly different shades of blue depending on the thickness brushed on. I deepened the blue by adding a wash of Tamiya Smoke (X19).

The other 4, I didn't give a full coat, but left 1 edge unpainted. These tiles will form the dock frontage. To build up the dock I trimmed popsicle sticks for planks and glued them in place. I still need to add an edge to the dock, which will probably be made from balsa, and sit slightly higher than the planks. And of course I still have to come up with something for bollards

For those who are interested, I'll add a link for Worldworks in the side bar.

Short update

I've gone back to painting my Blood Angels lately, after playing Ash in a game of Blood Angels vs Blood Angels.(It ended in a draw)

I'm currently working on one of my devastator squads. It already had 3 elements finished - The sergeant and two missile launchers. The remaining elements are coming along nicely at present, and will look better than the rest when they are finished. This is because i have changed my approach to painting and now work on what I am inspired tp paint rather then forcing myself to work on the next thing on my list

The downside to this is that with my new approach, everything will look better than previous work. Long term, this means that I am going to have to rework almost my entire blood angels army. Squad by Squad into the simple green for stripping, and then repaint the units. I am going to have to put a small investment into my painting gear soon, and buy an airbrush and compressor

On another note, I have the new Tyranids codex, and my first thought was seroiusly disapointed in it. Where are my flesh hooks? In fact, where are half my mutations? Why do I now have too many Hormagaunts and Termagants (Max brood size has shrunk). The new codex means a major reoganization for existing tyranid players, with the only gain being the new units.

Return of the Damned

I gave in recently, and bought my first White Dwarf in over a year, mainly because it tied in with the release of the new Tyranids. In it I found the new rules for the Legion of the Damned for 40K.

My first thought was I wouldn't mind running a squad of them in a battle or two, although I don't think they are legal in a Blood Angels army. Of course I can't just go out and buy a box of them at present, but I have had a box of them stashed away for years. These are the older models, still packing the chunky style bolters from 2nd edition. Still cheaper than buying a new box.

I've assembled them overthe last couple of days, and had been planning on using one the  new style plasma cannons for the heavy weapon in the squad. A quick test fit with the cannon revealed that old school devastator bodies are not compatible with  the cuurent style of marine heavy weapons. So I guess my legion squad are going to be like half my blood angels force - retro. The heavy has the shoulder mounted Heavy bolter.

The Legion squad will get a test run on wednesday when I take on Ash with a 1500 point force.

Hopefully my new Tyranids Codex and Vampire Counts army book will arrive soon, and I can reorganize those two armies so i know where I stand. and of course the new Blood Angels codex in April

Finally back to this

It's been a while.
In the time between this post and the last I have ventured into TAGCon with my uruk-hai.

My best result in that was a draw (due to time) trying to break into Helm's Deep. Despite all the losses I still walked out with two prizes from the LoTR tournament - Sportsmanship, and (big surprise to me) Painting.

Both prizes were $20 gift certificates from Comics Compulsion in Christchurch, and I spent them recently, expanding my Menoth army by a Reckoner, a Devout, and Amon Ad-Raza.

Just over a week ago I started a new terrain project, which can be applied to most of my heroic 28mm armies. From the LoTR magazines I am building Osgiliath, with a mix of ruins and intact buildings. The way I see this, it serves as - Osgiliath for LoTR and the War of the Ring (if I decide to get into that), - 40K as a ruined Imperial City, - Fantasy as a ruined city (if I continue my VC army and fantasy becomes a game at TAG, and finally - Necromunda, as part of my own campaign setting (Cutters Canyon)

I'm back

It's been over a month since I posted anything, due to various things, mostly work taking up my time.
Anyway, at Timaru Armchair Generals we announced our tournament date at the start of april, and listed what games we are planning on running. The competitions planned are :- WH40k, Warmachine, LOTR, and Bloodbowl. It's taken me most of the time since then to decide what i wanted to play, finally settling on LOTR.
I've decided it's to be LOTR because - 1. I can't be bothered learning to play 40k again (5th edition), 2. The chances of my Menoth army being ready lie somewhere between slim and no chance, and 3. I had enough of bloodbowl many years ago, and I don't like some of the changes to rules as they now stand.
At least with LOTR I have about half of my minis painted, and the scheme for the army I'm planning on fielding is reasonably straightforward to paint. I have very little experience playing, but the rules are simple , and it shouldn't take long to pick up, (even if my tactical skill doesn't). And the best thing is, it gives me the motivation I've been lacking to get back to painting. So expect a few articles on LOTR, and Isengard forces over the next couple of months.
Another note on tournaments came up last night at the club. Owen (Payne), has decided to run a Warmachine Battlebox tournament in January. Very simple in idea. No need to build a big army to x points, all you need is a starter box for any particular army. And the prize? a battlebox.

Warhammer 40K

When I took up 40K as a game, it was still in 2nd edition, and my decision was to make a Blood Angels Space Marine force. I've stuck with them through to 5th edition so far,reorganizing the structure of the army as I go. With the current edition, I've created a masterlist of what I have, and at present, My list extends to 7000 points. This includes multiple incarnations of the command staff.I started adding images to the masterlist, which is why I included the photo shown here. I have a similar masterlist for my Tyranid Army, which is still only at 4th edition organization, and plan to add images to that also.